In the by Isabel Allende

A blizzard in Brooklyn and a car accident is what is needed to bring three lives together and turn them around for the better.  

Richard owns a Brooklyn brownstone with a lower floor rented to Lucia.  Lucia stays in during the blizzard, but Richard forces himself to head for the store.  On his way, he rear-ends a Lexus that Evelyn is driving. 

This small accident creates the three to need more from each other than could be guessed until the story relays the details of their lives.

Richard obtained an academic position at NYU after his regrettable life in Chile.  In Chili, he started with a wife and two children.  Shortly after moving to the states, he no longer has children or a wife.  He sank into a rigid life of work and little socialization.

Lucia moves from Chile when Richard offers her a teaching job and a place to rent.  Her former life had also been full of family losses and humanitarian grievances.  She feels empty and alone.

Evelyn immigrates to the US from Guatemala seeking asylum and a job for a young woman barely speaking English.  

The accident proves more than just a fender bender.  Evelyn has her boss's car.  In the car is evidence of a horrible crime.  

Evelyn, Richard, and Lucia grouped together to plan how to hide someone else's crime to save Evelyn.

During their quest, each learn and begin to love one another. Richard and Lucia find a need to be together, and Evelyn becomes a pseudo daughter to them.   

Their fragile lives are reconstructed out of love.

Happy reading,

Dawn Kunda

The Ex by Alafair Burke

 You can't always know everyone, their personalities, their hidden side, especially in a city as big as New York.

Olivia Randall, a public defender, receives a call from the daughter of a former boyfriend.  It was twenty years ago that she dumped him, and she still feels guilty.  Since then, Jack Harris had gotten married and had a daughter, which led to a happy life.  Not long ago, a fifteen year-old boy shot and killed his wife.  

Jack can't imagine being interested in another woman until he sees a replica of Olivia sitting in the park reading his favorite book.  He and his friends go on a hunt to find out who this woman is.  At a scheduled meeting with the dream-girl, three people are shot to death.

This is why Jack's daughter calls.  She begs Olivia to represent Jack because he's the most likely shooter.

Olivia can't believe Jack would kill anyone for any reason until a few loose strings appear in his defense.  Proving him innocent will assuage her guilt, but can she?

Her boss repeatedly tells Olivia she is wrong and the evidence points to Jack's guilt.  Long hours gathering evidence, talking with Jack and her boss, leaves Olivia wondering what love really is.  

It's a curvy path to Jack's trial of the triple homicide, and is the real shooter free?  Is Jack the man Olivia remembers?  Or did she move on and find love with another man?

Happy reading,

Dawn

Hello, Transcriber by Hannah Morrissey

 Not only does Hazel Greenlee listen and type the crimes of Black Harbor for the police force, but she somehow gets involved.  As an aspiring author, this may help her out of the hole of a life she feels surrounds her.  

Being privy to the details, she gets tangled up with a crime and seduced by a detective.   Only one of these is willingly.

Nikolai Kole is a veteran detective with a past.  He fights crime unconventionally and loves women of many types.  When he encounters the new transcriber, he reveals secrets to Hazel.

Hazel doesn't reciprocate her secrets.  Yet, the chemistry is binding between them. One thing she pounces on is knowing a man involved in the selling of drugs to kids.  

Kole brings her on a covert mission to take down the drug dealer who's also a murderer.  

Through many close contact situations, a type of love festers and becomes physical in backseats and dark rooms.  

Is it a love that can outrun the hidden truths Hazel holds, and the forced deception of Kole?  Can their lives endure the danger and crime enveloping the dark city?

A contemporary, spooky love story darkened by crime.  Keep the lights on and keep reading.

Happy reading,

Dawn

   

 

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

How can love rip a family apart?  Karin Slaughter has that twist in her novel.
Lydia and Claire, two sisters left to figure out their lives after their oldest sister disappears and their parents fall into their own despair, end up with a problem that bring them back together after twenty years.
The problem is still their missing sister.  
Lydia is my favorite character.  She's the one that fought hard to correct her life, the addictions, the search for something right in her life, and dealing with the estrangement of her family. Her boyfriend of ten years doesn't sound so enticing on the outside, past criminal convictions, but loves her and really loves her!
Claire acts too perfect, the rich husband, has everything material, and doesn't see the truth.
That is, until it all unravels.  Claire's husband is murdered, evidence of her missing sister surfaces along with letters her father wrote to the missing sister (never delivered, of course), and letters from her mother to Lydia, also never delivered.
The proof of the sister's disappearance definitely points to one person, but who else is involved?  Local police?  The FBI? family members?  This is where the real love breaks free of the lies and repairs tattered relationships!

Happy reading,
Dawn