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Book Event at Books & Greetings to Meet Karen M. McManus

Meet & Greet

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING YOUNG ADULT AUTHOR

KAREN M. McMANUS

TUESDAY, JULY 30TH 6:00PM

Link to purchase ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/one-of-us-is-lying-author-karen-m-mcmanus-book-signing-tues-730-6pm-tickets-915371028387

Goodreads Blurb

The newest mystery from the author One of Us Is Lying, the Queen of thrillers, Karen M. McManus! When mother-daughter grifters set out on their final job, the heist gets deadly and dangerously personal.

For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.

Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.

Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other.

Or can they? Because if there’s one thing both Kat and Liam know, it’s how to lie. They learned from the best.

Review: Young Scrooge: A Very Scary Christmas Story by R.L. Stine

Goodreads Blurb

Rick Scroogeman hates Christmas. He can’t stand the carols and the pageants. He can’t stand the lights and the mistletoe. But what he hates the most is having to watch the old movie A Christmas Carol every year at school. Since his name is Scroogeman, all of his classmates start calling him Scrooge. And he hates being called Scrooge.

But everything starts to change when three ghosts visit him. At first, he thinks it’s a dream. But then he realizes that it might be a nightmare. A nightmare that could become real.

Young Scrooge: A Very Scary Christmas Story is a funny, scary middle-grade send up of A Christmas Carol, about a boy who hates Christmas, from bestselling Goosebumps author R. L. Stine.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

This is one of the best books that R.L. Stine has written. He really put a lot of work into creating a story with a boy named Rick, who was a bully to everyone. He just couldn’t see how bad his actions were towards his friends and family. The three ghosts, Christmas past, present, and future, take him out for a ride to show him the consequences for his actions. This is a great book for children to learn that bullying is a terrible thing to do. It’s a lesson to learn to change or deal with the horrible consequences. Stine brought Birthday and Christmas in one scenario. Kids whose birthdays fall on Christmas always run into the problem of getting presents for Christmas and not their birthday. I loved that we, as the readers, were able to know how Rick felt and what his thought process was. This book had some funny and creepy moments. This was the scary Christmas Carol that all children will fear. Remember, Santa Clause knows if you are naughty or nice.

Author Biography

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children’s literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children’s author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids’ Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA’s Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Goodreads Blurb

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

When the green grass on the other side of the fence isn’t exactly green after all!! This was absolutely thrilling. It takes the reader out of their comfort zone and has them open their eyes that people do not want to think them to be. We all have skeletons in our closest some more than others. Rachel’s life was a total disaster. She fell into an obsession with a couple who she thought were perfect, but what you see isn’t always real. I felt for Rachel every moment she picked up a bottle to drink her sorrows away. Drinking just caused her to confuse what truly happened to her in real life. Her mind twisted everything, making it seem just like a dream. As I read the book, I didn’t come to realization that the murderer wasn’t the obvious person but the person you would least expect. I learned that people lie in order for them to get ahead without realizing the damage they do to others. I totally enjoyed this train ride to a story full of secrets, deceit, jealousy, obsession, and love beyond reason. Can’t wait to see the movie in a few weeks.

Author Biography

Paula Hawkins is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Girl on the Train, which was made into a major motion picture. Her new novel of psychological suspense, Into The Water, is coming May 2.

Review: Big Words for Little Geniuses by Susan and James Patterson

Goodreads Blurb

There’s no “gobbledygook” in this picture book by James and Susan Patterson, with each letter of the alphabet providing a sophisticated word and definition for “Lilliputian” children to learn. Adults will appreciate the “juxtaposition” of young kids properly using impressive words that many grownups may not have heard of before! Includes a list of extra words in the back for further learning.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

It’s one of the cutest books I have ever read. Will keep the children and the reader active in trying to pronounce such difficult words. Even I had to look at the pronunciations. I love the vivid colors and illustrations. It is truly a book that all ages will love and remember.

Author Biography

Susan Solie Patterson has a Bachelor of Science/Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was also an All-American swimmer. She is the author of Things I Wish I Told My Mother and Big Words for Little Geniuses, which was a New York Times bestseller.

Review: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

Goodreads Blurb

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Jodi Picoult—one of the most fearless writers of our time—tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Jodi created a novel that pushes boundaries once again. Abortion is a huge political issue still today. This book is epic. It will leave the reader wondering if you pro-life or pro-choice? She started the book with a women’s reproductive health clinic being held hostage by a gunman. Then she built the book going through each hour backward to lead off back to where it began. She is a brilliant storyteller bringing such vivid characters to life and unraveling their story like an onion layer by layer. The background story for each character shows how each characters life’s interweave with each other and how they all ended up in this clinic at the same time. This book will bring you to tears. The emotions are like a roller coaster from happiness to desperation, loneliness, forgiveness, fear, joy, relief, and the will to fight, live, and save lives. The part with the steps in the abortion procedure will leave you squirming. I believe each woman should have a choice to decide, and the courts and states shouldn’t make this decision. Jodi had personally researched for this novel, and I felt she elaborate in statistics and court rulings that will give more understanding in this controversial issue.

