February 3 book releases are led by a new thriller from a familiar name. The biggest title this week is Itโs Not Her by Mary Kubica, a lake vacation gone wrong story that opens with a double murder and a missing teenage girl. As secrets surface and suspicion shifts, the book leans hard into the question Kubica does best, whoโs lying, and how far does it go.
Alongside this weekโs new releases, we published two new posts you might want to bookmark:
- The Road of Bones by Demi Winters: Summary, Review Ending Explained
- Fourth Wing Opinion Quiz: Settle Your Onyx Storm Takes Once and for All
- We Who Have No Gods by Liza Anderson: Review and Summary
It's Not Her
A stunning discoveryโฆ
Courtney Gray's tranquil family vacation is shattered when she hears a blood-curdling scream from the lakeside cottage next door. There she finds the lifeless bodies of her brother and sister-in-law. Her teenage niece Reese is nowhere to be found, while her nephew Wyatt lies asleep upstairs, unharmed.
A shocking investigationโฆ
As the police descend on the quiet resort town, disturbing secrets about Courtneyโs family start to emerge. When she learns that the town has secrets of its own, it makes her wonder if Reese is another victim in a brutal crime or if sheโs the killer.
A truth no one could have imagined โฆ
As Courtney begins to unravel the terrible mystery, she realizes that everyone around her has something to hide. And the closer she gets to the truth, the harder it is to seeโฆ
The Wild Card
Jordan was more than comfortable behind her bar at the teamโs favorite watering hole. When her father threatens to sell the team, though, sheโs forced to put her grievances aside and work with the man who likes everyone but herโ: Coach Tate Ward.
But beneath his controlled exterior, Tate is funny, encouraging, and protective. He moves Jordan into his guest house, trusts her with his daughter, and fires the person who made her cry. Heโs her boss, and a relationship would ruin both their careers, but Jordan still finds herself dreaming of a life with Tate. As the lines between them blur and Jordan encourages him to be selfish, Tate realizes what he wants . . . is her.
Queen of Faces
A desperate girl at a cutthroat magical academy faces a choice between life and death: become an assassin for the enchanted elite or watch her decaying body draw its last breath.
Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and itโs rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and swap designer bodies like clothes, Ana canโt afford to escape her tattered form. When she fails the entrance exam to the prestigious Paragon Academy, her last hope of earning a new body implodes. As the clock ticks down to her last breath, sheโs forced to use her illusion magic to steal a healthy chassisโbefore her own kills her.
But Ana is caught by none other than the headmaster of Paragon Academy, who poses a brutal ultimatum: face execution for her crime or become a mercenary at his command. Revolt brews in Caimor's smog-choked underworld, and the wealthy and powerful will stop at nothing to take down the rebels and the infamous dark witch at their helm, the Black Wraith.
With no choice but to accept, Ana will steal, fight, and kill her way to salvation. But her survival depends on a dangerous band of an impulsive assassin, a brooding bombmaker, and an alluring exile who might just spell her ruin. As Ana is drawn into a tangled web of secrets, the line between villain and hero shattersโand Ana must decide which side is worth dying for.
The lost Volsik heir has finally returned to the people of รseldur, and even with the warrior whoโs captured her heart standing by her side, Sillaโs task is monumental. She must earn the loyalty of the northern jarls to drive Ivar Ironheart from the throne and restore peace in the kingdom. But the secret she vigilantly guards threatens to ruin all her plans: A shard of a god lives in her mind, twisting her thoughts and deeds to His will.
Meanwhile, held captive on the mysterious isle of Zagadka, Saga Volsik fights to return to her sister in รseldur. But when King Ivar sets his sights on the Zagadkians, sheโs forced to make an impossible choice: fight for the man who stole herโand is now hell-bent on marrying herโor let the innocent people of his kingdom die.
As a poisonous mist threatens the realm, the sisters will delve into the unknowns of their magic to battle against evil. Return to the land of ice and fire, where a god awakens, a queen finds her power, and sisters must unite against the darkness threatening their realm.
We Were Never Friends
Meet the sorority sisters of Theta Gamma
Roxy Callahan Gentry, the ruthless former sorority president and current hostess who has painstakingly choreographed every detail of this weekendโeven matching the cocktails to her coutureโto prove that she remains their undisputed queenAmelia Dell, the widow drenched in old money and alcohol, with her big pot-stirring spoon and uninvited boy-toy in towJamie Vale, the double-legacy pledge, straight-A student with no sparkle, now a top cardiologist with a picture-perfect familyโand a well-guarded bad habitBeth Harrison, the scholarship student who never quite fit in and was only admitted because her best friend Sunny insisted that the two were a package dealSunny Spencer, the carefree and beloved friend to all, or so it seemedโuntil she wasn'tThey've been summoned to Roxy's luxurious Palm Springs vacation home to celebrate the engagement of her son to Beth's daughter. But the refurbished 1920s estate is eerily reminiscent of the hotel where tragedy struck during Spring Break twenty-five years ago. Long-simmering tensions and shocking secrets begin bubbling to the surface like bodiesโbecause while the weekend was supposed to be about celebrating the future, it's not so easy to bury the pastโฆ
For fans of Shari Lapena, Mary Kubica, and B. A. Paris, We Were Never Friends is an unputdownable, riveting train wreck full of dark humor and bad behavior.
