Book Review and Giveaway: Side Effects are Minimal, by Laura Essay {ends 12/26}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley “This is not everything.” Landon Sims slapped the test results onto the high lab table in front of Phil. “What do you mean it’s not everything? Do you realize who I am?” Phil gazed over the rim of his readers.  “We all do,...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Lightborne, by Hesse Phillips

Guest review by: Becki BayleyIt takes the landlord and the chamberlain working in furious tandem to lug the Inn-in-the-Wall’s only strongbox up to Frizer and Marlowe’s room. At the door they drop their load and proceed to shove it across the floor to the window, a piece of metal...

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Book Review: The Woman at the Wheel, by Penny Haw

Guest review by: Becki Bayley“I wondered if it would ever be possible for a woman to work alongside a man and be considered his equal partner.”“Are you thinking of becoming an engineer and working with Carl?” she said, her eyes twinkling.“No, of course not,” I replied, accepting...

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Book Review: The Stranger Upstairs, by Lisa M. Matlin

Guest review by: Becki BayleyI hate tea. I’m a coffee drinker. I smile wanly, looking around. I’ve never been in her office before. It’s orange and pink and has a child’s bedroom feel about it. It feels safe here, and my limbs slowly unclench. Emily plucks a stray hair from...

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Book Review: This Time Could Be Different, by Khristin Wierman

Guest review by Becki BayleyMadeline’s feet pounded along the dirt path as Green Day’s “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” roared in her ears. She’d started running along this trail a few weeks before. But today she wasn’t paying attention to the sunlight cascading through the dark...

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Book Review: Trouble the Living, by Francesca McDonnell Capossela

Guest review by: Becki BayleyThe Mississippi Man’s eyes were a glint of glass in the dark. Damon, I corrected myself. I knew it wasn’t right to call him whatever I wanted, like I was some kind of God.His long, thin fingers extended a cigarette to me. I shook my head.“Of course,”...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Good Bride, by Jen Marie Wiggins {ends 11/26}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyMarcus nods then turns to Ruth, his voice light. “I know a lot of people have already asked you this, including myself, but I have to ask again. You’re absolutely sure what you saw out there – and you’d only had one drink. One glass of red wine?”“Yes...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Blindspot in America, by Elom K. Akoto {ends 10/23}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley The days went by fast, and Kamao and Lindsey only had a week and a half left to spend in Ghana. Mama Agatha and one of her maids set up the breakfast table. Kamao was the first to join them just as they were finishing...

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Book Review: Malibu Burning, by Lee Goldberg

Guest review by: Becki BayleyThree Weeks AgoThe blue Ferrari 488 Spider was the perfect car for taking the hairpin turns on Latigo Canyon Road, heading south into the Santa Monica Mountains toward the sea. But the Beverly Hills rental car company wouldn’t have been pleased knowing...

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Book Review: The Reunion, by Kit Frick

Guest review by: Becki BayleyADDISONIt’s not until I’ve changed into my pajamas and settled in bed with the remote that it occurs to me to wonder how the frog got all the way beneath the sheets, which had been so carefully spread up by room service. I’m not scared of frogs;...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Hedgerow, by Anne Leigh Parrish {ends 10/9}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyShe came home exhausted to find Henry reading, listening to the radio, or drinking and playing solitaire. Alistair wasn’t due back for another week and Edith had been preparing their meals. She’d arranged for their laundry to be picked up at the...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Witch's Secret, by Stacie Murphy {ends 10/2}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyPeter took me into Denver City on Christmas Eve. We left at first light, wrapped in buffalo robes against the frigid air, our breath making clouds of mist as the mules plodded along under the brightening sky. We made far better time riding than if...

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Book Review: Sammy Espinoza's Last Review, by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Guest review by: Becki BayleyThe next morning, I awake with one more plan and zero more texts than I had the night before.Letting my Max situation and my Paloma situation collide the other night left everything horribly tangled, I can see that now. But now that I know, I vow...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Not What She Seems, by Yasmin Angoe {ends 8/13}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyMama put the wooden spatula she was using to scramble the eggs onto the spoon holder. “Thank you, Jac,” she said without warning.I tore my attention from the trickles of dark-brown liquid from the drip coffee pot – no Keurig here; I wanted to be...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Holliday, by Matthew Di Paoli (ends 7/30)

Guest review by: Becki BayleyIn Tombstone, the leaves had all turned canary, complementing the grass, which had burnt beige. Evergreens swayed in the distance, and the mountains loomed ash and golden like the clouds. It was mid-October and the weather finally dropped below eighty....

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club, by Julia Bryan Thomas (ends 7/24)

Guest review by: Becki BayleyDuring her weeks at home, Merritt thought a great deal about book club and Alice Campbell, whom she had already come to admire. It was a daring and exciting prospect to have a business of one’s own, especially a bookshop. It seemed an ideal place...

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Jackie, by Dawn Tripp {ends 7/22}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyWe talk about Eleanor Roosevelt’s funeral the week before. I mention the piece I read by James Baldwin in The New Yorker, “Letter From a Region of My Mind.” We talk about Thanksgiving plans, the children’s birthday parties, Palm Beach at Christmas....

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Walk the Dark, by Paul Cody {ends 7/1}

Guest review by: Becki BayleyMaybe I was eleven by then. I think I was eleven.We were still living in the first-floor place with the big rooms, and for a while I went to middle school, for sixth grade, and the school was four or five times bigger than Fall Creek Elementary,...

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