Give It Back by Danielle Esplin

REVIEW

As a debut novel this book has all the elements of a perfect mystery.  Although it contained all the elements thereof, it also introduced a different approach to the typical American suspense thriller. Nobody in the saga is perfect!  That's the first bonus point for this book.

Three women's lives get entangled in Seattle, when the main character needs help from her somewhat estranged, self-centered sister. The nanny from London forms the third leg of the table laid with mysterious intent, hidden agendas and dark histories.  A tangled web of unfinished emotional issues ensues, leaving a trail of broken lives behind. However, one of them will survive to pick up the pieces and continue ...

CHARACTERS: as introduced in the official blurp:


Lorraine:

Not long ago, Lorraine lost her husband to another woman. She thought that was the worst thing that could happen to her, but soon she realizes it’s just the beginning of an everlasting nightmare. 

Lexy:

Lexy, an au pair from London, moves to Seattle to help Lorraine with her infant son. But she didn’t come for the child…she came for something else. 

Ella:

When Ella receives a call from her sister, Lorraine, who begs her to leave San Diego to spend time with her, she decides to take a few days off from work to visit her ...

But on her way to the airport, she learns that something shocking has happened since she last spoke with Lorraine. To make matters worse, once Ella arrives in Seattle, Lorraine’s story keeps changing, making Ella question how reliable her sister really is ...

From the very first page a line of deceit and lies is drawn which leaves the reader sleepless and totally unwilling to put the book down.  Trying to only read...well...just another chapter... did not help. Each chapter had a dramatic ending.... yes... it simply would not go away.  The ending was mind blowing, yelling out for another fix, a follow up and hopefully soon!  The suspense is unbearable!

Fast paced, short (dated) chapters; three protagonists telling their stories;  strong story line; riveting reading.

Danielle Esplin started off on a high note with this novel and can become one of the greats of suspense thrillers. The proof is in the pudding!   Excellent debut for this author!  

RECOMMENDED for readers who enjoyed The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins. 

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BOOK INFORMATION

Genres: Suspense thrillerFormats: Kindle, Paperback
Number of pages:  304
Edition language: English
Publication date: April 07, 2016
ASIN: B01A1HMOSM
Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Danielle Esplin studied Food Science with Chemistry at the University of Stellenbosch. She had a full-ride scholarship and was one of the top students. After three years of sleepless nights in the library and endless experiments in the laboratory, she realized that something was missing.

And that was writing fiction.

Without telling anyone, she packed her bags, waved her twin sister good-bye, trudged down the street and got on a bus to leave the country. When she crossed the border and entered Namibia, she switched her phone on and sent her mother a text. "I dropped out of University," she wrote and never looked back.

In Namibia, among the countless dunes that appeared like a half-closed girdle nestling the everlasting sea, her desire to write surfaced. Ever since she has been pursuing her dream to become a full-time writer. Danielle also loves to travel, and she writes about her adventures on her blog www.exploringmyplanet.com.

Today she lives with her husband in Seattle with her two pet rats, Skippy and Milo. In her spare time, she likes to sing, read or spend time with family and friends.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielleesp...

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DanielleEsplin1

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/authordaniel...

Booktube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSyG...

The Cold Cold Sea by Linda Huber

BOOK REVIEW

Cornwall, England. 

Maggie and Colin Grainger have been enjoying a holiday at Cove Cottage for two weeks with their two children, Joe & Livvy, when Livvy, three years old, disappeared under the watchful eye of both parent on the beach. The one minute she was with her mother, running off to join her dad and her brother at the rocks. The next moment she was gone. Maggie, in her state of grief, could not come to terms with the disappearance of her child and hardly had the energy left to take proper care of their son, Joe. The investigation was officially called off but the file kept open, which had Maggie in a constant fear of the telephone. She simply was not ready for the final confirmation of the inevitable.

