Release Day! Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson ~ My Thoughts #NeverHaveIEver #NetGalley

Congrats Joshilyn

on the release today of

Never Have I Ever!

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
Print & e-book, 352 pages
Published July 30th 2019 by William Morrow

In this game, even winning can be deadly...

Amy Whey is proud of her ordinary life and the simple pleasures that come with it--teaching diving lessons, baking cookies for new neighbors, helping her best friend, Charlotte, run their local book club. Her greatest joy is her family: her devoted professor husband, her spirited fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, her adorable infant son. And, of course, the steadfast and supportive Charlotte. But Amy's sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one book club night.

Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it's naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better. Something wicked has come her way--a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did.

When they're alone, Roux tells her that if she doesn't give her what she asks for, what she deserves, she's going to make Amy pay for her sins. One way or another.

To protect herself and her family and save the life she's built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can't beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.

A diabolically entertaining tale of betrayal, deception, temptation, and love filled with dark twists leavened by Joshilyn Jackson's trademark humor, Never Have I Ever explores what happens when the transgressions of our past come back with a vengeance.

My thoughts about Never Have I Ever ~~

(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—"The Game was Roux’s idea. More than a game. A plan. She made it up herself, this shotgun of a game."

This book starts off with a bang and never lets up! I was sucked in from the very beginning when Roux shows up for the neighborhood book club. What is her agenda, really? Not to talk about books, that's for sure. 

As Roux's reasons for showing up in the community starts to come out, so do the secrets. And how much are others going to be willing to pay to keep those secrets hush-hush? I don't remember the last time I had such strong negative feelings for a character as I had for Roux. Her part is so well written and she is so evil and conniving—you are going to love to hate her. 

Never Have I Ever is a fast-paced, exciting page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat to the very end. I loved everything about it and may just be my my new favorite Joshilyn Jackson story. I highly recommend it and I'm excited for others to read it!

I received a copy of Never Have I Ever via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion of the book.

About the author

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, Someone Else's Love Story, The Opposite of Everyone, and The Almost Sisters. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, three times been a #1 Book Sense Pick, been the Target Book Club Pick, and three times been shortlisted for the Townsend prize.

A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, and garnered two Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly.

She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Joshilyn

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 29, 2019

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 Escape Room
by Megan Goldin
Pub date 7/30
My thoughts will be posted 8/1

Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage
by Kay Bratt
Narrated by Shannon McManus

What I recently finished

Never Have I Ever

by Joshilyn Jackson

Pub date 7/30
My thoughts will be posted tomorrow.


Don't Let it Snow in Deadwood
(Deadwood #10)
by Ann Charles
Narrated by Caroline Shaffer
I love this series!

Long Drive Home
by Will Allison
Be sure and pop over and enter my giveaway!

What I am going to read next

Take a Chance on Me
(Oceanic Dreams #6)
by Delancey Stewart

Pub date today!!
I love this fun series! Check it out here.

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Book Spotlight Giveaway! Long Drive Home by Will Allison #LongDriveHome

I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures.

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The book this week is one that has been sitting on my shelf for awhile. While perusing my bookshelves recently, this one caught my eye and I devoured it. It's a quick read but so very good. 

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

Long Drive Home

Long Drive Home by Will Allison
Paperback, 240 pages
Published February 7th 2012 by Free Press

Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen's placid suburban existence begins to unravel.

When Glen realizes no one else saw the accident, he impulsively lies about what happened -- to the police, to his wife, even to Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. But a tenacious detective thinks Sara might have seen more than she knows, or more than her parents will let her tell.

And when Glen tries to prevent the detective from questioning Sara, he finds himself in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that could end in a lawsuit or prison. What he doesn't see coming is the reaction of his wife, Liz -- a panicked plan that threatens to tear their family apart in the name of saving it.

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About the Author

I was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and now live with my wife and daughter in South Orange, New Jersey. In between, I've lived in Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and elsewhere; taught creative writing at The Ohio State University, Butler University, and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; and worked as executive editor of Story, editor at large of Zoetrope: All-Story, editor of Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, and as a freelance editor and writer.

I've also been on staff at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. I received a BA in English and political science from Case Western Reserve University as well as an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing from Ohio State. I'm the grateful recipient of grants, fellowships, and scholarships from the Indiana Arts Commission, Arts Council of Indianapolis, Ohio Arts Council, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference (including a 1996 work-study scholarship and the 2008 Allan Collins Fellowship in Fiction).

My first novel, What You Have Left, was published in 2007 by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Paperback and audio book editions were published in 2008. A paperback reissue is due out in April 2011, and my second novel, Long Drive Home, will be published by Free Press in May 2011. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Will

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell ~ My Thoughts #AStrangerOnTheBeach #NetGalley

A Stranger on the Beach

A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell
Print & e-book, 352 pages
Published July 23rd 2019 by St. Martin's Press

From the bestselling author of It's Always the Husband comes a novel about a love triangle that begins on a fateful night...

There is a stranger outside Caroline's house.

Her spectacular new beach house, built for hosting expensive parties and vacationing with the family she thought she'd have. But her husband is lying to her and everything in her life is upside down, so when the stranger, Aidan, shows up as a bartender at the same party where Caroline and her husband have a very public fight, it doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.

As her marriage collapses around her and the lavish lifestyle she's built for herself starts to crumble, Caroline turns to Aidan for comfort...and revenge. After a brief and desperate fling that means nothing to Caroline and everything to him, Aidan's obsession with Caroline, her family, and her house grows more and more disturbing. And when Caroline's husband goes missing, her life descends into a nightmare that leaves her accused of her own husband's murder.

A Stranger on the Beach is Strangers on a Train meets Fatal Attraction in Michele Campbell's edge-of your-seat story of passion and intrigue..

My thoughts about A Stranger on the Beach ~~

(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—"There was a stranger on the beach. He was standing in front of my house, staring at it like he was casing it to rob."

This book had my head spinning. The story is told from two character's points of view and throughout most of the book the recollections of their interactions were so different, I wondered if they even experienced the same events. 

Obviously one of them is not a nice person but I had a really hard time determining which one it was. This book was a definite page-turner as the drama and action escalated with each chapter. A Stranger on the Beach is one book you will want to add to your summer beach read list, for sure. 

I received a copy of A Stranger on the Beach from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion of the book.

About the author

Michele Campbell is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School and a former federal prosecutor in New York City who specialized in international narcotics and gang cases.

A while back, she said goodbye to her big-city legal career and moved with her husband and two children to an idyllic New England college town a lot like Belle River in It's Always the Husband. Since then, she has spent her time teaching criminal and constitutional law and writing novels.

She's had many close female friends, a few frenemies, and only one husband, who – to the best of her knowledge – has never tried to kill her. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Michele

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

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Release Day! Versions of Her by Andrea Lochen ~ My Thoughts #VersionsOfHer

Congrats Andrea

on the release today of

Versions of Her!

Versions of Her by Andrea Lochen
Print & e-book, 310 pages
Published July 23rd 2019 by Red Adept Publishing, LLC

On the surface, Melanie Kingstad-Keyes’s life is the picture of success. She’s a tenure track professor at a prestigious university and has a perfect husband. But a recent miscarriage has left her reeling and her marriage tenuous. Selling her family’s Lake Indigo summer home, which she hasn’t visited in fifteen years, feels like the perfect distraction from her problems. Now, she only needs to persuade her younger sister, Kelsey, to go along with her plan.

Stuck in a dead-end job, Kelsey Kingstad bounces from one doomed relationship to the next as she struggles to jumpstart her adult life. Carrying the guilt of her mother’s untimely death, Kelsey is reluctant to let go of the Victorian house filled with memories of her mom and their childhood.

When the sisters find a mysterious hidden door, Melanie and Kelsey discover that they can directly view their mother’s younger years and learn all the secrets she never shared with them. Delving into her memories is fun at first, but Melanie and Kelsey quickly uncover difficult truths, throwing their own life choices into question and making them wonder if they ever truly knew their mother. Visiting the past may help them find closure, but the cost could be steeper than they realize.

My thoughts about Versions of Her ~~

(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—"Kelsey was running late, of course."

I read Andrea's previous book, Imaginary Things, and loved it. I was so excited when she contacted me about reading Versions of Her, her new book which just came out. I loved this one just as much!

Melanie and Kelsey find themselves at their family cabin on the lake, getting it ready to sell so they can move on with their lives. They soon discover a hidden door that takes them into past moments of their mother's life. What they find there has them reeling and questioning everything they thought they knew about the woman they called "Mom".

I love the thought of the possibility of a little bit of time traveling. I love that Andrea was able to weave a story combining past events with the present. And I love that, because of that mysterious door, Melanie and Kelsey are better able to understand the past—and their mother—and are able to move forward. I was just as fascinated by the secret door as the two sisters were and couldn't wait to take another look into the past. The magical element of time travel has always intrigued me and it's one of the things I loved the most about this book. Oh, the possibilities!

Andrea has written another beautiful story with characters I came to care about. This is definitely a book that you should put on your TBR list this summer. I'm sure you'll be swept away by this story as much as I was.

I received a copy of Versions of Her via the author and this is my honest opinion of the book.

Excerpt

Kelsey dropped her overnight bag on the four-post bed. Who says I have to stay in my old tiny bedroom when this one’s available? It didn’t make sense for her to sweat and toss and turn when she could be sprawled out coolly and peacefully. She doubted her mom would have minded, and her dad wasn’t there and probably wouldn’t ever be there again before the sale of the house. Only Melanie would care, but her sister could deal with it. She hung up the dress in her parents’ closet then used the bathroom.

Melanie was leaning in the master bedroom’s doorway when Kelsey came out. “You’re going to stay in here?” she asked casually, but Kelsey could see her hands were clenched in tight balls.

“Yeah. Why not?” Kelsey responded equally as casually. “No one else is using it, and I’ll be much more comfortable. Besides, I don’t think Mom and Dad would mind, do you?”

Melanie shook her head stiffly. Maybe she was kicking herself for not staking a claim on the room first. It probably hadn’t occurred to her because her room was so much nicer than Kelsey’s. If she had, Kelsey would’ve been happy to stay in the bedroom with the tapestry. “I’ll have to take one of the queen-size quilts to the Laundromat,” she said.

“I could do it,” Kelsey offered. “Or I could sleep with the twin-size quilt tonight. I really don’t care.” She bent down to scratch behind Sprocket’s ears and saw his tongue was hanging out in a doggy grin. She would need to set out a bowl of water for him soon. “So what is this thing of Mom’s you wanted to show me?” She tried to sound appropriately enthusiastic.

But Melanie’s eagerness seemed to have lessened somewhat. She was still staring into their parents’ bedroom as if Kelsey had desecrated it somehow. “Right.” Melanie slowly returned her attention to her sister, and Kelsey got the distinct impression she was being appraised. “It’s in my room,” she finally said and ducked into the doorway of the middle bedroom. “But we should probably sit down first.”

About the author

Though Andrea Lochen had dreamed of being an author since the third grade, she didn’t realize creative writing was “an actual thing” until she stumbled upon the program at the University of Wisconsin as a college freshman. After graduating from college, she earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Michigan and later achieved her dream of becoming a published author.

Andrea is now the author of three novels: The Repeat Year, Imaginary Things, and Versions of Her. She teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha, encouraging young writers to learn the craft and pursue their own writing dreams. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two small children, and their adorably fluffy dog, Maddy. In her free time, she likes to bake cupcakes and cakes, see musicals and plays, and read as much as humanly possible.

Connect with Andrea

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | BookBub

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Release Day! The Two Lila Bennetts by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke #TheTwoLilaBennetts

Congrats Liz and Lisa

on the release today of

The Two Lila Bennetts!

The Two Lila Bennetts by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Print and ebook, 320 pages
Published July 23rd 2019 by Lake Union Publishing

“One fateful decision. Two unexpected endings. A perfect summer read!” —Wendy Walker, bestselling author of The Night Before

Lila Bennett’s bad choices have finally caught up with her. And one of those decisions has split her life in two. Literally.

In one life, she’s taken hostage by someone who appears to be a stranger but knows too much. As she’s trapped in a concrete cell, her kidnapper forces her to face what she’s done or be killed. In an alternate life, she eludes her captor but is hunted by someone who is dismantling her happiness, exposing one secret at a time.

Lila’s decorated career as a criminal defense attorney, her marriage, and her life are on the line. She must make a list of those she’s wronged—both in and out of the courtroom—to determine who is out to get her before it’s too late. But even if she can pinpoint her assailant, will she survive? And if she does, which parts of her life are worth saving, and which parts must die? Because one thing’s for certain—life as Lila Bennett knew it is over.

     

I absolutely loved this book! I blew me away. You can read my thoughts here. Then you really need to get it and read it ASAP! 

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About the authors

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have been best friends for 25 years and survived high school and college together. Liz lives in San Diego, CA with her husband and two children. Lisa, a former talk show producer, now lives in Chicago, IL with her husband, daughter and two bonus children.

Connect with Liz and Lisa

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Release Day! Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb #MeetMeInMonaco #TallPoppy

Congrats Hazel & Heather

on the release today of

Meet Me in Monaco!

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb
Print and ebook, 384 pages
Published July 23rd 2019 by William Morrow Paperbacks

Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance and glamourous wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb take the reader on an evocative sun-drenched journey along the Côte d’Azur in this page-turning novel of passion, fate, and second-chances.

Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flash-bulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique, fending off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across thirty years of friendship, love, and tragedy.

