Books In For Review

Here's a look at some of the books that have just arrived for review!




Matthias: The Ghost of Salvation Point by Jodi Auborn Ten-year-old Dylan is excited when his father inherits an old lighthouse and cottage in Maine. Dylan and his family get to live there all summer! He goes sailing on the bay, explores the small town down the road, and searches for a legendary pirate treasure that was said to be buried nearby. After mysterious things start happening at the cottage, Dylan meets Matthias, a gruff lighthouse keeper who had died in a storm one hundred years before. A ghost! Dylan is startled to find Matthias living in his bedroom, but he is glad when they become friends. It’s the best summer ever! Things change when they learn that the lighthouse is threatened by a greedy treasure hunter who also knows about the pirate legend. He will do whatever it takes to find the treasure…even kidnapping! As Dylan and Matthias team up to protect their home, they begin an adventure that changes Dylan’s life forever.  

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.  

The Price of Blood by Patricia Bracewell Readers first met Emma of Normandy in Patricia Bracewell’s gripping debut novel, Shadow on the Crown. Unwillingly thrust into marriage to England’s King Æthelred, Emma has given the king a son and heir, but theirs has never been a happy marriage. In The Price of Blood, Bracewell returns to 1006 when a beleaguered Æthelred, still haunted by his brother’s ghost, governs with an iron fist and a royal policy that embraces murder. As tensions escalate and enmities solidify, Emma forges alliances to protect her young son from ambitious men—even from the man she loves. In the north there is treachery brewing, and when Viking armies ravage England, loyalties are shattered and no one is safe from the sword.

Love by The Book by Melissa Pimentel Love by the Book charts a year in the life of Lauren Cunningham, a beautiful, intelligent, and unlucky-in-love twenty-eight-year-old American. Feeling old before her time, Lauren moves to London in search of the fab single life replete with sexy Englishmen. But why can’t she convince the men she’s seeing that she really isn’t after anything more serious than seriously good sex? Determined to break the curse, Lauren turns her love life into an experiment: each month she will follow a different dating guide until she discovers the science behind being a siren. Lauren will follow The Rules, she’ll play The Game, and along the way she’ll journal her (mis)adventures and maybe even find someone worth holding on to. Witty, gritty, and very true to life, Love by the Book will have you in stitches.

The Man I Love by Suanne Laqueur As a college freshman, Erik Fiskare is drawn to the world of theater but prefers backstage to center stage. The moment he lays eyes on a beautiful, accomplished dancer named Daisy Bianco, his atoms rearrange themselves and he is drawn into a romance both youthfully passionate and maturely soulful. Their love story thrives within a tight-knit circle of friends, all bound by creativity and artistry. A newcomer arrives--a brilliant but erratic dancer with an unquenchable thirst for connection. And when this disturbed friend brings a gun into the theater, the story is forever changed. Daisy is shot and left seriously injured. And Erik finds himself alone in the aisle, looking down the muzzle of a pistol and trying to stop the madness. He succeeds, but with tremendous repercussions to his well-being and that of his loved ones. Traumatized by the experience, Erik and Daisy spiral into depression and drug use until a shocking act of betrayal destroys their relationship. To survive, Erik must leave school and disconnect from all he loves. He buries his heartbreak and puts the past behind. Or so he believes. As he moves into adulthood, Erik comes to grips with his role in the shooting, and slowly heals the most wounded parts of his soul. But the unresolved grief for Daisy continues to shape his dreams at night. Once those dreams were haunted by blood and gunfire. Now they are haunted by the refrain of a Gershwin song and a single question: is leaving always the end of loving? Spanning fifteen years, The Man I Love explores themes of love and sexuality, trauma--physical and mental--and its long-lasting effects, the burden of unfinished business and the power of reconciliation. Through Erik's experience we reflect on what it means to be a man, a son and a leader. A soul mate, a partner and a lover. What it means to live the truth of who you are and what you feel. What it means to fight for what you love.

The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown High in the hills of Valencia, a forgotten house guards its secrets. Untouched since Franco’s forces tore through Spain in 1936, the whitewashed walls have crumbled, and the garden, laden with orange blossom, grows wild. Emma Temple is the first to unlock its doors in seventy years. Emma is London’s leading perfumier, but her blessed life has taken a difficult turn. Her free-spirited mother, Liberty, who taught her the art of fragrance making, has just passed away. At the same time, she broke up with her long-time lover and business partner, Joe, whose baby she happens to be carrying. While Joe is in New York trying to sell his majority share in their company, Emma, guided by a series of letters and a key bequeathed to her in Liberty’s will, decides to leave her job and travel to Valencia, where she will give birth in the house her mother mysteriously purchased just before her death. The villa is a perfect retreat: redolent with the exotic scents of orange blossom and neroli, dappled with light and with the rich colors of a forgotten time. Emma makes it her mission to restore the place to its former glory. But for her aging grandmother, Freya, a British nurse who stayed in Valencia during Spain’s devastating civil war, Emma’s new home evokes memories of a terrible secret, a part of her family’s past that until now has managed to stay hidden.

Wall, Watchtower, and Pencil Stub: Writing During World War II by John Carpenter Even as World War II raged on, contemporary writers were riveted by its every twist and turn. One of the war’s most fascinating features was that it was subject to constant change, surprises, and fate reversal. It ensured that wartime writers, who did not yet know of its outcome, adopted points of view that were entirely spontaneous, rather than based on historical hindsight. This remarkable book presents the war in its entirety, with all its force, suspense, and drama. With exceptional clarity it shows how the extreme events of war challenged writers, inspired their art, and in turn produced a modern legacy of literature.

Books In For Review

Here comes another great selection of new books in for review.  Check them out and then stop by our site in a few weeks to read the reviews!





Center of Gravity: One Woman's Experiment to Reinvent her Entire Life Through Creativity, Spirituality, and a Leap of Faith by Geva Salerno Geva Salerno is a businesswoman who embarks on a year-long experiment designed to step outside her pre-conceived ideas about life, in order to reclaim her true self. After finding herself over-worked, divorced and obsessed with achieving society's vision of the perfect life, Geva gives up dating for a one-year period...no more online dating, no more blind dates and no more thinking about men. Set in southwest Florida in 2011 and 2012, the story is the true account of how a woman re-created her life step by step. As she begins the process of dismantling her false life and slowly building an authentic, creative and fulfilling one, Geva brings to life long-forgotten dreams and aspirations and begins to take risks. But, as she begins to re-discover her true self, she also discovers her true voice. Her family must learn to adapt to this "new Geva" as she begins to carve out a new place for herself in her family of origin. She must also find a new, healthier relationship to work, which forces her to examine her real monetary needs and how she spends her time. As her old life unravels, Geva must simultaneously create a new one and be open to what the new life brings. Can she survive in this brand, new world unfolding around her? Over the course of the year, Geva meets new friends who are on similar, but different paths. Strong new women enter her life, while several interesting men tempt her to give up the quest and she is forced to choose between familiar patterns and a new, unknown future. "Will Geva give up the experiment and return to her old life?" "Can Geva create a new life, where she no longer needs men?" "Will her new discoveries affect the lives of millions of women around the world?"  

The Sweetness by Sande Boritz Berger Early in The Sweetness, an inquisitive young girl asks her grandmother why she is carrying nothing but a jug of lemons and water when they are forced by the Germans to evacuate their Vilna ghetto. "Something to remind me of the sweetness," the wise woman tells her, setting the theme for what they must remember to survive. Set during World War II, the novel is the parallel tale of two Jewish girls, cousins, living on separate continents, whose strikingly different lives promise to converge. Brooklyn-born Mira Kane is the eighteen-year-old daughter of a well-to-do manufacturer of women's knitwear in New York. Her cousin, eight-year-old Rosha Kaninsky, is the lone survivor of a family in Vilna exterminated by the invading Nazis. Yet, unbeknownst to her American relatives, though orphaned, Rosha did not perish. Desperate to save his child during a round-up, her father thrust the girl into the arms of a Polish Catholic candle maker, who hides her in a root cellar─putting her entire family at risk. The headstrong and talented Mira, who dreams of escaping Brooklyn for a career as a fashion designer, finds her ambitions abruptly thwarted when, traumatized at the fate of his European relatives, her father becomes intent on safeguarding his loved ones from the threats of a brutal world. All the family must challenge his injurious and spiraling survivor guilt. Though the Kanes endure the experience of the Jews who got out, they reveal how even in the safety of our lives, we are profoundly affected by the dire circumstances of others.  

