Just Rewards
by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Published 2005 by St. Martin's Press

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0312307063

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Jacket Notes:

In this sweeping novel, the Harte women find themselves in the midst of weddings, in the hold of intrigue, and at the crossroads of the old ways and the new. The bestselling author presents the dramatic conclusion of the extraordinary tale of Emma Harte's great-granddaughters.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/28/2005

Can this be, as advertised, the final episode in the Harte family saga? A Woman of Substance (1979), the story of Emma Harte's triumph over poverty and illegitimacy to found England's greatest department store, and its four sequels were huge bestsellers. Now Emma's great-granddaughter, Linnet O'Neill, must defend the empire and family against evil uncle Jonathan Ainsley. But words such as "granddaughter" and "uncle" don't do justice to the complexities. It takes four and a half pages of front matter to enumerate the Harte, Kallinski and O'Neill clans whose intertwining lives drive the saga. Emma's descendants offer a helping hand to new in-laws - and the reader - by uttering sentences such as these: "Through his great-grandfather, Winston the First, Emma is Gideon's great-great-aunt. But she is also Gideon's great-grandmother, because Emma was my grandmother." Weddings and funerals keep the local caterer busy and offer crescendos of activity, if scant emotion. Although Ainsley's malevolence hovers behind the story and leads to near disasters, there's never a doubt that the strong women will triumph - though not without struggle. Series devotees will take heart at the ending, which hints that Ainsley's evil will survive his death and the struggles will continue offstage even if Bradford lays down her golden pen. (Jan.)

The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell
by Lilian Jackson Braun
Published 2006 by Putnam Publishing Group

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0399153071

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Jacket Notes:

James Qwilleran and his famous felines Koko and Yum Yum are back for another mystery-solving stint in the bestselling Cat Who . . . series. While the town of Pickax is swept up in its sesquicentennial celebrations, a hurricane brews, and members of a family fall deathly ill. Qwill has his work cut out for him.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/14/2005

Bestseller Braun's disappointing 28th Cat Who... novel (after 2004's The Cat Who Went Bananas ) mostly follows journalist Jim "Call Me Qwill" Qwilleran as he runs around Pickax City, Mich., getting things ready for the town's blow-out celebration of its sesquicentenary. Many books ago, Qwill inherited tons of money and set up a foundation to benefit Pickax. Now that story line has become a caricature, with Qwill's fund popping up and financing yet another venture virtually every chapter. The "mystery" concerns Nathan and Doris Ledfield, a wealthy couple whose only heir is an obnoxious, greedy nephew. When late in the tale the Ledfields die... well, let's just say that no one will be surprised to learn who was behind their deaths, or what his motive was. Lame plotting isn't the only problem. The characterization is not just thin, it's anorexic. Perhaps it's time to put this series, which once defined feline fiction, to sleep. Mystery Guild main selection. (Jan.)

Mad River Road
by Joy Fielding
Published 2006 by Atria Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0743488024

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Jacket Notes:

A "New York Times" bestselling author returns with a sexy, suspenseful novel of murder, romance, and revenge. After a year in prison, Ralph goes to murderous lengths to learn the address of his ex-wife, the woman he blames for his fate and has sworn vengeance against.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 12/12/2005

In the nail-biting 18th suspense novel from Fielding (Puppet), a trio of women trapped in a web of lies, danger and self-revelation must confront their deepest fears. Lily and Emma, each a young mother with an adorable young son, are carving out new lives in a depressing Dayton, Ohio, neighborhood that caters to single mothers, while Jamie, in Florida, is a 29-year-old single dealing with the recent death of her mother and an affair with a married man who's been hospitalized. Both Lily, an aspiring writer, and Emma, a compulsive liar and shoplifter, struggle to recover from tragedies that led both to assume new names. When a sexy but dangerous man Jamie meets in a bar persuades her to quit her job and escape her perfectionist sister, the pretty but insecure blonde winds up on a wild road trip to Ohio that will inextricably link her fate with that of Lily and Emma. Packed with breathless twists and turns, Fielding's latest set of women in jeopardy excite and delight. (Jan.)

Publisher's Marketing Text:

"New York Times bestselling author Joy Fielding returns with "Mad River Road, a sexy, suspenseful novel of murder, romance, and revenge.

