{I've Been Reading} Little Disasters

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

Of course emergency room doctor Liz Trenchard is concerned when one of her friends comes into the hospital with her infant. That concern quickly increases when she realizes the extent of little Betsey's injuries and how much time has passed since what Jess describes as a minor fall. Liz follows protocol, transferring the infant into the care of another doctor and alerting the proper authorities, even though she is sure that Jess would never have have hurt her own child. They've known each other for years and Jess has always been the most careful and attentive mother in their group of friends. Liz can't believe that Jess would hurt her own baby, but everything about the situation raises red flags.

At times, this one was difficult to read, partially because the details that describe Betsey's injuries are so perfectly descriptive that I could feel them. One sentence in particular is going to stick with me for a long time. The plot moves between the morning of the accident, the present, and the early days of Liz and Jess's friendship. There are dates at the beginning of each chapter, but they're so close together that I found myself trying to figure out from context when in the sequence of events I was reading about. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, especially kids and husbands. I love domestic thrillers that involve families and this one kept me turning pages to find out what had happened.



Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison

I absolutely loved this one! Newly widowed Evie Mead is just learning that her wealthy husband's recent business failures have left her with nothing except, possibly, the Tregarrick Rock Hotel. With her sister, she heads to the foggy island, curious to see what the place is like. It's not what she expected. Access to the old Art Deco hotel is by sea tractor and there's only a narrow window each day to get onto or off of Tregarrick Rock. The locals aren't particularly friendly and the owner of  the hotel insists that he never met Evie's husband, let alone used his family's property as collateral to a loan he never repaid. There's a cast of quirky characters, and fantastic atmosphere, and a murder that makes Evie look like a possible suspect... and I can't tell you more than that because I don't want to spoil the fun. I cannot wait for the second book in this series to come out so I can see what happens next!

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. This post contains affiliate links.