Monthly Archives: July 2010

Tim Myers. A Flicker of Doubt. New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2006.

When Harrison Black discovers the corpse of his ex-girlfriend, Becka Lane, in the Gunpowder River, he is overcome with shock and sadness.  Although they were no longer a couple, Harrison and Becka had maintained a strong friendship.  As Harrison and his friend, Markum, look for clues in Becka’s death (the police have ruled it a suicide), the quiet settlement of Micah’s Ridge is rocked by another disturbance.  Greg Runion, a brash real-estate developer, is trying to get landowners to sell him their property so that he can build condominiums and shops.  Harrison and other townspeople are completely against this plan, which would disrupt the tranquility of their village.  When Harrison cannot get in touch with Cyrus Nash, an elderly gentleman who owns a lot of property in Micah’s Ridge, he becomes suspicious of Runion’s intentions.  As Harrison investigates Becka’s death and Cyrus Nash’s strange temperament, he discovers that they are related.  By unearthing their connection, Harrison is able to clear Becka’s name, help his friends, and preserve Micah’s Ridge.

A Flicker of Doubt is Tim Myer’s fourth novel in the “Candlemaking Mystery” series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Tim Myers. A Flicker of Doubt. New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2006.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Myers, Tim, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont

Gina Holmes. Crossing Oceans. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2010.

Jenny Lucas has a lot to do and not much time to do it. Six years ago Jenny left her small home town, pregnant with the child of a man who had moved on to a new love.  The pregnancy was the final blow to Jenny’s relationship with her dad, a man still reeling from the death of Jenny’s mom.  The diagnosis of metastatic melanoma forces Jenny to reconnect with her father and David, her daughter’s father. One of them will have to raise young Isabella because Jenny has just months to live.

Crossing Oceans follows Jenny on her difficult journey. Jenny stays focused on her goal of preparing a good future for Isabella, but Jenny is still subject to a range of emotions, including anger, jealousy, fear, and doubt.  The people in her life–her father, (grand)Mama Peg, David and his wife, David’s father, and Craig, a man who has carried a torch for Jenny–are flawed too, and one of the pleasures of this novel is the way that many of these characters get beyond the anger and pettiness that keep them from happiness.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Gina Holmes. Crossing Oceans. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Holmes, Gina, Religious/Inspirational

Leah Stewart. Husband and Wife. New York: Harper, 2010.

Sarah Price has just learned that the novel her husband (whom she has been with for ten years) is about to publish is truth rather than fiction. Unfortunately for Sarah, the title of his new book is Infidelity, and his own cheating behavior was the inspiration for the story. Sarah’s life is turned upside-down. At 35, she is the mother of two – a three year old girl and an infant son – and the breadwinner of the family. Before Sarah and Nathan moved from Austin to Chapel Hill, the couple had been free-spirited artists who avoided conventionality. However, with two children, a mortgage, a car payment, and extensive credit card debt, Sarah had to give up her dream of being a poet to get a “real job.” As Nathan admits, part of what attracted him to the other woman was her unconventionality. She reminded him of the old Sarah, who was pre-children and preferred The Last Picture Show to Spider Man 2.

None of Nathan explanations do anything to make Sarah feel better about the situation. At first, she thinks that they can make it work as long as the book, sure to be a bestseller, does not get published. Publication would make them the subject of others’ speculation, which would be humiliating. However, knowing that her husband has been with another woman zaps Sarah’s confidence, and she begins to fall apart. She stops eating, snaps at her daughter, and leaves the house in the middle of the night to speed on the interstate. Sarah’s personality alternates rapidly: at various times she is a petulant toddler, a self-conscious teenager, or a distraught woman going through a mid-life crisis. Feeling like a failure, she longs for the acceptance and love of another. She misses the irresponsibility of her youth and the version of herself in graduate school. On an impulse, she drives herself and her children to Austin with the intention of meeting up with an old flame who is still enamored of her. Although Sarah succumbs to his advances, when Nathan flies to Austin in an attempt to bring his family home she must make a choice. Is getting back at Nathan as satisfying as she imagined? Will they ever be able to mend their relationship?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Leah Stewart. Husband and Wife. New York: Harper, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Orange, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship, Stewart, Leah

Kay Salter. Thirteenth Summer. 2nd ed. Beaufort, NC: Bara Media, 2008.

When she was twelve, Sarah Bowers spent the summer at her grandparents’ house in Beaufort, North Carolina. Now that it is her thirteenth summer, Sarah has returned to the coastal town. Besides being in a place she loves, Sarah has much to be excited about this season: a new baby sister, Amy, reacquainted friends, a makeover to look more mature, and the imminent end of World War II. However, she also experiences difficult situations. When she witnesses a boy being bullied twice, she bravely defends him in court to expose the truth. Her girl friends’ bodies are changing quickly, and she is dissatisfied with her lack of curves. And at birthday party for her cousin Marnie, Sarah feels uncomfortable around older boys who are drinking alcohol. As the summer progresses and Sarah encounters more new ordeals, she values the advice and support of her grandparents more than ever.

This is the second novel in the Sarah Bowers Series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Kay Salter. Thirteenth Summer. 2nd ed. Beaufort, NC: Bara Media, 2008.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Carteret, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Historical, Novels in Series, Salter, Kay

Sandra Robbins. Mountain Peril. New York: Steeple Hill Books, 2010.

When a Webster University student creates a gruesome website detailing the exploits of a fictitious murderer, Dean of Students Danielle Tyler is shocked and appalled. The site is bringing the wrong kind of publicity to Webster U, but it’s particularly upsetting to Dean Tyler because the murder scene on the site reminds her of the murder of her college roommate ten years earlier.

The student who created the site sees no harm in what he’s done–until the girl who posed as the corpse is murdered.  The website creator is an obvious suspect, but so is a staff member who was a student at the time of the first murder.  Dean Tyler begins to question what she really knows about the people at Webster who have been so good to her; she turns to the detective investigating the case for reassurance and safety.  Detective Jack Denton’s investigation is stirring things up and not everyone is happy about that.   As Jack’s interest in Dean Tyler becomes obvious, it forces the murderer to take action that pushes the novel to its conclusion.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Sandra Robbins. Mountain Peril. New York: Steeple Hill Books, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Mountains, Robbins, Sandra, Suspense/Thriller

Tamara Leigh. Nowhere, Carolina. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2010.

Many people cringe at high school memories; they can be painfully regrettable.  For Maggie Pickwick, the choices that she made in high school have followed her throughout her adult life.  As a gorgeous, popular cheerleader, Maggie was cruel to outcasts and manipulative in her relationships with boys.  In an attempt to make  ex-boyfriend Reece Thorpe  jealous, Maggie dated a couple of fast boys.  A short time later, Maggie realized that she was pregnant.  Reece, disgusted with Maggie’s attitudes and behavior, wanted nothing to do with her.  Unaware of the pregnancy, Reece moved away from Pickwick, North Carolina.

Thirteen years later, Maggie is shocked to find out that Reece has returned to the small town to create a sculpture for her uncle.  Devyn, Maggie’s precocious teenager, is being bullied at school because of her lack of a father figure and the rumors that swirl about her promiscuous mother.  Unfortunately, the rumors are true: three men could be Devyn’s father. Although Maggie has found religion and turned her life around, townspeople are still suspicious of her.  Maggie wants to give Devyn an answer, but Reece’s return to Pickwick has complicated things.  She wants to protect her daughter, but Maggie feels a familiar attraction to Reece.  As she secretly tries to obtain Reece’s DNA, Maggie also wants to prove to Reece that she is not the spoiled, self-centered girl he knew in high school.  When Devyn’s biological father is revealed, Maggie finds that her “family,” although nontraditional, is special for her daughter.

Nowhere, Carolina is Tamara Leigh’s second novel in her “Southern Discomfort” series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Tamara Leigh. Nowhere, Carolina. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Leigh, Tamara, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship

Diane Chamberlain. The Lies We Told. Don Mills, Ontario: Mira, 2010.

A marriage can go on for some time, with normal ups-and-downs, until something causes a delicate balance to falter.  Maya and Adam, both physicians, have been married for over a decade.  Both would like to have children, but Maya has been unable to carry a pregnancy to term.  The reason for this is unclear.  When a doctor suggests that scarring from an abortion could be the cause, Maya must tell the doctor and her husband that when she was a teenager, she had  an abortion.  Adam is angry that Maya had not told him that sooner, and a rift develops between them.

