Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

At thirty-nine, Nicole Muller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, despite her husband, Dan’s, concerns the group might be a cult, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado.

Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride. A CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, a congresswoman: Nicole can’t believe her luck. The founders of Panthera Leo are equally as impressive. They explain the group’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world.

Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients that help her relaunch her career, and a great new apartment too. The favors she has to provide in return seem benign. But then she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment late at night where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime. And suddenly, Dan’s concerns that something more sinister is at play seem all too relevant. Can Nicole extricate herself from the group before it’s too late? Or will joining Panthera Leo be the biggest mistake of her life?

With its incredible premise—a group of women that are working the system like a boys' club—Please Join Us is a union of contemporary fiction and thriller through a feminist lens. And like Panthera Leo, this book has claws!

Struggling corporate lawyer, Nicole Mueller, is the narrator of Catherine McKenzie's thirteenth novel. Alternating between past and present, Please Join Us is an exploration of toxic relationships and the influence of power. Not without flaws, Nicole is a perceptive and intriguing character that readers will root for.  

McKenzie is a master storyteller—the plot is exceptionally clever and the pacing is spot on. She brilliantly explains the intricacies of the law into something palatable for her reader and weaves these threads into a brilliant and satisfying conclusion. 

Please Join Us is a feminist thriller about a secret organization, the challenges women face in the workplace, and just how far one woman will go to claim what is rightfully hers. 

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CATHERINE McKENZIE is the bestselling author of numerous bestsellers including Six Weeks to Live, You Can't Catch Me, Hidden, Fractured, The Good Liar, and I'll Never Tell. Her works have been translated into multiple languages and I'll Never Tell, The Good Liar, and You Can't Catch Me have all been optioned for development into television series.

McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill in History and Law, Catherine practiced law for twenty years before leaving the practice to write full time.

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Q & A with Catherine McKenzie*

GWR: Is there a particular author/work that inspired you to become a writer or the way you write? 

CM: Such a hard question! I’ve definitely always been a big reader ever since I learned to read when I was three. When I was a girl I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and then of course Anne of Green Gables and the entire Anne series. Later, I discovered Jane Austen, Nick Hornby, John Irving and books like The Time Traveller’s Wife and The Fault in Our Stars. A Million Little Pieces was a big influence right when I started writing. Hopefully I’ve stolen the best bits from all of those and added something of my own.

GWR: Are you a pantser/gardener or a plotter/architect? Have you approached each book the same way, or has your writing process changed/evolved?

CM: I am a panster for sure, though I do plot in my head. My process has evolved over the years, and I am TRYING to be a better plotter in advance. But I do love the spontaneity of writing without a fixed outline. That’s where the magic happens.

GWR: Being a seasoned author, what is your favourite part of the publishing process? Is there anything that you still find difficult? 

CM: A lot of it is still difficult! I love when it’s just me and the manuscript and it’s all working out the way I planned. And then when the book is out and people enjoy it—that’s always special.

GWR: Overall, what do you have more fun with, character development or plot?

CM: I’d say both, honestly. I hope what makes me stand out as an author is that I have lots of people and well developed characters.

GWR: What was the inspiration behind Please Join Us?

CM: I received an invitation to an anonymous women’s group—and did not go! But the idea stuck...

GWR: I love how the characters are feminist, intelligent, and fierce. Do you have a favourite? 

CM: Thank you! I really like Athena, and Nicole of course, the narrator, because I spend the most time with her.

GWR: Did you build Please Join Us around a twist/reveal, or did this happen organically?

CM: I always know the end before I start writing, though in this case, the end was going to happen earlier and I realized that I was missing a twist while I was writing. Thankfully, the answer was already in the manuscript as is often the case.

GWR: What’s the one element of a thriller that is a must?

CM: Secrets!

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?  

CM: A Moscow Mule.

GWR: Can you share what are you working on now?

CM: A book loosely based on the Gabbie Petito disappearance called Have You Seen Her. 

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

Six Weeks to Live by Catherine McKenzie

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Jennifer Barnes received the shocking news that she has a terminal brain tumour at her routine doctor's appointment. She has only six weeks to live. Stunned by the diagnosis, the forty-eight-year-old mother decides to spend what little time she has left with her family—her adult triplets and twin grandsons. But when she realizes that she was possibly poisoned, Jennifer is determined to discover who is responsible. So far, Jake, her soon-to-be ex husband, is at the top of her list. 

