Jersey Girl Book Reviews

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Weekly Book Mail: 6/5-11/2022

This Week's Book Mail

June - Literati Book Club

May - Authentic Books

June - Books & Treasures

May - Once Upon A Book Club

Monday, June 6, 2022

Home To Cypress Bayou by Susan Sands (Book Review)

Home To Cypress Bayou by Susan Sands

Book 1: The Louisiana Series

Publisher: Tule Publishing

Publication Date: May 31, 2022

Format: Paperback - 298 pages

Kindle - 4539 KB

Nook - 593 KB

ISBN: 978-1956387810
ASIN: B09DRB41TZ
BNID: 2940162407898

Genre: Southern Women's Fiction

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Buy The Series: The Louisiana Series

Book 1: Home To Cypress Bayou

Book 2: Secrets In Cypress Bayou (Pub Date: Aug 2022)

Book 3: A Bayou Christmas (Pub Date: Nov 2022)

Amazon

Book Description:

It’s not true that you can’t go home again, but do you want to?

Paris gallery owner Leah Bertrand returns to her historic, moss-draped Louisiana hometown to fulfill a deathbed promise to her friend and mentor. She’s been matched as a bone marrow donor to a stranger, yet the match is so close that doctors suspect a family relationship. But how? Leah’s family has always seethed with drama, but this visit home promises secrets as deep, dark, and mysterious as the water in Cypress Bayou. And then her ex arrives, and Leah realizes the feelings and secrets she buried years ago have come back to haunt her.

Dr. Jake Carmichael returns to Cypress Bayou after years away and is shocked to see Leah, his childhood sweetheart and first love, back in town and on his patient roster. The sparks still burn, but when he tries to discuss what went wrong and perhaps rebuild their relationship, Leah refuses.

Jake’s not ready to give up on their future together. But Leah fears she has even more to lose this time…

Book Excerpt: https://a.co/1MpXkHO

My Book Review:

In Home To Cypress Bayou, the first book in The Louisiana Series, author Susan Sands weaves a wonderful Southern Women's Fiction story of letting go of the past, coming home, moving forward, and second chances.

Leah Bertrand is the owner of La Toile art gallery in Paris. She inherited the art gallery from her boss, Alaine, who passed away from blood cancer. After Alaine's death, she signed up for the bone marrow registry. She received a call from the bone marrow registry, and is told that she is a match for a bone marrow donation in Louisiana. It's been two years since she's gone home to Cypress Bayou, Louisiana, and this visit home is sure to be stressful between family drama, an ex-boyfriend, and the bone marrow donation procedure.

Dr. Jake Carmichael is an infectious disease specialist who travels throughout Louisiana to different hospitals with his team to handle challenging cases. Jake recently decided to come back home to Cypress Bayou and put down roots, but there is one thing missing in his life, his ex-girlfriend Leah, and when he hears that she is coming home to be a bone marrow donor, he has mixed emotions about seeing her again.

Set in Cypress Bayou, Louisiana, the reader follows Leah and Jake's story as their shared past filled with hidden secrets, omissions, and internal struggles resurface with their unexpected reunion. The chemistry between Leah and Jake is still undeniable, but can they overcome the past and find their way back to each other? And if that isn't enough, Leah has to deal with mama drama and a deep family secret revolving around the bone marrow recipient that makes Leah's visit home that much more intense.

As a fan of Southern Women's Fiction, Home To Cypress Bayou is a beautifully written story that is filled with an abundance of Southern charm, hospitality, wit, drama, humor, and romance, that left me smiling and pleasantly satisfied. I really enjoyed following Leah and Jake's story. I was intrigued by the mystery behind the secret of who the bone marrow recipient is to Leah's family, and when you add in the emotional baggage and still undeniable love between Leah and Jake, there was no denying that this story easily kept me engaged and turning the pages. I loved the connection and witty banter between Leah and Jake; the rich description and essence of the southern town settings of Cypress Bayou and New Orleans; a host of engaging secondary characters; and all the drama, intrigue, and romance that easily made Home To Cypress Bayou an enjoyable story that left me wanting more.

