Happy Halloween from The Very Busy Spider : A Lift-the-Flap Book Eric Carle, Eric Carle (Illustrated by)

This is a fun book.  There's text giving you clues.  Can you guess what's behind the flap?

Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published on August 11th.

As you travel through the book you meet his characters that were featured in other books.  There's the very busy spider and even the hungry caterpillar.

If your children haven't met them yet, why not buy those books, too?

This book isn't scary so even the young ones can enjoy it.

This would make an excellent Halloween gift!

Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek by Walter Koenig

Can you believe Chekov is eighty-three?

Jacob Brown Press sent me a copy of this book for review (thank you).  It has been published so you can get a copy now.

This starts with Walter Koenig's childhood and then covers his acting career and his scriptwriting.  I remember him from Star Trek but he was in so many more plays, shows and other performances.  You would have thought his was a charmed life, but he had his share of disappointments.

It amazes me that many of the people he worked with weren't really friends.  Somehow I expected most of them would get along well...

This book shows his personal thoughts, his resentments, the accomplishments he had and those he was rejected for.

He has a wonderful family.  Got to visit his homeland years later and found much changed.  I think he really wouldn't have changed much in his life.  Good luck, bad luck, he is still a success.

Read this and learn about the man in that Star Trek uniform!

Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin

Oak Bluffs is a black community full of rich people.  Ama and Omar moved there and had a beautiful house.  Ama made a choice not to have children so she became a godmother to three little girls who grew into beautiful young women.

William Morrow sent me an ARE to read for review (thank you).  It will be published June 16th.

As the girls go out into the real world, they learn some of the rough knocks in life.  Not all men are true.  Jobs can separate lovers as they follow their careers.  Grief and pain take their tolls.  But Ama and the home on the bluffs are always there.

It's when Ama begins sharing secrets from the past that things start getting sticky.  They got angry at Ama and angry at Omar (who had passed by this time).  They left to deal with the pain and adjust to what they are told.  All three had secrets from the past and they weren't happy to hear them.

The last time they all got together on the bluff was the last.  The house was given to one daughter, but the others got good inheritances, too.

Even Ama gets a fairytale ending.

The Finisher by Peter Lovesey: Series: PETER DIAMOND MYSTERY, A (#19)

Peter is astonished to see someone he put in prison out running a marathon.  The cop with him points out he's probably served his time but Peter knows he's a bad one.  Then a woman doesn't finish the race and it was the one the convict was pestering.  They begin searching for her or for her body.  The convict likes one night stands.

Soho Crime and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be piblished August 4th.

They can't locate her and they find there are entrances to tunnels under the commons which would be a good place to hide a body.  While Peter is looking into the tunnels, he hurts his leg and has to use a cane.  (Don't slip and fall; damage will come...)  He thinks he sees a body and he can tell it was a runner.  He thinks it's her but they have to leave.  Others think he was seeing things.  But they locate another entrance and bring up a body but it's not the girl.  It's the convict!

The girl is safe, she had stayed a few nights at a hotel before coming home.  She had nothing to do with his death.

As Peter changes his focus, he's coming under fire by his boss at using so many officers in the search.  He can't say much back since he started out in the wrong direction.  His girlfriend is sympathetic.

With human traffickers and a stone cold killer. the search is a challenge. The search is long and the killer was a surprise.  It was actually an accident but it will depend on the judge...

Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe

Eva is desperate to prove her magic and become a witch.  If she fails, they will remove all her magic...

Little Brown Books For Young Readers and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published on August 4th.

With her mother fighting for her, she gets a ticket on the boat and must go help a town.  She boards the boat, but after a while of sitting and helping out a man on the boat heal his hand, she falls asleep.  She wakes up at the last stop.  She goes out to find the Mayor and check in.  The Mayor is not happy with her.  She wanted an older, more experienced witch.  But she has to take what she gets.

She thinks she'll have a shop where she can help those who need it.  It's just a lump of empty ground.  Her friend gets her some cargo boxes she can use to set up her wares.  But no one comes.

She goes across the street to buy some sweet goodies.  She finds twin sisters fighting and tries to make them better but the shop reshapes, two stores become one and the two dessert goods mix.  They are horrified but folks pour in and buy their goods.

She knows a storm is coming so she sneaks out and magics the buildings to keep them standing.  But there are so many.

Then she comes up with another idea.  Will she save the town and become a witch, or will she fail and lose her magic?

The Forest of Stars by Heather Kassner

Her mother is dying.  If that's not sad enough, her father disappeared a long time ago.  Then, on her deathbed, her mother tells her the wind grabbed him and he flew away.  Louisa knows she floats above the ground, so she must be like her father.  When her mother passes, she decides to go find him.

Henry Holt and Company Books for young readers and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 4th.

As she heads out on her own, she finds a carnival.  She flies over the fence and goes in looking for her father.  A boy has seen her and he's trying to catch her.  He eventually does and she suddenly finds herself with friends she never had before.

One of the women there offers her a place to stay as long as she helps with seamstress duties.  Every thing seems to be going well.  She can fly but can't land.  The boy helps her with that.  Then everything starts going wrong.  Someone is stealing magic...

Who can it be?  Then one of the friends disappears and they go to look for her.  They find where the magic stealer stashes her victims.  As they try to free Merry, Louisa uses her scissors.  That alerts the stealer.

There's a battle that either side could win.  The ending is dramatic.  This was a good read.

Mr Campion's Seance by Mike Ripley

Albert is related to an author by virtue of both being godchildren to the same lady.  He doesn't know a lot about her but the Superintendent wants him to talk to her and find out why the latest book she wrote is the sane as a crime committed.  He doesn't think it was an accident...

Severn House and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 4th.

Campion is concerned.  If she didn't mastermind the murder and robbery, how could her book repeat the actions of the thief so accurately?  Then her next book has the same thing happen.

As he questions people, pestering the publishing house and the author, he still doesn't see how it happened.  Then a  woman he met at the first murder and robbery set up a meeting with him but didn't show.  Come to find out, she's dead outside...

Then the publisher gets killed in her office.  Suddenly he has a clue.  His godsibling is letting her stories out of the bag with a woman she trusts.  She shouldn't.  And he tells her why..

Mr. Campion stories don't move very fast but he gets his man.  In this book he's married and they are very much in love.  She even helps him with his investigation.