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Book Review: "Salting Roses" by Lorelle Marinello

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A young woman abandoned as an infant on an Alabama porch is horrified to discover that she is the missing heiress to a vast Connecticut fortune—a birthright she is desperate to reject in favor of her Peachtree Lane roots. Gracie Lynne Calloway —once left in a coal bucket on a front porch in a small Alabama town—discovers on her twenty-fifth birthday that she is the kidnapped daughter of a late New England financier and heiress to a fortune. When the tabloid press and her unwanted greedy relatives descend on her, she has to admit the quiet secure life she's known and loved is gone for good. As Gracie struggles to stabilize her world and come to terms with her new identity, she learns that belonging is not about where you came from but who you are. What would you do if you suddenly came into money? Would you go out and start buying everything left and right or would you try to refuse it? That's exactly the dilemma that Gracie is suddenly put through as she discovers that she...

Book Review: "The Transformation of Things" by Jillian Cantor

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Jennifer Levenworth has a headache—a great, big, pounding headache. It could be because her husband, a judge, is indicted on bribery charges, leaving her unsure about everything in her marriage. The headache could also be caused by the news stations, every one of which is covering the story, or the local paper, where it’s plastered on the front page. Or it could be because the friends Jennifer thought she knew and trusted have turned their backs on her in her greatest hour of need. But there is something else very odd going on, and the headache isn’t quite what it seems. In fact, Jennifer doesn’t feel exactly right, and all of her thoughts aren’t her own. Suddenly privy to hear and see things her family and friends are saying and even thinking in their most private moments, she has new insight into all of their inner-most emotions and secrets. Her herbalist says it’s stress combined with her imagination. . . but something unbelievable has happened to Jennifer. Something that allows her...

Book Review: "The Secrets Sisters Keep" by Abby Drake

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When it comes to family secrets, the four Dalton sisters have had more than their share. Then quirky, spirited Uncle Edward decides to throw a seventy-fifth birthday celebration and wanders off, leaving the women to face their past—and one another. Ellie–the eldest, tended to Uncle Edward instead of her dreams. Exasperated with his antics, aware that she's not getting any younger, is she finally ready to take off for Egypt? Amanda–the Park Avenue snob, spent two decades raising three kids and squandering money she didn't have. Now that her husband's found a Brazilian back-waxer to take her place, will she reassess her life? Babe–the movie-star beauty, fled New York for L.A. When she returns with her has-been actor-husband, will love and lust be reignited for her—with someone else? Carleen–the middle-class mom, a ninth-grade algebra teacher, quilts cloth pocketbooks for fun. Did she really once have orange hair, bad boyfriends, and an attitude? Will her sisters ever forgive ...

Book Review: "The Debutante" by Kathleen Tessaro

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Endsleigh House stands, crumbling and gracious, on the south-west coast of England, it's rooms shut up and abandoned. But what secrets do they hold? Cate, a gifted young artist, arrives in London from New York, determined to remake her life and escape her recent past. Working for her aunt's auction house, she's sent down to Devon to value the contents of Endsleigh, the grand Georgian home of a former socialite between the wars. Inside, its once elegant interiors are now worn with age and dust. There Cate discovers, hidden in the back of one of the bookshelves, an old shoebox containing an exquisite pair of silk dancing shoes from the 1930s, along with a mysterious collection of objects—a diamond brooch, a photograph of a handsome young sailor, a dance card, and a beautiful pearl and emerald bracelet from Tiffanys. Unable to resolve the questions in her own life, Cate quickly becomes immersed in solving the mystery of the shoe box and begins to unravel the story of Baby Blyt...

Book Review: "The Gentleman Poet" by Kathryn Johnson

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Elizabeth Persons’ blinding headache while on board the Sea Venture is an ominous sign, one she knows well as a warning of danger. The young servant girl is one of 150 passengers on the ill-fated ship, her worst fears are soon realized as they are tossed mercilessly in a hurricane on the final leg of their journey to the Americas. As the storm calms, the passengers can hardly believe they have survived, and that the Bermudas, rumored home to evil spirits and dangerous natives, may be their only chance of salvation. Despairing of rescue, Elizabeth and the others struggle to make the uninhabited island their home for nine long months while they build a new ship to complete their voyage to Jamestown, Virginia. As the months pass, friendships form, crew members revolt and love blossoms between Elizabeth and the ship’s young cook. Elizabeth forms a fast bond with the ship’s historian, a man she comes to know as William Strachey. But Will is not the man he portrays—he is in fac...

Book Review: "The Life You've Imagined" by Kristina Riggle

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Are you living the life you imagined? Is there anything you'd have done differently if you could? Those are the questions asked in Kristina Riggle's unforgettable new novel. In high school, Cami and Anna were as close as they could be...now, years later, both have returned to their hometown to face the people they had once left behind. Anna must confront her mother, still distraught over the abandonment of her husband, and come to terms with choices she had made years before. While Cami returns home to stay with her alcoholic father, she must face a secret that she thought was long-since buried. This is a novel that digs deep and touches the heart of the issues so many women face-the quest for perfection, the hope of love, the value of family and importance of always striving for your dream. I'm pretty sure that for most of us, there are certain things in our life we wish we could go back and change. I'm sure that there are times when we wish our lives had tu...