The Next Time You See Me-Holly Goddard Jones

The Next Time You See Me

Holly Goddard Jones

Touchstone, Feb 12 2013, $24.99

ISBN: 9781451683363

 

In 1993 in Roma, Kentucky, Ronnie Eastman vanishes.  No one blinks; as the townsfolk expected no less of troubled Ronnie addicted to drugs, alcohol and sex.  The one exception is Ronnie’s married “Sister” with a young daughter Abby, middle school teacher Susanna Mitchell who wants to know what happened to her sibling.  She detests the holier than thou attitude of Pendleton the cop, friends and family including her school band leader Dale.  All assumes Ronnie got what she deserved.

 

Thirteen-year-old loner Emily Houchens prefers role playing in the woods rather than friends.  When she stumbles across a corpse, Emily decides to tell no one.  Near retirement mechanic Wyatt Powell knows what it is like to be an outsider, but recently fell in love though he feels underserving.  Finally Tony the black police detective, who dreamed of playing in the majors, returns to Roma after being away briefly; he investigates the disappearance of Ronnie.

 

Although ostensibly a mystery re what happened to Ronnie; The Next Time You See Me is more a deep look into the powerful force of what happened to Ronnie on people impacted by her disappearance.  The key to this entertaining fresh suspense is that the prime characters are fully developed with each having doubts about the lives they live.  Readers will enjoy Holly Goddard Jones’ engaging tale of the profound effect on the intertwining relationships when the dynamics change as the gap caused by deletion must be refilled by something or someone.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Truth About Love and Lightning-Susan McBride

The Truth About Love and Lightning

Susan McBride

Morrow, Feb 12 2013, $14.99

ISBN 9780062027283

 In 2010 inWalnut Ridge, Missouri, single mom fiftyish Gretchen Brink lives on her family farm with her blind twin sisters when a tornado rips through the property.  After the storm leaves, Gretchen goes outside to investigate the damage.  She sees nuts on the ground near a fallen walnut tree that has not been fruitful in years.  However, Gretchen has no time for the nutty mystery as underneath the tree is a man who sort of looks familiar. 

 

Fearing her forty-year lie will be exposed, Gretchen wonders whether the man suffering from amnesia could be the love of her life Sam Winston who vanished in Africa four decades ago.  Meanwhile her fortyish daughter Abby comes home pregnant and single; believing that she finally meets her biological father.

 

Rotating between different eras, Susan McBride provides a warm drama that focuses on how even a little white lie can have a snowball running down a hill gathering mass effect and what a family truly is.  Although amnesia is an over used device, readers will root for the likable fully developed cast who are on the brink of either disillusioned dissolution or beautiful bonding.

 

Harriet Klausner

One Sunday-Carrie Cecil

One Sunday

Carrie Cecil

Howard/Simon and Schuster, Feb 12 2013, $14.99

ISBN: 9781451664768

 

Ambitious thirty-something Alice Ferguson felt she was on top of the world as with her gay business partner Amos, she edits a trashy tabloid and runs the Trashville Hollywood gossip website that consistently has her flying cross country.   She recently met in Bel Air and soon married Dr. Burton Bannister II, the father of the child she carries.

 

However, her pregnancy proves difficult with health problems threatening her and her unborn.  Alice gives up her stressful career and leaves Southern California for the Nashville area.  There she feels like a fish on dry land living in suburban jail amidst the idle housewives.  Adding to her frustration is realizing that Amos is doing a great job running Trashville without her.  Retired NFL lineman Pastor Tim Jackson, his wife LaChelle and their two daughters are her only friends as Alice feels more like a squatter than a neighbor.  However, Tim and LaChelle gently persuade the mocking doubter to show up One Sunday at their church.

 

Alice is a fascinating protagonist as she gives up the fast lane and what she believes is her identity to live as an outsider in the Deep South Bible Belt.  Initially the coastal heathen makes no efforts to belong.  Her long journey of redemption and forgiveness (of one’s self) make for a warm, at times amusing (especially Alice’s wry commentary) inspirational Christian tale.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Woman From Paris-Santa Montefiore

The Woman From Paris

Santa Montefiore

Simon & Schuster, Feb 5 2013, $25.00

ISBN: 9781451676686

 

In 2012 in the Swiss Alps, Lord George Frampton dies in a skiing accident.  Ten days later in his Hampshire home, his wife Antoinette, their three sons (David, Joshua (his spouse Roberta) and Tom) and his mother Margaret grieve their loss.  Also attending the funeral is Canadian Phaedra Chancellor; who David thinks love at first sight is inappropriate at his dad’s funeral.

