Happy Tuesday! I am doubling up today. I’m sharing new books that are being released today and the books I’ve been reading in one today. This back to work/back to school thing is kicking my booty. I love it but I’m finding that I don’t have quite as much time to get things done. I usually work ahead on Sunshine & Books or start my posts in the early evening, but that is definitely not happening this month!

I haven’t been reading as much in the past two weeks because we are back to school and working on finding our routine. I was away last weekend and forgot to pick a great audiobook for Jack and I to listen to in the car. We rocked out to music, but a book would’ve been a great idea. My goal for this week is to make dinner every night and figure out all the ins and outs of our routine.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

The Delaney family love one another dearly―it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other . . .

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children―Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke―were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure―but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.

Reasons for Avoiding Friends by Megan Leavell

Growing up, Gwen and Iris were the best of friends, even if they couldn’t have been more different. Now Gwen is living her hometown dream, or so she reminds herself while juggling endless parenting drama, an unemployed husband, and a neighborhood pyramid scheme. Never mind that at age thirty-nine, her social circle still resembles middle school. Her life is everything she ever wanted it to be, but nothing like she had planned.

Iris was never destined for the ordinary. When she moved to Manhattan, she shed her old life for a better one-but not without a cost. From a distance, Iris’s life couldn’t be more charmed, but no one knows about the cracks in the image she’s worked so hard to cultivate. No one knows the real Iris at all. Except for Gwen. But Iris and Gwen haven’t spoken for years. Until…

When Iris’s past catches up with her, she turns to the one person she could always count on-but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets, and as Gwen scrambles to preserve an illusion of domestic bliss, she finds herself wondering when they went from telling each other everything to sharing nothing. Now, a little wiser, and most certainly a little older, Gwen and Iris discover that the truest of friends accept you just as you are, and that loving yourself is sometimes the best way to find happiness.

Harlem Shuffle by Colton Whitehead

“Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked…” To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver’s Row don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home. 

Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. 

Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either. 

Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. 

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?

**As always, the summaries come from the author or publisher because they know it best.**

If you are looking for other newly released books, check out the Tuesday Book Release Day page. If you are looking for great summer books, check out my Summer Beach Reads 2021. This is a big season for kids’ books publishing. I shared a list of books coming out in the fall that any young readers in your life might enjoy.

I am linking up with Steph and Jana today to share what I’ve been reading.

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner ☀️ ☀️ ☀️

Reunion Beach by Elin Hilderbrand, et al
☀️ ☀️ ☀️☀️ ☀️

Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger ☀️ ☀️ ☀️☀️

Blush by Jamie Brenner ☀️ ☀️ ☀️☀️ ☀️

Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave ☀️ ☀️ ☀️

Currently Reading: The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

Whoa, that was a bunch of books in one post. I loved my five star reads – Blush and Reunion Beach! I was so excited to read Hello Sunshine after loving The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, but it didn’t quite measure up. It wasn’t bad, but it was just ok for me. What have you been reading? Are there any books you are looking forward to reading? I can’t wait to hear! Have a great day full of sunshine and NEW books!

**This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Thank you for reading and supporting Sunshine & Books.**