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Adding to Your TBR – April 2018

TBR April 2018
  1. TBR April 2018

Adding to Your TBR – April 2018

TBR – To Be Read tower/list 

Just a couple of days late… I did it! Almost. With travelling for 42 hours through four countries, surprise visitors and a grand-slam crash of my laptop’s motherboard it is impressive this post got posted at all. Have a good month and happy reading!

 

The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes

Expected: 1 April 2018

The abstract promises dark, sinister secrets and the early reviewers on Goodreads describe The Forgotten Ones as compelling and heartbreaking.

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The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes

 

Elle is a survivor. She’s managed to piece together a solid life from a childhood of broken memories and fairy tales her mom told her to explain away bad dreams. But weekly visits to her mother still fill Elle with a paralyzing fear she can’t explain. It’s just another of so many unanswered questions she grew up with in a family estranged by silence and secrets.

Elle’s world turns upside down when she receives a deathbed request from her grandfather, a man she was told had died years ago. Racked by grief, regrets, and a haunted conscience, he has a tale of his own to tell Elle: about her mother, an imaginary friend, and two strangers who came to the house one night and never left.

As Elle’s past unfolds, so does the truth—if she can believe it. She must face the reasons for her inexplicable dread. As dark as they are, Elle must listen…before her grandfather’s death buries the family’s secrets forever. – Abstract from Goodreads

 

The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan

Expected: 3 April 2018

Every month while compiling this list there is always at least one book that stands out as a HAVE to read-ASAP. This month The Bakers Secret is The One.

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TBR April 2018

 

On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country.

Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again.

In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers.

But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them. – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman

Expected: 3 April 2018

This book has been on and off this list since I started compiling it three weeks ago. I am really not sure about it. Early reviewers have lavished high praise and something about it makes me think of Big Little Lies, so hoping it is as good as promised.

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TBR April 2018

 

The author of The Garden of Small Beginnings returns with a hilarious and poignant new novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything.

As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors’ private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton’s wife is mysteriously missing, and now this… 

After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that’s a notion easier said than done when Anne’s husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families–and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.Abstract from Goodreads

 

Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake

Expected: 3 April 2018

Prequel to the brilliant Three Dark Crowns, these two-in-one novellas explore Fennbirn’s secrets and promises insight into the queens and their complicated journey to the beginning of the story.

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TBR April 2018

 

Uncover the sisters’ origins, dive deep into the catastrophic reign of the Oracle Queen, and reveal layers of Fennbirn’s past, hidden until now.

The Young Queens: Get a glimpse of triplet queens Mirabella, Arsinoe, and Katharine during a short period of time when they protected and loved one another. From birth until their claiming ceremonies, this is the story of the three sisters’ lives…before they were at stake.

The Oracle Queen: Everyone knows the legend of Elsabet, the Oracle Queen. The one who went mad. The one who orchestrated a senseless, horrific slaying of three entire houses. But what really happened? Discover the true story behind the queen who could foresee the future…just not her own downfall. – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer

Expected: 3 April 2018

With exceptional early reviews on Goodreads this book stands out and begs to be read.

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TBR April 2018

 

The 2:00 a.m. call is the first time Lexie Vidler has heard her sister’s voice in years. Annie is a drug addict, a thief, a liar—and in trouble, again. Lexie has always bailed Annie out, given her money, a place to sleep, sent her to every kind of rehab. But this time, she’s not just strung out—she’s pregnant and in premature labor. If she goes to the hospital, she’ll lose custody of her baby—maybe even go to prison. But the alternative is unthinkable.

As weeks unfold, Lexie finds herself caring for her fragile newborn niece while her carefully ordered life is collapsing around her. She’s in danger of losing her job, and her fiancé only has so much patience for Annie’s drama. In court-ordered rehab, Annie attempts to halt her downward spiral by confronting long-buried secrets from the sisters’ childhood, ghosts that Lexie doesn’t want to face. But will the journey heal Annie, or lead her down a darker path?

Both candid and compassionate, Before I Let You Go explores a hotly divisive topic and asks how far the ties of family love can be stretched before they finally break.  – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Relative Strangers by Paula Garner

Expected: 10 April 2018

Families, secrets, twists… lots of drama. Looking forward to discovering the answers.

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TBR April 2018

 

Why is there a gap in Jules’s baby album? A wry and poignant coming-of-age novel about finding the truth in lies, salvaging hope in heartbreak, and making peace with missing pieces.

Eighteen-year-old Jules has always wished for a close-knit family. She never knew her father, and her ex-addict mother has always seemed more interested in artistic endeavors than in bonding with her only daughter. Jules’s life and future look as flat and unchanging as her small Illinois town. Then a simple quest to find a baby picture for the senior yearbook leads to an earth-shattering discovery: for most of the first two years of her life, Jules lived in foster care. Reeling from feelings of betrayal and with only the flimsiest of clues, Jules sets out to learn the truth about her past. What she finds is a wonderful family who loved her as their own and hoped to adopt her — including a now-adult foster brother who is overjoyed to see his sister again. But as her feelings for him spiral into a devastating, catastrophic crush — and the divide between Jules and her mother widens — Jules finds herself on the brink of losing everything. – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Expected: 10 April 2018

Huge praise from the early reviewers must mean something! Plus, just look at the cover. Stunning!

