Book and Product Reviews by Roundtable Reviews

I loved The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee, and you'll all see a review in the near future. Meanwhile, there is something I love even more than reading and that is baking. Breads are a particular favorite, particularly sourdough bread made with a homemade starter. Given that, I have had a Kitchenaid mixer for  years and swear that, my SodaStream, and my Keurig are the three small appliances I couldn't live without. Thanks to McMillan, one lucky entrant can have your very own Kitchenaid. From now until June 30th, McMillan is accepting entries into a grand prize drawing for your very own Kitchenaid. Ten copies of The Glass Kitchen are also being awarded to lucky winners. This is definitely worth entering! You can also head to Twitter on June 5th at 3:00 p.m. to chat with Linda Francis Lee.

Release Date - May 20, 2014 Lisa O'Donnell Harper Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth Young Michael Murray and his parents live with his grandmother on a small Scottish island. The people of this island know everything that goes on, so keeping a secret is impossible. One day, Michael overhears a secret, one that could explain his mother's changed personality and bruises on her face. He becomes determined to discover the truth. With the town quickly gossiping about his family, Michael finds being the center of the gossip is not all that thrilling and wants to uncover what really went on in his island town. The reader knows aspects of what really happened from the start of Closed Doors , so much of this book involves watching Michael, an 11 year old, as he matures and learns more about the lives of grown-ups and the dark truths they can hide. There really is a lot more to this story, but, as a reviewer, I try not to give away anything more than is in the blurb on the f

Released May 2014 Chris Culver Grand Central Publishing Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth Ash Rashid's been working in public relations where his main duties involve speaking at local schools. When driving home one afternoon, he comes across a car that's crashed into a phone pole. He calls dispatch and is told no one is currently available and that he needs to secure the scene. He never imagines he'll find two bodies. Worse, 911 has a recording of a woman saying there was a third victim, and given the sounds on the recording, that third victim abducted that woman while stealing her car. Suddenly, the simple crash Ash thinks he's working is now a murder and abduction scene. While Ash hasn't worked homicide for a while, he's temporarily reassigned and put in charge of solving the murders and the kidnapping. Ash puts his all into solving the case, even when it proves problematic. When it comes to police procedurals, this is about as detailed and exact as

Release Date - October 2013 Richard Wold Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth After jumping off the George Washington Bridge and surviving, Stan Foster washes up on banks of the Hudson with no memories of who he is or where he came from. Horrific dreams plague him, however. Dreams of pits and tortured, burning humans. Working with Dr. Abigail Petrus, Stan learns he is an artist and is introduced to his agent, a woman who Stan is not thrilled with. Especially when she seems to despise the works of art he has created since his suicide attempt. With Abigail taking the shape of all that is light and good, and Lilith being dark and almost evil, Stan finds himself trapped in the middle. As Stan becomes close to Abigail, their relationship forces him to another doctor, Dr. Uphir, a doctor who does not appear completely sane. It is there that Stan begins to wonder if he is, in fact, Satan forced to live on earth. Abigail may be his only chance at redemption. Stan starts strong and then

Release Date - February 2014 Dr. John M. Kennedy Da Capo Press Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth As I read The Heart Health Bible: A 5-step Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. I admit I have mixed feelings. Most of the advice is sound, but there are also aspects where I still feel shortchanged. It is not a secret that obesity rates are climbing. I see lots of press about it being the foods people eat, but there is little discussion about the lives many are having to live. In my area, kids get 20 minutes for lunch. That time includes standing in line to get lunch, finding an empty seat, cleaning the table after eating, and then getting back to class. My daughter's school has 1,300 kids and there are four lunch periods. That means, the lunch room has 325 students, not to mention staff members, looking for seats and standing in line to get meals. It is really no different than when I was in school 20 years ago. We've all been trained to eat in a rush, which messes

Release Date - March 2014 Lisa Colozza Cocca Merit Press Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth Providence is a young adult novel, but it's one that I feel will truly appeal to any age. It took me back to one of my favorite stories - Billie Letts' Where the Heart Is . Becky is the oldest of ten children, and she's always helped her mother out on their farm, all under the watchful eye of her abusive father. When a local boy accidentally lights their barn on fire, he runs off leaving Becky to take the blame. Becky's father is outraged and on a rampage, and the only way she can stay safe is by running away. When she hops into an empty freight car, Becky finds a newborn baby within a duffel bag. She's helped her mother take care of many babies, so Becky knows what to do. Eventually, she makes her way into a small town in Georgia. There she and her "daughter" are taken under the wing of a local elderly woman. Becky soon must decide if she should flee bef

