Shelf Indulgence Book Club

Mother vs Daughter. Crazy vs Crazier. Who will win in the end?  Darling Rose Gold is a psychological thriller about an extremely dark and twisted mother-daughter relationship.  5 years ago, 23-year-old Rose Gold Watt’s mother, Patty, was convicted for aggravated child abuse. Patty, who has Munchausen by Proxy, abused her daughter for years. Under her mother’s care, Rose Gold became violently ill, suffering from malnutrition and a host of other ailments as a result of her mother's abuse.  Patty served 5 years in prison, and with her release date looming, Rose Gold wants to reconcile. However, Rose Gold’s suffering has taken its toll. While she has recovered physically, mentally she is far from healed. Mother and daughter seem to try to repair their relationship, but underneath the surface of their reconciliation, they are playing an underhanded game of cat and mouse which results in pure insanity! I found the subject matter of this book to be fascinating--I couldn’t put it...

Hopeful, heart-wrenching, and bittersweet! The Return sweeps you away to the small town of New Bern, North Carolina (Nicholas Sparks actual home town!!) and into the life of Trevor Benson, a young doctor and wounded war vet who inadvertently stumbles across a mystery and unexpectedly falls in love when he heads to his late grandfather’s home to regroup, refocus, heal and prepare to move on. The characterization is well-developed with a wonderful cast of characters that are multilayered, strong, secretive, and endearing. It's been a long time since he dove into a mysterious plot and I think he handled it well. The plot is a tender tale full of life, love, heartache, healing, kindness, community, the intricacies of beekeeping, and a sliver of mystique. Overall, The Return is an absorbing, charming, incredibly touching tale with a real undercurrent of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, and grief. I read it in one singular sitting. Even though in classic Sparks style it had me a little tear...

The Silent Wife   is book number ten of The Will Trent series—a series that follows special agent Will Trent and others from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, GBI.  It's important to note, that it’s not necessary to read through The Will Trent series beforehand. Most of our book club had not, to my knowledge. In fact, Slaughter’s storytelling lays out the details you need to know throughout every book. The Silent Wife  is a disturbing story that will satisfy crime, police procedural, and thriller lovers everywhere. Told in both the past through Jeffrey Tolliver’s (one of the main characters in the Grant County series) point of view (POV), and in the present through the characters of Will Trent, Sara Linton, Faith Mitchell, and Amanda Wagner, Slaughter blends this story together seamlessly.  It’s evident that Slaughter takes her time to research everything she writes about, down to the last detail. I’m amazed at how thorough she is in her storytelling of violence a...