February 17 new book releases feature The Astral Library by Kate Quinn, a fantasy centered on a hidden library where books are doors to new worlds and new lives.
Alongside this weekโs new releases, we published a few more posts that are worth checking out:
- Last Week’s Best Selling Books (February 11)
- Wicked Onyx by Debbie Cassidy: Summary, Review, Ending Explained
The Astral Library
Alexandria โAlixโ Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.
The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroyโAlix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?
Where the Wildflowers Grow
Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die.
Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what's in her nature. She survives.
While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn't expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm's owner, who sees through Leigh's defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she's not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal.
But the past isn't so easily buried.
No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she's come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter
Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized lifeโand she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for lost cats.
But after she is forced to move the cat shelter, Agnes learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a frontโfor an internationally renowned and thoroughly disreputable magic shop. Owned by the disorganizedโnot to mention self-absorbed, irritating, but also decidedly handsomeโHavelock Renard, magician and failed Dark Lord, the shop draws magical clientele from around the world, partly due to the quality of Havelockโs illicit goods as well as their curiosity about his shadowy past and rumors of his incredible powers. Agnes's charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics.
Agnes couldnโt care less about the shopโmagical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelockโs past surfaces, the magic shopโand more importantly, the cat shelterโare suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypseโand is now trying to steal her heart?
The Sun and the Starmaker
Nestled deep in the snowy mountains of the Lost Range, the small village of Reverie endures on a miracle. Beyond the reach of the Sun, Reverie is dependent upon the magic of the mysterious Starmaker: every morning, he trudges across a vast glacier and pulls in sunlight over the peaks, providing the village with the light it needs to survive.
Aurora Finch grew up on tales of the Starmakerโs magic, never imagining sheโd one day meet him. But on the morning of her wedding, a fateful encounter in the frostbitten woods changes everything. The Starmaker senses a powerful magic within her and demands she come study under his guidance. With her newfound abilities tied to the survival of the village, Aurora is swept away to his ice-covered castle at the mountainโs peak.
The Starmaker is as cold and distant as the dark woods, leaving Aurora to explore his enchanted castle with only an immortal rabbit for company. Yet the more she discovers about the sorcerer, the stronger their ruinous attraction grows, pulling her closer to the secrets he refuses to share. A deadly frost approaches, and Aurora must uncover what the Starmaker is hiding before she is left in an endless winter that even the Sun cannot touch.
Her Last Breath
After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high schoolโAllie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe sheโs a little jealous of Allie's globe-trotting life. Who wouldnโt be?
As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize theyโre not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guyโand he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive.
Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasnโt so random after all.
Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?
When I Kill You
Who is watching Nell Masters?
Nell Masters is certain someone is following her. The hairs on the back of her neck rise when she travels to and from work, there are silent calls to her office, and a huge bouquet of flowers arrives without a card. And Nell has a reason to be looking over her shoulder, because she has a secret that sheโs hiding from everyone in her life, including her new partner, Alex. But Alex also has secrets of his own.
Fourteen years earlier, when Nell went by the name Elle Nugent, she witnessed a student, Bryony Sanders, getting into a strangerโs car. When Bryony was found murdered, Elle became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who it was and her fixation with Brett Parker, the man she accused, led her down a dangerous path . . .
Now, Nell tries to convince herself that this unnerving feeling of being watched is all in her mind. Has someone from her past discovered her new identity? Has the stalker become the stalked? Or is there something even more deadly at play?
Crown of War and Shadow
In the dead of night, passions rise and empires fall.
Welcome to Kingdoms of the Compass.
The Fulcrum is failing, and demons are slipping into the mortal world, stalking the night.
No one is safe.
Especially not Sorrel. An orphan and an outcast, sheโs spent her whole life within the walls of her small village, ostracized for her mystical abilities. She wants to surviveโฆand maybe find somewhere she can call her true home. But Fate has other plans.
Sorrel has been chosen. Cursed.
She must cross the Badlands to return the Queen's crown and convince the fearsome female to save their world from destruction.
Well aware sheโs no brave hero, Sorrel makes a dangerous deal with Merc, a brooding, commanding mercenary known only by his unscrupulous profession.
The deal? A night in his bed that she will never forget, in exchange for her safe passage.
But Merc has secrets of his own, and even though passion runs hot between them, enemies are around every corner, and danger and betrayal threaten at every turn.
Crown of War and Shadow is the first book in the Kingdoms of the Compass series.
Crown of War and Shadow
*Forced proximity/Only one bed
*Chosen mates
*Dark mercenary
*Who did this to you?
