Saturdays at the Café

 

Saturdays at the Café is a weekly feature hosted here to talk about and discuss the books I’ve discovered during the past week, added to my shelf and am excited about reading. They may be new/scheduled releases I’ve seen on NetGalley, at the library, or from publishers or they may be older titles my friends have reviewed and shared on Goodreads or blogs.

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An outsider threatens to expose the secrets at an elite private school in this suspenseful debut novel for fans of My Dark Vanessa and Dare Me

Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. It seems nearly perfect: the high arched window alcoves and tall granite pillars, the overspill of lilac at the front gate and the immaculate playing fields, the giggling students, the dusty, oak-lined library, and the dark, festering secret she has come to expose.

At first, Lou’s working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield’s web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet.

Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called “Highfield Affair,” when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna’s brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify.

Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. Powerful and compelling, When We Were Silent is a binge-worthy, thrilling story of exploitation, privilege, and retribution.

I hadn’t considered this book until after reading the review by Tessa @ Tessa Talks Books. I’m in a fairly long library queue for the audiobook.

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She bites her nails as she steals a glance at the stranger in the pickup truck beside her. She trusted him when he offered her a ride, but now, as he turns onto a deserted road leading into a dark pine forest, she knows she’s made a huge mistake.

Special Agent Beth Katz races through the dense Montana woodland toward a small, isolated cabin. She’s investigating the disappearance of her partner Dax Styles’s sister who went missing as she walked home from school, and Beth finally has a solid lead. Outside the decrepit building, her heart pounds wondering what she will find on the other side of the door.

A young woman with long brown hair and cornflower blue eyes, just like Dax’s, shakes in the kitchen. It’s clearly Ginny, but before Dax can speak to his long-lost sister, Beth hears a noise from outside. In a rundown outbuilding, they discover another young girl, reported missing just weeks before. Dressed in a thin nightie, Ava cowers as Beth breaks into the padlocked room. Her captor has fled, but Beth will use every skill she’s got to track him down.

Working night and day, Beth uncovers more cases of young girls taken from remote roads near their homes. Twelve-year-old Shiloh Weeks vanished as she walked home just days ago. Her story remarkably similar to Ginny and Ava’s.

Beth and Dax are on a mission to stop to this twisted individual and save any new girls from being taken into the woods and lost forever. But when the trail leads them to a man impersonating a police officer to gain the trust of his victims, will Dax hand him over or take matters into his own hands?

Thanks to Carla @ Carla Loves to Read for including this in her Stacking the Shelves post. I’ve started this series and am hooked. It’s scheduled for release in July and I plan to get the audiobook once that edition is created.

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Former Broadway dancer and current agoraphobic Billy Shine has not set foot outside his apartment in almost a decade. He has glimpsed his neighbors–beautiful manicurist Rayleen, lonely old Ms. Hinman, bigoted and angry Mr. Lafferty, kind-hearted Felipe, and nine-year-old Grace and her former addict mother, Eileen. But most of them have never seen Billy.

Not until Grace begins to sit outside on the building’s front stoop for hours every day, inches from Billy’s patio. Troubled by this change in the natural order, Billy makes it far enough out onto his porch to ask Grace why she doesn’t sit inside, where it’s safe. Her answer: “If I sit inside, then nobody will know I’m in trouble. And then nobody will help me.” Her answer changes everything.

By the best-selling author of When You Were Older and Pay It Forward, Don’t Let Me Go is the heartbreaking, funny, and life-affirming story of a building full of loners and misfits who come together to help a little girl survive–and thrive–against all odds.

I got this in the latest Audible 2-for-1 credit sale.

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The acclaimed author of the “tour de force” (The New York Times Book Review) Before You Knew My Name returns with a fresh suspense novel about a woman haunted by a serial killer and the ghosts he left behind.

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender—and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime.

Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women—one of whom might just hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.

From an author who “pushes the boundaries of crime fiction in all the right ways” (Alex Finlay, author of The Night Shift), Leave the Girls Behind is another spine-chilling thriller that will linger long after you finish the last page.

Thanks to Kim @ It’s All About the Thrill for this one. It’s an audio review hopeful scheduled for release in October.

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He’s Wilde…

Davey Wilde has a problem. His father and uncles are officially retiring and handing him the reins of Wilde Security Worldwide–and he doesn’t want it. He doesn’t want the weight of the respected family business. He doesn’t want the responsibility of wrangling his wayward younger brothers and troublesome cousins. And he especially doesn’t want his first official mission as head of WSW: protect Rowan Bristow, the daughter of the most intimidating man Davey has ever known and a woman who takes great pleasure in getting under his skin.

She’s deadly…

Rowan does not need protection, despite what her overbearing ex-SEAL father and his teammates think. Yes, multiple attempts have been made on her life. Yes, she has no idea who wants her dead or why. It could be anyone–she has a knack for pissing off powerful people–but she was raised at a training compound for some of the baddest badasses on the planet, and she’s picked up a few deadly skills over the years. If she’s forced to hide with Davey Wilde–a man she can’t stand and yet can’t resist–as her bodyguard, someone will definitely end up dead… and it won’t be the killer’s doing.

If they can’t learn to trust each other, this mission might just be their last.

I love Burrows’ writing (her romantic suspense series are fantastic) and in her latest newsletter, she announced this first book in a new spinoff series, Wilde Security Worldwide. It’s the children of the characters in her Wilde Security series! It’s scheduled for release in April and I’ll be buying it. This indie writer deserves all the love.

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author, David Baldacci, the 6:20 Man returns, this time sent to the Pacific Northwest to aid the FBI in a case that gets more complicated with the more questions Devine asks—and he’s about to come face-to-face with his nemesis, the girl on the train.

Travis Devine has become a pro at adapting to any situation to accomplish the mission set in front of him. Whether it’s a high-powered corporate setting or small-town community, Devine will become the man for the job. His time as an Army Ranger and on the financial battlefields of Wall Street gave him the skills he needed, and he’s put them to good use. But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, twelve-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under investigation for RICO charges. Instead, he’s hoping to lie low and keep off the radar of an enemy that he evaded on a train in Switzerland and who has been after him ever since—the girl on the train.

But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Betsy is adamant that they had never used drugs, but the police in the small rural town where they died insist the Odoms died of an overdose. Devine starts digging for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he could’ve ever imagined. The question is, how do Betsy, her uncle, and various government agencies all fit into it.

It might finally be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face-to-face, and when that happens, Devine is going to find himself unsure of who are his allies and who are his enemies. And in some cases, they might well be both.

I learned of this next book in The 6:20 Man series from the author’s newsletter. It’s scheduled for release in November and is a library audiobook hopeful.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?