Can't-Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tessa at Wishful Endings which spotlights and discusses forthcoming books that bloggers are looking forward to reading. Generally it's about books that haven't been released yet. This meme is based on Waiting on Wednesday, formerly hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.  

There are so many exciting new books on the horizon, so without further ado, this week's Can't Wait For book is . . .

 

Publisher:  Gallery/Scout Press

Publication Date:  May 29, 2018

From Goodreads:  From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game comes Ruth Ware’s highly anticipated fourth novel.

On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.

Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

My thoughts:  I was totally consumed by the author's first two novels, In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10.  Ware is a captivating storyteller, and my plan is to read The Lying Game before this latest novel is published and then dive into the new release.

This Can't-Wait Wednesday post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing this original post on Google+ are appreciated.
 

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, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.  

Today I'm featuring This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber.  It's historical fiction and the first book in the Verity Kent Mystery Series.  The excerpt shared is from a trade paperback edition borrowed from the library.  Book #2, Treacherous is the Night  will be published in September 2018.

 

Chapter 1

You might question whether this is all

a ruse, whether I truly have anything

to reveal.  But I know what kind of work

you really did during the war.  I know

the secrets you hide.  Why shouldn't I

also know your husband's?

June 1919

England

They say when you believe you're about to die your entire life passes before your eyes in a flurry of poignant images, but all I could think of, rather absurdly, was that I should have worn the blue hat.  Well, that and that my sister would never forgive me for proving our mother right.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

I like the narrator's voice--she sounds equal parts adventurous, witty, and stiff-upper-lip wartime British.

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original post on Google+ are appreciated.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & 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 The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition I borrowed from the library.

 

Beginning:  Prologue

The cat under the front porch was at it again.  Scratching at the slab of wood that echoed through the hardwood floors of my bedroom.  Sharpening its claws, marking its territory—relentless in the dead of night.

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

Page 56: "It was a harmless habit, she'd claimed, and I rarely called her on it."

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

My thoughts:  The image of the cat seems like a glaring omen to me.  It makes me want to dive right into the rest of the story.

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

From Goodreads:  In the masterful follow-up to the New York Times bestseller All the Missing Girls—“think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl” (TheSkimm)—a journalist sets out to find a missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all.

Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.

Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.

Everyone in this rural Pennsylvanian town has something to hide—including Leah herself. How do you uncover the truth when you are busy hiding your own?

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

This Friday Focus post was originally written and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original post on Google+ are appreciated. 

Can't-Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tessa at Wishful Endings which spotlights and discusses forthcoming books that bloggers are looking forward to reading. Generally it's about books that haven't been released yet. This meme is based on Waiting on Wednesday, formerly hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This is the first time I'm adding a post to Wishful Endings, although I was a frequent past participant of Waiting on Wednesday.  It's good to have found a new Wednesday landing place to highlight the soon-to-be published books that I'm anxiously waiting for.

This week's I Can't Wait For book is . . .

   

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Publication Date:  June 19, 2018

From Goodreads:  A young British couple are driving through France on holiday when they stop for gas. He runs in to pay, she stays in the car. When he returns her car door has been left open, but she's not inside. No one ever sees her again.

Ten years later he's engaged to be married; he's happy, and his past is only a tiny part his life now. Until he comes home from work and finds his new wife-to-be is sitting on their sofa. She's turning something over in her fingers, holding it up to the light. Something that would have no worth to anyone else, something only he and she would know about because his wife is the sister of his missing first love.

As more and more questions are raised, their marriage becomes strained. Has his first love somehow come back to him after all this time? Or is the person who took her playing games with his mind?

My thoughts:  I have read--and been riveted by--B.A. Paris's prior novels, Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown.  Paris's gripping fiction places her in the category of first-rate master of the psychological thriller genre, and she has become a favorite author of mine.

This Can't-Wait Wednesday post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing this original post on Google+ are appreciated.

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, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.  

Today I'm featuring Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney.  I'm currently listening to the audio version, which I got when I visited the Macmillan booth last month in the Exhibit Hall at the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia.  The print book is published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan; the audio is produced by Macmillan Audio.

I'm sharing a tantalizing excerpt that is sure to grab your attention . . .

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.


What do you think?  Would you continue reading (or listening)?
How can a reader or listener resist those lines?  I'm finding it to be a thrilling listening experience, with the back story being revealed slowly in alternating chapters with the present day.  And the narrator's British accent is spot on for the storyline.

Have you read or listened to this title?  If so, I'm interested in knowing what you thought about it.


This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original post on Google+ are appreciated.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & 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 The French Girl, a debut novel by Lexie Elliott.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition I borrowed from the library.

 

Beginning:  Looking back, the most striking thing is that she knew I didn't like her and she didn't care.  That type of self-possession at the tender age of nineteen--well, it's unnatural.  Or French.  She was very, very French.

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

Page 56:  "I suspect Lara's definition of careful won't match mine."

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

My thoughts:  I am looking forward to starting this novel, which has elements I find enticing:  a French setting, college friends, a mysterious disappearance, and a body found ten years later.

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

From Goodreads:  They were six university students from Oxford--friends and sometimes more than friends--spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway--until they met Severine, the girl next door.

For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive, and there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.

Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.

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

 
This Friday Focus post was originally written and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original post on Google+ are appreciated.  

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, 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, Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser.  The excerpt is from a hardcover edition purchased from Book of the Month club
.

  

Ever wonder what your friends really think of you?

I take a lot of care in my appearance, for instance.  I'm a small-town doctor's wife, so I need to look the part--even if I don't feel the part.  And I have twins enrolled in pre-K at a charter school so obsessed with freethinking it will shove free thoughts down your throat.  So I make sure it's obvious to everyone there what happy, healthy, cherished little people my kids are.  I never forget to dress them in their pajamas for pajama day.  I always sign up to bring the most elaborate snacks to the class parties.  I help other moms in the parking lot when their pumpkin seats jam or their strollers collapse.  I make a point of knowing all their names.

You probably think I care a lot about what my friends think.

I don't.

None of this charade is for them.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

The narrator shares quite a bit of information in the opening paragraphs, and has me wondering what makes her tick.  All seems perfect on the surface, but I get the feeling that things are really far from it once you take a closer look.

There's a considerable amount of buzz for this book, which makes me eager to start it.

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.