Books: New Novels, Including "Where the Forest Meets the Stars"

There are new novels out that are full of suspense, thrills, mystery, compelling character and stories: Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah; Debris Line by Matthew Fitzsimmons; Just After Midnight by Catherine Ryan Hyde; and Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb.


Where the Forest Meets the Stars
By Glendy Vanderah
Lake Union Publishing, the Book Club Fiction Imprint of Amazon Publishing; 351 pages; hardcover, $24.95; Kindle eBook, $4.99; available today, Friday, March 1

Glendy Vanderah worked as an endangered bird specialist in Illinois before she became a writer. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in rural Florida with her husband, and many friends, mostly the many birds, butterflies, and wildflowers she can lure to her land. 
Where the Forest Meets the Stars is Vanderah's debut novel, and she tackles complex and profound themes with lightness, humor, and love.
After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Jo Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, with the determination to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dust to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.
The young girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child's home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her say, just until she can figure out what to do with her.
Jo seeks help from her reclusive neighbor, Gabe Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. The more time they spend with her, the more mysterious and special this girl reveals herself to be. Ursa is exceedingly bright, and good things just seem to happen when she is around.
Jo, Gabe, and Ursa form an incredible bond and they are brought closer by each of their own personal struggles. However, in the back of their minds, they know difficult choices must be made. Ursa has a home, they just have to figure out where that home was. 
As summer nears its end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.

Debris Line: The Gibson Vaughn Series
By Matthew Fitzsimmons
Thomas & Mercer; hardcover, $24.95; paperback, $15.95; eBook, $5.99

This is the fourth book in the Wall Street Journal bestselling Gibson Vaughn series. Here we find the protagonist lying now on the sun-kissed coast of Portugal, which is a far cry from twenty-four hour lockdown in a CIA black-site prison. Even though he is seemingly in paradise, Vaughn is a long way from being home free. 
With the feds hot on his heels, he and his crew of fellow fugitives know they can't hide in a sunny beach town forever. Before they can go on the run again, their host, a wealthy drug smuggler, expects to be paid for his hospitality, and actually paid double.
His price? A nearly impossible operation that Gibson and his gang must pull off to retrieve a king's ransom in hijacked narcotics. Even if they make it out alive, they will have to face the wrath of a ruthless Mexican cartel that plays dirty, and is used to winning.
When Gibson discovers that there is far more than drugs at stake, the heist becomes a daring mission of rescue and mercy, as well as righteous vengeance.
Prior books in the Gibson Vaughn series include The Short Drop, Poisonfeather, and Cold Harbor. Fitzsimmons was born in Illinois, raised in London, England, and he now lives in Washington, DC, where he taught English literature and theater at a private high school for more than a decade. Find out more on his website, matthewfitzsimmons.com.

Just After Midnight
By Catherine Ryan Hyde
Lake Union; paperback, $14.95; eBook, $5.99

Catherine Ryan Hide is the author of more than thirty published and forthcoming books, including Pay It Forward, which was adapted into a major motion picture. She also has released her first book of photos, 365 Days of Gratitude: Photos from a Beautiful World.
Hyde's new novel, Just After Midnight, is an uplifting an poignant story of friendship, trust, and facing your fears. 
Faith has hit the point where she can no longer tolerate her husband's borderline abuse, and she escapes to her parents' California beach house to plan her next move. She never dreamed that her new chapter would involve befriending Sarah, a fourteen-year-old on the run from her father and reeling from her mother's sudden and suspicious death.
While Sarah's grandmother is scrambling to get custody, Faith is charged with spiriting the girl away won a journey that will restore her hope. Sarah implores Faith to take her to Falkner's Midnight Sun, the prized black mare that her father sold out from under her.
Sarah shares an unbreakable bond with Midnight and can't bear to be apart from her. Throughout the sweltering summer, as they follow Midnight from show to show, Sarah comes to terms with what she witnessed the terrible night her mother died.
The journey is far from over, and Faith has to trust her instincts, and realize that the key to her future, and Sarah's, is in her hands.

Daughters of the Lake
By Wendy Webb
Lake Union; hardcover, $24.95; eBook, $4.99

After the end of her marriage, Kate Granger has retreated to her parents' home on Lake Superior to pull herself together. That is, until she finds the body of a murdered woman washed into the shallows. Tucked into the folds of the woman's curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. 
Nobody can identify the woman except for Kate, who has seen her before...in her dreams.
One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy, its mysteries left unsolved. It's time for Kate to give up its secrets. As each mystery unravels. they pull Kate deeper into the eddy of a haunting folktale that has been handed down in whispers over generations. Now, it is Kate's turn to listen. 
As the drowned woman reaches out from the grave, Kate reaches back. They must come together, even if it's only in dreams, to right the sinister wrongs of the past.