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Reviews

Reviews

by Catherine Ryan Hyde - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Thirteen-year-old Abby Hubble lives in an unhappy home in the Sierra Nevada foothills where her father makes life miserable for her and her mother, Mary. One day, Abby witnesses a man dump a litter of puppies into the nearby river. Diving in to rescue all seven, she knows she won’t be able to bring them home. Afraid for their fate at the pound, she takes them to an abandoned cabin, where all she can offer is a promise that she’ll be back the next day. To grieving widower Elliot Colvin, life has lost meaning. Looking for solace, he retreats to the hunting cabin he last visited years ago, before his wife’s illness. What he discovers is not at all what he expected: seven puppies and one determined girl with an indomitable heart.

by Charlie N. Holmberg - Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance

England, 1895. An unsolved series of magician murders and opus thefts isn’t a puzzle to Elsie Camden. But to reveal a master spellcaster as the culprit means incriminating herself as an unregistered spellbreaker. When Elsie refuses to join forces with the charming assassin, her secret is exposed, she’s thrown in jail, and the murderer disappears. But Elsie’s hope hasn’t vanished. Through a twist of luck, the elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey helps Elsie join the lawful, but with a caveat: they must marry to prove their cover story. Forced beneath a magical tutor while her bond with Bacchus grows, Elsie seeks to thwart the plans of England’s most devious criminal --- if she can find them.

by Jenny Colgan - Comedy, Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction

Rosie Hopkins has gotten used to busy London life. Although she might like a more rewarding career, and her boyfriend is not exactly the king of romance, she’s not complaining. And when she visits her Aunt Lilian's small country village to help sort out her sweetshop, she expects it to be dull at best. When Rosie arrives to help her aunt with the shop, the last thing Lillian wants is to slow down and wrestle with the secret history hidden behind the jars of beautifully colored sweets. But as Rosie gets Lilian back on her feet, breathes new life into the candy shop, and gets to know the mysterious and solitary Stephen, she starts to think that settling for what's comfortable might not be so great after all.

by Allison Brennan - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Something mysterious is killing the wildlife in the mountains just south of Tucson. When a college intern turned activist sets out to collect her own evidence, she, too, ends up dead. Local law enforcement is slow to get involved. That’s when the mobile FBI unit goes undercover to infiltrate the town and its copper refinery in search of possible leads. Detective Kara Quinn and FBI agent Matt Costa find themselves scouring the desolate landscape, which keeps revealing clues to something much darker. As the body count adds up, it’s clear they have stumbled onto much more than they bargained for. Now they must figure out who is at the heart of this mayhem and stop them before more innocent lives are lost.

by Sarah Beth Durst - Fantasy, Fiction

Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor --- a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived. Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice --- for each day he lives, she will live one less. She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. Defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility: Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all. 

by Andrew Mayne - Adventure, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Sloan McPherson and the Underwater Investigation Unit have discovered a van at the bottom of a murky Florida pond. Sealed inside the watery tomb are the bodies of four teenagers who disappeared 30 years ago after leaving a rock concert. To authorities, it looks like a tragic accident. To Sloan, it looks like murder. Every piece of evidence is starting to connect to a string of cold case vanishings throughout Florida. But when a fresh young kill is found in the Everglades, Sloan fears that her investigation has reawakened a monster. How can she catch someone who’s a genius at hiding in plain sight? By acting as prey. The dangerous gambit is working --- only too well. She’s being lured into a deception of the madman’s own design. Has Sloan set a trap for a serial killer? Or has he set one for her?

by Lauren Willig - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

A scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among Smith College’s Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former best friend, Emmeline Van Alden, reaches out and begs her to take the place of a girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College Relief Unit. Four months later, Kate and 17 other Smithies set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money, supplies and good intentions --- all of which immediately go astray.

by Ruth Druart - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Santa Cruz, 1953. Jean-Luc is a man on the run from his past. The scar on his face is a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation in France. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door. Paris, 1944. A young Jewish woman's past is torn apart in a heartbeat. Herded onto a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope. On a darkened platform, two destinies become intertwined, and the choices each person makes will change the future in ways neither could have imagined.

by Larry Loftis - Biography, History, Nonfiction, True Crime

As the US enters the Second World War, college graduate Aline Griffith is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes. Aline’s life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services --- forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats and titled Europeans, any of whom could be an enemy agent.

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted and Jackie Logsted - Comedy, Fiction, Humor, Romance

The Man has custody Monday through Friday, The Woman has custody on the weekends. But that's not enough for Gatz, who will do anything to bring them back together --- even if it kills him. And it almost did. Of course he knows chocolate is bad for him, especially two whole pounds of it, but it’s the risk he’s willing to take to get them back together. Gatz knows that The Man and The Woman are perfect for each other. How can they not see it too? She is an editor, and he’s a writer. She’s a social butterfly, and he’s as introverted as a guy can get. After the misguided death-by-chocolate attempt, Gatz thinks he still has time. But when New Man --- so handsome, so nice, so perfect --- enters The Woman's life, he realizes he’ll need to step up his game.