Ever since the tragic death of her toddler, Ellie has been spiraling.  She's drinking too much, making reckless decisions, and acting out against her billionaire father.  One night, after too many cocktails, she literally stumbles into a handsome, successful real estate developer named Martin Cresswell-Smith.  His interest and gentle kindness are exactly what Ellie needs.  After a whirlwind courtship, the two are married and headed to Martin's native Australia, where they're heading up a multi-million dollar venture to build a luxury resort at Jarrawarra Bay, New South Wales.

Ellie's excited for this much-needed fresh start, but it's not long before her fairy tale life Down Under starts to dissolve.  Not everything about Martin and his building project is what it seems.  When the developer is brutally murdered, suspicion naturally turns to his unstable wife.  Did Ellie kill her new husband?  If so, why?  

Everyone in Jarrawarra Bay thinks Ellie murdered Martin.  Detective Senior Constable Lozza Bianchi isn't so sure.  She saw evidence of Ellie's fear of Martin firsthand.  Didn't she?  Can the widow be believed or is Ellie Cresswell-Smith manipulating everyone around her, including the police?  Lozza's already on thin ice with the department, but she will not stop digging until she knows what really happened to Martin.  The truth is far more sinister than even she imagined...

I'm always down for a compelling psychological thriller and In the Deep by Loreth Anne White sounded like just the ticket.  Was it?  There's no doubt that this is an engrossing novel.  It kept me on an uneven keel throughout, making me wonder who was telling the truth, who was hiding something, and who I could trust.  While I saw some of the plot twists coming, a couple caught me by surprise.  I like a mystery/thriller that keeps me guessing—and this one did.  Ish.  However, In the Deep is dark, violent, and disturbing.  It gave me more than one nightmare.  Not gonna lie, I kept asking myself, "Why am I reading this?"  It's compelling, that's why!  Bad dreams be darned, I wanted to find out what really happened between Ellie and Martin.  Still, the characters are an unlikable bunch who pretty much get exactly what they deserve.  Lozza is the only one I cared about, so I was disappointed that she didn't get more page time.  On the whole, then, I give this book props for being an unputdownable page-turner.  It loses points (at least for me) for being full of unlikable characters and for being too dark and depressing.  If this book is any indication, White's style is just too much for me.  I'll be giving her books a wide berth in future.    

(Readalikes:  I've seen White compared to Robert Dugoni, but I've only read one book by each of them so I'm not sure how apt the comparison is.  You?)

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a Spring cleaning freebie, but let's be honest here...I hate cleaning.  I'd much rather put my feet up and read a book on the couch than dust, scrub, vacuum, or sweep.  In keeping with this theme, I'm going to avoid today's prompt and spring forward a week and do next week's Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR instead.  Since there are so many great-sounding books coming out in the next few months, I'm going to focus my list on upcoming releases.  As usual, I'll do it in two parts because, you know how it is when you want to read ALL the things.

If you want to join in the TTT fun (and you do), head on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details. 

1.  In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo (available April 6, 2021)—This contemporary novel features three Army wives who bond through a book club, which is later disbanded because of a shocking betrayal among its members.  When one of the former friends sends out a plea for help, the others come to her rescue.  As they work through old hurts, they'll have to decide whether or not their broken friendship is worth salvaging.

2.  All the Children Are Home by Patry Francis (available April 13, 2021)—Set in the 1950s and 60s, this historical novel revolves around a set of foster parents who reluctantly takes in an indigenous girl who has been horribly abused.  The child, who knows next to nothing about herself or her Native American roots, just might be the family's salvation.

3.  Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia (available March 30, 2021)—This family saga features family history, secrets, and fraught mother/daughter relationships, all with a Cuban flair. 

4.  A Trail of Lies by Kylie Logan (available May 11, 2021)—I enjoy the Jazz Ramsey mystery series, so I'm excited to read this third installment.  An ARC of A Trail of Lies just landed on my doorstep, so it's next on my list.  The story features more dead bodies for Jazz's canine to find and more murders for her to solve.

5.  The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray (available March 30, 2021)—This historical novel has three timelines, all which center around a French castle and the women who defend it.

6.  A Million Reasons Why by Jessica Strawser (available March 23, 2021)—You all know I love a good DNA/family history story and this one sounds compelling.  It's about two sisters who find each other through a mail-in DNA test.  The shocking discovery changes both of their lives. 

7.  The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale (available April 27, 2021)—I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm still a sucker for a haunting story.  This "true" account sounds like fun, even if it seems more appropriate for Fall than Spring.

8.  Last Gate of the Emperor by Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen (available May 4, 2021)—I need an Afrofuturist book for a reading challenge prompt and this middle grade sci-fi/fantasy adventure sounds fun.  

9.  The Vines by Shelley Nolden (available March 23, 2021)—For several decades, North Brother Island, New York, was used for quarantining patients with infectious diseases like tuberculosis and small pox.  Long abandoned, but still covered in crumbling medical buildings, it's off-limits to visitors. When an urban explorer sneaks onto the land and spies a beautiful woman hiding in the ghost town, he becomes obsessed with learning her story.

