Desired by Dragons (dragon shifters bundle)

Author: Scarlett Grove
Stars: 3
Review by: Saraswati
This online bundle contains 15 full dragon stories from Grove. It will give you a dragon overdose if you read it all at once.

Chromium Dragon (Dragon Guards of Drakkaris bk6)

Author: Terry Bolryder
Stars: 4
Review by: Saraswati
I enjoy this series because of the slight chemistry mix on campy Sci-fi romances.   

Solan (My Single Alien bk1)

Author: Arcadia Shield
Stars: 4
Review by: Saraswati
This is a funny take on aiding a dating service. Mix in aliens and anything can happen.

Hide & Sneak (a Savannah Reid Mystery)

Author: G.A. McKevett
Stars: 4
Review by: Saraswati
I really enjoy this series and it makes for a great summer read. It’s interesting how more and more of the Georgia crowd is moving to California.

The Last Anniversary

Author: Liane Moriarty
Stars: 2
Review by: PAM!
I love Laine Moriarty books. This one is not as good as the others.

Abridged Classics : Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn't

Author: John Atkinson
Stars: 3
Review by: BookDancer
Read 100 books. In 20 minutes. Learn very little. Laugh a lot.

Beach House Reunion

Author: Mary Alice Monroe
Stars: 4
Review by: BookDancer
It wouldn't be summer without a visit to the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, and catching up with the Rutledge family. Continuing the warm inter-generational family saga, this latest installment in the Beach House series is a many-layered pleasure. Read this book and smell the salt air...

This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today

Author: Chrissy Metz
Stars: 3
Review by: Miss Lucy
This Is Me is a memoir by Chrissy Metz, who plays Kate on the TV show This Is Us. What I like most about Chrissy's book is how inspiring it is. Chrissy encourages everyone to go for their dreams. Also, reading this book made me really miss my "friends" from This Is Us- can't wait for the next season to start!

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted

Author: Elizabeth Berg
Stars: 4
Review by: August Mom
I listened to the funny, slice of life, can't make this up ….essays.  Read by the author with a female point of view and everything we "girlfriends" experience and power through.

The Woman in the Window

Author: A.J. Finn
Stars: 5
Review by: Judy E
A psychological thriller at its best. Be prepared to read nonstop as you meet Anna Fox as she confronts seeing a stabbing in an window in the house across the way with no one believing her. Author Finn’s use of short sentences and chapters interspersed with longer sentences and more involved chapters makes the reading experience meet the thrilling unfolding of details a great read. If you are a movie/tv buff there is an added treat to this novel. A glass of wine might help too.

Kitchen Confidential

Author: Anthony Bourdain
Stars: 4
Review by: mystery lover
About the working life in the kitchen. Look at who the workers are!?

Strength in What Remains

Author: Tracy Kidder
Stars: 4
Review by: Irene S.
Excellent bio of a young medical student who survived genocides of Rwanda and Burundi and escaped to the US to continue his education.

Second Chance

Author: Jane Green
Stars: 4
Review by: August Mom
Story of friends from the past gathering to process their grief after the tragic death of their beloved friend. The friendships rekindle and the group's life struggles are shared and healed. Ending is happy/sad.

Love in the Pressent Tense

Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Stars: 5
Review by: Carole Ann
A heartwarming story of an orphan raised by a highly compassionate and caring man who never gave up on seeing this boy succeed!

The Pilgrim

Author: Davis Bunn
Stars: 4
Review by: Carole Ann
The story of St. Helena and her search for the true cross.

Flight of the Sparrow

Author: Amy Beldon Brown
Stars: 4
Review by: Carole Ann
Historical fiction set in Massachusetts in the 17th century. The story deals with the clash between the Puritan culture and the native Americans. People can be so cruel and yet we can find goodness and high moral values in every group.

Congratulations to...

... our Week #10 Prize Winners:

• DebbyK
• Judy E

Progress So Far

Click on image to enlarge.

