book recommendations – Hey Candi! What are you reading???

Book Review: UNDER CURRENTS by Nora Roberts

About the book…

The perfect facade can hide dark undercurrents

From the outside, the house in Lakeview Terrace looks perfect and the Bigelows seem like the perfect family. But the perfect facade hides far undercurrents. Teenager Zane and his younger sister Britt, are terrorised by their violent father until one dark, brutal night when their father’s temper takes a horrifying turn for the worse.

Over time, Zane moves on and builds a new life for himself but a childhood like that can cast a shadow the length of a lifetime. Can Zane ever really be free of his past? Or could those dark undercurrents rise back to the surface, forcing Zane to fight for his once again…

My thoughts 💭 💭💭

First! I love Nora Roberts.

This is probably my favourite book of hers.

Trigger warning: domestic abuse and violence

Nora Roberts captures her readers from the moment you open the book. There’s no doubt about that. She’s brilliant!

Darby starting afresh in a new town. After getting a feel of the place she decides this is where she’ll start over.

Zane Walker is one hell of a guy. He’s been through hell and back and he’s come out stronger.

This book is about new beginnings, leaving the old life and starting over. It speaks in detail of violence and abuse from childhood to adulthood. Are we ever free from a past that was filled with violence? Well read Zane’s story and you’ll see that you can come out better and stronger.

Obviously there was romance and suspense rolled into one. You can always find a book of Nora Roberts with a bit of everything in it.

Loved it! Loved it! Loved! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Review: the LOST HOURS by Susan Lewis

Thank you to Jonathan Ball Publishers for a copy of this novel for review

Synopsis

A perfect marriage…

Golden couple Annie and David Crayce have it all. A loving marriage, three beautiful children and a thriving family business. Life couldn’t be better. Until the unthinkable happens…

A perfect crime?

A piece of damning DNA evidence has arisen, placing David as the prime suspect of a murder committed twenty years ago. Annie is sure David is innocent.

As the police investigate the cold case, so does Annie. Trawling through her old diaries, she begins to desperately looking for answers. But it all comes down to a few lost hours she can’t solve.

And Annie begins to doubt the one person she thought she knew best…

Her husband.

What I thought 💭 💭💭

I was into it from the beginning. It starts with a scene from 20 years ago. Then we’re in 2019 living the perfect life with Annie and David Crayce.

Imagine having the perfect life. The perfect husband. Three adorable children. Extended family that’s always there through thick and thin. Then one day your whole life comes to a halt and you’re questioning everything everyone does. This is what Annie had to go through.

We are pulled back and forth between the now and the crime that happened twenty years ago. There are quite a few secondary characters which puts you in a position of questioning all of them.

I loved Annie. She’s strong, vulnerable and determined to find the truth. David is a man who has changed his life from the wild past to the now perfect husband.

DS Rundle I was drawn too as well but I often felt that she was using her own past experience and comparing it to David Crayce. She was determined to prove him guilty.

This book is probably one of my favourite books from Susan Lewis. I became a fast fan of hers in a short time and am always looking forward to her books. She’s got a way with speaking to the reader. Getting us involved in the investigation and feeling what the characters feel.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. I enjoyed it. I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

If you want to solve a cold case. This is a book which will help you play detective.

Can’t wait for the next Susan Lewis novel to be released.

Thank you again to Jonathan Ball Publishers for this copy for review.

Book Review: THE MAIDENS by Alex Michaelides

Thank you Jonathan Ball Publishers for gifting me a copy for review

Synopsis

ST CHRISTOPHER’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, IS A CLOSED WORLD TO MOST.

For Mariana Andros – a group therapist struggling through her private grief – it’s where she met her late husband. For her niece, Zoe, it’s the tragic scene of her best friend’s murder.

As memory and mystery entangle Mariana, she finds a society full of secrets, which has been shocked to its core by the murder of one of its own.

Because behind its idyllic beauty is a web of jealousy and rage which emanates from an exclusive set of students known only as The Maidens. A group under the sinister influence of the enigmatic professor Edward Fosca.

A man who seems to know more than anyone about the murders – and the victims. And the man who will become the prime suspect in Mariana’s investigation – an obsession which will unravel everything…

My thoughts

I have questions. I’m still thinking about that plot twist in the end. I had a suspicion but then dismissed it.

The author had me going in circles figuring out this plot.

A page turner and twisted. It’s dark and brutal. A little Greek Mythology added to the mix.

‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all…
Alfred Tennyson

I enjoyed it. But I didn’t get into it like I did with The Silent Patient.

Book Review: JUDAS HORSE by Lynda La Plante

Synopsis

A violent murder

A community living in fear

A detective with everything to lose

Violent burglars have been terrorising residents across the English countryside. But when a mutilated body is discovered in a Cotswolds house, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary group of opportunist thieves.

As Detective Jack aware investigates, he discovers locals with dark secrets, hidden crimes – and hits countless dead ends. With few leads and the violent attacks escalating, he will have to act audaciously as the criminals if he hopes to stop them.

When aware meets Charlotte Miles, a terrified woman with links to the group, he must use her to lure the unsuspecting killers into one last job, and into his trap. But with the law already stretched to breaking point, any failure will be on Warr’s head – and any more blood spilled, on his hands…

Review

This book is so good! It was a page turner for me.

DS Warr is meticulous in his job. He has no time for mistakes.

“Charlotte Miles, for three years you’ve been De Voe’s Judas Horse, now you’re mine.” – DS Jack Warr

Loved the insight into Jack’s personal life. We got to know him as a family man and not only as a cop chasing burglars.

Beautifully written, entertaining and keeps the attention of the reader.

Lynda La Plante has always been a favourite of mine and this book has proved why once again. She doesn’t disappoint.

I may have wanted some more damage to be done to the one character, but he got what was coming to him.

An entertaining read.

Thanks to Jonathan Ball Publishers for gifting me a copy of this book.

Book Review: WHILE PARIS SLEPT by Ruth Druart

Synopsis: (taken from Goodreads)

A family’s love is tested when heroes-turned-criminals are forced to make the hardest decisions of their lives in this unforgettably moving story of love, resistance, and the lasting consequences of the Second World War.

After. Santa Cruz, California, 1953. Jean-Luc and Charlotte Beauchamps have left their war-torn memories of Paris behind to live a quiet life in America with their son, Sam. They have a house in the suburbs, they’ve learned to speak English, and they have regular get-togethers with their outgoing American neighbors. Every minute in California erases a minute of their lives before — before the Germans invaded their French homeland and incited years of violence, hunger, and fear. But their taste of the American Dream shatters when officers from the U.N. Commission on War Crimes pull-up outside their home and bring Jean-Luc in for questioning.

Before. Paris, France, 1944. Germany has occupied France for four years. Jean-Luc works at the railway station at Bobigny, where thousands of Jews travel each day to be “resettled” in Germany. But Jean-Luc and other railway employees can’t ignore the rumors or what they see on the tracks: too many people are packed into the cars, and bodies are sometimes left to be disposed of after a train departs. Jean-Luc’s unease turns into full-blown panic when a young woman with bright green eyes bursts from the train one day alongside hundreds of screaming, terrified passengers, and pushes a warm, squirming bundle into his arms.

Told from alternating perspectives, While Paris Slept reflects on the power of love, loss, and the choices a mother will make to ensure the survival of her child. At once a visceral portrait of family ties and a meditation on nurture’s influence over identity, this heartbreaking debut will irreversibly take hold of your heart.

Review:

This book had my emotions all over the place.

I loved it. A beautiful story of love, sacrifice, trust and resilience. A story of starting over. A story of suffering.

Beautifully written. Captivating. I wish I had one full day to just sit and read it because once I started it I didn’t want to put it down.

I closed the book with tears in my eyes and my emotions running wild. It took me a while to get back to reality.

If you love historical stories and those that tug at your heartstrings then this book is for you.

Get cozy. Grab your favourite beverage and sit back and travel back in time to Paris with this book.

I’ve given this story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Jonathan Ball Publishers for this copy to review

Book Review: THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North

“If you leave a door half open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken.
If you play outside alone, soon you won’t be going home.
If your window’s left unlatched, you’ll hear him tapping at the glass.
If you’re lonely, sad and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you.”

Synopsis:

When Tom and his son Jake move to Featherbank, they’re looking for a fresh start.

But this sleepy village has a dark past – fifteen years earlier a serial killer haunted it’s streets. In the days before he struck, his young victims claimed to hear whispers in the night.

Of course, an old crime need not trouble Tom and Jake.

Until another boy goes missing.

And then Jake says he hears a whispering at his window…

Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The only reason I didn’t read it in one sitting was because it creeped me out at night and I love to read at night. So I opted to read it during the day, which helped a little bit.

It’s a story of a boy who is different. A policeman needing to close a 20 yr old case. A dad trying desperately to understand his son.

I loved the characters. I enjoyed the different POVs we got read. Well written.

Definitely on my recommend list.

The Whisper Man received 4.5 stars from me!

Book Promo: Sale – QUEEN MOVE by Kennedy Ryan

“A perfect romance that defines the very best of the genre.” — JR Ward, #1 New York Times bestselling author

For the first time ever, Queen Move, the standalone second chance romance from RITA® Award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kennedy Ryan, is ONLY ¢99 for a limited time!

Don’t miss this steal of a deal!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2V4HLvZ

Apple Books: https://apple.co/2JGiqD7

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/queenmove

Nook: https://bit.ly/2UIueeE

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2JFJ7YM

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2yrPZ9

The boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have…

Dig a little and you’ll find photos of me in the bathtub with Ezra Stern.

Get your mind out of the gutter. We were six months old.

Pry and one of us might confess we saved our first kiss for each other.

The most clumsy, wet, sloppy . . . spectacular thirty seconds of my adolescence.

Get into our business and you’ll see two families, closer than blood, torn apart in an instant.

Twenty years later, my “awkward duckling” best friend from childhood,

the boy no one noticed, is a man no one can ignore.

