What_Kel_Reads

The Scandal was written by the wonderful Nicola Marsh and published by my Bookouture besties.  I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.  This book was released 07/25/19. Marisa seems to have the perfect life-a brilliant husband, a giant mansion, and beautiful twin girls, but she has a secret.  She tries to hold her life together by taking care of her best friends Claire and Elly, but they each have secrets of their own they're struggling to hide.  When pregnant stranger Jodi magically shows up at Marisa's door, she is eager to help her with her "situation."  The father of Jodi's child is someone all three ladies know, and the truth will turn everything upside down. I couldn't put this book down.  I would silently prop my kindle up in bed next to my sleeping fiance, so that if I fell asleep and dropped it there would be no damage.  Marisa, Claire, and Elly are all so wonderfully flawed, each one of them so i...

First off, many apologies to Britney King.  HOW HAVE I NOT READ ANY OF YOUR BOOKS?  I now have a new obsession.  Please think of it as kind and endearing and not stalkery. Room 553 was chosen as one of my many (and perhaps impossibly unattainable to finish) July buddy reads. Synopsis from Goodreads, because I can't write my own without spoiling the book. For Max and Laurel, nothing is off limits when they meet in room 553. Their illicit affair is exhilarating, passionate--and dangerous.  Driven as much by compulsion as pleasure, Max can't stop. His mistress is Jesus on the streets, and Satan in the sack. But when things take a sharp and sudden turn for the worse, he finds himself ensnared in a trap of his own making.  Under heavy scrutiny by the police and the media, Max is hailed as a cold and evasive womanizer. He made mistakes, to be sure. But does that make him a killer? Unnerving and addictive,  Room 553  is a vivid and sensual...

Don't Ever Tell was written by Lucy Dawson and published by Bookouture, released on 06/25/19.  I was granted early access to this book in exchange for my honest review.  Because I got too click happy on NetGalley, I'm just now getting to it.  I promise-one day I'll be caught up on my reading!!! Charlotte seems to have the perfect job, family, and life.  Only she knows that her marriage is crumbling, and her husband is oblivious to the fact(because of COURSE he is).  Little does he know that she has hired someone to be her, and when he realizes just who that person is life will change as they know it. The synopsis sounds like a typical thriller, but this one was more enjoyable than most.  The writing allowed me to put some pieces of the puzzle together, just enough to keep me interested and reading.  I couldn't put this book down.  Charlotte was so easy to relate to, especially if you've ever been in an unhappy relationship.  I loved th...

The Dream House written by Jess Ryder was published by the lovely people at Bookouture on 06/21/19.  I was granted a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. When Stella sees Westhill House, a former refuge for battered women, she jumps at the chance to purchase it and make her dreams work...even though her boyfriend is less than thrilled about moving from London. Then one night Lori shows up at the house beaten and bloody.  Stella immediately lets her in and listens to the story about her abusive husband. Life will never be the same once she starts to uncover the house's secrets.  Lori seems to know more than she lets on about the house.  What is going to happen to Stella if she goes down this rabbit hole? This story was so gripping.  I had a really hard time putting this book down, and ended up finishing it in about 2 days.  It would have been a 5 star read for me, but the abuse parts were hard to get through.  A...

The Whisper Network written by Chandler Baker, was published by Flatiron Books and released on 07/02/19. When Sloane, Grace, Ardie, and Rosalita find out the CEO of their employer Truviv has died, they are shocked.  They're even more shocked to find out their boss Ames is the expected pick to replace him.  Ames is a garbage human being, and there have been so many whispers in the office regarding his behavior towards women.  These four ladies decide that his takeover cannot happen, and put a plan in place that turns everything and everyone completely upside down. The book starts with, "If only you had listened to us, none of this would have ever happened."  Instantly I was hooked.  The book was entertaining but a bit slow.  The four women the book focuses on are all extremely flawed.  At times I found them a little annoying, but it wasn't enough to make me put down the book.  As part of a bigger company myself, I've seen new leadership ta...

