February was a crazy busy month for me. It rounded out my crazy busy work season (and a 7.1 earth quake!), I finally have some quality time at home to read and spend with my family.

Thanks to all of my travel, I did get quite a bit of reading done! That’s not to say I didn’t suffer from a few reading slumps, but I was quickly able to recover.  Following are the titles I reviewed in February:

• A Disguise to Die For: A Costume Shop Mystery by Diane Vallere
• Ginny Gall by Charlie Smith
• The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
• The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle
• Girl Through Glass by Sari Wilson
• Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon
• The Ex by Alafair Burke
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
• The Ramblers by Aidan Donnelley Rowley
• A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern
• The Evening Spider by Emily Arsenault
• Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf
• The Big Rewind by Libby Cudmore

Thirteen books reviewed, in all. It’s not hard to see my favorites out of these listed, most come from authors I’ve been a fan of for some time, including Lisa Lutz, Ariel Lawhon, Alafair Burke, & Heather Gudenkauf.

Books I’m Looking Forward to in March:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III

Coming up in March:

My blog turns eight! Wow, how time has flown by. I still haven’t decided how I’m going to celebrate!

How was your reading month?

I have strong opinions about reading books that don’t capture my attention.  Yet, I agreed to read this particular title for a book tour, so I felt it necessary to give it a second try.  Initially, I stopped reading around page 65.  Picking it up a second time, I read another 60 pages.  Unfortunately, my opinion didn’t waver.  Rather, I became frustrated even more.

I feel it important to share my initial reasons for reading and why I ultimately decided to put it down.

Why I Wanted to Read it: 

• Compared to Patricia Highsmith’s writing, I was quite instantly intrigued
• A story about a veteran con artist who thinks he’s found another victim. Yet, both have secrets that need to be forgiven.

Why I Stopped Reading/Did Not Finish (DNF)

• This novel, dubbed a literary suspense, jumped all over the place in time and location. Normally, this isn’t an issue, but…
• I had zero connection with any of the characters. Even Betty, a wealthy widow, failed to capture my attention or sympathy
• The prose was quite….profuse.  Clearly the writer’s style, there was so much descriptive text when it didn’t matter, and not enough when it did.

The first time I put it down (ok, I nearly threw it across the airplane I was traveling on), I consulted the comments of other readers. Nearly all of them indicated that once they got over the dull bits, it picked up in pacing and interest.  However, I felt after reading almost half of the book, without it captivating me at all, I felt my decision had been made.

In cases like these, when I don’t finish a book, I don’t ever state a recommendation to read it, or not. It’s quite possible that it picked up at the end, but unfortunately I didn’t have the patience to continue.  So, take my comments for what they are, my opinion.

My apologies, my work travel schedule means I completely lost track of time and forgot to post the third part of this list!  In case you missed it, a few days ago I shared Part I and Part II of my most-anticipated books of March.  Finally, these are the titles publishing the last part of the month.

Following the publisher’s summary is a short explanation about why I’m excited about a particular title.  Without further ado:

The Nest  by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (March 22)

Every family has its problems. But even among the most troubled, the Plumb family stands out as spectacularly dysfunctional. Years of simmering tensions finally reach a breaking point on an unseasonably cold afternoon in New York City as Melody, Beatrice, and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, freshly released from rehab. Months earlier, an inebriated Leo got behind the wheel of a car with a nineteen-year-old waitress as his passenger. The ensuing accident has endangered the Plumbs’ joint trust fund, “The Nest,” which they are months away from finally receiving. Meant by their deceased father to be a modest mid-life supplement, the Plumb siblings have watched The Nest’s value soar along with the stock market and have been counting on the money to solve a number of self-inflicted problems.

Melody, a wife and mother in an upscale suburb, has an unwieldy mortgage and looming college tuition for her twin teenage daughters. Jack, an antiques dealer, has secretly borrowed against the beach cottage he shares with his husband, Walker, to keep his store open. And Bea, a once-promising short-story writer, just can’t seem to finish her overdue novel. Can Leo rescue his siblings and, by extension, the people they love? Or will everyone need to reimagine the futures they’ve envisioned? Brought together as never before, Leo, Melody, Jack, and Beatrice must grapple with old resentments, present-day truths, and the significant emotional and financial toll of the accident, as well as finally acknowledge the choices they have made in their own lives.

This is a story about the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, the ways we depend upon one another and the ways we let one another down. In this tender, entertaining, and deftly written debut, Sweeney brings a remarkable cast of characters to life to illuminate what money does to relationships, what happens to our ambitions over the course of time, and the fraught yet unbreakable ties we share with those we love.

Family drama. I’m sold. 

No One Knows by J. T. Ellison (March 22)

The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back. It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness, solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly haunting her new life?

