Reviews
Last Impressions (The Marnie Baranuik Files #3)
When an FBI Internal Affairs investigation lands the Preternatural Crimes Unit in a bureaucratic spank-fest, it feels like the perfect time for Marnie Baranuik to skip town and lend her expertise to a bear-sized Canadian cop who doesn’t want her help with his case, his love life, or his car stereo.
Back in her childhood stomping grounds, Marnie leaps into action, facing an exorcist in skinny jeans, a slap-happy specter, and an old friend up to new tricks. Are ghosts behind a string of unusual deaths? Why didn’t her revenant companion, Lord Harry Dreppenstedt, tell her he had a Combat Butler? Can she survive dinner with her parents?
With a shifty man of the cloth offering her soul’s redemption, and a revelation that could change the future of her love life, she has her gloved hands full. She may not make a great first impression, but no one makes a Last Impression quite like Marnie.
Blankets
Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, “Blankets” explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith.
Lirael (Abhorsen #2)
Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Now, two years past the time when she should have received the Sight that is the Clayr's birthright, she feels alone, abandoned, unsure of who she is. Nevertheless, the fate of the Old Kingdom lies in her hands. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, Lirael must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil.
In this sequel to Sabriel, winner of the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Science Fiction, New York Times best-selling author Garth Nix weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny, and danger.
Finding Ecstasy
Given the choice between chocolate or sex, Rebecca always chose chocolate. That is, until a series of transformational experiences caused her to let go of three decades of sexual repression and shame. A serendipitous encounter with a Brazilian man sets the stage for a six-year journey toward the discovery of a new sexual and spiritual truth and a love that comes full circle.
Set against the backdrop of Buenos Aires and London, with the soulful music of the blues intricately woven throughout the journey, this book is more than just a captivating love story. Healing sources of spiritual guidance accompany the joyful and romantic ride.
Deeply intimate, insightful, and enriched with playful humor, this story invites readers to not only engage in the beauty of one woman’s journey of self-discovery, but to embark on their own journey toward living life to the fullest and highest degree possible.
Never Let Me Go
As a child, Kathy – now thirty-one years old – lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.
And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed – even comforted – by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.
Drama Queens: Call Off Your Dogs
Gertie knows she doesn’t have a picture perfect life, but feels blessed with what she does have. So what if love left her heart shattered and broken? She has a great job at Simple Luxury, an apartment in Houston with her sister, Mabel, and an outspoken, no-filter, church-going Gram back in Eufaula, Oklahoma where she was raised after her parents died.
Things are going well for Gertie until the man who broke her heart shows up in Houston. Tyler knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life the night he lost Gertie, but now he is back to reclaim the woman who owns his heart. It won’t be easy though, but he is going to have to make Gertie accept the life he has now and want to be part of it. As the owner of a successful construction company, he is devoted to making Eufaula the place Gertie will want to return and to forgive him for his mistakes.
With Gram being so outspoken in her column Drama Mama in the Eufaula’s Daily Indian Journal, she doesn’t hold back with her opinions about books and the nonsense drama among authors in the book world. Gram isn’t afraid to give her opinion to Mabel and Gertie when it comes to life, either.
Will events out of their control change their future plans for everyone involved?
Motive
Just months before Hawaii's gubernatorial primary election, a body is found on the floor of the open air capitol, a macabre scene specifically manipulated to draw attention to a sitting governor with waning political support. Frantic, he calls on the Honolulu Chief of Police Walter Tseng, demanding that the perpetrator be brought to justice as swiftly and silently as possible, fearful a scandal might destroy whatever chance he still has at gaining re-election.
Blackmailed into complicity and unable to draw from his active force, Tseng calls in Kalani Lewis, a young detective three months off the job. Still battling her own demons from an investigation that resulted in the death of her partner, Kalani is forced back into action, pulled into a life she isn’t certain she still wants to be a part of, a family friend that was once a military policeman and now a full-time surfer as her only support.
Inch by inch they work their way through the investigation, navigating mounting crime scenes and intense bureaucratic pressures as the election looms ever closer, the killer growing more emboldened by the day…
The Prophecy (Daughters of the People #1)
Maya Bellegarde has spent her entire life searching for a way to break the curse that hangs over her and her People. When an anomalous burial is discovered at a Swedish archaeological dig, Maya hopes that the cache of documents found there will help break that curse.
Hope of another kind comes when Maya meets James Terhune, an attractive language expert who agrees to help her translate the documents. As the two race to uncover the secrets of the grave, their attraction grows, in spite of Maya's inability to trust James with her most sacred secret.
When an ancient enemy resurfaces, it threatens not just their deepening relationship, but the lives of the people they love, and sets in motion a chain of events that could save the People...or destroy them.
The Waiting Place
Everything changes for high-school senior Jeffry Dietz when he is ripped from the familiar camaraderie of suburbia and transplanted to a tiny, tourist-trap town in the upper Midwest. Jeffry's quiet desperation in this sluggish, pre-cable modem world doesn't stop him from making new discoveries, new friendships, and new enemies. Collected for the first time in a single volume, this highly-acclaimed teen drama of spinning wheels and racing hearts helped make Eisner-award winning writer Sean McKeever (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Teen Titans) and fan-favorite artist Mike Norton (Green Arrow/Black Canary, Runaways) into mainstream comic-book mainstays. This edition also includes a brand-new story by McKeever and Norton.
The Lotus Effect (Rise of the Ardent #1)
An improbable partnership. An unforgettable love.
Lily Emerson, daughter of the Head of Council and Mistress of Science, has lived a privileged life. It’s Lily’s 18th nameday, the day she is to follow in her mother’s footsteps, becoming the next Mistress of Science—the most powerful woman in all of City Prosper. The Architect and designer of Prosper’s future.
During the night of her Coronation, the corruption of the Council spreads before her . . . opening her eyes to the cruelty that resides in the Council, even within her own parents. Lily realizes now the title of Mistress only comes with superficial power, that to truly save the citizens—she has to fight.
Fight in the Barrage—the mechanical gladiatorial tournament in which one chosen pair of volunteers from each Sector fights, armor-clad and as a team, utilizing unique weapon specialties: the Gatling gun, the Cestus, Klaives, Crescent Knives, mechanically engineered beasts—in the hope to win the right to change the Law. A law that has remained unchanged since its creation almost eighty years ago.
