Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Glory Daze, by Danielle Arceneaux {ends 5/7}

Review by: Becki Bayley

Glory tipped the Uber driver thirty dollars in the parking lot of Cypress Downs. He had said nothing about her appearance on the long drive, and he ought to be rewarded for that. Her feet were so swollen from alcohol and sodium from the night before that she couldn’t get her shoes on. She held them in one hand, with her keys in the other, as she walked barefoot to her car, the asphalt digging into the soles of her feet. A feeling of gratitude washed over her when she locked herself inside her Honda-CRV. She may not have been home, but she was on her turf.

Thank God she found a pair of old gas station sunglasses in the glove compartment, because her eyes rejected the sunlight. Various thoughts jammed her brain while she was driving. According to Valeries, and what she was told at the casino, she had had too many drinks. That may have been true, but Glory felt so physically demolished that it had to be more than just alcohol. She couldn’t stop wondering if someone had slipped something into her drink. In fact, the only sensation that  came close to how she felt the night before was when she pricked herself at Opelousas. It could not have been a coincidence. 

Stubbornly independent Glory Broussard is back. Since she already solved one murder, her daughter and "that woman" expect her to help solve another.

Official synopsis:

After her life was turned upside down by solving the murder of her best friend, Sister Amity Gay, all Glory Broussard wanted was a little peace and quiet. That included getting back to her Sunday morning routine as a bookie in a coffee shop, and planning the annual Mardi Gras gala for her church. But there’s no rest for Glory once the woman who broke up her marriage walks in to CC's Coffee House and asks for help finding her missing husband. It doesn’t take long before Glory finds him . . . with a knife impaled in his chest.

No one knew the man—and his dark side—better than Glory Broussard, who would rather let the local authorities take the lead. But Glory’s daughter, still reeling from problems of her own, insists on her involvement. Glory’s search for the murderer takes her deep inside the seedy world of Louisiana casinos and racetracks, from their high roller VIP rooms with chatty dealers to stables filled with thoroughbred horses and shady dealings.

As if solving a murder and sparring with the woman who had an affair with her ex-husband isn’t enough, Glory has to get to the bottom of her daughter’s secrets, and there are a few members of her church group who would love to see her fail in her Mardi Gras responsibilities. Walloped with one revelation after another, Glory’s no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is attitude and strength is tested like never before. But it’s going to take more than that to keep her down in this charming and gripping new novel in the award-winning and critically acclaimed Glory Broussard mystery series.

Glory Broussard has an unavoidable approach and asks the questions that need to be asked. It’s how she solved the murder of her best friend in Glory Be. When she finds her ex-husband, Sterling, stabbed and dead, her daughter Delphine and Sterling’s new wife Valeries are hoping that Glory will again prove to be more effective than the authorities at solving the crime.

Glory regrets her promise to help more than a few times, especially when she finds herself in danger again and would rather be far from drama involving her ex and "that woman"—the woman he left her for. But she would do anything for her daughter, so she keeps untangling the web that led to Sterling’s untimely death.

The characters in this series are so enjoyable. While this book earned a 5 out of 5 stars, each book is investing more readers in the lives of Glory and Delphine, and their relationships with Noah and Beau, and now Justice, Valerie, and Constance. The series is easily recommended to those who like cozy mysteries with strong and quirky female characters. 

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a reader with many amazing, imaginary friends, and two marvelous kids. Check out what they’re up to on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Glory Daze!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, May 7th, and winner will be notified the next day via email and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Glory Daze, by Danielle Arceneaux

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Better Left Unsent, by Lia Louis {ends 4/23}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Maybe this is what I need tonight. Not quite the squeezing myself into a jet-black full-body suit with my head in a huge felt frame bit. But the party itself. Because what better way to forget about everything than to get dressed up in something stupid and drink and eat and watch Michael Waterstreet do the worm (which is more like the salt-doused slug) before crying into a miniature hot dog because his wife has left him again.

