Book Review: It Must Be True Then

 

By Melissa Smoot

*One horrible, “bury your head under the covers” kind of day

*Two adorable children to nanny; and

*Their very hot, very single father

Daisy has realized you really can hit rock bottom when you lose your job, your boyfriend, and are estranged from your sister all at once. Seeking to claw her way out from the very definition of a bad year, her plan is to start by simply looking like she’s clawing her way out of rock bottom. On Instagram. Obviously.

But when she takes a stopgap job as a nanny to help a single father with his two young girls, being immersed in a close-knit, loving family starts to poke holes in her plan. Can making her not-so-picture-perfect life look perfect online really help her derailed career get back on track? Can it mend her relationship with her unreliable and painfully irritating sister? And can it get her back in the arms of her unbelievably beautiful and shallow ex…and as she gets closer to someone new, does she even want to?

A sparkling and bright novel of love, second chances, and finding your way in the age of ennui and influencers, It Must Be True Then is a delight for the millennial and Gen Z age. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

I can’t say enough great things about this story. From the first few chapters, it just felt like one of the old-school women’s fiction books that got me loving this genre in the first place. The main character, Daisy, was so relatable and I felt a little bit “seen” while reading some parts. The author made the story flow so perfectly and I never felt like I was missing something critical.

Set in London (my favorite setting) the story follows Daisy and her obsession with a job she loves, which also comes with another of her obsessions, Jackson Oakley. When Daisy messes up with a huge client, her life goes on a trajectory that she could never have expected. There were times I thought I knew what was going to happen next, and then Adams would throw a giant curveball at me, and it was delightful.

If you are looking for a book that will give you that cozy feeling of curling up with your oldest friend and a nice glass of wine, then this is it. I found myself smiling throughout the entire story and I even felt inspired at many points. I can’t wait to see what Luci Adams comes out with next because I have found a new favorite author to add to my list!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Also by Luci Adams: Not That Kind of Ever After

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Book Review: The Good Wife

By Sara Steven

Appearances can be deceiving… After a whirlwind romance and three years of marriage, I’d tried to be a good wife.

My husband Tom is always watching, controlling my every move. He chooses my clothes, my hairstyle, even instructing what and how much I’m allowed to eat – just ten mouthfuls.

I’ve become isolated from those I love, forbidden to work and stuck at home to fulfill his every whim. My identity along with my life is long gone. I am slowly suffocating but I know Tom will never, ever let me leave alive.

But a chance encounter with Savanah changes everything. Tom just couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. I hoped she might be my savior. What if I asked for her help? Paid her to steal my husband away? Could my husband’s desire for another woman be the answer to my prayers, to my freedom? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)

Another hit by Gemma Rogers! 

The Good Wife is a crazy psychological thriller of a rollercoaster ride that really brought out the best and worst of my emotions. For much of the book, I felt so much tension towards the relationship between Tom and Chloe. I wanted to somehow launch myself inside and become a guard or shield for Chloe, and tell Tom where to go! He was the best villain, portrayed well through not only Chloe’s perspective, but his own as well. He justifies much of his attitude and actions, despite what it does to Chloe. And despite how terrible Chloe feels, she lets it happen because she feels like she has no other choice but to allow Tom to degrade her at every turn.

I kept thinking, how? How could she not see the red flags, and how could she continue to allow him to control her. But, through her own words, the reader gains a better understanding of how it could be that she’s found herself to be a prisoner for three years.  The situation with Savanah feels totally out of the box, but it makes perfect sense. Maybe there’s a chance that Chloe can gain freedom by use of Savanah. Suddenly, it becomes a very bizarre lust triangle and a literal fight to the finish–will Tom be the winner? Or will Chloe find a way to outwit Tom at his own games? 

I wish I could say that so much of the storyline and what we find within The Good Wife is complete acts of fiction, but having watched a lot of reality television highlighting the depravity of some individuals–the show Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? comes to mind–I can tell you that some people do think the way Tom does. I felt like the author did an impeccable job with that. He’s sinister, with just a touch of a superiority complex that kept me wanting to find out more about him, and try to figure out the root behind his actions. And I never knew for sure what would happen next. With the story told from three different perspectives–Chloe, Tom, and Savanah–where one viewpoint ended the next viewpoint would pop in and it felt like the potential for all hell to break loose was always on the horizon.  

This was a thrilling experience, from start to finish. A definite five-star read!

Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Purchase Links: 
Amazon US * Amazon UK * Apple * Barnes & Noble

Gemma Rogers lives in West Sussex with her husband, two daughters and a bouncy French Bulldog called Boycie. Her love of writing began in her early teenage years, inspired by hours spent buried in Point Horror, Richard Laymon and Christopher Pike with the occasional Judy Blume thrown in for good measure. Other passions include movies - horrors especially (who doesn't love a good scare), country walks, swimming and anything involving cake.

