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Nicki Price has just arrived in the Big Easy with her newly minted private detective's license and the desire to get to work right away, hopefully with her cousin Nate Price who has his own detective agency. Nicki plans to use her investigative skills to not only help Nate and make some money but to solve her father's murder from years ago. Nate tries to put Nicki off but she won't be deterred and follows Nate to a client meeting and manages to insinuate herself into the investigation of a recent murder.

Hunter Galen has a big problem. His business partner and friend has been found murdered

Evelyn Wolfe, black ops CIA intelligence officer, is looking for her kidnapped sister.  When the van supposedly holding her sister explodes, Evelyn is knocked out and scooped up by ex-CIA agent and current Ageis Security agent (and former lover) Zane Archer.  Archer is out to get Eve for something that happened on their last mission together.  Now both are implicated in the bombing that injured several innocent bystanders. When Eve wakes up, she and Archer must set aside their differences while they clear their names and find Eve's sister. Who can they trust? Each other? No one? What really

In The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves readers were introduced to four wealthy boys of Aglionby Academy: Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah. And to Blue Sargent, an eccentric teen raised by a family of psychics who have predicted that Blue's true love will die if she ever finds and kisses him. Despite the differences in their socioeconomic backgrounds the five become comrades in the search for the elusive sleeping King of Wales, Owen Glendower, around the ley lines of their small town, Henrietta, Virginia. So far we have seen them tackle ghosts, dream manifestations that become real, and confront

I picked up The Soul of an Octopus because, ten years ago, I was utterly enamored with Sy Mongtomery’s The Good Good Pig. My expectations were so high that the contrast between what I learned about the inner lives of octopuses, and the Stockholm Syndromesque relationships between them and their keepers, quickly became too disappointing—and too tiring—for me to enjoy.

The subtitle “A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness” clearly states Montgomery’s purpose. And she starts her exploration off well enough. She’s meeting Athena, the New England Aquarium’s 40-pound, 2-1/2-year

Viann Rossignol is a loving mother and wife who lives in a small, country town. She has a best-friend who has a daughter the same age as hers and even though she has experienced loss with multiple miscarriages, she still remains content with her life. Her younger sister Isabelle is a rambunctious young woman living in Paris. She always looks for a battle and is not afraid to stand up for herself. Since she and Viann were given up as children by her distant father, Isabelle has always gotten herself thrown into and out of boarding schools across France. Unable to think of anything further to do

Don’t be turned off by the title; Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a stimulating book that aims to entertain while educating and expanding the way one thinks. From the authors of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics comes the third in the series of what I like to call “interesting non-fiction” that is easily accessible and understandable by the average reader.

The crux of this book is an economic look at various cases where people approached their situation differently than conventional wisdom would prescribe. The stories and studies range from how the world

Do you ever dream of working with monkeys in the Costa Rican rainforest?  How about teaching English in Thailand, or helping orphans in India?  Well John Marshall did and in a radical move to connect better with their teenage son and daughter, he and his wife quit their jobs and took a six month voluntourism break from life.  Wide Open World is the story of how six months moving around the globe volunteering changed all of their lives forever. 

As someone who loves to travel, I really appreciated Marshall’s honesty about the difficulties of the family’s trip, as well as, the wonders they

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal centers around the life of a young chef, Eva Thorvald. Through shifting narratives we follow Eva as a young girl growing exotic habaneros, see her struggle to support her father while interning at a restaurant, fall foolishly in love and finally start her own exclusive dinner club. The story weaves around her, told by: her father, a culinary rival, a cousin and other acquaintances, each perspective adding a bit of color to her portrait.

Stradal's first novel reads like a love letter to the Midwest, specifically Minnesota where he grew up

Growing up in a rural British Columbia is difficult enough for Jess, Courtney and Dani Campbell before their mother dies.  But after their mother passes things really get difficult. One night things get really bad; Jess grabs the shotgun and accidentally shoots and kills their dad.  Afraid of what will happen, the girls hide the body and take off for Vancouver before anyone can realize what has happened. When the truck breaks down in the middle of nowhere they reluctantly accept help from two young men who are passing by and things go unbelievably downhill from there.  Because they fear a

At sixteen, Letty Espinosa has everything going for her – she’s young, pretty and smart with a handsome boyfriend who loves her. Only the sky is the limit. When she discovers she is pregnant, all her hopes and dreams are suddenly dashed. Now a 33-year old single mother of two, working several menial jobs to bring in money for her family, she has been living somewhat irresponsibly while her mother has been raising her two children. When her mother decides to return to Mexico to join her husband in their country of origin, Letty is suddenly faced with the responsibility of being a mother – a

Imagine a land far, far away where an evil Wood marks the boundaries around small towns. This Wood is a constant reminder to the citizens of Dvernik and other towns that they need the wizard called Dragon to protect them from its powers. In exchange for protecting them, he comes every ten years and selects a young girl to live with him and those girls never return to live in the valley. So it is not surprising that the girls up for the choosing do not want to leave their families and their lives, both of which they hold dear. One choosing day, the Dragon mistakenly chooses clumsy Agnieszka

Having had 3 children graduate high school and then college, I’ve read and gifted my share of “go out there and do great things” type of inspirational books. A few that have earned my readership and admiration are Dr. Suess’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go, followed by Neil Gaiman’s Make Good Art, Anna Quindlen’s A Short Guide to a Happy Life, and Ann Patchett’s What Now?

But J. K. Rowling’s Very Good Lives may take this genre to a whole new level. This book is the graduation speech she gave at the commencement for the Harvard Class of 2008. She didn’t write the best selling series of all time and

On the surface, Tell the Wolves I’m Home, is about June Elbus, a young girl whose favorite uncle dies of AIDS in 1987. It’s the early days, when misinformation, fear, and hate rule the day. With a 2012 publication date (and a 2015 reading) I read of June’s experience with a perspective that time, distance and education afford. For me, the book isn’t so much about AIDS and how that terrifying diagnosis affects the Elbus family but about what happens when you allow fear, and disappointment, and blame to dictate your behavior and parenting decisions.

No doubt, June is a special person. Her uncle

David Gordon gives us a new twist on the serial killer novel and it’s a welcome addition. The Serialist is his first novel and was nominated for the 2011 Edgar Mystery Award.

Serial killer Darian Clay hires Harry Bloch to visit the women who send him letters and write stories about them. In exchange, Clay promises the inside story on the women he has killed (like where their heads are), guaranteeing a bestseller.

Bloch is presented as an intelligent but inept writer, and as the novel progresses the reader sees him grow into the role that is thrust upon him. Some of the gore might be off

I was lucky enough to hear AS King speak when she visited our Library in August 2015. Eventually, after much fascinating talk, one of the moderators got around to asking her about her newest book, I Crawl Through It. "What's it about?" We all laughed, as we had earlier established how difficult it can be to neatly summarize a King novel. But then King's expression turned serious and she said, "It's about the way teens have to deal, daily, with both intruder drills and standardized tests - and how messed up that is." I had already been planning on reading King's new book, but now I knew, I had to read it now.

Vanessa Kelly returns to the Renegade Royals with her fourth book (sixth book if you count the two digital novellas) in the series, How to Marry a Royal Highlander.  We were introduced to the Whitney twins and their family in book three, How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy, and this novel follows up with the romance of Edie Whitney and former spy, Alasdair Gilbride. 

Gilbride is actually heir to a Scottish earldom but has been avoiding his responsibilities to both the earldom and his arranged marriage since he was 16 years old.  Unfortunately, his time has run out.  With his grandfathers’

In the near future the world is in turmoil with economic collapse, droughts, fuel shortages and rising conflicts between nations. The United States Army is trying its best to keep an all-out global crisis from happening and they are using the Remote Infantry Corps, or “Tin Men” to do it. These Tin Men are nearly indestructible robot peacekeepers “piloted” remotely by American soldiers. Terrorists and anarchists join forces hoping to find vulnerability in the Tin Men and take them out; and if the modern world crumbles in the process, all the better.

Christopher Golden can write some thrilling

In 1920s France, British governess Rachel Woodley abruptly quits her job to return home to her ailing mother. Upon her arrival in England, she is devastated to find that her mother has already died. With no money, no remaining family, and her childhood home about to be swept from beneath her by a greedy landlord, Rachel is truly unmoored. Things become even more confusing when, among her mother’s things, she finds a photo from a current magazine of her father, whom she had been told died when she was a child. And, she discovers he's an earl with a wife and two other (recognized, legitimate)

I’m not sure Ellison’s family drama with its slow reveal shouldn’t be called A Series of Significant Indiscretions, as there are so many. Both past and present. The true title, A Small Indiscretion, leads a reader to believe that our protagonist, Annie Black’s happiness is at risk by the revelation of a past mistake. But really, she and her family might have overcome any part of her past, if only she will behave as the adult she’s grown into instead of the nineteen year old self she fled from twenty years ago.

When we first meet Annie she is a young, single American working in a London

Published in 2014 this book is an updated version of Kathleen Peddicord’s How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well Abroad. The two authors have extensive experience living in Latin America, as they moved there to work for International Living magazine in 2001. This edition does a good job of going over all of the basics of moving abroad, including the factors you should seriously consider before making a move.  It is very detailed when it comes to the Central and South American countries that offer the best options for expats.  Each of these countries gets its own

Retired Army sniper Finn O'Donnell thinks he's buying a quiet little ranch near the sleepy little town of Burnt Boot, Texas. Near his family but far enough away that he can enjoy the peace, quiet and solitude after two tours in the Middle East. What Finn gets is a ranch right smack dab in the middle of two feuding Burnt Boot founding families whose shenanigans are always causing some uproar, a foul mouthed parrot, a tiny dog, an interfering bossy grandma and her busybody friends from town, and a ranch hand who hates ranching and her nephew who are trying to avoid witness protection. Not

I was reading through NPR's Happy Ever After: 100 Swoon-Worthy Romances, and for the most part, I agree with the list and am happy to find some of my favorites: Julie James, Nora Roberts, Joanna Bourne, and Jennifer Ashley. 

I really enjoy Grace Burrowes' Windham series, but none of her subsequent series have tempted me enough to start reading. So, when I saw The Captive on the list, I decided it was time to give it a try. It also fits nicely with this other NPR article, Don't Know Much About History? Read A Romance.

Christian Severn, Duke of Mercia, has returned to England after months of

This historical mystery, set in Imperial China in the late 1700s, is an absolute delight. It must be incredibly tough as an author to write a book like this – not only do you have to get the culture and history right, but you also have to create realistic characters and a compelling mystery. Debut novelist Elsa Hart takes all these threads – and a few more – and deftly weaves them into an excellent novel. This is a mesmerizing, riveting mystery - one of those novels where you read the last page, close the book, and sigh contentedly as if you just ate an incredibly satisfying meal.

The novel

Writer Taisy Cleary moves into the pool house at her father's house, invited there after two decades of silence. Wilson, her absent and hateful father, is recovering from heart surgery and wants her to write his memoir. Taisy's presence is at first greatly resented by Willow, her little known half-sister. Willow is sixteen and after being homeschooled her whole life, is forced to attend high school and is struggling to fit in. Up until now, Willow's world has been tightly controlled by her father.

Taisy secretly hopes her return to her hometown will bring her into contact with Ben, her first

Tessa Dare is one of my favorite newer romance authors, even though I had some problems with her first book, Goddess of the Hunt. The way it starts is enough to turn me off continuing: the heroine barges into the hero’s room at night demanding he help her practice kissing. Lucy Waltham wants to learn how to entice Toby, her brother’s friend whom she’s loved for years although he’s never shown any signs of reciprocating. She thinks that Jeremy Trescott, another friend of her brother’s whom she’s always felt antagonistic towards, will be a safe learning experience because no feelings will be

Eight Hundred Grapes, the number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine, is a story about relationships – with spouses, fiancés, family, self, and home.

Georgia Ford is certain she’s made the right choices for herself. She has a stable job and a fiancé who really seems to understand her. They’re about to move to London to her dream house and neighborhood, where she can build a life for herself away from the tumult and uncertainty of her family and the family business - a vineyard in Northern California.

So why does it all seem to be falling apart days before her wedding? Can Georgia

Not knowing how her family has landed in witness protection is driving seventeen year old "Meg" crazy. But she knows the two rules of being in witness protection... be invisible and don't make friends.  Easier said than done, and after six placements in the last year she is bound and determined to make this placement stick as the constant moving and stress of learning new identities and back stories is tearing her family apart. Meg is determined to figure out what landed her family in this situation and she'll do whatever she can to fix it so they can just go home and everything can go back to

Miracle Dogs: Rescue Stories showcases those who have taken a chance by rescuing abandoned dogs. These inspirational stories are complemented by amazing color photographs. Each dog will draw you in with their heartwarming stories and touch your heart. Some families are famous stars, some are everyday people, and some are from organizations. 

Lance Bass, former lead singer of ‘N Sync, has adopted several shelter dogs. Two were thrown from a speeding car in a garbage bag, and they needed surgery. Lance has rescued eight dogs and says, "They are best loving dogs from the pound." 

Wyatt is a

The Waverley family, Claire and Sydney, both have the gift of helpful magic. They live in the charming town of Bascom, North Carolina where it’s autumn and as temperatures fall, everyone and everything grows restless and problems flourish.

Claire runs Waverley’s Candies out of her kitchen, making handcrafted confections. Business is so good she can’t keep up with demand on her own. When someone offers to buy the business, Claire is stuck in a quandary.

Sydney owns a successful hair salon and knows what hairstyle will look best on anyone. But she’s reluctant to fire a new hire who isn’t

Freedom Oliver's past has caught up with her - or at least Nessa Delaney's past has finally found her. When Nessa's husband Mark is shot to death in their home, she is quickly convicted of the crime. Forced to choose between leaving her son and unborn daughter with her horrible in-laws or giving them up completely, she chooses the latter. After two very long years she is released and her brother-in-law is found guilty. Under the Witness Protection Program, Nessa has been Freedom Oliver for nearly twenty years. Living in Oregon, she works at a small biker bar, is the town drunk, and is always