Thursday, July 3, 2025

Spotlight of Typewriter Beach by Meg Waite Clayton


PHOTO SOURCE:

TYPORAMA
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TYPEWRITER BEACH
MEG WAITE CLAYTON
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ALL INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS TAKEN FROM THE HARPER COLLINS WEBPAGE AND THE AUTHOR'S GOODREADS PAGE.
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Set in Hollywood and Carmel-by-the-Sea, an unforgettable story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star — from the internationally bestselling author of The Postmistress of Paris and The Last Train to London.

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July 1

Harper

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PRAISE FOR TYPEWRITER BEACH:

'Nothing beats Grace Kelly on the Riviera, as seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. But Clayton’s portrait of an aspiring Hitchcock blonde has intrigue to spare . . . . Fans of Hollywood’s golden age will fall in love.' — Publishers Weekly (starred review)


'Clayton delivers another top-tier dual-timeline historical. Thought-provoking and timely, it’s sure to be a big summer hit.' — Library Journal (starred review)


 “5 Challah rating—Typewriter Beach is a wonderfully woven story with unexpected twists and connections. Written from alternating perspectives, it redefines family.” — Jewish Voice and Opinion


“Meg Waite Clayton pulls the reader into the story with nuanced, believable characters and prose that tells ‘just enough’ to keep reading until the end . . . . Typewriter Beach is not just a captivating story about Hollywood in the 50’s and 60’s or another examination of what family is about, it is also a portrait of the strength and importance of friendship and an intense look at the effect that the sowing of distrust can have on society.” — The Gloss Book Club


“This riveting historical brings McCarthy-era Hollywood to life . . . . I loved this story for its propulsive plot and riveting period details, most especially the numerous lovely portrayals of people finding love and family even when they’d given up hope of it happening for them in an unkind world.” — Modern Mrs Darcy


'Nothing beats Grace Kelly on the Riviera, as seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. But Clayton’s portrait of an aspiring Hitchcock blonde has intrigue to spare. Fledgling star Isabella Giori’s rise is cut short when she gets pregnant, after which she makes a fateful friendship with a blacklisted screenwriter while the McCarthy hearings rage on. Fans of Hollywood’s golden age will fall in love.' — Publishers Weekly, 'Summer Reads'


PRAISE TAKEN FROM HARPER COLLINS' WEBPAGE

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ABOUT TYPEWRITER BEACH:

1957. Isabella Giori is ten months into a standard seven-year studio contract when she auditions with Hitchcock. Just weeks later, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a tiny Carmel cottage.

Léon Chazan, next door, is annoyed as hell when Iz interrupts his work on yet another screenplay he won’t be able to sell, because he’s been blacklisted. But soon, they’re in his roadster, speeding down the fog-shrouded Big Sur coast.

2018. Twenty-six-year-old screenwriter Gemma Chazan, in Carmel to sell her grandfather’s cottage, finds a hidden safe full of secrets—raising questions about who the screenwriter known simply as Chazan really was, and whether she can live up to his name.

In graceful prose and with an intimate understanding of human nature, Meg Waite Clayton captures the joys and frustrations of being a writer, being a woman, being a star, and being in love. Typewriter Beach is the story of two women separated by generations—a tale of ideas and ideals, passion and persistence, creativity, politics, and family.
TAKEN FROM HARPER COLLINS' WEBPAGE

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Meg Waite Clayton is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of 9 novels, including the forthcoming TYPEWRITER BEACH (Harper, July 1) — on Publishers Weekly’s list of 12 fiction “Hot Books of Summer,” which they call, in a starred review, “irresistible… Readers will be riveted.”

Her THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS was a Good Morning America Buzz pick, New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Costco Book Club pick, People Magazine, IndieNext booksellers, LoanStars librarians, USA Today, Book of the Month Club and Amazon Editors’ pick and Publishers Weekly notable book the San Francisco Chronicle calls "gripping … an evocative love story layered with heroism and intrigue — the film ‘Casablanca’ if Rick had an artsy bent … powerful.”

Her National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON was praised by Kristin Hannah as “An absolutely fascinating, beautifully rendered story of love, loss, and heroism … A glowing portrait of women rising up against impossible odds.”

Prior novels include the #1 Amazon fiction bestseller BEAUTIFUL EXILES, the Langum-Prize honored national bestseller THE RACE FOR PARIS- and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly's "25 Essential Best Friend Novels" of all time. Her THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT was a finalist for the Bellwether Prize (now PEN/Bellwether Prize).