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates
When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesnโt expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. When the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that speed dating can be a very dangerous pastime.
Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamieโs extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a horror movie, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect he is committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn her into his real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has a different love story in mind, and as she fights for her life, she canโt help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other speed-daters. Will she survive the bloodshed to find her happily ever after? Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another Final Girl in mind?
For fans of Love in the Time of Serial Killers and Butcher & Blackbird, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is one killer love story.
This Book Made Me Think of You
When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her thereโs a birthday gift from her fiancรฉ waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldnโt come as more of a shock. Partly because she canโt remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. Mainly because Joe died five months agoโฆ
The gift is simple โ twelve carefully-chosen books from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.
Tilly sets out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to vlog her journey, her story becomes more than her own. With help from Alfie, the bookshop owner, her budding new following and her friends and family, can Tillyโs year of books show her how to love again?
The Bone Queen
Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter whoโs disappeared from their London home. She has no idea whyโall she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.
As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.
As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the villageโs grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is nextโฆ
The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day sheโll collect.
A Stage Set for Villains
The performers of the Playhouse are as worshipped as they are feared, their enchanting shows bending hearts, minds, and even reality itself. Vicious, godlike, lethal. Eighteen-year-old Riven Hesper knows the dangers better than anyone, after her own encounter with a Player resulted in a curse that is slowly killing her.
When the Playhouse announces the spectacle of a lifetimeโa chance for one mortal to steal a Playerโs immortalityโRiven sees her last chance to live. Desperate for answers, she infiltrates the competition. There, she finds Jude, the Playhouseโs brilliant, merciless Lead Player, whose charm is as dangerous as his Craft, and strikes a deadly bargain to save her life.
But with time running out and the Playhouseโs secrets unraveling into a disturbing picture, Riven faces a grim possibility: she might not be the hero of her story after all. In fact, she may be the villain.
Because the Playhouse doesnโt just tell stories. It rewrites them.
And Rivenโs might end in blood.
Caraval meets One Dark Window in this lush and dark fantasy.
Good Intentions
Cady has worked hard to have a good life. She has a thriving luxury event-planning business, the man sheโs loved since she was seventeen, and a social calendar she can barely keep up with. She also has Dana, her identical twin, her beyond best friend, her most trusted confidante. When Cady gets a call that Dana has been in a serious accident and arrives moments too late to say goodbye, her world falls apart.
But to Cadyโs familyโs growing concern and confusion, itโs not Danaโs death that consumes her. Itโs Morgan, a grieving mother Cady encountered in the hospital waiting room, the day her sister died. It canโt be a coincidence, that they both experienced tragedy at the same moment, in the same placeโCady doesn't believe in coincidences. Instead, she is convinced that she must help this stranger overcome her tragedy, in order to come to terms with her own.
Or...is there more to it? Is it possible that Cady wants something else from Morgan? Something she canโt even admit to herself?
Slyly twisted and deeply provocative, Good Intentions captures the moral ambiguity that can arise in the face of impossible choices. Like the aftermath of a car accidentโand against your better judgmentโyou won't be able to look away.
The Lies that Summon the Night
From the art of liars, the monsters cameโฆ
Ever since art gave life to bloodthirsty shadows, creative works have been forbidden and the talented creators sacrificed to the Sinlessโthe immortal royals who feast on human blood in return for their protection.
Inanaโs secret storytelling nearly got her killed once, and sheโll be damned if sheโs ever caught again. With a bounty on her head, she keeps to the cityโs dark underbelly where she earns a meager living from thrill-seeking patrons desperate to hear her illicit fiction. Until Dominic, a Shadowbane, catches one of her performances. . .
Dominic is a half-Sinless monster hunter as fearsome as his prey. But to complete his hunt, he needs an artist to summon the shadows . . . he needs Inana. Dominic delivers an ultimatum: serve him or heโll claim her bounty. When survival is all Inana has left, the choice is clear. At least until she can betray him and leave him for dead.
As their tense alliance leads them into the heart of danger, dark secrets unravelโabout each other, their world, and the threats they face. But the greatest risk of all is the desire growing between them. Thereโs something more sinful than lust at play, and it could bring the world to its knees.
Sibylline
Raven, Atticus, and Dorian have dreamed of attending Sibylline for as long as they can remember. But when the magical ivy league rejects them, the friendsโ plans of a future together studying the arcane begin crashing down.
Until they decide to steal an education.
Getting jobs on campus, they sneak into lectures and swipe forbidden texts, dodging the administrationโs watchful eye. In the quiet of night, in the thrill of secrecy, their magic awakens. And so do long-buried attractions that turn their friendship into something more.
But like magic, love can create, and it can destroy. As unrequited feelings and resentment threaten to fracture their bond, the trio discovers an insidious magic that has sunk its claws into Sibylline, killing students and corroding the very bones of the university. Now the three intruders may be the key to saving the institution from wreckage . . . if they donโt wreck one another first.
In Her Defense
Everyone is watching. Only one person knows the truth.
The whole country has been riveted by the Beloved TV star and national treasure Anna Finbow, standing in court, accusing her daughterโs therapist Jean Guest of brainwashing her daughter Mary for her own financial gain. Jean insists Maryโs traumatic memories arise from her upbringing and her time studying at a prestigious art school in Rome; wounds only Jeanโs therapy can heal. But as the trial unfolds, itโs Augusta โGusโ Bird, Annaโs former employeeโa seemingly insignificant bystander, a nobodyโwho holds the key to unraveling the tangled web of lies and deceit.
