“And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don’t take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again.” – Richard Russo, Empire Falls
Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit by Sam Roberts
nonfiction / writing / journalism.
After nearly a decade behind the obituaries desk at the paper of record, Roberts knows obits aren’t really about deaths. In fact, they usually only mention dying once. Over the course of the nearly 1,500 obituaries he has written throughout his career, he has instead come to understand that they’re about distilling an entire life lived—for someone whose name he may have learned that morning.
In Are They Dead Yet?, Roberts explores the major questions that arise from the task of producing a succinct yet record-defining account of a life. Who deserves an obituary, and how do we decide who gets one? How does an obituarist choose what to include—and to omit? What happens when embarrassing information, like a crime, affair, or wonky cause of death, makes itself known? What makes a legacy, a claim to fame? And what happens when that claim to fame, so important in death, isn’t what mattered in life at all?
With wit, wisdom, and behind-the-scenes intrigue, Roberts examines the practice of writing advance obituaries, of which there are more than 2,000 on hold and regularly updated at The New York Times, America’s relationship to death in the wake of 9/11 and the pandemic, classic euphemistic language, and more. Through it all, Roberts brings his humor, shrewdness, and experience to prove what he has learned from a long career in death: There’s no such thing as an ordinary life.
“A brisk, witty look at writing about the dead.” – Kirkus Reviews
“As a one-stop history, etiquette guide, and miscellany, Are They Dead Yet? goes down like a dirgeful beach read.” – Dan Piepenbring, Harper’s Magazine
“One of those books that gives us a new appreciation and greater understanding of something we thought we already knew.” – David Pitt, Booklist
Bridget and Gabe Are Not Okay by Lex Croucher
fiction / young adult / fantasy / romance / comedy / historical fiction.
They fell in love. They fought a great battle. And they won. Now, Camelot’s famous couples have fallen apart.
Newly crowned King Gabriel is having panic attacks in cupboards in-between council meetings. He can’t tell Arthur just how not okay he is―so he’s set him free, to find love with someone who can get through the day without breaking down.
Bridget has lost her spark for sparring, forfeiting again and again in the lists. When she’s invited to join Gabriel’s round table, she hopes it’ll be the change she needs. But trying to navigate the post-happily-ever-after reality of a relationship with Gwen, when Bridget no longer feels like the dashing knight Gwen fell in love with, feels impossible.
With the kingdom still reeling from an attempted uprising, and rumored sightings of the holy grail, the questing beast, and the green knight happening across the country, the gang depart on a PR tour destined for disaster. Can Gabriel be the king his country deserves? Can Bridget get her jousting groove back? And will they find their way back to the courtly love that once seemed fated?
In the much anticipated follow-up to Gwen & Art Are Not in Love, Gabriel and Bridget set out on a daring quest to put love back on the table.
“Camelot’s most delightful chaos agents are back for more high jinks, yearning and growing pains…” – New York Times
“Bloody fantastic.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Dreamland by Olivie Blake ★
fiction / horror / fantasy / suspense.
The headlines are calling it the “summer of exsanguination” in LA―girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season.
More pressing for Anya Morris, though, is the drudgery of living at home, working part time at the family store, and contending with her mother’s disdain for the acting career Anya knows she’s destined for but that feels more impossible by the day.
It’s in this suffocating late summer heat that Anya receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an invitation to work for the de Witt family, one of LA’s most influential film dynasties. Soon, she’s spending her days and nights at their strange villa high in the Hollywood Hills, where she meets Jude, a recluse who is both the family’s heir apparent and its most closely guarded secret.
There’s a magnetism to Jude that Anya cannot resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. Because the villa holds generations of bloodstained history, and an occult family curse may even live within its walls―or within Jude himself.
In this city, everyone cuts a deal with the devil. When Anya comes face to face with a devil of her own, she’ll learn just how far she’s willing to go to get everything she’s ever wanted.
“…inventive… readers looking for a cerebral mystery with no easy answers will appreciate this one.” – Publishers Weekly
“…hauntingly seductive… stylistically gripping… You’ll always get something unique with Olivie Blake and I love that she keeps me on my toes and eager for more.” – Caitlin Lloyd, FanFiAddict
“Blake is known for her interesting premises and complex characters, and this book delivers both… Readers interested in dipping their toes into fantasy without committing to a full series, such as Blake’s Atlas series, as well as seasoned fantasy readers looking for something different will get their fill in this novel that asks the question, If the devil were to dangle your dreams above your head, how long would it take until you break and reach for them?” – Caitlin Cundiff, Booklist
“With Dreamland, Olivia Blake transforms one of Hollywood’s most enduring true crime story into something stranger and deeply introspective… a haunting narrative about power and the seductive nature of illusions… an elegant and unsettling work of gothic fiction that blends literary horror with Hollywood noir and occult mystery. Rather than telling us a story about cursed families or cold cases, Blake examines the myths we create around success and the impossible bargains people have made hidden beneath every glittering promise.” – Abby Wolf, The Fandomentals
A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving: Lessons on Love, Care, and Survival: A Memoir by Virginia Eubanks
nonfiction / memoir.
One night, Virginia Eubanks received the kind of news we all fear. Her beloved partner had been brutally beaten, just steps from their home.
She jumped in the water.
Eubanks dove into the responsibilities of caregiving. In the weeks, months, and years that followed, she and her partner, J., struggled to stay afloat as they faced wave upon wave of setbacks: police disinterest, suspended health insurance, inadequate medical care, lost income, lost friends, endless paperwork, and, for J., a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Then, a second case. Eubanks herself developed what is known as collateral PTSD, a condition common among caregivers but rarely discussed.
She scanned the horizon for help.
A reporter and an activist, Eubanks turned to reliable sources for guidance: scientists, therapists, trauma theorists, social movements. But it wasn’t until she happened on an old lifesaving manual that she found advice that actually helped. Inspired by its lessons, she signed up for instruction in wilderness first aid, kayak self-rescue, Winter Survival 101, map and compass navigation, bushwhacking, and lifeguarding. She went out in search of other people’s stories and interviewed experts―everyone from neuroscientists to forest rangers. She gathered skills and knowledge that made her feel strong, competent, better prepared for the challenges ahead.
Disarmingly funny and quietly wise, A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving is the story―heart-wrenching and all too relatable―of how one woman tried to rescue her beloved and learned that she would also have to rescue herself. Built from both loss and connection, it is a moving, hopeful love story about two people caught in their own kind of wilderness, trying not just to survive but to truly care for each other. It asks that we reconsider the ways in which we tend to our loved ones and ourselves, and remember the communities of care that sustain us. It reminds us: no one survives the wilderness alone.
“[A] gorgeous memoir… Readers who’ve helped loved ones through a difficult time will be wowed.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[Eubanks] writes eloquently about how untethered and out of control she felt… Frank and deeply researched…” – Cristina Ianzito, AARP
“This eloquent, well-buttressed plea for improved support for trauma survivors is itself a significant contribution.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Lessons from a Lost Republic: What Anciet Rome Can Teach Us About This American Moment by Michelle Berenfeld
nonfiction / history / politics.
Americans are obsessed with Rome. Billionaires and manosphere pundits wax on about its military might, its gladiators, its emperors, its greatness.
But we’re telling ourselves the wrong story.
In this sharp, eye-opening account, classics professor Michelle Berenfeld redirects our gaze. The Roman Empire isn’t the lesson—the Roman Republic is. Nearly five centuries of representative government, undone by forces that should sound familiar: wealth and power concentrated in the hands of elites, rampant political violence, endless expansionist wars, and a Senate that normalized emergency measures until it had nothing left to protect. One by one, aspiring strongmen seized what the Senate had surrendered, stretching the limits of their legal power, using the military against their own people, undermining elections, and killing their enemies—until one of them, Augustus, gained total control and became an emperor.
Berenfeld’s argument is both clarifying and urgent: Rome’s slide into autocracy was not inevitable—and neither is ours. Smart, spirited, and packed with revelatory detail, Lessons from a Lost Republic is a wake-up call two thousand years in the making, a reminder that the republic is ours to protect.
“A classicist turns in a searching study of how republics become dictatorships… A deeply cautionary tale of how not to keep a republic.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Lessons from a Lost Republic is a very quick read, because Berenfeld writes in a very familiar style, and she is able to expound easily on the facts because they have been her life. The result is positively back-stiffening. Lawmakers today are making the exact same mistakes. It leads to collapse.” – David Wineberg, Medium
Let’s Kiss and Tell by Joss Richard
fiction / romance / comedy.
Lucy Reid is a sex columnist whose views on relationships aren’t exactly optimistic. She empowers readers to embrace their sexuality and challenge the idea that you need a partner to be happy—until her editor points out their audience is mostly coupled up… and maybe it’s time for something (or someone) new. To buy herself time, Lucy impulsively claims she’s started a new relationship she can write about. Enter Marshall Oakley.
Marshall is the new senior news writer at Lucy’s company. When they meet at a work event, he reveals his ex of nine years is getting married, and he needs a plus-one to keep his family off his back. They agree to fake date until the wedding—Lucy can write about finding “the one” before proving relationships don’t solve everything when they “break up”, and Marshall gets a no-strings date to convince his friends, family, and ex he’s moved on.
But as they spend more time together, the lines blur and each begins to reevaluate their views on love. As fear gives way to misunderstandings, can they find the courage to rewrite their story with a happily ever after?
“[A] standout romance… a thoughtful look at navigating both work and a relationship in your 30s and celebrating sex positivity with enough spice to rival the L.A. heat.” – Sara Shahein, Booklist
“Marsh’s and Lucy’s fully realized lives make them jump off the page and into readers’ hearts as they root for the couple to find their happily-ever-after.” – Whitney Kramer, Library Journal
“…deliciously frothy… Joss Richard reminds us she’s an absolute pro when it comes to witty banter, writing chemistry-fueled dialogue for Lucy and Marsh that had us feeling the romantic tension from practically the first moment… Messy, chaotic, and intoxicating, Let’s Kiss and Tell will have you rooting for this pair to come clean and claim their happy ending.” – Apple Books Review
The Magic We Made by Meg Cabot
fiction / romance / fantasy / mystery.
Frankie
A trained therapist, Francesca Giovanni knows there’s a scientific explanation for everything. Unfortunately, she lives in West Harbor, CT, a town that’s recently exploded in popularity thanks to “witch tourism.” Suddenly, witches are everywhere, offering locals their psychic services. Frankie’s fine with this… until aspiring teenage witches begin to disappear, and strange things start happening in the lake house next door. Frankie suspects not all newcomers to West Harbor have the good of the community in mind—especially not her new neighbor, Ash Merit.
Ash
Ash Merit finds lost things—and people—for a living. All he wants is to help his clients, and maybe get to know the stunningly beautiful (and newly single) Dr. Frankie Giovanni a little better. But thanks to some troublesome young witches—not to mention his often faulty psychic “superpower”—everything goes wrong. If only Frankie wasn’t so distractingly attractive… and so unwilling to admit there might not be a logical reason for everything, including the flames that ignite whenever the two of them kiss. Ash hopes to change that, but first he and Frankie have to find the missing girls, as well as the truth about what’s happening in West Harbor… a truth that could change everything they thought they knew about themselves—and the magic of love.
“Readers will be drawn into the mystery while being charmed by the banter and slow burn between Frankie and Ash… another magical love story…” – Morgan Lockard-Ellis, Library Journal
The Secrets We Hide by Karin Slaughter ★
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Welcome to North Falls. A small town with big secrets…
1601 Iris Drive looks like any other house on the quiet, residential street. But rumors are rampant about the Vickery family, and what goes on behind closed doors.
When gunshots ring out, Sheriff Emmy Clifton and her sister, ex-federal agent Jude Archer, discover a devastating crime scene. Allison Vickery has been murdered in her own kitchen, and her teenage daughter is bleeding upstairs, left for dead.
Everyone thinks they know what happened. But secrets are buried everywhere in this small town.
And it’s up to Emmy Clifton to uncover the truth…
“Themes of motherhood, betrayal, and redemption are tied up in the final twist in Slaughter’s gripping portrait of a painfully human small town.” – Christine Tran, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] masterful thriller… Thriller queen Karin Slaughter intimately understands the push and pull of family and criminal investigations. In her expert hands, the emotionally vulnerable Emmy wrestles with her own complicated feelings as she painstakingly unravels the puzzling circumstances leading to Allison’s death, dismantling false leads and local gossip along the way. Even as Emmy’s meticulous detective work is complicated by family pressures, Slaughter takes us ever deeper into this dangerous case and left us gasping at its final stirring twists.” – Apple Books Review
“The combustible chemistry between Emmy and Jude lends this the friction its predecessor lacked, and Slaughter remains as skilled as ever at probing the darker side of life in Georgia. This bodes well for the future of the series.” – Publishers Weekly
“Slaughter returns with another gripping thriller… [she] is masterful at keeping readers glued to the page, blending psychologically rich characters with dark, timely subject matter and a plot loaded with misdirection. Fans will be eager to follow Emmy Clifton and Jude Archer into whatever danger awaits them next.” – Jeff Ayers, First Clue
Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahon
fiction / horror / suspense / historical fiction.
