Category Archives: Wendy Corsi Staub

July 11, 2023 · 12:02 am

Review: Windfall by Wendy Corsi Staub

Title: Windfall by Wendy Corsi Staub
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 333 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher (GoodReads Win)

Summary:

In this newest suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub, three friends’ lives terrifyingly unravel when they win a billion-dollar lottery jackpot—and one goes missing. Perfect for fans of novels like Taylor Adams’ No Exit and The Club by Ellery Lloyd.

It was the girls’ weekend they’d never forget.

J.J., Molly, and Leila had once been inseparable, but it’s been a long time since college, and life—not to mention distance—have disrupted the former roommates’ friendship. When the three reunite for a birthday weekend in Las Vegas, the lottery ticket they buy on a whim has the winning numbers—giving them a billion-dollar windfall. Shell-shocked, they turn to Shea Daniels, a “sudden wealth manager,” who promises to guide them through the pitfalls of having more money than they’d ever imagined.

It was the girls’ weekend they’d live to regret.

The trio travels to a secluded California mansion, where Shea and her staff cater to their every whim, promising to teach them to navigate their newfound wealthy lifestyles with ease. The house is luxurious beyond their wildest dreams—and purportedly cursed, the last place a missing movie star was seen alive. Their weekend turns to terror when they discover they are trapped—roads blocked and communication disrupted by the wildfires raging around them. And when history repeats itself and one of them disappears—the one who’s holding the billion-dollar ticket—the others must face the fact that either their friend has betrayed them…or a predator is lurking.

Review:

Windfall by Wendy Corsi Staub is a tension-filled mystery.

Three college roommates who were once inseparable reunite in Las Vegas to celebrate their fortieth birthdays. They also go in together and purchase a lottery ticket that ends up being the winning ticket. Leila contacts her friends, J.J. and Molly, after hiring Shea Daniels to help them navigate their billion-dollar win.

Shea hosts them at her cliffside mansion, Windfall, but Santa Ana winds and huge wildfires cast an eerie pall over what should a celebration of their newfound wealth. After one of the friends vanishes without a trace, the other two realize they really do not know one another any longer. With the incessant winds blowing and smoke becoming heavier, will they uncover their friend’s fate before it is too late?

Windfall has a troubled history and the still unsolved disappearance of the previous owner, actress Chantal Charbonneau, remains a subject of speculation. Listening to a recent podcast about Chantal proves to be unsettling. Suspicions plague them. Uncertainty about who can be trusted continues to grow.  Patchy cellphone service cuts them off from the rest of the world. Can they escape before falling victim to Windfall’s curse?

Windfall is a riveting mystery that is incredibly atmospheric. The characters are complex and vividly drawn. The excerpts from the podcast ratchet up the suspense. With secrets galore, the storyline is fast-paced and edgy. Wendy Corsi Staub keeps readers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end.

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Filed under Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, Wendy Corsi Staub, William Morrow Paperbacks, Windfall

February 7, 2022 · 12:02 am

Review: The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub

Title: The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Domestic Mystery, Suspense
Length: 380 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub makes her trade paperback debut with a fast-paced thriller in the vein of Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs and Megan Collins’ The Winter Sister. Here, a family making a fresh start moves into a house which was the site of an unsolved triple homicide—and are watched by an unknown person…

The watcher sees who you are…and knows what you did. 

It’s the perfect home for the perfect family: pretty Nora Howell, her handsome husband, their two teenage daughters, and lovable dog. As California transplants making a fresh start in Brooklyn, they expected to live in a shoebox, but the brownstone has a huge kitchen, lots of light, and a backyard. The catch: its previous residents were victims of a grisly triple homicide that remains unsolved.

Soon, peculiar things begin happening. The pug is nosing around like a bloodhound. Nora unearths a long-hidden rusty box in the flowerbed. Oldest daughter Stacey, obsessed with the family murdered in their house, pokes into the bloody past and becomes convinced that a stranger is watching the house. Watching them.

She’s right. But one of the Howells will recognize his face. Because one of them has a secret that will blindside the others with a truth that lies shockingly close to home—and to this one’s terrifying history.

Review:

The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub is a thrilling domestic mystery.

