Book & Author Details: The Good Samaritan by Melynda Price Publication date: July 30th 2020 Genres: Adult, Thriller Synopsis: “Only through death, can one truly experience life...” ~The Good Samaritan With dreams of becoming an Emergency physician, resident Dr. Emma Rhodes has struggled to overcome the tragedy of her past. She’s moving on with her life and reinventing herself despite the guilt that still haunts her. Emma’s goals are finally within her grasp, and the fresh start she’s worked so hard for is hers for the taking. Or is it? Shot in the line of duty, Detective Sawyer Gerrard owes Dr. Rhodes his life. A budding friendship with the doctor quickly ignites into a complicated relationship when a series of murders leads him to believe she’s being targeted by a serial killer. When the Good Samaritan claims yet another victim, the investigation takes a dangerous turn. The killer knows Emma’s secret and he’s toying with Sawyer, pulling them into a deadly game of cat and mouse where there’s only one rule: nothing is as it seems… Goodreads Amazon AUTHOR BIO:
Melynda Price is a bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary romance. Her Against the Cage series has finaled in many awards such as the RONE, USA Today BBA, Golden Quill, National Readers’ Choice, and New England Readers’ Choice. What Price enjoys most about writing is the chance to make her readers fall in love, over and over again. She cites the greatest challenge of writing is making the unbelievable believable, while taking her characters to the limit with stories full of passion and unique twists and turns. Salting stories with undertones of history whenever possible, Price adds immeasurable depth to her well-crafted books. She currently lives in Northern Minnesota with her husband and two children where she has plenty of snow-filled days to curl up in front of the fireplace with her Chihuahua and a hot cup of coffee to write. Author links: Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Amazon / Instagram / Bookbub Synopsis:
Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes—or misfortunes—in tea leaves. Ever since she can remember, Vanessa Yu has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai. The day before her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa accidentally sees her own fate: death by traffic accident. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric aunt, Evelyn, shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to America and bonjour to Paris. While working at her aunt Evelyn’s tea stall at a Parisian antique market, Vanessa performs some matchmaking of her own, attempting to help reconnect her aunt with a lost love. As she learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, she realizes one thing to be true: knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is. My thoughts: I was swept away by Roselle Lim's debut novel 'Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune'. It was sweet, adorable, full of magic and delicious recipes that could give you love, tenderness, or courage, depending on what you need the most in your life. Her second novel, Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris tea shop is as exquisite as Natalie Tan. I must say I didn't get into the book straightaway. Vanessa seemed so withdrawn and passive, almost invisible in her loud, well-meaning, but interfering family. She has a special gift of giving prophecies, but unlike her Aunt Evelyn who is a master clairvoyant, proud of being able to help people with her unusual ability to see their future, Vanessa is terrified of burdening the others with her visions of doom and gloom. Once I heard the prophecy Vanessa was trying unsuccessfully to hold and repress at her cousin's wedding, I could see why Vanessa saw her gift as a curse. I also reconnected with Roselle Lim's beautiful writing once more. The way the prophecies arrive to Vanessa... you just have to read and experience it yourself, but it is absolutely unique and magic! Vanessa's perpetual singledom and inability to go past a first date with any prospective romantic partner upsets and worries Vanessa's numerous aunts to the extent of staging an intervention in the form of inviting a famous matchmaker from China. Madame Fong confirms something Vanessa already knew. Everybody has a match somewhere, a person they are tied to by a red thread of romantic love. Clairvoyants don't and this is the price of their gift. Vanessa never wanted to be a fortune-teller, there's nothing she would want more than not to have it or at least to be able to control where and when she blurts out her prophecies. If there is a person who can help her, it is Aunt Evelyn who is about to open a tea shop in the center of Paris. Three weeks in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, full of art, history and best food possible and an opportunity to have lessons on how to control her unruly gift. Vanessa throws herself into experiencing Paris with all her senses: art, architecture, romance, and food, oh her mouth-watering descriptions of food are the best I've ever read. Did I mention romance? Vanessa meets her special stranger, but there is a catch: her aunt Evelyn already predicted that Vanessa will have but a few days with lovely Marc. Would you get into a relationship with an expiry date? Would you allow yourself fall in love knowing you your heart will be broken? Vanessa wants what she has been denied by the virtue of being born with her special talent, she wants to defy fate: 'Despite spilling others' fortunes, I refused to believe fate dictated my life. I believed in revolt, in breaking away from what was imposed upon me, and my fundamental rejection of my power proved that I rejected destiny too.' What does it mean to be true to yourself? Vanessa's aunt Evelyn has always followed fortune-telling rules to the letter and sacrificed her romantic relationship to be with her family. Vanessa has been working in her family accounting business for years, she has been nothing but a dutiful daughter and niece. Her gift is also something she owes to her family. With her identity being so strongly linked to her family and her place in it, even if she manages to get rid of her curse, where will it leave her? To my delight, Vanessa manages to discover her own way of helping people and there is a happy ever after for her. This book delivers fully on its promise to take the reader on a magic adventure of self-discovery in one of the most romantic cities on the world. Can't wait to meet Roselle Lim's next protagonist and be spell-bound by their story. Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion. Synopsis: After the first season of her true crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall is now a household name―and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help. The small town of Neapolis is being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. The town’s golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping a high school student, the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season Three a success, Rachel throws herself into interviewing and investigating―but the mysterious letters keep showing up in unexpected places. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insists she was murdered―and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody seems to want to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved. Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny? My thoughts: Content Warning: rape, sexual assault, murder Megan Goldin knows how to choose hard to discuss topics. Last year her thriller Escape Room delved into the greedy corporation world that turns people into unscupulous ruthless money-making machines. Now she comes back with a new book that is as compelling and difficult to put down once you start reading it, but much more emotional and humane. The Night Swim is one of the best books I've read this year. Rachel Krall is a hugely successful investigative journalist who has her own true-crime podcast Guilty or Not. The third season is going to focus on a live trial of a golden boy/ prospective Olympic swimmer Scott Blair accused of a brutal rape by K., a 16 year old granddaughter of a former police chief. Rachel knows the trial is going to be hugely controversial and we get a taste of how divided the town inhabitants' opinions are: 'She was drunk. Means she couldn't consent.' 'he was drunk too. How could he know she didn't consent if he was drunk? It goes both ways. Anyway, his life is ruined. what happens if some slutty girl tries to ruin my kid's life by making stuff up?' 'If she says it happened, then I believe her'. Rachel's podcast is going to cover the witness testimony and evidence as it is given in the courtroom to let her listeners decide for themselves on whether the verdict reached by the jury is something they would agree with. However, on her way to Neapolis, north Carolina, the small town where the trial is taking place, something else happens. When Rachel comes back from her restroom break she finds a note on the windshield. the note is addressed to her directly and comes from somebody called Hannah who is begging Rachel to look into the case of Jenny Stills, Hannah' sister, who allegedly drowned 25 years ago. The note is followed by many other letters, and soon Rachel finds herself investigating Jenny's case, fearing justice hasn't been served in the case of this poor girl who was brutally raped and murdered. The chapters are told from the point of view of Hannah who is recalling the traumatic past events and who wants the truth to come out, Rachel looking into Jenny's story and uncovering some deeply disturbing facts, and Rachel's podcast that covers the courtroom scenes and her deliberations on the how society deals with rape and its victims. I have to say some of the scenes were so gut-wrenching that I needed to put the book down and take a breath of bresh air. Having said that, Megan Goldin deals with this painful topic with extreme sensitivity and respect. 'You can't save the world, Rachel'. 'Maybe not. But I can save one person at a time.' I really liked Rachel- she is brave, inquisitive, honest, and tenacious. We learn bits and pieces about her as the story unfolds and every single fact or detail is relevant and adds to the picture of a person with great integrity. Hannah was more elusive for me. The way she delivers her notes is sensational and stalkerish and doesn't make much sense to me, as Rachel already started looking into Jenny's case. Hannah needs the truth to come out to get closure. She has been given given opportunities in life and, most importantly, life itself, something Jenny was robbed of. There are also some extremely unlikeable characters in this book and after having read both The Escape Room and The Night Swim, I can vouch Megan Goldin is really good at coming up with them. The setting was really fitting for the story. Neapolis is a small town where most people know everybody else and it is isn't easy to find twelve jury members who don't know or a connected to the families of the accused or the plaintiff. This is the place where reputations are all important and money talks. Jenny and Hannah come from a family of have nots and as such no matter what they do, they are judged harshly. K.'s case wouldn't have even made it to the court had her family been less influential. One of the secondary characters in the book, a teenage boy is under pressure from his family to take a deal from the prosecution, because his family cannot afford legal expenses. 