LET’S SPARK SOME ENTHUSIASM FOR “THE PERFECT GIRL”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday event, hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine.

Every week, we gather around the blogosphere and search out the upcoming book releases, sharing our thoughts and blurbs.   Today I am featuring the newest book from Gilly MacMillan:  The Perfect Girl, also named Butterfly in the Dark.  Release date:  March 3, 2016.

 

 

 

From Goodreads:  Several years ago, Zoe Maisey – child genius, musical sensation – caused the death of three teenagers. She served her time. And now she’s free.

Her story begins with her giving the performance of her life. By midnight, her mother is dead.

The Perfect Girl is an intricate exploration into the mind of a teenager burdened by brilliance. It’s a story about the wrongs in our past not letting go and how hard we must fight for second chances.

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What do you think?  I am eager to read more from the author who brought the page-turner What She Knew. (Click for my review on Goodreads).

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LET’S SPARK SOME SUSPENSE – “INK AND BONE”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday event, hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine.

Today’s featured book is from one of my favorite suspense authors:  Lisa Unger.  Her upcoming novel is Ink and Bone, scheduled to be released on June 7, 2016.

 

 

In this explosive psychological thriller by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger, a young woman’s mysterious gift forces her into the middle of a dangerous investigation of a little girl’s disappearance.

Twenty-year-old Finley Montgomery is rarely alone.  Visited by people whom others can’t see and haunted by prophetic dreams, she has never been able to control or understand the things that happen to her. When Finley’s abilities start to become too strong for her to handle – and even the roar of her motorcycle or another dazzling tattoo can’t drown out the voices – she turns to the only person she knows who can help her: her grandmother Eloise Montgomery, a renowned psychic living in The Hollows, New York.

Merri Gleason is a woman at the end of her tether after a ten-month-long search for her missing daughter, Abbey.  With almost every hope exhausted, she resorts to hiring Jones Cooper, a detective who sometimes works with psychic Eloise Montgomery.  Merri’s not a believer, but she’s just desperate enough to go down that road, praying that she’s not too late.  Time, she knows, is running out.

As a harsh white winter moves into The Hollows, Finley and Eloise are drawn into the investigation, which proves to have much more at stake than even the fate of a missing girl.  As Finley digs deeper into the town and its endless layers, she is forced to examine the past, even as she tries to look into the future.  Only one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what.

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I have enjoyed several of this author’s books set in The Hollows, the scene for much creepiness and suspense.  I can’t wait to read this one!  What do you think?  What are you eagerly anticipating?

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LET’S SPARK SOME INTRIGUE: WAITING ON “AFTER SHE’S GONE”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday event, hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine.

Every week, we gather around the blogosphere and search out the upcoming book releases, sharing our thoughts and blurbs. 

Today’s featured book is a thriller from an author I’ve enjoyed in the past: After She’s Gone, by Lisa Jackson, is a story about the deep bond between two sisters and their shared dream that becomes a harrowing nightmare of madness, hatred and jealousy…The book will be released on December 29, 2015.

 

 

 

Cassie Kramer and her younger sister, Allie, learned the hazards of fame long ago. Together, they’d survived the horror of a crazed fan who nearly killed their mother, former Hollywood actress Jenna Hughes. Still, Cassie moved to L.A., urging Allie to follow. As a team, they’d take the town by storm.  But Allie, finally free of small-town Oregon, and just that little bit more beautiful, also proved to be more talented—and driven. Where Cassie got bit parts, Allie rose to stardom. But now her body double has been shot on the set of her latest movie—and Allie is missing.

Police discover that the last call to Allie’s phone came from Cassie, though she has no recollection of making it. Instead of looking like a concerned relative, Cassie is starting to look like a suspect—the jealous sister who finally grew sick of playing a supporting role. As the tabloids go into a frenzy, Cassie ends up on a Portland psych ward. Is she just imagining the sinister figure who comes to her bedside, whispering about Allie—a visitor of whom there is no record? Is someone trying to help—or drive her mad?

Convinced she’s the only one who can find Allie, Cassie checks herself out of the hospital. But a sudden slew of macabre murders— each victim masked with a likeness of a member of Cassie’s family—makes Cassie fear for her safety and her sanity. The only way to end the nightmare is to find out what really happened to Allie. And with each discovery, Cassie realizes that no one can be trusted to keep her safe—least of all herself…

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What do you think?  Does the blurb grab you?  Are you as eager as I am to turn these pages?