*Touch her and die
*I'll die for you
*Hidden magic
โAbsolutely unputdownable.โ - Jennifer Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Laws of Love and Logic
A woman finds herself torn between her first love and her devoted husband in this extraordinary debut novel that asks the Can one heart hold two great loves?
In the serene town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Lily Webb is deeply in love with a charismatic boy, a college-bound quarterback whose spectacular athletic talents are matched only by his fierce devotion. But their dreams of a life together are cut short one night in 1977 when his passionate protectiveness leads to an irrevocable choiceโone which tears them apart and leads Lily down a path of heartbreak from which she may never recover.
Lily has already known the sting of loss, beginning with the death of her motherโa tragedy that left deep scars on both her and Jane, her gifted younger sister. Jane seeks escape in the abstract world of mathematics and quantum mechanics; that is, when she can keep the demons that fuel her addictions at bay. As the years pass, Lily buries her twin griefs deep in her heart, finding solace and a new beginning with Marshall Middleton, a renowned ornithologist whose love is as steadfast as the migration patterns he studies. Yet, the shadows of her past linger.
When the boy who was once everything to Lily reemerges, she struggles with questions around that terrible night in high school. Can she reconcile the wild wonderment of her first love with the comfort and safety of her second? Laws of Love and Logic explores love's enduring power and the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness and redemption.
Half City
Viv Abbot is an average twenty-one-year-old girl. She lives in an expensive city where the rent is too high, works long hours at a thankless job, and is dating a guy she doesnโt even like in the hopes of winning her prickly motherโs approval.
She just also happens to be a demon hunter.
Ever since her father's murder, she's been forced to hunt deviants alone, meaning everyone, including her family, sees her as an outsider. . . . Until the day she crosses paths with a dangerously alluring demon, Reid Graveheart. The reformed deviant tells her of a school for people just like her: Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. If she enrolls, she'll learn to hone her craft, work with other hunters, and never be alone again.
But Viv has a deadly secret. One that not even her new friends at Harker can know about. Not when the school might hold the answers to untangling the mystery surrounding Viv's fatherโs death. When strange occurrences begin to plague the students, Viv will have to figure out who she can trust, and fast. All while trying to ace her classes, not fall for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?
Adrift
Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their fourteen-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his familyโs lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wifeโs sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization.
With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drewโs gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.
With Will Deanโs signature โwell-drawn characters and excellent proseโ (Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author), Adrift is gripping exploration of the ties that bind when everything spirals out of control.
So Old, So Young
Six Friends.
Five Parties.
Twenty Yearsโฆ
How did we get So Old, So Young?
From Grant Ginder, the bestselling author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, comes a novel of impending millennial middle age that is part love story, part tragic comedy. Five parties over the course of two decades bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we can run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death.
For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship. But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds and testing what we thought we knew. From East Village apartment parties and disastrous destination weddings to fortieth birthdays and suburban backyard barbecues, Grant Ginderโs resonant, funny, and deeply moving novel is a story about the growing pains of the millennial generation, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble, and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined.
A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage
Meet Lalla Rook. Lalla has a lot on her plate: She needs to guarantee her husband makes partner, secure her dream house in Hampstead, and get her daughter into a prestigious prep school. And on the afternoon she stabs a stranger seven times after he breaks into her living room, she has a four-year-oldโs birthday party to host.
With an unambitious partner, two demanding children, and a barely adequate large house in a nice (if not quite fashionable) part of town, Lallaโs life isnโt quite perfect yet. And she canโt pretend she hasnโt missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. Besides, as a wife and mother, sheโs already an expert multi-tasker. So, disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the worldโs best mother can easily be managed alongside the usual domestic minutiae.
Itโs just that her husband Stephen seems distracted, her daughterโs drowning of the class hamster is affecting her academic future, and then there is the unexpected intruder. Who is this man and what does he want from her? Because Lalla has a past sheโd rather keep hiddenโand the sudden appearance of the police means that avoiding them will be yet another task to cross off her to-do list.
Funny, calculating, hypercompetent, and ambitious, Lalla is your next favorite antiheroine. Just donโt mention it to her mother-in-law.
Murder at 30,000 Feet
Under the cover of turbulence, a killer strikes. With nowhere to land and nowhere to hide, who will save the passengers from this nightmare at 30,000 feet?
It's a ticket to paradise. Flight 868 has nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over a dozen tipsy passengers are off to a destination wedding. A team of high school baseball players are headed to a tournament. The plane is packed with people eager to escape their lives, and others who can't wait to return to their beloved home.
But sweet anticipation turns to terror when a lightning strike short-circuits the avionics and plunges the plane into darkness. When the lights come back on, a passenger is found brutally murdered, with only a bewildered air marshal to solve the crime. He soon realizes that several passengers are harboring dark secrets, but the identity of the murderer eludes him. There's only one certainty: The killer is on the plane.
Thousands of feet above the earth with thunderstorms closing in, the danger outside is as grave as the mounting threat within. Can the captain outrun the storm? Or will the murderer among them bring the plane down first?
Passion, betrayal, and murder collide in this high-stakes, locked-room mystery. A must-read for fans of T. J. Newman and Jeneva Rose.
War of Fire and Fury
But her friends are battling their own demons, and not everyone comes out unscathed. With the tension mounting, long-overdue confrontations come to a head in the midst of chaos. Relationships will be changed, loyalties will be tested, and hearts will break, because not everyone survives to see a new era dawn.
For better or worse, the greatest battle of their time will come to an end. But in a war of fire and fury, who will be left when the ashes settle?
They Call Her Regret
Every year horror-loving Simone Washington throws an epic Halloween party for her classmates. Party-planning is her favorite escape from the dark secrets in her past, and this year, sheโs taking things up a notch with an invitation-only event to celebrate her eighteenth birthdayโsomething that will leave the halls of Pinegrove Academy flooded with gossip about the big ghoulish bash. The overnight stay at Dollโs Head Lake will be filled with spooky pranks and scary stories told by the fireโincluding the legend of a local witch named Regret.
But those dark secrets from Simoneโs past are forced to the surface at the party when her best friend Kira dies under questionable circumstances. The witch appears and offers Simone a deal: if Simone can figure out how to release Regret from the curse trapping her at the lake within fourteen days, all of Simoneโs regrets will be erased. If Simone accepts, Kiraโs life will be immediately restored. But if she fails, Kira will die againโand Simone will be the one to kill her.
I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home
Carol is delighted to be leaving her tiny prison cell behind to take her place in a luxury retirement home. She's hoping her past as a serial killer won't come to light so she can make a few friends and find some murder-free hobbies. But it's not long before a fellow residentโwho happens to be a former police commissionerโdrops dead, and Carol's true identity is leakedโmaking catching up over daily activities of bingo and baking rather awkward.
Just her luck, Carol soon realizes that the victim wasn't the only former law enforcement officer at Sheldon Oaksโit's filled to the brim with former cops, barristers, and government representatives, her newfound friends included. And everyone thinks Carol's guilt is a no-brainer, but she is ready to prove them dead wrong...without killing anyone, for once.
Head of Household
From stories about a father who shows up hungover to chaperone his daughterโs kindergarten bowling trip, to another who rediscovers his love of graffiti, and a father who pays for his legal fees and apartment through his OnlyFans earnings, Head of Household is a short story collection that reckons with divorce, financial anxiety, and sexuality to create a collage of the beleaguered father, a man on the frontlines of a masculinity in crisisโstories of men salvaging the shreds of their identities while staging puppet shows and pretending to be ponies for their children.
A Little Buzzed
A sex toy engineer with one big secret finally meets her match, and together theyโll put their own products to the test in this steamy romantic comedy.
Scout Porter is screwed. Not literally, of course. Literally, sheโs a twenty-six-year-old virgin, thanks to a relationship so disastrous she swore off love and sex for good. Metaphorically, sheโs screwed because the entire office of BuzzCorp, the sex toy start-up where sheโs head engineer, just found out. Scout needs her team to stay focused on their upcoming launch, not her lack of a sex life, so she finds the simplest lose her V-card, and fast, then back to business as usual.
Enter Hudson Bailey, the nerdy and charming software developer hired to build the app for Scoutโs latest creation. The only problem is, heโs as inexperienced with sex toys as she is with sex. Fortunately, heโs all too eager to learn, and they agree that one very educational, totally professional hook-up will solve both of their problems. All for research, obviously.
But their little experiment yields unexpected resultsโchemistry so off the charts Scout starts to think she might actually want more than just a one-time fling. When their budding relationship is threatened by the return of Scoutโs notorious ex, both Scout and Hudson will have to decide if theyโve reached their climax as a couple, or if theyโre willing to risk everything for a chance at true love.
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
In a polarized era, history can become a subject of political contention. Many have seen America as perfect; many others argue that the national experiment is fundamentally flawed. The truth, Meacham shows, likely lies in between these extremes. America has had shining hours, and also dark ones.