Plus…Jack. Jack has a way of making nothing seem like a big deal. Best friend blocking you? No worries. Your mum has been secretly seeing her ex-husband nobody talks about? Happens to us all. Send out all your draft emails? So what?

After a server glitch sends all of Millie’s draft emails—that were never meant to be read by anyone else —she decides she’s done with technology, and maybe humanity. But maybe something good could result from airing some hard truths?

Official synopsis:

Two years ago, thirty-year-old receptionist Millie Chandler had her heart spectacularly broken in public. Ever since, she has been a closed book, vowing to keep everything to herself—her feelings, her truths, even her dreams—in an effort to protect herself from getting hurt again.

But Millie does write emails—sarcastic replies to her rude boss, hard truths to her friends, and of course, that one-thousand-word love declaration to her ex who is now engaged to someone else. The emails live safely in her drafts, but after a server outage at work, Millie wakes up to discover that all her emails have been sent. Every. Single. One.

As every truth, lie, and secret she’s worked so hard to keep only to herself are catapulted out into the open, Millie must fix the chaos her words have caused, and face everything she’s ever swept under the carpet.

Oh, Millie. So the emails get sent, but then someone in IT suggests that sending emails isn’t something an update could do. Has she been intentionally sabotaged by someone? And if so, who? Of course, Millie’s main focus will first be damage control. She frantically tries to correct anything with those she may have hurt, especially in the case of her ex-boyfriend, Owen, and his girlfriend, who may or may not stick around for Owen’s or Millie’s apology.

While most of the story is definitely Millie’s, her fantastic friends (Ralph & Cate, first and foremost) really contribute to the plot, both by aiding in her character development, and pointing out some positives of the receipt of the emails that she never meant for anyone else to read.

Lia Louis writes books that are emotionally engaging but not altogether predictable, and this was no exception. This imaginative book earned 4 out of 5 stars and would be enjoyed by those who like contemporary relationship stories. 

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link—currently only $4.73 for paperback!}

Becki Bayley enjoys reading, writing, and building Legos. Check out her recent activities on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Better Left Unsent!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, April 23rd, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Better Left Unsent, by Lia Louis

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Goddess Game, by Sheila Lee Brown {ends 4/7}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Bethany stared at her phone ringing and vibrating on the table. She eyed it like a haunted artifact in a horror movie. You don’t touch something like that. Curiosity leads to danger. You don’t open yourself to the possibility of bad things happening, right?

She desperately wanted to let it go to voicemail, but was conflicted by her desire to be a good friend to Jenna. She was also worried that if she didn’t answer it, they would both lose work. And, for Bethany, the work Jenna brought in was the type of work that fed her spirit and made the more boring aspects of her life bearable. 

Bethany reached for the phone and hesitated. She didn’t know what this person wanted or if she could even help. Jenna had indicated nothing about the call other than it was scheduled for today.

Bethany’s safe life, of seeing the results of her choices and being able to decide in advance which way she wanted things to go, has ended. She’s now making choices with unanticipated results, just like everyone else.

Official synopsis:

Bethany Hart has a secret superpower - she can see different possible futures and choose the safest path through any social situation. For decades, she's used this gift to avoid conflict and maintain a quiet, controlled life. But when she meets a handsome stranger at the grocery store, her ability malfunctions, showing her tantalizing visions of their perfect future together before disappearing completely.

Now Bethany must navigate an increasingly chaotic life without her supernatural safety net. As embarrassing incidents pile up and long-buried emotions surface, she realizes her gift may have been holding her back from truly living. With help from her best friend Jenna, her surprisingly supportive ex-husband Caleb, and a mysterious spiritual guide named Fiona, Bethany learns that real power comes not from controlling outcomes, but from having the courage to embrace uncertainty.

A heartwarming contemporary fantasy about learning to take risks, face fears, and open your heart to life's possibilities - even when you can't see what's coming next.

Bethany had the potential to just be annoying, but the imaginative story of her redemption arc luckily made her a charming and quirky character by the end of the book. Her power had, indeed, led her to manipulate all of the circumstances and people around her. She was completely oblivious to this originally. Realizing her supernatural power while she was in high school made it just a survival technique for someone with her social anxiety. Not many high schoolers would be ready to sacrifice their comfort for the overall well-being of anyone else.

The important part was Bethany’s realization both of her responsibility in overusing her gift, and seeing what it may be like to be happy instead of just calmly surviving. The telling of her dream sequences was beautiful and insightful.

Overall, the story was original and enjoyable. Hopefully the loose ends will be tied up in another book. This book earned 4 out of 5 stars and was entertaining and inspiring. Those who like contemporary stories with what may be called almost a spiritual angle will appreciate this story from Bethany’s life.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link - currently FREE for Kindle Unlimited!}

Becki Bayley is a wife of almost 20 years, and a mother of two children. She enjoys reading and doing LEGOs. Check out her other reviews and commentary on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Goddess Game!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, April 7th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be contacted the next day via email and have 24 hours to respond, otherwise an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Goddess Game, by Sheila Lee Brown

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Book Review - An Inconvenient Wife: A Modern Tudor Mystery, by Karen E. Olson

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

How had that girl ended up the way she did – and in such a vicious way? Underneath it all lurked the stock sell-off. There was no way this wouldn’t affect the stocks even more. Shareholders were a skittish bunch. The word “bankruptcy” was tossed around a bit, and for a moment she wondered what it would be like to be married to a Hank Tudor without the billions, a Hank Tudor who lost it all because of a body found on his property. She’d grown up in a middle-class family, in a suburban, nondescript town with parents who were teachers. She worked summers and afternoons after school at the local diner, serving up BLTs and coffee and ice cream sundaes, scraping together enough money to go to the movies, concerts with her friends, putting a little aside every paycheck to help defray college costs. She knew how to live like that; she wasn’t afraid of it. Hank had grown up with money, though. He didn’t know what it was like to struggle financially.

She imagined the two of them settled into a small house somewhere. She could go back to work, and Hank could start a new business. They could have home-cooked dinners and Sundays in front of a fire, reading and just being together. No media hovering outside the door, no need for security teams. 

Kate Parker wasn’t just Hank Tudor’s sixth wife. She had already been his assistant while he was married to wife number five. She knows what goes in to promoting the image the staff needs the world to see about Hank Tudor and his companies.

Official synopsis:

Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.

But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.

In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago.

This modernization of a splash of Henry VIII’s story was an amusing read. While there seems to be a marked pattern of Hank Tudor leaving each of his wives for personal assistants, Kate Parker is sure that she understands more of what’s up than the others did. But since she’s now his sixth wife and doesn’t have any authority within his life and business dealings, she’s an outsider as the investigation begins regarding a headless body found on his property.

Kate’s confidence may be the death of her, as she is certain she knows what is happening and who all the players are. She also wants to prove that she’s more loyal than the previous wives, and would definitely never question whether her new husband could be behind any deaths or missing persons cases.

It was fun seeing the wives described as contemporary characters: a business woman, an agoraphobic obsessed with him, a lesbian who would never love him that way anyway, and a starlet, to name a few. The story was a fun premise that could be expanded to cover other wives’ stories. The book earned four out of five stars and would be enjoyed by those who appreciate the original Tudor stories, or know nothing of them and just like a curious mystery.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, writing, and doing Legos. When she’s not at work, you’ll find her caring for her family with love. See what else they’re up to on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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Book Review: Conditions of a Heart, by Bethany Mangle

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

“I just invited Oliver to come here,” I deadpan. “Help.”

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down.” She slowly tilts her head back as she drains the rest of her drink, her eyes shutting briefly when it’s empty. “Oof. That’s bitter.” She rolls her hand in the air. “You may continue panicking now.”

