Lakeland Regional Library
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Reviews

Library Lines

Library Corner September 7th

New Fiction 

Women in Sunlight, by Frances Mayes, is the story of four American strangers who bond in Italy and change their lives over the course of an exceptional year. She watches from her terrazza as the three American women carry their luggage into the stone villa down the hill. Who are they, and what brings them to this Tuscan village so far from home? An expat herself and with her own unfinished story, she can't help but question: will they find what they came for? Kit Raine, an American writer living in Tuscany, is working on a biography of her close friend, a complex woman who continues to cast a shadow on Kit's own life. Her work is waylaid by the arrival of three women - Julia, Camille, and Susan - all of whom have launched a recent and spontaneous friendship that will uproot them completely and redirect their lives. Susan, the most adventurous of the three, has enticed them to subvert expectations of staid retirement by taking a lease on a big, beautiful house in Tuscany. Though novices in a foreign culture, their renewed sense of adventure imbues each of them with a bright sense of bravery, a gusto for life, and a fierce determination to thrive. But how? With Kit's friendship and guidance, the three friends launch themselves into Italian life, pursuing passions long-forgotten - and with drastic and unforeseeable results.

While investigating the hit-and-run death of a young boy, Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite makes a startling discovery: the suspect is an active-duty serviceman at a local naval base. After a key piece of case evidence goes missing, he is cleared of charges in a military court. But Tracy knows she can't turn her back on this kind of injustice. When she uncovers the driver's ties to a rash of recent heroin overdoses in the city, she realizes that this isn't just a case of the military protecting its own. It runs much deeper than that, and the accused wasn't acting alone. For Tracy, it's all hitting very close to home. As Tracy moves closer to uncovering the truth behind this insidious conspiracy, she's putting herself in harm's way. And the only people she can rely on to make it out alive might be those she can no longer trust. Close to Home, by Robert Dugoni, is a stunning suspenseful exercise in terror that hits every note at the perfect pitch.

We all have our secrets....They were six university students from Oxford - friends and sometimes more than friends - spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway...until they met Severine, the girl next door. For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive. And there are some people you can't forget...like Severine, who was never seen again. Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free....The French Girl, by Lexie Elliott, is a story of complicated friendships and shifting alliances. This addictive debut will keep readers up late into the night.

Can you hide a secret with the whole world watching? When an explosion rips apart a Chicago building, the lives of three women are forever altered. A year later, Cecily is in mourning. She was supposed to be in the building that day. Instead, she stood on the street and witnessed it going down, with her husband and best friend inside. Kate, now living thousands of miles away, fled the disaster and is hoping that her past won't catch up with her. And Franny, a young woman in search of her birth mother, watched the horror unfold on the morning news, knowing that the woman she was so desperate to reconnect with was in the building. Now, despite the marks left by the tragedy, they all seem safe. But as its anniversary dominates the media, the memories of that terrifying morning become dangerous triggers. All these women are guarding important secrets. Just how far will they go to keep them? The Good Liar, by Catherine McKenzie, is thrilling, captivating, and not to be missed, a guilty pleasure you won’t be able to put down until the very last page. 

New Non Fiction 

What do you lose when you lose your memories? When she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of fify-eight, Wendy Mitchell was confronted with the most profound questions about life and identity. All at once, she had to say goodbye to the woman she used to be. Her demanding career in the NHS, her ability to drive, cook and run-the various shades of her independence-were suddenly gone. Philosophical, profoundly moving, insightful and ultimately full of hope, Somebody I Used to Know, by Wendy Mitchell, gets to the very heart of what it means to be human.

Krista Law