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Spotlight and Giveaway: Never Been Better

Today we are featuring Leanne Toshiko Simpson's debut novel, Never Been Better. It sounds like My Best Friend's Wedding in some ways and also addresses mental health. Thanks to Putnam, we have one copy for a lucky reader!

Is she falling in love, or falling apart?

Dee, Misa, and Matt were the "three musketeers" of the psych ward. A year after discharge, Dee is eager to convince everyone that she’s finally turning things around. But Matt and Misa are tying the knot in Turks and Caicos, surrounded by guests who have no idea where they met, and the secrecy isn’t sitting well with Dee, who has been hopelessly in love with Matt since before she got kicked out of the hospital.

So, when Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister, Tilley, it’s now or never to confess how she feels. But disrupting her best friends’ nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds the trio together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a girl supposed to choose between love and recovery? (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

"A hilarious, honest, refreshing, and moving story about mental health, friendship, and love. Never Been Better is a brilliant debut." 

—Emily Austin, author of Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead

"Life after the psych ward combined with a destination wedding and secrets between friends can only lead to raw yet heartfelt hijinks in this delightful debut by Leanne Toshiko Simpson. Searing and honest, Never Been Better is that most rare of things—a novel that combines humor, heartache and hope in one page-turning package, with lyrical and wickedly funny writing in spades. Simpson is a writer to watch!" 

—Uzma Jalaluddin, author of Much Ado About Nada

"Leanne Toshiko Simpson's Never Been Better is an exuberant debut rich with snappy dialogue, madcap misadventures and a lot of heart." 

—Rebecca Hardiman, author of Good Eggs

Credit: Nick Wong

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer who lives with bipolar disorder. Named Scarborough’s Emerging Writer in 2016 and nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019, she co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada’s largest mental health hospital and teaches at the University of Toronto. Visit Leanne at her website and on Instagram.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends March 12th at midnight EST.

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Book Review: The Catch

By Melissa Smoot

In a last-ditch effort to rescue her brand from the brink of irrelevance, Boston fashion influencer Melanie Karlsen finds herself in a rural fishing village on the east coast of Canada. The only thing scarier than nature itself? The burly and bearded bed-and-breakfast owner and fisherman, Evan Whaler—who single-handedly disproves the theory that Canadians are “nice.”

After a boating accident lands Evan unconscious in the hospital, Mel is mistaken for his fiancée by his welcoming yet quirky family, who are embroiled in a long-standing feud over the B&B. In a bold attempt to mend family fences, Mel agrees to fake their engagement for one week in exchange for Evan’s help with her social media content.

Amid long hikes and campfire chats, reeling in their budding feelings for each other proves more difficult by the day. But is Mel willing to sacrifice her picture-perfect life in the city for a chance at a true, unfiltered love in the wild? (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

I really enjoyed this story. I lived in Boston for a while, so it was fun to read something that was partially set there. The main character, Melanie, is a Boston based fashion influencer. She is supposed to be headed to the east coast of Canada to a luxury spa, but somehow finds herself stranded and ends up at a B&B in a rural fishing village. When she meets the grouchy and very unfriendly owner of the B&B, Evan, she is thrust into a whirlwind week of lies, family, and a long-standing feud.

This story was fun, and I loved how Lea gave the secondary characters such quirky personalities. It really added to the story and made Mel’s dilemma towards the end, even greater. In some ways this story seemed like a predictable rom com, but the author made the journey to the ending funny and surprising. The way the scenery and the B&B were so thoughtfully described, made me feel like I was there.

I liked how Melanie had her own life and history back in Boston and that stayed a part of the story throughout.  It helped to greater understand some of the choices she made along the way, and the reasoning behind them. 

The Catch was a great read. I would recommend this book, especially to take on a vacation to a lake or beach. I did feel like I wanted a little more at the end…but I think this story could easily have a sequel! 

Thanks to Berkley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Amy Lea:
Set On You
Exes and O's
Woke Up Like This

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Samantha M. Bailey is the friend we all need!

 

We're pleased to have Samantha M. Bailey back at CLC to celebrate the recent publication of her latest thriller, A Friend in the Dark. Samantha is a genuinely wonderful person and we always love chatting with her. We hope you will enjoy today's interview. There's also a giveaway for A Friend in the Dark on Goodreads that ends later this month. (Ebook, US only.)

Check out Melissa's five-star review of A Friend in the Dark.

