It’s the beginning of another new year. It’s exciting and all, the anticipation, wondering what the year will hold for us.The hardest part of every year though . . . remembering to date everything with the new number. It took long enough to stop using 2021 and now we have to leave 2022 behind.

After experiencing decades of new years you would think it would be easy.

What’s a new year without a new challenge, right?

Let’s forget about all this new year stuff and think about books.

New-to-me authors will be the theme for today, by the looks of it. There was a good suggestion from LPC Free Books and one thing lead to another and we have three new authors with books I can’t wait to read.

Laser Trap 

If you can’t invent it, steal it!

Engineering grad student Dan Butler discovers an unorthodox way to produce lasers of unprecedented power. When the malevolent bosses at StarWay Labs, who sell weapons to the international underworld, discover this, they kidnap Dan and demand he replicate his work in their secret lab.

Dan’s fellow grad student, Lana Madison, who Dan had hired to help him find a girlfriend, is alarmed at his disappearance. She forms a high-tech team with four of their friends to help the authorities rescue Dan. They make remarkable breakthroughs in tracking down his whereabouts while the criminal cadre at StarWay pushes Dan close to his breaking point. With millions of dollars and Dan’s life at stake, can he be rescued before it’s too late? Will he survive the Laser Trap?

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All That Really Matters (A McKenzie Family Romance)

2022 Christy and Carol Award Winner

Molly McKenzie’s bright personality and on-trend fashion and beauty advice have made her a major social media influencer. When her manager-turned-boyfriend tells her of an upcoming audition to host a makeover show for America’s underprivileged youth, all her dreams finally seem to be coming true. There’s just one catch: she has little experience interacting with people in need.

To gain an edge on her competitors, she plans to volunteer for the summer at a transitional program for aged-out foster kids, but the program’s director, Silas Whittaker, doesn’t find her as charming as her followers do. Despite his ridiculous rules and terms, Molly dives into mentoring, surprising herself with the genuine connections and concern she quickly develops for the girls–and Silas. But just as everything seems perfectly aligned for her professional future, it starts to crumble under the pressure. And as her once-narrow focus opens to the deep needs of those she’s come to know, she must face the ones she’s neglected inside herself for so long.

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The Lady of Galway Manor 

In 1920, Annabeth De Lacy’s father is appointed landlord of Galway Parish in Ireland. Bored without all the trappings of the British Court, Annabeth convinces her father to arrange an apprenticeship for her with the Jennings family–descendants of the creator of the famed Claddagh Ring.

Stephen Jennings longs to do anything other than run his family’s jewelry shop. Having had his heart broken, he no longer believes in love and is weary of peddling the “lies” the Claddagh Ring promises.

Meanwhile, as the war for Irish independence gains strength, many locals resent the De Lacys and decide to take things into their own hands to display their displeasure. As events take a dangerous turn for Annabeth and her family, she and Stephen begin to see that perhaps the “other side” isn’t quite as barbaric and uncultured as they’d been led to believe–and that the bonds of friendship, love, and loyalty are only made stronger when put through the refiner’s fire.

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There were other interesting books showing up in the suggestion bars but they are with authors we’ve seen before. I think they deserve a post all their own.

While I’m in the grove and the new books area all lined up for us I’ll move on to the second post of the day.

See you soon.