|
Wizard
Posts: 1,384
Karma: 18484273
Join Date: Apr 2013
Device: Paperwhite, Galaxy S22
|
This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:
All the Little Children by Jo Furniss [Genre: Suspense]
Quote:
When a family camping trip takes a dark turn, how far will one mother go to keep her family safe?
Struggling with working-mother guilt, Marlene Greene hopes a camping trip in the forest will provide quality time with her three young children—until they see fires in the distance, columns of smoke distorting the sweeping view. Overnight, all communication with the outside world is lost.
Knowing something terrible has happened, Marlene suspects that the isolation of the remote campsite is all that’s protecting her family. But the arrival of a lost boy reveals they are not alone in the woods, and as the unfolding disaster ravages the land, more youngsters seek refuge under her wing. The lives of her own children aren’t the only ones at stake.
When their sanctuary is threatened, Marlene faces the mother of all dilemmas: Should she save her own kids or try to save them all?
From the Editor:
Spoiler:
I’m a sucker for survival stories. So imagine my delight when this, the ultimate survival tale, landed on my desk. The book came to me in an unusual way. I was talking to a literary agent about my love for disaster novels. Which led me to ashamedly admit that despite my fondness for the theme, I’ve done almost nothing to prepare for any sort of emergency. I have a first-aid kit, some bottled water, and a few cans of beans—but that’s about it. As a mother, I know I should do better for my family. But taking the time to lay in more supplies means I’d have to seriously consider the potential for real catastrophe in this unpredictable world. And I just don’t want to. The guilt nags at me, but I prefer to carry on, tra-la-la, pretending that nothing terrible could ever happen.
This confession led us to imagine a novel in which an ill-prepared mother has to fight for her children’s lives in the aftermath of a disaster. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to see her fierce mama-bear instinct play out against taut suspense? That week the agent tweeted out the general idea with the hashtag #manuscriptwishlist. A day later she had Jo Furniss’s masterful manuscript in hand.
Jo had written All the Little Children in the months following the birth of her first child. She’d spent hours walking the woods around her remote home with her baby strapped to her chest. As she walked she let her imagination roam, wondering what it would feel like to be isolated, desperate to protect her child after disaster struck. How far would she go? What would she be willing to risk? From there sprang the idea for this adrenaline-fueled thriller. When I received the manuscript, I tore through the pages, completely absorbed, asking myself over and over, “What would I do in that situation? Could I be that brave?”
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to stock up on a few more emergency provisions. This may not prevent disaster, but I do hope it will keep maternal guilt at bay. Thank you, Jo.
- Jodi Warshaw, Editor
|
P.S. from Paris (US edition) by Marc Levy [Genre: Romantic Comedy]
Quote:
From Marc Levy, the most-read French author alive today, comes a modern-day love story between a famous actress hiding in Paris and a bestselling writer lying to himself. They knew their friendship was going to be complicated, but love—and the City of Lights—just might find a way.
On the big screen, Mia plays a woman in love. But in real life, she’s an actress in need of a break from her real-life philandering husband—the megastar who plays her romantic interest in the movies. So she heads across the English Channel to hide in Paris behind a new haircut, fake eyeglasses, and a waitressing job at her best friend’s restaurant.
Paul is an American author hoping to recapture the fame of his first novel. When his best friend surreptitiously sets him up with Mia through a dating website, Paul and Mia’s relationship status is “complicated.”
Even though everything about Paris seems to be nudging them together, the two lonely ex-pats resist, concocting increasingly far-fetched strategies to stay “just friends.” A feat easier said than done, as fate has other plans in store. Is true love waiting for them in a postscript?
From the Editor:
Spoiler:
I got my introduction to one of the world’s most popular authors, Marc Levy, through the first book of his translated into English, which was made into the whimsical film Just Like Heaven, starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. Levy’s own story is the stuff of legend. After a career in nonprofits and tech, Levy tried his hand at writing, and his debut novel was an instant blockbuster in his native France, with the international English and movie rights acquired in almost the same breath (the latter by no less a figure than Steven Spielberg), launching Levy’s global career—and bringing him to the notice of millions of delighted readers, including myself. In many countries, Levy is a celebrity author, drawing crowds of thousands to his book signings.
