TRIGGER WARNING: domestic abuse, child death, dementia
Catherine and her daughter run away from an abusive home one night. She reinvents herself as Cate and finds a job as a housekeeper for a reclusive fossil hunter Charles. But can she heal her daughter and her own heart?
The Way To The Sea is a gentle and warm book that deals with some big emotional issues.
Cate’s daughter Eliza is mute after witnessing her mother being abused. Cate has no choice but to abandon the family home and run away with Eliza. Her friend Allie helps her to find a job but she discovers that her new employer has his own heartache to deal with. His son died and his wife blamed him so left. Charles has been living alone with his guilt and grief but also the stress of his mother’s dementia. There is also a sub plot about Cate’s friend Allie and her worries about her son’s father coming back into their lives.
The emotional issues included in the book are pretty heavy but this is balanced by a lightness to the tone and style of writing. Cate, Eliza and Charles gently learn to connect with each other and begin to heal. I actually really liked the lack of sexual chemistry or any romantic development between Charles and Cate. Their respectful friendship felt very realistic.
I felt a huge connection with this book due to Matthew’s love of dinosaurs and our visit to Lyme Regis last year. There is plenty of detail about the different fossils that doesn’t bog down the story unnecessarily but has enough information for those of us with dino obsessed kids!
The Way To The Sea is a lovely heartwarming book.
The Way to the Sea
When Cate Rivers leaves her husband in the middle of the night with their young daughter, Eliza, she has no idea what the future holds. Taking a live-in position at Hollow House on the Dorset coast, she determines to make a new life for her and Eliza.
But Cate’s new boss, fossil hunter Charles Thorner, could do without the problems of a couple of runaways under his roof. He’s got enough worries of his own, including a painful past which still holds him prisoner today.
As the two of them learn to work alongside each other, secrets are shared and a new closeness is found, but they soon discover that you can only hide from the past for so long…
The Way to the Sea is the latest heartwarming novel by the bestselling author of The Beauty of Broken Things and The Rose Girls.
Author Bio
Victoria Connelly lives in a 500-year old thatched cottage in rural Suffolk with her artist husband, a springer spaniel and a flock of ex-battery hens. She is the million-selling author of two bestselling series, The Austen Addicts and The Book Lovers, as well as many other novels and novellas. Her first published novel, Flights of Angels, was made into a film in Germany. Victoria loves books, films, walking, historic buildings and animals. If she isn’t at her keyboard writing, she can usually be found in her garden either with a trowel in her hand or a hen on her lap.
Social Media Links –
Instagram: @victoriaconnellyauthor
Facebook: @victoriaconnellyauthor
TRIGGER WARNING: suicide, child murder, domestic abuse
Sally has left the police force but she can never forget the missing girls. She is still in contact with the families and mourns their loss. But out of the blue she is contacted by the chief suspect who claims to have information. Then she sees a missing poster with her own photo on, the same format as the killer used to use. Can she trust a convict, will she ever find the truth, is she in danger?
Next Girl Missing is a crime thriller novel set in America.
Sally is haunted by a case of missing girls which ended after the last girl was found raped and murdered. The other bodies were never found. Now the main suspect in the case promises to reveal the real killer but only to Sally. The police and Sally lock horns over the correct course of action and in the meantime she realises that she might be the killer’s next target.
The book is written from various third person perspectives and from different times. This allows us to see the background to the case but also Sally’s personal life which plays a significant role in the book. Her current situation as a single parent and her relationship with her son has its roots in the past and her marriage to Scott, a fellow officer. Scott was horrendously controlling and the scenes of his emotional abuse felt uncomfortably authentic. Now she has a fresh start out of the police and her marriage but the case still affects her deeply.
The author has carefully balanced the serial killer case with introducing us to Sally. There are plenty of plot twists, tension and mystery about the case as well as the emotional depth to Sally’s personal life.
Next Girl Missing is an engaging start to a series and the next book Her Deadly Truth is also available now.
