Book and Product Reviews by Roundtable Reviews

Release Date: February 5, 2019 The gorgeous cover is one reason I took a closer look at The Night Olivia Fell . It didn't take long before I'd read one page and was completely hooked. It's every parent's worst nightmare. Abi Knight gets an early morning call that her daughter is in the hospital after falling from a bridge. She arrives to learn Olivia is brain dead. She's also pregnant and laws require the hospital to keep Olivia hooked up to machines long enough for the fetus to stand a chance. It's a lot of information at once. What Abi can't get past are the bruises around Olivia's wrists. Police may be deeming this an accidental fall, but Abi believes her daughter was murdered. She also has her suspicions as to who did it. To prove it, Abi will need to push people harder than she's ever pushed them before. I had tears streaming down my face by the end of  The Night Olivia Fell . This book is very emotional. It's told from Abi's

Release Date - January 22, 2019 Alex is saddened when her best friend backs out of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Thailand. The 18-year-old doesn't want to travel alone. When another girl from her class offers to go in Mags' place, Alex goes against advice and accepts the offer. When Alex and Rosie vanish, their parents fear something has happened. Police aren't as certain. They feel the teens are simply so caught up in traveling that they forgot to update their parents. Kate Waters, a British journalist, looks into the disappearance and realizes that there's far more to the case than anyone expects. I wasn't taken by surprise. As you get to the know the characters through their emails and Kate's investigation, I could see what was coming. Despite that, I couldn't put The Suspect down. It was a truly gripping mystery. This isn't the first book I've read by Fiona Barton. I've met Kate in a prior novel. The Child is equally addicting if

Release Date - January 25, 2019 The first book in the Magic Pie Shop series is being marketed as a romance, I don't agree. It has romantic aspects, but it's a fun cozy mystery. A Slice of Magic introduces Susanna Daniels. The young woman gets a mysterious message from her cherished Aunt Erma, a woman she hasn't seen in two decades. Erma disappeared without notice when Susanna was just a child. She's missed her and always wondered why Erma abruptly left. The message is simple. Erma needs Susanna to come run her pie shop in Hocus Hills while Erma's away for a few days. There are two problems with this. Susanna has no experience running a shop. She spends her time fixing issues for homeowners. Home repairs are her forte. The other issue is that Susanna cannot cook. If she tries to help out, she's more likely to burn the kitchen down. Susanna goes because she wants answers. She wants to know why Erma vanished so many years ago. When she arrives, Erma is

Release Date - January 22, 2019 This is the first book in the Wildflower House series by Grace Greene. While there are romantic aspects, this introduction to Wildflower House is not a romance. I was a little fooled by that as it seemed to be setting itself up to be a romance. Kara Hart has experienced plenty of loss in her lifetime. Her mother walked away from the family when she was just 14. Two years later, she learned her mother died and there will not be a funeral for her to have closure. It's just Kara and her dad, a business owner who does his best to keep his business running while also being there for his daughter. Years pass and Kara marries a college sweetheart. On a night out together, she's prepared to tell him she's pregnant. However, he shocks her to the core during a heated discussion and they're in a crash that takes his life. Kara goes back to her dad during her recovery. A year passes and she learns he's selling his business and wants to

Release Date - January 15, 2019 Simon Lelic's The Liar's Room is going to be a tough book for me to review. The tagline describes it pretty well: "Two Liars. One Room. No Way Out." That said, I never truly bought that there was no way out. I loved Simon Lelic's The New Neighbors . I loved the premise to his latest novel. That said, I'm torn. Susanna Fenton left everything behind 14 years ago. She took her daughter, changed their names, and started life anew. She works as a counselor and believes they've put the past behind them. One afternoon, Susanna gets a new client. This young man has a secret. Adam seems to know things from Susanna's past. Worse, he threatens the one thing that sparked Susanna's abandonment of her former life. He claims he has her daughter and will kill her if Susanna doesn't play along with whatever he has planned. I struggled with the first chapters of this book. I really struggled. I didn't see how she w

Release Date - January 15, 2019 Lying Beneath the Oaks was the change of pace I needed. It's a little suspenseful, though I can't say the mystery was that hard to solve. The romantic tension between Molly and Cooper is what makes this a solid romance. Molly Todd and Cooper Middleton find themselves in a bit of a scandal. While in Vegas, the pair drinks too much and end up getting married. They'd never even met until they were a few drinks into the evening. They need some time to figure things out, but Cooper needs to get back to South Carolina. Molly opts to go with him and look into an annulment there. In South Carolina, Molly finds herself falling for Cooper. He's equally smitten and wonders if she could be the woman to help him start anew. His last wife walked away from him without ever looking back, and he's risking his heart falling for another woman. Molly has her own secret. As she learns more about the Middleton family, she realizes that not even

Release Date - January 8, 2019 May I first say the cover is half the reason I took a closer look at Her One Mistake ? Some covers are clear misses. This one captured the atmosphere and chilling suspense perfectly. Charlotte knows her best friend Harriet never lets young Alice out of her sight. In fact, Harriet has never hired a babysitter. It's part of the reason Charlotte is so ecstatic when her friend finally decides to leave Alice with Charlotte for the day. There's a school fair that all of the kids will love, and they plan a full day of fun while Harriet takes a bookkeeping class. All is going great. As the kids head into a bouncy house, Charlotte takes a few seconds to check messages. Her kids come out, but Alice has vanished. A search of the school fields comes up empty. Charlotte has to tell her friend that Alice is missing. Losing your own child would be a horror you just can't imagine, but to lose a friend's child seems to be the worst of all. As sh

Release Date - December 20, 2018 Just Once is both thought-provoking and emotional. It seemed especially true to me given the experiences I've had over the past (almost) two years. I've watched my mom decline no thanks to Alzheimer's. I watched my dad's health decline due to the exact same health issue Charley has in this story. It's been more than 20 years since Frankie divorced her husband. Charley was the love of her life, but his affair with a much younger woman destroyed their marriage. Why he's back at her doorstep two decades later is beyond her. Worse, he has no recollection of his second wife and he doesn't realize 20 years. In his mind, he's still happily married to Frankie. Hannah has loved Charley for so long. It breaks her heart to learn that he has no recollection of her at all. He sees her as a delusional woman. She's definitely not his wife, no matter what she keeps saying. Hannah has always been that "other woman"

Release Date - January 9, 2019 Emma Rous' The Au Pair is touted to be a mix of V.C. Andrews and Kate Morton. I'm not familiar with Kate Morton, but I read many V.C. Andrews stories as a teen. I would agree with that thought. After her father's death, Seraphine Mayes is reeling. She comes across a photo in the family estate and wonders why only one of the infants is in the photo with the mom she never knew. She and her twin Danny were left behind when their mother jumped off a cliff shortly after their birth. After the suicide, the family's beloved au pair left for good. Seraphine's older brother never understood why. He lost his mother and his nanny in one day. Their father was the last link they had to the past. Seraphine decides to investigate and learn the truth about her mother's suicide and why only one baby is in the photo. Soon, she is receiving threatening messages. Someone doesn't want her to uncover the truth. There's a mix of good