June Reading Wrap Up

Welcome to a new feature that I'm going to post at the end of each month. 

I will be posting all of the books I've read that month. It's a way to give some wonderful books some more exposure and maybe you'll see something you'd like to add to your TBR list. 

Titles are linked to Goodreads.

ARCs

The Secrets We Carry by Deanna Lynn Sletten (July 19) ~ One of my all-time favorite, must-read authors. Another great story from Deanna!

The Edge of Summer by Viola Shipman (July 12) ~ Love this author's stories. 

The Night Shift by Natalka Burian (July 12) ~ Very different but good.

The Life We Almost Had by Amelia Henley (June 14) ~ Read my thoughts here.

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton (June 14) ~ Review coming soon!

Audiobooks 

The New Normal by Tracy Brogan ~ This fulfilled a reading challenge prompt for me.

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain ~ Love her stories!

Interlude in Death (In Death #12.5) by J.D. Robb ~ I'm trying to get caught up on this series on audiobook.

Haunted in Death (In Death #22.5) by J.D. Robb 

Devil's Spring (Bittersweet Hollow #3) by Aaron Paul Lazar ~ Great series. 

See anything here that grabs you?

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? June 27, 2022 #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

Corinne

by Rebecca Morrow

Pub date July 12

Devil's Spring

(Bittersweet Hollow #3)

by Aaron Paul Lazar

Narrated by Gwendolyn Druyor 

What I recently finished

The Night Shift

by Natalka Burian

Pub date July 12

The New Normal

by Tracy Brogan

Narrated by Amy McFadden

What I am going to read next

Any Other Family

by Eleanor Brown

Pub date July 12

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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This OR That #Giveaway № 62 ~ The Missing Piece by John Lescroart OR Worth Dying For by Lee Child #TheMissingPiece #WorthDyingFor

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Missing Piece

(Dismas Hardy #19)

by John Lescroart

Hardcover ~ Published March 2022

The beloved New York Times bestselling Dismas Hardy series returns with this “perfect piece of entertainment from a master storyteller” (Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author) about a relentlessly twisty murder mystery.

No one mourned when San Francisco DA Wes Farrell put Paul Riley in prison eleven years ago for the rape and murder of his girlfriend. And no one is particularly happy to see him again when he’s released after The Exoneration Initiative uncovered evidence that pinned the crime on someone else. In fact, Riley soon turns up murdered, surrounded by the loot from his latest scam. But if Riley was really innocent all along, who wanted him dead?

To the cops, it’s straightforward: the still-grieving father of Riley’s dead girlfriend killed the former prisoner. Farrell, now out of politics and practicing law with master attorney Dismas Hardy, agrees to represent the defendant, Doug Rush—and is left in the dust when Rush suddenly vanishes. At a loss, Farrell and Hardy ask PI Abe Glitsky to track down the potentially lethal defendant. The search takes Glitsky through an investigative hall of mirrors populated by wounded parents, crooked cops, cheating spouses, and single-minded vigilantes. As Glitsky embraces and then discards one enticing theory after another, the truth seems to recede ever farther. So far that he begins to question his own moral compass in this “superb thriller from a veteran crime writer” (Jeffrey Deaver, New York Times bestselling author) that you’ll savor to the last word. 

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Worth Dying For

(Jack Reacher #15)

by Lee Child

Hardcover ~ Published September 2010

There’s deadly trouble in the corn county of Nebraska . . . and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it’s the unsolved, decades-old case of a missing child that Reacher can’t let go.

 

The Duncans want Reacher gone—and it’s not just past secrets they’re trying to hide. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they’re just the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world. For Reacher, it would have made much more sense to put some distance between himself and the hard-core trouble that’s bearing down on him. For Reacher, that was also impossible. 

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Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering ~ My Thoughts #CantLookAway @carolatlovering @stmartinspress

Congrats Carola

on the release of

Can't Look Away!

Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering

Domestic Thrillers, 320 pages

Published June 14, 2022 by St. Martin's Press

From the author of Tell Me Lies and Too Good to Be True comes Carola Lovering's Can't Look Away, a sexy suspense novel about the kind of addictive, obsessive love that keeps you coming back––no matter how hard you try to look away.

In 2013, twenty-three-year old Molly Diamond is a barista, dreaming of becoming a writer. One night at a concert in East Williamsburg, she locks eyes with the lead singer, Jake Danner, and can’t look away. Molly and Jake fall quickly and deeply in love, especially after he writes a hit song about her that puts his band on the map.

Nearly a decade later, Molly has given up writing and is living in Flynn Cove, Connecticut with her young daughter and her husband Hunter—who is decidedly not Jake Danner. Their life looks picture-perfect, but Molly is lonely; she feels out of place with the other women in their wealthy suburb, and is struggling to conceive their second child. When Sabrina, a newcomer in town, walks into the yoga studio where Molly teaches and confesses her own fertility struggles, Molly believes she's finally found a friend.

But Sabrina has her own reasons for moving to Flynn Cove and befriending Molly. And as Sabrina’s secrets are slowly unspooled, her connection to Molly becomes clearer––as do secrets of Molly's own, which she’s worked hard to keep buried.