Philip and Jennifer Marshall lived in Devon, when his grandmother in California was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He flew over to take care of her while Jennifer stayed behind. His stay in California was elongated and Jennifer decided to move into a bigger house in the meantime, being pregnant with twins - which was kept a surprise to Philip. The move proved to be difficult for their daughter Hailey, who also had to start school in the new neighborhood for the first time. A shy withdrawn child, she slowly opened up to her teacher, Katie McLure. Upon his eventual return he found changes he had to accept for the children's sake. Life was different and challenging.

That is the background of the plot that slowly turned into a chilling, heart wrenching, disturbing saga, in which grief played a pivotal role in shaping people's conduct and minds. The love of these two mothers for their children triggered the most basic instincts known to mankind and the results were devastating and shocking.

This is the second novel by Linda Huber that I read. As with the first novel, The Paradise Trees , I was immediately pulled into the suspense which grabbed hold of me in the first paragraph and never ended until the very last sentence.

The book addresses the fears of all parents, and drives the reader's emotions up and down the normality chart with ruthless intent. 

Although the story dragged a bit, it was an unbelievable intense thriller that kept me glued to the pages with no way out. The reader does not want to step aside although it was at times impossible to breath normally. I constantly, silently, cried out: "For Heaven's sake stop this! Stop this, I cannot take it anymore!" 

A brilliant, enlightened and wonderful wonderful wonderful experience. Linda Huber will fast become a must-read British author for anyone enjoying psychological thrillers. Her writing style is excellent. I cannot actually find the right words to describe it. You just know someone is playing you like a fiddle and it's not the plot or the characters. 

A review copy was provided by Legend Press via NetGalley for review. It was an amazing read. Thank you!

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BOOK BLURB
A powerful suspense thriller inspired by the author's work with neurological patients


When three-year-old Olivia disappears, her parents are overwhelmed with grief. Weeks go by and Olivia’s mother refuses to leave the cottage, staring out at the turbulent sea and praying it didn’t claim her precious daughter’s life. Not far away, another mother watches proudly as her daughter starts school. Jennifer has loved Hailey for five years, but the child is suddenly moody and difficult, and there’s a nagging worry of doubt that Jennifer cannot shake off. As she struggles to maintain control there are gaps in her story that even she can’t explain. Time is running out for Maggie at the cottage, and also for Jennifer and Hailey. No one can underestimate a mother’s love for her child, and no one can predict the lengths one will go to, to protect her family.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, where she trained as a physiotherapist. She spent ten years working with neurological patients, firstly in Glasgow and then in Switzerland. During this time she learned that different people have different ways of dealing with stressful events in their lives, and this knowledge still helps her today, in her writing.

Linda now lives in Arbon, Switzerland, where she works as a language teacher in a medieval castle on the banks of beautiful Lake Constance.

Her debut novel The Paradise Trees was published in 2013 and she has also had over 50 short stories and articles published in magazines. The Cold Cold Sea is her second novel.

Visit the author's WEBSITE
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BOOK INFORMATION
GENRES: Drama, Suspense, Thriller, Family

This Little Piggy by Bea Davenport

REVIEW
This is a psychological thriller beyond belief!

In 1984, the coal miners of Britain went on a strike that eventually would take two to three generations to recover from.

Clare Jackson is a reporter who missed a promotion due to personal reasons and had to recover from both events happening simultaneously while being sent on an investigation into the death of a nine month old baby, Jamie, on the housing estate where many of the miners resided.

She is a reporter for a local newspaper in the North East of Britain and basically acted as a one-man-band who never stopped for anything, as long as she could prove that she was the better choice for the promotion and shame her bosses.

She meets Amy, a little girl in the dilapidated flats, who had many stories to tell, some were fact and some fiction, and could not share everything she knew with the people around her. Nobody wanted to believe her.

Amy's situation spurred Clare on to become more than just a reporter. She instinctively wanted to protect and nurture the little girl despite warnings from her friends to stay away and stop her unprofessional attachment to 'a story'. But Clare was convinced that she could help Amy to become the adult she would like to be. She did not want to disappoint a little girl who had nobody else to take her hand and believe in her. 

Clare became Amy's first real friend; a person she could trust. With Clare, being in the emotional state she was, combined with the psychological connection she felt she had with Amy, events started very soon to spiral out of total control for everyone involved. Clare related to Amy's situation. She was another statistic in the same column of history than Amy. She is an older version. She simply understood. 

