โI can appreciate my body in a bikini and still want to set fire to the patriarchy.โ – Christina Lauren, The Unhoneymooners
Astronaut! by Oana Aristide
fiction / historical fiction / comedy / suspense / mystery.
Romania, 1989, the twilight of Ceauศescuโs dictatorship: Daily news flashes of seemingly random murders grip the nation. The suspect? A man-eating bear.
Amid the fear of informants, official lies, and daily rationing, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective prone to scribbling fairy tales in his notebook, is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an eccentric elderly neighborโs secret plot against the regime. While everyone around them is flattened into submission, the two find the spirit to carry out small acts of defiance. Their decisions will have sweeping consequencesโfor themselves, for their families, and for their country.
Masterfully plotted and psychologically astute, Astronaut! is both a chilling detective novel and a moving coming-of-age tale. It carries a powerful message: the lies we accept today become the truths of tomorrow.
“…captures the spirit of Marx meeting the Marx Brothers.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…both cautionary tale and historical fever dream… Aristideโs expert conjuring of the atmospherics of totalitarianism calls to mind the absurdist brilliance and wry humor of dissident Czech writers like Hrabal and Klima… Importantly, what Aristideโs wonderful novel illustrates is that even in the darkest of timelines it is possible to find shelterโand something like freedomโwithin the vast spaces of the imagination…” – Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub
“Aristide evokes in this splendid novel the heightened fear and tension of 1989 Romania near the end of Nicolae Ceauศescuโs totalitarian reign… The storyโs beating heart lies in Liaโs childlike wonder and Constantinโs stubborn optimism: ‘It canโt be possible,’ he thinks, ‘that people are supposed to be good only when itโs easy to do so.’ Itโs a stirring ode to the goodness that persists despite humanityโs cruelty.” – Publishers Weekly
Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold
fiction / horror / suspense / mystery.
One isolated cabin. One cheating boyfriend. One plan to get even.
When Nora, Ruby, and Cham discover that they’ve each been dating the same man, what starts as outrage quickly spirals into a plot for revenge. Together they hatch a plan to lure their boyfriend to a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin at the top of a snow-covered mountain.
Only what was meant to be harmless payback soon takes a chilling turn when their not-so-adoring boyfriend is found dead in the cabin.
Stranded and snowed in, the women begin to look at each other with increasing suspicion. And as tensions rise, hidden motives come to light. To survive, each woman must confront her own demons as they fight to uncover if one of them is the killer, or if something else lurks in the freezing wilderness, waiting to pick them off one by one.
“…consistent and enthralling tension… one of the most structurally suspenseful [novels] I’ve read… bombards us with twists and suspense but also portrays a caring and fierce bond forged by three women who were scorned by one man.” – Jonathan, The Horror Lounge
Dominion by Jean Kwok โ
fiction / fantasy / romance.
In a world divided into four rival dominions, power is everythingโand Rubi Morningtail has almost none. Three years after the Annihilation destroyed her homeland and shattered her memories, she lives as an Azure refugee in the Dominion of the Silver Tyger, scraping by as a ribbon dancer and hiding her little bit of singing magic. When she wounds a massive battle tyger on her doorstep, she draws the notice of Blake Axefireโsupreme metal mage, leader of the royal Tyger Warriors, and the last man an Azure should trust. His sentence? Cast her into the Bonding, a brutal trial where tygers choose their riders and slaughter the rest. Surviving is unthinkable.
But survive she does. Now sheโs stuck on Blakeโs elite team racing to reseal the Anchors to the Demon Realm. With rebels striking, demons rising, and the dominions at each otherโs throats, Rubi must unlock the truth of her magic and her pastโฆ while resisting her dangerous attraction to the ruthless warrior who could be her redemptionโor her ruin.
“[Dominion] ticks pretty much every box a fan of this genre could want.” – Lacy Baugher Milas, Jezebel
“Kwokโs romantasy is a page-turner filled with action, betrayals, surprising revelations, and some heartfelt losses that will leave readers anticipating the next book.” – Frances Moritz, Booklist
“Romtantasy as a genre continues to heat up, and Jean Kwokโs Dominion is a buzz-worthy addition to the growing canon… Fourth Wingโby way of Chinese mythologyโmeets The Hunger Games…” – Town & Country
“Kwok launches a romantasy trilogy with an intricately crafted magic system and a romance that will keep readers clamoring for the next in the series.” – Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal
Everything to the Sea by Alicia Upano โ
fiction / romance.
This is how the story goes: Jane will fall in love. And then all of this will vanish.
Home for one final summer, Jane is working and saving cash for her senior year of college before she leaves her island town behind forever. At first, she doesnโt remember Kenji, but he quickly becomes someone she canโt forget: square jaw, a dimple in his cheek. A Hilo boy. To Kenji, sheโs Janie, nose perpetually buried in her old high school sketchbooks. Jane tells herself itโs only a flingโone perfect, carefree summer, on her way to achieving her dream of becoming an architect and moving to the continent.
Then a tsunami sweeps their families out to sea, and their all-consuming affair breaks with the weight of grief, pulling them in opposite directions. Kenji remains in Hawaiโi, bound by duty to rebuild their hometown. Jane, shattered by the loss, follows her best friend to California. For seven years, an ocean lies between them, until Jane and Kenji meet on another coast…
In prose that sparkles like sun on the water, Upanoโs debut novel tells the unforgettable story of two young people as they come of age, fall in love, forge new families, and try to find their way back together, again and again. Everything to the Sea is a moving portrait of our ability to overcome even the most devastating tragedies, when everything else is washed away.
“[A] deeply emotional epic…” – Caroline Leavitt, People
“Told in alternating chapters by Jane and Kenji, this beautifully crafted debut will enchant readers.” – Marcia Welsh, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“This big-souled book considers the costs of leaving and staying, especially where rebuilding is required. Upanoโs operatic scope and clean, elegant sentences really swept me off my feet.” – Brittany Allen, Literary Hub
“Alicia Upano portrays the euphoria of love and the pain of destruction with incredible skill, never shying away from the visceral nature of the tragedy that changes so much for Jane and Kenji overnight. Yet despite the disasterโs massive scope, Upano chooses to focus on its intimate, individual details, drawing a quiet parallel between the frightening indifference of nature and how unpredictable our lives really are. Everything to the Sea is a harrowing but beautiful coming-of-age tale and a yearning, hopeful love story.” – Apple Books Review
Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon
fiction / romance / comedy.
Ramona Wilder has spent her whole life in the spotlight. After a hit kidsโ TV show, she transitioned into music, singing in arenas around the world and becoming an icon for millions of teenage girls. Now at age twenty-six, exhausted by the inhumane lack of privacy, sheโs doneโwith all of it. She wants a chance at normal, whatever that might mean for her. And sheโs starting with college.
Professor Nick Navarro is recently divorced but determinedly optimistic, allowing himself a very reasonable ten minutes per day to wallow. When his department calls a meeting about a celebrity enrollment, he plans to treat whoever it is like any other student. Except when Ramona blazes into class and causes an uproar, the typically easygoing professor is rattled, maybe for the first time in his career.
Ramona loves the way she flusters him, taking every opportunity to push Nickโs buttons, though what she really wants is to unbutton them completely. When a crisis brings them closer outside of class, they begin a tentative friendship amid an undeniable attraction. But Ramona canโt be so easily finished with her old life, and theyโll both have to confront their pasts if they want a chance at something real.
“A perfect summer beach read.” – Red Carpet Crash
“Fans of steamy romances will definitely enjoy the heat between these two characters as they grow closer.” – Lindsey Allen, Booklist
“The internal and external conflicts (that is, trying to leave your past versus trying to not get fired because youโre dating your student) paired so well together and made for an unputdownable story… Whether youโre in the market for a romance that makes you kick your feet, a heartening story of rediscovery that will make you pick up one of your long-discarded hobbies or just seeking some delicious will-they-wonโt they tension, Rachel Lynn Solomonโs Extracurricular is the must-read romance of the summer!” – Mimi Koehler, The Nerd Daily
Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America’s Love for the Wild by Heather Hansman
nonfiction / history / biography / memoir / nature.
Throughout the 20th century Georgie White, Anne LaBastille, and Dolores LaChapelle did more to inspire our love of the great outdoors than just about anyone.
- Georgie devoted her life to the Grand Canyon, kickstarting the river running craze in the 40s and igniting the recreation industry
- Anne, a wilderness guide and bestselling author, protected endangered species and predicted the impacts of climate change from her isolated, off-grid cabin in the Adirondacks.
- And deep powder skier Dolores developed an environmental philosophy that shaped everything from the radical environmental movement of the โ70s to modern conservation ethics.
Now, for the first time, outdoor journalist and bestselling author of Powder Days Heather Hansman goes deep into multiple rugged American landscapes to bring three fascinating lives to the forefront of the outdoor movement, affirming their rightful place in the larger story of an evolving American wild.
“[A] nuanced and vivid portrait of pioneering outdoorswomen.” – Publishers Weekly
“Three women who made significant contributions to the appreciation and protection of nature in the U.S. are portrayed with wit and verve in this fascinating mix of biography and memoir… With her clear-eyed view of her subjects and flinty prose, Hansman offers a new twist on American adventure and conservation. This shrewd and complex group portrait should not be missed.” – Colleen Monder, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Through their passion and persistence, three women influenced Americaโs relationship with the great outdoors in more ways than one. Now, their stories come to life in shimmering prose that moves from the Grand Canyon to the rivers, mountains and forests whose futures they impacted.” – Nina Braca, B&N Reads
The Gilded Blade by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
fiction / young adult / suspense / mystery / romance.
Everyone is a player.
In the grandest of games, there is everything to winโmoney, love, power, revengeโand even more to lose. From Texas to Prague to London and beyond, the Hawthorne family, the players from the Grandest Game, and allies old and new are drawn into a web of centuries-old secrets and mind-bending puzzles. Every clue pulls them deeper; every answer demands a price.
To survive, they must unravel the mysteries that bind them togetherโฆ but some truths are deadly.
Discover danger, riches, romanceโand the long-awaited revelations at the heart of Jennifer Lynn Barnesโs most intricate and explosive puzzle yet.
All games must come to an end.
“The games continueโฆ but as the inevitable end approaches, the deepest, darkest secrets finally come to light in this mind-blowing finale.” – Nina Braca, B&N Reads
“This book had me in a literal chokehold at 2 AM, ring light still on from filming a haul video, mascara halfway off my face, completely unable to stop… this is the payoff you’ve been waiting for…” – Jada Thompson, AudiobookSoul
The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby: Inside a Billionaire Family’s Quest to Craft a Christian Nation by Michael Blanding
nonfiction / religion / politics / biography / business.
Hobby Lobby is a multibillion-dollar craft store chain with more than a thousand US locations, founded and owned by the Greensโan evangelical Christian family committed to establishing the Bible as the ultimate authority behind our laws and society.
In The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby, Michael Blanding reveals how the Greens have quietly yet effectively used their vast wealth to spread their beliefs throughout the US and beyond. They have run expensive, wide-reaching ad campaigns to inculcate biblical values and have propped up evangelical education through donations of money and land. They successfully fought a Supreme Court case to deny their employees insurance coverage for contraception and funneled millions of dollars to organizations working to overturn Roe v. Wade and to undermine LGBTQ rights. And, for their multimillion-dollar Museum of the Bible just blocks from the US Capitol building, theyโve acquired looted, stolen, and forged biblical antiquities from the Middle East. In a riveting exposรฉ, Blanding traces the Greensโ efforts to sell their evangelical mission.
