Book Review: The Little Bookshop on the Seine, by Rebecca Raisin

Guest review by: Becki Bayley “Luiz,” I said. “No work today?” It was late, he hadn’t arrived early this morning, which was unusual for him. Luiz brushed a hand through his unruly waves. He looked every ounce the writer – messy too-long hair, a half-dazed expression as though...

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Book Review: The Darwin Affair, by Tim Mason

Guest review by: Andrea Hodge Decimus nodded and was carefully lowering the razor-sharp blade into a leather sheath in his trousers pocket when he noticed the young man looking past him. Decimus glanced over his shoulder and saw on the little table near the door a bloodstained...

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Book Review - Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story, by Beverley Naidoo

Guest review by: Becki Bayley As they turned toward the road, there was a bus with the word “PARKTOWN” in big letters on the front. It was slowing down a little way up the road and the doors were opening. Through the front windscreen they could see the driver was black. “Come...

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Book Review: Husband Material, by Emily Belden

Guest review by: Becki Bayley This BOA place is nice, albeit kind of dark and pretty crowded at 6:00 p.m. for a city full of people who don’t like to dine until after 9:00 p.m. But that’s okay because I believe those things – dark and crowded – are helping to take the attention...

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Book Review: The Kill Club, by Wendy Heard

Guest review by: Becki Bayley “Jasmine, I represent an organization to which you have been referred.” The voice is neither female nor male but somewhere in-between, and I realize its owner is using a voice disguiser, the kind you hear on crime shows. The voice resumes. “You’ve...

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Book Review: Day Zero (Day Zero Duology), by Kelly deVos

Guest book review by: Becki Bayley Dr. Doomsday’s Guide to Ultimate Survival Rule One: Always be prepared. Outside, it’s sunny with an empty blue sky that stretches on forever. I swing my backpack over my shoulder as we cross the mostly empty campus. The town can’t afford...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Mama Hissa's Mice, by Saud Alsanousi {ends 11/26}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley The two old ladies spent some time in the courtyard debating who was younger while the three of us looked on, deriving more enjoyment from their scene than that of the patients leaving the psychiatric ward on our TV show. Their feigned squabble...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Current, by Tim Johnston {ends 11/25}

Guest review by: Andrea Hodge "How did you do it, Audrey? How did you get out of the water?" "I don't know," she said. "The car was stuck on the ice and I was stuck on the car. I guess I must have climbed up. I must have gotten the door open far enough to get my arm...

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Book Review: All Fired Up (Road to Love, Book #3), by Lori Foster

Guest review by: Becki Bayley Disbelief stole his voice. Show up at ten. Just like that? He admitted to prison time, to taking part in a drug deal, to being a brother they’d never known because of their father’s indiscretion – and he got invited over for coffee? Could it really...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Breathe In, Cash Out, by Madeleine Henry {ends 11/14}

"Are you okay? Skylar asks.  I've seen her flawless features—long blond hair, bright blue eyes, nonexistent pores—pop up on my Instagram feed hundreds of times, and she's always come across as effortlessly happy. But right now, she looks concerned. I'm trying to explain...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY - Nash: The Official Biography, by Nash Grier and Rebecca Paley {ends 11/13}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley The essence of what Nash came out to L.A. to do can be traced back to when he was seven years old. Once the custody schedule became more flexible, Chad would take his sons to a restaurant called Prime Time every Tuesday – because every Tuesday...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Katy's Ghost, by Trish Evans {ends 11/12}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley It was early October, and I’d not seen Gram since the baby shower at Peaches Madigan’s house. Almost three weeks had passed, but the fragile memories nudged back into existence by each of Gram’s visits drifted softly in and out of my consciousness...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Firewall, by Eugenia Lovett West {ends 11/5}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley The schedule politely requested that guests meet in the anteroom at eight o’clock. Moving leisurely, I took a shower and put on a new dress, a Valentino knock-off cut low in the back. Last spring Caroline had given me a necklace made of brilliant...

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Book Review: Meant to Be Yours, by Susan Mallery

Guest review by: Becki Bayley In a wedding destination town, the rhythms of the residents were determined by weekend weddings. Happily Inc’s workweek started on Wednesdays as the businesses geared up for the dozens of nuptials that occurred in multiple venues. Which meant the...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY - Flying Alone: A Memoir, by Beth Ruggiero York {ends 10/25}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley “Nice job. You handled the airplane well,” Frank told me after the flight test. We stood on the ramp outside Mountain Air’s building that housed the offices along with the cleanest hangar space I had ever seen. I didn’t know a Part 135 operation...

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Book Review: The Perfect Candidate, by Peter Stone

Guest review by: Andrea Hodge "Try to have a normal few days. Don't talk about this to anyone in the office," Memo had told me before dropping me off three blocks away from the Rayburn building, the morning we'd talked with BIB's penitent hitman. "I need time to formalize...

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Review and GIVEAWAY - Almost Home: Poems, by Madisen Kuhn {ends 10/23}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley i am so many different people. i am vibrating with all the lives i have lived. i cannot make out a face in the perpetually spinning chaotic blur that pulses beneath this translucent alien skin stretched across these bones. Everyone can relate...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Law and Addiction, by Mike Papantonio {ends 10/22}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley Nathan Ailes jumped to his feet. “Objection, Your Honor.” Ailes wagged his index finger as if he were poking holes in the air. “Haven’t we heard enough rabid conjecture? This wannabe lawyer is impugning the good name of my client and making them...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: If I Had Two Lives, by Abbigail N. Rosewood {ends 10/14}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley I chose this part of the beach because I’d sensed somehow that Lilah would prefer not to be disturbed. I realized now that it wasn’t necessary to try to find an empty stretch of beach. With the snow falling so thick and the wind bellowing even...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Mad Dog, by Kelly Watt {ends 10/9}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley Peter’s birthday fell on a Saturday in July. The day the newspapers were splattered with pictures of the Harlem race riots, people smashing window and throwing Molotov cocktails, black faces running from white faces, protesting the white shooting...

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