First off I would like to thank Dutton for my hardcover copy. I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway. I hate to say this, but I hated absolutely everything about this book.   1/5.

I won a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for my copy. Who is this woman who hands her baby to a stranger before she jumps in front of a train?! Are they really strangers? This was a fast-paced, suspenseful page-turner. The characters were developed and I couldn't help but feel for them. I had this book sitting on the shelf for a few months and I'm really sorry I waited to read it. I spent every moment I could reading this, I could not get enough! 4/5.

Fiona Lawson has returned home to find strangers moving into her house. Fi and her estranged husband, Bram, have bird's nest custody - each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons in the prized family home to maintain stability for the children. Bram's not at the house, neither are the children, or any of their possessions. The house has been sold to a young couple but Fi did not agree to sell their house. This book was good right from the start. It has an interesting and unique premise where this coveted house on Trinity Avenue has been sold while Fi was away for a couple days. She knows absolutely nothing about what's going on. Her husband has been keeping things from her and everything ends up snowballing until every messy detail comes out. It's realistic, too, to have one thing happen after the other and before you know it you've dug yourself into a hole and you feel like it's too late to come out of it. This whole book is solid an...

Noah Marshall had been living a comfortable and privileged life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But he becomes worried and frustrated as her drinking increases. He comes home one night and she lets out bits and pieces of secrets she's been carrying around for years. She can't handle the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Noah's left with his grief and a note to find Grace Wilkes. Grace is living in a run-down trailer park in Arizona where no one cares that her father was a corrupt cop in Austin, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. She's struggling to get through each day, not knowing if she'll find her drug-addicted mother dead when she gets home from work. It takes some time after she finds Noah on her doorstep to trust him. Despite their differences they are searching for the answers to the same questions. Together they set out to uncover what dark secrets the Austin Police Department ...

The year was 1928. The Great War was over. America was optimistic. What better time to launch an expedition to Antarctica? Not a whole lot was known about the planet's final frontier. Almost everybody wanted to join Admiral Byrd on his journey, even the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts begged to be taken on as mess boys. Young Billy Gawronski was no different. The skinny New York City high-schooler begged his father to sign the paper to let him go, but it wasn't happening. Billy didn't want to go into the upholstery business with his father. So he did the only thing he could think of that might work - he jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard.  I would love to go to Antarctica. But not as much as Billy because there's no way I'd do what he did. I admired his tenacity. Nothing deterred this young man from getting what he so desperately wanted which was a place alongside Richard Byrd on his exciting and highly publicized expedition to Antarctica. This doesn't r...

Lily Michaels-Ryan is a highschooler with ADHD. When breaking something lands her in detention with Abelard, a beautiful and brilliant guy who has Asperger's, she can't help but feel intrigued. He seems thirty seconds behind in a conversation while she's thirty seconds ahead. When a paper gets posted online - one that never should have been posted in the first place - Lily and Abelard discover that they both love old novels, especially The Letters of Abelard of Heloise. The two fall for each other hard but their relationship isn't going to be an easy one.  Those black lines through the hearts got my attention. I was hooked from the very first page. The writing is so good - the whole book flowed smoothly, the characters were three-dimensional and they were interesting. We get a glimpse of what it's like for Lily being a teenager with ADHD. School is hard for her and nobody understands her. She feels like she's dragging her mother down. She has to make some tough ...

Karen and Tom Krupp are happily married, they live in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, Tom is a successful accountant. But one night when Tom comes home from work he notices Karen's car isn't in the driveway, the front door is unlocked, supper has been left on the counter waiting to be cooked. And no sign of Karen anywhere. She didn't even take her phone or her ID. When the police arrive on their doorstep Tom learns that his wife has been in an accident - she lost control of her car as she sped through a rough part of town. Karen is in the hospital with a concussion that leaves her with a pounding headache and no memory of what happened to her. The cops think that's convenient. They think she was up to something and doesn't want her husband to know.  There are lots of secrets and lies in this book. Trust no one. I couldn't wait to find out exactly what happened the night of Karen's accident. The writing itself isn't spectacular, but it's not awf...

The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family owned business that is home to four generations. Sitting on over thirty thousand acres it's kept busy by lots of vacationers and kept running by a large staff which includes big boss Bodine Longbow. Although the family is very close, Bodine's aunt Alice ran away before she was even born and never came back. She hasn't been heard from in over twenty-five years and she's not often talked about. No one ever imagined that she'd been close by for so long, kept prisoner in a basement, having unimaginable things happen to her. When one of the bartenders from the resort is found dead, it's the first sign that danger is close by. This is a big book! It took me a long time to get into it. It's mostly all about the ranch and resort - what goes on during work days with the horses and who is going to work where on whatever day. There's lots of cooking. I was confused the whole time (and still am) about who ...

