Lisa Jewell Book Signing

In August, Barnes and Noble in Paramus, NJ, hosted a book event featuring Harlan Coben in conversation with Lisa Jewell. My last in-person book event at B&N was with Lisa during her book release of The Family Upstairs. The book was part of the B&N Book Club. After so many events were canceled due to COVID, it is great to see a good turnout this year. It is recommended that you read The Family Upstairs before continuing with The Family Remains. Lisa is one of my favorite psychological thriller authors that write captivating stories with real-life issues that readers can relate to.

Goodreads Blurb

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an
intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and
deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs.

Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to
the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for
examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three
people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock—news that her husband, Michael, has
been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. All signs point to an
intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions
about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.

After fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy,
Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. While she settles in with her children and is
just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find
the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.

As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they
will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never
imagined.

In this masterful standalone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, The
Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her
powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate, and affecting novel about the
lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth.

Author Biography

Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the best-selling debut novel of 1999.
Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of
dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The
Family Upstairs, and The Night She Disappeared.

Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who
has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north
London with her husband, two teenage daughters, and the best dog in the world.

Review: Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

Goodreads Blurb

In this twisty, mind-bending thriller from the bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes, Emma Averell worries that her crippling insomnia is a sign that she’s slowly going insane—like the mother she’s worked so hard to leave in her past.

Emma Averell loves her life—her high-powered legal career, her two beautiful children, and her wonderful stay-at-home husband—but it wasn’t always so perfect. When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and “normal,” but Emma can only remember her as one thing—a monster. And that monster emerged right around their mother’s fortieth birthday, the same age Emma is approaching now.

Emma desperately wants to keep her successful life separate from her past, so she has always hidden her childhood trauma. But then she’s unable to sleep, and now losing time during the day, also one of the first symptoms her mother showed. Is the madness in her blood, just as her mother predicted? Could she end up hurting her family in her foggy, frenetic state? Or is she truly beginning to lose her mind?

My Review: Rated 3 out of 5 Stars

A mind-blowing thriller that will have you frightened of your fortieth birthday. Turning forty for many does seem life-changing, especially for women. In this thriller novel, I found myself frightened of turning forty, worried about insomnia, crazy thoughts, and loss of time, and seeing my life go upside down without a clear ending. The dreaded countdown had me just as insane as the character.

I wanted the day to arrive as much as Emma dreaded her birthday’s arrival. This psychological thriller has the reader thinking the main character Emma, is going mad just like her mother: but the story flips around, and the unexpected dread that someone is causing all her torture becomes a reality. This story foresaw the future at the time Emma’s mother went mad and how that future becomes the present for Emma. Two visions drove the characters mad because of the darkness they revealed. Will you survive your fortieth birthday?

Author Biography

Sarah Pinborough is a New York Times bestselling and Sunday Times Number one and Internationally bestselling author who is published in over 30 territories worldwide. Having published more than 25 novels across various genres, her recent books include Behind Her Eyes, now a smash hit Netflix limited series, Dead To Her, now in development with Amazon Studios, and 13 Minutes and The Death House in development with Compelling Pictures. Sarah lives in the historic town of Stony Stratford, the home of the Cock and Bull story, with her dog Ted. Her next novel, Insomnia, is out in 2022. You can follow Sarah on Twitter at @sarahpinborough.

Review: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

Goodreads Blurb

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can’t seem to heal through literature is himself; he’s still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.

Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people’s lives.

My Review: Rated 3 out of 5 Stars

A book about a heartbreak that will shatter a man for the rest of his life. As quickly as he finds the love of his life, Perdu also loses her. It’s twenty years later, and he continues to torment himself for losing the one woman he loved madly. Twenty years before he received a letter from his love, he was so heartbroken that he didn’t dare to read it. Perdu owns a floating bookstore in Paris where he helps those who are heartbroken, sad, depressed or have lost a loved one by recommending books that will help them find peace.

He is an apothecary with books that will provide a little light to those who need it. But as ironic as that sounds, he chooses to live his life in seclusion and not open his heart to love. One day he decides to finally read the letter that will turn his life upside down. The reason for the letter was not to say sorry but to ask him to see her one last time. Now it’s twenty years too late, and he decides to take his boat bookstore on an adventure of finding answers and finding peace and love.

Author Biography

Born 1973 in Bielefeld, Germany, Nina George is a prize-winning and bestselling author (“Das Lavendelzimmer” – “The Little Paris Bookshop”) and freelance journalist since 1992, who has published 26 books (novels, mysteries, and non-fiction) as well as over hundred short stories and more than 600 columns. George has worked as a cop reporter, columnist, and managing editor for a wide range of publications, including Hamburger Abendblatt, Die Welt, Der Hamburger, “politik und kultur” as well as TV Movie and Federwelt. Georges writes also under three pen-names, for ex “Jean Bagnol”, a double-andronym for provence-based mystery novels.

Cover Reveal: Emerald Eyes by Aurelia Yates

BOOK DETAILS:

Emerald Eyes
Aurelia Yates
Publication date: August 30, 2022
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Synopsis:

After the death of her mother and losing her job, Sarah realizes there’s nothing keeping her in the small town where she grew up, and she travels to New York to stay with her best friend. Upon her arrival, she literally falls for a sexy, dark man with mesmerizing emerald-green eyes.

Chance encounters continue to bring them together, and Sarah finds herself drawn into a sinful world she’s never known. Wilder is unlike any other man, and although she tries, she can’t resist him or his dominating temperament.

Try as she might, Wilder will not let Sarah escape him, and with a stalker coming after her, he is determined to protect her with everything he has—even when he has to punish her in the bedroom for disobeying his commands.

Cover Reveal: The Selective Mute Princess by Samantha Jayne Grubey

Book & Author Details:

The Selective Mute Princess
by Samantha Jayne Grubey
Publication date: August 29, 2022
Genres: New Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Princess Amelia has been silent for ten years, ever since Amelia and Ava were kidnapped. One returned home the other did not. Amelia has always kept herself guarded with her twenty-first birthday approaching things are going to be changing.

Ethan Sparks is on his first assignment, guard the Princess in the Palace. The longer he’s there the more he finds himself being drawn to Princess Amelia, he can see she’s drowning and he wants to help.

Romantic interests stir in a mixing pot of emotions as Amelia and her family recover from the kidnapping and murder of her sister. Unsure what to feel or who to believe, Amelia needs to find her truth, as she deals with her trauma and finally brings her family to mend. Along the way they find themselves hitting challenges at every wall. So many questions left unanswered by the kidnapping and murder, can she finally find the answers she’s searching for? Can Amelia finally allow herself to live and be freed from the guilt she feels? Can Ethan survive the challenges that come with falling for a Princess in line for the throne?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60779750-the-selective-mute-princess

Pre-order: https://books2read.com/u/bWEJpG

AUTHOR BIO:

Samantha Jayne Grubey is the author of new adult romance.

When she’s not writing, or reading, you can probably find her heading back to university for teaching training. If she’s not doing any of that then she’s probably playing sims (sims 3&2 is the best out of the franchise) or coloring.

Follow her on social media, and learn all about the books at: https://www.samanthajaynegrubey.com

Author links:

Website: https://www.samanthajaynegrubey.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaJayneGrubeyAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthajayne_x/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/samantha-jayne-grubey?list=about
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@samanthajayne_x?lang=en

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19226582.Samantha_Jayne_Grubey

Cover Reveal: Midnight Blaze by Anya Summers

BOOK DETAILS:

Midnight Blaze
by Anya Summers
(Dungeon Singles Night, #8)
Publication date: July 26, 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

All she wants is to help her best friend.

Tessa’s bestie has been dying for a night of ecstasy with a certain sexy doctor at The Eros Pit. When Tessa winds up with the doctor’s marker at the singles night event, she swaps. There’s no harm in it, not when she knows her best friend will get to have the night of her dreams.

Except Tessa ends up with a Dom she wants nothing to do with – Cooper Livingstone. Danger surrounds him. The sexy alpha is a total badass, fighting wildfires on the front range. He’s potent. Makes her body come alive in ways she has never experienced before. It worries her how much she craves his wicked brand of lovemaking after a single night.

Cooper lives and breathes his daredevil lifestyle. For him, there is nothing like coming up against Mother Nature’s wrath – that is, until Tessa winds up in his bed. Underneath her serene façade lies a feisty, passionate woman who calls to him on an elemental level. After a single night, he yearns to claim the intoxicating submissive. She’s in his blood. He dreams about her taste and her surrender. The need to claim her, make her his in every way, is a hunger he cannot deny. He will do whatever it takes to earn her surrender, and possibly even her love.

But Tessa doesn’t take chances. They’re way too dangerous. She knows far too well how devastating the consequences can be. And submitting to Cooper might just be the biggest risk of all.

Can Cooper convince Tessa to take a chance on him?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60790537-midnight-blaze

Pre-order: https://books2read.com/u/bpw5Z6

AUTHOR BIO:

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Anya grew up listening to Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have been a doctor. While Anya never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History.

Anya is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple fiction genres. She also writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance under the name Maggie Mae Gallagher. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry felines.

Author links:

Website: www.anyasummers.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnyaSummersAuthor

Twitter: @AnyaBSummers https://twitter.com/anyabsummers?lang=en

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15183606.Anya_Summers

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Anya-Summers/e/B01EGTVRKC/

Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/anya-summers

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anyasummersauthor/

Newsletter https://anyasummers.com/newsletter/

My Review: The Night They Vanished by Vanessa Savage

Goodreads Blurb

A family with a secret.

A past about to catch up with them.

Hanna has barely spoken to her family since the tragedy that rocked their lives fourteen years ago. The tragedy for which they held Hanna responsible.

Then she sees her family home listed as the scene of a horrific crime. Number of victims: three. Date of crime: today. Frantic, Hanna tries to contact her family, only to find they have disappeared.

To find them, Hanna will have to confront what happened all those years ago.

And the person determined to make her pay for it …

My Review: 4 out of 5 Stars

A dark thriller with a secret that could destroy a family. The book slowly reveals a past Hannah wants to forget and a future where the past haunts her. Can Hannah locate her family and figure out who is using Adams’s website to post terrifying content about her family? It is impossible for the readers to escape from this dark mystery. Vanessa created a story that some can relate to since this story revolves around family drama, teenagers going wild, and vengeance. It’s a thriller filled with mystery, secrets, vengeance, and forgiveness. It’s a dark thriller that’ll keep you guessing until the end.

Author Biography

Vanessa Savage is a graphic designer and illustrator. She has twice been awarded a Writers’ Bursary by Literature Wales, most recently for The Woman in the Dark. She won the Myriad Editions First Crimes competition in 2016 and her work has been highly commended in the Yeovil International Fiction Prize, short listed for the Harry Bowling Prize, and the Caledonia Fiction Prize. She was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award.

Vanessa lives by the sea in South Wales with her husband and two daughters.

Cover Reveal: Love You Again by Julia Kent

BOOK DETAILS:

Love You Again
by Julia Kent
(Love You, Maine, #2)
Publication date: July 19, 2022
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Set in the woodsy small town of Luview, “Love You,” Maine – a tourist favorite where every day is Valentine’s Day – local police officer and single dad Luke Luview has spent the last two years making his young daughter his priority after his wife’s death. When first-love Kylie Hood comes back into town under bizarre circumstances, he learns that nothing’s a coincidence – and maybe second chances are possible after all.

If you’re looking for a fun read about first kisses, second chances, featuring a hot single dad small town police officer and his accidental nanny, set in a small town in New England, with a golden retriever named Jester, a heroine whose dream in life is to run a fairy camp, and a hero who wants to build a place where everyone belongs – then this is your book.

Grab a cup of coffee, tea, and maybe some edible glitter, and get your happy meter ready as you read the second book in the Love You, Maine series – where love isn’t just a feeling – it’s a way of life.

✓Single Dad
✓Second chance
✓Small town romance
✓Local police officer and his last-minute nanny
…and a Golden Retriever named Jester

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59694685-love-you-again

Pre-order:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FXETIq

B&N: https://mybook.to/LYA_Nook

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/pe/book/love-you-again/id1606789311

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/love-you-again-1

Google Play: https://mybook.to/LYA_GP

AUTHOR BIO:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future.

From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men’s room toilet (and he isn’t a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy).

She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls.

She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on Twitter @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com

Social Media Links:
Website: http://jkentauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jkentauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jkentauthor
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2PIBi9n
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jkentauthor/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-kent
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3238619.Julia_Kent
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Julia-Kent/e/B00A99V268/

My Review: Samuel by Fonda St. Paul

Amazon’s Blurb

The Big Apple, New York City has an unwelcome guest raining havoc on it streets and leaving bodies of young women in different locations around the city. This killer hides in plain sight which is causing major concern for Detectives Dan Cerrico and Jack Klinger.
Now this person is stalking the bright lights of Broadway and a beautiful, young up and coming Broadway star that has captured his damaged soul. He won’t let go until he has possessed her.
He is cunning, charming, and extremely intelligent. He is a truculent Serial Killer and his name is SAMUEL

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 Stars

Have you ever got a feeling that someone is watching you from afar? Well, this book will have the hairs on the back of your neck stand when you enter the world of a spying serial killer. You are about to discover the inside mind of a serial killer through Samuel, who has a damaged childhood. He needs his fix when his obsession arrives, and he needs his fix right away. Samuel will take you inside his mind as he plans how he will catch the next girl. Allison is his next obsession, but this girl will turn his life upside down. The reader will fall down a rabbit hole full of anger, cravings, determination, the fight to live, and the fight to survive. Can Allison and the detectives take down Samuel before he kills Allison, you will need to pick this book up to find out?

Author Biography

Fonda St.Paul is a voracious reader with a vivid imagination. Over the years she has entertained many friends with her exceptional talent for telling a story.

Fonda is considered an expert in the field of Serial killers due to her many years of research on the criminal mind and interviews with Serial Killers and their families. Fonda has created and executive produced several crime reality shows in Los Angeles. Being bicoastal for many years gave her the opportunity to produce plays for other writers in New York and Los Angeles.

SAMUEL is Fonda’s fourth novel and a sequel is in the works bringing along her popular New York Detectives Dan Cerrico and Jack Klinger.

She has been a guest speaker in many schools and on several podcast on the ins and outs of writing and being self publishing. She has told many student writers not to lose their dream of being a writer due to dyslexia which Fonda has coped with for years but to keep creating every day.

Fonda lives in the Los Angeles area and keeps her two pug muses, Monticello and Lily Jean by her side.

Be on the lookout for Fonda’s podcast Serial Wives, A Love Story due in 2022.

Cover Reveal: Midnight and Bex by Heather Van Fleet

BOOK DETAILS:

Midnight and Bex
by Heather Van Fleet
Publication date: October 18, 2022
Genres: Suspense, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Trauma and intrigue bring an unlikely couple together in a sleepy Illinois suburb…

Bex Mahoney knows all too well what it’s like to be a loner. As a girl who’d much rather get lost in books and Netflix than makeup and school dances, it’s taken her all of six months to adjust to a new high school and the friends who come with it. But as much as she wants to find some peace following the death of her father, she can’t seem to grasp hold of it like she should. That is until she’s partnered up with a boy in chem who seems to carry more weight on his shoulders than Bex ever has.

Midnight Turner is lost in a dark world that Bex can’t even come close to touching. It’s because of his mysterious persona, though, that her intrigue with him grows stronger by the day. But when a flashback into Midnight’s past has him yanking Bex under chem tables and crying in Latin against her neck, Bex makes it her new life goal to figure him out.

When Bex’s closest friend tells her to steer clear of Midnight, an already insatiable curiosity in Bex grows deeper. But with this curiosity blooms new love. The kind that neither of them ever saw coming. Torn between a past he can’t change and a future she desires, both Midnight and Bex must learn to live in the present where the demons from Midnight’s prior life return to either haunt them…or worse.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60011182-midnight-and-bex

Pre-order: https://geni.us/midnightandbex

AUTHOR BIO:

Heather Van Fleet is a stay-at-home-mom turned book boyfriend connoisseur. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, a mom to three girls, and in her spare time, you can find her with her head buried in her Kindle, guzzling down copious amounts of coffee.

Heather graduated from Black Hawk College in 2003 and currently writes Adult contemporary romance. She is published through Sourcebooks Casablanca with her Reckless Hearts series and Bookouture with her Red Dragon series.

Author links:
http://www.heathervanfleet.com/
https://www.facebook.com/authorheathervanfleet
https://www.pinterest.ca/heathervanfleet/_saved/
https://twitter.com/HLVanFleet
https://www.instagram.com/hvfwrites/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6870087.Heather_Van_Fleet