Finer. Fiercer. Smarter.

Taken.

Tell me it’s wrong.

Tell me the boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have.

When we find each other again, everything stands in our way–secrets, lies, promises.

But we didn’t come this far to give up now.

And I know just the move to make if I want to make him mine.

For the first time ever, Queen Move, the standalone second chance romance from RITA® Award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kennedy Ryan, is ONLY ¢99 for a limited time!

Book Review: A GUY WALKS INTO MY BAR by Lauren Blakely

Synopsis:

A sexy, passionate, utterly addictive standalone MM romance from #1 NYT Bestseller Lauren Blakely!

Every bartender should follow one simple rule—don’t go home with the customers.

That’s been easy for me to stick to, until the night a cocky, confident, and sinfully charming hockey star walks into my bar. This sexy athlete is too hard to resist, especially when he makes it clear how much he wants the “sarcastic, witty, hot AF” guy behind the bar—also known as me.

Still, I’m not keen on breaking my own rules since I know where that can lead—no place good.

But when that man makes his case with one bone-searing kiss on the streets of London, I throw resistance out the window.

What could go wrong with a hot, dirty, no-strings-attached fling before he leaves town in five days?

Trouble is, soon our nights together lead to days, to long conversations, to getting to know each other, and to something I never expected—falling ridiculously hard for a man who’s getting on a plane to America when I live a world away.

My life is here. His is there. And no amount of falling or feeling will change that one big problem.

Warning: contains hot hotel sex, loads of dirty talk, PDA all over London, and two sexy, witty, charming alpha heroes…

My Review:

Lord have mercy this book is H O T AF!!!! I read the book & listened to the audiobook and sigh 🥰.
This was my first MM Romance and it was so much more than I expected. I loved the banter, the dialogue and all the characters. I loved this story so so much. The whole story was incredible. Fitz and Dean are just amazing together. This book is full of sexy, flirty banter and will have you in stitches at the conversation. And did I mention that it is hot as hell???
Love it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Review: THAT SWOONY FEELING by Meghan Quinn

USA Today bestselling author Meghan Quinn brings more humor and heart with the fourth novel of her Getting Lucky series: a story about breaking curses and finally finding that swoony feeling.

I’m single . . . so single it’s painful.

Yup, ladies, Brig Knightly–that’s me–is still a lonely bachelor, stumbling through the streets of Port Snow, looking for the girl he’s supposed to end up with.

That is until my brother, Rogan, presents me with the opportunity of a lifetime. The Summer of Love, a secret pen pal program in Port Snow is looking for applicants and I’m the perfect fit.

I couldn’t sign up fast enough.

I found myself quickly falling in love with a pair of red lips at the bottom of a letter. Just like in the movies . . .

Life could not have been better, that was until I started hanging out with Ruth Barber. Starting a new business right next to my shop, I found myself gravitating toward her. Her smile, her humor . . . her tea sandwiches.

My attraction for Ruth came in full force, leaving me dazed, confused, and *ahem* excited.

As new feelings for two women come to a screeching halt, I have to figure out who to choose. But when I discover my pen pal is Ruth, it might be too late.

All I want in life is to experience that swoony feeling . . . but I think I might have just missed my chance.

This was the sweetest love story I ever did read this year!!!!!!!!!!

It really had me swooning.

Gosh, Brig is a moron, but an adorable one, so he is forgiven.

And who knew that the shy girl behind the counter serving coffee, had such a sassy mouth!

These two are adorable. Funny, easy to read and if you’re a softy like me, you’ll be in tears (HAPPY TEARS).

It’s a truly romantic story!!!!!!!!!!

Book Review: IT’S OUR SECRET by Willow Winters

From romance author Willow Winters comes a USA Today best-selling emotionally gripping, standalone, romantic suspense.

Allison: It was only a little lie.
That’s how stories like these get started.

But with every lie I told, he saw through it.
I think in his heart he knew I was broken; he felt my pain as if it was his.

And that’s what changed everything.
He’s the reason it all fell apart.

Sometimes it’s a single moment that alters everything in existence.
Sometimes it’s the fall of dominoes, lined up in a pretty little row and designed so that each one will cause more and more pain.
In a single day, it all changed, and there’s no way to take it back.
I didn’t know what would happen. But secrets and lies ruin everything and I should have known better.
And for the first time in… I don’t know how long, I wish I could take it back. I’d take every bit of it back if I could just be with him again.

“I was captivated from the very beginning, and I couldn’t let go until the very end. Winters wove an outstanding tale, which has an even better message within its pages.” – Kendra, Reads and Treats

Review:

This book had me heartbroken. It’s emotionally gripping. It’s a novel of love, heartache, friendship and justice.

Dean and Allison are both broken individuals. They help each other, lean on one another and fall in love. Life was not fair to these two growing up, but they are trying to make it right as adults. Their individual stories got to me, you’re wanting to know the truth from the beginning.

I couldn’t put this story down. Gave up sleep to finish it. I absolutely loved it and I’ll put this on my recommendation list.