Recipe for a Charmed Life by Rachel Linden – Audio   ARC from PRH audio and Berkley for an honest review Book Blurb: American chef Georgia May Jackson has one goal—to run her own restaurant in Paris. After a grueling decade working in Parisian kitchens, she is on the cusp of success. But in one disastrous night, Georgia loses her sous-chef position, her French boyfriend, and her sense of taste! Renowned for her refined palate and daring use of bold flavors to create remarkable dishes, Georgia is devastated to discover her culinary gift has simply…vanished. When she receives a surprisi ..read more

A Short Walk through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke – 416 pages   ARC from Avid Reader Press and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So ..read more

  Shark Heart by Emily Habeck – 416 pages ARC from Mary Sue Ricci books and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams. At first, Wren interna ..read more

  The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston  – Audio   ARC from PRH Audio and Berkley for an honest review Book Blurb: Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it. So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard becau ..read more

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais – 400 pages   ARC from Mira and Netgalley for an honest review  Book Blurb: Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby–one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years–will surely be their salvation. But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a ..read more

Golden Girl by Elin HIldebrand – 384 pages  ARC provided by Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for an honest review  Book Blurb: On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of thirteen beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she’s assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudges” to change the outcome of events on earth, and with her daughter Willa on her thi ..read more

  The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges – 352 pages ARC from Berkley and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone blogs about a dollhouse mansion that captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra’s stories have created legions of fans who breathlessly await every blog post, trade photographs of Mansion-modeled rooms, and swap theories about the enigmatic and reclusive author. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by mysteries she can’t understand—rooms that appear and disappear overnight, m ..read more

  The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique by Samantha Verant – 352 pages ARC from Berkley and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique by Samantha Verant: Kate Jenkins doesn’t believe in fate. She believes in a clear vision, meticulous planning, and hard work in order to achieve her culinary dreams. On the cusp of opening her own Parisian restaurant, Bistro Exotique, she isn’t even concerned when her standoffish–and annoyingly sexy–neighbor dismisses her as a crazy American tourist or when she meets the wildly eccentric Garrance, the self-proclaimed Sp ..read more

What Jonah Knew by Barbara Graham – 400 pages  ARC from Harper Paperbacks for an honest review  Book Blurb: What Jonah Knew by Barbara Graham: Helen Bird will stop at nothing to find Henry, her musician son who has mysteriously disappeared in upstate New York. Though the cops believe Henry’s absence is voluntary, Helen knows better.While she searches for him—joined finally by police—Jonah is born to Lucie and Matt Pressman of Manhattan. Lucie does all she can to be the kind of loving, attentive mother she never had, but can’t stop Jonah’s night terrors or his obsession with the i ..read more

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen – 304 pages ARC from St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an honest review Book Blurb: Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen: Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways. Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits—a stunning old cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe, and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at the Dellawisp she meets her ..read more