Author Biography

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-eight novels, including Wish You Were Here, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.

MAD HONEY, her new novel co-authored with Jennifer Finney Boylan, is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio on October 4, 2022.

Website: http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jodipicoult

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodipicoult

Review: The Boatman by Kat Hawthorne

Goodreads Blurb

Isabel Wixon is weird. Not only does she see dead things, but her list of friends consists of a talkative ventriloquist’s dummy and the gentlemanly spider that lives in her hair. Real friends? Too hard. Inventing friends is much easier.

Inventing the Boatman—a terrible monster that lures kids into a strange sleeping sickness and never lets them go—probably wasn’t one of her better ideas though.

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully written to spook all who read this book. This was a wonderful spooky story that was dark and mysterious. Isabel ran into many of her deceased family members. Each warning her to stay away from the Boatman, who hunts you through your dreams. The illustrations were spot on with the story. They were weird and scary. Great book for young readers to stay up all night scared.

Author Biography

If you enjoy whimsical tales that feature bunnies, kittens, or do-gooding fairies, it’s probably best you avoid Kat Hawthorne. In fact, it is an odd Hawthornian story indeed that does not feature at least one character losing a finger (or something better). If, however, you like dismal, dark, dreary, dastardly (or many other words that begin with the letter d) fiction, and are strong of will and character, you may do well to check her out.

After all, they’re only words.

Kat Hawthorne is a writer of dark literary fantasy with six published works of short fiction as well as a smattering of poetry, a screenplay, and a novelette out in the great blue yonder.

Review: Remembrance by Mary Monroe

Goodreads Blurb

For a mother mired in midlife, Christmas brings a chance for renewal and rediscovery in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author.

For Beatrice Powell, the holidays are usually an extra-special time to celebrate. With her twenty-year-plus marriage, beautiful home, and three wonderful adult children, she has everything she could desire. But change-of-life doubts are making Beatrice a stranger to herself and her bewildered family. She only finds peace volunteering at the local soup kitchen, especially helping out homeless Charles Davenport. And his sensitivity and honesty soon comfort her in ways she never imagined . . .

Charles thought he had it all—until a devastating betrayal and the shattering loss of his family drove him to living on the streets. Beatrice is the first person who’s truly cared about him in a long time. And little by little, he’s finding reasons to care about rebuilding his life—and risking a sudden, courageous choice . . .

Drawn to Charles and the temptation of a second chance, Beatrice is faced with the hardest of decisions. But his insight, secrets—and the reminder of a profound past encounter—will give her unexpected inspiration, gratitude, and the strength she needs to find her way . . . perhaps in time for Christmas.

“The holidays can bring the kind of chaos, good and bad, that occupies your brain. It’s easy to forget to bring your gratitude. Remembrance has that covered . . . an excellent choice if your book group wants to squeeze in a before-the-holidays pick.” — The Washington Informer

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Wow, my emotions are everywhere. It’s a book i will remember forever. I am left speechless with this moving story. Kidness and listening truly make a difference to others who need it the most. This story makes you feel so much emotions, compassion, strength, care, and hopefulness. Beatrice had an unforgettable accident that occurred 25 years before. She wanted to thank the person who saved her life but never found the person. A Christmas miracle truly left peace, love, and happiness at its wake. Beatrice is that one person we all need to stop and talk with. She is kind and caring and has the right words to lift your spirits. Overall, this is a captivating story that will fill your heart with joy, love, and Christmas miracles. Love and peace to all!!

Review: Chugging and the Fish Freaks of Farheath by Brent Michael Kelley

Goodreads Blurb

Chuggie, the permanently intoxicated embodiment of Drought, has run into a bit of trouble in the city of Farheath Harbor. He is on trial for crimes he didn’t commit, and a guilty verdict means his execution. What happened down at the Farheath Docks? Is Chuggie too drunk to defend himself in such a trial? Will he be able to defeat his executioner in the ultimate battle of wits? Find out in Chuggie and the Fish Freaks of Farheath!

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

This is a short story that will keep everyone entertained. This is the first book I get to read from Brent. Chuggie is very funny and keeps his audience wanted more of his stories. I recommend this short read.

Author Biography

Brent Michael Kelley lives and writes in the Wisconsin Northwoods. He shares a home with such things as hairless dogs, a snake named Darth Batman, and the woman he married on Halloween. In addition to writing about his pal Chuggie, he likes writing story-poems, painting monsters, and making wine. Some say late at night, if you’re alone by a campfire, you can summon Brent by closing your eyes and saying his name eleven times. He insists this is not true and there’s no way it will work… yet.