Book Review: The Sweet Taste of Muscadines, by Pamela Terry

Guest review by: Becki BayleyOn the long polished dresser sat two framed photographs. One was of a laughing Aunt Jo taken on a snowy day in the mountains when she was young, and the other was of my father. It was a picture I had never seen, and the resemblance to Henry was stunning....

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: House of Glass Hearts, by Leila Siddiqui {ends 12/16}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyCalcutta, India, 1943I walked the streets of Calcutta, periodically looking up at the sky. The city was transforming day by day. Before, I could stick my tongue out and taste the salt in the air; now, it was the rusty tang of gunmetal and war. Soldiers...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: How to Murder a Marriage, by Gabrielle St. George {ends 12/12}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyLillian’s husband kept his promise. He came back just as he said he would.Florrie is frantic. “Is it the maniac from last night?”I’m nodding. “I have to go outside to get the picture so I can show it to Lloyd.”Florrie is nodding also. We’re both...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Wolf Point, by Ian K. Smith {ends 11/28}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyMy intel had been spot on, which was why I found Amy Bonnegan sitting alone at a back table in Randolph Tavern, a busy pub just a couple of blocks from city hall. She tore into a mountain of greens while tapping furiously on her phone. She didn’t...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Violence, by Delilah S. Dawson {ends 11/25}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyShe scrolls back through all the texts she’s sent her mom, but they’re all unread. Now she thinks she knows why. Her mom’s phone was probably in her minivan with Jeanie when her mom ran away. So there’s no point in texting her at all.And yet...there’s...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Her Name is Knight, by Yasmin Angoe {ends 11/22}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyBEFOREThe woman in the fur coat is the first to break our three-way stare down. Maybe she reads the determination on my face, a look that says I will not give up these items without a fight. I know I can do it, fight...until the death. Once you have...

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Book Review: The Becoming of Noah Shaw, by Michelle Hodkin

Guest review by: Becki BayleyI’d never wanted to see the place before, and now that I stand here, looking up at it, nondescript and shuttered in a toxically ugly part of Brooklyn, I feel justified. There are windows stretching up for stories, boarded shut, crudely. Father always...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Christmas in Peachtree Bluff, by Kristy Woodson Harvey {ends 11/9}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyHe was right. Adam and I might not have agreed one hundred percent of the time on things like where we should live and precisely what our future should hold. But it didn’t matter. I knew now that that didn’t mean I should just roll over and give...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Litani, by Jess Lourey {ends 10/24}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyWhen I couldn’t stand it any longer, I lifted my head slowly, expecting an emotional blow. I was shocked to meet both Crane’s eyes. Blue and sincere and bare to the world.“I’m really sorry, Frankie,” he said.I gripped my elbows.“I’m sorry your dad...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Eight Perfect Hours, by Lia Louis {ends 10/16}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyYou can see for miles up here. Stretches of houses and buildings, but just on the horizon, hills and lush green trees and blue sky. There’s a particular specific smell up here. The smell of other people’s houses; evidence of other people’s lives....

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: All These Bodies, by Kendare Blake {ends 10/2}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley“Marie, do you know where he is?”“No. But I always thought he might stick around to watch.” She looked at me seriously. “You shouldn’t go off on your own, Michael.”I almost smiled. I wasn’t going to hide from a make-believe monster. But someone real...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Cold Snap, by Codi Schneider {ends 9/29}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyWhile Spencer, Eddy, and Hamlet took Fennec to the kitchen to make him a warm and comforting breakfast, Skunk and I decided to interview the cats upstairs. They may have seen the prowler. After all, their windows looked directly over the backyard.First...

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Quick Pick Book Review: Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult

Opening lines: March 13, 2020When I was six years old, I painted a corner of the sky. My father was working as a conservator, one of a handful restoring the zodiac ceiling on the main hall of Grand Central Terminal—an aqua sky strung with shimmering constellations. It was...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The World Played Chess, by Robert Dugoni {ends 9/22}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyI was ten when I accompanied my father to the ACE Hardware store in Millbrae. I don’t recall what he purchased, but I do recall he handed the cashier a ten-dollar bill and she gave him back change for a twenty. I remember thinking we’d hit the mother...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Constance, by Matthew FitzSimmons {ends 9/8}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyTwo days after her dinner with Vernon Gaddis, Con left Charles Island driven by a late-model, two-door electric compact with Virginia plates. It was the color of cold oatmeal and not much to look at, but that’s the way she wanted it given where she...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Family Plot, by Megan Collins {ends 9/1}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyFrom upstairs, there’s a thump, followed by a sound like furniture sliding across the floor. Charlie glances at the ceiling.“Are you sure you’re safe in here?” he asks Officer Bailey. “If we’re as murderous as you think, who knows what we might do?...

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Book Review & GIVEAWAY - It's Not About the Gun: Lessons from My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent, by Kathy Stearman {ends 8/30}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyDespite my rocky start, India began to feel like home. I recall coming back to Delhi from a conference in the US. The embassy car had picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at my house. Walking up the driveway, I could hear the family of...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: All's Well, by Mona Awad {ends 8/26}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyImpossible, I think, sheets snaked around my body, still light as air, light as the breeze in my hair, lifting it lightly off my shoulders. My window’s open, but I’m not cold. I stare at the blue, blue sky through the window screen. A bright blue...

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