It's Monday, Jan. 21: What Are You Reading?

It's Monday: What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

The Comfort of Lies

The Aviator's Wife

Seduction: A Novel of Suspense

Three Graves Full

A contemporary novel, two historical novels, and a mystery! What's on your reading list this week? 

Book Review MERCILESS by Lori Armstrong

Title: Merciless: A Mercy Gunderson Mystery #3 by Lori Armstrong
Published January 8, 2013; Touchstone

Publisher's description:
By Shamus Award-winning author Lori Armstrong, Merciless is the third in the series featuring Mercy Gunderson, a Black Ops army sniper-turned-FBI agent. When two gruesome killings occur on the Eagle River Reservation, Mercy and fellow FBI agent Shay Turnbull can't agree on whether the crimes are connected. Mercy has to make decisions on her own, unable to discuss her cases with her boyfriend, Eagle River County Sheriff Mason Dawson, due to job confidentiality.

With hidden political agendas and old family vendettas causing a rift among the tribal police, the tribal council, and the FBI, Mercy realizes the deranged killer is playing a dangerous game, Mercy targeted as his next victim. Torn between her duty to the FBI and her duties to those she loves, Mercy must unleash the cold, dark, merciless killer inside her and become the predator, rather than the prey.

Comments: This is my first book in the Mercy Gunderson series and I am ready to read the first two that came before it. I was in awe of this tough new protagonist and amazed at the strong yet sympathetic female character the author created. The plot is tense and well crafted. The setting gave a good sense of life on an Indian reservation. I recommend the book for those who like a fast paced mystery.

Thanks to Touchstone for a review copy of this book. 

Book Review: The Woman from Paris by Santa Montefiore

Title: The Woman From Paris: A Novel by Santa Montefiore
Publication date: February 5, 2013; Simon & Schuster
Genre: contemporary British fiction

About the book: The novel has an interesting plot -  a young woman from Paris shows up at a funeral in England and turns the family upside down by revealing she is the illegitimate daughter of the deceased, Lord George Frampton, the wealthy owner of Fairfield Park. George died in a skiing accident before he could tell his wife and three sons about Phaedra Chancellor, his out-of-wedlock daughter born before his oldest son David was born. The family is shocked to find out that George was in contact with this previously unknown daughter and that he recently changed his will to include her.

There are some interesting characters in the Frampton family- the outwardly tough but vulnerable grandmother, Margaret Frampton; the suspicious sister-in-law Roberta who distrusts Phaedra on sight; and George's lonely and lost widow, Lady Antoinette. When Phaedra appears in their lives, they begin to be transformed by her friendly, helpful manner and personality. Even David, the eldest son, begins to be smitten by the stranger who is his half-sister. The novel shows the transformation of the family and also reveals Phaedra's own surprising secrets.

Comments:  I enjoyed the novel and the plot, even though I felt parts were improbable. Overall, the romance novel was still very entertaining. The writing is elegant and smooth and I liked the elderly women the author creates. The descriptive touches of location and the natural surroundings also give a stately atmosphere to the residents and the setting,  Fairfield Park.

For other reviews, visit the tour schedule for The Woman from Paris. Thanks to Tribute Blog Tours for a review copy of the book.

Santa Montefiore is the internationally bestselling author of  novels including The French Gardener and The Last Voyage of the Valentina. She lives in London with her husband, historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, and their two children.

GIVEAWAY: Tribute Tours is offering a hard copy of the book to a reader, U.S. mailing addresses only, no P.O. boxes, please. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment with an email address..
UPDATE:  Congrats to Staci for winning this contest! .

Y, A Novel by Marjorie Celona

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter,  First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: Y: A Novel by Marjorie Celona
Published January 8, 2013; Free Press hardcover
Genre: contemporary fiction

Opening sentences: 

My life begins at the Y. I am born and left in front of the glass doors, and even though the sign is flipped "Closed," a man is waiting in the parking lot and he sees it all: my mother, a woman in navy coveralls, emerges from behind Christ Church Cathedral with a bundle wrapped in gray, her body bent in  the cold wet wind of the summer morning. Her mouth is open as if she is screaming, but there is no sound here, just the calls of birds. 

Publisher's description:
“Y. That perfect letter. The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wineglass. The question we ask over and over. Why? . . . My life begins at the Y.” So opens Marjorie Celona’s debut about a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. Swaddled in a dirty gray sweatshirt with nothing but a Swiss Army knife tucked between her feet, little Shannon is discovered by a man who catches only a glimpse of her troubled mother as she disappears from view. That morning, all three lives are forever changed.

