UnCovered Reviews | Atlantic County Library System

Dream Girl

Mon, 10/18/2021 - 9:13am

UnCovered review by Rachel Simmons, Librarian, ACLS Hammonton Branch

The main character Gerry Andersen is a famous author with many adoring fans and aspiring authors at his heels. Just before he falls down his floating staircase and ends up in the hospital, Gerry finds a letter with a familiar Baltimore address. Confined to a hospital bed in his Baltimore apartment, he relies on his assistant and night nurse for all his needs. In his drug induced state, he receives calls from someone named Aubrey, who claims to be his “Dream Girl”. He continues to have strange calls, visions, and dreams which blur reality. Is he developing dementia like his mother or is something more sinister going on?

I just finished the audio version of Laura Lippman’s Dream Girl read by Jason Culp. He does an excellent job and brings the characters to life. This novel has a dark humor to it that I liked. It’s a good mystery suspense story with hints of Misery by Stephen King. Told in first person by an unreliable narrator, we learn a lot about Gerry through the years from his point of view. It’s a very good read overall.

This title is available in print, large print, CD, and digital formats Axis 360 and Overdrive.

Other People’s Children

Tue, 10/12/2021 - 9:36am

UnCovered review by Jennifer Altman, Librarian, ACLS Somers Point Branch

Carli is an eighteen-year-old girl from a blue-collar town who discovers herself pregnant. She makes a heart-wrenching decision to put her baby up for adoption. She chooses a couple named Gail and Jon.

The three of them meet a few times, and Gail goes with Carli to the doctor for the ultrasounds and the check-ups. Selected adopted mother Gail has had three miscarriages and is very happy when they get to the twelve week ultrasounds with no complications.

Carli’s water breaks while she is sitting in a college class. She gets to the hospital and gives birth to a baby girl. The baby goes home with an excited and nervous Gail and Jon.

About a week goes by with one paper left to sign and Carli changes her mind. She wants the baby back. Gail and Jon, who are of course totally in love with baby Maya, are gobsmacked.

Gail and Jon, whose marriage is stronger than it has been in years, run away with the baby. Is it kidnapping? Who does the baby belong to at this point?

Find Other People’s Children in ACLS’ catalog.

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and their Last-Chance Journey Across America

Mon, 10/04/2021 - 9:18am

UnCovered review by Mandy Blasberg, ACLS Mays Landing Librarian

Ever wanted to just drop everything in your current life and head off into the West to finally see, in person, the things you’ve only heard of or read about? I believe it’s what we all want on occasion, but few have the perseverance to seriously follow through.

When a doctor purported her days were numbered, Miss Annie Wilkins was motivated to reconsider how she would spend the rest of her limited time. She had always dreamed of seeing the sparkling blue Pacific Ocean her mother used to tell her about with reverie, after a difficult & labor-filled life of Maine farming with very little money. Having never ridden long-distance on a horse, and not even owning a horse, she decides she’s going to cross the country on horseback, taking only a few belongings and her best and dearest friend - her little dog Depeche Toi. Her first mission is to choose a horse.

This is the best underdog story I’ve read, and the time period Annie Wilkins embarked on her adventurous ride was ideal for capturing intriguing events & milestones occurring all through the country. The beginning of the Civil rights movement was taking place with many changes in transport, industry, and the American landscape as a result. Entertainment with the advent of the television, technological inventions, and economic & communication transformations were all underway.

Having lived through the great Depression and World War II, Annie had heard that there was a bigger world out there than she’d ever seen. The Ride if Her Life is a tale of fierce bravery, determination, and gusto, with small doses of heartache. Annie faces failures along the way, but she’s no stranger to living through disappointments & difficulties. The triumph of always getting back up on her horse prevails, assisted by many unexpected surprises and kind strangers to help her through every adversity.

Annie meets Andrew Wyeth, other celebrities, television personalities & journalists; she rides through places that no longer exist, sees iconic landmarks and hidden wonders–it’s a truly fantastic journey. You discover highways with fascinating points of interest and learn countless bits of trivia gold.

