Finished book #46: Heart Like Mine by Amy Hatvany
I enjoyed this book about a blended family dealing with a tragedy. I liked the different narrators throughout the book.
Thirty-six-year-old Grace McAllister never longed for children. But when she meets Victor Hansen, a handsome, charismatic divorced restaurateur who is father to Max and Ava, Grace decides that, for the right man, she could learn to be an excellent part-time stepmom. After all, the kids live with their mother, Kelli. How hard could it be?
At thirteen, Ava Hansen is mature beyond her years. Since her parents divorce, she has been taking care of her emotionally unstable mother and her little brothershe pays the bills, does the laundry, and never complains because she loves her mama more than anyone. And while her fathers new girlfriend is nice enough, Ava still holds out hope that her parents will get back together and that theyll be a family again. But only days after Victor and Grace get engaged, Kelli dies suddenly under mysterious circumstancesand soon, Grace and Ava discover that there was much more to Kellis life than either ever knew.
Narrated by Grace and Ava in the present with flashbacks into Kellis troubled past, Heart Like Mine is a poignant, hopeful portrait of womanhood, love, and the challenges and joys of family life.
Finished book #47: Missing You by Harlan Coben
Very good mystery. Kept me interested tip the end.
It's a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions shes ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heartand who she hasnt seen in 18 years.
Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable.
As the body count mounts and Kat's hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever lovedher former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.
Finished book #48: The Hollow Girl by Reed Farrel Coleman
This is a Moe Prager series final book. I haven't read any of the others, but still enjoyed this. Good mystery.
Drunk, alone, and racked with guilt over the tragic death of his girlfriend Pam, Moe Prager is destined for oblivion. But destiny takes a detour when a shadowy figure from Moe's past reappears to beg for Moe's help in locating her missing daughter. As a reluctant, distracted Moe delves into the case, he discovers that nothing is as it seems and no one involved is quite who or what they appear to be. This is especially true of the missing daughter, an early internet sensation known ironically as the Lost Girl or the Hollow Girl. The case itself is hollow, as Moe finds little proof that anyone is actually missing.
Things take a bizarre twist as Moe stumbles across a body in a trendy Manhattan apartment and the Hollow Girl suddenly re-emerges on video screens everywhere. It's a wild ride through the funhouse as Moe tries to piece together a case from the half-truths and lies told to him by a fool's parade of family members, washed-up showbiz types, uncaring cops, a doorman, and a lovesick PI. Even as the ticking clock gets louder, Moe is unsure if it's all a big hoax or if someone's life is really at stake. The question isn't whether or not Moe can find the Hollow Girl, but whether the Hollow Girl was ever there at all.
Finished book #49: Stolen by Lucy Christopher
This is a YA book about a girl who is kidnapped & held against her will. It is an intriguing tale of survival. The vividness description of the characters & landscape were wonderful. The writing has you drawn to the kidnapper which causes mixed feelings as the victim feels.
A girl: Gemma, 16, at the airport, on her way to a family vacation.
A guy: Ty, rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar, eyes blue as ice.
She steps away. For just a second. He pays for her drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. To sand and heat. To emptiness and isolation. To nowhere. And expects her to love him.
Written as a letter from a victim to her captor, STOLEN is Gemma's desperate story of survival; of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare--or die trying to fight it.
