Christine Trent

Kensington, Feb 1 2012, $15.00

ISBN: 9780758265906

In 1812 Leeds, Annabelle Stirling runs her successful cloth making dress shop.  Her wastrel brother Wesley and her fiancé Clive Pryce join the Luddites who destroy her new gig machine as immoral.  Angry at the double betrayal and believing the Luddites worked for her rivals, Belle demands the authorities do something; they ignore her rants.

Fuming, she heads to London to make her case with the leadership, but the Prince Regent who she meets acts no differently than what she met in Leeds.  Architect John Nash takes her under his wings as his mentee while she and cabinet maker Putnam Boyce are attracted to one another. Meanwhile Wesley gets involved with a high level assassin abduction plan.

The latest Christine Trent historical (see A Royal Likeness and The Queen’s Dollmaker) is an engaging Regency story starring a likable protagonist who enjoys her shop vocation; which makes the twin betrayals that much more hurtful.  The storyline is driven by undeterred Belle’s need for retribution as she makes a wonderful lead holding the plot together.  While the Luddite movement anchors time and place, other historical facts slow down what is overall a strong early nineteenth century tale.

Harriet Klausner

Kate Lloyd

David C. Cooke, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780781405089

In Seattle, Esther informs her thirty something daughter Holly that she received a letter from her grandma begging for her to come home as she needs her.  Holly, whose dad died in Vietnam, is a bit taken aback with the news as Grandma Anna is dead.  She is even more stunned when her mom sadly says she will hate her.  Esther tells Holly, who she knew desperately wanted relatives for years that she lied to her all her life; her mother and her brothers still live in the Lancaster area. 

Her BFF Dori agrees to manage Esther’s Amish Shoppe while mother and daughter are away as reluctantly Esther decides to go home to Lancaster County.  Holly accompanies her as she wants to meet her grandma, her five uncles and aunts and cousins.  They stop at the home of Mennonite Beth Fleming before finally meeting the family.  Ass Holly enjoys her time with her kin; she meets and falls in love with Beth’s son Zach.

This is a wonderful refreshing Amish tale that focuses on the complications of second chances.  Esther makes the tale work with her trepidation of seeing her mom and brothers (who are all heading to Big Sky Country) after abandoning her family, her community, her religion and her lifestyle decades ago.  She prays for forgiveness from her kin especially her Mommy Anna and her daughter.  Readers will relish the prodigal child’s return accompanied by her adult offspring.

Harriet Klausner

Cindi Myers

Bell Bridge, Jan 2012, $15.95

ISBN: 9781466473461

In 1864 Missouri, a fire and brimstone Methodist Minister’s daughter Zeralda Mimms and her cousin Quantrill’s Raider Jesse James meet at the wedding of her older sister Lucy to Bowling Browder.  Each is attracted to one another and he boldly kisses her.  Jesse returns to the fighting.  When the war ends, wounded Jesse goes to Zee’s home to heal.  As she nurses him back to health, they fall in love.  They become engaged and she learns her future husband is a robber and rumored to be a cold blooded killer.  She prays that their marriage and their children will straighten out her beloved husband, but that hope is not answered.

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James is a fascinating biographical fiction that looks at the famous outlaw through the eyes of mostly his adulating beloved wife in a world still suffering from the ravages of the war and the consequential agony of defeat.  Because of Zee’s loving filter, Jesse comes across as heroic rather than a cold blooded killer.  She needs to believe in the goodness rather than the wickedness of her mate who she knows is tender with his family.  Well written, readers will enjoy Cindi Myers fine nineteenth century look at Jesse James through his spouse’s loving perspective.

Harriet Klausner

Lee Hollis

Kensington, Mar 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780758267375

In Bar Harbor, Maine, Island Times Editor in Chief Sal Moretti offers his office manager single mom (of fifteen year old Gemma and thirteen years old Dustin) Hayley Powell the position of writing the food and wine column with the nonagenarian reporter retiring.  She agrees and her column proves successful with its unpretentious Maine earthiness, which angers her rival at the Bar Harbor Herald prim and proper British aristocratic Karen Applebaum.

