“I’ve always found that the better the book I’m reading, the smarter I feel, or, at least, the more able I am to imagine that I might, someday, become smarter.” – Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer
FICTION
The Vixen by Francine Prose
It’s 1953, and Simon Putnam, a recent Harvard graduate newly hired by a distinguished New York publishing firm, has entered a glittering world of three-martini lunches, exclusive literary parties, and old-money aristocrats in exquisitely tailored suits, a far cry from his loving, middle-class Jewish family in Coney Island.
But Simon’s first assignment—editing The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic, a lurid bodice-ripper improbably based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a potboiler intended to shore up the firm’s failing finances—makes him question the cost of admission. Because Simon has a secret that, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, he cannot reveal: his beloved mother was a childhood friend of Ethel Rosenberg’s. His parents mourn Ethel’s death.
Simon’s dilemma grows thornier when he meets The Vixen’s author, the startlingly beautiful, reckless, seductive Anya Partridge, ensconced in her opium-scented boudoir in a luxury Hudson River mental asylum. As mysteries deepen, as the confluence of sex, money, politics and power spirals out of Simon’s control, he must face what he’s lost by exchanging the loving safety of his middle-class Jewish parents’ Coney Island apartment for the witty, whiskey-soaked orbit of his charismatic boss, the legendary Warren Landry. Gradually Simon realizes that the people around him are not what they seem, that everyone is keeping secrets, that ordinary events may conceal a diabolical plot—and that these crises may steer him toward a brighter future.
At once domestic and political, contemporary and historic, funny and heartbreaking, enlivened by surprising plot turns and passages from Anya’s hilariously bad novel, The Vixen illuminates a period of history with eerily striking similarities to the current moment. Meanwhile it asks timeless questions: How do we balance ambition and conscience? What do social mobility and cultural assimilation require us to sacrifice? How do we develop an authentic self, discover a vocation, and learn to live with the mysteries of love, family, art, life and loss?
Description from Goodreads.
“I know book people are wont to throw around the phrase ‘compulsively readable,’ but in the case of Francine Prose’s The Vixen, I can’t help myself. I read it with compulsion… Come for the propulsive mystery and sentence-level tautness, stay for the 1950s publishing mise-en-scène.” – Literary Hub
“Prose holds up a mirror to a fractured culture in this dazzling take on America’s tendency to persecute, then lionize, its most subversive figures… This is Prose at the top of her game.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Prose ingeniously takes on publishing, the fallout of WWII, and McCarthyism in a gloriously astute, skewering, and hilarious bildungsroman… Smart, assured fiction from a master storyteller and thoughtful social commentator.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
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To Sir, with Love by Lauren Layne
Perpetually cheerful and eager to please, Gracie Cooper strives to make the best out of every situation. So when her father dies just months after a lung cancer diagnosis, she sets aside her dreams of pursuing her passion for art to take over his Midtown Manhattan champagne shop. She soon finds out that the store’s profit margins are being squeezed perilously tight, and complicating matters further, a giant corporation headed by the impossibly handsome, but irritatingly arrogant Sebastian Andrews is proposing a buyout. But Gracie can’t bear the thought of throwing away her father’s dream like she did her own.
Overwhelmed and not wanting to admit to her friends or family that she’s having second thoughts about the shop, Gracie seeks advice and solace from someone she’s never met—the faceless “Sir”, with whom she connected on a blind dating app where matches get to know each other through messages and common interests before exchanging real names or photos.
But although Gracie finds herself slowly falling for Sir online, she has no idea she’s already met him in real life… and they can’t stand each other.
Description from Goodreads.
“Layne crafts a gleefully shameless homage to Little Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail that sparkles like champagne fizz… This is a delight.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Layne updates the Nora Ephron 1998 rom-com, You’ve Got Mail, for digital-age Manhattan… Sweet and full of humor… readers will be rooting for Gracie to find her Prince Charming.” – Booklist
“If you love the 1998 film You’ve Got Mail you’ll love this book… And if you’re a sucker for a New York City setting, Cooper’s little Manhattan shop and park dates will check that box for you, too.” – USA Today
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Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
In Hell of a Book, an African-American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Jason Mott’s novel and is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: since his novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.