Book blurb:
Next Girl Missing: A completely addictive and gripping crime thriller with a shocking twist (A Sally Fairburn Crime Thriller Book 1)
The little girl fidgets in her seat, wringing the ends of her scarf in a rush of panic. She tugs at the car door handle but it doesn’t open. Tears well in her eyes. “I want my mommy.”
Four years ago, six young girls were snatched from the streets of quiet, suburban Pioneer Heights—chilling, fake “missing” posters of each victim hung around town just before they were taken. Ex-police officer Sally Fairburn has always been haunted by the case and their inability to bring the girls home. Having lost her own daughter, she knows only too well the pain it brings…
Four years on, the wide brown eyes and neat braids of twelve-year-old Anna Moorhouse—the last girl to disappear—still plague Sally’s dreams. She has never stopped fighting to bring the devastated families back together, but all leads have gone cold. Until Sally receives a chilling call out of the blue: their former main suspect, in prison for another crime, wants to talk to her… alone.
Desperate for answers, Sally races to interview him. But a horrifying discovery stops her in her tracks: a missing poster—on her daily running route, in the same style used four years ago—with Sally’s own face on it…
Not only is Sally in grave danger, but the more threats she receives, the more convinced she becomes that the killer is a lot closer to home than she ever could have imagined… But can Sally finally catch him before any more innocents disappear—and before Sally herself becomes his next victim…?
Fans of Lisa Regan, Greg Olsen and Melinda Leigh will love this gripping new crime thriller series. Prepare to stay up all night!
Her Deadly Truth: An addictive and completely unputdownable crime thriller filled with nail-biting suspense (A Sally Fairburn Crime Thriller Book 2)
She stumbles into the street in a thin cotton nightdress, tripping in her haste to get away from her house. Her feet are bare, her movements frantic. “I have to get out of here,” she pleads. “He’s killing me.”
For weeks, Carolyn Tate’s suspicions that her husband is trying to kill her have been ignored—by her neighbors, her friends and even her family. But just two hours after her last attempt to make someone listen, her body is discovered.
Carolyn’s neighbor, ex-police officer Sally Fairburn, is determined to seek justice for her friend’s death. But although Carolyn suspected her husband, Sally finds no evidence he was involved. And Carolyn’s best friends are strangely quick to defend him…
Sally knows one of Carolyn’s friends, Lauren, is hiding something. She can see it in her tear-stained cheeks, averted eyes and tense shoulders: Fear. But just as Lauren’s finally ready to come clean, she is murdered in a brutal hit and run. Reeling from Lauren’s death, Sally is horrified to receive a series of dropped calls and anonymous flowers, leaving her with the unsettled feeling that she, too, is being followed…
Then, on edge but feeling closer than ever to the truth, Sally watches a stranger threaten her teenage son—a finger drawn across his throat. Her world stops. It’s not just Sally at risk—everyone she loves is in danger unless she finds the truth… Can Sally stop a brutal killer before more innocent lives are lost?
A gripping, addictive crime thriller, perfect for fans of Lisa Regan, Greg Olsen and Melinda Leigh. Be prepared to sleep with the light on…
About L.A. Larkin
L.A. Larkin’s crime and psychological thrillers have won her fans all over the world. Described as a superb “chiller thriller” writer by Marie Claire magazine, and praised by the king of crime, Lee Child, for her “fast and immersive” thrillers, Louisa’s novels will keep you reading all night.
Her new Sally Fairburn series kicks off with Next Girl Missing (book 1) and Her Deadly Truth (book 2), available from all online bookstores from June 16, 2023.
Author social media
Amber Dennis is a high powered lawyer with plenty of potential enemies. She begins to receive threatening emails which she ignores until her car is trashed and her phone is stolen. Her life is also endangered so she begins to take the threats seriously…
The Couple Next Door is a psychological thriller set in LA. I have previously reviewed The Perfect Suitor by Cole Baxter.
