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Reviews

Reviews

by Sara Zarr - Fiction, Young Adult 12+
Before she turned 14, Lucy Beck-Moreau had a promising future as a concert pianist. Now at 16, it's over, leaving her talented 10-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the family expectations. Gus gets a new piano teacher who is interested in helping Lucy rekindle her love of piano. But when you're used to performing for sold-out audiences and world-famous critics, can you ever learn to play just for yourself?
by Elizabeth Kelly - Fiction, Historical Fiction

It’s 1972, and Riddle James Camperdown’s father is running for office from the family compound in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Between Camp’s desire to toughen her up and his wife Greer’s demand for glamour, Riddle has her hands full juggling her eccentric parents. When she accidentally witnesses a crime close to home, her confusion and fear keep her silent. As the summer unfolds, the consequences of her silence multiply.

by Lionel Shriver - Fiction

For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. But her husband, Fletcher, now spurns her “toxic” dishes and devotes hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

by Joanna Hershon - Fiction

In 1962, two students meet one evening during their senior year at Harvard --- Ed, a Jewish kid on scholarship, and Hugh, a Boston Brahmin with the world at his feet. Ed is ambitious and girl-crazy, while Hugh pines for the one girl he's ever loved. An immediate, intense friendship is sparked that night between these two opposites, which ends just as abruptly, several years later, although only one of them understands why.

by Patricia Beard - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Set in 1948 at an idyllic beach community called Wauregan, this debut novel introduces readers to Helen Wadsworth, whose husband has been declared missing since an OSS operation in France during World War II. She is currently vacationing with her 14-year-old son, Jack, as they always have done. While she waits for news about what happened to her husband and longs for his return, two other men fall for her, which brings drama to the summer.

by Suzanne Rindell - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Rose Baker is a typist in a New York City Police Department precinct. It is 1923, and while she may hear every detail about shootings, knifings and murders, as soon as she leaves the interrogation room, she is once again the weaker sex. When glamorous Odalie joins the typing pool, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie’s high-stakes world. And soon her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.

by Daphne Kalotay - Fiction

Hazel and Remy spot each other for the first time in years. Remy, a gifted violinist, is married to the Scottish composer Nicholas Elk --- once the love of Hazel's life, now struggling with a masterwork he cannot realize. In the 20 years since Hazel's world was tipped on its axis, these three artists have faced unexpected joys, mysterious afflictions and other puzzles of life, their fates irrevocably interlaced.

by Jean Thompson - Fiction

After surviving a shooting at her high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father. His neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund. Meanwhile, Conner, the Fosters’ handyman, has become the one person in which Linnea can confide. As these characters and many more hurtle toward their fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At what price?

by Kristin Hannah - Fiction, Women's Fiction

FLY AWAY is the story of three women who have lost their way and need each other --- plus a miracle --- to transform their lives. An emotionally complex, heart-wrenching novel about love, motherhood, loss and new beginnings, this long-awaited follow-up to FIREFLY LANE reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness.

by Lisa Ballantyne - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Solicitor Daniel Hunter is called to defend 11-year-old Sebastian, who has been charged with the murder of a young boy on a London playground. While examining Sebastian’s life in order to save it, Daniel can’t help but be transported to his own difficult youth spent in foster care --- a time when the one he trusted the most was the one who betrayed him.