Shelf Indulgence Book Club

We were so lucky today to have J.T. Ellison  here with our book club to join us for our discussion of It's One Of Us. She was such a delight to talk with. You all won't want to miss this one when it's out  February 21.  We wanted to share the discussion with those that couldn't make it but may have loved the book as much as we did:  Watch the Video Note there are spoilers ahead if you've not finished the book. Enjoy!!

It's One of Us by J.T. Ellison got me. I love reading thrillers, and part of that is that, in the privacy of my own home where I can't possibly annoy anyone else, I like being smug. I like 'calling' what the twist will be, or who might have actually committed the crime, or guessing what happens next.  And at first, I thought I was doing that with this book. We get the 'killer perspective' right away, which I always enjoy (those killer perspective chapters have to be so much fun for authors to write, and it certainly feels like Ellison had fun with them in this book). Very quickly, I figured out who the killer was (enter smug face), and I thought I knew how the book was going to go. That is, until Ellison made it clear we were  supposed  to have figured out who the killer was, as she reveals them pretty early (exit smug face). I was delighted to be surprised by the twists in the book. I should have seen it coming, for sure, and yet, ...

We were so honored to get our hands on J.T. Ellison's book before it releases on February 21st, 2023. We can tell you it's one you certainly don't want to miss!! Here is our playlist to get you pumped up to read it:    Play on Spotify . ·   Possum Kingdom - Toadies ·   Don't Stand So Close To Me - The Police ·   Spark - Tori Amos ·   Hello Lionel Richie ·   Run For Your Life - Lionel Richie ·   You Don't Know My Name - Alicia Keys ·   So Hard - The Chicks ·   Hurts - The Head And The Heart ·   Crowded Table - The Highwomen ·   This Too Shall Pass - Ok Go ·   Sons And Daughters - Allman Brown ·   Jealousy, Jealousy - Olivia Rodrigo ·   Evermore - Taylor Swift, Bon Iver ·   Carried Me With You - Brandi Carlile ·   Head Above Water - Avril Lavigne ·   Visiting Hours - Ed Sheeran ·   Unwell - Matchbox Twenty · ...

    What inspired IT’S ONE OF US? Was there a particular moment or experience that sparked the idea for this story?   The germs of this story have been floating around in my brain for over a decade, sparked by one of those tragic-comedic life moments: we were in the middle of some rather grueling fertility treatments, and my husband was locked alone in a room in the clinic with a magazine and Sweet Home Alabama blasting out of the speakers (not his first choice). That evening, as we laughed at the absurdity of our situation, he told me this had the makings of a novel...but I’m a thriller writer, and fertility is more of a women’s fiction story. I didn’t know how to marry the two until recently. Enter the complicated forensics of sibling DNA, the moral ambiguity of the sperm donation industry, and a killer on the loose, and poof, the story came together.      If you had to choose 3 adjectives to describe IT’S ONE OF US, what would they be?   Intense. Em...

  Synopsis:  She saved his life. Now he‘ll never let her go. Detective Elise Sutton is drawn to cold cases. Each crime is a puzzle to solve, pulled from the past. Elise looks for cracks in the surface and has become an expert on how murderers slip up and give themselves away. She has dedicated her life to creating a sense of order, at work with her ex-marine partner; at home with her husband and two young daughters; and within, battling her own demons. Elise has everything under control, until one afternoon, when she walks into a department store and is forced to make a terrible choice: to save one life, she will have to take another. Elise is hailed as a hero, but she doesn’t feel like one. Steeped in guilt, and on a leave of absence from work, she’s numb, even to her husband and daughters, until she connects with Wade Austin, the tall man whose life she saved. But Elise soon realizes that he isn’t who he says he is. In fact, Wade Austin isn’t even his real name. The tall man...

We were so lucky today to have Wendy Walker  here with our book club to join us for our discussion of What Remains. She was such a delight to talk with. You all won't want to miss this one when it's out June 13th. We wanted to share the discussion with those that couldn't make it but may have loved the book as much as we did:  Watch the Video Note there are spoilers ahead if you've not finished the book. Enjoy!! 

              Curl up in your favorite reading spot and prepare to read this one all the way through. We start off with suspense, and we just stay there for the entirety of  What Remains , yet masterful storyteller Wendy Walker knows how to save us from fatigue, teasing the suspense like a symphony. Sometimes the horns blare, sometimes it’s just one violin strumming to your heartbeat, and you will find yourself turning pages and checking over your shoulder as you follow along with Walker’s twists and turns.             We immediately meet our main character, Elise, as she’s in that shock-trauma-denial response some of us get when something very bad is happening and we now have to figure out what our role of response needs to be. Do we freeze, do we run, do we stay and fight? Elise shakes with these thoughts as she unearths her training as a police officer. Maybe she’s not  ...