James Henderson cannot forget his brief encounter with Sophie Duval. Despite his guilt at being away from his daughter, he takes an assignment to cover the wedding of the century, sailing with Grace Kelly’s wedding party on the SS Constitution from New York. In Monaco, as wedding fever soars and passions and tempers escalate, James and Sophie—like Princess Grace—must ultimately decide what they are prepared to give up for love.

About the authors

Hazel Gaynor

Hazel Gaynor is the acclaimed New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author of A MEMORY OF VIOLETS and THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME, for which she received the 2015 Romantic Novelists’ Association Historical Novel of the Year award. Her third novel, THE GIRL FROM THE SAVOY, was an Irish Times and Globe and Mail bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year. In 2017, she published THE COTTINGLEY SECRET and LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS (co-written with Heather Webb). Both novels hit bestseller lists, and LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS won the 2018 Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award. Hazel’s most recent novel, THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER, was an Irish Times and USA Today bestseller. Her latest novel MEET ME IN MONACO (co-written with Heather Webb) will be published in July 2019. 

Hazel was selected by Library Journal as one of Ten Big Breakout Authors for 2015. Her work has been translated into ten languages and is published in seventeen countries to date. She is co-founder of creative writing events The Inspiration Project, and lives in Ireland with her husband and two children. She is represented by Michelle Brower of Aevitas Creative Management, New York. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Hazel

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Heather Webb

When Josephine Bonaparte appeared to Heather in a dream, she switched gears from fun-loving high school teacher to author & history nerd on the prowl for fascinating stories.

To date, her historical novels have sold in multiple countries worldwide, received national starred reviews, and have been featured in print media including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, and more. In addition, LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS was a Globe & Mail bestseller in 2017, and in 2015, RODIN'S LOVER was chosen as a Goodread's Pick.

Next up? She had so much fun writing Last Christmas in Paris with her co-author Hazel Gaynor that she decided to do it again! Their novel, MEET ME IN MONACO, set to the backdrop of Grace Kelly's wedding, will release in the summer of 2019 from HarperCollins. 

When not writing, Heather flexes her foodie skills, geeks out on pop culture and history, or looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world, (especially her beloved France). She loves to chitchat on Twitter with new reader friends or writers (@msheatherwebb) or via her Facebook page. Stop on by! ~ Goodreads 

Connect with Heather

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 22, 2019

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

Never Have I Ever

by Joshilyn Jackson

Pub date 7/30

What I recently finished

A Stranger on the Beach
by Michele Campbell
Pub date 7/23

My thoughts will be posted on Wednesday.

Doctor Sleep

(The Shining #2)

by Stephen King

Narrated by Will Patton

Awesome! And now I'm ready for the movie release in November.

To Have and To Hold

(The Vows #1)

by Heidi Renee Mason

Read my thought here and enter the giveaway!

Versions of Her

by Andrea Lochen

Pub date 7/23

My thoughts will be posted tomorrow.

What I am going to read next

The Escape Room

by Megan Goldin

Pub date 7/30

I'm kind of on a psychological thriller binge right now and I can't wait to start this one!

My thoughts will be posted 8/1

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Release Day! To Have and To Hold by Heidi Renee Mason ~ My Thoughts, Excerpt, and #Giveaway!

To Have and To Hold by Heidi Renee Mason

Series: The Vows #1

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Cover Design: Soxsational Cover Art

Published July 20, 2019 by Hot Tree Publishing

After the death of her husband, single mom Emma McCoy has given up on love. When the mysterious Liam O’Reilly shows up in town, Emma does her best to keep her distance. What Emma doesn’t know is that Liam is connected to her past in a way that she could never imagine, and it will put her future in jeopardy.

In the small town of Beckland, Ohio, danger is the last thing that Emma expects, but since Liam’s arrival, danger is waiting around every corner.

Book 1 of 3 in Heidi Renee Mason’s romantic suspense trilogy, The Vows. This is not a stand-alone romance.

My thoughts about To Have and To Hold ~~

(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 lines.)

First line—"Moving as quickly as a woman seven months pregnant is capable of moving, Emma McCoy headed to the front door of her house. A loud knocking had awakened her from her afternoon nap."

A knock on the door changes Emma's life. When she is finally starting to get on with her life, her past comes back to take her out again. There is so much she doesn't know about her husband and what happened in the past and then Liam enters the picture, someone who seems to know too much about Emma's past.  

To Have and To Hold has it all—intrigue, suspense, relationships and romance, great characters, and an interesting story-line. Heidi is a new-to-me author, although I have been following her for awhile now, so I was excited to join her tour. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the first in a series, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. 

