Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger

 Siblings Mako and Hannah are retreating with their spouses and a best friend and her plus one to a luxurious cabin in the woods in Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, the February 2023 book coming from author Lisa Unger. In a second plot line following orphan Henry, thanks to DNA testing, he might be able to find extended family members with the help of one he has already found.

Mako is a technology mogul who has funded the entire getaway for Hannah’s birthday including a private chef so that all can enjoy a weekend that is relaxing as they all have very harried lives. Henry has found an aunt who is into genealogy, and with her help, he starts finding half-siblings, some of whom have died. How these two plots come together is masterful.

Cricket is the best friend of both Mako and Hannah, having once been Mako’s girlfriend. She still has a place in her heart for him, and it is hard to be in the group and watch how tenderly Mako treats his wife Liza. Henry keeps finding out more and more about his family to the point that his wife Piper is concerned he’s too connected to the past than to the present and future. The deaths of half siblings are causing him great concern about his safety.

The weekenders find themselves facing one crisis after another, and the relaxing weekend is turning into a nightmare with power outages, a missing person from their party, and the threat of “somebody out there.”  Henry finds himself racing to stop the person he thinks is killing members of his gene pool. Long kept secrets as well as recent ones come together for one tension-filled climax. No place will a reader want to insert a bookmark as this psychological thriller is simply unputdownable.

This is the 20^th book from Lisa Unger, whose last book, Confessions on the 7:45 is  now in development at Netflix with actress Jessica Alba to star. Unger  lives on the west coast of Florida with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting November 30, 2022.

I would like to thank Legend Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

Reef Road by Deborah Goodrich Royc

 Inspired by the actual murder of her mother’s friend, Deborah Goodrich Royce begins Reef Road with a severed hand washing ashore in wealthy Palm Beach, Florida, on May 9, 2020. Due out in January, the psychological thriller unfolds Inspired by the actual murder of her mother’s friend, Deborah Goodrich Royce begins Reef Road with a severed hand washing ashore in wealthy Palm Beach, Florida, on May 9, 2020. Due out in January, the psychological thriller unfolds a tale of two women: the first an unnamed writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother Beth’s best friend in 1948, the second an anxious wife named Linda whose husband Miguel has seemingly kidnapped their two young children.

The writer lives alone with an aging dog, and she knows all about Linda’s life. When the two meet, the writer thinks that Linda’s father knows all about the murder of her mother Beth’s friend, and she eventually reveals what she wants from Linda. Linda feels more and more that the relationship with the woman who turns out to be named Noelle is inappropriate as Noelle seems to be stalking Linda and her family.

All is not as it appears to be. Noelle is desperate to “solve” the murder of her mother’s childhood friend as she says “I grew up under the shadow of a dead girl.” Her development was stilted as her mother didn’t allow Noelle to play outside unsupervised or to enjoy such activities as sleepovers with her friends. Linda, already fraught about her missing children, may have made a big mistake in trusting others.

Always with the pandemic playing in the background, the story reaches an unexpected climax as the truth about Linda’s life becomes unraveled as the severed hand becomes a part of her story with Noelle a witness to it all.

Deborah Goodrich Royce writes thrillers that involve “puzzles of identity.” She is also the author of Finding Mrs. Ford and Ruby Falls. Royce is a former actress having starred as Silver Kane on All My Children and having appeared in several feature films and TV movies.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting November 28, 2022.

I would like to thank Permuted Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 a tale of two women: the first an unnamed writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother Beth’s best friend in 1948, the second an anxious wife named Linda whose husband Miguel has seemingly kidnapped their two young children.

The writer lives alone with an aging dog, and she knows all about Linda’s life. When the two meet, the writer thinks that Linda’s father knows all about the murder of her mother Beth’s friend, and she eventually reveals what she wants from Linda. Linda feels more and more that the relationship with the woman who turns out to be named Noelle is inappropriate as Noelle seems to be stalking Linda and her family.

