Happy Halloween!
The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen -- Liz is a newspaper reporter who investigates the disappearance of Little Lucy in London with her friend, a detective with the police. When Liz visits the abandoned town near the coast, she feels strongly that she'd been there before, but how could she have when she grew up in a totally different area?
One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day -- Charley is the 'chambermaid' of a family-owned hotel in the boonies of Maine. After the owner dies, the three Bishop sisters arrive to see what their father left them. Also, a stranger Bree is in residence as Charley helps her flee from an abusive boyfriend. What could go wrong?
Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman -- After Nina's father dies, she is stunned to learn of a house in the British Virgin Islands that he left her. Her father never left England as far as she knew - how did he have a house there? Meanwhile Maria is hired to be a nanny for a single father and his two children who are vacationing in the Caribbean. Only...they never show up. Instead she's given instructions to enjoy the house except for the room at the end of the bottom floor. No problem.
The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart -- Ana is a Christian Polish woman who delivers babies. Ester is a Jewish woman Ana delivered years ago. When the two meet at Auschwitz, they encourage each other to not give up.
The Orphanage by Lizzie Page -- After she's let go of her dream job which includes organizing things in neat rows, Clara takes a job as a housemother at the Shilling Grange Orphanage where she has eight children under her care. She soon discovers caring for troubled children is way beyond her ability so she seeks to leave so someone more qualified can take her place. The head lady at the council asks for six weeks to find someone else, and during this time Clara seeks to help the children in ways unfamiliar to them. I really enjoyed this book which captured my interest from the start!
Murder Road by Simone St. John -- Eddie and April are headed towards their honeymoon destination when Eddie takes a wrong exit, and the couple give a ride to a young woman who turns out to be stabbed. They get involved in this small-town's history of murders along this one road.
Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman -- Agnes is thrilled when the author of her favorite novel invites her to her Hudson Valley home in order to help with the sequel. But things get strange as the author's novel sounds more like a true story, and Agnes wonders how her own mother may play into it.
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott -- Pretty interesting story ranging from Olga and Boris in the USSR to the spy agency in the United States featuring The Typists as well as Irinia and Sally, Teddy and Henry among others.
Things Don't Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins -- Willa's sister disappeared when Laika was thirteen, and, understandably, this colored Willa's life from that time forward. She attended a boarding school where she met Robyn, and later Willa meets up with Robyn again and meets Robyn's wife Cat. Anyway...this book was actually pretty good, but I found it rather weird that I'd just read about Laika in the book before this one - and here it was used again. And the girl named Laika was named Laika because of the dog! Ha!
Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter -- Jonah is getting ready to pop the question to Lauren when she takes a tumble and ends up losing her memory of the summer when they fell in love. Instead she remembers her arrival at Jonah's parents' resort and how he was unwelcoming to her in the director's role. Jonah is heartbroken to realize Lauren can't remember that they turned from foes to dating.
The Hidden Book by Kirsty Manning -- This book takes place partly in Australia where Roza and Hannah are visited by Roza's father Nico from the former Yugoslavia. Hannah is thirteen when her grandpa brings an album that Roza hides and forbids her daughter to see. Another part of this book takes place in Mauthausen, Austria, where a photographer saves negatives of pictures he takes for the Nazis. The Nazis want five photo albums showing off their atrocities, but the photographer and his helper make an extra copy so the world will one day know what the Germans did.
Silent Sister by Megan Davidhizar -- Two sisters - ten months apart and both seniors in high school - attend their school's Senior Sabbatical, and one of them is missing. As Grace tries to remember what happened the night she was rescued from the side of a road, Maddy tells the story of what they did during their five days away from home.
Six Years by Harlan Coben -- Jake is waiting for his next office hours appointment when he sees the obituary of a man he watched his summer love marry six years ago. As promised, he didn't contact Natalie while she was married to Todd, but now that he's died, he wants to reconnect. When he flies to South Carolina for the funeral, he is stunned to find Todd has a different wife and teenage children. Did this man have another family that Natalie didn't know of? Where is Natalie?
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz -- After her author husband dies by suicide, Anna Williams-Bonner tries her hand at writing a novel and meets immediate success. As she does book tours around the country, Anna meets various types. When she starts getting excerpts of a manuscript mirroring her own life, Anna seeks to find who is sending these drafts to herself and her husband's parents, among others.
The Sleeping Beauty Killer by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke -- After Casey serves 15 years for the manslaughter of her fiancé, she is determined to prove her innocence. She contacts Laurie from the Under Suspicion TV show about investigating her case.
The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin -- Emma is a single parent with a young daughter who is lucky to find a compassionate boss who gives her a job in a library. I say "lucky" because at the time of this book, married women and those with children seldom worked. This book takes place during World War II and is a pretty good story!
