Tag Archive for: Lori Gondelman

Lori’s Book Sense

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Welcome to this months edition of Lori’s Book Sense.
This having a boyfriend thing is seriously interfering with my reading time 🙂  I barely got anything read this past month. So for this month, I thought I’d share some titles that are due to be released in October that I’m really looking forward to reading. BUT, I promise to be back next month with some reviews of some amazing books I’ve just finished up!

Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown  (Oct. 2nd) ~  There’s always something to gossip about in Savannah, Georgia, and Reagan Summerside always seems to be in the middle of it. She’s busy enough running her consignment shop, The Prissy Fox, with her vivacious Auntie KiKi, but now the gossip—and the sales—are about to pick up after a gruesome discovery…

Reagan’s messy divorce has left her with nothing but a run-down Victorian and a bunch of designer clothes. Strapped for cash, Reagan makes use of the two things she has left, turning the first floor of her home into a consignment shop and filling it with the remnants of her rich-wife wardrobe.
Thanks to his cunning lawyer Walker Boone, her ex got everything else, including the Lexus—not to mention a young blond cupcake. When Reagan finds the cupcake dead in the Lexus, she’s determined to beat Boone to finding the murderer. As it turns out, the gossip fiends flooding Reagan’s shop will give her a lot more than just their unwanted clothes—they have information more precious than a vintage Louis Vuitton…

Stalked by Allison Brennan (Oct. 30th) ~ Lucy Kincaid returns—as a killer’s obsession.


IN THE GAME OF CRIME


A new trainee at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Lucy Kincaid has already seen more than her share of murder and mayhem. Still reeling from the sex-crime case that sealed her reputation, she’s found a true friend and mentor in Agent Tony Presidio. No matter what goes down at the Bureau, Tony’s got her back—until he’s called to New York to help investigate the murder of a reporter with ties to Lucy.


NEVER PLAY THE VICTIM
But the reporter may not be the first victim of a patient killer with a penchant for revenge, and she’s definitely not the last. Connections between closed cases, a missing person, and Tony himself lead Lucy to fear for those she cares for most. When the FBI is rocked by the death of one of their own, Lucy seeks the help of her boyfriend, private investigator Sean Rogan, to help put together the puzzle—and puts her career in jeopardy. But the harder she pushes for answers, the clearer the truth becomes: There’s a killer inside Quantico. Watching her every move. Waiting to kill again…



Deadly Patterns by Melissa Bourbon (Oct. 2nd) ~ Bliss, Texas, is gearing up for its annual Winter Wonderland festival, but when a mysterious Scrooge ends the merriment with murder, it’ll take more than a ghost from Christmas past to set things right.

Designing a holiday fashion show set in the town’s most prominent historic mansion seems like a job tailor made for dressmaker Harlow Jane Cassidy. But with the mansion’s restoration still in progress and threatening weather on the horizon, she’s feeling on pins and needles more than reveling in holiday cheer.
Having volunteered to play Santa in this year’s festival, Dan Lee Chrisson was ready to move on after his divorce—until Bliss became his final resting place. Discovering his body puts Harlow at the scene of the crime. She’ll need plenty of help from friends and even her late great-grandmother’s spirited sleuthing if she’s to have a ghost of a chance of catching a killer who’s just jumped to the top of the naughty list….

Scorched by Laura Griffin (Oct. 30th) ~ Kelsey Quinn set out to trace a murder victim. Now she may become one.


The dead don’t speak, but Kelsey knows their secrets. As a forensic anthropologist at the Delphi Center crime lab, Kelsey makes it her mission to identify bodies using no more than shards of bone, and her find at a remote Philippines dig hints at a sinister story. When Kelsey’s search for answers puts her at the scene of her exfiancé’s murder, only one man can help her. The same man who broke her heart just months before, and who is also a prime suspect. Faced with an ultimatum— Kelsey or his job—Gage Brewer did the only thing a Navy SEAL could . . . but that doesn’t mean he stopped wanting Kelsey. Now Kelsey is running for her life and Gage is her last line of defense. As the threats escalate, Kelsey realizes this conspiracy goes deeper and higher than they could have guessed. With the clock ticking down on a madman’s plot, the slightest misstep will have unthinkable consequences. . . .

A Fatal Stain by Elise Hyatt (Oct. 2nd) ~ Out damned spot!

