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New Adult Fiction - Authors P - S |
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Newest items are displayed first. Click on a title for more information or to place a hold. |
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Rocket's Red Glare: A Thriller
by James Patterson
Nat Phillips leads an elite roster of special operators. They are
ex-Special Forces, communications specialists, and intelligence officers. Phillips is a brilliant strategist and battle-tested leader who inspires
total loyalty in his team. Now these decorated veterans of international warfare are at home and on stand-by--until a presidential campaign is interrupted by murder. Suddenly, the plan is no longer the stuff of Mission: Impossible. Emergency operations happening not overseas but in the centers of American power, from Nantucket to Washington, DC. This national crisis is real.
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The Final Target
by Nora Roberts
He showed up at Arden Bowie's debut author appearance with a copy
of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments
and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that. Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her
inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake. An introvert at heart,
Arden had long craved solitude--but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin's wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility. Arden decides to write a new story for herself,
moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his
job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?
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Daughters of the Sun and Moon
by Lisa See
In 1870, three Chinese women arrive in the small, dusty, and violent pueblo of Los Angeles. Dove, the bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar, is entrancing and innocent. These characteristics should bring her great rewards, beginning with her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Petal, the big-footed daughter of peasants, has grown up hungry and with dirt between her toes. In a moment of desperation, Petal's father sells her to buy money for rice seed, and she is loaded onto a ship to the Gold Mountain--America--where she is once again sold. Moon is married to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. She is educated, speaks fluent English, and has been endowed with a face of great beauty, yet her failed footbinding as a child has left her with a
limp that lessens her value in the eyes of many. Each woman has her own desires. Dove wants to love and be loved, Petal desires freedom, and Moon seeks justice. Together they face a larger society that wishes them not one ounce of good will. Anti-Chinese sentiment is strong in
Los Angeles, and this eventually leads to the Night of Horrors during which all three women are challenged in ways they could not have imagined. Brought together by hardship and heartbreak, they must use their bravery, endurance, and ability to eat bitterness to discover their voices, find freedom, and connect through solace and friendship. Together they are daughters of the sun and moon.
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Fever Dream
by Elsie Silver
Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love. He's looking for a paycheck to save his family's farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show,
Romance Ranch, he's already decided it's all one big performance.
Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and
off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, she's the last woman who should pique his interest. Julia has been warned about Emmett.
She knows better than to fall for his cocky swagger, broad shoulders,
and smoldering good looks. Plus, she's sworn off relationships. But as Julia and Emmett work together, mutual distaste grows into an unexpected connection and then... something more. Soon, they find themselves searching for excuses to spend time together and out of reach of the cameras. Knowing glances. Stolen kisses. Secret rendezvous. Still, Emmett signed up to play the role of an eligible bachelor searching for the one. His family's land and legacy depend on him completing the show. The problem is, he's already fallen in love.
Just not with a contestant.
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26 Beauties: A Women's Murder Club Thriller
by James Patterson
From the world's #1 bestselling author, the Women's Murder Club goes searching for 26 Beauties--young women missing in San Francisco. SFPD's Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's best friend, Claire Washburn, is named medical examiner of the year. But an uninvited guest crashes the Women's Murder Club's party: a concerned father seeking investigative reporter Cindy Thomas's help in locating his missing daughter. And she's not the only one. Lindsay's been investigating the deaths of a Jane Doe washed up on a nearby beach, and a young woman found in Golden Gate Park. What if all these cases are connected? The answers lie with the 26 Beauties on the run and in the wind.
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Rites of the Starling: A Slow-Burn Epic Romantic Fantasy
by Devney Perry
Calandra's five kingdoms are on the verge of destruction. The crux migration is coming. And in the wake of a devastating attack, I've been separated from the man who owns my heart. I'm lost. Terrified. Homesick. Hunted by monsters, driven to exhaustion, and kidnapped
by a powerful priest, the only thing keeping me going is the little girl counting on me to keep her safe. It's my turn to become the Guardian. Our lives change one fateful night. A night of death. A night of
monsters. A night of truths. That night, I learn the real meaning of
fear--and the depth of my own strength. Everyone wants me to be something I'm not--a queen, a spy, a sacrifice. But what if I embrace
my crown? What if the secrets I uncover save our realm? What if my sacrifice means salvation for the man I love? For too long, I've feared
the monsters we make. It's time to discover the monster within.
