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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Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life.

She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns.

And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this.

Until a letter from the parole board arrives in the mail—and when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. As long-buried memories come to the surface, Lenny’s careful routines fall apart. For the first time, she finds herself forced to connect with the community around her, and unexpected new relationships begin to bloom. Lenny Marks may finally get a life—but what if her past catches up to her first?

Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, Kerryn Mayne’s stunning debut is an irresistible novel about truth, secrets, vengeance, and family lost and found, with a heroine who’s simply unforgettable.

Gotta love those NetGalley emails! Scheduled for release in July, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

I learned of this from the publisher’s newsletter. Scheduled for release in April, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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It’s a fine line between feuding and flirting…

Ever since Megan Miller arrived in stunning Lost Harbor, Alaska, she’s been at odds with boat captain Lucas Holt. They’re opposites in every way. She’s a city girl, he’s from an Alaska homestead. She runs nature tours, he’s all about big-money charters. He’s also arrogant, annoying and oh yeah, wildly attractive.

Lost Harbor would be the perfect escape from the tragedy that sent her running – except for her feud with the hottie captain. Lucas Holt came home for one thing only: settle his father’s affairs, then hightail it back to Colorado. So why is he still here? Is it because there’s something fishy about his father’s death? Is it the endearingly eccentric locals and enchanting scenery? Or could it be Lost Harbor’s newest resident, a sassy scientist who’s as sexy as she is stubborn?

Arguing with Megan is the best foreplay he’s had in years. Until one of Lost Harbor’s dangerous summer storms tosses everything up in the air, and a feud turns to a passionate affair – with stakes higher than Megan ever imagined.

I got this as a kindle freebie and then added the audiobook to my Audible wishlist.

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Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, must stop a disaster of world-shattering proportions in this exhilarating entry in the No. 1 New York Times bestselling series.

In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable.

My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It’s a hard job, and it doesn’t leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself.

But I’m not alone anymore.

Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discover my brother’s issues are a tiny part of a problem much bigger than we could have imagined. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could, unless we are very careful, bring about the end of the world…

Still not up to date in this series but have every intention to resume listening. Thanks to Anne @ Books of My Heart for featuring it in her Sunday Post as one of her book hauls. It’s scheduled for release in June and is a library audiobook hopeful.

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For readers of Rachel Hawkins and We Were Never Here comes a searing vacation thriller set on a remote island in Thailand following two mysterious women, a charismatic group of expats, and the one murder poised to bring their paradise crashing down.

Welcome to paradise. We hope you survive your stay…

There are three rules to follow during a vacation at the famous Koh Sang Resort

1 – Leave the past behind.

When Cass sets foot on the coast of Thailand’s world-famous party island, she’s searching for an escape. With dark secrets following her every move, Koh Sang becomes the perfect place to hide.

2 – Always be careful of who you trust.

Now, years later, Cass is a local dive instructor alongside the Permanents, a group of expats who have claimed the island as their own. The Permanents don’t linger on who they were before the island. Simply because, like Cass, they all have something to outrun.

3 – If someone discovers who you really are, run.

But suddenly, a dive student is found dead and paradise comes crashing down. Because this isn’t the first mysterious death on the island, and it won’t be the last. Someone knows who Cass is and they’re ready to make sure justice is finally served.

A trusted Goodreads friend recently reviewed this and I was immediately hooked. It’s a library audiobook hopeful and is scheduled for release in February.

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She’s trapped by fear.

Veronica Martens once soared boldly through life as an Air Force pilot until a brutal assault shattered her spirit. Now, she’s a prisoner in her own home, paralyzed by agoraphobia and haunted by the ghosts of her past. She’s lost her wings, independence, and will to live.

He thrives on terror.

Horror writer Connelly Davis needs to recharge his creative batteries. So when Veronica’s father asks him to bring her back from her self-imposed exile, he packs up his laptop and leaves the city for Steam Valley, California–the home of his most famous monster, The Shadow Stalker. Surely, he’ll find inspiration in the mist-shrouded redwoods as he helps his childhood best friend.

A dog who has known nothing but fear.

Despite Veronica’s reluctance to see him, Connelly is determined to rescue the unbreakable girl he once knew–the girl he secretly loved. He bands together with Redwood Coast Rescue and their newest troubled K9, Rebel, to help Veronica find her strength again. But there’s just one problem—Veronica never wants to leave her house, and Rebel refuses to stay put.

As Connelly fights writer’s block, he delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the town and discovers a chilling connection between a string of recent murders and his newest book. And if real life continues to follow fiction, Veronica will be the killer’s next target…

Will they emerge from the shadows, or will darkness consume them all?

No one writes romantic suspense like Burrows and she’s an auto read. I’m currently reading the first book in the series and loving it! The series is available on Kindle Unlimited.

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From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery that “offers a tip of the hat to the great Agatha Christie novel while at the same time being a modern reinvention of it” (Nita Prose) — perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)

the forensic science writer

the blockbuster writer

the legal thriller writer

the literary writer

the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?

I was surprised when this showed up at my library, unaware there was a sequel to Everyone in My Family is a Killer. I’m in a short library queue for the audiobook.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?