As her wedding to detective Cas Wolfe approaches, Candyce “Dyce” Dare, sole owner (and employee) of the furniture refinishing business Daring Finds desperately needs to find something to do to avoid sitting down and planning the event with her mother and her best friend (particularly since she suspects their plans involve having her cat dress in a tuxedo). Working on a table she recently bought at a yard sale fits the bill.
Until her sanding efforts uncover a disturbing stain—one that looks like it might be blood. Dyce knows that, with a fiancé who’s a policeman, parents who own a mystery bookstore, and a recent history of inadvertent involvement in murder cases, she can be prone to seeing things that aren’t there. But then she discovers that the table’s previous owner has gone missing—and once more, she is drawn into a solve-it-yourself mystery project. And when Dyce starts a project, she just has to see it through…  

A Grid for Murder by Casey Mayes (Oct. 2nd) ~ Savannah Stone makes her living creating puzzles for logic lovers. But when a novice puzzle maker’s number is up, Savannah has to fill in the blanks to solve a murder…

 
Savannah would almost rather drink poison than have tea with Joanna Clayton. Not only is the unpleasant woman one of the worst gossips in Asheville, North Carolina, over tea she flaunts her new assignment creating logic puzzles for a local newspaper—one that has repeatedly turned down Savannah’s work.
 
But when Savannah’s retired police chief husband, Zach, calls her later to tell her Joanna has actually been poisoned, she is more than puzzled—she’s troubled. Will the police consider puzzle envy a strong enough motive and think she decided to eliminate the competition? It’s time for Savannah to sort through Joanna’s long list of enemies to find out who was bitter enough to poison the prospective puzzle maker . . .

Lori’s Book Sense

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Welcome to this months edition of Lori’s Book Sense.
I’ve had a very lazy, but exciting summer, so I’ve barely gotten any reading done this month. So for this month, I thought I’d share some titles that are due to be released in September that I’m really looking forward to reading.

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (September 18th) ~ Jane Ryland was a rising star in television news…until she refused to reveal a source and lost everything. Now a disgraced newspaper reporter, Jane isn’t content to work on her assigned puff pieces, and finds herself tracking down a candidate’s secret mistress just days before a pivotal Senate election.


Detective Jake Brogan is investigating a possible serial killer. Twice, bodies of unidentified women have been found by a bridge, and Jake is plagued by a media swarm beginning to buzz about a “bridge killer” hunting the young women of Boston.  
As the body count rises and election looms closer, it becomes clear to Jane and Jake that their cases are connected…and that they may be facing a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to silence a scandal.
Dirty politics, dirty tricks, and a barrage of final twists, The Other Woman is the first in an explosive new series by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Seduction, betrayal, and murder—it’ll take a lot more than votes to win this election.

Murder Unmentionable (Sweet Nothings) by Meg London (September 4th) ~ Sweet Nothings has it all: silk ribbon, Venetian lace, the best bra fitter in town…

and two unsolved murders.

Emma Taylor thought she knew what to expect when she abandoned life as a big-city fashionista to help her aunt, Arabella, breathe new style into Sweet Nothings, her waning lingerie boutique. As Emma settles back in to Paris, Tennessee—a world where pie is served with a parable and a pitcher of sweet tea is the cure for most of life’s ills—her escape seems smooth as silk.

But when the town acquires a touch of unneeded je ne sais quoi with the arrival of Emma’s philandering ex, an unseemly murder turns her world inside out. As the police’s top suspect, Emma is going to need more than fishnets to snare the real killer. And when she and Arabella refuse to let death threats wrapped in knifed nighties stall Sweet Nothings’ vintage lingerie fashion show, it becomes increasingly clear that any garter may hide a gun and that bullet bras might have to live up to their name…

A Wanted Man: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (September 11th) ~ Reacher is back! A Wanted Man is a new masterpiece of suspense—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.

Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia.

An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified.  Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there.

All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat—to both sides at once.

In Lee Child’s white-hot thriller, nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth. As the tension rises, the twists come fast and furious, keeping readers guessing and gasping until the explosive finale.



Last Wool and Testament: A Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery (Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries) by Molly MacRae (September 4th) ~ Kath Rutledge is about to learn the true meaning of TGIF—Thank Goodness It’s Fiber….


That’s the name of the spunky group of fiber and needlework artists founded by Ivy McClellan, Kath’s beloved grandmother. Though Ivy has recently passed on, the ladies still meet regularly at her fabric and fiber shop, The Weaver’s Cat, which Kath has now inherited. But that’s only the first in a series of surprises when Kath returns to the small town of Blue Plum, Tennessee, to settle her grandmother’s affairs.
There’s been a murder, and it turns out her grandmother was the prime suspect. Before she can begin to clear Ivy’s name, Kath encounters a looming presence in the form of a gloomy ghost. It turns out the specter has just as much interest in solving the murder as Kath. So, with a little help from the ladies of TGIF—and a stubborn spirit from beyond—she sets out to unravel the clues and hook the real killer…

Seconds Away: A Mickey Bolitar Novel by Harlan Coben (September 18th) ~ When tragedy strikes close to home, Mickey Bolitar and his loyal new friends—sharp-witted Ema and the adorkably charming Spoon—find themselves at the center of a terrifying mystery involving the shooting of their friend Rachel. Now, not only does Mickey have to continue his quest to uncover the truth about the Abeona Shelter, the Butcher of Lodz and the mysterious death of his father, he needs to figure out who shot Rachel—no matter what it takes.

Mickey has always been ready to sacrifice everything to help the people he loves. But with danger just seconds away, how can he protect them when he’s not even sure who—or what—he’s protecting them from?

Sleepwalker by Wendy Corsi Staub (Septermber 25th) ~ 

Ten years after the catastrophe, a great fallen city has risen again. Ten years after, a horror begins anew . . . or never truly ended.


The nightmare of 9/11 is a distant but still painful memory for Allison Taylor MacKenna—now married to Mack and living in a quiet Westchester suburb. She has moved on with her life ten years after barely escaping death at the hands of New York’s Nightwatcher serial killer. The monster is dead, having recently committed suicide in his prison cell, but something is terribly wrong. Mack has started sleepwalking, with no recollection of where his nighttime excursions are taking him. And here, north of the city, more women are being savagely murdered, their bodies bearing the Nightwatcher’s unmistakable signature.
Suddenly Allison must confront a devastating truth: her life is in jeopardy once again . . . and quite possibly from the man she trusts and loves.

Lori’s Book Sense

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Welcome to this months edition of Lori’s Book Sense.
I hope you enjoy these great titles I’ve chosen for you this month.
15 Seconds by Andrew Gross ~ 15 seconds can tear your life apart . . .Henry Steadman didn’t know what was about to hit him when he pulled up to a red light. A successful Florida plastic surgeon, he is in town to deliver a keynote address at a conference when suddenly his life becomes an unrelenting chase to stay alive.

Stopped by the police for a minor traffic violation, the situation escalates and he is pulled from his vehicle, handcuffed and told he is under arrest. Several other police cars arrive and the questioning turns scary, but just as Henry is released and about to move on, a blue sedan pulls up and the officer is suddenly killed. As the car speeds away, there is only one suspect left behind–Henry. In that moment, his idyllic life becomes a free fall into hell as he becomes the target of a police manhunt, as well as being pursued by a cunning, unnamed perpetrator bent on some kind of vengeance.
When Henry turns to a close friend for help, and he, too, ends up dead, Henry realizes he’s being elaborately framed. But in a chilling twist, the stakes grow even darker, and he is unable to go to the police to clear his name, without bringing on dire and deadly consequences.
With breakneck pacing and nonstop action, 15 Seconds shows what can happen when even the best life is turned upside down in an instant. It is also the story of an innocent man, framed for murder, who has to save the person he loves the most, all while being drawn closer and closer to an inevitable face-to-face standoff with a man determined to destroy his life.
From Miami,
to Jacksonsonville, to Georgia, the race is on. 15 Seconds is the story of one
man’s unrelenting desire to mete out justice to those he feels destroyed his
daughter, without being able to see the real root of her problems and being
unable to lay the blame at the feet of those truly responsible.  It’s the story of another man’s desire to
prove his innocence, to find those that are framing him, and to find out why
they are doing so, and to do it all in time to stop a mad man from destroying
his entire world. Once you start 15 Seconds, there is no way you’ll be able to
put it down. You are sucked in from the very first page. The writing is intense,
the story fast-paced, and the action is non-stop. 15 Seconds is a
spine-chilling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will keep you reading well
into the night. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Playdate by Louise Millar ~ In a quiet London suburb, a group of mothers relies on each other for friendship, favors, and gossip. But some of them shouldn’t be trusted, and others have dark secrets.
When Callie moved into her new neighborhood, she thought it would be easy to fit in. The other parents have been strangely hostile, though, and her frail daughter Rae is finding it impossible to make friends. Suzy, with her rich husband and her three energetic children, has been the only one to reach out, although their friendship has recently felt inexplicably strained. Now the police have suggested that someone dangerous may be living in their neighborhood, and the atmosphere feels even more toxic. Then there’s the matter of Callie’s ex-husband, and the shocking truth behind their divorce . . . a truth that she would do anything to hide.

