Katy Budget Books

RUNNER

For more than a decade, Jane Whitefield pursued her unusual profession: "I'm a guide ... I show people how to go from places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is." Then she promised her husband she would never work again, and settled in to live a happy, quiet life as Jane McKinnon, the wife of a surgeon in Amherst, New York. But when a bomb goes off in the middle of a hospital fundraiser, Jane finds herself face to face with the cause of the explosion: a young pregnant girl who has been tracked across the country by a team of hired hunters. That night, regardless of what she wants or the vow she's made to her husband, Jane must come back to transform one more victim into a runner. And her quest for safety sets in motion a mission that will be a rescue operation - or a chance for revenge.

CITY OF THIEVES

Documenting his reluctant grandparents' experiences during the infamous siege of Leningrad, a young writer learns his grandfather's story about how a military deserter and he endeavored to secure their pardons by gathering hard-to-find ingredients for a powerful colonel's daughter's wedding cake.

This book is one of those I had to drop everything else I was doing to finish (except work, of course). I could tell you this is a coming-of-age story set in WWII, or I could say this in an adventure about finding eggs for a wedding cake during the siege of Leningrad - both would be true. I will tell you that you'll want to find out what happens to Lev & Kolya on their mission. Lisa