Cheryl's Book Nook

Book Details: Book Title: The New Adventures of A.R. Achnid (Revised Edition) Author: Sandi Smith Illustrator: Kathy Lee Category: Children's Fiction, 126 pages Genre: Children's Chapter Book, Animals, Bugs & Spiders Publisher: Mindstir Media Release date: January 3, 2017 Tour dates: June 18 to July 13, 2018 Content Rating: G Book Description: Harold! There goes that spider! See, he is running on the floor! That spider has to go. He cannot live here anymore!!! Oh, no! Beth looks very, very angry. What has A.R. Achnid done now? Well, before A.R. got into big trouble with Beth, he had a lot of wonderful adventures. There are ten different adventures in this book. There is the time he went to the circus and rode on a balloon, and then had some shoo fly pie. Another day, A.R. and Rex (a Great Dane, who is A.R.’s best friend) decided to walk all the way into town, and they had such a wonderful time. Then, A.R. and his family went to New York City for the bi...

About When We Found Home Hardcover:  432 pages Publisher:  HQN Books (July 10, 2018) Life is meant to be savored, but that’s not easy with no family, limited prospects and a past you’d rather not talk about. Still, Callie Smith doesn’t know how to feel when she discovers she has a brother and a sister–Malcolm, who grew up with affection, wealth and privilege, and Keira, a streetwise twelve-year-old. Callie doesn’t love being alone, but at least it’s safe. Despite her trepidation, she moves into the grand family home with her siblings and grandfather on the shores of Lake Washington, hoping just  maybe  this will be the start of a whole new life. But starting over can be messy. Callie and Keira fit in with each other, but not with their posh new lifestyle, leaving Malcolm feeling like the odd man out in his own home. He was clever enough to turn a sleepy Seattle mail-order food catalog into an online gourmet powerhouse, yet he can’t figure out how to help hi...

A past life, a past war, and a past love. Peter St John can’t foresee a future until he confronts his past sins. When photojournalist Peter St John returns home after a two-year absence, the life he’s been running from catches up. For years his mother’s presence, coupled with Pete’s own psychic gift, has triggered visits to 1917. There, he relives battles of the Great War, captures the heyday of Coney Island on canvas, and falls in love with an enchanting and enigmatic songstress named Esme. Present-day Pete still pines for Esme, and his love endures…but so does his vivid memory of killing her. When he discovers family heirlooms that serve as proof of his crimes, Pete will have to finally confront his former life. He also meets a young woman—who is more than what she seems—with a curious connection to his family. As century-old secrets unravel, can Pete reconcile a murder from his past before it destroys his future? “Enthralling and imaginative, where the past intertwines with t...

When a series of crimes take place soon after fifteen-year-old Annie Oakley joins Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, including the mysterious death of her Indian assistant, Annie fears someone is out to get her. With the help of a sassy, blue-blooded reporter, Annie sets out to solve the crimes that threaten her good name. Fifteen-year-old Annie Oakley is the sole supporter of her widowed mother and two siblings. An expert markswoman and independent spirit, she hunts game to sell to the local mercantile to make ends meet instead of accepting a marriage proposal that could solve all her problems. After a stunning performance in a shooting contest against the handsome and famous sharpshooter Frank Butler, Annie is offered a position in the renowned Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Finally, she has a chance to save the nearly foreclosed family farm and make her dreams come true. But then her Indian assistant is found dead in her tent, and Annie is dubious when the local coroner claims the de...

Thirty-five-year-old Rae Sullivan owns a thriving home décor shop in the San Francisco Bay area, near majestic Mt. Tamalpais (to locals, The Sleeping Lady). But when her business partner, Thalia, confides that she has a lover in France, Rae’s comfortable life starts to unravel. Soon, an anonymous note-writer threatens to reveal the affair, and Thalia—who, unswayed by Rae’s warnings, insists on confronting the blackmailer—turns up dead in Golden Gate Park. The police, convinced the crime was a random mugging, are dismissive of Rae’s story of blackmail. Then a scandal from Rae’s past job comes to light, and the police start to eye her as a suspect. To clear her reputation and ensure justice for Thalia, Rae decides it’s up to her to unmask the murderer—despite her husband’s objections. Rae’s sleuthing leads her to France, where she enlists the help of Thalia’s handsome half brother. As they collaborate to catch the killer, sparks fly between them, and Rae has to contend with these n...