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TBR April 2018

 

Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father’s closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family, he realizes there’s much more to his family’s past than he ever imagined.

Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family’s blessing to pursue the career he’s always dreamed of. Still, contemplating a future without his best friend, Harry Wong, by his side makes Danny feel a panic he can barely put into words. Harry and Danny’s lives are deeply intertwined and as they approach the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook their friend group to its core, Danny can’t stop asking himself if Harry is truly in love with his girlfriend, Regina Chan.

When Danny digs deeper into his parents’ past, he uncovers a secret that disturbs the foundations of his family history and the carefully constructed facade his parents have maintained begins to crumble. With everything he loves in danger of being stripped away, Danny must face the ghosts of the past in order to build a future that belongs to him. – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst

Expected: 10 April 2018

Very promising! I can’t wait to listen to this one on Audible.

Goodreads   Amazon.com   Amazon(UK)   Audible(Audio)   Book Depository  Amazon.com 

TBR April 2018

 

Karen, Eleanor, and Bea have been best friends since childhood. They know everything about each other’s lives, or at least they think they do. Now in their thirties, though their lives are beginning to diverge: Eleanor is a young wife and mother who is struggling to cope with her many responsibilities; Bea is happy being single—or so she lets people think; and Karen is a psychiatrist who, despite the secrets in her past, considers herself the anchor of the group.

But when she takes on a new patient with issues she just can’t quite put her finger on, she begins to realize she may have put her dearest friends in danger. Because her patient knows more about these three women than anyone outside their circle possible could. Or should…-  Abstract from Goodreads

 

The Garden of Blue Roses by Michael Barsa

Expected: 17 April 2018

This one appeals in a slightly weird Gothic way. A very bland cover and a title that reminds me of the dusty forgotten books in the corner of my parents bookcase. But something about the abstract caught my attention. Have your read it?

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TBR April 2018

 

A car lies at the bottom of an icy ravine. Slumped over the steering wheel, dead, is the most critically acclaimed horror writer of his time. Was it an accident? His son Milo doesn’t care. For the first time in his life, he’s free. No more nightmarish readings, spooky animal rites, or moonlit visions of his father in the woods with a notebook and vampire make-up.

Or so he thinks.

Milo settles into a quiet routine—constructing model Greek warships and at last building a relationship with his sister Klara, who’s home after a failed marriage and brief career as an English teacher. Then Klara hires a gardener to breathe new life into their overgrown estate. There’s something odd about him—something eerily reminiscent of their father’s most violent villain. Or is Milo imagining things? He’s not sure. That all changes the day the gardener discovers something startling in the woods. Suddenly Milo is fighting for his life, forced to confront the power of fictional identity as he uncovers the shocking truth about his own dysfunctional family—and the supposed accident that claimed his parents’ lives. – Abstract from Goodreads

 

The Girl I Used to Be by Mary Torjussen

Expected: 24 April 2018

Another psychological thriller to add to my definitely, maybe list.

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TBR April 2018

 

The morning after real estate agent Gemma Brogan has dinner with a prospective client, she’s furious at herself for drinking so much. But there will be more to regret than a nasty hangover.

She starts receiving mementos from that night: A photo of a hallway kiss. A video of her complaining about her husband. And worse…much worse. The problem is she doesn’t remember any of it.

As the blackmailing and menace ramp up, Gemma fears for her already shaky marriage. The paranoia, the feeling that her life is spiraling out of control, will take her back to another night–years ago–that changed everything. And Gemma will realize just how far the shadows from her past can reach… – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Expected: 24 April 2018

A YA Fantasy from debut author is always exciting. I found the book trailer and was instantly skeptical – it could easily have been a scene straight out of Twilight. What do you think?

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TBR April 2018

 

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.  – Abstract from Goodreads

 

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Expected: 24 April 2018

A companion to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (recently adapted to movie as Love, Simon) this full length novel follows Leah, Simon’s best friend. I loved Simon vs HSA and am expecting great things from Leah on the Offbeat.

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TBR April 2018

 

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended. – Abstract from Goodreads

9 Comments

  1. Valerie Poore

    Some of these look really good! I shall be investigating 😊

  2. Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

    Queens of Fennbirn!!! Need, need, so much need. It is supposed to be on its way to my house, I hope it gets here soon! Relative Strangers and Sky in the Deep were both really good! And one of these days I swear I’ll read Simon so I can then read Leah 😀

  3. Olivia @ The Candid Cover

    I have been dying to read Leah on the Offbeat! I have preordered it, but I have a feeling that I won’t have time to get to it for a little while. There are so many fantastic sounding books on your list. I hope that you love them all! 🙂

  4. Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra

    I’m excited for so many of these April releases, especially Leah on the Offbeat, Sky in the Deep, and Before I Let You Go. Happy reading!

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