Waiting on Wednesday: The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley

   

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley, a debut novel by Jeremy Massey.

  

Publisher:  Penguin Publishing Group

Publication Date:  May 12, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  A dark and unexpected novel about a Dublin undertaker who finds himself on the wrong side of the Irish mob.

Paddy Buckley is a grieving widower who has worked for years for Gallagher’s, a long-established—some say the best—funeral home in Dublin. One night driving home after an unexpected encounter with a client, Paddy hits a pedestrian crossing the street. He pulls over and gets out of his car, intending to do the right thing. As he bends over to help the man, he recognizes him. It’s Donal Cullen, brother of one of the most notorious mobsters in Dublin. And he’s dead.

Shocked and scared, Paddy jumps back in his car and drives away before anyone notices what’s happened.

The next morning, the Cullen family calls Gallagher’s to oversee the funeral arrangements. Paddy, to his dismay, is given the task of meeting with the grieving Vincent Cullen, Dublin’s crime boss, and Cullen’s entourage. When events go awry, Paddy is plunged into an unexpected eddy of intrigue, deceit, and treachery.

By turns a thriller, a love story, and a black comedy of ill manners, The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley is a surprising, compulsively readable debut novel.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #104

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from a book I recently borrowed from the library . . .

 

Goodreads Page

1.  THE THEATER

 

1

 

The king stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored.  This was act 4 of King Lear, a winter night at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.  Earlier in the evening, three little girls had played a clapping game onstage as the audience entered, childhood versions of Lear's daughters, and now they'd returned as hallucinations in the mad scene.  The king stumbled and reached for them as they flitted here and there in the shadows.  His name was Arthur Leander.  He was fifty-one years old and there were flowers in his hair.

 

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

 

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #104 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #79

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring:

 

Beginning:  The stranger didn't shatter Adam's world all at once.

 

That was what Adam Price would tell himself later, but that was a lie.  Adam somehow knew right away, right from the very first sentence, that the life he had known as a content suburban married father of two was forever gone.  It was a simple sentence on the face of it, but there was something in the tone, something knowing and even caring, that let Adam know that nothing would ever be the same.                                                                                                                                                             

*********************
Page 56:  "Adam felt like saying that they had bigger problems, but maybe for now, this distraction would be helpful."

*********************   

From Goodreads:  The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world.

Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream: a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life.

Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne’s deception, and realizes that if he doesn’t make exactly the right moves, the conspiracy he’s stumbled into will not only ruin lives—it will end them.

 

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #79 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged and appreciated.

 

Waiting on Wednesday: The Truth According to Us

   

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows, co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

 

Publisher:  Random House Publishing Group

Publication Date:  June 9, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  A wise, witty, and exuberant novel, perfect for fans of Lee Smith, that illuminates the power of loyalty and forgiveness, memory and truth, and the courage it takes to do what’s right.

Annie Barrows once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with extraordinary characters. Her new novel, The Truth According to Us, brings to life an inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of their destiny forever.

In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck’s father, a United States senator, cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program. Within days, Layla finds herself far from her accustomed social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, West Virginia, and destined, in her opinion, to go completely mad with boredom. But once she secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family, she is drawn into their complex world and soon discovers that the truth of the town is entangled in the thorny past of the Romeyn dynasty.

At the Romeyn house, twelve-year-old Willa is desperate to learn everything in her quest to acquire her favorite virtues of ferocity and devotion—a search that leads her into a thicket of mysteries, including the questionable business that occupies her charismatic father and the reason her adored aunt Jottie remains unmarried. Layla’s arrival strikes a match to the family veneer, bringing to light buried secrets that will tell a new tale about the Romeyns. As Willa peels back the layers of her family’s past, and Layla delves deeper into town legend, everyone involved is transformed—and their personal histories completely rewritten.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Truth According to Us was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #103

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from a book I recently borrowed from the library . . .

