That’s Gonna Be An “F”

Welcome to Bliss, where the streets are lined with endless charm, every storefront has a story, and the Pen & Pages Book Festival brings more drama than a bestselling novel. For Lyssa Jones, returning home was supposed to be a soft landing, not a dive into a mystery deep enough to drown her sorrows. If navigating her new life wasn’t complicated enough, her recently deceased father, Jimi Jones, has decided it’s the perfect time to become a ghostly adviser, chiming in with unsolicited advice and quirky observations from the beyond. His spectral suggestions and incorporeal insights add an otherworldly charm to Lyssa’s quest for peace and purpose.

After seven years away, Lyssa’s life reads like a cautionary tale: divorced, unemployed, and at a crossroads. But Bliss, with its quirky residents and small-town warmth, is the perfect place to figure out what’s next. That is until her volunteer gig at the book festival thrusts her into the middle of a feud between two literary stars, both vying for the coveted top prize, and both annoying in their unique ways.

When one of the authors is found dead, the plot thickens faster than Aunt Maybee’s buttercream frosting. Speaking of Maybee, she’s suddenly the prime suspect, accused of a crime that could crumble her business and her spirit. But in Bliss, family and friends don’t let accusations go uncontested.

Lyssa, with the help of her best friend and town Mayor Holly Bliss, dives headfirst into detective work. Unfortunately all of their investigative skills come from what they’ve seen on television shows. Fortunately, they aren’t alone. Trouble, the family feline, has a paw in the game. With a whisker for clues and a tail that twitches in the face of danger, Trouble refuses to be left out of solving this mystery.

From bestselling author Merryn Allingham comes an uplifting escapist saga about one young woman’s journey from London to India to find her place in the world.

Please note this is a revised edition of The Girl From Cobb Street.

Bombay, 1938. Growing up in the misery of the orphanage, then as a girl in service in the West End, Daisy Driscoll never dreamed that her wedding day would be like this. She stands in the heat of the April sun, her best dress clinging to her skin and the suitcase by her side her only possession. Daisy doesn’t feel like a bride, but allows herself to be led through the busy, jasmine-scented streets to the church.

At the altar, she barely recognizes the handsome cavalry officer who stole her heart in London. Gerald won’t look at her, and speaks so coldly. She smells the liquor on his breath. That’s why he sent another officer to meet her off the boat in his stead.

Gerald is keeping something from her — he is not the man he says he is… Has she made a terrible mistake?

Afterwards, Gerald returns to work and Daisy is left alone in the remote, imposing house that is supposed to be her marital home. With only the haughty officers’ wives for company, Daisy is glad to make the acquaintance of one upstanding civil servant, Mr Grayson Harte.

But Daisy must tread carefully, for the path she walks is paved with danger and deceit…

Weeks after his parents disappear on a hike, Arizona engineer Adam Carson, 27, searches for answers. Then he discovers a secret web site and learns that his mother and father are time travelers stuck in the past. Armed with the information he needs to find them, Adam convinces his younger siblings to join him on a rescue mission to the 1880s. While Greg, the adventurous middle brother, follows leads in the Wild West, Adam, journalist Natalie, and high school seniors Cody and Caitlin do the same in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Like the residents of the bustling steel community, all are unaware of a flood that will destroy the city on May 31, 1889. In RIVER RISING, the first novel in the five-book Carson Chronicles series, five young adults find love, danger, and adventure as they experience America in the age of bustle dresses, gunslingers, and robber barons.

Readers’ Advisory: River Rising is the first novel in a five-part family saga that spans several decades. While some storylines are resolved, others are not. They are addressed in subsequent books.

“The brewery is not what you think… ”
Dig Buckley is the dependable son, honest and hard-working. But after a tragic accident, he is unnerved by his dad’s dying words.
Without his father, it falls to Dig and his belligerent brother Jake to put aside their differences and get the successful family brewery running again — or their mother will be forced into bankruptcy and lose the family home.
The Buckley Brewery makes Australia’s most popular craft beer — but there’s a catch. The recipe is based on a unique hop sourced from a secretive supplier in India. And when the supplier hears of Dig’s father’s death, they shut down deliveries and threaten to silence the family.
Why is the mysterious group acting so aggressively? Was there a hidden side to their father’s business? Is there another reason the beer is so popular?
Dig is forced to travel to India to try to track the supplier down. He embarks on a challenging journey across the Indian countryside, unravelling a complicated history as he fights for his family and comes to terms with his father’s death.

Two years have gone by since Nick and Beth met at the motorway services on the M3. They are now living the good life and a lot has changed for both them and the country. With Simon out of the way though, Klaus has his own plans and so does Liz. There is fighting between the north and the south. A crime family now runs Exeter and this leads to conflict between brother and brother. Nobody really knows who they can trust anymore and the good will get hurt along with the bad. This is a tale of plotting and intrigue, of kidnap and murder, with plenty of action. Nick is once more forced to act to save the innocent, and he now has so much more to lose.

Boils, religion, and quarantines: Living with the Black Death in the Middle Ages

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was the worst pandemic in history. The Black Death was almost always fatal, and it took hundreds of years for populations to bounce back. It claimed millions of lives and set the stage for pandemic responses that are still in use today.

This book offers a compelling and comprehensive examination of this period and talks about what we’ve learned from such a horrific disease. Explore interesting facts about this period, and uncover some of the most common misconceptions about one of the most devastating periods in history.