Samantha M. Bailey is the USA TODAY, Amazon Charts, and #1 international bestselling author of WOMAN ON THE EDGE, WATCH OUT FOR HER, and A FRIEND IN THE DARK. She lives in Toronto, where she can usually be found tapping away at her computer or curled up on her couch with a book. Samantha is currently working on her next domestic thriller. 

Visit Samantha online:

Website * Facebook * Instagram

Synopsis:

Eden Miller’s world is crumbling. Her husband blindsided her with divorce, and her daughter barely speaks to her. In an impulsive decision to escape her present and revisit the past, she sends a friend request to her college crush, Justin Ward.

One night twenty-three years ago changed the course of her life. It closed the door on Justin and opened the door to her husband, Dave. But what if Eden could have a do-over?

Eden begins an online relationship with Justin that awakens her in ways she never thought possible, and his voice and words make her take bold risks. But something’s off. He knows too much about her and her family…he’s been following her.

Eden is forced to awaken from her fantasy and look for answers—who really is the man on the other line? The truth about Justin—and about what happened that fateful night two decades ago—puts her and her family in a fight for their lives. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

“Clever, sexy, and compulsively readable, A Friend in the Dark is a pulse-pounding thriller with one jaw-dropping twist after another. Samantha M. Bailey has created a compelling cast of characters, a dark and layered mystery, and an insightful look at marriage, motherhood, and female identity.” 

—Robyn Harding, bestselling author of The Drowning Woman

“This sexy, heart-pounding thriller is everything a reader craves. Brilliant plotting and misdirection and mind games will have you flipping pages at warp speed. With twists and turns galore throughout, this is a one-sit read that will leave you shocked. A compelling look at fantasy versus reality, A Friend in the Dark is sure to stand out as a fan favorite of 2024.” 

—Jaime Lynn Hendricks, bestselling author of I Didn’t Do It

“Samantha M. Bailey never disappoints! A Friend in the Dark is one of the most intriguing and surprising books I’ve read in a while. You think you know where it’s headed…but you don’t. This thriller shocked me to the very end.” 

—Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

What is something you would tell the debut novelist version of yourself?
Everything you expect will happen won't. Everything you never expected, in the best ways, will. So, try not to have any expectations, but a lot of hope. 

What did you learn from your first two thrillers that you applied to A Friend in the Dark?
That would take an entire book itself to answer. But one of the greatest lessons I've learned is that my outline is a map. Once I start writing, and especially re-writing, as much as I try to steer the story in a specific direction, ultimately my characters will grab the wheel and take us off road. I just have to hang on for the ride.

Was there anything you had to cut from your novel that you really wanted to leave in?
I have been very lucky in my publishing career to work with fantastic, insightful editors who love my voice and only ever want to enhance it. For A Friend in the Dark, my developmental editor, my acquiring senior editor, and I went through a few heavy revisions, communicating deeply about what the story needed. Revising is my very favorite part of writing. If there were anything I believed shouldn't be cut, my team and I would discuss it, with the shared goal of creating the very best book possible. 

If your life was a TV series, which celebrity would you want to narrate it? (Like how John McEnroe narrated Devi's life on Never Have I Ever.)
I love this question and that show! I'm going to say Scarlett Johansson, because I've been told we share a similar husky rasp to our voices. 

Tell us the strangest way you became friends with someone.
I was and still am a huge fan of author Amina Akhtar. So, when I saw her in the bathroom at the Bouchercon conference in Dallas in 2019, though I was nervous to approach her, I did it anyway because I had to take the chance. Since then, we have become friends. I adore and admire Amina so much, and she's forgiven me for stalking her in what is, of course, the worst place to fangirl.

If we were to visit you right now, what are some places you would take us to see?
I live in Toronto, and there is so much to see and do here. Some of my favorite places are Yorkville, the Beltline, Distillery District, Harbourfront, Kensington Market, High Park, the Toronto Islands, and we have the best restaurants and patios, especially in the summer. 

Thanks to Samantha for visiting with us today!

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Book Review: Baby X

By Jami Denison

Author and bioethicist Kira Peikoff has followed up her medical thriller Mother Knows Best (reviewed here) with another thriller about how advances in genetic research will change parenthood. In Baby X, Peikoff swings for the fences, setting her book decades into the future and creating a world in which gene manipulation has taken over society. Although confusing at times, Peikoff succeeds at creating a believable future populated with characters that readers can identify with. 

In Peikoff’s brave new world, genetic manipulation has advanced to a point where any cell can be used to make sperm or eggs, and celebrities need to guard themselves from people who would steal their used tissues or even the air they breathe to create their gametes and make babies with them. And babies are no longer created the natural way; their parents have embryos made in the lab, then select the genetically best one for implantation. Three point-of-view characters grapple with the implications: Ember, who works as a “bio-guard,” shielding her celebrity clients’ DNA; Quinn, a surrogate mother, and Lily, a young adult embarrassed that she was “unforeseen” and wondering how she can get ahead at work while competing with “selected” colleagues. 

