Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Published: January 11, 2022

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Available Formats: Digital, Audio, and Hardback

Source: NetGalley

My Review: Wow! I stayed up way too late to finish this last night. The ending blew me away. I am still digesting it.

I admit when I first started I wasn’t sure. It flips between 2010 and 1965 in almost every other chapter. The 2010 storyline at first felt unnecessary but I was wrong. It was so needed.

Some readers may take offense to words used and situations that occur but one must remember it was 1965 in the South. Not the South’s most beautiful moment in history. It happened and we must read to learn how not to repeat.

Definitely, a must-read for 2022.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed above are entirely my own.

NetGalley: A community’s past sins rise to the surface in New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain’s The Last House on the Street when two women, a generation apart, find themselves bound by tragedy and an unsolved, decades-old mystery.

1965

Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to a bank manager, Ellie isn’t as committed to her expected future as her family believes. She’s chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill.

2010

Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident—a fact known to a mysterious woman who warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals leaving threatening notes. And Kayla’s neighbor Ellie Hockley is harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth–no matter what that truth may bring to light–in Diane Chamberlain’s riveting, powerful novel about the search for justice.

Publisher: Kensington Books

Published: February 22, 2022

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Available Formats: Digital, Audiobook, and Mass Market Paperback

My Review: I just love this series. It is set in fictional South Lick, Indiana outside of the real Bloomington, Indiana. The author does a great job of adding in real places. Bloomington is one of my favorite places to visit. A beautiful college town.

In book 10, we find Robbie and Abe settling into married life, and during a local fireworks display, an elderly lady is murdered. The deceased was the late-in-life love interest of the local policeman Buck’s dad. The investigation centers around the Stitch in Bitch knitting club that has been around for decades.

I enjoyed getting to know more about Buck and his family. He is a character. You can’t help but love him.

The murder plot was well spaced out and interesting. I figured out who but not the why. That was a shock. I didn’t quite follow Danna’s (Robbie’s employee) story. I keep wondering what I missed.

Recipes are included at the end of the book and I for one am excited for warmer weather to get here to try them out.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed above are entirely my own.

NetGalley: In Agatha Award-winning author Maddie Day’s tenth Country Store Mystery, Pans “N Pancakes owner and part-time sleuth Robbie Jordan must untangle the clues to find the killer of a knitting circle member…

In South Lick, Indiana, fine foods and classic cookware can be found at Robbie Jordan’s Pans ’N Pancakes. Unfortunately, her country store also seems to stock up on murder…

Robbie and her new husband Abe O’Neill are enjoying a summer evening in the park with fellow townsfolk excited for some Friday night fireworks. In attendance are senior residents from Jupiter Springs Assisted Living including Grant Bird, father to South Lick’s very own Police Lieutenant Buck Bird. Despite his blindness, Grant is a member of his group home’s knitting circle, spending quality time with some lovely ladies.

But when the light show ends, one of the knitters who sat with Grant is found dead, a puncture wound in her neck. The poor woman’s death echoes that of Buck’s mother and Grant’s wife—an unsolved homicide. To help find the killer, Robbie’s going to have to untangle the knotty relationships deep in the victim’s past…