All is not as it appears to be. Noelle is desperate to “solve” the murder of her mother’s childhood friend as she says “I grew up under the shadow of a dead girl.” Her development was stilted as her mother didn’t allow Noelle to play outside unsupervised or to enjoy such activities as sleepovers with her friends. Linda, already fraught about her missing children, may have made a big mistake in trusting others.

Always with the pandemic playing in the background, the story reaches an unexpected climax as the truth about Linda’s life becomes unraveled as the severed hand becomes a part of her story with Noelle a witness to it all.

Deborah Goodrich Royce writes thrillers that involve “puzzles of identity.” She is also the author of Finding Mrs. Ford and Ruby Falls. Royce is a former actress having starred as Silver Kane on All My Children and having appeared in several feature films and TV movies.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting November 28, 2022.

I would like to thank Permuted Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

Her Heart's Desire by Shelley Shepard Gray

 

Even in the Amish community, some children are bullied by others as Mary Margaret Miller has experienced in Her Heart’s Desire by Shelley Shepard Gray, the first book in a new series called A Season in Pinecraft. Mary has been picked on by a group of girls since she was 11 years old. Adult Mary takes a bus to Pinecraft, Florida, for a much-needed vacation away from her small Amish community in Ohio. Traveling by bus, she meets two other 20-something Amish women, Betsy and Lilly. The three bond and are determined to have a great two-week trip in this popular area in Florida favored by Amish vacationers.

Staying in a bed and breakfast called Marigold Inn, the ladies are enjoying their breakfast when Mary’s eye is caught by Jayson Raber, who is also enjoying his time in Pinecraft with his friend Danny. While the attraction is mutual, Jayson knows he has a commitment to a woman back in Kentucky for an arranged marriage, and Danny doesn’t mind reminding Jayson about that.

When one of the “mean girls” from Mary’s hometown of Trail is also vacationing in Pinecraft, Mary feels her perfect plan is totally ruined. What if this woman who has mistreated Mary for years tells Jayson about what happened on the playground when Mary was 11? How will Mary take the news that Jayson is engaged to another woman back home? How will Jayson respond to the beautiful Esther from Mary’s hometown?

Having published more than 70 novels, Shelley Shepard Gray writes Amish romances and contemporary women’s fiction. She is a former elementary teacher who now writes full time in her home in Colorado Springs.

A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley

 Someone is killing the prostitutes in Monterey, California, during the Gold Rush in A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley, hitting the shelves in December. After her parent-arranged marriage to an older man comes to an end with a bullet in a bar fight, Eliza’s way forward emerges with a position in a brothel.

Eliza is actually fortunate to work for Mrs. Parks who screens all potential clients and hires a bodyguard to protect her working girls. Many women of that time could not survive without a husband, but Eliza is able to attain financial security and even a certain satisfaction with her work as her clients are as varied as young boys being treated by their fathers, to lonesome sailors, to prominent citizens.

When out riding horses one day, 20-year-old Eliza and her friend Jean stumble upon a body. On another ride, the young women discover yet another body of a woman; this one Eliza identifies as Mary who disappeared from Mrs. Parks’ brothel. Mrs. Parks shares that information with the sheriff repeatedly, but other than removing the remains, he is not interested in the killer.

Inspired by short stories about C. Auguste Dupin, Edgar Allan Poe’s famous fictional character, Eliza and Jean try using Dupin’s train of thought technique to solve the mystery of the women’s deaths. Putting together the clues they gathered; Eliza strives to discover the identity of the killer by putting herself in harm’s way. What if her sleuthing actually makes her the next corpse?

Jane Smiley has a fondness for horses, and she works several into this work of historical fiction. Smiley won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear; Hollywood adapted the book into a movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting October 27, 2022.

I would like to thank Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor as well as NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader

 

Imagine Clara and Abbie Beecher’s  surprise when a famous movie star shows up at their mother’s funeral in The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader coming out in December.

In 1967, farmer’s daughter Betty Kay Allen was paired with Southerner Katherine Simon in the dormitory at St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Greensboro, Iowa. Together with Jenny Hopkins from Michigan, the three women – dubbed the “sunshine girls” by their dorm mother -- remained life-long friends.