With her own unresolved issues influencing her actions, Clare tried to cover the human story of the baby, while also reporting on the situation behind the picket line where miners and police were increasingly moving into a volatile situation.

While being a walk down memory lane for us who remembered the strikes and its profound aftermath, this book also exposed human behavioral patterns which are not only possible, but scary as hell.

This is the second book I read of the author. The first one was 
In Too Deep .

Both books have the same theme of little girls who were ostricised, rejected, socially isolated by their peer groups for different reasons. The effect it had on them manifested itself in their later relationships and actions.

I was so impressed with Bea Davenport's first novel, that I recommended it to many many people who love this genre. It is still one of the best books in this stable that I have read. This Little Piggy, with its powerful plot; various strong support characters; constant, relentless, and never-ending suspense; detailed and vicious psychosomatic, as well as somatopsychic undercurrent, is a brilliant second try for a seasoned journalist in her own right. It is just as much a strong historical fiction-candidate as it is a psychological thriller

My goodness, what a story! It was simply brilliant.

The review copy was provided by Legend Press via Netgalley. THANK YOU for this wonderful opportunity.

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BOOK BLURB
It’s the summer of 1984 and there is a sense of unease on the troubled Sweetmeadows estate. The residents are in shock after the suspicious death of a baby and tension is growing due to the ongoing miners’ strike. Journalist Clare Jackson follows the story as police botch the inquiry and struggle to contain the escalating violence. Haunted by a personal trauma she can’t face up to, Clare is shadowed by nine-year-old Amy, a bright but neglected little girl who seems to know more about the incident than she’s letting on. As the days go on and the killer is not found, Clare ignores warnings not to get too close to her stories and in doing so, puts her own life in jeopardy.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR (Goodreads bio): 

Bea Davenport is the writing name of former print and broadcast journalist Barbara Henderson.Her first crime/suspense novel, In Too Deep, was a runner-up in the Luke Bitmead Bursary and is published by Legend Press on 1st June 2013. Bea spent many years as a newspaper reporter and latterly seventeen years as a senior broadcast journalist with the BBC in the north-east of England. She has a Creative Writing PhD from Newcastle University where she studied under the supervision of award-winning writer Jackie Kay and renowned literature expert Professor Kim Reynolds. The children's novel produced as part of the PhD, The Serpent House, was shortlisted for the 2010 Times/Chicken House Award and Bea has also won several prizes for short stories. Originally from Tyneside, she lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed with her partner and children. 

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BOOK INFORMATION
Genres: Psychological drama, Historical fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Murder Mystery

Not A Chance In Helen (River Road, #3) by Susan McBride

MY REVIEW
Wealthy widow, eighty-one year old Eleanora Duncan, lived alone in her Victorian mansions after her husband Marvin died and she lost her only son in a car accident, caused by her daughter-in-law. 

She was a member of every imaginable club and associatioin in River Bend, Illinois, not because she was wanted or popular. On the contrary, if she wasn't so wealthy and a benefactor to all of them, nobody would have cared to even speak one word to her. She never had a good thought about anyone; she blamed Jean, her daughter-in-law, for her son's death and refused to talk to her. Her cat, Lady Godiva and Zelma, her house assistant, were the only two souls sharing her life. 

Zelma dedicated her whole life to Eleanora. She worked for her since she was sixteen years old. Mrs. Duncan told Zelma she did not need anyone else in her life. Zelma did not have family, never got married, and therefore had no children. Eleonora was her whole life.

Seventy-five-year-old Helen Evans saved Eleanora's life one sunny day when a car almost ran her over. The surprised Mrs. Duncan told Helen that someone was trying to kill her. And then she did die. 