However, Karen is found dead with her face buried in a bowl of Hayley’s clam chowder.  The police consider Hayley their only suspect and soon Officers Earl and Haley arrest her.  She makes bail and with her BFFs investigates the Death of a Kitchen Diva.

This is an amusing culinary amateur sleuth starring a delightful beleaguered protagonist.  The breezy storyline is fun to follow as the war of the recipes turns deadly.  Although the sub-genre is loaded with similar entries (see Diane Mott Davidson), sub-genre fans will enjoy this entertaining regional whodunit as Haley seeks out a cold blooded killer whose recipe includes the soccer mom taking the fall.

Harriet Klausner

John Manning

Pinnacle, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780786027637

Orphan Daphne May has spent her life cloistered at Our Ladies School for Girls.  Now at twenty-two years old, she leaves the convent where she met only one male in her life Father O’Donnell to ride the train to her first job as a governess in Point Woebegone, Maine.  No one from Swallowtail meets her at the station, as promised.  Instead a stranger takes her to a nearby inn.

Daphne is taken aback by a clown before she enters the ladies’ room to find a waitress with her throat slashed.  The gruesome homicide has the townsfolk angry and anxious.  Meanwhile Daphne struggles with the behavior of her eight years old charge Christopher whose grandfather was a serial killer wearing a clown costume.  When the psychopath kills several more times, Daphne wonders whether somehow she was the spark that ignited a dormant serial killer.

The bloody storyline is an exciting thriller with an interesting late twist that ties the tale together.  Daphne is a terrific damsel in distress whole local Gregory Winston tries to be her knight in shining armor.  Although the plot is very typical of the suspense sub-genre even with a fascinating spin re the killer’s identity, fans will enjoy The Sound of a Scream in gothic aptly named Point Woebegone (no relationship to Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon).

Harriet Klausner

Jessica Spotswood

Putnam, Feb 7 2012, $17.99

ISBN: 9780399257452

By 1896, The Brotherhood established a harsh Christian theocracy in which the prosecution of witches is a major endeavor.  Practitioners are condemned to death or worse: the prisons ships and the asylums.  Additionally when a female turns seventeen, they must marry or join the Sisterhood.

Cate Cahill’s mom died trying to produce a male offspring.  Her mother made her make a death bed pledge to care for her two younger sisters, but Cate is running out of time as in six months she must choose.  Adding to her dilemma is the three Cahill siblings are closet witches, which makes her courtship by Paul McLeod a going nowhere relationship and her dalliance with Finn Belastra possessing even less staying power.  As Cate reads her mother’s missing diary, she realizes her time problem worsened with a terrible fate that dooms the trio; forcing her to peruse banned books in an attempt to keep her and her sisters safe while townsfolk suspect them of wickedness.  Then Sister Elena arrives to help them.

Born Wicked is an exhilarating alternative New England historical fantasy starring a courageous but increasingly desperate heroine.  Her sisters and Elena are top notch characters while their late mom comes across as full blooded also through her diaries and her daughters’ observations.  Although the males seem thin, fans will enjoy Jessica Spotwood’s engaging witch hunt.

Harriet Klausner

Syrie James and Ryan M. James

Harper Teen, Jan 24 2012, $8.99

ISBN: 9780062027894

In Southern California, sixteen years old Claire hopes this time she and her mom stay in one spot so she can makes friends at the Emerson Academy that she attends on a scholarship. Her nomadic mom has them relocating seemingly even before they can open their bags.  At the school Claire meets new student Alec, an angel attending school for a bit of R&R though if caught by the Elders he will be executed for desertion. He explains to her why her mother constantly is on the run; as Claire is a half-angel, a hybrid species considered an abomination by the angel Elders.

Alec and Claire fall in love while Helena begins sending visions to Claire with a warning to tell no one, not even her beloved, of her psychic powers.  Unable to resist Claire reveals all to her friends.  When her life is threatened, Alec risks his to keep her safe.

