Spotlight: Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer

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After finding disturbing journal pages that suggest her late mother didn't die in a car accident as her father had always maintained, Beth Walsh begins a search for answers to the question -- what really happened to their mother? With the power and relevance of Jodi Picoult and Lisa Jewell, Rimmer pens a provocative novel told by two women a generation apart, the struggles they unwittingly shared, and a family mystery that may unravel everything they believed to be true.

With her father recently moved to a care facility because of worsening signs of dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home to prepare it for sale. Why shouldn’t she be the one, after all? Her three siblings are all busy with their families and successful careers, and Beth is on maternity leave after giving birth to Noah, their miracle baby. It took her and her husband Hunter years to get pregnant, but now that they have Noah, Beth can only feel panic. And leaving Noah with her in-laws while she pokes about in their father’s house gives her a perfect excuse not to have to deal with motherhood.

Beth is surprised to discover the door to their old attic playroom padlocked, and even more shocked to see what’s behind it – a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers, and miscellaneous junk. Her father was the most fastidious, everything-in-its-place man, and this chaos makes no sense. As she picks through the clutter, she finds a handwritten note attached to one of the paintings, in what appears to be in her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing Grace Walsh died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker may be true. A frantic search uncovers more notes, seemingly a series of loose journal entries that paint a very disturbing portrait of a woman in profound distress, and of a husband that bears very little resemblance to the father Beth and her siblings know.

A fast-paced, harrowing look at the fault in memories and the lies that can bond families together - or tear them apart.

Excerpt

PROLOGUE

Grace

September 14, 1957

I am alone in a crowded family these days, and that’s the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced. Until these past few years, I had no idea that loneliness is worse than sadness. I’ve come to realize that’s because loneliness, by its very definition, cannot be shared.

Tonight there are four other souls in this house, but I am unreachably far from any of them, even as I’m far too close to guarantee their safety. Patrick said he’d be home by nine tonight, and I clung on to that promise all day.

He’ll be home at nine, I tell myself. You won’t do anything crazy if Patrick is here, so just hold on until nine.

I should have known better than to rely on that man by now. It’s 11:55 p.m., and I have no idea where he is.

Beth will be wanting a feed soon and I’m just so tired, I’m already bracing myself—as if the sound of her cry will be the thing that undoes me, instead of something I should be used to after four children. I feel the fear of that cry in my very bones—a kind of whole-body tension I can’t quite make sense of. When was the last time I had more than a few hours’ sleep? Twenty-four hours a day I am fixated on the terror that I will snap and hurt someone: Tim, Ruth, Jeremy, Beth…or myself. I am a threat to my children’s safety, but at the same time, their only protection from that very same threat.

I have learned a hard lesson these past few years; the more difficult life is, the louder your feelings become. On an ordinary day, I trust facts more than feelings, but when the world feels like it’s ending, it’s hard to distinguish where my thoughts are even coming from. Is this fear grounded in reality, or is my mind playing tricks on me again? There’s no way for me to be sure. Even the line between imagination and reality has worn down and it’s now too thin to delineate.

Sometimes I think I will walk away before something bad happens, as if removing myself from the equation would keep them all safe. But then Tim will skin his knee and come running to me, as if a simple hug could take all the world’s pain away. Or Jeremy will plant one of those sloppy kisses on my cheek, and I am reminded that for better or worse, I am his world. Ruth will slip my handbag over her shoulder as she follows me around the house, trying to walk in my footsteps, because to her, I seem like someone worth imitating. Or Beth will look up at me with that gummy grin when I try to feed her, and my heart contracts with a love that really does know no bounds.

Those moments remind me that everything changes, and that this cloud has come and gone twice now, so if I just hang on, it will pass again. I don’t feel hope yet, but I should know hope, because I’ve walked this path before and even when the mountains and valleys seemed insurmountable, I survived them.

I’m constantly trying to talk myself around to calm, and sometimes, for brief and beautiful moments, I do. But the hard, cold truth is that every time the night comes, it seems blacker than it did before.

Tonight I’m teetering on the edge of something horrific.

Tonight the sound of my baby’s cry might just be the thing that breaks me altogether.

I’m scared of so many things these days, but most of all now, I fear myself.

Excerpted from Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer, Copyright © 2020 by Lantana Management Pty Ltd. Published by Graydon House Books.

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About the Author

Kelly Rimmer is the worldwide and USA TODAY bestselling author of Before I Let You Go, Me Without You, and The Secret Daughter. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, two children and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages. Please visit her at www.Kelly.Rimmer.com 

Connect:

Facebook: @Kellymrimmer

Twitter: @KelRimmerWrites

Instagram: @kelrimmerwrites

Spotlight: Trust Me by Isabel Jolie

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SAM.

There was a time when I trusted everyone. Before my little idea grew into a billion dollar company. Now, I trust few. Been burned too many times by people looking for a hand out. Yeah, my wealth opens doors, but it also places a target on my back.

Then I meet Olivia. Security clears her. Determines her safe.

The more I get to know her, the more I want her, but just being around me places her in danger – opening her up to the crazy in my world.

I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe.

All I need to do is figure out exactly who I can trust.

OLIVIA.

I left Manhattan broken-hearted, moved to Prague, proved myself professionally, and returned to New York stronger, more capable and focused on my career. Then I went for a cup of coffee.

When he walked in, I felt the pull, the desire that led to so many problems in my past. No. This one’s nothing more than eye candy. A momentary diversion while I sip my latte. A daydream.

Never could I ever have been prepared for what would happen next.

Trust Me is a standalone billionaire romance set in New York City and Montreal with intrigue, suspense and a fulfilling HEA.

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About the Author

After falling for a ginger in a kilt in Outlander and encountering Christian’s hypnotic eyes in 50 Shades of Grey, Isabel fell down the escapism rabbit hole. Inspired by a favorite Indie writer who said she started as an avid reader, Isabel decided to follow her high school dream and take the writing plunge. Through writing, she’s found an outlet for the creative and passionate stories percolating in the deep recesses of her less than the safe-for-primetime mind.

Isabel lives outside of Charlotte, NC, where she splits her time between her two beautiful daughters, one charming yet clueless husband, a dog, a cat and an unquenchable desire to entertain, delight and share this passion with others like her.

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Spotlight: Her Side of History by Claudia J. Severin

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Author Claudia J. Severin took things into her own hands when her genealogy research seemed limiting. Follow her foremothers, four mothers plucked from her family tree. She reimagines the lives of ancestral families in this anthology. Ina, the tragic suffragette, traded her college degree and teaching career for a loving husband and children in the 1910s, in the shadow of the Great War, but things did not work out as she planned. Mary, a German immigrant, finds love with an Iowa farmer, and crosses the state in a covered wagon with his entire family to become a homesteader on the Nebraska plains in 1869. She didn’t know that Indian encounters, prairie fires and locusts would threaten her and her rapidly growing family. Nellie fell for the bad boy, the Good Time Charley who didn’t let a little thing like Prohibition stand in his way. She tries to control his drinking and spending, while supporting her family in times of calamity in the 1920s and 1930s traveling from Nebraska to Kansas and back again. Katie finds herself the sole heir to her father’s farm in southeastern Nebraska decades after the Homestead Act took most of the land ownership out of play. She enjoys playing the flirtatious games learned from her older half-sisters. But are her suitors interested in her or her inheritance?

Excerpt

Following my Foremother’s Footprints

July 1888

I could see him staring at my bare shoulders as the white fabric floated, when I moved up and down in the water. Hicke spotted a large branch protruding in the water, and grabbed onto it. 

“Okay, this is better.” He seemed to assess the creek itself, once his fear of drowning subsided. “This is a pretty good creek, isn’t it? How far does it run in your daddy’s place?” He glanced over at the horses who had found themselves a shallow spot to wade and drink downstream from where we were.

“It goes quite a ways, I guess. It runs northwest from here into the Walkens’ farm.” I swam a little closer to where he had tethered himself on the branch. Suddenly something pulled me straight down beneath the surface, and I came up sputtering. He reached out and grabbed my hand.

“Katie, you okay? What happened?”

“I dunno, some kind of undercurrent I guess. There are holes all over under there, you have to be careful.” I held onto his hand, although I knew the danger was over. He was about ten inches away from me now. 

His slicked-back dark hair started to get wavy as it dried. I studied the line on his forehead from his hat. He had similar lines where his sleeves ended. He spends a lot of time outdoors, but clearly not in a creek. His chin and jawline were prominent and it appeared he hadn’t had a shave for three, no maybe four days. He had kind eyes. They seemed to dance when he smiled like he was perpetually teasing. They looked sort of gray green, but maybe it was only the reflection of the water. They were focused on me now, and I couldn’t ask for more than that.

The sunlight that streamed through the trees was glistening on the water and I could feel its warmth. I closed my eyes and pushed my hair from my face.

“I must look a fright, soaking in this dirty water,” I mused, twisting a strand of hair.

“Not at all. I was thinking how winsome and natural you look. You’re not very shy. I mean most girls wouldn’t like getting all wet and muddy in the creek.”

I was pleased by the way he was ogling me, but I knew it was time to go back. His brother was probably ready to start for home. I already knew Wilt had a girlfriend named Sarah, so he ought to have figured something was going on. Getting out of the water was going to be a little awkward though. This cotton undergarment was nice and cool under my dress, but since it was wet now, it was likely to cling to my skin.

“Turn around now. I’m going to get out,” I requested. “When you want to get out, you should be able to walk right on the creek bed from here.”

 I started for the bank as he turned away, but when I was about knee deep in the water, I glanced back to catch him peeking. He chuckled when I raced out of the water and back into the protection of the brush. I attempted to wring the water out of my clothing, shimmy back into my corset and put on my voluminous dress. By the time I had braided my wet hair, and put on my boots, he was already dressed and ready for the ride back. He didn’t say anything more that day, but I figured he didn’t need to. 

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

About the Author

Claudia Johnson Severin lives with her farmer husband on a southeastern Nebraska farm that was homesteaded in 1869 by her husband’s great-grandparents, a setting for a portion of her anthology. At one time, the farm was home to dairy cows and chickens, as well as children. The cows, chickens, and children have all moved on, along with her day job. She spent a year researching many branches of her family tree, but decided the facts she uncovered did not leave enough to the imagination. She applied imagination to the facts and came up with this book.

When she is not writing, she is constructing one-of-a-kind play structures for her grandchildren. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Journalism and a Cornhusker football fan.

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Spotlight: Sunrise on Half Moon Bay by Robyn Carr

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Sometimes the happiness we’re looking for has been there all along…

Adele and Justine have never been close. Born twenty years apart, Justine was already an adult when Addie was born. The sisters love each other but they don’t really know each other.

When Addie dropped out of university to care for their ailing parents, Justine, a successful lawyer, covered the expenses. It was the best arrangement at the time but now that their parents are gone, the future has changed dramatically for both women.

Addie had great plans for her life but has been worn down by the pressures of being a caregiver and doesn’t know how to live for herself. And Justine’s success has come at a price. Her marriage is falling apart despite her best efforts.

Neither woman knows how to start life over but both realize they can and must support each other the way only sisters can. Together they find the strength to accept their failures and overcome their challenges. Happiness is within reach, if only they have the courage to fight for it.

Set in the stunning coastal town of Half Moon Bay, California, Robyn Carr’s new novel examines the joys of sisterhood and the importance of embracing change.

Excerpt

 “Has it ever occurred to Scott to get a serious job?” Adele asked. “I mean, forgive me, since I haven’t had a serious job in my life.” 

Justine smiled patiently. “Your jobs have all been serious, and without you we’d have been lost. If you hadn’t dedicated yourself to Mom’s care, it would have cost our whole family a fortune. We’re indebted to you. And I agree it would help if Scott worked more than part-time, but I think that ship sailed years ago. He’s only worked part-time since Amber and Olivia came along.” 

Adele adored her nieces, ages sixteen and seventeen. She was much closer to them than she was to Justine. 

“I’m sorry you’re going through this,” Adele said. “I wish there was something I could do.” 

“Well, the thing is, the future is looking very uncertain. I might need your help,” Justine said. 

“What could I do?” she asked. 

“Adele, I don’t like to push you, but you have to get it together. We have to make some decisions about what you’re going to do, what we’ll do with the house. I realize what I’ve given you for your hard work hasn’t been much, but I don’t know how long I can keep it up—paying for the maintenance on this house, the taxes, a modest income for you… I don’t want to panic prematurely,” Justine said. “Maybe I’ll be able to work everything out without too much hassle, but if I run into trouble… Money could get very tight, Addie. All those promises I made—that I’d help financially while you fix up the house, that I’d give you my half of the proceeds when and if you sold it… I might not be able to come through. I know, I know, I promised you it would be yours after all of your sacrifice, but you wouldn’t want me to ignore the girls’ tuition or not be able to make the mortgage…” 

“But Justine!” Adele said. “That’s all I have! And I was considering finishing school myself!” Though if she was honest, she had no plans of any kind. 

Justine reached out to her, squeezing her hand. “We’re a long way from me needing money. I just felt it was only fair to tell you what’s going on. If we’re in this together, we can both make it. I swear, I will make this all work out. I’ll make it right.” 

But as Adele knew, they had never really been “in it together” in the past, and they wouldn’t be for very long in the future. Addie’s dedication to their parents allowed Justine to devote herself to her career. For that matter, it should be Justine and Scott shoring each other up. At least until Justine had a better idea. But where was Scott today? Golfing? Biking? Bowling? 

Adele realized she had some difficult realities to face. When she dropped out of school to help her mother care for her father, she wasn’t being completely altruistic. She’d needed a place to run away to, hiding an unplanned pregnancy and covering her tattered heart. She’d never told her family that her married lover—her psychology professor—had broken down in tears when he explained he couldn’t leave his wife to marry Adele, that the college would probably fire him for having an affair with a student. For her, going home was the only option. 

At the time Justine and Scott had been riding the big wave and didn’t lust after the small, old house in Half Moon Bay. That house was chump change to them. So, they worked out a deal. Adele had become her mother’s guardian with a power of attorney. But the will had never been adjusted to ref lect just one beneficiary rather than two. In the case of the death of both parents, Adele and Justine would inherit equal equity in the eighty-year-old house and anything left of the life insurance. At the time, of course, neither Adele nor Justine had ever considered the idea that Adele would be needed for very long. But before Adele knew it, eight years had been gobbled up. She was thirty-two and had been caring for her parents since she was twenty-four. 

Adele, as guardian, could have escaped by turning over the house, pension, social security to a care facility for her mother and gone out on her own, finding herself a better job and her own place to live. She wasn’t sure if it was her conscience or just inertia that held her in place for so long. 

“I just wanted to make sure you understood the circumstances before anything more happens,” Justine said. “And since you don’t have any immediate plans, please don’t list the house for sale or anything. Give me a chance to figure out what’s next. I have children. I’ll do whatever I can to protect them and you. They’re your nieces! They love you so much. I’m sure you want them to get a good education as much as I do.” 

Does anyone want me to have a real chance to start over? Adele asked herself. This conversation sounded like Justine was pulling out of their deal. 

“I’ll think about this, but Scott has responsibilities, too,” she pointed out. 

“He’s been out of the full-time workforce for so long…” Justine said. 

“Just the same, we all have to live up to our adult commitments and responsibilities. And you’ve had a highfalutin job for a long time. You’ve made a lot of money. You can recover. I haven’t even begun.” 

“I need your help, Addie,” Justine said. “You need to come up with a plan, something we can put in motion. Make plans for your next step, put a little energy into this old house, make suggestions of what we should do with it, everything. Let’s figure out what to do before I find myself short and unable to help. I’m sorry, but we have to move forward.”

Excerpted from Sunrise on Half Moon Bay, Copyright © 2020 by Robyn Carr. Published by MIRA Books.

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About the Author

Robyn Carr is an award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than sixty novels, including highly praised women's fiction such as Four Friends and The View From Alameda Island and the critically acclaimed Virgin River, Thunder Point and Sullivan's Crossing series. Virgin River is now a Netflix Original series. Robyn lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visit her website at www.RobynCarr.com.

Connect:

Author Website: https://www.robyncarr.com/

Twitter: @RCarrWriter

Facebook: @RobynCarrWriter

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/107767.Robyn_Carr?from_search=true

Spotlight: Love by Design by Katy Ames

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With her ugly past behind her, Annika is back to prove she’s still as brilliant as ever. Grayson has the makings for ultimate sucess, as long as his new co-star is everything they say she is. Annika stole his heart years ago and never looked back, but will the past be able to stay in the past? Readers are going to love this reunited love romance from Katy Ames. The 425 Madison series is back with season two and LOVE BY DESIGN is now live!

Only on Amazon + Read for FREE on Kindle Unlimited 

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ANNIKA

Cheating husband. On-air meltdown. Public humiliation.

Lucky me, I’ve experienced them all. 

Oh, and the implosion of my career as an up-and-coming designer and renovation television darling.

That was then.

Now, I’m in the TV studio, more determined than ever to prove to myself (and the few fans I have left), that I’m back for good. Nothing from my past—no man, no mistake—is going to knock me down again.

If only fate—and Grayson Hesse—had gotten the memo.

GRAYSON

Woodworker. Stone house restoration guru. And the new host of Hesse and a Hard Place. 

This is what I know: 

If this show’s a success, I’ll finally be able to give my family the financial stability they need. My chances of success go way up if I have the best designer in the business working by my side. And the best in the business (despite the lingering rumors) is Annika Hale.

She’s the triple threat: brilliant designer, restoration maven, and the woman who stole my heart six years ago…and hasn’t looked back since.

But that was then.

Now… Well, what is it they say? After all, 425 Madison is the perfect place to fall in love.

Excerpt 

Copyright @ Katy Ames 2020

I watch my best friend chew a hole in her lower lip. “Explain, Abby. Before you make yourself bleed.”

Abby opens her mouth. I brace myself for whatever she’s going to say and don’t hear a single word. I don’t hear anything at all, except the deep, rumbling laugh that rolls through the soundstage.

My stomach does cartwheels and every single hair on the back of my neck stands pin-straight. My anxiety before? It’s got nothing on the nerves that are about to knock my knees right out from under me.

That laugh—his laugh… It’s as potent today as it was the first time I heard it.

My eyelids flutter shut. All worries about first-day nerves and my shitty ex-husband and career recovery vanish. Into that mental void rushes a series of images, ones I’d mistakenly sworn, hoped, prayed, I’d forgotten.

A sweltering summer night. Low whispers and lurid words.

Large calloused hands finding the secret, most sensitive parts of my skin.

Lips made for sinning and promises whispered in a voice that sounded like salvation. A voice that belongs to a man who vanished without a word.

A man who, if I’m reading my friend’s—no, strike that, former friend’s expression correctly, has just claimed a starring role in the horrifically-timed comedy that is my life.

Abby’s eyes dart between my face and the person behind me. Plastering on a smile, she swivels her finger in what I’m assuming she thinks is the “turn around now” sign. “Annika, this is Mr. Hesse.”

I pivot, thrust out my hand, but can’t unglue my eyes from the ground.

M. G. Hesse.

G. As in Grayson, the quiet, kind, insanely hot carpenter I met on my first network design job.

As in the only man I’ve ever fallen for so hard, so fast, I didn’t stop to ask his last name before tumbling into his bed. Hell, I didn’t even care.

As in the guy I thought, against all the odds, would disprove my mother’s lessons about how untrustworthy men are—only to become the poster child by morning.

A broad palm slides against mine, fingers curling into a warm grasp. A jolt of awareness lights up my nerves, and my eyes finally lift to a face I haven’t seen in six years. Since the day I woke up in his bed, naked, in love, and alone.

About Katy

Katy writes contemporary romances about heroines who aren’t afraid to kick ass, heroes brave enough to love them, and stories that get a little messy before ending happily ever after.

She’s mom to two boys whom she loves to bits but wishes would sleep a lot more than they do, and wife to a man whose reading habits are far too serious. Katy and her family reside in Washington, D.C., a city in which she never planned to live and loves so much she’d be happy to talk about it for hours. Just ask.  

Katy is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Washington Romance Writers.

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Spotlight: Thunderstorm by Susana Mohel

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Series: The Perfect Storm #3

Release Date: April 9, 2020

Adrik Houston means nothing but trouble.

I’ve spent years building my career, and I’m not about to let him push me away from the goal I’ve set for my future.

I don’t care if he’s handsome, cocky, and fixated on getting me. On my charts, he’s Lucifer himself filling a panty-melting uniform.

But he doesn’t know how stubborn I can be when my heart is in the line of fire.

He’s ready to fight.

So am I.

We aren’t a match made in heaven. We’re two energy charged clouds ready to collide.

I’m Jordania Zanetti.

In war the winner takes it all, and the battle is about to start.

Author, wife, and mother of a girl and a puppy. I love the happily ever after. Believer & dreamer. I live in my own world, sipping Ginger Ale and lime. I'm always plotting my next book, coloring pages, and reading.  

Website: https://www.susanamohel.com/

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