Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on the blog tour for OPEN YOUR EYES by Heather Fitt. This is an intense debut thriller that I could not put down even with the sensitive subject matter.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review and the author’s bio. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
A Scottish journalist enters a dark online world in this unsettling novel of men, women, resentment, and rage…
Edinburgh reporter Frankie has finally been assigned a high-profile crime story about a series of sexual assaults, and relishes her big break. Her article focuses on the issue of women’s safety, which doesn’t seem to have improved much since the era of the Yorkshire Ripper.
When she faces a torrent of abuse online, it leads her to discover the phenomenon of incels— and puts her in the sights of those trying to stop her covering the story. But she refuses to back down. What she doesn’t realise is that in this murky online world, one man is being goaded into a spectacular and shocking attack with Frankie as his main target…
OPEN YOUR EYES by Heather Fitt is an intense debut thriller featuring a Scottish reporter who begins to cover a series of sexual assaults and finds herself becoming a target from a dark on-line group. This is a debut standalone novel that had me on an emotional roller coaster from beginning to end.
Frankie Currington is a junior reporter for an Edinburgh paper who is finally getting some recognition for her stories. She is anticipating her big break when she is given the chance to write a crime beat story after attending the press conference for a series of sexual assaults. What she does not expect is the torrent of on-line abuse.
Liam has been publicly humiliated by a girl he cares for in his high school. He turns from his few male school mates and finds a welcome understanding in an on-line group of young men known as “incels”. The group goads as well as indoctrinates its members into believing all girls and women should be in a subordinate position in society and deserve anything that happens to them if they are not.
While Frankie refuses to back down from intimidation and physical abuse, she does not realize that she has placed herself as a figurehead that Liam is being indoctrinated to hate. They are on a collision course which could lead to terrible consequences.
This is an emotional thriller from start to finish. The plot is fast-paced and well researched with believable dialogue. This story contains sexual assaults, on-line indoctrination, bullying, misogyny, and discussions of feminism. Frankie was a character that was naïve, selfish, and made some decidedly stupid decisions during the story. It was hard to empathize with her even when she was in danger. Liam was a sympathetic character even as he was being groomed to be a weapon. This story contains many thought-provoking situations and character discussions. I am impressed that this is a debut book from this author.
I recommend this intriguing thriller, but it does contain trigger issues for some readers.
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Author Bio
Heather was born in Scotland and after moving around Europe with her parents and sister, settled in Hampshire where she met her husband, Stuart.
After leaving the rat-race in 2018, Heather re-trained as an editor and proof-reader and entered the world of publishing. These days she works as a part-time freelancer and a part-time Commissioning Advisor for Bloodhound.
Heather was inspired to start writing her novel by the authors who have become her closest friends. Now the ideas are flowing she has plans to write several more over the coming years.
When she isn’t reading, Heather enjoys spending her time watching sport –¬ especially her beloved rugby – and exploring the British countryside with Stuart.
For regular bookish updates, you can follow Heather on Twitter: @LifeBookish
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for WHEN IT FALLSAPART (The D’Angelos Book #1) by Catherine Bybee on this Montlake Blog Tour.
Below you will find an author Q&A, a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, the author’s social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Good luck on the giveaway and enjoy!
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Author Q&A
Interview with Catherine Bybee
For anyone wondering the plot of your newest release, you give a great sneak peek with the title—When it Falls Apart. What is “falling apart” in this novel?
All the threads that hold my heroine, Brooke, together are crumbling down around her. When it Falls Apart begins with Brooke’s romantic relationship crashing and burning. At the same time, in a different state, her father is circling the drain in the ICU. And for the cherry on the top of her “falling apart life”, Brooke has found herself demoted at work. In short, everything in Brooke’s life is dissolving around her.
Like all of your books, When it Falls Apart has a beautiful romance, however, there is a rawness about Brooke’s story. How was writing this novel different from your others?
If you read my notes both in the front and the back of this novel, you’ll soon realize that the story was very personal to me. Rawness comes from experience. The relationship Brooke has with her father is hauntingly familiar to me and my dad. The emotions that the heroine experienced when taking care of him were easy for me to grasp onto and write about. Sadly, the love story with Luca was completely made up and I didn’t have the support of a strong Italian family to help deal with the struggles, but I digress.
Relationships with a parent who wasn’t there for you growing up are messy. When that parent ages and needs their child, sometimes that help comes with a bucketload of resentment, even if the child wishes they could stop those ugly feelings from creeping up on them. And THAT is the rawness you speak of.
Books, TV shows, and movies oftentimes glamorize what it means to care for a loved one. However, in When it Falls Apart you don’t sugar-coat anything about caregiving and the toll it takes on a person. How do you think readers who have been in similar situations will be affected by this story?