What really happened to Mary in Rome? And if her memories canโt be trusted, how will they ever uncover the truth behind her estrangement? Twisty and propulsive, In Her Defense is a compulsively readable debut for fans of Lucy Foley and Laura Dave.
Little One
From the outside, Catharine Westโs childhood sounds idyllicโbalmy days spent running barefoot through the gardens, plucking ripe tomatoes straight from the vine as sunlight warmed her skin. Her parents built a life that was simple and community-focused, an ethos that soon attracted others in need of a change. For a time, Catharineโs magnetic father was enough to keep the farm thriving, and temptation outside its gates. But as she grew older, the farm and family she was raised to love faded into something darker, forcing Catharine to evolve with it.
โItโs now been a decade since Catharine abandoned the farm and has done her best to reinvent her life, until an email from a charismatic journalist interrupts her peace. Her first instinct is to ignore the strangerโs prying questionsโwhether she knew about a mysterious โcultโ in central Florida, whether she is the same โCatharine-with-an-Aโ who lived there for a time. But when she realizes the journalist knows far more than heโs letting on, she reconsiders. If Catharine can stay one step ahead of him, she may be able to find the one thing she never wanted to leave behindโher sister, Linnaโand make sure her own secrets remain buried too.
Sharp-eyed and sweltering, Little One masterfully captures the dread of facing your deepest desires, when the hunger to become your best self threatens to drown out everything else. An achingly astute look at modern womanhood and wellness culture, it tackles the enduring How far would you go to be good?
Family Drama
Itโs 1997, and snow is blanketing a New England beach. Two befuddled seven-year-olds watch as their motherโs body is tipped overboard a crumbling boat. A Viking funeral, followed by a raucous wake. A send-off fit for soap opera star Susan Bliss.
Fifteen years earlier, Susan is a blazing, beautiful young woman, passionate about her art. Itโs impossible not to fall in love with her, and so Alcott, a practical professor, doesโhopelessly. And so begins the love story of Susanโs two-paneled life, an unconventional, jetlag-filled arrangement that takes her back and forth between her home in New England as a wife and mother to young twins, and the bright lights of soapy Los Angeles.
In the present, Susanโs twins grow up in the shadow of her all-consuming absence. Sebastian, a sensitive artist, cleaves to her memory, fascinated with the artifacts of her starry past. Viola, resentful of her motherโs torn allegiances, distances herself from the memories of her. But when Viola runs into her motherโs old costar Orson Greyโnow a renowned Hollywood starโshe finds herself falling deeply in love with him and begins to put together the pieces of a mother she never really knew.
Sharp, assured, and beautifully written, Family Drama is a story told in double-helix, with intertwined timelines that explore the different versions of ourselves we share with the world and with each other.
The Glowing Hours
A mind-bending, revisionist gothic horror story about the fabled summer Mary Shelley began work on Frankenstein, as told by her Indian housemaid. For fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Isabel Caรฑas, and Kathe Koja.
Summer, 1816: London is a hostile place for the newly disembarked Mehrunissa Begum, whoโs come to deliver her brotherโs letter of inheritance before returning to her comfortable life in Lucknow, India. Only, she canโt find her brother anywhere and has no money for the return trip. With nowhere else to go, Mehr finds refuge in a boardinghouse for Indian housemaids. If she canโt find her brother, she reasons, she will get a job and start saving.
Mehr is soon hired at the English estate of Mary and Percy Shelley, young artists of burgeoning fame who are on the run from secrets of their own. Mary is brooding and quiet, but takes a curious liking to her new housemaid, asking her to accompany the Shelleys and her half sister, Claireโas well as the eccentric Lord Byron and his physician, John Polidoriโto Lake Geneva for the summer.
Almost immediately, Mehr notices strange, ghostly events at the villa. The walls have their own heartbeat, eerie portraits shift gaze, phantoms appear like houseguests who refuse to leave. The weather is fierce and foreboding, showing no signs of softening its relentless pall. And as Mary Shelley begins work on what will become her earth-shattering literary phenomenon, Mehr finds herself trapped in the villa as the rest of its inhabitants descend into madness.
Love and Other Brain Experiments
Neuroscientist Dr. Frances Silberstein has success on the brain. As a grad student, she was offered a job by her brilliant boyfriend, but determined to make it on her own, she turned itโand himโdown. Now, stuck in postdoc purgatory with no job security and no personal life to speak of, Frances is desperate to make a breakthrough. Her best shot is a summer conference packed with her fieldโs leading scientists. The only problem? Itโs organized by her ex, who has found the success thatโs eluded her. But backing out is not an option, because Frances desperately needs to network to save her career.
Enter Dr. Lewis North: her perceptive, meticulous, and inconveniently attractive rival. When their academic sniping gets mistaken for flirtatious chemistry, Frances doesnโt deny itโputting her integrity and career on the line. As soon as her prefrontal cortex is operational again, Frances realizes she needs to keep up the charade, or risk everything sheโs worked for. Faking data is out of the question, but fake dating? That might just be the solution she needs.
But as Lewis starts to make her reward centers spark and a major setback has Frances questioning everything, she must confront what sheโs willing to chaseโfor love, for science, and for the future she thought she wanted.
