As I am writing this opener I am humming the song "Miami" by Will Smith, which has the right beat but needs a lyric re-write to reflect my bookish Miami area trip this week as I ducked down there for a couple of days for some meetings and store visits. Okay, I confess that any opportunity to get into the sun and someplace warm this time of year works for me thus making this trip something I did not need to be talked into. It was quickly planned, so I did not get a chance to inform most of the usual suspects that I was coming into town. Who knew that all I would have to do is go to a bookstore to see many of the people I know in the area?

Readers of this newsletter know how much I love the Books & Books store in Coral Gables. Tuesday night they were hosting two store events. The first was a terrific young adult event with Libba Bray and Shannon Hale. There were at least 250 people in the crowd. Seated right in front of me was one of our readers, Cristina, who has played host to me on a couple of occasions in Miami. It was great fun to connect with her. She had stopped by for the other event being hosted later that night, the National Book Critics Circle's “The Best Recommended” project, in which the NBCC asked its members and the former winners of its book prize to recommend books that they'd recently read and truly loved --- new or old, trendy or obscure. The folks at the store asked some local authors to come by and share their ideas on this on a panel along with book editors and reviewers from the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel.

Cristina’s friend Patty, who I had met back in October when I participated in a reading group event at the store, also was there. (Both of them were asking about the cliffhanger in last week’s newsletter about the football cake. For all of you wondering...no, I did not turn the Easter egg mold into a punted football, but rather I cut a cake into a football shape. Obviously this brought some great karma for the Giants.)

The next night the Coral Gables store had their monthly reading group event, and one of the women there was raving about FIREFLY LANE by Kristin Hannah, which I had shared advance reading copies of back in October. It was nice to hear that when my friend John and I stopped back to the store for a late dinner, especially since this week we are bringing you a review of FIREFLY LANE as well as an interview with Kristin Hannah and details about a special contest that she is hosting for readers. This book has been resonating with readers of every age in our office for its strong storyline about women’s friendships. FIVE readers each will win a copy of FIREFLY LANE by Kristin Hannah and STRANGER IN PARADISE: A Jesse Stone Novel by Robert B. Parker in this week's Word of Mouth contest. Both books are now available in stores. Tell us what you are reading and rate the titles 1-5 by noon on February 15th to ensure that you are in the running to win these books.

Completing my trio of days in the store yesterday, I had a great meeting with Mitchell Kaplan, the owner of Books & Books, whose passion for books and bookselling always invigorates me. He told me a great line about what he wants to set up as an experience in the store. His plan is to bring people access to the place that has the books for their dream library all in one place for them to connect with. This, along with a stellar lineup of just about nightly author events, ensures that people are gathering at the store as a destination for both relaxing and shopping. It’s a place where people can count on seeing friends, just like I did. Experiences like that are to be savored as real bookish delights.

This week we are hoping to set up that same kind of a virtual experience for you at Bookreporter.com. I particularly love this week’s lineup as we are sharing some titles that I am so passionate about. One is GARDENS OF WATER by Alan Drew. I had the pleasure of having lunch with Alan a few months ago where he shared a lot of the backstory of the book with me. I am thrilled that Alexis Burling's interview with him touches on many of these questions that will get you immediately wanting to pick this one up. This is a book that I have reflected on many times in the last few weeks. We also have an interview with Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack, the authors of A VERSION OF THE TRUTH. We received advance reader responses for A VERSION OF THE TRUTH, which our readers really enjoyed. You can see their comments here. We also have a review of Julie Buxbaum's THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE, a smart book that looks at the meaning and tug of love as well as a story about choices. Loved this one too. We will run an interview with her next week.

In our review section we have a review of THE APPEAL --- John Grisham's first legal thriller since 2005 --- a book that I am reading and enjoying. There is a theme there about political maneuverings that I think rings way too sadly true. Also, there is a review of SINS OF THE ASSASSIN by Robert Ferrigno, whose first book in the Assassin Trilogy, PRAYERS FOR THE ASSASSIN, I loved. I started this one and it looks equally as smartly intriguing.

