A Potpourri of Opinions

  The Death of Us Lori Rader-Day Publication Date: October 3, 2023 by William Morrow Genre: Mystery Rating: 4 👢👢👢👢 Summary: From the award-winning author of Death at Greenway and The Lucky One comes a chilling suspense novel in which the discovery of a submerged car in a murky pond reveals betrayals and family secrets that will tear a small town apart. One rainy night fifteen years ago, a knock at the door changed Liss Kehoe’s life forever. On that night, Ashley Hay stood on Liss’s front porch and handed over her brand-new baby Callan. She was never seen or heard from again. Since then, Liss has raised Callan as her own, and loves him as fiercely as any mother would. But in the back of her mind, she’s always wondered whether Ashley is still out there somewhere—and feared what might happen if she comes back. When Ashley does reappear, it’s not in the way Liss expected. After all these years, Ashley’s car has been found…in the quarry pond on Kehoe property. But the discovery of t...

  The Royal Windsor Secret Christine Wells Publication date: September 12, 2023 by William Morrow Genre: Historical Fiction  Rating: 4 🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary: Could she be the secret daughter of the Prince of Wales? In this dazzling novel by the author of Sisters of the Resistance, a young woman seeks to discover the truth about her mysterious past. Perfect for readers of Shana Abe, Bryn Turnbull, and Marie Benedict.  Cleo Davenport has heard the the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut. But Cleo’s ...

  The Change Kirsten Miller pub date: May 3, 2023 by William Morrow  genre: Fantasy, Mystery Rating: 5 👢👢👢👢👢  Summary: In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment… After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities. On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone ...

  The Last Masterpiece Laura Morelli Publication date: August 1, 2023 by William Morrow Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 4 👢👢👢👢 Summary: In a race across Nazi-occupied Italy, two women—a German photographer and an American stenographer—hunt for priceless masterpieces looted from the Florentine art collections. In the summer of 1943, Eva Brunner is taking photographs of Nazi-looted art hidden in the salt mines of the Austrian hinterland. Across the ocean in Connecticut, Josephine Evans is working as a humble typist at the Yale Art Gallery. When both women are called to Italy to contribute to the war effort, neither imagines she will hold the fate of some of the world’s greatest masterpieces torn from the Uffizi Galleries and other Florentine art collections in her hands. But as Italy turns from ally to enemy and Hitler’s plan to destroy irreplaceable monuments and works of art becomes frighteningly clear, each woman’s race against the clock—and against one another—might demand ...

  The Poetics of Passion A Muses of Scandal Novel Delphine Ross Publication date: July 25, 2023 by Muse Publications LLC Genre: Historical Romance Rating: 4 🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary: In 1872 London, a scandalous love poetess and a passionate children's book illustrator are set at odds in this sparkling enemies-to-lovers debut historical romance. Musa Bartham has a secret. To support her destitute family after her father’s disappearance, she’s been publishing steamy poetry under the pen name of Felicity Vita. As Felicity Vita, Musa’s scandalous books have won legions of devoted fans—including an anonymous gentleman pen pal whose letters spark unruly desires she would never ever succumb to in her orderly daily life. But when Musa’s cherished younger sister, Angela, is offered sponsorship by their aristocratic great-aunt for an advantageous marriage, Musa realizes her dangerous double life as Felicity must come to an end. Instead, she’ll write books for children. Sebastian Atkinson is a passi...

  Only the Beautiful  Susan Meissner Publication date: April 18, 2023 by Berkley  Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 5 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary: A heartrending story about a young mother’s fight to keep her daughter, and the winds of fortune that tear them apart by the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War. California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant. Banished by the Calverts, Ro...

  An American Wife in Paris The Diplomat's Wife #2 Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger Publication date: July 20, 2023 by Bookouture Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 4 👢👢👢👢 Summary: “If I go back to Paris, it would be my third time there as an undercover agent...” Kitty murmured. “I ask myself, how many chances does one person get?” Paris, 1941 . When Kitty is asked to return to Paris as an undercover agent, she knows the mission is her most dangerous yet. But she has been fighting the Nazis for too long to stop now. And her role within the Resistance has already cost her friends, family and now—almost—her own marriage. Because while she and Edgar are more in love than ever, his role as a Nazi spy means it is safer if they are no longer married. And while signing the divorce papers is a formality that breaks her heart, Kitty knows that she and Edgar will find a way to be together when the war is finally over… More determined than ever to undermine the Nazi regime, Kitty has nothing left to...