The Banker's Wife was published by Penguin Group Putnam on 07/03/18.  This was my first book by Cristina Alger.  I read this as party of a buddy read on Instagram, put on by some of my lovely Instagram ladies. Early morning, a plane drops off radar and is discovered in the Alps.  The passengers are missing, one being Matthew Werner.  Werner was a banker for Swiss United, a very powerful offshore bank.  His widow Annabelle is left to pick up the pieces and suspects there may be more to the story.  When she obtains his super encrypted laptop and client list of shady characters, she begins her own investigation, putter her life at risk. The story also follows Marina Tourneau, a well known journalist.  Marina is engaged to cream of the crop Grant Ellis.  While doing an investigation for a story on Swiss United, Marina discovers information that implicates some of the world's most popular and well known businessmen.  This story could b...

One Minute Later by Susan Lewis was published by Harper Collins on 06/11/19.  I obtained a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. I'm going to copy the exact synopsis from Goodreads, because I think the context of it is important regarding my review. It’s takes one minute to change everything… Vivienne Shager has it all. A highflying job. A beautiful apartment. Friends whose lives are as perfect as her own. But on the afternoon of her 27th birthday, Vivi has a heart attack. Now Vivi’s life shrinks back to how it begun, as she moves back to the small seaside town she grew up in. With her time running out, there is one thing she wants to know the truth about. Some secrets are best left in the past… Thirty years earlier, Shelley’s family home, Deerwood farm, bursts full of love and happiness. But one family member has hidden a secret for all these years. Until Vivi comes home demanding answers, and it takes just a moment to unravel the lie...

This book was published on 07/02/19 by Penguin Group Dutton.  This is my third Riley Sager book, but it's the first one I've read.  I actually ordered this as part of my Book of the Month box, even though I was lucky enough to get the book early from NetGalley. Jules has lost everything.  Her job, her boyfriend, and her apartment, all in the span of a few days.  Broke and worried, she finds an ad for an apartment sitter in the paper and applies.  This turns out to be for the The Bartholomew, one of the most prolific apartment buildings in Manhattan.  She is given very simple rules-no visitors, no nights away from the apartment, and no bothering the famous residents.  She strikes up a friendship with one of the other apartment sitters named Ingrid, and discovers they have similar pasts.  When Ingrid goes missing, Jules starts to investigate her disappearance, despite many warning from people in the building.  She begins to unravel a dee...

I bought this book when it was first released on 05/28/19 and took my sweet time reading it because I knew I would only read it for the first time just this once.  This book was written by the lovely Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, several years after their podcast My Favorite Murder has blown up.  This book is filled with stories of their starts in entertainment, stupid things they did as kids, and reassurances that it's okay to fuck politeness and take care of yourself. I loved this book.  I cried through a lot of it.  I also found myself remembering my own situations as kids or teens where we so readily accepted help from strangers.  Doing some of the things we did back then as latchkey kids would probably get us abducted or murdered today.  Karen's chapter about her mom was heartbreaking and honest, as was Georgia's admittance of her struggles with eating disorders.  Even though they're both a few years older than me, I found that w...

Dear Wife was written by Kimberly Belle and published by Harlequin-Park Row, released on 06/25/19. For almost a year, Beth Murphy has been planning her escape from her abusive and tyrannical husband.  She has had to carefully plan everything, because she knows slipping up once means her husband will find her.  Meanwhile, another husband named Jeffrey is looking for his missing wife Sabine.  She has taken nothing with her, abandoned her car, and disappeared into thin air. Police start to investigate and realize Sabine's perfect life wasn't so perfect-her husband is also abusive and terrible.  The detective on the case will stop at nothing to find out what happened to Sabine.  But who is Beth?  There are several careful webs of lies that have been set up, and it's only a matter of time before they all come crashing down. I really enjoyed this book.  Life kept getting in the way, delaying my progress.  If I had been left to read in pea...

