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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A witty and sensual Regency romance as luscious as the treats from Sweet Little Nothings, Mayfair’s favorite bonbon shop.
Clever, independent Aphrodite de Smith earns a meager living, scratching out verses to accompany boxes of bonbons that gentlemen send to the ladies they’re courting. However lonely this life may be, it allows her to hide from her scandalous past. But what happens when one of those gentlemen decides that the poetess is a beauty ripe for wooing?

Forthright Yorkshire farmer Sir Hugo Brinsmead comes to London to find a bride among the beau monde. Except the woman who takes his fancy isn’t a society belle. Instead, she works at a fashionable sweet shop. Not to mention she’s as full of secrets as his broad acres are full of prize sheep.

Aphrodite might reject the handsome baronet’s proposals – for his own good! – but she can’t resist the searing desire that flares between them. When she offers Hugo a temporary affair, he agrees against his better judgment. He wants a wife, not a mistress. Yet even as their passion blazes, shadows from the past threaten their union. Can the gallant baronet convince his headstrong lady to defy the world and seize a happy ending?

The start of a new series by one of my favorite historical romance authors. I have it for review.

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A wife’s search for her husband’s true identity spirals into a nightmare of fear and paranoia in a twisting novel of psychological suspense by the Edgar Award–winning author of Or Else.
Only ten days into their marriage, Imogen and Lev Carmichael are on a honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean when Imogen suspects her husband of being unfaithful. Amid the recriminations, denials, and rage, Lev falls overboard into the water. It’s a miracle he’s found alive. And with no memory of what pushed him—and Imogen—over the edge.

Back home among family and friends, Imogen and Lev are finally starting to readjust. As terrified as Imogen is of Lev’s memories returning, it’s her suspicions of infidelity that get the best of her. Then, searching for clues, she discovers a woman from Lev’s past he never told her about…a woman who has been missing for years. More alarming is that Imogen soon has reason to believe that Lev remembers more than he’s letting on. But why would he lie?

The man Imogen loved, married, and trusted is a man she’s now beginning to fear. And she must decide how far she’s willing to go to uncover the truth.

I accepted this for audio review after reading the description alone.

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Laura Dave continues Hannah Hall’s pulse-pounding journey in the riveting and deeply moving sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling blockbuster and Apple TV+ show, The Last Thing He Told Me.
Five years after her husband, Owen, disappeared, Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter, Bailey, have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together, they’ve forged a relationship with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas and are putting the past behind them.

But when Owen shows up at Hannah’s new exhibition, she knows that she and Bailey are in danger again.

Hannah and Bailey are forced to go on the run in a relentless race to keep their past from catching up with them. As a thrilling drama unfolds, Hannah risks everything to get Bailey to safety—and finds there just might be a way back to Owen and their long-awaited second chance.

A gripping, rich, and deeply moving novel about the power of forgiveness, The First Time I Saw Him picks up right where the epilogue for the “genuinely moving” (The New York Times) The Last Thing He Told Me left off, giving listeners the eagerly awaited and absolutely exhilarating sequel to Dave’s global blockbuster.

Thanks to Darcia @ Darcia Helle for featuring this in her book mail post. I didn’t even know a sequel is in the works. Scheduled for release in January, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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Michael Rhodes becomes the first man in U.S. history to donate his organs after execution. Sergeant Wade McKinnon watches Rhodes take his last breath from the viewing area to the lethal injection chamber, planning to move on with his life after Rhodes pays the ultimate penalty for his crimes.
Elle’s world is turned upside down when her husband, Brian, suffers a debilitating stroke at the age of thirty-seven. His only chance at living the life he once led is to receive an experimental brain transplant. When she gets the call that donor brain cells are finally available for Brian’s transplant, she rushes him to the hospital in hope of him returning to the man he was before his stroke.

This is a prequel to the Emerald City series, free when signing up for the author’s newsletter.

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From the multi-million copy bestselling author comes a chilling tale about life flashing before your eyes—including terrifying scenes you don’t remember.
When Damon survives a near-drowning, his life flashes before his eyes. Every memory is crystal clear—except one. A dead boy. A face he can’t place. A moment he doesn’t remember living. At first he tells himself it’s a trick of the mind. But everything else he saw was real. So why not this?

With his waking life stalked by the disturbing scene, confusion quickly turns to obsession. Desperate for answers, Damon digs into his fractured past, and becomes convinced that the only way to remember…is to die again. And again. And again. When he meets a perfect stranger who’s all too willing to help, the stage is set for his dice with death.

But if this is what it takes to uncover the truth, maybe some memories are better left buried…

It’s John Marrs! Scheduled for release in January, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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For a detective and an FBI agent, two seemingly disparate murder investigations collide with a twist in an explosive novel of suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.
In the crisp mountain air of central Oregon, a teenage girl’s search for discarded cans leads to a horrifying a body, brutally murdered and abandoned in the woods. The case falls to Deschutes County Detective Noelle Marshall, who finds herself navigating a community steeped in secrets, suspicion, and distrust of outsiders—especially law enforcement.

Miles away, FBI Special Agent Max Rhodes investigates a different kind of darkness—chatter about a violent uprising from a shadowy militia group preparing for war. The two cases seem worlds apart. But as Noelle digs into the murdered man’s past and Max closes in on the source of the terror plot, their paths begin to converge in a terrifying way. This was no random killing. It was a message. A merciless killer and a hidden army are operating in the same shadows, and finding the link between them is the only thing standing between a single murder and a full-blown massacre.

I learned about this upcoming January release while browsing NetGalley. It’s an audio review hopeful.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?