An inventive retelling of the events aboard the sinking of two famous ships - the Titanic and the Britannic plus the addition of a sinister supernatural presence. Young Irish Annie Hebbley signs onto the Titanic's staff as a first-class stewardess giving her access to all the well off families who are staying on the top decks. She becomes interested in one young family with a baby and is alarmed by what she feels is an evil presence on the ship. When tragedy strikes she is able to save her young charge and herself. Years later Annie finds herself working on a medical ship that is transporting wounded out of Europe. She is amazed to discover that the young husband is one of the wounded but he is not happy to see her again and the spirit seeks to take over again. This is a well-crafted tale that blends real-life events with the author's flair for the supernatural and dark elements creating the perfect mix of historical fiction and horror. This book will also appeal to the young adult market.
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Judy's life is a mess and she knows she has to find a way to deal with her always buzzed, anxiety-ridden, almost ex-husband, her best friend's cancer, her own creativity slump, mounting financial worries and her teenage boy who doesn't find her fun anymore - sigh. The one place she feels comfort is by carrying her dog around in her son's old baby sling. This is middle-age madness that some of us can relate to only because of Zigman presenting it to us with tears and laughter in equal measure. While we may not have all the issues that are plaguing Judy and her family, we can all use a bit of time with the doggy sling. This will resonate with fans of "feel good but with a purpose" fiction that focuses on wonderful characters that make us giggle and cry.
The 1989 field hockey season didn't start out so well for the Danvers Falcons but that all changed as soon as the girls started employing a bit of old fashioned Salem witchcraft. As the girls band together and cast spells in the Emilio Estevez book and agree to be bad off the field to be good on it their luck and scores seem to be going up getting them ever closer to the goal of state finals. Hilarious, with the 80s music and vibe, this wildly feminist team take life by the horns and find out what it means to be a proud female. Not only will you learn a fair amount about field hockey and the Salem witch trials but you will also emit a few belly-laughs at their version of black magic. I really hope this entertaining bit of fiction is based on a lot of facts. Field! Field! Field!
When a young Hawaiian boy is gently guided back to the boat he fell from in the jaws of a shark unharmed, his family and the others who witness the event know that he has been blessed by the gods. Soon, people are coming from all over for Noa to bless them or heal them. It is exhausting for Noa but the money helps his family make it from week to week. Fast forward and Noa and his sister and brother are all going to school on the mainland where their lives will take a much different course than their parents back on the island. This story of a family falling apart and then coming back together through a tragedy. The old ways and old gods struggle against the lure of the mainland and its promise of prosperity. The old legends and beliefs of the Hawaiians are expertly meshed with the real-life powerlessness the three siblings face. Anyone with a love of Hawaii and its people but also enjoy family-centered stories will want to read this.
A young woman gets plucked out of obscurity to "become" a double for a reclusive movie star in Hollywood. After being locked in her new apartment, drugged and seeing only Max, the star's right-hand man she slowly accepts her fate and becomes Rosanna - heart, body, and soul. Soon, there is nothing left of the woman she was and only the movie star she is now. Sinister and creepy in the brainwashing she goes through, the story pulls you in like a good Hitchcock movie. I would have rated it much higher but I felt the ending was a bit tame compared to the rest of the book. Thriller and lovers of old Hollywood film noir will find this a compelling read. In a barn, in Poland, a young girl and her mother hide from the Germans who seem to be everywhere. Days and nights spent mostly silent do nothing to stop the music that seems to live in the girl's soul.
Later, in a decision no mother should ever have to make, Shira goes on to be hidden in a convent and her mother goes on the run alone. Shira, a music prodigy, goes on to a musical career while her mother never gives up her search. A poignant look at the horrors of war and the incredible amount of faith and inner courage that it took to survive. Fans of WWII historical fiction based in truth will be moved by this story. Shay witnesses a woman commit suicide on a deserted subway stop and is traumatized. Trying to find clarity and understand why it happened she begins to research who the victim was and everything about her even though the police tell her to let it go. This leads her to Amanda's friends who take Shay under their protective wing but all is not on the level. Before she knows it her life has been remade and her new friends are making her life better right? Psychological cat and mouse game that these two authors excel at. It feels like when you shout out "look behind you" in a scary movie. You know where it is going but you are powerless to stop it. Taunt, perfectly crafted and really diabolical, this is one thriller that will have you looking over your shoulder. For fans of all those thrillers that mess with your head.
This is the first book for adults that Sarah J. Maas has written and it will appeal not only to those adults who have read her young adult series but also to a new group of fantasy readers. Crescent City has a New Orleans vibe to it but its inhabitants offer a much more colorful and fantastic array with demons, angels, fae, werewolves, and even a chimera. There are sex, drugs, and violence out in the city streets but Bryce, half-human, and half-fae doesn't care unless it disrupts her partying with her best friend and the wolf pack she leads. After the pack is brutally murdered, Bryce along with the help of Hunt, a hunky fallen angel set out to find who did this and make them pay. It takes a bit of time to figure out the various key figures all fighting for control in this hefty 800-page tome but it is well worth it. This series will resonate with lovers of fantasy who want a steamy romance, kickbutt characters, and a well constructed new world to explore. This book is the gift that just keeps giving because not only are you immersed in a well-staged perfect murder mystery but you are handed a list of eight classic perfect murder books to read later. I loved that a quiet bookseller gets caught up in a serial murder case who is referencing and following the eight murders listed in the bookseller's blog. You always feel a bit unsteady and with every new murder you, like Mal and the FBI, are weighing the evidence and coming up short as well as not really being convinced of who is guilty or innocent. For fans of all those classic great mystery authors as well as those of us who binge-watch the dark tv series YOU, this is one that will keep you happily sleepless at night. Brooklyn in 1969 was a much different place than it is today. James McBride gives us a glimpse of what life was like by including us in the neighborhood goings-on after an older black man, known as "Sportcoat", drunk on cheap booze shoots a young drug dealer for reasons unknown. Sportcoat, or Deacon King Kong another of his nicknames, is a loveable fool. He stumbles around carrying on conversations with his dead wife and his friends in the neighborhood. The bulk of the book is loaded with colorful dialogue that helps explain the nicknames and shows us how tight this neighborhood really is. James McBride has an easy-going writing style that makes you feel like you are there sitting on a stoop watching all the excitement. This neighborhood is deeply connected to their faith - in the church that Sportcoat was once the deacon of and in each other. The crime and wrongdoing almost take second place to this crazy cast of characters. |
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