Most people think of summer as not only a time when it's blistering hot but kids are off school and it's the time for vacation. Even if we don't get the whole month of August off to recoup most people plan at least one vacation or get-a-way for the weekend. This week we're including some great books that invoke the feeling of "summer escapes." Whether it's heading to London for the Summer Olympics or kicking back at the pool, here are a few books to consider.
KATE AND ZOE met at nineteen when they both made the cut for the national training program in track cycling—a sport that demands intense focus, blinding exertion, and unwavering commitment. They are built to exploit the barest physical and psychological edge over equally skilled rivals, all of whom are fighting for the last one tenth of a second that separates triumph from despair.
Now at thirty-two, the women are facing their last and biggest race: the 2012 Olympics. Each wants desperately to win gold, and each has more than a medal to lose.
Kate is the more naturally gifted, but the demands of her life have a tendency to slow her down. Her eight-year-old daughter Sophie dreams of the Death Star and of battling alongside the Rebels as evil white blood cells ravage her personal galaxy—she is fighting a recurrence of the leukemia that nearly killed her three years ago. Sophie doesn't want to stand in the way of her mum's Olympic dreams, but each day the dark forces of the universe seem to be massing against her.
Devoted and self-sacrificing Kate knows her daughter is fragile, but at the height of her last frenzied months of training, might she be blind to the most terrible prognosis?
Intense, aloof Zoe has always hovered on the periphery of real human companionship, and her compulsive need to win at any cost has more than once threatened her friendship with Kate—and her own sanity. Will she allow her obsession, and the advantage she has over a harried, anguished mother, to sever the bond they have shared for more than a decade?
Echoing the adrenaline-fueled rush of a race around the Velodrome track, Gold is a triumph of superbly paced, heart-in-throat storytelling. With great humanity and glorious prose, Chris Cleave examines the values that lie at the heart of our most intimate relationships, and the choices we make when lives are at stake and everything is on the line.
A European vacation. A luggage mix-up. A note from a secret admirer.
Meet two single parents who think they're too busy to date.
And two teenagers who can't stop writing flirty emails.
This is a tale of connections—missed and made—in a universe that seems to have its heart set on reuniting Ms. 6B and Mr. 13C.
Webb
I can't believe I picked up the wrong bag at the airport. My dad is never going to let me hear the end of it.
Coco
I don't understand why Mom told me to pack my worst underwear. And now I've lost my bag? Ack!
Andrew
I cannot stop thinking about that woman in seat 6B on the flight to Paris.
Daisy
I don't have time to worry about the creep sitting in 13C who slipped a note in my purse. I have to find my daughter's missing bag before this ruins our vacation.
In the Bag is a smart and stylish story that explores the old-fashioned art of romance in a modern world, where falling in love can be as risky as checking a bag on an international flight. Buckle your seat belt—it's going to be a bumpy vacation!
It's a beautiful June day, perfect for a wedding--until Shawna learns that her fianc�, Parker, has been involved in a car crash. Though his injuries heal, his memories of her are gone. Yet Shawna won't stop reaching to reclaim the love they once shared...
June's Lace by Cathy Lamb
June MacKenna is done--with her high-pressure legal career, her cheating soon-to-be-ex, and the stress of city living. In her studio on the Oregon coast, she creates beautiful lace wedding dresses, with no intention of ever wearing one again herself. Then songwriter Reece rents the house next door, and sets out to change her mind...
Second Chance Sweethearts by Holly Chamberlin
Thea Foss is putting a bad marriage behind her in the pretty vacation town of Ogunquit, Maine. What's past is past....Until her first love wanders into the local diner, reminding Thea of the person she once was, and the life it's not too late to claim...
Carolina Summer by Rosalind Noonan
Jane Doyle needs to get out of New York--the farther the better. She's headed toward Florida, but thanks to a storm along North Carolina's Outer Banks, she finds herself stranded in a beautiful, remote town that soon feels a lot like home. And thanks to the local sheriff, she finds herself staying longer than she planned--and feeling less lost at sea than ever...
Where do you run to when your life has fallen apart?
Lucy Jorik is a champ at never embarrassing the family she adores—not surprising since her mother is one of the most famous women in the world. But now Lucy has done just that. And on her wedding day, no less, to the most perfect man she's ever known.
Instead of saying "I do" to Mr. Irresistible, Lucy flees the church in an ill-fitting blue choir robe and hitches a ride on the back of a beat-up motorcycle plastered with offensive bumper stickers. She's flying into the unknown with a rough-looking, bad-tempered stranger who couldn't be more foreign to her privileged existence.
While the world searches for her, Lucy must search for herself, and she quickly realizes that her customary good manners are no defense against a man who's raised rudeness to an art form. Lucy needs to toughen up—and fast.
Her great escape takes her to his rambling beach house on a Great Lakes island. Here, she hopes to find a new direction . . . and unlock the secrets of this man who knows so much about her but reveals nothing about himself. As the hot summer days unfold amid scented breezes and sudden storms, she'll also encounter a beautiful, troubled beekeeper; a frightened young boy; a modern-day evil queen; and a passion that could change her life forever.
In this dazzling follow-up to her New York Times bestseller Call Me Irresistible, Susan Elizabeth Phillips tells the funny, touching, enchanting story of a young woman searching for her destiny . . . and of a damaged man who doesn't believe in second chances.
Just because the students at New York College have gone home for the summer doesn't mean assistant residence hall director Heather Wells gets to relax. Fischer Hall is busier than ever, filled with squealing thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls attending the first ever "Tania Trace Teen Rock Camp," hosted by pop sensation Tania Trace herself-who just happens to be newly married to Heather's ex, heartthrob Jordan Cartwright. But the real headache begins when the producer of a reality TV show starring Tania winds up dead... and it's clear that the star was the intended victim.
Grant Cartwright, head of Cartwright Records, wants to keep his daughter-in-law (and highest earning performer) alive. So he hires his black sheep other son, private investigator Cooper Cartwright-who just happens to be Heather's new fianc�. Heather should leave the detecting to Cooper. But with a dorm-full of hysterical mini-divas-in-training, she can't help but get involved, especially after Tania lets slip her shocking secret, and Heather realizes her reality is far more dangerously real than anyone ever anticipated.
Everything looks perfect in Sugar Land, Texas. But it's not.
No one knows that better than Walker "Bear" Wells, a former college football player now serving as a minister in this upscale Texas town, where famous athletes mix with ranchers and the local parish priest wants to arm wrestle. It's a beautiful master-planned community, but people can't be held to neighborhood restrictions, and Bear deals daily with emotional and spiritual problems, in both his flock and his own family.
But never murder. Not until a man is found dead on the nearby golf course, his skull crushed.
Bear has no interest in playing detective. His job is praying for the dead, not searching for their killers. But every time he turns around, another facet of the investigation tangles with his own life...like the fact that the murdered man's son—and a main suspect—is currently dating his own rebellious teenage daughter.
He made a promise to do the right thing. But keep�ing promises may be what led to murder...
Breathtakingly beautiful, the City of Light seduces the senses, its cobbled streets thrumming with possibility. For American Cade Corey, it's a dream come true, if only she can get one infuriating French chocolatier to sign on the dotted line. . .
Chocolate
Melting, yielding yet firm, exotic, its secrets are intimately known to Sylvain Marquis. But turn them over to a brash American waving a fistful of dollars? Jamais. Not unless there's something much more delectable on the table. . .
Stolen Pleasure
Whether confections taken from a locked shop or kisses in the dark, is there anything sweeter?
All these and more suggestions to help you escape on your own Summer Escapes, travels and tales at FreshFiction.com/GMT
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