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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From the international bestselling author of The Drowning Woman, a psychological thriller about a couple rocked by infidelity who moves to a villa in Spain’s Costa Brava to rebuild their relationship, only to welcome a pair of visitors who have no intention of leaving.

Sydney Lowe’s life in New York is shattered when her husband, Curtis, admits to a meaningless affair with a client. Begging for forgiveness and vowing to prove his devotion, Curtis suggests the couple retreat to a remote hilltop house in Spain to repair their marriage.

High above the Mediterranean, Sydney and Curtis are working on the isolated property and their relationship when a pair of Australian travelers turns up at their door in dire need of help. Lonely for companionship and desperate for free labor, Sydney and Curtis invite the attractive young couple to stay. But as the days pass, dark secrets come to light, the Lowes’ bond is tested, and not everyone will leave the villa alive.

Thanks to Stephanie @ Stephanie Likes Books for featuring this in her book mail post. Scheduled for release in March, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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A father’s ultimatum…

On Christmas Day, Lady Elizabeth Tierney is aghast when her father tells her he’s found her a bridegroom. She’ll meet her suitor, Viscount Fairchild, at tonight’s festivities, and Elizabeth had better charm him – or else!

A daughter’s defiance.

The spirited beauty has danced her way through four seasons and sees no reason why her life needs to change. At least until she falls in love with one of her admirers – and that shows no sign of happening. In a fit of temper, Elizabeth escapes to Hyde Park where she stumbles upon an intriguing gentleman who steals her heart.

Lady Elizabeth’s choice?

Which suitor will win her hand? Or has fate got another trick up its sleeve for Lady Elizabeth and her winter stranger?

I accepted this from the author for review. Campbell is one of my favorite Indie authors.

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The acclaimed author of the “chilling, mesmerizing debut” Beneath the Stairs (Rachel Harrison, author ofThe Return) returns with a gripping, atmospheric suspense novel about a woman investigating a serial killer’s connection to her mother’s disappearance—for fans of I Have Some Questions for You and Notes on an Execution.

One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again.

That woman was Fiona Green’s mother.

When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave of bodies is discovered in his backyard but Fiona’s mother isn’t there. Thirty years later, on his prison deathbed, Ward insists that he didn’t kill her, so Fiona finds herself back in the small town where her mother disappeared. Fighting demons of her own, she’s shocked when history repeats another woman, another roadside breakdown, and another disappearance. Only this time the primary suspect is Jason Ward, Eddie’s son. Desperate, Fiona hunts down answers, unaware that she is being drawn into a dangerous trap.

With Jennifer Fawcett’s signature “suspenseful and immersive” (Library Journal) prose, Keep This for Me is a fresh, spellbinding exploration of what we unwillingly inherit from our parents and how one random act can send ripples years into the future.

Thanks to Jamele @ Books With Jams for her great review. I got it for audio review.

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A desperate woman fights to escape captivity in this gripping thriller from the New York Times -bestselling author of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things.

Beatrice is about to lose everything when a kind stranger offers her a cup of coffee and a job. It seems like a promise of a better life…until she wakes up under lock and key in an isolated mansion in the woods.

On orders from a shadowy criminal organization, armed jailers make the rules for their captives, enforcing them with unflinching violence. Beatrice has always been a “nice girl,” but that won’t save her now. Nobody helped her when she lost her job, her car, and her home, and nobody’s coming to give back her freedom. The only person she can rely on is herself. And now, several child hostages are relying on her too.

When the situation gets more dire—deadly even—Beatrice has to become the hero she and her fellow prisoners need. To escape she’ll have to outsmart her captors and do terrible things that would horrify her former self. If she succeeds, there’s no telling who she’ll be when the ordeal comes to an end.

Thanks to Krissy @ Books and Biceps for her great review. It’s on my Audible wishlist.

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A young author becomes the object of a fan’s desire―and rage―in the gripping new thriller by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Nature.

He showed up at Arden Bowie’s debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that.

Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake…

An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitude―but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin’s wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility.

Arden decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden’s purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?

I was waiting for the cover to be revealed before adding. Scheduled for release in May, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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Under the mistletoe, a single mom and a professional athlete realize they have more in common than the lake house they unexpectedly have to share for the holidays, in this heartwarming romance from New York Times bestselling author Julia London.

All Amy Casey wants for Christmas is to paint. She needs five new paintings for the holiday show at her local art gallery, but between her two teenage sons, her needy ex-husband, and her overbearing parents, she hardly has any time for herself. Luckily, her best friend has the perfect a vacant family lake house in North Texas, all hers for two weeks of distraction-free painting. Or so she thought.

Turns out professional golfer Harrison Neely also rented the lake house so he can spend the holidays rehabbing the injury that has put his career—and life—on hold. Despite the booking snafu, both Amy and Harrison (along with Amy’s old blind dog and the army of child-sized nutcrackers residing in the living room) agree to share the festive lodging.

