All Books Considered

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...

The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang Blurb from Goodreads : Joan Liang’s life is a series of surprising developments: She never thought she would leave Taiwan for California nor did she expect her first marriage to implode—especially as quickly and spectacularly as it did. She definitely did not expect to fall in love with and marry an older, wealthy American and have children with him. Through all this she wrestles with one persistent question: Will she ever feel truly satisfied? As Joan and her children grow older and their circumstances evolve, she makes a drastic change by opening the Satisfaction Café, a place where people can visit for a bit of conversation and to be heard and understood. Through this radical yet pragmatic business, Joan constructs a lasting legacy. My Review: I've enjoyed this author's previous novels and her latest is my favorite (so far!).  If you are looking for a lot of action, t...

The Dirty Version by Turner Gable Kahn Blurb from Goodreads : Heat rises and sparks fly when a surf-town author and an intimacy coordinator are thrown together to write new, steamy sex scenes for a TV series based on her hit novel in this deliciously fun debut romance. Tash was thrilled when the dramatic rights to her surprise-hit feminist novel were snapped up by an indie film studio. But no one warned her that a Hollywood shuffle could land her smart, literary epic in the hands of a huge action-movie franchise director more famous for his machismo than his artistry. And now this big shot director wants “the dirty version” of her book, demanding Tash transform the strong, complex female warriors she created into eye candy. Despite her best efforts to stall, the studio assigns Tash to its golden-boy intimacy coordinator to help her add spice to the ...

History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook Blurb from Goodreads : A college history professor must solve her superstar colleague's murder before she becomes the next target in this funny, romantic debut mystery, perfect for readers of Janet Evanovich, Kellye Garrett, and Ali Hazelwood. As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, working on her next academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until Sam Taylor dies. The rising star of Harrison University’s anthropology department was never one of Daphne’s favorites, despite his popularity. But that doesn’t prevent Sam’s killer from believing Daphne has something that belonged to Sam—something the killer will stop at nothing to get. Between grading papers and navigating her disastrous love life, Daphne embarks on her own investigation to find ...

Port Anna by Libby Buck Blurb from Goodreads : Just about everything has gone wrong for Gwen Gilmore over the past year. She’s lost her mother, her teaching job, and been dumped by her—albeit not that great—long-term boyfriend. Adrift and out of options, she packs her life into her barely functioning car and makes the lonely drive north, to the only place she can think of her family’s aging cottage on the Maine coast, Periwinkle, which she’s recently inherited. The cottage and Port Anna, the foggy Maine town of Gwen’s childhood, are unchanged in many ways. For Gwen, they are full of the ghosts of her past—boyfriends, forgotten creative dreams, and painful memories of a sister lost too young. Periwinkle is also home to some more literal The Misses, friendly spirits who have long watched over the cottage, but who now seem strangely unsettled, slamming...

Square Waves by Alexandra Romanoff Blurb from Goodreads : From 831 Stories, the highly anticipated next book in the Big Fan series by Alexandra Romanoff, an enemies-to-lovers romance in which tabloid fodder mixes with a long-brewing rivalry. Cassidy is done moving through her life as the headline-making other woman. She’s paid for what she did as a young campaign intern in spades. After five years of working on anti-bullying initiatives in D.C., she returns to her hometown, Berkeley, to recalibrate—and she quickly falls into bed with her high-school nemesis Leon, the slacker to her try-hard. It’s just a one-night thing. That is, until they both find themselves helping their mutual friend Willa open her new ceramics studio and Cassidy sees Leon in a new light. If everyone’s misjudged her, is there a chance she’s underestimated him, too?   I absol...

Eliza and the Duke by Harper St. George Blurb from Goodreads : American heiress Eliza Dove was resigned to a polite marriage of convenience...until she spent one wicked night with the Duke. All hopeless romantic Eliza Dove asked for was one night of adventure. One glorious evening of freedom to explore the dark corners of London with a mysterious stranger before a lifetime trapped in a quiet, respectable marriage of convenience. Except now she wants more. Now she wants him. Simon Cavell is no gentleman. Known only as ‘the Duke,’ Whitechapel’s prize boxer is one fight away from achieving his goal: to safeguard his late sister’s only treasure and leave the streets for good. He cannot allow some pretty young heiress to spill his secrets, no matter how tempting she might be. In return for her silence, Simon will give Eliza a taste of the darkness…and ho...

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates Blurb from Goodreads : Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be. A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the r...