October Reads

Well, I certainly got out of my September reading slump in October and it felt great! Read on if you want to hear about the 6 books I read in October, and I sure hope this good streak continues since we basically have Winter weather now.

 

The Dearly Beloved by: Cara Wall

Thank you Simon & Schuster for this copy. This story follows the decades long friendship between two couples who met in the 60's when the husbands were hired to co-lead a failing church in Greenwich Village. What really made this book great was the different backgrounds everyone came from, and how they questioned their faith time and time again. The wives could not have been more different - they got along in their own way eventually - but it was refreshing to see that just because husbands are friends and/or work together does not automatically mean the wives HAVE to be friends. Furthermore, one of the wives did not believe in God - which she told her husband straight away when they first met - again, a great example of loving someone and having a good marriage despite not having the same beliefs and/or interests. I really enjoyed this read because of these unique themes the author created.

 

Big Lies in a Small Town by: Diane Chamberlain

Thank you St. Martins Press for this advance readers copy - this book comes out January 14, 2020. This was the second time I have read Diane Chamberlain, and I just loved this book! It flips between present day and the past, and it was just a good story with a surprise at the end. Here is the summary:

North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women's Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.

What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

 

What Happens in Paradise by: Elin Hilderbrand

This new release by Elin is the second in this trilogy, so when I saw it at the library I grabbed it up. I tend to love everything I read by Elin, and this series is set in St. John which is different than her usual Nantucket setting. Now to wait another year until the conclusion comes out!

A year ago, Irene Steele had the shock of her life: her loving husband, father to their grown sons and successful businessman, was killed in a helicopter crash. But that wasn't Irene's only shattering news: he'd also been leading a double life on the island of St. John, where another woman loved him, too. Now Irene and her sons are back on St. John, determined to learn the truth about the mysterious life -and death - of a man they thought they knew. Along the way, they're about to learn some surprising truths about their own lives, and their futures. 

 

29 Seconds by: T.M. Logan

Thank you St. Martins Press for this copy! This is the second book I've read by T.M. Logan, and I enjoyed it better than Lies. If you're looking for a fast paced thriller, this is it! Also, the theme is very relevant to our current culture and I was CHEERING at the ending!

Sarah is a young professor struggling to prove herself in a workplace controlled by the charming and manipulative Alan Hawthorne. A renowned scholar and television host, Hawthorne rakes in million-dollar grants for the university where Sarah works―so his inappropriate treatment of female colleagues behind closed doors has gone unchallenged for years. And Sarah is his newest target.

When Hawthorne's advances become threatening, Sarah is left with nowhere to turn. Until the night she witnesses an attempted kidnapping of a young child on her drive home, and impulsively jumps in to intervene. The child’s father turns out to be a successful businessman with dangerous connections―and her act of bravery has put this powerful man in her debt. He gives Sarah a burner phone and an unbelievable offer. A once-in-a-lifetime deal that can make all her problems disappear.

No consequences. No traces. All it takes is a 29-second phone call.

Because everyone has a name to give. Don’t they?

 

A Good Neighborhood by: Therese Anne Fowler

Thank you St. Martins Press for this advance reader copy - this book comes out February 4, 2020. Wow, what a page turner! Very relevant to our social issues, and it does have a sad ending. Whew! I have another of Therese's books on my shelf so I am definitely intrigued to read more from her.

In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door—an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.

Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll?

But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. Told in multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today — what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? — as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.

 

In a Dark, Dark Wood by: Ruth Ware

With Halloween in October, I was looking for a creepy read. Unfortunately, I was not scared at all by this book. It was a good crime story, but I would not say it's scary. I'm sure some would say it would even be predictable.

What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware's suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is a reclusive crime writer, unwilling to leave her nest of an apartment unless it is absolutely necessary. When a friend she hasn't seen or spoken to in years unexpectedly invites Nora (Lee) to a weekend away in an eerie glass house deep in the English countryside, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive, with the knowledge that someone is dead. Wondering not "what happened?" but "what have I done?", Nora (Lee) tries to piece together the events of the past weekend. Working to uncover secrets, reveal motives, and find answers, Nora (Lee) must revisit parts of herself that she would much rather leave buried where they belong: in the past.