Book Lovers
New Books Fall/Winter 2009
Be Careful What You Pray For
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
" Her first marriage didn't work out, but that isn't going to stop Alicia Black, the privileged daughter of the charismatic Reverend Curtis Black, from getting what she wants. One month after her wedding to her second husband, she can't believe her good fortune. God has heeded her prayers, blessing her with Pastor JT Valentine, a handsome, dynamic man of the cloth with his own large congregation, just like her father. Unfortunately, Alicia doesn't understand just how much like Curtis her new husband truly is." (from the Product Description)
Big Girls Do Cry
by Carl Weber
"Egypt's begun a Big Girls Book Club chapter in Richmond, Virginia, where she and Rashad, a hedge fund manager, are clearly living large. They're currently sharing their lavish estate with Isis who, after attempting suicide, is still nursing a secret love for Rashad (her boyfriend before he married Egypt) and her married New York lover, Tony. After Egypt learns she's unable to carry a baby to term, she asks Isis to be her surrogate, despite her past with Rashad." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Black Magic Sanction
by Kim Harrison
"Having recently learned that Rachel is a witch-born demon whose children would be demons, a white magic coven is shunning her and accusing her of black magic. They offer her a terrible choice: sterilization or imprisonment in Alcatraz. Trent Kalamack, drug lord and elf in hiding, offers to get the coven off her back, but her double-crossing ex-rat ex-boyfriend, Nick, shows up and lands her in more hot water." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Blood Ties
by Kay Hooper
"It starts with an unspeakable series of grisly murders across three states, a trail of blood leading, finally, to the small Tennessee town of Serenade. One of the first investigators on the scene, Special Agent Hollis Templeton, is willing to push herself as hard and as far as necessary. Risking more than her life to help and protect her SCU colleagues, Hollis must cope with her own psychic abilities, which are evolving in unprecedented ways, an attraction to the most complex man she’s ever known, and a serial murder investigation that turns very, very personal." (from the Product Description)
Deeper than the Dead
by Tami Hoag
"A California town is rocked to its core when two boys and a girl stumble upon a murder victim, drawing Special Agent Tony Mendez into a search for a psychopathic serial killer called "The See No Evil Killer," but as his probe continues, he realizes that the killer may be the father of one of the boys and enlists the aid of their teacher, Anne Navarre, to uncover the truth." (from Novelist)
Dirtier Than Ever
by Vickie M. Stringer
"The love-hate triangle shared by Q, Red and Bacon continues with Bacon's elevation to top hustler, Red's revelations about her past and a snooping detective's investigations into Red's alleged involvement in a murder." (from Novelist)
The First Rule
by Robert Crais
"When garment importer Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home at the start of bestseller Crais's adrenaline-fueled second thriller to feature PI Joe Pike, LAPD detectives soon connect Meyer to Pike, who knew each other from their days as military contractors. Pike is convinced that Meyer, who left soldiering to start a family, wasn't dirty, even though his murder is the seventh in a series of violent robberies where the victims were all professional criminals." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Galileo's Dream
by Kim Stanley Robinson
"In a tale that stretches from Renaissance Italy to the future colonization of the moons of Jupiter, a renegade colonist named Ganymede brings Galileo into the future to alter the history of the human race." (from Novelist)
A Girl from Flint
by Treasure Hernandez
"When Tasha and her friends link up with Manolo, one of Flint’s known stick-up kids, they take the hustlers of Flint for all they’re worth. They become known as The Manolo Mamis, and their skills gain them thousands of dollars in no time. Tasha is living the life of the young and fl y, but when tragedy strikes and the stakes are raised, she has to choose between loyalty and self-sacrifi ce. When the only man she’s ever loved becomes her target, will she decide to save him, or will she remain loyal to The Manolo Mamis?" (from the Product Description)
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
by Heidi W. Durrow
"After a family tragedy orphans her, Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., moves into her grandmother's mostly black community in the 1980s, where she must swallow her grief and confront her identity as a biracial woman." (from Novelist)
Kisser
by Stuart Woods
