New Release Tuesday...

 There are always lots of great books released on Tuedays! 

Here are my top 5!

Fever Dream by Elsie Silver... Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love. He’s looking for a paycheck to save his family’s farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he’s already decided it’s all one big performance.

Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, she’s the last woman who should pique his interest.

Julia has been warned about Emmett. She knows better than to fall for his cocky swagger, broad shoulders, and smoldering good looks. Plus, she’s sworn off relationships.

But as Julia and Emmett work together, mutual distaste grows into an unexpected connection and then… something more.

Soon, they find themselves searching for excuses to spend time together and out of reach of the cameras. Knowing glances. Stolen kisses. Secret rendezvous.

Still, Emmett signed up to play the role of an eligible bachelor searching for the one. His family’s land and legacy depend on him completing the show.

The problem is, he’s already fallen in love.... Just not with a contestant. 

Published by Emerald Lake

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The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff... When April and Leo’s house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April’s childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication.

As the family reckons with the aftermath—grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact—the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo’s marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage, and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April’s generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo’s relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here.

A family saga suffused with humor, longing, and heartbreak, The Burning Side is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

Published by Simon & Schuster

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Dear Missing Friend by Susan McGuirk... Through letters exchanged across oceans and Manhattan streets, Irish immigrant Catherine McGuirk navigates love, ambition, and heartbreak. Torn between her seafaring husband, the suitor she once refused, and her own dreams, Catherine’s fate unfolds in an intimate, epistolary saga of passion, resilience, and 19th-century life Sea Crow Pass 

Published by Sea Crow Press

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The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker... Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor—a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the world will face its most devastating moonfall yet, forcing her to pick a path:

Chase death. Or life. 

Desperate to save his kingdom from ruin, Kaan’s crown has never felt so heavy. His many larks to scattered friends and family remain unanswered, and time is running out. As allies merge and enemies surge with bloodlusting agendas of their own, secrets brew hot enough to burn, but none so mighty as the truth nesting within the icy depths of Raeve’s long forgotten past. Something … Other. Something with the knowledge to change it all.

Published by Avon

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The Day You Were My Husband by Rosie Walsh... Carrie and Johan marry on a beach in Thailand only months into their whirlwind romance. Carrie, a British surgical intern, is too happy to care that she’s being impulsive. But as the wedding festivities stretch into the night, a group of armed men suddenly swarm the beach, taking Johan away. She never sees him again.

Twelve years later, Carrie is living in the English countryside with her husband, Robin, and their six-year-old twins, running a holiday cottage rental business on the side. One night, she stumbles across an online post in which she discovers that Johan escaped from Thailand years ago, and has been living in Stockholm ever since. As the memories of their passionate relationship flood her, she becomes obsessed with discovering what happened on their wedding day all those years ago.

But just when Carrie thinks she knows what she must do, a shocking twist tears apart everything Carrie thought she knew.

Published by Pamela Dorman Books

Memoir Monday... We'll be in Beijing today Delivering Parcels!

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan

A viral hit in China in 2025, Hu Anyan's book hit a chord with readers. Starting out with just a blog post about his life as a parcel sorter during Covid, readers encouraged him to keep writing about his experiences and this is the result. Here's the blurb from Astra Publishing...

In 2023, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became the literary sensation of the year in China. Hu Anyan’s story, about short-term jobs in various anonymous megacities, hit a nerve with a generation of young people who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed.

Hu started posting essays about his experiences online during COVID lockdowns. His recollection of night shifts in a huge logistics center in the south of China went his nights were so hot that he could drink three liters of water without taking a toilet break; his days were spent searching for affordable rooms with proper air-conditioning; and his few moments of leisure were consumed by calculations of the amount of alcohol needed to sleep but not feel drowsy a few hours later.

Hu Anyan tells us about brutal work, where there is no real future in sight. But Hu is armed with deadpan humor and a strong idea of self. He moves on when he feels stuck—from logistics in the south, to parcel delivery in Beijing, to other impossible jobs. Along the way, he turns to reading and writing for strength and companionship.

