“I never change, I simply become more myself.” – Joyce Carol Oates, Solstice
Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven ★
fiction / historical fiction.
When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother Ellis went missing the summer he graduated high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture in the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but died in a freak accident weeks later.
From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep. Each Samuelson has sought their own solace: Sybil Samuelson pours herself into teaching and numbing her pain after the loss of her beloved son; her husband, Phil, had found respite in a love that developed while he was working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia; Katie, the high achieving middle Samuelson, comes home to try and make peace with her mother after a cancer diagnosis. And Sally has become the de facto caretaker to Eva, the child Ellis never knew.
Michelle Huneven is “known for five enthralling novels, which chronicle the lives of middle-class Americans in her lushly conjured native California, as her characters struggle with addiction, excruciating romances, and resounding losses as they continue to seek meaning and a way to be good” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). She captures the Samuelson clan with glorious precision and the deepest empathy as they fracture and rebuild again and again.
“Readers of Elizabeth Strout or Mary Gaitskill will love this book. Huneven hits it out of the ballpark again.” – David Keymer, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“A deeply satisfying novel; Huneven’s best work to date.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Bug Hollow is just wonderful. Characters thrown together after being torn apart are Huneven’s specialty. As always, the characters in this California novel are given all the grace and mercy they need. Perfect for book clubs.” – Sarah Bagby, The Indie Next List
“Huneven’s sixth novel is a gift: top-drawer fiction and a family story that speaks of the joys, sorrows, and surprising possibilities of human connection… Fans of Anne Tyler will enjoy Huneven’s strong sense of place, quirky menagerie of characters, and the intriguing, relevant issues the Samuelson family navigates through chapters of their life together.” – Kelly Fojtik, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Don’t Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Annabelle Reynolds has everything she’s ever wanted. A devoted husband, two wonderful daughters, and a career she loves. She couldn’t be happier. So why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing dreams of a future where she hates her husband and her daughters’ lives are at risk? At first, she chalks the dreams up to an overactive imagination. But when details from her dreams, details she couldn’t possibly have predicted, begin to materialize, she realizes these aren’t just dreams but rather premonitions of a terrifying future. They all point to a singular choice, an unknown moment that holds Annabelle’s life in the balance.
Then Annabelle has a dream that her daughter Scarlett is in immediate danger. Someone wants Scarlett dead, and Annabelle has no idea who or why. Suddenly, every choice she makes is fraught with peril, with no inkling of which move could bring this terrifying vision to life. As Annabelle’s present life starts to collide with the future in her dreams, she wrestles with how much control she really has over her destiny and whether she can change what is meant to be.
“A tension-ramping nail-biter of a novel.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…nerve-jangling action… The Constantine sisters are at the top of their game.” – Publishers Weekly
“As a taut example of the psychological suspense genre, Constantine’s latest domestic thriller delights with whipsaw twists revealed from both Annabelle’s and Scarlett’s perspectives. Breakneck pacing, bombshell revelations, and unpredictable outcomes orchestrated by devilishly unreliable characters coalesce in a spellbinding and satisfyingly spine-shivering read.” – Carol Haggas, Booklist
Fox by Joyce Carol Oates ★
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be.
A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands. A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can’t outfox. Written in Oates’s trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery.
“Charming but mysterious English teacher… dead body… dogged detective… deep questions about what it means to be human… and Oates. Yes please.” – Ryan D’Agostino, Esquire
“Fox is a tome that does more than just fill in Lolita’s gaps, it is engrossing even as it horrifies and reminds us that we cannot nor should not look away.” – Billie Walker, Big Issue
“It’s not for the squeamish, but Oates once again masterfully limns the worse angels of our nature.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Oates owns the realm of genre-fluid fiction that focuses on the physical and psychological vulnerabilities of young women. Her latest foray explores the disturbing and chilling milieu of pedophilia from the viewpoints of predator and prey, protector and victim, exposing how easily people can be misled and the devastating consequences of misplaced trust. Menacing, mesmerizing, and thoroughly provocative.” – Carol Haggas, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Hazel Says No by Jessica Berger Gross
fiction.
When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s close-knit community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.
Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine. Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, Hazel Says No is a debut novel not to be missed.
“An engaging, stressful, glorious examination of the aftermath of an awful event.” – Kirkus Reviews
“With humor and heart, Berger Gross introduces readers to Hazel Greenberg Blum and her family… Each family member has their own point of view, and readers will root for all of them. Eleven-year-old Wolf is particularly witty as he inserts himself into the adults’ conversations.” – Cari Dubiel, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Told from multiple characters’ perspectives, this is a downright titillating story about family and community, choices and growth. Readers will root for Hazel and her entire family from beginning to end in this page-turning drama.” – Liz Whitelam, The Indie Next List
The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey ★
nonfiction / fiction / memoir.
