Turn Up the Heat with These Sexy Reads!

Heat of the Moment is the second installment of Lori Handeland's Sisters of the Craft series. "Love is timeless . . .The folks in my hometown of Three Harbors call me Doc Becca aka Rebecca Carstairs. As long as I can remember I have heard the thoughts of animals, but I learned to keep those “conversations” to myself. Crazy is as crazy does, and a veterinarian who thinks she can talk to animals doesn’t last long in small town Wisconsin. A string of missing pets are found mutilated in the abandoned “witch’s house,” which also happens to be the childhood home of the only man I’ve ever loved. Owen McAllister broke my heart when he joined the Marines and left me behind. Now he’s back following an accident that left both Owen and his K-9 counterpart in bomb detection injured. Being over him was easy when he wasn’t everywhere I turned. However, the missing animals are only the beginning. Pentagrams, cults, witches—real ones—show up with disturbing speed. And what about the wolf with the oddly human, florescent green eyes that has been a companion since childhood? When a stranger arrives calling me sister, questions about my past resurface, but before they can be answered, someone tries to kill me. After that, there’s no keeping Owen away. But who wouldn’t want a Marine and his military working dog as bodyguards when it seems like the whole world has gone mad?" (from Amazon.com)

Viking Heat is by Sandra Hill. "Psychologist Joy Nelson thinks things are bad when she finds herself training in the modern-day female Navy SEALs program. But then her life takes a turn for the worse. Somehow she's been thrust back in time to the cold Norselands, being auctioned off as a thrall, or slave-a gift for a Viking warlord, who would be a perfect candidate for Male Chauvinist Viking of the Centuries. Brandr isn't thrilled with the slave his brothers have purchased for him. Holy Thor! The woman wants to teach him anger management skills! And help him find his feminine side, whatever that is. She may be beautiful, but the saucy wench defies him at every turn. So Brandr makes her an offer. She can earn her freedom -- as his bed thrall. But when Joy dares to decline his offer, he must decide what to do with the woman enslaved to him -- and the out-of-control heat between them..." (from Goodreads.com)

Midnight Heat is the third installment of Cat Johnson's Midnight Cowboy series. "He needs to escape...Justin Skaggs is on the road to anywhere—as long as it's far from home—when fate throws a kindred spirit across his path. She needs to get to Oklahoma...Phoenix Montagno can't believe her luck when she runs into the hottie from the bar. He's the key to her getting everything she's always wanted, but she can't tell him that. Luckily he's not interested in learning her story any more than he is in sharing his. Both have secrets they don't want to share...It's the perfect arrangement. No personal details. No talking at all. Just two strangers sharing the cab of a truck heading the direction they both need to go . . . until they decide to share a bed, too." (from Goodreads.com)

The second book of Brenda Jackson's Forged of Steele series is called Night Heat. "Sebastian Steele was the kind of man >women dreamed about. He was drop-dead gorgeous, wickedly charming and fabulously wealthy. So why wouldn't Jocelyn Mason accept his offer to help run her struggling company? It was his reputation. Sebastian was a corporate shark, and Jocelyn knew the big fish didn't swim with the little fish, they swallowed them whole. It had been Sebastian's intention to take over Mason Builders, whether Jocelyn liked it or not. But when he started to work with her, sparks began to fly and they shared a sizzling, unforgettable night of passion. And soon it wasn't clear who was bossing whom…." (from Goodreads.com)

Desert Heat is the second book of the Sinclair Sisters trilogy by Kat Martin. "It takes a certain kind of rough and tumble man to show a Sinclair girl how to ask for everything she wants . . .For Patience Sinclair, leaving the ivy-covered halls of Boston for the wide, open spaces of Texas means a chance to stop looking over her shoulder at every turn. Traveling incognito with the Triple C Rodeo is just what she needs to free her from a past that continues to haunt her. But she can’t avoid the undeniable presence of Dallas Kingman. The champion rider has a way of letting her know he’s watching her every move that makes her feel wild and reckless. As they make their way through the heart of the southwest, a series of mysterious accidents darkens the promise of the unknown into a vortex of fear and obsession, and Patience finds herself closer to danger than she could have ever imagined . . ." (from Amazon.com)

Books for the Summer Heat

"In Heat and Light, author Jennifer Haigh returns to the Pennsylvania town at the center of her iconic novel Baker Towers in this ambitious, achingly human story of modern America and the conflicting forces at its heart—a bold, moving drama of hope and desperation, greed and power, big business and small-town families. Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away like a bar of soap. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: it sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas. To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn’t count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother’s skepticism or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their frail daughter. Meanwhile his neighbors, organic dairy farmers Mack and Rena, hold out against the drilling—until a passionate environmental activist disrupts their lives. Told through a cast of characters whose lives are increasingly bound by the opposing interests that underpin the national debate, Heat and Light depicts a community blessed and cursed by its natural resources. Soaring and ambitious, it zooms from drill rig to shareholders’ meeting to the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to the ruined landscape of the “strippins,” haunting reminders of Pennsylvania’s past energy booms. This is a dispatch from a forgotten America—a work of searing moral clarity from one of the finest writers of her generation, a courageous and necessary book." (from Amazon.com)

Desert Heat is a Joanna Brady novel by Judith A. Jance. "A cop lies dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun—a local lawman who may well have become the next sheriff of Cochise County. The police brass claim that Andy Brady was dirty, and that his shooting was a suicide attempt. Joanna Brady, his devoted wife and mother of their nine-year-old daughter, knows a cover-up when she hears one . . . and murder when she sees it. But her determined efforts to hunt down an assassin and clear her husband's name are placing Joanna and her surviving family in harm's way—because in the desert, the one thing more lethal than a rattler's bite . . . is the truth." (from Amazon.com)

"In the middle of a stifling heat wave, why would an artist intent on committing suicide turn his air conditioning off before taking his life? That’s the question troubling Detectives Steve Carella and Bert Kling until more personal―and deadly―questions threaten to tear Kling’s life apart. Certain his wife, Augusta, is cheating on him, Kling sets out on a course from which there is no turning back. Meanwhile a dangerous killer from his past begins a similar path destined to end in retribution. As Carella’s case of the mysterious suicide unravels, Kling’s personal life explodes in pain and violence. An Ed McBain classic, Heat is an installment of his famed 87th Precinct series is a triple threat as the three storylines weave together with relentless momentum, culminating in a shattering climax that tears open the heart of one of the precinct’s finest." (from Amazon.com)

Laguna Heat is by T. Jefferson Parker. "Laguna...Where every day the sun makes a promise the nighttime breaks, while the super-rich live out expensive fantasies in posh beach houses and drown their memories in Cuervo Gold margaritas...Laguna...Where trouble has swept in like a Santa Ana wind, blowing the cover off a world of torture, murder and blood-red secrets. Laguna...Where a crazed killer has turned paradise into a Disneyland of depraved violence--with a fiery vengeance--and where homicide cop Tom Shephard unravels a grisly mystery that reaches back across forty years of sordid sex, blackmail, and suicide into the dark corners of his own past, and sweats out a deadly truth in the sweltering...Laguna Heat." (from Amazon.com)

"Virgil Flowers hunts a killer responsible for a strange string of murders in Heat Lightning by bestselling author John Sandford. On a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A body has been found near a veterans’ memorial in Stillwater with two shots to the head and a lemon in his mouth—exactly like the body they found two weeks ago. Working the murders, Flowers becomes convinced that someone is keeping a list—with many more names on it. And when he discovers what connects them all, he’s almost sorry. Because if it’s true, then this whole thing leads down a lot more trails than he thought it did—and every one of them is booby-trapped." (from Amazon.com)

Have You Tried the July Reading Challenge Yet?

In addition to the above, we have over fifty other tiles (both fiction and non-fiction) that have the word 'flag' in the title.  Why not explore and check one out today?

Summer Reading is for Adults Too!

The whole world - and beyond - is
at your library!