In American Struggle, Jon Meacham looks to the nation's complicated past for lessons on the way forward. This rich and diverse collection covers a wide spectrum of history, from 1619 to the present, with primary-source documents that spotlight in their own words those who sought unity or division, and with Meacham's commentary throughout--from the founders to Lincoln; to leaders in the South; to leaders during the World Wars; to figures in the modern era such as Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, LBJ, Shirley Chisolm, Walter Cronkite, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and many more. As clashes over liberty and slavery, inclusion and exclusion play out, these voices, brilliantly framed by Meacham's singular commentary, remind us that contentious citizenship and fair-minded observations are essential to bringing about the more perfect union envisioned in the preamble to the Constitution, which Frederick Douglass called a "glorious liberty document".
Conflict is nothing new in American life; rather, as Meacham and these texts show, these arguments are built into the nation's character. To know what has come before, to watch as long-running disputes rise and fall, is to be armed against despair.
The Halifax Hellions
Determined to stop Matilda's inexplicable elopement, her sister Margo turns to her oldest friend for because if anyone can get her to Scotland in time, it's starchy solicitor Henry Mortimer. But the road to Scotland is paved with secrets. Beneath his buttoned-up exterior, Henry is ardently, wildly, miserably in love with Margo. And Matilda and Ashford's relationship too may not be quite what it seems.
Between salacious engravings, secret identities, and demanding feral cats, nothing about the journey goes as planned. With the Halifax Hellions at the reins, a week in a carriage is exactly enough time to turn the world upside down . . . and, perhaps, find the love stories they never expected.
For the first time ever in print, The Halifax Hellions brings together Margo and Matilda's novellas, along with a swoony new epilogue.
Evil Genius
Itโs 1974 and San Francisco is full of mystery and menace. Nineteen-year-old Celia Dent keeps telling herself how lucky she is to be married to Drew, a man who says he loves her. But Celiaโs contentment with her little life is shattered when a woman she knows is murdered in a love tryst gone awry. What would that be like, Celia wonders, to dieโor killโfor love? What would it be like to live each moment passionately and with full knowledge that each breath is bringing her closer to her final breath?
Before Celia knows it her musings about love-and-death happenings are bleeding into daily life. Sheโs practicing her marksmanship at a local gun range. She's searching for a love tryst of her very own. She's thinking about how good it would feel to bury something sharp inside her domineering husbandโs ear. Itโs all pretend, though, until the night comes when Celia finally goes too far, and she and Drew are set on a deadly collision course.
Exhilarating, surreal, and bitingly clever, Evil Genius is a comic noir about obsession and desireโand what happens when a sweetly seditious young woman dares to imagine a better life for herself.
Claire Oshetsky is also the author of the novels Poor Deer and Chouette, which was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award.
Bad Asians
Diana, Justin, Errol, and Vivian have been told their entire lives that success is guaranteed by following a simple checklist. They worked hard, got good grades, and attended a great universityโonly to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Despite their newly minted degrees, they're unemployed, stuck again under their parentsโ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Graceโonce the neighborhood golden child, now a Harvard Law School dropoutโasks to make a documentary about the crew, they say yes. Itโs not like her little movie will ever see the light of day.
But then the video, โBad Asians,โ goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform (YouTube, anyone?). Suddenly, two million people know the members of the group as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control goes off the rails, they are flung even further off course from the lives theyโd always imagined. As they grow up and grow apart, the friends desperately try to figure out who they are and what it means to live a successful life in the new millennium.
Liโs novel is both an exploration of Asian American identity and a portrait of a generation shaped by the rise of the internet and the end of the American dream. An epic tale of friendship and coming of age, Bad Asians asks: What if the same people who made you who you are end up keeping you from who youโre meant to be?
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The Ex-Perimento
Maria โMariantoโ Camacho is a planner. At twenty-seven, she has her life perfectly mapped out. Her long-term boyfriend, Alejandro, is perfect on paper, and sheโs expecting a proposal any day now. She has a stable job as a lifestyle columnist at Ellas, one of Latin Americaโs biggest digital magazines. Her future is set; sheโs sure of it.
Until everything falls apart overnight: Marianto loses her boyfriend and her job. But sheโs determined to get them both back with an idea that is either delusional or ingeniousโa juicy new article for Ellas that documents a series of romantic experiments to get her ex back. Thus begins The Ex-Perimento. With her bank account dwindling, however, Marianto lands a temporary gig on Venezuelaโs hottest new singing competition show. Her job? Personal assistant to Simรณn Arreaza, the lead singer of her favorite indie band.