Meanwhile, her daughters are each processing the news differently. Calm medical student Emily is there for whatever Jennifer needs. Moody scientist Aline, who keeps her mother at arm’s length, agrees to help with the investigation. Even imprudent Miranda, who has recently had to move back home, is being unusually attentive.

But with her daughters doubting her campaign against their father, Jennifer can’t help but wonder if the poisoning is all in her head—or is there someone else that wants her dead?

Catherine McKenzie's Six Weeks to Live is an explosive family drama that explores the relationships between triplets—twins, plus one—and the dynamics they each have with their dying mother. 

With short, punchy chapters, McKenzie's latest is a gripping psychological novel. Opening with a gut-wrenching diagnosis, her heroine has a mere six weeks to live and to find her killer. In the time that she has left, Jennifer naturally wants her daughters close and her husband's support. Interestingly as time goes on, the girls become unfazed and oddly unsympathetic—they think that their mother is up to her usual theatrics. 

Told from multiple points of view, McKenzie deftly weaves them together with skill and suspense. Jennifer's quest to prove she was poisoned is the perfect vehicle to unearth the old wounds, grudges, and memories. 

Six Weeks to Live has guilt, secrets, blame, and revenge blemishing every page. 

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CATHERINE McKENZIE is the bestselling author of numerous bestsellers including You Can't Catch Me, Hidden, Fractured, The Good Liar, and I'll Never Tell. Her works have been translated into multiple languages and I'll Never Tell, The Good Liar, and You Can't Catch Me have all been optioned for development into television series.

McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill in History and Law, Catherine practiced law for twenty years before leaving the practice to write full time. 

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Owens family bloodline begins with Maria in the 1600s. Abandoned as a baby in a snowy field in rural England, Maria is discovered by Hannah Owens who was an orphan herself. Hannah is known not only for her kindness and herbal knowledge, but also for the fact that she could read and write—a rare skill for a working woman from the country. She recognizes that Maria has a gift and teaches the girl all about the "Unnamed Arts." The first lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.

When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. It is here where she invokes the curse that will haunt her family for centuries to come and where she learns the rules of magic. These are the lessons that Maria will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.

Magic Lessons (the pre-prequel to Practical Magic and the prequel to The Rules of Magic) takes place in 17th-century and centres around the Owens matriarch, Maria. Readers follow her journey from England, to the Caribbean, and Salem, Massachusetts. Maria learns how to unlock the power of magic, including the infamous Owens family curse—any man who loves an Owens woman is doomed.

What I love most about these characters is that they are all strong and powerful women—women that are feared by a world that is not ready for them. Hoffman excels when she is writing about sisterhood and the bond between women. At the heart of this series is love and these are exactly the types of stories that we need more of. 

There is going to be a fourth and final novel in the Practical Magic series that will primarily be about Sally's daughters as grown ups, and breaking the curse that was called down. I literally can't wait!

Magical. Beautiful.  Mesmerizing. Steeped in the history of witchcraft, Magic Lessons is Hoffman at her finest. 

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ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.

Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.

Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.

Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.

She currently lives in Boston and New York. 

White Ivy by Susie Yang

A special thank you to Edelweiss, Simon and Schuster, NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When she was two-years-old, Ivy Lin was left in the care of her maternal grandmother, Meifeng, because her parents emigrated to the United States. At the age of five, she flew solo to the U.S. where she is reunited with her parents and baby brother, Austin. Her frigid mother, Nan, was incredibly strict and often subjected Ivy to verbal and physical abuse. Meifeng, a petty thief, eventually follows her family and teaches Ivy her tricks—the pair pilfer items from thrift shops and yard sales.

Then Ivy meets Gideon Speyer, a politician's son, and becomes obsessed with him. After Ivy's parents discover that she has been sneaking out and lying about her whereabouts, she is sent to China for the summer. Thinking that she will defy her parents upon her return, Ivy is shocked to find out that the family has moved to New Jersey, dashing her hopes of reconnecting with Gideon. 

Ivy, now living in Boston, is teaching grade one and is unfulfilled with her life. After a chance meeting with Gideon's sister, Sylvia, she is welcomed back in the Speyer family's fold and captures Gideon's heart. When Ivy's past collides with her new life, she completes a shocking and desperate act to preserve the  happily ever after that she has worked so hard to build 

With her razor sharp prose, Yang has crafted a story that rivals that of a seasoned writer—her debut is haunting and mesmerizing. Permeating the narratives is a loneliness, a pathos that follows Ivy into all of her relationships and threatens her success. She is completely disconnected with reality and gets swallowed by her dark side. 

