Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

I have read a lot of reviews about this book, calling it the next "Gone Girl", I needed a quick read for the holiday weekend so I gave it a whirl.  The writing is really good, really sharp, and very dark.  The whole book is extremely dark, much like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, only darker.  You have to be able to stomach reading about some really bad stuff to be able to get through the book, but it definitely keeps you going, very well paced.  For those who are looking for more of a thrilling beach read, this is for you.  And as an aside, this book is going to be another Reese Witherspoon project so there will be lots of buzz:  http://variety.com/2015/film/news/reese-witherspoon-luckiest-girl-alive-jessica-knoll-1201470181/

BOOK DESCRIPTION VIA AMAZON

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

Love May Fail by Matthew Quick

What is not to love about this book???  Interesting, quirky characters; well paced writing;  and the setting is super cool...the majority of the action happens a block from my house...HA!!!  Add this to your beach bag for a fun summer read.

Book Description via Amazon

An aspiring feminist and underappreciated housewife embarks on an odyssey to find human decency and goodness—and her high school English teacher—in New York Times bestselling author Matthew Quick’s offbeat masterpiece, a quirky ode to love, fate, and hair metal.

Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself back in South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Lost and alone, looking to find the goodness in the world she believes still exists, Portia sets off to save herself by saving someone else—a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a traumatic incident.

Will a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict, a metal-head little boy, and her hoarder mother help or hurt her chances on this madcap quest to restore a good man’s reputation and find renewed hope in the human race? Love May Fail is a story of the great highs and lows of existence: the heartache and daring choices it takes to become the person you know (deep down) you are meant to be.

The Knockoff by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

I am calling it now...best beach read of the summer!!!  I absolutely adored this book, and not just because the heroine is in her forties.  I related to so much of this...the iWorld we are living in can be overwhelming and intimidating and yes wonderful at times.  The idea that you can be irrelevant at 40 definitely hits home...I have up'd my social media game after reading this and changed my personal email from hotmail...who knew this made you look outdated???  If you liked The Devil Wears Prada, you will LOVE this.

Book Description via Amazon

An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her twentysomething former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app.
 
When Imogen returns to work at Glossy after six months away, she can barely recognize her own magazine. Eve, fresh out of Harvard Business School, has fired “the gray hairs,” put the managing editor in a supply closet, stopped using the landlines, and hired a bevy of manicured and questionably attired underlings who text and tweet their way through meetings. Imogen, darling of the fashion world, may have Alexander Wang and Diane von Furstenberg on speed dial, but she can’t tell Facebook from Foursquare and once got her iPhone stuck in Japanese for two days. Under Eve’s reign, Glossy is rapidly becoming a digital sweatshop—hackathons rage all night, girls who sleep get fired, and “fun” means mandatory, company-wide coordinated dances to Beyoncé. Wildly out of her depth, Imogen faces a choice—pack up her Smythson notebooks and quit, or channel her inner geek and take on Eve to save both the magazine and her career. A glittering, uproarious, sharply drawn story filled with thinly veiled fashion personalities, The Knockoff is an insider’s look at the ever-changing world of fashion and a fabulous romp for our Internet-addicted age.

Shattered by Dani Pettrey

Second book in this series...read it in ONE day...absolutely loving this series.  

From Booklist

This is Pettrey’s exciting follow-up to the adventure-filled Submerged (2012). Readers rejoin the McKenna family as they search for the real killer of the woman their brother, whose innocence looks dubious, is accused of murdering. Piper McKenna knows her brother is innocent and will do anything it takes to prove it. A family friend, Deputy Landon Grainger, will do anything it takes to protect Piper, so the two set off on a harrowing journey to track the true murderer. With the family backing them up from Yancey, Alaska, Piper and Landon set out from western Canada, traveling down to California and then back up to Oregon on their quest for the truth. Despite the mounting danger, the two start to question their feelings for each other. Will their search be for love as well as for justice? With the drama of an Alaskan winter as her setting, Pettrey once again blends suspense, romance, and mystery into a fast-paced story that will keep readers on their toes. --Carolyn Richard

Submerged by Dani Pettrey

This is my first foray into inspirational fiction, and truth be told, if I had known ahead of time that this was considered "inspirational" I probably wouldn't have read it.  A very wise librarian once told me that  you cannot condemn a genre until you have read it...wow is that true.  I picked this up because it was mentioned during a workshop I attended on romance fiction, and I actually really, really liked it.  First the mystery element is outstanding, the author did a great job of building suspense.  The romance was spot on, it created that wonderful fluttery feeling (and just left out the steamy part...which was actually refreshing).  Now if you are totally against any religious element in your novels, this is not for you...she doesn't drown you with it but it is definitely there.

Book Description via Amazon

A sabotaged plane. Two dead deep-water divers.

Yancey, Alaska was a quiet town...until the truth of what was hidden in the depths off the coast began to appear.

Bailey Craig vowed never to set foot in Yancey again. She has a past, and a reputation--and Yancey's a small town. She's returned to bury a loved one killed in the plane crash and is determined not to stay even an hour more than necessary. But then dark evidence emerges and Bailey's own expertise becomes invaluable for the case.

Cole McKenna can handle the deep-sea dives and helping the police recover evidence. He can even handle the fact that a murderer has settled in his town and doesn't appear to be moving on. But dealing with the reality of Bailey's reappearance is a tougher challenge. She broke his heart, but she is not the same girl who left Yancey. He let her down, but he's not the same guy she left behind. Can they move beyond the hurts of their pasts and find a future together?

How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper

So I was mildly embarrassed when my 13 year old daughters both said "MOM WHY ARE YOU READING THAT?!?!"  But that aside, I am in love with this series, it reminds me of Charlaine Harris' True Blood series (the books, NOT the tv show).  The writing is funny, the Alaskan setting is perfect and the characters absolutely make the book.    For fans of paranormal romance, this is one not to be missed!

Book Description via Amazon

Northern Exposure 

Even in Grundy, Alaska, it’s unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham—who has been openly critical of Mo’s ability to adapt to life in Alaska—has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble. 

For Cooper, an Alpha in self-imposed exile from his dysfunctional pack, it’s love at first sniff when it comes to Mo. But Cooper has an even more pressing concern on his mind. Several people around Grundy have been the victims of wolf attacks, and since Cooper has no memory of what he gets up to while in werewolf form, he’s worried that he might be the violent canine in question. 

If a wolf cries wolf, it makes sense to listen, yet Mo is convinced that Cooper is not the culprit. Except if he’s not responsible, then who is? And when a werewolf falls head over haunches in love with you, what are you supposed to do anyway? The rules of dating just got a whole lot more complicated. . . .

Girl Before a Mirror by Liza Palmer

Easy, breezy, fun read!

Book Description Via Amazon

The author of Conversations with a Fat Girl—optioned for HBO—returns with the hilarious and heartfelt story of a woman who must learn how to be the heroine of her own life—a journey that will teach her priceless lessons about love, friendship, family, work, and her own heart.

An account executive in a Mad Men world, Anna Wyatt is at a crossroads. Recently divorced, she’s done a lot of emotional housecleaning, including a self-imposed dating sabbatical. But now that she’s turned forty, she’s struggling to figure out what her life needs. Brainstorming to win over an important new client, she discovers a self-help book—Be the Heroine, Find Your Hero—that offers her unexpected insights and leads her to a most unlikely place: a romance writers’ conference. If she can sign the Romance Cover Model of the Year Pageant winner for her campaign—and meet the author who has inspired her to take control of her life—she’ll win the account.

For Anna, taking control means taking chances, including getting to know Sasha, her pretty young colleague on the project, and indulging in a steamy elevator ride with Lincoln Mallory, a dashing financial consultant she meets in the hotel. When the conference ends, Anna and Lincoln must decide if their intense connection is strong enough to survive outside the romantic fantasy they’ve created. Yet Lincoln is only one of Anna’s dilemmas. Now that her campaign is off the ground, others in the office want to steal her success, and her alcoholic brother, Ferdie, is spiraling out of control.

To have the life she wants—to be happy without guilt, to be accepted for herself, to love and to be loved, to just be—she has to put herself first, accept her imperfections, embrace her passions, and finally be the heroine of her own story.