Blog Archives - The 52 Book Club

On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor

June 15, 2021June 7, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor by Jaime Jo Wright

Ghosts. Confederate gold. Haunted houses. Secret codes. Kidnappings. This story has it all.

And honestly? I think it’s Jaime Jo Wright’s best novel yet!

On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor has all of the components of a traditional Wright story. (Check out our review of Wright’s The Haunting of Bonaventure Circus.) Its dual-timeline features two strong, female characters who are each wounded by their past and searching for their own set of answers. Individually, the two timelines are well developed with strong mysteries of their own. But they also come together beautifully! The mystery of Foxglove Manor weaves itself across the decades to create a suspenseful and haunting read.

If you like eerie, historical stories (Brontë sisters, anyone?) this is one you won’t want to miss! Be sure to keep reading for the rest of my review!

About On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor:

On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor book cover

1885: Adria Fontaine has been sent to recover goods her father pirated on the Great Lakes during the war. But when she arrives at Foxglove Manor–a stone house on a cliff overlooking Lake Superior–Adria senses wickedness hovering over the property. The mistress of Foxglove is an eccentric and seemingly cruel old woman who has filled her house with dangerous secrets, ones that may cost Adria her life.

Present day: Kailey Gibson is a new nurse’s aide at a senior home in a renovated old stone manor. Kidnapped as a child, she has nothing but locked-up memories of secrets and death, overshadowed by the chilling promise from her abductors that they would return. When the residents of Foxglove start sharing stories of whispers in the night, hidden treasure, and a love willing to kill, it becomes clear this home is far from a haven. She’ll have to risk it all to banish the past’s demons, including her own.

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Unknown Threat

June 8, 2021June 6, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

Unknown Threat by Lynn H. Blackburn

Looking for an action-packed but completely clean read? A story with a little romance, a little faith, and a fast-paced plot? Look no further than Lynn H. Blackburn’s newest novel, Unknown Threat!

About Unknown Threat:

US Secret Service Special Agent Luke Powell is lucky to be alive. Three of his fellow agents have died in unusual circumstances in the past ten weeks. Luke is devastated by the loss of his friends and colleagues, and his inability to locate the killer feels like a personal failure. He and his team are experts at shielding others, but now the protectors are in need of protection.

FBI Special Agent Faith Malone is driven to succeed and confident in her ability to solve every case she’s assigned. She’s been put in charge of the investigation into the unprecedented attacks, and with Luke’s life in danger, the stakes have never been higher. But it’s hard to know how to fight back when you don’t know who the enemy is.

Luke has teamed up with Faith before, but he’s not convinced she’s up for the job and she’s not convinced he’s telling her everything he knows. As more agents are targeted, Luke and Faith will have to learn to trust each other and work together to bring a killer to justice and prevent any more names from joining their fallen brothers and sisters on the Secret Service Wall of Honor.

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The Last Flight

June 3, 2021June 4, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

What was the last book YOU read in one sitting?

The Last Flight by Julie Clark kept me hooked from page one until the very last line! It was the sort of story where I had to rewarm the bathwater three times because I needed to read just one more chapter! This book was a thrilling, non-stop adventure. (See my full review below!)

About The Last Flight:

The Last Flight by Julie Clark book cover

Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns bright and he’s not above using his staff to track Claire’s every move.

What he doesn’t know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish. A plan that takes her to the airport, poised to run from it all. But a chance meeting in the airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision.

The two women switch tickets, with Claire taking Eva’s flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico crashes, Claire realizes it’s no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva’s identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

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You Will Remember Me

May 24, 2021May 24, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

You Will Remember Me — Hannah Mary McKinnon

You Will Remember Me is one of those books where I figured out the who fairly early on. But I still did not see that ending coming. This is one book that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon!

About You Will Remember Me:

You Will Remember Me by Hannah Mary McKinnon

(From the publisher) He wakes up on a deserted beach in Maryland with a gash on his head and wearing only swim trunks. He can’t remember who he is. Everything—his identity, his life, his loved ones—has been replaced by a dizzying fog of uncertainty. But returning to his Maine hometown in search of the truth uncovers more questions than answers.

Lily Reid thinks she knows her boyfriend, Jack. Until he goes missing one night, and her frantic search reveals that he’s been lying to her since they met, desperate to escape a dark past he’d purposely left behind.