 

Goodreads Page 

Chapter 1

Amelia

My lungs clawed for air as though I were drowning.  I stopped, hunched over my grandmotherly cane, gasping.  The curved walk up from the parking lot stretched out before me longer than I remembered, steeper.  This is how it would be.  Every task more difficult than before.  Every step a public performance.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

 

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #103 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #78

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring: 

 

Beginning:  Duncan Kincaid's holiday began well.  As he turned the car into the lane, a shaft of sun broke through the clouds and lit a patch of rolling Yorkshire moor as if someone had thrown the switch on a celestial spotlight.                                                                                                                                                              

*********************
Page 56:  "The house seemed hushed and shuttered.  Not until he had parked the car and started toward the front door did he notice the small figure huddled at the side of the front step."

*********************   

From Goodreads:  A week's holiday in a luxurious Yorkshire time-share is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But the discovery of a body floating in the whirlpool bath ends Kincaid's vacation before it's begun. One of his new acquaintances at Followdale House is dead; another is a killer. Despite a distinct lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised dramatically when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon who enjoys homicide a bit too much.
 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #78 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged and appreciated.

Waiting on Wednesday: Letters to the Lost

   

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring Letters to the Lost, a debut novel by Iona Grey.

 

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Publication Date:  May 26, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  An accomplished novel from a talented writer, Letters to the Lost is a stunning, emotional love story. Iona Grey's prose is warm, evocative, and immediately engaging; her characters become so real you can't bear to let them go.

"I promised to love you forever, in a time when I didn't know if I'd live to see the start of another week. Now it looks like forever is finally running out. I never stopped loving you. I tried, for the sake of my own sanity, but I never even got close, and I never stopped hoping either."

 
Late on a frozen February evening, a young woman is running through the streets of London. Having fled from her abusive boyfriend and with nowhere to go, Jess stumbles onto a forgotten lane where a small, clearly unlived-in old house offers her best chance of shelter for the night. The next morning, a mysterious letter arrives and when she can't help but open it, she finds herself drawn inexorably into the story of two lovers from another time.

In London 1942, Stella meets Dan, a US airman, quite by accident, but there is no denying the impossible, unstoppable attraction that draws them together. Dan is a B-17 pilot flying his bomber into Europe from a British airbase; his odds of survival are one in five. In the midst of such uncertainty, the one thing they hold onto is the letters they write to each other. Fate is unkind and they are separated by decades and continents. In the present, Jess becomes determined to find out what happened to them. Her hope -- inspired by a love so powerful it spans a lifetime -- will lead her to find a startling redemption in her own life in this powerfully moving novel.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: Letters to the Lost was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #102

  It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from a book I recently borrowed from the library . . .

 

Goodreads Page 

Chapter 1

The ambulance is still miles away when Dana awakens to the near dark of evening.  It wails ribbon-thin in the smog over the highway as she opens her eyes where she lies sprawled across her couch in a suburb of Paterson, a stone's throw from Manhattan but a different world entirely.  She wakes to a headache throbbing at the backs of her lids, a library book lying beside her.  She sits up and reaches for the book, marking her place with a tiny corner fold, giving it a little pat as she sets it on the coffee table.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #102 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #77

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring:

 

 

 

Beginning:  I remember everything.  A kiss at the nape of the neck.

 

********************* 
Page 57 (Page 56 is blank):  "The envelope with my name on it was the color of thick cream; the ink was a dark navy.  My name had been written in a beautiful hand, strong and large and steady.  Simple, not pretentious."

*********************   

From Goodreads:  What would you do if out of the blue, you received a letter from your first love? Siân Richards sees no reason why she can't write back to Charles Callahan. After all, it's been thirty years and they are both married with families. But when they decide to meet again, an innocent correspondence becomes a dangerous intimacy. Swept up in the past and consumed by an obsessive love, Charles and Siân risk everything to be together. A heart-wrenching, suspenseful story with an unforgettable conclusion, Where or When is also a 'thoughtful, beautifully written contemporary romance' (The Washington Post).
 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #77 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged and appreciated.

Waiting on Wednesday: Little Pretty Things

   

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring Little Pretty Things by Lori Rader-Day, author of The Black Hour.