The Dragon's Orb by J.T. Twerell In the 1970’s, France developed a nuclear missile program called the TN-90. In 1996, President Mitterand slashed the program and placed the remaining warheads in storage. Unfortunately, five of the missiles were recently “lost” and somehow North Korea “found” them. Dawn Laskey, a thirty-two year old fashion designer from New York, decides to take a vacation break to Paris where she becomes involved with Anthony Marconi, a romantic and fun–loving resident of Paris. On the last night of her vacation, she witnesses a murder and is forced to run for her life. Unknown to her, Anthony is an arms dealer with ties to North Korea and is in the midst of the theft of the TN-90 missiles. The murder she witnesses is part of Anthony’s dealings with the North Korean underground known as the Munmu Warriors, who report directly to Kim Jong-Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea. Anthony is killed during their attempt to flee from the North Korean assassins. While Dawn escapes, the Munmu Warriors believe she is involved with Anthony and has vital information they need to complete the arming of the stolen TN-90 missiles. Fleeing to America, Dawn is now hunted by North Korea with the plan to torture her for the information. In addition, high levels of the French police discover her connection to Anthony and now want to question her. In New York, she comes under the protection of thirty-eight years old Detective Gerald Denton who tries to grasp her innocence while the international incident escalates. The story is filled with twist and turns leaving the reader riveted as Dawn tries to stay alive while very dark forces hunt her down and ultimately capture and torture her.  

Shades of Virtue by Jack Whitsel Nearly two years have passed since the Harhn incursion. While the Hugue recovers from the devastation, the Order of the Secret Throne resumes their agenda. Lord Yannic and his armies march the breadth of the Vol Thaldane to rally the divided human fiefdoms into the new realm of Shyrlandia, while engaging the Braug tribes and Harhn Hordes still plaguing the region. In the Hugue, a tournament champion is foreseen to have an impact on future events. The Council of Whispers dispatch Lady Lucia and her two apprentices, Dragana and Tallya to oversee the event. Amidst the spectacle of pageantry and martial prowess, Lucia must uncover the dark powers wishing to thwart the Order's agenda, while supervising her headstrong apprentices. There is more at stake than winning a lady's hand, for whoever wins the tournament will set events in motion that will forever impact the future realm of Shyrlandia, the Vol Thaldane, and the Hugue.  

TIME For Kids Big Book of When: 801 Facts Kids want to Know (Time for Kids Big Books) by Editors of Time for Kids Magazine If you were asked to come up with a list of the most important events, inventions, people, or discoveries in the past 100 or 1,000 years, what would you choose? TIME FOR KIDS new Big Book of When, the newest release from the hugely successful Big Book Series, is a riveting new resource for younger curious readers. This engaging and instructive book presents kids with answers to the kinds of intriguing questions that appeal to their sense of curiosity about when the most important events in history happened. Colorful graphs, spectacular photos, and clear, engaging timelines help answer a myriad of questions. TIME FOR KIDS Big Book of When is a must have book to satisfy the most curious kids. It will have readers of all ages thumbing through its pages again and again.  

Can't-Wait Willow! by Christy Ziglar Willow is so excited that the Over-the-Top Circus has finally come to town! The only problem is that when left to make her own decisions, she can't say 'no' to her favorite things. On the way to the show, she is distracted by enticing treats and fun that she just can't turn down. Willow arrives late and is sad to find that not only has she has run out of time, but money, and she won't be able to enjoy the pink cotton candy she's been dreaming of. Willow is given valuable advice and a second chance and is ultimately taught the lesson that sometimes in life you have to say 'no' to good things to end up with something great!

Must-Have Marvin! by Christy Ziglar Marvin loves new things -- he especially loves finding the latest, greatest, most awesome new things! Soon Marvin finds himself focusing on a new toy that he wants, to the exclusion of his friends. He lets them down when they need his help and nearly loses their friendship. Through a chat with a wise neighbor and a second chance to help, Marvin learns the important life lesson that people are more important than things.  