1919: Frankie O’Massey has always been the black sheep of isolated Boone’s Ferry, Vermont. Her uncle, Dr. Thomas Endicott, has been training her in the science of medicine, something the townspeople are wary of. When a mysterious illness strikes the town, and the community suspects supernatural forces, the two desperately search for a logical explanation. Patient zero seems to be the town’s knackerman—a recluse who collects dead and dying farm animals to make use of their parts.
2016: Siblings Ashley and Malcolm lost their mother two years ago. When their grandmother dies, they inherit a property in Boone’s Ferry—a place they’ve heard of but their grandmother has always refused to talk about—and embark on a trip to their ancestral home. The idyllic town is full of autumnal décor, picturesque farmland, and small-town charm. But some of the townspeople aren’t very welcoming—and they have some unsettling traditions, like leaving offerings to a vengeful spirit four times a year.
“McMahon’s original, well-paced, twisted, terrifying tale breaks free from its supernatural origins to become a horror that is all too real… this story will stay buried in reader’s minds long after they turn the final page.” – Becky Spratford, Library Journal
“McMahon moves deftly between the two narratives while also upping the suspense and horror in both time lines. The Knackerman will likely haunt fans of McMahon’s previous works as well as fans of T. Kingfisher and Catriona Ward.” – James Gardner, Booklist
“[The] vibrant cast and McMahon’s bold, gutsy prose easily draw readers in. It’s a satisfying page-turner.” – Publishers Weekly
Sunrise by Téa Obreht ★
fiction.
In 2024, Nina’s small-engine plane crashes into a lake in the Wyoming mountains. Her boyfriend Ben, who was flying it, is nowhere to be found. Lost and freezing on the shore, Nina is armed with only a few old protein bars, a phone with no service, and a vague hope of rescue. It is up to her to survive in the vast wilderness. But then she stumbles upon Sunrise—a town of the Old West that is strangely well maintained, but seemingly abandoned. A place that holds the missing link to a ghost story one hundred years in the making.
In 2003, Sand Daw’s golden boy Coll is putting the finishing touches on the town’s annual historical reenactment. But when an upstart would-be author comes to him with questions about one of Sunrise’s most beloved figures, it threatens to upend everything he thought he knew about the city—and himself.
In 1902, town founder, gunslinger, and legendary pulp hero Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise and quickly takes charge of a group searching for a missing boy. But who really is Vargas? What does he know about the boy’s disappearance? And why has he returned after such a long absence?
These three strangers are separated by time and circumstance. But Sunrise’s many secrets are like gunpowder: quiet, contained, until they encounter a spark. Magisterial and suspenseful, Téa Obreht’s novel challenges the myths we think we know: of heroes and villains, of the people and places to which we lay claim, and, most of all, of our own lives.
“…spectacular… Obreht employs impressive restraint, providing just enough clues to create intrigue as the reader pieces together the connections between the three storylines. After the novel returns to a resilient Nina, now on her last protein bar, it careens to an explosive climax. Readers will have a blast.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Obreht’s latest novel is an unputdownable, metafictional, and nimble page-turner… an adventure novel about what we remember and why, a three-pronged fable about the myths we hold dear, both about ourselves and about men and women we’ve never met.” – Emily Temple, Literary Hub
“An adventurous, rewarding novel from a writer who just gets better and better.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Obreht is riveting in each time frame as she exults in emulating and subverting tales of the Old West while exposing the poisonous complexities of gender, taboo love, myth, history, and our desecration of the wild in a breathtaking, shocking, and reverberating survival story.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Tailor by Tim Sullivan
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Detective Sergeant George Cross is nothing if not precise. When a man is found dead in the first-class toilet of a train—his throat cut, a plastic bag over his head—the grisly scene shocks his fellow officers. Cross registers every detail, but it’s not the blood that interests him. It’s the victim’s exquisite suit.
The dead man is a tailor by the name of Billy Titcomb, trusted by clients around the world for his meticulousness and discretion. Who would want a tailor dead? With his new partner, DC Alice Mackenzie, Cross starts pulling at the threads. There’s a widow grieving in peculiar ways. A dead scientist whose suicide doesn’t add up. And two South Korean tourists with embassy connections who keep showing up in places they shouldn’t. The deeper Cross digs, the less this looks like a simple murder, and the more it looks like a professional operation.