I look forward to reading Secrets In Cypress Bayou, the second book in The Louisiana Series.

RATING: 5 STARS

About The Author

A self-described late bloomer, Susan Sands began writing her first novel at age forty. She compares her challenging journey to publication as “raising another child—a difficult one.”

Susan has published five southern, contemporary women’s fiction novels set in Alabama. She describes her humorous small-town stories as fun, romantic, and filled with big family love. Susan also writes authentic place-as-a-character southern fiction with a humorous voice in addition to her Alabama series.

Susan has three grown children and lives with her dentist husband in Roswell, GA. She has a degree in elementary education, is a member of the Georgia Romance Writers, the Romance Writers of America, the Atlanta Writer’s Club, Womens Fiction Writers of America (WFWA), and the Broadleaf Writers Association. She participates in book festivals, book clubs, and writer’s conferences around the South. Susan is the recipient of the 2017 Georgia Author of the Year award for romance.

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Saturday, June 4, 2022

Weekly Book Mail: 5/29-6/4/2022

This Week's Book Mail

June - Bookcase Club

June - Harlequin Love Inspired Romance & Suspense Collection

May - Down The Rabbit Hole Book Box

May - Once Upon A Book Club - YA Book Box

June - Book Of The Month Club

Friday, June 3, 2022

What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong (VBT: Book Review / Contest Giveaway)

Book Review

What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong

Publisher: Seventh Street Books

Publication Date: May 17, 2022

Format: Paperback - 286 pages

Kindle - 530 KB

Nook - 681 KB

ISBN: 978-1645060406
ASIN: B09JPKJT9S
BNID: 978-1645060413

Genre: Psychological Thriller / Domestic Thriller

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

Book Decsription:

A picture-perfect suburban life fractures. . . and a darker reality bubbles beneath the surface.

Mona Ellison’s life is as perfect as the porcelain dolls lined up on her shelves. She has a successful husband, a loving son, a beautiful home, and a supportive group of girlfriends ever ready for their weekly wine night.

But when Mona’s son gets entangled with the wrong crowd and runs away from home, her blissful suburban world begins to unravel. She tells her friends that boys will be boys, that he’ll be back as soon as his money runs dry . . . but deep down she knows there’s something else going on.

Then the police show up at Mona’s door. A young girl has turned up dead in their quiet town, and her missing son is the prime suspect.

Determined to reunite with her son and prove his innocence, Mona follows an increasingly cryptic trail of clues on social media, uncovering a sinister side of suburbia and unveiling lies and betrayal from those she trusted most. And as Mona spirals further from her once cozy reality, a devastating revelation shatters everything she thought she knew. Now the only thing she’s sure of is that she can’t trust anyone . . . not even herself.

With unrelenting psychological suspense and a wicked twist, What They Don’t Know marries small-town thriller and domestic mystery—suburban paranoia at its best.

Praise For - What They Don’t Know:

“Part domestic thriller, part small-town mystery, What They Don’t Know is everything suspense fans want: characters who’ll make you think twice, a subversive plot, and pages that seemingly turn themselves the deeper you get into the story. In this portrait of suburban life tinged with malice and intrigue, paranoia lurks just around the corner. Read it at night. Don’t plan on sleep.” (Tosca Lee, NYT bestselling author of The Line Between)

Book Excerpt:

It was the last Tuesday of the month, our normal book club night, and we were gathered at my house—Selma, Alice, Tara, and me—settled in the living room, Moroccan rug plush beneath us, immersed in the decor’s eclectic mix of whimsy and Old-World aesthetic. This would be our last book club meeting, but it was more than that, really. It was a pulled thread in the carefully woven tapestry of our friendships that had begun in college and endured careers, weddings, our first-borns, and remained constant through affairs, divorces, and much worse …

***

My Book Review:

In What They Don't Know, author Susan Furlong weaves a riveting domestic psychological thriller that will captivate the reader's attention from beginning to end.