Itโs only her second day on the job when Simรณn discovers Mariantoโs list of romantic experiments, striking her ideas and replacing them with his own better ones. Out of desperation, she offers a proposition: Help her win back Alejandro, and sheโll give Simรณnโs band a profile in the magazine once she returns to Ellas. But between the close quarters on set and the blurred lines of a budding friendship, Marianto and Simรณn find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other, caught in a whirlwind of unexpected romance.
If Only You Knew
Summer Prescott and Parker Woods have been best friends since they were three years old. Now thirty, neither of them feels like they have a good handle on adulthood. While their friends are coupled up and thriving, theyโre struggling through career crises and disastrous dates, and frequenting the same old bars and surf spots theyโve been going to for yearsโuntil, on a whim, Summer decides to hand over her love life to Parker. After all, who better to help find her soulmate than the person who knows her best?
But when the date Parker introduces her to goes from husband material to dead end in one publicly humiliating swoop, Summer is so devastated that she breaks up with both men. And she decides to embrace a fresh start away from home by entering a surf competition thatโll have her chasing waves around the world.
Parker soon realizes the troubling truthโheโs spent nearly thirty years by Summerโs side and has only just realized that heโs in love with her. Now heโs on a mission to win back not just her trust but her heart, before she slips away for good.
Children of the Savage City
A peaceful evening mass at the historic Chiesa del Gesรน Nuovo is shattered when a young au pair is killed in one of the cathedralโs quiet chapels. The daughter of the US Ambassador sees it happenโbut sheโll speak only to one person: Nikki Serafino.
Shaken by betrayal in her last high-profile case, Nikki has retreated from the relentless vigilance that once defined her work as liaison between Italian police and the US military. Withdrawn and mistrustful, she works her shifts, cares for her aging family, teaches self-defense classes, and avoids entanglement. But this case threatens her self-imposed invisibilityโdrawing her into a web of lies and resurfacing old wounds and buried loyalties. The murder investigation leads Nikki and her friend, Naples officer Valerio Alfieri, into a shadow architecture of power: built to protect the guilty and hide their secrets at any cost.
Can she and Valerioโeach carrying dangerous debtsโresist the undertow of corruption that swallows truth whole?
Set against the chaos of modern Naplesโthe city of Roberto Savianoโs Gomorrah and Elena Ferranteโs My Brilliant Friendโwhere grace and corruption share the same narrow streets, Nikki and Valerio navigate a landscape where even the most principled must confront the cost of survival.
Murder Will Out
Come for the memories. Stay for the murder...
Little North Island, off the coast of Maine, is so beautiful it could be a postcard. Organist Willow Stone cherishes her memories of childhood summers spent on the island with her godmother Sue... even though her visits ended abruptly, and she hasn't seen or heard from her godmother in over fifteen years. Until a letter from Sueโand word of Sueโs deathโbrings Willow back to the picturesque island.
The islanders rarely mention Sue without also bringing up Cameron House, and the controversy around Sueโs unexpected inheritance of the sprawling mansion. When Willow overhears someone threatening the next heir to the property, she starts to question whether Sueโs death was really an accident, and canโt help but wonder whether someone on this sleepy island is willing to stop at nothingโeven murderโto claim Cameron House for their own.
Through Willowโs eyes, as well as those of others on the island, a mystery unfolds that keeps drawing Willow back to Cameron House and the very real ghosts that walk its corridors.
This Wretched Beauty
London, 1867. Dorian Gray is the heir to a title and their familyโs estate, but theyโve never been given the chance to decide whether thatโs actually what they want out of life. Forcibly estranged from their father by their manipulative grandfather, Dorian feels trapped in the life that has been decided for them.
Then one night they sneak out of their grandfatherโs house, they meet a sweet and talented young painter named Basil, who immediately recognizes Dorian as his new muse. They agree to sit for Basil for a portrait, and Dorian is struck by the beauty and depth that Basil paints into their likenessโand they dare to begin hoping there might be more to life than being their grandfatherโs perfect, empty-headed heir.
Dorian is further elated when Basil introduces them to the world of molly houses and drag performersโtheyโve never seen such joyful variety of humanity and gender expression. But, as the barrier between the London they know and the one they're discovering begins to crumble, Dorian must face the fact that freedom and safety do not come hand in hand.
The aftermath of this realization pulls Dorian into a terrible downward spiral, torn between guilt over their own actions and hatred for the suffocating expectations of society. They push away those closest to them, surrounding themself instead with vapid courtiers and decadent socialites. And as Dorianโs spiral of self-loathing deepens, something strange happensโBasilโs portrait of them begins to change. Their smile becomes a little sharper, the glint in their eyes a little colder.
Dorian will have to chooseโembrace the wickedness within and allow themself to become what they were always meant to be, or dare to try for something far more fragile and dangerous: a life of their own making.
First Sign of Danger
Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven's Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven's Rock, they realize they're in danger of being exposed.
When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they're no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven's Rock. Only by tracing the hikers' movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down. Otherwise, the lives of everyone in Haven's Rock--and their safe, secure new existence--are at risk.
The Devil's Bible
Former Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, is called to Sweden when the younger sister of King Wilhelm is kidnapped. The ransom demand? Hand over an 800-year-old book, the Codex Gigas, the largest illuminated medieval manuscript in the world. Claimed as war loot from Bohemia in 1648, it's been kept in Stockholm for nearly 400 years. Along the way it also acquired another more mysterious The Devil's Bible.
Now the Czech Republic wants the codex back, and Sweden has agreed to return it, but forces are at work to stop that deal from happening. The likely instigator? Russia. Who is also top of the list for possible kidnappers. It's up to Cotton and Cassiopeia Vitt to locate the king's sister, secure the codex, and thwart the Russians. Yet nothing is as it seems. Trusted allies become hostile enemies. Long-standing enemies suddenly shift into partners. Making matters worse an array of conflicting personalities re-emerge from Cotton's past, transforming an already chaotic international situation into something far more personal and deadly.
From the cobbled streets of Stockholm with its placid waterways and picturesque islands, to the hostile skies over the Baltic Sea, and finally onto a fabled 16th century Swedish warship, Cotton and Cassiopeia come face-to-face with the unthinkable - changing both of their lives forever.
Readers LOVE the Cotton Malone
'My kind of thriller' Dan Brown
'Steve Berry has a great way of bringing history into the present and entwining it with a great story that keeps you turning the pages right until the last one' Reader reviewโญโญโญโญโญ
'Berry raises this genre's stakes' The New York Times
'Steve Berry turns historical facts into thrillers set in today's world that will keep you going all night!' Reader reviewโญโญโญโญโญ
'I love this guy' Lee Child
'Ahhhh! So good to have Cotton back! It's been too long!' Reader reviewโญโญโญโญโญ
'As always with Steve Berry, you're educated about significant things while your knuckles are turning white and the pages are flying by' David Baldacci
'If you like fast paced action along with intriguing history, Steve Berry consistently delivers' Reader reviewโญโญโญโญโญ
Cleaner
โ[A] gem of a debut novel...funny, vibrant, and utterly unpredictable.โ โService95
A disaffected young womanโs work as a cleaner takes her on an increasingly surreal search for a creative fulfillment, gainful employment, and the meaning of life in this sharp, tragicomic debutโperfect for fans of Melissa Broder, Jen Beagin, and Alexandra Tanner.
A young artist returns to her childhood home, with a host of degrees and diplomas in her back pocket. But when forced to confront the reality that the world sees no use for her scholarly exploits, she must find a jobโand quickly.
Overqualified, underemployed, and idle, she starts a job as a cleaner for a gallery, where she meets another aspiring artistโIsabellaโand they begin a passionate affair. Isabella could not be more different from the sheโs elegant, successfulโฆand living with her filthy rich boyfriend Paul.
Isabella sneaks the cleaner into her life by hiring her to scrub the apartment she shares with Paul. Little by little, the cleaner relaxes into the comfort of her new surroundings. But when Isabella leaves the apartment one day and doesnโt come back, the cleaner is left to decide whether to back to her old lifeโor stay and step into Isabellaโs.
Gods Beneath the Ice
Revna knew ruling would be difficult, but she never anticipated ruling with a newfound Lurae. The godtouched fear her, the godforsaken don't trust her, and her best friend doesn't know the truth she's been hiding. When the war-ending treaty is signed, Revna will reveal her secrets and finally put the Hellbringer behind her.
Except the Kryllian Queen refuses to sign the treaty when she discovers how volatile Revna's bloodsinging is. Desperate for any alliance, Revna begrudgingly agrees to the Queen's if Revna can learn to control her magic in three weeks, negotiations will resume. But there's a catch - the queen's general will be the one training her.
Revna will work with the Hellbringer once more, but she won't make it easy. But when the general reveals that the dead are unable to pass on, they realize there's more at stake than their tangled relationship. Ancient, powerful secrets tie the realm - and Revna and the Hellbringer - together, and their only hope of lasting peace is to unweave them.
Worse than a Lie
โA sensationally good crime and legal thriller . . . This is exactly what a book should be.โโLee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of the Reacher series
Itโs the night of November 4, 2008. Americaโs first Black president has just been elected. And fifty-three-year-old Hollis Montroseโa Black exโpolice officer from the suburbs of Chicagoโhas become the latest victim of a brutal attack. As the result of a traffic stop gone wrong, Hollis is shot ten times in cold blood, by four white men who could have been his colleagues back in his police days.
Beau Lee Cooper was born serious, as if on an urgent mission with little time to waste. Raised in the tumultuous world of 1970s Texas, he always dreamed of becoming a lawyer and fighting for whatโs right, ever since he was a little boy reading To Kill a Mockingbird. And now, ten years into running his own law firm with his best friend and partner in crime, Nelson โNellieโ Rivers, and his suave right-hand-man, Brent โCapeโ Capers, he feels heโs finally making a difference. When Beau Lee learns about Hollisโs situation, heโs determined to help.
Miraculously, Hollis survives the encounter, but the Chicago police department has already spun the narrative in its favor, and Hollis is given a wrongful prison sentence with an unreasonable bail. What really happened that night the car was pulled over? Was it random or was Hollis targeted? Beau Lee knows heโs treading in dangerous waters, and finding evidence of the truth will be his biggest challenge yet, but with troubling powers at play, one innocent manโs life hangs in the balance.
Book of Forbidden Words
"What power lay there in words on a page. And with that thought, Charlotte knew she would not rest until she had seen what was in the manuscript that Lysbette so desperately wanted to preserve in print.โ
1552, Against a backdrop of turmoil, suspicion, and paranoia, the printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives one day at Charlotte Guillardโs famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbetteโs audacious ideas.
1952, New Milly Bennett, lonely and unmoored, is a seemingly ordinary housewife with a secretive past. Balancing the day-to-day boredom of keeping house and struggling to find her way with the mothers at her childrenโs school, she finds her life taking an unexpected turn as conspiracies spread amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthyโs America. When a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, she is reluctantly pulled into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world.
From the risky backstreets of sixteenth-century Paris to the unpredictable suburbs of mid-twentieth century New York, the stakes couldnโt be higher when, 400 years apart, Milly, Lysbette, and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.
Dramatic and affecting, and inspired by the real-life encrypted Voynich manuscript, Book of Forbidden Words is both an engrossing story about a timeless struggle that echoes through the ages and a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who dare to let their words be heard.
Last Seen
Caleb was driving home for Christmas. Steven was pounding beers at a local bar. Matthew was out looking for his ex-girlfriend. Leo was walking in the woods on a winter night. Then they disappeared.
Days, weeks, years later, their bodies turn up in icy rivers hundreds of miles apart. How did they get there? What, if anything, connects them? Some of their loved ones believe the official answers. Some are convinced the boys are victims of an insidious network called the Smiley Face Killers. Some are trying to forget them altogether. Meanwhile, Caleb, Steven, Matthew, and Leo find one otherโand other boys like themโin the murky depths of the afterlife. Each tells his story in his own way, speaking his version of truth, confessing his desires and grievances and even his hopes for a future he still somehow believes belongs to him. Each revelation brings the reader deeper into their intertwined fates, along a journey through the landscapes of identity, intimacy, and the haunting echoes of unresolved grief.
Good Daughtering: The Work Youโve Always Done, the Credit Youโve Never Gotten, and How to Finally Feel Like Enough
Daughters often grow up believing their role in the family is simple: love your parents, help out when you can, and carry on the traditions that bind you together. But adulthood reveals a more complicated realityโone where women take on the invisible labor of emotional caregiving, crisis management, and unspoken expectations that leave them stretched thin and unseen.
So, what is โdaughteringโ? If youโre a woman, itโs the unpaid, invisible work of holding a family together. In Good Daughtering, Dr. Allison M. Alfordโa leading researcher in family communicationโunpacks the untold story of adult daughters and the quiet, essential work they do. Drawing on years of groundbreaking research and personal interviews, she explores how societal expectations, gender roles, and generational dynamics shape the experiences of daughters in ways that are often misunderstood or overlooked.
From the subtle ways women navigate generational expectations to the emotional weight of balancing their own lives with the needs of their parents, Good Daughtering reveals the complexities of a role too often taken for granted. Full of sharp insights, relatable stories, and actionable tools, Dr. Alfordโs approach invites women to reflect on their relationships, recalibrate their roles, and reclaim joy in their lives.