Throughout, these characters’ stories build and build and as they converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art, and money, there always is the tragic story of a police shooting playing over and over on the news.
Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably powerful, an electrifying high-wire act, ideal for book clubs, and the book Mott says he has been writing in his head for ten years, Hell of a Book in its final twists truly becomes its title.
Description from Goodreads.
“Maddening, disorienting, and illuminating.” – Booklist
“Stunning… Mott’s poetic, cinematic novel tackles what it means to live in a country where Black people perpetually ‘live lives under the hanging sword of fear.’” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Hell of a Book is a masterwork of balance, as Mott navigates the two narratives and their delicate tonal distinctions. A surrealist feast of imagination that’s brimming with very real horrors, frustrations and sorrows, it can break your heart and make you laugh out loud at the same time, often on the same page. This is an achievement of American fiction that rises to meet this particular moment with charm, wisdom and truth.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
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Rock the Boat by Beck Dorey-Stein
When Kate Campbell’s life in Manhattan suddenly implodes, she is forced to return to Sea Point, the small town full of quirky locals, quaint bungalows, and beautiful beaches where she grew up. She knows she won’t be home for long; she’s got every intention (and a three-point plan) to win back everything she thinks she’s lost.
Meanwhile, Miles Hoffman–aka “The Prince of Sea Point”–has also returned home to prove to his mother that he’s capable of taking over the family business, and he’s promised to help his childhood best friend, Ziggy Miller, with his own financial struggles at the same time. Kate, Miles, and Ziggy converge in Sea Point as the town faces an identity crisis when a local developer tries to cash in on its potential. The summer swells, and white lies and long-buried secrets prove as corrosive as the salt air, threatening to forever erode not only the bonds between the three friends but also the landscape of the beachside community they call home.
Full of heart and humor–and laced with biting wit–Rock the Boat proves that even when you know all the back roads, there aren’t any shortcuts to growing up.
Description from Goodreads.
“The perfect summer beach read for anyone who craves a smart story with a happy ending.” – Oprah Daily
“The author perfectly captures what it means to come home again and rediscover yourself in the process. Make room in your beach bag for this cozy summer read.” – Kirkus Reviews
“First-time novelist Dorey-Stein has written the perfect beach read, filled with delicious heart and meaty observations about knotty relationship issues and offering surprises and delights with every chapter.” – Library Journal
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Lady Sunshine by Amy Mason Doan
For Jackie Pierce, everything changed the summer of 1979, when she spent three months of infinite freedom at her bohemian uncle’s sprawling estate on the California coast. As musicians, artists, and free spirits gathered at The Sandcastle for the season in pursuit of inspiration and communal living, Jackie and her cousin Willa fell into a fast friendship, testing their limits along the rocky beach and in the wild woods… until the summer abruptly ended in tragedy, and Willa silently slipped away into the night.
Twenty years later, Jackie unexpectedly inherits The Sandcastle and returns to the iconic estate for a short visit to ready it for sale. But she reluctantly extends her stay when she learns that, before her death, her estranged aunt had promised an up-and-coming producer he could record a tribute album to her late uncle at the property’s studio. As her musical guests bring the place to life again with their sun-drenched beach days and late-night bonfires, Jackie begins to notice startling parallels to that summer long ago. And when a piece of the past resurfaces and sparks new questions about Willa’s disappearance, Jackie must discover if the dark secret she’s kept ever since is even the truth at all.
Description from Goodreads.
“Fans of Crossing California and Daisy Jones and the Six will be enamored with the world of Lady Sunshine.” – Booklist
“Amy Mason Doan offers a refreshing story about music, family secrets and forgiveness… Jumping between 1979 and 1999, Lady Sunshine unfolds with an artful combination of lyrical writing and twisting plot.” – BookPage
“A well-written, well-paced novel that unfolds slowly, hinting at the events that broke apart a young woman’s life.” – Kirkus Reviews
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Pug Actually by Matt Dunn
Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear collars.
A Dog’s Purpose meets The Happy Ever After Playlist in this charming, pitch-perfect take on relationships as seen through the eyes of a wise pug named Doug, who is determined to play cupid to fix his owner’s love life with his own four paws.