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Shield of Sparrows
by Devney Perry
The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I've spent my life kneeling--to their will and to my father's. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her
own blood. But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father's throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life. Now I'm crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him--bound to
a future I didn't choose and a husband I barely know.
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Accumulation
by Aimee Pokwatka
When documentary filmmaker turned stay-at-home mom Tennessee Cherish moves into the the dream house her husband bought for her, a brighter future seems to be on the horizon. Even if her husband is frustratingly absent due to his new high-paying job. Even if their two young children begin acting out in strange ways. Even if she feels lonelier than ever. Distracted by the endless details that come with moving into a new town, a new house, and new schools, Tenn doesn't notice when odd things begin happening at home. The faucet that runs at all hours. The creepy doll that seems to show up in every room. The human tooth they found in the floorboards. As the kids' outbursts and the strange events start to escalate, the family finds themselves increasingly caught in loops, repeating everyday actions with
dangerous--and then devastating--effects. Tenn realizes she must find the source of what is haunting her family, before it kills them all.
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Five Weeks in the Country
by Francine Prose
In the summer of 1857, when British newspapers warned of an approaching comet about to destroy the earth, an unusual-looking stranger arrived at Charles Dickens's home, Gad's Hill, in the
countryside outside London. Dickens had met Hans Christian Andersen
at a dinner party, a decade before, and, in a moment of desperation,
had invited him to visit. The visit did not go well. The eccentric Danish author of classic fairy tales, who barely spoke English, outstayed his welcome and alienated the Dickens household, which included nine children. Even the oblivious, obsessively self-conscious Andersen
sensed the increasing tension between Dickens and his unhappy wife, Catherine, but was slow to understand—or to believe—that Dickens
had fallen in love with a young actress appearing in his new play. For Andersen, those five weeks were a series of social mistakes and embarrassments but ultimately a lesson in how life's most humbling experiences can be transformed into art.
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Rules for the Summer
by Meghan Quinn
He clicked yes on a dare. She bought a failing candy shop. Now they're neighbors for the summer--and neither is ready for what comes next. Renley Gossage has one shot to prove she's more than Cape Meril's favorite cautionary tale: restore her favorite candy shop before the
town writes her off like they did her father. No help, no shortcuts, and definitely no rich men wielding engagement rings and making things messy. Theo Williams never planned on ending up in Cape Meril. A drunken game of truth or dare turned into a botched online
engagement, and now he's across the ocean, escaping his father's control with nothing but designer shoes, misplaced confidence, and a rental next door to Renley. She's practical, stubborn, and covered in paint. He's posh, persistent, and willing to use a sander if it means earning her trust. Between collapsing drywall, gossiping neighbors, and the chaotic schemes of Renley's aunt, their forced proximity turns into something dangerously close to real. But Renley's future depends on standing on her own two feet, and Theo's past isn't done with him yet. By the time the candy shop doors open, they'll have to decide if this is just a summer fling--or the happily ever after neither of them saw coming.
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Bromantasy
by Roche
Fellas, is it gay to kiss your bff while on a quest through the forest
you're unqualified for? Juniper O'Reilly is good at only two things: demolishing a pint of mead and finding the perfect skincare routine. Everything else--taking care of the farm, bartering for goods, any sort
of manual labor--falls to Juniper's best friend, the absurdly capable, endlessly patient Mo Elmthorn. But when Juniper accidentally
volunteers them both for a quest to kill a fearsome monster, he knows he's finally gotten in over his head. Juniper hates camping, he hates the dark, and there's no way all these foraged mushrooms are going to sit well in his stomach. One thing he doesn't hate? How good Mo's thighs look in his questing pants--he doesn't have time to think about that, though, with a monster to hunt and their futures on the line. But monsters come in all shapes and sizes. When Juniper and Mo realize
that the terrifying beast they've sworn to kill is just a scared little girl torn from her family, they're off to find not only the true villain of the story, but maybe even a happy ending.
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Seek the Traitor's Son
by Veronica Roth
Elegy Ahn did not ask for destiny to find her. She is happy with her life
as a soldier, defending her small country from the Talusar, a powerful nation who worships a deadly Fever - a fever that blesses half of its victims with mysterious gifts. But then she's summoned to hear a prophecy - her, and the most ruthless of Talusar generals, Rava Vidar. Brought face to face, they learn that one of them will lead their people
to victory over the other...but they don't know which. And at the center of both of their fates: a man. A man that, Elegy is told, she will fall in love with. In just one day, Elegy's old life - her job, her purpose, and
her future - is over. She and Rava are destined to collide, with the fate
of their nations hanging in the balance. And when they do, only one will be left standing. Elegy intends to make sure it's her.
