How to Solve Your Own Murder

“Well-written with enough twists and turns to keep a reader turning the pages, Perrin weaves a taut and unusual tale.”

Frances Adams is a teenager in 1965 when she and two friends are visiting an English country fair on a lovely day. But the day suddenly turns dark when Madame Peony Lane, a fortune teller in a turban who sits behind a gaudy beaded curtain, makes a dire prediction, one that will haunt Frances her entire life.

“Your future contains dry bones,” Peony forecasts in a kitschy Hollywood way. “Your slow demise begins right when you hold the queen in the palm of one hand. Beware the bird for it will betray you. And from that, there’s no coming back. But daughters are the key to justice, find the right one and keep her close. All signs point toward your murder.”

Her two friends Emily and Rose don’t take it seriously, seeing it as so flimsy and fake so they tease her about it. But Frances is uneasy and becomes moreso with each word that Peony Lane utters.

After leaving the fortune teller’s tent, Frances gasps when Emily ties her hair up a ribbon and then fastens a bird necklace around her neck.

“A bird,” Frances says, her eyes narrowing. “The fortune teller said the bird will betray you.”

Emily dashes away and returns with two more silver bird necklaces, one for Rose and one for Frances.

“That way you’ll never know which bird betrayed you. You could even betray yourself,” she tells her friends with a laugh.

But life takes a strange turn. Within a year, they aren’t friends any longer and one of them has disappeared. In the open file kept by the police is a small plastic bag containing a silver chain with a tiny bird clinging to it.

The missing woman isn’t Frances, who embarks upon a strange and lifelong task of trying to solve a murder that hasn’t been committed yet. Sixty years later from when she first receives the warning, Frances is found murdered.

When Annie Adams arrives at her Great Aunt Frances’ estate in the country village of Castle Knoll she becomes determined to find her great aunt’s killer, a task that includes delving into voluminous amount of files and uncovering secrets in her search to find out what happened.

But there is a problem. It won’t be easy to solve the murder, even in as small a village as Castle Knoll. Frances so studiously peered into so many people’s lives in an attempt to discover her killer that almost everyone in the village has a reason for wanting her dead.

“I think of Great Aunt Frances’s murder board, all its crisscrosses of colored string and the different photos there. She suspected the whole town of having a reason to kill her, and seemed completely oblivious to the fact that her suspicious and  incessant digging probably gave them those reasons to begin with,” writes Annie who  tells the present-day story, which is interspersed with The Castle Knoll  Files that Frances started writing shortly after her encounter with the fortune teller.

And now as Annie tries to unravel the mystery, she gives all those potential murderers a reason to commit another one.

How to Solve Your Own Murder (Dutton 2024) is the first adult novel of Kristen Perrin who is originally from Seattle and worked as a bookseller before moving to England where she earned her master’s degree and PhD. How to Solve You Own Murder has garnered great buzz being chosen as A Jimmy Fallon’s Book Club Finalist for 2024, A GMA Buzz Pick!, One of Amazon’s Top 10 Best Books of April, The Top LibraryReads pick for March 2024, and A Publishers Marketplace 2024 BuzzBook.

Well-written with enough twists and turns to keep a reader turning the pages, Perrin weaves a taut and unusual tale.

This book was originally reviewed in the New York Journal of Books.

TOO GOOD A GIRL: REMEMBERING OLENE EMBERTON AND THE MYSTERY OF HER DEATH

Olene Emberton, a 17-year-old Tipton, Indiana, high school senior, was last seen alive at 11:30 p.m., Saturday, October 16, 1965, when she dropped off a friend after a movie and drove away, headed for home. It was a journey of a mere six-blocks. But Olene never made it home.

50 years later, the mystery that shocked the small Indiana community where she lived has never been solved. But author Janis Thornton, a former high school classmate of Olene was determined that Olene’s story would never be forgotten. Now more than-a-half century later, Thornton has written “Too Good a Girl: Remembering Olene Emberton and the Mystery of Her Death,” part memoir, part true crime, and part oral history. The book examines Olene’s life, her unexplained death, and how she affected the Tipton community and all who knew her.