Doug wants his rescuer, Julie, to be happy. He is loyal and loves her unconditionally—two things that can’t be said about Julie’s married boss and lover, Luke. Yet Julie is reluctant to break up, afraid to end up like her eccentric cat-owning neighbor. It’s a prospect that horrifies Doug, too.
Newly divorced Tom, on the other hand, is perfect for Julie. Everyone can see it—except for Julie and Tom. Doug is confident that with his help they will get over their initial animosity toward each other.
As Doug humorously navigates the quirks of human relationships, he knows he can’t give up on Julie—after all, being a “rescue” works both ways.
Description from Goodreads.
“You’ll be rooting for this lovable dog—you might even wish he could weigh in on your own relationships.” – Washington Post
“[A] delightful, quirky novel about a dog and his girl… A word of caution: Reading this in public may cause uncontrollable laughter and create a scene.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Alternately poignant and laugh-out-loud funny… Doug’s hilarious antics, astute observations, and dogged determination pull at the heartstrings on the way to a thoroughly satisfying happily ever after.” – Publishers Weekly
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Anne-Marie the Beauty by Yasmina Reza
“I was bored with my husband,” says Anne-Marie, the irrepressible voice of Anne-Marie the Beauty, “but you know, boredom is part of love.” Mostly she is speaking here of her more famous friend and colleague, the French actress Giselle Fayolle, in whose shadow she has spent her career. “My life was a near miss,” she adds, before explaining that she enunciated well because “I loved to say the words.”
A very short novel with the power and resonance of a much longer one, Anne-Marie the Beauty is a profound and moving act of remembrance, a clear-eyed assessment of the hard-edged nature of fame, a meditation on aging—and a wonderfully observant and comic exploration of human foibles. In short, another thought-provoking master class in how we perform life by the peerless Yasmina Reza.
Description from Goodreads.
“Anne-Marie… [shares] her view of life as a great arc in this brief yet richly symbolic, humorous, and poignant tale.” – Booklist
“This novel reminds us that dreams are sometimes more precious than the real thing.” – Vulture
“Alison L. Strayer’s deft translation captures Anne-Marie’s tone, which is no mean feat in a text so abundant with idioms, idiosyncrasies, and poignant comedy. Anne-Marie the Beauty is a hymn to the unknowns: to those who have lived, loved, and worked outside of fame and recognition… This is a work that forces you to ask the question of every name you hear: ‘Who are they? Who are they really?'” – Asymptote Journal
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SUSPENSE
Survive the Night by Riley Sager ★
It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there’s nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing–survive the night.
Description from Goodreads.
“With every mile, the tension rises toward a deliciously unbearable pitch.” – Good Housekeeping
“Sager excels at playing with reader expectations and in concocting plausible, gut-wrenching twists.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Sager’s signature blend of campy homage and tense thrills is on full display in his new story of suspicion and doubt at 60 miles an hour.” – CrimeReads
“If you’ve read any Riley Sager books in the past then you know there are bound to be twists in this story that you won’t see coming no matter how hard you try, and Survive the Night is filled with them. Another killer book (pun definitely intended!). I couldn’t put this down; it may be Sager’s best one yet.” – Suspense Magazine
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Walking Through Needles by Heather Levy
When Sam Mayfair was sixteen, her life was shattered by an abuser close to her. News of her abuser’s murder fifteen years later should have put an end to the torture she’s endured because of one decision plaguing her life. But with her stepbrother Eric as the prime suspect, Sam is flung back into the hell of her rural Oklahoma childhood.
As Sam tries to help exonerate Eric while hiding certain truths of their past from investigators, details of the murder unravel. And Sam quickly learns some people, including herself, will do anything to keep their secrets buried deep.
Walking Through Needles is a riveting and unflinching look at violence, sexuality, and desire from a compelling and unforgettable new voice in Heather Levy.
Description from Goodreads.
“A spellbinding novel at the nexus of power, desire and abuse that portends a bright future.” – New York Times
“Walking Through Needles is a challenging but worthwhile read, a standout for its frank but sensitive exploration of trauma and desire.” – Los Angeles Times
“A midnight exercise in noir fiction that is carefully executed and fascinating in a reptilian way… a dark success.” – Booklist
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The House Guests by Emilie Richards
Two women. Two families. Two lifetimes’ worth of secrets.
