Monthly Archives: April 2009

Hazel Rash Fleming. The Pink Irish Rose. Boone, NC: Parkway Publishers, 2006.

When Ellen Summers was twenty-nine, her parents died in a terrible car accident on the way to their cabin near Asheville. On that same day, Ellen’s marriage ended.  Five years later, Ellen’s parents appear in her dreams, urging her to return to the cabin.  When Ellen responds to the dreams by taking her summer vacation at the cabin, she sets in motion a series of events.  Love seems in offing, but Ellen has not let go of the hurt from her marriage, and the new man on the scene, wonderful though he is, has a connection to her parents’ deaths.  Ellen decides to leave her job in the federal government to run her late father’s mountain business, but she finds trouble and betrayal in this sphere too.  There are many characters and several subplots in this novel, but the love story moves to the satisfying conclusion that readers expect.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Buncombe, Fleming, Hazel Rash, Mountains, Romance/Relationship

Margaret Maron. Southern Discomfort. New York : Mysterious Press, 1993.

When she was running for the open district judge position in Colleton County, Deborah Knott commented to a meeting of the local WomanAid group that she wished she could take time out of campaigning to help with their work.  Now that she has been appointed to the seat, the group has come to claim her weekends and she starts working with a group of women building a house for a needy single mom and her kids.  On top of her new duties and the construction project, the new judge also faces violence in her community and in her family.  Before the house is finished, the group’s electrician (who also happens to be Deborah’s niece) is attacked, the accused attacker is found dead, and the girl’s father is poisoned.  This is the second in the series of Judge Deborah Knott mysteries.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1993, Coastal Plain, Maron, Margaret, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Joan Medlicott. Promises of Change. New York: Pocket Books, 2009.

Hannah found true love when she married her business partner Max in Two Days after the Wedding. Of course, Hannah still lives mostly with her friends Amelia and Grace in the house across the street from Max’s.  It’s all working fine until Max’s son Zachary and his very pregnant wife arrive in Covington.  Zachary is an unhappy soul, and his father’s failure to tell him about his marriage is just one more grievance for Zachary. Hannah does her best to make things work, as she opens her heart to Zachary’s wife Sarina and the baby Sarah. The ladies of Covington are coping with health problems, but there is still a lot of life in the novel as Max helps Jose and Anna open a restaurant, Amelia decides that she wants a dog, and the town mobilizes against a scammer who preys on senior citizens.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Medlicott, Joan, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Michele Andrea Bowen. Up at the College. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009.

It’s easy to loose faith in yourself and faith in God’s goodness when your marriage breaks up.  When Yvonne Fountain Copeland’s husband of fifteen years leaves her for no good reason, Yvonne is shattered.  Yvonne takes her two daughters from Richmond and moves back to her hometown of Durham.  There she finds a nurturing family, a mixed community of sinners and faith-filled people, and the handsome Curtis Parker.  Coach Parker is the successful basketball coach at a local university.  As Yvonne and Curtis fall in love they also come to realize that they need to give God a more central place in their lives.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Bowen, Michele Andrea, Durham, Piedmont, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship

Diana Gabaldon. The Fiery Cross. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001.

The second book in the second Outlander trilogy, The Fiery Cross starts with a Gathering of the Clans in 1770 North Carolina. It chronicles the next two years in the lives of time-traveler Claire Fraser, her Highland-born husband Jamie, her daughter Brianna, and her son-in-law Roger as the American Revolution draws nearer. Much of the story’s action takes place in the mountains of North Carolina, but as troubles in the colonies increase, some of the characters’ militia obligations take them around the state and others travel in search of safety. The title is not a reference to the Ku Klux Klan, but rather a reference to the Scottish tradition of burning a cross to rally clansmen during times of war.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2001, Gabaldon, Diana, Historical, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship, Science Fiction/Fantasy

Ellyn Bache. Daughters of the Sea. Banks Channel Books, 2005.

Veronica, Guy and their daughter Simpson have made a life moving from one beach town to another, always in search of a better climate or a better construction job for Guy. When Veronica decides she’s finished with the nomadic existence, she and Simpson move into the home of an old friend in Whisper Springs, Maryland. Simpson settles into their new life and begins a relationship with a local. Veronica’s friend Ernie’s health is failing and she appreciates the help of the younger women. Although the move was her idea, Veronica gets restless and begins missing the sea and her husband. Most of the story is centered on the three women in Maryland, but readers also get the occasional glimpse of Guy as he works in the film industry in Wilmington.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2005, Bache, Ellyn, Coast, Dare, New Hanover

Jan Karon. A Light in the Window. Elgin, IL: Lion Pub., 1995.

In the second of the Mitford novels, Father Tim must deal with a variety of women in his life. The recently widowed Edith Mallory is pursuing him in a not-so-subtle manner that includes delivering delicious casseroles to his home. The life-long bachelor doesn’t mind the food, but he is in love with someone else: his neighbor, the lovely children’s book author Cynthia Coppersmith. Unfortunately, he isn’t sure how to proceed on that front. He also has his bossy assistant Edith meddling in his life and a mysterious female cousin from Ireland comes to stay in his house. Barnabas the unruly dog also makes appearances, as does young Dooley, whose troubles at school distress Tim.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1995, Karon, Jan, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship

Joyce and Jim Lavene. One Last Goodbye. New York: Avalon Books, 2000.

According to local legend, Navy Captain Billy Bost crashed his plane into Diamond Mountain Lake in 1944. More than 50 years later a Pulitzer Prize winning author comes to the mountain town of Diamond Mountain determined to find the plane, but he disappears and is found dead a few days later. Once the plane is raised, the police discover that the World War II pilot died of a gunshot wound, not the crash. Now Sheriff Sharyn Howard has to discover who killed the pilot and who killed the author writing about him. This is the second book in the Sharyn Howard series of mysteries.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000, 2000-2009, Lavene, Jim and Joyce, Montgomery, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont

Yvonne Lehman. His Hands. Urichsville, OH: Barbour Publishing, 2003.

We each react in our own way to the misfortunes that befall us.  Artist Matthew MacEwen risked his life to save a young girl from the flames of a wrecked plane.  Was he aware that he might die in the rescue and, if so, did he intend to take that risk?  When he ends up alive, but with scarred hands that end his career as an artist, he has to struggle to overcome bitterness. He returns to the mountains of North Carolina where he builds a new life as an art teacher and a rafting instructor.  His scarred hands have also kept him from dating.  When a beautiful young woman comes to his rafting camp, he is drawn to her.   Little does Matthew know that this beautiful woman is tied to the tragedy in his past.  In this short novel, Matthew and Christine hope that God will to lead them to a better life, a life together.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Graham, Lehman, Yvonne, Mountains, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship, Swain

Denise Hunter. Sweetwater Gap. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2008.

When Josie Mitchell left her mountain home six years ago she never intended to return. But it has been a rough couple of years at her family’s Blue Ridge Apple Orchard.  When Josie finds out that her sister is pregnant with twins she heads back to help out…and to try and convince her sister to sell the business. Her visit is marked by unresolved guilt, secrets that she feels she cannot share, and tension with the attractive orchard manager, Grady.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Hunter, Denise, Mountains, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship