Setting:  Madison is a vibrant capital city and home of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus (go Badgers!). We’ll make a pit stop at scenic Lake Mendota for a bite to eat before checking out the shops and museums along State Street.

Plot: Everyone has days, weeks, even months they wish they could do over — but what about an entire year? After living through the worst twelve months of her life, intensive care nurse Olive Watson is given a second chance to relive her past and attempt to discover where she went wrong …

Book

The Love Wars — Penguin

Author

Alison Heller

ISBN

9780451416230

Price

$10.88

Setting:  What to do first in the city that never sleeps? A picnic in Central Park? A Soho shopping spree? Let’s splurge on tickets to a Broadway show and end our visit with a midnight trip to the top of the Empire State Building (since we don’t do long lines in the heat)!

Plot: Breaking up is hard to do. At least the first few times. Even though Molly Grant has only a handful of relationships behind her, she’s already been through more divorces than she can count. At the premier Manhattan law firm where she’s a matrimonial attorney, the hours are long, the bosses tyrannical, and the bonuses stratospheric. Everything changes when Molly takes on a client who is the ex-wife of a ruthless media mogul. Suddenly, complications both professional and personal stack up …

 

Book

Mermaid of Brooklyn

Author

Amy Shearn

ISBN

978-1451678284

Price

$10.19

Setting: A story about the struggles of early motherhood, and set during a hot New York summer.

Plot: Formerly an up-and-coming magazine editor, Jenny Lipkin is now your average, stretched-too-thin Brooklyn mom, tackling the challenges of raising two children in a cramped Park Slope walk-up. But when her husband Harry, a compulsive gambler, vanishes one evening without a word, Jenny finally reaches her breaking point. Pulled from the brink by an unexpected (and, as it turns out, sometimes annoying) supernatural ally, Jenny is forced to rethink her ideas about success, motherhood, romance, and relationships. But confronting her inner demons — of both the mermaid and non-mermaid variety—is no easy task…

Book

Is This Tomorrow

Author

Caroline Leavitt

ISBN

978-1616200541

Price

$11.90

Plot: What does it mean to be an outsider in a community? How do we keep the ones we love safe? in 1950s suburbia, everything is meant to be perfect, even as paranoia about Communism and nuclear bombs winds its way through the supposed paradise. But when divorced, sensual-without-meaning-to-be, Jewish single mother Ava rents a house with her 12-year-old son, Lewis, she struggles to fit in and find her place in the neighborhood. Lewis finds solace with the only other two fatherless kids on the block, his best friends Jimmy and Rose, but when Jimmy vanishes one day, Ava is suddenly suspect and Lewis and Rose’s life will be changed forever. A novel about people trying desperately to uncover secrets about the past–and about themselves.

Book

Girl Unmoored

Author

Jennifer Gooch Hummer

ISBN

9781936558308

Price

$12.66

Setting:  Located just north of Portland on the coast of Maine, this charming town offers the perfect summer respite.  We’ll be sure to bring our poles for some saltwater fishing along Mackworth Island!

Plot: It has won 10 awards, features a cool new cover design and will soon be published in Germany by Carlsen. In this heartfelt novel, Apron Bramhall’s mom has passed away, her evil stepmother is pregnant, and her best friend has traded her in for a newer model. Fortunately, she’s about to be saved by Jesus. Not that Jesus — the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ, Superstar. For fans of Tell the Wolves I’m Home, trust us … Girl Unmoored is the 1980s coming-of-age story not to be missed!

Setting: Picturesque Kalispell, MT is located in the heart of the magnificent Rocky Mountains. Situated a half-hour from Glacier National Park and a stone’s throw from Flathead Lake, Kalispell is the very essence of Big Sky country!

Plot:  A modern tale of forbidden love … Eighteen-year-old Sarah McKnight has a secret. She’s in love with David Brooks. Sarah is white. David is black. But Sarah’s not the only one keeping secrets in the close-knit community of Kalispell, Montana. Her father George, who owns a local gun shop and proudly drives a truck with a Confederate flag bumper sticker, hides his own complicated past.

When he discovers Sarah’s relationship, George decides to share his feelings with Alex Mackey—a lonely classmate of Sarah’s whom he’s taken under his wing. Soon, Sarah and David will graduate from high school and leave Kalispell for a new life together. Maybe they can stop hiding their love — and the other secret they share … something George McKnight — and Alex Mackey — will never accept.

Book

Where in the Om Am I?

Author

Sara DiVello

ISBN

978-0-9890555-0-5

Price

TBD

Setting:  We’ll “pahk the cah” and stretch our legs by walking the historic 2.5 mile Freedom Trail. A Swan Boat Tour around Boston Public Garden will be a welcome respite before catching a Sox game at Fenway Park.

