Thursday, May 12, 2022

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

 16

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

  • Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
  • The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring a recent read, The Maid by Nita Prose. The excerpts shared are from a large print edition borrowed from the library.

 

The Maid


Beginning:  I am your maid. I'm the one who cleans your hotel room, who enters like a phantom when you're out gallivanting for the day, no care at all about what you've left behind, the mess, or what I might see when you're gone.

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Page 56:  I consider what it is the detective really wants to know and what I'm prepared to divulge.

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My thoughts:  Molly Gray leads a simple, sheltered life and toils at a job as a hotel maid that allows her to avoid uncomfortable personal interactions and remain relatively invisible. Molly's life is literally and figuratively turned upside down, however, when she discovers the lifeless body of Charles Black, one of the Regency Grand Hotel's VIP guests, in his suite. While at first glance he appears to have died of natural causes, a police investigation determines that Mr. Black was the victim of foul play. Detectives zero in on Molly as their prime suspect, but Molly is a gentle soul incapable of such a crime. She has been methodically framed, but by whom and why? And whom can she trust in the effort to clear her name?

This story's setting, characters, and touches of humor and irony are very engaging and entertaining. Readers will root for the awkward, vulnerable protagonist as she navigates the complex situation she finds herself in and the upstanding characters who step in to support her and restore one's faith in humanity.

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From GoodReads:  Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

A
Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.




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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

 16

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

  • Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
  • The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring The Club by Ellery Lloyd. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition borrowed from the library.

The Club 


Beginning:  By the time the Land Rover was halfway across the causeway it must have been obvious they were never going to make it. Not at the speed that tide was coming in. Not with that distance still t go. At which point, what do you do?

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Page 56:  As valuable as Annie was, Nikki thought, she should still be treading very carefully right now, with Ned so on edge. Because if there was one thing Ned Groom could not abide, it was being upstaged.

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My thoughts:  Murder, mystery, and secrets--all seem to await behind the doors of a remote celebrity club. Sounds like the perfect weekend read to me.

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From GoodReads:  From the author of People Like Her comes a smart and sinister murder mystery set in the secretive world of exclusive celebrity clubs.


Everyone's Dying to Join . . .

The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members' clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media.

The most spectacular of all is Island Home—a closely-guarded, ultraluxurious resort, just off the English coast—and its three-day launch party is easily the most coveted A-list invite of the decade.

But behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group's CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide—and that's before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island.

As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.

Because at
this club, if your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out.




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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

Monday, May 2, 2022

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 



. . . First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros . . . now hosted by Yvonne at Socrates' Book Reviews, where bloggers share excerpts from a book they have read, are currently reading, or are planning to read.
 

Today I'm featuring The Comeback by Ella Berman, a book that recently caught my attention. The excerpt shared is from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.




First Chapter:  Six Weeks Earlier

They recognize me when I'm at CVS buying diet pills for my mom, the only kind that don't make her lose her mind.

"Aren't you Grace Turner?"

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

The opening makes me curious about the narrator. I will definitely need to keep reading to find out more.




 



This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog.