BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE OTHER WIFE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent acquisition:  The Other Wife, a mesmerising psychological thriller from one of the greatest crime writers of today, Michael Robotham, the international bestselling author of THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS.

 

 

 

Beginning:  (Day One)

From the top of Primrose Hill, silhouetted against the arriving day, the spires and domes of London look like the painted backdrop of a Pinewood sound stage waiting for actors to take their places and an unseen director to yell ‘Action‘.

I love this city.  Built upon the ruins of the past, every square foot of it has been used, re-used, flattened, bombed, dismantled, rebuilt and flattened again until the layers of history are like sediments of rock that will one day be picked over by future archaeologists and treasure hunters.

***

Friday 56:  He’s looking for a sympathetic ear, someone who understands the burden of being middle-aged, male, successful, white and married to an attractive wife.  For a moment, we lock eyes and he realises that I’m not the right person and decides to let it go.  He picks up his mug of tea and dunks a biscuit (56%).

***

Synopsis:  Childhood sweethearts William and Mary have been married for sixty years. William is a celebrated surgeon, Mary a devoted wife. Both have a strong sense of right and wrong.

This is what their son, Joe O’Loughlin, has always believed. But when Joe is summoned to the hospital with news that his father has been brutally attacked, his world is turned upside down. Who is the strange woman crying at William’s bedside, covered in his blood – a friend, a mistress, a fantasist or a killer?

Against the advice of the police, Joe launches his own investigation. As he learns more, he discovers sides to his father he never knew – and is forcibly reminded that the truth comes at a price.

***

Would you keep reading?  Do the snippets reel you in?

***

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “ALL WE EVER WANTED”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent acquisition:  All We Ever Wanted, by Emily Giffin, in which three very different people must choose between their families and their most deeply held values. . . .

 

 

 

Book Beginning:  (Nina)

It started out as a typical Saturday night.  And by typical, I don’t mean normal in any mainstream American way.  There was no grilling out with the neighbors or going to the movies or doing any of the things I did as a kid.  It was simply typical for what we’d become since Kirk sold his software company, and we went from comfortable to wealthy.  Very wealthy.

***

Friday 56:  I heard more clicking as he mumbled, “What happened Saturday night has nothing to do with being spoiled.  It was just stupid….” His voice trailed off, and I could tell he was only half focused on our conversation.

***

Synopsis:  Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. More recently, her husband made a fortune selling his tech business, and their adored son has been accepted to Princeton.

Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she’s strayed from the person she once was.

Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long, and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school.

Amid so much wealth and privilege, Lyla doesn’t always fit in—and her overprotective father doesn’t help—but in most ways, she’s a typical teenaged girl, happy and thriving.

Then, one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. As the image spreads like wildfire, the Windsor community is instantly polarized, buzzing with controversy and assigning blame.

***

What do you think?  Would you keep reading?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “MY EX-LIFE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent download:  My Ex-Life, by Stephen McCauley, a novel that examines how we define home, family, and love. Be prepared to laugh, shed a few tears, and have thoughts of your own ex-life triggered. (Throw pillows optional.)

 

 

 

 

Beginning:  No, it was not the happiest moment of David Hedges’s life.  Soren, his partner of five years, had left him, he’d gotten fat, and somewhere in the midst of that, he’d woken up one day and realized he was no longer in his twenties.  Or his forties.  The last person he expected to hear from was Julie Fiske.

***

Friday 56:  “He’s the kind of man who is at home everywhere, which in this case means Berlin or maybe Tokyo.  Who can remember?”

***

Synopsis:  David Hedges’s life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.

The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him.

Julie definitely doesn’t have a problem with marijuana (she’s given it up completely, so it doesn’t matter if she gets stoned almost daily) and the Airbnb she’s running out of her seaside house north of Boston is neither shabby nor illegal. And she has two whole months to come up with the money to buy said house from her second husband before their divorce is finalized. She’d just like David’s help organizing college plans for her 17-year-old daughter.

That would be Mandy. To quote Barry Manilow, Oh Mandy. While she knows she’s smarter than most of the kids in her school, she can’t figure out why she’s making so many incredibly dumb and increasingly dangerous choices?

When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off thirty years ago—they’re still best friends who can finish each other’s sentences. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.

***

I’m intrigued by the excerpts and the premise.  What do you think?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE LAST MOVE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is The Last Move, by Mary Burton.  In this gripping stand-alone from bestselling author Mary Burton, an FBI agent must catch a copycat killer. The only difference this time: she’s the final victim.

 

 

 

Beginning:  When love is betrayed, there is nothing to contain the demons.

San Antonio, Texas

Sunday, November 26, 12:35 a.m.

He’ d been following her for weeks.  Watching.  Observing.  Loving the chase.  The hunt.  But he wasn’t a monster, nor was he evil.  He was a man with a narrowly focused plan that gave his life purpose and structure.

