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Rebecca Munro

Biography

Rebecca Munro


rebeccamunro91@gmail.com

Rebecca Munro is a project editor at W. W. Norton & Company and a member of the Morristown Festival of Books programming committee. Previously the Editorial Manager of Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com, she has moderated panels at BookExpo and the Morristown Festival of Books. A former Bookreporter.com intern, Rebecca has reviewed for the site since 2014 and has loved every second of reading, reviewing and finding new recommendations in the weekly newsletter.

Rebecca Munro

Reviews by Rebecca Munro

by Vera Kurian - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

There’s something sinister under the surface of the idyllic, suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it’s not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives. When they realize that they can’t trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions escalate in town to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact each other again. But 20 years later, Jia calls them all back to Wesley Falls. Maddy has been murdered, and they are the only ones who can uncover why. But to end things, they have to return to the mine one last time.

by Xochitl Gonzalez - Fiction

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City. But by 1998, Anita’s name has been all but forgotten --- certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student, is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret. But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

by Amy Tintera - Fiction, Mystery

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, was especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA. But now the phenomenally huge hit true-crime podcast "Listen for the Lie" and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

by Yangsze Choo - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now. Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them --- their eldest sons die before their 24th birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change. Or does it?

by Gareth Brown - Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance

Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop and lives an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers --- a lonely yet charming old man --- dies right in front of her. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book. It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them. Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them. Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books.

by Ali Hazelwood - Fiction, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Romance

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is once again an outcast. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over. She has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange. Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was. Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about.

by Laird Hunt - Fiction, Short Stories

Candy Wilson has forgotten to buy the paprika. Turner Davis needs to get his zinnias in. Della Dorner told her mother she was going to the Galaxy Swirl, but that's not where she's really headed on her new Schwinn five-speed. FLOAT UP, SING DOWN is the story of a single day. But in that day, how much teeming life! The residents of this rural town have their routines, preferences, joys, grudges and regrets. Gossip is paramount. Lives are entwined. Retired sheriffs climb corn bins and muse on lost love, French teachers throw firecrackers out of barn windows, and teenagers borrow motorcycles to ride the back roads. Each of these 14 stories follows one character's day in the life in one of Laird Hunt's most beloved and enduring landscapes.

by Kelly Link - Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Late one night, Laura, Daniel and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance --- and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks. While they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas.

by Freida McFadden - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Last year, though, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

by Tia Williams - Fiction, Romance

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. In her bones, Ricki knows that a more exciting life awaits her somewhere. When regal nonagenarian Ms. Della invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers. One evening in February, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.