10.  The Kew Garden Girls by Posy Lovell (available April 20, 2021)—With World War I in full swing, able-bodied male workers are scarce in London.  Determined to do their part on the home front, Ivy and Louisa enlist, becoming laborers at the Royal Botanic Gardens.  Not everyone is pleased to have women doing men's jobs, however, and problems quickly ensue.

There you go, ten upcoming releases I'm looking forward to reading.  Which new titles are you interested in?  What's on your Spring TBR list?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!  

Everything has changed since Annie Lee Fitzgerald's father died two months ago.  Not only did the 11-year-old and her mom have to move to a tiny apartment in a rundown neighborhood, but now that her mom is working full-time as a housekeeper, Annie Lee is on her own a lot more.  Despite cutting costs in every possible way, they are still barely making ends meet.  The constant struggle just adds to the overwhelming grief that already looms between them.

Despite her father's absence, there are things that haven't changed.  The bathroom still smells like his aftershave, the radio plays his favorite music, there's stubble in the sink every morning, and the coffeemaker sometimes brews his preferred brand of coffee—even though no one buys it anymore.  Annie Lee's getting used to these strange things, so she's not all that surprised when she notices more magic while she's listening to an old man playing the piano at the mall.  It seems like a sign, maybe even from her dead father, that Annie Lee needs to go back to the lessons she abandoned long ago.  When she learns about a piano competition that pays out a significant prize, she persuades the elderly pianist to teach her.

As Annie Lee attends her clandestine piano lessons, loses herself in books, and gets to know a new friend, she starts to process her grief and even feel a little bit of hope.  When an emergency threatens to blow everything apart, however, she has to make a choice that could ruin everything.

Beginners Welcome, a new middle grade novel by Cindy Baldwin, covers a lot of territory, so it's tough to describe its plot.  In fact, the story's more episodic than tightly told, which makes it seem unfocused at time.  Nevertheless, it features warm, likable characters; an engaging storyline; and solid prose.  While magical realism, even lightly sprinkled, isn't always my favorite, it worked for me in this case, giving the story an extra punch to make it more memorable.  I also appreciate that although this novel deals with some tough subjects, it remains upbeat and hopeful throughout.  While I didn't end up absolutely loving this heartfelt novel, I did enjoy it.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Where the Watermelons Grow by Cindy Baldwin as well as other middle grade grief novels, although no specific titles are coming to mind.)

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Beginners Welcome from the generous folks at HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

Later nicknamed "The Southern Titanic," the luxury steamship Pulaski left Charleston, South Carolina, bound for Baltimore on June 14, 1838.  Her passengers were wealthy, well-heeled, and wholly unaware of the tragedy they were about to be a part of.  When a boiler explosion on board destroyed the ship that night, the vessel sunk in just 45 minutes, leaving about 128 people dead.  The others were stranded on the water, forced to endure hunger, thirst, exposure, terror, and illness before being rescued.  Only 59 people survived.  In January 2018, 180 years after Pulaski sank, divers found the wreckage of the doomed ship.

Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan (available March 9) brings the event to life in a dual-timeline novel that explores the sinking and its aftermath in an intriguing blend of fact and fiction.  The story features Everly Winthrop, a modern-day history professor who is asked to help curate an exhibit of Pulaski artifacts for a Savannah museum.  Still reeling from the death of her best friend a year ago, she finds purpose in studying the famous ship and her elite passengers.  She's especially intrigued by the story of a large family of passengers—some members died in the tragedy, some survived, and others' fates remain unknown.  Everly wants to change that.  As she investigates in the present, the reader taken back to 1838 where they're introduced to Lilly Forsyth, an abused aristocratic wife who's forced to make impossible decisions when Pulaski sinks, giving her an unexpected chance at freedom.  What does Lilly choose?  And how does her life change because of it?  What happens to her after the Pulaski sinks?

I had never heard of the Pulaski, so I learned a lot about the ship and its tragic end from Surviving Savannah.  The dual-timeline format is one I always enjoy.  As per usual, I found myself more invested in the past story than in the present one, although both had enough meat to keep me interested.  Even though the historical characters didn't get enough development, I still found them to be a likable, sympathetic lot.  Same goes for the present cast, although I didn't love Everly, who's just too victim-y for me.  I'm all for a sympathy-inducing lead, but I get impatient with too much wallowing—a character has to be at least a little bit selfless for me to really care about them.  Plot-wise, Surviving Savannah moves along at a steady pace, which kept me turning pages.  As for its storytelling, Callahan's prose gets heavy-handed at times (Everly's dialogue, for instance, often feels too formal and flowery). Still, I enjoyed this novel for its colorful historical backdrop, its engrossing story, its intriguing characters, and its capable (if at times overblown) writing. If you like dual-timeline novels about little-known historical events, definitely check this one out.