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Staff Picks July 2026 Reviews and Recommendations from Our Adult and Teen Services Staff |
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Roseanne recommends: The Golden Couple by Greer HendricksAvery Chambers has one rule: if she can't help someone in 10 sessions, she won't take them on. Known for extraordinary results and controversial methods that cost Avery her therapist's license, she buries her own grief over her husband's death by helping others. Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem to have a perfect marriage until Marissa's affair threatens to destroy it. Hoping to repair the damage for themselves and their 8-year-old son, they turn to Avery. But when Marissa confesses her infidelity, the three become entangled in a dangerous web of secrets. As hidden truths emerge, far more than a marriage is at stake. |
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Mallory recommends: One & Onlyby Maurene GooCassia Park believes in soul mates—it’s the family business. For centuries, Park women have used past lives to match clients with their fated love, guaranteeing success for everyone but Cassia. After ten years searching for hers, Daniel Nam, she gives up and has a fling with Ellis—until he introduces her to his boss: Daniel. As fate collides with choice and family secrets unravel, Cass must decide whether to follow destiny or forge her own path. "A perfect blend of steamy angst and family drama makes for a love triangle that’s impossible to put down" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Abby recommends: Five by Ilona BannisterFive people wait on a suburban platform as a train approaches London, each carrying private pressures: a young man facing mounting debt, an older woman refusing assistance after a fall, a parent managing a child’s outburst, and a businessman observing them all. One of them will die when the train arrives - but they don't know it. Only you, the reader, knows. This novel breaks the fourth wall and invites you to judge these characters as death hangs in the balance. "Bannister’s compassion and gift for nerve-shredding tension make this a ride worth taking" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Meghan recommends The Ghostwriter: A Novel by Julie ClarkIn June 1975, the Taylor family is shattered when two teenage siblings are found dead, leaving Vincent as the only survivor and prime suspect. Decades later, Vincent becomes a famous horror writer, while his daughter, Olivia Dumont, hides her identity. Facing financial ruin, Olivia is offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book, only to discover it's not a horror novel but the true story of what happened that night in 1975. "Clark keeps readers guessing about Taylor's motives and guilt, all while playing scrupulously fair with the reader" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Astrid recommends: Victorian Psycho by Virginia FeitoGrim Wolds, England. Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess. But long, listless days within the estate's confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family--Mr. Pounds can't keep his eyes off Winifred, and Mrs. Pounds takes sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband's wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House-- "Where ironic horror and horrific irony meet, this unbridled madhouse of a novel dazzles like a bloody jewel" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Karen recommends: Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine CenterWhen a family emergency compels her move from Texas to Boston, a skilled firefighter becomes the only woman in her new firehouse and navigates discrimination, low funding and her private edicts about falling in love with another firefighter. "Center gives readers a sharp and witty exploration of love and forgiveness that is at once insightful, entertaining, and thoroughly addictive" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Mary recommends: The Guest by Emma ClineSummer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome. A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarified world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake-- |
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Carly recommends: Summer in the City by Alex AsterTwenty-seven-year-old screenwriter Elle has the chance of a lifetime: to write a big-budget movie set in New York City. The only problem? She's had writer's block for months, and her screenplay is due at the end of the summer. In a desperate attempt at inspiration, Elle ends up back in the city she swore she would never return to, in an apartment she could never afford. ... It's the perfect place to write her screenplay--until she realizes her new neighbor is tech 'Billionaire Bachelor' Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from two years ago. It's been a lovers-to-enemies situation ever since. When seeing him again turns into a full night of hate-fueled writing, Elle realizes her enemy/ twisted muse might just be the key to finishing her screenplay--if she can stand being around her polar opposite-- |
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Kristin recommends: Five Golden Wings by Donna AndrewsTwo of Meg's cousins, members of Mother's vast Hollingsworth clan, are getting married, and both have chosen Caerphilly for their Christmas destination wedding--on the same day, in the same venues. But while they're cousins, they're also lifelong enemies. Mother's efforts to keep the peace are wearing her down, and the battling brides (and their mothers) are making the holiday season miserable for everyone. So Meg steps in to keep the peace. And it was going badly even before she stumbles over the murdered body of the wedding photographer. Unfortunately, there are plenty of suspects-- |
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Batavia Public Library
10 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia, Illinois 60510
630-879-1393bataviapl.org |
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