I guarantee the facts you discover along the way will excite you! The author has meticulously researched every facet of Annie’s expedition, and we are fortunate in the opportunity to revel in the cornucopia of emotions, knowledge, discoveries, and friendships that flow out of the tale as a result.

I cannot neglect to mention that animal lovers will be thrilled and fiercely connected to Annie and her fur-covered companions, as her whole endeavor relies on her animals’ welfare to successfully complete her mission to arrive safely and finally to see the great Pacific.

The doctor had given her a short time to live, but Annie Wilkins carried on. She was filled with a hearty second wind, because there is more to what keeps us going than just our physical condition. The spirit is strengthened when it is presented with hope, faith, and belief in possibilities that haven’t yet been seen through.

Thanks to Annie Wilkins for finding the courage to brave the road yearned after but not often taken, and thanks to Elizabeth Letts for documenting the explorations when the rest of us could not be there in person. The spirit of Annie Wilkins definitely survives, and I will now always carry Annie’s spirit in my saddlebag, to be reached for when I need courage to do the things I haven’t yet been able to accomplish.

I hope you, too, will carry Annie’s spirit with you wherever life may take you.

Blind Tiger

Mon, 09/27/2021 - 9:58am

UnCovered Review by Connie Blankenbuehler, ACLS Pleasantville Branch

Ms. Brown has again provided the reading public with a pleasurable read!

Blind Tiger takes you back in time to the Prohibition Era with moonshiners, a cowboy, questionable lawmen and civic personalities and, of course, a strong female character to twist the plot together.

Laurel Plummer finds herself relocated to Foley, Texas, and living with a father-in-law who did not know of her existence upon arrival. Together they partner to survive in hard times. A returning war soldier, Thatcher Hutton, in search of his previous cowboy life, comes to town. He immediately encounters Ms. Plummer and becomes the town suspect in a murder. Corrupt lawmen and other local personalities -who are all somehow involved with the flow of moonshine- contribute to a suspenseful, entertaining read.

Curses

Mon, 09/20/2021 - 9:25am

UnCovered review by Shannon Carmen, ACLS Egg Harbor City Branch

If you love twisted fairy tales you should definitely read Curses by Lish McBride. It is twisted retelling of Beauty and the Beast and, in my opinion, much better than the original. Merit Craven became the beast because she wouldn’t fulfill her obligation of marrying a man more her mother’s age. She can only break the spell by finding true love or getting married by a man of her mom’s choosing by her 18th birthday. Merit ends up meeting Tevin (Beauty) and they form a plan to find a suitable husband to break her curse. It’s a quirky, quick read that is lighthearted and fun.

If you like twisted fairy tales like me, there will be a “Twisted Fairy Tales” display in October 2021 at the ACLS Egg Harbor City Branch.

Billy Summers

Mon, 09/13/2021 - 9:33am

UnCovered review by Stephanie Baker, ACLS IT

Stephen King announced his retirement in 2002, and then along came over 20 more novels, novellas, and collections. Among them are new classics such as Under the Dome, 11/22/63, the Bill Hodges Trilogy, the awaited Holly Gibney Series, and now Billy Summers.

All of King’s post 2002 works, including this one, exhibit an easiness and flow to his writing that he was arguably lacking in a few of his publications preceding his ‘retirement’ (in this reviewer’s humble opinion anyway). However, what makes Billy Summers different is its noticeable absence of the otherworldly. Billy is just a man who’s - with the brief exception of a scenario raising the Overlook Hotel - life experiences, past and present, have solid footing in reality. As many of King’s protagonists are, Billy Summers is an anti-hero; a gun-man for hire for which you can’t help but like and root. Throughout the novel, the King of Horror spotlights the horrors of the real world by weaving in issues of the times: Afghanistan, the #METOO movement, child trafficking, domestic abuse, and even prescient references to the looming pandemic.