Meanwhile, a new version of Jake's hit song is on the radio, forcing Molly to confront her past and ask the ultimate questions: What happens when life turns out nothing like we thought it would, when we were young and dreaming big? Does growing up mean choosing with your head, rather than your heart? And do we ever truly get over our first love? 

My thoughts about Can't Look Away ~~

(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 line—"Molly never would have gone to the concert in East Williamsburg if Nina hadn't dragged her there."

This is the second book by Lovering that I have read. She just gets better with each book. This is a story that lives up to it's title. I literally could not look away. Once I started it, I devoured it to the very end. It is a definite page-turner!

Molly and Jake are the perfect couple and so in love... until they aren't anymore. Molly moves on but when the past comes crashing back into her world, that's when the creepiness starts. Nothing and no one is who they seem to be anymore. 

Can't Look Away is an exciting thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Start it and believe me, you won't be able to look away.

I received an ARC of Can't Look Away from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

About the author

Carola Lovering is the author of Tell Me Lies, Too Good to Be True, and the forthcoming Can’t Look Away. She attended Colorado College, and her work has appeared in New York Magazine, W Magazine, National Geographic, Outside, and Yoga Journal, among other publications. Her novel, Tell Me Lies, is currently being adapted into a television series for Hulu. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and son. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Carola

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Book Blitz! The Laughbox by Julia Kent ~ Excerpt and #Giveaway! #TheLaughbox

The Laughbox by Julia Kent
Publication date: June 21st 2022
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

The Laughbox contains SIX full-length novels so you can start all of New York Times bestselling romantic comedy author Julia Kent’s series, plus get an ALL NEW NOVELLA you can’t find anywhere else.

Get a taste of billionaires, small towns, rock stars, office romance, secret bosses, second chances, first crushes, enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, and so much more.

Each series is wildly different from the others, with varying heat levels, different hijinks, but always, always – a heartwarming world you want to live in, with heroes who make you swoon and heroines who make you laugh – and cheer on in their quests for happily-ever-after endings.

This boxed set includes:

Shopping for a Billionaire (a New York Times bestseller)

Fluffy (a USA Today bestseller)

Love You Wrong

Random Acts of Crazy (a New York Times bestseller)

In Your Dreams

Maliciously Obedient (a USA Today bestseller)

and an ALL NEW novella, Shopping for a Billionaire’s Anniversary, featuring Declan and Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, as they celebrate their anniversary with affection, heat, and a hilarious set of awkward mishaps that still manage to be conquered by love.

Sink into seven fun stories that leave you with all the feels, loads of laughs, and strange looks from people around you as you read, giggle, and fall in love.

Note: each of these are series starters. Some are standalones (Fluffy), others end with the main characters together but with more books in the series as I follow their relationship (Shopping for a Billionaire, Random Acts of Crazy), others are prequels (Love You Wrong, In Your Dreams), while Maliciously Obedient has a cliffhanger. Full, up-front transparency for readers.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

SPECIAL RELEASE PRICE:

$2.99 until 6/26 when price goes up to $9.99!

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EXCERPT:

Declan

Here.” My executive assistant, Dave, shoves a perfectly wrapped present at me, with a card and a small envelope. We’re in my office, the sun shining on this beautiful spring day, and I am finishing up work before taking a vacation.

Yes–vacation. It’s for one night, but it counts.

“What’s this?”

“Your anniversary gift for Shannon.”

The note card is blank.

He notices me noticing this and his face sours, the corners of his mouth dropping in scorn, pulling his beard down so he looks like an angry leprechaun.

“I draw the line at writing sweet nothings to your wife and signing your name, even if my rendition of your signature is far superior to your own,” he says dryly, reaching down to square a pile of papers on my desk.

“My signature is my signature. No one can best it, Dave.”

He just snorts.

I shake the box lightly. “What’s in here?”

“Leather.”

“Leather?”

“Ninth-year anniversary gift. Leather is flexible and represents durability.”

“I am well aware of what leather represents. What does it have to do with my marriage?”

He snorts again.

I frown and ask, “Just leather? What is it, a wallet?”

“No! Of course not. The traditional gemstone for ninth anniversaries is lapis. I had a jewelry artist set chunks of lapis in gold, then stitch them onto a leather cuff bracelet.” Dave holds his phone up to me, showing a picture of the piece.

“That’s incredible.”

A short sigh of contentment, then a clipped, “You’re welcome” is how Dave takes a compliment. He doesn’t feed off praise.

He feeds off his own hypercompetence. If efficiency were a drug, Dave would be Al Pacino on Scarface, covered in the fine white powder of his own brutal excellence.

“The lighthouse is reserved for the evening?” I inquire, reaching for my briefcase.

“Yes. Your suit’s in the car already.” Dave eyes me. “Where will you change?”

I’m wearing jeans, hiking boots, and a Lacoste polo shirt, all Shannon’s favorites. The dark green shirt is a nod to my eyes, which she has spent almost a decade raving about.

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About the author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future.

From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy).

She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls.

She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on Twitter @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com

Connect with Julia

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Newsletter | Instagram | Bookbub | Amazon

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