Plot: A hilarious, heartfelt and entertaining narrative non-fiction chronicling Sara’s journey from the fast-paced, cut-throat corporate world to the slow-living, cut-throat yoga world … and the vast universe in between …

 

Book

Emma’s Secret — Amazon Publishing

Author

Steena Holmes

ISBN

TBD

Price

TBD

Setting: We’ve traveled all the way from Big Sky Country, Montana to the cool, serene municipality of Kincardine — just in time for Canada Day! We’ll grab the perfect spot along the pier to ooh and ahh over the fireworks. (Of course, we had to end our trip with a bang)!

Plot: Can you imagine what it would be like to bring your daughter — that has been missing — home? Finally? The walls you’ve built to protect yourself from the loss don’t disappear in the blink of an eye. The hurt still lingers. The fear. The much-anticipated follow up to Holmes’ best-selling Finding Emma, Emma’s Secret is about the joy, heartache and fear of bringing a lost child home …

 

Book

Love and Other Subjects

Author

Kathleen Shoop

ISBN

9780615724966

Price

$12.99

Setting:  Summertime is ideal for touring our nation’s capital. Who needs the metro? We’ll stroll the National Mall with stops at The Smithsonian, Lincoln Memorial and Museum of Air & Space. If we’re not too tired, we’ll climb the 800+ steps to the top of the Washington Monument!

Plot: Carolyn Jenkins strives for two things — to be the greatest teacher ever and to find true love. Carolyn depends on her friends to get her through the hard times, but with poverty-stricken children at her feet and a wealthy man at her side, she must define who she is. Can Carolyn take control and craft the life she’s always wanted?

 

Book

Playing Tyler

Author

T.L. Costa

ISBN

978-1908844613

Price

TBD

Setting: New Haven, Connecticut

Plot: Tyler MacCandless can’t focus, even when he takes his medication. Tyler’s dad is dead, his mom has mentally checked out and his brother, Brandon, is in rehab for heroin abuse…again. The only person he can really count on is his Civilian Air Patrol Mentor, Rick. The one thing in life it seems he doesn’t suck at is playing video games and, well, that’s probably not going to get him into college. Just when it seems like his future is on a collision course with a life sentence at McDonald’s, Rick asks him to test a video game and Tyler thinks his life might finally be turning around. That is, until Brandon goes MIA from rehab and Tyler discovers that the game is more than it seems. Now Tyler will have to figure out what’s really going on in time to save his brother… and prevent his own future from going down in flames.

Book

Mandatory Release

Author

Jess Riley

ISBN

TBD

Price

TBD

Setting: Laurentide Bay, Lake Michigan

Plot: Thirty-year-old Graham Finch spends his days trying to rehabilitate inmates and his nights trying to rehabilitate his love life. —until a new coworker, aka his high school crush Drew Daniels, walks through the prison gates one hot summer morning. Drew is on the run from a painful past that’s nearly crushed her faith in love. Together, they might have just what it takes to mend their hearts. If only finding their way to one another were easier than working with convicted felons. Loaded with twisted humor and pathos, Mandatory Release is a darkly comic, unexpectedly sexy love story about broken people putting themselves back together and learning that no matter what you lock up—a person, secrets, or your heart—sooner or later, everything must be released.

 

Book

All My Restless Life to Live

Author

Dee DeTarsio

ISBN

TBD

Price

TBD

Setting: San Diego

Plot: Life is a soap opera in All My Restless Life to Live, especially for Elle Miller, who writes for one. (Ellen dropped the “n” in her name in hopes of finding a better ending for herself.) When her laptop crashed, she borrowed her dead dad’s computer and got more than she bargained for. As Elle comes to terms with her father’s death, she’s busy unraveling mysterious communications from his computer. From dealing with her mom, who has decided to give Internet dating a try, to saving her career at I’d Rather Be Loved, with a storyline featuring a trip through Atlantis, to a trip to the Emmys, Elle also finds herself in the middle of a romance between a real doctor and a hunk who just plays one on TV. Friends, family, and clues from “the other side” all help Elle figure out the difference between living the good life and living a good life. Hint: The universe always gives us clues.

Book

Academy of Love – Red Sage

Author

Kate Deveaux

ISBN

978-1603108317

Price

$5.45

Setting: A stop in the Virginia countryside (Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, to be exact) is just what we need!  Aaah … fresh air, rolling hills, and serene surroundings. The area’s charming B&B’s and breathtaking wineries also offer up the perfect setting for romance!.

Plot: Cassianna Baxter leaves behind a glamorous teaching career in Italy to return to her alma mater in the majestic Virginia countryside, The Lewiston Academy for Girls. But this time she returns to her old boarding school not as a student, but as the Deputy Headmistress. No sooner does she arrive at the Academy than she walks smack into sexy Lawrence Taylor, her first love and ex lover. Now he’s the Director of the Equestrian Center and Chairman of the Board and they will be working side by side. Their attraction is intense and undeniable, sparks fly when they succumb to torrid temptation.

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