Justified. Validated. Accepted.
It’s a hard job taking care of an elderly family member. And if there aren’t other siblings to help, or won’t help, it’s made even more difficult. It’s difficult, gritty, dirty work that only has a bad ending…eventually. What I do hope my readers take away is that they’re not alone. That the struggle is very real and that if they don’t find balance (which is almost impossible at times) they will burn out completely and not be fit to help at all. I hope my readers are empowered to set boundaries and balance, so they come out on the other side of caring for an elderly loved one whole themselves.
Brooke gets virtually no support from her significant other, which has her reevaluating their relationship. She realizes she has settled and has to make some hard decisions. Do you think this happens too many times to women in real life?
100% Yes! There is a song by Taylor Swift with a line that says, and I’m paraphrasing here, I can be what you want for the weekend. But often that weekend ends up being a relationship that women hold on to or are convinced they can’t live without. Often it takes a huge shake-up to remove yourself from that situation. But once you’re away from the day to day dysfunctional relationship, the easier it is to see the dysfunction.
After her breakup and move, Brooke is not looking for a relationship. In fact, she tells her best friend: “I haven’t wiped off my smeared mascara from Marshall yet, the last thing I want is to jump into anything else.” Her crying over a man lasts all about two minutes when she meets Luca. Tell us about him.
Hmmm, Luca… he is the kind of man who doesn’t want a place on Brooke’s dance card…he wants to rip it up.
Luca is wired to help the people in his life. Brooke becomes a part of his inner circle simply by moving into the family building where he sees her every day.
Now, if Luca had flat out asked Brooke on a date, she would have run the other way…so no, he doesn’t go about it that way. He simply shows up and does not leave. Not when things get tough, or messy…or when his own past peeks its head in. Luca is a man who is right there at Brooke’s side without question or censor on why she does the things she does. His support and validation of her feelings is the part she was missing. Add in the hunky Italian single father and “Mamma Mia!”
At first, Luca is not thrilled that Brooke is renting a room in his family’s building. What changes his mind about her?
Her strength and vulnerability. I know that sounds contradicting, but some of the strongest women I know have a big vulnerable spot in their life that if you know them well enough, you see. The biggest smiles often hide the deepest pain. Luca sees her struggle and dedication to helping her elderly father and since family is first on Luca’s list, she passes his unconscious test.
Luca’s family, the D’Angelo’s, are incredibly close and share everything from ownership of the family restaurant to helping care for Luca’s daughter Franny. How is this different from Brooke’s relationship with her family?
Brooke doesn’t have that family. She has a father who abandoned her as a little girl that she carved out a relationship as an adult, and now she’s charged with caring for. Even her previous romantic relationship didn’t support her unconditionally the way the D’Angelo’s do for each other. She’s rather dumbfounded when they start treating her like family. It’s a wonderful thing to watch happen.
San Diego’s Little Italy plays a huge part in the story. The community, language, and food are in full display. Tell us about your own experiences in your adopted city.
I love Little Italy, the food, the pace… the people. There are many places in San Diego that are overrun with the college scene, San Diego is a college town. But Little Italy is more family friendly. Very touristy, but there isn’t a day you don’t see locals hanging out. I go to the farmer’s market often. Pick up authentic Italian ingredients for my own home cooking. I try new restaurants and take all my friends there when they are visiting from out of town. Not to mention it was the closest thing to the “real Italy” that I could go during the travel restrictions. So why not write about it and tell the world of this small island within San Diego that shouldn’t be missed?
There are two more siblings in the D’Angelo family. Where will you be taking readers next with the series?
Chloe is a yogi. Think Bali!
And Giovanni loves wine… think Tuscany, Italy.
I cannot wait to show you what I have in store for these two!
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Book Summary
Brooke Turner has always had a complicated relationship with her father. But when his health takes a turn for the worse, she drops everything to care for him. He’s her dad, after all, and he needs her. What Brooke doesn’t anticipate is the unraveling of her long-term relationship and a cross-country move to San Diego’s Little Italy.
Luca D’Angelo is the oldest of three children and a single father to a young daughter. When his mother rents the top floor of their house to Brooke, he’s angry. Who is this beautiful stranger with no ties to the neighborhood? Can she be trusted in such close proximity to his family?
As Luca learns of Brooke’s difficult journey with her ailing father, his heart softens. And Brooke, who witnesses Luca’s struggle as a single parent, develops feelings for him, too. But when it all falls apart, will love heal their wounded hearts?
WHEN IT FALLS APART (The D’Angelo’s Book #1) by Catherine Bybee is the first book in a new contemporary romance series featuring the very tight knit Italian D’Angelo family who own and live above their restaurant in the enchanting setting of Little Italy in San Diego, California. Each book will feature one of the D’Angelo siblings and their HEA romances.
Brooke Turner has an on-line marketing career which works well with her partner who is a travel blogger as they travel more than they are home. Brooke receives a call from the hospital that her father is very sick and needs surgery. She just got him back on his feet after a lengthy recovery from a stroke and now she needs to leave again. This blows up Brooke’s relationship even though Brooke’s father was never much of a father, she still feels responsible to help him since he has no one else.
Luca D’Angelo is the eldest son of three children and a single father to a young daughter. Since the death of his father, he runs the family restaurant with the help of his mother, brother, and sister who all work there and live above the restaurant. When his mother talks to Brooke when she visits the restaurant and discovers she is looking for a place to rent, Luca’s mother rents the top floor apartment to Brooke. At first Luca is worried about this stranger living in the family building, but he soon learns of Brooke’s difficult life and current problems with her father and only wants to help.
They develop feelings for each other, and Brooke loves Franny, Luca’s daughter. They want to take it slow, but in Little Italy everyone knows everyone else’s business and the nonnas are always looking to match their loved ones. When Luca’s ex-wife shows up, will their fragile romance survive, or will it all fall apart?
This is one of those stories that pulls you right in and keeps you there until the HEA. Brooke is an amazing person despite her terrible upbringing. She is loving and always giving to her own detriment many times. Luca is the handsome Italian single dad whose momma raised him right and he is a chef. Who wouldn’t fall for that? The entire family, neighbors and secondary characters are brought to life with realistic and difficult situations that many of us have or will face in the future. The H/h in this story face each situation with maturity and open communication. I loved Luca, Brooke and Franny and the entire D’Angelo family.
I highly recommend this wonderful romance and I cannot wait for the next in the series!
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Excerpt
“Oh my God, Carmen. He was standing at his car first thing this morning. Like ‘hop in, bella, let’s get stuff done today.’ Who does that?”
Brooke had picked up the phone as soon as Luca was off in search of a dump guy.
“We’re talking about the single, hot, Italian dad, right?”
Brooke rolled her eyes. “Yes. Luca.”
“Oy, oy, oy.”
“Stop it. I need advice. And I need it before he gets back.”
Carmen stopped teasing. “You don’t need advice. You need to relax. He sounds like one of the good ones. Let it happen.”
“Let it happen,” she mocked. “I don’t ‘let’ things happen. It happens to me and it’s never good.”
“You didn’t used to be such a pessimist.”
“Once upon a time the glass was half full. Not these days.”
“Okay, Debbie Downer. You want my advice . . . here it is. Keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.”
“I’m not doing anything. Zero effort.”
“Really?” Carmen didn’t sound convinced. “Makeup . . . a nice dress?”
Brooke hesitated. “Maybe . . . a little last night, but that was it.”
Carmen chuckled.
“Carmen!”
“Sorry. Okay . . . any red flags?”
Brooke thought about that. “He loved his ex-wife.”
“That’s a red flag?”
“I guess not.”
“Is he good to his mom?”
Brooke looked back on the dinner the night before. “To the whole family. He takes being the oldest brother quite seriously.”
“And his daughter?”
All Brooke could do was smile. “Great dad. We should all be so lucky.”
“He’s Italian, does he smoke?”
“No.”
“A lot of Italians smoke,” Carmen pointed out.
“In Italy. The San Diego variety are less in that wheelhouse.”
“That’s good.” Carmen sighed. “I don’t know what to tell you, Brooke. How does he kiss?”
“He hasn’t kissed me,” Brooke nearly yelled.
“Now then . . . we have a problem.”
“There hasn’t been . . . I don’t even know if—”
“Stop right there. He did not drive your sorry ass all the way to Upland to do grunt work all day if he wasn’t interested in kissing you, bellllaaa. More than that, you want him to.”
Brooke closed her eyes, and even in her own head she couldn’t convince herself that Carmen was wrong.
“Let it happen. You deserve some happiness, Brooke.”
The van with the air conditioning repair guy pulled into the driveway.
“I gotta go.”
“I want a kissing update the next time we talk,” Carmen teased.
“Love you,” Brooke said with a laugh.
“Back at ya, boo.”
She hung up.
Her best friend was such a dork.
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About the Author
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee has written twenty-eight books that have collectively sold more than five million copies and have been translated into more than eighteen languages. Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Not Quite Series, the Weekday Brides Series, the Most Likely To Series, and the First Wives Series.
EVERY KIND OF WICKED (A Gardiner and Renner Book #6) by Lisa Black is a fast-paced, intricately plotted addition to this forensic/police procedural thriller series set in Cleveland, Ohio featuring a female forensics expert and a male detective tied together by a dark secret. This series is best read in order due to the evolving character arc between the two main characters, but the crime plots in each book can stand alone.
