She's Not Sorry by Mary Kubica

 

5*

This book is so incredibly twisted. It’s like a pretzel of grifting, stolen identity, assault, scams, revenge, and murder, all revolving around a Chicago-based critical care nurse named Meghan Miller. I won’t even try to write a synopsis since it’s impossible to do without spoilers. Suffice it to say, it’s a non-stop adrenaline rush, especially all of the times Meghan walks home from work in the dark, knowing there’s a masked man who has been assaulting, robbing, and raping women. Add to that the fact that she and her 16-year-old daughter are living in an apartment with a door that doesn’t properly latch, and you’re just waiting for the worst.

Mystery/thrillers aren’t a genre I usually read, but I chose this for a reading challenge based on a Facebook recommendation, and I’m not sorry. It is absolutely riveting, and I really appreciate it as a window into the way people’s minds work: the lengths people will go to protect themselves and their loved ones, the damage and repercussions of childhood abuse, and people who are just natural-born sociopaths. Highly recommended!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Park Row through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

 

Secrets of Starshine Cove (Starshine Cove #2) by Debbie Johnson

5*

After nearly a lifetime of taking care of her severely depressed, widowed mom and her now 18-year-old son Sam (whose father she divorced when he was 8), 42-year-old Cally’s life is turned upside down by her mother’s decision to marry a man she meets online and move to Scotland. When the salon where she works is flooded and temporarily shut down just before Christmas, Cally decides to take Sam to the last place she remembers being happy before her father died when she was 7, Starshine Cove. As anyone who read Book 1 knows, it’s a magical place by the sea full of handmade, decorative fairies and a group of kind-hearted villagers who are like real fairy godmothers, coming together to support and protect the people they care about, even if they’re only visiting.

In the process of rediscovering her happy place, Cally begins to realize that many of her memories are inaccurate and that the relationship with her mother is based on many false assumptions about her parents’ marriage. However, the pleasure she finds with the villagers who befriend her and the sense of usefulness she feels by making herself available for haircuts combine to create new memories and a greater appreciation for this magical safe haven that shines brighter than ever at Christmas. Add in the budding romance with widower Archie, the maternal care she has for his daughters, and the friendships she’s forming with Ella, Connie and some of the other inhabitants, and it’s no wonder that she begins to think this may be her happy place.

Although Book 1 holds a special place in my heart, this story was also incredibly charming and heartwarming. My only slight criticism is that much of this story is Cally’s inner monologue while I would have preferred more dialogue and a dual POV to get Archie’s perspective. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Storm Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove (Starshine Cove #3) by Debbie Johnson

5*

Reading any book in Debbie Johnson’s Starshine Cove series is like being wrapped up in a warm hug. It’s a magical place by the sea full of handmade, decorative fairies and a group of kind-hearted villagers who are like real fairy godmothers, coming together to support and protect the people they care about, even if they’re only visiting.

Possible Spoilers:

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In this third installment, we are introduced to Lucy when she serendipitously meets Josh at the Dublin airport on her way to her college friend Ella’s wedding. (Ella and Jake are the couple from Book 1, Escape to Starshine Cove.) One of the things she loves to do while waiting for her flight is imagine scenarios for the people around her, so it’s little surprise that, when she meets the handsome Josh, she pretends to be the worldly, put-together security consultant Amelia on her way to New York, not plain old Lucy heading to Dorset by way of London. What she doesn’t expect is that Josh will be attending the same wedding. After an initial embarrassing and angry encounter (Josh hates liars), she apologizes, and they start to get to know each other.

Although just about everybody approaching their forties carries baggage, Lucy’s first marriage to the verbally and emotionally abusive Robert has left her with lingering trauma and insecurities a decade later. However, Starshine Cove has a way of casting a spell on the people who visit and are in need of a do-over. Will Lucy, with the support of her 16-year-old daughter Rose (who wants to move there permanently) and her old and newfound friends, be able to leave the safety of her isolated Irish home and find the courage to start over, especially after his 2nd wife reaches out to her on the day of the wedding, asking for her help in escaping with her children, thus putting her in Robert’s sights again?

Finding Hope in Starshine Cove can be read as a standalone, but there are many characters from the first two books who feature prominently, and knowing their back stories enhances the experience of reading this one. Although there is a closed-door, slow burn romance between Lucy and Josh, much of the focus is also on both Lucy’s friendship with her 3 college friends she lost touch with (thanks to Robert’s narcissistic abusive tactics), and the effects of that abuse on both Lucy and Lyssa, the second wife. Just reading about it caused my heart to start racing, so it’s definitely a trigger warning for those who’ve been in abusive relationships. Despite this, there is much humor, light-heartedness and hope for the future. Highly recommended!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Storm Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Nosy Neighbors by Freya Sampson

 

4*

This was a tough book for me to read for personal reasons. I found myself sobbing more than once. So, I’ll start by warning that there are several triggers: death of a child, neglect and abandonment, involuntary eviction, and grief.