Kipp Brown, successful businessman and compulsive gambler, is having the worst run of luck of his life. He’s beginning to lose, big style. However, taking his teenage son, Mungo, to their club’s Saturday afternoon football match should have given him a welcome respite, if only for a few hours. But it’s at the stadium where his nightmare begins. Within minutes of arriving at the game, Kipp bumps into a client. He takes his eye off Mungo for a few moments, and in that time, the boy disappears. Then he gets the terrifying message that someone has his child, and to get him back alive, Kipp will have to pay. Defying instruction not to contact the police, Kipp reluctantly does just that, and Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought in to investigate. At first it seems a straightforward case of kidnap. But rapidly Grace finds himself entering a dark, criminal underbelly of the city, where the rules are different and nothing is what it seems. My Review This book is number fou...

Sensitive Bash gets grumpy and disruptive when his life is too bright, too loud, too smelly, or too busy. He counts on his dog, Lucy, to help keep him calm. But Lucy has become a local superstar because she's a soccer coach who barks, wags and kisses Bash's team to victory. Now, all the kids want Lucy to coach their teams, especially Paula, Bash's girl-power cousin. Paula says her soccer team has the right to take Lucy away from Bash because girls deserve the very best canine coaches under Title IX. How can Bash show he respects the girls' rights while keeping dear Lucy by his side? This chapter book features dream beasts designed by Michael Cohn, age 9. My Review This is a cute book. Young readers will enjoy Lucy, the Golden Retriever. I know I sure did. She is awesome. That is why Bash and Paula both wanted her so bad. I understood Paula's reasons for wanting Lucy for her girl's team but I felt like there was a better way to go about sharing Lucy. Gir...

You only let her go for a second… Now she’s gone. Erika Rice is in an elevator with her four-year-old daughter Alice when all the lights go out. It jerks to a stop on a deserted floor of apartments and the little girl runs out into the corridor. But before Erika can follow her the doors slam shut again. Now her daughter is nowhere to be seen. Erika was about to take Alice away for a fresh start, far from her troubled past, when the child vanished. How could a four-year-old disappear into thin air? And with no one to help her, will Erika ever find her daughter? My Review I have mixed feelings about this book. Mostly all good. It is just that I wanted the wow factor to be amped up just a few more notches. In the last few pages of the book, it had me wide awake and in shock. If I had gotten a bit more of that, I could have been happier. Yet, I was still happy with this book. Erika started out like a lamb but turned into a lion as the story progressed. She was truly a mot...

William Hawk is lying in a pod, peering through its translucent cover and watching a series of images from the parallax flicker on the ceiling above him. The last image he sees is of a tropical field... Suddenly, his pod is gone, and he finds himself in that field, in the body of an ancient Mayan who's being hunted by Spanish conquistadors. For the next 500 breaths, William will literally live in the skin-and experience the peril-of another person from another time. Part of a five-person team organized by the Ancient Engineer, William is charged with learning empathy and compassion during these brief "snaps," or tag-alongs. Living in a different person's body and in a different era in time with each one, William and the others -including the girl he loves, Grace-take another step closer to achieving Change Agent 3 status. By doing so they receive enlightenment and are granted superhuman powers they could use to change the world for the better. But there's a ca...