The Playdate
will cause you to rethink each and every one of your friendships. How well do
you know the woman who’s been watching your child every day after school? Will
you be so quick to cast stones because of something you heard second hand from
someone else? This book will not only have you questioning every single one of
your friendships, but you will also make you stop and think about whom it is
that you can truly trust.  The answer may
very well surprise you.

It’s hard to
believe that The Playdate is the debut thriller for author Louise Millar.  The writing is taut, the action slow building,
the emotions intense, and the climax explosive, making it a must read for all. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Gun Games by Faye Kellerman ~ Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are back in this gripping mystery involving a secret cabal of some of Los Angeles’ most wealthy—and vicious—teens

LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep—witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city’s most exclusive prep schools.

Gregory’s mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen—evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student—a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.

Before it’s over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return.

Gun Games is an intense story that
will lead you into the inner workings of the teenage minds; the minds of those
in love, and the minds of those who hurt without feeling, and the secrets that
they keep. For readers who have experienced forbidden teenage love you will
find yourself rooting for Gabe & Yasmine to find a way to be open with
their love, but you may also remember what it was like to lie and deceive those
that trusted you.  Ms. Kellerman has the
skilled ability to bring her readers right into the pages of her book so that
you feel as if you are experiencing everything right along with characters
themselves. Gun Games is an intense story that will grab you from page one, and
hold you right up to the mesmerizing conclusion.

Lori’s Reading Corner

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by Lori Gondelman

I never had any intention of becoming a book blogger. I had no idea where to start, what it should cover, how it should look, or more importantly, if anyone would even care. At the time I started my blog I belonged to a book swapping site called http://www.paperbackswap.com/. Basically you post books that you no longer want, and when another member requests your book, you mail it off to them. Once they receive your book you earn a credit, with which you can then order a book that you want. Nice and simple, right? I soon had a new group of friends, fellow booklovers. It got to a point that my friends started calling me “the book pimp” because my book recommendations would cause their wish lists to grow out of control, and their piles of books would transform from small hills to massive mountains. Several of them started bugging me about doing a book blog. I put it off because I honestly felt like I had nothing worthwhile to say. And again, would anyone really care? I finally “caved,” and Lori’s Reading Corner was born, just about three years ago. It’s taken off in ways that I never dreamed possible.

My blog started off as a way for me to share my love of reading and my thoughts on books with others. I love seeing comments that say, “I bought this book on your recommendation, and I loved it. I’ll be back to see what else you’ve got for me.” It warms my heart to know that I’ve given someone else the same joy I got from reading a book, a book they might not otherwise have read if they hadn’t seen my review.

What has really surprised me though, are the amazing contacts I have made. I know there are thousands of bloggers out there, and that I’m just one tiny little fish in a big pond. Having said that, I’ve been fortunate enough to make some amazing contacts at Harper Collins, Random House, St. Martin’s, Penguin/Berkley, and several other publishing houses. Publishers, publicists, and authors who have “stumbled” on my blog and would like to send me advanced reader copies to review. Really? Little ‘ole me? Why? Most importantly, I’ve developed some terrific friendships with some fantastic authors. Authors that have been extremely supportive of my blog. They have offered encouragement and advice. Jessica Park has been an amazing, encouraging friend to me. Whenever I find reviews that I think make mine look like they were written by a two-year-old, she reminds me that everyone has their own writing style, and that as long as I stay true to myself, my reviews are just as good, if not better, than the others out there. Jessica has also helped me get started with some editing/proofing work. Not only did she ask me for my feedback and proofing help on her latest book, she’s also mentioned me to other author friends of hers, possibly opening even more doors for me. That she thinks that much of me and wants MY feedback means more to mean than I could ever put into words.

When I first started blogging, my goal wasn’t to meet authors, make amazing contacts, or get advanced reader copies of amazing books (although those have been unanticipated bonuses). It was simply to let others know what I thought about the books I was reading. To hopefully spread the word about some amazing books and some incredible authors. And I hope (and think) that’s exactly what I’ve done.