Kimberly Ruscitti

New Summer reads to distract you from the heat of August!

When I came across Georgia Clark’s The Bucket List (Atria Books), I assumed that it would be a typical “chick lit” story about a woman’s journey in finding herself. What I got was something quite different. Lacey Whitman is every 25-year-old woman’s fantasy – a small-town girl living in a shoebox-sized apartment in New York City and working for a top fashion organization while also developing a fashion app with her close friend. When Lacey finds out she has tested positive for the BRCA1 gene, her sugar-coated existence comes to a screeching halt. Lacey, who lost her mother to breast cancer when she was five, is faced with her own mortality and the heavy decision of whether or not to undergo a mastectomy. With the help of her friends, Lacey decides to create a bucket list for her boobs. Of course she finds adventure and pleasure, but also the deeper meaning of friendship and a future more complicated than she expected. WARNING: There is a lot of talk about sex and several graphic sex scenes in this book that might cause even the most experienced ladies to blush. But Lacey’s story is about so much more than just a woman on a sexual journey; through Lacey, the reader is invited into the complex world of a BRCA1 diagnosis, which Clark backs up with science and research, resulting in a heartwarming book unlike any you’ve read before.

Barbara Delinsky’s latest book, Before and Again (St. Martin’s Press), is a testament to how life can change in an instant. Mackenzie Cooper had it all – handsome husband, beautiful house and adorable daughter – until the moment she took her eyes off the road and ran a stop sign, killing the driver of the van she hit, along with her small daughter. Delinsky’s story begins five years later; Mackenzie, now Maggie Reid, is living a quiet life in Vermont, safely hidden from her horrible past. She has a job, a house and new friends, none of whom know who the real Maggie is. Maggie’s safe haven is threatened when her small town is thrust into the spotlight after her best friend’s son is accused of hacking the Twitter account of some very important people. Maggie thinks that dodging the national media camped outside of her workplace is her biggest challenge until she discovers her ex-husband, Edward, has moved to town for his own fresh start. As the case surrounding her friend’s son escalates, Maggie must decide what kind of person she is: someone who helps a friend and her son while risking her probation and her anonymity, or someone who runs from her past mistakes whenever times get tough. She soon learns that her life, though safe, is empty without her new friends, ex-husband and estranged mother and brother, all of whom have come back into her life at just the right time. Delinsky’s book is a masterpiece about love and forgiveness. It’s also great PSA for the consequences of distracted driving – one second can change everything