Levy’s current book, P.S. from Paris, is just as charming and quirky as his first novel. His reluctant lovers, Paul and Mia, come from different worlds but find themselves drawn to each other against their will in the fittingly romantic backdrop of Paris. Mia has fled her philandering movie star husband, and writer Paul is pining after his translator and wondering why his fame seems localized to South Korea. But even as the two pledge to be simply “friends,” the City of Light has other things in store for them.
Bienvenue to the uniquely captivating Paris of Marc Levy, where the food is delicious, the dialogue is snappy, and all hearts are fair game.
- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor
|
When They Come for You (Harper McDaniel) by James W. hall [Genre: Thriller]
Quote:
After her journalist husband and infant son are brutally executed in a fire in their Florida home, photographer Harper McDaniel has nothing left to live for—except settling the score. When the local police fail to take the arson seriously, Harper takes the reins and discovers her husband was investigating some mysterious deaths at a cacao plantation on the Ivory Coast. Now she’s convinced he was targeted in a corporate conspiracy to silence him.
Aided by her former mafioso grandfather and well-connected financier brother, Harper embarks on a global manhunt, flying first to Africa, then Zurich to expose a high-level cover-up inside a powerful chocolate conglomerate.
But Harper has a few secrets of her own—starting with her lethal martial arts skills—and she’s not afraid to take on any hired guns or guerrillas standing in her way. In trying to cover their tracks, the conspirators made one fatal miscalculation: they didn’t count on Harper McDaniel coming for them.
From the Editor:
|
Song of Edmon (The Fracture Worlds Book 1) by Adam Burch [Genre: Science Fiction]
Quote:
In Adam Burch’s thrilling series debut, a young man must choose between violence and peace in a distant world divided between those who thrive in endless sunlight and those who survive in eternal darkness.
The isolated planet of Tao is a house divided: the peaceful Daysiders live in harmony while the pale Nightsiders pursue power and racial purity through the violent ritual of the Combat.
Edmon Leontes, the gentle son of a ruthless warrior noble and a proud Daysider, embodies Tao’s split nature. The product of diametrically opposed races, Edmon hopes to live a quiet life pursuing the music of his mother’s people, but his Nightsider father cruelly forces him to continue in his bloody footsteps to ensure his legacy.
Edmon’s defiance will cost him everything…and spark a revolution that will shake the foundations of Tao. His choice—to embrace the light or surrender to the darkness—will shape his own fate and that of his divided world.
From the Editor:
Spoiler:
Addicting. That’s how I describe Adam Burch’s debut science fiction epic adventure, Song of Edmon. I started reading the novel one morning, knowing from the very first pages that it would blossom like a rose in summer. But as I was further drawn in to the utterly unique world of fierce battle, burning love, monsters and men, I became hopelessly hooked. What starts out as curiosity about made-up people on a faraway planet evolves into a need to dive ever deeper—and ends in a book hangover.
Born into an island culture existing in perpetual sunlight, Edmon wants nothing more than to live a peaceful life among his mother’s people. But from an early age, his powerful father, from the planet’s Nightside, forces him into a brutal existence of competition and racial purity in which the nobles kill for political position, and strength is celebrated above all. From gene tampering and extraordinary weapons to gladiator training broadcast to distract the planet’s neglected underclass, as events unfolded I was on the edge of my seat, wondering just how much Edmon could endure before breaking apart into the violent warrior that his father wanted as an heir.
Edmon’s personal journey is at the center of this novel. But what Edmon and I came to realize is that it’s not just about him. The actions of one person can inspire many, whether that person is meant to be a leader or not. And when that happens, do you don the helmet and accept the responsibility, even if it drives you to become the very thing you’ve been trying to escape?
- Adrienne Procaccini, Editor
|
The Heart Echoes by Helena von Zweigbergk (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Translator) [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]
Quote:
Swedish sisters Astrid, Lena, and Sandra have struggled to get along since childhood, but when Lena is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, they are each thrown into crisis together.
