Guests assemble on an island just off the coast of Ireland to celebrate the union of two persons. The bridegroom is a pleasant and attractive aspiring television personality. The bride is a magazine publisher who is brilliant and ambitious. It has all the makings of a wedding for a star or a marriage for a magazine: a designer gown, a distant venue, opulent party favors, and boutique whiskey. Even though there may not be consistent cell coverage and the waves may be strong, every aspect has been carefully prepared and will be carried out.
However, plans call for perfection, and humans are all too human. As the champagne is cracked and the celebrations get underway, resentments and small-scale jealousies mix with the memories and good wishes. The drinking game from the groomsmen’s school days gets started. Unintentionally, the bridesmaid ruins her outfit. The oldest male friend of the bride makes an uncomfortable caring toast. Then a body is discovered. Who didn’t wish the happy couple all the best? And possibly even more crucial, why?
Best Quotes from this Book:
“In my experience, those who have the greatest respect for the rules also take the most enjoyment in breaking them.”
“And I’m not worried about it being haunted. I have my own ghosts. I carry them with me wherever I go.”
“But no matter what happens, life is only a series of days. You can’t control more than a single day.”
“But that’s nostalgia for you, the tyranny of those memories of childhood that feel so golden, so perfect.”
“Sometimes,’ I say, ‘I think it’s too difficult to tell the people closest to you. The ones you love.”
Sisters Emilia and Vittoria are streghe, or witches, who live covertly among people to escape detection and persecution. Vittoria once skips the family’s well-known Sicilian restaurant’s dinner service. Emilia quickly discovers her adored twin’s body…completely desecrated. Devastated, Emilia sets out to track down her sister’s killer and get revenge, even if it means employing black magic that has been outlawed for a long time.
Then Emilia encounters Wrath, one of the Wicked—princes of Hell she has heard stories about since she was a young child. Wrath declares to be on Emilia’s side and has been assigned by his lord with figuring out the island’s string of female murders. But nothing about the Wicked is what it seems.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“One day you’ll call me Death.
For now, Wrath will do.”
“A good book was its own brand of magic, one I could safely indulge in without fear of getting caught by those who hunted. I loved escaping from reality, especially during times of trouble. Stories made everything possible.”
“You always have the power of choice, even when those choices seem limited. Never forget that.”
“You always have the power of choice, even when those choices seem limited. Never forget that.”
“Your heart will conquer darkness. Trust in that.”
The Sinner, a psychological thriller written by Patricia Highsmith of Germany and a worldwide bestseller, is the inspiration for the eagerly awaited limited series on the USA starring Jessica Biel that will premiere on August 2nd.
Cora Bender kills a man with a knife on a warm summer day near the lake. Why? Why would this gentle, compassionate young mother repeatedly stab a total stranger in the throat in front of her family and friends? It’s a closed case in the eyes of the neighborhood police. There are plenty of witnesses and Cora soon confesses, but those questions are still unanswered. The police commissioner is haunted by the incident and fails to close the file before launching his own independent probe.
So starts the agonizing plunge into Cora’s personal hell and the slow unraveling of her past. With the upcoming TV adaptation, which is already acclaimed as one of the most awaited series of the summer, The Sinner, a dark, captivating novel where the truth is to be challenged at every turn, has been a bestseller throughout the world, and is primed to be a summer smash.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Her stories only had a dramatic ending, never a sequel.”
“He must have read that sleep is death’s little brother.”
“Unless you become like little children . . .’? I think he said something of the kind. If you obey his words to the letter, don’t just cherry-pick the ones that suit you. Children like to do something occasionally apart from crossing themselves. If we’re going to have to par”
“There were venial sins, the little ones that were forgiven if you repented of them at once; and medium-grade sins, from which you were cleansed in Purgatory when you died; and mortal sins, for which you atoned in hell for all eternity.”
Marin led a life that was ideal. She owns a chain of expensive hair salons and is wedded to her college sweetheart; Derek owns his own business. They are a nice family who is well-respected in their neighborhood, but everything changes the day their son Sebastian is abducted.
Marin is a shell of the person she was a year ago. The FBI’s investigation is now dead. The media buzz has subsided. She seldom ever speaks to her hubby. When she employs a P.I. to continue the investigation where the police left off, she discovers that Derek is engaged in a relationship with a younger lady rather than Sebastian. This finding gives Marin new life.
She lost her son, and she doesn’t want to lose her husband as well. Kenzie is an adversary with a face, so Marin can deal with this issue. Permanently. One small secret is all it needs to unravel a life… In the gripping psychological suspense book Little Secrets by award-winning author Jennifer Hillier, a lady who has been through tragedy desperately seeks to repair her marriage.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You know what it’s like having a child? … It’s like your heart walking out the door on two legs, vulnerable and unprotected. It’s scary as hell.”