In the wake of her husband’s sudden death, Cassie Costas finds her relationship with her teenage stepdaughter unraveling. After their move to historic Tarpon Springs, Florida, Savannah hates her new town, her school and most of all her stepmom, whom she blames for her father’s death. Cassie has enough to contend with as she searches for answers about the man she shared a life with, including why all their savings have disappeared.
When Savannah’s rebellion culminates in an act that leaves single mother Amber Blair and her sixteen-year-old son homeless, Cassie empathizes with the woman’s predicament and invites the strangers to move in. As their lives intertwine, Cassie realizes that Amber is hiding something. She’s evasive about her past, but the fear in her eyes tells a darker story. Cassie wonders what the woman living under her roof is running from… and what will happen if it finally catches up to her.
Description from Goodreads.
“This engrossing and suspenseful novel encompasses the trials of two different families who come together, demonstrating the meaning of family is not just determined by blood ties… This is a compelling page-turner one won’t want to put down.” – New York Journal of Books
“Fans of suspenseful domestic drama will love Richards’s tale of secrets, lies, and the ties that bind people.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“The carefully constructed entwining of Cassie and Amber’s stories offers some genuine surprises. This is pure soap opera of the best sort.” – Publishers Weekly
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Dead by Dawn by Paul Doiron
Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is fighting for his life. Ambushed on a darkened winter road, he plunges his Jeep into a frozen river and must escape drowning beneath the ice. Surviving the crash is only the first challenge he faces in a nightlong battle to stay alive and one step ahead of his unknown, heavily armed pursuers. To outwit them and return to his friends and family, none of whom knows where he is, Bowditch must dissect the hours leading up to the ambush and solve two riddles: who are these people who desperately want him dead and what has he done to incur their wrath?
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] gripping thriller… relentless in pace and plotting.” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Brilliant characterizations and a compelling narrative… this series just keeps getting better.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Nail-biting… the best yet in a superior series.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
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MYSTERY
The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths
The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk. At first Nelson thinks that the dead man might be an asylum seeker but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison. Ruth is more interested in the treasure, a hoard of Bronze Age weapons. Nelson at first thinks that Taylor’s death is accidental drowning, but a second death suggests murder.
Nelson is called to an apparent murder-suicide of a couple at the isolated Black Dog Farm. Local legend talks of the Black Shuck, a spectral hound that appears to people before they die. Nelson ignores this, even when the owner’s suicide note includes the line, ‘He’s buried in the garden.’ Ruth excavates and finds the body of a giant dog.
All roads lead back to this farm in the middle of nowhere, but the place spells serious danger for anyone who goes near. Ruth doesn’t scare easily. Not until she finds herself at Black Dog Farm…
Description from Goodreads.
“This thirteenth time out for these characters brings a dramatic ending that leaves Ruth and Nelson’s relationship even more complicated. Not to be missed by fans of two UK television series, Detectorists and Time Team, the latter of which is nothing short of a British institution.” – Booklist
“Fans of this series (and there are many) will not be disappointed by The Night Hawks… There’s so much to enjoy – a cracking mystery, coupled with beautifully bleak scenery and characters, both familiar and new, that glow with life. And right at the centre, like the stone in a peach, are Ruth and Nelson, who over the years have developed a relationship that ebbs and flows like the tide on Blakeney Beach. Like all good friends, I was sorry to wave them off.” – Crime Fiction Lover
“Once started these books keep you engrossed right to the end.” – NB
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Runner by Tracy Clark
Chicago in the dead of winter can be brutal, especially when you’re scouring the frigid streets for a missing girl. Fifteen-year-old Ramona Titus has run away from her foster home. Her biological mother, Leesa Evans, is a recovering addict who admits she failed Ramona often in the past. But now she’s clean. And she’s determined to make up for her mistakes—if Cass can only help her find her daughter.
Cass visits Ramona’s foster mother, Deloris Poole, who is also desperate to bring the girl home. Ramona came to Deloris six months ago, angry and distrustful, but was slowly opening up. The police are on the search, but Cass has sources closer to the streets, and a network of savvy allies. Yet it seems Ramona doesn’t want to be found. And Cass soon begins to understand why.
