Book Club Reads August 2019

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August is breathing down my neck and we have a great list of books on offer.

Broken Masterpiece –  Tee Smith
Mystery/Suspense

Nothing is as it seems.

When Charlie wakes from a brutal attack, she finds herself in a strange new world.
Desperate for answers, she searches for remnants of the life she had. Her last memory was more than ten years ago.
She has a husband who loves her, and a nice home in the suburbs. but she can’t shake the feeling he is hiding something
.

Sometimes not knowing the truth can be a blessing, rather than a curse.
As her memory returns and the lies become known, there is no way of going back.

Broken Masterpiece is a story of violence, manipulation and above all else, survival.

Guardian of Lies – Kate Furnivall
Simon & Schuster – Historical

1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances.

Eloïse Caussade is a courageous young Frenchwoman, raised on a bull farm near Arles in the Camargue. She idolises her older brother, André, and when he leaves to become an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris to help protect France, she soon follows him. Having exchanged the strict confines of her father’s farm for a life of freedom in Paris, her world comes alive.


But everything changes when André is injured – a direct result of Eloise’s actions. Unable to work, André returns to his father’s farm, but Eloïse’s sense of guilt and responsibility for his injuries sets her on the trail of the person who attempted to kill him.

Eloïse finds her hometown in a state of unrest and conflict. Those who are angry at the construction of the American airbase nearby, with its lethal nuclear armaments, confront those who support it, and anger flares into violence, stirred up by Soviet agents. Throughout all this unrest, Eloïse is still relentlessly hunting down the man who betrayed her brother and his country, and she is learning to look at those she loves and at herself with different eyes. She no longer knows who she can trust. Who is working for Soviet Intelligence and who is not? And what side do her own family lie on?

I Love My Dad Because  –    Petra James
Pan Macmillan – Junior Fiction/Activity Book

This book is for you and your dad.

Draw, decorate, colour in, count, play naughts and crosses, make a fish (or two) and then present the book to your dad for any special occasion: birthday, Xmas, Father’s Day … or just because.

An interactive picture book to personalise for your dad.

Lies, Lies, Lies – Adele Parks
HQ Fiction – Thriller/Suspense

Daisy and Simon’s marriage is great, isn’t it? After years together, the arrival of longed-for daughter Millie sealed everything in place. A happy little family of three.

And so what if Simon drinks a bit too much sometimes – Daisy’s used to it, she knows he’s letting off steam. Until one night at a party things spiral horribly out of control. And that happy little family of three will never be the same again.

In Lies Lies Lies Sunday Times bestseller Adele Parks explores the darkest corners of a relationship in freefall in a mesmerising tale of marriage and secrets.

Meet Me in Venice – Barbara Hannay
Penguin RandomHouse – Contemporary Fiction

A year after her husband Leo’s death, widow Daisy invites her three adult children to join her for a holiday in beautiful Venice. It will be wonderful, her chicks under one roof again in their father’s birthplace. But is it possible to recapture the past?

Marc’s marriage is in jeopardy, but for his mother’s sake, he convinces his wife to keep up appearances. Anna’s trying to hide the truth about the dismal state of her London acting career; and Ellie, enjoying a gap year and uncertain about her future choices, wants to avoid family pressure to conform.

Despite the magic of Venice, family ties are tested to the limit, especially when a shocking secret from Leo’s past is revealed. Now everything they value about love, family, commitment and trust must be re-examined.

How can one family holiday require so much courage? Will Daisy’s sentimental journey make or break them?

Taking Tom Murray Home  – Tim Slee
HarperCollins – General Fiction

Bankrupt dairy farmer Tom Murray decides he’d rather sell off his herd and burn down his own house than hand them over to the bank. But something goes tragically wrong, and Tom dies in the blaze. His wife, Dawn, doesn’t want him to have died for nothing and decides to hold a funeral procession for Tom as a protest, driving 350 kilometres from Yardley in country Victoria to bury him in Melbourne where he was born. To make a bigger impact she agrees with some neighbours to put his coffin on a horse and cart and take it slow – real slow.

But on the night of their departure, someone burns down the local bank. And as the motley funeral procession passes through Victoria, there are more mysterious arson attacks. Dawn has five days to get to Melbourne. Five days, five more towns, and a state ready to explode in flames …

Told with a laconic, deadpan wit, Taking Tom Murray Home is a timely, thought-provoking, heart-warming, quintessentially Australian story like no other. It’s a novel about grief, pain, anger and loss, yes, but it’s also about hope – and how community, friends and love trump pain and anger, every time.

The Art of Self Kindness – Rebecca Ray
Pan Macmillan – Personal Development

This book is for you, the one with sensitivity as a super-power, though you’re still learning to offer it to yourself.

You, the first to share a kind word with others even when you’re not gentle on yourself.

You, known for your generosity but who forgets to give to yourself.

This book is in your hands now because it’s time to befriend yourself.

Dr Rebecca Ray is a writer, speaker and clinical psychologist. She invites you into the practice of self-kindness as the bravest of human art forms. Cast aside the bullet-point lists or assembly instructions in favour of self-care that seeks flow over force and progress over prescription. Come on a journey back to yourself through the art of self-kindness.

The Astrid Notes –  Taryn Bashord
Pan Macmillan – Young Adult

Astrid Bell
Dutiful daughter. Classical singer. Secret pop songwriter. And suffering from stage fright.

Jacob Skalicky.
Trust-fund kid. Indie singer. Immensely gifted performer. And refusing to sing again.

Are they polar opposites? In his grief and fury at the world, Jacob certainly thinks so.

But when Jacob loses everything and Astrid uncovers a shocking family secret, they may need each other to make sense of their lives.

The Day The Lies Began – Kylie Kaden
Pantera Press – Thriller

TWO COUPLES, FOUR IRONCLAD FRIENDSHIPS, THE PERFECT COASTAL HOLIDAY TOWN.

It happened the day of the Moon Festival. It could have been left behind, they all could have moved on with their lives. But secrets have a habit of rising to the surface, especially in small towns.

With its salt-stung houses and tight community, Lago Point is the scene of postcards, not crime scenes. Wife and mother Abbi, town cop Blake, schoolteacher Hannah and local doctor Will are caught in their own tangled webs of deceit. Sometimes doing wrong can feel completely right.

When the truth washes in, so do the judgements: victim, or vigilante, who will forgive, who will betray? Not all relationships survive. Nor do all residents.

Undara – Annie Seaton
Harlequin Mira – Fiction

When entomologist Emlyn Rees arrives at Hidden Valley she wants nothing more than to escape her marriage breakdown by burying herself in the research team’s hunt for new species of insects in the depths of the dramatic Undara lava tubes. However, little does she suspect she will be the key to solving a mystery that’s more than one hundred years old.

Travis Carlyle is initially resistant to letting some city folks tramp over his cattle station, but soon the researchers’ findings and a growing friendship with Emlyn bring opportunities to turn around his struggling farm. With a broken marriage behind him and children to care for, Travis needs to plan for the future and this could be his family’s best chance.

But when things start going wrong for the farm and around the dig site, Emlyn and Travis are at a loss to understand why. Are they cursed with bad luck, or is there a more sinister force at play? Are the tall tales of enigmatic stockman Bluey turning true? As the unseen saboteur grows bolder, Emlyn and Travis are caught in a race against time to save the station … and their lives.

Where The Dead Go – Sarah Bailey
Allen & Unwin – Crime & Mystery

A fifteen-year-old girl has gone missing after a party in the middle of the night. The following morning her boyfriend is found brutally murdered in his home. Was the girl responsible for the murder, or is she also a victim of the killer? But who would want two teenagers dead?

The aftermath of a personal tragedy finds police detective Gemma Woodstock in the coastal town of Fairhaven with her son Ben in tow. She has begged to be part of a murder investigation so she can bury herself in work rather than taking the time to grieve and figure out how to handle the next stage of her life – she now has serious family responsibilities she can no longer avoid. But Gemma also has ghosts she must lay to rest.

Gemma searches for answers, while navigating her son’s grief and trying to overcome the hostility of her new colleagues. As the mystery deepens and old tensions and secrets come to light, Gemma is increasingly haunted by a similar missing persons case she worked on not long before. A case that ended in tragedy and made her question her instincts as a cop. Can she trust herself again?

A huge thanks goes out to the publishers without whom we could not offer such great reads. Allen & Unwin, Harlequin, Harper Collins, Pan Macmillan, Pantera Press, Penguin RandomHouse and Simon & Schuster. We are so grateful for the support you show us, we couldn’t do it without you.

If you aren’t yet a member of the Beauty and Lace Club there is still time to join, head over to the signup page and take a look: yoursay.beautyandlace.net.

Happy Reading, have fun selecting preferences and we look forward to hearing what you think.

If you like the look of these books and want to purchase your own copies they are available at Angus & Robertson, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.

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