Nora Howell, husband Keith, daughters Stacey and Piper have just moved cross country from California to New York. Instead of a spacious home with lots of amenities, the family is moving into a historical brownstone. Seventeen-year-old Stacey is looking forward to a new beginning and she has high hopes for making friends. Fourteen-year-old Piper is bubbly and outgoing so neither Nora nor Keith is concerned about her. Keith works long hours so Nora devotes her time to gardening in their backyard. She makes a discovery that proves to be incredibly distracting even though she has made friends with neighbors Heather Tamura, her wife Jules and their two kids, Lennon and Courtney. Lennon and Stacey are soon hanging out together and Piper and Courtney become fast friends. The more Nora learns about the history of their temporary home, the more apprehensive she becomes. And Stacey is hiding her suspicion that someone is watching her. How long will it take fora  long-held secret to be uncovered?

Nora and Keith have hit a rough patch in their twenty-year marriage. Both are hopeful the move will bring them closer together, but so far, things remain tense between them. Under other circumstances, Nora would be delighted with their newfound friends, but she is having trouble focusing on anything after finding out the tragic history of the rental house. Her distraction does not help her relationship with Keith and Nora is not as attentive to Piper or Stacey as she should be.

Stacey is an introvert but she is  pleased with her friendship with Lennon.  He is intense but they have a lot in common. Stacey is fascinated by the unsolved murders and previous owners of their house and so is Lennon. When their friendship turns into a romance, she is a little uneasy about how much time he wants to spend together. Stacey is also anxious about the person who is watching her and she is uncertain whom she can trust.

The Other Family is a suspense-laden domestic mystery. The plot is well-developed and the short chapters build the tension to a fever pitch. The characters are well-drawn with intriguing backstories. The chapters alternate between three different perspectives and each narrator’s reliability grows increasingly questionable.  With a shocking dénouement, Wendy Corsi Staub brings this atmospheric mystery to an abrupt conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Domestic Mystery, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, The Other Family, Wendy Corsi Staub, William Morrow Paperbacks

November 6, 2017 · 11:57 pm

Review: Dead of Winter by Wendy Corsi Staub

Title: Dead of Winter by Wendy Corsi Staub
Lily Dale Series Book Three
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Supernatural, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 288 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Just as a murderer dumps his corpse into the lake across Valley View in Lily Dale, Bella Jordan happens to be at her window, not quite realizing what she’s seeing. Unbeknownst to her, the killer spots her silhouette and prowls straight to her door. That is, until he’s interrupted by a black cat. A superstitious gambler, he takes off, but Bella’s seen too much, and he vows to return.

Jiffy Arden, a neighborhood kid looking for the black cat and stumbling across the killer, begins to have premonitions of being kidnapped during the season’s first snowstorm. Sure enough, when it strikes, he vanishes, never arriving home from the bus stop. While her son, Max, believes Jiffy has been kidnapped, Bella is convinced he’s just wandered off as he typically does… until a body shows up in the lake.

Now everyone is pulling out all the stops to find the missing child, identify the victim, and collar the killer. And fast, because he’s coming for Bella next in Dead of Winter.

Review:

Dead of Winter by Wendy Corsi Staub is a leisurely-paced cozy mystery set in the psychic/medium enclave of Lily Dale. This third installment in the Lily Dale Mystery series can easily stand on its own, but I recommend the other novels in the series as well.

The day after observing a curious light on the lake and hearing an ominous scream, innkeeper and non-psychic Bella Jordan finds a corpse washed up on shore. The widowed mom of six year old Max is shaken by the discovery and when Max’s friend Jiffy Arden goes missing, she is very worried about the little boy. She has little in common with his mother, medium Misty Starr, who is not the most attentive of parents. Although Bella empathizes with the young mom’s concern for her missing son, she is also frustrated by Misty’s reliance on her mystical powers to find Jiffy. When another victim is found and Misty also vanishes, Lieutenant John Grange hopes Max and Bella can help with the investigations.

