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Fiction Finds
February 2026 |
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Otherwise Engaged
by Susan Mallery
A twisty, tender and wise look at how secrets can transform the powerful--and sometimes problematic--bond between mothers and daughters, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery. A heartfelt novel about the complicated bonds between mothers and daughters, the story follows two women who keep secrets about their engagements—and the past. When a long-buried truth about an adoption resurfaces, two families are forced to confront how old choices shaped their lives, and whether they can redefine who they are now.
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Dream State: Oprah's Book Club
by Eric Puchner
Set in the American West, Dream State follows three lifelong friends whose lives are reshaped by betrayal. On the eve of her wedding to Charlie, Cece falls for his best friend, Garrett, a choice that alters all their futures and ripples through marriage, parenthood, and generations. Years later, their children repeat these patterns of love and heartbreak amid a landscape increasingly scarred by climate change. With quiet power, the novel explores marriage, loss, and the fragile beauty of impermanence.
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Hazel Says No
by Jessica Berger Gross
When Hazel Blum's father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother Claire, a clothing designer, and her father Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother Wolf spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town's sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family. Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this ... fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with ... empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one ... family and the essence of life in small-town Maine--
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Deadly Storms
by Christine Feehan
Shabina Foster does her best to lead a normal life. She takes comfort in her friends and her dogs and finds passion in running her own small-town cafâe in the eastern Sierras. But she can't help always looking over her shoulder, not after what happened in her past. Since then Shabina has worked very hard to build herself up and live life to the fullest. Still, there's no denying the scars she carries. Truly opening up her guarded world seems like an impossible dream--especially when it comes to the one man who makes her feel safe. Shabina already feels like she's ruined his life and is determined to keep her distance, even as the ghosts of her past emerge from the shadows--
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The Tin Men
by Nelson DeMille
Army CID Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor team up for their toughest assignment yet as they are dispatched to Camp Hayden to investigate the death of Major Roger Ames, the chief scientist in charge of the top-secret war games being conducted between a platoon of Army Rangers and a fleet of 'lethal autonomous weapons.' Brodie and Taylor find themselves at ground zero of the next generation of warfare, and must untangle the complex web of alliances, animosities, and secret agendas among the men and women of the isolated facility. In a place cut off from the world and exposed to the harsh desert elements, everyone is a suspect -- from the zealous camp commander who pushes his men to the limit, to the Rangers slipping into madness due to isolation, grueling training, and rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, to the late Major Ames's own research colleagues. Brodie and Taylor must uncover layers of deception to find the hidden hand behind the murder of Major Ames, and the real purpose of the activities at Camp Hayden and its terrifying arsenal of next-generation weapons.
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The Award
by Matthew Pearl
David Trent is an aspiring novelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, trying to navigate his ambitions in a place that has writers around every corner. He lives in an apartment above a Very Famous Author named Silas Hale who, beneath his celebrated image, is a bombastic, vindictive monster who refuses to allow his new neighbor even to make eye contact with him--until young David wins a prestigious award for his new book. Suddenly Silas is interested--if intensely spiteful. But soon, the administrator of the award comes to David with alarming news, forcing the writer into a desperate set of choices--
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Atlas of Unknowable Things
by McCormick Templeman
Perfect for fans of The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, with a modern gothic twist. High in the Rocky Mountains on a secluded campus, sits Hildegard College, a celebrated institution known for its scientific innovation and its sprawling, botanical gardens. Historian Robin Quain has been awarded a residency to examine Hildegard's impressive collection of ancient manuscripts, but she has a secret. She's actually on the hunt for an artifact--one she must find before her former best friend turned professional rival gets his hands on it first. But Hildegard has secrets of its own. Strange sounds echo across the alpine lake, lights flicker through the pines, and the faculty seem more like Jazz-age glitterati than academics. And then there's the professor who holds the key to Robin's research. She vanished suddenly last spring. What exactly did she do at the college, and why does no one want to talk about her? As Robin searches for answers, an unknown source sends her a series of cryptic messages that makes her question whether she's the one doing the hunting, or whether someone is hunting her. Drawing on historical, botanical, and occult research, and steeped in the gothic tradition, Atlas of Unknowable Things considers what it means to search for meaning in the scientific, only to come face to face with the sublime.
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Soyangri Book Kitchen
by Kim Jee Hye
With good books, good food and companionship, the Book Kitchen fills people's tired souls. Yoojin, who grew up in Seoul, opened the Book Kitchen by chance in Soyangri, a village two hours from Seoul by car. The Book Kitchen functions as a bookshop and cafe. The second function of the Book Kitchen is a Book Stay, where one can stay overnight in one of the building's four complexes. Over the course of one year, multiple characters each find comfort and hope at Yoojin's Book Kitchen. From a music idol facing an identity crisis, to a promising lawyer beset by an unsettling medical diagnosis, to a young, failed music director who has had to rein in his dreams, they happen upon Soyangri at pivotal moments in their lives--
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Loved One
by Aisha Muharrar
When her first-love-turned-close-friend, Gabe, dies unexpectedly at twenty-nine, thirty-year-old Julia is launched into an intercontinental quest to recover his lost possessions. Her journey takes her from Los Angeles to London and into the murky realm of the past. It also sets Julia on a collision course with the last woman he loved, a guarded, self-possessed florist and restaurateur named Elizabeth, who insists on withholding Gabe's beloved guitar-one of the departed indie rock musician's dearest belongings-for reasons Julia can't understand. Both women, it turns out, have something to hide, and soon and themselves engaged in a complex dance of withholding and revelation--
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Hidden Hero: A Classic Western Novel
by Robert Vaughan
SECRETS, LOVE, AND GUNFIGHTS COLLIDE IN THE OLD WEST.Smith is just a barroom piano player in Casper, Wyoming, with a secret-the kind of secret that gets men killed.When young Eliza Whitlock arrives in town, she quickly falls in love with Smith. But an ambitious man working for her father, a stagecoach tycoon, has other plans for Eliza-and for the town of Casper. His scheme is simple: destroy the local stage line, take control of the town, and force Eliza into a marriage, earning her father's approval in the process.As bullets fly and the townsmen take sides in the fight for the lucrative stage route in and out of Casper, Smith digs his heels in to help the town. Too bad a gunslick discovers his secret in the process and decides to give the piano man a one-way ticket to hell.
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Robert B. Parker's Showdown
by Mike Lupica
Spenser may have uncovered an explosive secret that threatens the career of a controversial figure, in this latest installment of Robert B. Parker's beloved series. Vic Hale isn't anyone's idea of a father figure. He is one of the biggest - and loudest -- podcasters in the nation and got there by spewing overheated rhetoric that's reviled by some but loved by even more. His particular brand of entertainment is so successful, he's about to sign the biggest contract in the history of online broadcasting. Vic's riding high...until he gets a visit from Spenser, who specializes in bringing guys like Hale back down to Earth. Spenser is there on behalf of Daniel Lopez, a young man who believes Hale may be his father. It's a potentially explosive revelation for a man in the podcaster's position and it might even be enough to blow up his massive new deal. That could explain the bodies that start popping up - bodies connected in one way or another with the mystery surrounding Daniel's birth. There are a lot of questions remaining, and Spenser's going to have to find the answers before someone shuts Hale or Daniel up for good.
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The King's Ransom
by Janet Evanovich
Gabriela Rose, recovery agent extraordinaire, can find just about anything. Too bad she can't seem to lose her gorgeous-but-infuriating ex-husband Rafer Jones. And now he needs her help. His cousin Harley is in trouble. ... As the president of a too-big-to-fail bank, he invested an astronomical amount of money in insuring some of the world's most priceless artifacts at the urging of his board. It seemed like a low-risk, high-reward business move, so he jumped in with both feet. But recently, these insured pieces started going missing and worse, there's no paper trail of Harley being directed to make these risky investments. Unless the artwork can be recovered soon, it looks like Harley is going to be heading to jail as the fall guy for an ingenious crime--
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The Hidden City: A Charles Lenox Mystery
by Charles Finch
Set in Victorian London, amateur sleuth Charles Lenox investigates a long-cold murder marked by a mysterious symbol carved into a doorway. As the pattern leads from East London’s slums to the halls of Parliament, Lenox navigates political intrigue, social upheaval, and personal tensions, uncovering a conspiracy hidden within the city itself.
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From Cradle to Grave
by Rhys Bowen
New mother Lady Georgiana Rannoch juggles royal duties and childcare when a string of mysterious deaths among young men draws her into another investigation. As she searches for a new nanny in London, Georgie uncovers signs of a serial killer—and fears her husband may be the next target.
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Die Another Dane
by Laurien Berenson
After seeing a Great Dane at a dog show, Melanie's younger son Kevin has become obsessed with the giant breed. ... Aunt Peg introduces Melanie and her son to Audrey Kane, a charming older woman who breeds and shows the big dogs. Aware of Melanie's talent for sleuthing, Audrey asks for her help in finding a missing brooch. She suspects her stepsister Lara. Sam and Melanie are showing their Standard Poodle puppy Plum at a dog show where Lara will also be exhibiting her Great Dane. Melanie makes contact with Lara but gets no answers. When Audrey is found dead in her home, Aunt Peg enlists the help of the local Great Dane Club to foster Audrey's 10 dogs, one of whom Melanie takes on--
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Want to request any of these titles? Place a hold through the online catalog or call the library 831-768-3404 for assistance. |
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Watsonville Public Library
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