  

Publisher:  Prometheus Books

Publication Date:  July 7, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  OLD RIVALRIES NEVER DIE. BUT SOME RIVALS DO. 

Juliet Townsend is used to losing. Back in high school, she lost every track team race to her best friend, Madeleine Bell. Ten years later, she’s still running behind, stuck in a dead-end job cleaning rooms at the Mid-Night Inn, a one-star motel that attracts only the cheap or the desperate. But what life won’t provide, Juliet takes. 

Then one night, Maddy checks in. Well-dressed, flashing a huge diamond ring, and as beautiful as ever, Maddy has it all. By the next morning, though, Juliet is no longer jealous of Maddy—she’s the chief suspect in her murder.

To protect herself, Juliet investigates the circumstances of her friend’s death. But what she learns about Maddy’s life might cost Juliet everything she didn’t realize she had.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: Little Pretty Things was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #101--Blog Tour Edition

  It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from the first book in a brand new series, which I'm reading for a Novel Publicity blog tour . . .

 

On a Night Like This 

The Callaways #1

 

Chapter One

 

As a teenager, seeing her father's car in the driveway when she came home from school had always made Sara Davidson uneasy.  She would steel herself for the evening to come, never quite sure why she felt afraid.  Stephen Davidson had never physically abused her, but he had been demanding, and his words cut like a knife.  It wasn't always what he said that was the worst part; it was the rejection in his gaze, and the cold quiet that usually followed his disappointment in her.

 

It would be different now, Sara told herself as she got out of her rental car.  She was twenty-nine years old, a successful lawyer, and she hadn't lived at home in ten years.  So why did she feel trepidation?

 

  

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

Find out more about this romantic suspense series and enter for a chance to win a $100 gift card from Novel Publicity by clicking here.

About The Callaways: The Callaways were born to serve and protect! In Barbara’s new connected family series, each of the eight siblings in this blended Irish-American family find love, mystery and adventure, often where they least expect it! Each book stands alone, but for the full enjoyment of the series, you might want to start at the beginning with On A Night Like This.  

 

Visit the Callaway Series Goodreads Page

Get the eBooks via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, or Kobo.

About the Author: Barbara Freethy has been making up stories most of her life. Growing up in a neighborhood with only boys and a big brother who was usually trying to ditch her, she spent a lot of time reading. When she wasn’t reading, she was imagining her own books. After college and several years in the P.R. field, she decided to try her hand at a novel. Now Barbara is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author loved by readers all over the world. Her novels range from contemporary romance to romantic suspense and women's fiction. Learn more on her website, Facebook page, or in her Street Team.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of On a Night Like This in exchange for posting information about the book on my blog.

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #101--Blog Tour Edition was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #76

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring:

 

  

The Witch of Painted Sorrows 

Beginning:  Chapter 1   Paris, France   April 1894

I did not cause the madness, the deaths, or the rest of the tragedies any more than I painted the paintings.  I had help, her help.  Or perhaps I should say she forced her help on me. 

 

********************* 
Page 56:  "I was simply overwrought, as my grandmother had been telling me since I'd arrived in Paris.  And for good reason."

*********************   

New York Times bestselling novelist M.J. Rose is a meticulous researcher and masterful author of historic fiction, as anyone who has read her Recarnationist series can attest to.  The Witch of Painted Sorrows is the first in a new series entitled Daughters of La Lune.

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #76 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged and appreciated.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay

   

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay by Andrea Gillies.

 

Publisher:  Other Press, LLC

Publication Date:  May 5, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  What happens when you can’t see that the man you married is actually the one you love?

For her whole life Nina Findlay has been in a love triangle with two Italian brothers, Paolo, whom she married, and Luca, with whom she was always in love and who remained her best friend throughout her marriage. Now Nina faces the future alone—estranged from Luca and separated from Paolo, she escapes to the tiny Greek island where she honeymooned twenty-five years earlier. After an accident she finds herself in the hospital telling her life story to an eagerly attentive doctor. As their conversations unfold she comes to understand the twists and turns of her romantic life and the unconscious influence of her parents’ marriage on her own.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)