Coming up on the one year anniversary of her husband Sam’s death, Bella is busy getting ready for the holidays and trying to finish up the renovations she is doing for extra money. She keeps a rather close eye on both Max and Jiffy after her shocking discovery of the murdered man but she is distracted the day Jiffy disappears.  Although somewhat skeptical of her neighbors’ supernatural abilities, Bella cannot help but take some of their vague warnings to heart in the aftermath of Jiffy’s kidnapping and Misty’s troubling disappearance. Can the answers to the recent events in town somehow be related to the unexpected phenomena Bella is suddenly experiencing at the inn? Is Jiffy’s disappearance related to the unsolved murders? And even more worrisome, where is Misty?

Despite the rather unhurried pacing, Dead of Winter is an engaging mystery with a cast of quirky yet likable characters and a clever storyline.  Bella is a wonderful protagonist who continues to evolve as the series progresses.  The mystery element of the storyline is well-done and Wendy Corsi Staub brings the novel to an exciting conclusion. This latest release is another entertaining installment in the Lily Dale Mystery series that old and new fans will enjoy.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crooked Lane Books, Dead of Winter, Lily Dale Mystery, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Wendy Corsi Staub

October 10, 2016 · 11:56 pm

Review: Something Buried, Something Blue by Wendy Corsi Staub

Title: Something Buried, Something Blue by Wendy Corsi Staub
Lily Dale Mystery Series Book Two
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Supernatural Elements
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub is back with the second in her critically-acclaimed cozy mystery series.

After agreeing to stay in Lily Dale through the winter as caretakers of the Valley View Guesthouse and its feline residents, widowed mom Bella Jordan and her son Max are looking forward to the peaceful off-season after a hectic summer. That is until the medium next door, Odelia Lauder, recruits Bella to host a destination wedding for the world’s most petulant bride, Johneen Maynard, a friend of Odelia’s granddaughter.

Things take an even more stressful turn as the wedding day looms amidst an October blizzard, when suddenly the Spirits start giving Odelia a major heads up that the bride might be fated for death. And if there’s any truth to her premonitions, the wedding is off—and that’s the least of their problems.

It’s a race to figure out who would want to kill Johneen before her attacker has a chance to strike in Something Buried, Something Blue.

Review:

Something Buried, Something Blue is the second installment in Wendy Corsi Staub’s Lily Dale Mystery series featuring innkeeper Isabella “Bella” Jordan.  This cozy mystery has slight supernatural elements and features a cast of eclectic yet charming characters and while it is the second book in the series, it can be read as a standalone.

Having fully committed to remaining in the Spiritualist community with her young son Max, Bella reluctantly agrees to put together a destination wedding for a friend of her neighbor and friend, Odelia Lauder.  Johneen Maynard and her fiancé Parker Langley have been searching for an out of the way place for their upcoming nuptials and Lily Dale turns out to be the perfect place for their big day.  Unfortunately, Johneen is a bit of a Bridezilla but Bella and Odelia organize a lovely ceremony for the couple. However, Odelia soon begins receiving rather ominous messages from her Spirit guide that seem to indicate that Johneen could be in danger and Bella is concerned about an impending storm that threatens their plans for an outdoor ceremony.  She becomes even more frazzled when her overbearing mother-in-law unexpectedly arrives and Odelia is a no show for last minute wedding preparations. Bella breathes a sigh of relief once the couple exchange their vows but is Johneen truly out of danger?  Who (or what) is responsible for the strange occurrences that have been plaguing the Valley View Guesthouse since the wedding party’s arrival?  Bella is determined to find out the truth but will she inadvertently put herself in harm’s way as she searches for answers?

Once again, Bella is out of her element  but she rises to the challenge of planning the upcoming wedding.  She is hoping a successful wedding will provide a way for the guesthouse to make some much needed revenue during Lily Dale’s off season so she works hard to satisfy her unpleasant bride to be.  Bella is still rather skeptical of the townspeople’s psychic abilities, so she tries to come up with rational explanations for Odelia’s foreboding messages about the upcoming ceremony.  After the guests arrive, she is so focused on the last minute details that she is convinced she is imagining some of the odd things she has been experiencing.  Bella is also trying to figure out what is behind Millicent’s sudden visit and surprisingly, her mother-in-law’s misgivings about her new friends raises a few suspicions of her own in the aftermath of the wedding.