Baby X is a little hard to get into at first. While the opening scene is a bombshell, Peikoff then backtracks about a year, and the protagonists are introduced separately. Peikoff does so much worldbuilding in the beginning, explaining about current reproductive processes, the DNA stealing being used for baby-making, and all the other technological advances that have happened since 2023, that it’s easy to get lost in the details. A few chapters in, though, the characters become clearer and the book starts to hum. Ember falls in love with a client, but she has a stalker ex-boyfriend and a big secret about her past. Quinn starts to wonder if the widowed father who hired her to carry his embryo is lying to her. And Lily, embarrassed by her mother’s late-in-life pregnancy, delves deeper into her parents’ past. Peikoff adroitly juggles these characters while stressing the questions that make their dilemmas timeless: How to keep things private when everything is so public? How to compete when you feel you’re not good enough? How can we trust the people around us? Who has the right to make reproductive decisions for other people? 

While Peikoff goes heavy on the science, she includes the twists that readers of the thriller genre expect. Her ending is a masterpiece that ties all of her plot threads together. And while some of her details seem completely farfetched, there was one detail about the future that I hope comes to pass: Peikoff predicts that the United States will expand Medicare into a national healthcare system. I don’t want a world where every baby is made in a test tube, but Medicare for all is a future I’d endorse. It's too bad that, thanks to an Alabama court, we are closer to a future where IVF is illegal than one where health care is paid for by taxes. 

Thanks to Meryl Moss Media for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Kira Peikoff:

Living Proof

No Time to Die

Die Again Tomorrow

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Book Review: Ex in the City

By Sara Steven

Nicole Wilde’s life has not panned out how she expected.

Ten years ago when she was living the rock star lifestyle as a music journalist - touring the country, going to gigs and hanging out with celebrities - she never thought she would end up living an uneventful life in suburbia, in a relationship that is well past its sell-by date.

Nicole knows that her days of wild parties and tour buses are over, but yet there is something that keeps drawing her back to her old life. So when rock star Dylan King turns up on her doorstep needing her help to restore his public image, she can’t resist one last trip down memory lane.

But Nicole and Dylan's history is complicated. And when her old life and new life collide, she will soon realise that you can’t run away from your past forever, and sometimes you just have to follow your heart… (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)

You can take the girl out of her rock-style world, but you can’t take the rock-style world out of the girl! 

I’ve read a ton of Portia Macintosh’s books, but I haven’t explored her Nicole Wilde series. Ex in the City was a lot of fun! It was interesting to see the vast differences between the lifestyle Nicole used to live as a music journalist, and where she is now, in suburbia. Given her current situation and what has happened with Rowan, the man she definitely has an “it’s complicated” relationship with, it was huge of her to keep up appearances and do all she can for the common good of the makeshift family she’s been with for three years. 

When Dylan is first introduced, I could sense and feel the fresh breath of air that he brings to Nicole, despite the at times rocky past they’ve shared. Wild parties and tour buses don't sound like my cup of tea at all, but Nicole was really selling her experiences and I felt like I was right there with her, particularly with her “will they or won’t they” attitude when it comes to her feelings about Dylan. She can’t forget the lives they led back in the day, yet it appears there has been a lot that has changed–not just for her, but for him, too. 

I was ready to see Nicole leave Rowan right from the get go, but I could understand why she felt a duty to stick things out as long as she did. She is continually torn between living the life she lives now, and falling back into something that used to feel like magic to her. But can she fully trust Dylan, when she can’t forget the past? In so many ways, this felt like a coming-to-her-senses kind of experience for Nicole, in deciding how she truly wants to spend her life, and who she wants to spend it with. I think Ex in the City can really speak to so many of us “yummy mummies” who have traded in our leather jackets and tight jeans for yoga pants and hoodies, who feel like we have to leave the past behind and become “mature adults,” but maybe there’s a way to still hold onto the things we used to love with the things we love now. Nicole’s story was an inspiring read!

Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US * Amazon UK * Barnes & Noble * Apple

Portia MacIntosh is the bestselling author of over 20 romantic comedy novels. From disastrous dates to destination weddings, Portia’s rom-coms are the perfect way to escape from day to day life, visiting sunny beaches in the summer and snowy villages at Christmas time. Whether it’s southern Italy or the Yorkshire coast, Portia’s stories are the holiday you’re craving, conveniently packed in between the pages.

Formerly a journalist, Portia has left the city, swapping the music biz for the moors, to live the (not so) quiet life with her husband and her dog in Yorkshire.

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