Release Date - April 22, 2014 Eleanor Moran Quercus Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth Sally Atkins came into Olivia Berrington's life like a whirlwind. The two quickly became college buddies and were inseparable until one act drove them apart. Now, Sally is dead, after succumbing to her injuries received in a car crash in New York where she lived with her husband and daughter. When William, Sally's husband, asks to meet with Olivia, she is hesitant but soon agrees. The more they talk, the more they realize Sally is not the person they believed her to be, and they begin their quest to unravel the truth about Sally. At first, I struggled a little with the storyline. The Last Time I Saw You begins with a high-speed chase, then merges into the notification that someone is not being allowed to move in to a rental. Those scenes made no sense until later in the book. Once the book jumps to Olivia, things began lining up. From there, the book bounces back and forth from past

Release Date - April 2014 Dr. Nick Trout Hyperion Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth I generally seek out books set in Vermont. Sometimes authors get the details very right, and other times they botch little things. Dr. Nick Trout does an excellent job capturing small-town Vermont life in terms of the quirky residents and charming setting. Dog Gone, Back Soon shares the tale of Dr. Cyrus Mills. He returns to his hometown to take over his father's veterinary practice. A larger competing practice threatens to put this smaller clinic out of business, but Dr. Mills is not going down without a fight. His training and expertise as a veterinary pathologist might just be what  it takes to show this town his skills are extraordinary. Blended into Dog Gone, Back Soon is a bit of Dr. Mills personal life. His first date with a waitress didn't go as planned, but he genuinely likes her and wants to give it another shot. However, each attempt doesn't meet expectations, and it l

Release Date - August 30, 2011 Jane Casey Minotaur Books Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth The Burning introduces Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan. DC Kerrigan is trying to solve a series of murders in which the killer beats and then burns the bodies of young London women. Rebecca Haworth is the Burning Man's latest victim, and once again, DC Kerrigan talks to the woman's friends and family to try to figure out who the serial killer is and stop him before he kills again. Here's the thing with The Burning. I was engrossed from the start. I love police procedurals, especially British ones. I'm a huge fan of The Fall, and I found myself reflecting back to that show from time to time while reading The Burning. I think DSI Gibson and DC Kerrigan share a few traits that make them really stand out as intriguing characters to me. What I didn't like is that I figured out the killer pretty quickly. I wish it had been a little tougher. Despite that, I did really e

Release Date - March 2014 Kate Meader Hachette Book Group Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth Jules Kilroy has been best buddies with Tad DeLuca for a couple years. As much as she'd like things to progress past friendship, Tad seems happier playing the field. Now that Jules' toddler son is starting to talk and a little less dependent on her, Jules decides it's time to get back out into the dating scene.  Tad is less than pleased with Jules's decision. Ever since she made a move on him, he tried to do the right thing and remain friends, but that kiss sparked a fire in him that he can't ignore. He, however, has a wine bar to launch, and right now the last thing he feels Jules deserves is a man who is haunted by his past. Hot and Bothered is the third book in the Hot in the Kitchen series. I missed the first two in the series and wish I hadn't. I have every intention on obtaining copies of these books and catching up with everyone in the DeLuca family. Th

Release Date - April 29, 2014 Shelley Coriell Grand Central Publishing/Forever Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth Kate Johnson, a former reporter, was the first victim of the Broadcast Butcher, a sadistic killer who targets female reporters and then smashes every mirror in the house after stabbing them to death. Since her attack, she's been in hiding, caring for an elderly blind man. Hayden Reed is an FBI agent who specializes in getting into a killer's mind. He realizes that the key to solving this case lies in everything Kate remembers. Getting her to trust him is hard, keeping from falling for her and focusing on the case is even harder. There are a few things I want from books. I want to feel compelled to keep reading; I want to feel like the characters truly matter; and, above all, I don't want things to be laid out so that I can guess the killer just a few chapters into the book. Shelley Coriell meets all three of those requirements with The Broken . Every t