Late Summer Beach Read

Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she couldshe ran. Stunned, Del left Fool's Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.

Now ten years later, Maya's been hired to promote her hometown's new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!

Although Del's not the type to hold a grudge, he's determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He's a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya's kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all.

Thrill Me just landed on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Click here to place your hold today!

Who Loves Chick Lit?!

An unforgettable story about true love, real life, and second chances…

Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are just eight years old when they meet one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she’s intrigued by the boy who shows up alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy’s taken back to a doctor and Rachel’s sent back to her bed, they think they’ll never see each other again.

A sweeping, warmhearted, and intimate tale, Who Do You Love is an extraordinary novel about the passage of time, the way people change and change each other, and how the measure of a life is who you love. (Publisher Summary)

Click here to place your hold today!

Summer Lovin'

One Summer by Elin Hiderbrand

One Summer collects two beloved Elin Hilderbrand classics, filled with double the sun, sand, drama and romance that fans love. The Blue Bistro and The Love Season. (Publisher Summary)

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

In 1962, a young Italian innkeeper meets an American starlet in a little drama engineered by her conniving publicist. Fifty years later, the innkeeper follows his heart to Hollywood to find her. (Library Journal Reviews)

The Summer Wind by Mary Alice Monroe

Raising her autistic child alone after being abandoned by her husband, Dora, who for years played the role of a perfect wife in a loveless marriage, spends a stormy summer of healing and self-discovery with her half-sisters and grandmother. (Publisher Summary)

On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

Stranded on an uninhabited island after their private plane crashes, thirty-year-old Anna Emerson and sixteen-year-old T.J. Callahan, her tutee, struggle to survive and, as the months pass, slowly fall in love. (Publisher Summary)

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Her teenage life turned upside-down by her parents' divorce and her father's relocation out of state, Ronnie Miller remains bitter three years later when her mother urges her to spend a summer with her father. (Publisher Summary)

The Reef by Nora Roberts

Tate Beaumont, a beautiful student of marine archaeology, finds adventure, danger, and passion when she reluctantly joins forces with diver Matthew Lassiter and his uncle to find a legendary jeweled amulet said to be lost at the bottom of the sea. (Publisher Summary)

Cultured Beach Read

Set against dramatic Mediterranean Sea views and lush olive groves, The Rocks opens with a confrontation and a secret: What was the mysterious, catastrophic event that drove two honeymooners apart so suddenly and absolutely in 1948 that they never spoke again despite living on the same island for sixty more years? And how did their history shape the Romeo and Juliet–like romance of their (unrelated) children decades later? 

Centered around a popular seaside resort club and its community, The Rocks is a double love story that begins with a mystery, then moves backward in time, era by era, to unravel what really happened decades earlier. (Publisher Summary)

"With its large cast of eccentrics and their ever-shifting relationships, The Rocks feels a bit like the literary equivalent of a good Netflix binge: a guilty pleasure well-crafted enough that you don’t actually have to feel guilty about it." BookPage Reviews

Paper Towns: Official Movie Trailer!

Paper Towns, another novel of esteemed YA author John Green, will be released on the silver screen this July! There's still plenty of time to read the book before seeing the movie and make sure you check out the official movie trailer below!

One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. (Publisher Summary)

Top 10 Romances reccomended by Booklist

A Beauty So Rare by Tamera Alexander

Believing she will never marry because of her plain features, Eleanor Braddock finds a sense of purpose by building a home for Civil War widows and orphans with the help of an Austrian architect who hides the truth about his aristocratic heritage. (Publisher Summary)

The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs

While transforming Bella Vista, her childhood home, into a destination cooking school, celebrated chef Isabel Johansen finds her plans interrupted by war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill who has arrived to dig up old history. (Publisher Summary)

Evening Stars by Susan Mallery

While nurse Nina Wentworth—torn between two very different men—struggles to leave Blackberry Island, her sister Averil returns, complicating things even further until their reckless mother makes a shocking discovery that changes everything. (Publisher Summary)

Hell for Leather by Julie Ann Walker

When her uncle disappears, Delilah Fairchild turns to Black Knights Inc. operator, Bryan "Mac" McMillan, for help, but when someone attempts to kidnap Delilah and bullets start to fly, these two are in for a passion-filled thrill ride. (Publisher Summary)

Heroes are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

A down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids' puppet shows finds herself trapped on a remote island off the coast of Maine with a sexy horror novelist who knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. (Publisher Summary)

How to Handle a Cowboy by Joanne Kennedy

Volunteering to teach foster kids how to ride, former rodeo cowboy Ridge Cooper shows jaded social worker Sierra Dunn that together they can change the world one child at a time. (Publisher Summary)

The Pelican Bride by Beth White

She's come to the New World to escape a perilous past. But has it followed her to these far shores? A feisty young Frenchwoman gets more than she bargained for when she flees to the New World as a mail-order bride. (Publisher Summary)

River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz

Returning thirteen years after an embarrassing incident from her teens to the hometown of her beloved late aunt, forensic genealogist Lucy Sheridan makes shocking discoveries about her aunt's death, the disappearance of a cold-blooded local, and an attractive former cop. (Publisher Summary)

Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James

When Thorn Dautry, the bastard son of a duke, decides that he needs a wife, he enlists Lady Xenobia India to help make him over into a more civilized man, unaware of the passion that will explode between them. (Publisher Summary)

What a Duke Dares by Anna Campbell

After turning down the Duke of Sedgemoor's marriage proposal, Miss Penelope Thorne runs off to the Continent until, at her dying brother's request, the duke is sent to bring her home. (Publisher Summary)

Modern Romance

I Take You by Eliza Kennedy

Lily Wilder is getting married in six days to a man who really lights her fire, but she still has one big decision to make: does she actually want to get married? Lily is a lawyer who loves her job, enough to be excited about working a huge environmental case the week of her wedding in Key West. But prepping a witness is only one of many distractions keeping Lily from figuring out her true feelings: "Do I want to call this off?...Do I love Will?" Is she capable of being faithful, and does she even want to be? Will is a sexy nerd who speaks multiple languages and works as a curator at the Met in New York. He's essentially perfect. But as Lily's mom reminds her, "You're such a…a free spirit!" That's putting it mildly. Lily's comfortable downing vodka for breakfast. She gives her wedding planner—who is a special kind of kooky—hell just for her own amusement. And she'll find a hot stranger to make out with within five minutes of being left alone. But, despite a difficult past and the judgment of her peers, she likes who she is. In Kennedy's debut, career takes a back seat to exploring the benefits of an unconventional love life. In this whirlwind story, which reads not unlike a quickie engagement, the ultimate question is whether one can be both promiscuous and in love. Lily, basking in the glow of Key West's free-love attitude, is guided toward yes. This book has the effect of three Bloody Marys at brunch: it'll leave you flushed, giddy, and prepared to embrace your wild side. (Kirkus Reviews)

The Guest Cottage by Nancy Thayer

Everything is better at the beach—even divorce—in the bestselling author's (Nantucket Sisters, 2014, etc.) latest love story set in Nantucket.When Sophie's husband announces that he's leaving her for a younger colleague at his architecture firm, Sophie packs up their two children and heads to her friend Susie's sprawling guest cottage for the summer. What she doesn't know is that Susie's cousin Sven has simultaneously rented the house to his friend Trevor and Trevor's son, Leo. With no contracts to settle the dispute, Sophie and Trevor amicably decide to share the space. Though their chemistry is palpable, Sophie isn't prepared for a fling with a younger man. Trevor's wife, Tallulah, was a self-absorbed actress who died of a drug overdose, but he doesn't portray her as a villain. Though she wasn't a traditional mother, Leo adored her. Skipping ahead to the happy ending, the two broken families fall into a pleasant routine of beach combing and sharing meals against the beautiful backdrop of the East Coast. Sophie's emotional maturity is her greatest asset as she reconciles her feelings of relief with the hurt she expected to feel about her divorce. When her friend Angie seduces Trevor one night, Sophie takes it in stride, and she's not offended when Trevor's vegetarian friend, Candace, scolds her for serving meat. Instead, Sophie takes up the piano after years of silence and grows out her hair. She is so detached from her crush on Trevor that when the more age-appropriate Hristo offers her a ride on his yacht, she accepts without worrying about Trevor's feelings. Trevor, however, has other plans for her future. It's a pleasant escape to a state of mind in which rebuilding a life is as simple as pitching an umbrella and spreading out a towel. (Kirkus Reviews)