The town had to answer to the death and had a lot to say in return. Three people visited Eleonora that day. There was Stan, her down-and-out brother-in-law who couldn't keep his inheritance intact. She constantly had to send him cheques for survival. He stood to inherit if she died. Then there was Floyd Baskin, the eco-terrorist who relied heavily on her husband's contributions to his cause. She was trying to get him cut off from her husband's beneficiary list in his will and Baskin was aware of it. Jemima Winthrop accused Eleonora all these years that her family stole the Winthrop inheritance and tried to wiggle a piece of land out of Eleonora to build a library. Eleonora ignored her. Jean, her daughter-in-law heard of the incident that morning and brought her some gourmet snacks, trying to mend relationships with her. It did not work.

Who needed to get rid of the heiress? Sheriff Biddle had his hands full with evidence that let nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Emotions ran high, accusations and insinuations rocked the Mississippi town of River Bend, home for several generations of families. Things did not look good.

Who better than Helen Evans, an insider, a force de majeur in town history and gossip, to read everyone's thoughts - from their invisible DNA strings, all the way down their family trees to Adam and Eve? Nothing escapes her scrutiny. Not that sheriff Biddle was mighty impressed or appreciative at all with her observations. He had forensics behind him. But Helen had an insider's view. Things heated up. Enough to set fire to a few facts.

Not a Chance in Helen is the third book in the River Road series. Like all the previous books, this one maintains the fast suspense line with the same charm and style of the author's other books. It's a light read full of southern goodness. It is the one element that I adore about this author's books. It is the main reason why I love to read her relaxing murder mystery series.

This is an Advance Reader’s e-proof copy provided, through edelweiss.abovethetreeline, courtesy of Harper Collins Publishers (Witness Impulse). Thank you for the opportunity.

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BOOK BLURB (Amazon)

In the third River Road Mystery from USA Today bestselling author Susan McBride, Helen Evans knows her friend is not guilty of murder … she just has to prove it!

When 80-year-old Eleanora Duncan is found dead on her kitchen floor, Sheriff Frank Biddle suspects it isn't from natural causes. Eleanora wasn't exactly your average senior citizen. She was a widow worth millions, although all her money couldn't buy her happiness—not after losing both her husband and son.

Eleanora's bitterness alienated those around her, but did that bitterness make her the victim of foul play? Soon Jean Duncan, Eleanora's daughter-in-law, becomes the prime suspect. But the sheriff gets more than he bargained for when Helen Evans comes to the aid of her friend.

Helen knows that Jean didn't murder Eleanora, despite the very bad blood between them. So she uses every means at her disposal in order to clear Jean's name and track down Eleanora's killer.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan McBride is the author of Very Bad Things, a young adult thriller out from Delacorte in October of 2014. She also writes women's fiction, including The Truth About Love & Lightning (William Morrow, 02/13), Little Black Dress (09/11), and The Cougar Club (02/10). She has a short memoir called In the Pink: How I Met the Perfect (Younger) Man, Survived Breast Cancer, and Found True Happiness After 40 (06/12), about becoming an "accidental Cougar" at 41, marrying a younger man, being diagnosed with breast cancer at 42, and having her first child at 47. Susan was named "Survivor of the Year" by the St. Louis chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2012 and was dubbed one of St. Louis's "Most Dynamic" in 2012 by the Ladue News.

Susan previously wrote the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries (Avon Paperbacks), including Blue Blood, The Good Girl's Guide To Murder, The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, Night Of The Living Deb, and Too Pretty To Die. She has authored several YA series books for Random House about debutantes in Houston, the debut in 2008 appropriately titled The Debs and followed by Love, Lies, And Texas Dips in 2009. Gloves Off, the third book, has not yet been released.

Visit Susan's web site at http://SusanMcBride.com for more info.

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BOOK INFORMATION
Genres: Murder, Mystery,
Formats: Paperback | Kindle | Nook
Number of pages: 200 
Publishers: Witness Impulse
Publishing Date: September, 30th, 2014
Edition language: English
ASIN: B00IRCZJWM

Purchase Links:  Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble 

The 7th Woman by Frédérique Molay, Anne Trager (Paris Homicide #1)

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REVIEW:

Anne Trager did the world a favor when she decided to translate French crime novels for our pleasure. What a joy!

The blurb points it out very well:
"Winner of France's prestigious Prix du Quai des Orfèvres prize for best crime fiction, named Best Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, and already an international bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold."

Paris, France. Well, dive into the life and world of the French super cop, Chief of Police, Nico Sirsky, when one after the other female bodies appear on their computer screens. What begins as just one murder, change into six others within six days, with the victims being closer in relation to Nico Sirsky. Brutal, ruthless and macabre. That is the only words that can describe the serial murders by someone who knows his stuff. And he has a grudge against Nico Sirsky. 

Divorced, lonely, and suddenly in love, Sirsky has his hands full, especially when his ex-wife turns off on her own side track and leaves his teenage son for him to raise. The sources of his emotional pirouettes over the hot coals of doubt and desperation, are lack of sleep, as well as too many people in his inner circle becoming suspects.

A page-turner, a sleep-stealer, a grim adventure! But an excellent addition to the crime thriller genre. 

One little glitch though: the quotes from the Bible might be correct, but it is unlikely for non religious people to conjure up instantaneous memory of them. Even devoted Christians might find it a challenge so off the cuff. That was not convincing.

Nonetheless, my first encounter with Anne Trager's translations, was 'The Paris Lawyer' by Sylvie Granotier. 'The 7th Woman' can be regarded as one of the best, but not totally on the same level as far as literary mastery is concerned. It's purely a scientific, investigative tour de force, but equally enjoyable to read though. Enough to inspire me to find the rest of them! Besides, it was written in good taste, not causing the loss of one thunderous drama beat in the highly suspenseful narrative. 

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BOOK BLURB
Winner of France's prestigious Prix du Quai des Orfèvres prize for best crime fiction, named Best Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, and already an international bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold.

There's no rest for Paris's top criminal investigation division, La Crim'. Who is preying on women in the French capital? How can he kill again and again without leaving any clues? A serial killer is taking pleasure in a macabre ritual that leaves the police on tenterhooks. Chief of Police Nico Sirsky—a super cop with a modern-day real life, including an ex-wife, a teenage son, and a budding love story—races against the clock to solve the murders as they get closer and closer to his inner circle. Will he resist the pressure?

The story grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page, leading you behind the scenes with the French police and into the coroner’s office. It has the suspense of Seven with CSI-like details. You will never experience Paris the same way again!

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ABOUT the French author: Frédérique Molay 

Photo source:

Writing has always been a passion for Frédérique Molay, author of the international bestseller The 7th Woman. She graduated from France’s prestigious Science Po and began her career in politics and the French administration. She worked as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and then was elected to the local government in Saône-et-Loire. Meanwhile, she spent her nights pursing a passion for writing she had nourished since she wrote her first novel at the age of eleven. After The 7th Woman took France by storm, Frédérique Molay dedicated her life to writing and raising her three children. She has five books to her name, with three in the Chief Inspector Nico Sirsky series.

TRANSLATOR: Anne Tragor
Anne Trager has lived in France for more than 26 years, working in translation, publishing and communications. In 2011, she woke up one morning and said "I just can't stand it anymore. There are way too many good books being written in France not reaching a broader audience." That's when she founded Le French Book to translate some of those books into English. The company's motto is, "If we love it, we translate it," and Anne loves crime fiction.___________________________________________________________

BOOK INFORMATION:

Genres: Action, Adventure, French Murder Mystery, Detective Drama, Suspense, Thriller

Formats: Kindle, Nook, Paperback

Number of pages: 190 pages (eBook) Print length: 254 pages

Publisher: Le French Book (first published 2006)

Publishing Date: February 25th, 2013

Language: English (translated)

ISBN: 1939474965 (ISBN13: 9781939474964)
ASIN: B009ED24VC

Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

Night of the Living Deb (Debutante Dropout Mystery, #4) by Susan McBride

Add caption

REVIEW
Andrea Kendricks thought she new pretty much enough of her boyfriend of four months, Brian Malone, and even thought she might be in love with this lawyer beau of hers. Brian walked the straight and narrow and was even carefully chosen by her ever-interfering mother, Cissy.