The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

Books In For Review

Here's a quick peek at a few books that came in for review this weekend.  Check them out and then stop by in a few weeks to read the reviews.  Enjoy!



Scary Story: An Anthology by Assorted Authors Summer's fading, and there's more than the bite of autumn in the air. Zombies are biting in ‘Last Dawn,’ and that's just a taste of Scary Story, a collection of twisted fiction and dark fantasy that's guaranteed to keep you turning pages and checking your back. The undeads in ‘The Path of Dead Roses’ are more ethereal, but whether or not the posy-plucking polters have the key to helping the heroine's troubled father is as uncertain as their very existence, and can only be discovered by readers brave enough to wander down that path. An extra-sensual treat is detailed in ‘The Wrinkled Duplex Halfway up the Hill,’ unveiling suburban secrets and mysteries particular to those wild enough to explore. ‘Silent Night’ turns frightful when a young girl left alone on Christmas Eve improvises her own holiday cheer. From the haunted coal mines in ‘Paradise Lost,’ to iffy experiments on a med student’s trusting wife in ‘Fire of Faith,’ there's something for every horror fan in this anthology. Authors include Samantha Frazier Gordon, Roger Leatherwood, Katherine McMullen, Cynthia Morrison, Kate Raynes, and Karen Robiscoe. Jane 

Austen's Guide to Life: Thoughtful Lessons for the Modern Woman by Lori Smith Jane Austen has become our patron saint of romance, our goddess of happy endings. Her name is synonymous with romantic sighs, period costumes, and the ideal of what love should be. But if she could give us advice about life and love, what would she tell us? What would she make of Match.com, of our Real Housewives, or of our obsession with finding The One? Austen’s stories give us relationship advice that still works today, but her life offers us so much more wisdom than just that pertaining to love. In our fame-obsessed culture, it’s refreshing to think that Austen preferred to remain anonymous. Ironically, Jane Austen—master of love stories—never married and can teach us something about being single. She also endured many painful circumstances and managed them with grace and humor. In this light biography and guide, author Lori Smith surmises about Austen’s sensible advice for twenty-first-century women—on everything from living our dreams, being a woman of substance, finding a good man, managing money, and much more. As such an astute student of human nature, Austen can teach us an awful lot about ourselves and about what it means to live well.

Love! Laugh! Panic! Life with My Mother by Rosemary Mild Don’t we all have mixed emotions about our mothers? But how many of us have a mother like Rosemary’s—multi-talented yet super-tough to live with? Luby Pollack was a skilled journalist, book author, club woman extraordinaire—a true leader, and even an artist of sorts. She sometimes had a daunting role to play. In the delivery room during Rosemary’s birth, her psychiatrist husband ordered her not to make any noise during labor—it was “unseemly for a doctor’s wife.” Rosemary Pollack Mild started to write a book strictly about herself, but that didn’t go so well. She discovered that Mother popped up on every page. Looming. Encouraging. Warning. Always the Protagonist, the Star, the Heroine, the Antagonist, and sometimes the Villain from the viewpoint of a loving but ornery daughter.

Lost in Thought by Cara Bertrand Lainey Young has a secret: she's going crazy. Everyone else thinks she has severe migraines from stress and exhaustion. What she really has are visions of how people died--or are going to die. Not that she tells anyone that. At age 16, she prefers keeping her crazy to herself. When doctors insist she needs a new and stable environment to recover, Lainey's game to spend two years at a private New England boarding school. She doesn't really think it will cure her problem, and she's half right. There is no cure, but as she discovers, she's not actually crazy. Almost everyone at Northbrook Academy has a secret too. Half the students and nearly all the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted. A vision of another student's impending death confirms Lainey is one of them. She'd like to return the crappy gift of divining deaths with only a touch, but enjoys spending time with Carter Penrose--recent Academy graduate and resident school crush--while learning to control it. Lainey's finally getting comfortable with her ability, and with Carter, when they uncover her true Sententia heritage. Now she has a real secret. Once it's spilled, she'll be forced to forget protecting secrets and start protecting herself.

Books In For Review

Check out the books that have just come in for review!  Looks like some great reading.  Check them out and then stop by our site in a few weeks to read the reviews.