In No One Knows, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.

J.T. Ellison is a favorite author of mine. Her books are those that I make a point of picking up as soon as they publish!

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson (March 22):

SET IN THE SUMMER OF 1914 in the village of Rye, England, a similar setting to Pettigrew.

Beatrice Nash, a young woman of good family, arrives as the first female candidate to teach Latin in the local school, and over the course of the novel she and the nephew of her sponsor fall in love.

Surrounding them is a vibrant, colorful cast of characters with whom the reader will fall in love, as they did in Pettigrew.

AS IN JANE AUSTEN, social and domestic dramas and subplots abound…

UNTIL ALL PALES IN THE SHADOW OF THE GREAT WAR.

First off, I loved, loved, loved Simonson’s previous novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Add that this is recommended to fans of Downton Abbey? Sign me up. 

Jane Steele by Lydsay Faye (March 22): 

“Reader, I murdered him.”

A sensitive orphan, Jane Steele suffers first at the hands of her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, then at a grim school where she fights for her very life until escaping to London, leaving the corpses of her tormentors behind her. After years of hiding from the law while penning macabre “last confessions” of the recently hanged, Jane thrills at discovering an advertisement. Her aunt has died and her childhood home has a new master: Mr. Charles Thornfield, who seeks a governess.

Burning to know whether she is in fact the rightful heir, Jane takes the position incognito, and learns that Highgate House is full of marvelously strange new residents—the fascinating but caustic Mr. Thornfield, an army doctor returned from the Sikh Wars, and the gracious Sikh butler Mr. Sardar Singh, whose history with Mr. Thornfield appears far deeper and darker than they pretend. As Jane catches ominous glimpses of the pair’s violent history and falls in love with the gruffly tragic Mr. Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him—body, soul, and secrets—without revealing her own murderous past?

A satirical romance about identity, guilt, goodness, and the nature of lies, by a writer who Matthew Pearl calls “superstar-caliber” and whose previous works Gillian Flynn declared “spectacular,” JANE STEELE is a brilliant and deeply absorbing book inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre, serial killer? There isn’t anything about this I don’t love. if you buy one book that I recommend in March, let it be this one! 

That wraps it all up; my most anticipated books of March. Did I miss any? Which titles are you looking forward to most?

Yesterday, I shared the first part of my most anticipated books of March. With at least one more post to follow, it’s probably best that you plan your budget now!

The Crooked Heart of Mercy by Billie Livingston (March 8):

Ben wakes up in a hospital with a hole in his head he can’t explain. What he can remember he’d rather forget. Like how he’d spend nights as a limo driver for the wealthy and debauched….how he and his wife, Maggie, drifted apart in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy…how his little brother, Cola, got in over his head with loan sharks circling.

Maggie is alone. Again. With bills to pay and Ben in a psych ward, she must return to work. But who would hire her in the state she’s in? And just as Maggie turns to her brother, Francis, the Internet explodes with video of his latest escapade. The headline? Drunk Priest Propositions Cops.

Francis is an unlikely priest with a drinking problem and little interest in celibacy. A third DUI, a looming court date.…When Maggie takes him in, he knows he may be down to his last chance. And his best shot at healing might lie in helping Maggie and Ben reconnect—against all odds.

Simmering with dark humor and piercing insights, The Crooked Heart of Mercy is a startling reminder that redemption can be found in the most unlikely of places.

I feel this is one of those books that you read when you need your spirit lifted, for the characters have to overcome huge obstacles to pull themselves out of a bit of despair. The title, the cover, the summary. Everything about this book drew me to it. 

The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo (March 15): 

When the naked body of a teenage girl is found on a riverbank in Basque Country, Spain, homicide inspector Amaia Salazar must return to the hometown she always sought to escape. A dark secret from Amaia’s past plagues her with nightmares, and as her investigation deepens, the old pagan beliefs of the community threaten to derail her astute detective work. The lines between mythology and reality begin to blur, and Amaia must discover whether the crimes are the work of a ritualistic killer or of a mythical creature known as the Basajaun, the Invisible Guardian.

Torn between the rational procedures of her job and the local superstitions of a region shaped by the Spanish Inquisition, Amaia fights against the demons of her past in order to track down a killer on the run.

The cover is the first thing that grabbed my attention with this particular title. Then, the setting.  I read a lot of thrillers set in UK, Ireland, the United States. But Spain? Not so much. Definitely time to change that!

Two If By Sea by by Jacquelyn Mitchard (March 15): 

Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami in Brisbane, American expat and former police officer Frank Mercy goes out to join his volunteer rescue unit and pulls a little boy from a submerged car, saving the child’s life with only seconds to spare. In that moment, Frank’s own life is transformed. Not quite knowing why, Frank sidesteps the law, when, instead of turning Ian over to the Red Cross, he takes the boy home to the Midwestern farm where he grew up. Not long into their journey, Frank begins to believe that Ian has an extraordinary, impossible telepathic gift; but his only wish is to protect the deeply frightened child. As Frank struggles to start over, training horses as his father and grandfather did before him, he meets Claudia, a champion equestrian and someone with whom he can share his life—and his fears for Ian. Both of them know that it will be impossible to keep Ian’s gift a secret forever. Already, ominous coincidences have put Frank’s police instincts on high alert, as strangers trespass the quiet life at the family farm.

The fight to keep Ian safe from a sinister group who want him back takes readers from the ravaged shores of Brisbane to the middle of America to a quaint English village. Even as Frank and Claudia dare to hope for new love, it becomes clear that they can never let Ian go, no matter what the cost. A suspenseful novel on a grand scale, Two If by Sea is about the best and worst in people, and the possibility of heroism and even magic in ordinary life.

It’s been some time since I’ve read anything by Jacquelyn Mitchard. I absolutely adored The Deep End of the Ocean. The concept, a boy with telepathic gifts rescued from the brink of death, captures my attention.  Also, how society around him reacts to his abilities. I’m certain this will be one of those novels that pulls at your heart strings! 

As Close to Us as Breathing by Elizabeth Poliner (March 18): 

A multigenerational family saga about the long-lasting reverberations of one tragic summer by “a wonderful talent [who] should be read widely” (Edward P. Jones).

In 1948, a small stretch of the Woodmont, Connecticut shoreline, affectionately named “Bagel Beach,” has long been a summer destination for Jewish families. Here sisters Ada, Vivie, and Bec assemble at their beloved family cottage, with children in tow and weekend-only husbands who arrive each Friday in time for the Sabbath meal.

During the weekdays, freedom reigns. Ada, the family beauty, relaxes and grows more playful, unimpeded by her rule-driven, religious husband. Vivie, once terribly wronged by her sister, is now the family diplomat and an increasingly inventive chef. Unmarried Bec finds herself forced to choose between the family-centric life she’s always known and a passion-filled life with the married man with whom she’s had a secret years-long affair.

But when a terrible accident occurs on the sisters’ watch, a summer of hope and self-discovery transforms into a lifetime of atonement and loss for members of this close-knit clan. Seen through the eyes of Molly, who was twelve years old when she witnessed the accident, this is the story of a tragedy and its aftermath, of expanding lives painfully collapsed. Can Molly, decades after the event, draw from her aunt Bec’s hard-won wisdom and free herself from the burden that destroyed so many others?

I was sold at “multigenerational family saga.” They are my kryptonite.  Set in New England, too? There really isn’t anything I don’t like about this title. 

Come back tomorrow when I wrap up this series. Be sure to share which titles your interested in!

It’s sunny out today, so it’s slightly easier to think forward to Spring! Spring means new life, beautiful colors in nature. It also means a bunch of new book releases!

I’ve broken my most anticipated books of March down into a few posts.  There are quite a few titles coming out the first week of the month, always a good sign!  As always, I’ve included the publisher’s summary and a quick note about why I’m interested in that particular title!

Annabel Lee by Mike Nappa (March 1)
On a farm fourteen miles east of Peachtree, Alabama, a secret is hidden–a secret named Annabel Lee. Her uncle’s last words before he hid her away: Don’t open that door for anybody, you got it? Not even me.

Fourteen miles east of Peachtree, Alabama, a secret is hidden. That secret’s name is Annabel Lee Truckson, and even she doesn’t know why her mysterious uncle has stowed her deep underground in a military-style bunker. He’s left her with a few German words, a barely-controlled guard dog, and a single command: “Don’t open that door for anybody, you got it? Not even me.”

Above ground, a former Army sniper called The Mute and an enigmatic “Dr. Smith” know about the girl. As the race begins to find her, the tension builds. Who wants to set her free? Why does the other want to keep her captive forever? Who will reach her first?

Private investigators Trudi Coffey and Samuel Hill need to piece together the clues and stay alive long enough to retrieve the girl–before it’s too late.

Huge Edgar Allan Poe fan here, so this book captured my attention from the title alone.  The premise won me over even more. I can’t wait to start this one!

Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and The Great War by Heather Webb, Hazel Gaynor, Beatriz Williams, Jennifer Robson, Jessica Brockmole, Kate Kerrigan, Evangeline Holland, Lauren Willig, Marci Jefferson (March 1): 

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month…

November 11, 1918. After four long, dark years of fighting, the Great War ends at last, and the world is forever changed. For soldiers, loved ones, and survivors the years ahead stretch with new promise, even as their hearts are marked by all those who have been lost.

