VBT# The Family Lies - Lorna Henderson - July 2026 There's a particular kind of ache that comes with childhood memories you can never quite trust again, and Lorna Henderson taps straight into it with The Family Lies. I went in expecting a straightforward family drama and came out with my heart in my throat and my loyalties in the wrong place entirely but more on that later. The story opens with a memory that colours everything after it: fourteen-year-old Suzie and her cousin Rachel on holiday in Canada with Aunt Linda, in what turns out to be their final day together. A car accident takes Linda and Rachel, and Suzie carries that loss for thirty years, never imagining she'll ever learn what really happened. Then her mother dies, and the past comes crashing back in. A box in the attic. A patient named Nicole who seems to know far more than she should. And cousin Jake, conveniently poised to inherit his father's estate now that Suzie's mother is gone. Lorna Henderson l...

Review: Just One Catch - Nikki Vogel - July 2026 T he premise alone had me hooked before I'd even opened the first page. Harper and Lauren have just lost their parents in a sudden accident, and grief hasn't even had time to settle before the will reading turns their world upside down again. Lauren has been disinherited entirely. Everything, the $3 million, the freehold house, all of it, goes to Harper. But there's a catch (just one, as the title promises): she only gets it if she divorces her husband, Kyle. That's such a deliciously uncomfortable question to sit with, isn't it? Would you give up your marriage for a fortune, if your own parents seemed to be all but begging you to from beyond the grave? And worse, would you start to wonder what they knew that you didn't? As the story unfolds, Vogel does a lovely job of letting suspicion creep in slowly, like a kettle coming to boil on the stove. Kyle starts to seem like exactly the kind of man your parents wou...

Review: The Hennessy Lie - Annette Masters - June 2024 I picked up The Hennessy Lie by Annette Masters purely based on the cover—something about it caught my eye—and I dove in completely blind. What followed was a gripping and twist-filled ride into a world of family secrets, deception, and identity. The story kicks off with Piper Covington, a woman whose life is turned upside down when she discovers that her estranged father has died in prison and she is now the heir to the mysterious and once-prestigious Hennessy fortune—what's left of it, anyway. This revelation opens the floodgates to a past Piper never knew existed, and the truth that her entire life has been built on lies. Annette Masters does an excellent job building tension as Piper starts to unravel the tangled web of her family’s secrets. If you’re a fan of slow-burn thrillers that explore twisted family dynamics and the question of identity, this one will definitely deliver. There's a great blend of suspense, be...

Review: The Second Wife - Miranda Rijks - May 2022 Mia was on her way to becoming a successful classical violinist until a family issue caused her career to derail and she ended up with a stint in prison. She needed a job and so she got one cleaning for musician Robin Featherstone. The two got close as Mia spoke Robin's language - the art of music. His second wife Tamsin though gets jealous after she overhears Robin talking about personal issues with Mia like their Will. She's not a gold digger, but she deserves something and she fears that he is drifting away from her. So she fires Mia behind Robin's back. During this time, Robin then has a stroke and eventually dies. Mia is also shortly after being fired, given a job as a violinist in a band on tour - this is what she always dreamed of, professionally playing her Violin. One night she gets a call, Robin has died and he has left his entire estate to her. Mia is shocked and as soon as she meets the family, she realizes th...

Review: Daughter of Mine - Megan Miranda - April 2024 An author that I do find a hit/miss for me but when her books are hits, they do suck you in and Daughter of Mine was one of those titles. The book starts with a funeral and a car being dragged from the lake that had been there for years. Hazel's dad has died and she is returning home to Mirror Lake. A place she left years ago and never looked back as she has felt like she doesn't fit in. Especially since her ex-best friend married the one brother who hates her and constantly reminds her that she isn't family and the other brother who doesn't like to rock the boat. Hazel has left the old family home and her brothers aren't too happy about it, one is already filing to contest her Dad's will. During the clean-up, some old photos are found in the attic and then a second car is found in the lake. The two cars though as we learn relate to Hazel's family one of them being her mother's car -the same one in w...

The Prince’s Bride J.J. McAvoy (The Prince’s Bride, #1) Publication date: October 29th 2020 Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance He is a spoiled playboy prince whose family is in desperate need of money. She’s an American heiress who can only get her inheritance through marriage. According to their families they are a perfect match. According to each other, arranged marriages have no place in modern times and this could not possibly work. But Prince Galahad “Gale” of Ersovia is bound by duty to obey the crown anyway. Odette Wyntor doesn’t give a damn, she doesn’t want to get married. Can he change her mind? Can she even handle what it means to be royal, if he did? The Prince’s Bride is Part 1 of a 2 part series. Part 2 arrives a month later. Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo — EXCERPT: “Oh, right, I bet you have a lot of exes that would try to destroy me or something.” Damn. “You do!” She pointed at me, grinning like she’d won the...