Ramona is holding secrets dark enough to kill for, and anyone who helps her may be fair game. And if Ramona can’t run fast enough and hide well enough to keep the truth safe, she and Cass may both be out of time.
Description from Goodreads.
“A potent mix of empathy and rage fuels Sue Grafton Award–winner Clark’s exceptional fourth Chicago mystery. The action builds to an exciting showdown. Those who like their crime novels with a social conscience will be amply rewarded.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] page-turner… Clark paces the story very well, which picks up towards the end for a showdown that you’ll have to finish in one sitting…” – The Nerd Cantina
“…lapel-grabbing and provocative… Clark writes with purpose, her sense of social justice never venturing into dogma but remaining fully rooted in Raines’s actions and personality. She saves, but is no savior, because she operates in a world where survival is the benchmark, and pain remains in the aftermath.” – New York Times
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Warn Me When It’s Time by Cheryl A. Head
A hate group operating in Oakland County, Michigan has claimed responsibility for a six-month-long string of arson fires and robberies at mosques, temples, and black churches around Detroit, eluding police and federal agencies. The most recent fire, at a mosque in Dearborn, kills a respected imam. His children—suspicious of law enforcement’s treatment of Muslims, and afraid of reprisal—hires Charlie Mack and her team of investigators to find their father’s murderers. The Mack team begins to hunt down the clues in this local hate crime, but they aren’t prepared when they realize that those clues are pointing to a widespread conspiracy that runs through elected state officials and up to the highest levels of national leadership.
FBI agent, James Saleh, returns to help the Mack Agency infiltrate and take down a homegrown militia hell-bent on starting a race war in America.
Description from Goodreads.
“…chilling and prescient… Head plumbs these scary depths with great care, showing how hate infects the pliable, and how, for Charlie and her colleagues, it can never be anything less than personal and political.” – New York Times
“…deeply rooted in her hometown of Detroit, yet universal in its appeal.” – CrimeReads
“How can we not love Charlie Mack? She is larger than life and a first-class detective. She dares to go where others do not. Cheryl Head has created a character that keeps me waiting for every new adventure.” – Reviews by Amos Lassen
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Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen & Gary Braver
Taryn Moore is young, beautiful and brilliant… so why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl’s fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there’s more to the story, especially after the autopsy reveals that the college senior was pregnant. It could be reason enough for suicide-or a motive for murder.
To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring, and completely off limits. But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those she turned her affections to–including Jack. And now that she’s dead, his problems are just beginning.
After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth. He is guilty of deception, but is he capable of cold-blooded murder?
Description from Goodreads.
“With deceitful characters and plenty of twists, this novel is highly recommended for fans of Gerritsen or Braver, and readers who love suspense stories.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“An emotionally charged page-turner that will definitely keep readers guessing, Choose Me has all of the twists and turns in the right places. Gerritsen and Braver are definitely the co-writing dynamic duo to look out for!” – Mystery & Suspense
“A solid thriller with twists and turns and interesting characters [that] keeps the reader engaged to the very end.” – Red Carpet Crash
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HISTORICAL FICTION
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.
But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white–her complexion is dark because she is African American.
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go–for the protection of her family and her legacy–to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
Description from Goodreads.
“Kept me intrigued, fascinated, and mesmerized throughout… Everyone should know about the woman who took risks, carved her own path, silenced the naysayers, and forged ahead to becoming one of America’s most prominent librarians in history. Definitely a must-read.” – The NERD Daily
“This fictional account of Greene’s life feels authentic; the authors bring to life not only Belle but all those around her. An excellent piece of historical fiction that many readers will find hard to put down.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Every element of this blockbuster historical novel is compelling and revelatory, beginning with the bedazzling protagonist based with awestruck care on Belle da Costa Greene… a novel of enthralling drama, humor, sensuality, and insight… [a] resounding tale of a brilliant and resilient woman defying sexism, classism, and racism during the brutality of Jim Crow. Benedict and Murray do splendidly right by Belle in this captivating and profoundly enlightening portrayal.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
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ROMANCE
When Stars Collide by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Olivia Shore, international opera superstar, is a driven diva with a passion for perfection, a craving for justice, too many secrets—and a monumental grudge against the egotistical, lowbrow jock she’s been stuck with.
