Book Review: The Next Wife

Author: Kaira Rouda

Title: The Next Wife

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Publish Date: May 1, 2021

Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

There is no limit to the lies, suspicion, and secrets that can poison the perfect marriage in this twisting novel of suspense by USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda.

Kate Nelson had it all. A flourishing company founded with her husband, John; a happy marriage; and a daughter, Ashlyn. The picture-perfect family. Until John left for another woman. Tish is half his age. Ambitious. She’s cultivated a friendship with Ashlyn. Tish believes she’s won.

She’s wrong.

Tish Nelson has it all. Youth, influence, a life of luxury, and a new husband. But the truth is, there’s a lot of baggage. Namely, his first wife—and suspicions of his infidelity. After all, that’s how she got John. Maybe it’s time for a romantic getaway, far from his vindictive ex. If Kate plans on getting John back, Tish is one step ahead of her.

She thinks.

But what happens next is something neither Kate nor Tish saw coming. As best-laid plans come undone, there’s no telling what a woman will do in the name of love—and revenge.

Review: This is really the first book I've really gotten into this year. I've struggled with books for some reason, but when I started this one, it really pulled me in and I'm not a 100% sure why.

The plot is so similar to at least 30 others I've read or want to read. The 2nd wife and the 1st battling it out. A husband that ends up dead. Yada yada yada.

The plot isn't very inspired, but it works because the level of crazy each of the main characters has is stellar.

You instantly know that Tish isn't all there, but as things unravel and you learn about John and about Kate and Ashlyn, you definitely see the crazy coming out on all ends, and I think that's what excited me the most about this story. All the characters were loose cannons and you didn't know what to expect from them.

Who was trying to kill who and why?

Who really was the smart one?

Or in this case the smarter one?

I loved all the twists and turns of the story and how all the evil unfolds proving that no one really is as they seem.

Rating: 5 flowers

TLC Book Tours Book Review: What She Gave Away

About What She Gave Away

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (September 4, 2018)

Revenge is anything but sweet in this twisty thriller about two women with very different lives locked in the same deadly game.

Imagining the best way to destroy a person’s happiness is Crystal Love’s favorite game. Devious and unpolished, the plus-sized loan analyst couldn’t be more out of place in her new town of Santa Barbara, where the beautifully manicured women never age and the ocean views stretch farther than the million-dollar lawns. And yet her eye for the power dynamics at play in this tony community is dead accurate.

Kathi Wright, on the other hand, has made it her life’s work to fit in with the plastic people who surround her. But when her husband—a wealthy bank president—dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing. Then the FBI shows up, asking questions she can’t answer and freezing assets she once took for granted.

While Kathi struggles to outrun the mess caused by her husband’s mysterious death, Crystal seems focused on her game. But why? And who are her targets?

Spanning two years and told in Crystal’s and Kathi’s alternating voices, this tautly plotted novel reveals the power of choice and the price of revenge.

Social Media

Please use the hashtag #whatshegaveaway and tag @tlcbooktours and @catharineriggs.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Review:  As far as Thrillers go, this one didn't feel quite as menacing as some, but there was something about the two detestable female lead characters that really pulled me in and made the pages keep turning.

I don't think I've ever read a book where I hated both main characters so much, and that's including Gone Girl. Crystal and Kathi are both just awful. Crystal for all of her revenge motives and Kathi for being a wishy washy poor excuse for a human. She is the wimpiest worst excuse for a female ever! As you learn more about her marriage through her chapters and even through Crystal's mechanization, you almost feel sorry for her, but then again there's that nagging part of you that wonders how someone that was obviously educated (uh she was offered a job with a publishing house) could toss her life away for a jerk like Rich.

Where Kathi is gullible, Crystal is manipulative and scheming. She had a bad childhood, but that doesn't excuse her actions. She's a sociopath. She ends up with 2 strange friends, a fellow loan analyst and a homeless woman that's quasi-stalking her.

How everything wraps up is a bit too perfect and nice and almost HEA for a thriller. It left me shaking my head a bit, but I still have to say, I enjoyed this book and truthfully it was probably one of the best books I've read this year so far.

Rating: 4 flowers

About Catharine Riggs

Catharine Riggs lives and writes on California’s central coast. Before turning to writing fiction, Riggs worked as a business banker, an adjunct college instructor, and a nonprofit executive. What She Never Said is the second novel in her Santa Barbara Suspense series. The first, What She Gave Away, was published by Thomas & Mercer in September of 2018. Riggs is a member of the International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild, Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

Find out more about Catharine at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.

TLC Book Tours Book Review: Ruthless

Posted By admin on March 17, 2015

About Ruthless

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (June 1, 2015)

• Paperback: 280 pages

Nick White is the only person who can save Abigail Pierce. After uncovering a plot to have her killed, he attempts to warn her but instead puts himself squarely in the crosshairs. They know who he is, they know where he lives, they know how to get at his family.

Drawn into the conspiracy surrounding Abigail, Nick soon discovers the danger is bigger than he ever believed. Now he must uncover the truth to save her and himself. Gripping and intense, this novel is a twisted thrill ride from bestselling author John Rector.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: I've been reading more and more mysteries and thrillers these days. This isn't my usual genre of choice, but the plot of this one really caught my eye and it was definitely worth the read.

Imagine someone handing you an envelope with a lot of money in and a flash drive with photos of a woman on it.

This was a fast paced book that is perfect for a lazy summer day when you want to get caught up in a book. The events that transpire after a night at the bar for Nick will keep you reading until the last page

This is a book where everything really isn't quite what it seems on any account and that includes Nick. Like a lot of the thrillers that I've read recently, he's a bit of screw up. OK, he is a f-up and he lands in way over his head when he pretends to be someone he isn't.

As a result he ends up getting mixed up with Abby and things just get more and more interesting from there. You never know who is lying or who wants what and that's why it is impossible to put this book down.

The only thing that bugged me about this book was Nick's father, Charlie. I liked him, but as far as a man with emphysema is concerned, if he is on oxygen, he isn't at the beginning stages of the disease, he's either stage 4 or End Stage and even then, he wouldn't necessarily need a nurse coming in to take care of him. (Unless, he was in the final stages of the disease) This only bugged me, because I lived with it for 4 years with my father. So I know that it was off.

I find it hard to review thrillers, because I don't want to give much away, but this is definitely a great read and if, like me, you don't usually read thrillers, this one might be a good one to read, to step out of your comfort zone.

Abby made me think of Amy from Gone Girl. So that might give you a clue on the type of character she is.

This was a great summer read!

Rating: 4 flowers

About John Rector

JOHN RECTOR is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of THE GROVE, THE COLD KISS, ALREADY GONE and OUT OF THE BLACK. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and won several awards including the International Thriller Award for his novella LOST THINGS, many of his other stories can be found in his collection THE WALLS AROUND US.

He lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

TLC Book Tours Book Review: Threshold

About Threshold

Paperback: 254 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (April 21, 2015)

Acclaimed for his best-selling books featuring P.I. Leo Waterman, Ford introduces readers to a new, yet equally unorthodox hero in THRESHOLD: embattled Detective Sergeant Mickey Dolan. Still smarting from the very public breakup of his marriage and facing conduct complaints for use of excessive force, Dolan is at the end of his rope – and possibly at the end of his career – when he catches a case that just might turn things around: the disappearance of the wife and daughters of a powerful city councilman. Assisted by a remarkable young woman who may know the terrible truth about the missing family, Dolan soon finds he must choose between helping his career and protecting innocent lives. A suspenseful police thriller about a not-so-good cop given the opportunity to do the right – and most difficult – thing, THRESHOLD is a new chapter for G.M. Ford that is sure to satisfy fans of his Waterman and Frank Corso stories and new readers alike.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: I am a sucker for a good thriller and the cover of this one indicated that this might be one of those books.

Our lead character is Mickey Dolan...not to be confused with Micky Dolenz, who is always Monkeeing around. Dolan doesn't monkee or monkey around at all.

Mickey isn't having a great life. His marriage is over and he's been getting in trouble for using excessive force. Oops. He has anger management issues. Then he gets assigned to a case where he must find a councilman's wife and daughters.