The reader follows the story of Mona Ellison, a fifty-two year old married woman who had the perfect life: husband Ben, a successful child psychiatrist, and Gus, their eighteen year-old son. But all isn't what it seems in the Ellison household: Gus has run away and is a person of interest in the murder of seventeen year-old homeless girl named Mia Jones. Mona is determined to find Gus and prove his innocence, but there is a darker side that simmers underneath the surface, and Mona spirals dangerously down the black hole of madness, barely holding on but determined to seek the truth at all costs.

What They Don't Know is a slow-building, multi-layered, gripping, and complex story set in Belington, Illinois, that has a great mixture of intrigue, secrets, deceit, manipulation, paranoia, dark pasts, suspenseful twists and turns, and enough tension and drama that will keep the reader thoroughly engaged and riveted until the surprising conclusion.

You can't help but feel for Mona, and worry if she is unstable and spiraling down the black hole towards a mental breakdown as she searches for Gus and the truth. And if you think that's bad, just add in the creepy obsession with her Madame Alexander doll collection, her paranoia with her husband and friends, and this story will keep you turning the pages and wondering what will eventually happen, because it isn't what it seems!

You can't help but feel Mona's angst as you follow her traumatic story. As you turn the pages of this very harrowing and dark story, the intensity of the story grows until the unexpected surprise ending that will simply leave you stunned and at a loss for words.

RATING: 4 STARS

About The Author

Susan Furlong is the author of eleven novels including Shattered Justice, a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year. She also contributes, under a pen name, to the New York Times bestselling Novel Idea series. Her most recent novel, What They Don't Know, has been praised by reviewers as an engrossing and delightfully creepy read. She resides in Illinois with her husband and children.

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Win A $20 Amazon Gift Card

This is a giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Tours for What They Don’t Know by Susan Furlong. See the widget for entry terms and conditions. Void where prohibited.

Virtual Book Tour

What They Don't Know by Susan Furlong ~ VBT Event Page Link

Tour Participants:

05/09 Review @ Lynchburg Reads

05/09 Showcase @ Silver’s Reviews

05/10 Interview @ Novels Alive

05/10 Review @ flightnurse70_book_reviews

05/10 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea

05/11 Review @ Wall-to-wall Books

05/11 Showcase @ 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS

05/11 Showcase @ The Authors Harbor

05/12 Review @ The Mystery of Writing

05/12 Showcase @ I Read What You Write

05/13 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader

05/13 Review @ Kritters Ramblings

05/14 Review @ Review Thick And Thin

05/15 Interview @ Mythical Books

05/15 Showcase @ Brooke Blogs

05/16 Review @ rozierreadsandwine

05/17 Review @ pages_and_pups

05/18 Review @ Cover To Cover Cafe

05/19 Showcase @ The Bookwyrm

05/20 Review @ The world as I see it

05/21 Review @ Reading Is My SuperpPower

05/22 Review @ @ mokwip8991

05/23 Review @ Book Reviews & More by Kathy

05/24 Showcase @ Nesies Place

05/25 Review @ Nanasbookreviews

05/26 Review @ Quiet Fury Books

05/27 Interview @ CMash Reads

05/28 Review @ read_betweenthecovers

05/29 Review @ 5 Minutes for Books

05/30 Review @ Celticladys Reviews

05/31 Review @ erikalaceyreads

06/01 Review @ One More Book To Read

06/02 Showcase @ Books Blog

06/02 Showcase @ Geauxgetlit

06/02 Showcase @ Storied Conversation

06/03 Review @ Jersey Girl Book Reviews

06/03 Review @ Melissa As Blog

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Dead Man's Leap by Tina deBellegarde (VBT: Book Review / Contest Giveaway)

