Review: Family for Beginners by Sarah Morgan

Those who know me know that Sarah Morgan is my all time favorite author, I have loved her from her not so humble beginnings writing wonderful heartfelt exotic romances for the Harlequin Presents Line to her successful foray into full length romance and now a genre that she's really found her voice, women's fiction. Sarah's latest is wonderful she makes you feel like your right there with her characters. If you don't have a copy get one it comes out May 5th!
Enjoy!

ISBN-13:
 9781488056666

Publisher: Harlequin


Release Date: 5-05-2020


Length:
 368pp

Source:
 Publisher/Netgalley for review

Buy It: Amazon/B&N/IndieBound

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Overview:

USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan returns with a life-affirming exploration of love, loss, and how families come in all shapes and sizes…
New York florist Flora Donovan is living the dream, but her bubbly optimism hides a secret. She’s lonely. Orphaned as a child, she’s never felt like she’s belonged anywhere…until she meets Jack Parker. He’s the first man to ever really see her, and it’s life changing.

Teenager Izzy Parker is holding it together by her fingertips. Since her mother passed away a year ago, looking after her dad and little sister is the only thing that makes Izzy feel safe. Discovering her father has a new girlfriend is her worst nightmare—she is not in the market for a replacement mom. Then her father invites Flora on their summer vacation…

Flora’s heart aches for Izzy, but she badly wants her relationship with Jack to work. As the summer unfolds, Flora must push her own boundaries to discover parts of herself she never knew existed—and to find the family she’s always wanted.

Showcase- The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris by Marc Petitjean translated by Adriana Hunter

Those who visit my blog often know how much I love the offerings of Other Press my favorite Indie Publishers and the biography of Frida Kahlo written by the son of her French lover gives readers a look into the artist's life during her time in Europe. I know I can't wait to read my copy and I know once you learn a bit more you'll want a copy for your own.
Enjoy!

ISBN-13:
 978-1-59051-990-5

Publisher: Other Press


Release Date: 4-09-2020


Length:
 208pp

Buy It: Amazon/B&N/IndieBound

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Overview:

This intimate account offers a new, unexpected understanding of the artist’s work and of the vibrant 1930s surrealist scene.

In 1938, just as she was leaving Mexico for her first solo exhibition in New York, Frida Kahlo was devastated to learn from her husband, Diego Rivera, that he intended to divorce her. This latest blow followed a long series of betrayals, most painful of all his affair with her beloved younger sister, Cristina. In early 1939, anxious and adrift, Kahlo traveled from the United States to France—her only trip to Europe, and the beginning of a unique period of her life when she was enjoying success on her own.

Now, for the first time, this previously overlooked part of her story is brought to light in exquisite detail. Marc Petitjean takes the reader to Paris, where Kahlo spends her days alongside luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Dora Maar, and Marcel Duchamp.

Using Kahlo’s whirlwind romance with the author’s father, Michel Petitjean, as a jumping-off point, The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris provides a striking portrait of the artist and an inside look at the history of one of her most powerful, enigmatic paintings.

Audible Review: The Parisians by Marius Gabriel

This is the second historical novel by Marius Gabriel that I was lucky enough to snag on an Amazon sale. He is another author who mixes facts and fiction and tells a rich poignant tale. Kindle Unlimited members can get this for free and add the audible for a song!

Enjoy!

ASIN: B07KB3MGPP

Publisher: Brilliance Audio


Release Date: 1-17-2019


Length:
 13hrs-19mins

Source:
 Purchase Amazon/Audible

Buy It: Audible

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Overview:

Paris, 1940. The Nazis have occupied the city - and the Ritz. The opulent old hotel, so loved by Parisians, is now full of swaggering officers, their minions and their mistresses.

For American Olivia Olsen, working as a chambermaid at the hotel means denying her nationality and living a lie, every day bringing the danger of discovery closer. When Hitler’s right-hand man moves in and makes her his pet, she sees an opportunity to help the Resistance - and draw closer to Jack, her contact, whose brusque instructions may be a shield for something more...

