The Best of Us

Title: The Best of Us

Author: Sarah Pekkanen. She is the author of several previous novels including The Opposite of Me, Skipping a Beat and These Girls.

Genre: Commercial Fiction, Chick Lit

Readers: Nonprofit director Kimberly, librarian Erin, lawyer Abby R. and stay-at-home moms Sarah L. and Katie.

Summary: Following a once-in-a-lifetime invitation, a group of old college friends leap at the chance to bring their husbands for a week’s vacation at a private villa in Jamaica to celebrate a former classmates’ thirty-fifth birthday.

All four women are desperate for a break and this seems like a perfect opportunity. Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie needs to escape from the shattering news about an illness that runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her husband an unforgettable birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks that have already formed in their new marriage.

The week begins idyllically, filled with languorous days and late nights of drinking and laughter. But as a hurricane approaches the island, turmoil builds, forcing each woman to re-evaluate everything she’s known about the others—and herself.

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An Affair to Dismember

Book: An Affair to Dismember

Author: Elise Sax. She spent several years as a journalist before working as a private investigator. This is her first novel and it begins her Matchmaker series. She also writes for The Huffington Post.

Genre: Mystery, Chick Lit

Readers: Non-profit director Kimberly, social worker A Military Mommy and stay-at-home moms Sarah L. and Megan V.

Summary: Three months has been Gladie Burger’s limit when it comes to staying in one place: She’s always been a temp agency kind of girl, ever ready to move on. That’s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her eccentric Grandma Zelda recruits her to the family business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. Gladie is also highly unqualified: Her beloved grandmother’s business is matchmaking, and Gladie has a terrible track record with romance. Still, despite evidence to the contrary, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has “the gift.” But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy.

When Zelda’s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family’s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor’s death was murder. It’s not too long before she’s in way over her head—with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she’s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued—either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?

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Accelerated

Book: Accelerated

Author: Bronwen Hruska. She spent years as a journalist and is now the publisher at Soho Press. This is her first novel.

Genre: Thiller, Commercial Fiction

Reviewers: Editor Kristina, teacher madriscoll, higher ed administrator Renee and stay-at-home moms Krysta and Sarah L.

Publisher Summary:

Every afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School. Everything at Bradley is accelerated: 3rd graders read at the 6th grade level, they have labs and facilities to rival most universities, and the chess champions are the bullies. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who-lunch that congregate on the steps every afternoon. But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy. Or is he?

When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn’t the caviar that was served at last week’s PTA meeting. Toby’s “issues” in school seem, to Sean, to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy. But maybe Sean just isn’t seeing things clearly, which has been harder and harder to do since Toby’s new teacher, Jess, started at Bradley. And the school has Toby’s best interests at heart, right? But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold? When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined.

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The Runaway Princess

BookThe Runaway Princess

Author: Hester Browne, New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Little Lady Agency series.

Genre: Chick Lit

Reviewers: Policy wonk BakingSuit, stay-at-home-mom Sarah L, research tech Rosie T and reading teacher Emry.

Publisher Summary: If Amy Wilde’s new boyfriend, Leo, treats her like a queen, that’s because he’s secretly a prince himself: Leopold William Victor Wolfsburg of Nirona, the ninth most eligible royal bachelor in the world. Amy soon discovers that dating an heir to a throne has many charms—intimate alfresco dinners, glittering galas, and, for a girl who lives in jeans and wellies, a dazzling new wardrobe with tiaras to match. But there are also drawbacks: imagine the anxiety of meeting your boyfriend’s parents multiplied by a factor of “riding in a private jet,” “staying in a castle,” and “discussing the line of succession over lunch.” Not to mention the sudden press interest in your very un-royal family. When an unexpected turn of events pushes Leo closer to the throne, the Wolfsburgs decide to step up Amy’s transformation from down-to-earth gardener to perfectly polished princess-in-waiting. Amy would do anything for Leo, but is finding her Prince Charming worth the price of losing herself?

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A Peek at the TBR Pile

We asked a few of our readers to give us a look at what’s in their TBR (To-Be-Read) pile. Here’s what they’ve got coming up:

Mary Liz

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

Every Day by David Levithan

Sarah L.

In the Woods by Tana French

Fade Away by Harlan Coben

The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier

JoLee

Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul by Leanna Hieber

A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd

The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking Trilogy #01 by Patrick Ness

Agency #01: A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee