BOOKISH FRIDAY: “A TALENT FOR MURDER”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is A Talent for Murder, by Peter Swanson.

Beginning:

(Josie)

Even though Josie Nixon had graduated from college and gotten married and knew how to hang curtains and had opened a retirement account, going to this conference still felt like the most grown -up thing she had ever done.

***

Friday 56:

“So, then you became my third option. I could tell you what I thought and get your opinion. And at this point whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do. I don’t feel like I can make this decision on my own right now.”

***

Synosis: A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married might be a murderer—in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . .but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.

***

Would you keep reading?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “Women & Children First”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is one of my new boos:  Women and Children First, by Alina Grabowski

Book Beginnings:

(Jane)

On the last Saturday in May, I drown in my sleep. It happens quickly. I’m standing at the edge of the ocean and when I look down into the water, the wobbly hand of my reflection reaches up to pull me under.

***

Friday 56:

It occurs to me that my father doesn’t think I’m capable of hurting anyone, myself included. I yawn and he presses the car keys into my hand.

***

Synopsis:A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.

Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs, and all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.

Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski’s Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.

***

Would you keep reading?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “Mind Games”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is a book I am reading:  Mind Games, by Nora Roberts.

Book Beginning:

For Thea, the very best part of summer started the second week of June. The last day of school earned a big red heart, and meant she could start swimming and splashing around in the backyard pool, which she loved. She could ride her bike and play with her friends every day.

***

Friday 56:

“Grammie, I need to know–We need to know,” Thea corrected. “What’s going to happen? What happens now?”

“Yes, you do. I’m going to make us some breakfast, and we’ll talk about that.”

***

Synopsis:

As they do each June, the Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother’s. Here, twelve-year-old Thea can run free and breathe in the smells of pine and fresh bread and Grammie’s handmade candles. But as her parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they’re about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb.

Back in Kentucky, Thea and her grandmother Lucy both awaken from the same nightmare. And though the two have never discussed the special kind of sight they share, they know as soon as their tearful eyes meet that something terrible has happened.

The kids will be staying with Grammie now in Redbud Hollow, and thanks to Thea’s vision, their parents’ killer will spend his life in supermax. Over time, Thea will make friends, build a career, find love. But that ability to see into minds and souls still lurks within her, and though Grammie calls it a gift, it feels more like a curse—because the inmate who shattered her childhood has the same ability. Thea can hear his twisted thoughts and witness his evil acts from miles away. He knows it, and hungers for vengeance. A long, silent battle will be waged between them—and eventually bring them face to face, and head to head…

***

I’m loving this book so far. Would you keep reading?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “ONE PERFECT COUPLE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware.

Book Beginning:

“I cannot, repeat, cannot, go to a desert island,” I said. I didn’t look up at Nico, who was hovering behind my chair. Instead, I continued to stare at the computer screen, trying to make sense of the spreadsheet in front of me.

***

Friday 56:

Looking round the seating area, it seemed that I wasn’t the only person who hadn’t been aware of the rule. Santana was looking taken aback, and Dan had his arms folded in a very mulish way.

***

Synopsis:

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

***

I have almost finished this one, and I can’t put it down! Would you keep reading?

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “The Last Time She Saw Him”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is a book I just finished:  The Last Time She Saw Him, by Kate White.

Beginning:

(Prologue) “You’re really pretty,” he told her. You know that, don’t you?”

Though it was dark out, enough moonlight shone for her to see the sly grin that fanned across his face.

***

Friday 56:

She asks a few questions about the party and aftermath, and though there’s no judgment in her tone, I can’t help but think she’s wondering why I attended the party to begin with.

***

Synopsis:

As Kiki Reed heads out to a party at a friend’s house in the Connecticut countryside, she’s more than a little nervous. Her ex-fiancé Jamie, a great guy who just wasn’t “the one,” will be attending, and she hasn’t seen him since she broke his heart a few months earlier. But when they come face to face, their exchange is brief and pleasant, which is a huge relief.

Then, as the party is winding down, a noise pierces the night. The last few guests run outside to find Jamie inside his car, dead from a gunshot wound.

Shocked and grieving, Kiki learns that the police believe Jamie took his own life, but she knows he was moving on from the breakup and just doesn’t believe it. Determined to find the truth, she searches for any evidence that will get the police to take her seriously. But as she peels away the layers, she uncovers something far more sinister than she’d imagined—and it may be her life on the line next. . .

***

Would you keep reading? This book held me captive throughout.

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “The Stolen Child”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is a book I just finished reading:  The Stolen Child, by Ann Hood.

Book Beginning:

(1935) Enzo Piccolo, master craftsman of presepe, hurried along the streets of Naples with a box of glass tubes.  It was April, and in April Enzo and his brother, Massimo, were working day and night to complete the figures for the Nativities.

***

Friday 56:

Nick started to get out of the bed. “I’ve got to go home,” he said, reaching for his shirt, which was neatly folded, along with his pants, on a mustard-yellow vinyl chair.

***

Synopsis:An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate in this moving, page-turning novel from “a gifted storyteller” (People).

For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands—and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them from Paris galleries and provincial towns to a surprising place: the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal, and the lives they’ve left behind.

***

Would you keep reading? I finished this book today, and while there were a number of twists and somewhat confusing aspects, I loved how it wrapped up in the end.

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “GRANITE HARBOR”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is my current read:  Granite Harbor, by Peter Nichols.

Book Beginning:

The three boys rode their skateboards down Chestnut Street until long after dark.  Streetlights glowed faintly in the depthless shadow that draped Granite Harbor below the rim of Mount Meguntic.

***

Friday 56:

And behind the boys stood a chestnut-haired girl.  Ashley knew her too.  The policeman’s daughter.

***

Synopsis:

In scenic Granite Harbor, life has continued on―quiet and serene―for decades. That is until a local teenager is found brutally murdered in the Settlement, the town’s historic archaeological site. Alex Brangwen, adjusting to life as a single father with a failed career as a novelist, is the town’s sole detective. This is his first murder case and, as both a parent and detective, Alex knows the people of Granite Harbor are looking to him to catch the killer and temper the fear that has descended over the town.

Isabel, a single mother attempting to support her family while healing from her own demons, finds herself in the middle of the case when she begins working at the Settlement. Her son, Ethan, and Alex’s daughter, Sophie, were best friends with the victim. When a second body is found, both parents are terrified that their child may be next. As Alex and Isabel race to find the killer in their midst, the town’s secrets―past and present―begin bubbling to the surface, threatening to unravel the tight-knit community.

***

Would you keep reading? I am enjoying it so far.

***

 

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “The Starter Wife”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is a book I just finished: The Starter Wife, by Rowen Chambers.

Book Beginning:

(Prologue):

Lauren

“Mrs. Bishop.”  An older man stands at the doorway of my hospital room.  “I’m Detective Myles, the investigator assigned to your case.  The nurse said you were up for answering a few questions?”

***

 

Friday 56:

“I’m not worried,” I say, and I’m not.

In fact, Audrey has no idea that the scenario she described is exactly what I’m hoping for.

***

Synopsis:

She was the perfect wife. Until he no longer needed her.

When Lauren met Steven, she was instantly drawn to his charm, sophistication, and drive to succeed. But soon after their wedding, the loving, affectionate man she fell in love with became cold and controlling.

Twelve years later, Lauren’s desperate to free herself from her husband. So when she finds herself bedridden after a car accident, she devises a plan to finally get him out of her life.

She hires a live-in nurse. Young, beautiful, and easily manipulated, Hannah couldn’t be more perfect. Just as Lauren predicted, Hannah instantly falls for Steven’s charm and allure, unaware that it’s all an act.

Hannah doesn’t know the real Steven. Nobody does. But they will soon.

It’s the perfect plan. Steven will finally get what he deserves and Lauren will have her freedom.

Except Steven has a plan too. One that’s much darker… and started the day he met her.

***

***

Would you keep reading?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “CHRISTA COMES OUT OF HER SHELL”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is a new book I am reading:  Christa Comes Out of Her Shell, by Abbi Waxman.

Book Beginning:

So I’m going to kick off by making one thing very clear:  None of this was my fault. I was part of it, sure, but only like a flea is part of a cat.

***

Friday 56:

As an ad for potato chips came on, my sisters erupted.  I was glad I was in the kitchen, because both of them leaping and stomping is a lot to dodge.

***

Synopsis:

After a tumultuous childhood, Christa Barnet has hidden away, both figuratively and literally. Happily studying sea snails in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christa finds her tranquil existence thrown into chaos when her once-famous father—long thought dead after a plane crash—turns out to be alive, well, and ready to make amends. The world goes wild, fascinated by this real-life saga, pinning Christa and her family under the spotlight. As if that weren’t enough, her reunion with an old childhood friend reveals an intense physical attraction neither was expecting and both want to act on . . . if they can just keep a lid on it. When her father’s story starts to develop cracks, Christa fears she will lose herself, her potential relationship, and—most importantly—any chance of making it back to her snails before they forget her completely.

***

Would you keep reading?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “DAUGHTER OF MINE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which we  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with My Head Is Full of Books.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Today’s feature is Daughter of Mine, by Megan Miranda.

Book Beginning:

(Prologue)

The drought started in the West. We watched on the news as the waters dropped in the reservoirs and lakes, and their secrets and ghosts slowly emerged.

***

Friday 56:

There was low visibility in the deep, silty water.  It had always been best to keep your eyes closed underneath.

***

Synopsis:  When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

***

Would you keep reading?

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