I just happened to come upon this book while reading about some upcoming memoir releases and I found it so interesting how it went viral. Published in October of 2025 in the US by Astra Publishing, this is translated from the original Chinese to English. The story sounds interesting too... on my wishlist.

 

First Lines Friday... This week’s opening lines are from a twisty coastal thriller full of family drama, suspicious deaths, and the kind of small-town secrets that never stay buried…

 

"I did not plan to start the summer by dangling out of a ­second-​­story window. But on this breezy night, all that separates me from plunging to my death and living to see my eighteenth birthday is the grip my older sister, Lucy, has on my wrists from inside my bedroom."

I love the way this story starts out! How about you? Would you keep reading after these first few lines?

I just received this book in the mail from Penguin Random House and had to share just a peek. It is a romantic mystery thriller, and with all those three in a book description, I'm definitely in. Here's the book description from the publisher...

A razor-sharp murder-mystery set during the summer when a local teen's suspicious death exposes the devastating secrets three sisters keep.

Do you ever really know the people you love?

For the Gold sisters and Silver brothers, life has been idyllic, growing up in side-by-side waterfront mansions in a town where doors are never locked and the police do little more than issue speeding tickets. The Golds and Silvers have known each other their entire lives, as neighbors, as friends, as family.

But one carefree summer takes a dark turn when a beach party ends in tragedy and their perfect world cracks wide open. Suddenly, the bonds that tie these families together are strained by suspicion and fear. Painful secrets surface, revealing the fragile truths they've all been hiding.

Lucy, the oldest Gold girl, harbors a crushing secret from her boyfriend, one of the Silver boys. Millie, the middle sister, quietly yearns for the one person she can't have. And the youngest, Frankie, uncovers something that could blow their island apart.

A gripping novel about the lies friends tell, the façade siblings build, and how one summer tests—and breaks—the bonds of family.

The book will be released by G.P. Putnam & Sons (a division of Penguin Random House) on June 2nd! Look for my review before then!

New Release Tuesday... and My Top 3 (maybe 4) picks...

 

Happy New Release Day! There are always many new books to choose from on "New Releases Tuesday"! It's summer and thoughts turn to breezy sweeping stories that I can melt into. Here are my top picks for this week... (the last one is not a breezy story though 😲)

The River Muse by Laura Resau... 
A French chateau. A forest with secrets. A magical spring. Welcome to La Chanson, where lost souls are found again…

At the brink of summer, Callie arrives in a secluded village in the South of France with her young daughter, after barely escaping her menacing ex-partner. Desperate to hide, she rents a cottage on the grounds of the Chateau of the Lost. Her new home sings with flowing water, rustling olive trees, and whispering poppies—an otherworldly nook of hidden magic. Little by little, she warms to her quirky neighbors—a witchy landlady, an acclaimed truffle hunter, his kind veterinarian son, and their lovable dogs. Oh, and a mischievous ghost boy.

Slowly but surely, her new friends help her discover herself again. Years earlier, she gave up music at the insistence of her ex, but as she reclaims her voice, everyone finds that her songs open hearts and heal old wounds. When her ex tracks her down, the stakes grow deadly, and she must tap into her most powerful self to protect her newfound family.

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June Baby by Shannon Garvey...
Some summers never leave you.

In this moving debut novel, set over the course of one transformative summer in the lush, beachy enclave of Block Island, a young woman reckons with love, loss, and the choices she must make to move forward.

At seventeen, Ruth lost her mother to cancer, and her father, unable to handle his grieving daughter, shipped her off to Block Island with nothing but a name scribbled on the back of a receipt: Diana Beckett. Diana, a renowned photographer, took Ruth in for the summer, and Block Island became Ruth’s refuge, a place of beauty and creativity, a place where she could nurture her dreams of being a writer, a place where she could fall in love for the first time—with Diana’s nephew, Charlie.

Now, at twenty-seven, Ruth has spent the last ten summers living and working among the lucky few who get to vacation in this wealthy beach town, and the rest of the year just scraping by, yearning to return to the place where she feels safe and unburdened. But then Ruth’s world is upended by tragedy again. Desperate for an anchor, she reaches for the person she’s been pining for since she met him—Charlie—who has his own startling revelation to share. And when another surprise comes in the form of a box left to Ruth by Diana, its contents raise questions about just how well she knew the two women who raised her. Torn between what to believe about her past, and what her future might hold, Ruth is faced with another choice: does she dare to rewrite her story entirely?

Both a heartfelt coming-of-age story and a tender exploration of love and grief, set against a backdrop of golden dunes and seaside sunsets, June Baby shows us what it might look like to embrace a life shaped not by loss, but by possibility.

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The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline...
A boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.

Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined.

Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.

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The Anniversary by Alex Finley...
Every May 1st, a serial killer stalks a small town. Every year he comes for them . . 

On May 1, 1992, Jules Delaney and Quinn Riley hardly know each other.

Jules is high school queen bee in a small Midwestern town when she survives a brutal attack by the elusive May Day Killer―a predator who strikes every May 1st and then vanishes without a trace. Quinn, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested the same night after trying to break up a fight and nearly killing someone.

By morning, their lives are forever connected.

A year later, Jules is haunted by trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was she spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to devastating news―the unsolved murder of his mother.

Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year: May 1st.

As the years pass, secrets surface, lies unravel, and the paths of Jules and Quinn draw closer together. Two mysteries edge toward the truth―what really happened the night Jules was attacked, and who murdered Quinn’s mother? All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there.

And the clock is racing toward another anniversary.

Twisty, high-concept, and emotionally charged, The Anniversary is an addictive murder mystery and nail-biting thriller―but it’s also a tender, heartrending story about fate, innocence lost, and two people bound by a single day. With its masterful structure and propulsive tension, The Anniversary reaffirms Alex Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

Mastering American Mahjong: A Complete Guide To Rules and Strategy by Megan Trottier... A Review

 Mastering American Mahjong: 

A Complete Guide to Rules and Strategy 

by Megan Trottier

I have always wanted to learn how to play Mahjong. As an absolute beginner who was eager to learn how to play American Mahjong, I loved Mastering American Mahjong: A Complete Guide to Rules and Strategy by Megan Trottier. The book is incredibly well organized, easy to understand, and makes learning the game feel approachable and fun.

Everything is thoroughly explained, from the basic rules and terminology to learning the tiles, reading the NMJL card, setup, dealing, and gameplay. The author also shares helpful tips and insights into the nuances of the game, which made the learning process feel much less intimidating. I found the book not only informative, but also a real confidence builder as I learned.

One of my favorite additions was the inclusion of several popular “casual” Mahjong games at the end of the book, which added even more fun and variety.

If you’re interested in learning American Mahjong, this is absolutely the book I would recommend! And author Megan Trottier knows what she's talking about too... Megan is "the founder of the high-end, women-owned American mahjong brand Oh My Mahjong." And let me tell you, her mahjong tiles are beautiful!

In a few days, I'll be going to a "Mahjong Basics" class hosted by a local Mahjong teacher. I signed up before reading Megan's book and I'm glad I was able to read it beforehand. Instead of my head spinning with what would have been an overwhelming amount of "new" information from the class, I'll have a great grasp of the information ahead of time. And I really am looking forward to the class. I'll let you know how it goes...

Do you know how to play Mahjong?

Mark your calendars... Mastering American Mahjong will be published by Ten Speed Press and released on October 13, 2026! 

Memoir Monday... A "Memory" of a Mysterious Death and the Search for Truth

London Fallng: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search For Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe... In the early morning of November 29th, 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, captured video of a young man pacing back and forth on a high balcony of Riverwalk, a luxury tower on the bank of the river Thames. At 2:24 a.m., he jumped into the river.

In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler was worried about her son. Zac had told her that he had gone to stay with a friend for the weekend, but then he did not come home. Days later, a police car pulled up and two officers relayed the dreadful news: Her son was dead.In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband, Matthew, struggled to understand what had happened to Zac. He had had his troubles, but in no way seemed suicidal. As they would soon discover, however, there was a lot they did not know about their son. Only after his death did they learn that he had adopted a fictitious alter ego: Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch and heir to a great fortune. Under this guise, Zac had become entangled with a slippery London businessman named Akbar Shamji and a murderous gangster known as Indian Dave. As the Brettlers set about investigating their son’s death, they were pulled into a different and more dangerous London than the one they’d always known, and came to believe that something much more nefarious than a suicide had claimed Zac’s life. But to their immense frustration, Scotland Yard seemed unable—or unwilling—to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In a bravura feat of reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the Brettlers’ quest, peeling back layers of mystery and exposing the seedy truths behind the glamorous London of posh mansions and private nightclubs, a city in which everything is for sale, and aspirational fantasies are underwritten by dirty money and corruption. London Falling is a mesmerizing investigation of an inexplicable death and a powerful narrative driven by suspense and staggering revelations. But it is also an intimate and deeply poignant inquiry into the nature of parental love and the challenges of being a parent today, a portrait of a family trying to solve the riddle not just of how their son died, but of who he really was in life.

This isn't a memoir, but a true crime novel with an interesting twist that Zac Ismailov had a kind of secret life, with him posing as the son of a Russian oligarch! That sounded so interesting to me. I love a good mystery and this certainly falls under that category. 

This book was published by Doubleday in early April of this year, so it is available at your favorite bookstore! And it is on my TBR list now!

P.S. This cover is actually from the UK version of the book ( I like it better and actually ordered my copy from the UK so I could have this cover of the book.)

The Sunday Salon... Happy Mothers Day and "Mother"" Books

Happy Mothers Day!

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the place where Book Bloggers from around the world share their bookish finds with one another in a virtual place called The Sunday Salon. Thank you to Deb at ReaderBuzz keeping us all together on Sundays and hosting The Sunday Salon now! I also visited with Kim at The Caffeinated Reader, another Sunday gathering place for us bookish people called The Sunday Post!

Happy Mothers Day to all the women who have nurtured us, taken care of us, and raised us ❤️! Here is my wonderful mother and me at the beginning...

We all have a mother, but there is so much more that giving birth that makes a mother, a mother... My mother took the time and patience to nurture me and help me grow into the woman I am today. I've known her for a very long time (more years than we both care to admit). She was and has always been my BFF. I am lucky that I can still pick up the phone and talk to my mom when I need advice or just to talk to her to hear her voice. Love you Mom, and Happy Mothers Day (I know she reads my posts and will be reading this one too!)

There have been a lot of books about "Mothers", so for today's Sunday Salon we have "Mother" books...

Mother, Mother by Zia Rayyan... 
Iris Blackwood always knew her mother didn’t love her. It’s why she left six years ago and never looked back. But when her aunt—her mother’s identical twin—and her stepfather die in a tragic accident, she’s forced to return home. The cruel woman she remembers is gone. In her place is someone who cooks breakfast with a smile and says, “I love you.” Iris wants to believe it’s real. But then she finds a journal in the attic. One that reveals her mother and aunt used to switch places all the time. And when her car mysteriously won’t start, she begins to fear the truth. She came home to the wrong mother. And now she may never leave.

This book was independently published back in 2025 and is a psychological thriller

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The Wrong Mother by Charlotte Duckworth... 
One mother on the run. A safe place to hide. But you can't escape the past forever. Faye is 39 and single. She's terrified she may never have the one thing she always wanted: a child of her own. Then she discovers a co-parenting app: Acorns. For men and women who want to have a baby, but don't want to do it alone. When she meets Louis through it, it feels as though the fates have aligned. But just one year later, Faye is on the run from Louis, with baby Jake in tow. In desperate need of a new place to live, she contacts Rachel, who's renting out a room in her remote Norfolk cottage. It's all Faye can afford - and surely she'll be safe from Louis there? But is Rachel the benevolent landlady she pretends to be? Or does she have a secret of her own?

Published by Quercus Publishing in 2023, this is a psychological thriller.

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The Mothers by Brit Bennett... 
It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it's not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a "what if" can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.

Published by Riverhead back in 2017, this is a literary fiction, coming-of-age story.

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For more recently published "Mother" books, you have The Mother Daughter Book Club by Susan and James Patterson and The Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon. 

