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 merciless wilderness. A harrowing attack. A desperate escape.

When a tragic accident sidelines Miley’s dreams of Olympic gold, she takes a summer job at a mountain guest lodge.

The Frank Church Wilderness is remote, but it’s the perfect place to train and recover. Local lore about a staffer who died years ago doesn’t scare her. But it should.

Miley’s plans take a terrifying detour when she’s abducted during a morning run. Held captive in a desolate off-grid cabin, she’ll have to use her athletic prowess, cunning mind, and courage to survive. But as the nightmare at the cabin escalates, Miley is forced to form an unlikely alliance and attempt a risky escape.

Can she outwit her captors and survive the wilderness before it’s too late?

Inspired by true events, Gray After Dark is a pulse-pounding psychological thriller with a finale that will leave you breathless.

I’ve become a big fan of this author. The audiobook is on my library wishlist.

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What if your own family history turns out to be a terrifying lie? Every family has its story, and this one’s deadly. Two sisters. One secret. And a race against time to find the explosive truth in this twisty and captivating thriller by USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan.

The sole survivors of the fiery plane crash that killed their parents, Eliza Ramsey and her sister Bea share an unbreakable bond. But now, on the eleventh anniversary of the tragedy, Bea fails to retrieve her pre-teen daughter from a sleepover at Eliza’s.

Eliza knows her sister would never leave her precious Piper behind, and fears the worst. But did Bea plan her own disappearance?

The Ramseys’ lives have already crashed and burned once. Now, Eliza discovers she’s the only one who can protect her niece from the horrifying legacy of her family’s sinister history. Together, the two must prevent their lives from going up in flames once again.

A missing mother. Her frightened daughter. And a sister on a desperate search for a happy ending. But someone knows the deadly key to their shared past, and won’t stop until they’ve written a devastating final chapter. Mother, daughter, sister—stranger.

Thanks to Kim @ It’s All About the Thrill for featuring it in her book mail post. Scheduled for release in September, it’s an  audio review hopeful.

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Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.

2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can’t forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.

When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.

Some secrets are better left buried.

Thanks to Nikki @ Nikki Lee Thrill Seeker for her great review. I received it for audio review.

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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name comes a riveting novel about the risks we take to protect the ones we love in a world where crisis is always just around the corner.

On September 11, 2001, when Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother went to an appointment at the World Trade Center and never came home. Her father and the stepmother who raised her couldn’t have loved her more, but she still grew up with a healthy dread of disasters.

Now an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, mapping out ways to save lives during storms, epidemics, and airplane crashes. She and her husband, Jesse—a police polygraph expert with his own history of crisis—have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world. But then the unexpected upends their new marriage, leading them both to question everything they thought they knew.

Moving between past and present, Hollow Bones is an epic story of the lies we tell ourselves as we write the narratives of our lives, the plans we design to protect ourselves at the worst moments, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

Thanks to Vickie @ She Read Book Blog for mentioning this on one of my IG posts. Scheduled for release in September, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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Following a shocking murder, a woman must face the secrets from her past—and a husband she thought she knew—in this twisty, sizzling novel from the bestselling authors of Happy Wife.

Este Walker didn’t move to Winter Park, Florida, to make friends. Five years ago, she ghosted her life in California to reinvent herself among the lakefront estates of Florida’s elite. With a cocktail in hand, more money than she could ever spend, and secrets she intends to keep buried, she’s finally content—or, you know, close enough. Who cares if her seclusion and secrets have left her with a small social circle? Her husband Beau and her best friend Nora are the only company she needs.

But Este’s secrets are catching up to her. Last year, when Nora gained national attention as a suspect in her husband’s disappearance, Este’s picture was flashed onscreen. Suddenly the past she had hoped to keep buried is closing in on her—and Beau might be keeping secrets of his own. And then a mysterious death turns Winter Park upside down.

Thrust into a high-stakes murder investigation, Este must unravel a web of lies and secrets to answer the question: What exactly happened in California, and has it come back to haunt her? More importantly: How is she going to get herself out of this mess?

Thanks to Nikki @ Nikki Lee Thrill Seeker for her great review. It’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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A heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of FRANK AND RED

Sister Francis is an unlikely nun.

She’s sixty, sweary, drives like a lunatic and smokes like a stacked chimney . . . and she runs the Blessed Assumption Boys Club.

Richie, Bennett, Kenny and Stan are four best friends from the Whittle council estate with little to do but get up to no good. After a run-in with local bullies, they discover the crumbling, forgotten club and find themselves in the company of the most remarkable person they will ever meet.

Set against early 1980s Britain, The Trouble with Sister Francis is a funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking story of unlikely heroes, quiet rebellions, fierce loyalty and unexpected hope.

And at the centre of it all lies a long-forgotten journal that might just change everything.

Thanks to Eva @ Novel Deelights for featuring this in her This Week in Books post. Scheduled for release in August, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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A stunning novel of romance and redemption set in the Spunes, OR world, filled with heartbreak and hope from “master of emotion” (Rachel Lynn Solomon) USA Todaybestselling author Tarah DeWitt.

Bea always wanted to be a mom, but she never expected she’d have to lose her best friend to do it. Armed with nothing but her best friend’s eggs and a bucket list to complete, Bea’s world is a sea of changes.

When Silas steps in to give her a place to live when she needs it, Bea is half-relieved she has a longtime friend in her corner. A firefighter living in the wake of an accident, Silas has his own challenges to work through that have left him cautious and vulnerable in equal measure. At first, they expect nothing. But as these two former sunshines knit together in a love that has been unfulfilled till now, a new beginning comes out of the ashes of the past. One that will lead to a love that can withstand all the slings and arrows, joys and triumphs, that life can throw.

Thanks to Jessica @ Get Booked with Jessica for her great review. Scheduled for release in August, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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Mara Brock Akil, the award-winning creator of Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever, pens an emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening.

What happens when one knock at your door sends your entire world into chaos? When a stranger becomes a lifeline? When the reality you’ve meticulously curated seems to be a mirage?

From the outside looking in, one might say that Dionne Daphne had it being the beauty editor at a prestigious New York magazine, a boyfriend who could have been plucked out of its model pages, the social life of the upper echelon, and a girlhood steeped in debutant balls.

But that is from the outside. When the now ex-boyfriend arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep Dionne imagines reconciliation, going back to the good life brimming with the possibility of marriage; the life her mother always wanted for her. Instead, he delivers life-threatening news that creates a crack in her picture-perfect world. A crack that grows legs and runs her right into her past, unearthing a secret that she has hidden since childhood.

In an effort to run toward the truth and away from a lie, Dionne sets out on a spur-of-the-moment road trip with an unlikely stranger to confront the long-buried darkness of her past and the family who made it so. As Dionne comes to a final reckoning, she begins to unravel new layers of herself and fresh possibilities for her life, her family, and even her love.

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.

Thanks to Larry @ Get Booked with Larry for his great review. The audiobook is on my library wishlist.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?