July is known as Disability Pride Month! Disability Pride initially started as a day of celebration in 1990—the year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. That same year, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day. This month is meant to celebrate disabled persons embracing their disabilities as integral parts of…
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. This month-long celebration demonstrates how LGBTQ Americans have strengthened our country, by using our…
I have been wanting to read Anatomy: A Love Story for a while on my To-Read List and finally have gotten the chance to check this one out and this was a wonderful Young Adult Historical Fiction book I have read in quite some time! The story is set in early 19th century Edinburgh, Scotland…
All Kinds of Lives (May 2023) by Shilpa Jacobie and Max McConnell
May is Jewish American Heritage Month! This month gives us the opportunity to celebrate the diverse and vibrant history, culture, and contributions of Jewish Americans through the years. There area many ways to celebrate Jewish American Heritage. One way we are celebrating at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers is through this reading list that…
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10,…
When it comes to lesbian romance novels, I’m pretty easy to please, all I want is a happy ending and some interesting characters. Shamim Sarif’s 2008 novel I Can’t Think Straight far exceeded these expectations. At the start of the novel, Tala, a lively London-based Palestinian with family ties to Jordan, is preparing for her…
It is award season! In celebration with the 95th Academy Awards ceremony tomorrow night, we have compiled a list of recommendations based on nominees. This discovery list includes at least one book recommendation for every film nominated in the Best Picture category. All Quiet on the Western Front If All Quiet on the Western Front…
With Valentine’s day coming up, I have complied a list of ten romantic comedies starring queer main characters over the past thirty years. Historically, romantic comedies featuring LGBT+ leads have not had the same financial or social support from Hollywood as those featuring cisgender, heterosexual characters. While this means there are not as many mainstream…
The Heart Principle is Helen Hoang’s third entry into The Kiss Quotient Series, which gained popularity thanks to TikTok. Personally, I was not a huge fan of The Kiss Quotient and completely skipped The Bride Test, but a friend of mine insisted I try The Heart Principle, and I’m so happy I gave Hoang’s writing…
November is Native American Heritage Month. The National Congress of American Indians tells us: [t]he month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general…
This was such a great, charming, and sweet romantic young adult graphic novel that had all the feels and an amazing storyline. Crumbs is about a teen named Ray who is a seer that is trying to figure out her place in the world as well as work on her magical powers she has been…
Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams (March 10) because it’s the sequel to The Bromance Book Club If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane (March 24) because it’s a “social media fauxmance” You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle (April 7) because it’s a lovers to enemies to lovers romantic comedy The Happy Ever…
James Hookbridge has been cursed to an eternity of waging war against sharp-toothed boys in the Neverland. Wholly weary of it, he has but one desire left to him, and that is for Death to find and take him at His earliest convenience. For a permanent ceasefire; the game board cleared and put away; to…
The RITA Awards are sponsored by the Romance Writers of America. The 2014 winners are: Best first book: The Sweet Spot by Laura Drake “Charla Rae Denny was the perfect wife with a perfect life, content to keep the home fires burning while her husband, JB, competed as a champion bull rider. Then their son…
Reviewed by Kim Lila has two interesting occupations. She’s a housesitter and a writer of a YA werewolf series. She also enjoys observing the people around her and one night while perusing the occupants of the building across from her current job, think “Rear Window”, to her horror she sees a woman pushed out a…
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I am not a voracious fiction reader – romantic fiction especially. But I was taken by the cover (the muted tones, the Grace Kelly look-a-like, the English back drop) as well as the title which added a touch of melancholy. It is London, 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember…
Reviewed by Kim Poor Charley Davidson. Not only has her boyfriend woken up from a coma and disappeared from a secure hospital, but now she’s being woken up at an ungodly hour by her best friend who’s throwing clothes at her (and ones that don’t even match, shudder.) Finally, Cookie explains to her that a…
After Lieutenant Eve Dallas suggests that her partner Detective Delia Peabody could use some practice on her footwork, Peabody decides to work out out in the NYPD’s old, rarely used gym as opposed to the new state of the art one which many of her well- toned colleagues avail themselves of. She has the place…
Charley Davidson is a private investigator and a grim reaper. As part of her reaper job description, she must convince dead people to “go into the light”, which in this case strangely enough is Charley herself. Of course things are never that simple. In cases where people have died violently they of course want help…
Vision In White by Nora Roberts is the first entry in her Bride Quartet series. MacKensie (Mac) Elliott and her three best friends, Emma, Laurel and Parker grew up throwing make believe weddings. Now they run a very successful wedding planning business in Connecticut called Vows where each one contributes her own unique talents. Mac…
You’d think when A book starts with a lovely relaxing vacation in Ireland, Eve and Roarke are in for a bit of a respite from some of their misadventures. No. Of course not. Beginning with a crossbow killing of chauffeur, and proceeding to a string of many more victims, Eve and her band of merry…
Looking for a little romance for your next day at the beach? Check out the 2010 RITA Award winners. Best Young Adult Romance Perfect Chemistry ~ Simone Elkeles When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to…
The 2010 Rita Award Finalists were recently announced. We are pleased that two of those finalists will be appearing at the Novelty: Danvers Literary Festival on May 8th: Kristan Higgins Deanna Raybourn
This is Milan’s debut historical romance featuring Gareth, Lord Blakely. Gareth is used to getting what he wants and his icy demeanor tends to cause people to scurry around to please him. When he finds that his cousin Ned has been spending his money visiting a fortune teller, he is determined to prove her a…
One thing a disreputable rake does not expect to return home to after a night of carousing with like-minded friends is news of his father’s death in a duel. That, Lord Nevinstoke learns, is like a slap to the face; the debts and resulting destitution left in his father’s wake, on the other hand, are…
In 1860s Seattle, lumberjack Joe Denton struggles to hold onto the land he was awarded as part of a Land Donation Grant. Without a wife, the burgeoning city’s law officials threaten to sell off the acreage Joe is desperate to hold onto. The answer to Joe’s prayers arrives in the enviable form of Anna Ivey,…
I have to confess I put off reading this last (sob) book in the Percy Jackson series for about a week and a half because I just couldn’t stand to see it end. When I picked it up, I tried to read it as slowly as possible in order to savor each scene, but that…
Funny, cute, totally different, with a bit of the bizarre thrown in, this is how I’ve been describing this book to friends. If you’re expecting a complete re-telling of Ms Austen’s classic, you will be disappointed. The author has instead kept much of the original work intact and thrown in his zombie mayhem for good…
It’s the talk of the town. London’s two most notorious rakes have placed a very public wager on which of them is the greatest lover. But what woman of beauty, intelligence, and discernment would consent to judge such a contest? Lady Carolyn Wynn is the last woman anyone would expect to step forward. But if…
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming…
I’ve put off this post for weeks upon weeks now for two reasons: I love Maria V. Snyder’s Study series; we’re talking serious love here. I can never write about books/series I love because I can never adequately express just why it is that I do love them. (Who am I kidding? Sometimes I can’t…
I’ve never tried to review two books at the same time so please bear with me. “And Only To Deceive” is the first book in a historical/romance/mystery series featuring Emily Bromley. In this first entry, Emily is left a young widow albeit rich and titled widow when her husband dies while on Safari. Emily it…
Charlie Newcomb was plagued by addiction until a car crash cost her the one thing that she had always counted on: the ability to sing. Scarred by her past, she sets out to deny the dependency that had dogged her steps for so long, and had finally settled into a routine. One that came to…
It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength to turn catty schoolgirls into loyal friends, and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic…
