THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  The whole world saw Princess Diana step from a gilded carriage for her wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral. But before that fairy-tale moment came a dark and difficult journey.… Bestselling author Wendy Holden explores the astonishing backstory and young adulthood of the ultimate royal celebrity in her new book, THE PRINCESS (Berkley). Britain, 1961: A beautiful blonde baby is born to Viscount Althorp, heir to the Spencer earldom. But Diana grows up amid the fallout of her parents’ messy divorce. She struggles at school. Her refuge throughout is romantic novels. She dreams of falling in love and being rescued by a handsome prince. In royal circles, there is concern about the Prince of Wales. Charles is nearing thirty and the right girl needs to be found, fast. She must be young, aristocratic and completely free of past liaisons. Pure and innocent. Eighteen-year-old Diana Spencer is just about the only candidate. Her yearning to be loved dovetails with royal desper...

Jude Stark is the bane of Molly Blum's existence in Meredith Schorr's new novel, SOMEONE JUST LIKE YOU (Forever) The former neighbors and complete opposites began a rivalry in grade school that continued all the way through high school, consisting of fights, pranks, and generally one‑upping each other—until one over-the-top prank changed everything. A decade later, their siblings have forced them to collaborate on a surprise co‑wedding anniversary celebration for their parents, and soon Molly and Jude are reverting to their old tricks. But eventually, a reluctant friendship develops…along with an unexpected spark of sexual tension. The two come to discover they have more in common than they thought, including continually dating doppelgängers of each other, raising the question why are they seeking in romantic partners what they claim to hate about each other. They finally give in to their growing feelings, but will that old competitive spirit take over, or will ...

  Someone is playing deadly games. Lieutenant Luke Pittman lies in the hospital in a coma after being attacked by one of their own. Veronica Manes, Burning Lake’s most respected modern-day witch, is dead, her murder left unsolved. Natalie Lockhart has become embroiled in a case with threads that become increasingly difficult to untangle. Now, a new horror is uncovered, one that shocks the town as never before, and the dark, shadowy path forward for Natalie is paved with challenges that haunt her past—Veronica’s unsolved case. Her sister’s traumatic murder. The long-lost disappearance of her old best friend. Natalie’s obsession with finding the truth leads to a twisted, elemental struggle between good and evil—and nothing will ever be the same again. The woods have secrets. The trees are carved with curses. Alice Blanchard is an award-winning author of suspense thrillers. "Trace of Evil” was an Indie Next Pick, a LoanStars Top Pick, and an Amazon Best Mysteries selection. Her debut...

  The Bitter Past   (Minotaur)  by author, Bruce Borgos  begins a compelling series set in the high desert of Nevada featuring Sheriff Porter Beck… Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he's back home, doing the same lawman's job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until an old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age. If that wasn't strange enough, a current FBI agent shows up to help Beck's investigation. BRUCE writes stories about families and the people who will do anything to protect them. If you enjoy contemporary fiction with themes of human struggle and the power of love, then you wi...

  Just when I thought there couldn't be another story about a remarkable unknown person in WWII, I am proven wrong. THE DIAMOND EYE (WilliamMorrow) by Kate Quinn is the fictionalized-true story of 24 year old, Mila Pavlichenko, a bookworm who becomes the most notorious female sniper in the Russian Army.  Mila's husband abandons her and their son, Slavka, so she moves back home with her parents. She is jobless, but finds herself on an unexpected path. When her Russian city is bombed by Hitler's Nazis, she is transformed from a mother into a deadly killing machine known as Lady Death. After 300+ kills, she's sent on a Goodwill tour to the United States and strikes up an surprising friendship with First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. I love reading Kate Quinn's novels. They are always compelling and include complex characters. I also learn something. It's easy to forget the price Russia played to defeat Hitler and the Nazis during WWII. It's hard to believe we were o...

  COME NOVEMBER (GreenleafBookGroup) is a historical thriller with a love story at its heart. November 1947: Jeanne and John, two newspaper journalists, fall in young love as they travel from Chicago to New York to witness the momentous vote of the United Nations to partition Palestine and create the State of Israel. When they discover an assassination plot meant to swing the outcome, they must put their personal lives on hold and race the clock to stop it, uncovering elaborate details of international politics along the way. Fifty years later, having gone their separate ways, the two reconnect in Italy. Set against a stunning pastoral backdrop, Jeanne and John relive those turbulent days together and explore whether their love has stood the test of time. International thriller meets operatic Italian romance in this intricate tale of love, politics, and misunderstandings.  Come November  is a celebration of history, family bonds, redemption, and second-chance love sure to...

  From the outside, the wealthy Meadowbrook residents of Alton Road appear to live an idyllic life. But it's far from the truth. In Jamie Day's novel, THE BLOCK PARTY (StMartinsPress), the annual Memorial Day block party is where all the resident's secrets and scandals come out.  On the night of the party, the Meadowbrook community Facebook page lights up with posts reporting sirens descending on the desirable neighborhood. Bit by bit, the comments trickle in, some taking pleasure in their neighbors’ misfortune and others showing concern. The truth eventually comes out. It's not an accident, or a drowning, or a fire, as some had predicted. For the first time in forty years, there's been a murder in Meadowbrook. THE BLOCK PARTY is pure fun, so grab a drink, find a comfy place to sit by the pool or beach and enjoy! It's an addictive delicious domestic suspense.                                  ...

