The first book of the month revealed A Very Inconvenient Scandal set in Cape Cod before we travel back in time to WWII where we search for the murderer and a mole in A Traitor at Whitehall. Next, we find ourselves gripping the edges of our seats as we follow along with The Paris Agent in war-torn France, before coming back to the present for a ‘Gilmore Girls but with Murder’ in the Reese Book Club pick, Mother Daughter Murder Night.
A Very Inconvenient Scandal
Jacquelyn Mitchard
This is a book that will have you feeling a wide range of emotions, especially if you find your feelings aligning with the main character of the novel, photographer, Frankie Attleboro.
When Frankie returns home to share her happy news, she discovers a secret that her childhood best friend and her father have been keeping from her. Not only are they getting married… but they are also expecting a baby.
Her life now thrown into chaos, Frankie struggles to make sense of her new normal, while untangling more secrets from the past.
This is the perfect fireside read.
Frankie Attleboro returns home to Cape Cod with thrilling news. She’s met the love of her life, they’re getting married and have a baby on the way. Her talented, charismatic father overshadows her with his own announcement: he’s also getting married. To Frankie’s best friend, Ariel, who is also pregnant, and due soon. In an instant, he upends Frankie’s life. Her father’s choices will have profound implications for her, for her family, and for her unborn child.
Before Frankie and Ariel can adjust to this new reality, Ariel’s estranged mother, Carlotta, returns after a decade-long absence. Carlotta’s presence is unsettling—where has she been all these years? Why did she come back now? Frankie is suspicious. She digs into Carlotta’s past, where she finds multiple identities, unexplained illnesses, and a mysterious house fire that was never solved. As her mother’s dangerous behavior intensifies, Frankie must untangle the threads of Carlotta’s past to protect Ariel’s future—and her own.
Releases November 14th
A Traitor in Whitehall
Julia Kelly
There has never been a Julia Kelly novel that I haven’t enjoyed, and her latest novel (which will be part of a series) is no exception. The novel takes place in wartime London, where Evelyne Redfern (aka ‘The Parsian Orphan’) finds herself working a secret job underneath the streets of London.
When one of her fellow typists is murdered, Evelyne joins the murder investigation to find not only a murderer but also a mole who has been selling British secrets to the Germans.
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms.
However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.
With her quick wit, sharp eyes, and determination, will Evelyne be able to find out who’s been selling England’s secrets and catch a killer, all while battling her growing attraction to David?
The Paris Agent
Kelly Rimmer
This book shares the stories of two very real women who served in the British SOE and gave their lives in service to free France from the Nazis and their fictional counterparts Josie aka Chloe and Eloise aka Fleur.
While hard to read at times because of the brutality of the Nazi regime and what happened to so many spies, this is definitely a must-read for all those who enjoy reading novels based on heroes from WWII.
I also suggest checking out the resources in the Acknowledgements at the end of the book!
Twenty-five years after the end of the war, Noah Ainsworth is still preoccupied with those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in France. A head injury sustained on his final operation has caused frustrating gaps in his memory—in particular about the agent who saved his life during that mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she even survived the war.
Moved by her father’s frustration, Noah’s daughter Charlotte begins a search for answers that resurrects the stories of Chloe and Fleur, the code names for two otherwise ordinary women whose lives intersect in 1943 when they’re called up by the SOE for deployment in France. Taking enormous risks to support the allied troops with very little information or resources, the women have no idea they’re at the mercy of a double agent among them who’s causing chaos within the French circuits, whose efforts will affect the outcome of their lives…and the war.
But as Charlotte’s search for answers bears fruit, overlooked clues come to light about the identity of the double agent—with unsettling hints pointing close to home—and more shocking events are unearthed from the dangerous, dramatic last days of the war that lead to Chloe and Fleur’s eventual fates.
Mother-Daughter Murder Night
Nina Simon
Described as ‘Gilmore Girls, but with murder‘, this book by Nina Simon will have you guessing until the end. Set in Elkhorn Slough (near Monterey Bay, California, this story centers around three women, Lana (aka Prima) a high-powered businesswoman who hails from LA, her daughter Beth, a nurse who works at a nursing home and has an eclectic design style, and Jack who happens upon a dead body while leading a kayaking tour of the slough.
To clear her granddaughter’s name, and to keep her mind off her cancer diagnosis, Lana is determined to find out who killed Ricardo Cruz even if it means putting her own life in danger and annoying the detectives investigating the case along the way.
This book is definitely a must-read for all those who enjoy crime/thrillers and strong female characters.
High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of:her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.
Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power.
With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always resisted: depend on each other.
Also out now…
Wavewalker | A Memoir of Breaking Free
Suzanne Heywood
Aged just seven, Suzanne Heywood set sail with her parents and brother on a three-year voyage around the world. What followed turned instead into a decade-long way of life, through storms, shipwrecks, reefs, and isolation, with little formal schooling. No one else knew where they were most of the time and no state showed any interest in what was happening to the children.
Suzanne fought her parents, longing to return to England and to education and stability. This memoir covers her astonishing upbringing, a survival story of a child deprived of safety, friendships, schooling and occasionally drinking water… At seventeen Suzanne earned an interview at Oxford University and returned to the UK.
From the bestselling author of What Does Jeremy Think?, Wavewalker is the incredible true story of how the adventure of a lifetime became one child’s worst nightmare – and how her determination to educate herself enabled her to escape.
The Other Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter
Benny S Bryce
A stunning portrait of an African princess raised in Queen Victoria’s court and adapting to life in Victorian England—based on the real-life story of a recently rediscovered historical figure, Sarah Forbes Bonetta.
With a brilliant mind and a fierce will to survive, Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a kidnapped African princess, is rescued from enslavement at seven years old and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift.” To the Queen, the girl is an exotic trophy to be trotted out for the entertainment of the royal court and to showcase Victoria’s magnanimity. Sarah charms most of the people she meets, even those who would cast her aside. Her keen intelligence and her aptitude for languages and musical composition helps Sarah navigate the Victorian era as an outsider given insider privileges.
But embedded in Sarah’s past is her destiny. Haunted by visions of destruction and decapitations, she desperately seeks a place, a home she will never run from, never fear, a refuge from nightmares and memories of death.
From West Africa to Windsor Castle to Sierra Leone, to St. James’s Palace, and the Lagos Colony, Sarah juggles the power and pitfalls of a royal upbringing as she battles racism and systematic oppression on her way to living a life worthy of a Yoruba princess.
Based on the real-life of Queen Victoria’s Black goddaughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta’s story is a sweeping saga of an African princess in Victorian England and West Africa, as she searches for a home, family, love, and identity.
Fall of Ruin and Wrath
Jennifer L Armentrout
Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian―royalty who feed on mortal pleasure.
Born with an intuition that never fails, Calista knows her talents are of great value to the power-hungry of the world, so she lives hidden as a courtesan of the Baron of Archwood. In exchange for his protection, she grants him information.
When her intuition leads her to save a traveling prince in dire trouble, the voice inside her blazes with warning―and promise. Today he’ll bring her joy. One day he’ll be her doom.
When the Baron takes an interest in the traveling prince and the prince takes an interest in Calista, she becomes the prince’s temporary companion. But the city simmers with rebellion, and with knights and monsters at her city gates and a hungry prince in her bed, intuition may not be enough to keep her safe.
Calista must choose: follow her intuition to safety or follow her heart to her downfall.
Breathtaking suspense and scorching romance meet in this immersive new fantasy from a mega-bestselling force, Jennifer L. Armentrout.
😊😊😊!!!