The Golden Couple

Author: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all - until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn't stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide though Avery's door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it's no longer simply a marriage that's in danger.

Review: Yay! After a dry spell of many books that I simply did not enjoy, I loved this book. Definitely the best book this team of authors has ave written.

Other novels by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
An Anonymous Girl
The Wife Between Us

Save What's Left

Author: Elizabeth Castellano
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 304
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: When Kathleen Deane's husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage, Kathleen is confused. They live in Kansas. They've been married thirty years. Who said anything about being happy? But with Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thought lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year. 

It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie's letters. Kathleen's new neighbor, Rosemary, is cantankerous, and the town's supervisor won't return Kathleen's emails, but worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen's absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in a fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairytale, but it's exactly what she needed.

Review: My book picker is broken. This is another book that I simply didn't love. It's a GMA Book Club pick and People magazine posted rave reviews as well, but real people aren't rating it favorably on Goodreads and elsewhere.

It had the potential to be cute or even funny, but it wasn't either. Ugh.

The Unexpected Diva

Author: Tiffany L. Warren
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2025
Pages: 432
Rating: 

Synopsis: Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield has been raised in the safety of Philadelphia's Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza's happy childhood always included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. But on the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, young Eliza's world is thrown into a tailspin when her mother dies.

Eliza's inheritance is contested by her mother's white cousins, leaving her few options. She can marry her longtime beau, Lucien, though she has no desire to be a wife and mother. Or she can work as a tutor for rich families. Her mother's dying wish was for Eliza to pursue her talent and become a professional singer, but that grand vision now seems out of reach.

When a chance performance on a steamboat to Buffalo, New York, leads to a surprising opportunity, fearless Eliza seizes her moment. Within a year she is touring America, singing to packed houses, and igniting controversy wherever she goes. In a country captivated by "the Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind, Eliza is billed by tour promoters as "the Black Swan." An unlikely diva, Eliza is tall, dark-skinned, and robust of figure compared to the petite European prima donna, but even the harshest critics can't deny Eliza's extraordinary gift. Menaced by racist crowds, threatened by slave-catchers who kidnap free Black people, Eliza lives a public life full of risk, but one which holds the promise of great riches, and the freedoms those buy.

Review: A fictional account of a real person, this novel started out slow. Just as I was thinking I could not endure 432 pages whining about a man she was engaged to marry, but did not love, the author put Eliza on a boat bound for Buffalo and the novel was off to the races. I really enjoyed this novel.