I bend over, my subconscious rapidly calculating the odds that I throw up on Tori’s Birkenstocks-and-ankle-socks combo. “What was…what thinking? Why…do?”

Tori pats me consolingly on the head and gestures for me to follow her toward the kitchen. “Do you want breakfast? I have spinach quiche and egg wraps.”

“He’s going to be here in, like, an hour.” My attempts to slow my breathing turn into not breathing at all, leaving me somewhere between stunned blowfish and hyperventilating panic attack. I straighten suddenly and latch onto the sleeve of her oversized purple hoodie before she’s out of reach. “What do I do? What do I do?”

Brynn has never told anyone at her new school about her diagnosis. Now that it’s been years, is there any way to tell them that will let them ever trust her again?

Official synopsis:

Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.

But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being, Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one wanted: herself.

Brynn decided to live her life at her new high school exactly as she wanted to. She became one of the most social students, building up to her senior year. She loves having everyone recognize how capable she is in heading up the yearbook committee, and she enjoys planning big events for the class, like prom. 

When she tries to break up a fight by talking, Brynn ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in order to keep his own name clean, the rich kid causing the trouble tells the school that Brynn started it. To make an example of her, after her suspension, she is banned from the activities she loves for the rest of her senior year. A lot of soul-searching leads her to potentially change her life even more, if she can’t have it like she wants it.

This heartwarming story eventually has Brynn finding out who her true friends are, and realizing that she doesn’t have to do her life by herself. In spite of how much she values her impression of confidence and her independence, everyone needs help from family and friends sometimes. Brynn’s medical diagnosis means that she’s going to need more help than a lot of people along her journey.

The book was the best and worst of a stereotypical private school with the added intrigue of Brynn and her family trying to navigate her Ehlers-Danlos in secret (at Brynn’s request) through it all. In addition to being an entertaining book about the drama of a high-schooler’s senior year, it also was educational about her diagnosis and personal limitations. The book earned 4 out of 5 stars and would be a good read for those who like contemporary YA romance and family dramas.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, really good chicken salad sandwiches, and building Lego sets. Check out her other activities and book reviews on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Beneath the Poet's House, by Christa Carmen {ends 2/28}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

After checking her phone to make sure everyone’s arrived, Stacy turns in the opposite direction from which Saoirse and Emmit have come. “All right, everyone. Our tour has officially started. Onward, to what we in the biz still refer to as the Biltmore Hotel.”

Saoirse and Emmit match their strides to the half dozen or so other participants on the ghost walk. Saoirse wishes she’d thought to bring a pair of gloves. It’s much colder than when she had initially planned to be out with Emmit, nine hours earlier. 

“Are you excited?” Emmit asks.

“Sure,” Saoirse replies. “This is cool.”

“Are you scared?” He grins.

Saoirse feels her mouth lift into a half smile that mirrors the one Emmit so often wears. “It takes an awful lot to scare me these days.”

Saoirse is trying to move on from the death of her husband and create a life for herself after so many years of losing her own desires to her husband’s expectations.

Official synopsis:

Unmoored by her husband’s death and suffering from writer’s block, novelist Saoirse White moves to Providence, and into the historic home of Sarah Helen Whitman, the nineteenth-century poet and spiritualist once courted by Edgar Allan Poe. Saoirse’s certain she’ll find inspiration in the quiet rooms, as well as in the tucked-away rose garden and forgotten cemetery at the back of the property.

Saoirse is immediately welcomed by an effusive trio of transcendentalists obsessed with Whitman, the house, and Whitman’s mystic beliefs. Saoirse, emerging from grief and loneliness, welcomes the idea of new friends taking her mind off the past—even as they hope to summon it. When she meets Emmit Powell, a charismatic and charming prize-winning author, Saoirse thinks she’s finally turned a corner.

Emboldened by new romance, Saoirse begins to write again and, through her writing, rediscover herself. But as old fears return, she finds that nothing about her new life is what it seems—and a secret she’s tried so hard to bury may not be the only thing that comes back to haunt her.