A young man is found dead in the snow in the Erie Street Cemetery and Jack Renner is assigned to investigate with Maggie Gardiner on scene to look for any forensic evidence. Maggie’s ex-husband, Rick is assigned to investigate the death of a junkie in what appears to be an overdose by the Westside Market. At first, they are considered separate cases, but they begin to merge when both cases lead back to a pill-pushing doctor they are having difficulty finding.
When Maggie is called to the scene of a murdered woman connected to Rick’s case, she discovers a bloody fingerprint, and it belongs to Rick. Rick is missing and Maggie refuses to believe he could be involved in this murder. As Jack and Maggie investigate the several murders they find connections to a call-center scam operation as well as a Medicare scam. Maggie’s world is about to be changed forever.
This was such an exciting addition to the series! I could not put it down. You have two crime plots that at first do not seem connected and then Ms. Black merges them into one terrible criminal operation which was completely unexpected. Maggie faces personal emotional trauma during this story that was a complete surprise and then the ending through me for a complete loop. I love that this series is set in my hometown and I can visualize all the locations in the book.
This is definitely one of the best books in this series! I cannot wait for the next book. I highly recommend this series and author.
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About Lisa Black
Lisa Black’s books have reached the NYT bestsellers list, been translated into six languages and have been optioned for film. Perish was shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award by Putnam and Mystery Writers of America. Lisa will be a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
She is a certified crime scene analyst in Florida and a former forensic scientist for the Cleveland coroner’s office. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and has testified in more than fifty homicide trials.
She still aspires to drive Nancy Drew’s convertible and marry Ellery Queen.
Joshua Duffy is a Close Protection Agent – a professional bodyguard, and he’s one of the world’s elite operatives. That is he was until his last mission in Lebanon. Against all odds, Josh got his primary out alive, but the cost was high. Josh lost his lower left leg.
There’s not much call for an elite bodyguard with such an injury. So, Josh has to support his family working as a mall cop in Jersey. For a man like Josh this is purgatory on earth, but even in Paramus miracles occur.
A lucky run in with an old comrade promises to get Josh back in the field for one last job. The UN is sending a peace mission into the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, an area so dangerous it’s known as Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Spine). Only a fool would think they could broker peace between the homicidal drug cartels in the region and only a madman would sign on to keep those fools alive.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Armored by Mark Greaney shows why he is currently one of the best thriller writers. Although written first as an Audible Original, the book is much more enjoyable. Once again Greaney does not disappoint. There is plenty of action, but also some important issues covered including those still able to serve after losing a limb as well as how contractor companies treat their employees.
Best known for his “Gray Man series,” there were times in the story that readers wished for Court Gentry to come out and help the main character, Joshua “Duff” Duffy. But the badass in the novel was not Gentry, but Duffy’s wife Nichole, a former helicopter pilot.
Duffy, a former military Infantry soldier who became a private military contractor, shows his tenacity after losing part of his leg. Down on his luck and struggling to financially support his family, Duffy has an old comrade set up an interview with the contracting company, Armored Saints, that has a checkered reputation. He is hired as part of a private protection squad to guard a team of UN representatives. They are going to meet with warring drug lords deep into cartel country in Mexico, hoping to negotiate a peace between them. It soon becomes obvious that Duffy and his teammates must deal with hidden agendas, double crosses, and warfare.
Not only are the guys front and center but so are the women. Dr. Gabrielle Flores, a regional analyst for the area of Sierra Madres, in Mexico, informs Duffy’s team how dangerous the area is. She is also very valuable in helping them escape, knowing the area, the cartels, and the locals. The other woman in the story is Duffy’s wife Nichole who goes on a fact-finding mission to save her husband and refuses to take “no” as an answer.
This military thriller will leave readers on the edge of their seats. The plot will remind readers of “The Dirty Dozen.” The novel has everything Greaney is known for including intense action, great dialogue, and team of heroes that are very likeable, while enemies that are very unlikeable. This is a book that should not be put down, but unfortunately, people will have to wait for book 2 to come out.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Can you tell us something about the “The Gray Man” movie on Netflix?
Mark Greaney: It stars Ryan Gosling as The Gray Man, Court Gentry, and will be released on July 22. I read the script when they started filming. I have also seen it and really liked it. They did change some things. With so many people involved in making the movie, there is always creative influences. Characters who were not in the first book but did come along later in the book series are introduced in the movie. It is true to the spirit of the longer story of the first book. The dialogue was clever for the story.
EC: How did you get the idea for Armored, your latest book and will it be a series?
