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Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather FawcettAgnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats. Now it's the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock--who also happens to be the world's most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past--including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse. Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop--and the cat shelter--in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart. Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn't need in her life: chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he's more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue--and romance--in her life. After all, second chances aren't just for rescue cats. . . .
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The Bookbinder's Secret by A. D. BellLilian (Lily) Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father's failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man's profession. But when she's given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder. Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit. Lily's search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian's world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life.
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The Exes: A GMA Book Club Pick by Leodora DarlingtonWho hasn't wanted to murder an ex--figuratively, at least? In this explosive debut thriller, a woman's seemingly perfect romantic life is on the verge of collapse as she uncovers a hidden history surfacing dark secrets that have deadly consequences. Natalie has only ever wanted to find the one. The perfect man, the happy family she never had. But each time she thinks she is finally getting somewhere, she's bitterly disappointed. Another red line through a list of exes. And that was before the night of the Big Fallout that left her even more alone. Then along comes James--wonderful, handsome James--and Natalie thinks her luck has finally turned. Maybe he's the one for her. Maybe he's the one she's been waiting for all along. Maybe he won't wind up dead. But the harder Natalie tries to be a normal wife, the more world-upending truths are brought to her door, leaving her unsure of who she really is, and much less what she'll do . . . leaving her to question whether there is a monster within her or whether there is a villain toying with her from the outside. What's the secret story behind Natalie's dead exes? Will she and James survive their marriage? And do either of them deserve to?
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Family Drama by Rebecca FallonIn New England, Susan Bliss is a young mother married to a professor. In LA, Susan Byrne stars in a soap opera beloved coast to coast. Decades after she's gone, her twins have no idea of their mother's fame. But the past can't stay hidden forever. It's 1997, and snow is blanketing a New England beach. Two befuddled seven-year-olds watch as their mother's body is tipped overboard a crumbling boat. A Viking funeral, followed by a raucous wake. A send-off fit for soap opera star: Susan Bliss. Fifteen years earlier, Susan is a blazing, beautiful young woman, passionate about her art. It's impossible not to fall in love with her, and so Alcott, a practical professor, does--hopelessly. And so begins the love story of Susan's two-paneled life: an unconventional, jetlag-filled arrangement that takes her back and forth between her life in New England as a wife and mother to young twins to the bright lights of Los Angeles, where she becomes the beloved star of a daytime soap. In the present, Susan's twins grow up in the shadow of her all-consuming absence. Sebastian, a sensitive artist, cleaves to her memory, fascinated with the artifacts of her starry past. Viola, resentful of her mother's torn allegiances, distances herself from the memories of her. But when Viola runs into her mother's old costar Orson Grey--now a renowned Hollywood star--she finds herself falling deeply in love with him and begins to put together the pieces of a mother she never really knew. Sharp, assured, and beautifully written, Family Drama is a story told in double-helix, with intertwined timelines that explore the different versions of ourselves we share with the world and with each other.
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Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl by Julie MurphyMaddie Kowalczk is ready to be a bad girl. When the rookie lecturer lands at Astra University, she's looking to start fresh after a messy breakup. But her first night in town takes a twist when she bumps into Bram Loe--a reserved but incredibly handsome single dad she (not so accidentally) stole a parking spot from earlier that day. The unspoken chemistry as he locks eyes with her while she gets a birthday spanking at a local bar is hotter than a Bunsen burner at full flame.Bram is looking for a break from his hectic life as an ecology professor and dad to rambunctious twins and a busy teenager. So when his college friend's divorce celebration brings him face-to-face with the same delectable brat who stole his parking spot, he's ready for a night to remember. But the next morning, Bram's world turns upside down (and that's not just the hangover talking). His new nanny? None other than Maddie, who also happens to be the new poli-sci adjunct at the university where he teaches. Maddie is desperate and broke, so when Bram offers her a raise and the chance to set some ground rules, she can't say no. As the two settle into their new roles, the normally unruffled Bram finds that no one riles him up like Maddie does, which is a problem when every argument feels like foreplay. Of course, Bram is an educator first and foremost, and he very quickly finds he can't resist the temptation of instructing Maddie in the fundamentals of being a good girl. And it turns out Maddie's a hands-on learner...
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The Hadacol Boogie: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee BurkeWhen a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux's property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks on an investigation that brings him into the most dangerous moments of his career and threatens the lives of Valerie and his daughter Alafair. He encounters a local handyman who leaves cryptic notes and warns of the ghosts who roam the shores of the bayou and is targeted by a vicious New Orleans button man and gangsters from the north. Through brilliant prose and a quintessential cast of characters, James Lee Burke weaves a portrait of a gritty, violent Louisiana at the turn of the 20th century. Visceral, atmospheric, and wholly original, The Hadacol Boogie brings to life Dave Robicheaux's fierce determination to confront evil both past and present.
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Half His Age by Jennette McCurdyWaldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn't know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn't? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it's just enough that he sees her when no one else does. Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles--or attempts to overcome them--in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.
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Hemlock by Melissa FalivenoSam, finally sober and stable with a cat and a long-term boyfriend in Brooklyn, returns alone to Hemlock, her family's deteriorating cabin deep in the Wisconsin Northwoods. But a quick, practical trip takes a turn for the worse when the rot and creak of the forest starts to creep in around the edges of Sam's mind. It starts, as it always does, with a beer. As Sam dips back into the murky waters of dependency, the inexplicable begins to arrive at her door and her body takes on a strange new shape. As the borders of reality begin to blur, she senses she is battling something sinister--whether nested in the woods or within herself. Hemlock is a carnal coming-of-addiction, a dark sparkler about rapture, desire, transformation, and transcendence in many forms. What lives at the heart of fear--animal, monster, or man? How can we reject our own inheritance, the psychic storm that's been coming for generations, and rebuild a new home for ourselves?.
