Staff Picks: September 2022
LISA G’s PICKS: If You Tell by Gregg Olsen
GENRE: Nonfiction, True Crime
WHY SHE PICKED IT: This book grabs you from the opening three page introduction where we meet the three Knotek sisters, who upon smelling or seeing certain everyday items, (like bleach), experience a visceral reaction bringing back horific memories of their mother. I couldn't put the book down, nor could I stand to read it at night, which made it a read-in-a-day. This is a book you stay up for, and it stays with you.
THE SYNOPSIS: After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.
For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
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LISA S’s PICK: Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
GENRE: Literary Fiction
WHY SHE PICKED IT: Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite authors, and this book is another hit from her (and Jennifer Finney Boylan). It deals with a tough subject and manages to feel startlingly real, despite being a work of fiction. I love being able to feel a characters' feelings, learning about their lives, seeing it through their eyes. Lily’s story is beautiful, yet incredibly sad, so be prepared to cry as her story unfolds around you.
THE SYNOPSIS: Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.
And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .
Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.
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TORI’s PICK: Verity by Colleen Hoover
GENRE: Thriller
WHY SHE PICKED IT: I love a good CoHo book. She's an easy read that makes you feel a lot of emotions. Verity was very dark and twisty, hard to stomach sometimes. The first line sets the tone for the whole story, and I could not put the book down right from the first chapter. It starts out with “I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of the blood reaches me.”
THE SYNOPSIS: Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.
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