An Open Book – December #openbook

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I’m joining with Carolyn Astfalk and Catholic Mom for An Open Book. Here’s what I’ve been reading.

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Coming from FQP December 8, 2020, Gus Busbi by Jim Sano!

Synopsis: What can a black teen from the gang-controlled South End projects of Boston and a seventy-year-old curmudgeonly Italian man, who has given up on life, have in common?  Jamiel Russell and Gus Busbi live in the same house but they’ve never met.  They both would have just assumed it stayed that way, but life often has more in store for us than we plan for.  This timely novel is the second story in the neighborhood of St. Francis Parish and shows the power of relationships, love, and forgiveness.

My review: I may be biased because I’m publishing this book, but it’s a relevant story about an unlikely friendship between a cranky elderly man and his tenant, a 17-year-old black teen. Highly recommend!

[image error] A Scarlet Cord by Deborah Raney

Amazon Synopsis: In the four years since her husband’s death, Melanie LaSalle’s life has been consumed with managing the family design firm and caring for her five-year-old daughter, Jerica. The possibility of a new relationship is the last thing on her mind. But when Melanie meets Joel Ellington, a new staff member at her church, she is instantly attracted to his warm spirit. As their friendship deepens, however, Melanie is troubled by something she can’t quite understand or explain. Joel past seems to be off-limits, even to Melanie. Because of her growing feelings for him, Melanie pushes her doubts away. But when Joel disappears, along with the contents of a church bank account, she can no longer ignore her suspicions.
Now, torn between her feelings for Joel and the evidence mounting against him, Melanie faces a heart-wrenching decision: to forget the man who gave her reason to love again or to trust Joel enough to give him her heart.
Exploring themes of the importance of truth, loyalty, and trust, A Scarlet Cord illustrates that who we truly are depends little on outward appearances and soley on our relationship with God, and on the fact that through faith in Him, we can find places of comfort, healing, and selfless love.

My review: On my To-Read shelf.

[image error] Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay

Amazon Synopsis: It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, nonstop, to the top. Once there it pauses for a few seconds, but the doors don’t open. Instead, the elevator begins to descend floor-by-floor. Then it plummets.

Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a random accident. . . . But on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And then Wednesday brings yet another tragic high-rise catastrophe. In only three days, one of the most vertical cities in the world—and the nation’s capital of media, finance and entertainment–is plunged into chaos.

Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. And it’s succeeding. Fearing for their lives, thousands of men and women working in offices across the city refuse to leave their homes. Commerce has slowed to a trickle. Emergency calls to the top floors of apartment towers go unanswered.

Who is behind this? Why are they doing it? Are these deadly acts of sabotage somehow connected to a fingerless body found on the High Line? Two seasoned New York detectives and a straight-shooting journalist race against time to uncover the truth before the city’s newest, and tallest, residential tower has its ribbon-cutting on Friday night.

With each diabolical twist, Linwood Barclay ratchets up the tension, building to a shattering finale. Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill you to the bone.

My review: I picked this paperback up at Costco. The story is excellent, but the writing style is mediocre, at best. While the story is excellent, it wasn’t compelling enough to keep reading until late in the novel. Also, a pet peeve of mine when reading other authors’ works is when they use words repetitively. In this case, it’s the verb LOOK… continuously. This author uses LOOK sometimes several times in the same paragraph. To me, that’s just sloppy. 3.5/5. Recommend if you can overLOOK the looks.

[image error] Free Fall by Jessica Barry

Amazon Synopsis: They say your daughter is dead. You know they’re wrong.

When her fiancé’s private plane crashes in the Colorado Rockies, everyone assumes Allison Carpenter is dead.

But Maggie, Allison’s mother back home in Owl Creek, Maine, refuses to believe them. Maggie knows her daughter – or she used to, anyway. For the past two years, the two women have been estranged, and while Maggie doesn’t know anything about Ally’s life now – not even why she was on a private plane to begin with – she still believes in her girl’s strength, and in their love for each other.

As Allison struggles across the treacherous mountain wilderness, Maggie embarks on a desperate search for answers about the world Allison has been involved in. What was she running from? And can Maggie uncover the truth in time to save her?

Told from the perspectives of a mother and daughter separated by distance but united by an unbreakable bond, Freefall is a heart-stopping, propulsive thriller about two tenacious women overcoming unimaginable obstacles to protect themselves and the ones they love.

My review: On my To Read Shelf.