FALL READING CHALLENGE: Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton #FRC2017 @BookSparks

BOOK INFORMATION

Hardcover: 272 pages

Genre: Self-help, relationships

• Publisher: Flatiron Books; Hardcover edition (September 6, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250128544
• ISBN-13: 978-1250128546

Synopsis: The highly anticipated new memoir by bestselling author Glennon Doyle Melton tells the story of her journey of self-discovery after the implosion of her marriage.

Just when Glennon Doyle Melton was beginning to feel she had it all figured out—three happy children, a doting spouse, and a writing career so successful that her first book catapulted to the top of the New York Times bestseller list—her husband revealed his infidelity and she was forced to realize that nothing was as it seemed. A recovering alcoholic and bulimic, Glennon found that rock bottom was a familiar place. In the midst of crisis, she knew to hold on to what she discovered in recovery: that her deepest pain has always held within it an invitation to a richer life.

Love Warrior is the story of one marriage, but it is also the story of the healing that is possible for any of us when we refuse to settle for good enough and begin to face pain and love head-on. This astonishing memoir reveals how our ideals of masculinity and femininity can make it impossible for a man and a woman to truly know one another - and it captures the beauty that unfolds when one couple commits to unlearning everything they’ve been taught so that they can finally, after thirteen years of marriage, fall in love.

Love Warrior is a gorgeous and inspiring account of how we are born to be warriors: strong, powerful, and brave; able to confront the pain and claim the love that exists for us all. This chronicle of a beautiful, brutal journey speaks to anyone who yearns for deeper, truer relationships and a more abundant, authentic life.

Review: This book is my introduction to this author, and I am so glad I chose to read it. While some of it was difficult reading (I could feel her pain, disappointment, confusion), other parts were uplifting and wonderful. 

The author takes us along with her on a deeply personal life journey, and she does it in such a way that we can all connect with her somewhere along the way. I can relate to being sure you know what love is and how it is supposed to look and feel, and then realizing that you've only bought into what society portrays--and working to unlearn it to find a deeper, truer love.

Rating: Four stars

About the author

Glennon Doyle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Love Warrior, which was selected as Oprah's Book Club pick, as well as the New York Times bestselling memoir Carry On, Warrior. Glennon is also the founder of Momastery, an online community reaching millions of people each week, and the creator and president of Together Rising—a non-profit organization that has raised over seven million dollars for families around the world.

Follow Glennon and Momastery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and sign up for her email updates here: http://eepurl.com/OiRan.

Glennon is a columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine, and was named among OWN Network's SuperSoul100 inaugural group - as one of 100 "awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity," as well as one as of Family Circle's 20 Most Influential Moms of 2017. Glennon and her philanthropic work have been featured on The TODAY Show, The Talk, The OWN Network, Chelsea, Dr. Oz and in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Glamour, Parents Magazine, Newsweek, and Woman’s Day, among other television and print outlets. She lives in Florida with her family.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: Emma In The Night by Wendy Walker @BookSparks #FRC2017

BOOK INFORMATION

Genre: Thriller

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 8, 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250141435
• ISBN-13: 978-1250141439
• ASIN: B01N36Z6DK

Synopsis: One night five years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: fifteen-year-old Cass and seventeen-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.

Review: 
First thoughts after finishing the book: 
Wow, wow, wow!! I did NOT expect this to end the way it did, at all. One of the best thrillers I've read this year. The second book I've read by this author, and I'm hungry for more from her.

Full review:
Cass's family is incredibly dysfunctional, and sometimes difficult to read about, but she never lets them break her or dim her desire for justice, closure, and a new life. 

The entire book is filled with twists, turns, and suspense. Every time I thought I knew what had actually happened, the next twist would send me off in another direction. Things are definitely not always what they seem. I enjoy the alternating viewpoints and the way they keep the reader off balance.

**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, with no expectation of a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**
Rating:  Five stars

About the author
 Wendy Walker is a former attorney and investment banker in Fairfield County, Connecticut who began writing while at home raising her three sons. Her debut thriller, All Is Not Forgotten, has become an international bestseller and was optioned for film by Warner Brothers with Reese Witherspoon set to produce. The paperback will be released July 18, 2017, followed by her second thriller, Emma In The Night, on August 8.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris #frc2016 #booksparks

This thrilling debut novel takes you inside the picture-perfect marriage – successful husband, doting wife…but dark secrets lurk just behind the iron gate of their perfect home.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS BY B. A. PARIS

Course Title: ‘Til Deceit Do Us Part

Department: Psychological Thrillers

Course Date: September 20

Description: Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace.