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Take Me with You
by Steven Rowley
College professor Jesse del Ruth has been abandoned. Thirty years into their relationship, Jesse witnesses his husband, Norman, get out of bed late one night, walk into their Joshua Tree backyard, step into a strange beam of light and . . . disappear. How could Norman desert him after a lifetime together? Where did he go? And, most confoundingly . . . will
he ever return? Jesse knew they were both feeling stuck, longing for something they couldn't quite name. But was their rut so deep that Norman's only option was to leave Jesse behind? As Jesse struggles to understand Norman's disappearance, he tries to piece together his new reality. Is he expected to wait patiently for a partner who may never come back? Or is this an opportunity for reinvention? He is, after all, alone for the first time in his adult life. Should he return to the classroom? Put in a pool? Get a dog? Call his estranged mother? What does it mean to be alone when you've always been one half of a whole? When Norman's sister, Lally, lands on Jesse's doorstep with an urgent request, Norman's absence becomes even more profound. Before he
can understand how Norman could leave it all behind, Jesse must confront what it means to stay.
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A Fortune of Sand
by Ruta Sepetys
Detroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where glittering wealth conceals a graveyard of secrets. Marjorie Lennox is the youngest daughter of a powerful Detroit dynasty--a family rich in money and
poor in charm. Creative, reckless, and never quite what they wanted, Marjorie has spent her life overlooked by her controlling father and self-absorbed siblings. But when she secretly applies to an elite arts
program backed by a mysterious patron, she grabs the chance to finally step out of her family's shadow. The building is grand. The talent is extraordinary. And something is deeply wrong. The program is strict in ways that feel sinister. Doors lock at strange hours. Rumors spread
about women going missing. And the handsome benefactor behind it
all is as magnetic as he is unsettling. As Marjorie gets pulled deeper
into his world, she must fight to discover the truth before she loses herself completely. Set in the fading splendor of 1920s Detroit and inspired by real, long-buried events, A Fortune of Sand is a glittering, gothic page-turner about power, control, and the price women pay
when they demand to be seen.
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Odessa
by Gabrielle Sher
Yetta is a bright, quick teenage girl with a wild, searching spirit. Stifled by her mother's anxiety, her father's rules, and the path that's been laid out for her, she craves freedom, the edges of which she doesn't know. But her family has reason to be cautious and restrictive. Fear has wrapped itself around their shtetl. Jews are mysteriously disappearing, and there are whispers of an impending attack. When violence comes
to their door, Yetta is killed. Her father, in his grief, fumbles through his nascent knowledge of ancient texts and old magic to bring her back. By some miracle, Yetta is returned--but although she looks the same, she
is not the girl she once was. Yetta senses there is a secret her family is keeping from her. The answer resides, in part, in the creature lurking in the woods beyond the shtetl - something that may be of her father's making, and a being that has plans of its own.
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Glyph
by Ali Smith
It all starts when Petra and her little sister Patch hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost. Is it imaginary? Is it real? Then it all starts again thirty years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom. What to do? She phones her sister. In a chiarascuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, Glyph asks if we're attending to the history that's made us and to the history we're making. A funny, warm and clear-eyed take on where we are now, Glyph is about what our imaginations are for and how, in a broken, brutal and divided time, we rekindle care, solidarity, resistance and openness.
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John of John
by Douglas Stuart
Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry back home to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides to find that little has changed except for him. He returns to the windswept croft and the two pillars of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, tweed weaver, and lay preacher in the local Presbyterian church, and his maternal grandmother Ella, a profanity-loving Glaswegian whose steady warmth helped Cal weather the
sudden departure of his mother. Cal privately wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, while John is dismayed by his son's long hair, strange clothes, and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. But Cal isn't the only one in the croft house who is keeping secrets. As lambing season turns to shearing season, the threads
holding together the community together become increasingly frayed, and nothing will remain as it was before. John of John is a singular
novel about duty, passion, and the transformative power of the truth.
