Nancy Martin, Blackbird Sisters Series

This is a great series I found when I browsed our "Beach Reads" display at the Woodmere Branch of the Traverse Area District Library.  I am so glad I happened to pick  up the first in the series, How to Murder a Millionaire.  Love it!  It was a super quick read, funny and a charming heroine.  The family is entirely quirky, but completely relate able, in a Philadelphia socialite, riches to rags mentality...if that makes any sense.  I laughed out loud many times and can't wait to read the next nine in the series.  Number ten is coming out in August, very soon!

We carry this book in regular print and ebook.

Remember When Trilogy

What I like best about this trilogy by T. Torrest is that the story begins in high school and carries on through their thirties.  Young adults would enjoy this also.  It is a sweet and steamy love story straight out of the 80s, jersey style.  Great humor, teenage angst and a few surprises here and there.  I thought the finale at first was just going to be sex, scandal and Los Angeles but it wrapped up nicely.  Enjoy!

    

We only carry this series as an MP3 CD.  

Julie Garwood

I picked up Julie Garwood's newest last week and man, it was a fast read!  I like her contemporary mystery/romance thrillers.  Fast Track was full of action, confident, smart women, indifferent, loving, loyal men and a great sense of family.  As I read it I knew I would have to go back and read more of this series.  I felt I was missing the background story on some of the characters.  Researching afterwards, I put Fire & Ice and Murder List on hold to find more about Cordie's childhood friends Sophie and Regan.  The contemporary series has twelve titles, Fast Track being number twelve, Fire & Ice number 7 and Murder List number 4.  The rest all have characters you will find in other novels but you do not necessarily need to read them in order.  This series is very similar to Catherine Coulter's FBI series.  Enjoy!

We carry this book in regular print and audio.

The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

This is another great, quick story about living life in the fast lane and learning to sloooooow down.  I get the title, Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe by Mary Simses but it really is not another novel about food.  The Cafe takes a backseat to the main character, Ellen who wants to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish.  In her quest to do so, one thing happens and then another and another...then Ellen begins to question everything in her life.  It is a novel about love, purpose and the promise of a simpler life.  Quick and easy.

We carry this book in regular print format only.

Some day I'll find it...

And not the Rainbow Connection...if you know the song.  Every time I look for books on the shelf in fiction for others I am always on the lookout for one particular book.  Maybe you have seen it?  Here is what I remember:  It is a smaller hardcover book, almost square, really quick read and I believe the cover is red, possibly a checkerboard pattern like a picnic table cloth.  I read this book from cover to cover while I was in labor waiting for the birth of my son.  Honestly, I read  the whole thing waiting in the hospital before he was born.  I do not remember the title or even what the book was about.  But someday it will just come to me and I will say,  "That's it!"  The funny things you remember, or don't.  Hmmm...I am always on the lookout, even eight years later.  It is not Richard Paul Evans.  I keep thinking it may be P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern but the cover really does not match and I have seen the movie a hundred times.  I recommend it by the way.  Tragic but beautiful love story when a woman's husband dies but sends her letters after his death for each month for a year guiding her into her new life without him signing each letter with P.S I Love You.  It really is a good but not my lost title.  Someday...

We carry this book in regular print only.

Danielle Steel

I am a complete paperback junkie.  I could read whatever.  Once upon a time I absolutely loved Danielle Steel which you can find everywhere in paperback.  But I fell out of love of her writing when I read too many in a stretch and found a character from one love story that showed up in another book who had an affair with another character---who was supposed to be madly in love with someone else.  Oh, the horror!  Then several, several years later I picked her up again.  I found the same formula writing but I still liked it.  She is definitely an easy read.  My two all time favorites of hers are The Ghost and The House.  If I had to pick one it would be The House.  I love the historical aspects of the house in the story and how the family genealogy is found throughout the story of the house.  It is a match made in heaven.  I liked The Ghost for the historical aspects too.  Go ahead, check one out today.  Read her knowing you will find a beginning, middle, drama, romance and usually a happy ending.  Danielle Steel is a romance must read sometime in your life.

  

We carry The Ghost in regular print and audio.  We carry The House in regular print and as an ebook.

Beekeeper's Ball

I love sequels to books and this one lives up to my standards for easy reads.  It answers many questions I had in The Apple Orchard and (of course!) now I have more.  Susan Wiggs likes to keep us on our toes...trying to figure things out.  I hope there will be another and soon!

I love the incredible descriptions of food, landscape, family, really everything that Susan Wiggs writes makes you feel as if you are right there amidst it all.  A with all the books I choose, you will find love and food in this story but also Danish history and a family that is truly remarkable.  Have fun but give yourself some time, you will probably want to read it in one sitting.

We carry The Beekeeper's Ball in audio, regular print and ebook.  The Apple Orchard was reviewed in this blog on February 24th.