Check out some of our selection such as one of these collections and settle down for a cool read on a hot day,

Isaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction - Second Series (813.0876 A832gy)

Contains wonderfully imaginative and timeless short stories and novellas by the true great masters of the genre including Isaac Asimov, Anthony Boucher, James Blish, Hal Clement, Lester Del Rey, C.M. Kornbluth, Theodore Sturgeon, A.E. Van Vogt and many others.

The Great Book of Amber (F Zelazny)

Among his more than fifty books, arguably Zelazny’s most popular literary creations were his extraordinary Amber novels. The Great Book of Amber is a collection of the complete Amber chronicles—featuring volumes one through ten—a treasure trove of the ingenious imagination and phenomenal storytelling that inspired a generation of fantasists, from Neil Gaiman to George R.R. Martin.










Earth is the Strangest Planet (808.83 E125e)

Every story is set on Earth.  Stories include :
'And Lo! The Bird' by Nelson Bond 
'Narrow Valley' by R.A. Lafferty 
'The Empire Of The Ants' by H.G. Wells
'The Night That All Time Broke Out' by Brain W. Aldiss
'Davy Jones' Ambassador' by Raymond Z. Gallum
'Rock Diver' by Harry Harrison
'Or All The Seas With Oysters' by Avram Davidson
'The Chrysalis' by P. Schuyler Miller
'The Rotifers' by Robert Abernathy
'When We Went To See The End Of The World' by Robert                   Silverberg





These and many more are waiting for you here.

Want to Add a Little Heat to Your Summer?

     Summer is the perfect time to pick up a steamy paperback romance and relax with a tall glass of iced tea. Whether you like old fashioned "clean" romance like Jane Austen or if you go for the steamy, modern-day fare, you can find it here at the library. This week--in that spirit--I thought I would feature some of our new paperback romances, but with a supernatural twist.

     First, we have one of the newest Otherworld Novels by Yasmine Galenorn called "Darkness Raging." This series follows the D'Artigo sisters--Camille the good witch; Delilah the werecat and Death Maiden; and Menolly the vampire married to a werepuma. These cunning half-human, half-Fae sisters used to work for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency, but as of late they have been battling the forces of darkness amassing to break free of the Sub Realms to make their way onto the streets of Seattle. When Menolly's wife, Nerissa, is kidnapped by the enemy, she will lead her army of vampires to the depths of the Subterranean Realms and she is wholly prepared to destroy anyone who gets in her way.

     Next, there is "Dead Heat: An Alpha and Omega Novel" by Patricia Briggs. Charles Cornick and Anna Latham are mated werewolves who have been very busy lately. Charles is enforcer for his father, but with a lull in business, the two lovebirds decide to take a pleasure trip to Arizona. Unfortunately for them, they stumble upon a sinister plot by a dangerous fae being. It seems the fae have decided to escalate their cold war with the human race. They have been secretly replacing human children with fae-blooded clones and Charles and Anna know they will be squarely in the cross fire. Will these two ever get a break?

     "Runaway Vampire" is an Argeneau Novel by Lynsay Sands. Dante Notte is an immortal vampire hot on the trail of the people who kidnapped his twin. Unfortunately, Mary Winslow has just run over Dante with her RV while escaping the exact same bad guys. His broken ribs and punctured lung are nothing compared to the intense electric feeling he gets whenever her gets near Mary. He knows that this smart, stubborn woman is supposed to be his life mate. Mary feels the same irresistible connection to Dante as well, but trusting her feelings will mean putting her life in the hands of an immortal being who is the very definition of a perfect stranger.

     Finally, we have "White Tiger: a Shifters Unbound Novel" by Jennifer Ashley. For the past twenty years, Kendrick--a white tiger Shifter--has been the guardian of a group of shape shifters who are living in secret and constantly in fear of being found out and consigned to Shiftertowns. When Kendricks group is found out and forced to flee, he becomes more desperate than ever to protect them. Addison Price is a lonely waitress at a diner in the middle of nowhere, but she has noticed a great many unusual strangers drifting through. None have been as imposing or enigmatic as the fugitive who wields a broadsword with the ease and skill of a master. When he risks his life to save her, Addison's fear turns to empathy and finally to desire. As she learns more about Kendrick and his cubs, the more she wants to help them, no matter the cost.