Tom Hanks has written seventeen stories all of which have at least one typewriter in them. Sadly, for me, most of these stories were VERY boring. They're long and filled with nothing memorable. I loved the first story, "Three Exhausting Weeks" which is about friends who have known each other since high school who suddenly take things to the next level. I thought it was jam-packed with adventure and I did like the characters (who are in two other stories as well). And I liked "A Month on Greene Street" which is about a single mother and her three children moving into a new house and at first she thinks her neighbour is weird, desperate and unemployed and she does whatever she can to avoid him, but it turns out she was wrong about him. I found all the other stories extremely painful to get through and I'm so happy I'm done! I won an ARC through a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you to Knopf for my copy. 2/5.

Edwin Stith lives in Ithica, New York, where he is a college professor. He has returned home to Richmond, Virginia, for his mother's wedding to a man who's slightly older than Edwin himself. Edwin is an enigma. He has an ex-wife and he may or may not have killed her. He may or may not be sleeping with one of his students. He's about to have a stepsister and he may or may not have killed her.  I found this hard to get into and I think it's because Edwin actually talks to us, the readers, throughout the book. I did not like that. But once the story gets going it was hard for me to put the book down. Edwin's trip home lasts three days and those days are jam-packed with drama. There's a diverse bunch of characters and I enjoyed them all. I had no clue how it would end and I couldn't wait to find out. I was really surprised! Looking back on the book now that I've finished it I would say it's actually quite clever. I feel as though I've known Edwin for...

Charlotte is waiting for her flight back home to England after spending a semester in New York. Her boyfriend has just ended their relationship and now her flight is cancelled due to a blizzard. To make matters worse it's Christmas Eve. But she's not the only one having a bad day - Anthony, a native New Yorker, is surprising his girlfriend at the airport after spending three months apart. But it's him who's surprised when he gets dumped in the middle of the crowded airport. Anthony doesn't want to go home, and Charlotte isn't able to go home, so together they end up following the steps in a book found in the airport gift shop - Ten Easy Steps for Getting Over Your Ex - in the hopes that their broken hearts will be mended. This is a cute, short read. The story is predictable, of course, and I'm taking it for what it is which is just a fluffy, feel good read. But these two met not even 24 hours ago and they already love each other! Anthony was in a relations...

A notorious child abductor, known as the Marsh King, has just escaped from a maximum security prison and Helena immediately knows that she and her two young daughters are in danger. Helena is the Marsh King's daughter. She was born into captivity and didn't leave the cabin or the surrounding area until she was twelve.  I won this through a Goodreads giveaway and was so looking forward to reading it once I got my hands on it. But after reading about SO MANY dead animals and every excruciating detail about every little thing, especially the chapters about when she was a kid growing up in the wilderness, I had to set it aside. I would pick it up every now and then but it wasn't holding my attention and at a third of the way through I didn't care anymore. It was too tedious so I skimmed. While skimming I came across more dead animals and decided to just skip to the end, which came as no surprise to me.  1/5.

In four years Prime Space will put the first humans on Mars. Helen Kane, Yoshi Tanaka, and Sergei Kuznetsov are going to spend seventeen months in the most realistic simulation ever created in order to prove they're the crew for the job.  Helen is retired from NASA. This is her last chance to return to where she feels at home, where she can be her best self. Even if that means leaving her grown daughter behind.. again. Yoshi wants to prove himself worthy of his wife, even though he loves her completely but maybe he doesn't love her in the right way. (this is weird.) Sergei is going to Mars so he can be tested beyond the point of exhaustion. He wants to prove to his father and to himself that he is not meek. He wants to set a good example for his sons. Days turn into months and even though the astronauts are busy, the lives and people they left behind have a way of seeping into their minds. I was so excited when I won this. And I was so excited when I finished it. Sadl...

Maddy's husband, Brady, and their teenage daughter, Eve, are struggling with one nagging question since learning she committed suicide - why did she do it? Maddy seemed to have a great life. Her husband is successful, her teenage daughter is perfect. Maddy herself was thoughtful and good at giving advice. She believed in forgiveness and being nice to everyone. Brady is learning how he could've done things differently as is Eve, but it still doesn't make sense for Maddy to do something this drastic without any signs that something was wrong. However, Maddy hasn't completely left Brady and Eve. She is watching from beyond, trying to steer them in the right direction that will allow them to heal from the past and start anew. This is a beautifully written book. Each chapter has all three points-of-view: Maddy's, Brady's and Eve's. These characters are strong and real. They each have their own unique voice and opinions and I loved reading about each one. The whol...