Adrift in the winter of 2021 after a sudden breakup and the ensuing depression, the novelist Catherine Lacey began cataloguing the wreckage of her life and the beauty of her friendships, a practice that eventually propagated fiction both entirely imagined and strangely true. Betrayed by the mercurial partner she had trusted with a shared mortgage and suddenly catapulted into the unknown, Lacey’s appetite vanished completely, a visceral reminder of the teenage emaciation that came when she stopped believing in God. Through relationships, travel, reading, and memories of her religious fanaticism, Lacey charts the contours of faith’s absence and reemergence. Bending form, she and her characters recall gnostic experiences with animals, close encounters with male anger, grief driven lust, and the redemptive power of platonic love and narrative itself.
A hybrid work across fiction and nonfiction with no beginning or ending, The Möbius Book troubles the line between memory and fiction with an openhearted defense of faith’s inherent danger.
“A literary haunting that will burrow under your skin.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“This memoir expands the craft explored in Lacey’s last book but offers a nakedness of spirit that few artists have explored as deftly as she does.” – John Rodzvilla, Librar Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Catherine Lacey has been climbing up the literary ladder ever since her magnificent debut novel… Now comes The Möbius Book, a hybrid fiction-memoir written in the wake of a brutal breakup… this new one runs the emotional gamut.” – The Telegraph
“[A] category-defying, creative, thought-provoking piece of literature on loss, betrayal, friendships, faith, and more… The Möbius Book is full of questions that cannot be fully answered. What is real? What is fake? What is love? Why does suffering exist? Unlike life, there is no beginning or end, just a story that follows its own strange, wild, and mesmerizing pattern. A sui generis work, like no other.” – June Sawyers, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Mrs. Blossom has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot, everything changes. She is determined to see the world that she sometimes feels is passing her by.
When Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who’s sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed.
She also didn’t expect Allan to be found, dead, twenty-four hours later in Paris, a city he wasn’t supposed to be in.
Now Mrs. Blossom doesn’t know who to trust on board the ship, especially when a mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go awry. He is convinced that Allan was transporting a stolen piece of art, and Mrs. Blossom knows more than she lets on, regarding both the artifact and Allan’s death.
Mrs. Blossom’s questions only increase as the cruise sails down the Seine. Why does it feel like she is being followed? Who was Allan, and why was he killed? Most alarmingly, why do these mysterious men keep flirting with her?
“Lippman triumphs with this charming mystery… By the time the clever conclusion rolls around, readers will be sad to see this trip come to an end.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Witty and propulsive without ever sacrificing its character-driven exploration of women’s identities in relationships and with themselves, this could blossom into a series. Like the novel’s lottery-winning protagonist, Lippman’s fans will feel like they hit the jackpot with this warm and cozy romp through a Paris vacation and cruise, without too many lives lost along the way.” – Emily Bowles, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Lippman superbly keeps Murder Takes a Vacation on course, adding realistic tension, dialogue and events that could happen to anyone… Mrs. Blossom is a charming, appealing character, who would make a great travel companion and a true friend… Like in real life, this is a cruise that ends too soon.” – Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
fiction / science fiction / fantasy.
Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.
Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain… and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.
On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way west to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.
A high-concept speculative novel about heartache, hope, and human resilience, The Poppy Fields explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person, posing the questions: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go in order to be healed?
“Erlick’s absorbing sophomore work beautifully explores grief, healing, and acceptance.” – Karen Clements, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] sweeping story of grief and life, old wounds and new beginnings. Travel to the Poppy Fields and be forever changed by this smart, empathetic book.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“This touching novel is a tribute to the resilience of the human heart and the journeys we all must go through to heal.” – Jennifer Winberry, Library Reads
Porthole by Joanna Howard
fiction.
World-renowned art-house film director Helena Désir may (or may not!) be responsible for the on-set death of Corey, her latest muse, leading man of the moment, and frequent bedmate. Haunted by the accident, a long trail of ex-lovers, and the corporate film studio who desperately wants to keep her, their cash cow, at work, Helena unravels and is swiftly delivered to a luxury retreat known as Jaquith House, where fellow sufferers of psychic exhaustion—an agèd sound artist, an international entrepreneur, a tennis pro, a woodsman, twin Finnish massage therapists, and a sex-addicted chef—ferry her from meal, to rest activity, to spa experience, to canoe ride, and back to dinner again, with unmatched hilarity and wit.