Book Review

Dead Man's Leap by Tina deBellegarde

Book 2: Batavia-On-Hudson Mystery Series

Publisher: Level Best Books

Publication Date: April 5, 2022

Format: Paperback - 286 pages

Kindle - 5884 KB

Nook - 7 MB

ISBN: 978-1685120849

ASIN: B09QXTMCR2

BNID: 978-1685120856

Genre: Mystery

Buy The Book:

Amazon

Buy The Series: Batavia-On-Hudson Mystery Series

Book 1: Winter Witness

Book 2: Dead Man's Leap

Amazon

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest book review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

Book Description:

Dead Man's Leap revisits Bianca St. Denis in Batavia-on-Hudson, New York

Rushing waters…dead bodies…secrets…

As Bianca St. Denis and her neighbors scour their attics for donations to the charity rummage sale, they unearth secrets as well as prized possessions. Leonard Marshall’s historic inn hosts the sale each year, but it is his basement that houses the key to his past. When an enigmatic antiques dealer arrives in town, he upends Leonard’s carefully reconstructed life with an impossible choice that harkens back to the past.

Meanwhile, when a storm forces the villagers of Batavia-on-Hudson to seek shelter, the river rises and so do tempers. Close quarters fuel simmering disputes, and Sheriff Mike Riley has his work cut out for him. When the floods wash up a corpse, Bianca once again finds herself teaming up with Sheriff Riley to solve a mystery. Are they investigating an accidental drowning or something more nefarious?

Dead Man’s Leap explores the burden of secrets, the relief of renunciation, and the danger of believing we can outpace our past.

Book Excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE

He inched toward the precipice, his toes gripping the stone ledge as if they had a will of their own. He lifted his head and squinted into the sunlight still streaming through the blackening clouds. He took in the expanse of rushing water below. In all his eighteen years, Trevor had never seen the creek roil so ferociously.

A clap of thunder startled him. His toes relaxed, and he felt as if the slightest wind could take him over the edge. Lightheaded for a second, he regained his footing and his purpose.

He had no choice if he wanted all this to stop.

He needed to do it.

And do it now.

The downpour would break again soon. But for now, all he could hear was the rushing of Horseshoe Falls beneath him, the roar drowning out the noise of his past.

Of his father.

Of his mother.

Yes, his mother. He had expected his father to be weak, and wasn’t surprised at all after he left. But his mother? A mother’s love is supposed to be unconditional. At least that’s what she had always said before she had turned their world upside down. It was bad enough when she had played at being the sexiest woman in town. At least when his friends teased him then, it was meant to be fun. But this was worse, far worse. Now they wanted nothing to do with him. Now they used him as a punching bag.

His gang no longer looked to him as their leader. They ridiculed him for what his mother had done. From the beginning, he knew those kids were bad news. What choice did he have? In grade school he’d been bullied. Well, he had put a stop to that in high school. Can’t be bullied if you’re the biggest bully.

His mother was gone. His father was gone. And now his posse. First, it was the cold shoulder, and a few snide remarks. Then he was cornered in the locker room after the game one day. That was the hardest. He hadn’t taken a beating like that since the fifth grade. But the tables had been turned on him so fast that he never saw it coming. Trevor realized now that they were never friends. They were just a group of trouble makers who hung out together. Good riddance to them. He didn’t need them anymore.

Another thunderclap reminded him where he was. On the edge. Right on the edge. He either had to do this properly or he would be going over anyway.

Trevor looked over his shoulder one last time and heard a faint commotion in the background. Once they rounded the path, he closed his eyes and jumped.