“I wrote the book because I didn’t want her to be forgotten,” says Thornton.

Early Sunday morning, after Olene’s parents realized she hadn’t come home all night, they found her car parked two doors north of the four-way stop at Green and North streets, just three blocks from their house. None of the neighbors had seen her leave the car, and there was no sign of a struggle.

The Embertons immediately called the police and reported their daughter missing. The next afternoon, a farmer discovered her lifeless, nude body discarded along a remote country road ten miles northeast of town. Her clothes were neatly folded and stacked beside her head. Her glasses lay in the weeds next to her feet.

An autopsy was performed that evening, but no cause of death was determined. Thus, with no clues, no leads, no witnesses, no motive, and no confession, how Olene died and who dumped her body in the tall grass next to a cornfield was never determined. Law enforcement officials had no place to go, and heartbreakingly her family was denied the answers and the closure they needed and deserved.

Throughout the nearly 58 intervening years, numerous Tipton County people have claimed they knew the answers. But only one individual truly knew, and that person still isn’t telling.

Hopefully one day that will change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Based in her hometown of Tipton, Indiana, Janis Thornton writes about history, mystery, and true crime.

Her latest book, The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana, takes a look back at Indiana’s worst weather disaster and includes more than 100 horrific, heartbreaking stories about the tornadoes, told by the people who experienced them.

Her previous release, No Place Like Murder, is a collection of 20 true crime stories that rocked Indiana between 1869 and 1950.

Her most recent novel, Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes, is a suspenseful, paranormal romantic mystery about possibilities for second chances, righting old wrongs, and finding love that lasts forever. 

Her mysteries include: “Dead Air and Double Dare” and “Dust Bunnies and Dead Bodies”, both in the “Elmwood Confidential” series; and “Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes,” a suspenseful, paranormal romantic mystery.

Her history books are: “The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana,” which takes a look back at Indiana’s worst weather disaster, and pictorial-history books about the communities of Elwood, Frankfort and Tipton, all in Indiana.

Janis also is the author of three Central Indiana history books — Images of America: Tipton County, Images of America: Frankfort, and Images of America: Elwood — and she is a contributor to Undeniably Indiana, a bicentennial project from Indiana University Press.

She is a member of the national mystery writer’s organization, Sisters in Crime, its Indianapolis chapter, Speed City Sisters in Crime, The Author’s Guild, Women Fiction Writers Association, the Indiana Writers Center, and the Tipton County Historical Society.

Follow Janis at
www.janis-thornton.com
facebook.com/janisthorntonauthor
@JanisThornton

Corner Office: Poetry by Susan Hahn

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is is hosting award-winning author, playwright, and poet Susan Hahn to the store on Thursday, May 16 at 6:30 pm to discuss her new book of poetry, Corner Office. Multi-talented Hahn returns to poetry after two novels with a book-length poem in three voices, Man, Woman, and Earth, that reflects her experience as a playwright. Ms. Hahn will be happy to sign her work! This event is free with registration, to register, please visit book store’s website or CLICK HERE. 

Edward Hirsch says, “There are three recurring speakers in Susan Hahn’s quirky, wistful fantasia, a book-length meditation on lost power, the story of man and woman, the earth as it once was, how it might have been, what we’ve done to it. Corner Office is a dramatic poem that manages to be both contemporary and archetypal.”

In praise for her earlier works, David Kirby from the Chicago Tribune says, “Reviewers of Hahn’s earlier books have linked her work to that of the confessional poets of the ‘50s and ‘60s, with the lurid, tell-all poems of Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, John Berryman and Plath.  The resemblance is there, but Hahn can’t be written off as a mere neo-confessional, because her poetry is much more deeply rooted in the American mindset than that.  For the Gothic viewpoint accounts for everything the founding fathers overlooked: terror, perversity, strangeness, a sense of not knowing where one is or how one got there.  It is a way of viewing the world that continues to affect American writing and that appears in works by such recent authors as William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Ralph Ellison, Truman Capote and Joyce Carol Oates. And now we can add Susan Hahn’s name to that list.”

