Leah Konen
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Articles by Leah Konen
Zlomení lidé
Jde jen o MALOU lež, dokud kvůli ní někdo nezemře… Představte si, že konečně uniknete z nejhoršího vztahu svého života. Zmizíte a jediné, co máte, je jeden kufr a monokl pod okem. Představte si, že vaši noví sousedé se stanou vašimi přáteli, které jste tak zoufale potřebovali – je s nimi legrace, jsou vlídní, empatičtí a velmi zamilovaní jeden do druhého. Představte si, že se dostanou do průšvihu. Že o nich někdo šíří lži, které ohrožují jejich živobytí – a dokonce jejich životy.
The Last Room on the Left
When Kerry signs up to live for a month as a caretaker at a roadside motel in the Catskill Mountains, she is looking forward to some peace and quiet from the city, an escape from her mixed-up life, and the time to write a book that she is under deadline to finish. But what she gets is nothing like what she had imagined. Soon after arriving at the motel in the middle of a blizzard, Kerry enters the room that is supposed to be for her (“the last room on the left”).
The Last Room on the Left
Narrators: Karissa Vacker, Erin Bennett, Julie Webster Penguin Audio ISBN: 9780593715895 Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP Putnam Publication Date: 01/14/2025 Format: Other My Rating: 4.5 Stars (ARC) The caretaker at an isolated mountain hotel finds herself fighting for her life—and sanity—in this "twisty, addictive, feminist take on The Shining" (Andrea Bartz).
All Work and No Play: Returning to The Shining as a Writer
I was eighteen years old when I experienced The Shining for the first time. It was 2003. A North Carolina winter, my knuckle still hurting from a few days before, when a bunch of college freshman had used UNC’s campus picnic tables as makeshift sleds to get us down a massive hill near the underclassman dorms. We all still had all our limbs, most surprisingly, but my pointer finger swelled, a reminder of the sort of bad decisions one only makes in the cozy enclave of university life.
Six Scintillating Friends-to-Frenemies Thrillers
We get by with a little help from our friends—right? But what if those friends don’t really have our best interests at heart? What happens when a friendship veers into enemy—or frenemy—territory, leading to secrets, betrayals, maybe even murder? My upcoming novel, Keep Your Friends Close, follows Mary and Willa, two moms who meet at a Brooklyn playground and become fast friends … for awhile, at least. Only then, Willa ghosts Mary, disappearing from her life without so much as a trace.
KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE
A thrilling and unpredictable hunt for answers that pays off. A recently separated Brooklyn mother loses her one new friend and chases the woman down for answers. As the book opens, Mary, who’s recently left her controlling husband, makes a new friend at the playground. Alex, Mary’s 2-year-old son, whines that he’s hungry, and the beautiful young mother sitting next to them on the bench offers up a bag of potato chips.
Win A Copy Of The Book 'Keep Your Friends Close: A Novel' By Leah Konen
The book is in stores on Tuesday, February 20th from Putnam. Click on the link to purchase a copy. https://amzn.to/46BqPji How well do you know your friends? Isolated and embroiled in a custody battle, Mary is desperate for a friend. So when she meets the charming and enigmatic Willa at a Brooklyn playground, their connection feels fated. But during a margarita-fueled moms’ night out, Mary shares her darkest secret about her ex, George, and the next morning Willa simply disappears.
Win A Copy Of The Book 'The Atlas Maneuver: A Cotton Malone Novel' By Steve Berry
The book is in stores on Tuesday, February 20th from Grand Central. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/3NUkRUf 1945. In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947 some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find.
Win A Copy Of The Book 'The Chaos Agent: A Gray Man Novel' By Mark Greaney
The book is in stores on Tuesday, February 20th from Berkley. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/3t6cb65 A car accident in Japan. A drowning in Seoul. A home invasion in Boston. Someone is killing the world’s leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Is it a tech company trying to eliminate the competition or is it something even more sinister? After all, artificial intelligence may be the deadliest battlefield gamechanger since the creation of gunpowder.
