Stacking the Shelves #5 (13 February)

Stacking the Shelves, is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and is about sharing the books which have been acquired – whether paper books, e-books, ARC’s, books bought or borrowed.

Yet again, time ran away from me so this post covers two weeks – a lot of Kindle clicking has been done! 

Paper books received for review:


This Must Be The Place has been setting Twitter on fire recently and I was thrilled to receive a copy for review. The Rooftop Book Club (run by the Headine team) had a public event early in February with Maggie O’Farrell and Monica Wood (author of The One in a Million Boy (pub 5 April)) being interviewed by Hannah Beckerman.  It was great to see both authors talking about their books and I can’t wait to be able to get stuck in to this one. 

Tinder Press, published 17 May 
Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life.   A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex-film star given to shooting at anyone who ventures up their driveway.  He is also about to find out something about a woman he lost touch with twenty years ago, and this discovery will send him off-course, far away from wife and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?  THIS MUST BE THE PLACE crosses continents and time zones, giving voice to a diverse and complex cast of characters. At its heart, it is an extraordinary portrait of a marriage, the forces that hold it together and the pressures that drive it apart.  Maggie O’Farrell’s seventh novel is a dazzling, intimate epic about who we leave behind and who we become as we search for our place in the world.

Michael Joseph Books, published 19 May 
FIRST CLASS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE FROM A MAJOR NEW VOICE IN FICTION
Margot Lewis is the agony aunt for The Cambridge Enquirer. Her advice column, Dear Amy, gets all kinds of letters – but none like the one she’s just received:
Dear Amy,
I don’t know where I am. I’ve been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I’m afraid he’ll kill me. 
Please help me soon,
Bethan Avery
Bethan Avery has been missing for years. This is surely some cruel hoax. But, as more letters arrive, they contain information that was never made public. How is this happening? Answering this question will cost Margot everything . . .

Century, published 30th June (received from Amazon Vine)
You’ve been held captive in one room, mentally and physically abused every day, since you were sixteen years old.  Then, one night, you realize your captor has left the door to your cell unlocked.  For the first time in eight years, you’re free.  This is about what happens next.   Lily knows that she must bring the man who nearly ruined her life – her good-looking high-school teacher – to justice. But she never imagined that reconnecting with her family would be just as difficult. Reclaiming her relationship with her twin sister, her mother, and her high school sweetheart who is in love with her sister may be Lily’s greatest challenge. After all they’ve been through, can Lily and her family find their way back after this life-altering trauma?  Impossible not to read in one sitting, Baby Doll is a taut psychological thriller that focuses on family entanglements and the evil that can hide behind a benign facade.

Hodder – Paperback published 28 January 
He’ll do whatever it takes to find his missing sister.  Darren Evans was only eleven when his beloved sister Carly and four other teenage girls disappeared, sparking a huge police investigation. Eventually, a woman confessed to their murders. But although she admitted her guilt, Olivia Duvall refused to say what had happened to those five missing girls. Or where their bodies might lie.  Ten years later, Darren’s family are still no closer to the truth. Desperate to alleviate his parents’ heartbreak, Darren gets a job as a cleaner in the psychiatric hospital where Olivia was committed, hoping he can make her tell him his sister’s fate once and for all. But playing a killer is a very dangerous game . . .

The Borough Press – published 21 April (received from Amazon Vine)
From the bestselling author of Prep, American Wife and Sisterland comes this brilliant retelling of Austen’s classic set in modern day Cincinnati.  The Bennet sisters have been summoned from New York City.  Liz and Jane are good daughters. They’ve come home to suburban Cincinnati to get their mother to stop feeding their father steak as he recovers from heart surgery, to tidy up the crumbling Tudor-style family home, and to wrench their three sisters from their various states of arrested development.  Once they are under the same roof, old patterns return fast. Soon enough they are being berated for their single status, their only respite the early morning runs they escape on together. For two successful women in their late thirties, it really is too much to bear. That is, until the Lucas family’s BBQ throws them in the way of some eligible single men . . . Chip Bingley is not only a charming doctor, he’s a reality TV star too. But Chip’s friend, haughty neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, can barely stomach Cincinnati or its inhabitants. Jane is entranced by Chip; Liz, sceptical of Darcy. As Liz is consumed by her father’s mounting medical bills, her wayward sisters and Cousin Willie trying to stick his tongue down her throat, it isn’t only the local chilli that will leave a bad aftertaste. But where there are hearts that beat and mothers that push, the mysterious course of love will resolve itself in the most entertaining and unlikely of ways. And from the hand of Curtis Sittenfeld, Pride & Prejudice is catapulted into our modern world singing out with hilarity and truth.

Kindle Books received for review:

Re-Published 1 March 
Arriving home from a routine day at work, Anna Cottrell has no idea that her life is about to change forever. But discovering the stabbed body of a stranger in her flat, then becoming prime suspect in a murder inquiry is only the beginning. Her persistent claims of innocence start to crumble when new evidence links her irrevocably with the victim…   Leading her first murder investigation, DCI Helen Lavery unravels a trail of deception, family secrets and betrayal. When people close to the Cottrell family start to disappear, Lavery is forced into a race against time. Can she catch the killer before he executes his ultimate victim?

Published 17 February 
When your life is a lie, who can you trust?   When Maggie Taylor accepts a new job in Manchester, she is sure it is the right move for her family. The children have settled well although her husband, Duncan, doesn’t appear to be so convinced.   But nothing prepares her for the shock of coming home from work one night to find that Duncan has disappeared, leaving their young children alone. His phone is dead, and she has no idea where he has gone, or why. And then she discovers she’s not the only one looking for him.   When a woman who looks just like Maggie is brutally murdered and DCI Tom Douglas is brought in to investigate, Maggie realises how little she knows about Duncan’s past. Is he the man she loves? Who is he running from?   She doesn’t have long to decide whether to trust him or betray him

Corazon Books, published 22 February 
Set in a seaside town in Devon in Victorian times and the present day. After a whirlwind romance, Laura Marchmont marries the charming Charles Haywood. Leaving her old life behind, she struggles to fit into Charles’s world, and to be accepted by his young daughters from his first marriage. Laura also hides a terrible secret from her new husband, which casts a shadow over her life. Then, she discovers the story of a young girl who lived more than a century before. Laura is compelled to uncover the fate of Mary Rose.   1886. When Mary Rose Marchmont’s widowed father remarries it signals the end of her childhood. A series of tragic events leads Mary Rose to be accused of a shocking crime, after which her life will never be the same again.   A moving family story of history, romance and secrets.   Grace Macdonald is a pen name of the hugely popular romantic fiction author Sophie King.

Penguin/Michael Joseph, published 21 April (Netgalley)
Holly Wright has had a difficult few years. After her mother’s death, she’s become expert at keeping people at a distance – including her boyfriend, Rupert.  But when Holly receives an unexpected letter explaining that an aunt she never met has left her a house on the Greek island of Zakynthos, the walls she has built begin to crumble. Arriving on the island, Holly meets the handsome Aidan and slowly begins to uncover the truth about the secret which tore her family apart.   But is the island where Holly really belongs? Or will her real life catch up with her first?

Orenda Books – ebook 10 February/paperback 1 April
A tragic family event reveals devastating news that rips apart Bella’s comfortable existence. Embarking on a personal journey to uncover the truth, she faces a series of traumatic discoveries that take her to the ruggedly beautiful Cornish coast, where hidden truths, past betrayals and a 25-year-old mystery threaten not just her identity, but her life.Chilling, complex and profoundly moving, In Her Wake is a gripping psychological thriller that questions the nature of family – and reminds us that sometimes the most shocking crimes are committed closest to home. 

I have read this one, I just had to bump it up the priority list.  My review will follow shortly but I loved it.  

Kindle Books Purchased:

There are quite a few so I will just list the book, with the Amazon link.

Secrets at Maple Syrup Farm – Rebecca Raisin
Blue Wicked – Alan Jones
In Love and War – Alex Preston
City of Strangers – Louise Millar
The Cinderella Murder – Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke
Nowhere Child – Rachel Abbott
To the Edge of Shadows – Joanne Graham
Search for the Truth – Kathryn Freeman
The Blissfully Dead – Louise Voss & Mark Edwards
The Exclusives – Rebecca Thornton
Who Do You Think You Are – Claire Moss
Don’t be Afraid – Daniela Sacerdoti
The Silk Factory – Judith Allnatt
Time to Say Goodbye – S D Robertson
The Girl in the Ice – Robert Bryndza
Controlled Explosions (Paula Maguire short story) – Claire McGowan (currently free)

Some fabulous book post and Kindle books here – If only I could give up my job and read!  

What books have come through your door this week – please feel free to comment below with a link to your blog. 

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