Told with a captivating quick clip of a gait, Porthole is a portrait of an auteur at the peak of her powers and in the midst of an extravagant, albeit well-dressed, meltdown. Hallucinatory and imagistic, filled to the brim with champagne toasts, boathouse romps, brothels, yoga pants, Parisian hotels, dressing room hookups, and red carpet faux pas, Porthole gifts us the world through the eye of the camera lens, as if through a sea of glass, and asks: If we’ve sinned in the service of art, can we be forgiven?
“Helena is a fascinating narrator, both solipsistic and aware of her vices… A work of seductive cynicism, Porthole is a novel about great sacrifices made in the name of true art.” – Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews
Small Pies, Big Flavor by Helen Nugent
nonfiction / food / cooking.
From the bestselling author of Pie Style comes an irresistible collection of delicious recipes for mini pies, tarts and galettes that pack twice the flavor in half the size. Whether you’re looking for a sweet indulgence or a savory snack, these perfectly proportioned treats are designed to fit your everyday cravings, small gatherings or even a midnight snack—without leaving behind a pile of leftovers. With recipes for 40 sweet and savory treats, and 4 versatile pie doughs, you’ll master the foundations of small pie baking and whip up irresistible creations like:
– Nutter Butter Tarts
– Coffee Crème Brûlée Tart
– Peach Raspberry Hand Pies
– Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart
– Breakfast Hand Pies
– Spicy Beef and Sweet Potato Samosas
Say goodbye to oversized pies and hello to a world of bite-sized indulgence. Perfect for small kitchens, small gatherings or small moments of indulgence, this book is your ticket to pie bliss, one mini creation at a time.
“Small Pies, Big Flavor is a celebration of sweet treats in petite packages—featuring tarts, galettes, and pies that are perfect for snacking, entertaining, or savoring solo. Nugent brings fun and finesse to every recipe in this charming new collection.” – Step Out Buffalo
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston ★
fiction / romance.
Joni Lark has a secret. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, and yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark inspiration. But when Joni gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is hiding something, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination.
Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts—or their secrets—in the process.
Because that melody, the one drawing them together… what if it’s there for a reason?
“[A] can’t-miss summer read.” – SheReads
“Ashley Poston has done it again. She wonderfully combines laugh-out-loud humor with tender, heartfelt moments. If you love music, small Southern towns, or just a good story, Sounds Like Love is for you.” – Julie Hansard, The Indie Next List
“[A] winning magical realist romance that explores artistic creation, grief, and new beginnings… This moving romance will delight Poston’s fans and should earn her plenty of new ones.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Poston writes another lyrical and magical tale set in a cozy beach town that will make readers want to savor reading it while sitting on the sand themselves.” – Morgan Lockard, Library Journal
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
fiction / historical fiction / mystery.
Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance.
But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette’s four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane’s body was found floating in the Seine—but the bracelet was nowhere to be found.
Seventy years later, Colette—who has “redistributed” $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations—has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time—and who owns it now—she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn’t the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she’s forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice—but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
“This very romantic story will provide a happy ending for those who need it.” – Danise Hoover, Booklist
“[An] emotional tale with likable characters and a feel-good ending. The moral ambiguity of the protagonist’s choices should help keep conversation flowing for the many book clubs who call Harmel a favorite.” – Mara Bandy Fass, Library Journal
Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell
fiction / fantasy / historical fiction.
Sometimes a goddess’s worst enemy is her biggest fan.
Heracles, hero of Greece, dedicates all his feats to the goddess Hera. If only he knew that his very face is an insult to her… as he is yet another child that Hera’s dipshit husband, Zeus, had out of wedlock.
“Auntie Hera” loathes every minute of Heracles’ devotion, until she snaps and causes an unspeakably tragic accident: the death of Heracles’ children. Plunged into grief and desperate for revenge, Heracles is determined to find the god that did this.
Wracked with guilt and desperate to save face, Hera distracts Heracles with monster-slaying quests, only to find that he is too traumatized to enact more violence. Instead, Heracles cares for the Nemean lion, bonds with the Lernaean hydra, and heeds the Ceryneian hind.
Each challenge adds a new monster to Heracles’ newfound family. A family that just might lay siege to Mount Olympos.
“Wiswell offers a unique and delightful retelling of the mythology of Heracles, balancing both tragedy and emotional character arcs with humorous dialogue and interactions.” – Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal
“…Wiswell puts a fresh spin on the labors of Hercules in this inventive and irreverent novel… a Greek mythology retelling that stands out from the crowd through its sheer sense of fun.” – Publishers Weekly
“…divine… If you enjoy retellings of Greek myths or just great books in general, I think you’ll enjoy Wearing the Lion.” – Will Swardstrom, FanFiAddict
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