Thump by Avraham Azrieli - A handsome African American, his white female boss, and a shocking sexual harassment trial that threatens to destroy the richest investment firm in Baltimore.

Zack's Choice by Harry E. Gilleland, Jr. - Zackery Gresham has his life all planned. His mother is a lawyer; his father is a federal judge; and he is Pre-Law at Yale, with Harvard Law School to follow before he joins his mother’s prestigious law firm. He plans to marry his high school and Yale girlfriend once he graduates from Law School. During a school break Zack takes a once-in-a-lifetime motorcycle trip through the southern states. In New Mexico he has a chance encounter with a strange hitchhiker. The resulting chaos will bring Zack face-to-face with a choice that could alter his life forever.

The Dragon's Orb by J.T. Twerell - In the 1970’s, France developed a nuclear missile program called the TN-90. In 1996, President Mitterand slashed the program and placed the remaining warheads in storage. Unfortunately, five of the missiles were recently “lost” and somehow North Korea “found” them. Dawn Laskey, a thirty-two year old fashion designer from New York, decides to take a vacation break to Paris where she becomes involved with Anthony Marconi, a romantic and fun–loving resident of Paris. On the last night of her vacation, she witnesses a murder and is forced to run for her life. Unknown to her, Anthony is an arms dealer with ties to North Korea and is in the midst of the theft of the TN-90 missiles. The murder she witnesses is part of Anthony’s dealings with the North Korean underground known as the Munmu Warriors, who report directly to Kim Jong-Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea. Anthony is killed during their attempt to flee from the North Korean assassins. While Dawn escapes, the Munmu Warriors believe she is involved with Anthony and has vital information they need to complete the arming of the stolen TN-90 missiles. Fleeing to America, Dawn is now hunted by North Korea with the plan to torture her for the information. In addition, high levels of the French police discover her connection to Anthony and now want to question her. In New York, she comes under the protection of thirty-eight years old Detective Gerald Denton who tries to grasp her innocence while the international incident escalates. The story is filled with twist and turns leaving the reader riveted as Dawn tries to stay alive while very dark forces hunt her down and ultimately capture and torture her.



Nothing Like A Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater by Eddie Shapiro - In Nothing Like a Dame, theater journalist Eddie Shapiro opens a jewelry box full of glittering surprises, through in-depth conversations with twenty leading women of Broadway. He carefully selected Tony Award-winning stars who have spent the majority of their careers in theater, leaving aside those who have moved on or occasionally drop back in. The women he interviewed spent endless hours with him, discussing their careers, offering insights into the iconic shows, changes on Broadway over the last century, and the art (and thrill) of taking the stage night after night. Chita Rivera describes the experience of starring in musicals in each of the last seven decades; Audra McDonald gives her thoughts on the work that went into the five Tony Awards she won before turning forty-one; and Carol Channing reflects on how she has revisited the same starring role generation after generation, and its effects on her career. Here too is Sutton Foster, who contemplates her breakout success in an age when stars working predominately in theater are increasingly rare. Each of these conversations is guided by Shapiro's expert knowledge of these women's careers, Broadway lore, and the details of famous (and infamous) musicals. He also includes dozens of photographs of these players in their best-known roles.

Pansy in Paris: A Mystery at the Museum by Cynthia Bardes -Pansy, the poodle who lives at the Palace Hotel in Beverly Hills and Avery, the little girl who adopted her, are off on a new adventure in Pansy in Paris. The two travel to the City of Lights to solve a new mystery: who is stealing paintings from the museum? With only one clue and their boundless curiosity, the two follow the trail, foil the thieves, and recover the missing artwork—having great fun as they explore a beautiful new city and enjoy its treasures. Pansy and Avery learn about the joy of travel, the satisfaction of a job well done, and the special pleasure of teamwork.

Books In For Review

Here's a quick peek at some of the books that have just arrived for review.  Take a look and then stop by our site in a few weeks to read the reviews.





