Always With a Book

First line: “What star is that, Mama?” From the inside cover: When Eve Duncan gave birth to her daughter, she experienced a love she never knew existed. Nothing would stand in the way of giving Bonnie a wonderful life – until the unthinkable happened and the seven-year-old vanished into thin air. Eve found herself in the throes of a nightmare from which there was no escape. But a new Eve…

First line: Stop me. From the inside cover: As a former Navy Seal turned cop, Joe Quinn has seen the face of evil and knows just how deadly it can be. When he first met Eve Duncan, he never expected to fall in love with a woman whose life would be defined by her dual desires to bring home her missing daughter and discover the truth behind her disappearance –…

First line: Two minutes. From the inside cover: Eve Duncan’s mission in life is to bring closure to the families who have experienced the agony of a missing child. As a forensic sculptor, she is able to piece together bones, create a face, and match a name to a child who would have otherwise gone unidentified. Eve is brilliant, driven, and tormented – because her own daughter, Bonnie, was taken…

First line: Bad things come in threes. From the back cover: After the unexpected death of her parents, shy and sheltered Ginny Selvaggio, a young woman with Asperger’s syndrome, seeks comfort in the kitchen. The rich aroma of ribollita, painstakingly recreated from her Italian grandmother’s handwritten recipe, calms her senses. But it also draws an unexpected visitor – the ghost of Nonna herself – and Ginny soon discovers she has…

First line: Eve Meyers, my BFF, a gothic fashionista with a steampunk edge, tall in her black and brass Lindi Buckle Leather Booties, invaded my vintage dress shop with mischief aforethought. From the back cover: Even though Maddie is swamped running Vintage Magic and dealing with the consequences of the visions she gets from certain of her fashion treasures, she’s agreed to plan her sister Sherri’s baby shower and mentor…

First line: This will be a good weekend for reading. From the back cover: Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the tiny town of Big Stone Gap is home to some of the most charming eccentrics in the state. Ave Maria Mulligan is the town’s self-proclaimed spinster, a thirty-five-year-old pharmacist with a “mountain girl’s body and a flat behind.” She lives an amiable life with good friends and…

First line: As I drove to work that morning, I remembered the dream I’d had last night: Me as a toddle being passed between my mother and Aunt Fiona, the two of them dancing and chanting in rhyme beside the Mystic River beneath a full and magical moon. From the back cover: Madeira loves her Vintage Magic boutique, but the visions she gets from the garments can be hard to…

First line:  On a mission, Elisabetta Gardelli walked into Consign or Design, a small shop off Main Street in downtown Serendipity known for high-end outfits bought on consignment and unique items crafted by the owner, April Mancini. Synopsis from GoodReads:Elisabetta Gardelli thought she’d spend her days serving coffee and writing obits for the town paper. But then an unexpected opportunity results in her dream job as a real journalist for…

First line: Glen Fredericks slapped the back of his last departing Thanksgiving dinner guest. From the back cover: At Christmastime, it seems as though a woman’s work is never done. Trimming the tree, mailing the cards, schlepping to the mall, wrapping gifts – bah, humbug! So this year, Joy and Laura and the rest of their knitting group decide to go on strike. If their husbands and families want a…

First line: The stone walls stood as they had for more than two centuries, simple, sturdy, and strong. From the back cover: #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts introduces you to the Montgomery brothers – Beckett, Ryder, and Owen – as they bring an intimate bed-and-breakfast to life in their hometown. The historic hotel in Boonsboro has endured war and peace, the changing of hands, and even rumored…

First line: “Our daughter looks like a South China peasant with those red cheeks,” my father complains, pointedly ignoring the soup before him. From the back cover: In 1937 Shanghai – the Paris of Asia – twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree – until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away…

First line: When a guy is in trouble he starts making deals with his creator, and Ambrose was dealing like crazy. From the inside cover: Two people are about to discover that when it comes to finding love, sometimes Christmas magic isn’t enough…sometimes it takes a pesky orange cat named Ambrose. When a guy is in trouble, he starts making deals with his Creator…and Ambrose the cat is no exception.…

First line: On the twenty-ninth day of January in 1542, twenty-six eligible young women sat at the table in White Hall Palace with King Henry. From the back cover: Charming. Desirable. Forbidden. Brought to court with other eligible young noblewomen by the decree of King Henry VIII, lovely Elizabeth “Bess” Brooke realizes for the first time that beauty can be hazardous. Although Bess has no desire to wed the aging…

First line: The distance across the Narrow Seas between Calais, the last English outpost on the coast of France, and the town of Dover, in Kent, was less than twenty-five miles. From the back cover: Pretty, flirtatious, and ambitious. Nan Bassett hopes that an appointment at the court of King Henry VIII will bring her a grand marriage. But soon after she becomes a maid of honor to Queen Jane,…

First line: I was a child of eight in April of the year of our Lord fourteen hundred and ninety-eight. From the back cover: Beautiful. Seductive. Innocent. Jane Popyncourt was brought to the court as a child to be ward of the king and a companion to his daughters – the princesses Margaret and Mary. With no money of her own, Jane could not hope for a powerful marriage, or…