It’s Mozart meets Monday Night Football as the temperamental soprano and stubborn jock embark on a nationwide tour promoting a luxury watch brand. Along the way, the combatants will engage in soul-searching and trash talk, backstage drama and, for sure, a quarterback pass. But they’ll also face trouble as threatening letters, haunting photographs, and a series of dangerous encounters complicate their lives. Is it the work of an overzealous fan or something more sinister?
This is the emotional journey of a brilliant woman whose career is everything and a talented man who’ll never be happy with second place. Tender and funny, passionate and insightful, this irresistible romantic adventure proves that anything can happen… when two superstars collide.
Description from Goodreads.
“RITA Award-winning and best-selling romance author Phillips’ latest virtuoso literary performance and new addition to her outstanding Chicago Stars series delivers a full score of irresistible delights. From savvy characterization, sassy humor, and sparkling dialogue to a smartly composed plot… this brilliantly conceived contemporary romance will have readers shouting, Brava!” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…captivating… The thrilling suspense plot and intoxicating chemistry will hook new readers and returning fans alike. This is a page-turner.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“With wonderfully dry-witted banter, sizzling attraction, and an exciting thread of suspense, this was a page-turner of a novel.” – Harlequin Junkie
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Someone to Cherish by Mary Balogh
When Harry Westcott lost the title Earl of Riverdale after the discovery of his father’s bigamy, he shipped off to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, where he was near-fatally wounded. After a harrowing recovery, the once cheery, light-hearted boy has become a reclusive, somber man. Though Harry insists he enjoys the solitude, he does wonder sometimes if he is lonely.
Lydia Tavernor, recently widowed, dreams of taking a lover. Her marriage to Reverend Isaiah Tavernor was one of service and obedience, and she has secretly enjoyed her freedom since his death. She doesn’t want to shackle herself to another man in marriage, but sometimes, she wonders if she is lonely.
Both are unwilling to face the truth until they find themselves alone together one night, and Lydia surprises even herself with a simple question: “Are you ever lonely?” Harry’s answer leads them down a path neither could ever have imagined…
Description from Goodreads.
“The seamless plotting and enticing characters make this a romance to be savored. Balogh is in fine form, and this may be her best Regency to date.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A must-read for fans of the series, this installment is a continuation of the high-quality characters and plot that readers have come to expect from Mary Balogh.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Someone to Romance is classic Balogh. The characters are very well developed, the scenes are well described, the romance is slowly woven together.” – All About Romance
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SCI-FI & FANTASY
When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson
Life in the Caspian Republic has taught Agent Nikolai South two rules. Trust No One. And work just hard enough not to make enemies.
Here, in the last sanctuary for the dying embers of the human race in a world run by artificial intelligence, if you stray from the path – your life is forfeit. But when a Party propagandist is killed – and is discovered as a “machine” – he’s given a new mission: chaperone the widow, Lily, who has arrived to claim her husband’s remains.
But when South sees that she, the first “machine” ever allowed into the country, bears an uncanny resemblance to his late wife, he’s thrown into a maelstrom of betrayal, murder, and conspiracy that may bring down the Republic for good.
When the Sparrow Falls illuminates authoritarianism, complicity, and identity in the digital age, in a page turning, darkly-funny, frightening and touching story that recalls Philip K. Dick, John le Carré and Kurt Vonnegut in equal measure.
Description from Goodreads.
“An absolute home run of a book that succeeds on every possible metric… Its poetic writing and sharp observations will make you think, while its thrilling nature and great characters will keep you engrossed.” – The Quill to Live
“Well written and suitably grim, this picture of one dystopian holdout in a utopian world should please many sf readers interested in visions of a post-AI future.” – Booklist
“Sharpson pushes the narrative beyond South’s present and into an increasingly messy future, he showcases the untenable nature of the Caspian Republic and its corrupt framework. The result is a thoughtful sci-fi thriller that skillfully blends a retro spy aesthetic with future technology.” – Publishers Weekly