Betts’ daughters never had a clue that their mother was friends with Kitty Devereaux, but here Kitty was paying her respects to their mother. On the other hand, Jenny had been involved with the Beecher family throughout their lives. Once over the shock of learning that their mother and father Willis Beecher knew a movie star, they are invited by Kitty to visit her in California where she would fill in the blanks for Clara and Abbie.

Over the years, the sisters had become distant as Clara picked a career path and Abbie chose being a wife and mother. During the weekend trip to Kitty’s place, the women will be overcome with all of the secrets they learn about their family. What impact will it have on the sisters when Kitty’s startling story is revealed?

Molly Fader is also the author of The McAvoy Sister’s Book of Secrets and The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season. Using the pseudonym of Molly O’Keefe, she has written more than 50 contemporary romances. She makes her home in Toronto, Ontario, with her family.

The Real Mrs. Tobias by Sally Koslow

 Three women are involved in very complicated relationships in their roles as in-laws in The Real Mrs. Tobias by Sally Koslow, which published in September.

Veronika is the matriarch of the family, and she is tough and stern as she interferes in the lives of her son Jack and daughter-in-law Mel as well as the lives of her grandchildren Micah and his twin sister Jordan. Birdie, Micah’s wife, struggles with adjusting to New York City and the Tobias’ women. Both Veronika and Mel are psychotherapists, but they are less adept at handling the difficulties within the family as they are with other people’s problems.

Micah is in crisis mode, and all the women in the family have their opinions about what action he should be taking. Micah’s reluctance to take charge of his situation overwhelms Birdie, and she and their daughter April flee to Iowa as Birdie is having second thoughts about the marriage and the Tobias family.

Mel, who is accused of  “smothering mothering” by Jack, also has an opinion on a situation with her daughter Jordan. Of course, Veronika has a bewildering solution to Jordan’s dilemma, which is unacceptable to Mel, Birdie, and possibly Jordan.

Just when the Tobias family seems to be splintering in several directions, it is David, Veronika’s husband, whose beginning struggles with cognitive issues that shows how the women of the family can pull it back together.

Sally Koslow is also the author of novels Another Side of Paradise, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx,  The Widow Waltz, With Friends Like These, and Little Pink Slips. She is a former editor-in-chief of McCall’s Magazine, and has contributed essays and articles to The New York Times, Real Simple, and other magazines and newspapers. From Fargo, North Dakota, she lives in Manhattan with her family.

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth

 

In The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth coming out in April of 2023, Pippa and Gabe Gerard are starting over in a coastal town outside of Melbourne. Gabe has been dealing with mental illness, and Pippa is dealing with the fallout of an affair. Gabe will become the caretaker of their two little girls, while Pippa will work from home as a wills and estates lawyer.

Gabe fell in love with their new house while the terrain is worrisome to Pippa. Right behind their house is a steep edge that has been dubbed the Drop, and more than a few people have ended their lives jumping from it. The first time it happens once the Gerards move there, Gabe is able to talk a person down, and he is soon doing this more and more, rescuing a number of people. He’s been dubbed a local hero in the newspaper.

But one night when a woman comes to the Drop, Gabe fails to talk  her out of leaping while Pippa watches from a window. The woman soon disappears over the cliff and is killed. Gabe claims not to recognize the woman although he worked for her husband Max Cameron back in Melbourne before being fired. When the police investigation connects the dots, will Gabe be considered a person of interest in Amanda’s death?

Once the body is identified, Pippa does not understand why Gabe lied, saying he didn’t know the woman at the Drop. Why would Amanda have been at this particular spot if she had not planned to commit suicide? Did Amanda jump, fall, or get pushed from the cliff? The closer Pippa gets to the truth, the more their lives start to unravel.

Sally Hepworth fans will be expecting a twist, and what a twist it is…readers will never see it coming. Hepworth is the bestselling author of seven novels including The Younger Wife and The Good Sister. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting September 2, 2022.

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