Secrets From the Past by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Janet

Zachary North, a man who has spent years in the midst of photographying the horrors of war, must come out to recover from its affects. He isn’t eating, sleeping, or talking. Serena Stone, a second generation photojournalist who had previously covered war in the middle east, is the only person that can help him overcome the haunting intrusions that occupy his mind. Through Zachary’s recovery, Serena discovers many Secrets From the Past leading her & Zac back to the war scenes of Libya to untangle the mysteries of her own family troubles that she had previously never known existed.

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Judi

Kinsella’s latest novel Wedding Night is a romantic romp filled with comedy, misunderstandings, charming but flawed characters and laugh out loud moments. Lottie is sure her boyfriend Richard is going to propose and when he does not, she is heartbroken. Making one of her unfortunate choices (as her sister Fliss calles them), Lottie runs into an old flame Ben–she fell in love with him during a holiday break in Greece when they were 18. They decide to marry and head off to the same Greek island for their honeymoon. Fliss is determined to end the marriage and heads off to Greece with her son, Ben’s best friend and Richard tags along as well. Chaos ensues as Fliss tries to keep Ben and Lottie from consummating the marriage in order to get an annulment. The plot is wildly hilarious, the characters likeable and engaging and the honeymoon turns into a nightmare–a fun, madcap comedy sure to bring a smile as you read!

The Dance by Dan Walsh

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Janet

Can a woman be in love with her husband and hate him at the same time? Marilyn is tired, tired of playing a role she doesn’t feel. After 27 years, leaving was her only hope of getting the man she married to wake-up and love her like she needed to be loved. The end of her happiness with Jim began the day they were married and the moment he failed to join her on the dance floor.

Marilyn loved to dance and had asked Jim to take dance lessons with her many times over their years together. So, signing-up for dance lessons was her first order of business after leaving Jim. When the dance instructor becomes enamoured with Marilyn’s dancing skill and asks her to join him in a dance contest, feelings of romance begin to grow.

The Dance is about relationships, growing and overcoming fears that keep us from truly loving our partner as they need to be loved. With Dan Walsh’s ability to write and Gary Smalley’s ability to deal with relationships this is a very enlightening & touching story.

This Is How It Ends: A Novel by Kathleen MacMahon

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Mary

The first novel of Irish journalist, Kathleen MacMahon is a compelling love story that hints at a tragic end almost from the start. Addie is an unemployed architect that designs dream swimming pools, takes daily swims with her dog, and cares for her recently injured father, a self-important surgeon. An American banker, Bruno, who is divorced and just finding himeself unemployed after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, travels to Ireland to research his family tree and locate Irish cousins. The two second cousins meet and begin a romance in 2008 against the backdrop of the presidential elections. (Bruno vows that he won’t return if Obama doesn’t win). As they spend their time traveling around Ireland, adjusting to each other’s cultural differences and meeting family and friends, Addie is ignoring a pain that her sister keeps nagging her about. In This is How It Ends, lighthearted banter, interesting characters, challenging times all unite to create a memorable story that keeps begging to be read.

The Confidant by Helene Gremillon

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Mary

Lifelong family secrets are revealed through a series of letters which arrive along with condolence notes in this novel written by French novelist Helene Gremillon. Camille, a single woman in her thirties has just lost her mother and has recently found herself to be pregnant. She begins receiving long, unsigned letters telling a story that she knows nothing about. As they continue to arrive she learns of a previous war time love triangle. Wealthy Monsieur and Madame M cannot conceive a child. Madame M is deperate to have a baby, and the wartime efforts are pushing all women to have children. She befriends a teenage girl of lower class and helps provide the necessary art supplies that Annie needs to encourage her creativity. Annie becomes so close to Madame M that she empathizes with her to the point of offering to have her child.

This dark tale of love gone wrong jumps between the present and the past with many twists and involved secrets. Camille begins to guess that these letters may involve her much more deeply than she wants to know in The Confidant.

