Quick Pick book review: The Two Lila Bennetts, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke

• Opening lines: (Prologue) Wake up! Wake the hell up! The sound of my own voice shakes me out of my deep slumber, and my stomach lurches. I've lost track of time.
• Reason I picked up the book: I've read books by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke before, and enjoyed them.
• And what's this book about?
Lila Bennett’s bad choices have finally caught up with her. And one of those decisions has split her life in two. Literally.

In one life, she’s taken hostage by someone who appears to be a stranger but knows too much. As she’s trapped in a concrete cell, her kidnapper forces her to face what she’s done or be killed. In an alternate life, she eludes her captor but is hunted by someone who is dismantling her happiness, exposing one secret at a time.

Lila’s decorated career as a criminal defense attorney, her marriage, and her life are on the line. She must make a list of those she’s wronged—both in and out of the courtroom—to determine who is out to get her before it’s too late. But even if she can pinpoint her assailant, will she survive? And if she does, which parts of her life are worth saving, and which parts must die? Because one thing’s for certain—life as Lila Bennett knew it is over.
• Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys a good thriller.
• Favorite paragraph: I open the door slowly and don't make eye contact. I don't want him to know that I overheard. That I am now quite sure that my husband or whoever has me in here has ordered me dead.
  
  Because there's nothing else to take from me except my life.

• Something to know: It's definitely similar to the movie Sliding Doors - even the authors admitted in the post-script that Sliding Doors was the inspiration for the book. 
• What I would have changed: Nothing, except one of the endings (yes, there are two!) was a little ambiguous ... no spoilers, though.
• Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
• Where can I find this book? Click here to order on Amazon. Free for Kindle Unlimited right now and only $3.99 for Kindle!
  

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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Quick Pick book review: Girls' Night Out, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke

• Opening lines: The Day After. Natalie.
  Waves lapped against the shore. It sounded as if the sea were breathing. In and out. In and out. Between the whitecaps breaking against the sand, there was a pause, almost as if the ocean were inhaling and preparing to release another breath. In and out. In and out. 
• Reason I picked up the book: I'm a fan of Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke's books - I've reviewed a few of them, as well.
• And what's this book about?
From the bestselling authors of The Good Widow comes a chilling novel of psychological suspense that will make you think twice about what your best friend may be hiding...

For estranged friends Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren, it's time to heal the old wounds between them. Where better to repair those severed ties than on a girls' getaway to the beautiful paradise of Tulum, Mexico? But even after they're reunited, no one is being completely honest about the past or the secrets they're hiding. When Ashley disappears on their girls' night out, Natalie and Lauren have to try to piece together their hazy memories to figure out what could have happened to her, while also reconciling their feelings of guilt over their last moments together.

Was Ashley with the man she'd met only days before? Did she pack up and leave? Was she kidnapped? Or worse - could Natalie or Lauren have snapped under the weight of her own lies?

As the clock ticks, hour by hour, Natalie and Lauren's search rushes headlong into growing suspicion and dread. Maybe their secrets run deeper and more dangerous than one of them is willing - or too afraid - to admit.
• Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys thrillers, or stories about friends (trying to) reconnect.
• Favorite paragraph: She hung up the phone and raised her head to the sky, a dark storm cloud making its way towards her from the east. "What if I can't convince her?" she whispered to herself. She almost always let Ashley have her way. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd put her foot down about something at work. Would Ashley understand it was Natalie's turn to get her way? She stood there until the ominous cloud was directly overhead, and let her tears mix with the rain it brought, finally composing herself and walking back to where Lauren sat, as if the world she built weren't crumbling.
• Something to know: I could definitely see this being adapted into a movie - the majority of the book takes place in Mexico, which is very picturesque. The women are all in their late 30s (one mentions she's 39) and I believe two of them just turned 40, which is another reason they wanted to take this trip together - they've known each other since college.
• What I would have changed: Nothing I can think of.
• Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
• Where can I find this book? Click here to purchase on Amazon.

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Good Widow, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke {ends 8/28}

But in moments like these, this man's love, or lust, or even his affection—she was never quite sure what to call it—buoyed her. When he looked at her just like that, she knew she'd do anything he asked. She might have even jumped off that bridge with him, as long as he'd held her hand on the way down. She questioned him almost as much as she revered him. But right then, in the Jeep hugging the side of this mountain, the unpaved road so riddled with potholes that she was getting carsick, she felt like they could overcome anything together. That the world could be theirs.

That's probably why she took off her seat belt. And decided to lean in close and breathe her secret into his ear. She could have simply called out her confession over the wind, but she needed to deliver the news gently. The rest of their lives together depended on it.

I had been wanting to read The Good Widow (and it has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while, too) because I am a big fan of Fenton and Steinke's other books - I really enjoyed The Status of All Things, which I read two years ago, as well as Your Perfect Life. Although I didn't like The Good Widow as much as Status, it's still an interesting read.

Official synopsis:

Elementary school teacher Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales’s marriage was far from perfect, but even in its ups and downs it was predictable, familiar. Or at least she thought it was…until two police officers showed up at her door with devastating news. Her husband of eight years, the one who should have been on a business trip to Kansas, had suffered a fatal car accident in Hawaii. And he wasn’t alone.

For Jacks, laying her husband to rest was hard. But it was even harder to think that his final moments belonged to another woman—one who had left behind her own grieving and bewildered fiancé. Nick, just as blindsided by the affair, wants answers. So he suggests that he and Jacks search for the truth together, retracing the doomed lovers’ last days in paradise.