As families come back together, lovers reunite, and strangers take solace in each other, everyone has a story to tell.

In this moving anthology, nine authors share stories of love, strength, and renewal as hope takes root in a fall of poppies.

Though I’m generally not a fan of romance or love stories, something about families and loved ones reunited after the War just tugs at my heart strings. The fact that some of my very favorite historical fiction authors have contributed to this collection is just icing on the cake!

America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie (March 1): 

From her earliest days, Patsy Jefferson knows that though her father loves his family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still. As Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother’s death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France.

It is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that fifteen-year-old Patsy learns about her father’s troubling liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age. Meanwhile, Patsy has fallen in love—with her father’s protégé William Short, a staunch abolitionist and ambitious diplomat. Torn between love, principles, and the bonds of family, Patsy questions whether she can choose a life as William’s wife and still be a devoted daughter.

Her choice will follow her in the years to come, to Virginia farmland, Monticello, and even the White House. And as scandal, tragedy, and poverty threaten her family, Patsy must decide how much she will sacrifice to protect her father’s reputation, in the process defining not just his political legacy, but that of the nation he founded.

I seem to be on quite the historical fiction kick, as of late. Always fascinated by Thomas Jefferson, I’m quite intrigued to see his life from his daughter’s point of view. 

Fiercombe Manor by Kate Riordan (March 1): 

In 1933, naive twenty-two-year-old Alice is pregnant, unmarried, and disgraced. She can no longer share her parents’ London home, so her desperate mother concocts a cover story and begs her old friend, Mrs. Jelphs, for help. The housekeeper at rural Fiercombe Manor, Mrs. Jelphs is moved by Alice’s “plight” as a new widow and agrees to watch over her in the secluded English countryside until the baby is born and given up for adoption. Because the manor house’s owners, Lord and Lady Stanton, no longer live there, Alice’s only company will be Mrs. Jelphs and her skeleton staff.

Thirty years before Alice’s arrival, Lady Elizabeth Stanton awaits the birth of her second child, fervently hoping he will be the boy her husband desires. But as her time nears, she is increasingly tormented by memories of what happened with her first baby and terrified that history will repeat itself . . . with devastating consequences.

At first, Fiercombe Manor offers Alice a welcome relief from her mother’s disapproving gaze. But she begins to sense that all is not well in the picturesque Gloucestershire valley. After a chance encounter with Tom, the young scion of the Stanton family, Alice discovers that Fiercombe’s beauty is haunted by the clan’s tragic past. Determined to exorcise the ghosts of the idyllic, isolated house, nothing can prepare Alice for what she uncovers.

Can she escape the tragic fate of the other women who have lived in the Fiercombe valley…?

Sounds uber creepy, right? When I saw this was compared to Rebecca and The Little Stranger, I knew I had to give it a try!

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz (March 1):

In case you were wondering, I didn’t do it. I didn’t have anything to do with Frank’s death. I don’t have an alibi, so you’ll have to take my word for it…

Forty-eight hours after leaving her husband’s body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. It’s not the first time.

She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitive’s eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasy―and dangerous―alliance is born.

It’s almost impossible to live off the grid today, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret…can she outrun her past?

With heart-stopping escapes and devious deceptions, The Passenger is an amazing psychological thriller about defining yourself while you pursue your path to survival. One thing is certain: the ride will leave you breathless.

Lisa Lutz. That’s all the reason you need. Truly. Brilliant writer, I’m a fan of everything she’s penned!

The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell (March 1): 

In Catherine Lowell’s smart and original debut novel, the only remaining descendant of the Brontë family embarks on a modern-day literary scavenger hunt to find the family’s long-rumored secret estate, using only the clues her eccentric father left behind, and the Brontës’ own novels.

Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. Since her father’s untimely death, she is the presumed heir to a long-rumored trove of diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts passed down from the Brontë family—a hidden fortune never revealed to anyone outside of the family, but endlessly speculated about by Brontë scholars and fanatics. Samantha, however, has never seen this alleged estate and for all she knows, it’s just as fictional as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights.

Yet everything changes when Samantha enrolls at Oxford University and long lost objects from the past begin rematerializing in her life. Her father’s distinctive copy of Jane Eyre, which should have perished in the fire that claimed his life, mysteriously appears on Samantha’s bed. Annotated in her father’s handwriting, the book is the first of many clues in an elaborate scavenger hunt derived from the world’s greatest literature. With the help of a handsome but inscrutable professor, Samantha must plunge into a vast literary mystery and an untold family legacy, one that can only be solved by decoding the clues hidden within the Brontës’ own writing.

In this case, it’s the subject matter that has my attention! Brontë family secrets? Sign me up!

There we have it! The first part of my most anticipated books of March! Which of these interest you most?