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Goodreads Blurb

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK 

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY New York Times • Time • Marie Claire • Elle • Buzzfeed • Huffington Post • Good Housekeeping • The Week • Goodreads • New York Post • Publishers Weekly and many more

“This is a true beach read! You can’t put it down!” —Jenna Bush Hager, Today Show Book Club Pick

“Powerful . . . A twisting tale of love, loss, and dark family secrets.” —Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women—two sisters and their mother—in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge, from the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation

It begins with a mystery. Sylvie, the beautiful, brilliant, successful older daughter of the Lee family, flies to the Netherlands for one final visit with her dying grandmother—and then vanishes.

Amy, the sheltered baby of the Lee family, is too young to remember a time when her parents were newly immigrated and too poor to keep Sylvie. Seven years older, Sylvie was raised by a distant relative in a faraway, foreign place, and didn’t rejoin her family in America until age nine. Timid and shy, Amy has always looked up to her sister, the fierce and fearless protector who showered her with unconditional love.

But what happened to Sylvie? Amy and her parents are distraught and desperate for answers. Sylvie has always looked out for them. Now, it’s Amy’s turn to help. Terrified yet determined, Amy retraces her sister’s movements, flying to the last place Sylvie was seen. But instead of simple answers, she discovers something much more valuable: the truth. Sylvie, the golden girl, kept painful secrets . . . secrets that will reveal more about Amy’s complicated family—and herself—than she ever could have imagined.

A deeply moving story of family, secrets, identity, and longing, Searching for Sylvie Lee is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive portrait of an immigrant family. It is a profound exploration of the many ways culture and language can divide us and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone—especially those we love.

Goodreads Blurb

Have you ever thought about everything your brain does for you? It is always working to keep you alive and safe. (Plus it lets you think about funny stuff, too.) So why is the brain such a big deal? Because it makes you YOU, of course!

This funny and factual picture book from Heart and Brain creator Nick Seluk explains the science behind everything the brain helps you do: keeping your heart beating, telling you when you are sleepy, remembering stuff, and more. The brain is in charge of everything you do, every minute of every day for your entire life. That’s kind of a big deal.

Each spread features bite-sized text and comic-style art with sidebars sprinkled throughout. Anthropomorphized organs and body parts — recognizable from Nick Seluk’s New York Times bestselling book — help readers learn through funny jokes and comic panels. Funny, smart, and accessible, The Brain Is Kind of a Big Deal is a must-have!

My Review

Perfect book to teach kids about the anatomy of the brain. This book has so much information about the function of the brain and the other important players in the role of sending messages to the brain and the other organs. The illustrations are superb. He uses comics, scenarios and important facts. A lot of thought and research went into writing this book. At the end of the book you will find a glossary for all the words used throughout the book. He also added wild facts about animals and their brains. I could have lived without the Cockroach and Leech fact, yuck. The author keeping up with our social media frenzy, gives us a sneak peek of the social media for the different body parts that were mentioned in the book, lol. This is a cute, fun and interactive book for children to learn all about our amazing brain and how it works. I rated 4 out of 5 stars. Book will be released on October 2019. Link to author page http://theawkwardyeti.com/

Author Biography

The Awkward Yeti and all of its work are authored and illustrated by cartoonist Nick Seluk. It was his dream since a kid to be funny, and someday he hopes to be. His New York Times Bestselling series Heart and Brain has brought popularity to the Awkward Yeti on social media, now he now copes with the pressure of trying to entertain millions of fans online.

In 2018, his first children’s book was published by Scholastic, titled The Sun is Kind of a Big Deal, the first in a 3-book series. You can find it in book stores and Scholastic fairs in schools.

Nick lives in Michigan, which has super big lakes surrounding it. He enjoys thinking about running, not actually running, and mostly doing nothing.

My Review

This is such a great book to teach children how to count. Barnaby and his friends go on a scavenger hunt hoping to get the most of the same item they find. The story includes numbers, measuring and you will find a couple of math equations. The illustrations are adorable. Overall, fun and interactive. The children will love to read this book. Fun at the beach couldn’t be better. I rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Goodreads Blurb

California Summer is a charming and beautiful love story about a former Hollywood producer who trades her cast list in for cookbooks in the hopes of following her dreams and finding new love.

Ben and Rosie are Hollywood’s newest director/producer dream team. After hitting it big at Sundance, it seems that their ten years of love and hard work are finally paying off. Rosie is happy making independent films, but Ben wants the A-List celebrity package: a house in Beverly Hills, fancy cars in the driveway, and his name on the biggest blockbusters. He’s willing to do anything, even sleep with the most famous producer in town, to get them.

