Monday Mini-Reviews: Summer Is Just Around the Corner

We've got another busy week coming up at our house.  Middle Sister will be leaving for the state track meet on Wednesday after school and we will be traveling there to watch her compete on Thursday and Saturday.  (Riding in the car may give me some leisure reading time). 

Even with three track meets last week, I was able to enjoy two books by some favorite authors.  I've picked up another great book for this week, so we'll see what I can get accomplished.

 

It wouldn't seem like summer without a new Mary Kay Andrews book. The Newcomer won't disappoint fans, and if you've never picked up a book by MKA, this one would be a fine one to start with. There's a little romance, a little suspense and a beachy Southern town which all made for a fun reading experience.  I've read everything by this author so there weren't any surprises, but I look forward to these books every spring. In short, Letty flees with her young niece, Maya, when she discovers Maya' mom dead in a pool of blood, suspecting her estranged boyfriend as the killer.  The two end up at a small hotel where her sister may have spent time a few years earlier.  Joe, the hotel owner's son, is a local cop and knows Letty must be hiding something.  Meanwhile, her sister's ex-boyfriend has hired people to find Letty.  It's no surprise that this is a happily ever after ending, and there's a lot of pages turned before that happens.

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson is a suspense novel. I've read Jackson's other women's fiction books, but this is her first novel of suspense I've read (Never Have I Ever is her other novel of suspense).  This one took a while to grow on me, as I didn't love the first few chapters.  Bree has a seemingly perfect life: two beautiful daughters, a loving husband, and a surprise baby, Robert, who is just a few months old.  When Robert is kidnapped, Bree does exactly what the kidnapper asks, which leads to lots of secrets unraveling and a life that will never be the same.  I thought the initial introduction of a woman that Bree described as a witch was a stretch, and the conversations between her and the kidnapper also were awkward.  However, this story did have me turning pages rapidly. And I'll read pretty much everything she writes.

On to more fantastic books this week!  And hopefully some fast running this weekend.