I received a copy of To Have and To Hold for the Enticing Journey Book Promotion tour and this is my honest opinion of the book.

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Moving as quickly as a woman seven months pregnant is capable of moving, Emma McCoy headed to the front door of her house. The loud knocking had awakened her from her afternoon nap. Emma yawned, trying to appear awake. She didn’t remember being this exhausted during her other pregnancies. This time, she could barely stay awake during the day.

“I’ll be right there!” Emma called toward the general direction of the front door.

Emma wondered who it could be. Her best friend, Sadie, never knocked, and her husband, Jacob, was out of town on business. Her parents wouldn’t have bothered knocking, knowing that she would be resting while the girls napped.

Emma opened the door and was startled to see two policemen. Fear immediately crept up inside of her chest and nearly stole her breath away. Her first thought was that something was wrong with her parents. She prayed that the policemen were at the wrong address, but a feeling deep inside of her gut said that they were not.

“Can I help you?” Emma’s heart raced inside of her chest. She willed herself to be calm.

“Mrs. McCoy,” said the male officer. “Can we come inside, please?”

“Of course;” Emma led them through the dining room and into her living room. She offered them a seat, but refused to take one herself. As the officers gathered their thoughts, Emma paced the living room floor. “Someone please tell me what’s going on.”

“Mrs. McCoy, please sit down,” said the female officer. “We need you to stay calm. You’re pregnant; you can’t get so worked up.”

Emma sat awkwardly in the antique rocking chair that had been in her family for generations. Her parents had gifted it to her when she gave birth to her oldest daughter. She remembered that her mother told her that it would be perfect for rocking her daughter to sleep in it, and she was right. Emma ran her hands across the aged wood, thinking absently of her children, who were upstairs napping. Her palms were damp and her heart was racing. She tried to slow her breathing, but it was no use. She felt the need to vomit.

“Someone please tell me what’s wrong. I know something is wrong,” Emma looked directly at the officers, demanding answers. “Is it my parents?”

“Mrs. McCoy, there’s been an accident. Your husband’s plane went down while it was descending into Canada. The authorities have searched, but there were no survivors.” The female officer looked intently at Emma, gauging her reaction. “I am so sorry to bring you this news.”

“What do you mean? There must be some mistake. Jacob wasn’t even going to Canada. He’s in California on business.” Emma breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that the officers were mistaken.

“Look, I know this is a shock, Mrs. McCoy, but it has been confirmed. The passenger on the plane to Canada was your husband. We have copies of his plane ticket and his passport. He’s on the airport video surveillance. He boarded the plane with another passenger, a woman named Veronica Smith. Do you know her?” Both officers looked at one another before shifting their gazes toward Emma.

“Veronica Smith is our neighbor. She told me that she was going to Pennsylvania to visit her family. Why were Jacob and Veronica on the plane together?” Emma’s hands began to shake. “I don’t understand. Jacob was going to California, not Canada.” A million questions filled her mind.

She sat completely still for a moment as she tried to wrap her brain around the information. The small, nagging voice had plagued her for the past year, but suddenly it was screaming. She was stupid for not listening sooner. She had always been suspicious of Jacob and Veronica, but she convinced herself that it was paranoia. Jacob told her that she was emotional because of the pregnancy, so she pushed aside the nagging suspicion in order to keep the peace in her marriage.

Every image that she had ignored paraded through her mind. She remembered all of the times when she accused her husband of being too friendly with their lovely neighbor. With every accusation, Jacob would become incensed with anger. Emma would always back off in an effort to avoid a confrontation.

Unable to ignore them anymore, each of the images came crashing down on her. She saw Jacob helping the beautiful Veronica trim the hedge between the houses. She saw them laughing together over a shared joke. She thought of Jacob’s insistence that he was “just being neighborly.” She recalled the way that her husband had placed his hand on the small of Veronica’s back in a way that was too familiar for Emma’s comfort. It was all too much to take in. She had been right all along, and now she was playing the part of the clueless wife.

The room began to spin. Emma felt faint. Jacob was having an affair with Veronica and they were both dead. She was alone, with two little girls and another on the way. Emma tried to stand, but her legs wouldn’t support her. The officers caught Emma as her body gave way and she slipped into oblivion.

Heidi Renee Mason is an Ohio girl transplanted into the Pacific Northwest. She is a homeschooling mom of three daughters, wife of one mail man, and a people-watching introvert who can be found hiding in the nearest corner. She is an Amazon best-selling author, and writer of your next happily ever after.

Visit my publishers at www.solsticepublishing.com and www.hottreepublishing.com!

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