The Exes
Natalie has only ever wanted to find โthe one.โ The perfect man, the happy family she never had. But each time she thinks she is finally getting somewhere, sheโs bitterly disappointed. Another red line through a list of exes. And that was before the night of the Big Fallout that left her even more alone.
Then along comes Jamesโwonderful, handsome Jamesโand Natalie thinks her luck has finally turned. Maybe heโs the one for her. Maybe heโs the one sheโs been waiting for all along. Maybe he wonโt wind up dead.
But the harder Natalie tries to be a โnormalโ wife, the more world-upending truths are brought to her door, leaving her unsure of who she really is, and much less what sheโll do . . . leaving her to question whether there is a monster within her or whether there is a villain toying with her from the outside.
Whatโs the secret story behind Natalieโs dead exes? Will she and James survive their marriage? And do either of them deserve to?
Heart's Gambit
The Baldwins and the Davenports have been sworn enemies for centuries. Ever since Venus Davenport and Titus Baldwin, two enslaved kids, fell in love, tried to run away, and got caught by their mistress, Sabine, a powerful witch. Desperate for freedom, they struck a bargain, and she gifted their families the ability to exist outside of time, along with magic to survive and thrive.
Those gifts came at a price.
Once a generation, their families must put forth a competitor for a magical duel to the death to feed Sabine's immortality. This time, Emma Baldwin - a wish spinner - and Malcolm Davenport - a maker of illusions - are chosen.
But when they meet to check out the competition, sparks fly. Soon, the two are exchanging letters, having secret meetings, and fighting off their cursed urges to hurt one another, all while trying not to fall in love. And if they are ever going to have a chance to be together, they only have one choice: to put an end to Sabineโs curse, once and for all.
J.D. Myall's Heart's Gambit is an irresistible journey of dazzling magic, unforgettable first love, and daring to dream of something more.
Good People
The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Successful, rich, happy. They came to this country as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her fatherโs eye.
When an unthinkable tragedy strikes, everyone is left reeling and the family is thrust into the court of public opinion. There is talk that behind closed doors the Sharafsโ happy household was anything but. Did the Sharaf family achieve the American dream? Or was the image of the model immigrant family just a faรงade?
Like a literary game of ping-pong, Good People compels the reader to reconsider what might have happened even on the previous page. Told through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, it is a riveting, provocative, and haunting story of familyโsisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, and the communities that claim us as family in difficult times.
And the Ancestors Sing
In 1978, as the Cultural Revolution fades into history, Lei is bartered away into marriage for two cartons of cigarettes and a handful of eggs. She finds herself in the unfamiliar village of her new husband, where she is met with indifference. When a disaster upends their world, she and her husband are forced to join Chinaโs vast wave of city-bound, rural migrants, leaving behind children whom they may never see again.
Sixteen-year-old LuLu arrives in Shanghai with nothing but ambition. Denied a factory job and determined to keep her family from starving, she turns to sex workโnavigating the dangers of the cityโs underbelly with sharp wit and a fierce will to survive. When the powerful and ruthless Farmer Master Wang offers her a chance at security, LuLu faces an impossible choice: seize a future that could lift her family from poverty, or risk everything for a life on her own terms.
Spanning decades of seismic social and economic change, And The Ancestors Sing is a deeply moving exploration of resilience, family, and the ties that bind us, perfect for fans of Pachinko and The Island of Sea Women.
Stolen in Death
A blow to the head with a block of amethyst has left multibillionaire Nathan Barrister deadโwhile nearby, a vault, its door ajar, sits filled with priceless paintings, jewelry, and other treasures. Lieutenant Eve Dallasโs husband, Roarkeโwho misspent his youth in Ireland as a scrappy thiefโrecognizes at least two stolen pieces among the hoard. The crime scene suggests a burglar caught in the act. But only one item seems to be missing.
Then itโs revealed that the vault had actually belonged to the victimโs late fatherโand no one in the household knew it was there until a recent remodeling project exposed it. To protect the family name and business, they explain to Eve, theyโd been looking for a way to return the ill-gotten gains anonymously and avoid the police. But now the police are all over their elegant house, and have a bigger, bloodier mystery to solve.
By all accounts, Nathan Barrister was a good man, a generous employer, a devoted husband and father. As for his fatherโhe clearly had secrets. Now itโs up to Eve and her team to find out if those secrets got Nathan killedโand if it was a crime of passion or revenge.
Get Over It, April Evans
April Evansโ life is in shambles. Sheโs had to close her tattoo shop in Clover Lake and sheโs subletting her house just to make rent. And her love life? Nonexistent ever since Elena, her ex-fiancรฉe, left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she is asked to teach a summer art class at the townโs new resort called Cloverwild, April jumps at the opportunity, especially since the job comes with boarding. Sheโs sure that this is the silver lining she needs . . . until she meets her Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex-fiancรฉe. And even worse, itโs clear Daphne has no idea who April is.
Daphne Love is cursed in, well, love. She thought sheโd found the unconditional love she craved in her girlfriend, Elena, but now sheโs single again and utterly brokenhearted. When her friend hooks her up with a summer gig as an art instructor at a swanky resort in New Hampshire, Daphne feels optimistic for once. If only she had a roommate and coworker who didnโt seem to hate her on sight.
