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Christine's Library Journal Reviews |
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The Light on Horn Island
by Valerie Fraser Luesse
This review by librarian Christine Barth was first published in the March 2025 issue of Library Journal.
Grieving the loss of her best friend, Edie Gardner returns home to Mississippi's wild shores, where her grandmother and her eccentric group of elderly friends welcome her with open arms. When the strange proprietor of an antique shop gives Edie a Victorian parlor game called Confessions, she plays it with her grandmother's friends, who begin revealing decades-old secrets and hurts, hoping their resilience will help Edie start to heal.
As a part-time job, Edie begins curating a history exhibit about Hurricane Camille, which devastated Biloxi and the surrounding communities nearly 30 years prior. Between tracking down storm survivors and investigating a mysterious light at her favorite spot on Horn Island, Edie has her share of mysteries—and love stories—to uncover.
VERDICT Based on a verse in the Book of Hebrews about entertaining angels unaware, Luesse's (Letters from My Sister) latest brings the quintessential Southern novel to life with a touch of the supernatural and a ton of spunk. Fans of Rachel Hauck's The Wedding Dress or the TV series Touched by an Angel will love the quirky characters and down-home wisdom in this book.
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The Voice We Find
by Nicole Deese
This review by librarian Christine Barth was first published in the March 2025 issue of Library Journal.
August Tate is in over his head trying to raise his teenage sister after the deaths of their missionary parents in India. With Gabby having lost her hearing in the same accident that killed their parents, medical bills are piling up, and August needs to find a new source of income. Gabby is increasingly interested in the deaf community and begins to leave her hearing aids home in favor of communicating via ASL, but August holds out hope for a miracle cure.
Meanwhile, Sophie Wilder returns to her family's winery in California after a panic attack cut short her Broadway career. Her manipulative brother oversees the winery, and Sophie's welcome is less than warm. When she works with August on an experimental audiobook project, they both are forced to face past trauma to move forward.
VERDICT Deese has penned another riveting novel, a sequel to The Roads We Follow, with swoony romance and anything-but-cookie-cutter Christian families. Audiobook fans will cheer at an insider's glimpse into the industry, as will deaf readers, who get a thoughtful examination of the struggles and blessings of living in the quiet of a loud world.
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Capture the moment
by Suzanne Woods Fisher
This review by librarian Christine Barth first appeared in the May 2025 issue of Library Journal.
After a chance encounter with a National Geographic editor, zoo photographer Kate Cunningham takes off for Grand Teton National Park, determined to capture Grizzly 399 on camera and get her photo published in the magazine. The old mama bear, known for protecting her cubs, may not have even survived winter hibernation, but Kate knows a shot of the grizzly emerging from her den could secure her future, even though her sophisticated boyfriend disparages her dream of being a world-class nature photographer.
At Grand Teton, Kate meets seasonal ranger Grant Cooper, who wants nothing more than to unplug in the backcountry after a stressful school year but is forced to babysit risk-taking would-be grizzly photographers and a slovenly teenage intern. Add in a poacher on federal land and suspicious activity from the diminutive chief ranger, and Fisher (The Sweet Life) sets the perfect tableau for an afternoon of reading.
VERDICT Multigenerational characters are well-represented with humor and zest, giving this novel broad appeal. Readers will be eager to travel vicariously in the next installment of Fisher's new series, but Karen Barnett's "Vintage National Parks" novels will satisfy until then.
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Fiction Coming Soon to the Scott County Library
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Bug Hollow : a novel
by Michelle Huneven
Sally's brother Ellis goes missing after high school but turns up at Bug Hollow, where a freak accident kills him weeks later; mother and father Sybil and Phil and sisters Katie and Sally each seek their own solace, and after his pregnant girlfriend comes to their door, Sally cares for Ellis's child Eva.
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The Confessions
by Paul Bradley Carr
LLIAM is the world's most powerful supercomputer, built to make the toughest decisions for its users. Where to work, who to marry, and even who should live or die. But when LLIAM suddenly goes offline with no explanation, the world is thrust into chaos, paralyzed by indecision. Stocks plummet, stores are shuttered, planes sit grounded on runways as humanity scrambles to re-adapt to an uncertain, analog world.
Then the first letters arrive...on every continent, in every language, mysterious envelopes arrive in the mail, exposing people's darkest secrets, and most shocking crimes. All beginning with the same chilling words: "We must confess."
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Hazel says no : a novel
by Jessica Berger Gross
When a tight-knit family moves from Brooklyn to Maine, their lives are upended by an event that will alter their new community forever.