Vanity Fare: a Novel of Latte, Literature and Love by Megan Caldwell

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Judi

Molly Hagan is a 40 year old mother with a 6 year old son and a husband–soon to be ex-husband, who dumped her for a younger woman. He has lost his job and has fallen behind in his child support payments, forcing Molly to look for work after being a stay-at-home Mom for several years. Feeling insecure about her abilities, her age, her skills and her body, Megan takes a job offered by a friend as a copy writer, designing the menu and name for a new bakery near the New York Public Library. The owners want a tie in with books, and Molly uses her ability to create puns as a source for the name of the bakery–Vanity Fare. Molly is a wonderfully written character and we see her change and grow through the book, becoming more confident in who she is and what she wants out of life. Molly’s circle of friends and supporters are likeable characters and are well-drawn. There is romance and humor, and the names for the baked goods at the bakery–”Tart of Darkness”, “Of Mousse and Men” for example, are tied to literary references. This is a delightful story, filled with fun, descriptions of wonderful desserts and starring a woman who struggles to turn into the person she aspires to be.

The Peach Keeper

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Janet

by Sarah Addison Allen

Something just didn’t add up as I read this story, I knew there was a mystery lurking in the background, but I wasn’t sure what it was or why. Secrets were behind every turn. Willa Jackson had just moved back to Walls of Water, North Carolina. Her grandmother, Georgie Jackson, was in the nursing home there and seemed to be worried about peaches.

Paxton Osgood, now lived in The Blueridge Madam mansion, which at one time had belonged to the Jackson family. Paxton’s grandmother, Agatha Osgood, was Georgie’s best friend. Paxton decided to have a grand party to celebrate the social woman’s group that Agatha and Georgie had started years ago. Willa wasn’t interested in the event to honor both grandmothers, but when the peach tree was taken out and a skeleton was found, the secrets come out. Then we find out about the traveling salesman, Tucker Devlin, who had worked his charms on the town when Agatha and Georgie were young women. By the end of the book, both Willa and Paxton fall in love, secrets are unraveled, and everyone lives happily ever after.

The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Mary

For all Austen enthusiasts Syrie James has written a novel in the essence and style of Jane. It begins with a contemporary story of American librarian, Samantha McDonough, discovering a hidden letter written by Jane Austen in the back of a book of poetry while vacationing in London She gains enough insight from the letter to begin to believe that Jane has written and lost another manuscript while visiting friends at Greenbrier in Devonshire. Pursuing this exciting possibility, Samantha meets handsome owner of Greenbrier, Anthony Whtaker and begins the search within his home. Now the story within the story begins when the manuscript is found and the two begin reading it to each other. We walk the streets of Bath with Austen characters in a story with all the atmosphere, romance and charm found in a Jane Austen novel.

The Best Man by Kristan Higgins

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Judi

Faith Holland is heading home to upstate New York and her family, after having been jilted at the altar 3 years earlier by her fiancée Jeremy, who chose their wedding day to inform her that his sexual preferences were geared to men rather than women. His Best Man at the wedding, Levi Cooper, is the one who convinced Jeremy to cancel the wedding and Faith has resented him since. Levi is now the Chief of Police in Manningsport and still Jeremy’s best friend. Faith returns to her family and it’s winery and her friends in this small town where everyone knows everything that happens. Both Levi and Faith have issues in their past that keep them from building relationships, and both must deal with them before they can move on with their lives. The Best Man is a typical Kristan Higgins novel, filled with quirky characters, laugh out loud scenes, funny dialog and characters you grow to care about. The path to finding love is a bumpy one for Levi and Faith and their vulnerability and likeability make this a perfect romance!

A Time to Dance

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Janet

by Karen Kingsbury

Every one believes that John and Abby Reynolds are and have always been madly in love. After 22 years of marriage, no one but John and Abby know the truth. The day they had decided to tell their children that they were filing for divorce, was the day their daughter announced her engagement. They couldn’t tell them now, not until after the wedding six months down the road. How could they keep up the farce for that long.