Win A Copy Of The Book 'Daybreak: A Novel' By Matt Gallagher
Thirty-three-year-old Luke “Pax” Paxton has been out of the US military for almost a decade, adrift in an America he no longer understands, haunted by a mistake made in an unforgiving moment of combat. When an old army friend suggests they travel to Ukraine to help fight against the Russian invasion, he agrees, and together they cross an ocean to Lviv, the City of Lions. But Pax isn’t merely going out of the goodness of his heart.
Watch Trailer For 'Despicable Me 4' In Theaters Wednesday, July 3rd
by | Jan 29, 2024 | Featured Post, Movie Trailers, Movies | Genre: Action-Comedy Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Sofia Vergara, Stephen Colbert, Miranda Cosgrove, Chloe Fineman, Steve Coogan, Chris Renaud, Dana Gaier, Madison Polan Screenplay: Mike White, Ken Daurio Director: Chris Renaud Co-Director: Patrick Delage Producers: Chris Meledandri, Brett Hoffman Website: https://www.despicable.me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/minions X:...
Book Review: 'Bride: A Novel' By Ali Hazelwood
The book is in stores on Tuesday, Feb. 6th from Berkley. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/3HCv9ou Missy Lark is a vampyre, who lives among the humnas, and has very little contact with her vampyre community. Lowe Moreland is tha Alpha of his werewolf community, and the two races are mortal enemies, along with the humans, each living in their own zones, with a tentative truce between the three. A new plan has been hatched to have Missy marry Lowe to keep the peace.
Book Review: 'Keep Your Friends Close: A Novel' By Leah Konen
The book is in stores on Tuesday, February 20th from Putnam. Click on the link to purchase a copy. https://amzn.to/46BqPji Mary left her husband George, a controlling man from a powerful family, and is fighting for custody of their 2-year-old son Alex. He’s threatening to go for full custody, and wants her back. One day at the playground she meets Willa, who is there with a little boy, and they become fast friends, until she just ghosts her one day.
Novel by North Carolina author plays on a new mom's worst nightmares
Ben Steelman Fans of thrillers like "Gone Girl" or "Girl on the Train" will find University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Leah Konen's novel "You Should Have Told Me" right up their alley. The heroine of Konen's latest is Janie Walker, who gave up a fast-track career at a New York ad agency to have a baby with her boyfriend, Max. ("Out of wedlock," as my Aunt Becky used to say.) Little Freya is now 6 weeks old, and Janie is a mess.
LEAH KONEN - YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME: A Novel
Author: Leah Konen Book: YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME: A Novel Publishing: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (January 3, 2023) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Leah_Konen_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): A new mother chases the secrets her partner left behind after his sudden disappearance in this pulse-pounding domestic thriller from the author of The Perfect Escape.
Is There Anything More Terrifying Than Motherhood?
I don’t think I knew true fear until I had a newborn child. I may have been a horror movie fan since I was old enough to watch them in secret so my parents didn’t know, may have cut my reading teeth on R.L. Stein and Christopher Pike, and may spend most of my adult life either reading or writing thrillers, but the sentiment still rings true: Nothing really truly terrified me until I had a baby.
7 Thrillers That Explore the Dark Side of Motherhood
Like so many, I never truly understood the dark side of motherhood until I went through it myself. After a complicated pregnancy and a traumatic birth, my daughter burst onto the scene just a few months ahead of a global pandemic. In those early weeks and months, like so many new mothers, I found myself struggling to adapt to sleepless nights and the trials of new motherhood, and was at a loss trying to feel all the feelings I knew I was “supposed” to have.
5 Fabulous Thrillers About Secrets Between Spouses
Everyone can agree that honesty is the best policy—especially when it comes to romantic partnerships—but what happens when that honesty completely breaks down, especially when it comes to affairs, long-buried secrets—even murder? My upcoming novel, You Should Have Told Me, follows Janie, a new mother struggling to get by—her new baby won’t sleep, she seems to be insatiably hungry, and a secret from Janie’s past threatens to tear everything apart.
10 TV Shows to Look Forward To in 2023 Original
2023 is poised to be a bumper year for TV. From the juggernauts that are set to return, to the new hard-hitting dramas and literary adaptations that are due to dominate water cooler conversations, these are the 10 upcoming shows worth cancelling plans for. You: Season 4 (February 9 ) Content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
7 Thrillers by Up-and-Coming Female Writers
When it comes to writing about the horrors and crimes of the modern world, who better to do it then women? From complicated friendships to toxic relationships, career woes to the pressures of motherhood, there are so many topics that are primed for thrills, chills, and complex characters, and some of the best thrillers by female writers explore these issues with a decidedly feminist slant.
Book Review: 'You Should Have Told Me: A Novel' By Leah Konen
Home > Books > Book Review: ‘You Should Have Told Me: A Novel’ By Leah Konen January 1, 20232023-01-01T09:00:54-06:00 Janie and Max have been together for a while now, and six weeks ago had a baby girl. Janie is doing the best she can, but sometimes is overwhelmed. On this night Max has offered to do the first overnight feeding, and when Janie hears the baby crying, she goes to check on her, and finds no Max. He’s not home, and there’s no sight of him. He has vanished.
Win A Copy Of The Book 'You Should Have Told Me: A Novel' By Leah Konen
Janie needs a break: her baby won’t sleep, she’s struggling with motherhood, and a secret from her past threatens to tear her new family apart. So when her partner, Max, offers to do their baby’s feedings that night so she can finally get some sleep, she jumps at the chance. But when Janie wakes up at three a.m., her daughter is screaming alone in her bassinet … Max has vanished.
Breastfeeding Is Basically Impossible-Why Don't We Say That More?
I spent the night of my thirty-fifth birthday sitting alone on a sofa in Staten Island, nursing my eight-day-old baby and weeping silently while my in-laws ate dinner. It wasn’t their fault. It was Thanksgiving, after all, and there no was no one who could satiate the baby but me. We were breastfeeding, exclusively, not even using pacifiers, since the lactation consultants had told us not to, and she was hungry. In those days, she was always hungry.
7 Scintillating Thrillers About Romances Gone Wrong
“Did we fall into some kind of Twilight Zone of exes?” So Sam asks Margaret in my latest thriller, The Perfect Escape, after yet another soon-to-be-ex-husband has turned up in town. The two women and their friend Diana are all newly estranged from their partners, and their girls’ weekend to Saratoga Springs was meant to be an escape from the heartache and turmoil of their respective divorces.
5 Tips for Writing a Domestic Thriller
When I set out to write my second thriller, The Perfect Escape, I was constantly balancing the core of the idea and the personalities of my characters with everything I knew from years of reading mysteries and thrillers, and watching Hitchcock movies and noirs. I never like to follow a formula, but I know that readers (like myself) are going to expect a number of twists, turns, and surprises when they pick up a new thriller.
Pet Spotlight: Leah Konen and Farley
Writing tends to be a lonely profession. You’re in a room, on a screen, dealing with nothing but your own imagination and, in my case, twisty murder plots. When I began writing The Perfect Escape, a girls’ weekend gone wrong set in Catskill, NY, I had also just recently found out I was pregnant. Add nausea, exhaustion and brain fog, and it was tough to hit my goals. But one creature-slash-coworker motivated me every single day, keeping me going so I could finish my book: my lovable dog, Farley.
Getaway Thrillers
My husband and I were little more than a handful of hours into a fourteen-hour drive … our destination? Bonnaroo Music Festival. Only one problem: we broke down on the side of the road, finding ourselves stranded for the night in Staunton, Virginia, a town that was quaint, walkable and charming … maybe even a little too charming?
