Solitude of Wolverines

 

A Solitude of Wolverines- Alice Henderson

William Morrow

Release Date: October 27, 2020

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: While studying wolverines on a wildlife sanctuary in Montana, biologist Alex Carter is run off the road and threatened by locals determined to force her off the land.

Undeterred in her mission to help save this threatened species, Alex tracks wolverines on foot and by cameras positioned in remote regions of the preserve. But when she reviews the photos, she discovers disturbing images of an animal of a different kind: a severely injured man seemingly lost and wandering in the wilds.

After searches for the unknown man come up empty, local law enforcement is strangely set on dismissing the case altogether, raising Alex’s suspicions. Then another invasive predator trespasses onto the preserve. The hunter turns out to be another human—and the prey is the wildlife biologist herself. Alex realizes too late that she has seen too much—she's stumbled onto a far-reaching illegal operation and now has become the biggest threat.

In this wild and dangerous landscape, Alex’s life depends on staying one step ahead—using all she knows about the animal world and what it takes to win the brutal battle for survival.

_____________________________________________________________________

Anyone who thinks protecting endangered species and their habitats is for the meek and mild will change their minds within the first few pages of Alice Henderson's thriller A Solitude of Wolverines.  Wildlife biologist Alex Carter needs a change of pace from her current life: the city of Boston, a spoiled and obnoxious boyfriend who's "taking a break" from their relationship, and the trauma of nearly being killed at a wildlife preserve press conference.  So when a land trust calls asking her to fill in for their biologist while he's dealing with a family emergency she jumps at a wonderful opportunity.  Months in relative solitude at an abandoned ski resort surveying the preserve and looking for wolverines sounds like just what she needs.  The small town locals are against the land trust and Alex quickly finds herself the town's least favorite person.  But is it more than a rich cattle rancher wanting the land for himself? Stories of poachers, hotel murderers, and Sasquatch quickly become the least of Alex's problems as she stumbles across an operation with some very sick plans for the preserve, and no problem removing Alex from their path by any means necessary.

A Solitude of Wolverines is an edge-of-your-seat thriller written in a fast-paced, descriptive style that plays like a movie inside your head.  Author Alice Henderson does a brilliant job taking her personal experiences doing wildlife surveys and her obvious passion for protecting endangered species and their habitats to create her heroine Alex Carter, filling her with a love of nature and the drive to try and save it that can't be faked. The environment around her, beautiful, lonely, often harsh and unforgiving, becomes as much of a character as any of the people and Henderson is brilliant at putting the reader right alongside Alex all the way. Alex is a problem-solver; a planner; and the sort of kick-ass, enterprising, resourceful person you would want on your side in any situation.  In short, she's rather like a wolverine's kindred spirit, although she doesn't see herself that way.  Her character development throughout the book is well done and I look forward to seeing where the author takes her next.

I freely admit that I picked up this book because of the title (I am an unapologetic lover of all members of the weasel family so when they show up on the cover of a book or in the title I'm going to read it) but I stayed with it for the story.  Fascinating, suspenseful, with moments of peace and beauty followed by explosive, nail-biting drama, this book had it all. Twists with characters you don't see coming, and a secondary plot twist (both unexpected and brilliant) that promises to stay with Alex many books into the future.  I'm not giving anything away to say that we do get to see wolverines and I cheered when we did.  People who don't know anything about this large member of the weasel family will get to learn about them without feeling preached to and Henderson puts a nice bibliography in the back to direct readers to excellent sources for learning more about wolverines and how to help them.

Fans of authors like Nevada Barr and C. J. Box will enjoy this new voice on the wilderness thriller scene.  A Solitude of Wolverines is non-stop action, suspense, and surprises and you won't be able to put it down once you start!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Almost Just Friends

Almost Just Friends- Jill Shalvis
William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: January 21, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚


Synopsis: Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

______________________________________________________________

Piper Manning has had to be an adult since she was 13, raising her two siblings and trying to keep them all together.  Now, just when she thinks she can have a life of her own, they're back home with their own dark secrets and a new neighbor has moved in with demons of his own.  Cam's learned too late what it means to be present in someone's life and he's not going to make the same mistakes again.  He's just not sure he can convince Piper that as similar as their pasts are, their futures can be even better.

Piper is a great heroine.  She's sassy, snarky, and hanging on to sanity by her fingernails.  She tries to control everything in her life with bullet point journals and office supplies (another reason I lover her- someone who gets my "inner office supply ho") and is afraid to let go, be surprised, and enjoy life.  She's terrified of letting people in, because that's when they hurt you the most.  And she's terrified of loving anyone because none of the people she loves have ever put her first.  Brother and sister Gavin and Winnie may be younger than Piper, but have managed to have life crisis at the same time and come home.  Because despite all the fighting Piper, and Wildstone, are home.  They may be trying to get themselves together, but by not sharing that with Piper, she feels like she has to continue worrying about them and putting her life on hold.

Cam is a Coast Guard, and does his best in high stress, no emotion situations.  When his younger brother dies, Cam goes home to their father and finds a life he never expected.  A life that includes Piper faster than he could have anticipated.  I loved the chemistry between them- both the slow burn and the firestorm varieties.  They manage to be perfect compliments to each other in ways they didn't know they needed, and they understand each other in ways that terrify them.  Neither one is perfect, and they (and Gavin and Winnie) make plenty of mistakes along the way, but they personify what making family work can be all about when you have love.

With characters dealing (or not) with the deaths of loved ones there is definitely some soul searching and tear-jerker moments in Almost Just Friends, but Shalvis mixes the serious and the emotional with just the right amount of humor and sarcasm to keep things going.  All the characters in Friends are deep, flawed, and completely human and relatable- no surface characters here.  Almost Just Friends was a great read, full of heart, and not to be missed!   

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Trace of Deceit

A Trace of Deceit- Karen Odden
William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: December 17, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: A young painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder... 

Edwin is dead. That’s what Inspector Matthew Hallam of Scotland Yard tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. While the news is shocking, Annabel can’t say it’s wholly unexpected, given Edwin’s past as a dissolute risk-taker and art forger, although he swore he’d reformed. After years spent blaming his reckless behavior for their parents’ deaths, Annabel is now faced with the question of who murdered him—because Edwin’s death was both violent and deliberate. A valuable French painting he’d been restoring for an auction house is missing from his studio: find the painting, find the murderer. But the owner of the artwork claims it was destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago.

As a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and as Edwin’s closest relative, Annabel makes the case that she is crucial to Matthew’s investigation. But in their search for the painting, Matthew and Annabel trace a path of deceit and viciousness that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of politics, corruption, and secrets someone will kill to keep.  

__________________________________________________________________

Annabel Rowe has been slowly working to reconcile with her brother Edwin, but one day she arrives at his flat to discover two detectives there with the news that Edwin is dead.  Murdered, with a valuable painting he had been cleaning now missing.  Annabel needs to understand what happened to her brother to gain some closure on his death (and life) and she convinces Inspector Matthew Hallam that her knowledge of the art world and Edwin will prove valuable to discovering his murderer.  But what they discover is the darkness behind the art world, where secrets fester and can prove worth killing for.

A Trace of Deceit is an engrossing Victorian mystery with a strong central figure in Annabel.  A student at the Slade Art School, she is trying to find her place in the masculine world of painting.  She sees herself as an observer instead of a participant in the world and holds herself apart from fellow students and her older brother, trying to prevent herself from being hurt.  But Annabel is only fooling herself- she's a caring, compassionate woman who feels deeply.  Edwin's death hits her hard, but she finds strength in working with Matthew to discover the killer.  She doesn't shy away from hard truths, although she might not think of them as automatically as a more cynical person would.  And there are plenty of hard truths about Edwin that she has to accept in order to understand his murder.