William Morrow in September

I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan

Twenty years ago, Cody Swift’s best friends, 11-year-old Scott and 10-year-old Charlie were beaten to death in Bristol, England.  In 2017, Sidney Noyce, the man convicted of the killings, hangs himself in prison, and Cody returns to Bristol as a pod-caster who is reinvestigating the murders, casting doubt on Noyce’s guilt.  The plot cleverly unfolds as it is told in the present day through Cody’s podcast, from Charlie’s mother’s point of view who is desperately trying to keep Cody away from her, and from the point of view DI John Fletcher who originally investigated the case, who is currently investigating another body found in the same location, his sections shifting seamlessly back twenty years ago.  The structure of the novel is inventive and effective; Jess is a well-developed character as she moves from a single mother with dangerous habits to a wife and mother strong enough to face the past while protecting her future, all with an unexpected outcome.  Don’t look away for a moment.

Coming in September

As the days grow cooler and the daylight wanes, take some extra time to read one of these new titles:

Sunrise Highway by Peter Blauner

The body of a young woman washes up on a beach in Far Rockaway Queens setting NYPD Detective Lourdes Robles on the trail of a killer, a trail that leads Lourdes back forth-years when a strong of murders began and a young, now police chief, Joseph Tolliver, lies at a grand jury investigation of the first murder to ensure the spin the local politicians want is put on int.  Lourdes is already under suspicion of using police resources for her own purposes as she tries to locate her younger sister who has been missing for over six months.  Lourdes is not sugar coated in anyway, and admits freely to her own faults and shortcomings.  Knowing who has been pulling the strings for over forty years, and know who is responsible for these murders that lead straight to the police chief and his crew in the DA’s office, takes nothing away from the plot as it weaves a trail from 1977 to 2012, just as Sandy was beginning to wreak havoc, to 1982, to present day when all loose ends are more than satisfactorily tied up.

Tell Me You’re Mine by Elisabeth Noreback

Swedish psychotherapist Stella Wildstrand is happily married, has a son, and a thriving practice.  When a young woman, Isabelle Karlsson, is referred to her, Stella is certain the university student is her infant daughter who has been missing, presumed dead, for the last twenty years.  Isabelle is vulnerable after the recent death of her father, and having to deal with her mother, Kersten, who borders on psychotic.  Kersten is depressed, lonely, and angry with the world.  The narrative is told in three parts, each one spiraling out of control more than the next, as each woman hovers on the brink of her own reality.  A little far-fetched in places, this debut has an ultimately satisfying, if somewhat creepy, conclusion.

Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel

Biographer Gabriel focuses on five early-to-mid-20^th century painters, who, some with the help of their artist husbands, were able to bring their own form of abstract expressionism to the New York School of Painters.  Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler, fought hard to be taken seriously as artists in their own rights, even as their husbands and lovers, including Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, became household names associated with the modern art movement.  Gabriel focuses not only on the women’s work and their relationships to their partners, but also places into social context the women coming out of the Great Depression and World War II ready to continue redefining their role as wives, mothers, and women.  Thoroughly researches and detailed, this book will appeal not only to modern art enthusiasts, but will find its place in women’s studies as well. 

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Many people fantasize about the five people, living or dead, they’d invite to a dinner party.  On Sabrina’s thirtieth birthday, that list comes to live, literally, as she dines with her best friend Jessica, from whom she has grown apart as Jessica’s life took a more traditional trajectory after the roommates graduated college:  marriage, house in the suburbs, and now a new baby.  Also present is Robert, the father from whom Sabrina has been estranged since she was a young child; Tobias, the great love of Sabrina’s life, a love that consumed the two of them to the point of exclusion, unable to live with each other in the rest of the world.  Originally on Sabrina’s list was Plato, but during college she replaced him with Professor Conrad, her philosophy professor, a man who unwittingly brought Sabrina and Tobias together a dozen years ago.  Rounding out the party is the ever elegant Audrey Hepburn whose mere presence and observations add sparkle and magic to the evening.  Told in alternating chapters between the party and Sabrina and Tobias’s relationship, a portrait of a tumultuous, at times painful, relationship emerges.  Interspersed are the details as to how and why Sabrina’s relationships do not always survive intact.  Slowly, Sabrina faces truths about her family, her relationships, and herself, hoping to mend, heal, and love before it is too late.  This bittersweet reflection is infused with just enough magic to offer hope.

