Books #30

Here are some new books to add to your list!

1 ) Crimson Lake #1 by Candace Fox

This was a pleasant surprise of a book and I’m looking forward to reading the second book. Ted was a cop in Sydney, Australia, married with a newborn, when his life is turned completely upside down. He’s in the wrong place at the wrong time and his life is imploded. He’s wrongly accused of a horrific crime. It doesn’t matter that the case is dropped–the damage has been done.

The book begins after Ted has moved north; his wife has divorced him and he’s not allowed to see his daughter, his career is over and he’s holed up in a cabin on Crimson Lake trying to hide and heal. His lawyer suggests he pairs up with Amanda Pharell, the only private investigator within hundreds of miles, who needs a partner. Amanda has a past, as well, and the pair go on to solve a case.

The book is well written and you feel for Ted. I really had wrongly convicted/wrongly accused stories! It’s so stressful. But you like Ted and want him to clear his name and be redeemed. It was a great read!

2 ) Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

I LOVED this book! It takes place in Miami Florida, where 20 year old Aviva is an intern for the up and coming liberal, Jewish congressman. She makes the unfortunate mistake of having an affair with the congressman and of course it comes out.

“I’m not a murderer,” she says. “I’m a slut, and you can’t be acquitted of that.”

Her life is ruined. (It’s a similar parallel to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the book talks a lot about how the women are deemed the sluts, wearing the Scarlet “A”.)  She graduates from college and can’t get a job because every future employer Googles her. So, she changes her name and starts a new life somewhere else.

Aviva Grossman, whose résumé included a dual degree in political science and Spanish literature from the University of Miami, a tenaciously googleable blog, and of course that infamous stint as an intern, couldn’t get a job. They didn’t put a scarlet letter on her chest, but they didn’t need to. That’s what the Internet is for.

13 years later, Aviva is now Jane, a successful wedding and event coordinator in Maine. She has a daughter and Jane is kind of talked into running for mayor of their sleepy little town. So what happens when the secrets are discovered?

The story is told from several different points of view and it’s an interesting way to tell it. I wanted to read more from each storyteller and my only complaint about the book was that it ended too soon! I wanted to read more, I wanted to see how it all ended up.

3 ) Stalking Ground (Timber Creek K-9 Mystery #2) by Margaret Mizushima

Second book in the series and it’s even better than the first! In this book, Officer Brody’s girlfriend Adrienne is missing and it sadly turns into a murder investigation. Mattie and her K9 dog Robo are back and at the heart of the investigation. At the same time, the town vet, Cole, is treating a race horse who is suddenly ill. The symptoms have baffled him and it’s an interesting twist how the two cases intersect.

The characters were even more developed than the first book, including a lot of personal stuff in there, too, which made you like the characters even more. I love the dog training information in the book and Robo is like the best character ever. 😀

The story is fast paced and exciting. And while it was a tad predictable (I guessed the murderer around the 75% mark of the book), I still enjoyed it a lot.

4 ) The Husband Hour by Jamie Brenner

This was an interesting story that seems pretty relevant to stuff that’s going on these days. Lauren is a twenty-something who finds herself suddenly widowed when her husband is killed in Iraq in the military. This story is different, though, because he was the nation’s hero who quit his job on the LA Kings hockey team to enlist in the Army. Lauren doesn’t know how to deal with the grief and the press surrounding her husband’s death so she disappears and hides out.

Four years later, a documentary filmmaker finally finds where she’s hiding out and wants to do an interview with her. Lauren is stuck in her grief and doesn’t want to talk to anyone. But she eventually caves in because she realizes she has a story to tell and wants it told right. Her husband, Rory, was suffering from CTE (traumatic brain injury) from hockey when he went into the military. Not only did he come back from his first tour in Iraq with the classic symptoms of PTSD, but he was a changed person.

She reveals secrets of their life together and their marriage that no one else knew, she discovers horrible secrets of her own family, and she tries to move on. It’s a really well written book and a good story. I liked it a lot and want to read more by this author.

5 ) Hunting Hour (Timber Creek K-9 Mystery #3) by Margaret Mizushima

This book was a slight departure from the other two in the series. At the end of the second book, Mattie discovered some buried childhood memories of abuse and this book she is struggling to come to terms with it. She has a therapist who is helping her but she’s not doing well. She’s withdrawn from her friends, she’s not sleeping or eating, everyone is concerned about her and she’s kind of off her game at work. A teen goes missing and she starts to let her personal life creep in to her investigative skills, which is not a good thing!

But the book is faced paced and the descriptions of how dogs are used to track people are really fascinating. The author writes animals very well. You definitely feel like the dogs are real! This was a solid mystery book and the ending was satisfying.

6 ) Reunion by Hannah Pittard

Kate is getting on a flight when she gets the news that her father committed suicide. Her life is already in shambles–her marriage is over, her career is floundering, she in debt up to her ears. So she changes her plans and flies home to Atlanta to meet up with her brother and sister…and her father’s FIVE ex wives (plus their children) to deal with his death. It’s kind of a coming-of-age type of story, except Kate is in her 30s. She’s struggling in her life but finds some closure and direction because of her father’s death.

The book sucks you in right away. It’s complicated and the relationships are complicated. It’s kind of a dark comedy, I suppose, but there are definitely some deep and meaningful parts of the book. And makes you question whether you ever really know someone.

7 ) The Hideaway by Lauren Denton

I enjoyed this book a lot. It’s not a new concept and it was fairly predictable but it was a pleasure reading it.

Sara is a designer in New Orleans, too busy to really live her life to the fullest, when she gets the news that her grandma, Mags, has passed away. She goes home to Alabama for the reading of the will and Mags left her The Hideaway, an amazing (but old and falling apart) Victorian house that used to be a B&B.

Sara fixes up the old house to either sell it or turn it into a thriving B&B again, and of course falls in love. The book is about Mags’s life and a secret love affair that she had as a young woman.

The book is good but Sara’s character is pretty boring and one-dimensional. Mags is the star of the book. Her story is way more interesting! This is a good summer/beach read.

Happy Reading!

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