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All they want is a baby—and they’ll do anything to have one.

Banking heiress Trish and her husband, James, seem to have it all, from a lavish lifestyle to a historic mansion in the nation’s capital. All that’s missing from their privileged life is a baby.

So when Trish sees Anne Elise for the first time, it’s no surprise that she falls deeply in love. There’s just one problem: Trish isn’t the mother. The baby belongs to Laurel, James’s young mistress. And James and Laurel want the wife out of the picture.

When Trish becomes perversely obsessed with making Laurel’s baby her own, the lovers come up with a wicked plan to end James’s marriage that quickly goes awry. As the love triangle becomes more and more dangerous, how far is each of them willing to go to get what they want?

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MY REVIEW

Trish and James seem like a couple who has everything, but nothing is as perfect as it seems. Trish desperately wants a baby, but she and James have been unable to conceive. However, James’s mistress Laurel just had a baby. Laurel wants Trish out of the picture, so she and James can be a family. Trish wants the baby.

I Will Never Leave You is told with alternating points of view – Trish, Laurel, and James. Trish is a wealthy woman and has everything she wants, except for a child. When James has a child with another woman, Trish sees it as an opportunity. James is a scoundrel. Besides cheating on his wife, he’s terrible with money, which is why their finances are kept separate. He’s in debt, and needs money fast. Laurel is young and naive. She trusts James, and believes they could have a nice life together, if only Trish wasn’t in their way.

I Will Never Leave You is a fast-paced story full of unlikable characters. This is a quick and entertaining read, but it does require a suspension of disbelief.

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Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.

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MY REVIEW

Two college best friends, Wynn and Jack, travel to Canada to canoe the Maskwa River and spend time in the wilderness. They envision a leisurely trip to enjoy nature, but their journey soon takes a turn. For starters, a wildfire is heading their way. Then, they hear a couple arguing, but the next day, they encounter a man paddling alone. Wynn and Jack decide to go in search of the missing woman.

A lovely story of male friendship, adventure, and nature. Wynn and Jack met as freshmen in college and soon bonded over their love for books and nature. The young men are both knowledgeable of the wilderness and capable of taking care of themselves. Their canoeing adventure turns into a suspenseful search for a missing woman and a trip out of the wilderness before the wildfire reaches them.

The River is a beautifully written novel. I enjoy novels that focus on nature, and found this one to be very well done. Also, the wonderful male friendship in this book was great to read. The River is slow-paced, though it does get more exciting toward the end.

I received a digital copy of this book via Penguin’s First to Read in exchange for an honest review.

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From the bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls comes a riveting novel about a mother and daughter separated by grief, secrets, and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their lives.

If there’s a healthy way to grieve, Erin Gaines hasn’t found it. After her husband’s sudden death, the runaway success of the tech company they built with their best friends has become overwhelming. Her nerves are frayed, she’s disengaged, and her frustrated daughter, Shorie, is pulling away from her. Maybe Erin’s friends and family are right. Maybe a few weeks at a spa resort in the Caribbean islands is just what she needs to hit the reset button…

Shorie is not only worried about her mother’s mental state but also for the future of her parents’ company. Especially when she begins to suspect that not all of Erin’s colleagues can be trusted. It seems someone is spinning an intricate web of deception—the foundation for a conspiracy that is putting everything, and everyone she loves, at risk. And she may be the only one who can stop it.

Now, thousands of miles away in a remote, and oftentimes menacing, tropical jungle, Erin is beginning to have similar fears. Things at the resort aren’t exactly how the brochure described, and unless she’s losing her mind, Erin’s pretty sure she wasn’t sent there to recover—she was sent to disappear.

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MY REVIEW

Erin Gaines, her husband, and two friends created a tech company that has started to take off. Erin’s husband died unexpectedly, and Erin is grieving his loss. Her daughter Shorie is leaving for college, but wants to stay home and work at her parents company. Between their grieving and difference of opinions regarding Shorie’s future, the mother-daughter relationship has become strained. Erin is encouraged to go to an exclusive spa for help, but it turns out the spa is not the relaxing resort experience she was expecting.

Told with alternating viewpoints – Erin and Shorie. Erin is grieving, working too much, and doesn’t seem to be taking care of herself. Shorie is smart and resourceful, and wants to work with her parent’s tech company rather than go to college. Erin and Shorie love each other, but their relationship is strained with what is currently happening in their lives. Erin’s friends and family encourage her to attend a spa on a private island to help her get back on track. The island resort turns into a dangerous experience. While Erin is away on the island, Shorie starts to look into some questionable activity going on with the tech company.

Until the Day I Die is an exciting thriller, especially the parts that take place in the jungle of the private island. This book combines a mystery at a tech company and a perilous island experience. Overall, a wild, mysterious, and fast-paced page turner.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Emily Carpenter:

1. Burying the Honeysuckle Girls
2. The Weight of Lies
3. Every Single Secret
4. Until the Day I Die
5. Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters

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Everyone’s invited…everyone’s a suspect…

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?

DON’T BE LEFT OUT. JOIN THE PARTY NOW.

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MY REVIEW

A group of old university friends take a trip to celebrate New Year’s together. They travel to a remote estate in the Scottish Highlands. Within a few days, tensions have risen, secrets are revealed, and someone dies.

The character list for this novel is fairly long, with eleven guests plus a baby staying at the estate and three employees working there. The employees are Heather, Doug, and Iain. The university friends are Miranda, Katie, Julien, Mark, Nick, and Samira. Miranda and Julien are now married. Katie is single and traveling alone. Mark is married to Emma. Nick is dating Bo. Samira is married to Giles, and they have a baby, Priya. In addition to this friend group traveling together, an Icelandic couple, Ingvar and Kristin, are also staying at the estate.

With so many characters, it is not surprising that multiple points of view are used in this novel. The viewpoints are Heather, Doug, Miranda, Katie, and Emma. The switching POVs are seamless, and are easily distinguished from one another. The story is told over a three day period, using a flashback approach. The stories open with the “Now” where a body is discovered. Then the events of the preceding days are told, flipping between what happened in the preceding days to the events in the “Now” timeline. This novel has a lot happening, but I found it easy to follow and never got confused with the who and when of the story.

As for the plot, The Hunting Party is an intriguing mystery. While a dead body is found right off the bat, the identity of the deceased is not known until near the end of the story. So, not only was I trying to guess who the killer was, but also who the victim was.

I enjoy this type of mystery. A group of people in an isolated location. A murder. Secret and lies. Dysfunctional friendships and drama. The Hunting Party is such an entertaining read. Highly recommended.

I received a digital copy of this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Lucy Foley:

1. The Hunting Party
2. The Guest List
3. The Paris Apartment
4. The Midnight Feast

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Twenty-four year old school  teacher KATHRYN (KAT) DELANEY enjoys a comfortable and nondescript life, until events begin to crash down around her, beginning with the murder of her acutely secretive and over-protective father. His death triggers an investigation, which raises questions as to who he really was, and who she is.

Kat is determined to find the answer to her true identity, but the answers find her before she has a chance. Kat is thrown into the violent and chilling world from which her father had protected her all these years, and now she must fight for her life.

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MY REVIEW

Kat’s father was a wonderful dad who loved and protected his daughter, but he was never clear about his past. After Kat’s father is killed, Kat is thrown into a mystery to find out what her father was hiding and who she really is.

This is a fast-paced read. The first part of the novel is a typical mystery, where someone is killed and an investigation into the death begins. Then things take a turn, and a wild adventure begins for Kat as she discovers more about her past. Kat is a young woman, working as a teacher, and living a normal life. She is a little spoiled by her father, but as the novel progresses she starts to take care of herself and become more independent.

The Dagger is an interesting mystery. Kat’s search into her past leads to a wild experience with a variety of characters, including a former boyfriend turned PI, a crazy madman, and a fanatical cult. Suspenseful and exciting.

I received a digital copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the Kat Delaney series:

1. The Dagger