Astrid’s well-ordered, predictable world is shaken by the return of her ex-boyfriend Michael, an American who abandoned her—and their infant son—years earlier. While Astrid has remarried and had more children, she is suffocating under her husband’s kindness and cannot escape the pull of the past. Seeing Michael at their son’s high school graduation reawakens her grief and rage, along with more complicated and threatening emotions.
Envious of Astrid’s seemingly stable life, Sandra is married to an alcoholic and drowning in debt. She turns to Lena for help at the worst possible time. Lena, fighting to stay alive, must finally confront a devastating secret she’s kept from Astrid since the summer Michael left. As the walls they’ve built between them crumble, the three sisters must try to forgive and to rebuild their shattered bonds…while there’s still time.
From the Editor:
Spoiler:
Nearly all of us carry at least a small torch for someone from our past, regardless of what brought that relationship to an end. When I’ve encountered my own old flames again, I’ve been transported back to my earlier selves, pleasantly and painfully. As Helena von Zweigbergk’s The Heart Echoes opens, Astrid is about to meet her first love again after more than seventeen years. Michael, the American man who left her and their infant son in mysterious circumstances that were never properly explained, is back in Sweden for their son’s graduation. Astrid has long suspected that someone in her family knows more about Michael’s hasty exit than they’ve confessed.
Watching this family come to grips with their own shortcomings, let go of past trauma, and embrace the future, regardless of the emotional cost, was a gripping journey—one that I’m wiser for having taken with them.
From the tense early chapters, I could feel the family secrets bubbling up toward the surface, even as I wanted to warn the characters not to act on their impulses, not to insist on opening up old wounds, and to be satisfied with the joy that they have in their current lives. But Astrid and her sisters, Lena and Sandra, have secrets whose time has come to be revealed—secrets from each other, from their partners, and from themselves. Ultimately these secrets come spilling out, and as uncomfortable as they are to witness, they are also beautiful and transformative.
- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor
|
The Judgement of Richard Richter by Igor Štiks (Author), Ellen Elias-Bursac (Translator) [Genre: Literary Fiction]
Quote:
In this gripping, war-torn epic novel, author Igor Štiks, a nominee for the IMPAC Dublin Award, tells the story of a celebrated writer who travels to Sarajevo to unearth devastating family secrets and the lies that have defined his life.
Author Richard Richter’s mother and father were always phantoms, both parents having died by the time he was four. His life, now at a crossroads, has been a jumble of invention, elusive memories, and handed-down stories. But when Richard finds his mother’s hidden notebook, written by her during World War II, he discovers a confession that was never meant to be read by anyone—least of all, her son.
Richard’s quest for the truth about his life leads him to an embattled Sarajevo. In the chaos of the besieged city, he discovers something more: a transformative romance and unexpected new friendships that will change the course of his search. But fate has been playing with all of them. And just as fate determines the lives of the characters in his novel, a betrayal reaching back half a century has yet to loosen its grip—on Richard, on everyone he has come to love, and on those he has no choice but to try to forgive.
From the Editor:
Spoiler:
It isn’t often that I come across a contemporary novel that reads like a classic, but The Judgment of Richard Richter is one such book. Those of us who fell in love with books that left us thinking, from War and Peace to Ulysses, will find this a tale worth mining deeply.
Richard Richter is a renowned international writer, who discovers secrets in his family history while going through what seems to be a midlife, post-divorce crisis. He leaves Paris for Vienna and then travels to Sarajevo, where war is breaking out. Richter delves into the city’s secrets and his own, finding both love and horror and discovering that, in a city of multitudes and paradoxes, nothing is as simple as he thought it would be.
Author Igor Štiks deftly draws complex, believable characters who are not only at the mercy of history and the Yugoslav wars taking place around them, but often act against their own self-interest, at times seeming to be compelled by fate and destiny or trying to absolve themselves of personal responsibility.
After reading The Judgment of Richard Richter, I sought out some of the plays and novels this work is clearly in conversation with, like Oedipus Rex. But this book is not merely an intellectual delight—it’s an emotional one as well, ultimately leaving us with a reminder of our shared humanity, even in the most dire of circumstances.
- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor
|
|