Release Day! One Beautiful Year of Normal by Sandra K. Griffith ~ My Thoughts #OeBeautifulYearOfNormal

Happy Release Day!

Congratulations Sandra

on the release today of

One Beautiful Year of Normal!

One Beautiful Year of Normal by Sandra K. Griffith

Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Fiction, 312 pages

Published February 24, 2026 by She Writes Press

A must-read for fans of character-driven suspense like Liz Moore’s Long Bright River and A. J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window, One Beautiful Year of Normal is a gripping psychological thriller about a woman’s dangerous decision to unearth her family’s darkest secrets.

Some memories protect you. Others imprison you.

When August Caine receives a phone call from a Savannah attorney, she is blindsided by the news—her Aunt Helen has passed away. But how can that be, when August’s mother insisted Helen died in a car accident fifteen years ago? Determined to uncover the truth, August returns to the deep South, where the ghosts of her past—both real and imagined—await her.

Plagued by a memory splintered by her father’s unsolved murder when she was a child and further tangled by psychiatric treatments for the debilitating depression she struggles with, August realizes her survival depends on unraveling the mystery surrounding her father’s death. This means returning to the one safe place she remembers from the childhood she has mostly locked away inside her Aunt Helen’s home, and the ghost tours they created together. 

A chilling exploration of mental illness, mother-daughter bonds, and generational secrets, One Beautiful Year of Normal follows August as she pieces together the long-buried truths that shaped her family’s tragic past and confronts the question that has haunted her for Can the truth set her free, or will it unravel everything she thought she knew?

    

My thoughts about One Beautiful Year of Normal ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First lines—"One of the most important practices of a ghostwriter is to make certain you are invisible. For me, this is easy: I come from a long line of world-class deceivers."

Strap in and hold on to your hats. This story will take you on a wild ride! One Beautiful Year of Normal has just about every element you could want in a book. There is plenty of family drama, mother and daughter dysfunction, murder, cover-ups, kidnappings, friendship, support, and lies—lots of lies. It goes on and on. And I loved every minute of it! 

The author penned such beautiful passages that the whole book was a pleasure to read. I was totally captivated by her words. And all the drama and secrets kept me turning the pages. 

I highly recommend One Beautiful Year of Normal. It is a moving family drama with amazing characters and an outstanding storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I received aa ARC of One Beautiful Year of Normal and this is my honest opinion.

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About the author

Sandra K. Griffith is a doctorate-level psychologist with extensive clinical and forensic experience, the owner of a behavioral health agency, and an adjunct instructor at Marshall University. Her expertise in mental health, trauma, and the complexities of memory informs her deeply psychological and atmospheric storytelling. 

When she’s not writing, she enjoys traveling, antiquing, cooking and spending time with her family, friends, and too large collection of pets. She splits her time between Kenova, West Virginia and Tybee Island, Georgia, just outside of Savannah.

Connect with Sandra

Publisher | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

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Release Day! The Book of Judges by Gary Fields #TheBookOfJudges #SparkPress

Happy Release Day!

Congratulations Gary

on the release today of

The Book of Judges!

The Book of Judges: A Novel by Gary Fields

Thriller, Political Fiction, 336 pages

Published February 24, 2026 by SparkPress

For fans of Dan Brown, a debut contemporary thriller about a young lawyer thrust into a deadly search for an ancient secret—one that has the power to steer the course of destiny.

A beloved judge is murdered. His virus-infected laptop holds an ancient secret. Young lawyer Joshua Sutton, together with doctoral candidate Samantha Bollinger and tech wizard Mark Roth, are thrust into a deadly three-day quest for answers—a quest that leads them across millennia.

As Mark extracts clues from the computer, Josh and Sammi are chased around Florida by the hulking murderer and others who desperately want the laptop.

Josh and Sammi realize they’ve both been haunted by dreams about historical judges. In Mongol-ruled China, Imperial Rome, Byzantium, post-Renaissance Venice, Henry VIII’s England, and Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom, judges heroically seek justice in life-and-death cases that come to define human rights. As they do, they are exposed to a startling secret.

Josh, Sammi, and Mark end up in a pulse-pounding race to New York City to stop the murder of another judge, one who could potentially save humanity.