"Stone Barrington is back in New York, and after a rather harrowing sojourn in Key West, he's looking to stay closer to home and work on some simple divorce and custody cases for Woodman & Weld. But when he crosses paths with a fetching Broadway actress-and sometime lip model- Stone gets a little more deeply involved with business than he'd expected. When his new lady love turns out to be a lady with a shady past, Stone and downtown cop Dino Bacchetti realize that her beauty may have an unusually high price. . . ." (from the Product Description)
The Lock Artist
by Steve Hamilton
"Mike Smith is a "boxman." He can open any safe, padlock, or locked door without a combination or a key--a talent that lands him in prison at the age of eighteen. He spends his time writing down the story of his life because that's the only way he can share it. He hasn't spoken in ten years. Not a single word since the tragic day he became known as the 'Miracle Boy.'" (from Amazon.com)
Nanny Returns
by Emma McLaughlin & Nicole Kraus
"Nan revisits 721 Park, home of the moneyed but morally bankrupt Xs, and the boy she guiltily left behind in their inept care in this smart and sassy sequel to The Nanny Diaries. And though Nan has grown up a bit, married Harvard Hottie Ryan and traveled the world, the plight of the rich and stupid continues, as does Nan's new crusade to save former charge Grayer and his younger brother Stilton, renovate a crumbling East Harlem mansion and stick it out at a soulless Manhattan private school." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Ordinary Thunderstorms
by William Boyd
"Climatologist Adam Kindred is trying to establish a new life in London (far from his failed marriage and ruined career in the US) when he inadvertently stumbles upon a botched murder and becomes the chief suspect. Boyd manages to breathe new life into the wrong-man tale, weaving together vivid back-stories of intriguing characters, from the hired killer desperate to clean up his mess, to the ruthless executives out for profit, to the hardscrabble individuals Kindred meets while on the run." (from Amazon.com)
Plain Jayne
by Hillary Manton Lodge
"Forced by her employer to take time off to regain her edge, reporter Jayne goes hunting for a feature in Oregon's Amish country. What this independent and thoroughly modern journalist finds is an alternative lifestyle that keeps her slightly off-balance even while, in good reporter form, Jayne tries to remain coolly objective. Enter Levi Burkholder, formerly Amish, presently a carpenter, and Jayne's heart goes off kilter as well." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Remarkable Creatures
by Tracy Chevalier
"Tart-tongued spinster Elizabeth Philpot meets young Mary Anning after moving from London to the coastal town of Lyme Regis. The two quickly form an unlikely friendship based on their mutual interest in finding fossils, which provides the central narrative as working-class Mary emerges from childhood to become a famous fossil hunter, with her friend and protector Elizabeth to defend her against the men who try to take credit for Mary's finds. Their friendship, however, is tested when Colonel Birch comes to Lyme to ask for Mary's help in hunting fossils and the two spinsters compete for his attention." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Roses
by Leila Meacham
"Meacham's multigenerational family saga, set in East Texas circa 1914–1985, charts the transformation of Mary Toliver, a wide-eyed 16-year-old heiress, into a calculating cotton plantation queen as hardheaded as Scarlett O'Hara. Her brother, Miles, goes off to WWI, returns home, but then goes back to France to marry Marietta, a French Communist, leaving Mary to deal with their plantation, Somerset, and Darla, their alcoholic mother." (from Publisher's Weekly)
Secrets of Eden
by Chris Bohjalian
"Haunted by the final words of a newly baptized congregation member who was subsequently murdered by her husband, the Reverend Stephen Drew abandons his pulpit to spend time with an author who writes best-selling books about angels." (from Novelist)
The Truth about Lord Stoneville
by Sabrina Jeffries
"When his grandmother threatens to disinherit him if he does not settle down and wed, notorious rake Oliver Sharpe, the Marquess of Stoneville, convinces American beauty, Maria Butterfield, to pose as fiance after coming to her rescue and finds his masquerade becoming all too real." (from Novelist)
Wench
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
"Slave mistresses Lizzie, Reenie and Sweet travel to a resort in Ohio each year with their white masters, until Mawu shows up and encourages the three others to escape, forcing them to choose between freedom and leaving their friends and families--and the emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters." (from Novelist)
