"Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise....

She knows him by reputation Riley Shaughnessy knew that to stand out in his large family, he'd have to go big. Making a name for himself as a musician wasn't easy, but he followed his dreams to rock-star success. But the relentless expectations of fans is not helping the slump he's in now. So of course the person who attracts him is the woman who is not impressed by fame. Which gives Riley Shaughnessy a lot to prove Entertainment reporter Savannah...

"London, 1950. With the war over and London still rebuilding, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England's call for labour. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he's rented a tiny room in south London and fallen in love with the girl next door. Playing in Soho's jazz clubs by night and pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home -- and it's alive with possibility. Until one morning, while...

Fresh from solving her third mystery, Gethsemane Brown is ready to relax and enjoy her summer. Her plans include nothing more dangerous than performing in the opening ceremony of the annual rose and garden show and cheering on Frankie Grennan, who has entered his hybrid rose into the competition. But when a mysterious stalker starts leaving Frankie floral bouquets as coded messages, Gethsemane fears a copycat may be planning to recreate the still-unsolved...

"In 1866 as Tom and his guardian, Eliza Bethune, struggle to adjust to their fashionable apartment in the city in the aftermath of riots that had driven them away a few years before. But soon a stranger arrives from the mysterious island of Edgemere, inhabited solely by African settlers and black refugees from the war and riots, who intends to reunite Tom with his now-liberated mother."--Page [4] of cover.

In James Johnson's family, everybody strums and sings. With their music, his mamma, daddy, and uncle get crowds stomping at county fairs. Eleven-year-old James loves to sing harmony with his grandma on their favorite old mountain ballads. One day, the Johnson family hires a manager to book their appearances. But when the manager hears James sing, he quickly gives the boy a stage name and puts him on national TV. As his popularity grows, James will...

Kyle Houseman believes that he'll never find anyone he could love as much as Olivia Arnold, who's now married to his stepbrother. Not only did he lose her, he's been through one divorce and has no desire to go through another. He's determined to be extra careful about the next woman he gets involved with, which is why he fights his attraction to the beautiful stranger who rents his farmhouse for the Christmas holiday. Lourdes Bennett is a country...

Jerrilyn Farmer′s #1 LA Times bestselling Madeline Bean Culinary mysteries continue to prove to be scrumptiously hip, savory, and irresistible. In this mass market reprint of her second hardcover, Mad Bean is at it again as a search for the perfect sax becomes deadly. The dazzling Jazz Ball for the prestigious Woodburn School of Music promises to be event planner Madeline Bean′s greatest triumph to date. All the rich and mighty of L.A. society′s...

In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skillfully evokes the music and the men who shaped modern jazz. Drawing on photos, anecdotes, and, most important, the way he hears the music, Dyer imaginatively reconstructs scenes from the embattled lives of some of the greats: Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonious Monk creating his own private language on...

Alex Bledsoe's The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the best fiction books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews. Now Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills. Touched by a very public tragedy, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County, Tennessee, in search of a song that might ease his aching heart. All he knows of the mysterious and reclusive Tufa...