Will Shakespeare and the Ships of Solomon by Christopher Grey In the fall of 1947, Will Shakespeare saw the world collapse around him. Shakespeare, a secret soldier for the Knights Templar, barely escapes the slaughter of his entire knighthood at the hands of a rogue militant arm of the Vatican in a small Montreal church. With orders to escort Templar business associate Dorothy Wilkinson back to her home in Bermuda, Will must locate and rescue the most important secret treasure in human history before it is devoured by a hurricane in the watery caves beneath her father’s property. The spiraling quest sends Will and Dorothy into uncovering dark secrets that make up the origins of the knighthood as they confront the traps and puzzles that masterfully protect the world’s most coveted treasure.

Light Riders and the Fleur-de-lis Murder by Ann Goldfarb When 15 year old Ryn and his younger sister Aeden find themselves in Paris, France due to the murder of a distant relative, they cannot resist the temptation to travel back in time to find the killer. Although they think they have mastered Snell’s Law of Refraction and a way to use light for time travel, something goes terribly wrong. The pair finds themselves in 18th century Paris a day before the storming of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution. To make matters worse, they are lost in the underground sewers and their only hope of survival rests with a member of a secret society of revolutionaries who is bent on killing the aristocracy. When Ryn and Aeden learn that his next victim is their ancestor, who has sought refuge in the Bastille, they are forced to conceal their identities and find a way into that fortress to rescue the gentleman. With a bloodthirsty mob of angry citizens only hours away, Ryn and Aeden must rely on their instincts and skill to escape a frightening fate. Will time be their ally or their enemy?

Just Like Heaven: A Sweetland Novel by Lacey Baker As a successful criminal prosecutor, Preston Cantrell thrives in the hustle and bustle of Baltimore. Much as he loved his grandmother, the cozy streets of his hometown aren’t enough for him—not when he can make a real difference in the city. To get back to his career, all he needs is a new home for the energetic puppy he inherited. But when the gorgeous woman who arrives to adopt finds the dog more appealing than he is, Preston’s determined to plead his case.

Compass: Creating Exceptional Organizations: A Leader's Guide Hardcover by William F. Brandt Jr. A how-to-do-it compass for business leaders, executives, and managers of for-profit and nonprofit organizations, large and small. The traditional view of economic reality holds that the pursuit of self-interest benefits not only individuals but also society. While this book acknowledges the past successes of this premise, it offers a new, more powerful paradigm—the simultaneous pursuit of both self-interest and concern for others. This new orientation provides a guide for behavior that reflects both the greatest aspirations of humankind and the reality of the world in which we live. As a leader, you can act according to this new paradigm and create Exceptional Organizations that are viable (they achieve their purposes while acting according to society’s highest values), sustainable (viable over time), and valued (all your owners, employees, clients, providers, and communities benefit far more than with competitors). Such Exceptional Organizations foster the personal, professional, and moral growth of their members and are valued by society because society is among their stakeholders.

Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises. Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel by Ransom Riggs When Jacob Portman was a boy, his grandfather regaled him with stories of his fantastic life at Miss Peregrine's home during the Second World War, even sharing photos of the remarkable children with whom he resided. As Jacob grew up, though, he decided that these photos were obvious fakes, simple forgeries designed to stir up his youthful imagination. Or were they...? Following his grandfather's death - a scene Jacob literally couldn't believe with his own eyes - the sixteen-year-old boy embarks on a mission to disentangle fact from fiction in his grandfather's tall tales. But even his grandfather's elaborate yarns couldn't prepare Jacob for the eccentricities he will discover at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children!

Twisted Sisters by Jen Lancaster Reagan Bishop is a pusher. A licensed psychologist who stars on the Wendy Winsberg cable breakout show I Need a Push, Reagan helps participants become their best selves by urging them to overcome obstacles and change behaviors. An overachiever, Reagan is used to delivering results. Despite her overwhelming professional success, Reagan never seems to earn her family’s respect. Her younger sister, Geri, is and always will be the Bishop family favorite. When a national network buys Reagan’s show, the pressures for unreasonably quick results and higher ratings mount. But Reagan’s a clinician, not a magician, and fears witnessing her own personal failings in prime time. (And seriously? Her family will never let her hear the end of it.) Desperate to make the show work and keep her family at bay, Reagan actually listens when the show’s New Age healer offers an unconventional solution...Record Nielsen ratings follow. But when Reagan decides to use her newfound power to teach everyone a lesson about sibling rivalry, she’s the one who will be schooled...