Where Odden's A Dangerous Duet brought readers into intimate contact with the city of London, A Trace of Deceit focuses on its people.  Like Annabel herself, we focus on how they interact, what they show, and what they hide.  We see through the eyes of a painter the light and the dark that make up the world around Annabel and Matthew.  Odden uses this not only to give the reader brilliant descriptions of the lives around our heroes, but to plant red herrings and clues with equal strength, forcing the reader to continually adjust their view of what seems, at first, to be a simple murder.  

Engrossing from start to finish, A Trace of Deceit will keep readers guessing from start to finish, in a book impossible to put down until the last stone is unturned and the last secret is revealed.  Full of heart and empathy, Odden explores how individuals deal with personal and family tragedies, betrayals, and secrets.  A must read for fans of Sherry Thomas, Anne Perry, and Victorian mystery lovers everywhere.

Pride, Prejudice, & Other Flavors

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors- Somali Dev
William Morrow/Harper Collins
Release Date: May 7, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.

Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:

·       Never trust an outsider

·       Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations

·       And never, ever, defy your family

Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.

Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.

As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts. But before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with...

A family trying to build home in a new land.

A man who has never felt at home anywhere.

And a choice to be made between the two.

_____________________________________________________________

Loosely based on Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice, Somali Dev's Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors centers around Dr. Trisha Raje, a talented neurosurgeon from a powerful Indian family, and DJ Caine, a chef specializing in Indian/French fusion foods who dropped everything and moved to California when he discovered his little sister had a terminal diagnosis of a brain tumor.  When Trisha says she can operate on Emma and save her life- but not her sight- DJ should be thrilled.  And he is. Except he hates the arrogant and privileged Dr. Raje, Emma refuses to have the surgery, and the only way he can earn enough to pay the bills is by catering a series of major events- for Trisha's family.  Both have pasts they need to deal with if they can have futures, but pain from the past doesn't let go easily.

Perhaps even more than Austen's original, a fitting alternative title for this book could be First Impressions.  Trisha makes a poor first impression on DJ without even realizing it, and everything she does after that only makes her worse in his eyes.  As is typical for doctors, Trisha is proud of how good she is at her work- occasionally almost to the point of arrogance.  It especially seems that way because while she's great with brains, she's not as good with people.  She claims to have emotional blindness, and never really feels comfortable interacting with anyone on a social level. What she really seems to have is a lack of confidence in herself for anything outside of her work.  Having trusted her roommate in college only to have that roommate harm Trisha's older brother means she's less likely to trust her judgment when it comes to people.  She has spent her entire life since then making herself pay for her mistake, and mourning the fact that it destroyed her relationship with her family.

DJ Caine is a loving older brother and a genius in the kitchen.  He knows the value of family- and little sister Emma is all the family he has left.  He also knows the importance of good impressions and getting along with others no matter how he feels.  DJ prides himself on his calm and friendly attitude when inside he's a mass of anger and unresolved issues from a hard childhood, and carries a chip on his shoulder the size of a continent but doesn't seem to be aware of it.  One poor encounter with Trisha and he allows all his anger and frustration to focus on her: a woman he sees as arrogant, entitled, and oblivious to others in her perfect ivory tower with her perfect family and no problems ever.

I found Trisha and DJ to be characters I sympathized with but at the same time couldn't always like.  DJ in particular I had a hard time liking for his harsh and judgmental attitude towards Trisha, although he seems to give everyone else plenty of chances.  Both characters were compelling, and complicated, but sometimes Dev's writing of them seemed inconsistent. For example, Trisha's comment that DJ overheard is one that jarringly doesn't sound at all like her, and she never remembers saying it so we never find out what she was thinking when she said it.  The secondary characters felt, for the most part, rather 2-dimensional.  They were there to make things complicated for the main characters and occasionally impart words of wisdom, but felt uneven to me.  Trisha's family claims they understand her and her awkwardness with people, but then never seem to take that into consideration when dealing with her.  It's hard to tell if they say and do things to make her feel bad because that's how she interprets them or because that's what is happening. 

Even when I wasn't always sure I liked the characters, Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors was a book I had a hard time putting down.  Fast-paced and complicated, Somali Dev mixes together flavors of a variety of cultures and individuals to create a compelling, vibrant story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review