Saoirse has some skeletons in her past, but she’s determined to leave the life that was making her miserable and smothering her creativity. She’s leaving the home she shared with her husband until he died and returning to Providence, where they met in college. She’s hoping to start fresh and get back to writing novels again.

She’s not surprised when things once again don’t go according to plan. The house she picked out to rent happens to have a history, and although it hasn’t been rented for five years, she finds visitors there on her first night. But she’s resilient and reminds herself that she wanted things to be different, and they are definitely seeming to shape up that way. Soon she even meets a new romantic interest, that she surely did not think would happen so soon, or maybe ever again.

Emmit is interested in her and her writing, and wants to know everything about her. Another new friend plants a seed of doubt, but of course Saoirse is a grown up who can make her own choices and judgments about people.

The book is beautifully told, thoroughly researched regarding the area and references of Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Helen Whitman, and intricately plotted for some reminiscing of their doomed love story. This great gothic thriller earned 5 out of 5 stars. It would be an excellent spooky book club read. 

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a black cat mom who enjoys literary history and psychologically spooky stories. Check out more of what she and her family are up to on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Beneath the Poet's House!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Friday, February 28th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be chosen the next day and notified via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Beneath the Poet's House, by Christa Carmen Take Mobile Users to a Host

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Book Review - Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Murder, by Cutter Wood

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

My departure from Florida after this interview bore some resemblance to a man disappearing into a crevasse. One moment, I was sitting in the parking lot of the prison listening to my messages; the next second, one could just make out the whinny of a loose steering belt in the distance as the station wagon banked a curve and headed north. The reason for this hurry was quite simple. There had been three messages on my phone when I left the prison:  the first, from Forrest, saying that if I was free he’d be happy to show me sandcastle pictures whenever was convenient – he was available all week; the second, from my mother, wondering if they’d found that motel woman yet – she hoped I was having fun; the last, from Erin, saying that she couldn’t stop thinking about me – she wanted to meet. 

I had to teach my first class of the semester in Iowa in about thirty-six hours. I spread the atlas out on the passenger-side seat. It was possible. If we met halfway, we could share four or five hours before I needed to turn west. I called her back, and as our rendezvous point, we selected a motel, the very name of which – the Lynnette – seemed to promise some indefinable intrigue. I was on the highway even before we’d said goodbye.

While the story claimed to be about a murder, the murder felt more like the background for the author’s discoveries about life.

Official synopsis:

When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest—her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car. Then the motel is set on fire; her boyfriend flees the county; and detectives begin digging on the beach of Anna Maria Island.

Author Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for her gained momentum. Driven by his own need to understand how a relationship could spin to pieces in such a fatal fashion, he began to talk with many of the people living on Anna Maria, and then with the detectives, and finally with the man presumed to be the murderer. But there was only so much that interviews and transcripts could reveal.

In trying to understand how we treat those we love, this book, like Truman Capote’s classic In Cold Blood, tells a story that exists outside documentary evidence. Wood carries the investigation of Sabine’s murder beyond the facts of the case and into his own life, crafting a tale about the dark conflicts at the heart of every relationship.

Cutter Wood writes about the mystery of a missing woman from Anna Maria Island, Florida, while embarking on his own romantic relationship with a woman he knew from grade school, and furthering his education and career as a writer. Although he felt immersed enough in his research to imagine a relationship with the missing (and probably dead) woman, his interactions and review of information from the three suspects don’t bring him any closer to solving the mystery and possible crime than the police.

The writing style was pleasant, and the book earned 3 out of 5 stars. In spite of the description, this may not be a favorite for those who enjoy true-crime, as it read more like a memoir of the author’s life during the investigation of the crime. Those who like lifestyle stories would enjoy this book.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a Gemini who enjoys the sense of accomplishment that comes with waking up early and checking off the tasks that need to be done. See some pictures of what she’s up to on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

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