Amber is utterly ruthless and not a nice person. It was so difficult to like her despite the terrible things that start to happen to her. Her confidence is severely shaken when she starts to endure a hate campaign against her. But the list of potential culprits is pretty long as she makes enemies so easily.
The book is written from Amber’s first person perspctive but even this fails to endear her to the reader as we see her machinations, unpleasant thoughts and less than scrupulous behaviour in her personal and professional lives. In some ways I admire Amber’s ambition and she works within the law, but her moral decisions are difficult to excuse.
The writing is fast paced and there are plenty of dramatic incidents as the campaign against Amber escalates. I enjoyed the mystery of trying to work out who was responsible and their motive. My only gripe is the title doesn’t seem to fit the book particularly well.
The Couple Next Door is an entertaining thriller and I liked the unlikeability of the main character.
Book Blurb
A hotshot lawyer with the world at her feet. A stranger determined to destroy her.
Hotshot defense lawyer Amber Dennis has it all. She’s a successful attorney and the proud owner of a luxurious new condo, an expensive car, and a fat bank account. Not to mention a blossoming relationship with the gorgeous David Grant.
Amber’s perfect life is shattered when she starts receiving threatening emails. At first, she brushes them off. After all, she can’t help but make a few enemies in her line of work.
But when the threats become more real, she can no longer ignore them. Someone out there wants to destroy her. Who could it be, and why are they targeting her?
As her world implodes, Amber decides she’s not going down without a fight. She’s determined to find out who is threatening her and why.
What she doesn’t realise is her stalker is a lot closer than she thinks. And convinced that Amber has wronged them terribly, they’ll stop at nothing to make her pay the ultimate price.
The Couple Next Door is a nail-biting psychological thriller that packs a powerful punch.
Author Bio
Cole Baxter loves writing psychological suspense thrillers. It’s all about that last reveal that he loves shocking readers with.
He grew up in New York, where there crime was all around. He decided to turn that into something positive with his fiction.
His stories will have you reading through the night—they are very addictive!
Cole’s Links:
TRIGGER WARNING: child and domestic abuse, foster care
Detective Ziggy Thornes is devastated by the death of his foster sister Leila. He is forced to stay out of the case due to his personal connection but cannot leave it alone, especially when his own son is threatened…
When We Deceive is the third police procedural to feature Ziggy. I have previously reviewed the second book in the series, The Web They Wove.
Ziggy is determined that nothing will stop him finding the truth about who killed Leila. However, his superior has taken him well away from the case and someone else warns him off by threatening his son. He is torn between his love for his former foster sister, finding justice for her, and his love for his son, wanting to keep him safe.
The second part of the book, about halfway through, shows Leila’s unhappy childhood. This is very emotional as it shows her abusive stepdad and her arrival into foster care. We have already seen in the first part about some of the escapades with Ziggy. It then moves to Leila’s present day situation wth her girlfriend Frankie and her personal and professional issues which could have led to her death. In the final part of the book, the strands of plot come together.
I flew through this book. Ziggy’s character is great so I was eager for him to find the truth. There was a depth of emotion that surprised me as the plot rattled along so quickly. The plot twists kept me guessing and seeing Leila’s sad past made me root for Ziggy’s success even more.
And the ending…what a cliffhanger!
When We Deceive is an engaging and enjoyable police procedural with a strong emotional thread.
Book Blurb :
The case that MEANS THE MOST to him
Might also be the one that BREAKS HIM
Devastated by the death of his best friend, Detective Inspector Andrew ‘Ziggy’ Thornes is out for justice. At any cost.
During the day he and his team are trying to unravel a murky web of money laundering and organised crime.
At night, he conducts his own murder investigation, and he’s about to uncover the twisted link between the two cases. As tension mounts, and struggling to decide who he can still trust, Ziggy needs to make decisions that mean breaking the sacred oath he took by continually pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour for a serving DI.
