Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford, the protagonist of Jennifer Robson's Somewhere in France, longs to make a difference in the world. She dreams of earning a university degree, traveling abroad and working at a useful job. But her place in London society, under the thumb of her aristocratic mother, has always limited her independence.

When World War I breaks out and her brother joins the British army, Lilly defies her parents' strictures, learning to drive, working to earn her living and joining the newly formed Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. After months of training, Lilly is posted to France, where her brother's best friend, the handsome Scottish surgeon Robbie Fraser, is working at a field hospital. Determined to prove her worth and distance herself from her coddled upbringing, Lilly takes on the toughest jobs. Robbie finds himself admiring Lilly, even falling in love with her--but he is determined to protect her from the horrors of war, even if it means ending their relationship.

Robson's debut novel moves deftly between the grimy tents of field hospitals and the luxury of Paris, providing a gritty look at the realities of the Great War. Despite the blood-soaked medical scenes, Robson also captures the tenderness of Lilly and Robbie's fledgling love and the quiet but deep bonds of friendship formed between the soldiers, WAAC drivers and medical staff.

With a compelling setting, a thrilling love story and a brave, sympathetic hero and heroine, Somewhere in France will appeal to fans of Downton Abbey and other period sagas of love and war. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Pieter Van In, assistant police commissioner in the Belgian city of Bruges, is a mess. He drinks to excess, smokes like a chimney and is about to lose his home to foreclosure. Despite everything, though, his detecting skills remain sharp. This comes in handy in The Midas Murders--Pieter Aspe's sequel to The Square of Revenge--when the bedraggled commissioner is called upon to investigate the death of a wealthy German businessman and the bombing of a beloved statue.

The bombing appears to be a terrorist act and Bruges, dependent on tourism, is in a state of panic when a letter threatens more attacks. Then, when the German's autopsy reveals abnormalities that point to murder, Van In suspects a connection between the cases. As his pursuit of justice leads him in dangerous directions, his trusty sidekick, Sergeant Guido Versavel, and Van In's girlfriend, prosecutor Hannelore Maartens, attempt to keep the self-destructive cop in one piece.

Some elements of The Midas Murders reflect its original 1996 publication date, like Versavel's "new" word processor--but the plot itself feels up-to-date, even when it delves back into Europe's history, as Aspe weaves the historic into the current for a complex and intriguing mystery. The true gold of the novel, however, is the development of the character's relationships. Alone, Pieter Van In would be an unremarkable detective--just another drunken loner. Through his interactions with Versavel and Maartens, a humorous, empathetic, flawed human emerges--one for whom readers can cheer. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Sean Stranahan is a renaissance man of the West: a fly fisherman, a painter and--in his spare time--a private investigator. For Dead Man's Fancy, the third novel in Keith McCafferty's mystery series, Sheriff Martha Ettinger summons Stranahan when a young woman disappears in the Montana mountains and the ranch hand who set out to rescue her is found impaled on an elk antler.

Tempers run high when evidence points to the likelihood that a wolf killed and consumed the woman. Wolf lovers face off against their adversaries, forcing Ettinger and Stranahan to find the truth before all hell breaks loose in the Madison Valley.

McCafferty's strong sense of place comes through not only in the Montana setting itself, but in the characters. Stranahan notes that while he's an Easterner by birth, he's far more comfortable with the Western way of life. "Casual acquaintance came so naturally," McCafferty writes, "that he seldom paused to consider that it was anything but ordinary to exchange hellos with a passing fisherman and take the confession of his infidelities a half hour later."

At times, McCafferty seems to try too hard to accurately portray fly-fishing; the excessive detail slows the momentum. However, the strong character and relationship development keep the reader's attention long enough to be reeled back in.

The West is a hot setting for mysteries these days, but McCafferty has found his own appealing niche with Stranahan and his Madison Valley crew. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Tammi Hartung, the owner and operator of Colorado's Desert Canyon Farms, knows what it means to farm in an area teeming with wildlife. Rather than fight against nature, Hartung's The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener provides a wide assortment of methods for living in tune with local flora and fauna. By observing nature and its creatures, "you gain greater knowledge about how the natural world is actually influencing the garden (rather than what you assumed was happening)," Hartung writes. "You can then utilize that greater knowledge to create an even more beneficial garden environment."

Hartung explains the benefits of proper soil maintenance; a healthy and productive garden is directly related to its soil base. She gives ample advice on beneficial bugs such as paper wasps, praying mantis and spiders, and covers strategies to welcome animal predators like toads, some snakes and hawks, which will protect the garden from mice and gophers (among other small gnawing creatures), plus techniques beyond the scarecrow for keeping birds away. The lighthearted discussion also covers crop rotation, robust planting strategies and including animals and insects in every gardening environment. Hartung offers a series of garden designs that reflect a planter's good intentions and welcome butterflies, bats, birds and bees. Whimsical illustrations add a delightful touch to this slender volume; a quick reference chart of problems and remedies rounds out the abundance of helpful advice. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

Olivia Laing's The Trip to Echo Spring focuses on six authors whose lives meet at the juncture of creativity and alcoholism. While Laing (To the River) acknowledges she had many alcoholic writers to choose from, the half dozen she selected justify and reward her nuanced attentions: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, Raymond Carver and John Berryman.

The Trip to Echo Spring--named for the bourbon favored by the maudlin Brick in Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof--is partly literary criticism, while biographical detail reveals the subjects' intersections with one another in life as well as literature. There are hints of travelogue as Laing crisscrosses North America to visit crucial locations in these writers' lives, from Hemingway's Key West to Fitzgerald and Berryman's St. Paul, Minn., to Port Angeles, Wash., where Raymond Carver finished his life.

She delves into the biology and psychology of of alcoholism, and touches on her own upbringing as the child of alcoholics. While she focuses on the relationship between writing and drinking, another part of her journey is personal--but her history with drunks is only gradually revealed and never takes center stage.

All the disparate elements come together elegantly in Laing's quietly contemplative prose. She is sensitive to the struggles of these tortured men (among them several suicides) and deeply appreciative of their accomplishments, but also clear-headed about their shortcomings and their abusive treatment of others as well as themselves. A lovely piece of writing in its own right, The Trip to Echo Spring is a fine tribute to artists as well as a lament for their addiction. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

"Who is to blame for the more than 150 million Americans who are obese?" ask Deborah Cohen, a public health specialist who has spent more than 25 years studying why people engage in risky behaviors like smoking, drinking and overeating. She does not believe the obesity epidemic is due to a lack of willpower; that would imply Americans had more self-control 30 years ago. In A Big Fat Crisis, she proposes a different explanation: too much food, too cheap, too accessible.

Non-cognitive systems of the human brain hardwired for survival may contribute to the epidemic, Cohen acknowledges, but the greater blame lies firmly on the ways in which our "food environment" has changed, with "cheap, high-calorie, low-nutrient foods at our disposal in a way that is unprecedented in human history." She believes obesity should be approached in the same manner as 19th-century cholera or typhoid epidemics--public health crises countered through government regulation.

Instead of regulating human behavior, Cohen wants to control how food is offered: standardizing portion sizes; requiring nutritionally balanced meals in restaurants; and prohibiting combo meals, 24-hour drive-thrus and impulse marketing. She models many of her recommendations, such as mandatory health warnings, on existing regulation of the tobacco and alcohol industries--believing sometimes the government must save us from ourselves. Although Cohen's arguments, backed with ample evidence of how the food industry does not support a healthy lifestyle, are convincing, her recommendations may be resisted by those who believe our world is regulated enough as it is. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

"Heredity is not destiny," says Columbia medical professor Woodson Merrell; in his experience, "we can affect a minimum of 70 percent of disease through our environmental and health choices." The Detox Prescription explains in detail what those choices should be, emphasizing diet and nutrition. The Center for Disease Control has determined the average body contains 153 toxins, from pesticides to plastics to water pollution, so Merrell presents two short quizzes to identify what might be lurking in readers' bodies to determine the extent of the detox needed.

Merrell believes most cleanses focus on releasing the toxins, but then fail to provide adequate levels of nutrition to eliminate them from the body. His three-day juice cleanse allows digestion systems to rest while still nourishing the body, preparing it for a "clean" diet. Inspired by Scandinavian studies that indicate juice cleanses alleviate autoimmune diseases and systemic inflammation, Merrell believes nutrition may be the answer for any kind of chronic pain, fatigue and discomfort. Collaborating with nutritionist Mary Beth Augustine, he has created 21 days of recipes that encourage optimal health (along with suggested stress relief activities). Tempting recipes like twice-baked sweet potatoes stuffed with fruits and nuts or quinoa with Asian mushrooms and black truffle oil ensure readers will not feel deprived as they clean and nourish their bodies on the way to better health. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

Pure fun for the preschool set, Alison Murray's (One Two That's My Shoe) paper-over-board book centers on a tiara-toting, polka-dot-boot-wearing princess in pursuit of a white kitten while the adults are otherwise engaged.

The sugar-white kitten stands out against the castle's cream-colored walls and outdoor environs as it unspools the glittering pink yarn from the queen's knitting project: "[O]ff he ran, with a swish of his tail,/ leaving behind him a pink woolly trail." Murray clues in youngest detectives as she connects the path the feline has traveled and offers a glimpse around the corner to what's ahead. A blue pedestal table, for instance, spotted from the playroom, gets a twist of glittery pink, as does the butler, calmly balancing a bird cage (from which the runaway feline has inadvertently freed a pair of birds), a tea tray and himself--on one leg (the other leg, like the table's, wrapped in pink). Toddlers can trace the pink trail, slightly raised from the page, as they help Princess Penelope track down the furry interloper, sometimes in spirals, other times in angular patterns.

Murray portrays the kitten as a kind of Pied Piper, gathering not only the princess but also the family dog, the freed birds, a peacock, a squirrel and other creatures. Where was the kitten off to in such a hurry? Why, to his mother, of course. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

Sara Zarr (The Lucy Variations) and Tara Altebrando (The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life) team up to deliver an authentic story about two girls spending their last summers at home before they leave for college.

When Elizabeth gets her roommate assignment from UC Berkeley's housing department, she e-mails Lauren to get acquainted. Elizabeth, an only child living with her mother in suburban New Jersey, is looking forward to bonding with her new roomie. She writes a long "babbling" message introducing herself and talking about appliances. Lauren, one of six children in a very crowded California household, had requested a single dorm room; she replies with a perfunctory answer, which immediately offends Elizabeth.

From this inauspicious beginning, a friendship sprouts. In alternating chapters, the two girls fumble their way to understanding one another. Their correspondence becomes more important to them both as the summer progresses. Each forms a bond with a new boyfriend, figures out how to say goodbye to long-time best friends and tries to forge a more mature relationship with her parents. These concerns will resonate with high school readers navigating their way through similar changes. Each girl's journey feels genuine. As they move closer to the moment when they will begin sharing a very small dorm room, readers begin to believe they may succeed.

Roomies is full of life and love, choices and responsibilities, all presented in a very neat and appealing package. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators