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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International bestseller Mhairi McFarlane delivers a witty, clever, emotional new novel about a woman whose life unravels spectacularly after her screenwriter boyfriend uses their relationship as inspiration for his new television show.

When Roisin and Joe join their friends for a weekend at a country house, it’s a triple celebration—a birthday, an engagement, and the launch of Joe’s shiny new TV show. But as the weekend unfolds, tensions come to light in the group and Roisin begins to question her own relationship. And as they watch the first episode of Joe’s drama, she realizes that the private things she told him—which should have stayed between them—are right there on the screen.

With her friend group in chaos and her messy love life on display for the whole world to see, Roisin returns home to avoid the unwanted attention and help run her family’s pub. But drama still follows, in the form of her dysfunctional family and the looming question: what other parts of her now-ex’s show are inspired by real events? Lies? Infidelity? Every week, as a new episode airs, she wonders what other secrets will be revealed.

Yet the most unexpected twist of all is Matt, the charming playboy of her friend group, who is suddenly there for Roisin in ways she never knew she needed…

Oh, this has all the bones for a really good story! Thanks to Jodie @ That Happy Reader for featuring it in her Stacking the Shelves post. It’s scheduled for release in August and is a library audiobook hopeful.

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Can these opposites turn up the heat… without burning down the house?

House-flipping sensation and YouTube star Maggie Nichols can’t wait to dig into her next challenge. Arriving in tiny Kinship, Idaho, with only a cot and a coffeemaker, Maggie is prepared to restore a crumbling Victorian mansion in four months or less. She has her to-do lists, her blueprints, and her team. What she doesn’t have is time for sexy, laid-back landscaper Silas Wright.

The man takes flirtation to a whole new level. And he does it shirtless…sometimes pants-less. He and his service school-dropout dog are impressively persistent. But she’s not interested in putting down roots. Not when fans tune in to watch her travel the country turning dilapidated houses into dream homes. A short-term fling on the other hand could fit nicely into her calendar. After all, Maggie remembers what fun is like. Vaguely.

As their summer gets downright steamy, Silas manages to demolish the emotional walls she’s spent years building, sending Maggie into a panic. He’s the wrench in her carefully constructed plans. With the end of the project looming, she has a decision to make. But how can she stay when her entire career is built on moving on?

I’ve wanted to read something by the author so when this showed up at my library, I grabbed it because it sounds like fun.

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A taut, breakout psychological serial killer thriller with a wicked twist.

Matty Melgren is a convicted serial killer serving life without parole for the murders of several women in London in the 1980s. He has consistently protested his innocence, and the evidence against him was largely circumstantial. At the time of his arrest, Matty’s girlfriend was Amelia-Rose, a single mother to 12-year-old Sophie. Sophie adores Matty. He’s handsome, funny, respectable—she could never suspect him of the brutal killings in the headlines. Then a police sketch of a suspect is released that looks a lot like Matty. Was it him? Sophie is consumed with doubt and guilt, causing her to act impulsively, ripping her family apart. Years later, she is still haunted by her actions. Was she wrong to have done what she did all those years ago? Then Sophie receives a letter from Matty—he’s dying and asks her to visit him in prison. Will she finally get the answers she needs to be able to reclaim her future?

I love a good psychological thriller so thanks to Yvo @ It’s All About Books for her great review. It’s on my Libro.fm wishlist.

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A new mystery is afoot in the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series from million-copy bestselling author Richard Osman

You’d think you would be allowed to relax over Christmas, but not in the world of the Thursday Murder Club.

On Boxing Day, a dangerous package is smuggled across the English coast. When it goes missing, chaos is unleashed. The body count starts to rise – including someone close to the Thursday Murder Club – as our gang face an impossible search and their most deadly opponents yet.

With the clock ticking down and a killer heading to Cooper’s Chase, has their luck finally run out? And who will be ‘The Last Devil To Die’?

I love this series and was unaware of this upcoming September release until one of my Goodreads friends wrote a wonderful review. It’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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“Do you believe Will took his own life?”

The question echoed off the white tiles in the hospital’s cold, cavernous morgue, and I studied my husband in peaceful repose. I leaned down and put my forehead against his. Silent tears ran down my cheeks. They felt hot, and he felt so cold. It was five days since his death, and my grief felt heavy, like a vast, dark mass pushing down on me.

When Maggie’s husband, Will, is shot dead in their London home, she thinks he is the victim of a burglary until the police tell her the shocking news that Will was the one who pulled the trigger.

Maggie is consumed with grief and questions. Will wasn’t suicidal and had so much to live for.

After the funeral, Maggie travels to their holiday home on a small Croatian island to escape London. She finds a disturbing letter written by Will, containing clues to a dark secret.

As Maggie puts the pieces together, she discovers Will’s death is connected to someone from his past… Someone who will go to extreme lengths to keep Maggie silent.

Three can keep a secret… If two of them are dead.

The international multi-million bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice is back with his first stand-alone thriller, a heart-racing, hold-your-breath read that will keep you hooked until the very last page.

Thanks to Yvo @ It’s All About Books who got my attention with her review. This standalone is scheduled for release next month and is on my Libro.fm wishlist.

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Fake amnesia. Real feelings? Real problems.

