LibraryAware New and Featured eBooks for May 2025

New eBooks on Libby

Boat Baby
by Vicky Nguyen

"In a memoir where heroism meets humor, NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen tells the story of her family's daring escape from communist Vietnam and her unlikely journey from refugee to reporter with laughter and fierce love"

Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths For Our Complex Lives
by Gretchen Rubin

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before distills her key insights into simple truths for living with greater satisfaction, clarity and happiness.

Say You'll Remember Me
by Abby Jimenez

"There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there's nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong... . . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date-possibly the best in living history-Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life-and even a love-worth remembering"

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man)
by Jesse Q Sutanto

When a young woman searching for a missing friend leads Vera to the mysterious murder of influencer Xander Lin, she delves into his enigmatic life, uncovering secrets and identities to help her future daughter-in-law, Officer Selena Gray, solve the case.

Flirting Lessons
by Jasmine Guillory

When shy, newly single Avery enlists flirty heartbreaker Taylor for flirting lessons, their playful arrangement ignites undeniable chemistry, forcing both women to confront their feelings and risk everything for the chance at something real.

Six Days in Bombay
by Alka Joshi

This sweeping novel follows young Anglo-Indian nurse Sona as she embarks on a journey from her home in Bombay, through Prague, Florence, Paris and London, to uncover a mystery and prove her innocence after famous painter Mira Novak dies in her care.

Shadow of the Solstice
by Anne Hillerman

"The Navajo Nation police are on high alert when a U.S. Cabinet Secretary schedules an unprecedented trip to the little Navajo town of Shiprock, New Mexico. The visit coincides with a plan to resume uranium mining along the Navajo Nation border. Tensions around the official's arrival escalate when the body of a stranger is found in an area restricted for the disposal of radioactive uranium waste. Is it coincidence that a cult with a propensity for violence arrives at a private camp group outside Shiprock the same week to celebrate the summer solstice? When the outsiders' erratic behavior makes their Navajo hosts uneasy, Officer Bernadette Manuelito is assigned to monitor the situation. She finds a young boy at grave risk, abused women, and other shocking discoveries that plunge her and Lt. Jim Chee into a volatile and deadly situation. Meanwhile, Darleen Manuelito, Bernie's high spirited younger sister, learns one of her home health clients is gone--and the woman's daughter doesn't seem to care. Darleen's curiosity and sense of duty combine to lead her to discover that the client's grandson is also missing and that the two have become ensnared in a wickedly complex scheme exploiting indigenous people. Darleen's information meshes with a case Chee has begun to solve that deals with the evil underside of human nature"

The Bright Years
by Sarah Damoff

"One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they're unable to shake the pull back toward each other in this big-hearted family saga. Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn't told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn't told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall. When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian's son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family's history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them-or herself-while there's still time. Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love"

The Staircase in the Woods
by Chuck Wendig

Twenty years after a childhood friend vanished on a mysterious staircase in the woods, a group of former high school friends reunites to uncover the truth, facing the dark secrets and horrors that await beyond the staircase.

New and Featured eBooks on hoopla

The River Knows Your Name
by Kelly Mustian

"From the acclaimed author of The Girls in the Stilt House comes a long-awaited novel both atmospheric and lyrical, a haunting Southern story about memory, family secrets, and fierce and fragile love. For nearly thirty years, Nell has kept a childhood promise to never reveal what she and Evie found tucked inside a copy of Jane Eyre in their mother's bookcase-a record of Evie's birth naming a stranger as her mother. But lately, Nell has been haunted by hazy memories of their early life in Mississippi, years their reclusive mother, Hazel, has kept shrouded in secrecy. Evie recalls nothing before their house on Clay Mountain in North Carolina, but Nell remembers abrupt moves, odd accommodations, and the rainy night a man in a dark coat and a hat pulled low climbed their porch steps with a very little girl-Evie-then left without her. In dual storylines, Nell, forty-two in 1971, reaches into the past to uncover dangerous, long-buried secrets, and Becca, a young mother in the early 1930s, presses ahead, each moving toward 1934, the catastrophic year that would forever link them. From a windswept ghost town long forgotten, to a river house in notorious Natchez Under-the-Hill, to a moody nightclub stage, Evie's other mother emerges from the shadows of Depression-era Mississippi in a story of hardship and perseverance, of betrayal and trust, and of unexpected redemption in a world in which the lines between heroes and culprits are not always clearly drawn"