Olivia can’t take it anymore. She’s had enough of the big city and it’s lack of fulfilling her dreams. Then, just when she’s about to give up and move home, out of the blue, she is offered her dream job. Olivia is suspicious but that could just be the New York in her. She decides not to pull at threads. Despite her best efforts to remain blissfully oblivious, the secret to her life upgrade is soon uncovered when she finds herself invited to be part of a secret society. Olivia learns that there is a thin curtain separating our world from theirs. Just beneath the surface, an entirely different one exists. One that is controlled by those of Royal lineage. The chosen ones, the Royals, hold the fate of the world in their hands. Will Olivia be able to bear the weight of the crown? Confessions of a Shopaholic meets The Adjustment Bureau, this contemporary fairytale is both relatable and aspirational. Taking a look at the current balance of media and power with a healthy dose of humor, fa...

Burn One Down by Jeffrey A. Cooper on Tour June 11 - July 13, 2018 Synopsis: Retiring thief Jack Apple is offered a low-­risk, six-­figure payout to heist a medical marijuana dispensary from the feisty and impetuous Diane Thomas after Diane steals the robbery plans from her shady ex-­husband Alvin, hoping to beat him to the score. Diane promises to stay out of Jack’s way but she can’t help interfering, forcing them to take hostages inside the dispensary when the robbery is interrupted by law enforcement, inciting a media circus that deteriorates into a full-­on urban riot. To escape, Jack and Diane must negotiate the hostages, their agendas, an army of Sheriff’s deputies, the tenacious local news media, crooked deals, corrupt politicians, rioters, Diane’s shady ex-­husband Alvin, and their growing attraction to each other. This little ditty about Jack and Diane is a fast-paced read that finds a few new wrinkles in a familiar genre. ~ Kirkus Review Book Detai...

When Randle Marks buried his abusive father three years ago, he thought he had escaped the gravitational pull of his dysfunctional family. Living in Florida, Randle was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s served his time, written a book about his scientific work, and plans to marry his college sweetheart. Then his new beginnings are interrupted by his mother’s medical emergency. He is summoned to his boyhood home of Augusta, Georgia to face long-suppressed memories, contemptuous siblings, and his dying mother’s desperate attempts to conceal her secrets and preserve her dignity. He battles dispassionate doctors who are reluctant to waste resources on a terminal patient and, in the process, discovers that his mother’s fate may not be an act of God. While investigating her medical situation, he uncovers conspiracies to hijack two estates—his mother’s modest estate, and that of a wealthy man who claims to be his birth father. To bury the past, he will have to learn the trut...

Shiloh Harrison was hoping for a few days off to recover from a particularly nasty assignment, preferably with the help of the talented hands (and, well, the rest of his body too) of her sexy boyfriend, Vincent. But when a group of vampires takes an entire trailer park hostage, there’s nothing to do but make her apologies and get to the scene. Such is the life of a Federal Marshal in the Paranormal Investigators Unit. Yet this isn’t like her typical track-and-nab case: something is going on that has vampires scared, and it takes all her strength not to imagine what could frighten such powerful creatures. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have that option. Her boss is MIA, someone is snatching vampires, and there’s a ticking clock that can only end one way: a bloodbath. Unless she can stop it. My Review This new series from author, Kelly Meding is off to a really good start. I could not get enough of this story as well as the characters. The lead character, Shiloh is great. She may not...

Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat. A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before. Until she meets Kate Randolph. Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart. Because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunik. And she’s a murderer. My Review This story focuses mainly on France...

About the Book Title: A MERCIFUL SILENCE Author:  Kendra   Elliot Release Date: June 19, 2018 Publisher: Montlake Romance Summary For FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick, returning to rural Oregon has meant coming to terms with her roots. Raised as a prepper, Mercy is now relying on her survivalist instincts to defend her town from the people the law can’t reach. But this time, an investigation calling up a dark past for her and police chief Truman Daly may be hitting too close to home. A rainstorm has uncovered the remains of five people—a  reprise of the distinctive slaughter of two families twenty years ago. Except the convicted killer is in prison. Is this the case of a sick copycat, or is the wrong man behind bars?  One person might have the answer. The lone survivor of the decades-old crimes has returned to town still claiming that she can’t remember a thing about the night she was left for dead. As the search for the truth becomes more dan...