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.
“Smart, fast, fun, and wildly original! You won’t put it down.”—Kitty Kelley, #1 New York Timesbestselling author of Jackie Oh! and A BiographyFrom acclaimed publisher Thomas Dunne, Murders and Acquisitions is a gripping story of family, greed, rivalry, and revenge. Perfect for fans of Succession.
Randy Littlewood is taking full advantage of his position as the newly minted husband of Greta Meyer. After the death of her grandfather, Werther Maybach Meyer, Greta became the largest shareholder of the family business, Omnium International, a multi-million-dollar media conglomerate. But Randy has managed to take control of Greta’s voting rights in the corporation, and now his ascent to the upper crust of Manhattan is hampered only by poor cousin Betty back at home.
Betty Maybach, Greta’s cousin, fell on hard times after her father’s death and eventually moved into her uncle Werther’s Upper East Side mansion to become his personal secretary. Left adrift after her uncle’s death, she has little to do but waste time in the house now also occupied by the newlywed Greta and Randy.
When Betty discovers Randy’s machinations, including a plan to push her out of the house, she does some digging, using her extensive knowledge of the family business. What she discovers is more than she bargained not only has Randy sketched out a plan to oust her, but he has also undergone a vasectomy, denying her cousin Greta the right to carry on the Maybach family lineage.
As Betty digs deeper and plans her own escape from Randy’s oppression, she learns more than she ever wanted about Werther Maybach Meyer and his business dealings. Soon, Betty is not only fighting for her freedom, but her life …
I received this for audio review.
Once the U.S. government’s deadliest off-the-books assassin, Evan Smoak was known only as Orphan X. He broke free from the Program, vanished, and reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man — the last hope for those with nowhere else to turn.
When Evan has a chance encounter with a desperate father named Rusty, he agrees to help find Rusty’s estranged son, who has fallen in with the wrong people — violent, unforgiving men who will stop at nothing to get their way. What looks like a straightforward rescue quickly spirals into something far more dangerous and personal.
At the same time, Evan is forced to confront the one ghost he’s never been able to the birth father who abandoned him. In a world where every move could be his last, Orphan X will finally have to face the past he buried—if he can survive the deadly present.
A new Orphan X short story! Scheduled for release in September, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The River We Remember, a new mystery in the wildly popular Cork O’Connor series.Cork O’Connor, preparing for a family trip into the Boundary Waters, is troubled by ominous visions about his future. Ignoring the warnings, he uncovers signs of violence while searching for his missing friend, Cordell Bishop. Soon, he is forced to negotiate with dangerous criminals, the Kennedy brothers, who are seeking their late father’s hidden stash.
Facing escalating danger and difficult choices, Cork grapples with his darkest instincts as he helps others escape and eventually takes justice into his own hands. God’s Country is an action-packed thrill ride that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
It’s a new installment in the Cork O’Connor series! Scheduled for release in August, it’s an audio review hopeful.
He’s my best friend’s brother. My billionaire boss. And now… my fake husband
I walked into his restaurant needing a paycheck.
Now I’m his fake wife.
And if I’m not careful, I might just fall for the man I hate.James Hamilton is grumpy. Emotionally unavailable. Impossible to reach.
He’s also my best friend’s brother.
The man who broke my heart without even trying.
Now he’s a world-famous chef. Well known for his brilliance.Working for him is my chance at the career of my dreams.
But when he calls me out in front of his entire staff.
I decide to leave.
But James stops me with an offer I never saw coming.
A marriage of convenience to secure the future of his culinary empire.In return, he will pay off my debts and help my family.
I should refuse.
Instead, I say yes.His rules are simple.
This is a contract.
There will be no feelings.
No expectations.
No future.I agree to keep things strictly professional.
