Friday Focus: Weekend Reads

 

 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 My Head is Full of Books, 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 Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library. 

 Book Beginning:  Happily Married

 

If all we need is love, why do we always want more?

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Page 56: We are not the same people we were when we met.

I think you're in my seat.

Those were the first words my husband ever said to me.

I wonder what will be the last.

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My thoughts:  The Green marriage is on the rocks and then the wife disappears without a trace. What happened to Abby and did she meet a tragic end? This is the premise of Alice Feeney's latest twisty, suspenseful tale that's hard to put down.

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From Goodreads: A gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible — a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

 

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

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 a book from my summer reading list, Her Three Lives by Cate Holahan. The excerpt shared is from a trade paperback version borrowed from the library.

First Chapter:  She would make them late. Greg paced between moving boxes, fighting the urge to call Jade a second time and remind her of Friday traffic into the city. He didn't want to nag his new fiancee about the importance of their presence at a cocktail hour, in which she couldn't partake, for an event that neither of them wished to attend. They both knew what awaited them at the building's unveiling, the critical assessments they'd face from his colleagues and, worse, their spouses. Over the years, several of the wives had become friends with his ex. And even those with whom Leah had never ingratiated herself were unlikely to welcome a two-decades-younger replacement.

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

The opening paragraph gives a few hints about the couple whose life is about to unfold in the story and a sense of imminent trouble in paradise. That's enough to spark my interest and keep me reading.

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog. © 2021, Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post is being used without permissionn 

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 an upcoming read, The End of Her by Shari Lapena. It's the most recent book by the author of The Couple Next Door and several other bestsellers.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition borrowed from the library.

First Chapter:  August 2018

Aylesford, New York

Hanna Bright puts little Teddy in his baby swing on the front porch and sits down to read her novel. It's going to get hot later, but in the morning it's nice on the porch, out of the sun. She notices two cars parked at the house across the street and a couple of doors down. The house is for sale; someone must be looking to buy it.

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

The beginning paints such an innocent scene, but given the author, my radar has been tripped and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.  

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog.  It cannot be republished without attribution.   

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

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 my current read, Sisters by Daisy Johnson. The excerpts shared are from an eBook I borrowed from the library. 

 

Beginning: Part 1

SEPTEMBER AND JULY 

 

A house.  Slices of it through the hedge, across the fields.  Dirty white, windows sunk into the brick.  Hand in hand in the backseat, the arrow of light from the sunroof.  Two of us, shoulder-to-shoulder, sharing air.  A long way to come. This the year we are haunted.  What?  This the year, as any other, in which we are friendless, necessary only to ourselves.

 

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Page 56:  What are you looking at?

She doesn't answer.

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My thoughts:  Sisters September and July share a bond so close that it is hard to fathom where one ends and the other begins.  They live an insular life with their mother, Sheela, a children's book author whose bouts of depression sometimes leave the girls to fend for themselves.  After a traumatic event at school, the family relocates to an isolated cottage in Yorkshire, where their world becomes even smaller.

 

In Sisters, Johnson explores the dynamics between a mother and her daughters, and the intense relationship between headstrong, domineering September and easily manipulated July, who lives in her older sister's shadow.  As the story unfolds, the consequences of their interactions shape their future in grave and dramatic ways.

  

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From GoodReads:  From a Booker Prize finalist and international literary star: a blazing portrait of one darkly riveting sibling relationship, from the inside out.

"One of her generation's most intriguing authors" (Entertainment Weekly), Daisy Johnson is the youngest writer to have been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Now she returns with Sisters, a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins.

Born just ten months apart, July and September are thick as thieves, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. In their new, isolated life, July finds that the deep bond she has always shared with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behavior—until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the girls’ past and future.

Written with radically inventive language and imagery by an author whose work has been described as "entrancing" (The New Yorker), "a force of nature" (The New York Times Book Review), and "weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling" (Celeste Ng), Sisters is a one-two punch of wild fury and heartache—a taut, powerful, and deeply moving account of sibling love and what happens when two sisters must face each other’s darkest impulses.

 

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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.    

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

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, Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger. The excerpts shared are an advance reader copy I received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

 

 

Beginning:  Part 1

All Our Little Secrets

Prologue

She watched.  That was her gift.  To disappear into the black, sink into the shadows behind and between.  That's where you really saw things for what they were, when people revealed their true natures.

 

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56% of eBook:  The face swam before his eyes, oddly familiar.  He knew her.  He'd seen her before.

 

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My thoughts:  What begins as a casual encounter at the end of a workday between two women on a commuter train, devolves into a chain of events that will forever change the course of both their lives. As they sit on a stalled train, Selena and Martha begin a conversation in which each shares some information about their troubled relationships. Afterwards Selena is a bit embarrassed at having shared personal details that she has until now kept closely guarded. Nevertheless, she puts her unease to rest, thinking she will never see or hear from Martha again.

As Selena's home life further unravels and Martha crosses her path yet again, a complicated web of lies and deceptions unfolds. As truths emerge, how will Selena, Martha, and others in their orbit come to terms with the consequences? Unger's newest novel is a perfectly paced page-turner that readers won't soon forget.

