Book and Product Reviews by Roundtable Reviews

 Release Date - August 3, 2021   After being horribly mistreated by a college boyfriend, Tara Park has lived by one rule. Quick flings are okay. Falling in love is off the table. She's busy running the family-owned brewery. When her best friend's new brother-in-law hits on Tara during the wedding, she isn't sure what to make of it. But Seth is about to move to Paris, so he could be a bit of fun for the next few weeks. Seth Kim enjoys his playboy image, even if it isn't exactly accurate. He's been burned before and is happy doing what he does. He can't help but notice Tara during the wedding. He knows he's soon leaving, so his dare seems perfect for a quick bit of fun. She has to let him take her on four dates of his choosing with obligations beyond having fun together for a few weeks. Neither of them expected that their feelings will start to turn towards something else. With Seth soon leaving, he's not sure he's ready for his new relationship to co

 Release Date - July 13, 2021 The Final Girl Support Group is classified as "Horror Suspense." I'm not sure I agreed with that. The main characters are all victims who have survived brutal attacks. These five women meet up in a support group that's designed to help them get on with their lives. These "Final Girls" all have their strengths and weaknesses, and they do what they can to get on with the day. Then one day, one of the women misses a meeting. That throws the group off kilter. When it appears someone knows about them and plans to eradicate them one by one, the women are prepared to fight like they've never had to fight before. The Final Girl Support Group pays homage to horror movies of the past. I found myself reminiscing about some of my favorite horror movies from the '80s. From Freddy to Jason to Michael, I've cheered on some horror movie villains over the years. This brought me back to those movies and experiences. That said, I n

Release Date - July 6, 2021 College professor Connor Nye finally has published his novel. The problem is he didn't create the original idea. It was a student's thesis, but she vanished two years ago. Connor made a few changes and released it as his own work. There's one sudden problem. The student who vanished is now back and determined that he owes her. She demands money that he's already spent. If he doesn't pay up, she'll expose him. Things go from bad to worse when one of the detectives reads his novel and realizes he knows detail about a murder that took place years ago. He becomes the prime suspect, and the only way he can clear his name is by researching the facts from his book and using information that to figure out the killer's true identity. Kill All Your Darlings is a gripping novel. I had the real killer figured out early, though. I didn't find it as difficult as others seemed to make it out to be. Was that a bad thing? No. It actually ma

 Release Date - July 6, 2021 As the pilot of a plane with 143 souls on board, you're given the impossible choice. Crash the plane or kill your family. Those are the choices Captain Bill Hoffman is given. He can either save his passengers and kill his wife and children or kill the plane full of people and save his family. He tells the terrorists he refuses to do either. Can he figure out how to save everyone in time? This book had me on the edge of my seat. It's sad and a little too close to reality at times. I'd say I loved it, but the ending lost me a little. It became a little too "All-American," but I don't want to give any spoilers.  Despite this, there were two things that made the book stand out. One was that you got to see the situation through the terrorist's viewpoint. I also loved that the details from the flight attendant's point of view were detailed and drew you in.  Right now, I've been saying that Hollywood seems to be in a slump a

 Release Date - July 8, 2021 Freddie never dreamed his mother would die when he was only a young boy or that his father and step-mother turn their backs on him and leave him in the street to fend for himself. Now homeless, Freddie does what he can to keep himself fed, sheltered, and clothed.  While walking down the street, he spies on a family leaving on a trip. The teen daughter catches his attention, and in the rush to get to the car, she leaves her journal stuck in the door. Freddie retrieves it and realizes the door is unlocked. He knows he shouldn't, but he uses their home for the three weeks that's marked on their calendar.  Violet is having troubles of her own. A three-week ski vacation isn't her dream trip. She'd rather have spent her school break with her friends. Her parents fight all of the time. Her brother stopped speaking, and no one is able to get him to speak again. Plus, she's being forced to move to a public school, which has her friends leaving

 Release Date - June 22, 2021 In The Sweetest Days , high school sweethearts Pete and Jackie have been through ups and downs. They found each other after college and have had a long marriage and raised a daughter together. She's an adult now working for a law firm in another city. As empty-nesters, they get hit with the biggest blow ever. Jackie has breast cancer and must undergo surgery. First, Pete's debut novel is coming out, so they return to their hometown for a book signing. Returning to the town they left years ago, Jackie faces coming to terms with their past, her cancer, and her dad's Alzheimer's. Everything takes a bigger turn when a person from Pete's past appears and the book signing and leaves Jackie with more questions than ever before, and the demand that it's time for Pete to tell the truth about the period when they broke up. I wish I could have loved their characters, but I didn't, and that made it difficult to enjoy this novel. Sometimes

 Release Date - June 15, 2021  One You know the books you pick up, start reading, and think to yourself "okay, so when is the suspense going to kick in..." Eventually, one of two things happens. You either get blown away or you keep reading hoping for that moment and it never arrives. For me, Shutter was one of those books where I kept reading thinking something amazing was going to shatter my perception of the characters. That never happened, and I feel that I lost a few hours that I'll never get back. Following her father's death, Betty Roux isn't sure what to do. It's over with her boyfriend. Her already fragile relationship with her mother is reaching a breaking point. With so much weighing on her shoulders, Betty leaves for New York City to stay with a friend until she figures things out. There, her friend and her friend's boyfriend introduced her to a brilliant filmmaker. Betty doesn't tell him she watched his indie film and loved it. She wants