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Check Out Some Great Books This Summer! |
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The Poppy Fields
by Nikki Erlick
What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted? Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal. A speculative story of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness and found friendship.
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Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds
by Allison Brennan
A risk-averse bibliophile gets in over her head when strange notes in a book draw her into a real-life investigation.
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Far and Away
by Amy Poeppel
Perfect strangers Lucy and Greta have agreed to a house swap—and boy, are they going to regret it.
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Holy City
by Henry Wise
After a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, Will Seems returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia, taking a job as deputy sheriff in a landscape given way to crime and defeat. Impoverished and abandoned, this remote land of tobacco plantations, razed forests, and boarded-up homes seems stuck in the past in a state that is trying to forget its complex history and move on.
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Christine's Library Journal Reviews
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This Promised Land
by Cathy Gohlke
This review by librarian Christine Barth was first published in the March 2025 issue of Library Journal.
After the death of her war-wounded husband, recently retired Ginny Boyden is now free to travel the world and realize her dream of planting heritage roses on a grand estate in England. When she receives a surprise inheritance from the family whom she thought disowned her, she travels to Virginia to settle her brother's papers.
Rather than a windfall, she finds the Pickering Christmas tree farm, which is saddled with debt, a grouchy nephew who views her as an interloper living on her "promised land," and near-starving great-nieces and nephews sleeping in the barn. As Ginny works with handsome estate lawyer Will Skipwith to try and sell the farm, she is confronted with her own life's choices and regrets.
VERDICT Gohlke (Ladies of the Lake) delivers another heart-stopping family drama that reminds readers that everyone is a prodigal searching for the way home. Infused with wry humor and the beautiful language of flowers and plants, many will see themselves in the brokenness of the Pickering-Boyden clan. Read-alikes include The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman and Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers.
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First love, second draft
by Becca Kinzer
This review by librarian Christine Barth was first published in the March 2025 issue of Library Journal.
Romance novelist Gracie Parker is struggling to add zip to her manuscript, especially because her own love life has been stagnant since her divorce. After a horseback riding accident, she comes home from the hospital to find that her nephew has rented the cottage next door to none other than her ex, the washed-up baseball star Noah, who still shares her last name despite their separation.
In this forced-proximity, second-chance love story, Kinzer (Love in Tandem) uses her signature elements of small-town charm and complicated family relationships to explore starting over midstream in life. As Noah seeks forgiveness, Gracie winds up using his return to jumpstart her writing. Just as endearing is the love story between meddling nephew Matt and his first love, who has also recently moved back to town.
VERDICT This lighthearted and heartwarming Midwest romance is laugh-out-loud funny, especially during the text message exchanges, and the characters will feel like friends. Secular readers will also enjoy this chaste offering, similar to Famous for a Living by Melissa Ferguson and The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh.
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Ambush
by Colleen Coble
This review by librarian Christine Barth was first published in the March 2025 issue of Library Journal.
Paradise Sanctuary Animal Park gives wild creatures a second chance in the humid climate of the Gulf Coast of Alabama, and veterinarian Paradise Alden is hoping it will give her the same. Dealing with PTSD after being attacked by a big cat, Paradise has returned here, to the town where her parents were murdered and she endured traumatizing foster situations. She hopes to get closure and the strength to move on while she works at the Paradise Sanctuary.
Soon, she's unexpectedly working side-by-side with her former best friend, Blake Lawson, to protect the struggling sanctuary from mysterious attacks. Unsatisfied with the response of the town's apathetic and possibly corrupt police officers, Paradise and Blake call a truce in order to launch their own investigation into the sinister events at the sanctuary. When a huge storm rolls in, they will each decide what is worth the risk to save.
VERDICT Coble (Fragile Designs) capitalizes on her success with Rick Acker in the "Tupelo Grove" series to create a new spin-off in the same southern Alabama setting. Romantic suspense fans will be drooling over this new offering and eager for more installments.