Maya Scott has been trying to find her estranged stepbrother, Asher, since he disappeared without a trace. Having him back, missing memory and all, feels like a miracle. But with a mutual history full of devastating secrets, how far will Maya go to ensure she alone takes them to the grave?

Shared fates intertwine in a twisty, explosive novel of suspense, where unearthing the past might just mean being buried beneath it.

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People We Meet on Vacation

May 11, 2021May 11, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

For fans of friendship-turned-romance and stories full of banter and quick wit — People We Meet on Vacation is for you!

From the publisher: Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

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Find You First

May 6, 2021April 27, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

Find You First by Linwood Barclay

About Find You First:

(From the publisher) Tech millionaire Miles Cookson has more money than he can ever spend, and everything he could dream of—except time. He has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a fifty percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. For Miles, this means taking a long hard look at his past . . .

Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has kids—nine of them. And they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him—maybe his fortune, or maybe something much worse.

As Miles begins to search for the children he’s never known, aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that twenty-two years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant.

When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’s other potential heirs are vanishing—every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all.

Who is the vicious killer—another heir methodically erasing rivals? Or is something even more sinister going on?

It’s a deadly race against time . . .

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Author Chat: Audrey Blake (The Girl in His Shadow)

May 4, 2021May 4, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Author chat with Audrey Blake, author of The Girl In His Shadow

Has anyone else already found one of their FAVOURITE BOOKS of the year? I wasn’t even finished the prologue and I already knew that this book was going to be a five-star read. (You can read my full review of this beautiful story here!)

The Girl in His Shadow captivated me instantly and has definitely stayed with me long after finishing it. That’s why I was super excited to get to chat with the author, Audrey Blake! Author interviews are like mini “behind the scenes tours” and I think that this one has a few surprises in store.

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May Mini-Challenge

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021 Liz Mannegren1 Comment

I’m not sure what the weather is like where you live, but over here, it’s feeling a lot like spring! The cherry blossoms are blooming, fresh leaves are dotting the trees outside my window, and sunshine is pushing through the clouds. So, how about a cheery, flowery theme for our May Mini-Challenge?

For this month, I asked my admin team to help come up with three, spring-related prompts. And I think these check that box! As always, feel free to add these prompts in addition to your regular 52 reads, or to combine them with books you’re already reading for our 2021 challenge.

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The Woman With the Blue Star

April 29, 2021April 27, 2021 Liz MannegrenLeave a comment

Book Review

The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

How far would you go to save your life? To save the life of a girl staring up at you, out of a sewer grate? The Woman with the Blue Star is a heartfelt tale of triumph and determination, and a moving witness of the incredible bonds of friendship.

About the book:

The Woman With the Blue Star book cover by Pam Jenoff

(From the publisher) 1942. Eighteen-year-old Sadie Gault lives with her parents amid the horrors of the Kraków Ghetto. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother seek refuge in the sewers below the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.

Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Kraków restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding.

Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by harrowing true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an emotional testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

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The Girl in His Shadow

April 27, 2021April 27, 2021 Liz Mannegren1 Comment

Book Review

The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake

Sometimes, I find myself on the first page of a book and immediately know — there’s something special here. Barely a few words in, the story already screams five stars. It’s a rare and elusive sort of magic. Indescribable, except for the gut-feeling of a bookworm.

That was this book for me.

About the book:

(From the publisher): Raised by the eccentric surgeon Dr. Horace Croft after losing her parents to a deadly pandemic, the orphan Nora Beady knows little about conventional life. While other young ladies were raised to busy themselves with needlework and watercolors, Nora was trained to perfect her suturing and anatomical illustrations of dissections.

Women face dire consequences if caught practicing medicine, but in Croft’s private clinic Nora is his most trusted—and secret—assistant. That is until the new surgical resident Dr. Daniel Gibson arrives. Dr. Gibson has no idea that Horace’s bright and quiet young ward is a surgeon more qualified and ingenuitive than even himself. In order to protect Dr. Croft and his practice from scandal and collapse Nora must learn to play a new and uncomfortable role—that of a proper young lady.

But pretense has its limits. Nora cannot turn away and ignore the suffering of patients even if it means giving Gibson the power to ruin everything she’s worked for. And when she makes a discovery that could change the field forever, Nora faces an impossible choice. Remain invisible and let the men around her take credit for her work, or let the world see her for what she is—even if it means being destroyed by her own legacy.

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