Rosie is devastated by Ben’s affair, and she decides to take a break from show business. She accepts her best friend’s invitation to spend the summer at her parents’ estate in Montecito. It’s far away from L.A., the perfect place to start over.

In Montecito, Rosie meets a colorful cast of characters including Rachel, who owns a chocolate store, and Josh, a handsome local who splits his time between surfing and classic cars. Suddenly Rosie has new friends and a new purpose. She starts a business in the village, and her luck seems to be turning around. But Rosie knows all too well that success comes with a price, and the price might be losing love…again.

California Summer is a touching and romantic story about following your dreams but not letting them get in the way of love. 

My Review

Hollywood romance isn’t always have a happily ever after. Love takes shape in different forms and this wonderful summer novel takes you through so many wonderful romances, while enduring the heartache in the process. Rosie loved Ben and did everything he loved without seeing she was losing herself in their relationship. Sometimes having to many things in common in a relationship works out the opposite. You need to know what makes you happy and be open to your partner about your hopes and dreams. Only if a couple is open minded and are willing to stand by your dreams would a relationship last. This novel really had very sad moments but it was built with lasting memories of so much love and happiness. Wonderful plot filled with modern characters who brought the story beautifully together. Perfect summer read.  I rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Anita Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia. She attended UC Berkeley’s Masters in Creative Writing program. She is the author of MONARCH BEACH, MARKET STREET, LAKE COMO, FRENCH COAST, ROME IN LOVE, ISLAND IN THE SEA, SANTORINI SUNSETS, CHRISTMAS IN PARIS, WHITE SAND, BLUE SEA, EMERALD COAST, CHRISTMAS IN LONDON and CALIFORNIA SUMMER, and CHRISTMAS IN VERMONT published by St. Martin’s Press. ROME IN LOVE is coming to the HALLMARK channel in July, 2019!

Goodreads Blurb

This is a love story. Mike’s love story.

Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely life, before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job, he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together.

It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his emails or phone calls.
It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus.

It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move he’ll know just when to come to her rescue…

A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.

My Review

A mind twisted story of love that only could be understood between V and Mike. Can love blind your thoughts, feelings, reality and dreams? For Mike V was his love, calmness and understanding. A game of a mind twisted love can turn deadly after controlling a mind to act a certain way. Araminta truly made you see every thought, feeling, love and frustration Mike went through with his relationship with V and the loss of this possessive love. Love can blind people and not let them see what hurt they might be causing. This story was the first I have read in which the story was flipped around and the man was the obsessive women and the woman was the free spirited man. Let’s flip the tables and really dig into this cruel story of love.  I rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Araminta Hall began her career in journalism as a staff writer on teen magazine Bliss, becoming Health and Beauty editor of New Woman. On her way, she wrote regular features for the Mirror’s Saturday supplement and ghost-wrote the super-model Caprice’s column.

Goodreads Blurb

Every child feels different in some way, but Thuy feels “double different.” She is Vietnamese American and she has two moms. Thuy walks home one winter afternoon, angry and lonely after a bully’s taunts. Then a bird catches her attention and sets Thuy on an imaginary exploration. What if she could fly away like a bird? What if she could sprint like a deer, or roar like a bear? Mimicking the footprints of each creature in the snow, she makes her way home to the arms of her moms. Together, the three of them imagine beautiful and powerful creatures who always have courage – just like Thuy.

My Review

Thuy is being bullied at school because she has two mothers. On her way home while walking through the winter wonderland, she finds herself lonely and angry. She sees a bird and wonders why he was alone and didn’t leave with the other birds? She then goes on her own adventure of making footprints in the snow of animals that are powerful. She wanted to be like those animals so she felt resilience, strength, power and fearlessness. Her mother’s joined in and gave her mystical and powerful creatures like the Phoenix and Sarabha. They taught Thuy that all three of them together made them more powerful. Thuy created her own mystical creature name Arti-Thuy- Ngoc- Osaurus with happy heart feet.  I rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Bao Phi is an award-winning poet and children’s book author. His stunning debut A Different Pond, won a Caldecott Honor.

Goodreads Blurb

There was a black hole that swallowed the universe.
I don’t know why it swallowed the universe–oh well, it couldn’t get worse.
There was a black hole that swallowed a galaxy.
It left quite a cavity after swallowing that galaxy.
It swallowed the galaxies that filled universe.
I don’t know why it swallowed the universe–oh well, it couldn’t get worse.

