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.

What holds a strong and loving marriage together? Lies and secrets in a novel of twisting psychological suspense by a New York Times bestselling author.

Los Angeles homicide detective Dinah Marino may have a complicated relationship with her family, but her psychiatrist husband, Joe, makes her feel safe, secure, and happy. She couldn’t want for a more loving or trusting man. But throughout their ten-year marriage, she’s been keeping a secret from him—a secret she’d take to the grave.

Dr. Joe Marino loves his wife more than anything in this world, but there are things he’s learned to keep close to the chest. When a missing woman tied to his wife’s latest case is admitted to his hospital, doctor-patient confidentiality lands their marriage on some new and uneven ground.

As Dinah digs deeper into her case, tension works its way inside their picture-perfect home. Now the carefully constructed lies between them don’t just simply threaten the delicate balance of their marriage—they could kill.

Thanks to Yvo @ It’s All About Books for featuring this in her Stacking the Shelves post. Scheduled for release in June, it’s an audio review hopeful.

A Gilmore Girls meets Schitt’s Creek redemption romcom.

Hazel Hart was a successful romance novelist until a breakup drives her straight into writer’s block. Having failed (and failed some more) to deliver her new manuscript, she’s hiding from the world behind a wall of old takeout containers until her publisher lays down the law. If she misses her next deadline it’s The End.

Desperate for inspiration, Hazel impulse-buys a historic home online and flees Manhattan to tiny Story Lake, PA. Upon her dramatic arrival—involving an incident with a bald eagle—she discovers the charm of her new home may have been slightly exaggerated.

The house is a wreck and the town is struggling after their biggest employer shut down. Also, since her raccoon-infested home came with a seat on the town council our introverted heroine is stuck with a front row seat to all the small-town shenanigans.

But Hazel isn’t worried. Not since all six-feet-three inches of grouchy contractor Campbell Bishop slapped a bandage on her forehead and unintentionally inspired the heck out of her. There’s only one thing to do: Hire Cam and his equally gorgeous brothers to renovate her new spider museum…er…house.

Okay two things. A fake date for “research purposes” will really put her work-in-progress on track. Before Hazel knows it, she’s writing a romance novel and living one. At least until the drywall dust settles, the town she’s falling in love with faces bankruptcy, and growly Cam remembers why he can’t live happily ever after.

I’ve wanted to read something by the author for a long time so when this was offered for audio review, I readily accepted.

A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

I accepted this for audio review.

A fresh take on the classic conman chase novel following two adult siblings forced to play nice in hopes of tracking down the man they believe killed their mother and ran off with their sizable inheritance.

Siblings Hazel and Kagan Bailey haven’t been close for a long time, but when their mother passes under mysterious circumstances an investigation quickly follows, and the siblings are high on the list of possible suspects. As they deal with the emotional tragedy of losing their only living parent, brother and sister are forced to team up against a master con man—someone they once called “family”.

After the silver-tongued trickster disappears with the family fortune, Hazel and Kagan must put aside their differences to track him down. Along the way, they encounter a host of secrets, lies, and double-crosses as they dive into the murky waters of their family’s past. With an unlikely ally by their side, the siblings race against time, unraveling a web of deceit that’s more tangled than they ever imagined.

Packed with pulse-pounding suspense and sharp insights into the complexities of family, Trust Issues delivers shocking twists at every turn.

Thanks to Kim @ It’s All About the Thrill and her great review for this one! It’s a library audiobook hopeful.

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

This is the February selection by Reese’s Book Club. I’m in a library queue for the audiobook.  

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?