Week ending December 23, 2016 Harman, Patricia. The Runaway Midwife. Morrow. Feb. 2017. 416p. ISBN 9780062659613. $25.99; pap. ISBN 9780062467300. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062467317. F Clara Perry, a nurse-midwife, is on the run from her life, which has been slowly falling apart. Her husband is cheating on her, her daughter is living halfway around the globe, and her best friend has committed suicide. When a patient dies in childbirth, Clara decides that she can no longer live her life in West Virginia. She becomes a fugitive and enters Canada illegally to start a new life, with a stolen identity, on tiny remote Seagull Island on Lake Erie. There she becomes Sara Livingston, a former nurse who is seeking the solitude to write a novel. Slowly, she is drawn out by the inhabitants of her new home and into small-town life. As her year on the run comes full circle and her secrets come to light, “Sara” learns who she really is. Verdict Harman’s (The Midwife of Hope River) experience as a midwife shines thorough in the details in this quiet novel about a woman rediscovering her true self. Fans of Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go Bernadette will enjoy this story of a woman’s courageous reinvention.—Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA Noble, Kate. The Dare and the Doctor. Pocket. (Winner Takes All, Bk. 3). Dec. 2016. 384p. ISBN 9781476749402. pap. $7.99; ebk. ISBN 9781476749440. HISTORICAL ROMANCE Botanist Margaret Babcock and physician Rhys Gray have been platonic academic correspondents for more than a year. So, why when they meet face-to-face in London, where Margaret is presenting her latest hybrid rose to the Horticultural Society, does the rest of the world all but fall away? Such feelings simply don’t happen between friends. Luckily, the Season has just begun, and there are plenty of distractions, chief among them uninteresting fortune hunters vying for Margaret’s hand. Just when it becomes impossible for Rhys and Margaret to keep pretending there’s nothing between them, things get more complicated. It’s announced that Rhys is engaged to the daughter of his menacing neighbor, who played a role in the exile of Rhys’s father decades earlier. If Margaret doesn’t dare to act on her true feelings, she’ll risk losing the one person who understands her. Verdict RITA-nominated Noble continues her Regency “Winner Takes All” series (after The Lie and the Lady) with this tender win-win romance of two like-minded people who discover that in order to love each other, they must first love themselves. For all historical romance collections.—Annalisa Pesek, Library Journal Osborne, David. The Coming. Bloomsbury USA. Feb. 2017. 528p. ISBN 9781632863850. $30. F [DEBUT] When Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the men in their 1805 expedition stagger out of the Rockies near starvation, they meet members of the Nez Perce tribe, who nurse them back to health. Not long after their first encounter, Clark marries Swan Lightning in a traditional Nez Perce ceremony. Later, their redheaded son, Daytime Smoke, is born. This novel follows seven decades of Daytime Smoke’s life, beginning with his childhood during which the Nez Perce continue to interact peacefully with soyappas, white people, including missionaries, Indian agents, and U.S. Army officers. But when gold is discovered on the tribe’s land, the U.S. government forces the Nez Perce to cede their land. Refusing to relocate to a reservation, Daytime Smoke flees with his kinsmen to Canada, pursued by the army. Verdict In Osborne’s (Reinventing Bureaucracy) first entry into historical fiction, he delivers an epic saga that traces the tragic trajectory of the relationships between Native Americans and white settlers. Fans of historical fiction about the opening of the American West will enjoy this sweeping novel; its vast geography is reminiscent of A.B. Guthrie Jr.’s The Big Sky.—Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE Post, Steph. Lightwood. Polis. Jan. 2017. 304p. ISBN 9781943818303. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9781943818525. F Post’s (A Tree Born Crooked) rural Florida is a place where one would not want to break down when passing through. Silas is a violent town with little apparent law enforcement and plenty of smoky, grimy bars patronized by motorcycle gang members and the criminal clan that controls the community. Money and meth are at stake here, where even the local preacher manages her followers through malevolent manipulation. Despite his determination to go straight, Judah, a son in the brutal Cannon family, falls straight from prison into his family’s latest scheme. By the time the conflagration among them is over, the Scorpion motorcycle gang, Sister Tulah, and the Cannons have left death, blood, and misery in their wake. None of the characters is particularly sympathetic, but Post reveals the inner doubts of enough of them to inspire interest in their stories. Verdict A good choice for fans of grit lit that emphasizes blood ties and redneck justice; this will also attract readers who prefer their suspense very dark and filled with violence.