He has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You might not want to like them, but you do. Though, you’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it’s difficult because you realize Jack and Grace are never apart.

Some might call this true love. Others might ask why Grace never answers the phone. Or how she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. And why there are bars on one of the bedroom windows.

Sometimes, the perfect marriage is the perfect lie.

Review: I absolutely LOVED this book! Almost from the first page, I suspected something was "off" in the relationship between Grace and Jack, but I never would have expected to learn the things I did about them. By the time I was a third of the way in, I knew that I was never going to like Jack at all, and was hoping there would be a positive end to the story somehow.

The plot of this story is very fast-paced and will keep you engaged from beginning to end. The story alternates between the past and the present, but the time switches are very clearly marked, and the story is easy to follow.

Grace and her sister Millie, who has Down's Syndrome, are very likable characters, and you will find yourself rooting for them throughout the book. Jack is originally likable, but as you get to know who/what he really is, it is difficult to find anything about him to like at all.

This is the most edge of your seat page turner I've read this year. If you enjoy suspenseful psychological thrillers, you should definitely pick up this book!!

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Five stars

About the author

B. A. Paris is from a Franco/Irish background. She was brought up in England and worked in London for three years before moving to Paris, where worked in corporate banking and as a trader in an international bank. After the birth of her first daughter, she became a stay-at-home mother and went on to have another three daughters. She spent four years in the Netherlands, where her fifth daughter was born. Returning to France, she decided to re-train as an English teacher and worked for some years in an international school and then at the Université de Marne la Vallée, teaching English to Architecture students. In 2009 she set up a language school with her husband and now teaches Business English in Paris.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: How To Grow An Addict by J.A. Wright

Description: Take a sneak peek into today’s addiction and rehab culture with How to Grow an Addict. Discussion points include denial, fear, acceptance and trust.

Synopsis: Randall Grange has been tricked into admitting herself into a treatment center and she doesn’t know why. She’s not a party hound like the others in her therapy group—but then again, she knows she can’t live without pills or booze. Raised by an abusive father, a detached mother, and a loving aunt and uncle, Randall both loves and hates her life. She’s awkward and a misfit. Her parents introduced her to alcohol and tranquilizers at a young age, ensuring that her teenage years would be full of bad choices, and by the time she’s twenty-three years old, she’s a full-blown drug addict, well acquainted with the miraculous power chemicals have to cure just about any problem she could possibly have—and she’s in more trouble than she’s ever known was possible.

Review:  This is a fascinating story of addiction and rehabilitation. Randall grows up with an abusive alcoholic father and a detached, despondent mother who depends on her tranquilizers. At a very young age, she was introduced to pills and alcohol herself. If it weren't for her Uncle Hank and Aunt Flo, Randall wouldn't have had any chance at a normal childhood.

As she gets older, she makes what the reader can see are poor choices, until she finally winds up in the hospital after a particularly bad episode. From there, she gets referred to a program, and we see her start the journey of rehab and recovery. 

This is definitely a story worth reading, and an author worth watching for in the future.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating:   Four stars

About the author
J.A. Wright was raised in the Pacific Northwest and moved to New Zealand in 1990. She is the founder and director of the World Buskers Festival (1994–2014), and the New Zealand Jazz and Blues Festival (1997–present). With more than thirty years in recovery from drug addiction, she’s been crafting this novel for years.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: All In Her Head by Sunny Mera

Description: Dive into the female psyche and explore several rarely understood psychological phenomena with this intimate portrait of a woman’s struggles to hold on to reality.

Synopsis: As a young girl growing up in the Midwest, Sunny experiences the shame and stigma of scandal when her father is banned from their church for having an affair with the pastor’s best friend’s wife. As Sunny grows older, she begins to build the life she’s always wanted: she marries, buys a house, enrolls in graduate school, and soon has a baby on the way. But when she experiences the psychological phenomena of orgasmic labor, it triggers a chain of bizarre events, and she gradually descends into a world of delusion and paranoia. As Sunny struggles to separate the real from the unreal, she relies upon friends and family to ground her in truth and love—and keep her from going over the edge into madness.

Review: This was a tough read for me. I kept thinking "This is just crazy talk," and then I realized that was the POINT. The way the book is written actually gives readers a chance to see her life as she saw it at the time.

