Forever Friday-Timothy Lewis

Forever Friday

Timothy Lewis

WaterBrook, Sep 3 2013. $14.99

ISBN: 9780307732217



In 2006, thirty-eight year old Adam Colby feels alone and depressed as his “forever” ended in divorce. A dreamer, he desperately wants to believe in eternal love, but fears he will never learn the secret.



Currently Adam works on the estate sale of Gabe and Huck Alexander when he notices a bundle of postcards. Intrigued with the cards as he is used to finding old photos instead at estates, Adam begins reading them. Quickly, Adam figures out the cards began in 1926 Texas and occurred every Friday for the next six decades afterward. Their objective was to insure the Alexander couple kept their relationship solidly based on the significance of Long Division especially when the loving pair dealt with life’s global and internal spitballs.



The lasting love between Gabe and Huck comes across with vigor as the postcards remind each to bring their heart and soul to their marriage even when mentally tired by wearisome other concerns and tsuris. On the other hand, Adam seems more a naive spoiled brat failing to bring depth to what he takes from the postcards even when he searches for the daughter of the Alexander housekeeper. Overall fascinating, Forever Friday is an inspiring read as Timothy Lewis reminds the audience that attention to your beloved’s needs matters in relationships.



Harriet Klausner

When Adam Came To Town-Kate Kelly

When Adam Came To Town

Kate Kelly

Harlequin SuperRomance, Sep 3 2013, $5.75

ISBN: 9780373718757



Six months ago, famous artist Sylvie Carson’s father suffered a heart attack. The next day Sylvie picked up a paint brush, but the tingling magic that she felt when she worked was missing. Sylvie left Toronto to help her family in Collina at their café while her Pop heals. However, her erratic behavior has the townsfolk betting on when she gives birth and when she leaves town; while her agent-boyfriend Oliver insists she returns to the city to paint. Her confidence shattered and suffering debilitation anxiety attacks, Sylvie doubts she is an artist anymore.



When Sylvie meets newcomer Adam Hunter, she is intrigued by him and finds her passion to paint tingle for the first time since the magic vanished. However, she also sees his haunted eyes are the windows to his troubled soul that he refuses to explain to her as Adam assumes his past makes him unworthy of his beloved. Sylvie also poorly hides her doubts and troubles about art and love from him.



Readers will appreciate this engaging Canadian contemporary as the two protagonists struggle with personal issues that seem to prevent them from forming a permanent relationship in spite of falling in love. The small-town support cast adds depth to a warm romance.



Harriet Klausner

Alex-Pierre LeMaitre; Frank Wynne (translator)

Alex

Pierre LeMaitre; Frank Wynne (translator)

MacLehose/Quercus, Sep 3 2013, $24.95

www.maclehosepress.com

ISBN: 9781623650001



In Paris thirty year old Alex Prevost knows she has become a beautiful young woman yet has doubts about her looks as she never forgets her days as a stammering ugly teen. She notices the fiftyish male seemingly following her, as she saw him in the Metro, the street and outside a shop; but assumes she is being inanely paranoid though her nervousness about him makes her stammer.



Alex starts to walk home when a van pulls up next to her. That same man grabs her hair but pulls off her wig so she he punches her in the stomach causing her to puke before flipping her into the van and driving away. A witness walking his dog tells height deprived Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven what happened. Though he prefers the case was not his as he still grieves the abduction-murder of his wife, Camille realizes he must ignore his feelings since his only experienced peer Morel is in Lyons and knows time is running out on the victim especially when no demands from the kidnapper surfaces.



This is a terrific twisting thriller anchored by a dark description of Paris by how Camille sees the City of Lights. With two fully developed supporting cops on the lead team, readers will appreciate this exciting French police procedural as the hero, who faces constant height deficient prejudice, believes the victim is already dead.



Harriet Klausner

How To Date A Dragon-Ashlyn Chase

How To Date A Dragon

Ashlyn Chase

Sourcebooks, Sep 3 2013, $6.99

ISBN: 9781402275722



After working excessive hours on getting her greeting card portfolio ready for a TV competition and attending a wedding in Hawaii, exhausted Bliss Russo returns to her Boston apartment to sleep. However, a few hours later, smoke awakens her. As she flees she runs into the butt of firefighter Drake Cameron who gets her to safety. Desperate Bliss begs him to go back in to rescue her computer that contains her design portfolio, which he does.



Chief Tate suspends Drake for seven days for pulling another dumb stunt by rescuing a laptop during an inferno. The last of his dragon-shifting clan Drake realizes he has too much time to think about the card designer. He knows pursuing her would devastate his death bed promise he made to his mom and he assumes she will not cope with his shapeshifting although she had a taste of that during the blaze. The only individual he met who meets his late mom’s dragon specs is Zina the biker-chick who decides Drake is her mate although he cannot understand a word she says. Bliss visits him at the station. They begin dating, but Zina plans to turn the city ablaze to get her dragon.



