New and Featured eBooks
June 2025
New eBooks on Libby
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
by Karen Hao

From a brilliant longtime AI Insider with intimate access to the world of Sam Altman's OpenAI, an eye-opening account of arguably the most fateful tech arms race in history, reshaping the planet in real time, from the cockpit of the company that is driving the frenzy.
The Girls Who Grew Big
by Leila Mottley

Banished to her grandmother's small Florida town after becoming pregnant at sixteen, Adela finds an unlikely sisterhood among a group of young mothers who, despite societal judgment, support each other through friendship, love, and the complexities of motherhood and adolescence.
Sunny Side Up
by Katie Sturino

Sunny Greene is thirty-five, recently divorced, facing the looming prospect of going solo to her little brother’s wedding, and currently trying to find anything plus-sized in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit department that doesn’t make her want to cry. It’s not going well. But isn’t rock bottom the perfect place to start a climb?
She decides it’s now or never. Sunny has her PR empire, her gorgeous Chelsea apartment, her two dogs, and her loyal best friends. Maybe it's time to just love her body and accept herself for who she is. With a new commitment to confidence, her journey begins. Who says a plus-sized divorcee can’t put herself first, feel beautiful, and date up a storm?
Of course things are never straightforward in the dating world. Is fate knocking at her door with Dennis, the charming and down-to-earth mailman, or should she be with Ted, the business tycoon who seems ready to make her size-inclusive swimsuit brand a reality? And what should she do about her ex, who shows up unexpectedly, eager to reconnect?
With the same candor and confidence her followers love, Sturino brings us Sunny Greene, a Carrie Bradshaw for the next generation, and her journey through the trials and triumphs of dating, friendship, and finding yourself.
The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club
by Gloria Chao

"The body in the closet was going to be a problem. Kathryn Hu knew it. Yes, Tucker Jones was a cheating scumbag, and yes, she'd agreed to meet Olivia and Elle--Tucker's other girlfriends--to exact revenge for all he'd put them through... But then they found him. Dead...To clear their names, Kat, Olivia, and Elle team up to find the real killer. But as they go undercover and lie to everyone...they realize that every person in their ex's life had a reason to want him dead. Will they uncover the truth before they go down for a murder they didn't commit?"
Don't Open Your Eyes
by Liv Constantine

Shaken by premonitions of a future where she hates her husband and her daughter is in danger, Annabelle's perfect life is shaken forcing her to decipher her visions before a single choice seals her fate and the future becomes reality.
The Poppy Fields
by Nikki Erlick

"Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there's hope for even the most battered hearts to heal. Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain... and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they're willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects. On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way to the Poppy Fields--where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder--each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage"
Before Dorothy
by Hazel Gaynor

"Chicago, 1924: Emily Gale and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago behind for the promise of their own American dream. But leaving the city means leaving Emily's beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world.
Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have made a life in the warmth of the community of Liberal, Kansas, and among the harsh beauty of the prairie. Their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep. The wide-eyed child isn't the only thing to disrupt Emily's world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and their much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy."
Great Black Hope
by Rob Franklin

A young Black man is caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy a friend's mysterious death and his own arrest.
An arrest for cocaine possession in the Hamptons on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a young queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.
It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle, a glamorous member of the Black elite, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle—as well as the lingering questions of how well he really knew his closest friend and what exactly happened to her that night. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, but the weight of expectations from his family of doctors, lawyers, and college presidents only pushes him further into his downward spiral. When his close friend Carolyn goes off the rails, Smith decides to return to New York to find out what happened to her and Elle. But it’s not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life, drawn back into the city’s underworld where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future.
Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the New York City nightlife circuit, anonymous recovery rooms, Atlanta’s Black society set, police investigations and courtroom dramas, and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiraling downward, and how to find a way back to hope.
The Phoenix Pencil Company
by Allison King

"Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she's always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly--especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade. Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica's discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun's own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to reforge a pencil's words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people's stories to survive"
New and Featured eBooks on hoopla
Genetic Traitor
by Mark Hart

A chance run allowed Xu Xiaobai to discover a space where he could edit his genes to accelerate time, and from then on set off a frenzy of genetic evolution!
Countless speculations about genes and evolution, the deeper connection between genes and consciousness, the existence of higher dimensions, and the peculiarities of biological civilization will be revealed one by one ...... When one day, if you control the genes, what will you do?
The Rowans
by Beverly Cooper Pierce

