THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  Deceased Parisian author, Colette's, CHERI (1920) and THE END of CHERI (1926) are widely considered two masterpieces. Written in the 1920s, both books (in one book) tell the story of a middle aged courtesan (Lea) and her much younger lover (Cheri). In a new publication, the two books are condensed into one, have been translated by Rachel Careau and published by W.W. Norton & Company. Lea and Cheri have been involved for many years, but it's time for him to move on with his life. When he returns from WWI, he marries but soon is drawn back to former lover, Lea who misses him. But in order to resume their affair, they both have to face the fact the affair will inevitably end. Cheri is older and has been through a war and Lea has aged and physically changed dramatically. Memories of the past are lost in the present.  Rachel Careau's translation of Colette's two novels bring together sensuality and brilliant prose. Lydia Davis writes in the foreward,  that Colette'...

Nothing announces summer more than the arrival of a beach read from Mary Kay Andrews. In her 30th novel, THE HOMEWRECKERS (St.MartinPress), we're flipping houses and once again, finding true love. Hattie Kavanaugh started working at Kavanaugh & Sons at 18 years-old, married the boss' son at 20 and became a widow at 25. Turning a deaf ear to her father-in-law's advise, she buys and starts fixing up a house that delivers nothing but disaster after disaster. It's sucking the cash out of Hattie and Kavanaugh & Sons business. She even sells a ring at a pawnshop to get money.  A slick Hollywood producer, Mo comes to her hometown, Savannah, Georgia and offers her the role of her life on a new reality beach house makeover show. Mo and the designer co-star, Trae catch her attention and we all know three is a crowd. While working on the show something unexpected is discovered, things start to get dangerous and work is halted. THE HOMEWRECKERS is a sweet suspenseful southe...

  A sexy stranger with gorgeous blue eyes shows up in a small East Texas town in May Cobb's new novel, MY SUMMER DARLINGS (Berkley) and soon, he's all anyone is talking about. Three women Jen, Kittie and Cynthia have been friends since childhood and they're approaching forty. Over the years they've kept sane by drinking wine all the time, gossiping about other women in the neighborhood, spoiling their entitled ungrateful teens and bitching about it. But now, along with the wine, all three are crushing on Will Harding. Will works his svengali magic on all three women and soon their obsession threatens their friendships and families. Will proceeds to lead all three on and he has them doing things they've never dreamed of... well, maybe dreamed, but didn't expect to go through with. We soon learn that Will is a sociopath, but that doesn't cure their addiction to him. These women aren't the brightest, they're just terribly bored and easily manipulated. ...

  "If I'm a lousy writer then an awful lot of people have lousy taste." Grace Metalious Grace Metalious was writing shocking stories in the 1950s that were scandalous, but women couldn't devour them fast enough. THE SEASONS of GRACE (IdeationNationLLC) by Dave O. Dodge is the unauthorized backstory of Peyton Place. Do I need to explain what Peyton Place was/is? I never read or watched it, but my mother whispered about it to her friends. THE SEASONS of GRACE is the story of how Grace Metalious created a fictional young housewife and mother of three children living in small-town America with an attitude of small-town life. Grace was born in New Hampshire and went on to become a literary sensation. It's a story within a story. THE SEASONS of GRACE is shocking and dark. Grace's real life was as complicated as the characters she created. It was nearly impossible for a women to get published in the 50s and once she achieved mega success, it wasn't all peaches a...

  Rochelle B. Weinstein's sixth novel, WHEN WE LET GO (LakeUnion) has been published. Rochelle once again focuses on family, second chances, love, forgiveness and discovering the truths that set us free. Avery Beckett receives a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Jude Masters. She's unable to say yes because of a secret tragedy that she believes makes her a bad person. Avery doesn't think she's good enough for Jude and his kids. Jude is crushed and angry. Avery leaves Miami for her childhood farm in North Carolina hoping to reconcile with her past. Unknowing to Avery, Jude's teenage daughter, Elle has invited herself to the farm and is hidden in the back seat. Elle is dealing with her mother's death. After discussing the situation with Jude, they make a plan for Elle to go to the farm. The two form an unique relationship and help one another heal.  This is a beautiful book about second chances and letting life happen. Many of us get in the way of our lives an...

  In Kelly Sokol's new novel, BREACH (koehlerbooks) the boundary between battlefield and home front blurs. Are there wounds love can heal? Marleigh Mulcahy grew up in a boxing gym, the daughter of hard-drinking parents who didn't keep a stable roof overhead. In the cinder-block Box-n-Go, amidst the sweat and funk, she meets EOD specialist Jace Holt, a highly and expensively trained bomb diffuser with three successful deployments behind him. With a heady mix of hope, carelessness, and a ridiculous amount of courage, they begin a family.  When Jace returns to active duty, a roadside bomb resurrects ghosts from the couple's past and threatens the life they've built.An unflinching and timely gaze into the marriage of an enlisted special operator and his wife, Breach is a story of betting it all on love, a couple's determination to change the trajectory of their lives, and one woman's promises to the man she loves and the boys they're raising. What choices will a...

  The search for a serial killer leads a woman into the twisted tangle of her own family tree in a chilling novel by the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Missing Sister and Lies We Bury. Adopted when she was only days old, Ivy Hon knows little about her lineage. In Elle Marr's new novel, STRANGERS WE KNOW (ThomasandMercer) Ivy's stricken with a mystery illness, the results of a genetic test to identify the cause attract the FBI. According to Ivy’s DNA, she’s related to the Full Moon Killer, who has terrorized the Pacific Northwest for decades. Ivy is the FBI’s hope to stop the enigmatic predator from killing again. When an online search connects Ivy with her younger cousin, she heads to rural Rock Island, Washington, to meet the woman. Motivated by a secret desire to unmask a murderous relative, Ivy reaches out to what’s left of a family of strangers. Discovering her mother’s tragic fate and her father’s disappearance is just the beginning. As Ivy ventures into a seri...

  Those little Cs on divine soft leather bags and exquisitely designed fashion forward pieces are delicious treats for those seeking and willing to pay for uncomplicated luxury. Fashionistas who love Chanel discover heaven in Randy Susan Meyers and MJ Rose's novel, THE FASHION ORPHANS (BlueBoxPress). They discover fashion is art and can be pretty profitable.  Half-sisters Gabrielle Winslow and Lulu Quattro have only two things in common: mounds of debt and coils of unresolved enmity toward Bette Bradford, their controlling and imperious recently deceased mother. Gabrielle, the firstborn, was raised in relative luxury on Manhattan’s rarefied Upper East Side. Now, at fifty-five, her life as a Broadway costume designer married to a heralded Broadway producer has exploded in divorce. Lulu, who spent half her childhood under the tutelage of her working-class Brooklyn grandparents, is a grieving widow at forty-eight. With her two sons grown, her life feels reduced to her work at the...

  In Victoria Helen Stone's new novel, AT THE QUIET EDGE (LakeUnion) L i ly Brown has been abandoned by her fugitive husband and is rebuilding her life on the edge of a Kansas town that still feels the sting of his crimes. Lily lies low, managing the isolated storage facility where she lives with her twelve-year-old son, Everett, and planning a better future for them both. That requires keeping secrets. Everett has them too. After breaking into a storage unit, Everett finds photographs and news clippings of five girls missing for decades. For Everett, it’s an adventure and a tempting mystery to solve. But digging further into a stranger’s obsession is putting Everett and his mother in the crosshairs of a killer. Then Lily’s ex resurfaces from the shadows. Just as suddenly, an attentive new man enters Lily’s life. And a suspicious detective, responding to reports of a prowler, watches every move Lily makes. It’s getting harder for Lily to know who to trust―or whose secrets pose the ...