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How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee ThompsonWhen Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn't expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime. Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie's extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can't help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other survivors. Will she make it through the bloodshed to find her Happily Ever After? Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another ending in mind?
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Mass Mothering
by Sarah Bruni
A haunting, indelible novel of collective grief, resistance, and the radical, life-affirming virtue of testimony A. is an amateur translator, living alone in an unforgiving, late-capitalist metropolis. Adrift and burdened by debt following a medical trauma, she makes rent caring for a young boy who is not and could never be her own. Her nights are spent on the dance floor, chasing spontaneous connection. There, she encounters N., who shares her numbed state and sometimes her bed. Among N.'s meager possessions, A. comes across a slim book about an unnamed foreign town of disappearing boys. The book, Field Notes, documents the stories of a community of mothers who assemble to mourn their missing sons together. A. is transfixed by this collective chorus of primal grief, the mothers' preternatural strength, and their intuitive care for one another. When a near-assault stuns A. out of her inertia, she takes off for the city where Field Notes was written in search of its author and the end of the story. But A.'s digging leads her instead to the traces of a murdered poet, a mysterious woman whose legacy will intersect unexpectedly and pivotally with A.'s own life. Poignant and profoundly humane, Mass Mothering is told through layered voices, written fragments, and recorded testimonies. It is a luminous story of the mutuality of grief, the aftershocks of violence in a globalized era, and the world-bending force of a mother's love.
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Mists Over the Channel Islands: A Novel of World War II
by Sarah Sundin
The German invasion of the British Channel Islands shatters Dr. Ivy Picot's peaceful world, and she risks her life treating escapees from labor camps. Dutch engineer Gerrit van der Zee crosses paths with Ivy while building enemy fortifications. As their missions grow increasingly dangerous, they must decide if love can survive the cost of defiance?
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Operation Bounce House by Matt DinnimanAll colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do was run the family ranch with his sister, maybe play a gig or two with his band, and keep his family's aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots ticking as long as possible. He figures it will be a good thing when the transfer gate finally opens all the way and restores instant travel and full communication between Earth and his planet, New Sonora. But there's a complication. Even though the settlers were promised they'd be left in peace, Earth's government now has other plans. The colossal Apex Industries is hired to commence an eviction action. But maximizing profits will always be Apex's number one priority. Why spend money printing and deploying AI soldiers when they can turn it into a game? Why not charge bored Earthers for the opportunity to design their own war machines and remotely pilot them from the comfort of their homes? The game is called Operation Bounce House. Oliver and his friends soon find themselves fighting for their lives against machines piloted by gamers who've paid a premium for the privilege. With the help of an old book from his grandfather and a bucket of rusty parts, Oliver is determined to defend the only home he's ever known.
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This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal MueenuddinOrphaned as a little boy and fending for himself in the city streets, Yazid rises to a place of responsibility and respect in the Lahore household of Colonel Atar, a powerful industrialist and politician, only to find that position threatened by conflicting loyalties and misplaced trust. Born on Colonel Atar's country estate to a poor gardener, Saqib is entrusted with the management of a pioneering business, but he overreaches and finds himself an outlaw, confronting the violence of the corrupt Punjab Police. The colonel's son competes with his cherished brother for the love of a woman and discovers that her choice colors his life with unexpected darkness as well as light. In matters of power and money and the heart, Mueenuddin's characters struggle to choose between paths that are moral and just and more worldly choices that allow them to survive in the systems of caste, capital, and social power that so tightly grip their culture. Intimate and epic, elegiac and profoundly moving, This Is Where the Serpent Lives is a tour de force destined to become a classic of contemporary literature.
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One & Only: A Read with Jenna Pick by Maurene GooShe knows what her happily ever after looks like. And it's not him. Cassia Park believes in soul mates. Fated love stories. It's her family business, after all--for centuries, from Korea to Los Angeles, Park women have peered into clients' past lives to find their one true love, their fated. This magical secret is why One & Only Matchmaking has a 100% guarantee...for everyone but Cassia. For ten years, Cass has been searching for her fated, a man named Daniel Nam. But he's still nowhere to be found. And so, on the eve of her 40th birthday, Cass decides to do something for herself. She impulsively has a fling with Ellis. He's twenty-eight, indecently handsome, and not destined to be the love of her life. But she's surprised by their connection and their fling feels like something more--up to the moment he introduces her to his boss...Daniel Nam. As she battles between fate and chance, head and heart, a family secret is revealed that will make her question everything she's ever known. Cassia will have to decide if she'll follow her fate...or make her own.
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The Briars by Sarah CrouchWhen Annie accepted a job as park ranger in the small Pacific Northwest town of Lake Lumin, she was desperate to get away from a relationship gone bad. Her first order of business is to track down a cougar that's been spotted in the area. As she warns neighbors of the looming threat, she quickly discovers not everyone in this tight-knit community is welcoming of a woman park ranger, except for Daniel, a reclusive carpenter who lives on the edge of town. They form a quick bond, even though he keeps details from his past hidden. When birdwatchers stumble upon the body of a young woman amidst the foggy peaks of Mount St. Helens, all eyes turn to Daniel as a suspect. Annie, who is helping the local sheriff with the case, must rely on her extensive wilderness training and trust her instincts to piece together what happened, while the murderer watches her every move. Urgent and emotionally rich, this alluring literary thriller is full of twists and turns, examining the lengths a small-town community will go to protect its own--
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Dear Debbie by Freida McFaddenSometimes, enough is enough...Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction. Or at least, she did. These days, Debbie's life seems to be spiraling out of control. She just lost her job. Something strange is happening with her teenage daughters. And her husband is keeping secrets, according to the tracking app she installed on his phone. Now, Debbie's done being the bigger person. She's done being reasonable and practical. It's time to take her own advice. And now it's time for payback against all the people in her life who deserve it the most.
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The Elsewhere Express
by Samantha Sotto Yambao
You can't buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it's a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace, and belonging. Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead. One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she's swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world. Together they find a train full of wonders, from a boarding car that's also a meadow to a dining car where passengers can picnic on lily pads to a bar where jellyfish and whales swim through pink clouds--
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Jigsaw: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan KellermanThis one looked like a slam dunk: a young woman found dead at her kitchen table, DNA on cigarette butts linking quickly to an ex-boyfriend with a criminal record. Or so homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis thought. Then everything changed and a quick close turned into a mind-bending whodunit. That's when Milo called in psychologist Alex Delaware, his best friend and a long-term consultant on those cases. The ones that are different. Then there's another one: an old woman found brutally murdered, her body stashed in a deep freeze and mutilated. And when Milo learns who she is, he's stunned. This victim is someone he once knew. Complicating matters further, her home is an extreme hoarder's den, virtually impassable due to years of stored trash and apparently meaningless objects. Except for the envelopes of cash stashed among the garbage. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into the seemingly unrelated crimes, they discover shocking links between the victims and realize they have a labyrinthine--and deadly--puzzle to solve. Cast against the unforgettable L.A. ambience unique to the novels of Jonathan Kellerman, this is classic Delaware at its best.
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Next Time Will Be Our Turn
by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Izzy Chen is dreading her family's annual Chinese New Year celebration, where they all come together at a Michelin-starred restaurant to flaunt their status and successes in hopes to one up each other. So when her seventy-three-year-old glamorous and formidable grandmother walks in with a stunning woman on her arm and kisses her in front of everyone, it shakes Izzy to her core. She'd always considered herself the black sheep of the family for harboring similar feelings to the ones her Nainai just displayed. Seeing herself in her teenage granddaughter's struggles with identity and acceptance, Magnolia Chen tells Izzy her own story, of how as a teen she was sent by her Indo-Chinese parents from Jakarta to Los Angeles for her education and fell in love with someone completely forbidden to her by both culture and gender norms--
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The Poet Empress
by Shen Tao
Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves. Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel, dissolute heir of the blood-gutted Azalea House--where poetry magic is power, but women are forbidden to read. But in a twist of fate, the palace now stands on the knife-edge of civil war, with Wei trapped in its center--with a violent prince. To save herself and the nation, she must survive the dangers of court, learn to read in secret, and compose the most powerful spell of all. A ballad of love--and death--
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Robert B. Parker's Big Shot by Christopher FarnsworthFresh off an acquittal in a multibillion-dollar fraud case, Ramsey Devlin doesn't think the law applies to him. This becomes apparent when Jesse finds him passed out, drunk, and on the side of the road in a McLaren worth more than most people's homes. After Devlin takes a swing at him and Jesse swiftly dumps him in the drunk tank, Jesse realizes he's made an enemy. Devlin makes it his life's mission to use his money and influence to provoke Jesse. And thanks to a few big campaign donations, he's got Jesse's nemesis, Gary Armistead, the mayor of Paradise, on his side. Devlin's even got Molly Crane, Jesse's deputy chief, wanting to act on her violent urges. Jesse has every reason to want Devlin out of his town. But when he vanishes, and bloodstains are found on the carpet of his monstrous seaside mansion, Jesse finds himself the main suspect in Devlin's disappearance. Suspended from his position as chief, Jesse must solve the case and prove his own innocence--or he might be the one to wind up behind bars.
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Sacrament
by Susan Straight
In August 2020, a group of nurses are working in the ICU at a hospital in San Bernardino at the height of a Covid surge: Larette Embers, whose husband, Grief, is an animal control officer; Cherrise Martinez, whose husband died years ago in a car crash, and whose daughter Raquel has been sent to a Coachella date farm to live with her great-aunt to avoid the virus; and Marisol Manalang, born in the Philippines but based in Sacramento. To safeguard their families, the nurses are living in a makeshift RV camp close to the hospital; they share food and cigarettes yet keep their work private. For this is a country in crisis, and they are assisting strangers at the edge of death with infinite tenderness and growing desperation. As the nurses struggle with the skyrocketing number of sick patients, Cherisse's daughter goes missing. Grief's friend Johnny Frias, a California Highway Patrol officer, joins the search to find her, and the resulting journey leads to new love and loss, pushing all our characters to their breaking points--
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The Time Hop Coffee Shop
by Phaedra Patrick
Greta Perks was once the shining star of the iconic Maple Gold coffee commercials, the quintessential TV wife and mom. Now fame has faded, her marriage is on the rocks, her teenage daughter has become distant, and Greta's once-glittering career feels like a distant memory. When Greta stumbles upon a mysterious coffee shop serving a magical brew, she wishes for the perfect life in those past Maple Gold commercials. Next thing she knows, Greta wakes in the idyllic make-believe town of Mapleville, where the sun always shines and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and second chances fill the air--
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Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief by T. KingfisherNo one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in 'cowardly' and 'lazy,' too, for good measure. But goblins don't go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece. Unfortunately, between them and safety lies a forest full of elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures--a human being--
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Book of Forbidden Words by Louise FeinFrom bestselling author Louise Fein comes a new historical novel about an encrypted manuscript that unleashes a chain of consequences across 400 years, set in a world of banned books, fear of new ideas, and the dangers of censorship, perfect for fans of The Briar Club and Weyward--
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The Devil's Bible: A Cotton Malone Novel by Steve BerryFormer Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, is called to Sweden when the younger sister of King Wilhelm I is kidnapped. The ransom demand? Hand over an 800-year-old book, the Codex Gigas--the largest illuminated medieval manuscript in the world. Claimed as war loot from Bohemia in 1648, it's been kept in Stockholm for nearly 400 years. Along the way it also acquired another more mysterious moniker ... The Devil's Bible. Now the Czech Republic wants the codex back, and Sweden has agreed to return it, but forces are at work to stop that deal from happening. The likely instigator? Russia. Who is also top of the list for possible kidnappers. It's up to Cotton and Cassiopeia Vitt to locate the king's sister, secure the codex, and thwart the Russians. Yet nothing is as it seems. Trusted allies become hostile enemies. Long-standing enemies suddenly shift into partners. Making matters worse, an array of conflicting personalities re-emerge from Cotton's past, transforming an already chaotic international situation into something far more personal and deadly. From the cobbled streets of Stockholm with its placid waterways and picturesque islands, to the hostile skies over the Baltic Sea, and finally onto a fabled 16th century Swedish warship, Cotton and Cassiopeia come face-to-face with the unthinkable--changing both of their lives forever.
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The Hard Line by Mark GreaneyCourt Gentry's current family operates out of an office park in Norfolk, Virginia. Ghost Town is an off-the-books direct action team run by Matt Hanley, former CIA deputy director. They take on the jobs the Agency needs handled discreetly, and those jobs are rolling in. Somewhere at the top of the US intelligence apparatus, security experts and intelligence operations worldwide are being threatened. It starts with a blown safe house in Tunis. Then Court himself barely escapes from an ambush in the jungles of Nicaragua. Now, key members of the US counterintelligence community are being assassinated in their own neighborhoods. With the feds compromised, it's up to Court and his team to stop the hit squads. But eliminating professional kill teams may be the least of the Gray Man's worries when he finds himself targeted by the legendary assassin code-named Whetstone--a man driven out of retirement by a very personal quest to rain down hellfire on Court and everyone he's ever loved, starting with the father he hasn't seen in twenty years--
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I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus CraigAfter a decades-long stint in prison, former serial killer Carol is looking to kick back and relax in her new retirement home...until a fellow resident drops dead and Carol has to prove she actually didn't do it this time... Carol is delighted to be leaving her tiny prison cell behind to take her place in a luxury retirement home. She's hoping her past as a serial killer won't come to light so she can make a few friends and find some murder-free hobbies. But it's not long before a fellow resident-who happens to be a former police commissioner-drops dead, and Carol's true identity is leaked-making catching up over daily activities of bingo and baking rather awkward. Just her luck, Carol soon realizes that the victim wasn't the only former law enforcement officer at Sheldon Oaks-it's filled to the brim with former cops, barristers, and government representatives, her newfound friends included. And everyone thinks Carol's guilt is a no-brainer, but she is ready to prove them dead wrong...without killing anyone, for once--
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So Old, So Young by Grant GinderFive parties over the course of twenty years bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death. For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship. But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds, and testing what we thought we knew. From East Village apartment parties and disastrous destination weddings, to fortieth birthdays and suburban backyard barbecues, Grant Ginder's resonant, funny, and deeply moving novel is a story about the growing pains of the Millennial generation, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble, and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined.
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A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage
by Mk Oliver
A whip-smart and darkly funny crime novel--perfect for fans of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Maid--that follows a wife and mother with a deadly secret that she must suppress if she wants to maintain her picture-perfect façade. Meet Lalla Rook. Lalla has a lot on her plate: She needs to guarantee her husband makes partner, secure her dream house in Hampstead, and get her daughter into a prestigious prep school. And on the afternoon she stabs a stranger seven times after he breaks into her living room, she has a four-year-old's birthday party to host. With an unambitious partner, two demanding children, and a barely adequate large house in a nice (if not quite fashionable) part of town, Lalla's life isn't quite perfect yet. And she can't pretend she hasn't missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. Besides, as a wife and mother, she's already an expert multi-tasker. So, disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the world's best mother can easily be managed alongside the usual domestic minutiae. It's just that her husband Stephen seems distracted, her daughter's drowning of the class hamster is affecting her academic future, and then there is the unexpected intruder. Who is this man and what does he want from her? Because Lalla has a past she'd rather keep hidden--and the sudden appearance of the police means that avoiding them will be yet another task to cross off her to-do list. Funny, calculating, hypercompetent, and ambitious, Lalla is your next favorite antiheroine. Just don't mention it to her mother-in-law.