Ivy is a highly-developed character that is layered with culture and family. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Ivy struggles with finding her place—she is marred by an obsession with the upper echelon and Yang juxtaposes this with her modest Chinese-American upbringing. Ivy feels a sense of shame because of her poor family yet is both repressed and empowered by this, all while exploring her race, class, and identity.

On the whole, White Ivy just didn't work for me and I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps because I can't figure out the main character. What makes her tick? What motivates her? And she is incredibly unlikable. Why did Yang choose to write her this way? Is that the point of the story, that the reader will feel for someone that they also loathe? That being said, I was impressed by Yang's writing—she is a compelling storyteller—and I would definitely read her again. 

White Ivy is a coming-of-age story and a comment on race, class, and identity. 

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SUSIE YANG has a doctorate of pharmacy from Rutgers and launched a tech startup in San Francisco that has taught 20,000 people how to code. She has studied creative writing at Tin House and Sackett Street. White Ivy is her first novel.

Yang was born in China and has lived across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She now resides in the UK. 

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

A special thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

To say that Owen Pick’s life is falling apart is an understatement. He is a thirtysomething virgin who lives in his aunt's spare bedroom. After he is accused of sexual misconduct, Owen gets suspended from his job as geography teacher. Although he strongly denies the allegations, the evidence against him keeps piling up. With nothing else to do, Owen spends his days online. He stumbles across a forum for involuntary celibates and meets Bryn, a dark and charismatic character.  

Living across the street from his aunt's house is the Fours family. The mother, Cate, is a a physiotherapist; Roan, the father, is a child psychologist; Georgia is their teenage daughter; Josh is the youngest and is a mama's boy. The Fours doesn't bother with Owen—not only do they find him creepy, Georgia swears that he followed her home from the train station once. 

On Valentine's night, seventeen-year-old Saffyre Maddox goes missing. The last person to see her alive was Owen Pick and he is the police's number one suspect. But she also has a connection to the Fours: Saffyre is a former patient of Roan's and she became very attached to him. When he terminated their sessions, Saffyre felt abandoned and so she she started spying on Roan and his family—she knows more than she should and things are not what they appear to be. 

In a word, brilliant!

Dark, compulsive, and at times disturbing, Jewell has written another spectacular book. She is a master at creating suspense that is both atmospheric and compelling. Told from multiple points of view, the narrative is propelled through highly-developed characters whose motives are revealed in their intricacies.

Invisible Girl asks the question: How well can you really know someone? It is too easy to form an opinion that is not only based on beliefs, but also on outward appearances and perceptions. Many of the characters are keeping secrets—Jewell capitalizes on this and and plays on perception to pull off a clever twist. 

Chock-full of secrets, obsessions, and misconceptions, this is Jewell at her finest and I highly recommend this book.

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LISA JEWELL is the internationally bestselling author of eighteen novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Family Upstairs, Then She Was Gone, as well as I Found You, The Girls in the Garden, and The House We Grew Up In.

In total, her novels have sold more than 4.5 million copies across the English-speaking world and her work has also been translated into sixteen languages so far.

Lisa lives in London with her husband and their two daughters.

Three Perfect Liars by Heidi Perks

A special thank you to Edelweiss, NetGalley, and Simon and Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When an office fire ends in murder, Laura, Mia, and Janie are first in line for questioning. Meet our Three Perfect Liars.

When Laura returns to work at Morris and Wood after her maternity leave, she learns that the woman she hired to replace her isn't going anywhere. Not only is Laura feeling outsmarted, but she is also struggling with being a working mother.

Mia was only supposed to be temporary but has managed to make herself indispensable to everyone, including the agency's CEO, Harry Wood. Even though Laura has always had a close relationship with Harry, she can't help but feel snubbed.

Janie, Harry's wife, gave up everything to support her husband and his business. But she has a secret to protect and will do anything to keep it hidden.

Perks latest work is a psychological thriller that contains its fair share of shocking twists and turns. She masterfully tells the story using multiple points of view, the police interviews conducted by DC Emily Marlow, and alternating timelines. This was an effective way to tell the story; there was an edge of intensity created as well shocking revelations that were a result of the police interviews.

Laura, Mia, and Janie all had distinct voices and personalities. They were fully developed characters with fleshed out backstories that provided context for their motives. These are clever women, each with their own brand of deception.

Three Perfect Liars is a riveting thriller about revenge and the complexities of secrets and lies.

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HEIDI PERKS has been writing since she was small and now writes full time having left her career in marketing. Her first novel, Her One Mistake (Now You See Her), was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Heidi is a voracious reader of crime fiction and thrillers and endlessly interested in what makes people tick.

Perks lives in the seaside town of Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, with her husband and and two children.

Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey

A special thank you to Edelweiss, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

On a subway platform in Chicago, Morgan Kincaid’s life is changed forever when a stranger hands her a baby, then jumps in front of an oncoming train. Morgan can't understand why someone would give their child to a complete stranger and take their own life.

Unfortunately, Morgan's involvement runs deeper when she's considered a suspect in the death of the woman. But Morgan has never seen her before that day. With no witnesses to corroborate her version of events, things are not looking good.

To clear her name, Morgan tries to piece together Nicole Markham's final days. Nicole believed that she, and her new baby, were in danger. Or was she a new mother struggling with postpartum depression and paranoia? And what is Morgan's connection to all of this? As she gets closer to the truth, one thing become apparent, her life is also in danger.

I was hooked right from the start!

In this explosive novel, Bailey deftly alternates between Morgan's and Nicole's stories, past and present. One of the women is struggling with her grief and the desire to become a mother, the other is struggling with becoming a mother and the overwhelming desire to protect her child.

Nicole's anxiety is compounded by the guilt of a traumatic event in her past. Her angst is palpable, as are her fears of motherhood, and she becomes a shell of her former self—a far cry from the successful CEO of her own company. Morgan's life fell apart when her husband committed suicide as a result of being found guilty of embezzlement. She was left with the repercussions, including the police thinking that she was his accomplice. The two women are forever joined by tragedy, but what is their connection?

The character descension and strong pacing ratchet up the tension. Cleverly delivered in short, suspenseful chapters, readers will grapple with not only who to believe, but with also not being able to put the book down.

With the speed of a train, this incredible debut comes careening down the tracks. It is exhilarating, tense, and consuming.

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SAMANTHA M. BAILEY is a Toronto-based novelist, journalist, and freelance editor. Her work has appeared in NOW Magazine, The Village Post, and Oxford University Press, among other publications. She was a writer-in-residence for Kobo Writing Life at BookExpo America 2013. She is the co-founder of BookBuzz, a promotional and interactive author-reader event held in New York City and Toronto.

Woman on the Edge is her debut novel.

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Q & A with Samantha M. Bailey*

GWR: Where did you come up with the concept for this explosive thriller?

SB: Thank you for the compliment! Six years ago, I was waiting on a Toronto subway platform when I noticed a woman holding a newborn, standing too close to the edge. She looked frazzled and exhausted, as most new mothers do. As I did, with my own two children. Like a lightning bolt, the premise for Woman on the Edge came to me. As the train roared into the station, I scribbled it down on an empty gum pack I found in my messy purse. When I got home, I immediately started writing it.

GWR: This book takes a deep dive into other issues—mental health, misplaced guilt, motherhood—why was it important to include these elements in the story?

SB: I always wanted to focus on mental health, especially postpartum. When I started writing it, there was so little fiction about postpartum depression and anxiety. I didn’t experience depression myself, but I watched so many friends struggle through it, who generously shared their stories so I could access Nicole’s thoughts and feelings. These friends felt so much shame, guilt, and loneliness and were so scared to tell anyone the extent of how they were feeling because they feared judgment. It was only after they’d gotten help that they realized how many women go through it. I did, however, absolutely have my own anxieties and worries, especially with my first baby, and knew it was a story I needed to tell. I wanted to portray how easy it is for even the strongest, most accomplished of women to suffer dramatic and drastic changes after the birth of their child. How hard it is to ask for help. And how difficult motherhood is.

GWR: The main character, Morgan Kinkaid, becomes a suspect. Tell us about your research.

SB: So many experts were willing to talk to me, and I’m grateful. I spoke with a Chicago-based homicide detective, a private investigator, and criminal defense attorney. I’m also lucky to have a friend who is a Detective-Constable with the Toronto Police, who offered to help with any questions I might have. He invited me down to the station and I spent a day as a suspect. He led me through the Sally Port to the fingerprinting and onto the evidence room. I was giddy with excitement because, of course, I wasn’t under arrest, and it all felt so intriguing. When he asked if I wanted to be locked in a holding cell to see what it’s like, I jumped at the chance. He told me to bang on the door when I’d had enough, and it clanged shut. I was alone in a tiny cell—white-washed brick walls, a stainless-steel sink and toilet, and a small bed. I’m claustrophobic and immediately panicked. It took all of thirty seconds to bang on the door and beg to be let out.