* * *

Bianca St. Denis stretched to grab the cord just out of reach above her head and yanked on it with all her force to bring down the attic staircase. She tilted her head to avoid being struck as it made its way down. She unfolded the retractable stairs and put one foot on the first rung. But there she stopped, not sure she could take the next few steps. At forty-two the issue wasn’t her physical ability to climb the steps, she was active, even fairly athletic. The old saying went “the mind was willing but the body was not.” Well, in her case “the body was willing but the mind was not.”

She had stayed out of the attic all these months since Richard’s death. She had made do without her ski parka this past winter, and used Richard’s barn jacket she’d found in the mudroom instead. She had made do without the spring curtains she would normally switch out in the living room each March. The winter ones still hung heavy and foreboding. And she made do without the patio cushions she had sewn two seasons ago. She simply sat on the raw wood when she wanted to read or eat in the backyard. She hadn’t realized the number of things she had been doing without by avoiding the attic, not until the town started buzzing about the rummage sale. She pretended it was because she hadn’t had time to search for the items, but she knew better.

She took her foot off the rung, bent and picked up the stairs again, refolded them, and let them float to the ceiling. The hatch closed with a neat click.

* * *

Once Trevor hit the water, his tension disappeared. He welcomed the release and let himself drop. Slowly he was pulled down into the chaos of the rushing water, but his mind had floated above it all. He didn’t feel a thing, he observed it instead. He watched as his body sank, as it swirled in the vortex of the overfull creek. He watched as his body escaped the current and floated peacefully in the murky water. And he watched as he gave in to full renunciation and allowed the water to decide what was to become of him.

His thoughts slowed, as muddy as the water surrounding him.

They slowed, but he could not make them disappear.

He had managed to avoid jumping off Dead Man’s Leap every summer, but this year he knew he couldn’t get away with it. They had already threatened to make sure he jumped this year. That was only part of what the summer had in store for him. Who could he turn to? His grandparents had no idea what he was going through. They always hid their heads in the sand anyway. There was nothing they could do for him. So, he had taken matters into his own hands.

He was shocked when his head broke the surface, and despite himself he gasped for air in enormous mouthfuls until he gagged. He bobbed there, undecided, until he finally attempted the few strides to reach the cove. It took him longer than he expected, like swimming in molasses. A cross between his fatigue, his indifference, and the strong current kept him from reaching the bank in the three strokes it would normally require. On his knees, he crawled out of the pull of rushing water and dropped on the shore.

* * *

Leonard Marshall picked up the package, the paper crinkling in his hand. He carefully unwrapped one layer, then another. Layer after layer until he held the smooth tiny statuette in his hand. He trembled, and smiled, attracted and repulsed at the same time. How could such a tiny thing hold so many emotions for him? So much power over him? It was so small he could cradle it in the palm of his hand. He closed his fingers around it. It disappeared. He opened them again, and there it was. With it came a flood of memories. Exhilarating. His heart raced with a quick pat, pat, pat.

The basement door creaked. He took in a breath.

Time slowed and his heart with it.

Thump……thump……thump.

The light clicked on.

Another creak. Above him a step, a pause, another step. The door ached on its hinges as it opened wider. The light flicked off. The door closed. The steps faded. He let out his breath.

* * *

Trevor had never experienced fatigue like this. He crawled onto shore in the shadow of the cliff and collapsed. He never expected to make it out of the water, and now that he had, he lay there drawing in large mouthfuls of air, as if his lungs would never get enough. He stayed there, staring up at the sky, watching the dark clouds shapeshift. The rain would be there any moment, and to his surprise, he welcomed it.

As his breathing relaxed, he realized that the pain he felt was a sharp object stabbing his back. He rolled over, removed it, and threw it off to the side. As he turned to lay back down, his blurry eyes focused on the object. It was a bone. A human bone? He scrambled onto his knees and slowly made his way over to it. He was repulsed and fascinated, but mostly he was frightened by the sight of a bone and what that could mean. What had happened here, right here in this cove?

In the distance, he heard their drunken voices again. He knelt and grabbed handfuls of dirt to cover the bone. He heard them approach the edge of the cliff.