Within the hotel, famed designer Coco Chanel quickly learns that the new regime could work to her benefit, while Arletty, one of France’s best-loved actresses, shocks those around her - and herself - with a forbidden love.

But as the war reaches its terrible end, all three women learn the true price of their proximity to the enemy. For in the shadow of war, is anyone truly safe?

Audible Review: Stillhouse Lake By Rachel Caine

So a few years ago I saw Caffeinated Kim's review of this book and was put off and wanted it at the same time, I mean I like a thriller the same as the next girl but this one just sounded so dark so I put it on the back burner until Kindle had a sale and I scooped up the audible for a song. Boy am I glad I did because I've been binge listening and am on book 3 right now. Thanks Kim
Enjoy!

ASIN: B072J4KZM6

Publisher: Brilliance Audio


Release Date: 7-01-2017


Length:
 10hrs-4min

Source:
 Amazon/Audible purchase

Buy It: Audible

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

Gina Royal is the definition of average - a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband's secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor - the ultimate warrior mom.

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband's crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.

But just when she's starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake - and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed - or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she's learned how to fight evil. And she'll never stop.

Showcase: Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer

Graydon House is Harlequin's newest imprint dedicated to women's fiction and I know I can't wait to read Truths I Never Told You set post WWII my very favorite time period and I bet when you read more about it you'll want to.
Enjoy!

ISBN-13:
 9781525804601

Publisher: Graydon House


Release Date: 4-14-2020


Length:
 352 pp

Buy It: Amazon/B&N/IndieBound

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Overview:

From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant post-WWII novel that explores the expectations society places on women set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything once believed to be true.

With her father recently moved to a care facility, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.

As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker.

Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.

Showcase: The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls

When I saw this historical gem show up I knew I had to read it. I hope all you fans of the genre get a chance to read it too!
Enjoy!

ISBN-13:
 9780778309321

Publisher: Mira


Release Date: 4-07-2020


Length:
 352pp 

Buy It: Amazon/B&N/IndieBound

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

A Sunday Times bestseller!

Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . .

London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate newborn at the Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the daughter she has never known. Dreading the worst, that she has died in care, she is astonished to discover someone pretending to be Bess has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl—and why.

Less than a mile from Bess’s poor lodgings, in a quiet Georgian townhouse, lives Alexandra, a reclusive young widow. When her close friend—an ambitious doctor at the orphanage—persuades her to hire a nursemaid to help care for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds.

“A gripping tale of motherhood, loss, and redemption. Hall’s distinctive characters and scrupulous historical detail drop us into a rich, Dickensian world full of desperation and lies, and shows us just how far a mother will go to hold onto her child.” —Serena Burdick, International bestselling author of The Girls with No Names
“The new Hilary Mantel!”—Cosmopolitan

Showcase: The Final Deception by Heather Graham

I love Heather Graham's novels so I don't know how I missed this series, looks like I've got some catching up to do.
Enjoy!

ISBN-13:
 9780778309437

Publisher: Mira


Release Date: 3-31-2020


Length:
 304pp

New York Confidential #5

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Overview:

How do you confront a threat that is hiding in plain sight? FBI agent Craig Frasier and psychologist Kieran Finnegan hunt an escaped serial killer in the latest explosive thriller in the New York Confidential series.

It was one of Kieran’s most chilling cases: her assessment of a murderer known as the Fireman. There was no doubt that the man needed to be locked away. Now Craig is called to a gruesome crime scene that matches the killer’s methods, and news breaks that the Fireman has escaped prison.

Amid a citywide manhunt, Kieran and Craig need to untangle a web of deceit, privilege and greed. They suspect that those closest to the killer have been drawn into his evil, or else someone is using another man’s madness and cruelty to disguise their crimes.

When their investigation brings the danger right to the doorstep of Finnegan’s Pub, Kieran and Craig will have to be smarter and bolder than ever before, because this time it’s personal, and they have everything to lose.