Akron author Miranda Liasson returns with ‘The Summer of Second Chances’ | Book Talk

Darla Manning has spent her life waiting for the other shoe to drop. In “The Summer of Second Chances,” third in the Seashell Harbor romance series by Akron author Miranda Liasson, Darla’s troubles include an absent father, a broken marriage and a cancer diagnosis. Can she learn to live in the present?

Darla, a successful author of crime thrillers, has returned to Seashell Harbor after a year teaching in California. She’s been offered a permanent job there, so she’s home for only a few weeks until her house is in salable condition. Doing the repair work is Nick, her ex-husband. Nick is not only a fine construction expert, but also fine indeed.

Darla comes home to find that Nick has taken extra care with the job, giving him ample opportunity to use his “smooth planes of muscle and his toned arms.” Nick fabricates reasons to be near Darla, who divorced him for not being supportive of her career.

Darla’s biggest problem is her inability to allow people to help her, as demonstrated by her Hodgkin’s disease treatment, which she was determined to see through with minimal involvement of family and friends.

Nick makes no secret that he’s happy to see her and that he hopes to rekindle their romance, but she’s still hurt by their breakup. They spend endless time analyzing their relationship, whatever it is. It doesn’t help that their friends Hadley and Tony are making wedding plans that all seem to go awry, and they’ve enlisted Nick and Darla to help with the arrangements and ratcheting up the romantic tension.

Hadley and Kit, protagonists of the first two books, are supporting characters here. A fourth book in the series has not been announced, but perhaps it will feature Darla’s sister Rachel, hardworking mother of three.

“The Summer of Second Chances” (368 pages, softcover) costs $16.99 from Forever, part of the Hachette Book Group. Miranda Liasson is a pseudonym. Her debut novel “This Thing Called Love” won the 2013 Golden Heart Award from the Romance Writers of America, and she also has written the Mirror Lake and Angel Falls romance series.

‘Lethal’

What happens when the sun goes out and the moon is deadly? The crisis is in “Lethal,” a novella by Kathleen Kerestman of Perry, who uses the handle “Creepy Cat” for her stories about traveling to sites like graveyards and alleged hauntings.

It takes place about a month after a strange astronomical phenomenon during a lunar eclipse; Carolyn’s friend Andrew took photos of “a shimmering object above the moon.” It was followed by tidal anomalies and tsunamis with accompanying widespread panic. It is learned that people die when moonbeams touch their skin, and the world is down to about two hours of sun every day.

Elsewhere, others deal with the aftermath of the calamity: Carolyn and Andrew search for food and supplies but the survivalists have beaten them to it. Elsewhere, Steven and Amy loot an abandoned summer camp and Steven, like Andrew, sees strange lights in the sky.

Alan and Midge talk about the cult-like Patriarch, which replaced the government in many countries, and remember their honeymoon, cut short when people started falling down dead.

Referring the COVID epidemic, Alice and Jessica question the necessity of the government-required vaccination, and some people have been hiding in basements so long that they are willing to die just to get out of the house. An autocratic leader won’t be stopped. When a group of survivors meet, they finally figure out the nature of the scourge.

“Lethal” (53 pages, softcover) costs $7.99 from online retailers. Kathleen Kerestman, an alumna of John Carroll and Case Western Reserve universities, is the author of “Creepy Cat’s Macabre Travels: Prowling around Haunted Towers, Crumbling Castles, and Ghoulish Graveyards” and the co-editor (with H.P. Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi) of the upcoming horror anthology “The Weird Cat.”

Events

Wolf Creek Grist Mill (3190 State Route 3, Loudonville): Gary Beckley signs “Oh! Susannah,” the story of his ancestor during the Civil War, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Colonial Trade Fair Days and Civil War Encampment.

Fireside Book Shop (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls): Lee Polevoi signs his Cold War thriller “The Confessions of Gabriel Ash,” 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Mentor Public Library (8215 Mentor Ave.): James Willis, author of “Weird Ohio,” presents “Weird Ohio Road Trips,” 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Register at mentorpl.org.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Middleburg Heights branch, 16699 Bagley Road): Vince Guerrieri presents “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports,” 7 to 8 p.m. Monday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Richmond Heights branch, 440 Richmond Road): Michael DeAloia talks about “Lost Department Stores of Cleveland,” 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Cleveland Public Library: Crime thriller writer Mindy Mejia (“Strike Me Down”) talks about “To Catch a Storm,” in a YouTube and Facebook Live event at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Register at cpl.org.

Trumbull Regional Medical Gift Shop (1350 E. Market St., Warren): Austintown author Nancy Christie will sign "Reinventing Rita," inaugural book of her Midlife Moxie series, 12 to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Beachwood branch, 25501 Shaker Blvd.): Daniel Kraus (“The Ghost That Ate Us: The Tragic True Story of the Burger City Poltergeist”): talks to Dan Chaon (“Sleepwalk”) about his thriller “Whalefall,” in which a scuba diver is swallowed by a whale, 7 p.m. Tuesday. In a virtual event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Bonnie Kistler (“The Cage”) talks about her legal thriller “Her, Too.” Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): A “Septet of Poets” Angel James, Felicia Krol, Jason Storms, Jonie McIntyre, Karen Schubert, Mitch James and Paul Trombley read from their work in the Rust Belt City Tour, 7 p.m. Wednesday. From noon to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, the third of four Author Alley events features about 25 fiction authors including J.D. Belcher, a contributor to “Cleveland Noir,” and Vivien Chien (“Misfortune Cookies”). See the list at loganberrybooks.com/events.

Lakewood Public Library (15425 Detroit Ave.): Stephanie Ginese (“Unto Dogs”) presents the Literary Cleveland Writer’s Poetry Workshop, 7 p.m. Wednesday. Register at lakewoodpubliclibrary.org.

Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson): Former Beacon Journal sportswriter David Lee Morgan signs “Breaking Through the Lines: The Marion Motley Story,” 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Akron-Summit County Public Library (Maple Valley branch, 1187 Copley Road): Lyza D. Lee (“Being Single is OK! Living Single with a Purpose: A Memoir”) and Douglas A. Moorer Sr. (“Cancer, Covid and Christ”) sign their books, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Register at akronlibrary.org.

Appletree Books (12419 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights): Nancy Christie will sign "Reinventing Rita," 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron author Miranda Liasson back with ‘The Summer of Second Chances’