The book is an eye-opening view of motherhood, marriage, mental illness, treatment and recovery.  I admire Sunny for her bravery in putting it all out there for the world. She will make you laugh and cry, and rail at the current state of mental health care in this country.

**I received a copy of this book from Booksparks in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Four stars

About the author
I’m a mother who writes and lives in Brooklyn, New York, where I landed by way of New Hampshire. I was inspired to write the book All in Her Head: A Novel after my diagnosis of severe mental illness and my battle with postpartum depression, psychosis, and delusional disorder. I come from a privileged, educated, and stable home; I grew up attending a small, private Christian school that my parents and their friends founded in our attic in Topeka, Kansas. Thankfully, medication is effective for me and I wasn’t criminalized for my illness. On my journey, the thing I needed was more role models to explain how to share. I needed to hear stories of people who told their stories, and see more stories explaining how to teach others to listen. This would have helped so much during my dark days and then during my early days of insight. I’ve spent the last decade writing a narrative I can live with. Now that I’m finished with this story, I can work on what I want: mothering and writing about things that aren’t centered on me. I’m sharing this story with the aspiration that others will share my real hope for building a reality that is a place we want to live.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

PRETTY GIRLS BY KARIN SLAUGHTER, BOOKSPARKS UNIVERSITY’S DEAN OF STUDENTS

Description: Unravel the disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart. This course will uncover the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where you least expect it.

Synopsis: #1 internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance, and unexpected absolution, in which two estranged sisters must come together to find truth about two harrowing tragedies, twenty years apart, that devastate their lives.

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful thriller from one of the finest suspense writers working today.

Review: This standalone thriller is not one for the faint of heart. There is murder, sexual sadism, and a variety of betrayals. Claire and Paul Scott seem to have the perfect life, but after Paul's death, Claire begins to discover things about him which horrify her. Not sure who to trust, she and her sister come to a shaky truce and work together to find the truth.  

Along with the main story, there are some heartbreaking chapters where we get to read from the journal of Claire and Lydia's father, which is basically letters written to Julia. His grief, as well as his love for his family, is so real in those journal entries. 

This book is a true page-turner. Like Claire and Lydia, you don't know who can be trusted, and as events play out, the tension builds and hits a major crescendo when they have to face down the sadistic psychopath who has gone unnoticed for years.

**I received a copy of this book from Booksparks in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Four stars

About the author

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of fifteen thrillers, including UNSEEN, CRIMINAL, FALLEN, BROKEN, UNDONE, FRACTURED, BEYOND REACH, TRIPTYCH, FAITHLESS, COP TOWN, and the e-original short stories “Snatched” and “Busted.” 

Slaughter was born in a small southern Georgia community and now resides in Atlanta. She is widely credited with first coining the term "investigoogling" in 2006.

Facebook: Facebook.com/AuthorKarinSlaughter 

Website: http://www.karinslaughter.com/

FALL READING CHALLENGE: The Word Game by Steena Holmes

Description: Go inside the complicated world of sisterly relations, family secrets and unthinkable acts with this course by Steena Holmes. Past students are still talking about it!

Paperback: 207 pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (November 3, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1503947130

ISBN-13: 978-1503947139

Synopsis: For overprotective parent Alyson Ward, any time her daughter, Lyla, is out of sight is reason to panic. So it’s a big step for her when she lets Lyla attend a sleepover at her cousin’s house. Comforted by the knowledge that her sister, Tricia, is the chaperone, Alyson does the one thing she never thought possible: she lets go and trusts that her daughter will be safe.

But Alyson’s sense of peace is short lived. When Lyla comes home the next morning, she reveals something that could tear apart not only their family but also the entire community. Now, Alyson and Tricia must confront their painful shared past as they come together to help a little girl who they fear might be harboring terrible secrets similar to their own. Will the sisters be strong enough to face their demons in order to protect the child, even if it means telling their most private truths?

Review: This book, at its core, is the story of four women: Ida, her grown daughters Alyson and Tricia, and their friend Myah. It's also about the daughters of Alyson, Tricia, and Myah, and about secrets that should never be kept. So much of this book hit home for me as I read through it---it resonated in my soul and heart due to my own life experiences.

Each of the four women  is unique, and we get to read chapters from each of them throughout the book. In that way, we slowly pick up on things that the others might not know, which definitely adds to the tension of trying to put the whole story together.