They have left there faith by the wayside and now their love for one another doesn’t exist. Abby believes John is having an affair, despite John’s insistence that he is not. John believes Abby is envolved with her editor, but Abby insists it isn’t true. Although, A Time to Dance is mainly about John and Abby, there are many other interesting characters involved with this story of life. I read this book from the Sunflower eLibrary, but it is available in hard copy too.

Big Sky Country by Linda Lael Miller

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Linda

In the Big Sky Country of Montana, Sheriff Slade Barlow, the illegitimate son of a wealthy rancher, grew up in a trailer hitched to the Curly-Burly hair salon his mother ran. Suddenly, Slade has inherited half of the most prosperous ranch in Parable, Montana- Whisper Creek Ranch- owned by his father. His father never acknowledged Slade, and his half-brother, Hutch, is shocked and furious by the will his father has made. With a town to protect, a rebellious teenage step-daughter and the return of Joslyn Kirk, an old flame, and a furious half-brother, Slade has his hands full. This new western romance series from Miller continues with Hutch’s story in Big Sky Mountain.

A Royal Pain by Megan Mulry

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Judi

Bronte Talbot is an ad agency executive, working in New York City and living a fast-paced life. Having had a failed romance, she is not interested in developing a relationship with a new man. When Max Heyworth, a graduate student, comes into her life, she views him as an ideal man to have a fling with, as he is returning to Britain in a few weeks. Max, however, is interested in a long-term relationship and falls for Bronte in a big way. Due to her insecurities, Bronte is reluctant to commit to Max, and is surprised to discover that he is the future Duke of Northrop. Can they overcome their differences and find love? A Royal Pain is a charming love story–with smart, likeable main characters who change and grow emotionally. There are many humorous moments and colorful supporting characters that make this an amusing contemporary romance.

A Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Judi

Nora Roberts concludes her Boonsboro Inn trilogy (The Next Always, The Last Boyfriend) with The Perfect Hope, the story of the third Montgomery brother Ryder and the innkeeper Hope. Hope has come to Boonsboro after losing her heart to the wrong man and her hotel manager job in Washington, D.C. She loves the restored Inn Boonsboro and runs the inn with care and attention to detail. Her close friends Avery and Clare are in relationships with two of the three Montgomery brothers who worked to restore the old inn to it’s current grandeur. Ryder has always been a mystery to her–a man of few words who appears short-tempered and not particularly sociable. When her former boyfriend appears with a less than respectable proposal, Ryder comes to Hope’s defense, and both realize the unavoidable attraction between them. Roberts writes with humorous, witty dialog and touching family interactions. The entire family becomes involved in trying to solve the mystery of the inn’s ghost Lizzy’s “Billy”–who was he and why is she waiting for him? This is a charming story with likeable, strong and independent characters, a sweet love story and a strong-willed ghost–a perfect ending to this trilogy.

Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Judi

In Tempting the Bride David Hastings, haven fallen in love with Helena Fitzhugh when he was 15 years old, does anthing he can to gain her attention, including torment her and make rude comments. His pride keeps him from disclosing his true feelings, and Helena grows into a vibrant, independent, well-educated business woman who wants nothing to do with Hastings. When Helena makes a decision that could result in scandal, Hastings is there to save her reputation,and the couple is forced into marriage. Helena despises Hastings until an unfortunate accident erases her memory of the recent past. Hastings finally has his chance to make his true feelings known and to court the woman he has loved for most of his life. The characters in this romance are strong personalities–both are arrogant and obstinate but also vulnerable, dialog is witty and the love story is believable and touching–a charming and entertaining story.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: a Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Rhonna

When Frankie Pratt graduates from high school in 1920, she receives a scrapbook and her father’s old Corona typewriter. She can’t wait to leave her small New Hampshire home town and take on the world as a writer, but of course complications ensue. Frankie’s experiences include education, heartbreak, encouragement, and decisions both misguided and brave. We get to be there every step of the way as she types up her journal entries for her scrapbook and includes letters, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, and ticket stubs for our archival pleasure. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is a quick and delightful read with images that bring her and her era to life.

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