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| Good Spirits by B.K. BorisonNolan Callahan intends to spend this holiday season exactly like every other; haunting the terrible people of Annapolis in his aimless existence as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Harriet York is a good person, or, at least, she tries to be. A people pleaser to her core, she always does what’s expected of her. So, when Nolan is assigned the sweeter-than-candy-canes antique shop owner for his holiday haunting, neither of them have any idea why. To escape one another, Harriet and Nolan must unravel the threads that bind them together, all by Christmas Eve. Hand in hand, they uncover each other’s pasts, but why is it that Nolan doesn’t want to let go? And might Harriet be the key to giving the Ghost of Christmas Past, a future? |
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The Second Story Bookshop
by Denise Hunter
Shelby Thatcher adores working in the charming small-town bookshop her grandmother opened years ago. Since high school she's helped Gram turn the shop into a community hub for book lovers in the lakeside town of Grandville, NC. When her beloved grandma passes away, Shelby inherits the bookstore. But to her shock, Gram leaves half ownership to Gray Briggs, the man who broke Shelby's heart years ago. Grandville residents have been vilifying Gray as long as he can remember. After graduating high school he couldn't skip town fast enough, even though it meant leaving the girl he'd fallen deeply in love with and alienating her family once and for all. Now he's back, the beneficiary of his elderly friend's will. Facing the town's animosity is difficult, but seeing Shelby again is sheer torture. No one could ever stir his heart the way she did. As the adversaries are forced to work together, Gram's beyond-the-grave scheme is working, Shelby's old feelings for Gray begin to resurface. But the problems that destroyed their relationship before still remain, and a new one surfaces, one that threatens Gram's beloved bookshop. Is their love doomed to fail again, or will they find a way to make it work this time around?
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And Then There Was You
by Sophie Cousens
Chloe is sick of dating. Since her break-up, she can't find what she's looking for, and she's no longer sure if she even knows. But when she's invited to a university reunion, she knows one thing, she can't turn up alone. Especially not with her career going nowhere, despite her best attempts. And especially not when her former best friend Sean will be there: the man she turned down years ago, who is now a successful movie producer in LA. On another bad date and hiding in the toilets, Chloe meets an older woman who hands her a card, for a dating agency called Perfect Partners. With nothing to lose and days until the reunion, Chloe decides to give it a go. And then she meets Rob. He's absolutely made for her. He's everything she's looking for. He's utterly perfect. Isn't he? Chloe realizes that it's time to put love to the test again - but what do you do when your head says one thing, and your heart says another?
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The Earl That Got Away
by Diana Quincy
American Naila Darwish always regretted calling off her engagement to the man she loved because he wasn't successful enough for her family. Eight years later, she travels to England for her sister's wedding and gets the shock of her life when she runs into Basil again. Overjoyed, she wonders if the fates have given her a second chance at love. But Basil Trevelyn is not the same carefree young man Naila rejected all those years ago. Having unexpectedly inherited a noble title, he is now the Earl of Hawksworth, one of England's most sought-after bachelors. Still bitter after Naila's heart-wrenching rejection all those years ago, Hawk is cold and distant, suspecting Naila is after his money and position. When the two lost lovers are repeatedly thrown together, they discover that the chemistry between them burns brighter than ever and that some feelings are too strong to deny. Will they allow pride and lingering resentment to keep them from seizing their last chance at happiness?
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The Everlasting
by Alix E. Harrow
A lady-knight whose legend built a nation meets a retiring historian in awe of her fame. He’s sent back through time to make sure she plays her part, even if it breaks his heart. Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters, but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory, failed soldier, struggling scholar, falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives, and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend, and finally tell a different story, they’ll have to rewrite history itself, and change their lives in the process.