Review | NetGalley
1 Sam The slice of skin was angry and pale-it looked almost sickly, framed in ridges, the flesh obscenely puffy around it. My dirty little secret, exposed for all to see. I'd never taken my rings off, not since Harry put them on my finger. I loved and hated them in equal measure. The band was made of clean, unmarked platinum. The guy at the shop had told us it would last forever, while I stared at shiny things on royal-blue velvet and Harry pulled out his Amex.
Win A Copy Of The Book 'The Perfect Escape: A Novel' By Leah Konen
Home > Free Books > Free Giveways > Win A Copy Of The Book ‘The Perfect Escape: A Novel’ By Leah Konen RedCarpetCrash January 2, 20222022-01-02T03:36:02-06:002022-01-02T05:29:37-06:00 A girls’ weekend to die for. New friends Sam, Margaret and Diana are thrilled to be getting out of the city for a girls’ weekend—they’ve bonded over their messy divorces, and every mile on the odometer feels like another step towards putting their exes in the past.
Book Review: 'The Perfect Escape: A Novel' By Leah Konen
Home > Books > Book Review: ‘The Perfect Escape: A Novel’ By Leah Konen RedCarpetCrash December 15, 20212021-12-15T11:40:52-06:002021-12-15T11:40:52-06:00 Three women who have had bad luck lately in the men department decide to get away for a few days from New York City. Sam, Diane and Margaret rent a car and get plenty of wine as they head to the Adirondacks. Two hours out on their trip as they stop for gas, the key to their car vanishes in Catskill, NY.
The Perfect Escape
New friends Sam, Margaret and Diana are thrilled to be getting out of the city for a girls' weekend--they've bonded over their messy divorces, and every mile on the odometer feels like another step towards putting their exes in the past. But when car trouble halfway into their trip strands them in the most unlikely of mountain towns, they come face-to-face with the hurts and betrayals they were so desperate to leave behind.
All These Ashes
James Queally. Polis, $26.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-951709-50-1 In Queally’s outstanding sequel to 2020’s Line of Sight, PI Russell Avery, a former reporter who once covered the police beat for a Newark, N.J., newspaper, agrees to look into a cold case for police lieutenant Bill Henniman. In 1996, four teens—sisters Shayna and Adriana Bell, and two male cousins of theirs—vanished on the same night in Newark.
Books From Writers With N.C. Connection
All the Broken People By Leah Konen G.P.Putnam Wow! What a Gordian knot of a plot. One you won’t figure out until the last line of the last page. This is a “thriller of thrillers.” A single woman escaping from an abusive relationship, staying alone in a remote cabin in the tall snows of a New England winter is already full of suspense. Then she meets friendly neighbors John and Vera, who become even more friendly. Maybe too friendly.
One White Lie
Mark Timlin is a British author best known for his series of novels featuring Nick Sharman, a former Metropolitan Police officer who takes up the profession of private investigator in South London. He is also a renowned book reviewer and literary commentator. His most recent work is REAP THE WHIRLWIND.
Carlene O’Connor’s Distractions
Carlene O’Connor’s Distractions Posted on September 2, 2020 Updated on September 1, 2020 Are you ready for the first Christmas book of the season? Carlene O’Connor is the author of the Irish Village Mysteries. Her new one, Murder at an Irish Christmas, will be released October 27. It’s not too early to pre-order a copy. That book, and the others in her series, can be ordered through the Web Store.
Win A Copy Of The Novel 'All The Broken People' By Leah Konen
Home > Free Books > Free Giveways > Win A Copy Of The Novel ‘All The Broken People’ By Leah Konen RedCarpetCrash August 29, 20202020-08-29T03:28:19-05:002020-08-29T04:11:14-05:00 Fleeing Brooklyn with little more than a suitcase and her trusty dog, Lucy King heads to rustic Woodstock , New York, eager to lose herself in a quiet life where her past can never find her. But when she meets Vera and John, the alluring couple next door, their friendship proves impossible to resist.
