All Books Considered

This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs Blurb from Goodreads : Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song—written by world-famous superstar Jonesy—but Jane hasn’t had a breakout since. Now she's living out of four garbage bags at her parents’ house, reduced to performing to Karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Rock bottom. But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she’s seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight—the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it’s not Jane’s past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy's earlier hit, and into the light of her own? In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, This Bird Has Flown explores love,...

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth,  Narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry Blurb from Goodreads : There’s a cottage on a cliff. Gabe and Pippa’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Night after night Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge. Until he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral... Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate . . . lie? As the perfect facade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel.   This wasn't my favorite by Sally Hepworth but it's still worth reading.  I was hoping for a bigger twist but it was a bit predictable.  I still...

Not Here to Stay Friends by Kaitlyn Hill Blurb from Goodreads : This friends-to-lovers spin on The Bachelor follows two childhood besties reuniting to spend the summer in L.A. after five years apart—but when they both get involved with a teen reality dating show, their lives take an unexpected turn for the unreal. Sloane McKinney feels like a background character in her own life. But this summer will be different, because she’s spending it with her childhood best friend, Liam Daniels, in her dream city, Los Angeles. Sure, she’s surprised to find that Liam just happens to have had a Hot Guy glow-up since she last saw him, but so what? A little attraction won’t ruin her plans for their fun—and completely platonic—reunion. What might, however, is that Liam has been roped into working for his producer dad’s new teen reality dating show, Aspen Woods’s Fu...

Even When You Lie by Michelle Cruz Blurb from Goodreads : Reagan Reyes hunts other people’s secrets. A former intelligence officer, she’s currently an in-house investigator for pricey uptown criminal defense attorney Cade McCarrick. The firm forbids in-house romances, but Reagan and Cade are firmly hooked up. Their love—and their agreement never to lie to each other—is the only truth they have in their world of subterfuge and betrayal. That agreement is quickly broken when a mysterious woman leaves an envelope for Cade and is soon discovered dead. The envelope’s contents aren’t connected to any of Cade’s current cases, but Reagan discovers a connection to a brutal crime that happened outside a nightclub—and an even more ominous link to the dead woman. This is a case that goes way beyond the cops. As she digs deeper into Dallas's sordid underbell...

A Novel Proposal by Denise Hunter Blurb from Goodreads : When western novelist Sadie Goodwin must pen a romance novel to rescue her lackluster sales, there's only one tiny problem: she's never been in love. Desperate to salvage her career, Sadie accepts an invitation to hole up at her friend's beach duplex for the summer and devote herself to this confounding genre. After all, where better to witness love than on the beautiful South Carolina shore? But Sadie soon finds many ways to procrastinate the dreaded task--like getting to know the beach regulars and installing a Little Free Library on the property. She even attempts conversation with Sam Ford, the frustratingly stubborn neighbor on the other side of the duplex. But things take an unexpected turn when Sadie finds inside her library an abandoned novel with a secret compartment--and a beautiful engage­ment ring tucke...

Künstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine Blurb from Goodreads : Julian Künstler comes from New York City to L.A. like many a lost twenty-something: to find a job writing in the entertainment industry. But this is 2020 and his temporary visit turns into an extended stay, trapped by the lockdown in a little house in Venice with his glamorous, eccentric, and ancient grandmother. Ninety-three-years old, Mamie came to Los Angeles from Vienna at eleven with her parents in 1939 among a wave of Jewish musicians, directors, and intellectuals escaping Hitler. As the months roll on, she begins to tell Julian her stories of the eminent emigres she’s known and the magical world they inhabited as their old world was destroyed—people like Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, and Greta Garbo. Not quite all her stories, however. The pandemic isolates Julian fro...

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth Mckenzie Blurb from Goodreads : Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over, and she's quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally imbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother, Dr. Pincer, keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what's possible when all else fails. The Dog of the North follows Penny on her quest for a fresh start. There will be a road trip in an old van with gingham curtains, a piñata, and stiff brakes. There will be injury and peril. There will be a dog named "Kweecoats" and two brothers who may share a toupée. There will be questions: Why is a detective investigating her grandmother, and what is "the scintillator"? And can Penny recognize a good thing when it finally comes her way? This slyly humorous, thoroughly winsome novel...

Goodnight From Paris by Jane Healey Blurb from Goodreads : In Nazi-occupied France, an American film star takes on the most dangerous role of her life in a gripping novel about loyalty and resistance, inspired by a true story, from the Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Secret Stealers. Paris, 1939. Hollywood actress Drue Leyton, married to Frenchman Jacques Tartière, lives as an expatriate in love. But when her husband is dispatched to Brittany to work as a liaison for the British military, Drue finds herself alone with her housekeeper, adrift and heartsick in her adopted city. With her career and fame forty-five hundred miles away, Drue accepts an opportunity that will change her life forever. Befriended by seasoned wartime journalist Dorothy Thompson and urged on by political operative Jean Fraysse, Drue broadcasts radio ...