Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is about our spring 2020 TBR. With most of us living in quarantine right now, it sounds like the perfect time to share about something we are looking forward to–especially when the time for it has been handed to us on a silver platter. I hope to catch up on some of my older TBR as well, but here’s just a sampling of the books I expect to read this coming season:
1. Silent Shadows by Natalie Walters
Pecca Gallegos moved to the tiny town of Walton, Georgia, to protect her son and escape the dangerous lifestyle that once defined her. When a series of strange circumstances evolve into threats, Pecca finds herself confiding in an unlikely ally–her stubborn patient.
Army veteran Colton Crawford is desperate to recover from the undiagnosed disorder that is ruining his life, and his instincts are on high alert when threats against his nurse and her son force him to take action. But Colton’s involvement only ramps up the danger when he uncovers a family secret revealing that whoever is after Pecca is closer–and more deadly–than they realized.
With this suspenseful new story, Natalie Walters welcomes you once more to Walton, Georgia, where everyone knows your name–but no one knows your secret.
2. Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner
Celebrity chef Maxwell Cavanaugh is known for many things: his multiple Michelin stars, his top-rated Culinary Channel show To the Max, and most of all his horrible temper. Hadley Beckett, host of the Culinary Channel’s other top-rated show, At Home with Hadley, is beloved for her Southern charm and for making her viewers feel like family.
When Max experiences a very public temper tantrum, he’s sent packing to get his life in order. When he returns, career in shambles, his only chance to get back on TV and in the public’s good graces is to work alongside Hadley.
As these polar-opposite celeb chefs begin to peel away the layers of public persona and reputation, they will not only discover the key ingredients for getting along, but also learn the secret recipe for unexpected forgiveness . . . and maybe even love. In the meantime, hide the knives.
Fan-favorite Bethany Turner serves up a heaping helping of humor and romance with this thoroughly modern story centered on cooking, enemies, and second chances.
3. The Joy of Falling by Lindsay Harrel
Eva and Angela must learn to live again. One step at a time.
It has been fifteen months since Eva and Angela lost their thrill-seeking husbands in a scuba diving accident. Both women are trying to navigate their way through the grief, but neither one is making much progress. Angela is barely making ends meet, angry at her husband for leaving her to raise three children on her own. Meanwhile, Eva is stuck, unable to move forward after losing the love of her life and her source of inspiration.
But then Eva gets a life-changing phone call. Before Brent and Wes died, they had signed up for a race of a lifetime—an ultra-marathon in beautiful New Zealand. Eva begs Angela to run the race with her in their husbands’ place, and Angela finally agrees, hoping to finally understand her husband’s choices.
Training is exhausting, and the race is even more demanding. Their journey grows more complicated by the presence of two men—Marc is Brent’s best friend who is running the race with Eva and Angela, and Simon King is a writer who is covering their inspiring story. With every step, Eva and Angela must ask themselves questions that they haven’t had the courage to ask before. As the women literally put one foot in front of the other, they wonder: Is it possible to find their way forward in hope?
4. If I Were You by Lynn Austin
From bestselling and eight-time Christy Award-winning author Lynn Austin comes a remarkable novel of sisterhood and self-discovery set against the backdrop of WWII.
1950. In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve’s secrets–and the complicated history of their friendship–to the surface.
1940. Eve and Audrey have been as different as two friends can be since the day they met at Wellingford Hall, where Eve’s mother served as a lady’s maid for Audrey’s mother. As young women, those differences become a polarizing force . . . until a greater threat–Nazi invasion–reunites them. With London facing relentless bombardment, Audrey and Eve join the fight as ambulance drivers, battling constant danger together. An American stationed in England brings dreams of a brighter future for Audrey, and the collapse of the class system gives Eve hope for a future with Audrey’s brother. But in the wake of devastating loss, both women must make life-altering decisions that will set in motion a web of lies and push them both to the breaking point long after the last bomb has fallen.
This sweeping story transports readers to one of the most challenging eras of history to explore the deep, abiding power of faith and friendship to overcome more than we ever thought possible
5. The Healer’s Touch by Connilyn Cossette
When Jewish sailor’s wife Tikva received word, more than a decade ago, of a family tragedy, the shock of the news sent her into premature labor, and she delivered a stillborn son. From that time until this, despite chasing after a multitude of healers’ promises and spending all she had on torturous treatments, she hasn’t been able to stop the resulting hemorrhaging. The doctor she saw today, like all the others, had given her lofty promises of a cure but turned out to be yet another charlatan. Defeated, Tikva returns home to her aged mother-in-law, who has heard tell of a miracle-working Rabbi visiting their province. Does Tikva dare hold out one last hope for healing?
6. One Little Lie by Colleen Coble
It started with one little lie. But Jane Hardy will do everything in her power to uncover the truth.
Book one in a gripping new series from USA TODAY bestselling romantic suspense author Colleen Coble.
When Jane Hardy is appointed interim sheriff in Pelican Harbor, Alabama, after her father retires, there’s no time for an adjustment period. He is arrested for theft and then implicated in a recent murder, and Jane quickly realizes she’s facing someone out to destroy her father.
They escaped from a cult fifteen years ago, and Jane has searched relentlessly for her mother—who refused to leave—ever since. Could someone from that horrible past have found them?
Reid Bechtol is a well-known journalist who makes documentaries, and his sights are currently set on covering Jane’s career. Jane has little interest in the attention, but the committee who appointed her loves the idea of the publicity.
Jane finds herself depending on Reid’s calm manner as he follows her around taping his documentary, and they begin working together to clear her father. But Reid has his own secrets from the past, and the gulf between them may be impossible to cross.
It started with one little lie. But Jane Hardy will do everything in her power to uncover the truth.
7. Waltz in the Wilderness by Kathleen Denly
She’s desperate to find her missing father. His conscience demands he risk all to help.
Eliza Brooks is haunted by her role in her mother’s death, so she’ll do anything to find her missing pa—even if it means sneaking aboard a southbound ship. When those meant to protect her abandon and betray her instead, a family friend’s unexpected assistance is a blessing she can’t refuse.
Daniel Clarke came to California to make his fortune, and a stable job as a San Francisco carpenter has earned him more than most have scraped from the local goldfields. But it’s been four years since he left Massachusetts and his fiancée is impatient for his return. Bound for home at last, Daniel Clarke finds his heart and plans challenged by a tenacious young woman with haunted eyes. Though every word he utters seems to offend her, he is determined to see her safely returned to her father. Even if that means risking his fragile engagement.
When disaster befalls them in the remote wilderness of the Southern California mountains, true feelings are revealed, and both must face heart-rending decisions. But how to decide when every choice before them leads to someone getting hurt?
8. Saving Amelie by Cathy Gohlke
Increasingly wary of her father’s genetic research, Rachel Kramer has determined that this trip with him to Germany–in the summer of 1939–will be her last. But a cryptic letter from her estranged friend, begging Rachel for help, changes everything.
Married to SS officer Gerhardt Schlick, Kristine sees the dark tides turning and fears her husband views their daughter, Amelie, deaf since birth, as a blight on his Aryan bloodline. Once courted by Schlick, Rachel knows he’s as dangerous as the swastikas that hang like ebony spiders from every government building in Berlin. She fears her father’s files may hold answers about Hitler’s plans for others, like Amelie, whom the regime deems “unworthy of life.” She risks searching his classified documents only to uncover shocking secrets about her own history and a family she’s never known. Now hunted by the SS, Rachel turns to Jason Young–a driven, disarming American journalist and unlikely ally–who connects her to the resistance and to controversial theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Forced into hiding, Rachel’s every ideal is challenged as she and Jason walk a knife’s edge, risking their lives–and asking others to do the same–for those they barely know but come to love.
9. Serving Up Love: A Harvey House Brides Collection
Bestselling novelist Tracie Peterson joins Karen Witemeyer, Regina Jennings, and Jen Turano in this collection of four novellas, each featuring a Harvey Girl heroine. From Kansas to Texas, the Grand Canyon to New Mexico, the stories cross the country with tales of sweet romance and entertaining history.
In Karen Witemeyer’s “More Than a Pretty Face,” a young woman works her hardest to escape poor choices from her youth. Tracie Peterson offers “A Flood of Love,” where reuniting with an old flame after more than a decade offers unexpected results. Regina Jennings’s “Intrigue a la Mode” delights with a tale of a young woman determined to help support her family, despite warnings of danger nearby. And Jen Turano’s “Grand Encounters” heads to the Grand Canyon with a tale of a society belle intent on finding a new life for herself.
10. Verity by Lisa T Bergren
After leaving England behind for a new life in the West Indies with her sisters, Verity Banning wants something to call her own. Her affinity for animals inspires her to set up a business importing horses, as well as other goods in demand by the island residents. But when she arrives in the Colonies to purchase her goods, unexpected news of Captain Duncan McKintrick awaits her—as does the captain’s handsome brother, Ian—whose sympathies lie with the fledgling Patriot cause.
As the great-granddaughter of a British general and friend to many Loyalists, Verity believed all she wanted was a peaceful resolution. But both the Patriots and the impassioned Ian McKintrick are steadily laying claim to her heart. When faced with the decision of what—and for whom—she will fight, can she set her feet on a new path despite the danger that awaits?
Great list of reads! 🙂
Ok not sure if it’s just me or what, but since everyone is going to this format I can’t like the post. I am reading them just so you know 🙂
What do you mean?
I LOVE this list!! And several on are on mine 🙂
Great minds think alike 😉