Their already-tense relationship gets even shakier when April and Daphne find themselves competing for a rare opportunity to showcase their art in a London museum. But slowly, barriers begin to fall, and an inexplicable allure keeps drawing them closer, leaving them to wonder if the perfect picture theyโre looking for can only be painted with each other.
Books & Bewitchment
Dutiful and hard-working, Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, mundane life with her pet parrot in small-town Alabama. Sure, she may not love her desk job working for an insurance agency. And her on-again-off-again relationship with the local mechanic may not have the fiery passion sheโs read about in her favorite books. Still, things are stable, which is more than she can say about the two hopelessly immature younger sisters who rely on her.
But when Rheaโs estranged grandmother dies, leaving her everythingโincluding a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carriedโshe finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear to avoid at all costs. While the defunct business sheโs also inherited needs a serious upgrade, Rheaโs lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to helpโand more than easy on the eyes. If only he wasnโt the grandson of her grandmotherโs sworn enemy in witchcraft.
As Rhea works to build a future, strange occurrences begin to make her think someoneโor somethingโis trying to drive her out. As she gets closer to solving the mystery, each clue she uncovers points to Arcadia Fallsโs magic hanging in the balance. To keep her new home safe, Rhea must step into her enchanted birthright . . . before itโs too late.
Cruelty Free
NOTHING FEELS BETTER THAN REVENGE.
Ten years ago, Lila Devlin was an A-list actress with a movie star husband and a beautiful baby girl, Josie. When Josie was kidnapped out of her home and never seen again, Lilaโs previously pristine public image twisted into that of an Unfit Mother. Driven mad by the hungry press, incompetent cops, and relentless true crimeโobsessed โfans,โ she disappeared into anonymity.
Now, Lila Devlin returns to LA with a grand vision for a radical new skincare brand to reinvent herself and honor Josieโs legacy. She's prepared to move into the next chapter of her life with forgiveness in her heart, when an encounter with a parasitic blogger ends with him dead. Lila suddenly discovers forgiveness isnโt nearly as satisfying as a body hitting the floor.
With the help of her devoted publicist Sylvie, Lila begins a relentless, blood-soaked hunt through LA. Giving her skincare the edge it needs, they introduce a secret ingredientโrevenge-sourcedโfrom the bodies piling up. But as the companyโs success skyrockets and Lila begins unraveling the truth behind her daughterโs kidnapping, her murderous side hustle threatens the life sheโs painstakingly rebuilt.
Both a striking portrayal of grief and womanhood, and a twisting, cynical satire on celebrity and toxic beauty standards, Cruelty Free is an ambitious debut from a talented star on the rise.
Clutch
As undergrads, Reba, Hillary, Carson, Gregg, and Bella formed the kind of rare bond that college brochures promiseโfriendship that lasts a lifetime. Two decades later, the women are spread across the country but remain firmly tethered through their ever-unfurling group chat. Theyโve made it through COVID and childbirth and midcareer challenges, but no one can anticipate whatโs coming down the pike.
The five women converge on Palm Springs for a long overdue Gregg, who has forged a path as a progressive Texas legislator, is facing a huge decision about her political future. Reba, who moved back to the Bay Area after decades away, is deep in IVF treatments while caring for her aging parents and navigating a San Francisco she hardly recognizes. Hillary's medical career in Chicago is going greatโbut at home, her husband's struggles with addiction have derailed their life. In New York City, Bella faces the biggest case in her career as a litigator while her home life crumbles around her, and across the river in Brooklyn, Carson is working on a new novel as well as forging a possible relationship with the father she's never met.
Twenty years into their shared friendship, the stakes are higher than ever, and they must help one another reconcile professional ambition with personal tumult. Clutch is a big, beautiful, and deeply absorbing novel that asks how much space and heart we can give to our friends and our families, and what space we can save for ourselves.
Until the Clock Strikes Midnight
Darling is the most talentedโand unusualโGuardian to get a chance at winning the coveted once-in-a-generation Mortal Outcome Council mentorship. Getting the spot would mean having the opportunity to shape the future happiness of all mortal realmsโif she succeeds at her first assignment, Lucy Addlesberg. Darling thinks itโll be an easy razzle-dazzle jobโฆ until she actually meets Lucy. Her life is a complete mess, from her failing bookshop in her downtrodden village to her doomed flirtation with the princess of Lumina. But if thereโs one thing Darlingโs good at, itโs a makeover.
Calamity is the most talentedโand arrogantโMisfortune of his class. Itโs his job to save mortals from their own terrible decisions made in the pursuit of the mythical "Happily Ever After." When Calam is granted a shot at the Mortal Outcome Council mentorship, he thinks his dreams are finally coming true. But first, he must pass the test. It should be easyโLucy Addlesberg has been unfortunate for years. All he has to do is continue her string of bad luck so she can finally come to terms with reality and settle for a safer, more logical path in life. Yet when he arrives, he finds that Lucy has a Guardian assigned to her tooโa chipper overachiever who is as colorful as the magic pouring from her glittery wand.
To thwart each other, Darling and Calam insert themselves into Lucyโs life posing as a betrothed couple. As they try to guide her down what they each see as the best path for her, they start questioning their roles and ultimately what they truly want for themselves... and if those feelings of loathing they have for each other might actually be something more like love.