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When I Kill You
by B. A. Paris
Who is watching Nell Masters? Nell Masters is certain someone is following her. The hairs on the back of her neck rise when she travels to and from work, there are silent calls to her office, and a huge bouquet of flowers arrives without a card. And Nell has a reason to be looking over her shoulder, because she has a secret that she's hiding from everyone in her life, including her new partner, Alex. But Alex also has secrets of his own. Fourteen years earlier, when Nell went by the name Elle Nugent, she witnessed a student, Bryony Sanders, getting into a stranger's car. When Bryony was found murdered, Elle became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who it was and her fixation with Brett Parker, the man she accused, led her down a dangerous path . . . Now, Nell tries to convince herself that this unnerving feeling of being watched is all in her mind. Has someone from her past discovered her new identity? Has the stalker become the stalked? Or is there something even more deadly at play?--
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First Sign of Danger: A Haven's Rock Novel by Kelley ArmstrongDetective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven's Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven's Rock, they realize they're in danger of being exposed. When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they're no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven's Rock. Only by tracing the hikers' movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down. Otherwise, the lives of everyone in Haven's Rock--and their safe, secure new existence--are at risk--
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Want to Know a Secret? by Freida McFaddenEveryone has secrets. Some are worse than others. Influencer and baking sensation April Masterson knows the secret to the perfect gooey brownies. Or how to make key lime squares that will melt in your mouth. But if you keep watching her offline, you may find out some other secrets about April. Secrets she'd rather you didn't know. Like... Where did her son go when he snuck out late at night? What was she doing with the local soccer coach behind fogged windows? And what's buried in her backyard? April's secrets are enough to destroy her. I'll make sure of that.#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden peels back the layers of a seemingly flawless life to expose a picture of obsession, deception, and the quiet menace that waits just beyond the frame.
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And Now, Back to You by B. K. BorisonJackson Clark and Delilah Stewart have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, often ending in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine and organization from the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves the spontaneity and adventure out in the field. When they're partnered against their will to cover a historic snowstorm, they find themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together. Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal: If he can help her ace this assignment, she'll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With unexplored chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship. But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm? Or does what happens in the mountains stay in the mountains?
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Brawler: Stories by Lauren GroffRanging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region-from New England to Florida to California-these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans' dark and light angels--
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The Crossroads by C. J. BoxMarybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband Joe is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that Joe was ambushed by one of the families, but they have no idea which one since Joe didn't say where he was going or why. With Joe unconscious and fighting for his life with Marybeth at his side, Sheridan, April, and Lucy split up and investigate each of families to uncover the truth of what happened to their father, before it's too late--
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EASTER EGG MURDER BY LESLIE MEIER
In Provence to visit her daughter, part-time reporter Lucy Stone is soaking up the atmosphere, even if it includes one Carole Capobianco, the empty-nester she encountered on the flight over. Not exactly two peas in a pod, they're both amused by the tale of a neighbor's chickens refusing to lay eggs. The decoy eggs he's set out to encourage the egg-centric hens are not only gorgeously Faberge-style, they're being stolen! That's confusing enough, but what's happened to the cook is deadly serious. DEATH BY ANOTHER EASTER EGG by LEE HOLLIS \When an ambitious young reporter dies mid-meal at Hayley Powell's Bar Harbor restaurant, Hayley is horrified. Determined to save her eatery's reputation, Hayley scrambles to crack the case wide open like an egg, discovering that the victim was about to break a juicy story--one that a number of people (er, suspects) did not order off the menu. Which makes finding the killer more than devilishly hard . . . AN EGGY WAY TO DIE by PEGGY EHRHART Cleaning up after the Easter egg hunt in the Arborville park, friends Pamela and Bettina are startled to find something else hidden--the dead body of a local cookbook author, surrounded by broken shells and slippery yolks. The pair are far from hard-boiled detectives, but as they search for clues, they find that the whole case smells distinctly like rotten eggs . . . |
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The Girls Before by Kate Alice MarshallThere is a girl in a basement. The door has stopped opening. The light is gone. Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to survive? Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there's always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town's most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before--
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How to Get Away with Murder by Rebecca PhilipsonDetective Inspector Samantha Hansen has been on leave for six months, recovering from a breakdown she suffered at work, but when a fourteen-year-old girl is murdered in a local park, Sam jumps at the chance to return to the job and prove that she's still got what it takes to be the Yard's most successful homicide detective. One of the case's only leads is a copy of a self-help book found in the victim's backpack called How To Get Away With Murder by a man named Denver Brady. Brady claims to be the most successful serial killer of our time, which is why no one's ever heard of him. Chapter by chapter, he details his methodology and his past victims, and as Sam's investigation progresses and the details of the book go viral, Sam begins to suspect that there's more to the author than what he's revealed. But in order to find a killer and get justice for young Charlotte, Sam must learn to trust her instincts once again, before Denver Brady--or someone else--really does get away with murder.
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Kin: Oprah's Book Club by Tayari JonesVernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother's death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life. A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South, Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, unforgettable work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction.
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More Than Enough by Anna QuindlenHigh school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they've become her closest friends and, along with the support of her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her private school students, her fraught relationship with mother, her struggles with IVF-Polly's book club friends have heard it all. But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. Despite it seeming clear that this match is a mistake, Polly cannot help combing through her own family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways--
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Mule Boy
by Andrew Krivak
An elegiac novel of men lost in a coal mining disaster and the boy who survives to tell the storyOn New Year's Day, 1929, Ondro Prach, the thirteen-year-old son of Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania coal country, begins a new job as mule boy. He knows the danger--his father died in the mines--but he is proud of his position handling the animal that hauls cartloads of coal from shafts deep within the earth to the surface. After Ondro earns the trust of the miners and the mule in his charge, the room the men are working collapses and their fate is sealed.From that moment onward, Ondro carries the hard memory of that day, a burden that leads to addiction and imprisonment, costing him his family. But, years later, when the miners' loved ones come searching for answers, he finds the strength to share what the men spoke of and prayed for in the pitch black.Told in incantatory prose set to the rhythm of human breath, this sublime novel turns the memento mori into a meditation not only on death but on what it takes to tunnel through darkness and live.
