Story for the Week
Thirty books in twelve months. That’s my reading goal for 2022.
If you read last week’s post (My Book Year in Review—2021 Edition), you know that’s the same goal I had for 2021 and I didn’t even come close, but I’m still shooting for that in 2022. 😁 I bought The Happy Planner Wellness Undated planner through WW to start using this month, and my monthly goal for January is to read an hour a day.
Wellness has many facets—including mental wellness—which, for me, means finding time for myself. I’ll tell you a secret 🤐 …ok, maybe not a secret. Reading a good book equates to valuable time for myself. But this year, I’ve made it a serious goal because I’ve lost my groove. The losses we’ve suffered and the challenges we’ve faced as a family the last two years have taken a toll, and I have found it difficult to lose myself in a good story.
But I have a nice list of advanced reader copies lined up, which will be featured here as their release dates approach, and my first review of the new year of the newest Amanda Prowse is nearly in the books (pun totally intended).
Enjoy the preview! And here’s hoping that in this New Year we all achieve our goals and find our happiness. 💜
Upcoming Reviews in 2022
All of the titles listed below are available now for pre-order on Amazon.
To Love and Be Loved by Amanda Prowse—release date January 11
Young and desperately in love, Merrin had the whole world ahead of her. But just as her new life was about to start, the ground beneath her feet was cruelly swept away. Devastated by the humiliation, she ran far away from the beloved fishing village she had always called home to lick her wounds and escape her gossiping friends and neighbours.
It hasn’t been easy, but six years later Merrin has forged a new life for herself far from the sea, burying the impulsive girl she once was. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to return to the village she swore she’d never set foot in again.
Reluctantly back in the arms of her community, Merrin begins to realize what she’s been missing out on all these years. As she begins to remember the person she used to be, she is forced to make choices about her future, and to question the past. What does she want from her life? Who is important to her? Who is to blame for everything that went wrong? And can she forgive them, let old wounds heal and finally be her true self again?
A Fair Warning by Dianna Roman — release date March 8
Poppy: All I wanted was to throw a little bag of dog poop at my ex’s door to release my divorce demons. Is that too much to ask? Just my luck Deputy Hillbilly Upchuck Duke catches me in the act. That creep’s been on me like germs on a buffet since we were kids. I have a bar to run, a beer garden to build, and moron cousins and patrons to wrangle. I don’t have time to be stalked by this idiot. If he thinks showing back up in Grand Valley with a star on his inbred chest, sans mullet, will make me forget the hell he put me through, he’s dumber than he was when he left Illinois.
Chuck: Poppy Prince hates my guts. Always has. It’s cute she thinks those nicknames bother me, almost as cute as how clueless she still is about her sex appeal. It takes a special kind of man to put up with her crap. I’m going to show her once and for all that no one’s as special as me.
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen—release date March 8
If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal—she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault—and almost absorb the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death.
Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple—until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.
When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.
The Favor by Nora Murphy—release date May 31
Staying is dangerous. Leaving could be worse.
Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.
They don’t—ever—find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop.
They don’t—ever—discuss their problems and find common ground.
They don’t—ever—acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.
Because Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be more dangerous than what’s outside. Driving past McKenna’s house one night, she sees what she knows only too well from her own marriage: McKenna’s “perfect” husband is not what he seems. Leah decides to keep watch over McKenna, until one night, she intervenes, and sets into motion events that will change both their lives forever.
Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.
Backstory by William L. Myers, Jr.—release date June 7
Jackson Robert Hunter wakes up with a badly battered head and no memory. When clues convince him that his wife’s recent suicide was murder, he sets out to find the killer. But his cross-country odyssey triggers damning memories, suggesting that Jackson may be the true villain of his story.
The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark—release date June 21
She’s back.
Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She’s a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be—a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she’s done, you’ve likely lost everything.
Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat’s long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg’s true target is.
Here for the Drama by Kate Bromley—release date June 21
It wouldn’t be the theater without a few theatrics…
Becoming a famous playwright is all Winnie ever dreamed about. For now, though, she’ll have to settle for assisting the celebrated, sharp-witted feminist playwright Juliette Brassard. When an experimental theater company in London, England, decides to stage Juliette’s most renowned play, The Lights of Trafalgar, Winnie and Juliette pack their bags and hop across the pond.
But the trip goes sideways faster than you can say “tea and crumpets.” Juliette stubbornly butts heads with the play’s director and Winnie is left stage-managing their relationship. Meanwhile, Winnie’s own work seems to have stalled, and though Juliette keeps promising to read it, she always has some vague reason why she can’t. Then, Juliette’s nephew, Liam, enters stage left. He’s handsome, he’s smart, he is devastatingly British…and his family ties to Juliette pose a serious problem, forcing Winnie to keep their burgeoning relationship on the down-low. What could go wrong?
Balancing a production seemingly headed for disaster, a secret romance and the sweetest, most rambunctious rescue dog, will Winnie save the play, make her own dreams come true and find love along the way—or will the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune get the best of her?
Half Sisters by Virginia Franken—release date June 21
After being gone for two decades, Maddy’s half sister, Emily, is back in town to settle their late father’s estate. Emily’s not the troubled girl Maddy remembers from their volatile childhood. Apparently, all is well. It can’t possibly matter anymore that Maddy married Emily’s first love, but the pictures Maddy finds on her husband’s phone tell a different story. Suspicions of an affair are hard to ignore.
Then again, Maddy hasn’t been herself lately. She’s increasingly confused. She’s losing items that are precious to her. She forgets where she’s going. The line between what’s real and unreal has become a blur. Even the damning photos have disappeared. Though her state of mind starts to become everyone’s cause for concern, Maddy refuses to believe she’s losing her grip on reality. But the one thing she can’t deny is the secret from the past that rewrote all their lives—a secret that’s ready to come out.
What Jonah Knew by Barbara Graham—release date July 5
Helen Bird will stop at nothing to find Henry, her musician son who has mysteriously disappeared in upstate New York. Though the cops believe Henry’s absence is voluntary, Helen knows better.
While she searches for him—joined finally by police—Jonah is born to Lucie and Matt Pressman of Manhattan. Lucie does all she can to be the kind of loving, attentive mother she never had, but can’t stop Jonah’s night terrors or his obsession with the imaginary “other mom and dog” he insists are real.
Whether Jonah’s anxiety is caused by nature or nurture—or something else entirely—is the propulsive mystery at the heart of the novel.
All hell breaks loose when the Pressmans rent a summer cottage in Aurora Falls, where Helen lives. How does Jonah, at seven, know so much about Henry, Helen’s still-missing son? Is it just a bizarre coincidence? An expression of Jung’s collective unconscious? Or could Jonah be the reincarnation of Henry?
Faced with more questions than answers, Helen and Lucie set out to make sense of the insensible, a heart-stopping quest that forces them to redefine not just what it is to be a mother or a human being, but the very nature of life—and death—because of what Jonah knows.
The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman—release date July 12
When actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Christopher, in the middle of the night, it’s all her Oak Hill neighbors can talk about. The gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing on his walk home from kindergarten.
Billy’s mother, Rachel, blames herself for being at work and letting her only child walk alone. Cassidy, Billy’s teenage babysitter, was also late to arrive on the afternoon he disappeared and blames herself for his disappearance.
As the clock ticks down, police are unable to find any trace of Billy, forcing Rachel to ponder the enemies she’s made in their well-off suburb. Could it be one of her neighbors who stole her son? Would they abduct Billy to hurt her? How easy would it be to take a child while the parents or nannies are distracted?
When another child goes missing, the town is put under a microscope as the police try to get to the bottom of the disappearances. Will they be able to find the two children, or will it be too late? What secrets lie at the heart of this tragedy, and how far will one go to keep those dangerous secrets buried?
Corinne by Rebecca Morrow—release date July 12
You want to walk away from the things that were bad for you and never look back.
That’s what Corinne Callahan wants.
Cast out of the fundamentalist church she was raised in and cut off from her family, Corinne builds a new life for herself. A good one. But she never stops missing the life—and the love—she’s left behind.
It’s Enoch Miller who ruins everything for her. It was always Enoch Miller. She’ll never get him out from under her skin.
The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas—release date August 2
The Victims…When pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations, the last thing she expects is builders uncovering human remains. The remains of two bodies, in fact.
The Investigation…Forensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years. Saffy has nothing to worry about—until the police launch a murder inquiry and ask to speak to the cottage’s former owner. Her grandmother, Rose.
The Witness…Rose is in a nursing home and Alzheimer’s means her memory is increasingly confused. She can’t help the police, but its’ clear she remembers something.
The Killer . . . As Rose’s fragmented memories resurface, and the police dig ever deeper, Saffy fears she and the cottage are being watched.
The Truth . . . What happened thirty years ago? Why did no one miss the victims? What part did her grandmother play? And is Saffy now in danger?
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