***

Friday 56:  His clothes were neat, crisp, and in accordance with his salary:  off the rack.  He cared about his appearance because it instilled discipline, not because he was fussy.  No signs of a tattoo, but of course the suit hid much, and calluses on his palms and his deep tan suggested he liked the outdoors.

***

Synopsis:  Catching monsters helps FBI agent Kate Hayden keep her nightmares at bay. Now an urgent call brings her back to San Antonio, the scene of her violent past. A brutal new murder shows hallmarks of a serial killer nicknamed the Samaritan. Tricky part is, Kate already caught him.

Either Kate made a deadly error, or she’s got a copycat on her hands. Paired with homicide detective Theo Mazur, she quickly realizes this murder is more twisted than it first appeared. Then a second body is found, the mode of death identical to a different case that Kate thought she’d put behind her.

Now Kate and Detective Mazur aren’t just working a homicide; the investigative pair is facing a formidable enemy who knows Kate intimately. While Mazur is personally trying to protect Kate, the closer they are drawn to the killer, the clearer it becomes that in this terrifying game, there is only one rule: don’t believe everything you see…

***

What do you think?  Would you keep reading?

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE PERFECT ROOMMATE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent download:  The Perfect Roommate, by Minka Kent.  A taut and twisted tale by the author of 2017’s THE MEMORY WATCHER, which has been optioned by NBC Universal’s UCP with Escape Artists attached to produce. 

 

 

 

Book Beginning:  (Prologue)

All I needed was a cheap room to rent.  I didn’t plan this.  I swear.

Chapter One:  It’s a pretty little house with an ugly little address.

47 Magpie Drive.

What should have been an ordinary Sunday kicked off with an eviction notice on my door and ended with my belongings shoved into wrinkled grocery sacks and the neighbor’s stolen WiFi on my computer.  With just minutes to spare, I managed to find the perfect place—one that didn’t require credit checks, a huge deposit, or a long lease.

***

56:  There’s a swirl of nervous energy in my middle, but my ego is flattered that she likes me enough to introduce me to her family.  If nothing, it solidifies the fact that we’re becoming friends.  Actual friends.

***

Synopsis: “Think you know what to expect? Think again. This is the kind of book you devour in one sitting, let that twist soak in, and then re-read the entire thing immediately.” – The Riveted Reader Blog   

She’s my roommate.

I know how she takes her tea, how she organizes her closet.

I know when she goes to bed each night, what she eats for breakfast, the passcode on her phone.

I know she calls her mother on Mondays, takes barre on Thursdays, and meets her friends for drinks on Fridays.

But more important than any of that … I know what she did.  

***

What do you think?  Do the excerpts grab you?  Would you keep reading?

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “FATES & FURIES”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent download:  Fates & Furies, by Lauren Groff.  From the award-winning, New York Times- bestselling author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia, one of the most anticipated books of the fall: an exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art, and perception.

 

 

 

Beginning:  A thick drizzle from the sky, like a curtain’s sudden sweeping.  The seabirds stopped their tuning, the ocean went mute.  Houselights over the water dimmed to gray.

Two people were coming up the beach.

***

Friday 56:  Rachel sat down beside her brother, leaned into his warmth.  She was up for fall break, had pierced her ears all the way around, and wore her hair long in front, shaved in the rear.

***

Synopsis:  Fates and Furies is a literary masterpiece that defies expectation. A dazzling examination of a marriage, it is also a portrait of creative partnership written by one of the best writers of her generation. 

Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.

At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. With stunning revelations and multiple threads, and in prose that is vibrantly alive and original, Groff delivers a deeply satisfying novel about love, art, creativity, and power that is unlike anything that has come before it. Profound, surprising, propulsive, and emotionally riveting, it stirs both the mind and the heart.

***

Reading the blurb gave me the kind of chill you feel when you stumble upon something powerful, a description of events that resonates like nothing else.  What do you think?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent download:  Now That You Mention It (e-book), by Kristan Higgins, a witty, emotionally charged novel about the complications of life, love and family…

 

 

Beginning:  The first thought I had after I died was:  How will my dog cope with this?

The second thought:  I hope we can still go with open casket.

Third thought:  I have nothing to wear to my funeral.

Fourth:  I’ll never meet Daniel Radcliffe now.

Fifth:  Did Bobby just break up with me?

***

Friday 56%:  At home, when my heart turned on me in a panic attack, fluttering like that damn hummingbird, and I couldn’t breathe or remember where I was, Boomer would sense it and nudge my hand with his velvety snout, whining his love and concern.  When Bobby worked nights, the dog stayed glued to me, and the truth was, he made me feel safer than Bobby.

***

Synopsis:  One step forward. Two steps back. The Tufts scholarship that put Nora Stuart on the path to becoming a Boston medical specialist was a step forward. Being hit by a car and then overhearing her boyfriend hit on another doctor when she thought she was dying? Two major steps back.

Injured in more ways than one, Nora feels her carefully built life cracking at the edges. There’s only one place to land: home. But the tiny Maine community she left fifteen years ago doesn’t necessarily want her. At every turn, someone holds the prodigal daughter of Scupper Island responsible for small-town drama and big-time disappointments.