Book to Movie Alert!

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD is the story of independent, beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), who attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a sheep farmer, captivated by her fetching willfulness; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba’s choices and passions explores the nature of relationships and love – as well as the human ability to overcome hardships through resilience and perseverance. (videoeta.com)

The Little Paris Bookshop

“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I sell books.”

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened. (Publisher Summary) 

Click here to place your hold on The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. 

New Series Alert!

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Grace Burrowes, is writing a brand new romance series! The first book, A Single Kiss, has been released and is now available at the Community Library!

To support her daughter and pay off her law school loans, attorney Hannah Stark, who grew up in foster care, accepts a temp position in a small firm's family-law department where she just might get her own happy ending in the arms of her new boss, Trent Peckham. (Publisher Summary)

"A guarded heroine with a haunted past, a single dad savvy enough to win her trust, and a supporting cast you'll want to meet again come together in an insightful, delightful romance that is Burrowes's first novel-length foray into the contemporary arena and the beginning of a promising back-to-back trilogy." Library Journal Reviews

Oprah Announces New Book Club Selection

Oprah has announced her fourth selection for her book club - Ruby by Cynthia Bond!

The epic, unforgettable story of a man determined to protect the woman he loves from the town desperate to destroy her—this beautiful and devastating debut heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.

Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. (Publisher Summary)

Ruby received a starred review from Booklist Reviews: "in her first novel, Bond immerses readers in a fully realized world, one scarred by virulent racism and perverted rituals but also redeemed by love. Graphic in its descriptions of sexual violence and suffering, this powerful, explosive novel is, at times, difficult to read, presenting a stark, unflinching portrait of dark deeds and dark psyches.

Click here to learn more about Oprah's Book Club 2.0!

New Series Starter for Catherine Anderson

After years of living in fear of her husband, Amanda Banning has left him and moved to Mystic Creek, Oregon, for a fresh start in Catherine Anderson's newest novel Silver Thaw, the first in her new Mystic Creek series.

Amanda is having a tough time providing for herself and her six-year-old daughter. Writing her secret yearnings on slips of paper and sending them into the wind helps her cling to the hope that things will get better and that she can find happiness again.

When Jeb Sterling comes to her rescue after a cold snap leaves her and her daughter temporary homeless, Amanda has no idea just how much this kind and compassionate man will change her life.

Silver Thaw received a *Starred Review* from Booklist Reviews: "Master storyteller Anderson (Walking on Air, 2014) has skillfully penned the heart-wrenching story of domestic abuse and its aftermath, taking readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride and making the terror, dread, distrust, and, eventually, tenuous hope of a battered woman palpable. This compelling first book in the Mystic Creek series will make an excellent book-discussion group selection."

Click here to place a hold on a copy today.

A Woman's Quest to Find Her Husband a Wife

Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy already beat breast cancer three years ago. How can this be happening to her again? 

Confronting the final months of her life when her breast cancer returns, Daisy endeavors to find her husband another wife, an effort that forces her to make difficult choices.

Daisy scouts local parks, coffee shops and online dating sites looking for Jack’s perfect match. But the further she gets on her quest, the more she questions the sanity of her plan. As the thought of her husband with another woman becomes all too real, Daisy’s forced to decide what’s more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband’s happiness—or her own?

