Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison

 

In Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison, the author sets the scene for a romantic wedding in a villa on an island off the coast of Italy. Claire Hunter, an artist who is scarred by the death of her father, and Jackson Compton, a man with many secrets including one about the death of his first wife, are getting married…unless a killer is successful in spoiling their plans.

Just as they are to depart Nashville, Tennessee, for their nuptials in Europe, Claire and Jackson are attacked in their home. The official story to the police is revised to keep them out of the limelight as one of Jack’s bodyguards claims to have killed the intruder. Once they hit the island, Claire and Jack are bombarded with incidents that cause them to question what they are about to do: skeletal remains on their path from the yacht to the villa, vexing texts, a bloodied wedding gown, just to name a few.

The thriller takes on an Agatha Christie turn as a raging storm descends, knocking the power out and setting up a Ten Little Indians plot as one by one, people are murdered. Who is the mastermind who crashed the Compton’s servers, spied on Claire and Jack with mini cameras everywhere, and conspires to destroy the wedding and its guests?

J.T. Ellison was once a presidential appointee where she worked on travel itineraries. Discouraged by the political scene, she turned to her first love of writing, having completed more than 20 novels including All the Pretty Girls and Good Girls Lie. She lives in Nashville with her husband.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting January 8, 2021.

I would like to thank MIRA and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective opinion.

Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson

 

Julia Claiborne Johnson drew the title of this tale from the words of a judge in Reno, Nevada, the capital for quick divorces in the 1930s, who would dismiss his divorce cases with these words: “Better luck next time.”

Told from the viewpoint of Ward, a young man who worked on The Flying Leap divorce ranch, the story follows two would-be divorcees as they navigate the 6-week waiting period for a divorce. Much-married Nina and first-time-divorce Emily, both wealthy women, become involved in a number of antics – involving stolen costumes, horses, a litter of kittens, a gun, a bicycle, and an airplane -- as they waited out their divorces. They befriended Ward, requesting him as the driver for various adventures.

Ward’s folksy narration of that brief time in his life is told from his days as a senior citizen when he has several conversations with an unnamed interviewer.  His accounts of life at the ranch are both entertaining and filled with humor. This novel would fill the needs of a reader looking for a lighthearted, just-for-fun story.  

Julia Claiborne Johnson is the author of the bestselling Be Frank with Me, a finalist for the American Bookseller’s Association Best Debut Novel Award. She now lives in Los Angeles with her comedy-writer husband and their two children.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting January 6, 2021.

I would like to thank Custom House/HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective opinion.

Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan Henry

 

I would not usually pick up a book with a plot about shipwrecks, but one in the capable hands of Patti Callahan Henry could only be well-researched with an intriguing plot similar to her favorite of mine, Becoming Mrs. Lewis.

Surviving Savannah is about the explosion in 1838 of the luxury steamship Pulaski, called "The Titanic of the South." Callahan Henry fleshes out the tragedy with personal stories of both real and fictional characters.

Told over two timelines – one in 1838 and the other in present day  -- the historical fiction novel involves Everly Winthrop of Savannah, a fictional character, who becomes a guest curator of a museum exhibit featuring artifacts that were actually  recovered from the steamship in 2018. The 1838 timeline follows the passengers on the Pulaski, some who survive, some who perish.

The main fictional characters, one of whom is based on an actual passenger, relay the bulk of the survival story. Augusta Longstreet, the sister of the steamship’s builder, is sailing with his family to New York, while her niece Lilly is a passenger along with her husband, daughter, and nurse maid. Both Augusta and Lilly will end up in the water and fight to survive, neither knowing of the other’s struggle.

Patti Callahan Henry, a former pediatric nurse, is a co-creator and co-host of the weekly podcast Friends and Fiction on Facebook.  A full-time author, wife, and mother of three, she has homes in both Alabama and South Carolina.

Dusk Night Dawn by Anne Lamott

 

Much of Dusk Night Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott sounds like what readers have heard from her in previous books. Something new is Anne got married! She talks about her new husband and married life. Now she has someone with whom she can share her insecurities.

Lamott talks much about contemporary issues in this volume: the pandemic, politics, and taking care of the earth followed by thoughts on redemption and forgiveness. Her sense of humor is infused throughout each chapter.

As usual, I have no idea what Lamott is talking about in places – the governess? --  while in other parts, she makes great sense of the confusing world.

Fans of Lamott’s might find this to be a lightweight contender in her body of work but will read it anyway. First time readers would be better off with Bird by Bird, my personal favorite.

Anne Lamott, writer of both novels and nonfiction, uses her life experiences in her books, including alcoholism, single motherhood, and spiritual experiences.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting January 1, 2021.