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HUMP DAY SPARKS: WAITING FOR “THE RACE FOR PARIS”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday, our special day for sharing upcoming book releases.  Hop on over to Breaking the Spine to find out what everyone else is excited about.

Today I am very excited about an upcoming release from a favorite author:  The Race for Paris, by Meg Waite Clayton, is coming on August 11, 2015.

 

 

 

 

The New York Times bestselling author of The Wednesday Sisters returns with a moving and powerfully dynamic World War II novel about two American journalists and an Englishman, who together race the Allies to Occupied Paris for the scoop of their lives.

Normandy, 1944. To cover the fighting in France, Jane, a reporter for the Nashville Banner, and Liv, an Associated Press photographer, have endured enormous danger and frustrating obstacles—including strict military regulations limiting what women correspondents can. Even so, Liv wants more.

Encouraged by her husband, the editor of a New York newspaper, she’s determined to be the first photographer to reach Paris with the Allies, and capture its freedom from the Nazis.

However, her Commanding Officer has other ideas about the role of women in the press corps. To fulfill her ambitions, Liv must go AWOL. She persuades Jane to join her, and the two women find a guardian angel in Fletcher, a British military photographer who reluctantly agrees to escort them. As they race for Paris across the perilous French countryside, Liv, Jane, and Fletcher forge an indelible emotional bond that will transform them and reverberate long after the war is over.

Based on daring, real-life female reporters on the front lines of history like Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller, and Martha Gellhorn—and with cameos by other famous faces of the time—The Race for Paris is an absorbing, atmospheric saga full of drama, adventure, and passion. Combining riveting storytelling with expert literary craftsmanship and thorough research, Meg Waite Clayton crafts a compelling, resonant read.

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I have been drawn to books from this WWII era for a while, now, and I also love anything with journalists as characters.  What are you excited about today?

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HUMP DAY SPARKS: WAITING FOR “THE WRONG MAN”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday, our special day for sharing upcoming book releases.  Hop on over to Breaking the Spine to find out what everyone else is excited about.

I am always up for new suspense thrillers, so today’s feature is one of those.  From Kate White, The Wrong Man, is a compelling thriller of mistaken identity and psychological suspense about an accomplished career woman who thinks she’s met the man of her dreams—but instead he turns out to be her worst nightmare.  Release Date:  June 16, 2015.

 

 

 

 

Bold and adventurous in her work as one of Manhattan’s hottest interior decorators, Kit Finn couldn’t be tamer in her personal life. So, while on vacation in the Florida Keys, Kit resolves to do something risky for once. Flirting with Matt Healy—the rugged stranger she literally bumps into at her hotel—is one thing. Going back to his room after their date is another.

Instead, Matt offers to cook her dinner when they’re both back in the city. But when Kit arrives at his luxury apartment ready for the date of a lifetime, who is the man who opens the door?

Kit’s usually so good at reading people. How could she have been taken in by the deceptions of a con man? And why has he targeted her? Piece by piece, Kit realizes that this treachery goes a lot deeper, and gets a lot deadlier. Now the only way out is to expose the vicious puppet master who’s turned her life upside-down.

Adrenaline-charged and filled with harrowing twists at every turn, The Wrong Man will leave readers guessing until the final page.

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What are you waiting for?  Come on by and share!

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HUMP DAY SPARKS: WAITING FOR “THE GUEST COTTAGE”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday, our special day for sharing upcoming book releases.  Hop on over to Breaking the Spine to find out what everyone else is excited about.

My eagerly anticipated release is The Guest Cottage, by Nancy Thayer, which will be released on May 12, 2015.  I am so ready to return to Nantucket!

New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer whisks readers back to the beloved island of Nantucket in this delightful novel about two single parents who accidentally rent the same summer house—and must soon decide where their hearts truly lie.

Sensible thirty-six-year-old Sophie Anderson has always known what to do. She knows her role in life: supportive wife of a successful architect and calm, capable mother of two. But on a warm summer night, as the house grows quiet around her and her children fall asleep, she wonders what’s missing from her life. When her husband echoes that lonely question, announcing that he’s leaving her for another woman, Sophie realizes she has no idea what’s next. Impulsively renting a guest cottage on Nantucket from her friend Susie Swenson, Sophie rounds up her kids, Jonah and Lacey, and leaves Boston for a quiet family vacation, minus one.

