“Open eyes are of little use when the mind behind them is closed.” – Jim Butcher, Princeps’ Fury
All the Little Houses by May Cobb ★
fiction / suspense / mystery / historical fiction.
It’s the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can’t get for herself… well, that’s what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Andersen, blond, beautiful, and ruthlessly cunning, remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser, an outcast, humiliated, and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she’d so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town, all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes, Charleigh’s entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble.
Who will be left standing when the dust settles?
“May Cobb’s new novel showcases all the setting and sass we’ve come to expect from the author of The Hunting Wives.” – Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
“…juicy… gets a lot of mileage out of its soapy twists… A sequel would be welcome.” – Publishers Weekly
“Cobb offers a salacious peek into the lives of trad wives and materialistic upper-class families, in which Charleigh and Nellie’s toxic relationship is the driving force of the story. Readers will be glued to the page, gawking at the messes Cobb’s characters make.” – Joanna Harris, Library Journal
“Every character inhabits a moral gray area, stuck and struggling with secret desires, resentments, and plans. Cobb may claim Little House on the Prairie as an inspiration—but this is more Desperate Housewives.” – Kirkus Reviews
A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James
fiction / horror / mystery / suspense.
Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For the Esmie siblings—Violet, Vail, and Dodie—the final straw was the shocking disappearance of their little brother. It started as a normal game of hide-and-seek. The three closed their eyes and counted to ten while Ben went to hide. But this time, they never found their brother—he was gone and the ongoing search efforts turned up no clues.
As their parents grew increasingly distant, Violet, Vail, and Dodie were each haunted by visions and frightening events that made them leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years.
And now after two decades running from their past, it’s time for a homecoming. Because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared. If the ghosts of Fell don’t get to them first.
“Leave the lights on for this one (don’t say I didn’t warn you!).” – Leandra Beabout, Reader’s Digest
“St. James writes a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller that will have readers on the edge of their seats.” – Linsey Milillo, Library Journal
“From the book’s chillingly creepy setting, which previously appeared in The Sun Down Motel, to a nerve-jangling plot that effectively borrows from a mix of genres to the writing itself, which shimmers with a dazzlingly sharp sense of wit, everything about St. James’ latest is done to perfection.” – John Charles, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Crux by Gabriel Tallent ★
fiction.
Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert. One is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy burnout. Climbing boulders in trash-strewn parking lots during cold desert nights, they seal their unique bond and dream of a life of adventure.
As the year progresses and adult reality looms, they are rocked by change and pulled apart by irreconcilable obligations. Differences of class, talent, and prospects take on new importance; options dwindle, and their decisions grow ever more consequential and perilous. It feels inevitable, finally, that something must give.
“[A] tense and staggering tale… a towering coming-of-age saga packed with muscle and heart.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A sharp novel about youth in conflict with dreams, nature, and reality.” – Kirkus Reveiws, STARRED REVIEW
“In his assured second novel, Crux, Gabriel Tallent asserts that friendships are as intricate and significant as any relationship bound by blood or romance… Tallent might telegraph the novel’s ending, but the way he executes the conclusion is thrilling, propulsive and earned.” – Bret Anthony Johnston, New York Times
“Throughout the story, his characters’ meditations on courage are motivating and clear; near the end, they become downright transcendent… Well-paced, authentic, and imbued with emotional depth… It’s hard to describe just how visceral and real this book feels.” – Sam MacIlwaine, Climbing
Evelyn in Transit by David Guterson
fiction.
Radically open-minded, formidably strong, and unusually clear-eyed about herself and others, Evelyn Bednarz has always been a misfit. She’s easily bored, unsuited to life at school, asks odd questions about faith and time, and sees through conventions others take for granted. Seeking to be true to herself, she hitchhikes across the American West taking odd jobs.
In distant Tibet, another life unfolds as remote from Evelyn’s as can be: the life of a boy named Tsering, raised as a Buddhist monk in the mountains of Tibet, who eventually becomes a high lama.
And yet, their lives are strangely linked―as Evelyn discovers when a trio of Buddhist lamas show up at her door to announce that her five-year-old son Cliff is the seventh reincarnation of the illustrious Norbu Rinpoche, recently deceased. The lamas’ visit sets off a family crisis and a media firestorm over Cliff’s future.
Written in a spare, precise style of extraordinary beauty, full of surprising humor and luminosity, Evelyn in Transit delivers much-needed insight and compassion about humanity’s strivings for transcendence, and what it might mean to “live the right way.”
“…moving… deeply satisfying. The author’s fans will appreciate this subtle tale of spiritual seeking.” – Publishers Weekly
“Guterson delivers a soulful and gentle meditation on the meaning of life and the lengths some of us will go to find purpose. What Evelyn ends up choosing for her young son is practically beside the point. Her charming large-heartedness and open mind win the reader over anyway.” – Poornima Apte, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Friend of the Family by Dean Koontz
fiction / horror / suspense.
The human “oddities” in the Museum of the Strange are less wondrous than the gawking rubes had been promised. But Alida is something else. The real thing. Traveling Depression-era America from carnival midways to speakeasies, Alida is resigned to an exploited and lonely life on the road as the museum’s golden ticket. Until she’s rescued by two compassionate strangers.
Franklin and Loretta Fairchild see in Alida a gifted and uncannily well-read girl in need of a loving touch and a family. With the openhearted couple and their three precociously imaginative children, Alida finds it. Yet despite everyone’s overwhelming generosity and acceptance, Alida knows she is still a very different kind of girl. Her dreams bear that out. They’re vivid, unsettling, and threatening. Alida fears that they’re also warnings. And that it’s the Fairchilds who may need rescue from a bad, bad world.
Alida will do anything to help those she now holds nearest and dearest. Empowered with a purpose to vanquish evil, she will not fail her family.
“…the showdown is well worth the wait. Will good prevail in this compassionate, emotional story? Readers’ eyes may spring a few leaks, so keep your tissues handy.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…masterful… Koontz asks what it means to be good, if it is even possible to be good in this kind of world and then, through Alida, suggests a tentative but empowering ‘yes’!” – Georgia Smith, Starburst
The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead ★
fiction / romance.
When record executive Theo meets the Future Saints, they’re bombing at a dive bar in their hometown. Since the tragic death of their manager, the band has been in a downward spiral and Theo has been dispatched to coax a new—and successful—album out of them, or else let them go.
Immediately, Theo is struck by Hannah, the group’s impetuous lead singer, who’s gone off script by debuting a whole new sound, replacing their California pop with gut-wrenching rock. When this new music goes viral, striking an unexpected chord with fans, Theo puts his career on the line to give the Saints one last shot at success with a new tour, new record, and new start.
But Hannah’s grief has larger consequences for the group, and her increasingly destructive antics become a distraction as she and her sister Ginny—her lifelong partner in crime—undermine Theo at every turn. Hannah isn’t ready to move on or prepared for the fame she’s been chasing, and the weight of her problems jeopardize the band, her growing closeness with Theo, and, worst of all, her relationship with her sister—all while the world watches closely. The Future Saints’s big break is here—if only they can survive it.
“This beautiful novel will resonate with anyone who has ever loved someone with their whole heart. Highly recommended.” – Stephanie Howes, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…propulsive… With compelling characters and surprising emotional depth, The Future Saints pays tribute to the glitz and guts required for a life dedicated to music.” – Katie Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness
“Hannah and Theo are irresistible characters, making it easy to root for them to get together… This one leaves a mark.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“If you’re drawn to novels that explore the highs and lows of the music world, The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead should be at the top of your list. Think Daisy Jones & The Six vibes—music, fame, and the intricate web of relationships behind the scenes… a moving, well-crafted story of love, friendship, ambition, and the emotional highs and lows of chasing your dreams.” – Novel Gossip
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy ★
fiction.
