For the Love of Books, a look at what's new and exciting in the world of reading

Growing up in foster care, Cady Drake drew solace from a carved rabbit that she later learned had come from a carousel. As an adult, she travels around the area taking photos of merry go rounds. Now, she has the chance to go to Paris to write about antique carousels and she also wants to track down any works by carousel maker Gustave Bayol, the man she believed carved her rabbit. In Provence she finds a carousel in ruins in a dilapidated mansions belonging to the Clement family. The carousel was commissioned from Bayol by the Clement family to keep in their home. They have hung on to the home, but just barely and now it’s up to Cady to convince a proud old man to let her restore the once magical merry-go-round. A beautiful, lyrical story I didn’t want to end

Ghost Legion was one of the biggest rock bands of the 1970’s, and their fame was only increased by the disappearance of lead singer Martin Mear, in 1975. Ruth Gillespie is researching Mear, his group and the phenomenon they created. The group’s fans, the Legionnaires, believe that Mear will rise from the dead and Ruth finds herself at the crumbling manor house where Mear was last seen alive. A cool ghost story with a hint of rock and roll

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Bachelorette parties can be wild, but Maggie knows she had way too much to drink when she woke up with a total stranger. Things go from bad to worse when she discovers her friend, Angie, from the party the night before has been murdered. Homicide detective Ron O’Reilly questions all the women who were at the party and becomes convinced that at least some, if not all of them are lying about the events of the night before. It turns out that someone is determined to make the friends suffer for a past injustice, and Angie’s murder is only the first. A tightly woven British police procedural

Lily Holmes has high hopes as she opens her new deli in a tiny English coastal village. She believes she and her son have found the perfect place to start over. What she didn’t count on was the resistance from the locals. They don’t take kindly to an outsider moving into their village and “trying to change things”. Lily is crushed, she has to make this work. Maybe the good-looking apple orchard, cider making next door neighbor and put in a good word on her behalf?

Jen’s daughter, Gracie has died in a car accident. Luckily, emergency workers were able to revive her, but plenty of questions remain. The car Gracie was riding in was driven by Jen’s ex-husband’s girlfriend, Ella and Gracie has begun to remember things about the crash. About the things Ella said and did right before and during the crash. Ella has an ugly past and she doesn’t want anyone knowing the truth, not even a child and she’ll do anything to keep Gracie quiet

How do you find your way to an ordinary world after the unthinkable has happened? For Maddie Castle, life is divided into BEFORE and AFTER.  She remembers her life with husband, Dom and twins, Aidan and Annabel as a happy one. Now, her life is spent alone in one room, trapped with memories that seem to become increasingly vague and unclear until Maddie isn’t sure what really happened to her family. If you like stories with twisted plots and red herrings, you’ll love this story

Sisters Jess and Emily have been estranged for years, but have recently decided to try to recapture the closeness they shared as children. Now, Jess has moved in with her sister, her brother-in-law, James and Emily’s teenage stepdaughter, Daisy as well as Emily and James’s toddler. When Emily and her husband want to go out on New Year’s Eve, Jess offers to babysit  but when the couple return home, they find Jess lying in a pool of blood and the baby missing. Jess claims to have no memory of what happened, but Emily wonders if this is some sort of sick payback from her sister. As police investigate, the entire family falls under scrutiny, and James and Daisy turn out not to be the loving husband and stepdaughter they would appear to be. Still, the main focus, of both the police, and the story, is on the strained relationship of the two sisters. Expect a few surprises in this intriguing tale