Captivating and disturbing, The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby exposes the pivotal role the Green family has played in funding and empowering Americaโs dangerous, ascendant Christian nationalist movement.
“An eye-opening look at the crossroads of money, religion, and politics.” – Kirkus Reviews
“File this book into the category of stomach-churning and essential. The former is a testament to Blandingโs storytelling abilityโthe problem is the story itself, about the family that founded and owns Hobby Lobby and its handsomely funded, radical religious agenda, is deeply disturbing. Weโre currently living in the America the Green family helped create, so weโd do well to read up on how they did it.” – Literary Hub
Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist
fiction / horror / suspense.
โThe symmetry should have tipped me off.โ
After a violent incident at work, Tamsin goes looking for a fresh start in a remote cottage far away from her old life. Here she could make real friends, find a job she loves, become a whole new person, even.
But the solitary cottage is actually a semi-detached, with only a thin wall separating her from a total stranger. Her neighbour is an enigma. Dowdy one moment, vivacious the next, but always wearing an unnerving smile. Tamsin canโt shake the feeling that thereโs something wrong with her, especially when she starts experiencing disturbances in her own home.
As the locals share strange stories about her house, and her barely contained paranoia spirals out of control, Tamsin begins to suspect that the past she was so desperate to escape might never let her go.
โA chilling and gripping novel for readers who appreciate folk horror in everyday lives.โ – Aurealis
“A debut novel of claustrophobic domestic dread, Scottish folklore, and an unreliable narrator you canโt look away from… one of the most quietly devastating entries in contemporary psychological folk horror… Some debut novels announce a writer. Home Sick announces an arrival.” – Jim Mcleod, Ginger Nuts of Horror
“Grist excels at building unease through small details, allowing tension to simmer beneath the surface long before the story fully embraces its horror credentials… What begins as a seemingly straightforward haunted-house story gradually develops into something stranger, darker and more emotionally resonant… The resolution is particularly effective, tying together the novelโs themes of trauma, belonging and identity in a way that feels both eerie and strangely satisfying.” – Rachael Harper, SciFiNow
Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Whatโs a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales, and justice for murder?
Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgiaโs mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scoutโs done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.
But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the worldโs most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything sheโs worked to buildโincluding the justice she wants for Georgiaโwill fall apart unless Scout can prove sheโs not guilty.
Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgiaโs death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywoodโan old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.
“[A] savage #MeToo revenge fantasy… genuinely satisfying… This entertains and disquiets enough to make an impression.” – Publishers Weekly
“Author Ashley Winsteadโs gripping tale will leave you thinking about what making other people pay might actually cost.” – Apple Books Review
โIf youโre into detectives and the underbelly of the Hollywood elite, this is a fun dual timeline thriller that keeps you hooked. Winsteadโs prose is top-notch, and it helps bring the settings and characters to life.โ – Jeff Morse, The Indie Next List
The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia โ
fiction / historical fiction / mystery / suspense.
Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters in order to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks wonโt last forever, and heโs desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.
He thinks heโs found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didnโt expect. The woman has a niece, Inรฉs, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her auntโs household.
When Inรฉs discovers Ulisesโs true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. Theyโll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast, and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inรฉs is more alluring than he bargained for. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.
Venture into the streets of a small town where a patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.
“Clever, taut, and just flat-out fun.” – Kirkus Reviews
“[A] noir-inspired thriller that is as atmospheric as it is gripping… a dark, stylish, and utterly unputdownable mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page.” – Bre Avery, Brit+Co
โWriting with elegantly crafted prose to rival Raymond Chandler and James M. Cainโs discerning flair for morally complex characterization, Moreno-Garcia \serves up her own seductive literary cocktail composed of equal measures of deception, danger, desire, and desperation. From its expertly evoked settings to its flawlessly paced plot, everything about Moreno-Garciaโs latest exudes noir at its very best.โ – John Charles, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Moreno-Garcia keeps the power dynamics unstable in this deliciously dark thriller, with most of the characters concealing momentous secrets that inform their respective motivations. The resulting fireworks are difficult to look away from.” – Publishers Weekly
I Want You to Be Happy by Jem Calder
fiction.
Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. Heโs in his mid-thirties; sheโs twelve years younger. He long ago abandoned his ambition of being a novelist and works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. “Lead copywriter,” he corrects himself. Joey is living paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuckโs luxury flatโa world away from Joeyโs cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey is imagining a future between them and Chuck is moving on from a mistake in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new.
Funny, excruciating, and true, Jem Calder’s I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of two people searching for meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but still trying.
“A clever, wry, and hyper-realistic portrayal of contemporary life.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The novel is full of piquant references to Nalgene water bottles, V60 coffee drippers and the sfumato haze of Blue Razz Ice Lost Marys, but at its heart is a totally devastating โ and all too relatable โ portrait of modern romance.” – Barry Pierce, British Vogue
“[An] all-too-real look into the will to persist amid dim hopes for a career and love.” – Publishers Weekly
The Mulai by Munir Hachemi; translated by Julia Sanches
fiction / science fiction.
An archeologist travels to a distant planet to spend time among a mysterious community: a people who live in temperature-controlled domes, worship a deity called Dog, and repeat an elliptical phrase from which they draw their name: mulai, the tree comes. The descendants of a long-forgotten space mission, the Mulai have abandoned the social norms that once bound them to Earth.
Over centuries of isolation, their language has become more about change than stability, and the ways they eat, write, reproduce, bury their dead, and understand gender have all transformed into something almost unrecognizable. As the archeologist records his attempts to understand their world โ a strange negative of our own โ questions of translation, meaning-making, and the ultimate precarity of civilization come to the fore.
Drawing on Borges, Le Guin, and Calvino, The Mulai is a mind-bending work of metafiction whose interlocking puzzles resound with Munir Hachemiโs singularly playful and eclectic style.
“I suspect it is going to stay with meโฆ After finishing the book, I felt dazed for the rest of the day.” โ Niall Harrison, Locus
“Upending established notions of supremacy, truth, and religion, this is a daring novel narrated in strange and twisting language… The revelations it proffers are life-giving.” – Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“If Borges wrote hard science-fiction, it might well look like this… Hachemi (in a lovely and undoubtedly exhausting translation by Julia Sanches) never loses sight of the play that is so important in writing good science-fiction. You can almost feel the author grinning at you as you read, and I daresay youโll end up grinning back by the end.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef by Nephi Craig
nonfiction / memoir / food.
At just eighteen years old, Nephi Craig was facing a felony charge that could have put him in prison for years. Having struggled with substance abuse throughout his teens, his life had come to a dizzying halt. So when a judge ordered three years of probation insteadโon the condition he attend work or schoolโCraig took it as an opportunity for a new lease on life. Not long after, he enrolled in a culinary arts program a few hours from Whiteriver, Arizona, where he had grown up on the White Mountain Apache Tribe Reservation. Expecting little more than a means to an end, Craig quickly discovered a talent and passion for cooking. He also experienced a profound dissonance as the only Indigenous person in the kitchen, preparing European recipes thatโdisguised by their French and Italian namesโrelied on ingredients native to the Americas.
Craig untangled the buried histories of Indigenous cultivars such as tomato, cacao, and amaranth, each one a portal into possibility as well as a marker of the violent legacy of colonization. As he did so, he found new ways to honor his Apache and Navajo roots and build Indigenous food sovereignty. His journey led him around the world, from top fine-dining restaurants in the United States to high-profile banquets in Brazil, England, Germany, and Japan. All the while, Craig wrestled with addiction, entering one treatment center after another in the hopes that he could getโand remainโsober.
