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Reviews

Reviews

by Elin Hilderbrand - Fiction, Romance

Clendenin Hughes is the boy who took Dabney Kimball Beech’s heart with him long ago when he left Nantucket to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. Now, after spending 27 years on the other side of the world, Clen is back on the island, and Dabney has never felt so confused or so alive. But when tragedy threatens her own second chance, Dabney must face the choices she's made and share painful secrets with her family.

by Lauren Willig - Fiction, Women's Fiction

While Daisy Shoemaker tries to identify the root of her recent dissatisfaction --- maybe her distant husband, "handful" of a daughter or thriving but still trivial-feeling cooking business --- she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental, and perhaps the slight punctuation mishap that kickstarted the emails wasn't a mistake after all. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?

by Elise Juska - Fiction, Women's Fiction

When John Blessing dies and leaves behind two small children, the loss reverberates across his extended family for years to come. His young widow, Lauren, finds solace in her large clan of in-laws, while his brother's wife Kate pursues motherhood even at the expense of her marriage. Through departures and arrivals, weddings and reunions, THE BLESSINGS reveals the interior worlds of the members of a close-knit Irish-Catholic family and the rituals that unite them.

by Elizabeth McCracken - Fiction, Short Stories

At the center of Elizabeth McCracken's stories is often a jagged space left by loss: a neighborhood is haunted by a child's ghost, a library staff grapples with the mystery of a patron's death, a corner store manager obsesses over a missing woman, a son absconds forever with his parents' savings. But equally present in this new story collection --- McCracken's first in 20 years --- are passion, charm, humor and joy.

by Holly Peterson - Fiction

Allie Crawford has the life she always dreamed of. But when she finds her husband locked in their laundry room with a stunning blonde, a scandal ensues that flips her life on its head. And when the woman wants to befriend Allie, an old flame calls, and a new guy gets a little too close for comfort, she starts to think her marriage is more of a facade than something real. Maybe she's fallen in love not with Wade, but with the idea of him.

by Nancy Horan - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance

At the age of 35, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium --- with her three children and nanny in tow --- to study art. Not long after her arrival, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets Robert Louis Stevenson, and the two begin a fierce love affair that spans the decades and the globe.

by Gary Shteyngart - Nonfiction

After three acclaimed novels, Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty and deeply poignant account of his life so far. Swinging between a Soviet home life and American aspirations, Shteyngart found himself living in two contradictory worlds, all the while wishing that he could find a real home in one. And somebody to love him. And somebody to lend him 69 cents for a McDonald’s hamburger.

by Fannie Flagg - Fiction, Humor, Mystery

THE ALL-GIRL FILLING STATION'S LAST REUNION is a fun-loving mystery about an Alabama woman today and five women who worked in a Phillips 66 gas station during the World War II years. The one and only Fannie Flagg, the beloved author of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE, is at her hilarious and superb best here.

by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon - Nonfiction, Reference, Writing

WRITERS BETWEEN THE COVERS rips the sheets off real-life love stories of the literati --- some with fairy tale endings and others that resulted in break-ups, breakdowns and brawls. From the best break-up letters to the stormiest love triangles to the boldest cougars and cradle-robbers, this fun and accessible volume reveals literary history’s most titillating loves, lusts and longings.

by John Searles - Fiction, Mystery

Sylvie Mason’s parents have an unusual occupation --- helping “haunted souls” find peace. After receiving a strange phone call one winter’s night, they leave the house and are later murdered in an old church in a horrifying act of violence. A year later, the inquisitive teenager pursues the mystery, moving closer to the knowledge of what occurred that night --- and to the truth about her family’s past and the secrets that have haunted them for years.