DS Cross has the highest conviction rate in the force. But in the world of spies and state secrets, the rules are different—and for the first time, the people trying to stop him may be on his own side. Can Cross stitch it all together before the case unravels him?
“…compelling and cerebral… In this edgy and smart whodunit, Sullivan continues to bring nuance to his stalwart protagonist. Cross possesses the brilliance of a Columbo with the tact of a Temperance Brennan; a transfixing character.” – Philip Zozzaro, Library Journal
“…Sullivan’s experience as a screenwriter keeps the scenes crisp and entertaining, his vividly drawn regulars augmenting the mystery plot… A sharp whodunit with an engaging cast and abundant humor.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Author Sullivan’s background as a screenwriter stands him in good stead when it comes to creating compelling plots, riveting scenes, and keeping his story moving toward George’s ultimate case-cracking insight.” – Vicki Weisfeld, Crime Fiction Lover
A Tender Age by Chang-Rae Lee ★
fiction.
A spellbinding exploration of American masculinity and family dynamics as seen through the confused eyes of a prepubescent child of immigrants, A Tender Age joins the rich tradition of the American bildungsroman. The natural descendent of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caufield, Korean-American Jeon-Gi is torn between competing ideas of himself. At home, his working-class parents dote on him. Outside, he is part of a roving pack of kids with dominion over a derelict baseball field, weedy parking lot, and rusty jungle gym. Getting into and out of trouble is all-consuming. But the summer he turns eleven, he becomes embroiled in a staggering series of events reverberating far beyond himself and his family.
Devastating in its emotional precision, A Tender Age captures a family and community in striking distance of the American dream, and a young person on the precipice of adult knowledge, looking at his own culpability and looking away—then thinking about it for the rest of his life.
“This one hits hard.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…brilliant… nuanced and dramatically rich, presenting a frighteningly accurate depiction of adolescence that offers no easy answers. A Tender Age is another powerful work about identity formation and the American experience from one of America’s best authors.” – Michael Magras, BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“[Lee] has wonderfully evoked the unmatched urgency of this period of childhood, when everything, from a footrace to a girl’s smile, feels like a matter of life and death.” – Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
“Each detail in each stunning and dramatic scene is vital and clarion, each realization of Jeon-Gi’s regarding innocence and guilt, acceptance and alienation, truth and lies, desire and envy, fear and courage are highly charged and resonant.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Under the Falls by Richard Russo ★
fiction / mystery / suspense.
When Tyler Sinclair left Stone Mountain at eighteen, he had no plans of returning. With only a duffel bag full of clothes, a few bucks stolen from his father’s dresser, and a guitar, his most prized possession, Tyler disappeared without so much as a goodbye. Eighteen years later, Tyler, now the frontman of a famous band aptly named Stone Mountain, finds himself returning to his hometown for a one-night-only benefit concert to support his old friend, Doc, who lost feeling in his legs following a childhood accident. As Tyler ascends the mountain, memories of his childhood come rushing back—memories of his abusive father and despondent mother, of the friends he left behind—and he quickly learns that, for many people on Stone Mountain, the past does not feel like so long ago, and not everyone has been eagerly awaiting Tyler’s return.
At the concert, resentment simmers just beneath the surface, and Tyler finds himself confronted with faces new and old: there’s Curt, Tyler’s childhood best friend, now Stone Mountain’s chief of police, and his star officer, Deb, an out-of-towner who may have bitten off more than she can chew by accepting a job in Stone Mountain. And then there’s Freddi, Curt’s wife and Tyler’s former lover, a woman whose questionable dealings and fraught history with Tyler will become the catalyst for a tragedy that will upend each of their lives and threaten to validate Tyler’s worst fear: that “Stone Mountain is the kind of place you might escape from once, if you’re lucky, but not twice.”
Under the Falls is at once a propulsive thriller, a gut-wrenching portrait of a tight-knit rural community undone by the sins of its past, and an unflinchingly honest depiction of how porous the line between right and wrong, good versus evil, can become. This is a stunning, deeply empathetic novel, one that takes Russo’s penchant for character-driven drama to thrilling new heights.