MG: Yes, it will be a series. The idea came about when I was training in a school with firearms. This school trained a lot of civilian contractors. There, I took a lot of classes that were designed for executive protection. It had a lot of running and gunning with team tactics. I thought in 2009 about writing a story about these contractors. First it was an audio play, and now the novel has come out.
EC: You put a different take on contracting firms?
MG: Some are not loyal or supportive to their employees. The one I created in this book, Armored Saint, is corrupt and dirty. Overall, the contractors themselves are awesome. Some of these companies have a reputation, which I wanted to dance around a bit. In the 2000s it was the heyday for these companies and now things have dried up.
EC: How did you come up with the scene where Duffy saved the wife?
MG: Duffy had a mission that went wrong but did his job. I decided to do it in Beirut because there was an assassination of a presidential candidate fifteen years ago. With that in the back of my mind I orchestrated the different roads and tactics. I did not go over there but mapped it out.
EC: How would you describe Duffy?
MG: Very much a blue-collar worker. Not at all like The Gray Man, not a secret spy, a Superhero, or Special Forces. But he was not a mercenary because he seeks justice. In the beginning of the story, he is not a leader, but a helper. When he lost his limb, he was depressed at the inability to financially support his family. But as a strong family man he was responsible and caring. He has the desire and guts to get back out there even with the loss of a limb. Very courageous.
EC: How would you describe Nichole, Duffy’s wife?
MG: She was a Captain in the Army, flying helicopters. I wanted to write her as an alpha female. She is very assertive, someone who takes charge. She is the opposite of Duffy who is very easy going. I think she wants to go back to the world where she was a leader, her natural habitat. Overall, she is straight forward, no nonsense, and detailed.
EC: The Cartels are like the Mafia?
MG: I wrote a Gray Man book, Ballistic, where Court faced off with the Cartels. I found out through the research how much torture and violence there is. I could not put that in the books. It is a civil war in Mexico, the Mexican Marines versus the Cartels who are brutal to the townspeople. There are rivalries between the different Cartels and actual maps show what territory is held by which Cartel.
EC: What role did Dr. Gabrielle (Gabby) Flores play?
MG: I spent some time in the Archeological Museum in Mexico City where Gabby works. As I was writing the story, I realized that many of the contractors were American, French, British, and in a world they did not understand. Gabby became the character, the heart and soul of the story, that allowed me through her, to tell the story of the setting and the hardships the people face. She preached to the contractors the danger in the area and how desperate the people living there are.
EC: How would you describe Dr. Gabrielle (Gabby) Flores versus UN representative Michelle La Rue?
I contrasted Gabby with Michelle La Rue. Gabby is a realist, caring, honest, and direct. La Rue is a UN bureaucrat who overestimates her abilities and influence. She is an allegory for the UN going into places and doing things, trying to be peacekeepers. Through La Rue I was able to put in my own personal bias. La Rue has a naiveté and a jadedness at the same time, especially when she wanted the contractors to disarm in a very dangerous setting.
EC: Next books?
MG: I have written two books a year since 2009, the “Clancy series,” “Red Metal,” of course “The Gray Man,” and now this series “Armored,” where I will probably start to write the next book in August. Armored has been optioned by Sony with Michael Bay producing it. The second Armored book will have a strong dynamic between Duffy and Nichole, co-leads.
The next Gray Man book is titled Murder, the twelfth in the series, out in February next year. Zoya will be back with Zack probably in the latter part of the book.
Red Metal II written with Lt. Col. Hunter Ripley Rawlings will be out before the next Armored book.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE LOST ANDFOUND GIRL by Maisey Yates on the HTP 2022 Summer Reads Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
The small Oregon town of Pear Blossom welcomes the return of its prodigal daughter Ruby McKee. Found abandoned as a baby by the McKee family, Ruby is the unofficial town mascot, but when she and her adoptive sisters start investigating the true circumstances around her discovery, it soon becomes clear that this small town is hiding the biggest, and darkest, of secrets. A raw, powerful exploration of the lengths people go to protect their loved ones, for fans of Lori Wilde and Carolyn Brown.
Ruby McKee is a miracle.
It’s a miracle she survived, abandoned as a newborn baby. A miracle that she was found by the McKee sisters. Her discovery allowed the community of Pear Blossom, Oregon, broken by a devastating crime, to heal. Since then, Ruby has lived a charmed life. But she can’t let go of the need to know why she was abandoned, and she’s tired of not having answers.
Dahlia McKee knows it’s not right to resent Ruby for being special. But uncovering the truth about sister Ruby’s origins could allow Dahlia to carve her own place in Pear Blossom history… if she’s brave enough to follow her heart.
Widowed sister Lydia McKee doesn’t have time for Ruby’s what if’s – when Lydia’s right now is so, so hard. Her husband’s best friend Chase might be offering to share some of the load, but can Lydia ever trust her instincts around him?
Marianne Martin is glad that her youngest sister is back in town, but balancing Ruby’s crusade with the way her own life is imploding is turning into a bigger chore than she imagined. Especially when Ruby starts overturning secrets about the past that Marianne has spent a lifetime trying to pretend don’t exist.
And when the truth about Ruby’s miraculous origins, and the crime from long ago, turn out to be connected in ways no one could have expected, will the McKee sisters band together, or fall apart?
THE LOST AND FOUND GIRL by Maisey Yates is a women’s fiction story with romantic elements featuring four sisters in small town Pear Blossom, Oregon, and the emotional upheaval in all their lives a quest for truth sets in motion. This standalone story is not the usual contemporary cowboy romance I have read from this author previously.
Ruby McKee, the miracle baby, has returned from her travels all over Europe to accept the job offer from the historical society in her small hometown. While Ruby has always been interested in history, her sister, Dahlia is determined to revitalize their town’s print paper. Marianne has the perfect marriage and her own small business, but she is having difficulty connecting to her moody teenage daughter. Lydia is the sister they are all worried about. She has two young children and has lost her husband to ALS and her sisters have not seen her grieve.
As they are all reunited, they must navigate their past sibling relationships and secrets which could rip them apart or bring them closer together to survive any truth no matter how difficult.
This is an intriguing look into adult sibling relationships and the men they love, intertwined with two cold case mysteries. I was not sure where the story was going at first, but once I had the people and storylines sorted, it became a story I found difficult to put down. The climax was a complete surprise that I did not see coming, but it was realistic and sad. Even with all the revelations, Ms. Yates was able to bring the sisters to a believable ending.
This is both a thought provoking and entertaining women’s fiction story.
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Excerpt
one
Ruby
Only two truly remarkable things had ever happened in the small town of Pear Blossom, Oregon. The first occurred in 1999, when Caitlin Groves disappeared one fall evening on her way home from her boyfriend’s family orchard.
The second was in 2000, when newborn Ruby McKee was discovered on Sentinel Bridge, the day before Christmas Eve.
It wasn’t as if Pear Blossom hadn’t had excitement before then. There was the introduction of pear orchards—an event which ultimately determined the town’s name—in the late 1800s. Outlaws who lay in wait to rob the mail coaches, and wolves and mountain lions who made meals of the farmers’ animals. The introduction of the railroad, electricity and a particularly active society of suffragettes, when women were lobbying for the right to vote.
But all of that blended into the broader context of history, not entirely dissimilar to the goings-on of every town in every part of the world, as men fought to tame a wild land and the land rose up and fought back.
Caitlin’s disappearance and Ruby’s appearance felt both specific and personal, and had scarred and healed—if Ruby took the proclamations of various citizens too literally, which she really tried not to do—the community.
Mostly, as Ruby got out of the car she’d hired at the airport and stood in front of Sentinel Bridge with a suitcase in one hand, she marveled at how idyllic and the same it all seemed.
The bridge itself was battered from the years. The wood dark and marred, but sturdy as ever. A white circle with a white 1917, denoting the year of its construction, was stenciled in the top center of the bridge, just above the tunnel that led to the other side, a pinhole of light visible in the darkness across the way.
It was only open to foot traffic now, with a road curving wide around it and carrying cars to the other side a different way. For years, Sentinel Bridge was closed, and it wasn’t until a community outreach and education effort in the mid nineties that it was reopened for people to walk on.
Ruby could have had the driver take her a different route.
But she wanted to cross the bridge.
“Are you sure you want me to leave you here?” her driver asked.
She’d told him when she’d gotten into his car that she was from here originally, and he’d still spent the drive explaining local landmarks to her, so she wasn’t all that surprised he didn’t trust her directive to leave her in the middle of nowhere.
He was the kind of man who just knew best.
They’d just driven through the town proper. All brick—red and white and yellow—the sidewalks lined with trees whose leaves matched as early fall took hold. It was early, and the town had still been sleepy, most of the shops closed. There had been a runner or two out, an older man—Tom Swenson—walking his dog. But otherwise it had been empty. Still, it bore more marks of civilization than where they stood now.
The bridge was nearly engulfed in trees, some of which were evergreen, others beginning to show rusted hints of autumn around the edges. A golden shaft of light cut over the treetops, bathing the front of the bridge in a warm glow, illuminating the long wooden walk—where the road ended—that led to the covered portion, but shrouding the entrance in darkness.
She could see what the man in the car saw. Something abandoned and eerie and disquieting.
But Ruby only saw the road home.
“It’s fine,” she said.