Also by Alechia Dow
Just a Pinch of Magic
Margin of Error
Two years after an accident in Manhattan almost claimed her life, Marin is determined to take advantage of her second chance. Sheโs left her husband, her job, even her home to pursue the life sheโs always wanted. Now sheโs teaching statistics at Northshire University and preparing to do something sheโs spent decades dreaming about: date a woman. But the last woman she expects to encounter on her journey is the one sheโs been fantasizing about since their chance encounter the morning Marin nearly died.
Charlotte has made big changes in her life since that fateful day too. Most importantly, sheโs moved back to her Vermont hometown, determined to finally solve the thirty-year-old mystery of her motherโs disappearance. An unexpectedโand unexpectedly intenseโfriendship? That wasnโt in the plan. Neither was questioning her sexuality, but the more time Charlotte spends with Marin, the more she realizes her feelings run deeper than friendship.
Surely this would be a disaster, both of them being each otherโs first, except the chemistry between them feels too strong to deny. But as they get to the heart of the mysteryโand the heart of who they areโwhat brought them together just might tear them apart.
Elemental Awakening
When 23-year-old Amara Thalor awakens her elemental powers during a brutal Shadow Force attack, sheโs named the a prophesied wielder of all four elements. But power alone isnโt enoughโnot in a realm where dragons refuse to bond, the magical wards are crumbling, and an ancient force stirs beneath the surface. Training under Thane Caelum, the realmโs war-hardened Warlord, Amara discovers a bond that defies historyโand truths that could fracture the world once more. The only way forward might cost her everythingโฆincluding him.
A Practical Guide to Dating a Demon
As a scholarship student at the magical Lyceum, Naomi would rather focus on deciphering ancient scrolls than dating. Especially since the only boys asking her out are less interested in a night in Naomiโs company than an introduction to her influential aunt.
So Naomi devises an excuse to turn down her persistent suitors: She claims to be betrothed to a demon.
Her story works perfectly. Until she arrives home one night and finds the demon Daziel lounging in her rooms, insisting heโs her betrothed. Naomi knows heโs lyingโafter all, the betrothal was never realโbut the gorgeous and infuriating demon is surprisingly resistant to her banishing spells. And with his penchant for baking and home dรฉcor, itโs not so bad having him around.
Besides, she has bigger worriesโlike the ancient scroll sheโs trying to translate, and the way the cityโs magic has become suddenly unstable. But the more Naomi learns about the scroll, and the more she gets to know Daziel, the more it seems like she might be at the center of something bigger than she could have imagined.
Petty in Pink
In New York Times bestselling author L.J. Shenโs valentine-themed novella, a surprise pregnancy shakes up expectations between a romance-phobe and her longtime hookup whoโs always wanted more.
Layla Schmidt has artfully dodged Cupidโs arrows for six years now, keeping things casual with her standing booty callโno romance, no strings.
As far as Laylaโs concerned, itโs the perfect setup. For both of them. With her painful track record, the lively teacher wants nothing to do with commitment, and Grant Gerwig, dedicated oncologist, is too busy for it. Truthfully, Grant wants to make the time, but he knows better than to push where Layla wonโt budge.
Their emotional standstill canโt last forever, though.
When a coworkerโs wedding brings a blast from Laylaโs past, it blows a hole through her future too. Swirling emotions lead to impulsive decisions, and after an adrenaline-fueled night, she finds herself pregnant.
Layla and Grant have a lot to talk aboutโฆand a lot to prepare for. Falling in love was never supposed to be part of their equation, but even the best-laid plans unfold with some surprises along the way.
One & Only
Sheโs seen what her happily ever after looks like. And itโs not him.
Cassia Park believes in soul mates. Fated love stories. Itโs her family business, after allโfor centuries, from Korea to Los Angeles, the Park women have peered into clientsโ past lives to find their one true love, their โfatedโ. This magical secret is why One & Only Matchmaking has a 100% guarantee โฆ for everyone but Cassia.
Afraid of ending up like her mom, Cassia asked to be told her fatedโten years ago. Now sheโs days from turning forty and she still hasnโt found him.
Enter Ellis. Heโs twenty-eight, indecently handsome, and not destined to be the love of her life. But destiny has more than one curveball ready, and her surprising connection with Ellis might be the key that unlocks finding her fatedโand reveals a family secret that will make her question everything sheโs ever her family, her belief in love, and truth itself.
Cassia will have to decide if sheโll follow her fate โฆ or make her own.
Skate It Till You Make It
Ari Shumba never expected to make it to the Winter Games, let alone be the one to lead Great Britain's women's hockey team through the most important competition of their lives. But when an unexpected injury catapults her to the role of team captain, Ari reluctantly shoulders the responsibility, all while trying to dodge her toxic ex.
Drew Dlamini has always feared taking risks. But after uncovering a family secret, breaking up with his ex-girlfriend and dropping out of graduate school, heโs desperate for a fresh start. So when he finds himself in London for the holidays, he decides to rekindle his hidden dream of becoming a professional photographer.
When Ari and Drew bump into each other on New Yearโs Eve, neither one is looking to fall in love. Despite their instant chemistry, theyโre from opposite sides of the Atlantic, and when they reveal all of their red flags, they realize that things between them would never work out. But then, when their paths unexpectedly cross two months later in the snowy Swiss Alps, memories of what they almost did that night resurface. And the combination of complicated exes, over-involved families, and stress-inducing teammates convinces them that the perfect solution to their problems is to fake date their way through the Games.