I would like to thank the Penguin Group Riverhead and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective opinion.

Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane

 The pretty little wife in the book by that name by Darby Kane is Lila Ridgefield, who has just found some sex videos of her husband with some of his students as this debut novel begins. Meanwhile, three young women have disappeared without a trace in Lila’s college town in New York.

Lila and her husband Aaron Payne are on the outs over the videos, and soon Aaron disappears, or so Lila leads investigators to believe. However, Lila is confused because the last time she saw her missing husband, he was dead in his car parked on the schools’ grounds.

Ginny Davis, the senior detective on the case, suspects that Lila knows more than she’s telling, and as the wife, she becomes the number one suspect among two others: Aaron’s brother Jared and his principal Brent. The story takes many twists and turns as it is brought to a horrific climax with the Pretty Little Wife being in jeopardy.

Darby Kane is the pseudonym for HelenKay Dimon, a former divorce lawyer turned bestselling author of more than 40 romantic suspense, contemporary, and erotic romance books and novellas. She lives in San Diego.

Landslide by Susan Conley

 

Landslide by Susan Conley is titled for the Stevie Nicks’ song that she penned about the changes and challenges of life, which certainly fits Jillian’s life at the opening to the book when the tune is playing on the radio in her car. Jillian’s son Sam, who was with his friend Liam when Liam fell to his death, deals with survival guilt. Jillian’s fisherman husband Kit has suffered serious injuries from an explosion on a boat and is in a hospital seven hours from their home in Maine. More complications will occur in the story as the Archers’ lives are headed for a landslide.

Life is challenging enough raising two teenage boys, and when Jillian is left to parent them alone while Kit is in the hospital far from home, things become a bit too much. Add to that the realization that Kit may have been having an affair prior to the explosion makes it almost unbearable for Jillian.

The pacing of the book keeps one reading, and the characters seem true to life.

Susan Conley has also written Elsey Come Home, Paris Was the Place, and The Foremost Good Fortune. She has also been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, Ploughshares, and The Harvard Review. She teaches at the University of Maine’s Stonecoast MFA Program.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

 

Set during the Dust Bowl in the Panhandle of Texas, Kristin Hannah’s novel, The Four Winds, tells the story of Elsinore Wolcott Martinelli, a woman driven from her in-law’s wheat farm in Lonesome Tree, Texas,  by the dust storms, crop failures, and financial hardship. When Elsa’s young son’s life depends on moving out of the Dust Bowl because of his dust pneumonia, she and her two children migrate along Route 66 to California in search of The American Dream. Like the classic novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, this novel explores themes of poverty, discrimination, social justice, and sacrifice.

Both novels are social commentaries on the experience of migrants struggling to survive in their historical moment. Like Steinbeck before her, Hannah has done considerable research including a visit of the FSA “Weedpatch” camp in Arvin, California, where she also spoke to former residents of the camp. She reviewed the same interviews conducted by Sanora Babb, whose own novel Whose Names are Unknown was put aside for the release of Grapes.

The four winds blew people from all across America into California, where they were not wanted and were labeled “Okies” by the residents. Elsa had not always been poor. She came from a wealthy family in Dalhart, Texas, who disowned her when a shotgun wedding to Rafe Martinelli was warranted. As times got harder and harder on the Martinelli farm thanks to the drought and the dust storms, Rafe abandoned his family to pursue his own dreams.

On their own journey to a second chance, Elsa imagined a new home and a new job in California. She had not pictured a “ditch-bank camp” for a home, nor had she expected poor pay for long hours doing menial jobs. Even her children ended up picking cotton to make ends meet, which never happened, as the company store prices gouged their little earnings.

A devastating flash flood took what little they had and left them with nothing but their truck and its contents. They could not go back to the Panhandle because of the son’s health, but it hardly seemed they could succeed in California where they were not welcome.

Communists who are trying to organize workers to unite and to strike where pay and work conditions are lacking come to the forefront at this point in the story. While Elsa’s teenage daughter realized the validity of the concerns of the would-be strikers and wants to take up their cause, Elsa remained fearful about getting involved in the work actions. At a pivotal moment, Elsa’s decision and its consequence drive the story to its climax.

Hannah echoed Steinbeck’s unforgettable closing scene in The Grapes of Wrath in her novel as she brought it to a mighty closing. I found myself thinking back to Steinbeck’s powerful novel at various points throughout this book.

Kristin Hannah, one of my favorite authors, is the bestselling author of The Nightingale, Goodreads best historical fiction novel for 2015, and The Great Alone, Goodreads best historical novel of the year in 2018.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting December 10, 2020.

I would like to thank St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.