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The Book of Autumn
by Molly O'Sullivan
Try as she might, anthropologist Marcella Gibbons can't escape the fact that she's a dimidium, one half of a formidable pair of Magicians, forever tied together to enable the other's powers. After a tumultuous final year at Seinford and Brown College of Agriculture (and Magic) in rural New Mexico, Cella felt more than a little uneasy about returning to the sun-drenched desert campus ever again. She'd cut ties with her other half, the charming and rugged rancher Max Middlemore, and sworn off Magic, academia, and heartache for good. Until Max turns up at her door, grinning under his cowboy hat for one last favor. Something is shifting at her alma mater, something bigger than anyone understands. One student is dead. Another is floating midair in the infirmary, growling guttural nonsense and terrifying the staff. Their best, perhaps only, chance to intervene requires Cella and Max to work together. But the origins of the disturbances lie centuries ago. To unravel them, Cella will have to confront the truth about her past, and Max. Because she might be challenging a power she could never rival alone.
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The Second Chance Cinema
by Thea Weiss
At the end of a fog-covered alley, glitters a glamorous cinema. It’s nearly impossible to find. When Ellie and her fiancé, Drake, stumble upon it during a late-night walk, they’re shocked to discover what’s playing inside the red-velvet auditorium: their formative memories. Drake fears what the cinema might reveal, but eventually gives in when Ellie insists they return for more viewings. She’s haunted by a night from her past that she doesn’t fully remember. This is her opportunity to piece the story back together. But as the memories displayed on screen inch closer to the present, they realize they’re both keeping secrets from each other. With their wedding on the horizon, Ellie and Drake must decide if seeing their pasts changes their plans for a future together.
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It's Me They Follow
by Jeannine A. Cook
An allegorical love story, a modern day Alchemist meets The Never Ending Story, set in a world where a book shopkeeper becomes a reluctant matchmaker, bringing soulmates together through books. It's Me They Follow is an allegorical love story set in a not so distant past. It follows The Shopkeeper, a bookseller and reluctant matchmaker. Helping others find love through books comes easily for The Shopkeeper, until it is time for her to find love for herself. She secretly yearns for her first customer, ME, who took both her most prized book and a piece of her heart when he left. But just when she begins to lose hope, she discovers that she may hold the key to her own happily ever after as well. Real life Shopkeeper and author Jeannine A. Cook has conjured a magical story that is a book within a book within a book. Soon, readers will find themselves falling under the same love spell as her customers and characters. In this magical bookshop where the line between fiction and reality blurs, stories and real life intertwine in an enchanting and moving narrative about human connection, the power of storytelling, and the spirit of love.
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House of the Beast
by Michelle Wong
Born out of wedlock and shunned by society, Alma found solace in solitude, so long as her mother was by her side. But when illness strikes, Alma reaches out to the father she’s never known and uncovers a dark truth: she’s a bastard of House Avera, one of the four noble families that serve the gods, and her father is a vessel of the Dread Beast, a harbinger of death. To save her mother, Alma agrees to sacrifice her arm in a blood-soaked ceremony that binds her to the Beast. But the cure never comes, leaving her trapped in a hostile, gothic estate, despised by her relatives and used as a pawn in her father’s schemes. Now vengeance drives her, guided by the god who shadows her every step. He appears only to her, a beautiful, monstrous prince, whispering that she’s destined to reshape the world. With his dark magic fueling her, Alma sets out to destroy the House that took everything from her. But as their bond deepens and their plans grow more perilous, she must decide if her god’s honeyed words, and her forbidden feelings for him, are leading her to victory, or dragging the mortal world to ruin.
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| Passion Project by London SperryIf your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably, with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She's a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love. When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports, not anything. Rather than leaving her to ruminate, Henry jumps at the opportunity for adventure: Bennet needs to find a passion for life, and Henry will help her find it. Every Saturday, they’ll try something new in New York City. As friends, of course. As their ‘passion project’ continues, the pair tackle everything from carpentry to tattooing to rappelling off skyscrapers, and Bennet feels her guarded exterior ebbing away. But as secrets surface, Bennet has to decide what she wants, and if she’s truly ready to move on. With emotional resonance and sparkling banter, Passion Project is a fun, flirty, thoughtful story of finding a spark, and igniting happiness. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Albert Lea Public Library
211 E Clark St.
Albert Lea, Minnesota 56007
(507) 377-4350alplonline.org |
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