Sometimes the darkest acts occur in the most beautiful houses… When Alexis and her husband Sam buy a neglected Cape Cod house in an exclusive DC suburb, they are ecstatic. Sam is on the cusp of making partner at his law firm, Alexis is pregnant with their second child, and their glamorous neighbors welcome the couple with open arms. Things are looking up, and Alexis believes she can finally leave her troubled past behind. But the neighborhood’s picture-perfect image is shattered when their neighbor Teddy – a handsome, successful father of three – is found dead on the steep banks of the Potomac River. The community is shaken, and as the police struggle to identify and apprehend the killer, tension in the neighborhood mounts and long-buried secrets start to emerge. In the midst of the turmoil, Alexis takes comfort in her budding friendship with Teddy’s beautiful and charismatic widow, Blair. But as the women grow closer, the neighborhood only becomes more divided. And when the unthinkabl...

  Katherine Heiny offers a story of love, friendships, ex-husbands with benefits, parents  of suspiciously sweet teenagers and more in her novel, GAMES and RITUALS (Knopf). The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny’s characters range from mischievous to tender: In “Bridesmaid, Revisited,” Marlee, suffering from a laundry and life crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid’s dress to work. In “Twist and Shout,” Erica’s elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew and eats it. In “Turn Back, Turn Back,” a bedtime story coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor’s deception. And in “561,” Charlene pays the true price of infidelity and is forced to help her husband’s ex-wife move out of the family home. (“It’s like you’re North Korea and South Korea . . . But would North Korea help South Korea  move ?”)  Katherine Heiny, one of our most celebrated writers, our bard of waking up in the wrong bed, wearing the wr...

  The Dark Side of Hollywood. DO TELL (Doubleday) by Lindsay Lynch highlights fame and notoriety today as relevant as it was a century ago. As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing her with the salacious details of every party and premiere. When an up-and-coming starlet hands her a letter alleging an assault from an A-list actor at a party with Edie and the rest of the industry’s biggest names in attendance, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved. Now on a new side of the entertainment business, Edie’s second act career grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But Edie quickly learns that publishing the secret...

  THE REAL HOUSEWIVES of wherever meets Billions.... May Cobb is back with another one of her novels EVERYONE is talking about. This time Kira is back in her affluent hometown for the first time in years and determined to unravel the secrets of her mother's death - hidden in the unpublished memoir she left behind. Grab something yummy to drink and find a comfy sofa. Once you start reading A LIKEABLE WOMAN(Berkley), you won't stop until the very last page. After her troublemaker mother’s mysterious death, Kira fled her wealthy Texas town and never looked back. Now, decades later, Kira is invited to an old frenemy’s vow renewal celebration Though she is reluctant to go, there are things pulling her home. . . like chilled wine and days spent by the pool . . . like her sexy teenage crush, Jack. But more important are the urgent texts from her grandmother, who says she has something to give Kira. Something related to her mother’s death, something that make it look an awful lot like ...

  Dr. Gregory Weber, a clinical psychiatrist appears to have the perfect life from the outside. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children. But something isn't quite right, his marriage is strained, his children are distant and he can't stop obsessing over a mistake he made when he was seventeen.  In Sandra A. Miller's new novel, WEDNESDAYS AT ONE (ZibbyBooks), Dr. Weber thinks his secret is his alone .  So who is this woman who shows up every Wednesday at one without an appointment? And why does she seem to know so much about about Gregory and his family? He feels drawn to her, but in  search for answers, Gregory risks losing everything that matters to him - his career, family and his mind. Miller creates compelling complex characters which keep readers interested and wanting to turn pages. Wednesdays At One is a story about guilt, self-hatred, remorse and forgiveness. It is being pitched as a thriller, but I don't agree. It focuses more on understanding a...

  Chances are you haven't heard the name Dickey Chapelle. I hadn't before reading this book. Dickey was a woman war correspondent who did just about everything first. Her focus was telling the stories of the oppressed and forgotten. Her radical style of reporting is highlighted in a new book, FIRST TO THE FRONT ((StMartinsPress) by Lorissa Rinehart. She was a groundbreaking photojournalist who focused on the dangerous stories her male colleagues wouldn't touch, beginning at WWII. She survived torture in a communist prison, marched down the Ho Chi Minh Trail with South Vietnamese, ultimately being the first American woman killed in combat in 1965, while on assignment marching side by side with the Marines. Her story is one that must be told. Readers will be ripping through Rinehart's book until the very last page. Dickey faced discrimination on the battlefield and at home for reporting her stories by any means necessary.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Miche...

  The past five years have been anything but a picnic for Nina Morgan Clarke and she's ready for some positive energy. She's taken a position at the top of her profession,  first generation, Black female head of the Royal-Hawkins School . To celebrate, Nina and her best friend, Marisol take a long-awaited and needed girls' trip. In Alli Frank and co-author, Asha Youmans' new novel, THE BETTER HALF (MindysBookStudio) they use humor and compassion to write a story that tackles complex issues. On vacay, Nina meets Leo, a white man who wants more than a weekend quickie. Nina's ex husband has moved across country, her daughter is doing well at boarding school and everything seems to be going along without any problems. But then come the problems and life becomes a hot mess. THE BETTER HALF is about dealing with unwanted life-altering choices and reacting to what happens when you make plans for the future. The duo deliver a heart-warming story about friendship, family an...

  Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in Mayfair. The place is packed with treasures, a glittering symbol of wealth and power, but dark secrets lurk in the shadows. When Mrs. King is suddenly dismissed from her position, she recruits an eclectic group of women to join her in revenge: A black market queen out to settle her scores. An actress desperate for a magnificent part. A seamstress dreaming of a better life. And Mrs. King’s predecessor, with her own desire for vengeance. Their plan? On the night of the house’s highly anticipated costume ball—set to be the most illustrious of the year—they will rob it of its every possession, right under the noses of the distinguished guests and their elusive heiress host. But there’s one thing Mrs. King wants even more than money: the truth. And she’ll run any risk to get it… After all, one should  never  underestimate the w...