Steena Holmes is a pro at writing about complicated relationships. We get a look inside marriages, adult friendships, children's friendships, and parent-child relationships. We see how "family" can go so much deeper than blood relatives--and how far a sibling will go to protect another sibling (which is a reveal that quite literally took my breath away!)

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Five stars

About the author

NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author - Steena is the author of the heart wrenching Finding Emma series. 

Her latest novel - The Word Game will be released in November 2015.

Steena Holmes grew up in a small town in Canada and holds a Bachelors degree in Theology.

In 2012 she received the Indie Excellence Award. Holmes was inspired to write Finding Emma after experiencing a brief moment of horror when she’d thought her youngest daughter was missing. 

She currently lives in Calgary with her husband and three daughters and loves to wake up to the Rocky Mountains each morning.
~
Novels in her Finding Emma series:
Finding Emma
Dear Jack
Emma's Secret
Dottie's Memories
Megan's Hope

The Memory Child
The Memory Journal

Stillwater Bay Series:
Before the Storm
Stillwater Rising

FALL READING CHALLENGE: The Black Velvet Coat by Jill G. Hall

THE BLACK VELVET COAT BY JILL G. HALL

Course Title: Exploratory Studies

Department: Women’s Fiction

Course Date: November 16

Description: Travel across the country and through time with The Black Velvet Coat and discover the commonalities in two women’s lives.

Synopsis: Twenty-eight-year-old struggling San Francisco artist Anne McFarland is determined to get a one-woman show, even though no one, including herself, believes she can do it. But when she buys a coat at a thrift shop with a key in its pocket, strange, even magical, occurrences begin to unfold, and she is inspired to create her best work ever. Fifty years before, the coat’s original owner, young heiress Sylvia Van Dam, is headed toward a disastrous marriage with a scoundrel. In a split-second reaction, she does the unimaginable, which propels her destiny out of alignment and forces her on a trip of self-discovery to nature-filled Northern Arizona. When Anne and Sylvia’s lives intersect, they are both forced to face their fears―and in the process, they realize their true potential. 

Review: I've been wanting to read this one since the first time I read the synopsis for it, and I'm happy to say that it was well worth the wait. 

Throughout the book, we are treated to alternating points of view....present day, we follow Anne, while in the 60s we meet Sylvia.  We learn a great deal about these two women (who seem polar opposites at first but are much more alike than you might imagine) and watch them mature and gain confidence as they face the various challenges in their lives.

Both stories are very well told, and all of the main characters are well defined and realistic. I alternated between wanting to shake the two main characters and wanting to hug them. When their stories eventually join, it is wondrous....and that section of the book is my favorite by far.

Ms. Hall has written a most amazing debut novel, and I can't wait to see what she offers us next.

**I received a copy of this book from BookSparks in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Four stars


About the author
Jill G. Hall facilitates creativity groups for artists of all types and curates exhibitions at Inspirations Gallery, NTC at Liberty Station. Her poems have been published in A Year in Ink, Wild Women, Wild Voices, City Works Press, Serving House Journal, and The Avocet. She resides in San Diego with her husband, Jerry, and beagle-basset, Lucy.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: The Good Neighbor by A.J. Banner

Book Information

The Good Neighbor by AJ Banner

Course Title: Bad Behavioral Studies

Department: Suspense

Description: Examine community and neighbor relations under a microscope in this mysterious course by AJ Banner

Synopsis: From a phenomenal new voice in suspense fiction comes a book that will forever change the way you look at the people closest to you…

Shadow Cove, Washington, is the kind of town everyone dreams about—quaint streets, lush forests, good neighbors. That’s what Sarah thinks as she settles into life with her new husband, Dr. Johnny McDonald. But all too soon she discovers an undercurrent of deception. And one October evening when Johnny is away, sudden tragedy destroys Sarah’s happiness.

Dazed and stricken with grief, she and Johnny begin to rebuild their shattered lives. As she picks up the pieces of her broken home, Sarah discovers a shocking secret that forces her to doubt everything she thought was true—about her neighbors, her friends, and even her marriage. With each stunning revelation, Sarah must ask herself, Can we ever really know the ones we love? 

Review: I hate when I fall for the hype surrounding a book and then it turns out to be nothing like what I was expecting. Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of that happening. There should at least be some suspense in a psychological thriller/suspense novel, and I couldn't find it in this book at all. It was dull, boring, and downright ridiculous.