In her debut novel Before I Go, "Oakley expertly tugs at the heartstrings with well-rounded characters and a liberal dose of gallows humor." (Publishers Weekly Reviews)

Sequel Alert - The Rosie Effect

In The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion, Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge because - surprise! - Rosie is pregnant. 

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice. As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia to reconcile, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business, and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him the most. 

"Many sequels falter, but this one is pitch-perfect. It’s cute, but it isn’t cheesy. It’s extremely funny and clever, but not at the expense of the characters or as an insult to the reader. The unexpected twist in The Rosie Effect is the way Simsion manages to make marriage romantic. This book isn’t really about pregnancy or living with autism or moving to a new city. It’s about having your world rocked when you really, truly have to compromise with another person. It’s about how tricky that is, how hilarious that can be, and how beautiful it is when you pull it off."  - BookPage Review

Waiting for your chance to read this charming sequel? Why not re-read (or read for the first time) The Rosie Project and get to know how Don, a socially awkward genetics professor who had never been on a second date, set out to find the perfect wife, but instead found Rosie Jarman, a fiercely independent barmaid who was on a quest to find her biological father.

Librarian's Picks of the Month

Not sure what to read next? Come check out this month's Librarian's Picks display (on the main floor across from the video room) featuring some gems you may have missed (or want to read again!) including:

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich: (Mystery)

Go back to the beginning of this witty series and enjoy again how Stephanie Plum turns to bounty hunting for quick cash and finds herself tracking her first quarry, an ex-cop accused of murder, who turns out to be her first lover, with whom she still shares a powerful chemistry.

The Husband by Dean Koontz: (Suspence/Psychological Fiction)

When landscaper Mitchell Rafferty receives a phone call that his wife has been kidnapped and there is a two million dollar ransom, his extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing, seventy-two-hour journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption. 

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks: (Love Story)

Katie, a newcomer to the small town of Southport, North Carolina, resists forming any personal ties until she is drawn into relationships with Alex, a young widower, and Jo, her plainspoken single neighbor, who help her overcome her fearful past.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett: (Historical Fiction)

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

If You Like Beverly Lewis' Novels, You May Also Like...

Author Beverly Lewis, who sets her contemporary evangelical Christian family stories among Amish communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio, attracts readers with authentic details and fascinating insights into the Amish people and their beliefs, including the issues surrounding their lifestyle and faith. (NoveList) 

If you haven't enjoyed one of Lewis' novels yet, start with The Parting:

As her family breaks away from their church district, Nellie is torn between her family and her beloved Caleb, who is staunch in his Old Order beliefs, but if Nellie does not soon respond to Caleb's betrothal offer, she surely lose him to the deacon's daughter. (Publisher Summary)

Fans of Beverly Lewis' writing may also enjoy the following books:

The Chance by Karen Kingsbury

Vowing to meet eleven years after sealing letters they wrote to each other in an old metal box, best friends Ellie and Nolan both have reservations about seeing each other again as loneliness, personal tragedies, and a lack of faith haunt both of them. (Publisher Summary)

Uncharted: Expect the Unexpected by Angela Hunt

Six friends agree to build a Christian school overseas, and when a shipwreck leaves them trapped on an island, their inner sins are on display, showing them that being a "good person" outwardly often hides an impure interior. (Publisher Summary)

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Bestselling author Francine Rivers skillfully retells the biblical love story of Gomer and Hosea in a tale set against the exciting backdrop of the California Gold Rush. (Publisher Summary)

Hawk and the Jewel by Lori Wick
The first in the newly repackaged Kensington Chronicles series, The Hawk and the Jewel sweeps readers from the tapestried halls of Victorian England to the alabaster courts of Arabia. (Publisher Summary)

The 2015 Long Island Reads Pick Announced!

The Long Island Reads Committee has selected their 2015 pick for next year, and the winner is The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman!