GWR: Are you a pantser or plotter? 

SB: I’m a former-pantser-turned-plotter. Woman on the Edge is the fifth book I’ve written, and the first to be traditionally published. I used to write with a general outline in mind, but that’s completely changed. For this book, I needed a clear map of the beginning, middle, and end so I knew what the characters’ arcs would be, the narrative structure, placement of the clues, the goals, motivations, etc. I use three craft books to help me: On Writing by Stephen King, Story Genius by Lisa Cron, and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. Now I write out a scene-by-scene outline before I begin drafting. For me, it’s a process that works, but every author has their own method.

GWR: How many hours a day do you write? What does your writing process look like?

SB: Right now, it looks a bit manic because I’m promoting Woman on the Edge at the same time as working on my next novel. I usually get up at 5 or 6 am, which for a former night owl, is a shocking change. But I don’t have enough time during the day to really focus on writing, and I actually love the dark silence in my house when it’s just me and my words. I write until my kids get up for school around 7:30 am, then I’m all Mom—making breakfast, packing lunches, finding homework. The minute they’re out the door, I turn to my emails, social media, and promo and back to writing until the kids come home around 4 pm. It’s hectic, and all I ever wanted.

GWR: How did you select the names for your characters? 

SB: I use baby name sites and scroll through tons of names until the right one hits me. Then I might change it as the story evolves.

GWR: What was the hardest scene to write?

SB: The opening scene because I wanted it to be as powerful, raw, and visceral as possible. I must have revised it at least twenty times, so I hope I accomplished what I set out to.

GWR: If you could tell your younger self something about writing and becoming an author, what would it be?

SB: It won’t be fast, and it won’t be easy, but it will be so worth it.

GWR: What are you working on now?

SB: I’m working on another thriller that is also dark and twisty, featuring women and mothers in a very different way than in Woman on the Edge. I’ll definitely post any updates I have about the release date, etc on my website. Thank you for asking!

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

A special thank you to Edelweiss, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hoffman's latest work transports us to Berlin in 1941. It is during this time, one of the darkest in humanity, that three women must rely on their courage in order to survive.

In order to keep her twelve-year-old daughter away from the Nazi regime, Hanni Kohn sends her away to stay with some distant cousins. She visits an illustrious rabbi to seek his help. While pleading her case to the Rabbi's wife, their daughter, Ettie, overhears and secretly offers help. Ettie creates a golem—a mystical Jewish creature—to protect Lea at all costs. When Ava, the golem, is brought to life, she is forever connected to Ettie her maker, and Lea, the girl she is created to keep safe.

With evil lurking everywhere, the girls face unsurmountable loss, and sacrifice so much for love.

We meet some extraordinary characters that take us on an astonishing journey of love and loss, while demonstrating incredible courage and resilience. Paramount is a mother's love for her daughter and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child. All of this is sprinkled with Hoffman's signature magical realism.

This is a fresh take on the Holocaust and there are elements that Hoffman shines a light on, like the border crossings of many children, that many are not aware of. She educates and elevates her readers. Hoffman's writing transcends. It is elegant and haunting, and quite simply, stunning.

In this book, all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is forever.

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ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.

Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.

Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.

Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.

She currently lives in Boston and New York. 

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ellie Kemper is a comedian and star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and appeared on the US The Office series.  Her other written work includes writing for GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and The Onion. In this collection of essays, Kemper delivers some funny bits about her journey from the suburbs to Hollywood, and becoming a full-fledged New Yorker.

My Squirrel Days is a heartfelt compilation with nods to nature, Kemper's upbringing, her career, her short stint in field hockey, and adulting.  And because we are all a bit celebrity obsessed, she carefully name drops a select few.

Let me preface this by saying I did enjoy parts of the book; Ellie is charming and you can't help but associate her with that infectious smile, but I feel like her life is not overly interesting.  The "Hysteric" essay was the worst in the collection (total and unnecessary filler).  That being said, it is a quick read—she is so likable and endearing.

My recommendation would be to listen to the audiobook rather than reading it because you would get to experience Kemper's fabulous personality and humour that was lost on the page.  

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Harriet, who goes by Hal, is down on her luck. She reads tarot cards on the Brighton pier and struggles to make ends meet.  Hal is all alone after her mother was tragically is killed by a hit-and-run a few years earlier. When she receives a letter that bequeathes a large inheritance, she knows it to be a mistake but acts on it anyway. Hal only needs a few thousand pounds to change her luck once and for all—she deserves a bit of happiness.