Maya is close with her sister Rebecca, who is also a physician.  But while Maya and Adam are in comfortable suburban practices in the Triangle, Rebecca jets to emergency sites around the world as a member of Doctors International Disaster Aid (DIDA).  Rebecca has long tried to persuade Maya and Adam to join her, even for just one trip. Shortly after Maya and Adam’s fateful discussion in the doctor’s office, a Category Four hurricane hits Wilmington.  Maya and Adam agree to join the DIDA team.

As the three work together, Rebecca comes to realize that she envies her sister and the stable life that she leads.  When Maya is on a helicopter that goes down in flood-waters, Rebecca and Adam are drawn together in their fear and grief.  They do not know that Maya is alive, taken in by an odd collection–good and bad–of backwoods people.  As the sisters struggle with these new situations, each reflects on her life, and the great trauma of their youth–the murder of their parents.  Each has a secret related to that awful event.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Diane Chamberlain. The Lies We Told. Don Mills, Ontario: Mira, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Chamberlain, Diane, Coast, Piedmont, Wake

Bart Bare. Girl. Vilas, NC: Canterbury House Publishing, 2010.

Loren Creek has been described as “precocious.” At fourteen, she wants people – specifically Judge Tilson and the foster care authorities – to take her maturity and independence seriously. The death of her mother has put Loren in danger of being forced to leave her home to live with strangers. When the judge rules that Loren must live with guardians until she becomes an adult, she and two surprising accomplices hatch a plan for Loren to leave Piney Flat, Tennessee and move to Boone, North Carolina, where she can blend in with Appalachian State University students. Dressing as a boy to evade the social worker who is searching for her in an effort to save his reputation, Loren starts anew as “Lorne.” Although she finds acceptance from an unlikely landlord, Loren must walk a fine line to protect her story. With interest from the football team, advances from smitten girls, and a dangerous confrontation from a friend’s angry ex-boyfriend, Loren’s task is more complicated than she ever imagined.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Bart Bare. Girl. Vilas, NC: Canterbury House Publishing, 2010.

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Bare, Bart, Children & Young Adults, Mountains, Watauga

Steven Symes. Shadow House. Morrisville, NC: lulu.com, 2010.

Scott Bennett is suffering.  As a hardworking New York lawyer, he put his career ahead of his family.  And then his family was gone–killed in a car crash.  Scott is consumed with guilt and plagued by nightmares.  With little planning, he moves from New York to the North Carolina mountains.

Not liking the newer homes around Asheville, he buys a rundown Victorian out in the country, even though the real estate agent warns him that the locals think the house is haunted.  Initially Scott is more annoyed by the unfriendly locals than he is by the strange noises and unexplained occurrences in the house.  But over time Scott’s own demons as well as those in the house, push him to the edge.   After the spirits turn violent, Scott seeks help from psychics, ghostbusters, and a college friend who is a healer in New Mexico.  Together they appease the spirits–but also unearth a secret the locals wanted to keep buried.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

1 Comment

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Buncombe, Horror, Mountains, Symes, Steven

Diann Ducharme. The Outer Banks House. New York: Crown, 2010.

At seventeen, Abigail Sinclair is a young woman just becoming aware of herself and her place in the world.  She has taken for granted her family’s position in society and her parents’ plans for her future.  Although her father’s wealth has been diminished by the Civil War, he still has enough money to build a house at Nags Head.  Her father, Nolan Sinclair, has fished on the Outer Banks and been charmed by the place.  In a rare show of kindness, Mr. Sinclar decides to help one of the Bankers, a young guide named Benjamin Whimble.  Ben would like to learn to read and write, so Sinclair sets Abigail to that task.

Abigail has never met anyone like Ben before.  He opens her eyes to the beauty of nature and to how ordinary people live.  They fall in love.  But Ben has been pulled into Mr. Sinclair’s scheme to take the land on Roanoke Island that has been a freedmen’s colony.  When Abigail witnesses her father’s cruelty, the lovers are incidental causalities of his violence and racism.  Not everyone is redeemed in this novel, but the book does end on a satisfying note of hope.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

1 Comment

Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Ducharme, Diann, Historical, Romance/Relationship