Books In For Review

Here's a sample of the books that have recently arrived for review.  Check them out then stop by in a few weeks to read the reviews.

Sand Dollar: A Story of Undying Love by Sebastian Cole Noah Hartman, eighty years old, lies sick in a hospital bed recounting his life of love and loss to Josh, in his sixties, a wise and compassionate orderly who stopped in to bring him dinner. As Noah's loved ones arrive one by one to see him, they listen in on his story, and we're transported back in time to Noah's younger years. Though outwardly seeming to have it all, Noah, now thirty-five, is actually an empty, lost, and broken man running on automatic pilot. He has no true identity due to having allowed his powerful, wealthy parents to manipulate, control, and brainwash him from a young age. With the threat of disinheritance and withholding love and approval if he doesn't comply with the plan they have for his life, Noah is lured in by the reward of great wealth and the illusion of running the family business empire some day. In truth, however, Noah is like a regular, everyday guy living a life that was not meant for him.

Dark Soul by Don Castle An African-American girl is shot and killed by a police officer during a routine traffic stop - a female FBI agent is drugged, kidnapped and severely tortured - and a prominent neighborhood has been targeted for racial profiling and hate crimes - but why? Jake Somers finds himself dealing with a maniacal criminal - an injured dog - a bad guy with an AK47 assault rifle - and an attempt on his mother's life. 

Soft Target by Stephen Hunter It starts out as a simple shopping trip with his fiancee. But suddenly, retired marine sergeant Ray Cruz, whom we met in Hunter’s last bestseller, Dead Zero, is in the middle of the softest target of all, a huge emporium outside Minneapolis where a self-styled “Mumbai Brigade” has come to bring massive death to the heartland. Hunter flashes over the events as if in real time: the assembly of the killer team composed of terrorists from one of the world’s hellholes, but led by a nihilistic insider who knows the mall backwards and forwards and has taken over the security software as well as the vast building and 1,000 hostages; the politics of SWAT as officials argue over tactics outside while the killing goes on inside; the panic in the halls of the death zone, as hostages are herded to an amusement park. As the clock ticks on, the terrorists begin to execute their captives. But they don’t know Ray Cruz is in the building....

Sea Change by Karen White After playing hooky one day in the seventh grade to read Gone With the Wind, Karen White knew she wanted to be a writer—or become Scarlett O'Hara. In spite of these aspirations, Karen pursued a degree in business and graduated cum laude with a BS in Management from Tulane University. Ten years later, after leaving the business world, she fulfilled her dream of becoming a writer and wrote her first book. In the Shadow of the Moon was published in August, 2000. This book was nominated for the prestigious RITA award in 2001 in two separate categories. Her books have since been nominated for numerous national contests including another RITA, the Georgia Author of the Year Award and in 2008 won the National Readers’ Choice Award for Learning to Breathe.

The Diva Digs Up the Dirt (A Domestic Diva Mystery) by Krista Davis Determined not to be a garden-variety diva, Sophie Winston’s neighbor Natasha cultivates a plan to shine on television -- using Sophie’s backyard.  As the cast and crew of the make-over show Tear it Up with Troy bulldoze through her backyard -- and vacation -- Sophie retreats to her perennial boyfriend Wolf’s to replace a dead rosebush.  But her tender deed goes awry when she digs up a purse belonging to Wolf’s missing wife. As speculations sprout, Wolf bolts, and then a body crops up in a garden.  Is Wolf’s thorny past raising an ugly head? This is one case the domestic diva can’t let wilt on the vine.

The Azalea Assault (A Garden Society Mystery) by Alyse Carlson Roanoke, Virginia, is home to some of the country’s most exquisite gardens, and it’s Camellia Harris’ job to promote them. But when an out of towner turns up dead, she discovers there’s no good way to spin murder…