This mixed bag of tricks offers some thrills as well as a little romance.

Running Dark

By Jamie Freveletti

William Morrow, 2010, $24.99

Emma Caldridge is running an ultra-marathon in South Africa when a roadside bomb explodes. When she regains consciousness, she finds that she has a vague remembrance of someone injecting her with something, and now, even though she had run 36 miles already (and been knocked out), she has energy to spare.

Emma knows whatever she was given, it was powerful, so she turns to the security company Darkview, headed up by Edward Banner.

Banner has his operatives in the middle of another situation, one in which agent Cameron Summer, whom Emma had worked with in the past, is deeply involved. Pirates have attacked a cruise ship which is carrying more than just passengers.

This book offers excitement and action on every page.

Beachcombers

By Nancy Thayer

Ballantine Books, 2010, $25

With a name like "Beachcombers," it stands to reason that this book is the perfect choice for vacation reading.

Sisters Abbie, Emma and Lily lost their mother when they were young. Abbie, the eldest, always stepped up to the plate and took care of the younger girls while their dad worked.

Abbie, who has finally broken away from home, is employed as a nanny to a family that travels the world.

Emma is engaged and Lily is ready to think about college. However, when Lily becomes concerned about their father's financial situation, Emma's fiance breaks their engagement and their dad rents out the "playhouse" to some woman, Abbie is called home to put things to rights.

In order to make some money, the sisters team up to form a service called Nantucket Maids, which offers wealthy tourists everything from babysitting services to party planning. Things don't always go smoothly, but by the end of the summer, the change is remarkable.

Thayer's books are always good reads.

Backseat Saints

By Joshilyn Jackson

Grand Central, 2010, $24.99

A little on the dark side for Southern chick lit, "Backseat Saints" explores the life of Ro Grandee (born Rose Mae Lolly) and how she comes to terms with her abusive husband and a bad relationship with her father, discovering the old Rose along theh way.

Jackson is also the author of "gods in Alabama" and "Between, Georgia."

In a Heartbeat

By Rosalind Noonan

Kensington, 2010, $15

Oh wow, did I love this book! Kate McGann gets a call that her son, Ben, who has been away at a college playing baseball for the summer, has been attacked and beaten in his dorm room.

He lies unconscious in the hospital, and Kate and her husband head there to see him. (Kate's relationship with her husband is not too good at the moment - and it's about to get worse.)

Kate settles in for a long wait, but while she waits, she tries to find out who could have hated Ben so badly that they would beat him with a baseball bat. There seem to be plenty of suspects, too.

An event of this magnitude turns out to be life-changing for Kate as well as her son.

Contact Faye Dasen at fdasen@thepilot.com or (910) 693-2475.