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Praise for The Book of Judges

“Deftly plotted and lightning paced, The Book of Judges is a masterful blend of modern-day thriller and historical fiction that rivets you from page one and never lets go.”—Sheldon Siegel, New York Times bestselling author of Special Circumstances

“Fields delivers a twisty thriller with a delightfully unusual plot that takes readers from 11th-century Normandy and England to 13th-century Beijing and beyond. . . . a fun and thoughtful adventure through the ages.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Fields’s debut will satisfy avid fans of Dan Brown-style historical conspiracy thrillers.”—Library Journal

    

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About the author

Gary Fields was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, and dreamed of playing centerfield for the Yankees. But music and lyrics were always in his heart. He started writing poetry early on, enamored with meter and rhymes. As an undergraduate at SUNY Albany, he taught himself guitar and wrote a song on the first two chords he learned. Three hundred songs later, he performed professionally for a time as a solo acoustic artist around New York City. But the real world, and the limits on his musical talents, came calling.

He’d hoped to become a lawyer. Again, it was the words. Putting words together convincingly, poetically, passionately, on behalf of his clients. But, as a college freshman, he’d been warned that there were too many lawyers and not enough jobs. So he earned a degree in math/computer science and went on to program and design computer systems for American Express and Ryder Trucks.

Making corporations more efficient, it turned out, didn’t appeal to him. He and the love of his life, his wife, Debbie, decided to put themselves through law school at night at the University of Miami. Three grueling years later, they earned their degrees. It was there, in Coral Gables, where he first was entranced by banyan trees.

Gary and Debbie settled in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where they raised their two sons, David and Dan, and their daughter, Lauren, along with Goldie, their golden retriever. Gary coached youth sports for eighteen years, coaching all three kids in basketball, his boys in Little League, and his daughter in softball.

He built a law practice specializing in community associations and soon found himself pulled into civic activism in the local community. He ended up leading a six-thousand-person volunteer effort to control a major airport planned nearby. After a multi-year battle that included a media campaign, coordination with a roster of aviation experts, and arduous negotiations with county and city governments, Gary’s team succeeded in keeping the airport a small, tightly regulated facility. The experience meshed with Gary’s interest in individual rights. That, along with his passion for historical fiction and thrillers, led him back, again, to the words.

The Book of Judges is Gary’s first novel. He is currently working on a sequel. Gary and Debbie now live in Southern California, close to the rest of their family. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Gary

Website  | Goodreads | Amazon

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? February 23, 2026 #IMWAYR

       

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are! 

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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. 

Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

The Sisters of Book Row

by Shelley Noble

print for review

Pub date ~ March 3

One Perfect Couple

by Ruth Ware

audio-book from my collection

Published May 21, 2024

What I recently finished

One Beautiful Year of Normal

by Sandra K. Griffith

print ARC for review

Pub date ~ February 24

In the Shadow of Silence

by Rae Dumont

print ARC for review

Pub date ~ February 17

Read my thoughts here

Leave It Up To Love

by Kristy Woodson Harvey

audio-book for review

Pub date ~ March 1

What I am going to read next

Lola Gillette and the Summer of Second Chances

by Kimberly Behre Kenna

print for review

Pub date ~ March 3

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Release Day! Shibby Magee by Carrie Kabak #ShibbyMagee

Happy Release Day!

Congratulations Carrie

on the release today of

Shibby Magee!

Shibby Magee by Carrie Kabak

Sibling Relationships, 326 pages

Published February 20, 2026 by CORBYN

☘️ A character-driven Irish tragicomedy threaded with wit, heartbreak, and bittersweet redemption.

Echoing the tones of the TV series Fleabag, Shibby Magee is wry and wickedly irreverent, while reflecting the sharp, dark dynamics of The Banshees of Inisherin. For readers of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, and Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island, Shibby Magee offers a warmer—but no less incisive—portrait of a woman shaped by childhood abandonment and social prejudice, following her across two defining life stages as she struggles toward dignity, love, and self-possession.

When their mother, Vera Coffey, disappears after announcing she's a Traveller/Mincéir, Shibby and her twin sister, Dorah, are abandoned to a settled family already cracking at the seams. Under the iron rule of their viciously prejudiced grandmother, the two girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, arrogant and bold; Shibby, bruised and quietly resilient.

As Shibby stumbles into adulthood, she's drawn to men who either abuse or dump her. She finds fleeting stability in the fast-paced chaos of a restaurant kitchen—but a question gnaws at her: is her future in the rooted life of the settled or on the open road to God only knows where? With the fierce support of a chosen few—Alice Duffy, housekeeper turned surrogate mother; Moochie de Barra, an affectionate stand-in for an emotionally absent father; and Kitty Dooley, a Traveller whose loyalty never wavers—Shibby begins to uncover hard truths about identity, family, and what she desperately needs to find where she truly belongs.

