A ZOOM WITH A VIEW by Jess Cannon - Spotlight

 


A fiction debut filled with heart and humor, A Zoom with a View (Dutton Books) will make you want to move to Blue Oak—if only the annual Fourth of July festivities didn't end with a dead body.

Leo can't believe she's back in Blue Oak. Her small, quirky Texas hometown feels suffocating after trying to make it big as an English professor in New York—especially due to her strained relationship with her overly hair-sprayed mother, Karina. But with Leo’s career in academia in shambles, at least she's able to work as a photographer for her godmother's real estate business. And her best friend, Emily, is around to help her navigate through the mess—and maybe force her to reconnect with her old high school boyfriend, Mack.

But while at work, Leo makes a grisly discovery at one of her godmother's properties: the dead body of rival real estate agent and social media influencer Chaz. Even worse, Leo and Emily have been secretly running a snarky Reddit page making fun of Chaz’s cringe-inducing advice and duck-faced selfies. When someone she loves is accused of murder, Leo finds herself flung headfirst into a dangerous investigation, teaming up with a local detective who is a lot more attractive than she remembered when they were both teenagers. Meanwhile, Karina has been acting stranger and stranger, as if all her hair hides a big secret. . . .bbb

Jess Cannon is the pseudonym of a failed academic who never made tenure but still manages to sleep great at night. She spends her days writing award-winning journalism and her nights plotting fictional murders. 

She lives with her family and an irascible blue heeler in Austin, Texas, where her funky community is a constant source of joy (and writing material). 

She has a PhD in literature from the University of Texas, teaches fiction and nonfiction at Wilkes University, and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue, among others. 

She also co-hosts “The Beautiful and Banned” podcast with Christine Renee Miller.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW I'LL KILL YOU by Ren DeStefano - Spotlight

Image
  Make him want you. Make him love you. Make him dead. In Ren DeStafano's novel, HOW I'LL KILL YOU (Berkley), i dentical triplets have a nasty habit of killing their boyfriends, and see what happens when the youngest commits their worst crime yet: falling in love with her mark. Sissy has an...interesting family. Always the careful one, always the cautious one, she has handled the cleanup while her serial killer sisters have carved a path of carnage across the U.S. Now, as they arrive in the Arizona heat, Sissy must step up and embrace the family pastime of making a man fall in love and then murdering him. Her first target? A young widower named Edison—and their mutual attraction is instant.  Then something happens that Sissy never anticipated: She begins to feel protective of Edison, and before she can help it, she’s fallen in love. But the clock is ticking, and her sisters are growing restless. It becomes clear that the gravesite she chooses will hide a body no matter what ha...
Read more

INSTAMOM by Chanel Guertin - Review & Giveaway

Image
It's the influencer's golden rule: know your niche. In INSTAMOM (KensingtonBooks) by Chantel Guertin, Kit Kidding knows her audience. Kit promotes living and enjoying a childfree life in her instagram account hashtag #childfree. Kit believes women who choose not to become mothers and not to have children should not be judged or feel guilty.  But things change when Kit meets a smart and sexy dad with a daughter. She's smitten by Will MacGregor and his whip-smart darling eight year-old daughter, Maddie. Kit's picture perfect childfree life faces being turned completely upside down. You know where this is heading so I won't tell you anymore. Except to say, that INSTAMOM is about love and making life choices. It's about being true to yourself and being able to change, even though it may modify everything you once thought was true. It's a fun romcom you'll want to put in your summer bag and take to the pool or beach. Remember to always wear sunscreen. Chantel...
Read more

THE LIONESS of LEIDEN by Robert Loewen - Review and Q&A

Image
There are no shortages of true accounts and novels based on WWII. The Lioness of Leiden (GreenleafBookGroupPress) is a historical novel written from first-hand memories of author, Robert Loewen's mother-in-law, Hetty, along with her roommate, Mimi and 17-year-old, Maria. These ladies took on roles they never could have imagined during WWII in the Netherlands. They became Dutch resistance fighters fighting the Nazi Gestapo in the Netherlands, taking on more and more dangerous assignments. When the Nazis invade the Netherlands, these three women, at great risk carry documents, secret messages and cash to protect Jews, downed pilots and others in hiding. They're always on edge that they may be turned in to the Nazis by collaborators on the lookout for resistance fighters. Like most WWII novels, The Lioness of Leiden is not an easy read. Knowing that actual people suffered the consequences to fight fascism is difficult to process.  Complicated family relationships, tragedy suffered...
Read more