But as he digs ever deeper, can Ziggy prevent a devastating finale that will leave him questioning everything he’s ever believed in?
Join Ziggy on his latest case that readers are calling an exhilarating and unmissable read.
About the author
Catherine Yaffe is a full-time writer of crime novels, based in the North of England. The Lie She Told is Catherine’s first novel with the theme of questioning how well we know those around us. Catherine lives with her husband Mark and her cats Jenson and Button – she’s also a big fan of Formula One!
Catherine’s Links
TRIGGER WARNING: stillbirth, mental illness
Jenna and her husband move to a new house. New house, new baby! But after the birth, Jenna is struggling physically and emotionally while her husband claims their baby was stillborn…
The Homemaker is an intense psychological thriller set in America.
Jenna and Oliver are excited about their new home. Jenna is a little worried about her unexpected pregnancy but delights in her new son River. Except her husband says that River didn’t survive the birth and she is suffering from post partum psychosis. Her neighbour Ginger’s narrative has a focus on her empty nest and there are suggestions about secrets and lies that she may be harbouring. She is jealous of Jenna’s blossoming friendship with another neighbour Peyton.
The book is written from three first person perspectives Jenna and her neighbour Ginger a year ago and Jenna in the present day. These skewed, vulnerable and unreliable narratives make it difficult to guess the truth as the plot threads weave together.
The strength of the emotion and the content is difficult to read at times as it is very powerful yet utterly heartbreaking. The style of writing was easy to read and I felt engaged with Jenna’s story as I tried to work out what was happening. There were plenty of hints and twists to keep me guessing and interested in the plot.
The Homemaker is an emotionally intense but enjoyable psychological thriller.
MEDIA PACK
Book: The Homemaker
Author: Shari J. Ryan
Pub Day: June 12th 2023
About the Book:
I pull back the blanket to take another peek at my beautiful baby boy. My heart flatlines. He isn’t there. “Where is he?” I cry, my whole body trembling. But my husband just shakes his head. “Darling… we don’t have a baby.”
What is he talking about? Stumbling to my feet, I look frantically at the highchair, the playmat in the corner, the sofa. I need to find my little boy.
Limbs like ice, I rush toward the stairs, shouting my son’s name. But my husband grabs my arms and gently reminds me there is no baby here.
I can’t listen. I don’t understand how our child isn’t in our home. I don’t know who could have taken him. I just know I have to find him.
Climbing the stairs two at a time, my hand is already stretching toward the nursery door, but my husband overtakes, blocking my way.
He forces me to face him. I think I can hear the baby mobile over the crib. I can practically smell the newborn smell. But my husband sighs and shakes his head.
He says it again, firmly this time, as a tear tracks down my cheek: “We don’t have a baby.”
I blink rapidly, my breathing ragged. I think he expects me to agree. But I know that my son is real. I can feel his weight in my arms. And I will stop at nothing to get him back…
An absolutely gripping psychological thriller that will have your heart racing. Prepare yourself for jaw-dropping, mind-blowing twists! Perfect for fans of addictive page-turners like The Housemaid, The Family Across the Street and The Family Upstairs.
Author Bio
Shari J. Ryan is a USA Today Bestselling Author of Women’s Fiction, WWII Fiction, and 20th Century Historical Fiction with a focus on the Holocaust and Pearl Harbor.
Shortly after graduation from Johnson & Wales with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, Shari began her career as a graphic artist and freelance writer. She then found her passion for writing books in 2012 after her second son was born. Shari has been slaying words ever since.
With two Rone Awards and over 125k books sold, Shari has hit the USA Today Bestseller List, the Amazon’s Top 100, Barnes & Noble’s Top Ten, and iBooks at number one. Some of Shari’s bestselling books include Last Words, The Other Blue Sky, Unspoken Words and A Heart of Time.
Shari, a lifelong Boston girl, is happily married to her personal hero and US Marine and they have two wonderful little boys. For more details about her books, visit: www.sharijryan.com
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