Skip to main content

Reviews

Reviews

by Lisa Scottoline - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jason Bennett is driving his family home after his daughter’s field hockey game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever. Later that awful night, Jason and his family receive a visit from the FBI. The carjackers were members of a dangerous drug-trafficking organization, and now Jason and his family are in their crosshairs. The agents advise them to enter the witness protection program, and they have no choice but to agree. The Bennetts begin to fall apart at the seams. Then Jason learns a shocking truth and realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands.

by Annie Ward - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

At an elite private school nestled in the Colorado mountains, Natalie, an office assistant, dreams of having a life like the school moms she deals with every day. Women like Brooke --- a gorgeous heiress, ferociously loving mother and serial cheater --- and Asha, an overprotective mom who suspects her husband of having an affair. Their fates are bound by the handsome assistant athletic director Nicholas, whom Natalie loves, Brooke wants and Asha needs. But when two bodies are carried out of the school one morning, it seems the tension between mothers and daughters, rival lovers and the haves and have-nots has shattered the surface of this isolated, affluent town --- where people stop at nothing to get what they want.

by Kianna Alexander - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married and ready to follow her dreams. As the demands of life pull Josephine’s attention away, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to pursue her real estate aspirations. She finds herself immersed in deepening her marriage, mothering her daughters, and being a dutiful daughter and granddaughter. Still, she manages to teach herself to be a businesswoman, manage her finances and make smart investments in the local real estate market. But with each passing year, it grows more and more difficult to focus on building her legacy from the ground up.

by Tara Isabella Burton - Fiction

When Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by St. Dunstan’s alum Sebastian Webster. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by Virginia Strauss. A neurotic overachiever, Virginia inducts Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go.

by Eva Stachniak - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France are sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. When the time is right, each girl is smuggled into the palace of Versailles, with its legendary Hall of Mirrors. There they meet a mysterious but splendidly dressed man who they’re told is merely a Polish count, a cousin of the Queen. Living an indulgent life of silk gowns, delicious meals and soft beds, the students at this “school of mirrors” rarely ask questions, and when Louis tires of them, they are married off to minor aristocrats or allowed to retire to one of the more luxurious nunneries.

by Karen Joy Fowler - Fiction, Historical Fiction

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some 30 miles northeast of Baltimore and bears 10 children over the course of the next 16 years. Junius Booth is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war. As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But multiple scandals, family triumphs and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

by Ellery Lloyd - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members' clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites. The most spectacular of all is Island Home, a closely guarded, ultraluxurious resort just off the English coast. But behind the scenes, tensions are at a breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group's CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide --- and that's before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island. As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.

by Jennifer E. Smith - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Right after the sudden death of her mother and just before the launch of her high-stakes sophomore album, Greta James falls apart on stage. The footage quickly goes viral and she stops playing, her career suddenly in jeopardy --- the kind of jeopardy her father, Conrad, has always predicted. Months later, Greta reluctantly agrees to accompany Conrad on the Alaskan cruise her parents had booked to celebrate their 40th anniversary. It could be their last chance to heal old wounds in the wake of shared loss. But the trip will also prove to be a voyage of discovery for them both, and for Ben Wilder, a charming historian, onboard to lecture about THE CALL OF THE WILD, who is struggling with a major upheaval in his own life.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

After a harrowing escape from Russian agents on his last mission, Charles Jenkins thinks he’s finally done with the spy game. But then the final two of the seven sisters --- American assets who have been deep undercover in Russia for decades --- cut off all communication with their handlers. Are they in hiding after detecting surveillance? Or have they turned and become double agents? It’s Jenkins’ duty to find out, but he’s been added to a Russian kill list. It will require all of Jenkins’ knowledge of spycraft --- and an array of disguises --- to return to the country undetected. But when plans go awry his first night in Moscow, mafia henchmen, Russian agents and a particularly dogged Moscow police detective pursue him.

by Elizabeth Macneal - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

In 1860s England, circus mania is sweeping the nation. When Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders pitches its tent in a poor coastal town, the life of one young girl changes forever. Sold to the ringmaster as a “leopard girl” because of the birthmarks that cover her body, Nell is utterly devastated. But as she grows close to the other performers, she finds herself enchanted by the glittering freedom of the circus, and by her own role as the Queen of the Moon and Stars. Before long, Nell’s fame spreads across the world --- and with it, a chance for Jasper Jupiter to grow his own name and fortune. But what happens when her fame begins to eclipse his own, when even Jasper’s loyal brother, Toby, becomes captivated by Nell?