Mesmerizing and illuminating, Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things is the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the 20th century. With its colorful crowds of bootleggers, heiresses, thugs, and idealists, New York itself becomes a riveting character as Hoffman weaves her trademark magic and masterful storytelling to unite her characters in a sizzling, tender, and moving story of self-discovery in tumultuous times. (Publisher Summary)

Click here to read the full announcement!

Quick Picks for the Weekend

Looking for a book to read this weekend but only have a couple of minutes to browse our shelves? Stop by our Impulse Display located at the front of the library by the Circulation Desk and pick up a book or magazine. Currently on display is:

Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon: (Historical Fiction/Love Stories)

After being presumed dead, Jamie Fraser returns to find that his best friend has married his wife, his illegitmate son has discovered who his father is, and his nephew has decided to marry a Quaker. (Book 8 in the Outlander Series. Start with Outlander.)

Harbor Island by Carla Negger: (Suspense)

While tracking down stolen artifacts from Boston to Ireland to the coast of Maine, Emma Sharpe, the granddaughter of a world-renowned art detective, and her fiancé, FBI deep-cover agent Colin Donovan, must outwit one of the smartest, most ruthless killers they have ever encountered. (Book 4 in the Sharpe and Donovan series. Start with Saint's Gate.)

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs: (Mystery)

When a serial killer previously responsible for a string of kidnappings and murders in Canada resurfaces in the United States, Temperance Brennan is called in to pursue a deadly predator who narrowly evaded capture by Brennan once before. (Book 17 in the Temperance Brennan series. Start with Deja Dead.)

Seventh Sigil by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes: (Science Fiction)

Five hundred years ago, a clan of rebels was banished to the bottom of the world; ever since, these Bottom Dwellers have sought revenge, and now they are waging all-out war on the rest of humanity, those who live Above. Their deadly "contramagic" beams destroy buildings and attack naval airships, and their magical drumming brings terrible storms and disrupts the magic of the people and dragons Above. (Book 3 in the Dragon Brigade trilogy. Start with Shadow Raiders.)

Recommended Reads for Book Clubs (or Anyone)

Looking for a book to read with your book club or group? The Women's National Book Association, at their website National Reading Group Month, has put together their 2014 Selections including 20 novels that you may not have heard about in popular book reviews yet they believe are worth your reading time including:

Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks: (Love Story)
A young archaeologist surveying a Montana canyon in the 1950s ahead of the planned construction of a major dam, meets a former mounted cavalryman, who shows her the beauty in the stark landscape around her. Painted Horses sends a dauntless young woman on a heroic quest, sings a love song to the horseman’s vanishing way of life, and reminds us that love and ambition, tradition and the future, often make strange bedfellows.

Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement: (Psychological Fiction)
Born in a rural Mexico region where girls are disguised as boys to avoid the attentions of traffickers, Ladydi dreams of a better life before moving to Mexico City, where she falls in love and ends up in a prison with other women who share her experiences.

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay: (Suspense Fiction)
Mireille is living a fairy tale as the daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons and with an adoring husband and a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life until she is kidnapped in front of her father’s estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear he intends to resist paying, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

Neverhome by Laird Hunt: (Historical Fiction)
Follows the experiences of Ash Thompson, who becomes a folk hero after she abandons her farmer husband and disguises herself as a man to go fight for the South during the Civil War.

What is Visible by Kimberly Elkins: (Biographical/Historical Fiction)
Presents a fictionalized account of the life and challenges of Laura Bridgman, the first deaf and blind woman to learn language, and those who helped her, including the founder of the Perkins Institute, with whom she was in love, and her beloved teacher.

The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis: (Suspense Fiction)
When priest Gus Silva, the man she has never stopped loving, is charged with murder, Hallie Costa, who has known Gus since childhood, must not only free him from prison, but from the curse of his past.






For the complete list of the 2014 Sections click here or stop by the reference desk to speak with one of our librarians.