Reading Ahead: April 2013, part 3

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm still missing that "spring forward" hour in the mornings!  Coffee, it seems, is no match for my internal clock, which says that the new 6am is a terrible idea!  All sleepiness aside, however, I'm still very much looking forward to some great new fiction to perk me up.

Whiskey Beach, by Nora Roberts

Don’t Go, by Lisa Scottoline

NOS4A2, by Joe Hill

Maya’s Notebook, by Isabel Allende

12^th of Never, by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Fly Away, by Kristin Hannah

Now, what catches your eye?  There are several, certainly, which are obvious choices.  For me, that definitely includes Nora Roberts.  Whiskey Beach provides readers with everything they look forward to in a Nora Roberts novel: detailed character back-story, fast pacing, smart dialogue, a great love story.  After public scandal, Eli Landon returns to the old family home at Whiskey Beach to hide and to heal. Abra Walsh, local housekeeper and a fixture in the beach community, helps Eli regain control of his life.  Yet even as they find more than they were looking for with one another, they also become trapped in a centuries-old net of lies and deceit that may destroy them both.  I'm looking forward to a rainy weekend to devour this one!

Wondering about the title of Joe Hill's latest darkly comic novel?  NOS4A2 is the vanity plate on the 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith belonging to main character Charles Talent Manx, a very bad guy.  One of the few to ever escape Manx's clutches was Victoria McQueen, who has spent the years since that escape growing up and trying to put the past behind her.  Manx, however, has never forgotten, and now he's on the road again, this time looking for Victoria's own son.  This looks like a good vs. evil battle for the ages, and I'm absolutely itching to get my hands on a copy!

I'll be back on Thursday to wrap up the list, so in the meantime, happy reading.