  We were so honored to get our hands on Wendy Walker's book before it releases on June 13th, 2023. We can tell you it's one you certainly don't want to miss!! Here is our playlist to get you pumped up to read it:    Play on Spotify . Sunglasses at Night – Corey HartI Want You to Want Me - Cheap Trick The More You Ignore Me - The Close SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT - COREY HART  One Way or Another – Blondie I Will Possess Your Heart – Death Cab for Cutie Every Breath You Take – The Police Turn Around, Look at Me – The Vogues Obsession - Animotion IN THE AIR TONIGHT - PHIL COLLINS Under Attack – ABBA Oblivion – Grimes Tear You Apart – She Wants Revenge Burn the Ships – For King & Country Back IN YOUR HEAD - TEGAN AND SARA HUMAN CRIME - PIXIES MARY ON A CROSS - GHOST 9 Crimes - Damien Rice

Summary: The next thrilling standalone novel by  USA Today  bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan . Everyone knows Lily Atwood—and that may be her biggest problem. The beloved television reporter has it all—fame, fortune, Emmys, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: #PerfectLily. To keep it, all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret. Her own. Lily has an anonymous source who feeds her story tips—but suddenly, the source begins telling Lily inside information about her own life. How does he—or she—know the truth? Lily understands that no one reveals a secret unless they have a reason. Now she’s terrified someone is determined to destroy her world—and with it, everyone and everything she holds dear. How much will she risk to keep her perfect life? Reading Guide

  We were so lucky today to have Hank Phillippi Ryan   here with our book club to join us for our discussion of Her Perfect Life. She was such a delight to talk with. We wanted to share the discussion with those that couldn't make it but may have loved the book as much as we did:  Watch the video 

We were so lucky today to have David Bell    here with our book club to join us for our discussion of Kill All Your Darlings. He was such a delight to talk with. We wanted to share the discussion with those that couldn't make it but may have loved the book as much as we did:    Watch the Video

Synopsis:   ABOUT  KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS A Most Anticipated Summer Read by SheReads * Motherly * Palm Beach Daily News * Frolic * Crime Reads and more!  “Fans of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s  The Plot  may want to check this one out.”– Publishers Weekly   “With hints of Patricia Highsmith’s  The Talented Mr. Ripley , this is a riveting thriller.”– Palm Beach Daily News   “Grabs you by the throat and never lets go…with a twist you’ll never see coming.”   –Liv Constantine, bestselling author of  The Last Mrs. Parrish “Sounds like  Wonder Boys  times Patricia Highsmith. Yes please!”–Crime Reads   When a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own—only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the  USA Today bestselling author of  The Request .    After years of struggling to write following the deaths of his wife a...

    You know you are talking to Grady Hendrix when questions like ‘how long would it take to die by broom stomping?’ or ‘could I really win in scarecrow combat?’ come up. Note: there is neither in Grady Hendrix’s newest book,   How to Sell a Haunted House , but why not ask Grady the big questions when you can?     This review is going to spoil the book, because there is just too much to talk about and I'm not great at subtlety, so if you haven’t read the book yet, wait until you can get your claws on it, read it while listening to some spooky music, and come back!   Right off the bat, we wanted to discuss Pupkin, the homicidal puppet featured in the book. Pupkin was inspired by Grady’s wife’s childhood doll, who is absolutely terrifying. He's been living with this doll all this time, and it explains so much. Grady has some Valentine’s cards with a conception of Pupkin, and I’m pretty bummed I don’t have a set of those cards to hand out next Valentine’s Day....

  How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix is the perfect mix of dark humor, creepiness, and suspense. I found myself flying through this book, I couldn’t put it down.  Louise unexpectedly must return home to Charleston after her parents tragically die in a car accident. She meets up with her estranged brother at their childhood home to get it ready to go on the market. Strange, skin crawling incidents begin to occur. Is Louise sleep deprived? Stressed? Or is this really happening?    Fans of The Poltergeist and Stephen King movies/books will love this story. I would love to see it made into a movie or scripted series!   - Bailey Sickeler What happens to a brother and sister who have a strained relationship when both parents die suddenly together?  Will their relationship become mended, or stay broken?  When the siblings find out from the reading of their parents will that one gets nothing except for haunted puppets that were created by their ...