All Books Considered

The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks Blurb from Goodreads : Arthur Candlewick spends three days in a disused mine shaft with only his son’s drug stash, a book on the concept of ‘effective altruism’ and a bottle of medium-priced Bordeaux for company. When Arthur emerges, he has decided to sell the family timber business and give away his wealth to charity. His family think he has lost his mind. His university-bound daughter, Evangeline, wants to change the world but perhaps not at the cost of her own privileged life. His son, Emil, good at maths and not much else, becomes more distant than ever. And his wife, Yara, just wants the doctor to run another brain scan on her husband.   A book hasn't depressed me like this one did in a long time... it was just so sad.  It was not just a dysfunctional family but four very messed up people adrift...

The Lake Escape by Jamie Day,  Narrated by Lisa Larsen and Phoebe Strole Blurb from Goodreads : WILL THIS BE THE BEST WEEK OF THEIR LIVES... OR THE LAST? JULIA, DAVID, AND ERIKA grew up together spending summers at their idyllic Vermont lake homes for as long as they can remember. Now adults—with their own sullen teens, endless mortgages, and low-voltage sex lives—the three friends have amassed secrets over the years. This summer, David is eager to show off his newly renovated home—which now blocks his friends’ cherished lake views—and his much-younger girlfriend. He also, unwittingly, brings a nanny with a hidden agenda. What could possibly go wrong? When David’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes after a shouting match, Julia and Erika wonder just how well they know their lifelong friend. The lake harbors a harrowing two young women, with no kno...

Matchmaking for Psychopaths by Tasha Coryell Blurb from Goodreads : Alexandra grew up hungry. Hungry for food, hungry for safety, hungry for love. Which is why she's worked so hard to have it a beautiful home, a gorgeous doctor boyfriend, and an ambitious job matching individuals with... unconventional emotional responses. Sure, her clients may sit somewhere on the psychopathy scale. But they're not the dangerous, murderous kind. They're doctors, lawyers, teachers, and everyone deserves love. And that's exactly what Alex thinks she's found. Love. So she's floored when she arrives to her dinner with her boyfriend, expecting a ring in a little box, and instead finding her best friend sat at the table with him. They have news. They're together now. And apparently her birthday dinner is the best time to share the news. Suddenly,...

If You Love It, Let It Kill You by Hannah Pittard Blurb from Goodreads : A refreshingly irreverent novel about art, desire, domesticity, freedom, and the intricacies of the twenty-first-century female experience, by the acclaimed writer Hannah Pittard Divorced and childless by choice, Hana P. has built a cozy life in Lexington, Kentucky, teaching at the university, living with her boyfriend (a fellow academic) and helping raise his pre-teen daughter. Her sister’s sprawling family lives just across the street, and their long-divorced, deeply complicated parents have also recently moved to town. One day, Hana learns that an unflattering version of herself will appear prominently—and soon—in her ex-husband’s debut novel. For a week, her life continues largely unaffected by the news—she cooks, runs, teaches, entertains—but the morning after baking mac ’n’ cheese from scratch for her nephew’s sixth birthday, she wakes up ch...

The Blue Horse (Porter Beck #3) by Bruce Borgos Blurb from Goodreads : A controversial wild horse round-up in the high desert of Nevada results in two murders and too many suspects for Sheriff Porter Beck to deal with. A helicopter driving a controversial round-up of wild horses suddenly crashes and the pilot is found to have been shot. Then the person coordinating the round-up for the Bureau of Land Management is savagely murdered, buried up to her neck and then trampled to death by the very same wild horses. And there's no lack of suspects—with the wild horse advocacy group having sworn to protect the horse At Any Cost! Now the state and federal agencies are showing up looking for answers or at least a scapegoat. Sheriff Porter Beck has had better days. Porter Beck's new girlfriend, Detective Charlie Blue Horse, arrives to help with the investigation, which leads them to Canadian Lithium mining operation near...

Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams Blurb from Goodreads : 'In my life, there are things that have happened to me, and things that I have done, that have proven to be moments that have a clear before and an after. One of those moments, perhaps in some ways the biggest, was the day that I met Richard Aveling for the first time.' Charlie is twenty-three, single and the new publicity assistant at the independent London publishing house Winden & Shane. Richard Aveling is fifty-six, married and the author that has defined his generation. Charlie has long idolised the charming, illustrious writer, who also represents a link to her late mother, who loved his work. But as they embark on an illicit and all-consuming affair, Charlie is forced to hide the relationship from everyone she cares about. And when the success of Richard's latest book launche...

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean Blurb from Goodreads : Alice isn't like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents' approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over. Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge--an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for o...

Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman Blurb from Goodreads : In her small Montana hometown, Lauren Parker has assumed a few different roles: teenage hellraiser; sister of superstar Gabe Parker; and most recently, tragically widowed single mother. She’s never cared much about labels or what people thought about her, but dealing with her grief has slowly revealed that she’s become adrift in her own life. Then she meets the devilishly handsome actor Ben Walsh on the set of her brother’s new movie. They have instant chemistry, and Lauren realizes that it has been far too long since someone has really and truly seen her. Her rebellious spirit spurs her to dive headfirst into her desire, but when a sexy encounter becomes something more, Lauren finds herself balancing old roles and new possibilities. There’s still plenty to contend with: small-town ru...

Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft,  Narrated by Helen Laser and Will Collyer Blurb from Goodreads : Nola Strate, a late night call-in radio host in Portland, Oregon, listens to stories of hauntings and cryptic sightings for a living. But one foggy, wet evening, when a caller describes an eerie scene that triggers memories of Nola’s escape from a serial killer years before, she becomes fearfully aware that he’s back to finish what he started. Nola Strate is being watched, again. After an encounter with a notorious serial killer in the Pacific Northwest as a child, Nola has grown up and tried her best to forget her traumatizing night with The Hiding Man. She installed security cameras outside her Oregon home, never spoke of her experience, and now hosts Night Watch, a popular radio call-in show her semi‑famous father used to run. When coincidences lead Nola to believe that she is being stalked, and a caller on Nig...