But the longer I share his home and answer to the title of his wife, the harder it is to pretend this is just business.And when he lets me see the man behind the reputation,
I start to wonder if this fake marriage is the most real thing I have ever known…Welcome to The Hamiltons. A new emotional romance series from international bestselling author L. Steele, where strong women go toe-to-toe with powerful billionaires… and love never follows the rules. This is James and Harper’s story.
I received this for audio review.
The haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.
In one, she lives in the wooded shadow of her family’s isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of her mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where her magical adventures have made her a household name. In reality, Guinevere’s childhood isn’t the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and her older brother are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the lichen-clotted woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.
Now an adult coasting on her mother’s name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family’s legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she’s spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s creative genius?
This is the June selection by the Read With Jenna book club. It’s a library audiobook hopeful.
An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling series.
A girl’s unsolved disappearance. A tragic shooting. Two crimes, forty-five years apart, with a blood-chilling connection in a gripping new Tracy Crosswhite novel by New York Timesbestselling author Robert Dugoni.
Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia, and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing—and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community.
More than forty years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers. Digging deeper into both the past and the present, she discovers a complex web of sinister motives and long-buried secrets, unearthed one by one.
As a decades-old mystery casts its dark shadow on a small town, only the truth will finally set the innocent free.
A new installment in the Tracy Crosswhite series! Scheduled for release in September, it’s an audio review hopeful.
From the bestselling author of Mansion Beach, a summery drama following three sisters who return to their childhood home, each with their own secret, perfect for readers of Sandwich and Pineapple Street.It’s the week after Fourth of July, and the Shipman sisters are returning to their picturesque summer home on the New Hampshire coast for what they believe is a family reunion, the first without their late mother. However, their tranquil setting quickly becomes a stage for drama when their father, Calvin, drops the bombshell news that he plans to sell the cherished beach house.
Mae, the youngest daughter, who has a newfound penchant for attracting trouble, is distraught, already dealing with her own emotional scars and a problematic rescue dog. Natalie, the middle sister and social media darling known for her seemingly idyllic life as a tradwife, is equally anxious, especially since her flawless public image is on the verge of imploding. Meanwhile, Jordan, the eldest, a high-powered crisis communications expert, is ready to be rid of the house so she can tend to her own professional disaster.
As old memories are stirred up and the sisters navigate both the packing of the house and their personal crises, the arrival of Calvin’s new wife pushes Jordan, Natalie, and Mae to decide how far they’re willing to go to preserve the Shipman bond.
A delicious summer read that explores the enduring power of family and sister connections, Down with the Shipmans is a humorous, heartfelt reminder that home is not a place, but the people who love you, no matter how imperfectly.
I accepted this for audio review after reading the wonderful review by Jodie @ That Happy Reader.
In the newest thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci, the 6:20 Man is leaving U.S soil—this time drawn into a storm of billion‑dollar secrets and international power plays that could shatter the world order.
When fearless war correspondent Theresa Lee is shot on a storm-swept Manhattan street and the man she was meeting, Bill Walker, vanishes, the 6:20 Man, aka former Army Ranger turned federal investigator Travis Devine, is called in. Theresa is an investigative journalist, Walker a legendary analyst for the Five Eyes alliance that gathers intelligence that could topple governments around the world. A professional hit team has tried to silence one and snatched the other—and Devine has to find out why.
From New York’s glass‑and‑steel canyons to the glittering harbors of Australia, Devine is pulled into the orbit of the Woolwine empire—an Australian dynasty whose fortune makes them more powerful than some nations. Partnering with Anais Jones, a driven, Sydney-based homicide detective, he uncovers a lethal convergence of rogue intelligence operations, Russian mobsters, compromised prisons, and a quiet campaign to redraw the global balance of power.
To stop a conspiracy fueled by weaponized data and manufactured truths, Devine will have to untangle a love story that may be a lie, a rescue that may have been conjured, and a billionaire’s ambition with a body count. In a world where enemies wear the faces of allies, the only currency that matters is information—and the 6:20 Man is running out of time to keep it all from crashing down.
Blue Mood Café 