Little Whispers by K L Slater Book Review @bookouture

May 23, 2020May 22, 2020 / berittalksbooks / 2 Comments

Happy Saturday y’all!

It is memorial day weekend here in the US. California is still locked down so no big plans but might have a little barbecue with my son Saturday or Sunday?🍉

My Thoughts

Glamour, manipulation, blackmail, lies. K L Slater has written a captivating and entertaining twisted domestic thriller. Janey and her family have moved to a new upscale town into a gorgeous home. At first she gets a cold vibe from the neighborhood moms. So when Tonya start reaching out to Janey she is more than eager. Now Janey is one of the cool kids play dates, shopping trips, mom’s nights out. Then one night after several glasses of wine Janey spills a big dark secret. But she can trust her new Besties, can’t she? And this is only half of it Jney’s husband Isaac has also been acting very strange. Perhaps this move, was a bad idea?

This was an entertaining fast-paced domestic thriller. I was furiously turning the pages, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I completely did not fault Janey for embracing these new “friendships“ but I just knew it would be her downfall. What I did not see coming was the end to this book. It wasn’t mine blowing or crazy, but it was definitely surprising. Another engaging and addictive read from Miss Slater.

This book in emojis 🏘 👨‍👩‍👦 🎒 🍷 🛍 🚗

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

About the Book

You shared a secret with the wrong person.Janey Markham is thrilled to be moving with her family to Buckingham Crescent, the smartest address in a desirable suburban town.Worried she’ll be excluded by the glossy local mothers, Janey is thrilled when she meets Tanya, the kind of woman she has always looked up to. Tanya takes Janey under her wing, and her teenage daughter Angel is amazing with Janey’s little boy. As Janey and Tanya grow closer, Janey feels she can finally leave her troubled past behind.

But then everything changes…

In a weak moment over a bottle of wine, Janey finds herself telling Tanya her most shocking secret. Why wouldn’t she trust her new friend?

The following day, Janey sees Angel, with a man old enough to be her father, pushing someone into a car. The next day a body is found and police appeal for witnesses – and share a picture of the same car…

When Janey tells Tanya she is going to the police, Tanya turns threatening. She’ll stop at nothing to defend Angel, even if her daughter is guilty. If Janey says anything, Tanya will make sure that her dark secret gets out.

Janey faces an impossible choice. Stay quiet about what she saw that terrible day. Or speak up, and destroy the family she has worked so hard to protect…

From million-copy bestseller K.L. Slater comes this twisty and absolutely unputdownable roller-coaster ride of a read. Fans of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl will be totally hooked on Little Whispers.

About the Author

For many years, Kim sent her work out to literary agents but never made it off the slush pile. At the age of 40 she went back to Nottingham Trent University and now has an MA in Creative Writing.

Before graduating, she received five offers of representation from London literary agents which was, as Kim says, ‘a fairytale … at the end of a very long road!’

Kim is a full-time writer and lives in Nottingham with her husband, Mac.

https://twitter.com/KimLSlater

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15622135.K_L_Slater

https://www.facebook.com/KimLSlaterAuthor/

https://klslaterauthor.com/

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3cKxlJm

Apple books: https://apple.co/2zI94VP

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2X5gZod

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3670IDm

The Last Affair by Margot Hunt @harlequinbooks @harperaudio

November 29, 2019December 30, 2019 / berittalksbooks / Leave a comment

Happy Black Friday!

Are you out shopping today? Or are you home reading? I might do a little shopping online, but I like to avoid the craziness! I like my crazy to be in my books! This book would definitely fall into that category!

My Thoughts

Margot Hunt has done it again! A book full of twisted unlikable characters behaving badly? Yes please! I was completely invested, intrigued, and entertain from first page to last. The book starts with a bang, the murder of Gwen a housewife living in an upscale Florida neighborhood. The story is then told from the perspectives of Gwen, her daughter Abby, and the woman her husband is having an affair with Nora. None of these women were tremendously likable, but I glimpsed a piece of myself in each of them. Such a wild and addictive ride, I was all in trying to figure out who killed Gwen, and why?

As I mentioned none of these characters were tremendously likable, but Gwen? Wow! What a piece of work! Seriously by the end of this book I could’ve killed her myself, and I certainly didn’t blame anyone for doing it! Nora was probably the character I related to the most, I do understand what it’s like to have an alcoholic husband, but that doesn’t give you permission to cheat. Just could not understand why she just had not left him, because clearly she was not happy in her marriage. Then there was daughter Abby. Abby was heartbroken, her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend, and she has now returned home and dropped out of college because of it. I think I would have lost it completely if my daughter came home having dropped out of college because of a boy! Abby definitely embraced her new role as the woman scorned, she was out for revenge in whatever form that might take. There were so many other possible suspects including Gwen’s husband Josh, can anyone possibly be that good? The ending was surprising and I’m still not sure if I liked it or not? Another absorbing domestic thriller from one of my favorite authors!