Lies by T.M. Logan

Everything about Joe Lynch’s life appears to be average until he becomes a suspect in his wife Mel’s best friend’s husband Ben’s disappearance and probable death.  Driving his young son Wills home one evening, Wills spots his mother’s car pulling into a hotel parking lot.  Joe decides to surprise Mel and follows her in.  Joe sees Mel and Ben arguing, confronts Benin the parking desk, a confrontation that turns physical and ends with Ben on the ground unconscious.  Joe confronts Mel who assures him her contact with Ben is work related and nothing more.  Ben disappears and is presumed dead, Joe the primary suspect, though Joe doesn’t think Ben is dead because Joe is being taunted and threatened through his social media and is certain Ben is behind it.  Realizing life as he knows it has been built on lies, Joe begins to untangle the lies, expose Ben, and restore his life, but what he finds is something he never suspected.  A taut cat and mouse game, the tension runs high as Joe tries to unravel a web of deceit; though the ending is a surprise it feels rushed, abrupt, and a little too unexpected to be completely satisfying.

A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier

Retired military police officer and Marcy Carr and bomb-sniffing dog Elvis have both retired from the service following the death of Marcy’s fiancé and Elvis’s handler Martinez.  Both still grieving for Martinez and the life they were going to have, the pair spends much of their time hiking the woods of rural Vermont. One morning Elvis finds an abandoned baby, what appears to be human bones, and traces of explosives.  Game Warden Troy Warden and his companion, Newfoundland Suzie Bear, join Marcy and Elvis, to the displeasure of the local police, to locate the baby’s mother and identify the bones. The baby disappears from the hospital, reappears at Marcy’s house with the mother, who claims to be on the run from the baby’s father who is an artist, but also a political activist, possibly trying to live off the grid.  Fans of mysteries featuring dogs will feel right at home, but the plot and characters are well-enough drawn to entice many readers to this first book in a new series.

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

Lisa is a 40-year-old single mother trying to live a quiet life, out of the spotlight, raising her daughter Ava the best she can.   As Ava turns sixteen, it becomes more obvious that Lisa is on high alert, but for who and for what?  Marilyn, Lisa’s best friend at work has her own secrets hidden behind what appears to be a perfect marriage.  As Lisa begins to live a little more, dating a rich client, she lets her guard down a little; when her secret is revealed, the twists don’t stop coming, weaving in and out of the stories of the three women until a shocking picture is revealed.  The tropes are familiar, but the tension and stakes are  high, leading to not one, but two surprising conclusions.

Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

There is a remote town in Northern Scotland, Wigtown, which is a destination for many book lovers.  Shaun Bythell is the current owner of the Book Shop, one of the largest used bookstores in Scotland, and a keen observer of his eclectic customers and staff.  At the age of 31, twelve years after first observing that the Book Shop would close in short order, Bythell becomes its owner.  Nearly 20 years later the shop is still in business, and not only attracts local customers but customers from around the world, along with internet sales.  This day-to-day diary not only includes Bythell’s wry observations of his staff and customers, anecdotes about what people are looking for, but also a tally of online orders, books found, total customers, and the total sales for the day.  There is a used bookstore in Wigtown that allows people to come and “be the owner” for a time, but the wait list is several years long, so until then, book fanciers will find much in these pages to enjoy and will find themselves dipping into it over and over again.  Quotes from George Orwell’s essay “Bookshop Memories” can be found interspersed and are right at home.