After spending a year in prison, Ralph Fisher has explicit plans for his first night of freedom: tonight, someone will be held accountable. He goes to murderous lengths to obtain the address of his former wife -- the woman he blames for his fate and against whom he has sworn vengeance. Determined to bring her to his idea of justice, Ralph's next step is to travel from Florida's sandy beaches to Dayton, Ohio, where his ex-wife is struggling to make ends meet on Mad River Road.

Also in Florida, Jamie Kellogg wakes from an agonizing nightmare of her mother's funeral, and assesses her life: a pretty but unaccomplished twenty-nine-year-old woman in a dead-end job, with an ex-husband in Atlanta, a married lover in the hospital, and a virtual stranger in her bed. But this stranger is everything the previous men in her life weren't: tender, attentive, and adventurous. After convincing Jamie to quit her miserable job and ditch her judgmental, perfectionist sister, he proposes a romantic getaway. While Jamie wonders if this thrilling man might finally be her Prince Charming, they plan a road trip to visit his son, who lives with his mother on a street called Mad River Road....

As riveting and beguiling as Joy Fielding's previous bestselling novels, which include "Whispers and Lies, Lost, and "Puppet, Mad River Road is a novel about courage, truth, and the strength that comes only when you believe in yourself.

The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster
by Kaye Gibbons
Published 2006 by Harcourt

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 0151012040

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Jacket Notes:

A sequel to the now-classic "Ellen Foster" picks up Ellen's life five years later, at 15, with a new mother, a home, a mind too large for her surroundings, and a brave and compassionate integrity.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 10/03/2005

In this folksy sequel to the 1997 Oprah pick Ellen Foster , Gibbons's plucky heroine is 15 and hoping for early admission to Harvard on account of "all the surplus living that was jammed into the years." Having survived trauma and tragedy, Ellen has found safety with a loving foster mother. She sells her poetry to underachieving classmates, thereby paying her way to a camp for the gifted at Johns Hopkins, where she realizes she doesn't know "how to feel at home out in the world or at home either." She returns to North Carolina, goes to the fair, negotiates a marriage proposal from her best friend and learns that her aunt has cheated her out of her inheritance. The plot is minimal; the pleasure for fans will be in Ellen's idiosyncratic worldview and signature syntax ("The rhythm of the world out here picks up when the farmer across the road begins plowing.... Crossing the wide ditch and walking... as the ground's being turned over to expose arrowheads, which you may find one or several of, I was getting dirty in the good clothes I shouldn't have been over there in"). Even as good guys falter, readers can trust that all will be right in the end in this extended curtain call for a fondly remembered character. (Jan.)

03/01/2006 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Adult/High School -Now 15, the heroine ofEllen Foster (Algonquin, 1987) continues to tell her story. The sequel begins with a letter from Ellen to Harvard University-s president, asking for early admission. She is making what she calls -an underage change in life.- After the deaths of her mother and abusive father, and shuttling between homes of people who don-t want her, the teen has settled with a woman who takes in foster children. She has chosen Laura as her -replacement- mother, and the woman accepts her role with love. Ellen is precocious, feisty, humorous, lovable, and vulnerable. Her decisions are not always the best, but her intentions show determination. Although her situation is sad, readers never feel sorry for her; they cheer her on, and the story concludes with a happy ending. The first-person narrative is sometimes hard to follow, but Ellen-s strong, colloquial voice paints a vivid, realistic picture.-Sheila Janega, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Publisher's Marketing Text:

This sequel to Gibbons's beloved classic Ellen Foster stands on its own as an unforgettable portrait of a redoubtable adolescent making herself up out of whole cloth. Now fifteen, Ellen is settled into a permanent home with a new mother. Strengthened by adversity and blessed with enough intelligence to design a salvation for herself, she still feels ill at ease in the world. Her sole surviving ritual-a visit to the county fair-takes on totemic importance. While she holds fast to the shreds of her childhood-humoring her best friend, Stuart, who is determined to marry her; and protecting her old neighbor, slow-witted Starletta-she negotiates her way into a larger world by selling her poetry to pay her way to a camp for gifted students. With a singular mix of perspicacity, naivete, and compassion, Ellen draws us into her life and makes us fall in love with her all over again.

"Anyone considering making an underage change in life, such
"as who you're going to live with, should know there's no way to
"avoid the government getting in on the decision, so try to be
"kind to the lady they'll send with a stack of tests. Try to stay
"calm and do your best on them.
-from The Life All Around Me By Ellen Foster