Tempting Evil (Prison Break, Book 2) by Allison Brennan ~~ Joanna Sutton can cope with the fierce winter storm bearing down on the small rural community of Centennial Valley, Montana; the popular romance writer has survived much worse in life. Haunted by the loss of her husband and child, Jo has found refuge at her family’s secluded lodge, but her haven soon becomes a hell. During the ferocious blizzard, a local Boy Scout troop is stranded in the wilderness, compelling Jo to spearhead a desperate rescue mission, aided by a newly arrived stranger with an unknown agenda.Meanwhile, Sheriff Tyler McBride hears that three escaped convicts are fast approaching Big Sky Country. Hoping to warn Jo, he faxes over the men’s mug shots. But they never reach their intended recipient. Then Tyler makes a shocking discovery: Two people are dead, and a killer is among the group, along with the woman Tyler loves, searching for his lost son.More than one innocent life is at stake. For the sake of those Jo cares about most, and for her own survival, she’ll need all the cunning, courage, and passion she can muster to survive the mounting terror.
We have a winner :) My handy dandy Randomizer picked # 15 ~15. Lenore
Congrats to Lenore. Please get in touch with me with your mailing addy so I can get the books out to you on Monday. Please let me know when you "pay it forward" :)
I'll be starting June's Pay It Forward Exchange either Sunday or Monday, so keep your eyes out. I've got 3 brand new books to offer. Depending on the number of sign ups, one person may win all :) Or we may have 3 winners.
REVIEW : No One You Know by Michelle Richmond ~~ All her life Ellie Enderlin had been known as Lila’s sister. Until one day, without warning, the shape of their family changed forever. Twenty years ago, Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered in a crime that was never solved. In the aftermath of her sister’s death, Ellie entrusted her most intimate feelings to a man who turned the story into a bestselling true crime book—a book that both devastated her family and identified one of Lila’s professors as the killer.Decades later, two Americans meet in a remote village in Nicaragua. Ellie is now a professional coffee buyer, an inveterate traveler and incapable of trust. Peter is a ruined academic. And their meeting is not by chance. As rain beats down on the steaming rooftops of the village, Peter leaves Ellie with a gift—the notebook that Lila carried everywhere, a piece of evidence not found with her body. Stunned, Ellie will return home to San Francisco to explore the mysteries of Lila’s notebook, filled with mathematical equations, and begin a search that has been waiting for her all these years. It will lead her to a hundred-year-old mathematical puzzle, to a lover no one knew Lila had, to the motives and fate of the man who profited from their family’s anguish—and to the deepest secrets even sisters keep from each other. As she connects with people whose lives unknowingly swirled around her own, Ellie will confront a series of startling revelations—from the eloquent truths of numbers to confessions of love, pain and loss.A novel about the stories and lies that strangers, lovers and families tell—and the secrets we keep even from ourselves.
When her sister is murdered, Ellie thinks life will never be the same again. Especially since Lila was the "good" child. The one who excelled. But eventually Ellie's heart began to heal and she made a life for herself as a coffee buyer. On one of her coffee trips she randomly runs into the person everyone thought was responsible for her sisters death - even though there was no concrete proof - and based info in a book that a "friend" of Lila & Ellie's had written. While searching for the truth about her sister's death Ellie finds out that not everyone is what they seem and not all the stories that they tell are the truth. While most of the math explanations (Lila was a math prodigy) can be confusing at times, the author does an excellent job of explainging them in "plain english". And they all seem to have something to do with an aspect of the story that is being told. An emotional novel that grabs you from the start and keeps a hold of your heart until the truth is finally revealed. A
Murder on Marble Row (A Gaslight Mystery) by Victoria Thompson ~~ Thompson transports readers back to New York City at the turn of the century in her sixth Gaslight Mystery. Wealthy industrialist Gregory Van Dyke dies when a bomb explodes in his office. When Detective Sergeant Frank Molloy arrives at Van Dyke's home to investigate, he finds Sarah Brandt, a widowed midwife from an upper-class family, already there. The two have worked together on other cases, but Molloy swore that he would never see her again because he knows that the rigid social hierarchy prevents the expression of his true feelings. Sarah, on the other hand, is delighted to be involved in another investigation and puts her social connections to good use. As Molloy learns, there are plenty of dark secrets and as many suspects on Fifth Avenue as there are in the tenements.
Once again Sarah and Frank are thrown together to solve a murder. This time Frank is investigating by special request of Teddy (Roosevelt that is). When a wealthy friend of the family is murdered, it's up to Sarah and Frank to figure out who is responsible. Is it the prodigal son who left the home? The daughter who is secretly pregnant? The younger wife who cheated? Or none of the above? Ms. Thompson does a terrific job of making you feel like you're right there in 19th Century New York with Sarah, Frank and the rest of the regular characters. I've always been a huge fan of this series and I think this is the best one to date. A+
Clubbed to Death: A Dead-End Job Mystery by Elaine Viets ~~ Helen Hawthorne’s latest dead-end job is in a country club’s complaint department, dealing with the gripes of the rich and spoiled. Then Rob, her deadbeat ex-husband, sails back into her life aboard the yacht of his new lady, Marcella—known as the Black Widow for her string of dead spouses. The next day Rob’s reported missing. If the Black Widow has such a murderous reputation, then why is Helen led from the club in handcuffs?When Marcella helps Helen get released, the two form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened. Helen’s barely begun digging when a club patron is discovered beaten to death with a golf club —his membership permanently expired. Someone got more than a little teed off and it’s up to Helen to get to the truth—without getting clubbed herself…
What's your pleasure?
Twenty Wishes (A Blossom Street Book #4) by Debbie Macomber ~~ Macomber returns to Seattle's fictional Blossom Street of A Good Yarn (and others) for a hopeful tale of four widows who meet at 38-year-old Anne Marie Roche's bookstore. Separated from her husband after he refused to have a baby with her, Anne Marie felt certain they would reconcile until he suddenly died. Lillie Higgins lost her husband in the same plane crash that claimed the husband of their daughter, Barbie Foster. Elise Beaumont entered widowhood after cancer claimed her husband. Together, the four make life-fulfillment wish lists. With Elise's prodding, Anne Marie decides to fulfill one of her wishes do good for someone else and becomes a lunch buddy to an at-risk third grader. Anne Marie, meanwhile, must deal with the reappearance of her adult stepdaughter, Melissa, who always held her in disdain. Elise mainly serves as a catalyst for Anne Marie's journey, but there is plenty of focus on Lillian and Barbie, who find purpose in unexpected and difficult relationships.
Scream for Me by Karen Rose ~~ For her exciting debut in hardcover, New York Times bestselling author Karen Rose delivers a heart-stopping suspense novel that picks up where DIE FOR ME left off, with a detective determined to track down a brutal murderer.Special Agent Daniel Vartanian has sworn to find the perpetrator of multiple killings that mimic a 13-year-old murder linked to a collection of photographs that belonged to his brother, Simon, the ruthless serial killer who met his demise in DIE FOR ME. Daniel is certain that someone even more depraved than his brother committed these crimes, and he's determined to bring the current murderer to justice and solve the mysterious crime from years ago. With only a handful of images as a lead, Daniel's search will lead him back through the dark past of his own family, and into the realm of a mind more sinister than he could ever imagine. But his quest will also draw him to Alex Fallon, a beautiful nurse whose troubled past reflects his own. As Daniel becomes attached to Alex, he discovers that she is also the object of the obsessed murderer. Soon, he will not only be racing to discover the identity of this macabre criminal, but also to save the life of the woman he has begun to love.
By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer ~~ After a series of kidnappings and murders in Virginia Beach, newspaper reporter Catherine O'Rourke experiences disturbing dreams that detail each crime. In an effort to aid the investigation, she shares them with her confidential source--a detective working on the case. Catherine's intimate knowledge of the crimes immediately makes her a prime suspect. When scientific evidence corroborates her guilt, she's arrested and charged with murder. As she begins to doubt her own innocence, Catherine turns to Las Vegas lawyer Quinn Newberg, a high-priced specialist in the insanity defense. Quinn believes in justice, Vegas-style. But he doesn't believe in the supernatural, or that Catherine's dreams are anything other than the result of a fractured personality disorder. Who can understand the human mind? Quinn knows that insanity cases are unpredictable, but nothing had prepared him for this! To win, or even survive, Quinn will need more than his famed legal maneuvering and biting skepticism. On this case, he needs a miracle.
The Last Time I Was Me by Cathy Lamb ~~ I wrapped up my grandmother's tea cup collection and my mother's china, then grabbed a violin I'd hidden way back in my closet that made me cry, a gold necklace with a dolphin that my father gave me two weeks before he died of a heart attack when I was twelve and, at midnight, with that moon as bright as the blazes, I left Chicago. When Jeanne Stewart stops at The Opera Man's Cafe in Weltana, Oregon, to eat pancakes for the first time in twelve years, she has no idea she's also about to order up a whole new future. It's been barely a week since she succumbed to a spectacularly public nervous breakdown in front of hundreds of the nation's most important advertising and PR people. Jeanne certainly had her reasons--her mother's recent death, the discovery that her boyfriend had been sleeping with a dozen other women, and the assault charges that resulted when Jeanne retaliated in a creative way against him, involving condoms and peanut oil. Now, en route to her brother's house in Portland, Jeanne impulsively decides to spend some time in picturesque Weltana. Staying at a B&B run by the eccentric, endearing Rosvita, she meets a circle of quirky new friends at her court-ordered Anger Management classes. Like Jeanne, all of them are trying to become better, braver versions of themselves. Yet the most surprising discoveries are still to come--a good man who steadily makes his way into her heart and a dilapidated house that with love and care might be transformed into something wholly her own, just like the new life she is slowly building, piece by piece. As heartfelt as it is hilarious, The Last Time I Was Me is a warm, wise novel about breaking down, opening up, and finally letting go of everything we thought we should be, in order to claim the life that has been waiting all along
