February 3 book releases are led by a sweeping historical novel with quiet power. This weekโs top title is Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson, a story that follows three connected lives shaped by post WWII Germany, race, and long buried truths. Itโs the kind of book that unfolds slowly, then hits harder the more you sit with it.
Alongside this weekโs new releases, we published a few more posts that are worth checking out:
- The Road of Bones Recap: Everything You Need to Know Before Dawn of the North
- Dawn of the North by Demi Winters: Summary, Review, Ending Explained
- Which Throne of Glass Man Is Your Soulmate Based on Your Food Choices
Keeper of Lost Children
Lost in the streets and smoldering rubble of Occupied Germany, Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American soldier spots a gaggle of mixed-race children following a nun. Desperate to conceive her own family, she feels compelled to follow them to learn their story.
Ozzie Philips volunteers for the army in 1948, eager to break barriers for Black soldiers. Despite his best efforts, he finds the racism he encountered at home in Philadelphia has followed him overseas. He finds solace in the arms of Jelka, a German woman struggling with the lack of resources and even joy in her destroyed country.
In 1965, Sophia Clark discovers sheโs been given an opportunity to integrate a prestigious boarding school in Maryland and leave behind her spiteful parents and the grueling demands. In a chance meeting with a fellow classmate, she discovers a secret that upends her world.
Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one womanโs vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of formsโfamilial, parental, and forbidden, even love of selfโcan be transcendent.
Throne of Nightmares
A book of dangerous magic draws two readers into a perilous quest to find it - and their own happy ending - in this action-packed standalone fantasy romance from Sunday Times bestselling sensation Kerri Maniscalco.
A prince who prefers games of the head to those of the heart.
Prince Sloth hates leaving his enchanted library, but when a forgotten deity threatens the very fabric of the Underworld, he's thrust into a race against time. He must find the Book of Nightmares - an ancient artifact that has the power to break worlds - before it unleashes a deadly game to free its master, the Goddess of Night. When a betrayal leaves him marked, and desperate, his path collides with a young woman who possesses the legendary Phoenix Tear - a portal stone unlike any other.
A librarian who is all sweet sunshine . . . until she burns.
Lore Brimstone has always loved getting lost in a book - but she never meant literally. Yet, after visiting a traveling caravan, she quickly finds herself transported to a terrifying but oddly familiar world - with a calculating prince at her side. Realizing they are living out her favourite novels one by one, they face off against an increasingly dark magic as they try to survive the story.
A twisted tale that means they can't trust themselves - or their hearts.
As Lore and Sloth navigate the pages of her beloved novels gone wrong, she must channel her inner main character to defeat the Book of Nightmares before the wall between the gods and mortals comes crashing down, dooming them all.
Wicked Onyx
You don't graduate Nightbridge Academyโyou survive it.
Born into a sorcerer bloodline, cursed, and cut off from my power, I was accustomed to being an outcast. For generations, my bloodline carried the weight of a crime committed by our ancestor. But my motherโs death changed everything. She left a clue that could prove our an ancient text hidden deep beneath Nightsbridge Academy.
The Academy is a fortress of power, housing the most dangerous incantors and sorcerers, conscripted to keep Horrors and Echoes at bay. And as the last surviving Onyx, Iโm owed admission.
My plan is simpleโfind the book and expose the Imperium as the liars they are.
But I didnโt plan for the whispers that haunt my dreams. Or the complication of feelings I shouldnโt be capable ofโstirred by two men bound to the very institution Iโve come to destroy. One sees too much yet says too little. The other is steady, protective, and always in my corner.
I canโt have either.
Yet when Iโm in their presenceโฆmy curse begins to crack.
If they discover my true purpose, Iโm dead.
But some truths are worth dying for.
The Imperium cursed my bloodline. Stripped us of our magic. Branded us as traitors. And now they will pay.
Operation Bounce House
All colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do is run the family ranch with his sister, maybe play a gig or two with his band, and keep his familyโs aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots ticking as long as possible. As a fan of Earth television and culture, he figures it will be a good thing when the transfer gate finally opens all the way and restores instant travel and full communication between Earth and his planet, New Sonora. But thereโs a complication.
Even though the settlers were promised theyโd be left in peace, Earthโs government now has other plans. The colossal Apex Corporation is hired to commence an โeviction action.โ But maximizing profits will always be Apexโs number one priority. Why spend money printing and deploying their own AI soldiers when they can turn it into a game? Why not charge bored Earthers for the opportunity to design their own war machines and remotely pilot them from the comfort of their own homes?
The game is called Operation Bounce House.
Oliver and his friends soon find themselves fighting for their lives against machines piloted by gamers whoโve paid a premium for the privilege. With the help of an old book from his grandfather and a bucket of rusty parts, Oliver is determined to defend the only home heโs ever known.
Ours Is a Tale of Murder
--Carter Wilson, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of Tell Me What You Did
One quiet neighborhood
Three different families
Bound by murder
Klara never wanted the house with the white picket fence. Troy never wanted anything else.
