Tag: Mother-Daughter Murder Night

January 2025 QCL (Quad Cities Live) Book Club Selections

- Brittany Leave a comment

In December, Morgan and I were unable to meet due to circumstances outside of our control. The title that we were slated to read was The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah in honor of Thank a Soldier Week the week of Christmas. Below is a short synopsis of the book provided by Goodreads!

The year is 1974, Ernt Allbright decides to uproot his family to live off the grid in America’s last true frontier, Alaska. Once in Alaska, the family is taken in by generous locals but as the days grow shorter, Ernt’s mental health declines leaving his family to have to fend for themselves.

Morgan and I have a very exciting lineup of book options for January. Below are our 4 options including our winning title: The Last Love Note! Feel free to check them out from Davenport Public Library! 

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (In Honor of Global Family Day on January 1st)  

Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.

A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls , but with murder.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy   coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always depend on each other.– provided by Goodreads

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle (In Honor of Science Fiction Day on January 2nd)

Dani has it all, a great apartment, a great boyfriend, and a job interview for her dream position. Everything is going according to plan until she wakes up five years in the future in an unfamiliar apartment with an unfamiliar man who is not her new fiancé. What went wrong? Can she fix the future?

I really liked this book but was not prepared for the devastating turn of events. If you read this, please go gently, it is beautifully written but something that hit me hard.– personal review

 

 

 

The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll (In Honor of Morgan loving a Thriller) 

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE. As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve. But Ani has a secret. There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything. With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that’s bigger than it first appears. The question will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?– provided by our Goodreads

 

 

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey (In Honor of National Handwriting Day on January 23rd)

You may never stop loving the one you lost. But you can still find love again.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who’s determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?

The Last Love Note will make listeners laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.– provided by Goodreads

If you are interested in any of these titles, or have read them, I want to talk about them! Please consider leaving a comment!  

Want to converse with other QCL Book Club followers? Consider joining our Goodreads Group!  

You can also access our recorded interviews by visiting the QCL Book Club Page! 

If you missed the segment, you can watch it here!

September’s Celebrity Book Club Picks

- Stephanie Leave a comment

It’s a new month which means that Jenna Bush Hager and Reese Witherspoon have picked new books for their book clubs! Reminder that if you join Simply Held, these titles will automatically be put on hold for you.

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Jenna Bush Hager has selected Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood for her September pick.

Curious what Amazing Grace Adams is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled—the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away.

Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.

This title is also available as a Libby eBook.

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Reese Witherspoon has selected Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon for her September pick.

Curious what Mother-Daughter Murder Night is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of: her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power.

With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always resisted: depend on each other.

Join Simply Held to have Oprah, Jenna, and Reese’s adult selections automatically put on hold for you!