Waiting On Wednesday: Let Me Die In His Footsteps (Lori Roy)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at 

Breaking the Spine

and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected publication: June 2nd 2015 

Publisher: Dutton

Author: Lori Roy

In the spellbinding and suspenseful Let Me Die in His Footsteps, Edgar Award–winner Lori Roy wrests from a Southern town the secrets of two families touched by an evil that has passed between generations.

On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory. Everyone knows Hollerans don’t go near Baines, not since Joseph Carl was buried two decades before, but, armed with a silver-handled flashlight, Annie runs through her family’s lavender fields toward the well on the Baines’ place. At the stroke of midnight, she gazes into the water in search of her future. Not finding what she had hoped for, she turns from the well and when the body she sees there in the moonlight is discovered come morning, Annie will have much to explain and a past to account for.
It was 1936, and there were seven Baine boys. That year, Annie’s aunt, Juna Crowley, with her black eyes and her long blond hair, came of age. Before Juna, Joseph Carl had been the best of all the Baine brothers. But then he looked into Juna’s eyes and they made him do things that cost innocent people their lives. Sheriff Irlene Fulkerson saw justice served—or did she?

As the lavender harvest approaches and she comes of age as Aunt Juna did in her own time, Annie’s dread mounts. Juna will come home now, to finish what she started. If Annie is to save herself, her family, and this small Kentucky town, she must prepare for Juna’s return, and the revelation of what really happened all those years ago....

What book are you looking forward to in 2015??

Dutton/Penguin ARC Review: Lost & Found (Brooke Davis)

Hardcover, 320 pages
Expected publication: January 22nd 2015 

Publisher: Dutton Adult/Penguin Group

Author: Brooke Davis

Millie Bird is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back.
Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule. Until the day Agatha spies a little girl across the street.
Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven years old and once typed love letters with his fingers on to his wife’s skin. He sits in a nursing home, knowing that somehow he must find a way for life to begin again. In a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes.
Together, Millie, Agatha and Karl set out to find Millie’s mum. Along the way, they will discover that the young can be wise, that old age is not the same as death, and that breaking the rules once in a while might just be the key to a happy life. 

Pre-Order Links:

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Penguin 

Brooke Davis grew up in Bellbrae, Victoria, and attempted to write her first novel when she was ten years old. It was a genre-busting foray into the inner workings of a young teenage girl's mind--Anne of Green Gables meets The Baby-Sitters Club meets Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret--titled Summer Sadness. Fortunately it remains unfinished. Once she left her teenage years behind, she completed her honors degree in writing at the University of Canberra, winning the Allen & Unwin Prize for Prose Fiction, the Verendah Prose Prize, and the University Medal. Brooke recently completed her PhD in creative writng at Curtin University in Wester Australia and, while there, she was awarded the 2009 Bobbie Cullen Memorial Award for Women Writers, the 2009 AAWP Prize for Best Postgraduate Paper,and the 2011 Postgraduate Queensland Writing Prize. She loves to sell other people's books, and is sometimes allowed to do that at two very nice bookshops: one in Perth and one in Torquay. Lost & Found is her first proper novel. 

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An irresistible and heartfelt debut novel about the wisdom of the very young, the mischief of the very old, and the magic that happens along the way.

Millie Bird is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back.

Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule. Until the day Agatha spies a little girl across the street.

Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven years old and once typed love letters with his fingers on to his wife’s skin. He sits in a nursing home, knowing that somehow he must find a way for life to begin again. In a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes. 

Lost & Found is a very powerful and emotional debut novel about how life effects both the young and the old. The three main characters come together to try and help Millie find her mother. Millie's mother abandoned her at a store at the age of seven. Millie meets Karl first and as they begin their journey they come across Agatha. 

"And now, as she looks out the window from her mum and dad's bedroom, scanning the street for the police car, she locks eyes with the old lady across the road. She, too, is looking out the window from her house. She, too, Millie can tell, has lost someone. Millie doesn't know how she can tell, but she just can. I'm sorry for your loss, Millie mouths at her, slowly and deliberately, her forehead on the glass of the window. The old lady stares at her. And then pulls the curtains shut."

I love how all of the characters are so unique in their own ways and yet so similar in others. The three personalities of the main characters is what makes this book so special. Each character has their own quirkiness that is added to the story which makes this book absolutely phenomenal. 

Lost & Found is a emotional and inspiring story about friendship and discovering the things & people in life that really matter. Each character's story is touching and unique. There were moments in the story where I would laugh out loud and then turn the page and cry. Lost & Found was a perfect mix of emotions and truth. The story reflects so many perspectives on the difference between life and death as well as young and old. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heart-felt, heart-warming story that spans the ages. 

**The quotes from this book have been taken from an Advanced Reading Copy and are subject to change when the final book is printed. Please refer to the final, finished copy for exact quotes!**

**I want to say Thank You to Dutton/Penguin for the opportunity to review this book!!**