Nothing is quite right with this happy couple, but they fit right in. The mother in the blue house, Mary, is cleaning out her son's old room before she sells, haunted by the mistakes of her past and afraid of what her home has become. Next door, Henry, freshly laid off and back living with his parents, has plenty of time to watch everyone โ especially wives. He knows something is wrong. But then then nothing is quite as it seems, and sometimes you miss what is right in front of you.
Murder will soon thread its way through this world in ways no one will see coming ---unless you've been plotting all along.
The Jills
Virginia is a Jillโa professional Buffalo Bills cheerleaderโliving the life sheโs always dreamed of. She spends her weekdays practicing, her weekends cheering, and her nights hopping between events and bars and clubs with her close-knit band of teammates, especially her best friend, Jeanine, whose dynamic friendship has given Virginia confidence in spades and allowed her to put aside her troubled past with her sister, Laura. But one Sunday, Jeanine fails to show up for a game, and all her calls and texts go unanswered. Aided by a worried network of Jills, ex-boyfriends, and seedy fixtures of Buffaloโs criminal underground, Virginia embarks on an investigation into Jeanineโs disappearance. But as her search grows increasingly dangerous and spirals into obsession, disturbing questions about who Jeanine really is begin to emerge. Soon, Virginia finds herself wondering how well she knows her friend, if she can trust the people and institutions she thought were protecting her, and whetherโwhen trying to save the people she cares about mostโsheโs capable of saving herself, too.
Part bingeable mystery, part character-driven tale of a woman claiming her own power in systems built by and for men, The Jills is a sharply observed, witty, and poignant novel about the stories that constrain us and the healing power of sisterhood.
On the Brink of Bliss
Daisy Adair has always been my dream girl. From when we were best friends in high school to finding her now.
A gorgeous mother who shows up on my property with three kids in tow.
But I became a recluse for a reason.
The life I chose is full of wickedness and peril. The last thing I need is the object of my every fantasy invading my space and risking her life because of me.
Only when she tells me sheโs on the run from her ex, I promise to do anything to keep them safe, even marry her to protect her kids.
That single kiss at the altar rips through every barrier, our passion unleashed.
Now, living under the same roof blurs the lines Iโve drawn.
Each glance of her down the hall and I am splintering.
Each brush of her hand and I am brought to my knees.
Our futureโbright, hopeful, and almost within reachโhovers on the edge of becoming realโฆ
Until we discover the threat surrounding her is grimmer than either of us imagined.
Now Iโm fighting to save her and her children before our second chance at forever is burned to the groundโฆ
She Made Herself a Monster
We make monsters in order to destroy them. For thousands of years, weโve named witches and burned them, suspected demons and exorcised them. When crops die and children fall ill, who better to blame than a monster?
In nineteenth-century Bulgaria, Yana rides from one desolate town to the next, staging grisly displays while the villagers animal corpses in the public square, eggs filled with blood in the chicken coop. She tells the stricken villagers stories of vampires that stalk the night. Then Yana eliminates the threat, and leaves seeds of hope in her wake.
The village of Koprivici, however, is plagued by exceptional illness and misfortune, its children rarely surviving infancy. There, Yana meets a headstrong orphan who the villagers blame for their curse. As Anka approaches womanhood, the village Captain is grooming her for marriage against her will. Anka is powerless against himโthat is, until Yana arrives. Together, the orphan and the vampire slayer hatch a to conjure a monster so vile, it might provide cover for Anka to escape. But their plan quickly takes on a horrifying life of its own...
Inspired by Slavic folklore, She Made Herself a Monster concocts a clever mix of witchery, ghost stories, heresy, and deception to spin a feminist fable about agency and the power of collective action. It is a haunting and astoundingly cathartic tale of two women who will stop at nothing to take control of their fate.
Racing Hearts
Katherine Parker doesnโt just dream of rowing in the Olympics. She has a carefully crafted plan. With a strict training schedule, a meticulous diet, and no one else in her boat to slow her down, sheโs as good as gold.
Then her boyfriend breaks up with her at the starting line of a big race and Kath comes in dead last. Sheโs swiftly kicked off the team and out of the Olympic Training Centerโthe only place sheโs ever felt at home.
With one shot to win back her spot, Kath returns to her hometown to train with a new coach. The upside? Coach Adrian is hot. The downside? Instead of letting Kath follow her own training regimen, Adrian pushes her outside her comfort zone, urging her to try new things and let go of control.
With her Olympic dreams on the line, Kath will have to choose: stick to her perfect plan, or find out if the key to winningโand happinessโis to embrace the part of rowing that makes it fun, one sweaty, sexy training session at a time.
End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America
On August 21, 1992, federal agents surveilled a cabin in Boundary County, Idaho, as part of an operation to arrest white separatist Randy Weaver for failure to appear in court. What followed was a shootout and eleven-day standoff punctuated by shocking bursts of violence. By the time Weaver surrendered to the authorities, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a US Marshal.
In End of Days, Chris Jennings uses the gripping story of Ruby Ridge to examine the long history of apocalyptic faith in America and the way it has changed the nation. The strain of doomsday Christianity that gripped the Weavers, he shows, was grounded in a particular reading of the Book of Revelation that can be traced back to the 1870s and the twentieth century rise of Christian fundamentalism. Today, polling indicates that almost 60 percent of white evangelicals believe the apocalyptic prophecies in the Book of Revelation will soon come to pass. Against that backdrop, the perceived overreaction by federal forces in Idaho galvanized and radicalized many Americans, triggering the birth of the militia movement and propelling the conspiratorial politics that have defined the Trump era. The story of the Weavers holds the key to understanding this downward spiral and, perhaps, to reversing it.
Maybe This Once
Charlotte โCharlieโ Ashford has worked hard to become her own person. Tired of living in the shadow of her famous parents, she gladly left behind a life of glitz and glamour to pursue her true passion: becoming a counselor. However, when a viral video upends Charlieโs plans, she wonders if the real key to discovering herself is through her late father.
Grayson Keller has finally found his footing. Heโs settled in one place, surrounded by family, and secure in his business. By his third summer as owner, Get Lost Lodge is showing a steady profit and seeing its fair share of repeat visitors. Whatever happens, Grayson is perfectly content with his quiet life and careful heart. That is, until he meets Charlie, who he canโt seem to get out of his head.
On the surface, Charlie and Grayson seem to have nothing in common more than a growing attraction that neither of them can fight. Trusting each other isnโt easy. Theyโve both been hurt before, and theyโre not looking for anything serious. The solution is easy: theyโll date, have some fun, and walk away unscathed. Right? Or, maybe this once, they can see past the hurt to what, or who, is on the other side waiting for them.
Warning Signs
Twelve-year-old Zach is cautiously optimistic. His father Bram, whose business is in dire need of cash, has put together a father-son backcountry ski weekend to wine and dine his biggest investors. Schooled in outdoor survival by his mother, Zach is eager to prove himself to the hypercritical Bram. Maybe if Zach shows how useful he is, he can earn his fatherโs love.
But Zach knows to be on high alert around Bram, and he sees the way the group ignores the increasingly threatening conditions. For the first time in his beloved mountains, he is faced with the unknown, convinced that something watches their cabin from the treeline. Something that leaves behind strange tracks and picks its prey clean.
As the adults recklessly test the limits of the outdoors, Zach worries he might be in even more danger than he realized. Could the men around him prove more violent than the unforgiving weather, and the strange creature lurking in the dark? Zach will have to rely on his wits if he hopes to make it home safely. But he knows all too well that the wilderness can be unpredictable even at the best of times. And at the worst? Deadly.
Trad Wife
Every #tradwife needs a baby. Sheโll get one at any cost.
When Camille Deming isnโt cooking, cleaning, or homesteading in her picture-perfect country farmhouse, sheโs posting about her tradwife lifestyle for her online followers. She takes inspiration from other tradwives on social media, aspiring to be like them, but Camilleโs missing a key a baby. And contrary to what she posts online, things with her husband Graham have been strained. Pressured by her eager followers, Camille fears that without a baby, her relationship will suffer and her social media will never grow out of its infancy.
When Camille discovers a mysterious, decrepit well in the wheatfield behind her house, she makes a wish for a baby. Afterwards, she has unsettling experiences that she convinces herself are angelic in nature, and when sheโs visited one night by a strange creature, her wish comes true.
Camilleโs pregnancy announcement gets more engagement than anything sheโs ever postedโso what if Grahamโs reaction is lukewarm? Camilleโs life is finally falling into place. Never mind that her pregnancy is developing freakishly rapidly and sheโs suddenly craving raw meat. Being a traditional wife is worth it.
Rosemaryโs Baby for the digital age, this disturbing horror novel is one youโll want to devour in just one bite.
This Is Not About Us
Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubenstein family, it could go either way.
When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own livesโdivorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitalsโtheir children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.
With This Is Not About Us, master storyteller Allegra Goodmanโwhose prior collection was heralded as โone of the most astute and engaging books about American family lifeโ (The Boston Globe)โreturns to the form and subject that endeared her to legions of readers. Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sistersโa big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.
The Found Object Society
This ambitious, genre-bending debut is perfect for fans of time-travel ๏ฌction including Matt Haigโs The Midnight Library and Gareth Brownโs The Book of Doors
For twenty years, Greta Davenport has lived with the guilt of surviving the accident that killed her parents. Sheโs tested the limits of her own mortality ever since, but little gives her the dopamine rush she craves. Not until the night she almost drunkenly crashes her car into a tree, and a peculiar blank card slides under her front doorโan invitation to the Found Object Society. What she discovers there is beyond comprehension: an opulent, subterranean playground filled with aisles of objects from different eras and regions of the world. Pick an object and go on a voyage to relive the final moments of the person who died holding it, along with an unparalleled, irreplicable high. Gretaโs hooked, but she can't quiet her questions about the society and its enigmatic creators, the answers to which have implications far beyond her growing dependence on the voyages. Death is addictive, and what she uncovers will put her entire life into question.
