Have you ever left the kitchen sink dishes for another day? Do you have an extra room at home or a basement that's storage for stuff you rarely use but don't have the heart to discard? And do you feel guilty about it? That's nothing compared to Coming Clean.
Kim Miller is your average girl growing up in what appears to be an average family to Kim's friends and teachers, but her parents are hoarders, whose tendencies to keep every little thing escalates as Kim grows older. The Millers' hoarding gets so bad, they won't allow cleaners, repairmen, or anyone into their home. The bathroom is filled with junk and becomes nonfunctional, forcing Kim to shower away from home. The furnace breaks but isn't fixed, making for some chilly winters. Meanwhile, rats scurry through discarded belongings and a derelict kitchen, and the floor slowly disintegrates. As an adult, Kim becomes a neat-freak, obsessed with her clean and tidy apartment. Yet her parents' troubles plague Kim, as she takes on forced purges of their home and the insurmountable task of cleaning and packing required for each move her parents make.
While recounting her traumatizing childhood, readers may recoil at the horrors Kim's parents unwittingly bestowed, but Kim manages to balance her disturbing tale with compassionate pictures of her parents' kindness and the history that led to their hoarding tendencies.
Afraid he will succumb to his family’s history of insanity, Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, lives like a hermit at his crumbling family estate Penkellis. Concerned for Lawrence’s well-being, the local vicar recruits a secretary to manage the earl’s affairs. Georgie Turner has spent his life swindling people out of their money, but guilt causes him to abandon his latest con. Georgie’s partners are bent on revenge, so he escapes to Penkellis, reinventing himself as a respectable secretary. Initially annoyed by the intrusion, Lawrence grudgingly comes to depend on Georgie, who readily adapts to the eccentric scientist and his odd habits. Their professional camaraderie gives way to an intense love affair, but both men believe they are unworthy of such a gift. Both are also deeply flawed as a result of their respective childhoods, but their willingness to accommodate each other’s deficits and accept one another unconditionally is what will have readers falling in love with them.
Verdict Sebastian has crafted an epic romance in which Lawrence and Georgie share incredible chemistry. Although the book is not listed as part of a series, Georgie is the brother to Jack Turner, the rogue in Sebastian’s debut novel, The Soldier’s Scoundrel. Profoundly romantic and highly recommended.
This review was originally published in Library Journal Xpress Reviews: E-Originals, January 19, 2017.
Adrienne Ashe never wanted to be a princess. Fancy dinners and lavish dresses were bad enough, but on the night of her 16th birthday her parents lock her away in a tower guarded by a dragon to await the rescue of some handsome prince. But Adrienne decides to take matters into her own hands!
Funny and full of action, and adventure, Princeless is perfect for readers of all ages who are tired of waiting to be rescued and ready to save themselves! Want to read more? Save Yourself is the first in the "Princeless" series.
Helen works at Juliana’s in South Florida. It’s a job with absolutely no prospects, but it’s the type of job that Helen wants and needs. She had to quickly leave her old life behind in St. Louis, and now she is stuck taking sub-par jobs to avoid her past catching up with her. In spite of terrible customers, a boss with questionable morals, and poor pay, Helen makes it work until the day a dead body is found in a barrel in Biscayne Bay. When the police start to investigate, the clues lead to Juliana’s and its staff. Helen is suspected of murder. In order to clear her name, she starts her own investigation.
With a quirky cast of characters, Shop Till You Drop draws the reader in. There are enough suspects to keep you guessing until the closing chapters of the book, and the novel concludes nicely with an epilogue that explains what happens to all the players involved. This is the first book in the "Dead-End Job Mystery" series, so there are plenty more dead-end jobs for Helen if you are interested in reading more.
Melissa "Bernie" Bernard can't help but feel that love has passed her by, and she'll happily complain about it to any who will listen. Though she enjoys her work as a college librarian in San Francisco, deep down she wonders if there could be more. So when a video of a marriage proposal at the library catches Bernie rolling her eyes, Bernie is shocked to find that she's become a viral sensation. Just as she's ready to go into hiding and permanently bury her nose in a book, a handsome reporter appears with a proposal of his own - he will find dates for the undateable. Bernie must go on 30 different dates in 30 days. With one disastrous date after another, she's ready to give up, until the reporter proves he'll do anything to find her the perfect match, even if it means putting himself up for the role.
Funny, and adorable, The Undateable is perfect for readers who like their romance light and fluffy. The characters have a nice chemistry, especially if you enjoy clever banter, and the friends-to-lovers trope. This is the first in the "Librarians in Love" series, and is even written by an actual librarian.
Lina is just like any other 15 year old Lithuanian girl in 1941, until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home and tear her family apart. Lina, her mother, and her young brother are taken north, across the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Under Stalin's orders, they must dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Hoping she can send a message to her father, Lina uses her art as a way to let him know they are still alive.
Between Shades of Gray is a difficult read due to the subject matter, but ultimately it is necessary. Though it is technically a book for young adults, it is easily a cross over book for adults interested in a different World War II story.
Betsy is headed to the country with her friends, the Larsons, to visit their newly purchased cabin located on one of the many lakes in Minnesota. While new to the Larsons, the cabin dates back to well before World War II. Over the course of several weekends, the Larsons had been working hard to get their cabin back into shape. In fact, the weekend Betsy comes to visit, they all work together to pull up the old carpet and linoleum. All are surprised to see a trapdoor hidden underneath. They open the door to investigate and discover a body. More accurately, they find a skeleton of someone who had been long dead. Over the course of the story, Betsy works with her friend Jill to try and discover who the bones belong to, how they ended up in the Larson’s cabin, and who the killer is.
While this is the 14th book in Monica Ferris’s Needlecraft Mystery Series, the book can stand on its own, without need for knowledge of the previous titles. Recommended for those who like their mysteries without gore and violence.