Billy Summers is an assassin and an avenger with a heart and, yes, even a moral code because whether something or someone is good or bad is not always cut and dry in any of King’s novels. This is also true of other primary characters in the story; Alice a young woman wronged, who becomes Billy’s companion and champion, and Bucky, Billy’s servicer and enabler living on the edge. King even manages to redeem the mob figures who double cross Billy without justifying their way of life.

This novel presents a new Stephen King at his former best. If you are a fan or just starting his considerable library, you won’t be disappointed here. As Billy Summers reveals his own story through the writing of a sham novel-that-is-really-a-memoir, you are given a window into Stephen King’s own use of writing as catharsis. Let’s hope this is not “one last job,“ Dear Reader, because as long as Mr. King remains ‘retired’ I’m looking forward to more of his process and what is yet to come.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota

Mon, 08/30/2021 - 10:26am

UnCovered review by Filomena Scotto DiVetta, ACLS Galloway Branch

I listened to “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” by J. Ryan Stradal on the Libby app that the library provides. It was fun listening to it on my way to and from work. I was so intrigued by the story that I also listened to it around my house!

This book is about two sisters, Edith and Helen, who are raised on a farm in Minnesota. As the years go by they grow apart - each one with their own differences and struggles. Helen is more rigid than her sister Edith, who is always taking care of people in her life. Helen inherits the farm with a plan to make her dream come true of owning a successful brewery. This puts a strain between the sisters who go years without talking. Diana, Edith’s granddaughter, ends up living with her grandmother and develops the same interest for running a brewery as her great-aunt Helen.

This book will make you laugh and cry. You will enjoy getting to read or listen to the characters as they go through life. The author does an amazing job of making the characters unique and different from each other.

Borrow eBooks, eAudiobook, and eMagazines from the ACSL Overdrive digital collection for free with the Libby app. Go to www.atlanticlibrary.org/overdrive to how.

Project Hail Mary

Mon, 08/23/2021 - 9:09am

Review by Pamela Saunders, ACLS LIbrarian

Although some found Andy Weir’s “Artemis” (2017) a let-down after the pulse-pounding suspense of his best-selling debut, “The Martian” (2014), “Project Hail Mary” returns to the science-based plot of the latter combined with an amnesia-created mystery to keep the reader humming along.

Scientist and schoolteacher in space, Ryland Grace must save the rapidly-cooling earth from catastrophe as the sun dies, but awakening from a years-long coma with amnesia, he does not even know his name or identity, let alone why he is in a ship light-years from home with only two corpses for companions. As his memory slowly returns, he is aided in his quest to solve the mystery and stave off the extinction of the human species on Earth by the appearance of an otherworldly being.

Just as with the rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts using only what is on board their ship, Grace is constrained to the resources of his ship and its damaged computer, along with whatever he can dredge out of his own prodigious scientific knowledge and the assets and understanding of his mysterious ally.

The back-and-forth narrative switching from the present to Grace’s past as his memory returns provides a compelling rhythm that keeps the pages turning. Relentless tension builds as roadblocks and unanticipated events make it seem that the mission will fail after all. And even when things finally turn around, there is one final twist, which leads to an unexpected and emotionally moving end.

The first-contact aspects of the book are delightful and well-thought through, as Grace and ally “Rocky” learn to understand one another before they can further their shared task. The scientific and technical aspects are fun and challenging, but manageable, as Weir explains them in a way that allows the non-scientific reader to follow along.

For all lovers of hard sci-fi and other readers interested in a thrilling ride which just happens to be based on molecular biology in space.

The Sun Down Motel

Tue, 08/17/2021 - 9:54am

Uncovered review by Filomena Scotto DiVetta, ACLS Galloway Branch

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is a book that once you pick it up you will not want to put it down! This book was recommended by my coworker Christine, and I am so happy that she told me to read it. It is a good read from start to finish!

