The Christmas Sweater
by Glenn Beck
Published 2008 by Threshold Editions

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416594857

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Jacket Notes:

In this heartwarming story of redemption and atonement from the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author and popular radio and television host, a young boy is given a sweater by his mother before she dies--a final gesture that teaches him the true meaning of love.

Life After Genius
by M. Ann Jacoby
Published 2008 by Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780446199711

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Jacket Notes:

Equal parts academic thriller and poignant coming-of-age story, "Life After Genius" follows the remarkable journey of a brilliant young man who must discover that the heart may know what the head hasn't yet learned.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/04/2008

A boy genius has a rough go of it in college in Jacoby's uneven debut. While Theodore Mead Fegley's domineering mother looked over his shoulder and his father ran a funeral home and furniture store, Mead's early years were defined by bullies and comparisons to his popular, athletic cousin Percy. At 15, Mead is accepted to the prestigious Chicago University and put on the accelerated track to graduate in three years. With the help of the eccentric Dr. Alexander, Mead is determined to solve the Riemann Hypothesis, a conundrum that has plagued mathematicians for over a century. But Mead's life is soon thrown into disarray by Herman Weinstein, a cunning frenemy and fellow math student, and, as graduation-where Mead is supposed to give a much anticipated presentation-nears, Mead grows increasingly insecure. The tropes are familiar-troubled genius, overbearing mother, kooky mentor-and Jacoby, sadly, doesn't do much to tweak the formula. It's a pleasant enough diversion, but there's nothing especially exciting or original going on. (Oct.)

Songs for the Missing
by Stewart O'Nan
Published 2008 by Viking Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780670020324

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Jacket Notes:

On the heels of the critically acclaimed and bestselling "Last Night at the Lobster" comes this honest, heartfelt account of one family's attempt to find their missing child. O'Nan's novel begins with the suspense of a thriller and soon deepens into an affecting family drama of loss.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/22/2008

O'Nan proves that uncertainty can be the worst punishment of all in this unflinching look at an unraveling family. In the small town of Kingsville, Ohio, 18-year-old Kim Larsen-popular and bound for college in the fall-disappears on her way to work one afternoon. Not until the next morning do her parents, Ed and Fran, and 15-year-old sister, Lindsay, realize Kim is missing. The lead detective on the case tells the Larsens that since Kim is an adult, she could, if the police find her, ask that the police not disclose her location to her parents. When Kim's car later turns up in nearby Sandusky, Ed, desperate to help, joins the official search. Meanwhile, Fran stays home putting all her energy into community fund-raisers, and Lindsay struggles to maintain a normal life. Through shifting points of view, chiefly those of the shell-shocked parents and the moody Lindsay, O'Nan raises the suspense while conveying the sheer torture of what it's like not to know what has happened to a loved one. When-if ever-do you stop looking? 6-city author tour. (Nov.)

An Irish Country Christmas
by Patrick Taylor
Published 2008 by Forge

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765320704

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Jacket Notes:

The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "An Irish Country Doctor" presentsthis heartwarming tale of yuletide merriment.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/18/2008

Taylor's delightful holiday update to the Irish Country series returns to Ballybucklebo, where Dr. Fingal O'Reilly and junior partner Barry Laverty are still practicing their humorous brand of country medicine. As Christmas draws closer, the two men contend with a variety of comical village ailments and the usual array of Ballybucklebo characters, as well as romantic troubles. O'Reilly is trying to decide if he will allow himself to love again with the vivacious Kitty O'Halloran, and Laverty is distraught because his girlfriend can't seem to make it home for the holidays. Then a new doctor comes to town and causes a ruckus by poaching their patients and prescribing ludicrous cures. This has all the charm of Taylor's previous books and adds Christmas warmth without sacrificing credibility. (Nov.)

To Catch the Lightning: A Novel of American Dreaming
by Alan Cheuse
Published 2008 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781402214042

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The story of a forgotten America, "To Catch the Lightning" explores the intertwined plights of Edward Curtis, a real-life frontier photographer, and the American Indian.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 07/07/2008

Longtime NPR commentator Cheuse returns with his ambitious if not entirely successful ninth book, a novel based on the life of Edward Curtis, the photographer who in 1904 dedicated his life to creating a pictorial record of Native American tribes. Narrated by Curtis's assistant, William Myers, the novel also tells the story of Jimmy Fly-wing, a Plains Indian who leaves his tribe to learn the ways of the white man and aids Curtis in his quest. Curtis's passion for his project is palpable, and his dedication forces him to choose between his family and his work. Though he becomes estranged from his wife, Clara, he is rewarded by the faith and gratitude of many of the peoples he photographed and by glimpses into secret tribal traditions. Though the historical material is often compelling, the novel's focus can diffuse as Cheuse moves between the narrative strands and struggles to keep the story moving over 50 years. When not stuck in the doldrums, the narrative brims with keen insight. (Oct.)

Open Doors
by Gloria Goldreich
Published 2008 by Mira Books

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780778325437

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Jacket Notes:

Elaine Gordon is a talented ceramic artist in late middle age who is suddenly plunged into widowhood after a singularly happy marriage. She decides to visit each of her four adult children, in search of a clue as to how and where she might live the rest of her life. Original.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/04/2008

Goldreich's latest wide-ranging novel, rooted in suburban New York, skillfully delineates contemporary and conservative Jewish life, but with a less-than-compelling story. Goldreich's protagonist, ceramic artist Elaine Gordon, is neither warm nor particularly sympathetic. Putting her husband first and art second, she's effectively shut out her four children. But after her husband dies, those grown children, each of whom has a successful life outside New York City, convene and convince Elaine to visit, hoping she'll choose to live near one of them. First stop is Sandy (now Sarah) in Jerusalem, then Peter in California, both of whom have children Elaine gets to bond with. Next, she travels to Russia with Lisa, an unmarried professional who wants to adopt a child. Finally, she arrives in New Mexico where her gay son, Denis, lives with his partner; Elaine's always been uncomfortable with Denis's homosexuality, and Goldreich (Leah's Journey) doesn't let us forget it. Unfortunately, Elaine's sudden emotional turnarounds never ring true, making last-act reconciliations feel like too little too late. (Nov.)

Night Work
by Thomas Glavinic
Published 2008 by Conongate Us

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781847671844

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The routine of daily life is such that one goes to sleep with the security that tomorrow will arrive, just as it did today. Jonas, a young professional in contemporary Vienna, wakes up one morning to discover that he may be the last living being on Earth, in this fast-paced, psychological thriller.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/01/2008

What if you woke up one morning to find that all life, both human and animal, had vanished without warning? That's what happens one ordinary July day in Vienna to Jonas, the hero of this extraordinary apocalyptic novel by Austrian author Glavinic (The Camera Killer). Jonas's newspaper hasn't been delivered, his TV isn't picking up any channels, and the Internet isn't working. Outside, the normally busy streets are empty, though clocks are running. Jonas begins to explore the city, leaving notes with his cell number in the hope that someone else is out there. As the days turn into weeks, he sets up video and audio equipment to record anything that might hint at another survivor. Predictably, he increasingly loses his grasp on reality. By leaving much to the reader's imagination, Glavinic creates a more subtle if no less nightmarish mood than such similar books as The Day of the Triffids and I Am Legend. (Nov.)

The Flying Troutmans
by Miriam Toews
Published 2008 by Counterpoint LLC

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781582434391

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Jacket Notes:

As the Troutmans journey across the United States in search of their father--and experience chaos as diverse as their personalities--they discover one another to be both far crazier and far more normal than any of them had thought.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 07/21/2008

A road novel helped along by a lovably nutty cast, Toews's latest (after A Complicated Kindness) follows a ragtag crew as they crisscross America. Hattie, recently dumped in Paris by her "moody, adjective-hating boyfriend," returns home to Canada after receiving an emergency phone call from her niece. Turns out, Hattie's sister, Min, is back in the psych ward, and her kids, 11-year-old Thebes and 15-year-old Logan, are fending for themselves. Thus the quirky trio-purple-haired, wise-beyond-her-years Thebes, recently expelled brother Logan and overwhelmed Hattie-embark on a road trip to the States to find the kids' long-missing father. What follows is a Little Miss Sunshine-like quest in which the characters learn about themselves and each other as they weather car repairs, sleazy motel rooms and encounters with bizarre people. Toews's gift for writing precocious children and the story's antic momentum redeem the familiar set-up, and if the ending feels a bit rushed, it's largely because it's tough to let Toews's characters go. (Oct.)