A fever dream of a novel with episodic, time-traveling chapters told from multiple points of view, The Found Object Society examines the depraved whims of the ultrarich and the breadth of unresolved traumaโall while asking how grief and the choices we make in its aftermath can change the course of our lives. Michelle Marykโs wholly original and ambitious debut opens an impeccably wrought speculative world of greed, power, and destiny.
Royal Spin
She can handle the press...but can she handle the Palace?
With the British monarchy reeling from a wave of scandals, young American politico Lauren Morgan is plucked from the White House press office to breathe new life into the Buckingham Palace communications team and improve the royal familyโs streak of bad headlines. But the Palace is an institution steeped in tradition and strict protocol, and Lauren quickly discovers that change is far from easy, or welcome, especially when youโre dealing with culture clashes, displeased royal aides, and a risky new love interestโor two.
Just as Lauren finds her footing at workโand with a charming royal reporter who may be more than just a press contactโan unexpected encounter from her past threatens the career sheโs worked so hard to build. And when scandal looms over the dashing duke who Lauren has developed a special bond with, she finds herself torn between duty, loyalty, success, and happiness.
From Londonโs high society clubs to the sacred corridors and rarely seen spaces of Buckingham Palace, Royal Spin is a fun, humorous, and heartfelt novel that reminds us of the importance of chasing your dreams, and that the most rewarding journeys are often the messiest.
Promise Me
Fifteen years ago, Declan Barclay left for uni with plans of becoming an artist and escaping his family's heavy rule. What he didn't expect was to meet a soft and enigmatic actor in desperate need of guidanceโฆand a friend. Declan quickly took Colin Shelby under his wing and the two were inseparable ever since.
That is until the night before graduation, when lines were crossed and everything changed.
Now, after years apart, Colin is back in Declan's life, but he's not alone. He's made a promise to marry someone else, and Declan only has seven days to win back the love of his life. There's just one His family is counting on him to pull this wedding off at Barclay Manor.
With just one week until vows are exchanged, Declan must decideโstay silent and lose Colin for good, or risk everything and ask the one who got away to promise him forever.
For Human Use
โ โAn utterly ingenious horror-romcom, darkly zeitgeisty, and unnervingly plausibleโfunny as hell, too. You will not forget this book.โ โHeather Aimee OโNeill, author of Read With Jenna book club pick The Irish Goodbye
Modern dating is dead.
Finding a human connection online has become impossible. Enter Liv: a dating app that matches people with dead bodies. Somehow, it has taken the world by storm. Millions of users are convinced that life with a corpse presents a better alternative to conventional relationships.
Flailing against Livโs popularity, venture capital superstar Tom Williamsonโwhose company is funding Livโisnโt buying it. Mostly because dating an embalmed cadaver, let alone monetizing it, is obscene.
Believing that Liv is the future, Auden White, the insufferable โvisionaryโ behind the app begins demanding more and more funding, quickly making enemies with Tom.
Itโs no secret that Tom struggles with people, dead or alive, but when he has a chance meeting with the woman who knows Auden (and his secrets) best, Mara Reed, he realizes everything is about to change for all three of them.
With Livโs userbase growing by the day, the need for cadavers rapidly increases. Humanity might not want to connect with other living, breathing people anymore, but they do want to connect with something. What could go wrong?
โ โA wildly entertaining debut. Sarah G. Pierce cleverly skewers our modern era of disconnection and corporate overreach. But amid the horror and humor there is a deeply human love story at the heart of this book.โ โE.K Sathue, author of Youthjuice
โ โFrom Guillermo del Toroโs film adaptation of Frankenstein to Ryan Murphyโs Netflix reimagining of Ed Geinโs killing spree, romantic affairs with reanimated corpses seem to be all the rage among storytellers these days. Told through the lens of a venture capital superstar whose company is funding a dating app that encourages lonely, living singles to embrace the dead as a reasonable alternative to an otherwise grim dating pool, this debut lives at the intersection of corporate satire (which was very trendy in 2025) and an absurdist modern dating story (the most cathartic micro-genre for any listeners in their single era). After digging into an advanced readerโs copy, I have no doubt that the matter-of-fact, macabre humor at the heart of this novel will come to life in audio.โ โAudible, Most Anticipated Audiobooks of 2026
โ โWith the rhythm of a sitcom, this book also has a similar feel to Mira Grantโs Newsflesh trilogy. Pierce manages to deliver genuine horror while also exploring questions about intimacy and relationships even as Liv increasingly takes over its usersโ lives.โ โBooklist
โ โA razor-sharp satire of venture capitalism, online influence culture, and The Discourse, Pierce holds a mirror to an all-too familiar reality where the unthinkable becomes thinkable if thereโs profit to be made and prestige to be gained. A human romance in a world gasping for human connection, this one goes places!โ โBitter Karella, author of Moonflow
It's All in Your Head
Your fake relationship shouldnโt come with chronic feelings.