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Praise for Shibby Magee

“Carrie Kabak follows the indelible, indefatigable Shibby Magee during two crucial years in her life, one in girlhood and then another at midlife womanhood, as she struggles against prejudice, cruelty, and abandonment in her search to find her true place in an increasingly confounding world, be it in a bustling restaurant or on the road as an Irish Traveller—an extraordinary, wily community I’d never heard of before and was delighted to encounter. Warm, wise, with dashes of wit, Kabak’s novel is just magnificent.”—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You, With or Without You, and Days of Wonder

“In this captivating and insightful novel, Carrie Kabak introduces the unforgettable Shibby Magee, who navigates adulthood in search of love and stability while grappling with the enduring shadows of childhood abandonment. Filled with multi-dimensional characters and evocative imagery, this is a heartfelt and poignant story that lingers long after the final page.”—Holly Kennedy, Edgar Award Nominee and Giller Prize Longlisted author of The Sideways Life of D

    

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About the author

Published by Penguin Random House, Carrie Kabak's novel, Cover the Butter, was an Independent Booksellers' Pick, won an Audiofile Magazine award, and was nominated for a Quills Award. Her essays appear in For Keeps and He Said What? (Seal Press), Exit Laughing (North Atlantic Books), Faith (Simon and Schuster), and Dumped (She Writes). Carrie's latest novels, Shibby Magee and Every Mole and Freckle, will be released in spring and fall 2026, and Mali Morgan's Summer in spring 2027.

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Alongside her writing, Carrie works as a book cover artist for major publishers after working for many years as a production designer at Hallmark Cards. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Carrie

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

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Release Day! In the Shadow of Silence by Rae Dumont ~ My Thoughts #InTheShadowOfSlience @SheWritesPress

Happy Release Day!

Congratulations Rae

on the release today of

In the Shadow of Silence!

In the Shadow of Silence: A Novel by Rae Dumont

Death, Grief & Bereavement Fiction, 264 pages

Published February 17, 2026 by She Writes Press

After a lonely childhood, this novel follows love and joy—until the descent untreated depression ends with unbearable loss, forcing a family to deal with the shocking and immediate aftermath of suicide.

Eva’s lonely childhood has given her an intuitive connection with kids and teenagers. She is a gifted child psychiatrist. Single, she dreams of having her own children, and she yearns for love. The future seems bright when she meets Lyman; They build a family. They share adventures. They meet life’s challenges as team. They navigate a bout of Lyman’s depression; treatment works.

They share rich, fulfilling years while their careers develop, and their children grow up.

When their sons enter adulthood and their daughter is a teenager, they plan an entire summer as a family. But Lyman abruptly stops both therapy and medication. He spirals into a dark and irritable isolation that none of them can penetrate.

After his brutal suicide, Eva is left to cope and to guide her children through the trauma, as they each rebuild their lives.

EDITOR'S PICK: BookLife and Publishers' Weekly

    

My thoughts about In the Shadow of Silence ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First lines—"Old photographs with curled edges are scattered on the red kilim rug. Barefoot on her knees, in faded denim overalls, Eva sorts them into piles."

Depression hits so many people and so many families. This story, In the Shadow of Silence, is one family's journey through the trials and tribulations of living with depression. This is something that affects everyone in a family going through it. 

The author did an amazing job of creating caring, loving family members who lived and survived depression and the aftermath of their loved one's suicide. The subject was handled in a sensitive and responsible way while also showing how something like this touches everyone. 

This story was quite personal to me as some of my loved ones have in the past, and some are currently struggling with depression so this one hits close to home. It was sometimes hard to read but also reassuring to see how others are managing their lives to get through it.

I received aa ARC of In the Shadow of Silence and this is my honest opinion.

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About the author

Raymonde Dumont, MD, LMFT, is both a pediatrician and a family therapist.

She practiced and taught for several years at Harvard Medical School, and at the Joslin Diabetes Center. She saw the impact of one person's illness through their entire family, and showed that mental health affects medical outcomes.

In private practice, as a family therapist, she helps families collaborate during difficulties, rather than becoming divided.

She is also a mother, a widow, and a friend to many. She now turns her years of experience into words that speak of resilience, and of the flawed road that leads us to becoming good enough.

Depression and suicide are on the rise, and the impact of tragedy reaches far beyond those immediately affected. They often create a broad circle of confusion, anger and guilt. She hopes her book will make readers feel less alone. Perhaps it will bring some insight and comfort.

She lives and practices in Montclair, New Jersey, within reach of New York City. Her short stories have been published in Persimmon Tree and in The Hemlock Journal.

Connect with Rae

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Substack

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