Dean Koontz has expanded in recent years from his straight horror. Some of his fans like this and some don’t. I happen to belong to the former group and his newest offering is along the same vein. Amy Redwing heads a rescue group for Golden Retrievers. Dogs are literally her life. Brian McCarthy while not…
NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas keeps the streets of a near-future New York City safe in this extraordinary series. But even she makes mistakes, and is haunted by those she couldn’t save-and the killers she couldn’t capture. When the body of a young brunette is found in East River Park, artfully positioned and marked by signs…
Once he had scorched the world. Once he had driven back overwhelming darkness. Once he had loved with such passion, his name was legend… TAIREN SOUL Now a thousand years later, a new threat calls him from the Fading Lands, back into the world that had cost him so dearly. Now an ancient, familiar evil…
“It was the revelation of the millennium: witches, werewolves, vampires and other supernaturals are real. Fast-forward 13 years: TV reporter Delilah Street used to cover the small-town bogeyman beat back in Kansas, but now, in high-octane Las Vegas—which is run by a werewolf mob—she finds herself holding back the gates of Hell itself. But at…
One of our patrons really loved this book. After falling in love with Nigel Bevelstoke, Viscount Turner, as a child because of his kindness to her, Miranda Cheever is reunited with him years later, finding a lonely and harsh man, devastated by loss, but she sees beyond the bitterness to the man she has loved…
I loved the first book in this series and the second definitely didn’t disappoint. There was one extremely tear-inducing moment though. In this entry, Zoe Redbird is coming to terms with her new life and evolving powers. She also has some complications popping up in her personal life in the forms of 3 men. If…
Silver Master tell the story of matchmaker Celinda Ingram and security specialist Davis Oakes. They’re both psychics (as is just about everyone on the planet Harmony), and they are trying to figure out the mystery behind what looks like a red plastic knob which Celinda’s dust bunny Ariminta pestered her into buying but is in…
Have you ever read the glowing reviews of a book, yet when you read it you hated it and found yourself wondering what was wrong with you? Well, that’s how Divine By Blood made me feel. It’s the last book in the trilogy (first are Divine By Mistake and Divine By Choice). I loved the…
Stephenie Meyer’s Eclipse. We waited patiently for it. We read it as soon as we could get our hands on it. ta calmly enjoyed it; kimb8 was quietly dismayed; and inkonvellum wanted to throw it across the room. Here is a collection of thoughts on the third installment in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling young adult series……
Here’s the cool thing about Red Handed – besides the fact that it was really quite good – it’s a young adult novel that has an adult counterpart. But before I delve into that, a bit about Red Handed {via B&N.com}: “Phoenix Germaine has been trying to earn back her mother’s trust after going into…
Fear not! Laurell K Hamilton – and, therefore, Anita Blake – is getting back to her roots. Let there be rejoicing! But not too much; Jean-Claude isn’t in The Harlequin nearly enough. Ah, but let me backtrack a bit. First off, if you will, a synopsis: “Anita Blake is about to face the challenge of…
Once a pharaoh beloved by his people, but betrayed by someone close to him, Adrian King has awakened thousands of years later as a vampire. Now the owner of the Royal Palace in Vegas, he is falling in love with Egyptologist Christine Day. But, someone else has awakened who will not rest until Adrian is…
“The death of history teacher Craig Foster devastated his young wife, who’d sent him off to work that morning with a lovingly packed lunch. It shocked his colleagues at the Upper West Side private school. And as for the ten-year-old girls who found him in his classroom in a pool of bodily fluids, they may…
If you’re looking for a pleasant distraction, try Krentz’s White Lies. The publisher has apparently decided to name the books that involve parasensitives as Arcane Society Novels, so while the series name may be newish, the themes are not. White Lies was a very enjoyable romantic suspense novel with paranormal tendencies. Here’s a synopsis from…
A Patron just came in and sayed she loved this book. She said it made her cry, but in a good way. “In this conclusion to “The Circle trilogy,” one vampire dares to stand against Lilith and her minions, using his love for the newly-crowned queen of Geall to finally complete the circle of six…