Skylar is done with offline relationshipsโespecially romantic ones. Living with chronic illness means sheโs heard it all unreliable, high-maintenance, too much. Sheโd rather spend her free time in her online chronic pain support group, and lately, she canโt help but notice Pike, the hot new guy with a penchant for broody poetry. When a chaotic night in the group forces her to pose as his girlfriend, she reluctantly agrees to keep up the charade in real life. Surprisingly, heโs thoughtful, sweet, andโmost importantlyโdoesnโt flinch at the things that have scared others away.
Fake dating gets a lot more complicated when she discovers Pike isnโt just some guy. Heโs a professional snowboarder whose career-ending injury is as infamous as his playboy past. He wonโt talk about that, though. Heโs fine. Really. But pretending to be in love with Skylar turns out to be the least depressing thing heโs done in months. As they spend more time together, she starts to notice the cracks in his carefully crafted image, and for once, he doesnโt mind being seen.
After all the bed-sharing and late-night talks, it becomes harder for both of them to pretend. But just as things start turning real, the paparazzi catch on, wanting the scoop on how everyoneโs favorite Olympic medalist is doing post-accident. Dating while disabled comes with challenges of its own, but public speculation and invasive questions are something else entirely. If their newfound feelings canโt survive the spotlight, their not-so-fake relationship may be over before it ever truly begins.
Murder Bimbo
A 32-year-old sex worker has just killed extremist political hopeful Meat Neck. Holed up in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods, she now has only two days, her wits and a high-speed internet connection to save her own life.
Her best bet is to reach out to the wildly popular feminist investigative podcast Justice for Bimbos. In a hastily-typed series of emails, the newly-minted "Murder Bimbo" explains how she was recruited and then trained by a cabal of code-named US agents to take out Meat Neck.
But, when she starts a new set of emails, this time addressed to her ex-girlfriend, we begin to realize that Murder Bimbo might not be the unsuspecting cog she claims to be.
In a time where 'truth' is more flexible than ever before - who really is Murder Bimbo? And what will she do next?
Introducing an unforgettable character for our times: hyper-articulate, totally untrustworthy, politically murky, charmingly petty, and wholly egotistical - this is . . . MURDER BIMBO.
The Midnight Taxi
Siriwathi Perera doesnโt quite know where sheโs going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives donโt do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother sheโs grieving.
When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But sheโs suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than sheโd expected.
Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amayaโs help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passengerโor Siriโs life will be over before she can even truly live it.
The Better Mother: A Thriller
A modern spin on Fatal Attraction meets The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, perfect for fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish.
Still recovering from a devastating breakup, 34-year-old Savannah Mitchell has finally managed to put her life back together when she gets the shock of her lifeโafter a brief fling with a man named Max, she is pregnant.
When she gets in touch to tell him, he reveals that heโs just gotten back together with his ex, Madison, and he will need time to break it to her. Surprisingly, Madison isnโt upsetโin fact, sheโs excited, and wants to help.
Max insists Madison has the best of intentions, but Savannah finds her effortsโpopping by uninvited, demanding lifestyle changes, and pretty much trying to take over the pregnancyโanything but helpful. When Savannah finally stands up for herself, Madisonโs treatment of her goes from casually cruel to downright dangerous.
All Savannah wanted to do was form a friendly co-parenting relationship with the father of her childโbut his new girlfriend obviously has much more sinister plans in mind.
She has no plans to co-parent at all.
So, I Met This Guy
When a romantic fraudster scams Maggie, a 49-year-old gallery owner, out of her life savings, junior reporter Flick decides that exposing the love bomber may be just the career break she needs. The two unlikely allies go on a wild European chase to catch a con man, but, in the process, find something much bigger.
Enola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin
In February 1891, London, Enola Holmesโthe much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmesโis attending the burial of her former landlady when she hears the faint sound of a handbell in the graveyard. Investigating further, as is the Holmes' family instinct, she discovers that the bell is attached to the temporary tombstone at a recent gravesite and someone, buried within, is pulling the string to ring the alarm.
Galvanized into action, Enola and her companions successfully unearth the coffin within, freeing a still-living young woman, Trevonia Trairom. Enola, by predilection and by trade a Scientific Perditorian, a finder of lost things, finds herself comforting and protecting this young girl, who remembers very little, including her own identity. While protecting this mysterious girl from an enigmatic enemy, she finds Sherlock engaged in a related mystery and joins him in his battle against the Napoleon of Crime, Professor Moriaty. As that epic conflict rushes towards it's inevitable conclusion, Enola takes her place more fully than ever before as a proud member of the Holmes family.
Only Friends
After being fired from her day job, unceremoniously ghosted, and facing a bad case of writerโs block, twenty-six-year-old aspiring screenwriter Mariel Rivera is one spilled coffee away from crying on the subway. When sheโs rescued from a Times Square kerfuffle by a very handsome model dressed in regency costume, Mariel has no idea her life is about to change.
Dashwood Bennet has been modeling for years, though recently, his current portfolio includes some more risquรฉ shots. However, he never imagined that after his encounter with Mariel, heโd be putting on his regency breeches just to take them off againโฆin front of the camera.
