The Award by Danielle Steel
Gaëlle de Barbet is sixteen years old in 1940 when the German army occupies France and frightening changes begin. She is shocked and powerless when French gendarmes take away her closest friend, Rebekah Feldmann, and her family, and send them to a detention camp for deportation to an unknown, ominous fate. The local German military commandant makes Gaëlle family estate outside Lyon into his headquarters. Her father and brother are killed by the Germans; her mother fades away into madness and ill health. Trusted friends and employees become traitors. And by accident, Gaëlle begins a perilous journey with the French Resistance, hoping to save lives to make up for the beloved friend she could do nothing to help. Taking terrifying risks, Gaëlle becomes a valuable member of the Resistance, fearlessly delivering Jewish children to safety underneath the eyes of the Gestapo and their French collaborators. Then she is suddenly approached by the German commandant with an astonishing and dangerous plan to save part of France’s artistic heritage as the Germans withdraw. And once again, her life is on the line. Conducted in secret, flawlessly carried out, her missions for the Resistance change her life and mark her for years. She is falsely accused of collaboration at the end of the war, and flees Lyon in disgrace, orphaned and alone. She goes to Paris to put the war behind her and begin a new life, with the ghosts of the past always close at hand. Gaëlle’s life will take her from Paris to New York, from a career as a Dior model to marriage and motherhood, unbearable loss, and mature, lasting love. She returns to Paris to run a small museum, honoring victims of the Holocaust. She has never sought recognition for her courage during the war years she can never forget. Her label as a collaborator remains, until her granddaughter, a respected political journalist, is determined that past wrongs finally be made right, and her grandmother’s brave acts be recognized. Now a grateful nation will finally acknowledge this remarkable woman. At last, she is absolved and honored as the war hero she was
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
Family Business by Colin Beckett
Dare County Sheriff Martin Tate and his ex-detective friend Paul Treadwell chase a vindictive serial killer menacing North Carolina’s Outer Banks in this debut thriller. When authorities find the body of a woman in her ransacked home the crime scene looks like a robbery that went terrifyingly out of control. However, there are several items left behind in plain view that appear to be totally out of place to Marty Tate, a seasoned investigator. Tate decides that he’d like another opinion on the case, so he enlists advice from former Northeast Ohio detective, Paul Treadwell, now the owner of the Brown Pelican Restaurant in Duck. Two years ago, Paul and his wife, Megan, a former nurse, won a sizable fortune in the Ohio Lottery. After careful consideration, they decided to relocate and become permanent residents of the Outer Banks. When Paul finds another piece of unusual evidence at the ransacked cottage, Tate’s original suspicions are confirmed. A homicide has been committed here disguised as a robbery gone horribly wrong. Together with other highly trained and motivated law enforcement personnel they forge ahead in order to identify and apprehend a deadly intruder to these shores who meticulously continues his killing spree as the tourist season rolls along. The good guys know that there is no such thing as a “perfect” homicide. Even the craftiest of killers makes a mistake or two. Nothing new there. The problem for the good guys is that their killer hasn’t gotten the memo on that one. He’s good. He’s exceptionally good at killing people and getting away with it.
The Guest Book by Marybeth Whalen
When Macy Dillon was five years old her father encouraged her to draw a picture in the guestbook of a Carolina beach house. The next year, Macy returned to discover a drawing by an unidentified little boy on the facing page. Over the next eleven years the children continue to exchange drawings, until tragedy ends visits to the beach house altogether. During her final trip to Sunset, Macy asks her anonymous friend to draw her one last picture and tells him where to hide the guest book in hopes that one day she will return to find it-and him. Twenty-five years after that first picture, Macy is back at Sunset Beach-this time toting a broken family and a hurting heart. One night, alone by the ocean, Macy asks God to help her find the boy she never forgot, the one whose beautiful pictures touched something deep inside of her. Will she ever find him? And if she does, will the guestbook unite them or merely be the relic of a lost childhood?
Snow Angel by Jamie Carie
When Noah Wesley hears the faint sound outside the door of his remote Alaskan cabin during a violent nighttime blizzard, it is no less than the voice of God that urges him to take a closer look, to discover there his snow angel.
Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich
“In the heart of Trenton, N.J., a killer is out to make sure someone gets his just desserts. Larry Virgil skipped out on his latest court date after he was arrested for hijacking an eighteen-wheeler full of premium bourbon. Fortunately for bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, Larry is just stupid enough to attempt almost the exact same crime again. Only this time he flees the scene, leaving behind a freezer truck loaded with Bogart ice cream and a dead body–frozen solid and covered in chocolate and chopped pecans. As fate would have it, Stephanie’s mentor and occasional employer, Ranger, needs her to go undercover at the Bogart factory to find out who’s putting their employees on ice and sabotaging the business. It’s going to be hard for Stephanie to keep her hands off all that ice cream, and even harder for her to keep her hands off Ranger. It’s also going to be hard to explain to Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, why she is spending late nights with Ranger, late nights with Lula and Randy Briggs–who are naked and afraid–and late nights keeping tabs on Grandma Mazur and her new fella. Stephanie Plum has a lot on her plate, but for a girl who claims to have “virtually no marketable skills,” these are the kinds of sweet assignments she does best”–
“Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter who often runs into trouble on the job, but she has family, friends, and several men to help her out of sticky situations. There’s Lula, a plus-sized former hooker turned bounty hunter, and Grandma Mazur, Stephanie’s outrageous grandmother who packs a gun and sometimes tags along on cases. The series wouldn’t be complete without a love triangle. Joe Morelli, AKA “Officer Hottie,” is Stephanie’s on again/off again boyfriend, and Ranger is the bad-ass private security specialist who trains Stephanie and becomes her mentor and protector.
Where we belong by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Fourteen-year-old Angie and her mum are on the brink of homelessness …again. The problem is her little sister, Sophie. Sophie has a form of autism, and a tendency to shriek. Home never seems to last long. Until they move in with Aunt Vi, across the fence from a huge Great Dane. Sophie falls in love, and begins to imitate the dog’s calm nature.
