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.

Emma, older sister of renowned rock star Jake McKallister, has crafted a quiet existence for herself. Fiercely independent, scorned at work, and indifferent to relationships, she’s spent the past decade trying to move on from the crime that shook her family to the core. Living by a promise she made to herself as a distraught sixteen-year-old, Emma has sworn off marriage and children… until a chance encounter with a scruffy hitchhiker throws her orderly world into chaos.

A wild child raised in mayhem by a teenage mother, fearless Finn Perry cruises through life as the perennial nice guy. Now a struggling actor, he supports himself by performing daredevil stunts. At a crossroads in his life, one thing has always remained constant in his world: Finn’s desire to start the family he never had. The mystery woman who rescues him from the side of the road sure seems like the perfect person for the job.

But unfinished business from Emma’s troubled past looms heavy, threatening to destroy the fledging love she’s found with the only man to ever jump-start her wounded heart.

I’m collecting all the books in this series. Used an Audible credit.

After a true crime podcast reopens her cousin’s murder case, a woman must confront her past at a glamorous European castle-turned-hotel where she follows a trail of toxic family secrets and deadly lies.

When they were teenagers, Mia’s beloved cousin was murdered during their stay at an infamous castle in the Austrian Alps. As the only witness, Mia’s testimony put the killer behind bars, but it tore her life apart: the media accused her aunt, a controversial true crime author, of being involved. Now, a decade later, the murderer is appealing his conviction, and a popular true crime podcast starts covering the case, determined to exonerate him, and resurfacing lies about Mia’s family in the process.

Desperate to protect her aunt—and what she knows to be the truth—Mia returns to Austria. The castle is being revamped as a luxury hotel, and Mia gets a job as a nanny for the new owner, hiding in plain sight as she investigates, needing to set the story straight once and for all. But after someone mysteriously disappears on the property and sinister new evidence emerges regarding her cousin’s death, she realizes she might have accused the wrong man…and put her own life in danger.

Thanks to Stephanie @ Stephanie Likes Books for her great review. Scheduled for release in October, it’s an  audio review hopeful.

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Five days. Twenty strangers. No way out.

The rafting trip was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But Kaia’s starting to think she made a mistake.

Because ever since the whispers about Camas Creek began, all she feels is dread.

Seven years earlier, a guide murdered a group of rafters on this same isolated stretch of water. The killer’s body was recovered downstream—but the true-crime community has never stopped asking questions.

And for good reason.

The incidents start small—a flipped raft, missing supplies, and screams in the night—but the pattern is sickeningly familiar. And with eighty-four miles of whitewater until any sign of civilization, safety has never felt so far away.

Kaia suspects that one of the guides is lying. One of the guests knows more than she’s saying. And somewhere on this river, someone is planning to finish what started at Camas Creek.

I learned about this from a trusted Goodreads friend. It’s on my Audible wishlist.

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Marble Cafe Series

 

Across a bridge in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, a seasonal cherry blossom sits on the river. Nearby is the Marble Cafe, where a woman writes in a notebook and a young waiter prepares her favorite hot drink. Both wonder about each other and about the other lives of the clientele who frequent this charming little cafe behind the trees…

Without even realizing it, we may touch and change someone else’s life.

Taking a walk along the river, cooking the best tamagoyaki, ordering hot chocolate, forgetting to remove our nail polish… The small, everyday acts that we do can lead to unexpected encounters, reverberate far beyond our own circle, and ultimately make a difference in the world around us.

Hot Chocolate on Thursday is a tapestry of slice-of-life moments that each open and close with a woman ordering her regular hot chocolate at the mysterious Marble Cafe. What happens in between will touch and swell your heart, as we connect with a community of untold unfolding lives.

Discover the beloved early classic from the million-copy bestselling author of WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY

Across a bridge in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, a charming little matcha café – open only on Mondays – offers a beacon of light and healing to all who pass through its doors.

All throughout the week, customers flock to the Marble Café that’s tucked away behind the trees – except when it’s closed on Mondays, when the Matcha Café opens in its place, offering its clientele a warm cup of matcha and restoration to start the busy week ahead.