In Massachusetts, in the years between witchcraft delusion and Revolution, a curious, insightful Tamsin Bennett comes of age apprenticed to her Grandmother Cat, child of a healer-mystic accused of witchery.
When Tamsin is stricken one morning with unearthly visions of her Papa, that day inexplicably he is found dead. Now keeping a tavern in a harbor town, she hides in plain sight to carry on the healing work of her foremothers, protects her family from danger, and chooses her lovers with particular care.
A Twin Flame for Fae
by Dawn Bramwell

The village of Maypoleton is revisited, this time by the troubled Fae Winters. Fae has just turned thirty and is on a self-destruct mission, determined to blot out the pain and guilt she feels over the death of her twin sister.
One stormy January night, she is saved from an attack by a thrillingly enigmatic stranger. Fate has brought Fae and Gawain together, just as fate takes Fae back to her roots in Maypoleton. Her arrival in the village is the catalyst for the discovery of grisly remains in the vicarage grounds.
As Fae battles her personal demons, and fights against the heartbreak of rejection from the man she loves, she unwittingly stirs up centuries old emotions and a desire for revenge from the ghost whose remains she has uncovered.
A Twin Flame For Fae is a story of guilt and loss, of rejection and revenge and of twin flame passion. It is provocative and challenging. It is sexy and heartbreaking. It is for anyone who has lost themselves in a deep soul connection.
A Twin Flame For Fae is the second in the Magic of Maypoleton Books.
Sufficiently Analysed Magic
by Christopher G. Nuttall

Part 2 of the Inverse Shadows Universe series
The last thing the hyper-advanced Human Confederation expected to encounter on Darius - a far distant and long lost colony world - was actual magic, sorcerers and magicians and other inexplicable feats that the most advanced technology could not duplicate. Determined to discover the source of the mystery, the Confederation dispatched a survey team to Darius and eventually discovered that the human settlers had tapped into the Darius Machine, an inexplicable piece of alien technology that granted supernatural powers to those capable of calling upon its aid. The Darius Machine was accidentally destroyed, seemingly rendering the former godlike humans powerless, but leaving behind a number of children with strange and often frightening powers of their own.
That was seventeen years ago.
Since then, the Darius Children have been raised on Clarke, an isolated world where they can be studied as well as protected from the remainder of the human race. Their powers appear simplistic and yet very dangerous, provoking fear as well as awe in their teachers; their attempts to expand their abilities, and bring others into their mental network, threaten the very fabric of reality itself. As they start to demand the right to leave their home world, a sociopath strikes and kidnaps one of the Children, intending to sell her to the highest bidder. Another Child must go in pursuit ...
And hidden in the shadows, an unseen manipulator lays the seeds of a galaxy-wide conflagration.
What Not to Do On Vacation
by Rachel Magee

Savannah is determined to reconnect with her two sisters. Her plan? To recreate their epic childhood summers at the beach. A little bit of nostalgia and summer fun will be the perfect antidote to the divide that has been plaguing the Prestley sisters for years. Did the secret she's hiding have anything to do with her planning the trip? Maybe, but that's beside the point. The fact is, everyone could use a little vitamin sea in their life. What could go wrong? Bianca has a surprise. She's getting married! Of course, her sisters aren't as thrilled at the announcement as they should be, which she probably should've expected. Her entire life, she's been trying to prove that just because she's the youngest doesn't mean she's a baby. So maybe she had some trouble getting her act together in the past, but that's different now. She's determined to show her sisters just how together her life is. And if the only way to do that is to find a soulmate for her closed-off-sister to prove that the dating site she used to meet her future husband is legit, then Cora better get ready. She's about to be swept off her feet. Bianca's going to make sure of it. Who's the one lacking follow-through now? Cora knew there was a good reason she does her own thing. It's because people in general, her sisters specifically, are ridiculous. Bianca needs to give up her delusion that this new relationship will work out perfectly. It won't. And Savannah needs to let go of her hopes of Cora getting married. It's not going to happen. She likes being alone. Life is better when she's alone. Safer. But she'll go on this date if it will show her sisters just how ludicrous they're being. And since they set her up with the town playboy who has never been on a second date in his life, proving her point has never been easier. She's got this all under control. At least she thinks she has it under control. Not under control at all.
Off Menu
by Amy Rosen