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The Mother-Daughter Book Club
by Susan Patterson
Between their busy lives and their far-flung residences, the Mother-Daughter Book Club--four longtime college friends and their five daughters--more often discuss the books on their nightstands via
2 a.m. texts than in-person meetings. And maybe it's just as well, after what happened at their last get-together. So it's an emotional reunion when they finally gather again, this time on the spectacular shores of Italy's Lake Como. Sightseeing excursions, reminiscing fueled by Como-politans, and a hint of vacation romance all build toward the book
club's trademark Night of Secrets. These friends, and sometime rivals, are close readers--of novels, memoirs, and of each other. But as the years and the distance cast shadows and doubt, confidences and sympathies turn into surprising revelations.
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Ghost Town
by Tom Perrotta
Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey, a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy finds himself lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family, drifting instead into troubling friendships with two older teenagers: one a notorious local burnout with a fast car, an
endless supply of weed, and a shaky grasp of reality; the other a
smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board, which may just offer the only salve to their grief. As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is torn between the occult beyond and the cold realities of the place he has called home. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Ghost Town reveals how the past haunts the present--the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we've left them behind.
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Paradox
by Douglas Preston
When a reclusive man is found dead under grisly circumstances in the Colorado wilderness, CBI Agent Frankie Cash and Eagle County Sheriff Jim Colcord, whom we met in the New York Times bestseller, Extinction, team up again on their most enigmatic and dangerous case yet. Their investigation uncovers a trail of bizarre killings, baffling money
transfers, and a fanatical secret society. And all the while, the resurrected Neanderthals, who vanished into the Colorado mountains, seem to be biding their time for something...spectacular.
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The Mountains We Call Home: The Book Woman's Legacy
by Kim Michele Richardson
In this standalone and companion novel to the The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series, our heroine for the ages, legendary book woman, Cussy Lovett, returns home. A powerful testament of strength, survival, and the magic of the printed word, The Mountains We Call Home is wrapped into a vivid portrait of Kentucky life: examining incarceration and criminalization, exploring the effects on the poor and powerless, and tracing the societal consequences of fractured family bonds, along with nostalgic glimpses of a bustling, multifaceted Louisville, and heartwarming portraits of reading efforts in every facet
of life. Meticulously researched and richly detailed with a new cast of absorbing and complex characters, this beautifully rendered, authentic Kentucky tale is gritty and heartbreaking and infused with hope, spirit, and courage known only to those with no way out.
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Cherry Baby
by Rainbow Rowell
Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making
a movie. Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home.
Tom is the creator of Thursday--a semi-autobiographical webcomic
that's become an international phenomenon. Semi-autobiographical. That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry "Baby." Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby. Cherry never
wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page--
let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store. While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in . . . and wondering who she's supposed
to be without him. One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems
at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album and someone recognizes her from across the room. Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom. Russ knows Cherry.
He likes Cherry. And best of all, he's never heard of Thursday.
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Revenge Prey
by John Sandford
Leonard Summers--not his real name--is on the run. A former high-ranking Russian intelligence officer who defected to the U.S. after providing critical information about Russian spies in U.S. government service, Leonard, his wife Martha, and son Bernard have spent the
past year holed up in a CIA facility near Washington. After the CIA makes a deal with the U.S. Marshal Service's Witness Protection
Program (WPP), Leonard's family is transported to Minneapolis. The
plan is to hide them in a wooded Minneapolis suburb that resembles their former home and dacha near Moscow. The Summers are received at their destination by Lucas Davenport and fellow marshal Shelly
White. Unbeknownst to them, the WPP group has been tracked by a Russian hit team. And while nobody in the WPP has ever been
attacked, Leonard might be the first victim. As shots are fired and enemies dodged, Lucas must move quickly to uncover where the leak
is coming from, before the hit team can strike again.
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Livonia Chow Mein
by Abigail Savitch-Lew
In 1978, two tenements on Livonia Avenue in Brownsville burn to the ground, killing one resident and displacing dozens of others. It remains unclear who set the buildings ablaze, but the survivors are convinced
the culprit is Mr. Wong. Who exactly is Mr. Wong, and what allegedly drove him to this extraordinary act of violence, is the question that consumes this novel as it plunges into four generations of Wong family history. First is Koon Lai, an immigrant who runs a Chinese restaurant
on Livonia Avenue; second, his son Richard, a man desperate for his
own chance at the American Dream; and third, Jason, a poet who
seeks his escape in the bohemian counterculture of the 1970s, but finds himself an unwitting participant in Brooklyn's gentrification. In the 21st century, Jason's daughter Sadie returns to Brownsville as a journalist, determined to unravel the mystery of what happened decades earlier
on the night the buildings blazed. Joining together the present and the past is the community organizer Lina Rodriguez Armstrong, who was
also displaced by that fire and who has spent the intervening years fighting for the rights of Brownsville's residents and organizing a
Livonia Avenue community land trust.