After all, thereโs no risk of falling in love if it is doomed from the start . . . right?
The Forest on the Edge of Time
Recruited by the mysterious Project Kairos to change history and save the future from ecological disaster, Echo and Hazel are transported through time to opposite worlds. Echo works as a healerโs assistant in Ancient Athens, embroiled in dangerous politics and wild philosophy. Hazel is the last human alive, in a laboratory on a polluted island with nothing but tiny robots and an untrustworthy AI for company.
Both women suffer from amnesia but when they fall asleep, their consciousnesses transcend time and they meet in their dreams. Together, they start to uncover their past โ but soon discover the past threatens humanityโs survival.
If Echo and Hazel have a chance of changing the future, they must remember to forgetโฆ
THE FOREST ON THE EDGE OF TIME is a novel about family and duty and the worlds we try to save along the way.
Stolen Midnights
When Damien, a cold and hardened thief, is hired to steal a gift from the powerful Fates meant for Andalayโs sweetheart, Wren Hayes, he finds himself entangled in a web of secrets.
The gift? A locket containing his own phototroph.
Once the locket is opened, hidden truths unravel, ones that shed light on the ruthless ways of the upper-class society. Yearning for the three Fates and the magical gifts they bestow, the lords of Andalay will go to any length to keep their powerโincluding murder.
Brought together by destiny, and fighting a temptation that neither understand, Wren and Damien navigate a seedy world where the truth can destroy not only their lives, but the city itself.
Nightshade and Oak
When Malt, the goddess of death, is accidentally turned into a human by a wayward spell, she finds she's ill-equipped to deal with the trials of a mortal life.
After all, why would a goddess need to know how to gather food or light a fire?
Trapped in a body that's frustratingly feeble, she's forced to team up with Bellis, warrior daughter of Boudicca on a perilous journey across Roman-occupied Britain to the afterlife to try to restore her powers. As animosity turns to attraction, these two very different women must learn to work together if they are to have any hope of surviving their quest.
Here Lie All the Boys Who Broke My Heart
Every time a guy breaks my heart, I write him a eulogy in my journal. Itโs kind of my thingโclosure through creative mourning. They don't actually die... or, at least, they didn't.
Now? These guys arenโt just dead to me, theyโre dead to everyone. And Iโm the prime suspect.
With my senior year at Pembroke Collegeโand my entire futureโon the line, Iโve got no choice but to play detective. Unfortunately, that means teaming up with my long-standing frenemy, Asher, who is insufferable and somehow always there when I need him the least. We bicker, we banter, we occasionally almost hook up, but with the body count rising and my name all over the suspect board, thereโs no time to get distracted.
Between college parties, messy exes, suspicious deaths, and a murder investigation I never asked to be a part ofโone thingโs for this is not how I thought my last year would go.
Hereโs to hoping I can find out who the real killer is... before someone ends up writing my eulogy.
Just for the Cameras
They're faking it for the cameras. But what if the sparks are real?
Graydon St. John doesn't do dramaโor public appearances. The brooding defensive end for the San Francisco Foghorns prefers silence, solitude, and avoiding headlines. But when a league-wide PR scandal forces him into a media stunt at the city zoo, he's suddenly face-to-face with squawking birds, nosy fans, and the zookeeper who seems to hate his guts on sight.
Maple Baker loves her flamingos. Loud, pink, messy? Sure. But they're hers. And the last thing she needs is a grumpy football player stomping into her sanctuary with a bad attitude and a bigger ego. Unfortunately, they've been paired for the zoo's new public outreach program, and the cameras are already rolling.
The banter is sharp. The tension is electric. And the more they pretend to play nice for the press, the more their fake flirtation starts to feel like something dangerously real.
But when family secrets, viral fame, and a PR romance gone off-script threaten everything Maple's worked for, Graydon must decide if he's willing to fight for loveโor let it slip away to protect her.
The Pohaku
In the present day, a woman lies in a hospital bed, watched over by her attentive, caring grandmother. The young woman was recently at a party and was seen jumping from the roofโbut that couldnโt have been what happened, surely? In fits and starts, the grandmother begins to explain to her granddaughter the long tail of their familyโs history, nestled in which may be the secret to why hardship and mystery have followed them through the centuriesโฆ.
Soon, we travel back in time to the 18th century, when the explorer James Cook becomes the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands. He soon intersects with Kamehameha, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. And soon begins a thrilling family saga, as each generation is put in charge of the pohaku, a stone with seemingly magical powers; it is carried from Hawaii to California and possibly beyond, bringing fortune to the good and misfortune to the bad. But with each successive generation, its powers grow, and those who carry it in their lineageโespecially the women of the familyโare able to channel its powers for good.
Reminiscent of Yaa Gyasiโs Homegoing, Min Jin Leeโs Pachinko, and Tommy Orangeโs There, There, The Pohaku is an immersive and bold novel about the history, perseverance, and resilience of the Hawaiian people.
Love Me Tomorrow
From the New York Times bestselling author of Tokyo Ever After comes a laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving rom-com about a girl who starts receiving letters from the love of her lifeโwriting to her from years in the future.
What if your true love could write to you from the future?
Seventeen-year-old Emma Nakamura-Thatcher doesnโt believe in love, not after her parentsโ bitter divorce. So when she attends the festival of Tanabata, her wish is simple: proof that love is real and can last.
