Reading Ahead: October 2014, part 3

 I know some of you have been patiently waiting through the suspense and thriller titles set for release next month, hoping that eventually I'd get around to something a little lighter and/or gentler. Never fear. No matter what your genre of choice is, I've got a little something for each of you.

Leaving Time, by Jodi Picoult. Since her debut novel (Songs of the Humpback Whale) twenty-two years ago, Picoult has earned a reputation as an author who creates stories that resonate with readers, complete with page-turning plots and complex characters. So fans rejoice, because her new novel is being heralded as her best yet. Jenna Metcalf has been searching for her mother, Alice, since Alice disappeared ten years ago in the wake of a tragic accident. Unable to accept that she was abandoned, Jenna pores over her mother's old journals and searches online, hoping to stumble upon a clue. Jenna teams up with a jaded private detective and a psychic with a knack for finding missing persons. As the trio asks hard questions, however, they must also accept hard answers. Expect this to be what your friends, book clubs and neighbors are reading this fall.

Ship of Brides, by Jojo Moyes. Moyes fans are getting inundated with titles this year, both new releases and new-to-the-US-market releases, Ship of Brides being one of the latter (originally published in the UK in 2005). In post WWII Sydney, Australia, four young women join over 650 other war brides for the extraordinary voyage to England aboard the HMS Victoria, which also happens to be carrying military arms and aircraft...and over a thousand naval officers. Despite strict regulations for all of the ship's passengers, however, the men and war brides will find their lives intertwined. I would especially recommend this to fans of Moyes's The Girl You Left Behind.

Pegasus, by Danielle Steel. Nicolas von Bingen and Alex von Hemmerle, titled members of the German aristocracy, have been best friends since childhood. Both widowers, they are raising their respective children on Bavarian estates which have been in their families for generations. It is a sudden twist of fate that sends Nicolas and his sons fleeing to America to start a new life, Alex's daughter finding refuge in England, and Alex himself faced with unbearable choices. Steel may find herself adding to her legions of fans with this latest title.

Shopaholic to the Stars, by Sophie Kinsella. Kinsella returns to her beloved Shopaholic series with Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) newly arrived in Hollywood and starry-eyed. She and her two-year-old daughter, Minnie, have relocated to L.A. to join Becky’s husband, Luke, who is there to handle PR for famous actress Sage Seymour. Becky suddenly has everything she's ever wanted: red carpet premiers, velvet ropes, A-list clients... But does it actually make her happy? Fans of the series will be delighted with the return of Becky and all of her antics.