Our newest spotlighted author is Stephen White, who over the years has become a wonderful author friend to me at Bookreporter.com. His new Alan Gregory thriller, DEAD TIME, follows the Colorado psychologist’s search for the connection between an unexplained disappearance at the Grand Canyon and his ex-wife’s missing surrogate. We have 20 copies of DEAD TIME to give away to readers who would like to preview the book and comment about it. If you are interested, please fill out this form by Friday, February 22nd.

A few other things are happening this week. Eli Gottlieb, author of NOW YOU SEE HIM, has responded to advance readers’ questions, which you can see here. Kevin O’Brien, author of ONE LAST SCREAM, also has responded to advance readers’ questions, and you can view his responses here. In addition, we received feedback for BEAUFORT by Ron Leshem, which was adapted for film and is now an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film. You can see our readers’ comments here.

In our poll, we continue with the theme of keeping a personal reading diary, while our question asks you to imagine how someone could define you based on the books you've read. I look forward to reading your responses to this.

Nice Valentine’s Day idea….I read in our favorite trade newsletter, Shelf-Awareness.com, that the Andover Bookstore in Andover, MA, is sponsoring a Valentine's Day singles event next Thursday, featuring "wine and cheese around the fireplace" and a short program about some of the staff's favorite books. That sounds like a nice evening. Stuck on what to get your valentine? Consult our Valentine’s Day feature.

While in Coral Gables, I swam laps in the great pool at the Biltmore Hotel. I was in the water there within 15 minutes of checking in. It’s truly one of my favorite reflex places, and it was nice to get into the water like that in February. This weekend with no plans on the horizon, I am going to read and relax with a fire in the fireplace and a good book as the only things on my agenda. Just lovely. Here’s wishing you a great week and a Happy Valentine’s Day. I am going to be baking the heart-shaped cake with pink whipped cream frosting and strawberries that I always do. I confess I love it more than chocolate. At least I DO have a heart-shaped pan for this, and I also have a heart-shaped plate to serve it on.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

Stephen White is a clinical psychologist and the New York Times bestselling author of the Alan Gregory novels, which include DRY ICE and KILL ME. In his new thriller DEAD TIME, available in stores on March 4th, Colorado psychologist Alan Gregory is pulled into a mystery that reaches back years to a camping trip at the Grand Canyon where a young woman mysteriously vanished.

We have 20 copies of DEAD TIME to give away to readers who would like to preview the book and comment about it. If you are interested, please fill out this form by Friday, February 22nd.

-Click here to read Stephen White’s bio.
-Visit the author’s official website, www.AuthorStephenWhite.com.

More about DEAD TIME:
After the shocking developments in DRY ICE, Colorado psychologist Alan Gregory is struggling to deal with his newly adopted son and repair his shaky, though generally improving, marriage. But then Alan’s ex-wife, Meredith, reappears, seeking help she feels only he can give. Suddenly Alan is pulled into a mystery that reaches back years to a camping trip at the Grand Canyon involving Meredith’s fiance and five friends whose lives were changed forever when a young woman mysteriously vanished from the Canyon floor.

In his debut novel, OBEDIENCE (which hits stores on February 19th), Will Lavender weaves a psychological thriller in which a group of students are faced with a very unusual assignment --- to find a hypothetical missing girl before she is murdered. However, they soon discover that failing to complete it could cost them their lives.

-Click here to read a second excerpt from OBEDIENCE.
-Click here to read Will Lavender’s bio.
-Click here to read critical praise for OBEDIENCE.
-Visit the author's official website, www.WillLavender.com.
-Click here to see our advance copy winners.

More about OBEDIENCE:
When the students in Winchester University’s Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted with a startling assignment: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term, she will be murdered.

The students are intrigued, at first. But soon, the boundary between the classroom assignment and the real world becomes blurred --- and the students wonder if it is their own lives they are being asked to save.

CHARLATAN: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock (History)
In 1917, after years of selling worthless patent remedies throughout the Southeast, John R. Brinkley --- America’s most brazen young con man --- arrived in the tiny town of Milford, Kansas. He set up a medical practice and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands to restore the fading virility of local farmers.

It was all nonsense, of course, but thousands of paying customers quickly turned “Dr.” Brinkley into America’s richest and most famous surgeon. His notoriety captured the attention of the great quackbuster Morris Fishbein, who vowed to put the country’s “most daring and dangerous” charlatan out of business.

CHARLATAN is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose in an America that was ripe for the bamboozling.