Like Sampson’s first book, The Last Chance Library, this story centers around a group of unlikely collaborators who come together to save a place that is special to all of them. In the process of working on a common cause, they not only get to know each other, but also learn more about themselves. In the former, the female protagonist is a shy, reclusive, 30-year-old librarian who emerges from her grief over losing her mother when she realizes that the mission to save the library is worth the risk. In the process, she finds community and love with a former classmate who comes to their aid.

In Nosy Neighbors, there are two female protagonists who are initially at odds. Seventy-four-year-old Dorothy has spent the past thirty years noting the comings and goings of her neighbors at Shelley House, but only speaking to them when she wants to complain and lecture them about what she’s observed. The comfort and familiarity of her home is rocked when 25-year-old, pink-haired and tatted Kat becomes the latest of her neighbor Joseph’s illegal tenants, her arrival quickly followed by the shocking news that they’re going to be evicted from their home by their negligent landlord and developer.

Over the next several weeks, as Dorothy, Joseph, Kat and Will, a local newspaper reporter who has caught Kat’s eye, work to save Shelley House, they find themselves opening up about their past traumas and the way their experiences have influenced their behavior and life choices. One glaringly clear theme is that we can’t begin to know what causes people to act the way they do, and that rudeness, diffidence, and even affability can be masks they wear to hide their pain. It’s also about forgiveness. Even when people’s words and actions have caused immeasurable pain, the act of forgiving them or even forgiving yourself is the only way to move forward.

Sampson writes with sensitivity and compassion. Her characters are complex, and represent the best and worst of us but, except for the villain, there is goodness in all of them. If you like women’s fiction with depth, small English village settings, rooting for the underdog, and authors like Jill Mansell, Jenny Colgan, and Debbie Johnson, you’re sure to enjoy Nosy Neighbors.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

5*

Another heart-warming winner from Abby Jimenez! Although Just for the Summer isn’t officially a book in the Part of Your World series, it might as well be given how many characters from those books are featured in this one.

It all starts with an online meet-cute when Justin (29), a software engineer from Minnesota who builds websites, posts on Reddit about how he’s cursed to be the guy women break up with and then go on to meet their soulmate. His friend Brad describes it as “ferrying women to their happily ever afters.” Emma (28), a traveling nurse whose next adventure will be in Hawaii, messages him to let him know that he’s not alone. From that initial exchange, they slowly start building a relationship through texts, emails, and video chats until Brad suggests they date each other to break the curse. That’s when Justin starts his campaign to get Emma to do her next assignment in Minneapolis rather than Hawaii. The fact that they find each other attractive and have an instant connection makes it easy for Emma to convince her best friend and fellow nurse, Maddy, to postpone Hawaii and spend the summer in Minneapolis at the Royaume Hospital (where the protagonists from the Part of Your World series all work).

Justin is really the perfect book boyfriend. Not only is he handsome and genuinely charming, but he’s also responsible, kind, and protective. One of my favorite parts of the story are his dating plans, surveys, catchy invitations, and post-date exit interviews. From the moment they meet, their conversations are witty, honest, and open, and, despite Emma’s commitment to leaving at the end of 6 weeks (following the plan they put together to break the curse: 4 dates, 1 kiss, and the breakup), there’s no way either of them can avoid catching feelings.

Unfortunately, as with all of Jimenez’s books, her characters are dealing with some serious issues. In this case, neither of their moms is going to win any parenting awards. Justin is the oldest son, and his mom is going to prison for embezzlement, leaving him to be guardian to his siblings for several years since their father died in an accident 4 years prior. Emma’s mother is an impulsive, irresponsible, and selfish drifter who had her at age 18 and essentially abandoned her when she was a child, with her ending up in the foster care system. Her final placement at age 14 resulted in her meeting Maddy, whose two moms took her in. She thinks she’s resolved her childhood trauma, but it's obvious that she has created a life where she can move around the world with just two suitcases of possessions so she’s prepared to leave wherever she lives at a moment’s notice. She also deals with periods of depression which she calls “getting small,” often triggered by her mother’s sudden reappearance. It isn’t until the truth of her mother’s betrayal is discovered that she finally recognizes she needs help if she’s ever going to be whole and able to accept love in her life.

I appreciated that Jimenez chose a dual POV so that we could really get to know Justin and Emma through the other’s eyes. One of the most poignant scenes, that made Justin realize the depth of Emma’s kindness and caring, is when she helps a woman with dementia (or a TBI) while on their first date. After explaining how she knew the woman needed help, she said that her motto is “In a world where you can choose anger or empathy, always choose empathy.” It’s that way of thinking that allows her to keep a tenuous hold on her fractured relationship with her mother, a philosophy that’s put to the test more than once after her mother reappears.

Abby Jimenez is one of the reigning queens of the romance genre, and her newest offering confirms that she deserves all the accolades. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Forever Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.