Leaving Whiskey Bend
by Dorothy Garlock
Published 2008 by Grand Central Publishing

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780446695343

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Jacket Notes:

In 1890, Pearl, Hallie, and Mary, desperate to leave the rough Western town of Whiskey Bend, drive away in an open wagon seeking a new life and safety. Mary nearly drowns during a violent storm but is saved by a daring young rancher, who brings them back to his home to stay until Mary recovers.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/18/2008

Garlock's newest (after On Tall Pine Lake) feels old, and not just because it's set in 1890. Schoolteacher Hallie Wolcott flees Whiskey Bend, Colo., with her friends Pearl and Mary after Mary is beaten by Chester, one of the town's many brutes. Pearl, the eldest, has been through this before, and she won't rest until they find a place that feels safe. Fortunately, a powerful storm leaves them washed up at tumbledown ranch owned by Eli Morgan. Eli's cantankerous and cruel mother wants no part of the women, but she begrudgingly changes her mind when an accident lands her in bed. Meanwhile, Chester's been tracking the ladies; will he find them at the ranch, the place where each woman feels she can finally find true happiness? The answer to this and other "cliffhangers" are apparent to the reader long before the resolutions are played out on the page. The prose is lifeless, the dialogue wooden and the whole thing reads like a poorly strung-together mishmash of western romance tropes. (Nov.)

Just After Sunset: Stories
by Stephen King
Published 2008 by Scribner Book Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416584087

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Jacket Notes:

Following his two recent critically acclaimed bestsellers, "Duma Key" and "Lisey's Story," celebrated author King delivers a stunning collection of short stories, his first in six years.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/01/2008

In the introduction to his first collection of short fiction since Everything's Eventual (2002), King credits editing Best American Short Stories (2007) with reigniting his interest in the short form and inducing some of this volume's contents. Most of these 13 tales show him at the top of his game, molding the themes and set pieces of horror and suspense fiction into richly nuanced blends of fantasy and psychological realism. "The Things They Left Behind," a powerful study of survivor guilt, is one of several supernatural disaster stories that evoke the horrors of 9/11. Like the crime thrillers "The Gingerbread Girl" and "A Very Tight Place," both of which feature protagonists struggling with apparently insuperable threats to life, it is laced with moving ruminations on mortality that King attributes to his own well-publicized near-death experience. Even the smattering of genre-oriented works shows King trying out provocative new vehicles for his trademark thrills, notably "N.," a creepy character study of an obsessive-compulsive that subtly blossoms into a tale of cosmic terror in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H.P. Lovecraft. Culled almost entirely from leading mainstream periodicals, these stories are a testament to the literary merits of the well-told macabre tale. (Nov.)

Vulcan's Fire: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc.
by Harold Coyle
Published 2008 by Forge

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765313737

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Abandoned by their own government and working for a master they cannot trust, the men and women of Strategic Solutions, Inc., come up against their most dangerous enemy yet in conflict-torn Lebanon.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/01/2008

In Coyle and Tillman's second thriller to chronicle the exploits of Strategic Solutions Inc. (after Pandora's Legion), the private military contractor that usually does the jobs that the U.S. administration wants to deny finds that such deniability has put the company in the political doghouse. Given the scarcity of new contracts, SSI must reluctantly accept a training mission to Lebanon from the Israelis. SSI's job is to train Druze militias so that they can resist Hezbollah attacks. The plan is for the trainers to avoid combat, but nobody bothered to tell Hezbollah. By attacking the Druze outposts, Hezbollah draws away attention from the border, where the organization will infiltrate suicide teams with black-market former Soviet backpack-nuclear devices into Israel itself. Both authors have military backgrounds, and this shows in the realistic battle scenes. At the same time, the book presents a scenario that those with any familiarity with the region will find all too credible. (Nov.)

The Bodies Left Behind
by Jeffery Deaver
Published 2008 by Simon & Schuster

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416595618

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Jacket Notes:

An original cast of characters and ticking-bomb suspense highlight this thriller that is both a virtual cat-and-mouse chase in real-time and a harrowing look at the consequences of heartless evil.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/15/2008

Usually a strong plotter, bestseller Deaver (The Bone Collector) fails to deliver on the promise of this stand-alone thriller's nicely creepy opening. When two masked men break into the isolated lakeside weekend house of Steven Feldman, who works for the Milwaukee Department of Social Services, and his wife, Emma, an attorney who may have stumbled on union corruption in the course of some corporate research, Steven has just enough time to phone 911 before the intruders shoot him and Emma dead. That interrupted plea for help brings Deputy Brynn McKenzie, who possesses a set of predictable emotional baggage (an abusive ex-wife, a troubled teenage son), to the scene. A protracted and less than suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse between McKenzie and the hired guns responsible for the murders ensues. A few twists will catch some readers by surprise, but the pacing and characterizations aren't up to Deaver's best. (Nov.)

Cross Country
by James Patterson
Published 2008 by Little Brown and Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316018722

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Jacket Notes:

When the home of Alex Cross's oldest friend, Ellie Cox, is turned into the worst murder scene Alex has ever seen, the destruction leads him to believe that he's chasing a horrible new breed of killer. "Cross Country" is the most heart-stopping, electrifying Alex Cross thriller yet.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 10/27/2008

Bestseller Patterson's 14th Alex Cross thriller doesn't follow up on the plot threads left dangling in 2007's Double Cross concerning still-on-the-loose serial killer Kyle Craig. Instead, Cross, a Washington, D.C., police detective, takes on a very different quarry-a human monster known as the Tiger with ties to the African underworld. When the Tiger and his teenage thugs butcher writer Ellie Cox, her husband and children in their Georgetown home, Cross is devastated because Ellie had been his girlfriend in college. The Cox family massacre proves to be just the first in a series. Cross pursues the Tiger to Nigeria, where the profiler finds himself at the mercy of corrupt government officials who may be working with the Tiger. Spending less time than usual exploring his villain's psychological backstory, Patterson delivers an atypical tale of James Bond-style revenge. Craig's brief cameo toward the end suggests the series will resume its usual path in the next book. (Nov. 17)

Dating Da Vinci: A Tale of Love, Longing, and La Dolce Vita
by Malena Lott
Published 2008 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781402213939

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Jacket Notes:

"Malena Lott's charming, heartfelt novel about how grieving widow Ramona Elise gets her groove back will have you cheering bravissimo as she experiences her own Renaissance, courtesy of one very hot Leonardo da Vinci."

- Jenny Gardiner, award-winning author of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver A gorgeous young Italian, with nowhere to go . . . His name just happens to be Leonardo da Vinci. When he walks into Ramona Elise's English class, he's a twenty-five-year-old immigrant, struggling to forge a new life in America - but he's lonely, has nowhere to live, and barely speaks English . . . "She knows she shouldn't take him home . . ." Picking up the pieces of her life after the death of her beloved husband, linguist and teacher Ramona Elise can't help but be charmed by her gorgeous new student. And when he calls her "Mona Lisa" she just about loses her heart . . . "Delightfully affirming romance!" - Booklist WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MALENA LOTT:

"Sweet and funny, and very real."

"Funny and refreshing."

"I was hooked from the first page."

"I couldn't put it down. It was amazing!"

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/08/2008

Linguist Ramona Elise Griffen, an Austin, Tex., widow in her mid-30s, is renting the studio out back (her late husband's) to a robust, 25-year-old Italian immigrant student named Leonardo da Vinci. Ramona, hoping to shake her grief and find a way back to "Normal" ("The world is divided into two types of people: Grievers and Normals"), begins by dating da Vinci. In the two years since her husband's unexpected death, Ramona has cared for their two preadolescent boys and taken comfort in junk food, but when da Vinci enters the picture, she finds herself reinvigorated. Soon, she's also unwittingly caught the eye of the debonair local doctor who's dating Ramona's pretentious younger sister. Lott cleverly includes passages from Ramona's doctoral thesis on the language of love and never falters in her depiction of Ramona's overwhelming grief, tackling honestly her guilt over newfound happiness. Pure romance escapism written smartly, this latest from Lott (The Stork Reality) is satisfying and uplifting. (Nov.)

The Dracula Dossier
by James Reese
Published 2008 by William Morrow & Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780061233548

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Jacket Notes:

The "New York Times"-bestselling author returns with an intricately layered, richly detailed novel of literary suspense that imagines a dramatic clash between Jack the Ripper and the author of "Dracula."

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/18/2008

In Reese's scrupulously imagined thriller, told largely through entries from a lost journal kept by the author of Dracula in 1888, Bram Stoker attends an indoctrination ceremony of the Order of the Golden Dawn, at the behest of Oscar Wilde's mum and a young William Butler Yeats. The ceremony goes horribly awry, resulting in one participant-Francis Tumblety, a patent medicine salesman newly arrived from America-becoming a vessel for the evil Egyptian god Set and applying his surgical skills to the slaughter of Whitechapel prostitutes in order to draw Stoker out for a supernatural showdown. Bestseller Reese (The Witchery) so perfectly pastiches the journal format that initially his story reads as dry and boringly as most private diaries. With Tumblety's malignant conversion, though, the novel turns into a rip-roaring penny dreadful that compels reading to the end. Dracula fans will appreciate the nods to well-known works that Stoker wrote supposedly following this confrontation. (Oct.)

Sashenka
by Simon Montefiore
Published 2008 by Simon & Schuster

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416595540

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Jacket Notes:

From the bestselling author of "Young Stalin" comes a sweeping novel of Russia in the early 20th century--a captivating tale of love, politics, family, and survival.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/15/2008

Lauded historian Montefiore (Young Stalin) ventures successfully into fiction with the epic story of Sashenka Zeitlin, a privileged Russian Jew caught up in the romance of the Russian revolution and then destroyed by the Stalinist secret police. The novel's first section, set in 1916, describes how, under the tutelage of her Bolshevik uncle, Sashenka becomes a naïve, idealistic revolutionary charmed by her role as a courier for the underground and rejecting her own bourgeois background. Skip forward to 1939, when Sashenka and her party apparatchik husband are at the zenith of success until Sashenka's affair with a disgraced writer leads to arrests and accusations; in vivid scenes of psychological and physical torture, Sashenka is forced to choose between her family, her lover and her cause. But as this section ends, many questions remain, and it is up to historian Katinka Vinsky in 1994 to find the answers to what really happened to Sashenka and her family. Montefiore's prose is unexciting, but the tale is thick and complex, and the characters' lives take on a palpable urgency against a wonderfully realized backdrop. Readers with an interest in Russian history will particularly delight in Sashenka's story. (Nov.)

The Firemaster's Mistress
by Christie Dickason
Published 2008 by Harper Paperbacks

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780061568268

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Jacket Notes:

England in the early reign of James I: an unsteady nation adapts to its new king; Shakespeare labors over the tragedies of "Othello" and "Macbeth"; bearbaiting is a popular diversion . . . and Guy Fawkes, with a small group of desperate men, hatches a terrifying plot to assassinate the king and all of Parliament by explosion. Francis Quoynt is a firemaster who would rather make fireworks than war. Kate Peach is a poor glovemaker and a mistress to the powerful Hugh Taylor, who is forced to hide her Catholicism as she spends her days looking out on noisy, teeming London streets crowded with prostitutes and drunks. Once Francis and Kate were lovers before the firemaster abandoned her and the plague destroyed her family. Now they will meet again--as enemies--caught up in the maelstrom of treachery and violence surrounding Fawkes's malevolent plot. In the midst of chaos and madness, the flame of their romance will be dangerously rekindled, as their lives and the London they know are changed forever.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/11/2008

Set during the turbulent British 1600s, author Dickason vividly captures James I's reign and Guy Fawkes's plot to blow up London's Parliament in a novel of romance and intrigue. After the discovery of a young fisherman's body, whose death somehow ties in to a plot against the king, young explosives expert Francis Quoynt accepts a dangerous mission from the Earl of Salisbury: he must turn traitor to England in order to infiltrate the band of men plotting the king's assassination. Also in London is Francis's former lover Kate Peach, whose family was killed by the plague and whose Catholicism endangers her life. Taking up her father's glove-making trade, albeit illegally, Kate hopes to save up enough money to flee London and her cruel "protector and some-time lover," Hugh Traylor. When she and Francis reunite, passion sparks but mistrust runs high. Though the leads are strong, especially the believably conflicted Kate, Dickason keeps adding new players throughout, some real and some fictional (a helpful character list makes the distinction); keeping track of their relationships is a challenge, complicated by a narrative that bounces among the principals. That said, Dickason's tale is fascinating, offering an unexpected level of complexity and a shocker of an ending. (Oct.)

The Drowned Life
by Jeffrey Ford
Published 2008 by Harper Perennial

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780061435065

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Jacket Notes:

In this new collection of short fiction, the critically acclaimed author of "The Girl in the Glass" offers 16 stories that are startlingly original, lyrical, and disturbing.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/30/2008

Following close upon the release of The Shadow Year, Edgar-winner Ford's third collection leads readers down dark and subtle passageways onto some very strange turf. In the title story, people drown and end up in a submerged city whose inhabitants are scornful of anyone wanting to return to the surface; a man named Hatch is compelled to escape Drowned Town in order to uphold a promise to his son. Similar metaphors of submersion are applied to drastically different effect in "The Manticore Spell," "The Dismantled Invention of Fate" and "In the House of Four Seasons." In "Night Whiskey," the book's strangest tale, two men must roust slumbering drunks from trees after an annual festival; in addition to sending celebrants literally up a tree, the special once-a-year bash also features visitations with dead relatives, and what begins as near-slapstick ends with disturbing revelations and a loss of innocence. Throughout these 16 stories, Ford covers much stylistic terrain, weaving between science fiction, realistic stories with fantastic elements and even some nearly straight-up (and successful) comedy. Readers of all stripes should be able to find something here to love. (Nov.)

The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice
by Laurel Corona
Published 2008 by Hyperion

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781401309268

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Jacket Notes:

In glittering 18th-century Venice, music and love are prized above all else--and for two sisters coming of age, the city's passions blend in intoxicating ways.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 09/15/2008

The music students who inspired Vivaldi and the city where they performed the great composer's works come to life in Corona's adult fiction debut. In 1695, three-year-old Maddalena and her infant sister, Chiaretta, are abandoned on the doorstep of Venice's Pietà foundling hospital. Groomed for the Pietà's renowned music academy, Chiaretta, with her pretty blonde looks and beautiful voice, earns a place as celebrated soloist and marriage to an aristocrat. Dark, quiet Maddalena remains in the shadows until she takes up the violin, and a controversial musician and cleric, Antonio Vivaldi, becomes her teacher. Vivaldi represses his romantic feeling for Maddalena and instead writes concert pieces into which they can both put their hearts. According to Corona, women like the orphaned sisters inspired the fervor and brilliance of Vivaldi's music. Fans of Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring will welcome another novel about how a masterpiece is created. Corona shines when showing musicians at work, especially through secondary characters both real (opera star Anna Giro) and imagined (violin teacher Silvia the Rat). (Nov.)

Lydia Bennet's Story: The Continuing Adventures of Mrs. Darcy's Youngest Sister: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Odiwe
Published 2008 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781402214752

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Jacket Notes:

Lydia Bennet is the flirtatious, wild and free-wheeling youngest daughter. Her untamed expressiveness and vulnerability make her fascinating to readers who'll love this imaginative rendering of Lydia's life after her marriage to the villainous George Wickham. Will she mature or turn bitter? Can a girl like her really find true love?

In Lydia Bennet's Story we are taken back to Jane Austen's most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice, to a Regency world seen through Lydia's eyes where pleasure and marriage are the only pursuits. But the road to matrimony is fraught with difficulties and even when she is convinced that she has met the man of her dreams, complications arise. When Lydia is reunited with the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys for a grand ball at Netherfield Park, the shocking truth about her husband may just cause the greatest scandal of all ...

"A breathtaking Regency romp!"

-Diana Birchall, author of Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/11/2008

In this pleasant addition to the growing microgenre of Austen knockoffs, Odiwe pays nice homage to Austen's stylings and endears the reader to the formerly secondary character, spoiled and impulsive Lydia Bennet. Odiwe begins partway through the original tale, with Lydia heading to Brighton. Shifting between a third-person narrative and Lydia's first-person journal entries, Odiwe grants readers unfettered access to Lydia as she flirts with her many beaus and falls hard for George Wickham, with whom she elopes. After the pair is married and settled in Newcastle, Lydia has a hard time keeping her jealousy in check as George, a notorious flirt, does not change his ways. Her marital discontent leads to frequent visits to her sisters, and it's during one of these visits that a massive scandal befalls the Wickham household. In a pleasantly foreshadowed if too abrupt conclusion, a slightly matured Lydia finds true happiness in the most unlikely of places. It won't convert anybody who doesn't already worship at the church of Jane, but devotees will enjoy. (Oct.)