Kate White is best known as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and several bestselling career bibles including Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead…but Gutsy Girls Do and 9 Secrets of Women who Get Everything They Want. Then in 2002 she decided to try her hand at mystery novels and scored a hit with If Looks Could Kill featuring Bailey Weggins. There have been several follow up books in the series which have also hit the bestseller list and the books have been optioned by Lions Gate Pictures.  Then last year she wrote Hush which I reviewed and now she is back with The Sixes and it is another page turner!

From the back of the book:

Phoebe Hall’s Manhattan life is unexpectedly derailed off the fast track when her long-term boyfriend leaves her just as she is accused of plagiarizing her latest best-selling celebrity biography.  Looking for a quiet place to pick up the pieces, Phoebe jumps at the offer to teach in a sleepy Pennsylvania town at a small private college run by her former boarding school roommate and close friend, Glenda Johns.

But behind the campus’s quiet cafes and looming maple trees lie evil happenings.  The body of a coed washes up from the nearby river, and soon hidden secrets begin to surface among the students:  rumors of past crimes and abuses wrought by a disturbing secret society known as The Sixes.

Determined to find answers and help Glenda, Phoebe embarks on a search for clues – a quest that soon raises dark memories of her boarding school days.  Plunging deeper into danger with every step, Phoebe knows she’s close to unmasking a killer.  But with truth comes a deeply terrifying revelation: the past can’t be outrun…and starting over can be a crime punishable by death.

My Review:

When I was asked to review this book I had this feeling that it would hook me from the first chapter and I wasn’t wrong.  I belong to a sorority but The Sixes are nothing like a sorority and don’t cross them because they won’t forget it and will seek retaliation even if it is subtle!  There are many characters thrown in to the mix and while you might think one person is involved in the happenings on campus and in town, you might be right and you might be wrong.  Kate brings to this story a mix of complex characters and entertwining their lives so that you don’t know who is a good guy and who isn’t.  I found myself going back and forth on various characters and who might be involved and I was right on a few but not all!  There is even some romance thrown in, but not without some suspicion on Phoebe’s part.

I definitely recommend this book and suggest you pick it up when it comes out on August 2nd.  Or you could win a copy here!

So here is the contest:

I have been given 2 copies of Hush and 1 copy of The Sixes to give away.  I will sweeten the pot and also offer my copy of The Sixes (ARC).  So that is 4 books that I’m giving away!  It is open to all residents of the US and Canada.  Just leave a comment so that you can be entered.

I will even offer a 2nd entry if you blog about it or post it on Facebook.  Just leave a second comment with your blog listing or your Facebook posting link.

The contest will close on Sunday, August 7th.

Kristin Elizabeth Marshall, a graduate of Boston University with a degree in Psychology, has burst into the literary world with her first book.

From the back of the book:

Set in the historic and familiar context of what is arguably the most iconic American Family, The Eternal Waltz of Jacqueline Kennedy portrays through elegant, lyrical prose a single ethereal day spent in eternity.  Jackie Kennedy, together with her husband and children for one final treasured day, takes us on a literary tour-de-force, a spiritual journey that unfolds as she reflects on her life.  She examines both her immeasureable joys and her personal tragedies, not only the loves and the losses that spring from the timeless universality of family, but those that arose from that turbulent, triumphant, and uniquely American era surrounding John F. Kennedy’s brief presidency.

I will admit that when I first started reading this book I wasn’t sure what to think or if I would even like it, but as I continued on through the author’s vivid imagery of the day, I was drawn into the story and almost felt like I was right there next to them as they played in the garden or sailed on the boat or ran through a rainstorm to seek shelter.  This book also provokes the reader to ponder things such as sand and how Jackie explains to Caroline that we are all crushers of rock and coral and we all create sand. 

We all know that if you read to children that it will encourage them to enjoy the written word from a young age.  As the author states in one chapter:  The children devour the words like edible sweets.  The books, nourishing food for their hungry young souls.  That is what books should be, food for their souls!

There is a chapter called The Famine and the Feast which relates a story of Caroline having a tea party with her dolls from various countries.  Although the dolls do not have names, they sit next to each other and do not complain about who they are sitting next to or that they are all fed from the same cup and spoon.

Take a break from reality and pick up this book and get swept away in a day with the Kennedys.  You will be glad that you did!

So now for the fun stuff – I am giving away the copy of this book that the author sent me to a lucky winner.  This contest is open to residents of the US and Canada.  Just leave a comment here on my blog and why you might like to read this book and on Friday, July 29th I will choose a lucky winner to experience the day caught on paper.