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The Red Winter by Cameron SullivanIn 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of Gevaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake. Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel - who takes payment in living hearts - it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down. Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d'Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse. But Gevaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian's unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian's arcane activities - not to mention his demonic counterpart - have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war. Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of Gevaudan.
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Saoirse
by Charleen Hurtubise
For readers of Colm TóibÃn and Claire Keegan, Saoirse is a powerful novel set between the United States and Ireland about a woman who runs from her traumatic past and the secrets she carries to survive. In Michigan, Sarah's childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse (pronounced Sear-sha)--a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. And free is precisely how she is finally beginning to feel. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. No one must learn of the identity she has stolen in order to survive; they cannot know of the dangers that she crossed an ocean to escape. When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal, and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done. Saoirse is an evocative, suspenseful exploration of the intimate relationship between art and life and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of reinvention.
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Trust No One: A Thriller by James RollinsKnowledge can be magic--until it falls into the wrong hands. The ritualistic murder of a British professor at the University of Exeter points to a startling cast of suspects: his own students. All are enrolled in a postgraduate program covering the history of witchcraft, folklore, and spiritualism. All evidence points to Sharyn Karr--an American student. Prior to the professor's death, he had thrust a centuries-old book upon her. It appears to be the handwritten and encrypted diary of an eighteenth-century mystic and occultist, the Comte de Saint-Germain. The professor begged her to keep the text safe, ending with a warning: Trust no one. Such a responsibility forces her into cooperation with Duncan Maxwell, a fellow postgrad and the sixteenth in line to the British Crown. Already, Duncan has proven himself a savant with encryptions. Unfortunately, the pair clash at every level, but they both need one another. Especially when they discover the book's opening words: Herein lies the secret to my immortality. Come find me, if you dare. As dark forces close upon the pair, she and her friends are forced to flee, pursued by law enforcement and hunted by a powerful cabal. In an explosive chase across Europe--from the Tower of London to Parisian chateaus to a fortress in the Italian Alps--Sharyn must learn the true secret hidden in Saint-Germain's text. It will send her and the others across history and deep into the heart of one of the world's greatest mysteries, a secret buried at the roots of Western Civilization, a discovery that could topple empires and change humanity forever. For what lies at the end of Saint-Germain's diary is as shocking as its opening words.
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White River Crossing
by Ian McGuire
A breathtaking and cinematic novel about the lust for gold and its bloody consequences, set in the unforgiving landscape of the sub-Arctic Canadian wilderness, from the acclaimed author of The North Water A ragged fur peddler arrives at a remote outpost of the Hudson Bay Company in the winter of 1766 with a lump of gold, claiming that there is plenty more like it further north at a place called Ox Lake. The outpost's chief factor, Magnus Norton, dreams of instant riches and launches a secret and perilous expedition to find the treasure and bring it back. Led by a family of native guides, the party of prospectors includes Norton's brutish deputy, John Shaw, and Thomas Hearn, the insular and intellectual first mate from the factory's whaling sloop. During their long journey north, Shaw's callousness and arrogance lead him to commit an act of sexual violence whose disastrous consequences will only fully emerge once they reach their final destination. There, amidst the bleak beauty of the Barren Grounds, as Norton's carefully crafted plans begin to fall apart and the brutal arctic winter starts to descend, Hearn is forced to make a choice that will define his character and determine his future forever. Utterly captivating, White River Crossing transports us back to the furthest edges of the eighteenth-century British empire where two radically different worlds--indigenous and European--collide with calamitous and deadly results.
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What Happened That Night by Nicci FrenchOld friends, new secrets, one deadly reunion. Tyler Green, convicted of murdering his friend Leo at a student house party in 1993, has been released after almost three decades in prison. He has always protested his innocence. On a warm evening in London, Tyler summons eight of his university friends who were present on that fateful night. Is it just a reunion - or something else? With wine--and accusations-- flowing liberally, the reunion descends into violent chaos, and one friend will end the night with their throat slit in the upstairs bedroom...the same way that Leo's was in 1993.When Detective Inspector Maud O'Connor gets called to investigate, she has her own doubts about Tyler's guilt, despite what his old friends, the rest of the Metropolitan Police Force, and even the Home Secretary would like her to believe....
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A Defiant Woman: A Modern Tudor Mystery
by Karen E. Olson
Kate Tudor's marriage to billionaire Hank Tudor continues to fray when his ex-wife resurfaces in the wake of their daughter's kidnapping, in the latest novel in this genre-defying crime series. Eight years ago, Nan Tudor escaped her husband, billionaire businessman Hank Tudor, afraid for her life and leaving a dead body behind--but in doing so, she abandoned her three-year-old daughter, Lizzie. Still wracked with guilt for that decision, she is living a quiet life as a restaurant cook in France with her son when she receives a mysterious text: We have your daughter. Lured back to the scene of the crime on Martha's Vineyard by a threat against Lizzie's life, Nan believes the kidnapper is exacting revenge against her, stopping at nothing to do so--and discovers that she and her daughter may not be the only targets. Kate Parker--Hank's sixth and latest wife--is also on the island and drawn into the kidnapper's elaborate web of retaliation. Keeping their alliance secret from Hank, Hank's fixer Thomas Cromwell, investigator Steve Gardiner, and reporter Tom Seymour, the two women find themselves in a race against time to rescue Lizzie--and to make sure they both stay alive.
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A Far-Flung Life by M. L. StedmanRemote Western Australia, 1958: here, for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a vast sheep station, Meredith Downs. It is a million acres, an ocean of arid land. On an ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. And then, tragedy revisits when a twist of consequences claims the life of one sibling, and leads another to give up everything for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide. The secrets at the heart of this gutting and beautiful story force him to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness. A Far-flung Life is a tale about family and belonging, fate and time. It is about people trying to do their best, and each, for private reasons, seeking shelter from the storm of life. Can a fleeting moment unravel a whole life, mar it indelibly and irrevocably? Can compassion, resilience and forgiveness allow us to come to terms with our human imperfections? These are the questions Stedman asks in A Far-flung Life, her profoundly moving, uplifting, and luminous new novel about what the heart can endure for the sake of love.
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Felicia's Favorites by Danielle SteelAfter the unexpected death of their mother, Felicia Morgan Weston, her five daughters are summoned to a historic Connecticut farmhouse for the reading of her will. Still reeling from shock, they hear revelations that will potentially change their lives--and they realize there was much more to their mother than they ever knew. Charlotte, the oldest, always resented her mother's advice, but now misses her terribly. An entrepreneur and single mother, she doesn't dare hope for a second chance at love. Although content with her career as a TV producer and her life with her partner in Greenwich Village, Quinne is about to have an opportunity to dream bigger. Former ballet dancer Olivia has lived as a paraplegic since a car accident twelve years ago. Refusing to be a burden, she has denied herself the love of her life. Despite her mother's disapproval, Veronica resigned herself to a secret relationship with an ambitious married senator. Happily married mother of three Isabelle has just found out that her husband is having an affair with his much younger intern. Each sister is about to receive a gift beyond her wildest dreams from their very private but loving mother, who considered all her girls her favorites. Danielle Steel's new novel is a moving testament to the power of a mother's love and the importance of fully embracing life.
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How Simi Got Her Groom Back by Sonali DevTwo sisters. One fake marriage. Zero chance of keeping the truth hidden. The Naik sisters escaped their traumatic past in Mumbai to come to the States, but their journeys have been vastly different. Simi is working toward a bright future as a pediatric nurse in a small town in Kentucky when Rupi shows up at her door in distress, on the run, and as always, dragging trouble in her wake. With Rupi's safety in jeopardy, the sisters hatch a desperate plan to keep her in the country: Rupi must get married--and fast--even if it means Simi recruiting the man she's been secretly dating as her sister's groom. A perfect plan? Not quite. But there aren't many alternatives. As the big day inches closer, Simi and Rupi face a storm of wedding shenanigans and romantic surprises, not to mention sisterly jealousies. As the stakes and tensions rise, will their secrets tear them apart or will they find a way to risk everything for love?
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It's Not Her: A Twisty Thriller about Two Families and a Chilling Lake Resort Crime from the Author of Local Woman Missing by Mary KubicaA scream shatters the silence...Courtney Gray's peaceful vacation turns into a nightmare when she discovers her brother and sister-in-law dead in their lakeside cottage. Her niece Reese is missing. Her nephew Wyatt is asleep upstairs--unharmed. A town full of secrets...As police swarm the quiet resort, dark truths about Courtney's family--and the town itself--begin to surface. Is Reese a victim... or the killer? A truth no one saw coming...With everyone hiding something, Courtney races to uncover the terrible mystery. But the closer she gets, the harder it is to know who--or what--to trust.
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Lady Tremaine
by Rachel Hochhauser
MEET LADY TREMAINE in this spellbinding reimagining of Cinderella, as told by its iconic evil stepmother, revealing a propulsive love story about the lengths a mother will go for her children.
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Lake Effect by Cynthia D'Aprix SweeneyIt's 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible--but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara's world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood. Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.
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Laws of Love and Logic by Debra CurtisIn the serene town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Lily Webb is deeply in love with a charismatic boy, a college-bound quarterback whose spectacular athletic talents are matched only by his fierce devotion. But their dreams of a life together are cut short when his passionate protectiveness leads to an irrevocable choice--one that tears them apart and leads Lily down a path of heartbreak from which she may never recover. Lily already knows the sting of loss, beginning with the death of her mother, a tragedy that left deep scars on both her and her gifted younger sister, Jane. Jane seeks escape in the abstract world of mathematics and quantum mechanics--when she can keep the demons that fuel her addictions at bay. As the years pass, Lily buries her twin griefs deep in her heart, finding solace and a new beginning with Marshall Middleton, a renowned ornithologist whose love is as steadfast as the migration patterns he studies. Yet the shadows of her past linger. When the boy who was once everything to Lily reappears in her life, she struggles with questions around that terrible night in high school. Can she reconcile the wild wonderment of her first love with the comfort and safety of her second? Laws of Love and Logic explores love's enduring power and the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness and redemption.
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Missing Sister by Joshilyn JacksonRevenge...It's all relative. Born three minutes apart, Penny and Nix Albright grew up doing everything together, close as only twins can be. But when Nix dies in a tragic accident soon after college, she leaves behind a cryptic voicemail that has Penny guilt-ridden and desperate for justice. Five Years Later Penny has found new purpose as a rookie cop. She's working to fulfill Nix's dream of making the world a safer place, but following that dream becomes a nightmare when she's called to her first murder scene. When she sees the victim, she knows him instantly. It's Danny Bowery--one of three men she's long blamed for Nix's death--splayed in a pool of blood outside a posh Atlanta shopping center, almost as if she'd wished it so. Stunned, Penny steps away to catch her breath and discovers a blonde in blood-drenched clothes gripping a box cutter. Before Penny can arrest her, the woman reveals that Bowery's murder is part of a larger story that is far from over. A story about sisters. And with that, the killer disappears. Now, Penny will stop at nothing to pursue this dangerous woman and learn why she's avenging Nix's death. The deeper she dives into the mystery, the less clear it becomes who is hunting whom in this captivating page-turner of hidden motives and deadly consequences.
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Night Night Fawn by Jordy RosenbergIn a cluttered rent-controlled apartment in the middle of Manhattan, Barbara Rosenberg - old world yenta, committed homophobe, accomplished jazzercizer - is terminally ill, high on opioids, and writing the story of her life. Forget about her late husband, her career as the receptionist for an Upper East Side plastic surgeon, and her failed aspirations to be an actress. What she really wants to talk about are her unhinged thoughts on gender, Karl Marx, Jewish diaspora, and her two great disappointing loves: an estranged trans son and a long lost best friend whose betrayal haunts Barbara still. As she descends further into delirium and illness, Barbara's theories get wilder, and her circumstances put her on a crash course with these intimates once again--
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Ruby Falls
by Gin Phillips
One body. Five suspects. Total darkness.A tense, claustrophobic historical mystery set almost entirely underground at the onset of the Great Depression about the discovery of a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain, the unthinkable crime that happens in its caves, and a woman who's never felt more alive. In 1928, a Chattanooga man disappears down a hole in the ground and discovers a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain that he names after his wife: Ruby Falls. Within months, visitors can buy tickets to see the falls for themselves. Ada Smith has been sneaking into the caves at night, entranced by the natural wonders around her and the freedom granted by this new underground world.But it's tough timing for a natural wonder. As the country flounders in the Great Depression, a shrewd public relations ploy seems like the only way to save Ruby Falls. A famous mind reader and mystic agrees to launch himself into the Ruby Falls caverns where he will attempt to locate a hidden hatpin using only his psychic abilities. He'll be joined by five others: his manager, his wife, a guide, a Chattanooga businessman, and a reporter from the Chicago Times. But they're not alone in the caverns. Ada and another guide, Quinton, have been asked to follow the mind reader's party at a distance, staying out of sight. They are a safety net, in case of a broken leg or busted flashlights.One of them will be dead before the end of the day.Faced with a corpse and the stark reality that one of the people in her midst is a killer, Ada needs to get everyone-the murderer and the innocents--back aboveground before their light runs out.Ruby Falls is both a unique twist on the locked-room mystery and an exploration of loss and what it means to start over. It's a heart-racing story of survival and a testament to the threads that bind strangers together. Set against the true story of the discovery of Ruby Falls, the novel also draws on the memoirs of Katie Stabler, a female guide at Wind Caves in South Dakota.
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The Sisters of Book Row
by Shelley Noble
From bestselling author Shelley Noble comes a gripping and timely historical novel of books, banning, and the women who helped save New York's famed Book Row. 1915: Manhattan's Book Row, an eclectic jumble of forty bookshops along Fourth Avenue, is the mecca for rare book buyers from around the world, and the haunt of locals looking for a bargain. It is also the target of the most vicious censor in American history--Anthony Comstock. And home to three sisters who vow to stop him. For the three Applebaum sisters, the narrow, four-storied Arcadia Rare Bookshop is the only home they've ever known. Olivia, the oldest, is an expert in restoring rare manuscripts. Daphne, the outgoing middle sister, oversees the retail shop and is a favorite with their customers. Celia, the youngest, is left to dust and catalogue, but often sneaks out to do heaven knows what. Little do her sisters know, Celia has joined a group of young people who secretly print and distribute articles on women's health by hiding them within the pages of ordinary cookbooks, household hints, and sewing patterns, despite the personal risk. Meanwhile, the Comstock Laws threaten anybody who owns or circulates obscene, lewd, or lascivious publications. Even classic literature or fine art could send a person to jail. In the face of such oppression, Celia and the booksellers of Book Row band together. But secrets and a mysterious stranger mean the fate of the famed Book Row is anything but secure.
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Star Shipped by Cat SebastianSimon 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. They've spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. 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. And he is kind of difficult to work with. He doesn't get along with people--unlike Charlie, who somehow tricked everyone on the show into adoring him despite some outrageously bad on-set behavior during the show's first season. 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. Their road trip brings Simon to places he would never have willingly chosen to visit--and he finds he's actually not having a terrible time. 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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Wait for Me by Amy Jo BurnsWhen young folk singer Elle Harlow reaches the height of her prowess in 1973, she has two wildly beloved albums to her name and a hidden history of impossible heartbreak. After she sets foot on the famed Grand Ole Opry stage, a far cry from the mountain that raised her, Elle gives the biggest performance of her life. Then, to the dismay of shocked fans, her producer, and the man who still loves her, she vanishes. Almost two decades later, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw is spending her summer pumping gas, writing songs on her broken mandolin, and longing for a mother. Her father Abe has always sworn he was the last person to see Elle Harlow alive, but when a meteor strikes the woods of their sleepy Pennsylvania town and a piece of Elle's past emerges from the wreckage, the truth of her disappearance sets fire to everything Marijohn believes about herself, her music, and her ability to love with abandon. Wait for Me is an unapologetic, deeply emotive story set in Appalachia and Nashville that defies the trope of the missing woman and gives us a female duo who can find hope in each other and sing the ache in every good song--
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