Fans of Spencer Quinn’s long-running Chet and Bernie series will not be disappointed with his new stand alone novel, “Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge.” In this cleverly constructed story, senior citizen and recipient of a new hip Loretta Plansky is bilked of all her money through a scam that isn’t even particularly clever.
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Paris is the setting in “The Paris Daughter” by Kristin Harmel, where the threat of German occupation looms over everyone. Two young women meet by chance in a park and become good friends. The fact that they meet while pregnant, and give birth to daughters almost the exact same age, cements the bond that Elise and Juliette feel. There is also the fact that both are Americans who moved to France to be with their French husbands. Both their daughters end up feeling almost like sisters as they often play together.
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This twenty-seventh entry in David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter Mystery series, “Flop Dead Gorgeous,” offers us some different views and angles than those to which we are accustomed in the earlier novels. But the factors that make Rosenfelt unique are every bit as much in evidence here as they are in every novel in the series. His uniqueness is clear and easily explained: no other mystery writer demonstrates Rosenfelt’s uncanny knack for providing us real suspense and difficult-to-solve legal issues while all the while also providing laugh-out-loud (or at the very least broad-smile-inducing) page-after-page light-hearted insult humor and self-deprecating dialogue and first-person narration.
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“Crazy Bao You” is a rom-com for our times. An attraction begins on Instagram; who would have thought that an introverted Etsy seller in Oklahoma might fall in love with a handsome firefighter in New York City? Diverging a bit from her clever mysteries, Lyn Liao (Butler) has written a rom-com that could almost appear to be based on her own life. She was born in Taiwan and moved to the States when she was seven. She is married to a FDNY firefighter. She also fosters dogs in need of rescue. Are you hooked yet?
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One of the joys of dipping into a light and appealing romance like “Best Served Hot” by Amanda Elliot is the vicarious visits to restaurants, both small and hip and staid and traditional. We meet Julie Zimmerman, who moonlights from her boring job as an assistant to a retired executive and becomes a food blogger at night. She’s not at the point of being self-sufficient in her social media, but she’s passionate about food, and her dream is to critique food full time, in a job where she is paid and able to pay for rent, student loans, and restaurant fare.
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Most women reading “The Wife App” will agree with Carolyn Mackler’s position that in any heterosexual marriage, it’s the female, the wife, who ends up with most of the duties regarding running a house and a family. In fact, I find myself a bit disgruntled as I go about my daily routine, much of which is mentioned in this perspicacious novel. There is a lot that I do, that most women do, which is taken for granted. We schedule many social activities, we make sure clean sheets are on the bed, we order food or make the grocery lists if we are lucky enough to have a husband who will do the shopping. You are forewarned.
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In “The Long Way Back,” Nicole Baart brings us a story that is, in part, about the simple pleasures in life. Enjoying nature, taking time to appreciate beautiful sights, seeing the wide variety of terrains and environments that our country encompasses. And the phrase that the main characters espouse, “Always take the long way back,” is a good one to live by. It’s actually my philosophy when traveling. Instead of rushing to your destination, enjoy the trip, the country you pass through, as well.
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In “You Were Always Mine,” co-authors Christine Pride and Jo Piazza create two very imperfect main characters whose interactions are brief; but those minimal interactions end up changing the lives of both women. Cinnamon and Daisy meet on a park bench where Cinnamon is eating during her lunch break. They end up sitting on the same park bench each Friday and share idle talk; neither shares any real life experiences with the other. But there’s a connection made, and it’s this connection that determines that one of them, Daisy, leaves her newborn child so that Cinnamon will find her. Daisy’s hope is that Cinnamon will raise her baby and keep her safe, because Daisy doesn’t feel that she is capable of doing that.
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Even if your child or student isn’t bilingual, getting books that come with a Spanish version is a wonderful way of sharing books in two languages. But if you or the children are lucky enough to speak Spanish as well as English, here are some wonderful choices for your home or school library.
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“The Last Lifeboat” is the latest of several recent releases set in WWII Britain. In this gripping historical fiction, author Hazel Gaynor immerses us in the action from the very first page. She has us feeling the lash of the icy rain and the storm-riled waves that are tossing about the lifeboat in which one of the main characters, Alice King, has landed. Then Gaynor leaves us hanging as she abruptly takes us back in time to show us how Alice ended up in that lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic during a terrible storm.
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“I’ll Stop the World” by Lauren Thoman is not your typical thriller. When we meet the main character, Justin Warren, he’s not a happy person. He lives in a decrepit house, bought by a distant relative named Stan, for Justin and his seriously troubled mother, Lissa. They live in the town of Stone Lake, and they are known for the fact that Justin’s grandparents were killed in a fire at the high school that was rebuilt and named after them, Warren High School. The fire happened a week after the high school bonfire, a yearly event.
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“Identity” is the title of Nora Roberts’ latest novel, and the title signifies not just an identity stolen: when Morgan Albright’s credit cards and banking information are stolen after her roommate was murdered, she feels adrift. Her rock-solid plan for the future has been destroyed, and she needs to find out how she can regain her momentum and control of her life.
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