Ivy Baygren loves her husband, Adam, and their bungalow that's in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Salt Lake City. She loves the quaint details and the rose bush called Emmeline Rose after one of the home's original inhabitants. When Adam would renovate their home and find treasures left behind from previous owners, he would call them "Easter Eggs" But Adam has unexpectedly died and it's up to Ivy to finish the home improvement projects they had planned. As she does so, she finds more Easter Eggs and uncovers clues about the women who have lived in the house throughout its one hundred years - the young Mormon torn between following her heart and her anti-polygamist beliefs, the Greek immigrant during World War II, a troubled single mother in the 1960's. As she learns about their lives, she also learns that there is a little sad in every story. The cover is beautiful. I loved the concept of the book and enjoyed learning about each of the five women connected...

Hattie Hoffman is a high school senior in a small town where nothing ever happens. Everyone is shocked when they learn she's been stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play. She was a good daughter, a good student, a good friend, a good actress. She was going to New York after graduation. Who could have done this? Del Goodman, local sheriff and family friend of the Hoffman's, vows to find out. When he starts investigating, he uncovers another side of Hattie virtually no one knew about. This is told from three points of view. Their stories are equally compelling. The timeline jumps around to give us Hattie's last months and the aftermath of her death. The writing was really good. I devoured the book, so it was fun to look back and realize the little clues I missed and see the cleverness that was sprinkled throughout the book.  I won a copy through Goodreads First Reads.

Izzy Stone is seventeen. Her mother fatally shot her father while he slept ten years ago and she has refused to visit her in prison. She was living with her grandmother until she passed away and has been with several foster families. But her new foster parents seem great. They're curators at the local museum and have asked for Izzy's help cataloging the items found inside an old state asylum. The asylum makes her uncomfortable as it makes her think of her mother's "insanity." As she goes through one of the former patient's belongings she's taken to another time in search of answers. Clara Cartwright was eighteen years old in 1929 when she was sent away to a genteel home for nervous invalids; her overbearing father furious at her for rejecting an arranged marriage and falling in love with an Italian immigrant. But when he can no longer afford her care at the home after losing money in the stock market crash, Clara is committed to the asylum. This is a weird...

A young woman and her boyfriend are on their way to his parents secluded farmhouse. She's not completely comfortable about meeting them. On the drive there she has lots of time to reflect on their relationship and ask him questions. On their way back she becomes stranded at a high school out in the middle of nowhere. And you just have to read this book. I went into this one with high expectations. And I wasn't disappointed! It was intense and suspenseful. In some ways it was relatable. In some ways it made me uncomfortable. I loved the writing and the ending. Very clever. I won a copy through Goodreads First Reads.

This is book number three about the Schuyler sisters, and the first book I've read. It can be read as a standalone. The book goes back and forth between Annabelle's life in Europe just before World War II and Pepper's life in America in 1966.  Pepper Schuyler fixes up a rare 1936 Special Roadster Mercedes and sells it at an auction. The mother-to-be is too proud to ask her family for help and the father of her child is a married politician who doesn't want anyone to know about the pregnancy. Pepper believes she can do things on her own and that the large sum of money will take care of her baby.  Annabelle Dommerich has just bought back the car she used to drive out of Nazi Germany. Having a past that includes a Nazi husband and a Jewish lover, Annabelle is no stranger to having secrets of her own. She takes young Pepper under her wing - she gives her a place to stay and someone to talk to.  This book was extremely well-written. The characters, the setting - everything c...

This novel focuses on three friends and the challenges they face and how they overcome them. This is the second book in the Mischief Bay series, and the first one I read. Gabby Schaefer has spent the last five years as a stay-at-home mom to her twins. She can't wait to get back to work. But her world is turned upside down by shocking news and her husband's expectations. Hayley Batchelor desperately wants a baby of her own. She and her husband have tried everything. But she's willing to keep trying even if that means destroying her marriage, going against her doctor's wishes and risking her life. Nicole Lord is recently divorced and living a great life with her six-year-old son Tyler. She meets the perfect guy but is terrified to get involved. It's better to be alone than to get hurt, right? Family, friendships and cute shop names (latte-da, the slice is right) give this book a cozy vibe. The book was realistic (although what happened with Hayley towards the end was ...