Monroe County Library System

January is the perfect time to look forward to a beach and a book! Now is the time to put your holds on those summer blockbusters that will be published in June and July. 

Like romance?  Try Debbie Macomber’s Cottage by the Sea.  Recovering from tragedy, Annie returns to the cottage where her family vacationed to heal and begin anew.  For a similar title about healing at the beach try Beth Harbison’s Every Time you Go Away.

It’s always sad when a series comes to an end.  The popular Rev. Curtis Black series will end with Kimberla Lawson Roby’s Better Late Than Never. Although, it sounds like an insightful poignant ending.  Turns out, the Reverend has been hiding an abusive childhood which comes to light when his sister becomes ill.

Do you like suspense with a touch of creepy? This June B.A. Paris returns with Bring Me Back. It’s about a British couple who are vacationing in France. They stop for gas and the wife disappears.  When ten years later, the husband is engaged to the wife’s sister, questions begin about what happened in France.   Linwood Barclay’s thriller A Noise Downstairs releases in July.  College professor Paul Davis has witnessed a murderer dumping a body and is now suffering from the emotional aftermath.  His well-meaning wife gives him a typewriter to continue work on his novel, but Paul is convinced it’s typing by itself at night.  And, that the typing is somehow linked to the murderer. Spine-tingling stuff! Also try Claire Douglas’, Last Seen Alive. Couple Libbie and Jamie have traded houses.  It seems remarkable to them that they have traded their modest Brooklyn apartment for a seaside estate until Libby finds the surveillance cameras and operating room in the basement. And, it just gets stranger from there. With a 100,000 paperback printing, this title is expected to be popular.

And, last but not least, here’s an historical fiction novel with a local connection.  Tatjana Soli, author of The Lotus Eaters, returns with The Removes about two women, Libby Custer and Anne Cummins who both come into their own on the American frontier.  Libby leaves her sheltered life to travel west with her husband, George Armstrong Custer, while Anne Cummins, at 15,  is kidnapped and held captive by the Cheyenne and eventually becomes a tribe member.