'To tell you the truth, I don't get how we can unanimously agree that murder is wrong, yet when it comes to rape some people still see shades of gray'. Megan Goldin raises a lot of controversial questions such as the way the judicial system and our society in general deals with the crime of rape and sexual assault. The victim has to prove the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, but the nature of the crime is such there are rarely witnesses and it often comes to one side's word against the other side's. They are both put on trial: one for the intent and actions, the other for credibility and I have to agree with Megan Goldin's words: 'it's a terrible thing for a person to have to stand in judgment of another'. If I hadn't already been a fan of Megan Goldin's work, I would have become one after reading this thought-provoking, compelling, well-written thriller. I can't wait to read what topics she chooses to focus on in future. Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin's Press for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion. Thank you to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for my place on the tour for this entertaining and light-hearted book that proves that life is full of surprises! Synopsis: Midlife crisis? What midlife crisis? At forty-four, Cynthia Smart is exactly where she wants to be. Almost. In a couple of years, she’ll be the CEO of the company she’s spent her most of her adult life working in. For now, though, she’s still busy shimmying up the greasy pole of corporate business. She’s single, carefree, and independent, and nothing can stop her getting what she wants and deserves. Until she discovers she’s pregnant. Determined to have her cake and eat it, she’s convinced that having a baby will make little difference to her life, and that she will be one of those women who can hold down an incredibly demanding job and also be a perfect mother. But as her pregnancy progresses and her life slowly falls apart, she has the sneaking suspicion that Max Oakland, the new guy on the block, is out to steal her dream job. That she’s terribly attracted to him doesn’t help, nor does the fact that he’s devilishly handsome, appears to be a really nice fella, and is good in a crisis. When she gradually comes to realise that something has got to give, what she doesn’t want it to be is her heart. Perfect for fans of Mandy Baggott, Heidi Swain, and Holly Martin. Purchase Link My thoughts: Life does throw us a few curveballs, and sometimes we really have to think and learn fast. At forty four, Cynthia Smart has already dedicated half of her life to Webber Corporation. She is hard-working, organised, creative, and ambitious. She knows she'll make a great CEO, because nobody knows the business better than she does and nobody is as committed to its success. Ricky Webber's (aka the Pitbull) children are not interested, anyway. Being a woman might be a disadvantage in the corporate world, but Cynthia never shows any weakness, she just works hard, harder than any potential candidate for the coveted CEO position. A one night stand with a Californian surfer is just a bit of fun her body and soul craves, but three months and five pregnancy tests later, Cynthia knows her life is about to change. On the same day, Ricky brings in Max Oakland to the hotel chain acquisition project Cynthia's been working on. Is he her competition for her dream job? He is professional and always on the ball and secretly Cynthia doesn't mind a bit of help, as her body has an agenda of its own and her laser-sharp focus has been less sharp than it used to be. The good-looking Max (not that she would allow herself to care) is also kind, thoughtful and unselfish. I really liked Cynthia. There is something very likeable about her no-non-sense approach to life . She never feels sorry for herself. Quite the opposite, she loved her little bump and knows it's the best thing that has ever happened to her. And if she needs to buy one size larger suits to hide her expanding waistline, so be it, it's not a big deal. Cynthia faces life straight on. She plans, researches and readjusts. She may have been quite naive about the extent of changes her pregnancy and future motherhood will mean, but she is thinking carefully about her priorities and I must say her baby and spending more time with her aging mother are at the top of her list. The pregnancy experience described in the book is very realistic and many readers will relate to it. The book is very focused on Cynthia, but there are also a few great secondary characters: Maggie, Cynthia's mother, Sally, Lana. Maggie, Cynthia's mother is adorable. Her banter with Max was sweet and also showed an unexpected side of Max's character who I had a bit of trouble working out. We know he is hiding something ( we need a bit of tension and suspence in the plot, really, it can't be just about pregnancy), and yet, what we see is somebody nice. Integrity does beat good looks, in my book, but what is Max's deal? Rest assured, in the end, we do get a lot of drama in the story. Cynthia's Midwife Crisis is both fun and relatable and I really enjoyed spending my afternoon in company of its characters. Thank you to Rachel and the author for the review copy I received for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion. About the author: Liz Davies writes feel-good, light-hearted stories with a hefty dose of romance, a smattering of humour, and a great deal of love. She’s married to her best friend, has one grown-up daughter, and when she isn’t scribbling away in the notepad she carries with her everywhere (just in case inspiration strikes), you’ll find her searching for that perfect pair of shoes. She loves to cook but isn’t very good at it, and loves to eat - she’s much better at that! Liz also enjoys walking (preferably on the flat), cycling (also on the flat), and lots of sitting around in the garden on warm, sunny days. She currently lives with her family in Wales, but would ideally love to buy a camper van and travel the world in it. Website: https://lizdaviesauthor.wixsite.com/home Social Media Links: Twitter https://twitter.com/lizdaviesauthor Facebook: fb.me/LizDaviesAuthor1 Thank you for stopping by! If you would like to read what other bloggers thought of the book, you can see the full tour schedule here:
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