He was so clean-cut, such a straight-arrow, not the kind of guy I was normally attracted to, which, in the past, had translated into mostly unemployed artists-cum-bartenders. Definitely not lawyers who went to work in suits, collected regular paychecks, and paid their own rent.
So, in an odd way, Brian Malone was a breath of fresh air."

Andrea even trusted him to take a colleague to a white-collar strip-joint for a bachelor treat. But then Brian disappears and the hot mama of the strip club is found dead in the trunk of his car. The police, and basically everyone else believe he is the murderer.

The only clue she has is that Brian missed her mother's cabbage soup, which everyone in their inner circle knows Chrissy Kendricks was allergic to. What did the message spell?

With only one or two friends believing in Brian's impeccable character, Andrea sets out to find him. But she will have to enter the underworld of the Dallas night life and the police is after her for aiding and abetting her suspect boyfriend. Time is running out fast to find him alive and try to prove his innocence. But it does not look possible.

A really great relaxing, fast-moving, no frills, no fuzz thriller from beginning to end.

It is the fourth book in the Debutante Dropout Mystery Series. A bonus point is that this book, like all the others in the series, has a free-standing ending, which makes it a delight to read. The characters are lovable, often annoying in their imperfection, but endearing to spend time with. I loved the experience.

ARC received from edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com

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AMAZON BOOK BLURB

Renegade rich girl Andy Kendricks isn't the belle of any Dallas ball—and that's just the way the debutante dropout likes it! She's got a good life and a great man: her defense attorney boyfriend, Brian Malone. Brian's such a straight arrow that he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to a close friend's bachelor party at a sleazy local "gentleman's club."

So why is the groom-to-be saying that Brian left the bacchanal arm-in-arm with "the hottest body in the Lone Star State?" And what was that hot body doing stone-cold dead in the trunk of Brian's car? And where is Brian anyway? The cops are looking for Andy's allegedly unfaithful/possibly homicidal beau who hasn't been seen since the party. But Andy can't believe her upstanding lover is a murdering fool, and she's determined to prove it—though she might end up with a lot more broken than just her heart.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan McBride is the author of Very Bad Things, a young adult thriller out from Delacorte in October of 2014. She also writes women's fiction, including The Truth About Love & Lightning (William Morrow, 02/13), Little Black Dress (09/11), and The Cougar Club (02/10). She has a short memoir called In the Pink: How I Met the Perfect (Younger) Man, Survived Breast Cancer, and Found True Happiness After 40 (06/12), about becoming an "accidental Cougar" at 41, marrying a younger man, being diagnosed with breast cancer at 42, and having her first child at 47. Susan was named "Survivor of the Year" by the St. Louis chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2012 and was dubbed one of St. Louis's "Most Dynamic" in 2012 by the Ladue News.

Susan previously wrote the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries (Avon Paperbacks), including Blue Blood, The Good Girl's Guide To Murder, The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, Night Of The Living Deb, and Too Pretty To Die. She has authored several YA series books for Random House about debutantes in Houston, the debut in 2008 appropriately titled The Debs and followed by Love, Lies, And Texas Dips in 2009. Gloves Off, the third book, has not yet been released.

Visit Susan's web site at http://SusanMcBride.com for more info.
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BOOK INFORMATION 
Genres: Murder, Mystery, Suspense, Dallas Texas, Satire, Romance, Young adult
Formats: Mass Market PB, Avon / eBook,
Number of pages: 336
Publishing date: Original: January 2007 / New: January 2014 Witness Impulse (HarperCollins)
Edition language: English
ISBN-10: 0-06-084555-4
ISBN-13: 978-0060845551 
Purchase links: Buy the book:Indie Bound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon.com  
                         Buy the eBook: Barnes & Noble | Amazon.com | Kobo

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Books in the Debutante Dropout Mystery Series

MY REVIEWS FOR THE SERIES
#1 Blue Blood
#2 The Good Girl's Guide to Murder
#3 The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club
#4 Night of the Living Deb

#5 Too Pretty to Die

I value you comments, please feel free to leave one. 

The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club (Debutante Dropout Mystery, #3) by Susan McBride

REVIEW
Sarah Lee Sewell still believed in romance, even in her seventies. Discreetly  being a member of the Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, an exclusive online service for the wealthy, she was enjoying discreet meetings with the carefully selected male members. A woman still needed to be touched by a man, no matter what.