Using the familiar rhythm of “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” follow along as the black hole swallows up the universe and everything that exists in it, from the biggest to the smallest pieces of matter. The silly, vibrant artwork is sure to make stargazers of all ages smile.

BONUS: Included in the book are instructions to create a craft to turn a cell phone camera light into a black light. Use this new invention to reveal the secret, invisible text and artwork that reverses the story from nothing to the scientific creation of everything!

My Review  

The perfect book to teach children about the scientific components that make the universe and the colorful planets, stars and galaxies. Throughout the book you have this toothy black hole that is hungry to swallow everything he finds in the universe. His hunger leads him to darkness since nothing in space is there anymore. I loved the illustrations and how the repeated phrase kept getting larger as he kept swallowing away. The final book has a wonderful bonus. You will be able to go backwards with a black-light to work your way back to the story. Enjoy your time in space and watch out for that black hole. I rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Chris Ferrie, father of four and happy husband. His day job is academic research where he follows his curiosity through the word of quantum physics. His passion for communicating science has led him from the most esoteric topics of mathematical physics to more recently writing children’s books.

During the day you will find him as a senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney and Centre for Quantum Software and Information. His research interests include quantum estimation and control, and, in particular, the use of machine learning to solve statistical problems in quantum information science. Hr obtained his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Institute for Quantum Computing and University of Waterloo (Canada) in 2012.

Goodreads Blurb

“There’s a thousand scavengers in these woods.”

Before being promoted to detective, Carrie Santero was given a rare glimpse into the mind of a killer. Through her mentor, Jacob Rein–a seasoned manhunter whose gift for plumbing the depths of madness nearly drove him over the brink–she was able to help capture one of the most depraved serial killers in the country. Now, the discovery of a small human foot buried in the Pennsylvania woods will lead her to a decades-old cold case–and the darkest secrets of her mentor’s youth.

“Nobody trusts an animal that tries to eat its own kind.”

Thirty years ago, a young girl went missing. A police officer was murdered. Another committed suicide. The lives of everyone involved would never be the same. For three agonizing decades, Jacob Rein has yearned for the truth. But when Detective Carrie Santero begins digging up new evidence, she discovers some answers come with shattering consequences.

My Review

Wow, I don’t know how I never heard of Bernard Schaffer and his unstoppable books. When I should have been sleeping the story just kept getting better. Bernard’s detective experience definitely can be seen throughout the story. You cannot get a better story then from someone who lives through real life events. Bernard gave us a bad-ass lady detective named Carrie who works very hard to find the culprits and solve the murder mystery. She might be the envy of all the male policemen, but she is the detective you want solving crimes in your town. I was happy that a woman was the leading character in this story. I was utterly impressed with her forensics work when she was trying to get the fingerprints from a knife. She didn’t have the tools needed so she created her homemade fingerprinting chemicals. Please do not try this at home.

I loved that Bernard added a couple of different cases which made you feel like you were in the story trying to fight the bad guys and solve the cases. The story goes back to 1981, when a child goes missing. Ollie was the Chief of Police and he was such a gem. He was the true hero in this story. He was determined to find the missing girl and make sure the culprits pay for what they might have done. Ollie’s brother Ben was hardcore. That war scene will forever be engraved in my head haunting me. 

Some people do not deserve the praise of being a hero. After Chief Auburn died he was praised for standing up to the bad guys and killing each one, but if only the town knew how that story really went. I truly enjoyed this nonstop roller coaster thriller. As I read I tried searching for the culprit who killed the little girl. I wondered who might be the cop rapist impersonator? This was a wonderful detective mystery thriller. I rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Bernard Schaffer is the author of the Santero and Rein Thriller Series from Kensington Publications. 
Prior to that, he published multiple titles in a variety of genres as an independent author. Schaffer is the father of two children and a full-time police detective in Southeastern PA.

Goodreads Blurb

In the wake of a dark and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925 Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set, which is desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like so many of her classmates from L’École de Beaux Arts, in America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most scandalous secrets—for better or for worse. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the fashionable crowd. Though her ancestor La Lune, the legendary sixteenth-century courtesan and—like Delphine—a witch, might have thought differently.

Then, on a snowy night in February, in a penthouse high above Fifth Avenue, Delphine’s mystical talent leads to a tragedy between two brothers. Horrified, she renounces her gift.

