Reading Ahead: August 2016, part 4

You know my favorite part of reading in the summer? It's the sudden speed with which I seem to be able to devour books. Whole series read in a matter of weeks. How is it that it happens this way? I don't know, and I don't want to jinx it, but if you're looking for quick reads to jump start your own reading, here are a few, light and fluffy, coming out in August.

Family Tree, by Susan Wiggs. Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost. It is only when she returns to her family home, a Vermont maple farm which has been in the family for generations, that she can put her past to rest, and build herself a new future. Wiggs does feel-good fiction like few others.

Always A Cowboy, by Linda Lael Miller. This is the second in Miller's Carsons of Mustang Creek series (following Once A Rancher, published earlier this year), in which readers get to know the middle Carson brother, Drake, the quintessential cowboy. In charge of the family ranch, he knows the realities of this life, its pleasures and heartbreaks. Lately, managing the wild stallions on his property is wearing him down. When an interfering so-called expert arrives and starts offering her opinion, Drake is wary, but inexplicably drawn to her.

Texas Tall, by Janet Dailey. The late author lives on in her body of work, including this new addition to her Tylers of Texas series (following 2015's Texas Tough). With the family ranch in trouble and their need for one resurfacing, a rancher and his ex-wife find themselves presented with a second chance at love and a life together, if only they can right the wrongs of their shared past.

Rushing Waters, by Danielle Steel. Hurricane Ophelia is bearing down on New York City. And in a matter of hours, six people, along with their families, friends, and millions of other New Yorkers living around them, will be caught up in the horrific flooding it unleashes. A day of chaos takes its toll. Lives, belongings, and loved ones are swept away. Heroes are revealed as the city and New Yorkers struggle to face a natural disaster of epic proportions. And then the real challenge begins, as the survivors face their futures, with damage to repair and scars to heal.