The main character comes off as whiny and insecure, constantly suspicious of her husband. Said husband is written as duller than dishwater, leaving you wonder why any other woman would care about him---except for the constant remarks about him being "gorgeous." 

The writing was sad. "Dialogue" was more like two people having two separate monologs, and things happened to get us to notice a detail, but then that actual incident was seemingly forgotten. 

I'm just glad that I didn't spend money on this book, and that I only lost an hour or two of my life to it.

Rating: One star (unfinished)

About the author

A. J. Banner grew up reading Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, and other masters of love and mystery. She enjoyed sneaking thrillers from her parents' library, which gave her excellent fodder for her first novel of psychological suspense, The Good Neighbor. Born in India and raised in North America, she always dreamed of writing gripping stories in which nothing is what it seems. She's hard at work on her next novel in her home office overlooking a Pacific Northwest forest.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore

Description: Put today’s modern “has-it-all” family under the microscope in this revealing course by Meg Mitchell Moore.

Synopsis: One of People magazine's  Great Beach Reads: "This novel about a striving, upscale California family is a bracing entertainment that zeroes in on the modern pressures put on teens--and their folks."

The Admissions brilliantly captures the frazzled pressure cooker of modern life as a seemingly perfect family comes undone by a few desperate measures, long-buried secrets—and college applications!

The Hawthorne family has it all. Great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly straight teeth. And then comes their eldest daughter's senior year of high school . . .
     Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of her ears and a college application that's not going to write itself. She's set her sights on Harvard, her father's alma mater, and like a dog with a chew toy, Angela won't let up until she's basking in crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under attack, she's suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can't help but daydream about the cute baseball player in English class. Of course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be better spent coming up with a subject for her term paper—which, along with her college essay and community service hours has a rapidly approaching deadline.
     Angela's mother, Nora, is similarly stretched to the limit, juggling parent-teacher meetings, carpool, and a real-estate career where she caters to the mega rich and super-picky buyers and sellers of the Bay Area. The youngest daughter, Maya, still can't read at the age of eight; the middle-child, Cecily, is no longer the happy-go-lucky kid she once was; and the dad, Gabe, seems oblivious to the mounting pressures at home because a devastating secret of his own might be exposed. A few ill-advised moves put the Hawthorne family on a heedless collision course that's equal parts achingly real and delightfully screwball.
     Sharp and topical, The Admissions shows that if you pull at a loose thread, even the sturdiest of lives start to unravel at the seams of high achievement. 

Review: When I first read the synopsis of this book, I was torn as to whether I wanted to read it or not, as I am getting close to being "over" books about families with secrets. But I am definitely glad that I decided to give this one a chance.

This is a family that is spiraling out of control. Their everyday lives have gotten so complicated that they all seem to have lost themselves, their focus, and their ability to function as a family. No one seems to see the stress that the other family members are under, as they drown in their own, until it all comes to a head.

The characters are well defined by the author,  and the love between them is evident, in spite of their harried lives. Nora and Gabe may not always be the most attentive parents, but they obviously want the best for their girls, and want them to be happy. 

The plot is so very real--even if you've not experienced it, you can easily imagine yourself in their shoes. The author makes you feel empathy for their situations, and compassion for them as they try to make things right. The fact that we get to see things from the perspectives of various characters makes it even more engaging.

I would highly recommend this book to EVERYONE!!

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Four stars

About the author

Meg Mitchell Moore is the author of The Admissions, as well as past hits like The Arrivals and So Far Away. She worked for several years as a journalist. Her work has been published in Yankee, Continental, Women’s Health, Advertising Age and many other business and consumer magazines. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and their three children.

FALL READING CHALLENGE: Pretending To Dance by Diane Chamberlain

Book Information

Genre: Thriller, Family Life, Domestic Drama

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 6, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250010748
• ISBN-13: 978-1250010742

Synopsis: Molly Arnette is very good at keeping secrets. She lives in San Diego with a husband she adores, and they are trying to adopt a baby because they can't have a child on their own. But the process of adoption brings to light many questions about Molly's past and her family--the family she left behind in North Carolina twenty years before. The mother she says is dead but who is very much alive. The father she adored and whose death sent her running from the small community of Morrison's Ridge. Her own birth mother whose mysterious presence in her family raised so many issues that came to a head. The summer of twenty years ago changed everything for Molly and as the past weaves together with the present story, Molly discovers that she learned to lie in the very family that taught her about pretending. If she learns the truth about her beloved father's death, can she find peace in the present to claim the life she really wants?



