Novels Now

You are browsing the archives of 2008 April.

First Sentence: Dust flecked with blood, shards of debris and bone, smoke so thick he can’t breathe or see or maybe he’s gone blind; the noise, horrific a moment ago, leveling out to a dull thump, thump, thump in his eardrums until it dissolves into an absence of sound as if the world had exploded [...]

Procession of the Dead by D.B. Shan
The City: Book 1
Pages: 312
First Published: March 3, 2008 (Canada & UK)
Genre: urban fantasy
Rating: 5/5
Comments:
Capac Raimi arrives in the city to join his uncle’s business, that of small time gangster. He quickly learns the ropes but soon finds himself brought to the attention of The Cardinal. The Cardinal is [...]

Empress of Asia by Adam Lewis Schroeder
Pages: 409
First Published: 2006 CDN edition, 2008 US Edition
Genre: historical fiction, fictional memoir
Rating: 4/5
First Sentence:
A beefy-faced guy was pushing the gurney when they came to get you; he rolled it up the driveway and must’ve caught the corner of the Taurus just above the headlight because now there’s a [...]

The winner was revealed here!
This is a new hardcover that was just published by William Morrow on April 1. If you’re interested in this book, sign up for the giveaway by posting a comment. A winner will be drawn on Monday, May 5. Restricted to the U.S. and Canada.

[...]

Isn’t this a cute cover?! I just love it. Keeper and Kid by Edward Hardy is about a single dad trying to be a father to a 3 year-old child he never even knew he had. It’s about the shock one gets with a child when one realizes your life will never be [...]

The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber
Pages: 318
Finished: Mar. 21, 2008
First Published: April, 2008
Genre: psychological suspense
Rating: 3.5/5
First Sentence:
Wilmot showed me that one, back in college; he’d written it out in his casually elegant calligraphy and had it up on the wall of his room.
Reason for Reading: I received this as an ARC.
Comments: Chaz Wilmot is [...]

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Pages: 363
Finished: Mar. 18, 2008
First Published: Feb. 2008
Genre: fiction
Rating: 4/5
First Sentence:
The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.
Reason for Reading: I received this book from the HarperCollins Canada “Reading Group”. It sounded interesting and Stephen King has written [...]

The Arthurian Omen by G.G. Vandagriff
Pages: 322
Finished: Apr. 9, 2008
First Published: 2008
Genre: suspense
Rating: 3/5
First Sentence:
Brother Gruffyd’s old heart trembled with excitement.
Reason for Reading: I received this as a review copy.
Comments: Maren travels to Wales to help her sister search for a manuscript which could prove that King Arthur was real. Upon her arrival she is [...]

Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman
Tenth Tess Monaghan Mystery
Pages: 325
Finished: Apr. 17, 2008
First Published: March, 2008
Genre: mystery
Rating: 3.5/5
First Sentence:
There she was.
Reason for Reading: I received this review copy from Harper Collins Canada.
Comments: Tess Monaghan is out rowing on the river when she inadvertently collides with the set of a TV Show. Once they [...]

Black Ships by Jo Graham
Pages: 411
Finished: Mar. 10, 2008
Reason for Reading: Review copy.
First Published: Mar. 10, 2008
Genre: historical fantasy
Rating: 5/5
First Sentence:
You must know that, despite all else I am, I am of the People.
Comments: Set in approximately 1200 BC along the coast of the Mediterranean from Egypt to Italy this tale is a retelling of [...]

A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock
Pages: 331
Finished: Apr. 24, 2008
First Published: Apr. 2008
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 3/5
First Sentence:
“Would you be kind enough to tell me where they keep people’s bodies,” I said.
Reason for Reading: Received this ARC from Harper Collins Canada
Comments: The year is 1837 and Liberty Lane receives a note informing her that her father [...]

The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris
Contemporary Fiction
2008 William Morrow (Harper Collins)
Finished on 4/15/08
Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)

Book Description
Since she was a little girl, the wind has dictated every move Vianne Rocher has made, buffeting her from place to place, from the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris. Cloaked in a [...]

Valentines by Ted Kooser
Poetry
2008 University of Nebraska Press
Finished on 4/1/08
Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)
For Valentine’s Day 1986, Ted Kooser wrote “Pocket Poem” and sent the tender, thoughtful composition to fifty women friends, starting an annual tradition that would persist for the next twenty-one years. Printed on postcards, the poems were mailed to a list of recipients that [...]

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway is a moving story based on fact. It chronicles the few days in Sarajevo during 1992 when the real “Cellist of Sarajevo,” Vedran Smailovic, played his cello for 22 days in the exact spot where 22 people had been killed while waiting in line for bread.
In the [...]

I had a couple of other books lined up to read before Belong to Me. However, when I allowed myself the pleasure of reading the first chapter of this book, I was immediately sucked in and I couldn’t put it down.
The characters in this story are so real and uncontrived that I found myself wishing [...]

Outcast by Sadie Jones 
The novel opens in 1957 with Lewis’ return home after a stay in prison. We quickly flashback to when he was ten and his father was returning from the war, 1945 , to the small village outside London and follow poor Lewis’s life up until his incarceration. The last third of the book [...]

Eugene is a mover in New York City whose favorite author is Constance Eakins.  While doing a job one day, he runs into a biographer of Eakins who also happens to have a beautiful daughter, Sonia.  Everyone else in the world believes Eakins is dead — that he just disappeared in Italy quite a few [...]

The Story of Forgetting
By Stefan Merrill Block
Completed April 20, 2008
Stefan Merrill Block made a strong debut with The Story of Forgetting– a tale of families, memories and how secrets can destroy relationships. Indeed, The Story of Forgetting is really a story of remembering – your family, your memories, your way of life. Central to this [...]

The Lace Reader must stare at the piece of lace until the pattern blurs and the face of the Seeker disappears completely behind the veil. When the eyes begin to fill with tears and the patience is long exhausted, there will appear a glimpse of something not quite seen. In this moment an image will [...]

There is lace in every living thing: the bare branches of winter, the patterns of clouds, the surface of water as it ripples in the breeze…Even a wild dog’s matted fur shows a lacy pattern if you look at it closely. - The Lace Reader- pg 101
Sophya “Towner” Whitney grew up around Salem, Massachusetts. She [...]