Review: The Last Thing He Told Me

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A mystery about a woman searching for the truth around her husband’s disappearance…at any cost.

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated.

A good story.

Review: The Dream Daughter

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Caroline (Carly) Sears had been shrouded in grief for the past year, and discovering she was pregnant was a bittersweet moment. When she was just over twenty weeks along it was discovered her unborn baby had a terrifying heart problem and without intervention, she would die upon birth. But it was 1970 and there was absolutely nothing that could be done. Medical science just wasn’t advanced enough to save her baby. Carly was devastated.

Living with her sister Patti, brother-in-law Hunter and their little boy, John Paul, Carly took to walking the shores of the ocean by their cottage. She had no idea what she would do – except go ahead with her pregnancy on the slim chance that the doctors were wrong. It was when Hunter took her aside one day and told her there was something that could be done for her baby; that she just had to trust him and be strong, take her life and the life of her yet-to-be-born baby in her hands and have faith, that Carly felt a sliver of hope.

But could she do it? She knew she would do anything in her power for the health of her child…

Wow! Absolutely brilliant! The Dream Daughter has a most intriguing plot which captivated me from the start and I had trouble putting it down. Author Diane Chamberlain has hit the jackpot with this one in my opinion. Heart wrenching, emotional and breathtaking, The Dream Daughter makes the unbelievable – believable, and the impossible – possible. One that will stay with me for a very long time! Highly recommended.

Love this story. Kept me reading for the first time in ages.

Review: The Hidden Women

The Hidden Women by Kerry Barrett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Berkshire, 1944
When Will Bates offers to take ATA pilot Lilian Miles to the dance, he sends her heart into a flutter. But as their relationship progresses, Lilian can’t help but get cold feet. Deep down she’s always known that the secrets locked in her past would weigh heavily on her future happiness…

London, 2018
Helena Miles loves nothing more than digging into the back stories of celebrity families, making her perfectly suited for her job as a researcher on the hit show Where Did You Come From?. But when handsome superstar Jack Jones sweeps into her life, she unexpectedly finds herself trawling through her own family history.

As she explores her family’s past, she discovers that there are far more secrets hidden there than she ever expected… What really happened to her aunt Lilian during the war, and why can’t she open up about it now?

Excellent read. This book hit an emotional spot and found myself in tears at the end.

Review: The Magnolia Palace

The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter’s life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists’ models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. But with her mother gone, a grieving Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to the imperious and demanding Helen Frick, the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family—pulling her into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that runs so deep, the stakes just may be life or death.

Nearly fifty years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home—within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into one of New York City’s most impressive museums. But when she—along with a charming intern/budding art curator named Joshua—is dismissed from the Vogue shoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum: messages that will lead her and Joshua on a hunt that could not only solve Veronica’s financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family. 

Review: The Lost for Words Bookshop

The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. If you look carefully, you might glimpse the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are some things Loveday will never, ever show you. Into her hiding place - the bookstore where she works - come a poet, a lover, and three suspicious deliveries. Someone has found out about her mysterious past. Will Loveday survive her own heartbreaking secrets?

Review: An Irish Country Village

An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Young Doctor Barry Laverty has only just begun his assistantship under his eccentric mentor, Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly, but he already feels right at home in Ballybucklebo. When the sudden death of a patient casts a cloud over Barry's reputation, his chances of establishing himself in the village are endangered, especially since the grieving widow is threatening a lawsuit.

While he anxiously waits for the postmortem results that he prays will exonerate him, Barry must regain the trust of the gossipy Ulster village, one patient at a time. From a put-upon shop girl with a mysterious rash to the troubled pregnancy of a winsome young lass who's not quite married yet, Ballybucklebo provides plenty of cases to keep the two country G.P.s busy.

Not all their challenges are medical in nature. When a greedy developer sets his sights on the very heart of the community, the village pub, it's up to the doctors to save the Black Swan (affectionately known to the locals as the "Mucky Duck") from being turned into an overpriced tourist trap. After all, the good citizens of Ballybucklebo need some place to drink to each other's health. . . .

Whether you've visited in the past, or are discovering Ballybucklebo for the first time, An Irish Country Village is an ideal location for anyone looking for wit, warmth, and just a touch of blarney.

A very nice story, but at times felt a bit too cut and dried.

Review: An Irish Country Doctor

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lovely story about a new doctor arriving in an Irish village.

Listened to the audio and love the beautiful accents of the Irish

people.