Susan Hahn is the author of ten books of poetry, two produced plays, and two novels. Among her awards for writing are a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry, Pushcart prizes, The Society of Midland Authors Award in Poetry, and numerous Illinois Arts Council Fellowships and Literary Awards. She was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Hemingway Foundation, the editor of Triquarterly literary magazine for fourteen years, and the co-founder of Triquarterly Books. Learn more at www.susanhahnauthor.com.

Introducing the James Beard 2024 Book Award Nominees


Baking and Desserts:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on the art and craft of baking, pastries, and desserts, both sweet and savory items, including ingredients, techniques, equipment, and traditions.

This year, submissions to the Bread category were included for consideration within the Baking and Desserts category.


Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival Baking from Belgium, the Heart of the Low Countries

Regula Ysewijn
(Weldon Owen)

Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed

Abi Balingit
(HarperCollins)

More Than Cake: 100 Baking Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community

Natasha Pickowicz
(Artisan Books)

Beverage with Recipes:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on beverages, such as
cocktails, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, or juices.

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks

Toni Tipton-Martin
(Clarkson Potter)

The Maison Premiere Almanac: Cocktails, Oysters, Absinthe, and Other Essential Nutrients for the Sensualist, Aesthete, and Flaneur

Joshua Boissy, Jordan Mackay, and Krystof Zizka
(Clarkson Potter)

Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More

Danny Childs
(Hardie Grant North America)

Beverage without Recipes:

This award recognizes books without recipes that focus on beverages, such
as cocktails, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, or juices; or books that cover these subject areas where recipes are not the focus of cooking, not just a single topic, technique, or region.

Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals

Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera
(W. W. Norton & Company)
The New French Wine

Jon Bonné
(Ten Speed Press)

Vines in a Cold Climate: The People Behind the English Wine Revolution

Henry Jeffreys
(Atlantic)
Food Issues and Advocacy:

This award recognizes books that focus on investigative journalism, food
policy, food advocacy, deep dives, and critical analysis of the changing social landscape around food.

At the Table: The Chef’s Guide to Advocacy

Katherine Miller
(Island Press)

Avocado Anxiety: and Other Stories About Where Your Food Comes From

Louise Gray
(Bloomsbury Wildlife)

Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis: Essays and Recipes

Philip Gleissner and Harry Eli Kashdan
(Rutgers University Press)

General:

This award recognizes books with recipes that address a broad scope of cooking, not just a single topic, technique, or region.

A Cook’s Book

Nigel Slater
(Ten Speed)

The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z

Tamar Adler
(Scribner)

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook

Sohla El-Waylly
(Alfred A. Knopf)

International:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on food or cooking traditions of countries, regions, or communities outside of the United States.

Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation

Clarissa Wei with Ivy Chen
(Simon & Schuster/Simon Element)

My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora

Yewande Komolafe
(Ten Speed Press)

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook

José Andrés and Sam Chapple-Sokol
(Clarkson Potter)

Literary Writing:

This award recognizes narrative nonfiction books, including memoirs, culinary travel, culinary tourism, biography, reflections on food in a cultural context, and personal essays.

Food Stories: Writing That Stirs the Pot

The Bitter Southerner

(The Bitter Southerner)

For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes

Klancy Miller
(HarperCollins)

The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García

Laura Tillman
(W. W. Norton & Company)

Reference, History, and Scholarship:

This award recognizes manuals, guides, encyclopedias, or books
that present research related to food or foodways.

The Ark of Taste: Delicious and Distinctive Foods That Define the United States

David S. Shields and Giselle K. Lord
(Hachette Book Group)

Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

Bobby J. Smith II
(University of North Carolina Press)

White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation

Naa Oyo A. Kwate
(University of Minnesota Press)

Restaurant and Professional:

This award recognizes books written by a culinary professional or
restaurant chef with recipes that may include advanced cooking techniques, the use of specialty ingredients and professional equipment, including culinary arts textbooks.

Ester: Australian Cooking

Mat Lindsay with Pat Nourse
(Murdoch Books)

Fish Butchery: Mastering The Catch, Cut, and Craft

Josh Niland
Hardie Grant Books)

Rintaro: Japanese Food from an Izakaya in California

Jessica Battilana and Sylvan Mishima Brackett
(Hardie Grant North America)

Single Subject:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on a single ingredient, dish, or method of cooking. Examples include seafood, grains, pasta, burgers, or canning. Exceptions are baking and desserts books, vegetable-focused books, restaurant and professional books, and beverage books—
which would be entered in their respective categories.

The Hog Island Book of Fish and Seafood: Culinary Treasures from Our Waters

John Ash
(Cameron Books)

Pasta Every Day: Make It, Shape It, Sauce It, Eat It

Meryl Feinstein
(Hachette Book Group

Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life

Homa Dashtaki
(W. W. Norton & Company)

U.S. Foodways:

This award recognizes books with recipes focused on the cooking or foodways of regions or communities located within the United States.

Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque

Ed Mitchell, Ryan Mitchell, and Zella Palmer
(Ecco)

Love Japan: Recipes from Our Japanese American Kitchen


Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi with Gabriella Gershenson
(Ten Speed Press)

Made Here Recipes & Reflections From NYC’s Asian Communities

Send Chinatown Love
(Self-Published)

Vegetable-Focused Cooking:

This award recognizes books on vegetable cookery with recipes that are meatless, vegetarian, or vegan.

Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea

Andrea Nguyen
(Ten Speed Press)
Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook

Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Phaidon Press)

Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds

Hetty Lui McKinnon
(Alfred A. Knopf)

Visuals:

This award recognizes books on food or beverage with exceptional graphic design, art, or photography.

The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp

Yudi Echevarria
(Ten Speed Press)
For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food: Interviews, Inspiration, and Recipes

Kelly Marshall and Sarah Madden
(HarperCollins)
Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South

Kate Medley with Dave Whitling
(BS Publishing)

Cookbook Hall of Fame:

This award is given to either a cookbook that has significantly influenced the way we think about food, honoring authors who possess an exceptional ability to communicate their gastronomic vision via the printed page, or an author whose cookbooks and other culinary books and work, taken together, make a difference in the world of food and cooking.

The Book Awards Subcommittee selects the winner for this category. The Cookbook Hall of Fame winner will be announced at the Media Awards ceremony on June 8.

No Place Like Murder: 20 Historic True Crimes in the Hoosier State

               “True crime aficionados are fascinated by the havoc their fellow humans are capable of wreaking,” says author Janis Thornton who takes us beyond high profile crime into lesser known but equally fascinating tales. “For them, learning details of the victims’ worst nightmares is not only tantalizing; in a perverse way, it’s almost comforting because it happened to someone else. In a sense, true crime offers readers a “there but for the grace of God” revelation that allows them to vicariously experience unimaginable horrors behind a safety buffer of time and space.”

               Using these buffers, “No Place Like Murder” Thornton examines the underbelly of Hoosier history through the retelling of twenty sensational murders that ripped apart numerous small, Indiana communities between 1950 and 1869. But because volumes have been written chronicling the likes of high-profile Hoosier serial killers Belle Gunness (includig “America’s Femme Fatale” by Jane Simon Ammeson) and H.H. Holmes, Thornton’s tales focus on 20 lesser known, but no less merciless, homegrown killers.

               “No Place Like Murder” paints portraits of murderous women like Frankie Miller, who shot and killed her fiancé after he stood her up for another woman. Readers also will meet the plucky Isabelle Messmer, who ran away from her quiet farm-town life, and after nearly taking down two tough Pittsburgh policemen, she was dubbed “Gun Girl,” earning headlines across the country. And one of the more sensational crimes highlighted in the book is the shotgun slaughter of five members of the Agrue family on their Southern Indiana farm at the hand of Virginious “Dink” Carter, husband of one of the Agrue daughters.

                   According to the Publishers Weekly review of “No Place Like Murder,” true crime fans will be well satisfied. •

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

               Janis Thornton is Tipton, Indiana’s home-grown author of true crime, mystery and history.

               Her true crime books include: and “Too Good a Girl,” the story of Thornton’s high school classmate, Olene Emberton, whose tragic, unsolved death in 1965 shocked their community. Now, more than 50 years later, Janis wrote Olene’s story to ensure it is never forgotten.

               Her mysteries include: “Dead Air and Double Dare” and “Dust Bunnies and Dead Bodies”, both in the “Elmwood Confidential” series; and “Love, Lies, and Azure Eyes,” a suspenseful, paranormal romantic mystery.

               Her history books are: “The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana,” which takes a look back at Indiana’s worst weather disaster, and pictorial-history books about the communities of Elwood, Frankfort and Tipton, all in Indiana.

Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with Romance and Brews

On Saturday, April 27 at 3:30 pm, join the folks at The Book Stall for an afternoon of Romance and Brews to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day! Author Stephanie Jayne joins us at The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) with three fellow Romance authors for a meet & greet with some frosty refreshments! Stop by for a brew and say hello to romance author Kelly Farmer, romance and mystery author Sharon Michalove, and historical romance and mystery author Felix Alexander. Copies of their titles will be available to be signed! Ms. Jayne will be signing her new book, I’ve Got My Mind Set on Brew. A down-on-her-luck craft beer brewer and her privileged new boss clash as they work together to save a quirky brewpub in this enemies-to-lovers workplace rom-com. 

More About the Book: Kat Malone is left cash-strapped after a job loss and a bad breakup when she discovers a surprising new career path: craft beer brewer. When the brewpub is sold, the new owner places his light-on-experience son in charge of the pub. Ryan is as basic as a pale lager and aims to turn quirky Resistance into a run-of-the-mill sports bar. Despite clashes between Kat and Ryan, he confides that Resistance is in financial trouble and that drastic changes will be needed if the pub has any hope of survival. Forced to collaborate, Kat realizes Ryan isn’t as bland as she assumed—he might even be exactly what she’s been craving.

More About the Authors: Stephanie Jayne loves to write relatable characters striving to make their mark on the world as they fall in love in the process. When not crafting quirky love stories, she’s often found playing video games or fangirling over romance books with a book club. She lives in the greater Chicago area with her multi-talented creative husband and two persistent cats.

Kelly Farmer, author of It’s a Fabulous Life, has been writing romance novels since junior high. The stories have changed, but one theme remains the same: everyone deserves to have a happy ending. She loves telling tales with a touch of snark and a lot of heart. Kelly lives in the Chicago area, where she swears every winter is her last one here.

Felix Alexander is a Mexican-born, American-raised novelist and poet of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. Being third-generation military, after a grandfather and three uncles who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, respectively, Alexander is proud of his service in the U.S. Army and grateful for his experience. He lives in the Chicagoland area and volunteers to promote literacy among youth. His books include the Aiden Leonardo mystery series and the Labyrinth of Love Letters historical romance series. 

Sharon Michalove writes romance, suspense, and traditional mystery, as well as being a published historian. After growing up in suburban Chicago, she spent most of her life in a medium-sized university town, working as an academic professional. Sharon moved back to Chicago in 2017 and started writing fiction, publishing her first book in 2021. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Chicago-North Romance Writers. Currently, she is president of the Sisters in Crime Chicagoland Chapter and an at-large board member of MWA Midwest. Her Global Security Unlimited series is a finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Award for Genre Series.

Independent Book Store Day is a national effort to recognize the importance of independent bookstores. This national one-day party held on the last Saturday in April celebrates independent bookstores across the country online and in-store. It’s a party you don’t want to miss!

Young Rich Widows: Big Hair, Big Egos, and Big Trouble

“It sounds like the opening of a joke: Four lawyers die in a plane crash.

“But no one is laughing inside the brand-new 1985 Cessna careening toward the dark icy Atlantic waters. One engine is already on fire and the other about to blow.

“On the manifest: three men, one woman, and a screaming pilot.

“’MAYDAY MAYDAY’

“All four partners. The only partners. The foundation of the firm. This group has never traveled together before. It’s like the virgin who gets knocked up on her wedding night: It was just one time. But once is enough to end it all.”

Four award-winning mystery writers, Vanessa Lillie, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, Kimberly Belle have teamed up to write Young Rich Widows (Soucebooks), set in 1980s (for those who weren’t around think big hair and  big shoulder pads, ostentatious living like that seen on such shows as Dallas and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous thriller about four rich widows who have not only lost their partners in a mysterious plane crash but also are realizing four million dollars is missing as well.

And to make it worse. That’s mob money and they want it back. Not next week, but right now.

The women don’t like each other. Indeed, one, Camille, a former saleslady and now a much younger second wife, is having an affair with Peter, one of the partners who was married to Justine, a former fashion model, while another, Meredith is a stripper who was in a passionate relationship with the only female partner.

Complicated? Well, it gets even more so, in this comedy/mystery written by Lillie (Blood Sisters), Fargo (They Never Learn), Holahan (Lies She Told), and Belle (The Personal Assistant).

For one, there’s the long-simmering romantic spark between Crystal and the mobster who is threatening them. He happens to own the strip club where Meredith works. And is Camille more than a homewrecker? Is she a thief like her former employer claims? And then there’s the land deal if they can make it happen, will restore their fortunes—but is that handsome developer who is chasing after Camille to be trusted? Is anyone?

When you’re in danger, you have to work together or die alone and that’s what these women do, bonding in a way that never would have happened before the crash, and they learn to trust one another as they fight to stay alive.

The review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

It is available on Kindle and as an audiobook.

The Duchess: Scandalous Ladies of London by Sophie Jordan

“I liked my husband well enough . . . but I like him even better dead,” says Duchess Valencia Dedham.

Now a Dowager Duchess following the death of her husband (no great loss there) and the discovery of the nearest male heir means Valencia Dedham must move out of the mansion that has been her home since she married at a young age and into a dower house far away in Yorkshire. It’s all part of primogeniture, the English way of assuring that property passes down through the male line.

But for Valencia it means she loses not only the house but also access to London and the glittering Regency-era society to which she belongs. As she starts to pack for her journey to a home and location she has never known, she doesn’t even know what is hers to take. The beautiful writing desk she bought? The jewels she wore? Her beautiful gowns? Or are the all part of the estate that belongs to the new duke?

And so, Valencia, in The Duchess: Scandalous Ladies of London (HarperCollins) by Sophie Jordan, is faced with a situation common to many wives back in those days.

But the new duke, the brooding and handsome Rhain has six sisters he wants to marry off and he quickly realizes that their wild ways from growing up in Wales under less-than-strict guidance need a lot of polish before they can hope to land suitable husbands. After all, what gentleman would want to make a match with a woman such as Isolde, the duke’s sister who carries her stuffed dog with her even though it died years ago?

Who better than Valencia with her knowledge of manners and social mores to whip the sisters into marriageable material with dance and singing lessons, the right coiffures and gowns, and entry into the best of homes? And besides, the duke has more than a passing interest in the beautiful young widow and she in him as well.