Although angels are a large population in the paranormal romance subgenre (see His Dark Bond By Anne Marsh), team James provide an entertaining teenage romantic urban fantasy.  The storyline is fast-paced while the antics of the heroine are fun to follow as her hormones war with her brain.  Although the support characters are out of the genre’s typical casting mold, Alec is a unique individual who is wary and in love.  Readers will enjoy Claire’s coming of age not so angelic Los Angeles joy ride.

Harriet Klausner

Sally John

Tyndale, Mar 1 2012, $13.99

ISBN: 9781414327877

Teal Morgan-Adams knows to the second when her world ended as NPR announced the time over the radio while she crawled on one of the Los Angeles parking lots known as a freeway.  The ground began to shake while the announcer warns people to get out of traffic; Teal wonders how even as the overpass crumbled.

Meanwhile her husband River worries about his wife “Xena the warrior” even as his teenage stepdaughter Maiya, who he loves in spite of her obsession to know who her biological dad is (mom refuses to tell her), would laugh about any tremor.  However, the worst earthquake he has ever seen in his forty-two years pins him under bins in his garage with his cell phone out of reach.  Teal barely survives the road collapse but saw the horror of so many apparently dying.  However, tragedy in her hometown of Cedar Pointe, Oregon forces everything to a head.

The latest Side Roads (see Desert Gift) family drama is delightful tale starring engaging protagonists and a strong support cast.  The storyline loses some of its zing as the entertaining earthquake subplot becomes overwhelmed by the aftershock in Oregon.  Still, fans will enjoy Teal’s homecoming as her daughter and husband put enormous pressure on her.

Harriet Klausner

Jacqueline Woodson

Nancy Paulsen/Penguin, Feb 2 2012, $16.99

ISBN: 9780399252501

Fifteen year old Laurel is filled with remorse as she feels she failed her loved one especially when she turned to meth to numb the pain of death.  Having kicked the habit, encouraged by her BFF Kaylee who she let down, she writes an elegy to cleanse her soul and hopefully regain her life.  Her downward spiral began when Hurricane Katrina killed her mother and grandmother who remained in the family house when the storm swamped New Orleans. 

Her father, her younger brother Jesse Jr. and Laurel obtain temporary shelter in Jackson, Mississippi before moving to Galilee, Iowa in order to start over.  Laurel seems to adapt well as she becomes BFF with Kaylee, becomes a cheerleader and dates basketball team captain T-Boom.  Still the teen grieves her matriarchal losses; so T-Boom introduces her to “the moon,” which numbs the depression.  However, she soon needs more and more moon until she becomes an addict begging people for loose change on the city streets.

This is a great tweener-teen cautionary tale that makes a powerful case that Beneath A Meth Moon the addicting drug takes over your mind and body as you only live for more meth.  Laurel’s observations of going to hell and back (she is writing the elegy so she obviously has survived her self-inflicted ordeal) are brilliant as her recollections are dark, choppy and filled with memory gaps.  Jacqueline Woodson provides a powerful warning to her tween-teen audience that meth may allow you a moon walk or two but will incarcerate you with a desperate need for more.

Harriet Klausner

Shelley Gray

Abington, Mar 1 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9781426714634

In 1874 the notorious Walton outlaw gang is infamous for cold blooded murders as much as they are for their robberies.  Gang member Will McMillan plans to end the killing spree of his violent compatriots soonest though he knows how difficult this will prove to be as he expects he probably will not survive.

The gang stops a train in Kansas.  Those who are not immediately killed are held hostage including the only solo female Jamie Ellis.  She quickly realizes that the outlaw Will is the only reason she has not been harmed so far.  Undercover Will needs to stay in character if he does not wish to be exposed although that keeps him at risk when the law catches up to them, but saving Jamie takes precedence over saving his life though he sadly knows she could never love a violent man like him.

The second Heart of a Hero thriller stars an honorable man who rode with the title character of A Texan’s Promise.  Fast-paced, readers will enjoy the romance between the “outlaw” and the hostage as Shelley gray provides a fabulous Kansas post-Civil War thriller.

Harriet Klausner