Her novels have been published in 24 languages throughout the world.

She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio. She has participated in the Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman sponsored The Writers Lab for screenwriting, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com

AUTHOR BIO AND PHOTO TAKEN FROM HER GOODREADS WEBPAGE
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FOLLOW THE AUTHOR:

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

Nick Ratcliffe is a man who is evil and cunning and uses so many different names it is a miracle he remembers to use the correct name the person knows him by.

He knows how to get women interested in him while he is only interested in their money.


He finds out a woman's husband who owned quite a few restaurants has passed.  He poses as an old friend of her husband's and sends a package to her with something he says belonged to her husband.


His charm pulls her in just as he pulls in many women.


We then meet Martha married to Al along with a few other women who have a connection to him.


Both Nick and Al always have some business trip taking them away from their families.


And what a trip they both are on.


DON’T LET HIM IN will have your mind spinning and whiplashing back and forth after each introduction of a character and a new scheme of Nick’s. 


You will not where to turn and not know how Nick pulls it all off.


Lisa Jewell has outdone herself with this one even though it takes a bit to figure who is who and and how it all fits together.


If you love to hate a character, this book is for you.  


He is despicable and has a ready lie for anyone who questions him and anything that might threaten his charade.


You won't be able to stop reading.  5/5


Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book.  All opinions are my own.



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Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox

A lavish, killer party…one you would kill to get invited to.

Who was invited?

Almost everyone in the city adults and children included.


Everyone couldn’t wait to get inside the mansion that supposedly is haunted.


And who got inside are a lot of people who could potentially be a killer.


We exclusively have an ex-wife who hates the current wife, a nanny, who says something evil is in this house, an ex-friend of the current wife, and the best friend of the birthday girl.


And...this nanny has secrets and an agenda of her own and there is Ethan - what a creep.


What happens once the candles get blown out?


Someone falls to their death.


A lot of unlikeable characters in this pull-you-in who done it with malice and jealousy that eeks through almost every character.


And what are Dani the new wife and Mikayla a teenage party guest keeping hidden.


Ms. Cox keeps you in suspense about who fell and who did it until the very jaw-dropping end.


Psychological thriller fans need to add it to your reading list.


I enjoyed this evasive, tense read.  And the ending - wow!! 5/5


Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book.  All opinions are my own.



Monday, June 30, 2025

Spotlight of Grave Birds by Dana Elmendorf


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GRAVE BIRDS
DANA ELMENDORF
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ALL INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS COURTESY OF SOPHIE JAMES | PUBLICIST | HARPER COLLINS | HANOVER SQUARE PRESS | MIRA | PARK ROW BOOKS
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Hollis Sutherland has an uncanny gift that allows her to see grave birds, manifestations of the dead’s unfinished business.


When a mysterious bachelor wanders into her small town, bizarre events begin to plague its wealthiest citizens and Hollis must work against these evil forces to save the town and herself, for fans of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.

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July 1, 2025

Hardcover

Harlequin Trade Publishing / MIRA

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ABOUT GRAVE BIRDS:

Grave birds haunt the cemeteries of Hawthorne, South Carolina, where Spanish moss drips from the trees and Southern charm hides ugly lies.

Hollis Sutherland never knew these unique birds existed, not until she died and was brought back to life.

The ghostly birds are manifestations of the dead’s unfinished business, and they know Hollis and her uncanny gift can set them free.

When a mysterious bachelor wanders into the small town, bizarre events begin to plague its wealthiest citizens—blood drips from dogwood blossoms, flocks of birds crash into houses, fire tornadoes descend from the sky.

Hollis knows these are the omens her grandfather warned about, announcing the devil’s return.

But despite Cain Landry’s eerie presence and the plague that has followed him, his handsome face and wicked charm win over the townsfolk. Even Hollis falls under his spell as they grow closer.

That is, until lies about the town’s past start to surface.

The grave birds begin to show Hollis the dead’s ugly deeds from some twenty-five years ago and the horrible things people did to gain their wealth.

Hollis can’t decide if Cain is some immortal hand of God, there to expose their sins, or if he’s a devil there to ruin them all. Either way, she’s determined to save her town and the people in it, whatever it takes.

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EXCERPT OF GRAVE BIRDS:

PROLOGUE


Sometimes the dead have unfinished business. “You see it, don’t you, Hollis?” Mr. Royce Gentry’s deep, rumbling voice stamped the air with white puffs. He squatted low next to my chair and nodded toward my grandaddy’s grave where his coffin was being lowered into the ground. The men, Grandaddy’s dearest friends, slowly filled in the dirt, one mournful shovelful at a time.