Before She Knew Him was released 03/05/19 by William Morrow.  Written by Peter Swanson, this was a recent BOTM selection.  This was only the third BOTM I've read (behind Queenie and Daisy Jones and the Six). Hen and her husband Lloyd move into the suburbs outside of Boston, and they think they've finally found a quiet place to grow old.  When Hen spots a sports trophy in the house of her next door neighbors after dinner one night, that sense of security quickly disappears.  The statue looked exactly like one who went missing from a young man's room years ago...a young man who had been murdered.  Hen then begins to stalk her neighbor as she battles her intuition against her history of psychotic breaks that keep her husband and the police from believing her.  One night they make eye contact in a parking lot, and Hen realizes Matthew has been aware that she has been following him all along.  Can she escape the dangerous force that is her neighbor? ...

Fear in the Lakes is the third installment in the Beth Young series written by Graham Smith, released on 07/12/19 by my best friends at Bookouture! 💙 Description: A case with no leads. A victim with no enemies. A killer with no conscience… When  Detective Beth Young  is called to investigate a victim with multiple broken bones, nothing prepares her for what she finds.  James Sinclair  is fighting for his life, and  Beth  can’t shake the idea that the nature of his injuries suggest someone with a personal grudge against him. But James’s devastated wife  Laura  insists that her kind, softly-spoken husband is a man with no enemies. She was the one with the fiery temper, but James was so calm, she’d never once managed to provoke even a cross word from him in their eight year marriage. And he was the same with everyone – she can’t name one person who might want to hurt him. But she knows virtually no details about her husband’s childhood o...

I lucked out majorly in receiving A Nearly Normal Family from NetGalley.  This book by M.T. Edvardsson was released by Celadon Books on 06/25/19. When 18 year old Stella Sandell is accused of murdering a man 15 years older than her, Stella's parents feel compelled to defend her.  Her father (a pastor) and her mother (a lawyer) stretch their morals and beliefs as they struggle to free their daughter, while the rest of the town is screaming for her punishment. This book was told in three parts-the father, the daughter, and the mother.  This was a unique take on a typical court situation and I really enjoyed it. I loved the layout of the book.  It was super interesting to each viewpoint without the others mixed in.  I was hooked from page 1.  I  actually annoyed when I had to put this book down to run errands or work.  The father's part was probably my favorite.  It was so sincere.  I could really feel his pain through the pages ...

When I saw this book tour through Kate Rock, I was dying to join.  This was my first book by writer Alison Ragsdale.  The book will be released 07/16/19. Professional ballerina, Ailsa MacIntyre, is at the peak of her career when her world is  shattered by a shocking diagnosis. Life-saving surgery leaves her with a fractured memory, little recollection of her husband, Evan, and none of her career as a principal dancer. While recuperating at home, Ailsa hears beautiful music coming from the apartment  upstairs, and the sound of the grand piano at the hands of a talented new neighbor sparks her muscle memory. As her recovery progresses, the broken pieces of her past gradually re-emerge, a picture not quite as idyllic as Evan would have her remember. Ailsa must navigate the conflicting visions of her past, and potential future, as they collide. You guys. THIS.BOOK.WAS.IMPOSSIBLE.TO.PUT.DOWN.  I read it in the course of about 5 hours, and I was h...

I was given access to Twisted Family Values by my one true love, NetGalley.  This novel by V.C. Chickering was released 06/25/19 by St. Martin's Press. The book is a little difficult to explain, so I'll let Goodreads take it away... In WASPy Larkspur, New Jersey, social expectations and decorum rule, and Marjorie and Dunsfield Thornden are the envy of their neighbors. Their daughters Claire and Cat set the small town’s social calendar by throwing tastefully lavish family parties year round. Because it’s 1977, underage debauchery is to be expected—and Cat and Claire’s children, Bizzy and Choo, are at its very center.  Underneath their well-maintained veneer, the Thorndens are quite dysfunctional, but have always had their entitlement to fall back on. And while some are finally ready to accept what they’re willing to give up for the life that they think they deserve, secrets that should’ve never been kept—especially not from each other—are bubbling unattractively to t...