Waldo 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.
“…provocative… Waldo makes for an appealing narrator, thanks to her precocious and razor-sharp observations, such as her withering view of adulthood’s ‘routinization of domestic life.’ Readers are in for a wild ride.” – Publishers Weekly
“…I devoured it in a single weekend… audacious and thought-provoking… the writing is razor-sharp, sparse and unpretentious… it’s definitely a conversation starter and an important look at power dynamics.” – Daisy Lester, The Independent
“McCurdy brings the same blunt-force honesty to her debut novel that she did to her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. Her earnest writing style cuts deep and highlights observations about capitalism, addiction, and the need to belong. With a tone and themes deeply rooted in Gen Z culture and told from Waldo’s perspective, Half His Age lets readers peer inside the mind of a young woman dealing with the complexities of power, autonomy, and coming-of-age.” – BoDean Tayer, Booklist
My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney ★
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.
One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.
Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.
“Feeney delivers another gripping psychological thriller…” – Shellie Zeigler, Booklist
“[An] unputdownable sprint to figure out what’s real, who’s lying, and what’s actually going on.” – Andrea Park, Marie Claire
“…kept me on my toes the whole way through… you won’t be able to look away.” – Caitlin Lloyd, FanFiAddict
“Alice Feeney is at it again, delivering a masterclass in twisty thrillers… a maze of deception and obsession that kept me guessing right up until the very end… [I] was shocked by the conclusion… an unforgettable must-read.” – Justin Soderberg, Capes & Tights
No One Would Do What the Lamberts Have Done by Sophie Hannah
fiction / mystery / suspense / comedy.
You think it will never happen to you.
The doorbell. The policeman. The words that turn your world inside out: I’m afraid there’s been an incident…
For Sally Lambert, those words mean only one thing―danger. Not just for her family, but for Champ, their loyal and beloved dog. A single accusation, a neighbor’s grudge, and suddenly the Lamberts are trapped in a nightmare with no escape.
Unless they make one.
Most people would never run. Most people would never leave behind everything they know to protect an animal who can’t defend himself. But for Sally, Champ is more than a dog―he’s one of her children. And most people aren’t the Lamberts.
No one has ever done this before. No one has ever gone this far. But the Lamberts have never been quite like any other family…
“…Hannah has surely written a true original—not an easy feat… readers who love this book will love it. An absolutely absurdist romp for dog-loving mystery fans.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The unfolding of the wacky, harebrained plot reveals surprise after surprise, with plenty of eye-popping, laugh-out-loud twists to this hilarious, peculiar, charming, wholly original tale…” – Emily Melton, Booklist
“[A] daring metafictional mystery… Head-spinning as the setup sounds, Hannah pulls it off with ease. It’s a witty and entertaining ride.” – Publishers Weekly
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
fiction / fantasy / mystery.
One year. 365 days. Twelve months.
Harry Dresden has been through a lot, and so has his city. After Harry and his allies narrowly managed to save Chicago from being razed to the ground, everything is different—and it’s not just the current lack of electricity.
In the battle, Harry lost people he cared about. And that’s the kind of loss that takes a toll. Harry being Harry, he’s doing his level best to help the city and his friends recover and rebuild. But it’s a heavy load, and he needs time.
But time is one thing Harry doesn’t have. Ghouls are prowling Chicago and taking out innocent civilians. Harry’s brother is dying, and Harry doesn’t know how to help him. And last but certainly not least, the Winter Queen of the Fae has allied with the White Court of vampires—and Harry’s been betrothed to the seductive, deadly vampire Lara Raith to seal the deal.
It’s been a tough year. More than ever, the city needs Harry Dresden the wizard—but after loss and grief, is there enough left of Harry Dresden the man to rise to the challenge?
“Series fans will be intrigued by the new characters and changes in Harry’s life as Butcher deftly explores the impacts of loss and grief.” – Lucy Lockley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Rare is the series that can pull this kind of thing off, this late in the game.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“The high-stakes plotlines keep the pages turning as rapidly as ever, but this installment’s greatest strength lies in its exploration of Dresden’s mental state as his resilience is tested as never before.” – Publishers Weekly
The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII by Mark Braude
nonfiction / history / true crime / biography.
In 1925, the Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular “Letter from Paris” for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She’d come to Paris to with dreams of writing about “Beauty with a Capital B.” Her employer, self-consciously apolitical, sought only breezy reports on French art and culture. But as she woke to the frightening signs of rising extremism, economic turmoil, and widespread discontent in Europe, Flanner ignored her editor’s directives, reinventing herself, her assignment, and The New Yorker in the process.
While working tirelessly to alert American readers to the dangers of the Third Reich, Flanner became gripped by the disturbing crimes of a man who embodied all of the darkness she was being forced to confront. Eugen Weidmann, a German con-man and murderer, and the last man to be publicly executed in France—mere weeks before the outbreak of WWII. Flanner covered his crimes, capture, and highly politicized trial, seeing the case as a metaphor for understanding the tumultuous years through which she’d just passed and to prepare herself for the dangers to come.
“[A] significant work of nonfiction. Part biography, part true crime narrative, this book presents something rare: a novel story about interwar Paris.” – Kirkus Reviews
When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy by Beronda L. Montgomery
nonfiction / history / science / nature.
The histories of trees in America are also the histories of Black Americans. Pecan trees were domesticated by an enslaved African named Antoine; sycamore trees were both havens and signposts for people trying to escape enslavement; poplar trees are historically associated with lynching; and willow bark has offered the gift of medicine. These trees, and others, testify not only to the complexity of the Black American narrative but also to a heritage of Black botanical expertise that, like Native American traditions, predates the United States entirely.
In When Trees Testify, award-winning plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery explores the ways seven trees―as well as the cotton shrub―are intertwined with Black history and culture. She reveals how knowledge surrounding these trees has shaped America since the very beginning. As Montgomery shows, trees are material witnesses to the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants.
Combining the wisdom of science and history with stories from her own path to botany, Montgomery talks to majestic trees, and in this unique and compelling narrative, they answer.
“A fresh perspective on Black history.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Montgomery eloquently analyzes the cultural and historical strains in the Black South in this beautifully written work of history, natural history, and memoir.” – Edwin Burgess, Library Journal
“…Montgomery weaves in her scientific expertise and her experiences growing up around trees in Arkansas to deliver a poignant and singular retelling of Black American history. This will resonate with fans of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass.” – Publishers Weekly
Worst-Case Scenario by Ray Stoeve
fiction / young adult / romance.
Sidney has one goal for their junior year. Well… two, if they’re being honest. Number one: become president of their school’s Queer Alliance club. And number two: keep their self-diagnosed anxiety in check so their grades don’t tank like they did last year.
But when the election results in a tie with none other than Sidney’s arch nemesis, the class clown Forrest, the two are forced to share the presidency until a revote at the end of term. Sidney expects Forrest to be insufferable, but it turns out that working together is… kind of nice?
As surprising feelings for Forrest emerge, Sidney’s techniques for managing their anxiety stop working. With the reelection approaching and assignments starting to pile up, will all this pressure be too much for Sidney to handle on their own?
“Stories about diverse teens dealing with all types of difficulties while having full, rich lives and romance are still rare finds. This, and all of Stoeve’s novels, will fill that empty space on shelves perfectly.” – Maria Ramusevic, School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“An honest depiction of OCD paired with a cute queer romance.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Don your pride flag, grab some tissues, and prepare to curl up with this hard-hitting high-school rom-com about friendship, crushes, and the many other struggles of being a teenager… Stoeve’s latest is a beautiful journey of self-discovery and the power of just being there for people—whether friends, family, or partners… Be ready to have a good cry through the latter part.” – Nathan Bartos, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
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