Discovering the Women Authors Behind Hitchcock’s Movies
It was our Saturday night ritual. Pop the popcorn, turn the lights down, and watch whatever Hitchcock movie my mother and I could get our hands on. This was in the late nineties, long before Netflix or rentals-on-demand: we were at the mercy of the classic movie section of the local Blockbuster—or Turner Classic Movies if we timed it just right. Still, we did our best. Notorious. Indiscreet. Spellbound. Vertigo. Psycho. Rebecca.
7 Dark Thrillers About Friendships Gone Wrong
If you enjoy reading Electric Literature, join our mailing list! We’ll send you the best of EL each week, and you’ll be the first to know about upcoming submissions periods and virtual events. I braved the dating scene for nearly five years in New York, but it was a friend breakup that hurt me the most during those tumultuous early-20s. It felt so sudden, so cataclysmic, so altogether unexplainable. I found myself wanting so badly a chance to have another conversation—to get some sort of closure.
All the Broken People
“A steady narrative draws the reader into Lucy’s anxiety, and what might seem an implausible story is made believable by intricate plotting, culminating in a didn’t-see-that-coming conclusion.
Chef Daniel Boulud Restaurant Dishes
Michelin-star chef Daniel Boulud--ELLE DECOR's consulting editor and owner of award-winning restaurants DANIEL and Cafe Boulud--shares his finest recipes for appetizers, entrees, and desserts, as well as the stories behind them.
The Romantics (Hardcover) | ABRAMS
Perfect for fans of Lauren Myracle and Rainbow Rowell, The Romantics will charm readers of all ages. Gael Brennan is about to have his heart broken when his first big relationship crumbles on the heels of his parents’ painful separation. Love intervenes with the intention of setting things right—but she doesn’t anticipate the intrusion of her dreaded nemesis: the Rebound.
10 Best Hotel Designs Across The Globe
What first opened in 1990 as an exhibit by a French ice artist has since become a magical and rather chilly chance for guests from around the world to experience the feeling of sleeping in an igloo. Crafted from ice and snow, each year Ice Hotel is rebuilt by visiting artists and creators. Though the temperature never drops below 23 degrees Fahrenheit, guests don thermal underwear and hats and slip into a sleeping bag atop blocks of ice, a thick mattress, and reindeer skins.
Meet-Cutes in YA Books
I've long been a fan of the romantic movie meet-cute — I mean, who doesn't want to meet their love in transit, while out roaming the city, or on some sort of adorable adventure? But as a writer myself, I have a special love for the literary meet-cute, and specifically the kind in my favorite young adult books.
LOVE AND OTHER TRAIN WRECKS
Two teens dissect their issues over the course of an eventful journey. Noah is the hopeless romantic, traveling toward his ex in an effort to win her back. Ammy is the cynic, grudgingly heading toward her father’s second marriage ceremony. The two white teenagers meet on the train and swap some barbs before it breaks down. Desperate to reach their destination, Ammy and Noah head out into the snowstorm for a bus station that’s a mile away from their location.
Spark Teen Book Club
Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England!
Love Personality Type #3: The Drifter [EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK] | Leah Konen on WordPress.com
Again, a quick read might make you think that this is negative, but Love, our narrator in The Romantics, knows that there’s a place for each kind of love personality type. And so there is for the Drifter, as well. One who primarily seeks solitude and freedom from “being tied down” in romantic trysts. May result in missed opportunities, “ghosting,” general douchebaggery, and perpetual bachelor- or bachelorette-hood.
Spotlight on The Last Time We Were Us by Leah Konen, Plus Giveaway!
I got the idea for THE LAST TIME WE WERE US in one of those allatonce writer flashes (that I didn’t believe actually ever happened until it did happen). I was sitting in my mom’s house, looking at an old mirror and thinking about how my friends and I would have pretended it was a door into another universe way back when. I was hit with a pang of nostalgia, and suddenly I knew I wanted to write a romance about two friends who grew up together—and grew apart.
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