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Star Shipped
by Cat Sebastian
Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can't stand
one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. Now that Simon's contract is finally done, he can move to
New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie. Simon's only problem is that people might assume he's been pushed off the show due to being impossible to work with. Simon
would rather never have to see Charlie again, but reluctantly agrees to stage a very public friendship during the short time before he moves. When Charlie has to leave town to deal with a family emergency, this means Simon comes along. The more he gets to know Charlie, the
more Simon suspects he's underestimated his former coworker. Simon also realizes that after seven years, Charlie might know him better than anyone ever has. Even stranger, Charlie seems to be starting to actually like him, despite knowing him so well. Still, Simon is about to move
three thousand miles away, so whatever's starting between him and Charlie can't really amount to anything... right?
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Go Gentle
by Maria Semple
Adora Hazzard has it all figured out. A Stoic philosopher and divorcée, she lives a contented life on New York City's Upper West Side. Having discovered that the secret to happiness is to desire only what you have, she's applied this insight to blissful effect: relishing her teenage daughter, the freedom of being solo, and her job as a moral tutor for
the twin boys of an old-money family. She's even assembled a coven--like-minded women who live on the same floor in the legendary
Ansonia--and is making active efforts to grow its membership. Adora's carefully curated life is humming along brilliantly until a chance
meeting with a handsome stranger. Soon, her ordered world is upended by black-market art deals, secret rendezvous, and international intrigue. And her past--which she has worked so hard to bury--lands like a bomb in her present. Inflamed by unquenchable desire, Adora finds herself a woman wanting more; and she'll risk everything to get it.
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The Book Witch
by Meg Shaffer
Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical
Nancy Drew. Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not
eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don't even think about it. Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of
Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she's ever caught with him again, she'll be expelled from her book coven--and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name. But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there's only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.
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Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel
by Jane Smiley
Christmas, 1857. America's future is precarious; civil war looms on the horizon. After her abolitionist husband is murdered in the lawless
Kansas Territory, Lidie Newton returns, in mourning, to her hometown
of Quincy, Illinois. But her sisters have little comfort to offer, and Lidie
is haunted by the memories of her failures--until she takes an interest
in her niece, Annie. Beautiful, self-assured, and mischievous, Annie
sticks out in Quincy. She becomes an actress at the local theater, and when she is offered the opportunity to perform abroad, she decides to run away. But travel is dangerous for a young unmarried woman, so Lidie, armed with her pistol and her wit, goes with her. The two women embark on a perilous journey across the Atlantic, rushing toward an unknown future in England. Once they arrive in Liverpool, they vanish into new roles in the household of Annie's benefactor, Mr. Mallory Cunningham. Annie takes a stage name and finds her way to a career, while Lidie becomes her lady's maid. But will either of them be content with her new lot in life?
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A Woman's Place
by Danielle Steel
In April 1912, twenty-three-year-old Lady Victoria Oldbrooke is traveling with her beloved father from England on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. But when the ship strikes an iceberg and lifeboats are lowered with women and children first, Lord Alfred gives his place to another,
and they are separated. Before he goes down with the ship, he asks his friend Bert Banning, a mill owner from Manchester, to promise he'll marry his daughter and care for her. Devastated by the loss of Lord Alfred, Victoria and Bert take comfort in their growing friendship. Bert accepts his role as her guardian but, as friendship turns to deeper feelings, hesitates to propose. Not only is he forty years her senior, but her marrying an industrialist will cause Victoria to be ostracized by the aristocratic world she comes from. But she marries Bert and--cruelly shunned by everyone she knows, even family friends--moves to his home in Manchester. Isolated from her familiar universe and peers, she becomes fascinated by Bert's business and learns all she can about it. When he meets a tragic end, she steps into his shoes and applies everything she has learned, in spite of opposition from all sides.
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American Fantasy
by Emma Straub
When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy
band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped
them since childhood. Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come
up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call
it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part
of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members--not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend--she has accessed a new
sense of possibility. In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, and marriage, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans.
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