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My husband's favorite feature on his new Tesla Model 3 is its ability to drive itself.  While the technology that makes this possible is, admittedly, pretty amazing, I find it a little ... terrifying.  My husband insists the car is always "learning," but its self-driving programming is far, far from perfect. When the vehicle lurches across the road for no reason or tries to exit the freeway unexpectedly, it's unnerving, to say the least. My husband may be fine with letting the car drive itself, but I am certainly not!

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For the MacAllister kids, summers always revolved around Camp Macaw, the business their parents have run for years.  Now that the elder MacAllisters have died, their children—now adults—are reuniting for the reading of their father's will and to figure out what to do with the prime property on which Camp Macaw sits.  With varying feelings about the camp, their parents, and each other, the five MacAllister siblings have different ideas about what to do with the land.  Prepared for some heavy debating, the kids are nevertheless shocked by the caveat their father gives in his will.  Before any of them can do anything with Camp Macaw they have to work together to solve a mystery.  

Twenty years ago, the bludgeoned body of 17-year-old Amanda Holmes was found in a rowboat at Camp Macaw.  The crime has never been solved.  Until it is, none of the MacAllisters can collect their inheritances.  

As the MacAllisters dig into their collective past, they will unearth long-kept secrets that will either bring them together or tear them apart forever.

I love a good secrets-from-the-past-haunting-the-present story, so the plot summary of I'll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie instantly caught my attention.  Unfortunately, the novel's execution doesn't quite live up to the promise of its tantalizing premise.  The mystery is compelling enough, but the characters are almost wholly unlikable and the plot is predictable enough that I guessed the culprit almost from the beginning.  Plus, the story is seriously depressing.  Overall, then, I didn't end up loving this one.  It ended up being just okay for me.

(Readalikes:  A hundred titles should be coming to mind, but I'm drawing a blank.  Help?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, violence, depictions of illegal drug use, and sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of I'll Never Tell from the generous folks at Lake Union Publishing via those at NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

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Losing her mother at birth and growing up in a succession of foster homes has left 30-year-old Harper Taylor with a desperate longing for a family to call her own.  Wealthy Oliver Jackson, her mentor and business partner, has been like a father to her, but Oliver's real children see her only as an interloping gold digger.  While Harper tends to the pen shell beds that are the center of her research and burgeoning career, she's pursuing her goal of creating the family she's always wanted.  Not only is she "adopting" a frozen embryo, hoping to bear a child of her own, but she's also submitted her DNA to a testing company in the hopes of discovering birth relatives. 

Almost as soon as Harper receives news of a DNA match, a series of disturbing events happen—Oliver is attacked while diving, a stranger tries to assault Harper, and Harper's newfound half-sister narrowly escapes an attempted abduction.  Coincidence?  No way.  The more Harper communicates with her half-sister, the more disturbing information they uncover about their family.  Is someone trying to eliminate living members to keep secrets from the past from coming to light?  Terrified for her future, Harper reluctantly partners with Oliver's son, Ridge, to solve the mystery of her past.  Can the duo get to the bottom of what's going on?  Will Harper ever have a chance at finding love and a family or will she be the next Taylor woman to die a mysterious death?

Let me say this upfront:  I'm not a big fan of romantic suspense.  I am a *little* obsessed with genealogy, though, so the premise of Strands of Truth by Colleen Coble definitely caught my attention.  Secrets-of-the-past-haunting-the-present is one of my favorite story tropes as well, so I figured I'd give this one a try.  While I found the book disappointing overall, there are several elements I appreciate about Strands of Truth besides those I already mentioned:  (1) the fact that it's clean and faith-promoting without being preachy, (2) the featuring of honorable, God-fearing characters who come off as moral and devoted, not fanatical or weird, and (3) the inclusion of some interesting/unique subjects like pen shell harvesting and sea silk weaving (although neither gets enough attention in the story).  Unfortunately, I also found the characters to be flat and personality-less, the action to be melodramatic and far-fetched, and the prose to be lifeless and dull.  I did, however, care enough about Harper to read her story to the end.  And, while the finale feels cliché and silly, I didn't see the novel's Big Reveal coming.  So, there's that.  All in all, though, Strands of Truth turned out to be just an average read for me.  

P.S.  I'm notoriously picky about books and apparently I'm in the minority in my opinion on Strands of Truth.  Check out the book's stellar reviews on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Goodreads for more viewpoints.  Also, be sure to follow along on the novel's blog tour (see links below).  

(Readalikes:  I don't read much romantic suspense, so nothing's really coming to mind.  Suggestions?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence and scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of Strands of Truth from the generous folks at Thomas Nelson via those at Celebrate Lit in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

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Follow along on Strands of Truth's blog tour, hosted by Celebrate Lit:

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Put-in-Bay is a quaint village on an island in the middle of Lake Erie.  Even with a population that balloons during the summer tourist season, it's a peaceful town full of neighborly folks who do their best to get along.  Mostly.  Bea Cartwright—a brash Manhattanite who recently moved to Put-in-Bay to open a posh B&B—has had it up to here with her neighbors.  Chandra Morrissey won't silence the annoying hippie music she plays at all hours or keep her cat out of Bea's pansies.  Bea's other neighbor, winery owner Kate Wilder, won't quit whining about the traffic problems caused by constant deliveries to the B&B, complaints which are costing Bea time and money.  The women have brought their squabbles before the town magistrate so many times that he'll do anything to end the fighting.  Even something totally unconventional.

Sentenced to start a book club and meet for a weekly discussion for one year, the trio reluctantly accepts their punishment.  Almost as soon as they begin reading Murder on the Orient Express, life begins to imitate art a little too close to home.  Peter Chan, the genial owner of a new Chinese restaurant in town, is stabbed to death.  Horrified, the neighbors turned book club members turned amateur detectives vow to get to the bottom of the grisly murder.  In order to do so, they'll have to do something radical—get along.  Can they put aside their differences long enough to figure out what happened to Chan?  Or will they end up killing each other first?

Mayhem at the Orient Express, the first installment in Kylie Logan's League of Literary Ladies mystery series, is just as fun as it sounds.  Far-fetched?  Totally.  Still, it's a light-hearted novel with a colorful setting, likable characters, and a fun bookish theme.  It's nothing super original or memorable, but I enjoyed Mayhem at the Orient Express enough to pick up the next book in the series.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of the Ethnic Eats series by Kylie Logan and the Noodle Shop Mystery series by Vivien Chien)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), mild sexual innuendo, and violence

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find