This week is loaded with great reads! A new book from Ann Patchett that has the book world buzzing and a new book by Mary Kay Andrews too! Let me tell you, (actually, I already did back in February) Road Trip is a fabulous read! I loved it! But let's get to them all...
When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.
Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.
It's been a few years since we've gotten a new book by Ann Patchett and this one sounds wonderful. The kind of story we expect from her. And I have a copy sitting on my nightstand right now waiting for me to crack the spine!
Published by Harper Collins
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Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.
In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.
Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?
The Children is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own.
This has gotten a lot of buzz because it is this month's Read with Jenna pick (Jenna Bush). I am intrigued! And I chose this as my June Book of the Month selection too.
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Published by William Morrow.
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.
This sounds like a perfect summer read! And courtesy of the publisher, I have a copy to read and review! Stay tuned for that soon! Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
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Dr. Jo Ness prefers jellyfish to people. Her best friend, Aldo, was the exception, but he died seven months ago. So she spends her days hidden away at an underfunded aquarium with her specimens and a draft of the jellyfish guide she and Aldo had been working on together. His voice is alive in the notes in the margins, and it’s enough. Almost.
Until she receives a call from Nadia, one of the few other humans she’s loved but whom she hasn’t heard from in years, asking for her help. Nadia tells her a grand tale of a giant jellyfish terrorizing her tiny island off the coast of Maine and sends a grainy video of the creature. Frankly, the footage looks fake, but Jo drops everything to fly across the country to see Nadia again, and to find this supposed sea beast. She couldn’t save Aldo, but perhaps she can help Nadia.
But when Jo arrives on Shattering Point, Nadia is nowhere to be found, and the islanders she meets each have something different to say about the creature they’ve dubbed Clementine . . . a jellyfish who changes all who see it.
At turns an ode to classic sea monster stories and a vibrant tale of human connection, The Jellyfish Problem is an unforgettable debut that announces a new talent.
I was so intrigued by this book when I read about it! (and I have a digital copy courtesy of the publisher to read and review!... that's coming soon too!)
Published by Berkley.
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They branded her a sinner.
She chose to become a threat.
In a kingdom where a forgotten goddess’s curse has become law—where purity is power and desire is a death sentence—Raylane has lived her life playing the perfect girl. Obedient. Untouched. Destined for the crown.
All so she might one day reshape a realm that damns cursed women like her mother… women who dared to fall in love.
Until one kiss ruins everything.
Branded impure and cursed with rot-magic that spreads by touch, Raylane is cast into the Trial of the Bound—a brutal arena where champions fight to the death, gods revel in blood, and power feeds on the prayers of the crowd.
Her only hope of survival? Swear fealty to the very goddess who cursed her. In return, the goddess tears a shadowbeast from another world and binds him to Raylane’s side—feral, unwilling, and the only one who can help her tame the power threatening to consume her.
He doesn’t want her. Doesn’t trust her. But their fates are entwined, and every step toward mastery binds them tighter.
As her power grows and their bond deepens, Raylane must make an impossible choice: win the trial, free the cursed, and unleash a forgotten goddess bent on reclaiming the world… or lose everything to save those who now pray for her death.
One path leads to love.
The other, to mercy.
Both end in ruin.
I've been kind of obsessed with Romantasy lately and this just sounds epic. Self published by the author, put this on your TBR list! It's being released on June 6th, and if you are a Kindle reader, it is available for pre-order for Kindle for $1.99. But as always, double check the price before you hit the buy button because prices change fast on Amazon.
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Maeve and Therese Dunigan haven’t spoken in years. Raised under the same roof in Savannah, the two sisters could not be more opposite―Maeve the rule follower, Therese the unapologetic rebel. But when their mother’s death pulls them back together, they inherit more than just grief: a mysterious painting that may be worth millions…if it’s real.
Determined to uncover the truth―and desperately in need of the money―the sisters set out on a journey to Ireland, tracing their family’s roots and the origins of the portrait. What begins as a search for answers soon becomes something deeper―a reckoning with the past, as they uncover secrets that span generations and reshape everything they thought they knew about their family.
With tensions simmering, the two hit the road and find themselves on twisty lanes, in colorful villages, at local pubs, and with handsome men whose gift of the gab is surpassed only by their charm.
Can Maeve and Therese actually survive the journey without killing each other? Join Mary Kay Andrews on a road trip that will entertain you for miles.
I received an early review copy of this book from the publisher and absolutely loved it! How can this be my first Mary Kay Andrews book?! Well, it is, but it definitely will not be my last. Great writing and a great story to go along! If you haven't read my review, here's a link for it on Chick with Books. And definitely put this on your TBR list!
I hope you found something new to put on your TBR list! All of these are either in my Kindle or on the nightstand (or soon to be on the nightstand!). Don't you just love summer reading!
Happy reading... Suzanne
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