In the heat, frenzy, and collaborative energy of restaurant kitchens, Craig found a lifeline. But when he was faced with the difficult decision of choosing between a career-defining executive chef job and an opportunity to serve his community back on the Rez, he realized his true vocation. Interweaving personal reflection with illuminating cultural insight, Our Knives Will Save Us offers a vision of hope: one where food is decolonized and cooking is a pathway to healing for all of us.
“[An] affecting debut memoir… a poignant ode to reclaiming oneโs culture.” – Publishers Weekly
“Chef Nephi Craigโs remarkable memoir is about discovering that the most meaningful journeys often lead back to where you started… Whether heโs describing the intensity of a professional kitchen, recoveryโs hard but necessary conversations, or the joys of a perfectly sharpened, handmade chefโs knife, Craig writes with humility and insight.” – Apple Books Review
“Our Knives Will Save Us shines with Craigโs admiration for Native people as he carves out a place for himself in the world of haute cuisine without sacrificing his connection with his heritage and community.” – Jenny Hamilton, Booklist
The Parisian Heist by Jo Piazza
fiction / historical fiction / mystery / suspense.
Emma, a struggling American artist in Paris, thought she had left her dreams behind when she took a job cleaning for the cityโs wealthy elite. Then she meets Stella Swanson, the widow of one of the most notorious art dealers in the business. The Swansons move in a world where billionaires, oligarchs, and heads of state pay fortunes for masterpieces. Drawn in by their dazzling wealth and the pull of a dangerously charming grandson, Emma becomes both a player and a pawn in a family battle to protect their empire and conceal its crimes.
In the late 1800s, the young widow Jo van Gogh inherits hundreds of paintings from her brother-in-law Vincent that the art world deems worthless. Determined to prove their genius, and to secure a future for herself and her young son, she becomes consumed by Vincentโs legacy. As her devotion deepens, a vanished painting and a thwarted love affair leave her unsure who she can trust and how much of herself sheโs willing to lose in the process.
From glittering auction houses to the idyllic canals of Amsterdam and the grand museums of Paris, the lives of these two women converge as Emma uncovers the Swanson familyโs darkest secrets and agrees to mastermind a daring heist inside the Musรฉe dโOrsay. The stakes have never been higher, and these women refuse to be written out of history, no matter the cost.
โWhat a cocktail of art history, determination, and rich people behaving badly, with all capped by an art heist that will have readers holding their breath.โ – Henrietta Thornton, firstCLUE
“Like The Sicilian Inheritance, Piazzaโs latest is another deep dive into a beautiful and unique world: Paris of then and now shines as historical characters are brought to life.” – Courtney Eathorne, Booklist
“Potent questions about artistic integrity and family ties ripple through Piazzaโs dual narratives, and she shrewdly keeps readers guessing about how, exactly, theyโll intersect. The result is a satisfying caper with brains and heart.” – Publishers Weekly
Ransom by Daniel Silva
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Alice Winter, one of Britainโs most dazzling socialites, seemingly has the perfect lifeโa lavish home in posh Knightsbridge, a grand estate in Devon, millions of followers on social media who eagerly await her next post. But when she disappears without a trace while on holiday with three old friends from Cambridge, her desperate husband, the real estate baron Edward Knight, turns to none other than Gabriel Allon to find her.
He soon discovers that Alice Winter is not the woman she appears to be, that she has a reckless side, that she has secrets. But Edward Knight has a secret too, a secret so dangerous that Gabriel will have no choice but to return to the life he thought he had left behind. An old enemy lurks there, waiting for him to make one misstep, waiting for the perfect moment to exact vengeance.
From its irresistible opening chapters to its heart-pounding climax and shocking final twist, Ransom is a riveting, page-turning tour de force that proves yet again why Daniel Silva is the reigning master of international intrigue and suspense.
“The series just keeps getting better and better.” – Red Carpet Crash
The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren โ
fiction / romance.
Three years ago, scientist Emery Finch did something completely out of character: She got married. To Lucaโthe impossibly charming landscaper she met on one blistering night in Vegas who made her laugh, made her dance, made her feel.
But now, Emery is consumed by her top research, missing dinners, forgetting anniversaries, and promising herself Luca will understand once her cutting-edge discoveries come to light. Until the unthinkable happens: A tragic accident takes Luca from her.
Desperate not to lose him, Emery breaks every rule, using the classified technology sheโs developed to bring him back to life. And Luca would probably thank her for it, if only he could remember her. Their first kiss, their Sunny Sundays at the beach, the life they built togetherโฆ all of it is gone.
It may be a miracle of science, but for Emery itโs her one shot at a second chance. And this time, she wonโt waste itโbecause true love is always worth reviving.
“An extremely fun, fast-paced, and unusual addition to the marriage-in-trouble romance canon.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Combining a sweet and spicy romance with a science fiction thriller, this will keep you turning the pages!โ – Melissa Law, The Indie Next List
“[Lauren] delivers tender vulnerability and meaningful character growth in this sweetly spicy romance… itโs impossible not to root for this devoted couple. Luca and Emery are adorable.” – Publishers Weekly
“…I picked this one up expecting a breezy summer romance, the kind you read in two sittings with your feet up and nowhere to be. What I got instead was something I didnโt see coming and genuinely couldnโt put down… What makes this book so quietly devastating is that itโs not just a love story about two people falling for each other. Itโs about what happens when someone gets a second chance to show up in the ways that matter. Luca and Emeryโs chemistry leaps off the page, and watching them rediscover each other felt genuinely tender and hopeful. Christina Lauren has always been brilliant at making you root for people, and this is no exception.” – The Gloss
This Changes Everything by Lisa Scottoline
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Julia Pritzker loves her new life as a wife and mother in beautiful Tuscanyโexcept that she misses her best friend Courtney, back in the States. One night, Julia calls Courtney and reaches her as sheโs arriving at her grandmotherโs farm in Pennsylvania. A dreadful premonition overwhelms Julia moments before Courtney enters the houseโand makes a heartbreaking discovery. Her beloved grandmother has been murdered, and the killer is escaping out the back door. Rushing to support Courtney, Julia flies home the next morning.
The local police believe the murder was a botched burglary, but the women suspect something much more sinister and enlist Bennie Rosato, the hotshot Philly lawyer, to assist. In addition, Courtney entreats Julia to trust her psychic intuition to point her to the missing pieces of this dark puzzle.
But in a town filled with explosive secrets, events take a deadly turn, and Julia becomes the target of a murderous conspiracy. She ends up fighting for her life, with no one to save herโฆ but herself.
“White supremacy, political violence, and threats to rural property rights loom here, but staccato pacing, amateur detective tropes, and Juliaโs warm-hearted narrative form a strong counterweight.” – Christine Tran, Booklist
White Rabbit by Abigail Rose-Marie
fiction / horror.
In a yellow house perched on the crumbling edge of Massachusetts Bay, eleven-year-old Penelope Willows is living in the shadow of loss. Her father is gone, leaving behind only whispers and shadows, while her mother drifts further away each day, lost in her own grief. Left alone in a home that seems frozen in time, Penelope clings to her routines, counting everything she canโlogs by the stove, soup cans in the pantryโhoping to hold the world together.
But this is no ordinary house. It once belonged to the poet Sylvia Plath, and her presence lingers in every corner, her ghost becoming an unexpected companion to Penelope. As the days stretch on, Penelope begins to hear the echoes of Plathโs poetry in the wind, feel her sadness seep into the walls, and see her ghost in the mirrors and empty rooms.
When Penelopeโs mother begins to withdraw further into her own world, leaving Penelope more isolated than ever, the girlโs grip on reality starts to fray. Haunted by the absence of her father and the presence of a ghost, Penelope must navigate the treacherous waters of memory, madness, and the fear that she, too, will be lost to the abyss.
“[A] haunting, atmospheric coming-of-age story.” – Emily Martin, Book Riot
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