Make It Out Alive by Allison Brennan

Over a period of time, three missing newlywed couples who all stayed at the same hotel were found brutally beaten and dead 

Why that hotel and why those couples?

The police team arrived for the investigation after the third couple disappeared, arrested an employee, put him in custody, but then two of the team members who posed as a newlywed couple to set a trap disappeared.

What is going on?  This employee has to have an accomplice to throw the police off since he was in custody.

We meet the killer and his accomplice and learn about their lives before all of this happened.  They liked to play deadly games and are very unlikable, evil, sneaky, and revengeful.

Oh you will despise them as they continue to foil the police as they always have done and carry out their evil deeds.

You won’t be able to put the book down. 5/5

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

The Fair Weather Friend by Jessie Garcia

We meet Faith the most popular weather forecaster in Detroit.

Faith is so popular she has a fan club and also a stalker. 

We learn about Faith's childhood and college years where she had a bad childhood and stole and lied during her college years.

One night Faith doesn't show up after her dinner break to do the forecast.  Where could she be?  Faith is always reliable.

She is found strangled in her car the next morning. So many people could be the murderer. 

Faith was popular with the public, but there were jealous co-workers, friends old and new who didn't trust her,  and a sister who wasn't reliable and who had a big hold over Faith.

Her death brings out some secrets never known to anyone.

THE FAIR WEATHER FRIEND has many characters to  keep straight a s well as remembering their connection to Faith.

Just who is the murderer?  

So many possibilities, but oh wait until you see the twist.  

An enjoyable read which was a cozy mystery for me.  5/5

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

Spotlight of A Great Act of Love by Heather Rose

PHOTO SOURCE:

TYPORAMA
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A GREAT ACT OF LOVE

HEATHER ROSE

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ALL INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS COURTESY OF AN E-MAIL FROM ANNA SKRABACZ | ASSOCIATE MARKETING DIRECTOR | SUMMIT BOOKS AND SIMON AND SCHUSTER'S WEB PAGE.

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A young woman with a mysterious past searches for her father—who has committed an unspeakable crime—in a novel set among the champagne vines of 19th century Australia. 

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January 27, 2026

Summit Books

Simon & Schuster

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PRAISE FOR A GREAT ACT OF LOVE:

“Rose writes in a simple but elegant style, crafting empathetic characters that guarantee reader engagement….An absorbing rumination on family, happiness, and love.”—Booklist

“Earnestly researched…absorbing…[a] deep dive into Tasmanian history.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Sumptuous....This is a treat for historical fiction fans.” —Publishers Weekly

“Like a fine vintage of champagne, this novel is complex, layered, and delicious. The intoxicating mix of family drama, historical details, and strong female characters makes this the perfect pairing for book clubs.” —Kate MacIntosh, author of The Champagne Letters

“Rippling with rich, textural prose, A Great Act of Love thrums with secrets which reverberate through generations and across continents. It is a sensuous, captivating story of love and adventure, of new horizons, sweeping from the deepest corners of the world to the wildest territories of the heart.” —Lucy Steeds, bestselling author of the Women’s Prize longlisted The Artist

"Cracks along with a masterly gusto." —The Age

"This novel is exquisite." —Goodreading

"Don’t be fooled. Heather Rose is not a writer; she is a magician. Her magic power? Being able to transport readers back in time to faraway lands." —Australian Women's Weekly

"While A Great Act of Love is, in one sense, an intimate story about a daughter searching for her father, it also expands outward – to the French Revolution, global commerce routes, the slave trade, and the violence of the British Empire." —Sydney Morning Herald

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ABOUT A GREAT ACT OF LOVE:

Van Diemen’s Land, 1839. A young woman of means arrives in Hobart, Australia, with a boy in her care. 

Leasing an old cottage next to an abandoned vineyard, Caroline Douglas must navigate an insular colony of exiles and opportunists and invent a new life on this island of extreme seasons and wild beauty.

But Caroline is carrying a secret of such magnitude that it has led her to cross the world. It will take all she is made of to bring it into the light.

A Great Act of Love is a spellbinding story that soars from the French Revolution to London and New York on an epic voyage to Tasmania.

Here is a story of a family with champagne in their blood, and an enterprising woman determined to rewrite their legacy.

The lives of Caroline, her father, and the residents of the island will collide in devastating and profound ways.

Immensely beautiful with unforgettable characters, this heartrending family saga chronicles a father and daughter’s journey back to each other and captures the enduring power of familial love.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Photograph © Peter Mathew

Heather Rose is an award-winning and bestselling Australian author.

Her novels have won numerous prizes including the Stella Prize, the Christina Stead Prize, the Margaret Scott Prize and the ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year.

Her work has been published internationally and translated into numerous languages.

She lives in Tasmania.

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Website

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Spotlight of The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude

PHOTO SOURCE:

TYPORAMA
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THE TYPEWRITER AND THE GUILLOTINE

MARK BRAUDE

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ALL INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS COURTESY OF MARIS TASAKA OF GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING AND THE PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE.

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• This is true story of Janet Flanner, a journalist who shaped the voice of The New Yorker as we know it today through her reporting on France leading into WWII.
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• Interspersed through her story is that of Eugen Weidmann, a German con man and serial killer.
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• Their stories intertwine when Flanner reports on Weidmann's upcoming execution.

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January 20, 2026

Grand Central Publishing

Nonfiction

Biography & Autobiography

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PRAISE FOR THE TYPEWRITER AND THE GUILLOTINE:

"Part biography, part true crime narrative, this book presents something rare:  a novel story interwar Paris.  Rarely does one not want to turh ty epage...a significant work of nonfiction." - Kirkus Reviews

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ABOUT THE TYPEWRITER AND THE GUILLOTINE:

The “irresistible” (Susan Orlean) untold story of a trailblazing Paris correspondent for The New Yorker, who sounded the alarm about the rise of fascism in Europe while becoming enmeshed in the sensational case of a German serial killer stalking the streets of the French capital on the eve of WWII.

In 1925, the Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular ‘Letter from Paris’ for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She’d come to Paris to with dreams of writing about “Beauty with a Capital B.” Her employer, self-consciously apolitical, sought only breezy reports on French art and culture. But as she woke to the frightening signs of rising extremism, economic turmoil, and widespread discontent in Europe, Flanner ignored her editor’s directives, reinventing herself, her assignment, and The New Yorker in the process.

While working tirelessly to alert American readers to the dangers of the Third Reich, Flanner became gripped by the disturbing crimes of a man who embodied all of the darkness she was being forced to confront. Eugen Weidmann, a German con-man and murderer, and the last man to be publicly executed in France—mere weeks before the outbreak of WWII. Flanner covered his crimes, capture, and highly politicized trial, seeing the case as a metaphor for understanding the tumultuous years through which she’d just passed and to prepare herself for the dangers to come.

The Typewriter and The Guillotine offers the personal and professional coming-of-age story of an indomitable journalist set against a glamorous, high-stakes backdrop—a tightly-coiled drama full of romance and intrigue. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mark Braude is the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris, a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and a New Yorker Best Book of the Year.

He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, a Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris, and an NEH Public Scholar.

He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

His books have been translated into seven languages.

He lives in Vancouver with his wife and their two daughters.

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SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram

Goodreads

Website

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