by Rochelle Alers
Summer Vows kicks off a new series featuring the Cole family, best known from the Hideaway series. If you're familiar with the Coles, you know that there are so many of them that there tends to be a wedding during the Christmas/New Year's Eve holiday season. After a few years of no weddings, the time seems ripe for one. Patriarch Martin Cole makes a bet of a million dollars with his brothers, David and Joshua, and his nephew, Timothy, on who will be the next to wed. Each has their own prediction and whoever wins will have the money used to set up an endowment at his alma mater. The subjects of this bet are twins Jason and Ana, David's children, and Nicholas, the son of Timothy.
Jason and Ana have taken over the running of their father's record label, Serenity Records, with Ana dealing mainly with the business side of things. She has just signed a deal with hot singer Justin Glover after a bidding war with Slow Wyne Records' CEO Basil Irvine. But Basil is a sore loser and it soon becomes apparent that Ana may be in danger. Well, the Coles are very protective of their own and they make plans to place her in protective custody until things blow over. Her cousin Diego's friend Jacob Jones, a U.S. Marshal has agreed to watch over her, even though spending his vacation in the Florida Keys babysitting who he sees as a pampered rich girl was definitely not in his plans.
Rochelle Alers is a master of combining intrigue, danger and romance, especially when writing about the Coles. Summer Vows was a great addition to this series.
A Modern Day Guide to Living with Substance and Style
by Allison Samuels
One of the things that I miss most about being a bookseller is being able to recommend books to people with specific requests (not just a general "what's a good book to read?"). Aligning someone with the perfect book for their needs is very rewarding.
What Would Michelle Do? is spot on for people looking for gifts to support young women on to the next phase of their lives as they graduate from high school or college. By using the example of Michelle Obama's life from childhood to adulthood, Samuels guides us through the major decisions that women have to make. Included are topics like self-esteem, enriching your education, making smart financial choices, building a wardrobe, and how to make a relationship work.
By all means is this book only for young women. All women will be able to relate to something here.
by Judy Lynn Hubbard
Life for a Black ballerina can be a difficult one. You have to constantly fight the perception of what a "ballerina's body" is and work twice as hard as others to prove your ability to do the job. After years of this, Natasha Carter finally has the opportunity for a lead role with the Johnson Ballet Company's production of Romeo and Juliet.
Damien Johnson has started his ballet company as a way to stay involved in the industry after an accident has ended his own dance career. Damien has been burned in the past by women using him for his position. Natasha doesn't want any distractions as she finally has a chance to be the prima ballerina that she always wanted to be. The attraction between them can threaten their professional relationship if they aren't careful.
Our First Dance was a sweet read that included lots of interesting background on ballet as a discipline and what it takes to be successful at it.
by Gigi Levangie Grazer
This book was surely a surprise. I read her first book, The Starter Wife and loved the story and all of the Hollywood insider tidbits and jokes. The resulting mini-series was disappointing, but I have come to expect that from book adaptations.
In The After Wife, Hannah Marsh, a reality television show producer finds her world altered when her husband dies suddenly. Left to pick up the pieces and raise her daughter, her hilarious friends rally around her for support. While she tries to hold on to her life, her job, and her sanity, she questions (out loud) why this is happening to her. She actually gets an answer and a whole new world and insight into life after death opens up to her.
I didn't know anything about this book when I read it and was truly happy with the outcome. Grazer is still hilarious and manages to fit in so many pop culture references and jokes that you feel as if you are reading about friends. This is the time of year when we hear a lot about "beach reading" and I'm not sure how many people actually take books with them to the beach, but this should be one of them.
by Kayla Perrin
The Harts In Love series culminates with Deanna's story. Even though the Hart sisters have returned home for the funeral of the aunt that raised them, they each also needed a break from the stresses they are going through. Callie is recuperating from a car accident that resulted from her being run off the road (Always In My Heart). Natalie has left her star basketball player husband who cheated on her (Surrender My Heart). Deanna has made some bad choices in men that have negatively affected her music career and she needs the time to regroup. She agrees to speak to her nephew's class about her music and finds that the principal is her old friend Eric, the brother of the ex-boyfriend that started the years long feud between she and her sister Natalie.
This is a good twist on the "can friends become lovers" tale as Eric makes it known that, all those times he comforted her while she cried about his brother, he longed to make her his own. Also, since this is the last book in the series, we finally get to find out the circumstances behind the sisters coming to live with their aunt and what happened to their mother after she abandoned them.
by Susan Fales-Hill
With the Queen's Jubilee and the 2012 Summer Olympics all over the news, it seems fitting to read a novel about the Harcourt family. Even though Forsythia, the matriarch, is of Jamaican heritage, she is in love with all things British. She and her husband, Harold (who is actually British), have four daughters, all named after a member of the royal Windsor family and it is Forsythia's wish to have them each married off to their perfect prince. Victoria, the oldest, has just ended yet another engagement. Charlotte, the youngest (and most promiscuous) has no interest in settling down. Diana, the daughter most likely to do her mother proud, has managed to capitalize on her virginity by agreeing to appear in a reality show that will end in her marriage and deflowering.
Elizabeth, also known as Bliss, has deeply disappointed her mother by, not only marrying a Cuban man, but is forced to move back home with her young daughter after a messy divorce. Her desire to get her life back together, earn her PhD, and get out of her family's home is made more complicated by the arrival of the reality show production and the different effects it has on every one's lives.
Imperfect Bliss is a smart, funny look at many things, including pop culture, academia, and love. This is a great addition to any summer reading list.
The Life And Music of James Brown
by RJ Smith
I don't think that I can categorize myself as a James Brown "fan". His music has just always been there as a part of my life. From my parents albums to the samples used in the hip-hop music I later gravitated towards as a young adult.
While the subtitle says "Life And Music", this book is more of a memoir of Brown as a musician and businessman, covering his entrepreneurial spirit from boyhood on. His personal and family life is not covered with as much scrutiny. That's probably for the better, because, although he was know to be gracious to children (his own and strangers), he was not that kind to the women in his life.
The stories of him as a strict bandleader are legendary and those are included. Hearing about his creating and recording process was enlightening, especially since his career spanned so many decades and he had to reinvent himself several times. What I found really interesting was the political and socially conscious James Brown. I wasn't aware of his close ties with President Nixon and Vice President Hubert Humphrey and it was difficult reconciling this James Brown with the one who wrote "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud).
Exhaustive interviews provide a comprehensive look at how he became one of the hardest working men ever in entertainment. This is a must-read for anyone who loves contemporary music. The author is obviously a big fan of music, because sometimes his descriptions border on the poetic.
The Shadow Shifters
by A.C. Arthur
Having been spoiled by Octavia Butler and Tananarive Due, I get a little skeptical when choosing to read new supernatural or science fiction books. Especially when they are also part of the romance genre. The recently passed authors L.A. Banks and Monica Jackson were masters at this subject. Because I've read most of A.C. Arthur's romances, I was interested to see what she had in store with Temptation Rising and I was not disappointed.
Kalina Harper is a police officer in Washington, DC who is dedicated to her job and mostly keeps to herself. She is plagued by dreams of the attack on her two years ago by a low level drug dealer. Someone (or something) came to her aid and pulled the man off of her. Kalina didn't get a good look at the man who saved her, but she can't shake the feeling of the presence of a beast as well. And were they one and the same.
Now Kalina has been assigned an undercover position as an accountant at the law firm of Reynolds & Delgado to determine if they are linked to a South American drug organization. Her new boss, Roman Reynolds, is a great lawyer, but he is also a shapeshifting jaguar who will finally answer the questions of what happened to her that night.
This first entry into the Shadow Shifters series was quite interesting and enjoyable. In addition to witnessing the growing attraction between Kalina and Roman (very steamy), we are also shown the history of the Shifters and the infighting that is threatening their existence. It's standard in stories like this to show the power struggles that happen when humans are given special powers. There is always a faction that wants to use it to help the world and another that wants to rule it. I look forward to seeing how this plays out in the forthcoming books in the series.