Bounced between foster homes, Shannon endures abuse and neglect until she finally finds stability with Miranda, a single mother with a free-spirited daughter of her own. Yet Shannon defines life on her own terms, refusing to settle down, and never stops longing to uncover her roots—especially the stubborn question of why her mother would abandon her on the day she was born.

Would you keep reading, based on the opening sentences of the book? 

It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

It's Monday: What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Here are the recent books on my shelves.

The Secret of the Nightingale Palace by Dana Sachs; William Morrow
The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee; Gallery Books
Targets of Revenge by Jeffrey S. Stephens: Gallery Books
Out of Circulation by Miranda James; Berkley

What are you reading this week?

Book Review/Tour: Rally 'Round the Corpse by Hy Conrad

Title: Rally 'Round the Corpse: An Abel Adventure Mystery
Author: Hy Conrad
Published May 29, 2012; Seven Realms Publishing

Publisher's description: Amy Abel needs to start over and decides to sink all her savings into a travel agency specializing in adventure. Her first project is a mystery road rally through Europe. At the starting line in Monte Carlo, Amy finds herself attracted to Marcus Alvarez, the most mysterious of her two dozen game-loving clients. But the rally gets off to a rocky start when an eccentric writer, Otto, the only person who knows the game's solution, is himself murdered back in New York.

Who would kill a harmless mystery geek, and why are weird accidents beginning to happen along the way? To her horror, Amy discovers that this fictional mystery was based on a real, unsolved case, one that Marcus knows too much about. Now she has no choice but to join forces with Fanny, her domineering mother, and solve this on her own, before the killer strikes again.

Comments: A combination of mystery and romance, the book is in two sections. The first part is on the road with Amy and her clients, with clues to solve a fictional murder mystery while they travel around Europe. The situation becomes real, however, when one of the clients is indeed murdered. The second section of the book is back home in New York, where several from the group decide to continue tracking down clues to find the murderer. The book slowed down a bit in the middle of this section but picked up again at the end, when things rapidly came to a head and suspicion shifts from one person to another.

Overall, a fun mystery novel - a road trip with clients not only sightseeing but also searching for clues that take them toward a final end and a solution. Things don't go as planned because of the real life murder that throws the game from play to reality.

Hy Conrad is also author of the nonfiction humorous book, Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know. He is best known for his work as a writer/producer of the ground-breaking series, Monk. He spends his time between Key West, Vermont, and New York City.  His website: www.hyconrad.com

Thanks to TeddyRose at Premiere Virtual Author Book Tours and the author/publisher for a review copy of this book.

Submitted to Cym Lowell's Book Review Wednesdays.

Book Review: A Whisper to a Scream by Karen Wojcik Berner

new cover

Title: A Whisper to a Scream (The Bibliophiles, Book One) by Karen Wojcik Berner
Published June 14, 2011
Genre: contemporary women's fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

A realistic story of two very different women whose paths cross at a Classics Book Club meeting. They seem to be polar opposites. Sarah is a stay-at-home mom looking after two young sons and a too busy husband, keeping family and home together, frustrated that she has no spare time for herself. Anne is a successful public relations executive who delayed having children to further her career, only to find at around age 40 that she and her husband John are diagnosed with "unexplained infertility," and in vitro, artificial insemination, and other technologies are not working for them to have the children they now so desperately want.

The two women meet at the book club gathering, a break from household duties for Sarah. Anne finds it hard to understand Sarah's exasperation being a busy mother and homemaker, something Anne now dreams about.  How things turn out for them is the crux of the novel. When all is said and done, the Classics Book Club helps get them away from their problems, even for a while, and keeps them connected.

I could easily imagine I was reading non-fiction, so well drawn were the characters in the book. With fluid prose and realistic dialogue, the novel is as much a psychological study as a novel about contemporary marriage - the daily demands of raising a family, career versus children, infertility, infidelity, extended family, and hobbies outside of work and home.

I like the idea of having a series of books built around a Classics Book Club. This is the first of the author's planned six books exploring the lives of various book club members, the Bibliophiles. The second book in the series is Until My Soul Gets It Right, published May 22, 2012.

A Whisper to a Scream is as good and in some cases better than many of the contemporary women's fiction novels I've read recently, and I say this without bias.

Thanks to the author for sending an ebook for review.

Karen Wojcik Berner grew up on the outskirts of Chicago. After graduating from Dominican University with degrees in English with a writing concentration and communications, she worked as a magazine editor, public relations coordinator and freelance writer. A two-time Folio Magazine Ozzie Award for Excellence in Magazine Editorial and Design winner, her work also has appeared in countless newspapers and magazines. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her family.