On this one day of the week, people from all walks of life frequent this cozy haven and experience the joys of human connection. Among them include:

A singer who has just broken up with his lover
An unsociable young owner of a tea wholesaler
A husband who has made his wife angry
A designer and owner of a lingerie shop
A Kamishibai artist who doesn’t get along with his grandmother

This heart-warming story spans Tokyo and Kyoto over twelve months, bringing together a community of untold unfolding lives – all starting with a cup of matcha.

Thanks to Nicki @ Secret Library Book Blog for her great review of the second book. Both audiobooks are on my library wishlist.

They called them Crown Vic and Baby Blue…

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Atmosphere, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo comes a daring story of two friends chasing their biggest score yet—and risking everything that binds them together.

As any good hustler can tell you, every successful con works the same way:

1. Identify an unsuspecting mark and gain their trust.

2. Promise them everything they desire…and give them just enough to believe you.

3. Take the mark for everything they’ve got and disappear.

Victoria Lucchese and Colette Wilson have been running their pool hustle for years, driving around the country and leaving overconfident men with empty wallets in their wake. The con is simple: Coco, magnetic and fearless, draws men in with her good looks and convinces them to play against her friend, Vic. Precise and unstoppable, Vic runs the table clean. Vic and Coco are the closest thing to family either one has ever had…even if they don’t know each other’s real names.

But now it’s the summer of 1974. Nixon is on the brink of impeachment, there’s an oil crisis, prices are soaring, jobs are scarce, and Vic and Coco are starting to feel the squeeze. Word is spreading about two women to watch out for, and they’re running out of places to hide and marks to hustle. That’s when they set in motion a plan that will bring them their biggest payday yet…or cost them everything.

Sharp, seductive, and electric, The Last Days of Vic & Coco is set in the sun-and-shadows world of long desert highways, seedy motels, and dive bars. It’s the story of two women living by their wits, making their own rules, and traveling light. Even though they want different things from life, they swear they will stick together. But can you ever really trust the promises of a hustler?

I squealed when I saw this in the author’s newsletter. Scheduled for release in March, it’s an audio review hopeful.

Not all nightmares come from sleep. Some come from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeneva Rose.

Three horror stories.

A dinner party. A quiet house. A roadside stop.

You’ll recognize the setup.

You won’t recognize what comes next.

Never Kill the Medium

A thirtieth birthday dinner turns deadly after someone hires a medium for a playful séance. When the ritual spirals out of control and the medium dies, the guests cover it up—unaware that leaving the séance unfinished has allowed something dark to cross over.

The Nightmare House

The Dalton family moves into what they believe is their forever home, in the quiet town of Tillington—until the house whispers, the neighbors watch, and no one believes the one person who knows something is wrong. Newly postpartum, Kristin Dalton soon uncovers a horrifying every family who has lived in this house has died or disappeared.

All Curses Are Final

On the way to a remote winter cabin, a group of friends stops at a roadside store with a hand-painted “All items cursed. Curse lifted at time of sale.” They laugh it off—until one of them discovers an item in her bag she never paid for. As the storm traps them inside the cabin and bodies start to pile up, paranoia takes hold and suspicion turns inward.

I received an offer from Blackstone Publishing to request this book, which I did. It’s an audio review hopeful scheduled for release in September.

The scowl should’ve been my first clue to stay far away from Anson Hunt. The sexy smirk and the fact that he’s my brother’s best friend? Reasons two and three. Not to mention, he’s the new contractor working on my house.

He’s everything I’m not: grumpy, rude, and more than a little attached to his solitude. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to kill him with kindness; the man simply won’t crack. Until he sees me shatter. Because when my world comes crashing down around me, Anson is the one catching me as I fall. And as so-called accidents start plaguing every part of my life, it’s Anson who steps in to keep me safe.

As he does, I can’t help but feel a flicker of heat. And it only takes a single moment for that spark to ignite into flames, engulfing us both. But Anson’s a man with secrets, and they have a price. When they’re revealed, neither of us will make it out unscathed….

This first book in the Sparrow Falls series is free with my Audible membership.

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?