When an impending snowstorm has the two cozying up by the fire, sparks fly in more ways than one, and they open up to each other, unwrapping secrets and stories they’ve never shared before. But Harrison is expected back on the tournament circuit after the holidays, and Amy’s family needs her. As their departure date looms and her family and his manager press them for answers, they’ll have to decide if this December to remember has been a fun holiday fling, or if they’ve found a Christmas miracle at true love.

I received this for audio review.

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In an exclusive and close-knit community, the secrets of the past threaten to destroy three women in a shocking novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author A. R. Torre.

Behind the manicured lawns and guarded gates of Crestmore Estates lies a neighborhood built on secrets.

Five years ago, three residents vanished without a trace. No bodies. No answers. Just rumors, whispered around the country club. Now, when human remains surface on the golf course, old suspicions rematerialize—and the spotlight falls on the women left behind.

Andrea Kendal knows what people think—that her brilliant surgeon husband had something to do with his first wife’s bloody disappearance. Sara Batcher has spent years defending herself against accusations that she killed her husband. And Katie Morrow, the community’s youngest trophy wife, can’t escape the suspicious shadows cast by her husband’s ex-wife.

As the investigation circles closer, the wives find themselves bound together by fear, betrayal, and the ghosts of the missing. In a neighborhood where appearances are everything, each must decide what she’ll sacrifice to protect her carefully constructed life—before someone else decides to shatter them all.

Thanks to Stephanie @ Stephanie Likes Books for the heads up that the ebook was on NetGalley as a “read now” (I’m holding out for the audiobook). Scheduled for release in April, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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Six divorcees seek revenge on their deceitful spouses, but someone starts taking it much too far…

Emily had the perfect life – the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect husband – before she was blindsided and betrayed and lost it all. Now she’s sitting in a divorce counselling group wondering how she’ll ever feel okay again. What she wants is her old life back, and these group sessions seem to be the only way she’ll be able to move on – past the jealousy, the hurt, and the daydreams of getting revenge.

And it seems everyone in the group is in the same jilted by an ex-partner and struggling to cope. So over post-therapy drinks, the six divorcées come up with the brilliant idea to get a little payback of their own – Strangers-on-a-Train style, with each getting even on another’s behalf. Nothing serious – just enough to disrupt their former partner’s picture-perfect lives.

Emily is hesitant at first, but the more her old life spins away from her, the less she worries about her morals – plus, they agreed no one would get hurt.

But just when the group think they’ve pulled off the perfect petty crimes, one of the exes is found dead… and then another… and another…

With DI Rosa Hawkes on their case and the plan spiralling out of control, Emily doesn’t know who she can trust, and if divorce taught her anything, it’s that you can’t trust anyone, even the people you love. Especially the people you love. Let alone perfect strangers like these.

I hadn’t heard of this until my friend Nikki @ Nikki Lee Thriller Seeker posted a fantastic review. Scheduled for release in November, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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A gruff, divorced NFL coach meets his match in an equally grumpy, commitment-phobic neighbor in this warm-hearted and witty romance about family, second chances, and overcoming the past.

You’d think it was the perfect living next door to the grumpy single dad who needs my help with his troublemaking kids—just until football season is over. Swoony stuff, right?

You know who’s not swooning? Me.

I’m as grumpy as he is, and I’m fairly certain that for NFL Coach Barrett King, it was hate at first sight. It’s nothing I’ll lose sleep over because 1) the feeling is mutual, and 2) I’m not a people person. Just me and my dog, Larry, moving around when the mood strikes, is what I prefer.

Except I start getting attached. First to the kids. Then to their father. I don’t know why. He’s overbearing. His attempts at flirting are just growls and glares. But if I ever see that man smile…well, I might tear all his clothes off.

I don’t do forever. And Barrett—serious, thoughtful, sexier than he has any right to be—doesn’t do short term. We’re headed straight for disaster.

But if we’re willing to take a risk, maybe this story won’t end in heartbreak. Maybe what started as the perfect setup for two imperfect people just might end in love.

I received this for audio review. Loved the first book.

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A nice, normal life. Is that too much to ask? For Riley Thorn it is.

Divorced. Broke. Living with a pack of elderly roommates. And those hallucinations she’s diligently ignoring? Her tarot card-dealing mom is convinced they’re clairvoyant visions.

Just when things can’t get worse, a so-hot-it-should-be-illegal private investigator shows up on her doorstep looking for a neighbor…who turns up murdered.

Nick Santiago doesn’t play well with others. Unless the “others” are of the female persuasion. Wink. He’s a rebel, a black sheep, a man who prefers a buffet of options to being stuck with the same entrée every night, if you catch his drift.

When the pretty, possibly psychic Riley lands at the top of the list of suspects, Nick volunteers to find out whodunit. Only because he likes solving mysteries not because he wants to flex his heroic muscles for the damsel in distress.

All they have to do is figure out who pulled the trigger, keep the by-the-book detective with a grudge at bay, and deal with a stranger claiming he was sent to help Riley hone her psychic gifts. All before the killer discovers she’s a loose end that requires snipping.

I received this for audio review and am hoping I’ll get the audio edition, too.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?