🎧🎧🎧 The audiobook is narrated by Vivienne Lehany. She did an amazing job of giving each of the narrators in this book their own unique voice. I was never lost and I always knew who is narrating the story.

This book in emojis. 💣 🎢 🏖 🏩 😰 😯

*** Big thanks to Harlequin/Mira for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

Love may be blind, but obsession’s a real killer.

Nora Holliday is not that kind of woman. Not the kind who has an illicit affair with a married man. But Josh Landon is everything Nora’s alcoholic husband isn’t. And now she and Josh are so infatuated, they can’t stay away from one another.

Abby Landon, Josh’s daughter, is home from college nursing a broken heart. She’s seeking solace, not more scandal, so when she catches her dad kissing Nora, she vows to take the homewrecker down.

And as for Abby’s mother and Josh’s wife, Gwen? To anyone on the outside looking in, the mother of two appears to be living the ideal suburban life.

Until she winds up dead.

The serene seaside town of Shoreham has always been the perfect place to raise a family – not somewhere housewives are brutally murdered. So who killed Gwen Landon, and how many twisted secrets will be exposed as the vindictive plot comes undone?

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Have a Beautiful day!🌻

Berit☀️✨

The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth @SallyHepworth @StMartinsPress #bookreview #pubday #themotherinlaw

April 23, 2019April 22, 2019 / berittalksbooks / 16 Comments

Happy Pub Day to this stellar story!

Excited to share with you today my review for this book I read in December but still sticks with me today! This was a group read and we all absolutely loved it!💕

My Thoughts

Sally Hepworth completely sucked me in with this compulsive engaging addictive story! This book took a hold of me and did not let go until the last page was turned!

This was an intense twisty story full of complex characters and complicated relationships. I absolutely love books that dig deeply into the psychology of the characters, and oh boy did this book do that! Perhaps there is no relationship more tenuous than that of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. My own mother in law unfortunately passed away a year ago, and I will be forever grateful that she really stayed out of our business, LOL! Someday I will have my own daughter in law, a relationship I am looking forward to because I trust my son’s taste in a significant other. Although I am imagining it will be a tricky relationship I am up for the challenge! What is that saying;”adaughter is a daughter for all of her life, but a son is a son until he takes a wife.”

This story is told from duel points of view, mother-in-law Diana and daughter-in-law Lucy. I felt this was a extremely impactful way to tell the story, you could really see how much misunderstanding there was between these two women. They both truly sought the approval of the other, and neither really knew how to go about it. Most interesting indeed!

The book starts out with the apparent suicide of Diana. As the book progresses we get a look at events leading up to the tragedy. As well as the present day investigation. As things begin to unfold and secrets begin to be revealed we really find out how truly complicated it all was. As the past is revealed Diana becomes a more and more sympathetic character. You truly do need to understand where someone’s coming from to fully appreciate their current actions. I liked Lucy from the very beginning and I enjoyed delving deep into her immediate family dynamics. Her relationship with Oliver and the kids was so relatable. Tom, Diana‘s husband and the father in law was a jovial likable character, who sometimes should’ve perhaps had Diana‘s back a little more! Always much easier to be good cop then bad cop!

This book will feed your appetite for domestic Drama with a glimpse into this family‘s conflict. I just think there is something so alluring about a domestic thriller, it just is always so intriguing to read a story about family dynamics.. What is so brilliant about this story, is this family could be any of ours! It is so familiar and there is something comforting about that, making the story just that much more!

Strongly recommended to anybody who enjoys a story with complicated characters, complex relationships, twists, turns, and a well structured compelling plot!

*** many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

A twisty, compelling new book about one woman’s complicated relationship with her mother-in-law that ends in death….
From the moment Lucy met her husband’s mother, she knew she wasn’t the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Exquisitely polite, friendly, and always generous, Diana nonetheless kept Lucy at arm’s length despite her desperate attempts to win her over. And as a pillar in the community, an advocate for female refugees, and a woman happily married for decades, no one had a bad word to say about Diana…except Lucy.
That was five years ago.
Now, Diana is dead, a suicide note found near her body claiming that she no longer wanted to live because of the cancer wreaking havoc inside her body.
But the autopsy finds no cancer. It does find traces of poison, and evidence of suffocation.
Who could possibly want Diana dead?
Why was her will changed at the 11th hour to disinherit both of her children and their spouses? And what does it mean that Lucy isn’t exactly sad she’s gone?
Fractured relationships and deep family secrets grow more compelling with every chapter in this twisty, captivating new audiobook from Sally Hepworth.

The Besties