Notwithstanding the older release of this book, it deserves a review. If you were a fan of Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, you’ll love this second of a trilogy with young lawyer Jake Brigance as the protagonist. (The third novel is A Time for Mercy, published in 2020.) After his big but controversial win in the Hailey trial, Jake and his wife, Carla, have suffered through harassment and arson, and are now living in a rental after their house was burned to the ground. Thinking the Hailey verdict would set him on the path to legal infamy, he has actually struggled to find cases, few of which have been challenging. And then, everything changes.

A wealthy old white man, Seth Hubbard, takes his own life once he knows he’s in the final stage of a terminal illness. In a […]

The prolific author, Elin Hilderbrand, has released her latest novel, The Hotel Nantucket. Main character Lizbet Keaton is named the new general manager at the historic Hotel Nantucket, recently purchased by an English billionaire. Having just come off a romantic breakup, Lizbet welcomes the busyness required to run the hotel. Little does she expect to encounter a crazy cast of characters–staff and guests–who enliven her job while challenging the hotel’s success. In the midst of all this, she’s also pursuing new romantic interests.

Hilderbrand inserts the point of view of the ghost of Grace Hadley, a chambermaid who perished in a fire at the hotel in 1922. She oversees and comments on the goings on at the hotel, adding to the quirkiness of the novel’s plot line.

The book is fun and entertaining. Get […]

Lauren Denton’s latest, a place to land, is yet another in her list of successful novels, written in southern style and in an easy-on-the ears manner. This one’s set in Sugar Bend, Alabama (who wouldn’t want to live in a place called that?) and features three primary characters: sisters Violet and Trudy Figg, and Maya, an eighteen-year-old who’s lost her way but finds her place in Sugar Bend.

We quickly learn that what seems like a nice story in an idyllic setting actually hides secrets from years ago–secrets that threaten the security of the Figgs. Plot twists and turns assisted by other minor characters in the book make for interesting reading, compelling us to keep turning pages.

The best thing about Denton’s books is that you get exactly what you’re expecting. She does not disappoint in […]

Charles Martin’s The Record Keeper is the third in the Keeper trilogy, meaning I started the book with the realization this wonderful series was coming to an end.

I don’t want to provide spoilers for those who haven’t read the first two books in the series, The Water Keeper and The Letter Keeper, but the protagonist Murphy Shepherd’s journey has morphed from taking him down the Intracoastal Waterway to honor a good friend’s last wishes to an adventure he never saw coming.

Martin continues his marvelous way with words and his ability to deftly add backstory without burdening us with too much narrative. This ties The Record Keeper to the first two books in the series, resulting in depth and breath the book wouldn’t otherwise have.

We travel with Shepherd through twists and turns accented […]

In Jodi Picoult’s novel, Wish You Were Here, Diana O’Toole, an art associate at Sotheby’s, faces what we all dealt with during the Covid pandemic: chaos, uncertainty about the present and the future, family and work disruption, and the threat of contracting a potentially deadly virus. After planning a romantic getaway to the Galapagos with her fiance, Finn, she elects to go alone after he learns he must stay home to help fight the ensuing battle against the virus. Once there, she experiences the isolation and uncertainty of life we all felt in 2020 and much of 2021, albeit in a much more exotic locale. Her predicament causes her to re-examine her professional life and, when she immerses herself into the affairs of an island teenager who’s harboring family secrets, she begins to question her personal life and the validity […]