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Anywhere With You
by Ellie Palmer
"Anguishing in her legal career, and very likely the youngest divorcee at the Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on a Friday night? Yes. But, now that she's accepted the inherent flaws that lie in all romantic relationships, she finally has life all figured out! She's definitely due for an upswing. So when her free-spirited sister announces her plan to elope with her messy on-again-off-again childhood sweetheart, Charley knows she has to stop the wedding, even if it means road-tripping into the northern woods of Minnesota in a camper van with her childhood best friend, Ethan, who's as gorgeous as he is chronically unreliable. But when their cozy journey ignites a spark she's tried to ignore for years, Charley tries to write off her feelings as fleeting. Because after failing at marriage so spectacularly with the most responsible man she's ever known, Charley definitely shouldn't risk it all for her non-committal, nomadic, musician best friend . . . right?"
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Fan favorite
by Adrienne Gunn
"Thirty-five year old Edie Pepper, reality TV obsessed copywriter from Chicago, dreams of plucking her soulmate from the depths of Hinge (or Tinder or Bumble). Following yet another dumpster fire of a date, Edie is consoling herself with boxed wine and E! News when Ryan Seacrest drops a bomb: Edie's high school sweetheart has been cast as the lead in America's most beloved reality dating show, The Key, and wow, does he look different. Charlie Bennett, Edie's chubby cheeked, cosplay loving high school boyfriend has had a serious glow up, and is now a world traveling, extreme sports hunk. Desperate to reclaim her One True Love, Edie DMs the show's conniving producers, who are more than happy to shove Edie headfirst into the competition. But Charlie isn't quite who she remembers, and he's as desperate to hide his past as Edie is to reveal it."
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The English masterpiece : a novel
by Katherine Reay
"Set in the art world of 1970s London, The English Masterpiece is a fast-paced read to the end, full of glamour and secrets, tensions and lies, as one young woman races against the clock to uncover the truth about a Picasso masterpiece. Perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Ariel Lawhon"
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Gabriela and His Grace
by Liana De La Rosa
As the youngest and most rebellious daughter of the overly protective Luna family, Gabriela Luna Valdés claws after her freedom in any way she can. This time, her hunger for adventure has led her aboard a windswept ship bearing for her homeland, away from a mob of fumbling British suitors. But Gabby can't escape her father's expectation that she settle down to find a proper husband--a compromise she's unwilling to make.
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Mystery, Adventure, & Thriller
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Fade in
by Kyle Mills
When ex-navy SEAL Salam "Fade" al-Fayed steps in front of a sniper's bullet, he assumes that he's reached the end of the road--his death wish has finally been answered. Instead, he wakes in a hospital. As one of the deadliest operatives in U.S. history, he's now incapable of even standing without assistance. Alone and wanted by authorities, he's destined to spend the rest of his life lying in a prison infirmary.
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Sour Crime Donuts
by Ginger Bolton
Emily feels like a protective big sister around bubbly twenty-something Izzy--a new regular whose enthusiasm for peaches and cream donuts is surpassed only by her dream to start her own business. As if blown in by an August breeze, Izzy pulls Emily into her plan to buy a property at the edge of town to grow and sell fresh produce. But she's not the only fan of Deputy Donut's peachy delights . . . or the only patron vying to own the lush parcel of land. And the competition is fiercer than the two women imagined . . .
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Awakened
by White, Roseanna M
An imaginative new spin on mermaid lore, set in a world where nanotechnology has combined with a gift from heaven to create magic.
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The Nightshade God
by Hannah Whitten
Lore has failed. She couldn't save King Bastian from the rotten god speaking voices in his mind. She couldn't save her allies from being scattered across the continent-their own lesser gods whispering to them in their dreams. She couldn't save her beautiful, corrupt city from the dark power beneath the catacombs. And she couldn't save herself. Banished to the Burnt Isles, Lore must use every skill she earned on the streets of Dellaire to survive the prison colony and figure out a way to defeat the power that's captured everything and everyone she holds dear."
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Of silver and secrets
by Michelle Griep
"In 1889 Cambridge, Eva Inman is left desperate for funds to care for her blind sister and the family estate after her father's death. Upon discovering an artifact, she hires estranged friend Bram Webb, a Roman archeology expert, to excavate the land in pursuit of more relics. Will their past and shared secrets thwart their emerging love?"
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The Highland Heist
by Pepper Basham
Lord Astley surprises his wife with a trip to America to see her family before they end their honeymoon adventures. But just as they arrive, they find Grace's sister, Lillias, is the prime suspect in her husband's murder. To add to the confusion a solicitor arrives to tell the sister's they are needed in Scotland immediately to claim their mother's inheritance.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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