Devastated and disconsolate, Delphine returns to her old life in the south of France where Picasso, Matisse, and the Fitzgeralds are summering. There, Delphine is thrust into recapturing the past. First by her charismatic twin brother and business manager Sebastian in his attempts to cajole her back to work and into co-dependence, then by the world famous opera singer Emma Calvé, who is obsessed with the centuries-old Book of Abraham, written by the fourteenth-century alchemist Nicolas Flamel. And finally by her ex-lover Mathieu, who is determined to lure her back into his arms, unaware of the danger that had led Delphine to flee Paris for New York five years before.

Trapped in an ancient chateau where hidden knowledge lurks in the shadows, Delphine questions and in many ways rejects what and who she loves the most—her art, her magick, her family, her brother, and Mathieu—as she tries to finally accept them as the gifts they are and to shed her fear of loving and living with her eyes wide open. 

My Review

What a magical story filled with secrets, lies, mystery and ever lasting love. Delphine had suffered so much and with her mother’s magic she was able to get her vision back but at a cost. She was able to draw portraits of people while blindfolded which revealed secrets from the persons past. This gift was a cure and a curse. Most images depicted adultery, murders and dark fantasy. Because of the dark secrets she saw she gave up on her soulmate in order to save him, but she doesn’t realize that these images cannot be altered and they sometimes don’t seem what they are. Shadows seen in darkest can also give light to the secrets. Some secrets must be kept for the good of all. I rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

New York Times Bestseller, M.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of Central Park and reading her mother’s favorite books before she was allowed. She believes mystery and magic are all around us but we are too often too busy to notice… books that exaggerate mystery and magic draw attention to it and remind us to look for it and revel in it. 

Her most recent novel TIFFANY BLUES (Atria/S&S) was chosen as an Indie Next Pick and takes place during the Jazz age at Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Long Island mansion/ art colony. 

Rose’s work has appeared in many magazines including Oprah Magazine and she has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, WSJ, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the ’80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors – Authorbuzz.com

The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose’s novels in the Reincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and currently serves, with Lee Child, as the organization’s co-president.. 

Goodreads Blurb

The author of The Girl Who Came Home turns the clock back one hundred years to a time when two young girls from Cottingley, Yorkshire, convinced the world that they had done the impossible and photographed fairies in their garden. Now, in her newest novel, international bestseller Hazel Gaynor reimagines their story.

1917… It was inexplicable, impossible, but it had to be true—didn’t it? When two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley, England, claim to have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden, their parents are astonished. But when one of the great novelists of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes convinced of the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a national sensation, their discovery offering hope to those longing for something to believe in amid a world ravaged by war. Frances and Elsie will hide their secret for many decades. But Frances longs for the truth to be told.

One hundred years later… When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript in her late grandfather’s bookshop she becomes fascinated by the story it tells of two young girls who mystified the world. But it is the discovery of an old photograph that leads her to realize how the fairy girls’ lives intertwine with hers, connecting past to present, and blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined. As she begins to understand why a nation once believed in fairies, can Olivia find a way to believe in herself? 

My Review

A magical story that keeps on being remembered after so many years. A cottage, a secret, a book store filled with wonders and some enchanting fairies. Fairies are they are real or are they not? I was so surprised to have learned that this book was taking us back to 1917, when one young girls said she saw fairies and with help of her cousin they took pictures of fairies that changed the world. Believers saw these images and were hopeful and inspired that yes fairies live among us humans. But the fifth picture they took can keep our hopes up. This book was truly captivating, hopeful and magical. I recommend this read especially, since they were true events from two cousins who shared a secret. Only reading will reveal the truth.  I rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Author Biography

Hazel Gaynor is the acclaimed New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author of A MEMORY OF VIOLETS and THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME, for which she received the 2015 Romantic Novelists’ Association Historical Novel of the Year award. Her third novel, THE GIRL FROM THE SAVOY, was an Irish Times and Globe and Mail bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year. In 2017, she published THE COTTINGLEY SECRET and LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS (co-written with Heather Webb). Both novels hit bestseller lists, and LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS won the 2018 Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award. Hazel’s most recent novel, THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, was an Irish Times and USA Today bestseller. Her latest novel MEET ME IN MONACO (co-written with Heather Webb) will be published in July 2019. 

Hazel was selected by Library Journal as one of Ten Big Breakout Authors for 2015. Her work has been translated into ten languages and is published in seventeen countries to date. She is co-founder of creative writing events The Inspiration Project, and lives in Ireland with her husband and two children. She is represented by Michelle Brower of Aevitas Creative Management, New York.