Chandler Baker

The time for ignoring the whispers is over. Enough is enough. The women are closing ranks to speak up about the sexual harassment in their workplace. Part thriller and part murder mystery, Baker expertly delves into what it is like to be a woman in the corporate world.

Sloane, Ardie, and Grace are Truviv attorneys while Rosalita is a cleaning woman. The current CEO has died and it is rumored that Ames Garrett will fill the vacancy. But there have been whispers that Garrett has harassed and show more assaulted women in the workplace. People have covered for him for years. So the women finally speak up, and someone dies. Did they have anything to do with it? Interspersed throughout the book are portions of police interviews and depositions. Also interwoven are two lesser plotlines that will eventually play heavily in the outcome.

A real page turner. Suspenseful. Emotional. Portions of the book will definitely take you out of your comfort zone. Realistic characters with all their flaws, characters you can relate to. I was cheering on these women.

Thank you to Flatiron Books via NetGalley for the advance reading copy. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. show less

How you could pen a novel about husbands being hypnotized into doing half of the tasks moms do, without A SINGLE REFERENCE to Ira Levin's Stepford Wives, is inconceivable. However, this updating is smart, funny, and has an unanticipated twist at the end, so author Baker's sins can be partially forgiven. Nora is an attorney, wife, mother, three months pregnant, and is at her wit's end due to her good-natured and clueless husband Hayden's disinterest in shouldering any potion of her show more responsibilities. Like many modern-day dads, he thinks that he's much better than his own dad was because he throws some laundry into the dryer (after being prodded, of course). Nora sees no escape until the couple goes to see a bigger house in the Dynasty Ranch (that name alone would nix it for me) subdivision and she meets the brilliant women of the neighborhood and their accommodating husbands, who finish off each sentence with "You work so hard" as they launder, clean, and make snacks for Teacher's Day. Nora, a personal injury lawyer, is hired to investigate a house fire that killed one of the husbands, and she and Hayden start couples counseling with one of the most influential moms. What's coming up is fairly obvious, but the way Baker rolls it out, indispersed with posts from mommy blogs, is clever and suspenseful. show less

Super interesting idea. On your eighteenth birthday, you can "resurrect" anyone whose body has not been cremated and did not die as a result of suicide or assisted suicide. The main character, Lake Devereaux is about to turn eighteen and suddenly the choice she had to make is anything but simple.
I really enjoyed this book for a variety of reasons; there are twists I didn't anticipate and that doesn't happen very often, I liked the ethical dilemma about giving people the power to bring show more someone back to life, and I liked that the book had more to it than just a teen romance.
Due to the mature content, it is probably best suited to very mature grade 8 students and higher. There are references to premarital sex, drug and alcohol use.
This will be a book that will NOT ever be sitting on the shelf - guaranteed. show less

Don't go into this book thinking genuine, tiny vampires, because you will be disappointed. Do go into it thinking about how figuratively, children are like tiny vampires to their parents, especially their mommas'. I came away with the memory of just how difficult it was to be a mom at first, all the doubt, worry and unending questioning of myself and the decisions I made. I would have loved to have read this book back then, if only to have realized, that even those who looked like they show more managed it easily and effortlessly, were pretty much faking it until they were making it. I wasn't wild about the ending, which kept this from being a 4-star read. show less