She makes the trip down the English coast to attend the funeral of her "grandmother" and meet her "family". Being able to read people as well as she does, Hal quickly realizes that something is very wrong with the situation and finds herself at the centre of it because it revolves around the inheritance.

It turns out what she thought was a lie, may actually hold some truth, and someone is determined to keep it a secret.

Ruth Ware, this is fantastic! I loved it as much as The Woman in Cabin 10. You truly are a master of your genre.  

She's checked all the boxes: a creepy old house, suspense, symbolism.  But the best part is the writing—Ware reveals just enough to keep the reader completely enthralled, but doesn't give anything away.  I especially loved the use of the tarot cards to help Hal figure out what's going on.  "Don't rush—her mother's voice in her head.  Build your story.  Lay it out—card by card."  That's exactly what Ware does. Brilliant!

RUTH WARE is the international bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game.

Ware lives near Brighton with her family. 

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger

A special thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren Weisberger is back and so is Emily Charlton!  

Readers will remember Emily from The Devil Wears Prada as Miranda Priestly's chief assistant. Emily is now living in Hollywood and is an image consultant for the rich and famous.  Although her roster of clients includes high profile celebrities, she is losing clients to another younger image consultant and seems to be in a downward spiral.  She needs to put herself back on top—nobody does damage control like Emily, but the problem is she is hopeless when it comes to social media.  

Karolina Hartwell is the ex-model wife of a senator on track for the presidency.  Their life seems picture perfect until Karolina is arrested for a DUI with a Suburban full of children.   

Although the women met at Runway years earlier, Miriam is the link between them.  She was a partner at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, but decided to move to the suburbs of Greenwich, CT to spend more time with her children.  Being a stay-at-home mom in a wealthy affluential neighbourhood sounds like every woman's dream, but Miriam is discovering that it is more stressful than her high-profile job.

The three women band together over Karolina's woes to navigate their way through life in the burbs.  All is not as it appears, Hollywood has nothing over Greenwich.

Can I tell you that I tore through this book?  It was completely addictive and indulgent.  And the title...can we just take a moment to appreciate how clever and cheeky it is?

Weisberger has penned three very different, but as equally intriguing, characters.  Fans of The Devil Wears Prada are not going to be disappointed.  In my opinion, this was far better than Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns and I'm wondering if it is because this book came home to the characters that made the series what it was, Emily and Miranda.

This book should be top of your summer reads pile.  Perfect for discussing with your girlfriends over your favourite cocktails!  Cheers, Lauren Weisberger.   

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LAUREN WEISBERGER is the New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada, which was published in forty languages and made into a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. Her books—The Singles Game, Everyone Worth Knowing, Chasing Harry Winston, Last Night at Chateau Marmont, and Revenge Wears Prada—have sold more than thirteen million copies worldwide. 

Weisberger lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children.  

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After devouring The Woman in Cabin 10, I was excited to get my hands on another Ruth Ware book. Initially I was enjoying this book, especially the parts that take place at the boarding school, but I didn't fully buy in. I don't want to make comparisons, and whether this was on purpose or not, but there were echos of The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Is Donna Tartt not one of the most brilliant literary voices? This seems like a compliment, right? But in fact, this comparison does this book a disservice. Ware is a strong enough writer to stand on her own and does not have to draw on this inspiration. Again, this may be me creating the parallel between the two, but it's there: the exclusivity, the boarding school, the murder, the circumstances, the lasting effects of the death on the group, and that it is a murder mystery in reverse. Moving on...

There is an immediate hook. A woman is walking her dog in the quaint coastal village of Salten along the section of river known as the Reach where the tide meets the stream.  Her dog charges into the water to retrieve what is perceived to be a large stick, when in fact it is a human bone.

The next morning, three women—Isa, Fatima, and Thea—get a text from Kate, the fourth in their exclusive group, that simply says "I need you". Hoping they would never get this request, they drop everything and rush back to Salten. The girls were a fearless foursome at the Salten House boarding school. They used to play the Lying Game which involved telling the most outrageous things to people for points. Only there are rules: tell a lie, stick to your story, don't get caught, never lie to each other, and know when to stop the lie. For some, the lines become blurred with what are actual facts versus what is fantasy. Ware reveals bits and pieces of the girl's time at the Salten boarding school, and how extreme the game got—they were all expelled in their final year under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the art teacher, Ambrose, who also happens to be Kate's eccentric father. 

