all your Reads in Here

Mary Ellis, author of the romantic suspense stories in the Secrets of the South series, spins that series off in the first in a new series.  Hiding in Plain Sight introduces the Marked for Retribution mysteries. Her sleuth is young, twenty-five, somewhat awkward at time, and makes some mistakes, but she's likable. Meet Kate Weller, also known as Jill Wyatt. Kate is on probation as a private detective for Price Investigations. If she makes it, she'll become their traveling detective because she has family problems, and she's always on the run. Before she can get off probation, she's run off the road by a couple men who have a warning for her brother, Liam. Liam's in prison in Florida, and for some reason, he's a threat. Despite the loss of a car, and Kate's past, her boss hires her and sends her to Charleston on a case, changing her name to Jill Wyatt. Her job is to find a woman whose sister was adopted, but now is dying, needing a liver transplant. As her b...

Don't be deceived by the cover of David Myles Robinson's novel, Son of Saigon . It does have its dark moments, but the humor more than makes up for it. It's a witty, delightful story, and I was happy to hand it off to a friend. I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did. Hank Reagan is a seventy-year-old, a wealthy man who spends his days playing golf or gin with another retiree, Norm Rothstein. Since Hank's wife died, he's just waiting at the retirement community he calls "the death farm" for his own death. Norm doesn't mind looking for his sixth wife, but Hank isn't interested in all the women who are circling. Then, Tran Xuan Mai showed up to see Hank. Hank, a CIA operative was in Vietnam forty years earlier, and he and Mai were in love. When the Americans evacuated Saigon, he was forced to leave her behind, not knowing she was pregnant. Now, Mai wants Hank to find their son, a man who disappeared after his high school graduation. He'd be in his ...

Nina has always dreamed of being a star. Unfortunately her agent thinks she’s more girl-next-door than leading lady and her acting career isn't going quite as planned. Then, after a series of very public blunders and to escape a gathering storm of paparazzi, Nina is forced to flee from London. Her plan is to lay low with a friend in Devon, in beautiful Brightside Cove. But soon Nina learns that more drama can be found in a small village than on a hectic television set. And when a gorgeous man (and his adorable dog) catch her eye, it’s not long before London and showbiz start to lose their appeal. Will Nina choose to return to the bright lights or has she met her match in Brightside Cove?  Cathy Bramley is taking us on a new adventure to Brightside Cove in Devon. Our main character is Nina, an actress who has just made a terrible mistake and needs to lay low for a while and so she plans to spend time with her brother but life has a different plan for her when she is reunited with a ...

Just a quick post to let you know I'm okay, but my modem failed on Saturday, so I have no Internet access at home. I'm working at the library, on a desk, so I can't do a blog today. This has messed up the schedule on the blog. There will be a post on Tuesday. Treasures in My Closet will be postponed until Saturday, Aug. 4. Technology failure. It's certainly not easy to blog with no Internet or wifi.

Today it is my stop on the blog tour for The Lost Sister which is the latest release by Tracy Buchanan and I am going to be sharing my review for this book with you. Becky and her mum Selma have had a strained relationship after Selma left Becky when she was younger to go and live in a cave with cave dwellers. When Becky receives a phone call out of the blue from her mum to say she is dying Becky is unsure how true this is due to her mother’s previous elaborations of the truth but when she arrives at the hospital it is clear her mums time is running out and she helps her mum with her last wish of returning back to the cave to live out her final hours but in her dying hours Selma mentions a sister to Becky, a sister Becky has never known about. Becky embarks on a journey to try to find her long lost sister but she makes more discoveries about her mother along the way. The storyline is told from both Selma and Becky’s viewpoints which jumps back and forth in time which did take a little ...

Who would you guess has the best background to write about Appalachia, a writer and historian from East Tennessee with a PhD in public history, or a venture capitalist who wrote his own personal memoir? In  What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia , historian Elizabeth Catte compiles the history and social history of the region to dispute J.D. Vance's role as expert after the success of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy . There are 25 million people in Appalachia, a region stretching for about 700,000 square miles of the eastern United States. The region begins in Alabama, ends in New York, and includes portions of thirteen states, yet we persist in viewing all the residents of "Appalachia" as poor white hillbillies who vote against their own interests. Catte points out that this stereotype suits the interests of politicians and businessmen, and has been used successfully to remove people from their homes, defeat unions, and destroy the environment. In relating the story of ...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Dyeing Up Loose Ends goes to Janice R. from Pittsford, NY. Theresa M. from Milwaukee, WI won On the Hook . The books will go out in the mail today. A Clark Giveaway sounds a little odd, doesn't it? The authors of both mysteries have the last name of Clark. Tracy Clark's debut mystery,  Broken Places , is a Chicago mystery that introduces Cass Raines, cop turned private investigator. When the only father figure she's ever known, Father Ray Heaton, reports vandalism problems at his church, she's upset. But, she's angry and determined to find a killer when she finds his murdered body beside a dead gangbanger. And, she doesn't agree with the police verdict. (One of the best debuts I've read this year.) Becky Clark's Fiction Can Be Murder is also a series debut. Mystery author Charlemagne "Charlee" Russo thought the twisty plots and peculiar murders in her books were only the products of her ima...

This week, I'm finishing a book recommended by two people, columnist Connie Schultz, and my friend, Kaye Wilkinson Barley. Elizabeth Catte is a writer and historian from East Tennessee. She holds a PhD in public history. Her nonfiction title,  What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia , is an alternate view in opposition to J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy . The author writes of Appalachia with its 700,000 square miles, and says it cannot be defined as one ethnicity, one political view, one history. Vance's book is a memoir. Catte's book is history and an analysis. What are you reading this week? I'm finishing my nonfiction book, and I have several fiction titles waiting. We're all curious as to what you're reading or listening to.

Alex Fox knows there are lots of things she should be. She should be the perfect wife to her chronically ill husband Sam, and the perfect mother to their two daughters. She should be excelling in her high-stress job. And she should be completing the demanding to-do lists she makes to keep herself on track. Even if, just sometimes, she doesn't have time to breathe. When Sam's condition worsens and Alex donates a kidney to save his life, her carefully scheduled existence starts to unravel - eventually forcing her to face up to a past that she has buried for years. As the family she has fought so hard for threatens to fall apart, can Alex finally confront the mistakes that have shaped her - and rediscover what is most important in life? The Rest of Me by Katie Marsh is the second book I have read by this author, I just love the way she writes storylines that are so raw and honest that it feels like you are reading about the family next door. The Fox family have had a heartbreakin...

Today isn't Thursday. That means I'm not going to discuss the nonfiction title I'm reading after eight days and ten mysteries. I'll discuss that tomorrow with "What Are You Reading?" Instead, I'm going to mention the three books on my "Hope to Read Pile". Most people have a To Be Read Pile. I have piles and piles of those books in three rooms. But, the Hope to Read Pile are the next three books I hope to get to when I finish this nonfiction book. First up is Anne Tyler's Clock Dance . It's next because it's a library book, and there are people on the waiting list. And, let's face it. I don't always finish the literary novels I start, so I need to try this one, and see if it's what I want to read.  Here's the description from Barnes & Noble's page. " A delightful novel of one woman's transformative journey, from the best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer." "Willa Drake c...