This book is a murder mystery with ghosts in it! It takes place between two different decades. Each chapter switches between Viv and Carly. Viv is a young woman who moves to Fell, New York, in 1982. She starts to work night shifts at a motel. During her time there, weird things happen, and she is drawn to murders that have taken place in Fell. Carly, who is Viv’s niece, moves to Fell in 2017. Just like her aunt, she starts to work at the same motel. The reason she is there is to find out what happened to her aunt Viv, who vanished from the motel in 1982.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat with its twist and turns. I could not stop reading it and did not want it to end! The author did such an amazing job writing the storyline and the characters. This is a book I will be recommending to everyone!

Death in Daylesford

Wed, 08/11/2021 - 4:07pm

UnCovered review by Pam Saunders, ACLS Mays Landing Librarian

The waiting is over! After seven years, there is a new Phryne Fisher mystery to revel in: several mysterious goings-on, some involving deaths and others not, all the interpersonal twists and turns of Phryne’s household menagerie of folk who would otherwise have slipped through society’s cracks, two critters, and her diverse friends, and the background details of life in 1920s Melbourne (Australia) and environs.

Phryne travels to Daylesford with her trusted companion Dot for a country sojourn at the invitation of a somewhat mysterious retired Captain Herbert Spencer, who runs a retreat for Victoria’s shell-shocked WWI veterans and hopes for Phryne’s monetary support. Any thoughts of relaxation soon depart, however, as a murder occurs at a local Highland Games which bears similarities to a prior and then subsequent death. And then there is the matter of a spate of disappearances – local married women who have disappeared without a trace over a period of some years.

Meantime, back home in Melbourne, Phryne’s three wards become involved in solving the mystery of the drowning death of their schoolmate, along with Dot’s fiancé police Sergeant Hugh Collins, socialist taxi-drivers Bert and Cec, and household butler and housekeeper Mr. and Mrs. Butler.

Phryne ties up all the various mysteries with her usual panache and returns home to be regaled the adventures of her brood as she observes their growing maturity and social consciences to match her own.

Fast-moving but complicated, and studded with humorous prose (a police officer’s five-o’clock shadow is described as looking “as if he had just gone three rounds with a cheese-grater and been defeated on a technical knock-out”), this latest entry in the series will delight both series fans, fans of the Australian TV shows based on the books, and newcomers alike. This is the twenty-first novel in the series, and while having read the previous titles helps in understanding the characters’ relationships, one can start here without reading those that came first – although be forewarned that Phryne can be very addictive and you may find yourself binge-reading from the beginning.

Kingdom of the Wicked

Mon, 08/02/2021 - 9:36am

UnCovered review by Elizabeth Sausto, ACLS Galloway Branch

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco is unlike anything I had ever read before. The story is set in 19th century Palermo, Sicily, where witches live secretly among ordinary humans. One of these witches- a young woman named Emilia- helps run her family’s restaurant alongside her twin sister, Vittoria. Then, one night, Emilia finds her twin brutally murdered. Driven by vengeance, Emilia goes so far as to summon a demon in order to find her sister’s killer, only to accidentally call upon Wrath, one the Wicked- princes of Hell she has only heard about in cautionary tales. Together, these unlikely allies must work together to solve not only Vittoria’s murder but a series of killings on the island.

The dynamic between the two main characters, Emilia and Wrath, is fascinating yet complicated. Though Emilia knows she shouldn’t trust a demon, let alone one of the Wicked, she can’t help but feel drawn to him, especially after he saves her life. At the same time, Emilia knows that Wrath has his own reasons for allying himself with her. This is not only because Emilia has bound Wrath to her with magic, but because the demon is trying to secure his own freedom from Hell.

Things only become more complicated when Emilia confronts other members of the Wicked, Wrath’s brothers, who each represent the seven deadly sins. They are cunning and cruel, so Emilia knows that Wrath is no different, yet he seems to treat her with a grudging sort of respect that has nothing to do with magic…

On a different note, being of Italian descent and the daughter of a former sous chef, I was very drawn to the Italian words that are used on and off in this novel and also the intoxicating descriptions of food that appear throughout the story. Since Emilia’s family runs a restaurant, Italian dishes are often brought up, and the details of the various meals were enough to make my mouth water. These depictions of Italian cuisine were a nice interlude from the darkness that permeates most of the story.