Dash is the answer to Marielโs prayers in more ways than one. First, he saved her from an unruly mob. Second, heโs the perfect person to play the Duke of Harding, a character sheโs created that captured her attention and wonโt let go. Third, heโs more than game to be the face of her spicy historical shorts. And last but not least, heโs her perfect partner both in business and in the bedroom. But being work-partners-with-benefits can complicate things. Will their partnership survive or are Mariel and Dash doomed to not have their happily ever after?
Antihero
Once a black ops assassin for the government known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak broke with the program and went deep underground, using his operational rules and skills to help the truly desperate with nowhere else to turn.
When Luke Devine, one of the most powerful men in the world has a psychological crisis, Evan flies to the East Coast to meet Luke. While there, he learns of a young woman who was kidnapped off the New York City subway, clearly in danger and in need of aid. With no name and few clues, Evan and his team track down the missing woman, who was assaulted and abandoned. Evan offers his helpโand sets out tracking down the young men responsible. But the woman insists that Evan abandon his usual methodsโno vengeance and, in particular, no killing. Which will prove no easy feat given the mounting incoming threats from all sides. In a mission that takes Evan from coast to coast, from the poorest corners of society to the richest, Orphan X must figure out a way to protect the innocent, avenge the victimized, and balance justice, with a measure of mercy.
You & Me and You & Me and You & Me
One couple. One past. A million tomorrows.
Meet Adam and Jules. Married for nearly twenty-five years and stuck in a rut, their future looks, well, boring.
Then Adam stumbles across a box of old mixtapes he and Jules made for each other when they were young and falling in love. He dusts off his vintage stereo, inserts one of the cassettes, presses play โฆ and the unbelievable happens.
With the power to travel back in time, he and Jules can revisit pivotal moments in their pasts. Is this the key to getting their sparkle back? They embark on an epic hunt through the multiverse for their perfect love story. But as they visit the past and recapture the headiness of falling in love, they realize that traveling across time could be as dangerous as it is addictive, because the temptation to change just a few small things is irresistible. As the ripple effects spiral out of control, can they find a way back to their messy and imperfect, yet glorious, real life? Or will they lose each other forever?
Out of the Loop
The Seven-Year Slip meets Vera Wongโs Unsolicited Advice for Murderers in this wholly original time loop mystery.
For the past two years, Amie Teller has been stuck in a time loop. Each day, she wakes up and itโs September 17th. Same day, same weather, same people, same conversations. Until, one day, itโs September 18th, and Amie is free.
Before she can celebrate, Amie learns her neighbor was murdered the day beforeโthe day Amie has lived hundreds of times. Amie knows she has to help; nobody knows yesterday like she does. But acclimating to her new non-repeating life proves to be more difficult than expected. How does one resume their life after a time loop, anyway?
Assisted by an ex-girlfriend who wants to make their friendship work, and a grumpy neighbor who spends his days building Rube Goldberg machines, Amie sets out to track down who killed (and killed and killed and killed) Savannah Harlow.
Readers who love time loop novels, amateur sleuth mysteries, and original takes on classic tropes will love Out of the Loop.
The Body
Mavis broke from her parentsโ congregation years ago, but she still hasnโt recovered. Their impossible expectations and soul-shredding critiques have dug deep into her mind, and sheโs taunted by the knowledge that even when sheโs done nothing wrong, sheโll never be right.
Now Mavis is afraid sheโs about to lose the only thing she has: her husband, Jerrod. The man sheโs always known was too good to be true. No one thinks she deserves himโnot even after surviving the serial cheater they wanted her to stick byโand soon theyโll all find out they were right.
Mavis is already unraveling when a brush with death shows her what real fear looks like. Soon, sheโs under constant attack from all directions. As the assaults turn increasingly vicious and bizarre, Mavis realizes that Hell isnโt reserved for the afterlife.
And sinner or not, no one is coming to save her.
An Unconventional Lady
Ella Wilde is no ordinary young woman. Outspoken, curious, and fiercely independent, she grew up in a world of natural philosophy, encouraged by her scientist parents to question everything. But when her mother dies mysteriously while studying phrenology in Austria, Ella is left with more questions than answers. Especially when a study is released claiming that a phrenological examination of Ella's mother prior to her death indicated mental instability, calling into question what really happened the night of her death. Years later, at a scientific symposium hosted by her father's school and focused on phrenology, Ella seizes the chance to clear her mother's name and debunk phrenology as pseudoscience.
Gabriel Rowe is a barrister with a mission of his own. Tasked with finding a runaway girl linked to the same phrenologist who will be speaking at the symposium, Gabriel's path leads him back to Keatley Hall--and to Ella, his childhood friend.
As the symposium unfolds, Ella and Gabriel join forces to expose the phrenologist's fraud. But with the audience enamored by the charlatan's charm and the stakes rising, they must navigate a web of deceit and danger. When the missing girl is found and the phrenologist vanishes with the symposium's funds, Ella and Gabriel embark on a thrilling journey to reclaim their reputations and discover the love and acceptance they've been seeking.
Travel back to Regency England with An Unconventional Lady by Sarah E. Ladd and learn about little-known parts of history while being completely swept off your feet by a sweet, clean romance.
Strange Animals
one who studies cryptids; an expert in or student of supernatural history.
After a series of inexplicable encounters upends his life, Green finds himself alone and terrified in the Appalachian mountains, full of questions about the transformation heโs undergoing and the impossible creatures heโs starting to see.
When he meets a hermit named Valentina, he realizes that something more than chance has brought him to her door. For she has devoted centuries to researching the hidden world of cryptids that Green is only now beginning to perceive.
As Green begins his studies beneath her watchful eye, he comes face to face with time-stopping giant moths, cyclops squirrels, and doorways to elsewhere. Along the way come clues about his own nature and the powerful beings who led him hereโand, most wondrous of all, a sense of fulfillment like nothing heโs felt before.
But Greenโs new happiness promises to be short-lived, because alongside these marvels lurks a deadly threat to this place heโs already come to love.
Featuring incredible creatures and an unforgettable cast of characters, Strange Animals is a charming, addictive fantasy about the magic all around us.
And the Crowd Went Wild
I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
He ticks every boxโฆbut is she ready to invest?
Enemies to lovers? Check!
Forced proximity? Check!
Men in finance? Check!
--
Journalist Hallie Woods has a new date the hottest guy on Wall Street and document every moment for the magazine she works for.
The only problem? Finance bros couldnโt be further from Hallieโs type.
But as Hallie reluctantly flirts her way through the Financial District, there's one annoyingly handsome 6โ5, blue-eyed man who keeps getting in her way. . .
James Rossi is a typical finance bro on paper, but a hopeless romantic at heart. So, when he realizes the new regular at his favourite bar is flirting with his colleagues as fodder for an article, he decides to sabotage her plans.
Hallie and James clash at happy hour every week. But soon their dislike for each other turns into something unexpected, and Hallie questions whether she wants her personal life spread across the pages of a magazine.
Hallie might have found her man in finance, but she also has a choice to make. Will she publish the article, or risk her career and invest in true love?
Forced proximityEnemies to loversOpposites attractWorkplace romanceSteamy
The Hadacol Boogie
When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheauxโs property, he knows his world and family are about to change.
With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks on an investigation that brings him into the most dangerous moments of his career and threatens the lives of Valerie and his daughter Alafair.
He encounters a local handyman who leaves cryptic notes and warns of the ghosts who roam the shores of the bayou and is targeted by a vicious New Orleans button man and gangsters from the north.
Through brilliant prose and a quintessential cast of characters, James Lee Burke weaves a portrait of a gritty, violent Louisiana at the turn of the 20th century. Visceral, atmospheric, and wholly original, The Hadacol Boogie brings to life Dave Robicheauxโs fierce determination to confront evil both past and present.
Honey Bee Mine
Like the bees she keeps, Penny Becker lives by a golden rule: never stop working. That mantra kept Becker Farms running when her grandfather, dad, and ex all left for greener pastures. But after taking out a loan for an expansion plan that crashed and burned, Penny has to find a way to pay or risk losing it all, and sheโs betting everything on the Sullivanโs Glen Honey Festival. To save the farm, she has to make the festival bigger, better, and more successful than ever beforeโand she plans to do it all on her own.
Reformed bad boy turned restaurateur Zander Bouras left Sullivanโs Glen in a blaze of glory and vowed to never return. But when his ex-wife wants to go back for the summer, Zander grudgingly follows. He refuses to miss time with his son, and figures itโs finally time to deal with the farmhouse his grandfather left, for some reason, to him.
His first day in town brings Zander face to face with Penny, the girl whose perfect life mocked him from next door. Itโs just his luck that his son loves her and her bees, and before he knows it heโs been volunteered to help plan a honey festival with the sexy, stubborn beekeeper whose braid he just wants to tug. As they learn to work together, Zander faces his demons and learns to see Sullivanโs Glen in a new light as Penny realizes that accepting help isnโt so badโespecially from the right person. But as the festival day and Zanderโs departure draw near, theyโll have to decide if the romance buzzing between them can last past the sweet days of summer.
Fireflies in Winter
1796. Cora, an orphan newly arrived from Jamaica, has never felt cold like this. In the depths of winter, everyone in her community huddles together in their homes to keep warm. So when she sees a shadow slipping through the trees, Cora thinks her eyes are deceiving her. Until she creeps out into the moonlight and finds the tracks in the snow.
Agnes is in hiding. On the run from her former life, she has learned what it takes to survive alone in the wilderness. But she can afford no mistakes. When she first spies the young woman in the woods, she is afraid. Yet Cora is fearless, and their paths are destined to cross.
Deep amongst the cedars, Cora and Agnes find a fragile place of safety. But when Agnesโs past closes in, they are confronted with the dangerous price of freedomโand of love....
The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielbergโand the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema
In the summer of 1967, as the old Hollywood studio system was dying, an intense, uncompromising young film school graduate named George Lucas walked onto the Warner Bros backlot for his first day working as an assistant to another up-and-coming, largely-unknown filmmaker, a boisterous father of two called Francis Ford Coppola. At the exact same time, across town on the Universal Studios lot, a film-obsessed twenty-year-old from a peripatetic Jewish family, Steven Spielberg, longed to break free from his apprenticeship for the struggling studio and become a film director in his own right.
Within a year, the three men would become friends. Spielberg, prioritizing security, got his seven-year contract directing television. Lucas and Coppola, hungry for independence, left Hollywood for San Francisco to found an alternative studio, American Zoetrope, and make films without answering to corporate capitalism.
Based on extensive research and hundreds of original interviews with the inner circle of these Hollywood icons, The Last Kings of Hollywood tells the thrilling, dramatic inside story of how, over the next fifteen years, the three filmmakers rivalled and supported each other, fell out and reconciled, and struggled to reinvent popular American cinema. Along the way, Coppola directed The Godfather, then the highest-grossing film of all-time, until Spielberg surpassed it with Jaws โ whose record Lucas broke with Star Wars, which Spielberg surpassed again with E.T. By the early 1980s, they were the richest, best-known filmmakers in the world, each with an empire of their own. The Last Kings of Hollywood is an unprecedented chronicle of their rise, their dreams and demons, their triumphs and their failures โ intimate, extraordinary, and supremely entertaining.
Dead First
When private investigator Shyla Sinclair is invited to the looming mansion of mysterious Texan tycoon Saxton Braith, sheโs more than a little suspicious. The last thing she expects to see that night is Braithโs assistant driving an iron rod straight through the back of his skull. Scratch thatโthe last thing she expects to see is Braithโs resurrection afterward.
Braith canโt die, it turns out, but he has no explanation for his immortality, and very few intact memories of his past. Which is why he wants to pay Shyla millions to investigate him, and bring his long-buried history to light.
Shyla canโt help but be intrigued, but sheโs also trapped by the offer. Braith has made it clear that he knows sheโs the only person he can trust with his secret, because he knows all about hers.
Bold, atmospheric, and utterly frightening, Johnny Comptonโs Dead First is spine-chilling supernatural horror about the pursuit of power and the undying need for reckoning.
Secondhand Luck
Itโs been months since Petra Grady bonded with the shadow Pluck. With the help of researcher Benedict Strom, she has made a place for herself at St. Unoc University as the first weaver to use shadow magic in a thousand years. But some are not happy to acknowledge the new shadow/weaver pair, and Petra and Pluck arenโt surprised when theyโre blamed for every recent trouble.
When a new weaver is drawn to St. Unoc, Pluck quickly realizes the novice magic user has not come alone. Trailing her is Thoth, a devious shadow responsible for betraying his own kind and setting mage against weaver thousands of years ago. His goal hasnโt changed, and when Thoth turns both the mage courts and the university against Petra, she and Pluck must risk everything to uncover a truth that even Pluck has forgotten.
Shadows, though, have earned their terrifying reputation, and if Petra canโt prove her and Pluckโs innocence and capture Thoth, any hope of balance will be goneโtaking Pluck and her with it.
The Wandering Queen: A Novel of Dido
founder of Carthage, from the author of the national bestseller Daughters of Sparta
When the King of Tyre dies, he decrees that the rule of the kingdom will pass equally to both his Elissa, his clever and strong-willed daughter, and Pygmalion, her young half-brother. But Elissa, not yet skilled in the machinations of court, quickly finds herself sidelined by a band of powerful merchants in favor of her more malleable brother.
Forced out of her palace home, Elissa resolves to forge her own path. Both triumph and heartbreak await in the life that she builds, transforming herself from a sheltered princess into a strong and formidable leader. When she leads her followers on an epic journey in search of a new home in a faraway land, she earns herself a name that will echo through Dido, the wanderer.
Then one day, a mysterious stranger, Aeneas, arrives at the city gates, fleeing the Trojan War. As Dido and Aeneas are increasingly drawn to each other, Dido finds herself forced to make an impossible choice between power and love.
One treasure map. Two total opposites. A romance they never saw coming...
When Sydney York ends up shipwrecked on a remote island, the last thing she expects is to end up on a treasure hunt. But when she meets Hunter Holden, the islandโs sole inhabitant, who just happens to be searching for a legendary treasure, she ends up drawn into an adventure that leads across treacherous terrain, fighting venomous snakes and facing an enemy also searching for gold.
Will the two treasure hunters find the gold theyโre searching for, or is it possible their unlikely partnership might turn into something more priceless?
Tropes:
- Remote desert island
- Forced proximity
- Chance encounter
- Spicy
โA fun, spicy adventure romance perfect for readers who adore puzzles and action mixed in with their love stories... a wild ride that had me grinning the whole way through!โ Lauren Connolly, author of PS I Hate You
'Packed with thrilling treasure hunts and sizzling chemistry, this romantic adventure is impossible to put down... a must-read!โ Annie McQuaid, author of Crash Landing
โA fun, sexy thrill ride that gave me all The Lost City vibes. I dig this book!โ Carlie Walker, author of Code Word Romance
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments down below.

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