With a tough islander mother who’s always been distant, a wild-child sister in jail and a withdrawn teenage niece as eager to ditch the island as Nora once was, Nora has her work cut out for her if she’s going to take what might be her last chance to mend the family. Balancing loss and opportunity, dark events from her past with hope for the future, Nora will discover that tackling old pain makes room for promise…and the chance to begin again.

***

What do you think?  Do the snippets grab you?  Would you keep reading?

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “A SEASON TO LIE”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent download:  A Season to Lie (A Detective Gemma Monroe Mystery), by Emily Littlejohn, in a follow-up to her acclaimed debut Inherit the Bones, a twisted killer stalks his prey in the dead of winter.  

 

 

Beginning:  (Prologue)

On a cold and bitter night in February, twelve weeks after giving birth, I returned to what I know best:  death.

I follow death into black woods.  I chase death across deserted meadows.  I seek death in the faces of strangers.

***

Friday 56:  Surely Lila Conway was some kind of princess, or fairy queen, to live in a house such as this, deep in the woods, sheltered against the harsh realities of the outside world.

The stone cottage was two stories, made from smooth, polished gray river rock.

***

Synopsis:  On a cold dark night in February, as a blizzard shrieks through Cedar Valley, police officer and new mother Gemma Monroe responds to an anonymous report of a prowler at the local private high school, The Valley Academy. In her idyllic Colorado small town, Gemma expects the call was just a prank by a bored teenager.

But there in the snow lies the savaged body of a man whose presence in town was meant to be a secret. And a disturbing message left by his killer promises more death to come.

This is only the beginning . . .

Nothing is as it seems in Cedar Valley and stories, both fact and fiction, ensnare Gemma as her investigation moves from the halls of an elite academy to the forests that surround Cedar Valley.

Against a backdrop of bleak winter weather, stymied by those who would lie to protect what is dearest to them, Gemma hunts a ruthless killer before he strikes again in A Season to Lie.

***

And that’s how it goes.  What do you think?  Do you want to know more?

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BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE UNEXPECTED MOTHER”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a new download:  The Unexpected Mother, by Susan A. Ring, a POWERFUL, CHILLING, TRUE STORY as featured in People Magazine and The Dr. Oz show 2016 -O, The Oprah Magazine 2003, and Oprah’s choice as one of the most talked about stories in O’s Top 10 Anniversary Special in 2010. 

 

 

Beginning:  As a surrogate mother, it never entered my mind that the intended parents, Michael and Jackie who I was working with for a second time, would change their minds and not want their triplets, the ones I was pregnant with.  At the time, I sensed they might be having marital problems, but never, ever gave any thought to the fact that they would demand a reduction to twins, and then inform me afterward they did not want the twins.

***

56:  I never gave thought to meeting him—ever.  It was wrong because he was married, but so was I.  He knew all about my divorce and tried his best to talk me out of it.  He preached to me to keep working on my marriage, but I wasn’t open to his counseling.

***

Synopsis:  Inside the life of a surrogate mother Susan Ring, a single mother of two who learns upon her second journey, with the same intended parents, she is pregnant with triplets. The parents demand a reduction to twins. The surrogacy agency informs Susan of the unbelievable, the parents no longer want the twins she is pregnant with, and the intended father is suffering from mental illness. The parents breach the contract, divorce, and abandon Susan and the twins at the hospital, ultimately insisting their children go to social services. Susan refuses to comply and boldly prepares to fight for parentage in a California court with no biological ties. It is a story of hope, love and letting go. This astonishingly honest memoir raises challenging ethical questions, redefines motherhood, and what it means to be a mother in today’s complex world of infertility. It recognizes how far advanced science has become, and how the law is lagging far behind. Above all, it is a story for our times.

***

What do you think?  Do the snippets pique your curiosity?

***

BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE WIFE BETWEEN US”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is an ARC from NetGalley:  The Wife Between Us, by Greer Hendricks/Sarah Pekkanen, to be released on 1/9/18, “a fiendishly clever romantic thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. This one will keep you guessing.” –Anita Shreve, New York Times bestselling author of The Stars are Fire

 

Book Beginning:  (Prologue)

She walks briskly down the city sidewalk, her blond hair bouncing against her shoulders, her cheeks flushed, a gym bag looped over her forearm.  When she reaches her apartment building, her hand dips into her purse and pulls out her keys.  The street is loud and busy, with yellow cabs racing by, commuters returning from work, and shoppers entering the deli on the corner.  But my eyes never stray from her.

***

Friday 56:  One of the first clues surfaced even before we were married.  I held it in my hand.  Sam saw it.  So did everyone else at our wedding. (56%).

***

Synopsis:  When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing.

Twisted and deliciously chilling, The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage – and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

Read between the lies.

***

What do you think?  Do the snippets grab you?  Would you keep reading?

***