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Fiction Finds December 2025 |
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Loca
by Alejandro Heredia
It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other--
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It's Me They Follow
by Jeannine A. Cook
A bewitching novel within a novel--a blend of romance and magical realism, part The Lost Bookshop, part A Love Song for Ricki Wilde--a magical world in which a bookseller becomes a reluctant matchmaker, bringing soulmates together through books-- Provided by publisher.
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The Guest in Room 120
by Sara Ackerman
From USA Today bestselling author Sara Ackerman comes a spellbinding dual-timeline novel set at Honolulu's iconic Moana Hotel, where a real-life mysterious death in 1905 collides with a writer's search for the truth one hundred years later.
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Heart the Lover
by Lily King
From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love. Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
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Buckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Patrick Ryan
In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal's wife Becky has a spiritual gift: she is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they've lost. Margaret's husband Felix is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm's way--until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened. Later, as the country reconstructs in the postwar boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie--but nothing stays buried forever in a small town. Against the backdrop of some of the most transformative decades in modern America, the consequences of that long-ago encounter ripple through the next generation of both families, compelling them to reexamine who they thought they were and what the future might hold--
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A Killer Wedding
by Joan O'Leary
Wildly witty and wickedly fun, A Killer Wedding is a juicy debut whodunit about toxic family dynamics hidden beneath the surface of billionaire-level wealth that reads like The Devil Wear Prada protagonist played a game of Clue at a White Lotus Hotel--Provided by publisher.
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Rage
by Linda Castillo
Summer has arrived with a vengeance in Painters Mill, and a macabre discovery by three Amish children brings the quiet to a grinding halt. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Eicher, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. What twisted individual murdered him in such a sadistic way? The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found, stuffed into a barrel and dumped in a ravine. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel Eicher's best friend. What could these two young Amish men have done to deserve such violent ends? With a heat wave bearing down, Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn't understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men--
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Evil Bones
by Kathy Reichs
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, magnetic thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself enmeshed in a series of grisly animal killings that escalate into something far more sinister. Small creatures--a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel--have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in a bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Ruthie, she's diverted by a disturbing call. The perp is upping the ante. This find could be human. Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone's pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty abhorrent, Tempe agrees to help apprehend the person responsible, and she acquires an equally outraged ally in semi-retired homicide detective Erskine Skinny Slidell. Needing a better understanding of possible motives, Tempe seeks input from a forensic psychologist. The doctor has no definitive answer but offers several possibilities, warning that the escalating pattern of aggression suggests even more macabre discoveries--and a shift in the perp's focus to humans. And then it happens. A woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the animal killings. Subsequently, people Tempe cares about begin to go missing until it becomes clear she is being taunted, the target in a sick game that has her and Slidell racing against a ticking clock and facing a terrifying question: What is pure evil?
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Sharp Force
by Patricia Cornwell
During/the early hours of Christmas/morning, chief medical examiner/Dr./Kay/Scarpetta receives/a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher/has struck again. The/serial killer has/terrorized/Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is/to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move./They wake up to/a ghost-like hologram before being murdered/ in their beds. Scarpetta/is summoned to/Mercy Island, the site of/a notorious/psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from/Scarpetta's/past. It soon becomes apparent that she/ could be next...--Provided by publisher.
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The Librarians
by Sherry Thomas
This delicious murder mystery is a must-read for any library lover --New York Times bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt Murder disrupts four quirky librarians' lives when they try to hide among books to keep their secrets.
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A Slowly Dying Cause: A Lynley Novel
by Elizabeth George
Michael Lobb has just been found dead on the floor of his family's tin and pewter workshop. It's suspicious enough that his body was found by a representative of EcoMining, a company keen on acquiring his family's land, and it's made even worse when he's revealed to have been the majority owner of the business and the sole obstacle preventing a deal from being made. But it doesn't take long for Detective Beatrice Hannaford to unearth the layers of estrangement that surrounded Michael in his final days, pointing suspicions elsewhere. In comes Kayla, a young woman half Michaels' age, who has just been made a widow. Detective Inspectors Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers are brought in to help solve the crime and search for justice amid a community that already trusts no one and fears any outsiders.--Provided by publisher.
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The Hallmarked Man: A Cormoran Strike Novel
by Robert Galbraith
A dismembered corpse is discovered in the vault of a silver shop. The police initially believe it to be that of a convicted armed robber -- but not everyone agrees with that theory. One of them is Decima Mullins, who calls on the help of private detective Cormoran Strike as she's certain the body in the silver vault was that of her boyfriend -- the father of her newnorn baby -- who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The more Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott delve into the case, the more labyrinthine it gets. The silver shop is no ordinary one: it's located beside Freemasons' Hall and specializes in Masonic silverware. And in addition to the armed robber and Decima's boyfriend, it becomes clear that there are other missing men who could fit the profile of the body in the vault.--
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Watsonville Public Library
275 Main St. Suite 100
Watsonville, California 95076
(831) 768-3400
Library Website
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