 

 

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From GoodReads:  From master of suspense Lisa Unger comes a riveting thriller about a chance encounter that unravels a stunning web of lies and deceit.

Everyone has a secret… Now she knows yours.

Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.

But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.

Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.

Expertly plotted and reminiscent of the timeless classic Strangers on a Train, Confessions on the 7:45 is a gripping thriller about the delicate facades we create around our lives.

 

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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. 

 

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.

Happy Book Birthday to a recent read, To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan, which is being released today!  I was fortunate to receive an advance reader copy of this domestic thriller from the publisher.

Beginning:  Prologue

There are the facts, and then there is the truth.

Chapter 1

I typed "The End," clicked the save button, and clicked it again just to make sure.  I felt huge relief that I'd finished my novel, and on top of that a heady mixture of elation and exhaustion.  But there were also terrible nerves, much worse than usual, because typing those words meant the consequences of a secret decision that I'd made months ago would have to be faced now.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

The opening lines to both the prologue and first chapter are compelling teasers . . .

Here are my thoughts about Gilly Macmillan's latest novel . . .

From all outward appearances, Lucy Harper is a successful crime fiction author happily married to her husband Dan and adored by the legion of fans devoted to her Eliza Grey series. Nothing could be further from the truth . . . 

Lucy is damaged and fragile--haunted by the traumatic disappearance of her younger brother when they were children and the police's questions afterwards--and now subject to her husband's cruelty and gaslighting. When Dan goes missing shortly after the couple moves into a house bordering the woods where her brother Teddy was last seen alive, Lucy's grip on reality begins to unravel. Once again she is the prime suspect in a high-profile investigation. The police want to know if Lucy played a hand in Dan's disappearance, while questions about Teddy's disappearance reemerge. 

What does Lucy know about these cases? What is the truth--how much of it is she willing to reveal--and to what consequences? In To Tell You the Truth, Gilly Macmillan has written yet another masterful tale of domestic suspense with mysterious and sinister undertones that draw readers into a powerful web of secrets and betrayals delivered by an unreliable narrator.

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog.  It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

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 am featuring a current read, Three Single Wives by Gina LaManna.  Today is the book's official publication date!!

The excerpt shared is from an eBook I received from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

 

Beginning:  Prologue

The Day Before

February 13, 2019

 

"More wine?"  Eliza Tate raised a bottle of vintage merlot by the neck and gave it a tantalizing wiggle.  When no one spoke, she lifted one dainty shoulder in a nonchalant shrug.  "Well, I'm having another glass.  I've earned it."

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

The lives of three friends are forever changed after the murder of someone close to them.  Is one of them responsible for the crime?  And if so, which one?  They are all hiding secrets about the victim that make them prime suspects.  

Three Single Wives is a fast-paced domestic thriller with intertwined relationships that makes it a real page-turner.

 

 

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog.  It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph and Teaser Tuesday

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.

Teaser Tuesday hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, where bloggers post two teaser sentences (no spoilers allowed) from a random page of their current read. 

Today I'm featuring The Dilemma by B.A. Paris, a book I finished this week.  The excerpts shared are from an eBook I received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Book Beginning:  Sunday, June 9 3:30 A.M. Livia

It's the cooling bathwater that wakes me.  Disorientated, I sit up quickly, sploshing suds up the sides, wondering how long I've been asleep.  I release the plug and the drain gurgles, a too-loud sound in a silent house.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Teaser:  I don't want to think about them today of all days but I can't help it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

Livia and Adam Harman are a fairly typical married couple.  Although they married very young, they have managed to navigate the rocky times thus far, and have raised two children who are now in college.  As Livia's long-planned fortieth birthday party is about to begin, the celebration is overshadowed by momentous events yet to be revealed.  Both Livia and Adam are aware of devastating news they must share with each other--but how and when--will they divulge information that will ultimately shatter their happiness and change their lives forever? 

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph and Teaser Tuesday post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                      

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, is where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon. 

Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, The Other Mrs. Miller, a domestic thriller by Allison Dickson. The excerpt shared is from an advanced reader copy given to me by the publisher. 

 

Part I

MRS. MILLER

 

The blue car is there again this morning.  It's parked just down the block, never in the same spot twice, but always within easy view of Phoebe's peering eyes.  The older Ford Focus, with its rusted fenders and a cracked windshield that makes seeing the driver almost impossible, even with powerful binoculars, would go unnoticed almost anywhere else in Chicago.  But on a quiet Lake Forest street, where a three-year-old Land Rover seems ancient, it sticks out like a rotting incisor in a set of bleached teeth.  The only clue to the driver's identity is a magnet on the front passenger door that says Executive Courier Services, but she has yet to see any delivery take place.

 

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

The opening paragraph makes me want to continue reading.  I want to know:  Who is in the car?  Why does the person return every day?  Is the narrator really using powerful binoculars to observe the comings and goings on the block?  I admit to being interested when I see an unknown car on my street, but I usually offer just a cursory glance as I take note of it.  But binoculars?  Really?

 

 

 

 

 

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. Sharing this original post on Twitter with appropriate recognition is appreciated.