Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

We loved The Overnight Guest.

Wylie Lark doesn’t expect to become the central figure in a real-life mystery when she locks herself away in a remote house in Burden, Iowa to write her latest true crime book. Happy to spend the winter with her dog Tas for company, even in the midst of a blizzard, she’s working on her latest book, which retells the stories of a gruesome double homicide – an incident which took place in the house that she has rented. Her plans for solitude are interrupted when she spies a child collapsed in the snow outside her door.  She brings the child inside, and thus begins her troubles, as he seems to be extremely traumatized from what he’s been through and is completely nonverbal.  It doesn’t help that they’re being stalked by a woman with an axe.

Back in 2000, Josie Doyle’s story is told through her twelve-year-old eyes.  Josie had arranged for her best friend Becky to sleep over at her house for the night, but things are getting hectic between Josie’s parents and her brother Ethan. The girls try to sneak out for the night to escape, but then they hear a banging noise in the distance.  They run back to Josie’s home to discover a horror beyond their comprehension. Most of Josie’s family will die that night, and Becky and Ethan will go missing.

There’s a third PoV from a child character who lives isolated with her mother and abusive, alcoholic father. The mother and child are not allowed to leave their basement home, and must rely on the father to return from the outside world with infusions of medicine, entertainment and food. Eventually all three perspectives collide and Wylie’s past and present become one.

This 4.3 star read is on sale at Amazon for 2.99 here.


This women’s fiction is really good.

Jewel Sabatino is smack dab in the middle of the hardest part of her life when she receives news that she has inherited some property from her aunt. Things aren’t too wonderful in New York City for Jewel right now. Her best friend, Michael, is dying of AIDS and dependent on her for care, and she and her teenage son are about to lose their apartment due to a real estate takeover. So going home again seems like the most practical thing to do. The only problem is that Jewel left her hometown of Pueblo, Colorado in a blaze of glory and scandal twenty some years ago and she doesn’t know if her family – and more specifically, her father – will be willing to take her back into the fold. And she also doesn’t know if she really wants them to. When she was growing up, the fold was a rather confining place to be.

In the midst of all this is the escalating problem of Michael. Jewel wants to make the time he has left special and meaningful, so she writes to his younger brother telling him to come to Pueblo and spend some time with Michael. But she is unprepared for the reality of the younger brother. Malachi Shaughnessy arrives in a cloud of dust on a big motorcycle and is just her type – a gorgeous Bad Boy. The same type who twenty years ago invited her to go for a ride that took them all the way to New York. Malachi is exactly what Jewel doesn’t need right now. Or is he?

This was a beautifully written, emotionally engrossing read. The longing and regret that Jewel feels when she comes home is palpable and very affecting. Her family has gone on without her, and now she must figure out how to relate to all of them, a very hard task. Samuel fully explores the positive and negative aspects of living in a community that knows everything about you and doesn’t necessarily approve of it all.

It’s at Amazon for 2.49 here.


Looking for a great Americana historical? Readers love this Lorraine Heath!

The USA Today–bestselling author delivers a poignant historical romance of a desperate woman, a lonely cowboy, and the never-ending search for hope.

RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Americana

RITA Finalist for Best Short Historical

Booklovers’ Award for Bestselling Americana

Marrying Maddie Sherwood, a woman who works in a brothel in order to survive, widower Charles Lawson hopes to provide his three children with a loving mother—until his terminal illness causes him to arrange a match between Maddie and his brother.

It’s for sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.


 

We love this historical/dual timeline story. It’s SO GOOD.

Home, exile, family and above all, hope. These themes all figure prominently in Next Year in Havana, Chanel Cleeton’s beautiful novel of love and Cuba. We see the love stories of a grandmother and her granddaughter playing out in Havana, but we also see these characters grappling with their deep love for an imperfect country. There’s a lot of nostalgia to be found in this novel, but there’s also hope amidst an acceptance of reality. In the end, these threads all come together to make a beautiful, bittersweet story.

As the book opens, Elisa Perez and her sisters are preparing to leave Cuba with their family. It is 1959, and none of them realizes the length of the exile that lies ahead. From this prologue, we shift to the current decade and encounter Elisa’s granddaughter Marisol Ferrera, a journalist preparing to visit Cuba as travel restrictions have been relaxed. Not only does Marisol intend to go to Cuba to write, but she also carries the ashes of her recently deceased grandmother and has been charged with finding the right place to scatter them. While in Cuba, Marisol will be staying with her grandmother’s childhood best friend and Marisol hopes that as she explores Havana, the right resting spot will present itself….

Throughout both storylines, Cuba’s history looms large. At times, the explanations of culture and events interfere a bit with the flow of the story but most of the time the author’s pacing works and the attention to detail enhances rather than distracts.  This is true largely because Marisol and Elisa don’t have the only love stories in the book. Love of Cuba is a theme that runs throughout the entire novel and the author renders it in a way that makes it as compelling to the reader as the other romantic plotlines. Though it does take a few chapters to really get going, Next Year in Havana is achingly beautiful and a novel I highly recommend.

It’s on sale for 2.99 here.


 

Our reviewer couldn’t put this one down. 

We all know the saying “Oh, what a tangled web we weave… when first we practice to deceive.” In Fiona Barton’s engrossing new thriller, The Child, that tangled web is spun around a single act. Like a stack of dominoes falling when just one is pushed over, it seems almost inevitable that when one string on that web is pulled, the whole construct is torn apart until a shocking secret is completely revealed….

Each character in our little drama plays their role to perfection. Each of them are at times vulnerable, sympathetic or suspicious. Almost everything is colored in shades of gray, so that it is hard to make out who will wind up the villain of the piece and who the hero. While I enjoyed getting to know most of them, what made this book great for me was the return of Kate and Sparkes. Kate is perfect as a reporter, a combination of just right amount of social justice warrior and ruthless, career conscious woman. Sparkes is exactly how we expect a police officer of his rank and experience to be: curmudgeonly, smart, focused and caring. I like how he and Kate don’t have an easy relationship: They like each other but neither completely trusts the other, and this seems natural given their careers and their often conflicting goals. While this is the second book featuring this duo, it completely stands alone.

The Child is an onion of a mystery, with each layer a wondrous revelation. Fans of psychological thrillers featuring compelling female characters will NOT want to miss this book. Fans who enjoy a good intellectual mystery with some heart will be completely delighted with it. In fact if you like suspense at all, I strongly recommend it; this is likely to be one of the best of the year.

It’s on sale for 1.99 here.


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