She did not explain that her parents’ farm was just up the road, and she walked this way all the time.
That it was only a quarter of a mile from where she’d been found as a baby.
She had to cross the bridge nearly every day when she was in town, so she didn’t always think of it. But some days, days like this after she’d been away awhile, she had a strange, hushed feeling in her heart, like she was about to pay homage at a grave.
“If you’re sure.” His tone clearly said she shouldn’t be, but he still took her easy wave as his invitation to go.
Ruby turned away from the retreating car and smiled, wrapping both hands around the handle of her battered brown suitcase. It wasn’t weathered from her own use. She’d picked it up at a charity shop in York, England, because she’d thought it had a good aesthetic and it was just small enough to be a carry-on, but wasn’t like one of those black wheeled things that everyone else had.
She’d cursed while she’d lugged it through Heathrow and Newark and Denver, then finally Medford. Those wheely bags that were not unique at all had seemed more attractive each time her shoulders and arms throbbed from carrying the very lovely suitcase.
Ruby’s love of history was oftentimes not practical.
But it didn’t matter now. The ache in her arms had faded and she was nearly home.
Her parents would have come to pick her up from the airport but Ruby had swapped her flight in Denver to an earlier one so she didn’t have to hang around for half the day. It had just meant getting up and rushing out of the airport adjacent hotel she’d stayed in for only a couple of hours. Her Newark flight had gotten in at eleven thirty the night before and by the time she’d collected her bags, gotten to the hotel and stumbled into bed, it had been nearly one in the morning.
Then she’d been up again at three for the five o’clock flight into Medford, which had set her back on the ground around the time she’d taken off. Which had made her feel gritty and exhausted and wholly uncertain of the time. She’d passed through so many time zones nothing felt real.
She waved the driver off and took the first step forward. She paused at the entry to the bridge. She looked back over her shoulder at the bright sunshine around her and then took a step forward into the darkness. Light came up through the cracks between the wood on the ground and the walls. At the center of the bridge, there were two windows with no glass that looked out over the river below. It was by those windows that she’d been found.
She walked briskly through the bridge and then stopped. In spite of herself. She often walked on this bridge and never felt a thing. She rarely felt inclined to ponder the night that she was found. If she got ridiculous about that too often, then she would never get anything done. After all, she had to cross this bridge to get home.
But she was moving back to town, not just returning for a visit, and it felt right to mark the occasion with a stop at the place of her salvation. She paused for a moment, right at the spot between the two openings that looked out on the water.
She had been placed just there. Down on the ground. Wrapped in a blanket, but still so desperately tiny and alone.
She had always thought about the moment when her sisters had picked her up and brought her back to their parents. It was the moment that came before that she had a hard time with. The one where someone—it had to have been her birth mother—had set her down there, leaving her to fate. To die if she died, or live if she was found. And thankfully she’d been found, but there had been no way for the person who had set her there to know that would happen.
It had gotten below freezing that night.
If Marianne, Lydia and Dahlia hadn’t come walking through from the Christmas play rehearsal, then…
She didn’t cry. But a strange sort of hollowness spread out in her chest.
But she ignored it and decided to press on toward home. She walked through the darkness of the bridge, watching as the light, the exit loomed larger.
And once she was outside, she could breathe. Because it didn’t matter what had happened there. What mattered was every step she had taken thereafter. What mattered was this road back home.
She walked up the gravel-covered road, kicking rocks out of her way as she went. It was delightfully cold, the crisp morning a reminder of exactly why she loved Pear Blossom. It was completely silent out here except for the odd braying of a donkey and chirping birds. She looked down at the view below, at the way the mist hung over the pear trees in the orchard. The way it created a ring around the mountain, the proud peak standing out above it. A blanket of green and gold, rimmed with misty rose.
She breathed in deep and kept on walking, relishing the silence, relishing the sense of home.
She had spent the last four years studying history. Mostly abroad. She had engaged in every exchange program she could, because what was the point of studying history if you limited yourself to a country that was as young as the United States and to a coast as new as the West Coast.
She could remember the awe that she’d experienced walking on streets that were more than just a couple of hundred years old. The immense breadth of time that she had felt. And she had… Well, she had hoped that she would find answers somewhere. Because she had always believed that the answers to what ails you in the present could be found somewhere in the past.
And she’d explored the past. Thoroughly. Many different facets of it. And along the way, she done a bit of exploring of herself.
After all, that was half the reason she’d left. To try and figure out who she was outside of this place where everyone knew her, and her story.
Though, when she got close to people, it didn’t take long for them to discover her story. It was, after all, in the news.
Of course, she always found it interesting who discovered it on their own. Because that was revealing.
Who googled their friends.