Something Buried, Something Blue is a perplexing addition to The Lily Dale Mystery series.  Aided by a little psychic intuition and some good old fashioned detective work, Bella uncovers the truth about the mysterious events and Wendy Corsi Staub brings the novel to an exciting, pulse-pounding conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crooked Lane Books, Lily Dale Mystery, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Something Buried Something Blue, Supernatural Elements, Wendy Corsi Staub

November 8, 2015 · 11:58 pm

Review: Nine Lives by Wendy Corsi Staub

nine livesTitle: Nine Lives by Wendy Corsi Staub
A Lily Dale Mystery
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Supernatural Elements
Length: 288 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publicist

Summary:

In this warm and witty series debut from New York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub, a widowed young mom plans a fresh start in Chicago–but instead finds her way to a quirky lakeside village that just happens to be populated by mediums.

When reluctant road trippers Bella Jordan and her son Max detour to Lily Dale, New York, they’re planning to deliver a lost cat to its home and then move on, searching for one of their own. But the footloose feline’s owner Leona Gatto has unexpectedly passed away, leaving behind a pregnant pet without a mistress, a busy inn without a keeper–and a lovable circle of neighbors who chat with dead people.

After agreeing to help out temporarily, sensible Bella doesn’t need psychic gifts to figure out that a houseful of tourists and a litter of kittens lie in her immediate future–or that Leona was murdered. It’s up to her to solve the case so that she and Max can leave town, but their new home–like Leona’s killer–might just lurk where she least expects it.

Review:

Nine Lives by Wendy Corsi Staub is an intriguing cozy mystery with slight supernatural elements. Set in the small town of Lily Dale, Bella Jordan becomes a reluctant innkeeper while waiting on car repairs. Surrounded by physics and mediums, Bella becomes embroiled in the mystery surrounding Leona Gatto’s recent death.  Was the guesthouse owner’s death an unfortunate accident? Or was it something far more sinister?

Still grieving her beloved husband’s loss, Bella and her five old son Max are in the midst of moving halfway across the country when she takes a unexpected detour to Lily Dale to return Chance the cat to her rightful owner. Dismayed to learn of Leona’s death from her neighbor and good friend, Odelia Lauder, Bella accepts Odelia’s offer to stay at the guesthouse until her car repairs are completed. Despite entreaties from the other residents, she is planning to leave as soon as possible, but she is troubled an ominous dream about Leona. With a little help from Odelia and ex-cop turned private investigator, Luther Ragland, Bella decides it would not hurt for her do a little unobtrusive sleuthing but will she uncover the truth before it is too late?

Bella is a likable and sympathetic protagonist. Her husband’s death turned her life upside down and the loss of her job means she and Max must leave behind the only home they have ever known to move in with her less than welcoming mother-in-law. Although somewhat charmed by Lily Dale, Bella is hesitant to remain in town and she is very wary (and slightly skeptical) of its residents’ psychic abilities. Her inability to commit to staying in town beyond a few days becomes a bit tiresome as the book moves forward, but given the upheaval in her life, her doubts are understandable. While not a typical amateur detective, her natural curiosity leads her to look around the guest house for clues into Leona’s death. Reluctant to share what she discovers because of her fear of becoming a suspect, Bella zeroes in a couple of possible suspects and inadvertently puts herself in harm’s way when she rushes headlong into a dangerous situation.

Lily Dale is a wonderful setting and the townspeople are quirky yet interesting. The supernatural element is unobtrusive yet intriguing but it is left up to the reader to decide whether or not some of the things that occur are just coincidence or the result of otherworldly intervention. It is worth mentioning that Bella solves the mystery surrounding Leona’s death through good old fashioned detective work and some pretty accurate speculation, not psychic or ghostly involvement.

Nine Lives by Wendy Corsi Staub is a fantastic beginning to this new series set the charming town of Lily Dale. The characters are a bit eclectic but this adds to their overall appeal. The storyline is well-developed and several red herrings and clever misdirects make it impossible to guess the perpetrator’s identity or motive for the murder for much of the story. The novel’s conclusion is exciting with Bella managing to keep her wits about her despite the danger she is facing. Fans of cozy mysteries are sure to love this perplexing first installment in the Lily Dale series.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crooked Lane Books, Lily Dale Mystery, Mystery, Nine Lives, Rated B, Review, Supernatural Elements, Wendy Corsi Staub