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The Teacher of Auschwitz
by Wendy Holden
A novel inspired by the powerful true story of a man who risked everything to protect children in Auschwitz.
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What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball
by Brown, Elisabeth Aimee
If there’s one rule Hester learned during her country upbringing, it’s never accept a gift: that’s how the Folk get you. Although she’s left her farm behind, she can’t leave her superstitions, even if no one else in the capital city seems to care. Hardworking but hungry, she’s looking for loopholes, and the king’s annual Commoners Ball seems like the perfect way to get a free meal that’s not technically a gift—and it would have been, too, except a pesky prince took a shine to her.
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Sounds like love
by Ashley Poston
Joni Lark is living the dream. She's one of the most coveted songwriters in LA...and she can't seem to write. There's an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it. When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family's music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it.
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Songs of summer
by Jane L. Rosen
A young woman crashes the wedding of the summer on Fire Island in search of her birth mother-and gets a whole lot more than she bargained for-in this warm, heart-stopping getaway from Jane L. Rosen.
Start with book 1: On Fire Island.
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Mystery, Adventure, & Thriller
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The bachelorette party
by Camilla Sten
Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared on a remote island, and soon enough, she gets an opportunity to investigate when her friend has a bachelorette party on the site of the disappearance.
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The safari : a novel
by Jaclyn Goldis
When a wealthy family goes on a South African safari, a series of shocking murders rocks their exclusive compound.
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Legends of Gold
by Mary Connealy
After years of solitude, Tilda Muirhead's life takes an unexpected twist when she accepts a teaching position at Two Harts Ranch following her cross-country pursuit of two brothers obsessed with a treasure map left by their grandfather. Tilda is now tasked with educating those mischievous MacKenzie boys, who are bent on remaining out west with the rest of their family until they find the hoped-for treasure. Then a man named Ben arrives, claiming to be her own long-lost brother. Raised as an orphan with no memory of her past, Tilda is both fascinated and wary of Ben's sudden interest in finding her.
Start with book 1: Whispers of Fortune.
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From the valley we rise
by Elizabeth Musser
"In WWII France, Isabelle Seauve is dedicated to risking her safety for the protection of Jewish children. As a US Army Chaplain, a teenage rebel, and a Jewish orphan join her ranks and face increasing danger during the Allied invasion of Provence, theseunlikely heroes must first find freedom in their souls before they can rebuild what has been destroyed"
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The butcher's masquerade
by Matt Dinniman
On the deadly sixth floor of a galactic game show dungeon, Coast Guard vet Carl and his feline companion Princess Donut face bloodthirsty dinosaurs, vengeful hunters, and a brutal masquerade as they battle for survival against increasingly deadly threats.
Start with book 1: Dungeon Crawler Carl
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Deliverance of Dragons
by Mercedes Lackey
From orphaned child to prophesied savior, Vieliessar Farcarinon is more than ready to take her rightful place as Elven Queen. While her bickering countrymen may not have crowned her yet, she has been anointed by the stars above and the dragon at her side. But the overwhelming attacks of the Endarkened have forced Elvenkind to abandon internal politics in favor of an unprecedented retreat.
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Wandering Wild
by Lynette Noni
Zander Rune was the darling of Hollywood until he fell from glory and was labelled a problematic bad boy. His public image needs fixing—fast—or he’ll lose the role of a lifetime, and all his dreams with it. Charlie Hart is a regular teenage girl who despises everything Zander represents. But thanks to her scheming best friend and an ill-timed social media competition, Charlie finds herself pretending to be Zander’s biggest fan on a four-day reality TV adventure led by renowned survivalist Rykon Hawke.
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When the bones sing
by Ginny Myers Sain
More than two dozen people have disappeared without a trace on local hiking trails in Lucifer's Creek, Arkansas, and 17-year-old Dovie can hear the bones of the dead calling for her to dig them up, in a gothic supernatural thriller.
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Adults Can Do Summer Reading Too! |
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