 

Family attorney Julius Beecher introduces Phaedra to the Frampton family as George’s illegitimate daughter.  Everyone is stunned with different reactions.  Phaedra rejects her share of the inheritance, the Frampton sapphires even as her sweet kind disposition soon leads to the family warmly welcoming her.  However, David wants more than just a half-sister while Phaedra feels the same way about him.  However she conceals a dark secret that would rip asunder the Frampton family who she loves and due to her has come together.

 

The Woman From Paris is an entertaining family drama starring a fully developed ensemble cast.  The Frampton clan is dysfunctional with the one person keeping them together now dead; that is until Phaedra enters their lives.  Though readers will figure out Phaedra’s dark secret, love heals all types of emotional wounds.

 

Harriet Klausner

Temple Of A Thousand Faces-John Shors

Temple Of A Thousand Faces

John Shors

NAL, Feb 5 2013, $16.00

ISBN: 9780451239174

 

In 1177 King Indravarman leads his vast invading Chams army as they attack Angkor in a bloody assault.  Khmer Prince Jayavar and his number one wife Ajadevi flee into the jungle as the Cham horde devastate his overwhelmed people.

 

Now the king with the death of his father, Jayavar recruits thousands of troops like the fishing family of Boran, Soriya and their sons Vibol and Prak, who have witnessed the atrocities.  Jayavar knows he has nowhere near the number of soldiers that the Cham claims, even fewer experienced warriors compared to their vicious adversaries; and they also lack the equipment.  Indravarman’s top-level advisor Asal meets and falls in love with Khmer prisoner Voisanne.  She opens his mind to the genocide and reminds him of what he prefers forgotten with the horrors he witnessed first-hand as a youth.  Knowing the monarch will torture them until they die; Asal and Voisanne flee the Chams to join the Khmer resistance.

 

This is a profound rare look at twelfth century Cambodia as readers learn much about the Middle Age Buddhist and Hindu spiritualism and the Khmer culture; symbolized by the Angkor Wat complex.  However that historical insight also tends to slow down the storyline with incredible layers of Eastern philosophical and religious depth.  Fans who prefer intense passive societal deepness at the cost of action will enjoy John Shor’s perceptive look at Angkor a half of century before Thomas Aquinas’ writings.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Crook Factory-Dan Simmons

The Crook Factory

Dan Simmons

Mulholland Books/Little Brown, Feb 5 2013, $15.99

ISBN: 9780316213455

 

In the summer of ’42, WW II is hot with spies seemingly everywhere at least according to Hoover. Of particular concern to the FBI chief is Ernest “Papa” Hemingway. To insure that the writer stays in line, Hoover sends Agent Joe Lucas to spy on the great author.

 

With the aid and approval of the American ambassador to Cuba, Hemingway leads an anti-submarine squad of misfits (at least in terms of soldiers) and old buddies from the Spanish Civil War. Lucas figures that all he has to do is relax amidst a bunch of drunken fishermen. However, to his amazement and chagrin, the amateur espionage group soon becomes embroiled in the real thing. Lucas wonders if a conspiracy leading back to his own government and perhaps his agency is behind the abruptly dangerous and deadly activities of The Crook Factory.

 

This reprint reminds readers that Dan Simmons has been a leading light of fictional biographical thrillers for years. The Crook Factory is a fabulous historical that takes real life happenings in the life of Hemingway and brings them to the reader in an engaging fictional account. Though no Islands In The Stream, this story makes the macho Hemingway seem alive as Mr. Simmons catches the literary legend’s essence through a well-designed espionage thriller, packed with real people.

 

Harriet Klausner

For Love Of Eli-Loree Lough

For Love Of Eli

Loree Lough

Abingdon Press, Feb 1 2013, $12.99

ISBN: 9781426752506

 

After his parents died last year, five year old Eli lives with his legal guardian maternal Aunt Taylor Bradley at the Misty Wolf Inn in Blacksburg, Virginia.  Eli’s paternal Uncle Dr. Reece Montgomery blames his late brother-in-law Eliot who died as a soldier in Afghanistan for the subsequent death of his sister Margo.  Reece also feels guilt for not being there for her; knowing Margo’s dying was not an accident.  He especially rages over a loser like Taylor is named his nephew’s guardian when he is a pediatrician; worse he is attracted to the failure raising his last relative.

 

Eli and Taylor find an unfinished quilt that Margo started for her son.  Taylor decides to finish the quilt so that Eli will have a precious memory of his late parents.  As Reece visits Eli, he and Taylor fall in love, but he assumes she belongs to celebrity Jimmy Jacobs.

 

The latest Quilts of Love inspirational (see A Wild Goose Chase Christmas by Jennifer AlLee, Beyond the Storm by Quilts of Love and Path of Freedom by Jennifer Hudson Taylor) is a warm family drama starring three survivors struggling with the deaths of loved ones.  The engaging storyline focuses on healing as each of the trio handles their grief differently.  Although the romance feels forced and uninspiring, readers will enjoy the lad’s living relatives doing for him whatever he needs because of a love for Eli and his late parents.

 

Harriet Klausner

Iscariot-Tosca Lee

Iscariot

Tosca Lee

Simon &Schuster/Howard, Feb 5 2013, $22.99

ISBN 9781451683769

 

With the death of King Herod, Jerusalem turns into a deadly tinderbox as revolutionaries take down the Eagle.  However, soldiers go after those who defiled the Eagle.  Six year old Judas flees with his family to Galilee as his Father was one of the conspirators. While nearing Sepphoris, they learn thousands of their Father’s compatriots were slaughtered by the new king Archelaus at the Temple.  Rebellion explodes across the kingdom, but is put down with Judas’ Father dying on a Roman cross.  The child vows to never follow his Father’s fate.

 

Judas becomes a Zealot studying the Torah.  When he meets Jesus, Judas believes he met the Messiah king of the Jews who will end Roman rule.  Feeling euphoric, Judas breaks his youthful commandment of never joining rebels when he becomes a disciple of the Nazarene.  However, his hero rejects any religious dogma, which leads to a dispirited Judas believing he erred as Jesus is no Messiah planning to free the Jews but instead has a different plot. 

 

This is an insightful exhilarating bibliographical biblical fiction that looks deep into the soul of the man history paints as the greatest betrayer as well as how Judas changes his opinion of Jesus and the disciples.  Inside an entertaining tale that brings to life first century Judea, Tosca Lee makes the arguments that the child is the adult and that the victors write the history books (and Gospels).  The childhood flight culminating in his Father’s execution haunts the adult Judas while his changing beliefs as to whether Jesus is good for the Jews is not different than the doubting denying disciples.  Iscariot will leave the audience to wonder how we would have acted wearing Judas’ sandals.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Lieutenant By Her Side-Jean Thomas

The Lieutenant By Her Side

Jean Thomas

Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Feb 5 2013, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373278121

 

In New Orleans the man informed fifth grade schoolteacher Clare Fuller that if she is to prove her sister Terry did not commit the murder she is accused of she will do his bidding.  He explains she will steal an amulet from US Army Ranger Lieutenant Mark Griggs in exchange for the proof that her sibling is innocent.  At the luxurious Pelican Hotel, Clare calling herself Nola cons the heroic soldier but feels guilty for doing so to a warrior recovering from a war injury obtained protecting a child from the Taliban. 

 

However, before she escapes with the amulet, Mark catches her when engine trouble grounded the last ferry off the island.  Contrite to his irritated, she tells him the truth.  Mark agrees to help her learn what the hidden agenda of the blackmailer is.  Though neither trusts the other with good reason, they head to New Orleans to investigate knowing they have nothing to offer to the police.  Falling in love leaves both vulnerable.

 

The Lieutenant By Her Side is a taut investigative romantic suspense headed by the title hero and a beleaguered teacher.  Fast-paced from the opening seduction and never slowing down until the final confrontation, readers will enjoy this tense thriller as Mark’s Ranger DNA means protecting even someone he distrusts though to his chagrin desires.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Alaskan Rescue-Dominque Burton

The Alaskan Rescue

Dominque Burton

Harlequin American, Feb 5 2013, $5.25

ISBN: 9780373754441

 

Dr. Cole Stevens flies from Ketchikan to Marshall’s Fishing Lodge And Resort on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska to attend to several sick guests.  However, he becomes livid to learn that the owner Frank Marshall lied about the ailing individuals who instead of Kansans were foreign visitors; thankfully suffering from Strep and sea sickness, and not a virus.  He stays the night and meets dancer Sashi “New York” Hansen who dreams of opening up a ballet studio in Alexandria, Virginia, but gruelingly works at Marshall’s with three days of employment left here for her and her BFF anthropologist Kendra Knight.  The dancer and the doctor spend the night together.

 

A few days later, a distraught pregnant Kendra runs outside at night after seeing the father of her unborn Freddy Marshall with another woman; Sashi follows her.  A bear attacks them killing Kendra and injuring Sashi.  When they are reported missing, Cole joins the rescue party that finds Sashi.  As Cole and Sashi fall in love, his rage against Freddy and her guilt over Kendra keep them from emotionally healing.  

 

The Alaskan backdrop enhances a strong contemporary romance.  Character driven, fans will root for the doctor and the dancer to forge a healing tango built from their love.

 

Harriet Klausner