Where this book stumbles is with our narrator, Isa. She is a new mother, and Ware loses the plot because this character is so consumed by this role. The baby proves to be a distraction for both Isa and the reader which ultimately detracts from the story. Without the baby, Isa could still be an unreliable narrator—her memories of events are viewed through the lens of a naive young girl who seems enchanted with Ambrose, Kate, and Luc (the step-son/step-brother).

More of the girls' time at school needed to be written and the other characters needed more attention. I found it a stretch that these girls were only friends for such a short time, yet remained so incredibly loyal over the span of 17 years. There was simply so much more to the story. Ware took a wrong direction, not in using Isa as our narrator, but with hinging so much of her character on being a mother. The boarding school, and the girls' past is paramount to the plot, yet none of the characters were really fleshed out.

RUTH WARE is the international bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10.

Ware lives near Brighton with her family. 

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

A special thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hoffman revisits the Owens family in this prequel to Practical Magic.  For hundreds of years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town.  It all started in 1620 when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for falling in love with the wrong man.  Hundreds of years later in New York City, Susanna Owens knows all too well the dangers of falling in love, and tries to spare her three children from the curse.  This means no walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no books about magic, and most importantly, no falling in love!  Franny, her most difficult child, has hair the colour of blood, and skin as white as milk; Jet is a dark-haired shy beauty who can read other people's thoughts; and Vincent, irresistible to women, is full of trouble.

The Owens children visit their Aunt Isabelle at her home in Massachusetts where they uncover family secrets, and the truth of who they really are.  Feared and revered, it is made clear that this next generation of Owens will not be exempt from the scorn of the townspeople, that is until they want something that only magic can cure.
Back in New York City, each of the Owens children begins on their own journey of discovery while trying to avoid the family curse by not falling in love.  They cannot escape the magic, just as they cannot escape love and the bonds they share.

Thrilling and magical, this beautiful work sets the table—the sisters grow up to be the aunts from Practical Magic, while Vincent leaves behind the legacy that will define the Owens women.  Rich with imagery and prose, Hoffman sprinkles pop-culture and history in this beautiful story of love, loss, and magic, and I simply did not want it to end.

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ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.

Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.

Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.

Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.

She currently lives in Boston and New York. 

Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sunshine Mackenzie seems to have it all and is truly living the perfect life.  She has a successful YouTube cooking show, a series of cookbooks that would rival any lifestyle celebrity's, a devoted husband, and millions of followers.  With a name like Sunshine, she radiates kindness; in actual fact, she is hiding who she really is.  After a few tweets, Sunshine experiences a catastrophic fall from grace.  She is left to pick up the pieces and reconnect with who she really is.

I really liked this foray into the effects of social media on one's life, and the pitfalls it can have on your social standing.  Without giving a preachy commentary about how toxic social media can be, a lighthearted chick-lit novel is just the remedy one needs to remind themselves that everyone's life is not as picture-perfect as Instagram and Pinterest would lead one to believe.

My only criticism is with the actual characters themselves.  Although Dave pens them as complex, there aren't any redeeming qualities, and the likability factor just wasn't there for me.  For a novel that was about the superficiality of social media, I expected more.    

The pace was on point, I was drawn in with her effortless writing style but was left unsatisfied by the ending.  That being said, I would definitely pick up another book by Laura Dave.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and Nick Bertozzi

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This graphic novel by Nick Bertozzi gives a makeover to Pearl S. Buck's 1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about the rise and fall of Chinese villagers before WWI.  

Disclaimer: I didn't realize I was requesting a comic/graphic novel adaptation. If I had realized this, I wouldn't have requested the title.  That being said, I was pleasantly surprised.  This actually works as a graphic novel and I think that it will put this classic willingly into the hands of the YA audience.

The Twilight Wife by A. J. Banner

A special thank you to Goodreads First Reads and Touchstone/Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kyra Winthrop, a thirty-four-year-old marine biologist, is recovering from a head injury she sustained in a diving accident.  She has no memory of the accident.  Her most recent years come to her in flashes; she is completely dependent upon those around her to fill in the gaps, most notably her doting and patient husband, Jacob.  Because of the extent of her injury, Jacob tells her the same stories over and over, and answers the same questions again and again.  He compiles pictures in a ‘memory’ book for her to assist with her recovery.  Sounds like the perfect husband…so then why is she remembering another man, Aiden Finlay?  Did she have an affair?  

The couple live on a small island, cut off from civilization, and all is not what it seems.  Kyra’s visions become more recurrent, people are not who appear to be.  She stops taking her medication to try and make sense of memories, are they flashbacks, or were they told to her?  As her memories become more frequent, she feels like she can’t even trust herself so she starts to see a therapist in secret to help her make sense of things.  Through her continued therapy sessions, she begins to piece together events and dissect the foundations of her relationships.  The truth is in fact a nightmare and Jacob doesn’t want her regaining her memory. 

In the same vein as S. J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep, this page-turner has the reader questioning relationships and those who they trust.  I did want more from the backstory, and there were a couple of things I thought could have been fleshed out because there were a few loose ends, but all-in-all a good read.  A solid 3.5/5 stars.    

A. J. BANNER was born in India and raised in North America. Her first novel, The Good Neighbor, was a #1 Kindle bestseller for thirty-four days. The Twilight Wife is a USA Today bestseller.

Banner lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and five rescued cats.   

Muslim Girl by Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

"The truth is that 9/11 never ended for us."  Read it again, and think about it...

This well-written coming-of-age story of a Muslim girl in a post-9/11 world is a quick, but thought-provoiking read.  Amani shares her feelings of alienation from American society, and her firsthand account of visiting her father's native homeland of Jordan.  It is here, in Jordan, where she both doubts and accepts herself by finally experiencing her culture in its purest form through a lens of freedom rather than through a trivialized stereotypical one.  

As a Muslim girl, Al-Khatahtbeh felt that her voice was insignificant and she founded MuslimGirl.com, a platform where Muslim girls/women would have a voice and could "talk back".  This forum gives Muslim women a place to openly discuss their unique problems and interests as well as talk about the fear for their lives, Islamophobia, stereotypes, and the blaming of all Muslims for the act of a few.      

This memoir is publishing at an opportune time and I highly recommend picking up a copy and making it a priority to read.  Al-Khatahtbeh is is changing and challenging the way Muslim women are viewed around the world.    

Faithful by Alice Hoffman

A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Hoffman is my favourite author. I can't even wait to get my hands on her books the second they come out! To be given the opportunity to read and review this book was truly thrilling for me.

Hoffman's writing is a living thing. Her stories breathe and grow and as the reader, you transcend. Her characters are layered and complex, her writing is rich and incredibly moving, it is fluid.

That being said, I missed the magical realism associated with Hoffman because I don't think that this novel had enough of it, or rather didn't seem to have any other than the reference of an angel which unfortunately for this book, becomes a character—this is not classic Hoffman.

While this story was not one of my favourites that she has written, it was indeed a page-turner and I'm so glad I got to read it because everything she writes is gold.

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ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.

Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.

Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.

Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.

She currently lives in Boston and New York. 

My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal

A special thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in England in the 80s, this deeply touching story is about two brothers who end up in foster care when their mother is deemed unfit to look after them; Leon is nine years-old and black, and Jake is four months old and is white.  Jake is quickly adopted while Leon must learn to navigate his life without his baby brother in a new home, that of his carer Maureen.  When Maureen takes ill, he is shuffled to another home, that of Maureen's sister, Sylvia.  Leon struggles to make sense of his feelings of abandonment, and his separation from his baby brother.  He is also endeavours to find acceptance, love, and to understand what went wrong with his mother.  Usually I find unreliable child narrators trite, but de Waal nails it!  

I love British authors, I love their cadence, their phrasing, and feel a sense of kinship.  de Waal is no exception, and I cant wait to read what she publishes next.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

A special thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, Cleave's writing is gorgeous and moving.  Historical fiction can be fickle and tricky, but Cleave effortlessly transports you to another time and makes his version new.  His WWII story takes place in London and Malta; I can already see this one becoming a movie.  

I have read all of his other books and savoured each one because of his beautiful writing.  There is a tenderness to the way he develops his characters with his moving prose, they are deep and complex, much like the setting.  We have Mary, who is barely nineteen, and comes from a wealthy family.  She uses the war to rebel against her parents, romanticized by possibility and not seeing war for what it is.  She is assigned to a school to teach children and meets Tom Shaw, who is the head administrator.  The two embark on a romantic relationship that becomes complicated when she is introduced to Tom's flatmate, Alistair Heath, an art conservator that gets deployed to active duty in Malta.  Rounding out the cast is Hilda, Mary's inferior friend and ambulance partner.  

The only negative was the pace, which moved between slow and steady.  This was probably deliberate on Cleave's part to let the story unfold, to immerse the reader in WWII, and to develop the characters.  Stay with it, you will be glad you did.