All and all, Kingdom of the Wicked was a thrilling read. I had never read a mystery before, and this novel was a brilliant first outing for me into the genre. It is the first of a series, so I am anxious to see how Emilia’s quest proceeds in the book’s sequel, which is set to be released later this year.

The Humans

Mon, 07/26/2021 - 9:38am

UnCovered review by Debbie Brahmi, ACLS Pleasantville Branch

The Humans is a science fiction book for people (like me) who HATE science fiction!

I picked it up because I thoroughly enjoyed The Midnight Library, also written by Matt Haig, and I was intrigued by the fact that The Humans was described as a “funny, compulsively readable novel” about an alien who is sent to Earth to inhabit the body of the deceased Professor Andrew Martin and destroy all evidence that Martin had solved a major mathematical problem that would advance human civilization. The aliens are superior lifeforms, and they want to preserve their dominance in the universe.

The “funny” begins when the alien sent to Earth starts to enjoy his new life as a human (he even falls in love with Martin’s wife, who has NO idea he is not her husband!), and he must then decide to either complete his mission and return to his home planet or remain on Earth and live the remainder of his life as a less than superior human. What would you do??

The Last Thing He Told Me

Mon, 07/19/2021 - 9:02am

UnCovered review by Christine Szymanski, ACLS Somers Point Branch

Hannah has been married to her beloved husband, Owen, for one year when she receives a note from him saying, “Protect her”. She realizes he is referring to his 16-year-old daughter, Bailey. But why has he smuggled this note to her? Why does he leave a note for his daughter with over $60,000 in her locker? He is missing. Is he running? Why? So begins “The Last Thing He Told Me.”

As a U.S. Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her California floating home unannounced, Hannah begins to realize her husband is not who she thought he was. But who is he, and does Bailey hold the key to his real identity? Hannah and Bailey set out to find the truth about who Owen is and why he really disappeared.

From Sausalito, California to Austin, Texas, Hannah and Bailey follow clues – remembering stories that Owen told them about a past professor, memories about a wedding, and a football stadium. All the clues lead them closer to the truth. And while discovering the past, Hannah and Bailey are building a new future - one that they never could have anticipated.

A Reese’s Book Club Selection, “The Last Thing He Told Me” is currently #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. With beautiful prose, Laura Dave has constructed a suspenseful mystery and a story about love, family, and trust. I couldn’t put this book down!

#AtlanticCounty #ACLSUnCovered #ACLSReads

Goblin

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 9:42am

An UnCovered Review by Rachel Simmons, ACLS Hammonton Branch Librarian

I loved the cover of this book. The town of Goblin, MI, is mysterious and spooky. It is a novel containing six novellas woven together. It goes full circle, starting with an ominous crate being delivered to an eccentric man, which is intriguing. This leads to the novellas, starting with “A Man in Slices:” an obsessed young man wants to impress his girlfriend who is a big admirer of Van Gough. In “Kamp,” Walter Kamp is fearful of ghosts and of being scared to death. He lives a life alone as a recluse until he is no longer alone. "Happy Birthday, Hunter!“ is about Neal Nash, Goblin’s most decorated hunter, who is after the most elusive game in Goblin, with twisted consequences. In "Presto,” a boy admires his favorite magician who, supposedly, practices real magic. This story is the most disturbing to me. In “A Mix Up at the Zoo,” the new charismatic zookeeper and his tours is loved by the animals and children as are his tours. He also works for the local slaughterhouse. A catastrophic mix-up ensues. Finally, the headline story, “The Hedges” solves the mystery of the hedge maze which is a major tourist attraction. One girl manages to get to the end of the maze, which holds a secret. The epilogue brings us back to the beginning with the mysterious crate and the carnage that follows. Goblin by Josh Malerman is available in print and on Overdrive eBooks.

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