Turn Down the Noise : A Practical Guide to Building an Emotionally Healthy Family in a Chronically Overstimulated World
by Sarah Boyd

Overstimulation is an invisible epidemic in our world―and it is impacting you and your child more than you realize.
If you've felt overwhelmed and burnt out by the exhaustion of daily life, flattened by the sheer amount of noise and distraction in your home, your schedule, your brain, you aren't alone.
What's more, overstimulation is a key driver of our children's behaviors, contributing to increased symptoms in anxiety, depression, and attentional diagnoses. In the fast-paced culture of our world, is it possible to set our children up to thrive in emotional health?
Sarah Boyd (M. Ed Psych), child and adolescent development expert and founder of the educational company Resilient Little Hearts, believes it is possible to turn down the noise of overstimulation and chronic stress for you and your family. In her new book, she gives you the psychological frameworks and simple practical tools to turn down the noise of overstimulation and stress, so that you can cultivate emotional health for your child and family.

What Remains of Teague House
by Stacy Johns

"When the Rawlins family matriarch unexpectedly passes, all three adult children rush home. What they find is a house bursting with grief and, unexpectedly, multiple bodies buried in their woods. One grave dug just this past week... Is Robby, who's hidden multiple affairs and lives as a freeloader on the property, somehow involved in the most recent murder? Is his sister, Sandra, experiencing false memories of her late-father digging near where the old bodies are found? Why is Aunt Phil in such a rush to leave town after her late sister's funeral? Enter Detective Maddie Reed, who has her own reasons for being curious about the bodies buried behind Teague House. Maddie sets out to unmask a killer. One Maddie may have been hunting all her life. WHAT REMAINS OF TEAGUE HOUSE is a moving family mystery with a poignant examination of grief, trauma, and the lengths we'll go to protect the ones we hold dear"

Cattail Lane
by Fran Kimmel

Cattail Lane is an uplifting family drama about overcoming the past and the extraordinary power of second chances
Nick Ackerman's life is an aimless circuit between his uninspiring job and the local bar until a note from a stranger changes everything. He learns he has a 14-year-old son, Billy, whose grandmother can no longer look after him. Railroaded into fatherhood, Nick takes in the resentful Billy and shuffles Grandma Evie off to the nearby dementia ward at Prairie View Manor. Things get off to a rocky start: father and son are little more than strangers, and Nick struggles with his new caretaking role while Billy can't seem to let go of his. Luckily, there is Sarah, a housekeeper in the dementia ward and the single mother of an energetic and offbeat five-year-old. It is Sarah who Nick turns to as a parental role model and maybe something more.
Nick, Sarah, and Billy all carry their own betrayals and disappointments and are used to keeping others at a distance, but during the dog days of summer, they are given a chance to leave past hurts behind and find a new kind of family.
Compassionate and closely observed, Cattail Lane is a moving exploration of forgiveness, second chances, and the everyday moments where we might find our way to one another.

The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice, and the Birth of a Movement
by Brian O'Donoghue

October, 1997. Late one night in Fairbanks, Alaska, a passerby finds a teenager unconscious, collapsed on the edge of the road, beaten nearly beyond recognition. Two days later, he dies in the hospital. His name is John Gilbert Hartman and he's just turned 15 years old. The police quickly arrest four suspects, all under the age of 21 and of Alaska Native and American Indian descent. Police lineup witnesses, trials follow, and all four men receive lengthy prison terms. Case closed.
But journalist Brian Patrick O'Donoghue can't put the story out of his mind. When the opportunity arises to teach a class on investigative reporting, he finally digs into what happened to the "Fairbanks Four." A relentless search for the truth ensues as O'Donoghue and his students uncover the lies, deceit, and prejudice that put four innocent young men in jail.
The Fairbanks Four is the gripping story of a brutal crime and its sprawling aftermath in the frigid Alaska landscape. It's a story of collective action as one journalist, his students, and the Fairbanks indigenous community challenge the verdicts. It's the story of a broken justice system, and the effort required to keep hope alive. This is the story of the Fairbanks Four.

This Promised Land
by Cathy Gohlke

When she ran away as a young war bride, she was cut off from her family forever . . . or so she believed. Decades later, maybe the only way to move on is to go home.
Ginny Pickering Boyden can't wait for her last day of work, when she'll be free to pursue a lifelong ambition through a master gardener apprenticeship. But an unexpected letter brings shocking news: Ginny has inherited her family's Christmas tree farm, a dream she'd long ago given up.
Facing a past laced with memories and lies she's tried hard to bury, a furious nephew who thought the land would be his, and a failing farm with a mountain of debt, Ginny returns to New Scrivelsby, Virginia, determined to sell. But when her younger nephew, a Vietnam vet, appears with demons of his own and three young children in tow, Ginny isn't sure what to do. Too much of their story reminds Ginny of her own. She has little hope, however, that three generations of warring Pickerings can set aside their differences to restore all that's broken, both on the land and in their hearts.
Set against the beautiful and rugged landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains, This Promised Land is the story of a daughter's longing to make sense of the past and of the unbreakable bonds that bring prodigals home

A Lady's Guide to London
by Faye Delacour

"An enemies-to-lovers historical romantic comedy between a grumpy Viscount with a rocky reputation and a bright-as-sunshine heiress determined to make something of herself. If he won't add her business into his guidebook, she'll make him an offer he can't refuse. Della Danby is determined to prove she's more than just a flighty heiress riding on her parents' money to get through life. When her closest friend and business partner finds her hands full with a new baby, Della takes the opportunity to shoulder more responsibility at their ladies' gambling club and secure their financial stability, and she has the perfect idea: to drum up new business by adding their club to a popular guidebook of local attractions. Gambling ruined Viscount Lyman Ashton's life and his marriage. He has no intention of putting a new club in his guide, nor of getting involved with its intriguing and energetic proprietress. But when Della refuses to take no for an answer and approaches his publisher with a plan to write her own book of attractions for ladies, Lyman reluctantly agrees to collaborate with her in exchange for the money he so desperately needs to pay his debts. As they grow closer, Lyman finds himself falling for Della even though his past could jeopardize her reputation. But if they can ever have a future together, Della may have to choose between the club she's worked so hard to build and her chance at love"

Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter
by Samantha Crewson

Thirteen years ago, Providence Byrd threw the family car in reverse and ran over her mother. Even though her mother survived, that single instant of teenage madness made Providence a felon and irrevocably altered her life. When her mother disappears years later under suspicious circumstances, Providence tells herself that returning home is her chance to find closure after a prolonged estrangement from her family. Never mind that this is only half of the truth: she's also returning to finally confront her abusive father, Tom Byrd. Nothing can stamp out Providence's certainty that he is guilty of whatever terrible thing has happened to her mother. As the search unfolds, Providence is haunted by the wounds of her past, none of which cut as deep as the distance between her and her younger sisters. Harmony and Grace are both uniquely scarred by her attempted matricide, and both have their own idea of what reconciliations might look like – if reconciling is even possible. Harmony urges Providence to make their father pay for his sins; Grace begs her to end the cycle of violence that has haunted their family for generations. As her thirst for vengeance collides with her desire to heal her relationships with her sisters, Providence must decide which she values more: revenge or redemption. Sharp and poignant, Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter is a stunning novel that eschews picture-perfect endings and dares to tell a story about a resilient queer woman and her relentless determination to persevere.

Murder by Cheesecake: a Golden Girls Cozy Mystery
by Rachel Ekstrom-Courage

"When Dorothy's obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins a gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf-themed wedding Rose is hosting."