“He came this way. I saw him jump.”

“He’s too chicken, he didn’t jump. But when I find him, he’ll jump alright. He’ll jump or I’ll send him flying.”

“He jumped, I tell ya. Leave him alone. You wanted him to jump, and he did. I saw him. Let it go, already.”

“Yeah, well if he jumped, where is he?”

“You think he’s still under? You think he hit his head like that kid a while back?”

“I’m telling you, he didn’t jump.”

“There’s nowhere else to go but down. Of course, he jumped.”

“I’m going in. If he did jump, we’ll find him down there. He’s probably hiding under the cliff.”

Trevor carefully picked his way out of the cove. Scraping up against the cliff as close as his body would allow, he followed the contours until he came out on the other side of the falls. With his last bit of strength, he climbed up the rocky trail alongside Horseshoe Falls.

***

My Book Review:

In Dead Man's Leap, book two of the Batavia-On-Hudson Mystery Series, author Tina deBellegarde transports the reader back to the tranquil Catskill Mountains lakeside village of Batavia-On-Hudson, New York, for an intriguing mystery story that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.

The Batavian villagers are gathering items for their annual charity rummage and auction event that will benefit the children's hospital. But when a storm hits, the villagers seek shelter from the rising flood water at the Community Center. In a small village where the villagers seem to know everything about each other, the village is also full of secrets hidden from the public eye. One never really knows what burdens each carries, what battles they are fighting, and that things are not always as they appear. Tensions grow among everyone sheltering at the center, the storm is taking its toll on them, putting them on edge. Especially when the flood waters wash up a corpse on the shores of Dead Man's Leap. Sheriff Mike Riley with the assistance of librarian and amateur sleuth Bianca St. Denis investigate a two decade old mystery that has been kept secret by some of the villagers, and maybe the storm has been a blessing in disguise that releases the villagers' burdens of past secrets.

Author Tina deBellegarde weaves a fast-paced and suspenseful tale that follows Sheriff Mike Riley and amateur sleuth Bianca St. Denis' investigation to uncover the truth behind the decades old mystery of the corpse found after the storm.

I loved reading this slow-building and action-packed story. I was kept intrigued by Mike and Bianca's investigation into the mystery of the corpse as they slowly put the pieces of the mystery puzzle together and uncovered the truth. The reader will be easily drawn into this richly descriptive plot that will keep them guessing as long hidden secrets, family dramas, a growing list of possible suspects, motives, and clues are uncovered. And if that's not enough, the storm also makes Bianca and Mike deal with personal issues of coming to grips with finally releasing the grief of her husband's death, and acknowledging his own crumbling marriage.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how much I loved reading snippets of the quirky villagers' individual secrets, and the richly vivid description of the tranquil lakeside village in the Catskills Mountains, that makes me want to take a roadtrip to the picturesque Hudson Valley region.

Dead Man's Leap has enough drama, tension, action, dark secrets, intrigue, and unexpected twists and turns that will take the reader on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.

RATING: 5 STARS

About The Author

Tina deBellegarde has been called “the Louise Penny of the Catskills.” Winter Witness, the first book in her Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery series, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel, a Silver Falchion Award and a Chanticleer Mystery and Mayhem Award. Her story “Tokyo Stranger” which appears in the Mystery Writers of America anthology When a Stranger Comes to Town edited by Michael Koryta has been nominated for a Derringer Award. Tina’s short fiction also appears in The Best New England Crime Stories anthologies. She is the vice-president of the Upper Hudson Chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Mystery Writers of America and Writers in Kyoto. She lives in Catskill, New York, with her husband Denis and their cat Shelby where they tend to their beehives, harvest shiitake mushrooms, and cultivate their vegetable garden. She winters in Florida and travels to Japan regularly to visit her son Alessandro.

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Paperback / eBook Copy of Dead Man's Leap