Twenty-something Ruthie Cohen, a data entry minion for a second-tier movie app, spends her days thinking about the kickass meals she's going to make for her besties, Trish and Lilly, while pining for Dean, her vacation fling from six months earlier. Could they have made it work in real life?
On top of that, Bubbe Bobby Grace, Ruthie's beloved and inspiring grandmother, passed away and left Ruthie an inheritance of $62,873.42, along with instructions on how to use it: "Follow your passion, Dollface." During a prosecco-fueled night with her gal pals, Ruthie decides to turn her passion into a career and learn the art of French cooking, enrolling in culinary school, paying tuition, and buying her chef's whites with a few quick clicks online. It's not long before Ruthie marches into the kitchen and feels the heat from her cooking partner, Jeff, the super hunky musician that weasels his way into her brain - right next to Dean.
How can anyone be expected to focus on school, cooking, career planning, baking, friends, and deciding between two hot guys, especially when one of them also thinks that John Cusack is woefully underrated? And what if neither feels quite like Ruthie's perfect pairing? Mid-20s Ruthie navigates learning what she wants, who to love, and how to laminate pastry in this Heartburn meets Bridget Jones's Diary adventure for the next generation.
Believe Me Now
by S. M. Govett

"Natalie Campbell loses time. She'll wake up in different places with no memory of how she got there. The blackouts are a symptom of her PTSD, which began after she was sexually assaulted by her boss, who was found not guilty. But she found ways to cope by setting up routines and relying on her supportive husband, Ryan. Then one day, her husband is accused of committing the same crime that ruined her life. Natalie desperately wants to believe he is innocent, but when Alice Lytton, the young woman who accused him, is found murdered in the woods near their house, she begins to doubt the man she married."
Gone Dark
by Ryan Steck

Matthew Redd doesn't go looking for trouble. But this time, it's found him anyway . . . and he's not the only one in the crosshairs.
Late-summer wildfires are a fact of life in Montana. But as an inferno nears Wellington, Matthew Redd gets the unusual call that a team of smokejumpers has suddenly gone dark. As head of the county's fledgling search and rescue team, Redd drops into the fire zone and finds way more than he bargained for: a killer has taken out the smoke jumper team along with two civilians, and only a terrified young boy is left as witness. Redd and little Jack narrowly escape the raging fire, and Redd calls in Gavin Kline, now acting director of the FBI, to investigate the bigger forces at play.
That afternoon, during one of her last clinic shifts before the birth of her second child, Emily Redd loses a young patient to an overdose. Fed up with yet another loss to the opioid crisis-this one a former schoolmate and a wounded veteran-Emily tracks down and confronts the retired doctor responsible for feeding her patient's deadly addiction.
Hours later, when their home is attacked, Redd and Emily wonder which of them kicked a hornet's nest-or if they've both stumbled onto pieces of a much bigger puzzle. As the fire closes in, they follow the connections from a corrupt doctor and a local opioid supplier all the way to a murdered whistleblower for a Big Pharma giant. As Redd's concern for young Jack grows, those who want to silence him forever hunt him down. Redd will do whatever it takes to protect the boy and his family . . . even if it means he'll have to outrun an inferno and come face-to-face with his greatest fear.
My Father Always Finds Corpses
by Lee Hollis

"You never forget your first corpse. For former child star Jarrod Jarvis, that discovery was twenty-plus years ago, and a lot has happened since he solved a string of real-life Hollywood murders. Now Jarrod lives in Palm Springs where he writes and directs local theatre, while quietly grieving the loss of his partner, police detective Charlie. Jarrod hasn't disclosed much about his sleuthing past to his daughter, Liv, who just earned a degree in criminal justice. There's been distance between them since Charlie's death, and Jarrod's unsure how to bridge the gap. Liv, meanwhile, has put her career on hold in order to help her filmmaker boyfriend, Zel. His new documentary idea is to track down the surrogate who gave birth to Liv. Skeptical and annoyed by Zel's pressure tactics, Liv goes to confront him at his apartment. But there's no need to break things off--because someone has bludgeoned Zel to death. Jarrod rushes to Liv's aid, surprising his daughter with his ease around a crime scene, firing off questions like a modern-day Columbo with better hair and wardrobe. Another shock is quite how many people had motive to finish Zel off--including a Russian film professor, a former First Lady, and a sexy Secret Service agent. Together, Liv and Jarrod comb for clues across the sun-drenched Coachella valley, growing close again. But while there's nothing like murder to bring a family together, this father-daughter reunion may be short-lived as long as a killer is on the loose"
Plainfield Area Public Library
15025 S. Illinois St.
Plainfield, Illinois 60544
815.436.6639
papl.info