EXCERPT:There, on a plastic jewelry display, was a charm bracelet that looked impossibly familiar. The piece was a mixture of rose, yellow and white gold, braided together loosely like the one she and her friends had once shared. Except the bracelet she remembered only held one heart-shaped friendship charm. This one held several charms. Melody blinked the sting from her eyes. There was no way that this was the same bracelet Alyssa had gifted their little quartet of friends right before high school graduation. Once upon a prom night, that charm bracelet was lost in a car accident – along with ..read more

Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.com Welcome to First Lines Friday, originally hosted by Reading is my Superpower. Instead of judging a book by its cover, here are the first few lines which I hope will make you want to read this book. These lines are from one of my NetGalley ARCs, which I started last night. <i>MELODY Melody Palmer pulled up at the address in her GPS and parked along the curb. The sign above the awning read HIDDEN TREASURES in large golden block letters. The word</i> treasure<i> brought visions of jewelry or fancy clothing to mind. It conjured images of spe ..read more

EXCERPT: There were three sisters. One tall and thin like a nervous flamingo bird, and one round and plump and brown, a horned thrush. The last was exotic, colorful and uncommon, she had things in common with the second, the nose for one. The first one, the oldest, was not the ringleader, she followed and fretted and fretted some more. The middle one was bossy and brassy, her hair, her smell, her attitude. She ate and rolled her eyes when the other ones didn’t. The youngest was in charge, not by personality but by default, by the sheer fact that she controlled the purse strings. Strings ..read more

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com Two days to go and it is officially winter – although it feels like it has already arrived as it is an icy cold and stormy day today. We lost power for a little while this morning, so I went to my cousin’s for coffee as there was still power on her side of town. There is quite a bit of water on the roads which are also littered with broken branches. Six new ARCs dropped into my inbox in the past week, one more than last week. This is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter was the first. It is #12 in the Will Trent series. One toxic family. Eight suspicious gues ..read more

EXCERPT: The girl stands in grey morning light, her feet perched at the crumbling cliff edge. Below her, waves smash against jagged rocks, granite shards rising like decaying teeth from the foaming sea. At her back are fear and despair, and his words urging her on. She tries to distract herself with the details around her. The roar of the ocean. The gusting wind ripping at the bracken. The small, white flowers growing at her feet. The loud, too-fast thump of her heart. Only it’s impossible to focus; she can’t seem to fix anything in her mind. Nothing can compete with his voice – all his ugly ..read more

EXCERPT: Since her abrupt departure from journalism, Phoebe had turned to a life of crime, the corpses piling up. Channelling her rage into writing detective novels under a pen name, she’d now plotted multiple dastardly deaths to vex her two amateur sleuths, a 1920s society hostess and her chaperone. Recently, she’d added dark 1980s crime thrillers to her oeuvre and was even toying with gothic Victorian mysteries to avenge her bloodlust. Her imaginary worlds were like holiday destinations now, into which she escaped to find peace by restoring order. The books had been successful enough f ..read more

Here we are at the end of autumn and winter staring us in the face in the southern hemisphere. It is a wintery day today with sudden showers accompanied by equally sudden drops in temperature, cold winds and only the odd, brief glimpse of the sun. It’s definitely time for me to pack away my summer clothes and to bring out my winter woolies. I have signed up for the Goodreads Aussie Readers Winter Challenge, and I will post about that later in the week. What am I currently reading? Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks is a title from my 2018 NetGalley backlist which I am finding fascinating reading ..read more

EXCERPT: ‘I’m Sybil Baxter. From Fairvale.’ Sallyanne knew about Fairvale. Everyone in the area did. The Baxter family had lived on Fairvale for so long that no one in town could remember the not being there. Well, no one but the local Aboriginal tribe, but people didn’t really talk about that. ‘And you’re joining us?’ Sybil’s smile was more generous now. Sallyanne nodded and let out the breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding onto. ‘It’s my first meeting,’ she said, sure she was spluttering. Sybil nodded towards the women gathering around a table laden with cups, saucers and scon ..read more

EXCERPT: ‘Anthony Horowitz,’ he said, ‘I am now arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Harriet Throsby at 27 Palgrove Gardens, W9. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if . . .’ You must know the words. I’ve written them enough times in enough books and police dramas. But I zoned out as he pronounced the formal police caution. I saw his lips moving but I didn’t hear anything. I was being arrested! No! That was insane. And what was it, echoing in my brain, ricocheting around my skull, the one thing that could save me, the one person I needed to see right now ..read more

EXCERPT: Harrison cocked his head to one side and studied my face. ‘You love him, don’t you?’ My mouth dropped open. Where had that come from? Was Snowy a single dad and his son was trying to matchmake for him? ‘Your dad?’ I said, my voice a little high. ‘I’ve only just met him. We’ve barely said five -‘ ‘Not my dad!’ Harrison cried, his shoulders shaking with laughter. ‘I meant the tawny owl. You love him.’ I could hear Samantha’s giggles as she got into the vehicle. ‘Yes, I love the tawny owl,’ I said, relieved to clear up that misunderstanding. ‘He took one look at me and captured my ..read more