“As usual in a novel by Russo), all the elements—plot, character, ambience—coalesce in a stunning and deeply sympathetic portrait. This one is a treasure, another winner from an author who seemingly cannot write a bad sentence.” – David Keymer, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Originally intended as a TV pilot, Russo’s dark and brooding novel is cinematically lush and emotionally potent, a shrewd treatise on the perils of reunion, remorse, and the quest for redemption.” – Carol Haggas, Booklist
“Under the Falls is a thriller, but at its best it’s concerned about that matter of haunting — about whether the child can ever be reconciled with the adult, and who gets hurt along the way… The surprising, enduring parts of Falls are its quieter reckonings with how and whether you can go home again.” – Mark Athitakis, On the Seawall
“[A] gripping and grounded tale of friendship and self-delusion… In between action sequences, including a deadly high-speed chase and a shoot-out in an abandoned church, Russo probes the flawed and soul-searching characters of the two men and finds the meaning of their lifelong bond. It’s a memorable literary thriller.” – Publishers Weekly
World’s Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seeks Demon by Olivia Dade
fiction / romance / fantasy / comedy.
Gwen Wexloff might be able to see the future, but not when it matters. Her visions invariably involve piddling issues, which means—unlike most oracles—she’s spent her life predicting for everyday humans instead of international power brokers. After a clutch of brain-slurping zombies escapes from their walled-off compound, though, Gwen experiences the first genuinely world-altering vision of her life… and now she needs help.
Unfortunately, that help comes from Hugh Blacke, the same starchy (but annoyingly cute) demon who watched her bomb her oracle verification test years ago. To Gwen’s dismay, the two of them will need to work together to unravel the deadly conspiracy behind the zombie breach, despite their complicated past and the secrets they’re keeping.
Even with her newfound power, she couldn’t have foreseen how quickly they’d both want more than a simple partnership. But the clock is ticking—and with the fate of humanity at stake, Gwen and Hugh will have to decide how much they’re willing to risk for an unexpected, passionate love… and a future together that might prove very short indeed.
“…lots of hijinks, humor, and heat… Recommend to readers who enjoy lightly paranormal romances such as Sara Raasch’s Magic and Romance series.” – Elizabeth Gabriel, Library Journal
“Whether it is the book’s marvelously plucky heroine, whose obsession with cheese extends to her love for a series of dark academia novels set in a cheesemonger’s boarding school in Paris, or the delightfully bonkers plot that champions both love and the importance of community, readers will find much to savor.” – John Charles, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“I, a lactose intolerant person, love this book so much I made a cheese board for it… All of Dade’s books have a mix of silly and serious… [she] dives into our anxieties about the extractive nature of capitalism and the violence of racism. As in Zomromcom, the answer is community and connection.” – Emmalita, Cannonball Read
You’ll Love It Here by Natalie Sue
fiction / comedy.
One day is all it takes for Mona’s life to implode. After years of climbing at her marketing firm, she was supposed to be getting promoted and finally moving out of her crumbling apartment building. Instead, she’s jobless, aimless, and still stuck in a space barely big enough for a yoga mat.
Then her eccentric landlady takes a tumble and asks Mona to step in as the building’s reluctant super. The deal is simple: help prep the place for sale, and she can secure the upgrade she’s been chasing. But that’s easier said than done when the neighbors treat “boundaries” as optional. There’s the shouting couple, the mysterious shut-in, a possible panty thief in the laundry room—and Sami, the relentlessly cheerful diner owner who keeps showing up with coffee and unsolicited ideas about community. As Mona gets pulled deeper into the building’s chaos—and closer to the people inside it—she’s forced to confront what, and who, she’s really been trying to outrun. Sometimes, the place you’re desperate to leave is the one that finally shows you who you are.
Wise, heartfelt, and laugh-out-loud funny, Natalie Sue’s sophomore novel is a story about burning out, starting over, and finding your people in the most unexpected places—perfect for fans of The Wedding People and Anxious People.
“A lovely look at finding belonging in the most unlikely of places.” – Kirkus Reviews
“[A] biting, soulful, and deeply funny portrait of modern city life and a life in freefall… Wry, heartfelt, and never preachy, the novel captures the disorientation of starting over when everything falls apart.” – Stacey Alesi, Library Journal
“Equal parts workplace satire and neighbourhood comedy, this is a warm, whip-smart novel about what happens when a woman’s carefully ordered life—and hilariously judgy worldview—slowly begins to change… a surprisingly affecting story about the rewards of letting other people into your life. Especially if you’re a Fredrik Backman or Dolly Alderton fan, this breezy but perceptive novel will be right up your alley.” – Apple Books Review
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