Now, following the twisting path of that fateful road, Jacks is learning that nothing is ever as it seems. Not her marriage. Not her husband. And most certainly not his death…

The book is told from a few different characters' perspectives, both past and present, which is what keeps it intriguing. We open with Jacqueline ("Jacks," to her friends) finding out that her husband has passed away in a car accident—and, oh yeah, it was in Hawaii, and he was supposedly in Kansas, on a business trip. She quickly finds out that he was having an affair, with a younger woman named Dylan, and soon Dylan's fiancee, Nick, shows up at her doorstep.

He proposes that they go to Maui together and try to retrace James and Dylan's last steps, in order to attempt to find out more about the affair and how they ended up careening off a steep cliff into the water below.

Kind of crazy, right? Jacks needs answers, though, so she agrees to go with him.

There's a twist at the end of this novel that I sort-of saw coming, but the way the authors laid it out was pretty good. It was interesting to see Jacks' chapters from before the accident, too, as well as when she first met James—we hear from both her and Dylan, and we see how Dylan ended up meeting James and how their affair started.

I did feel like this novel wrapped up a little too neatly at the end, but I can see how it would logically end that way, as well.

3.5 stars out of 5

{Click here to purchase - free for Kindle Unlimited users!}

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Good Widow - enter in the widget below.

Giveaway will end on Monday, August 28th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

2 paperback copies of The Good Widow

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Year in Review: The Best and Worst Books of 2015

2015 is now gone and done, and although I didn't read as many books as I wanted to (57, according to Goodreads), I still managed to read and publish a good amount of reviews this year.

Here's the list sorted by rating and also alphabetical order, as well as an Amazon link if you're thinking of purchasing/reading any books.

* = guest review

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Status of All Things, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke {ends 8/14}

The truth of her words strikes me hard. I think of Courtney and her big day at Max's company. Her new job that I'm indirectly or directly responsible for, despite my best efforts to keep her away from Max. My mom was right, I needed to hang on to him. But I couldn't get the word Ruby had used out of my mind - fate. Because what I really needed to know was why the universe had sent me on this journey in the first place - and there was really only one way to find out. I had to stop using magic and let fate take its course - no matter what the outcome.

This is the second book I've read by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, the first one being Your Perfect Life, which I reviewed back in January. The author duo likes to write about new or unusual situations, and that's what we have here as well: after being dumped by her fiancee, Max, at her wedding rehearsal dinner, Kate wakes up the next day in bed with him. The hitch: she's somehow gone back in time, and it's 30 days prior to their wedding.

Official synopsis:
What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates.

Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancé, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be with Kate’s close friend and coworker, no less—she goes straight to Facebook to share it with the world. But something’s changed. Suddenly, Kate’s real life starts to mirror whatever she writes in her Facebook status. With all the power at her fingertips, and heartbroken and confused over why Max left her, Kate goes back in time to rewrite their history.

Kate's two best friends, Jules and Liam, are the only ones who know the truth. In order to convince them she’s really time traveled, Kate offers to use her Facebook status to help improve their lives. But her attempts to help them don’t go exactly as planned, and every effort to get Max back seems to only backfire, causing Kate to wonder if it’s really possible to change her fate.

In The Status of All Things, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke combine the humor and heart of Sarah Pekkanen and Jennifer Weiner while exploring the pitfalls of posting your entire life on the Internet. They raise the questions: What if you could create your picture-perfect life? Would you be happy? Would you still be you? For anyone who’s ever attempted—or failed—to be their perfect self online, this is a story of wisdom and wit that will leave you with new appreciation for the true status of your life.

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Book Review: Your Perfect Life, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke

"We're already tossing around ideas. All preliminary of course. But if things continue, if Casey can keep this up, a show will happen for her. And she's single. No kids. She'd jump at a chance to host her own show in the Big Apple, right?"

Charlie smiles, but his eyes look sad. "I don't know, you'll have to ask her. But you know Casey, she'd do just about anything for the next great thing."

And I find myself wondering. What will she say? Or if we haven't been able to switch back and I'm still Casey Lee, what will I say?

This novel is definitely a Freaky Friday type of book, but it also knows that and alludes to that movie and other similar "body switching" books and movies. Rachel is a homemaker with three kids, including a baby, and her best friend, Casey, is a TV star - she hosts Gossip TV, and leads an expensive lifestyle, with the clothes and apartment to match. When they end up switching bodies after their 20th high school reunion, neither knows how to adapt to the other's life at first - but soon, after almost no time at all, they start to figure things out.

Official synopsis:
With “a delicious, page-turning premise, and sweet and surprising insights” (New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster), Your Perfect Life perfectly illustrates that old adage: Sometimes, you to have to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes to see what’s in her heart.

Best friends since childhood, Casey and Rachel couldn’t lead more different lives. While workaholic Casey rubs elbows with celebrities daily as the host of Gossip TV and comes home nightly to an empty apartment, stay-at-home mom Rachel juggles an “oops” baby, two fiery teenagers, and a husband who barely seems the man she fell in love with two decades before. After an argument at their twentieth high school reunion, Casey and Rachel throw back shots to get the night back on track. Instead, they get a life-changing hangover.

Waking up in each other’s bodies the next morning, they must figure out how to navigate their altered realities. Rachel is forced to confront the reason she gave up her broadcasting dreams when she got pregnant in college, and Casey finally steps out of the spotlight to face the truth about why she’s alone. And they soon discover that they don’t know themselves—or their best friend—nearly as well as they thought they did.

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke bring humor and heart to every page of this novel that is sure to please fans of In Her Shoes and The Opposite of Me. Your Perfect Life is a story about two very different women, what they didn’t know about each other, and how, by switching lives, they each learn to appreciate their own.

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