This is more than just a missing persons case too, as you learn. The missing wife and daughters have a connection to The Silver Angel, a woman that has the ability to bring people out of comas.

This is a book that you may dismiss as predictable at, but it is anything but. It is fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat especially once you reach the midway portion, then it really flies.

At times it could be a little confusing because you get the points of view of Mickey as well as Grace Pressman (The Silver Angel) and her mother Eve, and there was also the case involving the young boy that Grace brought back.

I wish the book could have gone more into detail with Grace's powers but it was really her part in the Royster family's disappearance through the woman's organization that her mother is involved with. There's definitely a good reason for the Royster women to want to be in hiding.

I kept thinking that this book would have made a great episode of Law & Order SVU.

I liked watching Mickey's character change throughout the book and how his relationships changed, even with his ex, by the end of the story.

A great gripping read.

Rating: 5 flowers

About G. M. Ford

G.M. Ford broke onto the mystery scene with Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?, a gin-soaked tome featuring Seattle private investigator Leo Waterman. The six-book Leo Waterman series was nominated for several awards, including the Shamus, the Anthony, and the Lefty. In 2001, Ford launched a new series featuring disgraced reporter Frank Corso and his goth assistant, Meg Dougherty. In 2011, after a twelve-year hiatus, he decided to write a new Leo Waterman novel, Thicker Than Water, which Thomas & Mercer promptly bought. His eighth Leo Waterman book, Chump Change, followed in 2014. Ford lives and works in Seattle, and is married to the beautiful and talented mystery author Skye Kathleen Moody.

G. M. Ford’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, April 13th: Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Tuesday, April 14th: From the TBR Pile

Wednesday, April 15th: 5 Minutes for Books 

Monday, April 20th: Life is Story

Wednesday, April 22nd: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Thursday, April 23rd: MariReads

Friday, April 24th:Bibliotica

Monday, April 27th: Mystery Playground

Tuesday, April 28th: Words by Webb

Wednesday, April 29th: Built By Story

Thursday, April 30th: Bell, Book & Candle

Monday, May 4th: A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, May 5th: Mom in Love with Fiction

Monday, May 11th: FictionZeal

Tuesday, May 12th: Kritter’s Ramblings

Thursday, May 14th: A Bookworm’s World

TLC Book Tours Book Review: Shady Cross

Author: James Hankins
Title: Shady Cross
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publish Date: Feb 24, 2015
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours & the publisher
Book Blurb:
In one hand, small-time crook Stokes holds a backpack stuffed with someone else’s money—three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of it.

In the other hand, Stokes has a cell phone, which he found with the money. On the line, a little girl he doesn’t know asks, “Daddy? Are you coming to get me? They say if you give them the money they’ll let you take me home.”

From bestselling author James Hankins comes a wrenching story of an unscrupulous man torn between his survival instincts and the plight of a true innocent. Faced with the choice, Stokes discovers his conscience might not be as corroded as he thought.

Review: I don't usually step out of my comfort zone to read a thriller, but I'm glad I read Shady Cross. This book was so good, I finished it in one day.

Stokes is a bad guy, who just happens to have a little bit of good in him, as you see as the novel progresses. You see Stokes at his worst but you also see the sparks of goodness in him. It all starts with the accident that has him finding a bag full of money and a cell phone.

Its the cell phone that sends him on his quest to save a little girl that he doesn't know from Adam. Hearing the child's voice triggers something in Stokes. That something you get to see, not in flashbacks, but snippets of his memories, of a lost love, a life that could have been and another child.

Stokes isn't the most likable guy. It takes awhile to warm to him. Face it, he's a crock, so he's not a nice guy, but his desire to rescue Amanda allows the reader to see that sometimes, even bad guys can redeem themselves, and he really does this.

Hankins does a great job at creating some pretty seedy characters. There's no real good guys in this book, just different levels of badness.

The novel is very gripping and fast paced. Once I started this book, I really couldn't put it down. I had to find out if Stokes was able to save the little girl.

The ending will definitely wow you.

Highly recommended even if this isn't the genre you usually read.

Rating: 5 flowers