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.

The fourth nerve-shattering installment of the San Diego Case Files from New York Timesbestselling author Karen Rose sees Kit McKittrick’s sister caught in a maelstrom of deadly family secrets.

As an infant, Kit McKittrick’s foster sister Akiko was abandoned at a firehouse. Now 32, Akiko has received an unsettling phone call from a woman who says that she knew her birth mother but refuses to divulge any details except in person. Akiko is nervous but also thrilled at the prospect of finally learning about her blood relations.

Kit has a bad feeling about this and insists on accompanying Akiko to meet the woman. Sure enough, as they stand on Mary Sherman’s doorstep, shots are fired and Kit is hit…and inside the house is a corpse: Mary Sherman herself.

Although she’s on medical leave and forbidden to work the case, Kit cannot rest. With police psychologist Sam Reeves, she undertakes a covert investigation into the mysterious Mary Sherman. Was she Akiko’s birth mother? Why did she reach out after all these years? And who had a motive to kill her?

As more bodies pile up, Kit starts to put together the pieces of the frightening puzzle that is Akiko’s birth family, and she’ll come to wonder whether some secrets should stay buried after all.

Thanks to Anne @ Books of My Heart for featuring this in her Sunday Post. Scheduled for release in March, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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In One Perfect Summer, three women who had never met—and seemed to share nothing but a DNA match—discovered they were sisters. Their search to uncover how and why brought them together and transformed strangers into family.

Now, in Pieces of Perfect, those bonds are tested, deepened, and celebrated as they continue to explore what it truly means to belong.

For the richest reading experience, be sure to enjoy One Perfect Summer first—available in print, audio, and digital formats.

I learned about this sequel from a Fantastic Fiction email alert. It’s a library hopeful.

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CEO seeks dating coach

Critically acclaimed and reader-favorite author Susan Lee’s hilarious adult debut is a shimmering and joyful look at the magnificent—and sometimes suffocating—weight of family, the ways we limit ourselves, and the irresistible power of love.

Julia Song, CEO of Starlight Cosmetics, is at the height of her career. Then why does she feel like such a failure? Maybe because she’s thirty and single, with a terrible track record at dating. And in the eyes of her Korean family, that is just unacceptable. It never really bothered her—that is until her beloved grandmother drops the bomb that she is sick and her dying wish is for Julia to get married. Impossible. So in a moment of weakness, Julia asks her family for help. Set her up on three dates to help her find The One. But it will never work—Julia is undateable. If only there was a coach for that…

Tae Kim knows about the weight of familial expectation. He’s currently unemployed, living in his parents’ basement to care for his ill father. Sure, he’s become somewhat of a fix-it man for the Korean community around town, but that’s not a real job. And the pressure to get his life together is getting to be too much. So when the Julia Song—his childhood crush—asks for his help, it may be just the distraction he needs. He’ll do whatever it takes, even coach her for these three dates. Problem is, the more time they spend together and the closer they get, the more Tae wonders if anyone is good enough for Julia…including him.

Thanks to Carla @ Carla Loves to Read for her great review. I accepted this for audio review.

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Fresh out of Harvard Business School, Kayla Mousavi lands a coveted job at General Recycling, beating out thousands to work for Americaʼs hottest tech company and its legendary CEO, Frederick Douglass Monahan. It seems like a golden opportunity. GRʼs trash eating bacteria gobble up refuse, rescuing a world choking on garbage. And her job, as the right-hand analyst of a global business celebrity, guarantees a glittering future. But Kayla should have remembered what her father–in prison for insider trading–always said…

Inside every great company is great crime.

It’s not long before Kayla stumbles onto the kind of dirt that not even the magic GR bugs can disappear. Soon, she’s witness to a professional hit—a hit meant for her—and on a collision course with the truth behind the deep in the bowels of a Wall Street darling is an extraordinary and terrifying business that will reshape everything we believe about psychology, security, privacy, and human nature. Now, to live, Kayla will have to outsmart a ruthless genius with unlimited resources. A man who absolutely intends to change the world…just not exactly as advertised.

Thanks to Jamele @ Books with Jams for her great review. I got this for audio review.

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FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FIRST LIE WINS

A tense, feverish thriller about two women’s lives that are forever intertwined when a murder threatens to expose them both.

“Elston expertly unravels a web of secrets and lies. You won’t be able to put this excellent thriller down until the final shocking page.” —Megan Miranda

Everyone at Chantilly’s Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn’t Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price.

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she’s married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move.

Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth—and she may have found the best way in.

Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. It sounds simple: For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek.

Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

Thanks to Jodie @ That Happy Reader for featuring this in her Can’t Wait Wednesday post. Scheduled for release in January, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell brings her signature dark, atmospheric suspense and sharp acuity to this new psychological thriller about a lost dog, a missing woman, and a mysterious house.

Jane Trevally is walking her dogs on her country estate one May afternoon when a small white dog appears. The teenaged girl that had been staying nearby with the dog is nowhere to be found, and Jane decides to return the dog to his registered owner hours away in London, in the deepest backwaters of Hampstead. But when Jane arrives, she is immediately unsettled—because Jane has a dark history with this house.

The man who answers the door tells her the dog, Hugo, must have been stolen from the Heath, but Jane very much doubts that is true. Through the window, she catches a glimpse of a haunted-looking woman, not the missing girl she’d hoped to find.

Facing a crossroads similar to the one that first led her to this home twenty-five years ago, Jane knows that the house holds the key—to the missing teenager, to the lost dog, and to dark secrets they’d all rather leave buried.

I learned of this upcoming June release from the author’s newsletter. It’s an audio review hopeful.

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The acclaimed bestselling author of Sandwich is back with a wonderful novel, full of laughter and heart, about marriage, family, and what happens when life doesn’t go as planned.

If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry—and relate.)

Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who’s back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in.

It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them—and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.

With her signature wit and wisdom, Catherine Newman explores the hidden rules of family, the heavy weight of uncertainty, and the gnarly fact that people—no matter how much you love them—are not always exactly who you want them to be.

Thanks to Larry @ Get Booked with Larry for his great review. I’m in the library queue for the audiobook.

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?