A Book A Week

All good country songs are tinged with a bit of heartache, and Dahlia “Doll” Devine has lived through enough pain to write a thousand of them. But reliving those moments feels too raw to put pen to paper, which is probably why Dahlia prefers to sing the classics instead. Dolly, Loretta, Patsy—the country queens whose songs echo pieces of her own life. Her stage may be small, just a corner of a local Chicago pub, but it’s hers.

For a while, life finally looked promising. Then Dahlia’s boyfriend, Joey, vanished, taking their rent money with him. Suddenly, she’s homeless, alone, and desperate for a break. With nowhere else to turn, she leans on Alex McPhee, the pub’s owner and the man who once helped her escape a rough childhood. Dahlia hates asking for help again, but she knows Alex has always been there when she’s needed him most.

They say when it rains, it pours, and that couldn’t be truer for Dahlia. One night, her mother—the woman she hasn’t spoken to in over twenty years—shows up at the pub without warning. The next day, a panicked young woman arrives asking about her missing mother. Dahlia’s mother. Even though the suburban mom the girl describes sounds nothing like the woman who abandoned her years ago, Dahlia agrees to help track her down. But when a body turns up outside the pub, it becomes clear that this reunion is only the beginning of something much darker. 

With Wreck Your Heart, Lori Rader-Day transports readers to the hazy corner of a hole-in-the-wall honky-tonk, a place that feels worn-in, authentic, and alive. You can practically hear the jukebox humming as you wait for the band to take the stage for their next set. Rader-Day populates this world with the kind of colorful, lived-in characters you’d expect to find there, all anchored by a down-on-her-luck heroine chasing dreams that feel just out of reach.

I was so invested in this setting and its people that I didn’t mind the slower burn as the story built toward its central mystery. And once it did, I was completely hooked. While Wreck Your Heart carries the bones of a classic whodunit, it’s doing something richer than that. At its core, this is a deeply felt character study that just happens to be driven by a mystery, resulting in a novel that feels engaging, original, and full of heart.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2026, 3)