LibraryAware August 2025

Adult Fiction

El Dorado Drive
by Megan Abbott

In Megan Abbott’s latest noir-tinged thriller, three Detroit sisters entangle themselves in the Wheel, a secretive, women-led investment group promising financial salvation. As debts mount and loyalties fray, what began as a sisterhood of support spirals into manipulation, secrets, and escalating danger. El Dorado Drive is a sharp, suspenseful exploration of desperation, power, and betrayal.

Heart marks the spot
by Libby Hubscher

A treasure hunter and the bestselling adventure novelist who broke her heart after one successful expedition reunite for a summer to search for lost riches.

Death at the White Hart
by Chris Chibnall

Leaving Liverpool for her sleepy coastal hometown, DS Nicola Bridge wants to work less and save her marriage. But when the local pub owner is tied to a chair, killed, and left in the road, Nicola puts in long hours with her new team to solve the case. This "spectacular" (Library Journal) debut by the creator of TV's Broadchurch features well-drawn characters and will please fans of Ann Cleeves.

The last assignment : a novel
by Erika Robuck

Fall, 1956. Award-winning but often-maligned combat photojournalist Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle works press for the International Rescue Committee (IRC)-started by Albert Einstein during the Second World War-to bring the plight of the world's war refugees to the American people for their support. Still grieving the death of her mother, just two years after the death of her father, and in the midst of a prolonged and painful separation from her philandering husband, Dickey identifies deeply with displaced people-particularly women, children, and orphans-and longs to help them however she can. After a refugee rescue goes wrong, Dickey finds herself imprisoned in a Soviet camp, and it's there that a flame is lit deep inside her - to be the one of the frontlines showing the world what war really means. Her journey will take her all over the world, and in the most perilous of dangers, Dickey will realize that in trying to galvanize the American people to save the oppressed peoples of the world, that she is saving herself.

The magician of Tiger Castle
by Louis Sachar

The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us. Long ago and faraway (and somewhere south of France), lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance with Oxatania, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and the odious Oxatanian Prince. However, one month before the "Wedding of the Century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures--the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold--he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess--or risk ruin?

Buckeye
by Patrick Ryan

A small-town novel of epic proportions” (Tom Perrotta), this captivating story weaves the intimate lives of two midwestern families across generations, from World War II to the late twentieth century. Sweeping yet intimate, rich with piercing observation and the warmth that comes from profound understanding of the human spirit, Buckeye captures the universal longing for love and for goodness.

The Violet Hour : A Lowcountry Tale
by Victoria Benton Frank

After breakup and personal tragedy, Violet Adams questions her identity while navigating life among her vibrant family on Sullivan's Island, aided by her influencer best friend Aly Knox as they seek reinvention, healing, and purpose in South Carolina's Lowcountry.

Not quite dead yet : a novel
by Holly Jackson

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead. Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she's still waiting for her life to begin. I'll do it later, she always says. She has time. Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder. She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm. Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend. She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she's absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder.

I know how this ends
by Holly Smale

Margot Wayward is in manically gleeful self-destruct mode. Following the implosion of a 10-year relationship, she's willfully derailing her successful career, joyfully taking down men on dating apps and living in total chaos, until she meets the actual man she had pictured in a vision.

Everything is probably fine : a novel
by Julia London

New York Times bestselling author Julia London returns with a story about forgiveness and second chances perfect for fans of The Wedding People and The Husbands. After forty-two years, Lorna Lott is ready to learn where she's going with her life--even if it means revisiting all the places she wishes she hadn't been. It'll be fine. Probably. Maybe.

The witch's orchard : a novel
by Archer Sullivan

Former Air Force Special Investigator Annie Gore is getting by as a private investigator and her latest case takes her to an Appalachian holler not unlike the one where she grew up.

The Grand Paloma Resort : a novel
by Cleyvis Natera

As ambitious resort manager Laura nears a career-defining promotion, her troubled sister Elena becomes entangled in a harrowing scandal involving missing children, forcing both women to confront the brutal realities of privilege, exploitation, and sacrifice within a luxury Dominican resort.

Wrath of the dragons : a novel
by Olivia Rose Darling

In the explosive sequel to the bestselling romantasy Fear the Flames, two fated lovers must unite against warring kingdoms to defend their home and crowns from those who wish to destroy them."

Adult Nonfiction

Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings
by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

National Book Award-nominated poet and novelist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois) makes her genre-defying nonfiction debut with this unflinching and insightful essay collection exploring various crossroads Black women have faced throughout history. For fans of: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker; Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry.

Their Accomplices Wore Robes: How the Supreme Court Chained Black America to the...
by Brando Simeo Starkey

Legal scholar Brando Simeo Starkey's (In Defense of Uncle Tom) richly detailed history explores the role the United States Supreme Court has played in the systemic oppression of Black people. Try this next: The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution by Keith Richotte, Jr.

It Rhymes with Takei
by George Takei, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger; illustrated by Harmony Becker

In his moving and uplifting graphic memoir, iconic Star Trek actor and activist George Takei offers candid reflections on his early childhood spent in Japanese American internment camps, discovering a love of acting after initially studying to become an architect, coming out publicly at age 68, and more. For fans of: the 2014 documentary To Be Takei.

JFK: Public, Private, Secret
by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Kennedy family biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli follows up his bestselling Jackie: Public, Private, Secret with a nuanced and well-researched portrait of America's 35th president, drawing upon interviews and previously unpublished materials to focus on his personal relationships. For more on John F. Kennedy's political life, check out the works of Robert Dallek.

Youth Fiction

Glorious rivals
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Players move into the next round of the Grandest Game, where millions of dollars in prize money are on the line-and new relationships, motivations, and threats come to light.

The pink pajamas : a story about love and loss
by Charlene Chua

A young girl learns to honor the memory of her late Ah Yi, or aunt, and cherish her love through the pink pajamas she once disliked but now treasures as a heartfelt reminder of their bond.

City of dragons. : Quest for the True Dragon 3, Quest for the true dragon
by Jaimal Yogis

Daijiang's continued pursuit of Grace has made it clear that she and Nate are crucial to his plan. But as her Háunxuáe powers grow stronger, Grace can't help but feel it's unfair she might be missing out on a normal school life...She keeps dreaming of her father and his ominous insistence that she must wake the dragon kings. When a trip to rendezvous with an old ally goes awry, Grace and her friends find themselves stranded in Tokyo with only one day to wake the Southern Dragon King. But with the race against the clock exacerbating tensions on the team, can Grace get back in sync with Nate and her friends before it's too late?

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