Daughters are most responsible for planning and saving for their futures and those of their families, and for supporting parents emotionally and practically as they age. More than a prescriptive guide, Good Daughtering is the long-overdue recognition of daughters who carry the weight in a family. Itโs a roadmap for creating relationships that are not just functional but flourishing. This is the book every daughter deserves: an invitation to be seen, valued, and empowered in her role while honoring her own needs and desires.
Everything Lost Returns
1986. The Earthshine Soap Company has given Nona Dixon everything, from making her the brandโs first Earthshine Girl to launching her acting career. It also threatens to be the very thing that causes her to unravel when a group of Jane Does file a class action lawsuit accusing the company of putting harmful
ingredients into their products. When Nona begins investigating Bertie Tuttle, the companyโs third- generation owner, she uncovers a complicated history involving her benefactor and a mysterious woman named Opal Doucet.
1910. Seventy-six years earlier, Opal Doucet, a rural doctorโs wife, is pregnant, on the run, and desperate to get to Paris and to the charismatic spiritualist who supposedly communed with her first love. To save money, Opal goes to work in the Earthshine Soap factory as an Earthshine Girl where she uses her knowledge of medicine, and the spiritualistโs teachings, to prescribe cures to the women whoโve come down with mystery ailments. As she and Bertie Tuttle secretly partner in a labor strike intended to improve the working conditions at the factory, Opal must decide the cost of her own freedom.
Gorgeously written and intricately constructed, Everything Lost Returns is a story of desire and friendship, guilt and redemption, and the power we have, in our own small way, to change the course of history.
On Morrison
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, โshe is our only truly canonical black, female writerโand her work is highly complex.โ In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form.
This is Morrison as youโve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvreโher fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetryโwith contextual guidance, archival discoveries, and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time, but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence.
The Astral Library (Deluxe Limited Edition)
Pre-order now to receive the stunning DELUXE LIMITED EDITION-- only available on the first printing while supplies last! The collector's hardcover features stenciled edges, illustrated endpapers, and jacket effects.
From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
Alexandria "Alix" Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.
The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy--Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?
12 short works encapsulate the American Bard's fiery passions and timeless wisdom for today.
Here for the first time in a convenient pocket edition are all of Walt Whitmanโs essential prose writings on democracy, including his unforgrettable reflections on the roots on American division, the fearful legacy of the Civil War, and shining example of Abraham Lincoln. Few writers have been as harsh in their condemnation of Americaโs sins and spiritual shortcomings or as abiding in his faith in democratic ideals as Whitman. His clarion voice speaks to us with renewed urgency today.
Gathered here are:
- โThe Eighteenth Presidency!,โ written during the 1856 presidential campaign, in which Whitman expresses his rage over the immediate prospects for American democracy
- Democratic Vistas (1871), in which he dramatizes his role as poet-prophet of a better America
- the searing essay โOrigins of Attempted Secessionโ
- and shorter extracts on democracy from the classic book Specimen Days (1882).
In his introduction, acclaimed political observer David Bromwich examines Whitmanโs political prose writings and highlights why they matter today.
An adorable picture book perfect for fans of Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and Crocodiles Need Kisses Too!
In the deepest jungle swamp,
Where the beasties howl and stomp,
From a little swamp home door,
Comes a mighty gator ROAR!
Exca-Gator is so excited for a new day of building and constructing with all of his buds! He may be even a little too excited, when he overestimates his abilities and causes a big old construction site mess. Can Exca-Gator make things right with his friends and save the day?
Told in rhythmic bouncing rhyme from Brooke Hartman and with gorgeous playful art from prolific picture book illustrator Michael Slack, this book is a can't-miss pick for any young readers who love books about construction vehicles and adorable animals.
Investigators: Agents of S.U.I.T.: Sew Much Trouble
"When I'm faced with a Pilkey fan looking to branch out, this graphic novel is the first book I reach for... If eight books aren't enough, the spinoff series, Agents of S.U.I.T., continues the fun." โThe New York Times
More than three million copies in print!
InvestiGators fans, get ready to dive into the fourth volume of Agents of S.U.I.T. with the weirdest mystery yet!
Someone has stolen the Notorious P.I.G. food truck, and with it, Piggy Smallsโs special BBQ sauce! But before Bongo and Marsha can solve the case, they need to solve the problems theyโre having with each other. To help them realize what a great team they truly are, General Inspector decides to split them up. He assigns Marsha to work with Cilantro on a super-secret pilot program, and Bongo to work with Sven on a not so-secret reality competition: "Sew You Think You Can Sew!โ
But hereโs the rub: This season includes a chef challenge, and underground sources say Piggy Smalls's notorious sauce was stolen to help one of the contestants win!
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments down below.

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