—Sharon Mensing, Emerald Mountain Sch., Steamboat Springs, CO Rekulak, Jason. The Impossible Fortress. S. & S. Feb. 2017. 304p. ISBN 9781501144417. $24; ebk. ISBN 9781501144431. F [DEBUT] In 1987, freshman Billy Marvin is flunking out of high school because when he’s not hanging out with his fellow misfits, he is creating computer games on his Commodore 64. But his life changes when a friend reveals his latest get-rich-quick scheme, which involves the new Vanna White issue of Playboy and the color copier at his mom’s office. In the process, Billy meets Mary Zelinsky, who is as equally passionate about computers as he is. Fortunately, the scheme provides an excuse for Billy to hang out with Mary and even collaborate on a game for an upcoming contest and a chance to win a brand new IBM PC and the princely sum of $4,000. In navigating new feelings and hidden obstacles in his quest, Billy finds his life growing ever more complicated. Readers who came of age in the 1980s will enjoy the many period references (such as the percussive genius of Phil Collins’s solo work), but these do not intrude enough to deter younger readers. Verdict This debut novel by the publisher of Quirk Books feels like a sort of spiritual prequel to Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, with a young protagonist adrift in a sea of pop culture and new technology, trying to figure out his future.—Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green Rodale, Maya. Lady Claire Is All That. Avon. (Keeping up with the Cavendishes, Bk. 3). Jan. 2017. 365p. ISBN 9780062386786. pap. $7.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062386809. HISTORICAL ROMANCE Now that his fiancée has run off with an actor, Lord Fox is suffering from Wounded Male Pride, so he takes up his friend Mowbray’s wager that he can turn the standoffish Lady Claire Cavendish into the darling of the ton. Lady Claire keeps swains at bay by staring at them through her spectacles and reciting mathematical principles. It seems to be working, too, though her aunt, the Duchess of Durham, is set on the three Cavendish sisters marrying well and their brother, James, assuming the dukedom he reluctantly inherited and for which the Maryland horse farm–raised siblings traveled to England. The bet will pose a challenge for Fox, as he rarely understands a word Lady Claire utters. The clever Lady Claire cannot comprehend this sudden interest from the dim Lord Fox, but he does show her there is more to life than calculus. Verdict Rodale (Lady Bridget’s Diary; Chasing Lady Amelia) has created a delightful heroine in the brainy yet passionate Lady Claire, who seems to have found her soulmate in a man who makes her feel safe while freely acknowledging that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Opposites can and do attract. Highly recommended for all collections.—Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal Wilson, Sam. Zodiac. Pegasus. Feb. 2017. 452p. ISBN 9781681773186. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9781681773780. F [DEBUT] In this alternate reality, where a person goes to school, who they are friends with, what type of work they pursue, their potential socioeconomic status, and who they will marry are all determined at birth by the person’s zodiac sign. A maid, a Libra, arrives to work a few minutes late to find a murder scene. The chief of police, a Taurus, is dead in his own backyard. But before the ambulance arrives, the maid is kidnapped by the killer. When a Taurus sign is found at the scene, Det. Jerome Burton, also a Taurus, hires astrological expert and consultant Lindi Childs to help him close the case amid mounting pressure. Meanwhile, after the death of his father, Capricorn Daniel Lapton learns that he has a daughter and is determined to find her. In his quest, he uncovers the suicide of three students, questionable educational practices, and a shutdown school. Verdict In his fiction debut, South African television writer and director Wilson weaves a complex plot that builds in intrigue and tension with a completely original premise and engaging characters. For readers who appreciate a fresh speculative twist on the police procedural.—Michelle Gilbert, Fox Lake Dist. Lib., IL