Always With a Book

First line: Wednesday morning, a not-so-perfect June day, I turned over the Open sign at my yarn store on Blossom Street. From the inside cover: Knitting and life. They’re both about beginnings – and endings. That’s why it makes sense for Lydia Goetz, owner of A Good Yarn on Seattle’s Blossom Street, to offer a class called Knit of Quit. It’s for people who want to quit something – or…

First line: “Anya is all right now,” said my daughter’s advisor, “but you need to come pick her up please.” From the back cover: Old money and tradition are the hallmarks of the St. Louis prep school that Kiki Lowenstein’s daughter Anya attends. But the elite academy is stamped with scandal when Anya finds the dead body of teacher Sissy Gilchrist in its elegant theatre. Even worse, Anya might have…

First line: “All we’re missing is a corpse.” From the back cover: All it took was one scone. When the hot-tempered (and widely hated) hobbyist Yvonne Gaynor eats a tainted pastry at Kiki’s scrapbooking crop party, it triggers an allergy that leads to Yvonne’s death. Even worse, the police suspect foul play when they realize that someone tampered with the treats and swiped the victim’s allergy medication. An expect at…

First line: Two days before Thanksgiving, a man doesn’t think about dying. From the back cover: Mousy housewife Kiki Lowenstein has two great loves: scrapbooking and her young daughter, Anya. But her happy family album is ruined when her husband, George, is found naked and dead in a hotel room. As Kiki tracks down George’s murderer, she discovers his sordid secret life. Cruel taunts by George’s former flame compel Kiki…

First line: For Vivian death was a social event. From the back cover: In Ansley Waller’s world of Southern belles and gentlemen, getting a diamond ring isn’t just important – it’s the ultimate goal. So when her fiance, Parish, unceremoniously kicks her to the curb and cancels their upcoming wedding. Ansley is so ashamed that she decides to leave Dallas and make a fresh start. In a surprising move, she…

First line: “You have a whisker.” From the back cover: Lucy Lang isn’t looking for fireworks. She’s looking for a nice, decent man. Someone who’ll mow the lawn, flip chicken on the barbecue, teach their future children to play soccer. But most important: someone who won’t inspire the slightest stirring in her heart…or anywhere else. A young widow, Lucy can’t risk that kind of loss again. But sharing her life…

First line: Mia Marcelli was used to sleeping alone so it came as something of a shock to wake up with a strange man in her bed. From the back cover: A smart, independent woman with a gorgeous four-year-old son, Mia Marcelli lost her one true love. Four years ago, while working undercover for the CIA, she watched Diego, the father of her unborn child, perish before her very eyes…

First line: If Darcy Jensen had known she was going to be kidnapped, she would have worn better shoes. From the back cover: The rebel of the Marcelli family, Joe never joined his sisters Katie, Francesca, and Brenna in running the winery business. Instead, he chose a life of military service. But now that this handsome, headstrong, former Navy SEAL has received a new, undercover assignment – protecting none other…

First line: Borrowing a million dollars from the devil was one thing; picking a fight with him while doing it was something else. From the back cover: Of all the Marcelli sisters, the only one who dreams of running the family’s winery is Brenna – and she’s about to get her chance. But taking the helm at Marcelli Winery is tougher than she bargains for – especially when she butts…

First line: Suzanne Dietz didn’t set out to start the Cackleberry Club, the whole thing just sort of happened. From the back cover: Suzanne, Toni, and Petra lost their husbands but found independence – and, in each other, a life raft of support, inspiration, fresh baked goods, and their own business. But when the Cackleberry Club cafe opened its doors in the town of Kindred, who’d have guessed that the…

First line: It had taken four months, calling in every favor ever owed, a case of expensive Scotch and a date with a slimy private investigator who had made the mistake of thinking “date” meant “sex”. From the back cover:  Dana Birch vowed never to put herself at the mercy of a powerful man. She became a deputy so that she could take care of herself, and protect those she…

First line: “It’s only two million.” From the back cover: Lexi Titan can just see the headlines. All of Titanville will be buzzing. Not that she has any other choice. Faced with exactly thirty days to come up with two million dollars, she is out of options. Marry Cruz Rodriquez or lose everything – the successful day spa she built herself, her tyrant father’s respect. And the long-standing competition with…

First line: “I’d like you to marry my daughter.” From the back cover: Skye Titan’s wealthy father thinks he can still dictate his daughter’s choice in men. Now widowed and a single mother, Skye isn’t the yes-girl she once was. Especially since the love of her life is back in Texas after eight long years. He won’t like the answers to the questions he’s asking. About why she left him…

First line: In the movies there was always a warning before something bad happened. From the back cover: Izzy has always been the fearless Titan sister.  But when an oil rig blows up, leaving her barely able to see, her sisters find themselves as concerned by her emotional withdrawal as by the possibility that the explosion was no accident.  Are the mind games their long-lost brother Garth has been playing…

First line: A back-alley crawl had certainly sounded like a tantalizing idea to Theodosia when she’d first conceived it. From the inside cover: It was the Dickensian evening Theodosia Browning had hoped for. Flickering candles lined the narrow cobblestone alleys of Charleston as shop owners, dressed in cloaks of yore, threw open their back doors to shoppers. Visitors took advantage of bargains on antiques, heaping bowls of crab chowder –…

First line:  “I need flowers, dead ones.” From the back cover:  Hope Walker survived early breast cancer at just thirty-years-old, but a mastectomy left her with a lot of scarring—and some serious fears about dating.  Hope owns Changing Seasons, Heart Lake’s most popular flower shop.  When it comes to love and relationships, she’s able to work magic through her expert flower arranging…for everyone but herself.  Then one day a handsome…

First line: Was it a bad omen when you couldn’t zip up your wedding dress? From the back cover: Erin Merritt has returned to her scenic hometown of Heart Lake to plan her wedding, but when she repeatedly runs into her childhood crush, she wonders if she’s engaged to the wrong man.  To make matters worse, all the stress is making her eat, and now she can’t fit into her…

First line: Jim Dawson was handsome from the day he was born. From the inside cover: In this heartfelt and incisive new novel, Danielle Steel celebrates the virtues of unconventional beauty while exploring deeply resonant issues of weight, self-image, sisterhood, and family. A chubby little girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and ordinary looks, Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family, especially in body-conscious L.A. Her…