Two at a time seems to be the magic number for me to check out from my local library. So when I was done with the last two books from the library I checked out two more, one, the second in a series from James Patterson,  the other a book about horses and family from Danielle Steel.

2nd Chance by James Patterson

The sensational killings that have rocked San Francisco appear to be unrelated except in their brutality. But detective Lindsay Boxer senses there’s some thread connecting them all. She calls her friends in the Women’s Murder Club together to see if they can discover what it is. Surely some clue has been overlooked by their bosses and male colleagues.

Working with Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas, Assistant District Attorney Jill Bernhardt, and medical examiner Claire Washburn, Lindsay discovers that there is indeed a link. The victims were of different ages, lived in different locations, and were killed with different weapons. But each had a close relative in a particular profession, a profession that sends a chill through Lindsay’s heart.

The partners in the Women’s Murder Club realize that this killer is after something unspeakable, something deeper than revenge, and that the next target could be one of them. They deduce where the killer is likely to strike next and bait a trap that can’t be resisted. But if their calculation is wrong, the consequences will be lethal. And there will be no second chance.’

Pegasus by Danielle Steel

This is a story of courage, friendship, and fate as two families face the challenges of war… and the magnificent stallion that will link them forever.

Nicolas von Bingen and Alex von Hemmerle, titled members of the German aristocracy, have been best friends since childhood. Both widowers, they are raising their children — Nick’s two lively boys and Alex’s adored teenage daughter — in peace and luxury on the vast Bavarian estates that have belonged to their families for generations. While Nick indulges in more glamorous pursuits, Alex devotes himself to breeding the renowned white Lipizzaner horses that enthrall audiences throughout Europe with their ability to dance and spin on command, majestic creatures whose bloodlines are rare and priceless.

But it is Nicolas’s bloodline that changes everything, when his father receives a warning from a high-ranking contact inside the Wehrmacht. A secret from the past has left the family vulnerable to the rising tide of Nazism: Nick’s mother, whom he never knew, was of Jewish descent.

Suddenly Nicolas must flee Germany, wrenching his sons away from the only home they have known, sailing across the Atlantic for a new life in America. Their survival will depend on a precious gift from Alex, their only stake for the future: eight purebred horses, two of them stunning Lipizzaners. In Florida, where Nicolas joins the Ringling Brothers Circus, he becomes Nick Bing, with Alex’s prize white stallion — now named Pegasus — the centerpiece of the show.

Pegasus tells the story of a family reinventing itself in America, while the country they left behind is engulfed in flames and madness, and men like Alex von Hemmerle are forced to make unbearable choices. Alex’s daughter will find sanctuary in England. In America, Nick will find love, his sons will find a future, and their left-behind world will eventually find them. A novel of hope and sacrifice, of tragedy, challenge, and rebirth, It is a brilliant family chronicle that unfolds across half a century—a masterwork from one of our most beloved writers.