Sam Becker loves—or, okay, likes—his job. Sure, managing a bed and bath retailer isn’t exactly glamorous, but it’s good work and he gets on well with the band of misfits who keep the store running. He could see himself being content here for the long haul. Too bad, then, that the owner is an infuriating git.

Jonathan Forest should never have hired Sam. It was a sentimental decision, and Jonathan didn’t get where he is by following his heart. Determined to set things right, Jonathan orders Sam down to London for a difficult talk…only for a panicking Sam to trip, bump his head, and maybe accidentally imply he doesn’t remember anything?

Faking amnesia seemed like a good idea when Sam was afraid he was getting sacked, but now he has to deal with the reality of Jonathan’s guilt—as well as the unsettling fact that his surly boss might have a softer side to him. There’s an unexpected freedom in getting a second shot at a first impression…but as Sam and Jonathan grow closer, can Sam really bring himself to tell the truth, or will their future be built entirely on one impulsive lie?

A new series! I discovered this upcoming October release from a NetGalley newsletter. It’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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A sweeping, evocative debut novel following three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family’s inherited burdens, buried secrets, and unlikely love stories.

When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life—a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste—but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huong.

Back in Florida, Huong is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never did. Then Ann and Huong learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home, in all its strange, Gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House’s attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life—and beyond.

Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.

I hadn’t heard of this until it was announced as the July selection for the Today Show’s Read with Jenna book club. It’s an audio review hopeful.

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I haven’t touched a human in three years. That seems like it would be a difficult task, but it’s not. Not anymore, thanks to the internet.

I am, quite possibly, the most popular recluse ever. Not many shut-ins have a 200-member fan club, a bank account in the seven-figure range, and hundreds of men lining up to pay for undivided attention.

They get satisfaction, I get a distraction. Their secret desires are nothing compared to why I hide… my lust for blood, my love of death.

Taking their money is easy. Keeping all these secrets… one is bound to escape.

What if you hid yourself away because all you could think of was killing? And what if one girl’s life depending on you venturing into society?

Enter a world of lies, thrills, fears, and all desires, in this original thriller from A. R. Torre.

I’m a fan of the author and this older title showed up at my library. The description sounds interesting enough to give it a shot.

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How can a little girl vanish into thin air?

Five-year-old Cassie Bailey’s mother tucked her into bed and kissed her goodnight. This morning she’s missing, her unicorn bedcovers are empty, and her parents are frantic.

DCI Rachel Hart knows that the first few hours after a child goes missing are the most crucial, and that the Baileys are living every parent’s worst nightmare. Rachel knows, because as a child her family lived through it too, when her sister was taken.

The days are ticking by with no sign of Cassie, and the cracks in the Baileys’ marriage are beginning to show. But are the holes in their stories because they’re out of their minds with panic – or because they’re lying?

Rachel’s convinced that Cassie knew the person who took her, but can she find the little girl before she’s lost forever?

A gripping and unputdownable thriller for fans of Close to Home, The Couple Next Door and Behind Closed Doors.

I signed up for Bookouture book deal alerts and got this kindle freebie. I’ll eventually add the audio version but am waiting to see if I can get a deal on that edition.

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New York Times bestselling author Tracey Garvis Graves takes readers on a life affirming journey, where two lost souls find the unexpected courage to love again.

Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you
exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming, and all she wants to do is put the whole heartbreaking mess behind her. No one is more surprised than Wren when she discovers that geocaching―the outdoor activity of using GPS to look for hidden objects―is the only thing getting her out of bed and out of her head. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life.

Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. Though Wren initially rebuffs Marshall’s attempt at hiker small talk, she’s beyond grateful when he rescues her from a horrifying encounter farther down the trail. In the interest of safety, Marshall suggests partnering up to look for additional caches. Wren’s no longer quite so trusting of the universe―or men in general―but her inner circle might argue that a smart, charismatic psychologist isn’t the worst thing the universe could place in her path.

What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more
Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know. Now all she can do is hope that the
universe gets it right this time.

I’ve been a fan of the author since her first book and learned of this upcoming March release from her blogpost. It’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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From the Academy Award-winning actor and best-selling author: his debut novel. The story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film…and the humble comic book that inspired it.

PART ONE of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for 23 years.

Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero.

Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie.

Cue the cast: We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the go-fer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.

Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, this is a novel not only about the making of a movie, but also about the changes in America and American culture since World War II. Bonus material: Interspersed throughout are the three comic books that are featured in the story – all created by Hanks himself – including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel’s major motion picture masterpiece.

Not sure why I’d ignored this until one of my trusted Goodreads friends gave it a glowing review. When I was able to get the audiobook from my library, I was thrilled to see it has full cast narration.

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It was the shot that shook the town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Jamie Phillips had dropped in on Thelma Reitz, only to have that staid old lady blow his head off with a shotgun. Jamie’s atomized neck was enough to make even the most hardened cop wince. Detective Joe Gunther thinks this is obviously a setup, but the crime soon takes on even more shocking dimensions. First, Gunther discovers that murderess and victim were co-jurors on the sensational Harris murder trial three years earlier. Then, several vicious assaults lead Gunther to suspect that whoever planned Jamie’s diabolical death won’t quit till the Harris affair is reopened, even if it means killing every juror…and the cop on the case.

One of my Goodreads friends is now hooked on this Joe Gunther series, three books in, so I thought I’d give it a try. I am very happy that most of the series is in included in my Audible subscription plan.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?