The Literate Kitty

A whirlwind courtship—followed by a lavish wedding in Beverly Hills, with a handsome, successful groom and his younger, beautiful blonde bride. It sounds like a fairy tale. But—as with many things that appear picture-perfect on first glance—something much darker lies just beneath the surface of this glamorous marriage... and is about to shatter the beautiful illusion, in Natalie Barelli’s twisted tale of marital bliss,  The Housewife . ____________________________________________________________________ Many women want a fabulous career... followed later by marriage and perhaps a family. Not Jodie. With chef-level culinary skills and housekeeping wizardry, she’s always longed to become a housewife... the mistress of her own carefully-curated home, adored by her doting husband and the envy of their friends. And, following a chance meet-cute with hunky Dr. Roy Davies—a psychologist, best-selling author, and esteemed resident of his tony Beverly Hills neighborhood—it seems she’s set t...

Breakups suck, there’s no way around it. Even if you’re the initiator, relieved to be free of a relationship that’s no longer working, there could also be some regret or bitterness mixed in.  And if you’re on the other end of a breakup—the one being left behind—it’s so much worse. Shock, loss, confusion, depression... you might feel those things, keenly. But what if you learned of a place specializing in helping people get over devastating breakups... and healing broken hearts?  Such a place is the setting for Camilla Sten’s latest thriller,  The Break-Up Retreat .   Dr. Martina Hastings is something of a Renaissance woman. Charismatic psychologist and best-selling author of multiple relationship books, she’s also the founder of an exclusive wellness clinic catering to women stuck in relationship hell. Whether someone has endured an excruciating breakup or is caught in a repetitive cycle of making terrible choices, Dr. Martina claims she can help, via her intimate, o...

That sisterly—or sibling—bond is something I, an only child, will never know.   But wow, have I wondered about it, over the years.   What would it be like, to grow up with other people my own age?   To share secrets and rivalries. To bicker... but probably also (at least sometimes), to have each other’s backs.    But take that a few steps further, and imagine how it would feel to have a sibling—a  twin , no less—of whom you’d never been  aware...  until you’d already lived more than three decades?   And then, after learning that truth... you only reached out—to that previously-unknown person you’d once shared a womb with— after  you’d been accused of murder?   Bestselling thriller author Sarah Pekkanen takes a stab at how such a scenario might play out with her latest,  The Locked Ward .     For some reason, most of us don’t expect the uber-rich to have Big Problems. (As though obscene sums of money should be the...

There’s a plot device sometimes used in mystery novels, known as the “unreliable narrator”... which means what the storyteller says may --or may not —be true.   Usually, this unreliable person is one main character.   But imagine being faced with no fewer than  six  such potentially-unreliable sources?    How would you know who— if anyone —to believe... and who was absolutely  not  to be trusted?   Welcome to author Alex Pavesi’s intricately-twisted tale,  Ink Ribbon Red , where absolutely  everything  anyone says is suspect.     There are a few different ways people approach “milestone” birthdays (the ones ending in zeroes).   Some treat such birthdays like harbingers of apocalyptic proportions, best avoided (or at least, strenuously denied). For others, those “big birthdays” are a great excuse for a massive shindig. And for some, such birthdays are no different than any of the others which have already come and...

Imagine, just for a second, what your life would be like, without your friends? They’re such a huge part of those “formative years”... but not so much, I think, a throughway.   For instance, there are friends you have when you’re a little kid—the ones you play with at recess, or hang out with after school. Everything is easy and fun, and any arguments tend to be trivial (and sorted quickly).   Then the tweens and teens happen, and suddenly you’re a mass of raging hormones, explosive bursts of anger, and buckets of drama-llama angst.  Those earlier friends, from simpler times, may— or may not —still be in the mix, because the stakes have gotten much higher, with massive secrets and heartfelt desires to be shared... and kept close. You have your besties... but if just one confidence is broken, any bestie can be relegated to no-man’s land, in a millisecond.   High school is the last stop on the whole friend-making journey for a lot of people. Sure, other very casua...

Keep your enemies close, and your friends, well— keep an even closer eye on them...   The damage we do—or at least, that we  can  do—to each other, is horribly immense in its scope and variety.     We’ve become inured to it, frankly, because we see it EVERYWHERE. Trolls going off on some one or some thing , online. Hate speech. Political upheavals.   But we also see it closer to home. Family members, intentionally hurting or neglecting those they should hold precious. Lovers, seemingly forgetting all of the reasons they came together, in the first place.     And close friends, taking perverse delight in using and wounding those whose darkest secrets they carry and were sworn to protect.   Heather Darwent gives us a look at all of these in her compelling psychological suspense debut,  The Things We Do to Our Friends .   Often people choose universities where they’ll feel right at home… either because the school is,  literally ,...

They say that “kids will be kids”, but, really… what does that even mean, any more?  It was one thing, when people rolled their eyes and (mostly) looked the other way at kids cutting classes, going out drag-racing, sneaking cigarettes (or now, more likely some prescription pills) from their parents’ stashes, or having a little party and raiding the liquor cabinet when the folks were out late. Everybody has to grow up… and doing that means doings some certifiably dumb, or dangerous, or whatever-other-terms-the-adults-in-question-deem-appropriate stuff. No matter what the “stuff” is, one thing is certain: no kid, in the history of ever, wants to get in trouble for doing it.  But here’s the thing [at least, I think ; my only kid has fur, so I’m no expert, here]: some of the stuff parents get mad about is of the “do as I say, not as I do” or “because you’re not old enough” variety… while some of it falls under the “because that’s crazy-dangerous” header.  Joshua Moehl...

If there’s one thing I know a little something about, it’s finding myself.   Or—and this is definitely a more accurate way to put it—“being on an endless journey of continually trying to find myself”. No one goes through life unscathed. There are bumps in the road, myriad traumas (both major and minor), and O h, So. Much. baggage that each of us totes along, wherever we go.  But, how do we attack that journey… that is the question. From flat-out denying there even is any learning to be done [in other words, flying the bird at the idea of any and all navel-gazing], to moderate [and essentially solitary] forms of self-exploration—books, online seminars, etc., to time [and boatloads of $] spent on professional therapists, to [once again, time, and boatloads of $] spent on/in/with in-person retreats, courses, programs [and really, whatever else they elect to brand themselves as]… the options are seemingly endless.  Basically, though, it all boils down to something p...