Ruby obviously googled her friends, but that was because of her own background and experience. If those same friends had an equally salacious background, then it was forgivable.
But if they were boring, then she found it deeply suspicious that they engaged in such activities.
She came over a slight rise in the road and before her was the McKee family farm. It had been in the McKee family for generations. And Ruby felt a profound sense of connection to it. It might not be her legacy by blood, but that had never mattered to the McKees, and it didn’t matter to her either. This town was part of who she was.
And maybe that was why no matter how she had searched elsewhere, she was drawn back here.
Dana Groves, her old mentor, had called her six months ago to tell her an archivist position was being created in the historical society with some newly allocated funds, and had offered the job to Ruby.
Ruby loved Pear Blossom, but she’d also felt like it was really important for her to go out in the world and see what else existed.
It was easy for her to be in Pear Blossom. People here loved her.
It had been a fascinating experience to go to a place where that wasn’t automatically the case. Of course, she hadn’t stayed in one place very long. After going to the University of Washington, she had gotten involved in different study abroad programs, and she had moved between them as often as she could. Studying in Italy, France, Spain, coming to the States briefly for her graduation ceremony in May, and then going back overseas to spend a few months in England, finishing up some elective study programs.
But then, she’d found that instructive too. Being in a constant state of meeting new people. And for a while, the sheer differentness of it all had fed her in a way that had quieted that restlessness. She had been learning. Learning and experiencing and… Well, part of her had wondered if her first job needed to be away from home. To continue her education.
But then six months ago her sister’s husband had died.
And Dana’s offer of a job in Pear Blosson after she finished her degree had suddenly seemed like fate. Because Ruby had to come and try to make things better for Lydia.
Marianne and Dahlia were worried about Lydia, who had retreated into herself and had barely shed a single tear.
She’s acting just like our parents. No fuss, no muss. No crying over spilled milk or dead husbands.
Clearly miserable, in other words.
And Ruby knew she was needed.
One thing about being saved, about being spared from death, was the certainty you were spared for a reason.
Ruby had been saved by her sisters. And if they ever needed her…
Maisey Yates is a New York Times bestselling author of over one hundred romance novels. Whether she’s writing strong, hard working cowboys, dissolute princes or multigenerational family stories, she loves getting lost in fictional worlds. An avid knitter with a dangerous yarn addiction and an aversion to housework, Maisey lives with her husband and three kids in rural Oregon. Check out her website, maiseyyates.com or find her on Facebook.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas follows the life of a 19-year-old huntress, Feyre Acheron, who was brought into an unfamiliar magical realm after killing a faerie in the forest. Upon entering the world of the faeries, she was forced to adapt and live in a world where humans don’t belong. As Feyre becomes more involved with the people around her, she becomes aware of the looming catastrophe she must face to save everyone.
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Book Review
From the description alone, most people, like writer Anjitha M, will say that it’s a simple retelling of the classic Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. However, despite the obvious reference to the Disney classic, Maas was able to craft something different on her own that makes the book unique from the movie.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in the series of the same name. The author’s strong worldbuilding immerses readers in a setting that offers both excitement and uncertainty as we, the readers, set foot in the world of Fae through the eyes of Feyre. In A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR to its legions of fans), we get to meet various characters who all have different backgrounds and perspectives, and we get to journey with a female protagonist who can stand on her own and shoot arrows with her bow.
The story starts with Feyre’s life-changing encounter with a faerie in the woods, which obliged her to leave her family in the human world for a place she had only heard of in stories. Even though Feyre is human, the story revolves around her journey as she interacts and connects with the fantastical creatures of the Fae. As readers, we get to acquaint ourselves and learn about the world’s culture along with her. Feyre’s determination to remain strong despite being thrown in an unfamiliar place with no allies is something worth admiring about her.
Although the first part was a bit slow-paced, the latter half brings so much action and drama. It makes it impossible to not pick up the second book and read what happens next. Reading ACOTAR on its own isn’t enough to fully understand and appreciate the world that the author has created for us. If you plan to read the following book, A Court of Mist and Fury, you can expect more gripping drama, intense romance, and exceptional worldbuilding from Sarah J. Maas.
ACOTAR is a page-turner if high fantasy, adventure, and romance suit your preferences. Once you finish you will want to check out the entire series since the beginning only gives you a glimpse of what’s to come.
Now may just be the best time to read it too as Deadline announced that producers plan to release an ACOTAR TV adaptation on premium cable and streaming networks. If you want to delve into the world of the Fae with vibrant visuals, you can check out the TV adaptation soon. However, if you’re interested in more action-packed adventures and romance books than fantasy, you should add Guild Boss by Jayne Castle to your to-read list. Accompanied by Lucy and Gabriel, you can discover the lawlessness of Illusion Town.
