About The Ancestor

Hardcover: 368 pages

Publisher: William Morrow (April 7, 2020)





From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges readers into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.





It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta ”Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco” at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she’s inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family’s past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.





At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink.





But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.


THOUGHTS/REVIEW:


Just imagine for a second that your dreams of being royalty (a princess or a countess) comes true. Then you receive a letter stating you have inherited a castle in Italy and you are a Countess!! What would you do?

Well this is the story of Alberta "Bert" Monte who was told she is the new "Countess Alberta Montebianco". She is flown to the Alps of Northern Italy near the city of Turin to see the estate she just inherited via a private jet. She meets with the attorneys and is whisked to her new life as a Countess with a long blood line of royalty. But of course, not all is roses when things start to take a turn and you uncover some strange mysteries surrounding the family and wealth you just inherited.

Trussoni's writing was amazing, in that she is able to set the tone of the story, leading the readers to want to find out what is going to happen next - this is truly her brilliance in this writing. The dark twists and turns really had my attention and I could not and would not stop turning those pages while anxiously anticipating what is going to happen next.

I also admired the characters that Trussoni wrote about with the strange and mysterious family members. The setting and the world building was short of incredible - bringing that gothic, mysterious, isolated, cold, feeling of seclusion, and being trapped. The short chapters and the perfect pacing really added to the enjoyment of this well written and well researched novel that I could stop recommending.

Pick this up for the perfect quarantine read. You will not be disappointed.











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Purchase Links

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About Danielle Trussoni

Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of the supernatural thrillers Angelology and Angelopolis. She currently writers the Horror column for the New York Times Book Review and has recently served as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Trussoni holds an MFA in Fiction from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she won the Michener-Copernicus Society of America award. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family and her pug Fly.



Find out more about Trussoni at her website, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

THE DNA OF YOU AND ME BY: ANDREA ROTHMAN

About The DNA of You and Me

Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: William Morrow (March 12, 2019)

“Refreshing.... Asks urgent questions about female ambition. Fans of Lab Girl have found a worthy successor.”—Real Simple

A powerful debut novel—a wonderfully engaging infusion of Lab Girl, The Assistants, and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine—that pits the ambition of scientific discovery against the siren call of love.

Emily Apell arrives in Justin McKinnon’s renowned research lab with the single-minded goal of making a breakthrough discovery. But a colleague in the lab, Aeden Doherty, has been working on a similar topic, and his findings threaten to compete with her research.

To Emily’s surprise, her rational mind is unsettled by Aeden, and when they end up working together their animosity turns to physical passion, followed by love. Emily eventually allows herself to envision a future with Aeden, but when he decides to leave the lab it becomes clear to her that she must make a choice. It is only years later, when she is about to receive a prestigious award for the work they did together, that Emily is able to unravel everything that happened between them.

A sharp, relevant novel that speaks to the ambitions and desires of modern women, The DNA of You and Me explores the evergreen question of career versus family, the irrational sensibility of love, and whether one can be a loner without a diagnostic label.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Andrea Rothman

Andrea Rothman was born in Brooklyn NY and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Her debut novel, THE DNA OF YOU AND ME, was published by William Morrow-HarperCollins in March of 2019. The novel has received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal, and won an award for Best Popular Fiction in English at the 21st International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles.

Prior to being a fiction writer, Rothman was a research scientist at the Rockefeller University in New York, where she studied the sense of smell. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and was a fiction editor for the VCFA journal of the arts-Hunger Mountain.

Her essays and short stories have appeared in print and online journals such as Literary Hub, Lablit, Cleaver Magazine, and Litro Magazine among others, and can be viewed at www.andrearothman.com.

Rothman lives with her husband and two children in Long Island, New York. She is at work on a second novel.

Connect with Rothman on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

4/2/20 SHAPE OF FAMILY by Shilpi Somaya Gowda #theshapeoffamily, @tlcbooktours @williammorrowbooks @shilpigowda

About The Shape of Family

Hardcover: 352 pages

Publisher: William Morrow (March 17, 2020)

"Deeply involving....Rings so true." -- Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room

From the international bestselling author of Secret Daughter and The Golden Son comes a poignant, unforgettable novel about a family's growing apart and coming back together in the wake of tragedy.

“The Shape of Family is a novel about race and culture, parents and siblings, marriage and love, but most of all, it's about finding hope after darkness. Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a compassionate and wise storyteller who keeps us riveted from beginning to end.” -- Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation

The Olander family embodies the modern American Dream in a globalized world. Jaya, the cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat and Keith, an ambitious banker from middle-class Philadelphia, meet in a London pub in 1988 and make a life together in suburban California. Their strong marriage is built on shared beliefs and love for their two children: headstrong teenager Karina and young son Prem, the light of their home.

But love and prosperity cannot protect them from sudden, unspeakable tragedy, and the family’s foundation cracks as each member struggles to seek a way forward. Jaya finds solace in spirituality. Keith wagers on his high-powered career. Karina focuses relentlessly on her future and independence. And Prem watches helplessly as his once close-knit family drifts apart.

When Karina heads off to college for a fresh start, her search for identity and belonging leads her down a dark path, forcing her and her family to reckon with the past, the secrets they’ve held and the weight of their choices.

The Shape of Family is an intimate portrayal of four individuals as they grapple with what it means to be a family and how to move from a painful past into a hopeful future. It is a profoundly moving exploration of the ways we all seek belonging—in our families, our communities and ultimately, within ourselves.

THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

I really enjoyed this hearbreaking family drama read about a family who suffered through a painful tragedy. The writing was beautiful, sensitive and realistic that I related to the characters immediately.

This was my first book with Gowda and she became a favorite very quickly. This was an amazing character driven story in which the readers will experience how each of the family members dealt with this terrible tragedy in each of their own way. Warning - the first 10 percent of the book had me in tears so make sure to have some tissues handy.

The Olander family consisted of Jaya, the mother and wife from India who immigrates to London and meets her future husband, Keith an American from Philadephia. Karina is their teenage daughter and the younger son is Prem. The story was centered on their daughter Katrina 11 yo who is quite headstrong and obviously hurting and follows through as she is leaving for college. Her path to separate away from her family from the hurt that has not healed, will be the poignant part of the story as she is reeled back to the family that love her the most.

I truly enjoyed reading about this family and I felt that through her writing, Gowda really had a deep understanding on the human experience of anger, grief and loss.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Author Links: Website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

About Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Shilpi Somaya Gowda was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Her previous novels, Secret Daughter and The Golden Son became international bestsellers, selling over one million copies worldwide. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain scholar. She lives in California with her husband and children.



Find out more about Shilpi at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.