“Who would have thought that who you love and who you feel safe with might not be the same person?”
“There’s a big difference between a man who genuinely wants to be with her, and a man who just doesn’t want to go home.”
“I’ve learned not to make comparisons. Hell is hell, in all it’s incarnations.”
“Marin can only imagine what the other woman is thinking. She can feel her judgment oozing through the phone line, because that’s what women do to each other. They judge.”
The grace year is never brought up. It’s not allowed. Girls in Garner County are told they have the ability to entice grown men out of their beds and drive jealous wives crazy. They think that the potent spirit of youth, of a girl on the cusp of womanhood, emanates from their own skin, acting as a tremendous aphrodisiac. They are exiled for their sixteenth year in order to let their magic loose in nature and come back purified and prepared for marriage. However, not every one of them will return home alive.
Tierney James, 16, longs for a society where women and friends are not pitted against one another, but as her own grace year approaches, she rapidly understands that there are other dangers that people must be afraid of as well. It isn’t even the males lurking in the woods who are poaching women in order to sell them for a high price on the black market. It’s possible that they are each other’s greatest threat.
The Grace Year explores the complicated and occasionally twisted connections between girls, the women they eventually grow into, and the difficult choices they have to make in between with razor-sharp prose and grim realism.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You eyes are wide open, but you see nothing.”
“My father always told me that a person is made up of all the little choices they make in life. The choices no one ever sees.”
“Sometimes I feel like we might burn down the world to cindery bits, with our love, our rage, and everything in between.”
“I’m trying to hold back my emotions, but I can feel my face contorting. That strange heat moving to my cheeks. I always thought it was magic moving through me, but now I know it to be rage.”
“But a flower is never just a flower.”
Charlotte Bront’s Jane Eyre, initially published in 1847 under the masculine pseudonym Currer Bell, is widely regarded as one of the first works of feminist literature and a model of the bildungsroman genre. The novel follows the orphaned Jane Eyre as she journeys from an abusive household to a dreary school for orphaned girls before becoming a governess for a wealthy youngster at Thornfield Hall.
Jane develops feelings for the master of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester while serving as a governess. Jane Eyre contains substantial advances that make it a fascinating read that will keep you engaged until the very end. Jane Eyre, which was groundbreaking for her day, deals with subjects such as marriage for love, the class structure, and mental illness in the Victorian era and is a wonderful choice if you’re looking for books like Pride and Prejudice.
Emilia journeys to the Seven Circles with the mysterious Prince of Wrath where she is exposed to a seductive world of vice after purchasing her soul to become Queen of the Wicked. Even if that means taking the hand of the Prince of Pride, the king of demons, she swears to do whatever it takes to exact revenge on her beloved sister, Vittoria.
What is the first rule in the Wicked’s court? Never put your trust in anyone. Emilia finds herself more alone than ever before as a result of backstabbing princes, opulent palaces, enigmatic party invitations, and contradicting information about who actually killed her sibling. Is Wrath, her former ally in the mortal world, even someone she can trust, or is he hiding something terrible about who he really is?
As she searches for a number of magical items that will reveal her past secrets and provide her with the answers she needs, Emilia will be put to the test on every level. One sibling, two depraved princes, and endless deception served with a side of vengeance… Say hello to hell.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The stars incline us; they do not bind us.
-Wrath”
“Love and hate are both rooted in passion.”
“Of course. There is nothing more dangerous than a woman who owns who she is and apologizes to no one.”
“Why is it whenever a man throws a tantrum a woman is blamed for his poor behavior?”
“Instead of being ruled by fear, I could become fearless.”
A divided world, a monarchy without a successor, and an old foe reawakens. Inys has been governed by the House of Berethnet for a millennium. Queen Sabran the Ninth, who is still single, needs to give birth to a daughter in order to save her country from annihilation, but assassins are closing in on her house.
At court, Ead Duryan is an outsider. She is devoted to a secret organisation of wizards even though she has attained the rank of lady-in-waiting. Ead keeps a close eye on Sabran and uses forbidden magic to covertly defend her. Tané, who has been training to be a dragonrider across the dark sea, is compelled to make a decision that could cause her life to fall apart.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.”
“We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.”
“I do not sleep because I am not only afraid of the monsters at my door, but also of the monsters my own mind can conjure. The ones that live within.”
“All the world is a cage in a young girl’s eyes.”
“I would live alone for fifty years to have one day with you.”
A young woman makes a Faustian pact to live forever in France in 1714 out of desperation, and as a result, she is doomed to be forgotten by everybody she encounters. Thus starts Addie LaRue’s amazing existence, a glittering adventure that will span decades, countries, history, and art as a young lady discovers how far she is willing to go to make her mark on the world. But all changes when Addie runs into a young man in a secret bookstore after almost 300 years and he recognizes her name.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives–or to find strength in a very long one.”
“What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?”
“Three words, large enough to tip the world. I remember you.”
“There is a defiance in being a dreamer”
“Blink, and the years fall away like leaves.”
A remarkable, engrossing read that marks the explosive debut of an amazing new writer, exploring the psychological intricacies of the interaction between a clever yet naive young girl and her alluring and manipulative instructor. 2000. Bright, aspirational, and longing for maturity, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye is involved in an affair with her alluring and cunning 42-year-old English instructor, Jacob Strane.
2017. A reckoning is imminent amid the escalating tide of accusations leveled against strong men. Vanessa receives word that Strane has been accused of sexual misconduct by a former student, who contacts her. At this point, Vanessa is forced to make the impossible decision of whether to keep quiet, steadfast in the conviction that her teenage self willingly entered into this relationship, or to reframe herself and the occurrences of her past. However, how can Vanessa turn down the man who drastically altered her and has remained a constant in her life? Is it conceivable that the man she cherished when she was a teenager—who claimed to revere just her—might be very different from what she has always thought?
My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the thrilling excitement of a teenage girl learning the power her own body may wield by switching back and forth between Vanessa’s present and her past. This is a brilliant representation of difficult adolescence and its effects that is thought-provoking and impossible to put down and asks crucial questions about agency, permission, complicity, and victimhood.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful.”
“The excuses we make for them are outrageous, but they’re nothing compared with the ones we make for ourselves.”
“Because even if I sometimes use the word abuse to describe certain things that were done to me, in someone else’s mouth the word turns ugly and absolute. It swallows up everything that happened.”
“It’s strange to know that whenever I remember myself at fifteen, I’ll think of this.”
“I wonder how much victimhood they’d be willing to grant a girl like me.”
A young woman from the woods arrives in an affluent kingdom with no knowledge of who she is or why she is there, only to realize she is at the center of a global struggle. She joins Pennyroyal Academy, where princesses and knights learn to fight witches and dragons. She was given the moniker “Evie,” and forced to navigate a new world of friends and foes while undergoing rigorous training from her Fairy Drill sergeant. As Evie learns what it means to be a princess, she comes to surprising conclusions about herself, her family, and the human capacity for compassion and brutality.
As the witch troops approach, she realizes the fight between princesses and wizards is more personal than she believed. Pennyroyal Academy combines adventure, humor, and magical mayhem. Set in Grimm’s fairytales, it is suitable for princess fans and non-fans alike. Harry, very soon came to know that his parents have not died in a car accident but were killed by a wizard named Voldemort. Voldemort plans to return to power, unbeknownst to Harry and the wizarding world. Voldemort makes attempts on Harry’s life beginning in the first book and continuing throughout the series.
Voldemort regains his body and power in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), and his army grows. Harry and his allies are compelled to face Voldemort and his disciples, notably the Malfoys. Harry accepts his role as the renowned “boy who lived” and faces nearly certain death fighting the wicked wizard. With love and support, he can win. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child premiered in 2016. Based on a Rowling narrative, Harry is married to Ginny Weasley and has three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Harry still struggles with his history, while Albus must deal with his father’s legacy.
A young couple and their ostensibly nice neighbors are the subjects of a domestic thriller debut that takes readers on a twisting, wild ride through lies, betrayal, and marital secrets. . . Anne and Marco Conti appear to have it all: a perfect marriage, a lovely house, and their adorable little Cora. On the other hand, a dreadful crime is committed one evening when they are at the dinner party next door. The parents are immediately the target of suspicion. The fact, though, is a considerably messier tale.
A frightening narrative of what truly transpired is told inside the curtained house. Detective Rasbach is aware of the worried couple’s secret. Marco and Anne quickly come to the realization that the other is harboring long-kept secrets. What happens next is the terrifying dissolution of a family—a chilling story of deception, dishonesty, and infidelity that will keep you gasping until the shocking conclusion. What happens next is the terrifying dissolution of a family—a chilling story of deception, dishonesty, and disloyalty that will keep you gasping until the shocking conclusion.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Her thoughts speed up and become less rational; her mind makes fantastic leaps. It’s not that things don’t make sense to her when she’s like this — sometimes they make ‘more’ sense. They make sense the way dreams do. It’s only when the dream is over that you see how odd it all was, how it actually didn’t make sense at all.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door
“The wife is always the last to know, right?”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door
“…nobody makes that much money without taking advantage of somebody. It’s much easier to make money if you don’t care who you hurt. If you have scruples, it’s much harder to get rich.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door
“Everyone is faking it, all of them pretending to be something they’re not. The whole world is built on lies and deceit.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door
“She knows how judgemental mothers are, how good it feels to sit in judgment of someone else.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door