The latest Strange Neighbors amusing urban romantic fantasy (see The Werewolf Upstairs) is a fun frolic in spite of the female protagonist’s early selfish behavior. Zina is even more self-indulgent yet a unique anti-hero; while the male dragon ironically fights fires. Series fans will enjoy this entry as everyone knows a dragon and a human can mate but never propagate; considered statistically extinct as a species, Drake must choose between love and the next generation.



Harriet Klausner

Dick Francis's Refusal-Felix Francis

Dick Francis's Refusal

Felix Francis

Putnam, Sep 3 2013, $26.95

ISBN: 9780399160813



Sid Halley had been a successful steeplechase jockey until he injured a hand when he fell during a race. He became a successful private investigator mostly working the racing circuit. With successful investments insuring he had plenty of money, Sid, fearing threats to his beloved Marina and the battering he received, took an early retirement (see Under Orders by Dick Francis).



It has been six years since he gave up his sleuthing job, Sid enjoys rusticating with Marina and their six years old daughter Saskia. British Horseracing Authority Chair Sir Richard Stewart visits Sid asking him to look into racing doping transgressions in which someone is gaming the system. Sid has mixed feelings about returning to sleuthing, but leans towards refusal until Sir Richard allegedly committed suicide by monoxide poisoning while sitting in his closed car inside his closed garage. However, he is quickly reminded as to why he left the detective game when his actions place his loved ones as well as himself in peril.



Felix Francis proves DNA matters (with hard work) as he successfully brings out of retirement his late father’s most popular character in an exciting horse racing mystery in which Sid is less confident than he once was. Fast-paced and filled with action, readers will appreciate this strong entry as like Griffey Jr. and Sr. hitting back to back homers in 1990, Refusal is a winning ticket that pays tribute to the author’s dad.



Harriet Klausner

Happy Hour in Hell-Tad Williams

Happy Hour in Hell

Tad Williams

DAW, Sep 3 2013, $25.95

ISBN 9780756408152



The Heaven equivalent of Internal Affairs has placed the Angel Doloriel on suspension as they investigate whether his activities especially his affair, friendships and advocacy job to save the souls of the recently departed crossed the acceptable line (see The Dirty Streets of Heaven). Known in the Bay Area as Bobby Dollar, he has no time for angelic inspectors as his girlfriend Caz the Countess of the Cold Hands is trapped in Hell by her owner Eligor the Horseman, whom the fallen angel stole a magical feather from the Horseman.



Lacking the patience of a hyperactive human and knowing he must be insane, Bobby dons a demon body to enter Hell to rescue his beloved demon. Making his mission even crazier, Bobby knows that Eligor has a second reason to burn him for eternity as he stole a magical feather from the Horseman. Complicating his trek through hellish layers is decades-dead psychopathic serial killer Smyler who will kill for the hell of it but has a reason with Doloriel: the feather.



The second Bobby Dollar fantasy is a wonderful thriller as the protagonist journeys through a Hell as bureaucratically incompetent as Heaven is. Although at times the pace slows down in Hell, the dark storyline contains plenty of graveyard humor and a horde of mostly sick, though one could argue eccentric, characters from Heaven, Hell and San Judas.



Harriet Klausner

The Missing Colton-Loreth Anne White

The Missing Colton

Loreth Anne White

Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Sep 3 2013, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373278381



After a stint as a war journalist in Afghanistan where he was incarnated and tortured, Jagger McKnight suffers from PTSD due to his time as a prisoner that also triggered his memory of being abducted and living with his captors for almost a decade as a child. He feels good about obtaining a TV and book contract to investigate and solve the thirty years old cold case kidnapping of infant Cole Colton as a means to ignore his horrors.



Jagger heads to the Colton Ranch in Dead River, Wyoming where he plans to get a job so he can go undercover. Before he reaches his destination, a vicious assailant assaults and batters Jagger, leaving him to die. The next day Colton Ranch nurse Mia Sanders finds him unconscious. She brings the severely injured reporter to the ranch and nurses him back to health. As they fall in love, an unknown adversary needs Jagger dead and Mia is acceptable collateral damage as an expendable pawn.



This exhilarating Coltons of Wyoming romantic suspense (see The Colton Ransom by Marie Ferrarella) is a fabulous entry in the extended family saga. The lead couple is an intriguing pair as both have bad memories and shaky identities issues that make love unwelcome; while the Colton brood pray Jagger is their lost Cole. Character-driven yet filled with tense action, readers will relish this strong thriller as love and dangers collide in Dead River.



Harriet Klausner