Before she could leave for yet another new date, she is found dead in her luxury apartment in the Belle Meade Retirement Community. Cissy Blevins Kendricks is in shock, losing one of her oldest, dearest and best bridge club friends. Natural causes, as declared by the coroner, did not stick with the mourning Cissy. With her usual skillful manipulation she got her rebellious daughter, Andrea, involved. It is soon obvious that something is heating up, and it wasn't love, when another friend of Cissy's are found dead. Again 'natural causes'.

Romance, however, was not completely lost. It was just encountered in a totally surprising way. Andrea did not find it comfortable. There were issues she needed to deal with before she could accept the inevitable.

This is the third book in the <i>Debutante Dropout Mystery Series</i>. Old and new characters, new challenges and new friendships make this another satisfying, relaxing read. All the books in the series are really great reads on their own. Never a dull moment so far!

ARC received from  edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com


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AMAZON BOOK BLURB

Andy Kendricks is back in the third sassy and irresistible installment in Susan McBride's Debutante Dropout series … and this time she's teaming up with her high-society mama to catch a killer who's targeting rich, lonely widows.

Wealthy Texas widows need loving too … which is why Bebe Kent joined a dating service for "discriminating" seniors soon after relocating to the swanky Belle Meade retirement community. Unfortunately, Bebe didn't even live long enough to meet "Mr. Right." And though doctors declared her death totally natural, extravagant blue-blooded Dallas socialite Cissy Blevins Kendricks believes her old friend's demise was hastened—and she's ready to check herself into Belle Meade incognito to prove it.

Cissy's rebellious, sometimes-sleuthing daughter, Andrea, wants no part of her mother's crazy schemes—yet she's anything but pleased that Cissy is going off on her own, playing a highbrow Miss Marple. So she has no choice but to join her mom in search of the truth—especially when more well-heeled widows start turning up dead …

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan McBride is the author of Very Bad Things, a young adult thriller out from Delacorte in October of 2014. She also writes women's fiction, including The Truth About Love & Lightning (William Morrow, 02/13), Little Black Dress (09/11), and The Cougar Club (02/10). She has a short memoir called In the Pink: How I Met the Perfect (Younger) Man, Survived Breast Cancer, and Found True Happiness After 40 (06/12), about becoming an "accidental Cougar" at 41, marrying a younger man, being diagnosed with breast cancer at 42, and having her first child at 47. Susan was named "Survivor of the Year" by the St. Louis chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2012 and was dubbed one of St. Louis's "Most Dynamic" in 2012 by the Ladue News.

Susan previously wrote the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries (Avon Paperbacks), including Blue Blood, The Good Girl's Guide To Murder, The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, Night Of The Living Deb, and Too Pretty To Die. She has authored several YA series books for Random House about debutantes in Houston, the debut in 2008 appropriately titled The Debs and followed by Love, Lies, And Texas Dips in 2009. Gloves Off, the third book, has not yet been released.

Visit Susan's web site at http://SusanMcBride.com for more info.
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BOOK INFORMATION 
Genres: Murder, Mystery, Suspense, Dallas Texas, Satire, Romance, Young adult
Formats: Mass Market PB, Avon / eBook, 
Mass Market Paperback: 332 pages
Publisher: Witness Impulse (Harper & Collins) ; 
Publishing date: January 2006 / December 2013
Edition Language: English
ISBN-10: 0-06-056408-3 
ISBN-13: 978-0060564087 
Series: Debutante Dropout Mysteries
Language: English
Awards: William Rockhill Nelson Award Finalist
Purchase links: Buy the book:: Indie Bound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon.com  
                        Buy the eBook: Barnes & Noble | Amazon.com | Kobo
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Books in the Debutante Dropout Mystery Series

MY REVIEWS FOR THE SERIES
#1 Blue Blood
#2 The Good Girl's Guide to Murder
#3 The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club
#4 Night of the Living Deb
#5 Too Pretty to Die

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