Do you have any suggestions 

for a good "Mother" book?!

Memoir Monday... A memoir about 2 women living together! A smash hit in South Korea.

New Books Tuesday... An amazing selection of 10 books!

First Lines Friday... A book that will have your head in the stars!

And that's all for this past week. Next week look for a review on a soon-to-be published book on Mahjong! Yes, I've secretly wanted to learn to play Mahjong for years. I recently signed up for an intro lesson, and then this book pops up from a publisher for me.to review! I've been studying this book and have to say, it has really taught me a lot! and I'll share that with y'all next week. Do you play Mahjong?

Hope you all have a wonderful Mothers Day and that you found some fun "Mothers" books here today! 

Happy reading... Suzanne

 

First Lines Friday... How about a little magic in the stars?!

An Arcane Study of Stars by Sydney J. Shields

 “There is an old bookshop called the Wanderer's Wonders in the heart of Kulden -- a small, often forgotten town tucked in a far northern corner of England --and as far as Claudia Jolicoeur is concerned, it's magical, for it always has something she needs”

An Arcane Study of Stars by Sydney J. Shields was recently published by Red Hook (a division of Hachette Books) and has gotten a lot of buzz! It's a romantasy, but with the twist that it has "celestial magic", which is magic based on the stars and cosmos. I picked this out for my Allurial book choice this month and it is patiently waiting in the wings for me to dive into. 

Here's the blurb from Goodreads: a historical dark academia fantasy filled with ancient secret societies, a swoon-worthy rivals-to-lovers romance, and dangerous deals made after dark. Perfect for fans of The Atlas Six and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

When Claudia Jolicoeur is rejected from Cygnus University, a devilish stranger named Dorian appears in her nightmares and offers her a bargain: he will get her into Cygnus if she learns how to free him from a prison of stars. He takes a bite of her soul to seal the deal, and Claudia wakes to a letter from the High Sage of Cygnus stating she will take the place of Odette Dufort, a Rhetoric student who passed away.

Her arrival raises suspicions, rumors that she had a hand in Odette's death spread like wildfire, and Cassius MacLeod, the High Sage’s apprentice and Claudia's fellow Rhetoric student, seems hellbent on humiliating her. Determined to clear her name, she searches for any evidence that could prove her innocence. When someone—or something—starts slipping her pieces of Odette’s diary, Claudia uncovers a horrifying truth: over the last century, celestial witches at Cygnus have been murdered. Odette was one of them, and Claudia could be next. For her own protection, Claudia needs to free Dorian—and fast.

By night, she studies the stars, slowly unraveling the mystery of Dorian's prison. By day, she and Cassius wage rhetorical war as debate partners in class. What begins as a fierce rivalry devolves into something deeper, darker, and dangerously sensual. As Claudia inches closer to the truth, she must decide: would trusting Cassius be the last mistake she ever makes?

Would you keep reading after the first line?

New Books Tuesday!

Romance... Romantasy... Historical Fiction... Murder... Memoir... 

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      There is something for everyone in todays New Book Releases! 

Here they are:

Rules For The Summer by Meghan Quinn (Romance).   

Summer State of Mind by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Literary Fiction)

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (Historical Literary Fiction)

Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune (Romance)

The Daisy Chain Flower Shop by Laurie Gilmore (Romance)

Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister (Crime Thriller)    

A Founding Mother by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kimoie (Historical Fiction)

True Crime by Patricia Cornwell (Memoir)

Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray (Psychological Thriller)

Verity Guild by Mai Corlang (Romantasy set in a Roman Empire)

Are you looking forward to any of these books? Kathryn Stockett hasn't published anything new since The Help (which everyone loved!), so this is on my wishlist! Patricial Cornwell gives us insight into the "real" Dr. Kay Scarpetta with her memoir. Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray has gotten a lot of great buzz prior to its' publication and I picked that as my Book of The Month subscription choice. I am so intrigued byVerity Guild, which is a romantasy set in a type of ROMAN EMPIRE! 

Let me know what you think, and if there's something newly published NOT on this list share that too!