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Books Mom Will Love 2023

Mother's Day

Books Mom Will Love 2023

Mother’s Day is a time to recognize the woman who raised and nurtured us. To celebrate, we gave you the opportunity to win 12 books for you or the special lady in your life in our 18th annual "Books Mom Will Love" contest. Scroll down to see the five winners!

 

This year's featured titles are:

  • ATALANTA by Jennifer Saint
  • BURNING DISTANCE by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
  • CODE NAME SAPPHIRE by Pam Jenoff
  • THE DUTCH ORPHAN by Ellen Keith
  • FORGED IN LOVE: Wyoming Sunrise, Book 1 by Mary Connealy
  • GO AS A RIVER by Shelley Read
  • GRACELAND by Nancy Crochiere
  • THE ISLAND VILLA by Sarah Morgan
  • THE LAST CAROLINA GIRL by Meagan Church
  • THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY by Sarah Penner
  • SUMMER ON SAG HARBOR by Sunny Hostin
  • THERE ARE NO RULES FOR THIS by JJ Elliott

Winners

Emily D. from Martinsville, IN
Gail S. from La Luz, NM
Gerri M. from Palos Heights, IL
Norma M. from Virginia Beach, VA
Susan C. from Aiken, SC

 

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint - Historical Fiction/Mythology

When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions.

Burning Distance by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman - Political Thriller/Mystery


When 10-year-old Elizabeth West’s father dies in a tragic plane crash, her family moves to London. Her mother marries a knighted British businessman who has two children, and Elizabeth (Lizzy) and her two sisters move in with their new family. At age 16, while attending the American School of London, Lizzy meets and falls in love with Adil Hasan. But when Adil’s father is deported, Lizzy and Adil are separated. Lizzy’s family has also become involved with French-German industrialist Gerald Rene Wagner. Little does she know that Adil’s family has ties to the man as well. When a member of her family is murdered in Berlin under mysterious circumstances, questions surface about Wagner’s dealings, and Lizzy reexamines what really may have happened to her father.

Code Name Sapphire by Pam Jenoff - Historical Fiction


1942Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin, Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind. Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother, Matteo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves?

The Dutch Orphan by Ellen Keith - Historical Fiction

When the Nazis invade Amsterdam in 1941, singer Johanna Vos watches in horror as the vibrant music scene she loves is all but erased, her Jewish friends forbidden from performing with her onstage. Alongside her friend Jakob, Johanna helps organize the Artists’ Resistance, an underground network allowing Jews to perform at house concerts hosted by their allies. When Johanna hears of a Jewish orphan headed for deportation, she does not think twice. She takes the baby in as her own, hiding the truth from even her own sister, Liesbeth. Meanwhile, Liesbeth finds herself in a dilemma, as she knows of her sister’s staunch support for the Resistance, but her husband supports the Nazis. When a charming member of the Dutch Fascist Party sets his eyes on her, her predicament only deepens.

Forged in Love: Wyoming Sunrise, Book 1 by Mary Connealy - Historical Romance


Mariah Stover is left for dead and with no memory when the Deadeye Gang robs the stagecoach she's riding in, killing both her father and brother. As she takes over her father's blacksmith shop and tries to move forward, she soon finds herself in jeopardy and wondering: Does someone know she witnessed the robbery and is still alive? Clint Roberts escaped to western Wyoming, leaving his painful memories behind. Hoping for a fresh start, he opens a diner where he creates fine dishes, but is met with harsh resistance from the townsfolk, who prefer to stick to their old ways. Clint and Mariah are drawn together by the trials they face in town, and Clint is determined to protect Mariah at all costs when danger descends upon her home. As threats pursue them from every side, will they survive to build a life forged in love?

Go as a River by Shelley Read - Fiction


Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land. Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland.

Graceland by Nancy Crochiere - Fiction


People-pleasing Hope Robinson can’t seem to please anyone lately --- not her slogan-spewing boss, not her pink-haired teenage daughter, and especially not her mother, flamboyant soap star Olivia Grant. Olivia loves Elvis more than Jesus, and now that she’s on oxygen, she insists that Hope take her on a final trip to Graceland. Eighteen years earlier, pregnant and distraught, Hope fled Tennessee with a secret agreement: to never reveal her baby’s father and never return to Memphis. Olivia, though, has never learned the word no. After she wrangles Hope’s impulsive daughter, Dylan, to drive her from Boston to Memphis with the promise of meeting her mystery father, Hope has no choice but to chase after them. Along the road to Memphis, everyone’s long-held secrets begin to unravel.

The Island Villa by Sarah Morgan - Fiction


Celebrated romance author Catherine Swift has topped the bestseller lists for decades, though her personal story hasn’t been quite so successful. Three failed marriages have left her relationship with her daughters strained, but that’s about to be rectified. Engaged yet again, Catherine is counting on this wedding to be what finally brings them together as a family. Adeline doesn’t know what’s worse --- that her mother is getting married a fourth time, or that she’s being guilted into witnessing the train wreck at Catherine’s luxury villa in Corfu. Cassie, on the other hand, is thrilled by her mother’s news and admires Catherine’s resilience. As Cassie and Adeline arrive on the island, they each have very different expectations of what this week will bring, but in the lead-up to the wedding, all will be revealed --- for better or worse.

The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church - Historical Fiction


For 14-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is as simple as it is free. Devoted to her lumberjack father and running through the wilds where the forest meets the shore, Leah's country life is as natural as the Loblolly pines that rise to greet the Southern sky. When an accident takes her father's life, Leah is wrenched from her small community and cast into a family of strangers with a terrible secret. Separated from her only home, Leah is kept apart from the family and forced to act as a helpmate for the well-to-do household. When a moment of violence and prejudice thrusts Leah into the center of the state's shameful darkness, she must fight for her own future against a world that doesn't always value the wild spirit of a Carolina girl.

The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner - Gothic Historical Mystery

1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike. Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But soon they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves.

Summer on Sag Harbor by Sunny Hostin - Fiction

Hard-working and accomplished, Olivia Jones has blazed an enviable career path in the finance world. But behind the veneer of her success, she is mourning several devastating losses and betrayals. Untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia moves to a summer home in The Hamptons. Here, she finds a close-knit community of African American elites who escape New York City for the beautiful beaches of the Hamptons. Since the 1930s, very few have known about this Historically Black Beachfront Community, and the residents like it that way. That is, until real estate developers discover the hidden gem. And now, the residents must fight for the soul of this HBBC. As the summer stretches on, Olivia teams up with her new friends to protect their community and, in doing so, discovers who she really is.

There Are No Rules for This by JJ Elliott - Fiction


People like Feeney Simms don’t commit suicide. Beautiful, charismatic, mother of two, wife to a handsome, successful husband, beloved by her friends --- this is not the typical picture of a tortured soul. But one summer night, Feeney drives to the beach and swallows a handful of pills. No note, no explanation, nothing. Just like that, she’s gone. Faced with this loss, Ali, Max and Liddy, Feeney’s closest friends, are left reeling, grappling with the devastating cocktail of grief, guilt and anger that’s left in the wake of a suicide. In a desperate attempt to avoid further loss, the three women make the unorthodox (and very Feeney-like) decision to hold their own funerals while they are still alive --- and the experience changes each of them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.