Book Life Rambles

Midnight in the House of Commons by Charles Finch NetGalley About Summary Amateur sleuth Charles Lenox investigates the murder of a Parliament member, moving through the glamorous high society of Victorian London in the next novel from acclaimed author Charles Finch. In the spring of 1881, Lenox is caught up in the whirl of London life when his brother arrives to tell him that there’s been a murder in the House of Commons. Robert Baddeley, a charismatic, womanizing Member, has been found poisoned in the hallowed chamber itself. Suspicion immediately falls on the women in his life, including his wife and mistress, but as Lenox digs deeper, he realizes that there were more than a few people who might have wanted Baddeley dead. Meanwhile, Lenox must balance his investigation with his family life, which has grown increasingly complicated: his ward Sari struggles with heartbreak, the Lenox household receives an odd visitor, and a young woman comes to Lenox to implore him to find her fiancé,...

The Midlife Birthday Club by Rachel Hanna Cute Cover Wine and Cake ~ what's not to like? G👀dreads About Summary Three lifelong friends. Three 50th birthdays in the same season. One pact signed on a dusty rose napkin. Claire Morrison has been married to Greg for twenty-six years. She still puts dinner on the table at six. She still folds the laundry the way he likes it. She still hasn't been kissed on purpose in longer than she can remember. Somewhere along the way, the man who used to look at her across a room stopped looking at all. The third-grade teacher who used to paint, who used to laugh too loud, who used to want things — Claire isn't sure where that woman went, but she knows Greg hasn't noticed she's missing. Harper Ellis runs a financial division managing two hundred million dollars from a fourteenth-floor office in Charleston. Silk blouses. Architectural heels. A condo on East Bay Street with no kitchen table. She eats dinner standing at the sink becaus...

A Time of Witches by Madeline Martin G👀dreads About Summary Two women, bound by blood and betrayal, must break silence across centuries—or be silenced forever, in the dazzling new novel by New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin. Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening - plants turn toward her touch, animals linger in her path, and the birthmark on her arm has started tingling. Worse still is her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake. Her search for answers brings her from Savannah to England, to the decaying Brackenmere Manor where the past blurs with the present. There, Lilith discovers a legacy she never asked for and along with it, the threat of peril. History must be rewritten, or she too will die. In 1645 Suffolk, Sybil Brantham stands accused as a witch. An educated, wealthy widow, she is branded a threat by men who fear her independence. As arrests begin and suspicion abounds, Sybil must prot...

Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan Alt Cover G👀dreads About Summary Someone's been watching. Someone's been waiting. Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found. Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and a struggling single father's run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient - and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim. Detective Sergeant Judith Lee is smart and experienced, but this is no ordinary case. Someone with intimate knowledge of their targets is orchestrating these attacks. Someone who knows exactly how to hurt each victim where they're most vulnerable. And she's convinced that somehow, it connects back to Alexis Turner. As she races to uncover the connection between three seemingly unrelated people, Judith discovers ...

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore Cover Wars I created with Gemini AI G👀dreads About Summary A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order... Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on ...

Don't Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp My New Template! I got bored with the bookshelf. G👀dreads About Summary   I have one thing to do before I die. And time is running out. I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday. My mother also died at forty-three. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister’s. I am not letting that happen to my family. I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie. You’re probably thinking, she’ll never do it. Did I mention that in high school I was voted “Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants”? *** *** The investigator in me is wondering if t...

The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins G👀dreads About Summary In this wise and warm debut novel, an Italian American grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter all named after the Roman myth of the Three Graces find their lives—and their secrets—colliding when, after years apart, they come to live under the same roof. Graziella, the ninety-six-year-old matriarch of this Italian American family, spends her days running not only her family but her parish's food kitchen, keeping everyone fed in their working-class New York neighborhood. Her daughter, Grace, is feeling uninspired at her job, battling the throes of menopause, and most urgently, trying to stay afloat amidst her impending divorce. Ella, granddaughter of Graziella and daughter to Grace, is stuck in limbo, tired of trying to defend her vegan diet and anti-capitalistic lifestyle, while still wanting to do something important with her life. Uplifting and emotionally layered, The Three Graces of Pear...

Home for the Homicides by Elle Cosimano & Hannah Morrissey NetGalley About Summary Tis the season . . . for murder. "The festive, quirky love child of a holiday whodunit and a steamy romance.” —Sara Raasch When Special Agents Holly Frost and Mark Shepherd report to the idyllic town of Christmas to investigate a very less than idyllic murder, they’re in for more than the average whodunnit. Welcome to Christmas, a town so cozy and charming it could be the backdrop of a Hallmark movie, where crime is never in season and it’s the holidays all year round. So when a tourist is found stabbed to death by an icicle ornament in the middle of the town nativity scene, the local police are out of their depth—after all, how do you find a criminal in a town where crime doesn't exist? The stakes are high: the whole town is relying on Holly and Mark to solve the crime before the annual Jingle Bell Jubilee festival (which naturally the town's entire economic survival relies on), plus,...

The Christmas Guide to Family and Murder by Dianne Freeman NetGalley About Summary A country Christmas in Victorian England takes a murderous turn in Agatha and Lefty Award–winning author Dianne Freeman’s delightful mystery featuring Frances Hazelton, the former Countess of Harleigh, and her husband, George. Frances and George are looking forward to a Christmas season enlivened by all the diversions London can provide. But family comes first, and George’s sister Fiona and her husband persuade everyone to gather at their Norfolk estate for the holiday. The weather will be chilly, but the prospect of snow delights the youngsters. And with blazing fires and invigorating country walks in store, Frances envisions a peaceful, jolly Christmas. Instead of a picturesque snowfall, however, Norfolk is hit by pounding rainfall and high winds. In the aftermath of the storm, Frances, Fiona, and the children make an unpleasant discovery in a nearby field—the body of their neighbor, dead in suspici...