Review: I only recently discovered this author, thanks to an audiobook program through our local library.
This is the eighth book of hers I have read, and I become a bigger fan with each one.

The story alternates between 2014 and 1990 to share Molly's past and present. In the present, Molly and her husband are in the process of adopting a baby, and Molly is concerned that the secrets she has been hiding for years will come to light. That leads us to the past storyline, where we get to find out about those secrets.

The author provides another page-turner, incorporating a great deal of information about adoption and multiple sclerosis into yet another book of family drama and dysfunction. There are a lot of comments I'd love to make about the characters and storyline, but I don't want to give away anything---so you'll just have to read it for yourself.  :)

I have to say that this is probably the best of the Chamberlain books I have read to date. There is so much emotion involved, and my heart broke for Molly so many times, for so many reasons.

Highly recommend this one!

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Four stars

About the author
Diane Chamberlain is the USA Today and London Times bestselling author of 24 novels published in more than twenty languages. Some of her most popular books includeNecessary Lies, The Silent Sister, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and The Keeper of the Light Trilogy. Diane likes to write complex stories about relationships between men and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and friends. Although the thematic focus of her books often revolves around family, love, compassion and forgiveness, her stories usually feature a combination of drama, mystery, secrets and intrigue. Diane’s background in psychology has given her a keen interest in understanding the way people tick, as well as the background necessary to create her realistic characters. 

Diane was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey and spent her summers at the Jersey Shore. She also lived for many years in San Diego and northern Virginia before making North Carolina her home. 

Diane received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in clinical social work from San Diego State University. Prior to her writing career, Diane worked in hospitals in San Diego and Washington, D.C. before opening a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria Virginia specializing in adolescents. All the while Diane was writing on the side. Her first book, Private Relations was published in 1989 and it earned the RITA award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel. 

Diane lives with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her shelties, Keeper and Cole. She has three stepdaughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren. She’s currently at work on her next novel.

Please visit Diane's websitedianechamberlain.com for more information on her newest novel, Pretending to Dance, and a complete list of her books. 

FALL READING CHALLENGE: Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel

Synopsis: On a cool October morning, Lauren Wilder is shaken when she comes close to striking Bo Laughlin with her car as he’s walking along the road’s edge. A young man well known in their small town of Hardys Walk, Texas, Bo seems fine, even if Lauren’s intuition says otherwise. Since the accident two years ago that left her brain in a fragile state, she can’t trust her own instincts—and neither can her family. Then Bo vanishes, and as the search for him ensues, the police question whether she’s responsible. Lauren is terrified, not of what she remembers but of what she doesn’t.

Unable to trust herself and unwilling to trust anyone else, Lauren begins her own investigation into the mystery of Bo’s disappearance. But the truth can prove to be as shocking as any lie, and as Lauren exposes each one, from her family, from her friends, she isn’t the only one who will face heart-stopping repercussions.

Review: This is a very engaging story, with threads of suspense which kept me guessing all the way through the book. I had several ideas as to where the story was going, but it kept surprising me with its direction. 

I have to admit that I was much more interested in Lauren's story than in the disappearance of Bo. I can't imagine how it would feel to believe that your own brain was betraying you, causing you not to remember things that mattered.

I appreciated that the author took time to develop the main characters, Lauren, Bo and Annie, making them realistic and sympathetic. They all three had a lot going on in their heads, and the raw emotion was heart-breaking at times.

This is a book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a tale of suspense or family drama.

Rating: Four stars

About the author

Barbara Taylor Sissel writes issue-oriented, upmarket women’s fiction that is threaded with elements of suspense and defined by its particular emphasis on how crime affects the family. She is the author of five novels, THE LAST INNOCENT HOUR, THE NINTH STEP, THE VOLUNTEER, EVIDENCE OF LIFE, and SAFE KEEPING. 

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she was raised in various locations across the Midwest and once lived on the grounds of a first offender prison facility, where her husband was a deputy warden. The experience, interacting with the inmates, their families, and the people who worked with them, made a profound impression and provided her with a unique insight into the circumstances of the crimes that were committed and the often surprising ways the justice system moved to deal with them. 

An avid gardener, Barbara has two sons and lives on a farm in the Texas Hill Country, outside Austin