Cold frosted the morning dew into a thin white crust that covered the grass. There, off to the side, was a little bluebird, tethered to the earth by an invisible thread. It twittered a helpless, frantic sound as it desperately flapped, struggling to get loose. Delicate and transparent, it looked as if it was made of colored air. Muted, so the hues didn’t quite punch through. It was a pitiful sight, the poor thing trying so hard to get back up in the sky.


A ghost bird, I had first thought when I saw it. Until I looked around and found there were many, many more in the cemetery. 


It was a grave bird.


I swallowed hard and pretended I didn’t know what Mr. Gentry was talking about. “No, sir. I don’t see nothing,” I said as I continued to stare at the phantom.


He gave me a scrutinizing look. He saw the lie in my eyes. But he let it go, for the now anyways.


I was only eleven; I didn’t want to admit I was different. But I knew I was whether I liked it or not and would always be.


I had never so much as uttered a hello to Mr. Gentry until five days before. He’s the one who pulled me from the freezing river and brought me back to life. Not by means of magic or a miracle, but with science: medical resuscitation for thirty-two minutes.


But a miracle happened all the same.


The adults stood around my grandaddy’s grave, murmuring their condolences to my granny and my momma. It was that awkward moment after a funeral is finished where everyone seemed lost about what to do next, but we all knew we were going back to Granny’s house to a slew of casseroles and desserts that would barely get eaten. Two of my distant cousins, bored from the bother of my grandfather dying, kicked around a fallen pine cone over an even more distant relative’s nearby grave. Mrs. Yancey, our neighbor up the road, had just taken my twin brothers home since they were squalling something terrible, confused as to why we would trap Granddaddy in the ground. I watched as Mr. Gentry talked closely to Mrs. Belmont’s son, who was visiting from New York City, but his flirting, normally an immersed habit, was on autopilot as he watched me watching the grave bird. Could Mr. Gentry see it, too?


Mr. Gentry was a Southern gentleman, who put a great deal of care into perfecting the standard. His suits were custom-made from a tailor in Charleston, who drove up just to measure him,

then hand-delivered the pieces when they were finished. It didn’t matter your standing in society, Mr. Gentry treated the most common among us as his equal.


He lived a lush lifestyle, filled with grand parties attended by foreign dignitaries, congressmen and anyone powerful he could gain favor with. Several times a year he traveled across Europe,

something his job as a foreign consultant required of him. His friends, just as colorful as him, lived life to the fullest. A dedicated husband once, until his wife found interest in someone half her age. His two grown daughters, who didn’t respect his choice in who to love, eventually wanted nothing to do with him. I think it left a big hole in his heart and what drew him to help our family out.


In the weeks after the funeral, Mr. Gentry began to fill the empty space in our lives where Grandaddy once stood. It started with an offer to cover the funeral costs, a gesture my granny refused at first, but it was money we didn’t have and desperately needed. Then it was the crooked porch he insisted on fixing. Rolled up his starched white sleeves and did it himself, like hard labor was something he was used to doing. The henhouse fence got mended next. A tire on the tractor that hadn’t run in a year was replaced. Then our bellies grew accustomed to feeling full on fine meals he swore were simply leftovers from his latest dinner party. They were going to be tossed, and we were doing him a favor by taking them off his hands. Beef Wellington, with its buttery crust and tender meat center, so savory I’d melt in my chair from the sheer bliss of a single bite. It felt sacrilegious to eat lobster bisque from Granny’s cracked crockery, but that didn’t stop me from slurping up every last creamy bite. And nothing yanked me out of the bed faster than the sweet buttermilk and vanilla scent of beignets. If a stomach could smile, I’m sure mine did. And often, whenever Mr. Gentry needed his fridge clear.


There’s a bond that comes with somebody saving your life. Our friendship became something built on the purest of love. Where he had stepped into my life and filled the important role my grandaddy had once represented, I helped him heal the ache from being denied the chance to be a loving father.


A few months after my grandfather was put in the ground, Uncle Royce—who he eventually became—took me back out to the church’s cemetery. He sat me down on the graveyard bench, a place you go when you want to sit a spell with the dead. The mound of dirt from my grandfather’s grave had rounded from the heavy rain, slowly melting back into the earth.


He told me what I already knew, that I would be different now after the accident. He knew because the same thing had happened to him.


“You and I share something special,” Uncle Royce started his story. We were two people who had been clinically dead then brought back to life. Lazarus syndrome he said they called

it. Only months ago for me. Near forty years for him.


He had died for twelve minutes. Knocked plum out of his shoes when a car hit him at twenty-two

years old. He says he stood over himself, barefoot, watching them work on his body. He thought he was going to ascend into the bright light but instead was sucked back into his body and woke up a few days later in the hospital.


A chill shivered up my spine: it was almost exactly what I had experienced.


I had felt myself float up and away from the river; I was no longer cold and wet. Sad or scared. An aura of peace enveloped me—or rather became me.


It had seemed like I hovered there forever in that state of infinite understanding. A warmth emanated from above, a light formed from all that came before me.


From the bright light my grandfather’s voice reached out. His gentle words, simply known and not heard, urged me to go back. It wasn’t my time yet. My place was still at home.


In a swooping rush, I was vacuumed back inside myself. I spat up a gush of water. My lungs burned. My body was freezing cold again. And Mr. Gentry was smiling down on me saying, “That a girl. Get it all out.” Far off down the road an ambulance cried that it was coming.


“You know what I think they are?” Uncle Royce said now, pointing to all the birds who were trapped, defeated, most of the color leached from their feathers. I didn’t say anything, still not

wanting to confirm that he was right, that I could see them. I just listened. “I think they’re a kind of representation—a manifestation— of the dead’s unresolved issues.” I didn’t know what

he meant by that, but it sounded heavy and important, and that felt about right.


I could see it, in a way. Granddaddy had been mad at me before we went off the bridge. I’d stolen a gold-colored haircomb, complete with rhinestones across its curved top, as pretty as a

peacock’s feathers, from Roy’s Drugstore. When Granddaddy found out, he had yanked me up by the arm, angry that the preacher’s granddaughter would shame her family in such a manner.


He was scolding on the truck ride home when I started crying about not having pretty things like the other girls at school. He paused his lecture for a minute, and I could tell this bothered him; I could see the way it saddened his eyes. He was the preacher at a poor country church where shoes were often scuffed, clothes mended instead of replaced, and a good meal was something scarce. Family and Jesus were what was important. I found I felt small next to all the wealthy girls who attended the big, fancy church with their new shoes, their starched dresses, the silk ribbons in their hair. It made my poverty stand out, and I didn’t like it.


Then Granddaddy said envy was one of the seven deadly sins, and I was setting myself up for a lifetime of grief by wanting others to love me for what I had instead of who I was. Shame welled over me, whether he intended it to or not. 


I was crying something fierce, but I knew he was right.


But hard lessons aren’t easy to accept. Instead of apologizing or even letting him know I understood, I told him I hated him. Screamed it as loud as my young lungs could. Couldn’t say who it shocked more, him or me. I wished those words back into my mouth as soon as they were out.


But it was too late.


A construction truck crossed the road on our right, not waiting long enough for other cars or paying enough attention. It smashed into the side of our truck and pushed us over the railing

and off the bridge, down into the Greenie River.


“You should tell him you forgive him,” Uncle Royce said, pointing to the mound of earth under which my grandaddy now lay.


“Forgive him?” Clearly, he didn’t understand. I was the one who’d stolen something, who’d made my own grandaddy so ashamed, so disappointed. I was the one who’d spewed words of hate in our last moments together.


I had survived, and my grandaddy was dead.


If I hadn’t have stolen that comb, he never would have come to town to fetch me. 


He never would have died.


“He doesn’t want you to think it’s your fault. He feels bad he scolded you so severely over stealing that haircomb.”


I turned my head slowly toward Uncle Royce. He couldn’t have known about the comb: no one did. “How do you know about that?” I said on whispered breath, almost too faint to hear.


He looked me straight in the eye. “Because his grave bird

showed me.”

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Excerpted from GRAVE BIRDS by Dana Elmendorf.

Copyright © 2025 by Dana Elmendorf.

Published by MIRA, an imprint of HarperCollins.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Photo Credit:  Holly Ireland

Dana Elmendorf was born and raised in small town in Tennessee.

She now lives in Southern California with her husband, two boys and two dogs.

When she isn’t exercising, she can be found geeking out with Mother Nature.

After four years of college and an assortment of jobs, she wrote a contemporary YA novel and an adult fantasy.

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BUY LINKS:


HarperCollins


BookShop

   

Barnes & Noble


Amazon

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