Book Club Bests

Contributed by: Kathleen Rumple, Hive Overland Park

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Kathleen, one of The Hive's most avid readers, is back at it with her recommendations for three more great reads (see her previous book recommendations at buzzfromthehive.com). These books feature all-star authors and exciting plot twists that keep you hooked until the very end. Enjoy these Book Club Bests!

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

For fans of Elin Hildebrand this is a good one, and sadly I have heard it may be her last novel.

Dealing with the loss of her husband and a strained relationship with her daughter, Hollis Shaw hears about something called a Five Star Weekend. The idea is to invite four friends from four different stages of your life for a weekend get together. So Hollis decides to plan her own Five Star Weekend.  She invites a childhood friend, a college friend, a friend from her thirties, and a woman she has only recently met online through her popular food blog.  Hollis has everything planned out to the most minute detail, including her specialty, the food.  However, this is a weekend like no other and things don’t always go as planned. Each of the women is dealing with issues of their own, and Gigi, the new online friend, has quite a secret.  Hilderbrand does a great job of keeping the reader hooked as she tells a great story of friendships, secrets, forgiveness and love along with a wonderful Nantucket setting.  Who would you invite to your Five Star Weekend?

The It Girl  by Ruth Ware

This was the first book I read by Ruth Ware and really enjoyed it.  I have since read other books of hers, but this one is probably my favorite.  The It Girl is a classic “whodunit”.  The story is set at Oxford University and Edinburgh.  Due to some problems at home, the main character, Hannah’s parents think it best if she goes away to school at Oxford. Once there, she meets her roommate April.  April and Hannah come from very different backgrounds but become good friends.  April is the ultimate “it girl” who seems to have it all. Hannah and April meet other friends and they form a tight knit group experiencing their first year at Oxford together. April was a fun friend, but loved to play pranks and those pranks were often mean spirited and strained those friendships. One night after a party, April is found dead.  A creepy university employee is arrested for the murder and Hannah is one of the main witnesses that helps bring that guilty verdict.  However, 10 years later, as Hannah and her husband Will (one of the friends from their Oxford days who also dated April) are expecting their first child, she begins to second guess what happened on that day so long before.  The man found guilty has died in prison and Hannah is questioning her memory and if he was really April’s murderer.  All of the players from those days at Oxford seem to have a possible motive and opportunity to have been the guilty party, but who did it?  I think you will enjoy the twists and turns this story takes as this 10 year old murder is revisited and you find out “whodunit”.  

The Block Party by Jamie Day

This book reminded me of a mix of Big Little Lies and Desperate Housewives. An interesting mystery with some affluent suburban drama included. The story begins with five families that live on a cul-de-sac planning their annual summer block party.  During the party someone is murdered, but you don’t find out who that is or who did it until late in the book, which adds to the intrigue.  The story then takes the reader back one year to the previous block party and continues through the year with all the drama that unfolds and sets the stage for the current party and subsequent murder. There are multiple story lines as the author weaves the reader through the past year with drama filled topics such as infidelity, drinking problems, drug abuse, scandal and secrets.  I found The Block Party to be a very witty, unique mystery with interesting, well developed characters. A great escape for a day on the beach or a cold winter day bundled on the couch.  

Do you have a Book Club Best?