Also minus one is Trevor Black, a software entrepreneur who has recently lost his wife. Trevor is the last person to imagine himself, age thirty and on his own, raising a little boy like Leo—smart and sweet, but grappling constantly with his mother’s death, growing more and more closed off. Hoping a quiet summer on the Nantucket coast will help him reconnect with Leo, Trevor rents a guest house on the beautiful island from his friend Ivan Swenson.

Best-laid plans run awry when Sophie and Trevor realize they’ve mistakenly rented the same house. Still, determined to make this a summer their kids will always remember, the two agree to share the Swensons’ Nantucket house. But as the summer unfolds and the families grow close, Sophie and Trevor must ask themselves if the guest cottage is all they want to share.

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What are you waiting for?

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HUMP DAY SPARKS: WAITING ON “IT’S YOU”

Welcome to another Waiting on Wednesday, our special day for sharing upcoming book releases.  Hop on over to Breaking the Spine to find out what everyone else is excited about.

A book I am eagerly awaiting is from Jane Porter, one of my go-to authors.  It’s You is coming out on June 2, 2015.

 

 

 

Amazon Description:  In the wake of a tragedy that tore her life down to the foundations, Dr. Alison McAdams has lost her way. So when she’s summoned to Napa to care for her ailing father, she’s not sure she has anything to offer him—or anyone else.

What Ali finds in Northern California wine country is a gift—an opportunity to rest, and distance from her painful memories. Most unexpectedly, she finds people who aren’t afraid of her grief or desperate for her to hurry up and move on.

As Ali becomes part of her father’s community, makes new friends of her own, and hears the stories of a generation who survived the Second World War, she begins to find hope again. In a quest to discover the truth about another woman’s lost love, she sets off on a journey across oceans and deep into history. And in making sense of that long-ago tragedy, Ali is able to put together the broken pieces of her heart and make new choices that are right for her.

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I love the characters, the settings, and the plots of this author’s books, so I am very excited about this one.  What are you sharing today?

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HUMP DAY SPARKS: EAGERLY AWAITING “GOODNIGHT JUNE”

As we gather around to share the upcoming releases we are awaiting, head on over to Breaking the Spine to see what lovely books are coming soon.

My choice today is from a favorite author.  Goodnight June, by Sarah Jio, is a story that re-imagines the origins of a favorite children’s classic.  Coming on 5/27/14, it will make a lovely addition to my library.

 

 

The New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter imagines the inspiration for Goodnight Moon.

Goodnight Moon is an adored childhood classic, but its real origins are lost to history. In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio offers a suspenseful and heartfelt take on how the “great green room” might have come to be.

June Andersen is professionally successful, but her personal life is marred by unhappiness. Unexpectedly, she is called to settle her great-aunt Ruby’s estate and determine the fate of Bluebird Books, the children’s bookstore Ruby founded in the 1940s. Amidst the store’s papers, June stumbles upon letters between her great-aunt and the late Margaret Wise Brown—and steps into the pages of American literature.

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Doesn’t this sound delightful?  I know that I really cannot wait to add this book to my collection.  What are you awaiting?

 

 

 

HUMP DAY SPARKS: WAITING FOR “THAT NIGHT”

Welcome to our bookish celebration of our eagerly anticipated upcoming book releases, hosted by Breaking the Spine.  Check over at Jill’s place to see what everyone is gushing over.

Today I’m drooling over the next Chevy Stevens book, coming on June 17, 2014:  That Night.

Eighteen-year-old Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were wrongly convicted for the murder of her younger sister.

Seventeen years later she returns home, ready to move on with her life, but she can’t. Ryan is convinced he can uncover the truth; her mother still doesn’t believe Toni is innocent; and the former high school girls who made Toni’s life miserable may have darker secrets than anyone can imagine.

Before Toni can move forward, she must take a terrifying step back to her past to find out the truth and clear her name, before it’s too late.

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I love this author’s work…and this one grabbed me with the cover and the blurb.  What are you eagerly anticipating?   Come on by and share…along with your links!

HUMP DAY SPARKS: WAITING FOR “STELLA BAIN” — AUGUST 28

 

Welcome to Hump Day Sparks.  Watch the sparks fly as we circle around the web in anticipation of upcoming book releases.  Check out Breaking the Spine to see the Waiting on Wednesday posts.

Today’s choice for me is a book from an author I enjoy.  Stella Bain, by Anita Shreve, is an epic story set against the backdrop of WWI.  Release Date:  November 12, 2013.

 

 

When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.

A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse’s aide near the front, but she can’t remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.

In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.

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It’s been awhile since I read a new Shreve novel.  I can’t wait!  What are you waiting for?