Of course, this being a romance novel there are many issues to overcome. Rhain is sure he wants to return to Wales and doesn’t need the impediment of a wife, and Valencia was abused by her husband and also complicit in the way he died. She’s afraid of falling in love again as much as she wants a man’s touch.

Sensual looks and sizzling attraction abound. Of course, we know it will all turn out well in the end but the fun of these books—if they’re well-written and this one certainly is—is how the author keeps our attention until all the plot lines are tied together into a happy ending.

This is the second book in the Scandalous Ladies of London, a new series from New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan, a prolific writer with over 50 books to her credit. Each chronicles the machinations of women at the highest level of society making their way in the world where their best chance of getting ahead is marrying well.

About the author.

Sophie Jordan grew up in the Texas hill country, where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she’s the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of more than fifty novels. She now lives in Houston with her family. When she’s not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her kids), and streaming anything that has a happily ever after.

This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein: In-Conversation with Lauren Margolin

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is so pleased to host authors Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein on Wednesday, April 24th at 6:30 PM. They will be in conversation with Lauren Margolin, a.k.a. The Good Book Fairy.  Tracey Garvis Graves’ new book is The Trail of Lost Hearts, which Colleen Hoover calls, “Breathtaking and endlessly romantic.” Rochelle Weinstein’s latest title is What You Do to Me.  Lisa Barr, the bestselling author of Woman on Fire, says, “The nostalgic new page-turner What You Do to Me hits all the high notes.”

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required, as space is limited. Click here or visit their website to reserve your spot!

More About The Trail of Lost Hearts: Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming, and all she wants to do is put the whole heartbreaking mess behind her. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life. Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know. Now all she can do is hope that the universe gets it right this time.

Tracey Garvis Graves is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. She is also the author of Heard It in a Love Song, The Girl He Used to Know, Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, and White Hot Hack. 

More About What You Do to Me:  While writing an article for Rolling Stone, Cecilia works to reveal the mystery that has intrigued fans and discovers a classic tale of two soulmates separated by fate and circumstance. Rock star Eddie Vee once sang with his soul, dedicating love songs to Sara Friedman, his inspiration and first love. Now, Eddie takes refuge in anonymity, closed off to the past. Sara, too, has distanced herself from their love, moving thousands of miles away to live the life she once railed against. As Eddie and Sara tentatively open up to Cecilia about broken dreams, she struggles to give them a happy ending. In the process, she learns that broken hearts can be healed–even her own.

Rochelle B. Weinstein is the USA Today bestselling author of seven novels, including When We Let Go, This Is Not How It Ends, and Somebody’s Daughter. As Miami’s NBC 6 in the Mix monthly book contributor, Rochelle is on the hunt for the next great read while she teaches publishing workshops at Nova Southeastern University. She is currently working on her eighth novel. Please visit her at www.rochelleweinstein.com.

Moderator Lauren Margolin, “The Good Book Fairy,” is an avid reader who gets great joy in recommending books and sharing her love for the written word with other readers. Lauren leads book discussion groups, interviews authors, moderates author panels and speaks about all things bookish for libraries, charities, civic groups and more. You can find out more about her HERE.

The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time

The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is delighted to host author Jane Bertch on Thursday, April 11 at 6:30 pm for a discussion featuring her new book, The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time, the inspiring and delicious memoir of an American woman who had the gall to open a cooking school in Paris. A true story of triumphing over French naysayers and falling in love with a city along the way, The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in Paris. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking and living.

To register for this free event, please visit their website or CLICK HERE. Space is going fast!

More About the Book: When Jane Bertch was eighteen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return. Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take French cuisine classes in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home.

Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French, as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients. Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking.

More About the Author: Jane Bertch has spent more than two decades living and working in Europe. In 2009, she started La Cuisine Paris, which has become the largest nonprofessional culinary school in France. She holds a BA in English, an MA in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and an executive MA from the French business school INSEAD. The French Ingredient is her first book. Follow her on her blog.