Emma thinks little of her wishโฆuntil she finds a note from someone claiming to be her greatest love writing to her from the future. It has to be a prank, right? But as the notes pour in, each revealing secrets only she knows, Emma is forced to accept the impossible: This is really happening. Someone is actually reaching out to her from across time.
But who? Ezra, the musical prodigy who makes her pulse race? Theo, the literal boy next door whoโs known her since childhood? Or Colin, the overly confident, overly handsome, overly rich kid she meets while cleaning his mega-mansion?
As Emma races to uncover the identity of the letter writer, sheโll discover that love is more than realโitโs the most powerful force in the universe. And itโs been waiting for her all along.
The Darkness Greeted Her
The Darkness Greeted Her is a perfect Gothic horror, where trauma has a physical form and it's hunting girls. Rich with queer and mental health rep, Ferko's love letter to survivors is beautifully written from start to finish, and I can't recommend it enough! โ Jamison Shea, author of Roar of the Lambs
Penny's abusive father is deadโฆbut she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can't go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewoodโan exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.
She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can't possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor...a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it's clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn't all in her head.
As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.
The End of Romance
Sylvie Broder was taught early to embrace joy. The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who'd developed a system of thought that focused on enjoying the life they'd snatched back from Hitler, Sylvie grew up believing in the tenacious pursuit of pleasure. So, when she finds herself trapped in a suffocating, emotionally abusive marriage, no one is more unmoored than Sylvie herself. With enormous fortitude, Sylvie frees herself and turns to graduate school, determined to prove her new Straight women will find true liberation and happiness only once romance is eradicated.
Sylvie uses her new-found freedom to enjoy men, but never to commit to one, priding herself in separating sex from tenderness. She doesn't sleep over, certainly doesn't cuddle, and never hooks up with a man more than once. Then she meets Robbie and Abie...and finds her philosophy sorely tested. A warm and gentle man, Robbie treats Sylvie with patience and enormous kindness, offering her the soft place to land she hasn't had since childhood. Abie, on the other hand, is passionate and dynamic, a man who challenges Sylvie, and with whom she finds herself constantly disarmed. With both men, she feels a deep desire that looks, worryingly, a lot like love.
Cleverly constructed, delightfully funny, and beautifully written, The End of Romance is an anti-romance romance novel that charts its fallible heroine's tumultuous journey to love and happiness with erudition and deep feelingโa story for anyone who, despite their very best efforts, has fallen in love, and wondered why.
Carnival Fantรกstico
Risky Business
When tech founder Jess Cole is struggling to gain funding for her company, she begins to wonder if itโs because sheโs a woman in the male-dominated tech industryโespecially due to a former incident and subsequent NDA thatโs been following her for years. In an act of financial desperation, she applies to a competition for start-ups using her twin brother Spencerโs name, pretending to be a man. To her surprise, it works! As though sheโs discovered the ultimate industry cheat code, Jess and Spencer are invited into the exclusive world of Tech Rumble, an annual innovation competition hosted on the worldโs stage by tech darling Dominic Odericco.
Spencer, an out-of-work actor, must pretend to be the CEO, and Jess must become his loyal โassistant,โ Violet. Spencer is thrust into the limelight; charming Dominic and the competition judges but making promises Jess canโt keepโor afford.
โVioletโ is introduced to the handsome Oliver, a fellow assistant who shows her how to let her hair down and enjoy life outside the pressures of her job. But she soon discovers falling for Oliver is riskier than any mistake Spencer has made.
During wild nights with Oliver in Rome, secret rendezvous in Paris, and luxurious parties in Vienna, Jess must navigate the competition and try to stay on top of her lies, especially when someone from her past comes sniffing around, putting her ruse at risk.
A nod to the early 2000s Shakespeare adaptations, this twist on The Twelfth Night is a fast-paced steamy ride from start to finish!
Greedy
They will kill me soon, Edward Cook thinks. When the Yakuza are unable to collect what he owes, Ed realizes that they'll go after his wife and child next. Broke, desperate, and unemployed, he stumbles upon an unusual Chef wanted! Private chef needed for a high-profile businesswoman. One million yen per day.
Ed accepts the job. He hasn't earned any Michelin stars, but he knows his way around a kitchen. Leaving his life in Tokyo behind, he departs for an opulent estate in the mountains owned by Hazeline Yamamoto, his enigmatic and reclusive benefactor, a disgraced socialite with a predator's smile and exacting palette. Hazeline's world is one of taste, connoisseurship, and experimentationโshe is a certified gourmand. But when you can afford filet mignon for every meal, you begin to seek out the strange and forbidden.
The closer Ed gets to Hazeline and a brighter future that she promisesโif only he remains loyalโthe closer he is to realizing the chilling truth about her altruism. In this shadow world of unimaginable wealth, there are worse monsters than two-bit gangsters. The wind blowing through Hazelineโs home carries the sound of screaming, and Ed finds himself feeding all kinds of beasts.
Perfect for fans of Parasite and The Menuโenticing as a starter, meaty as a main dish, and full of satisfying just-dessertsโGreedy is a suspenseful poison-pen note to classism and an ode to Japanese cuisine, a horror-tinged thriller unsuitable for vegetarians but full of shocking delights for every reader.
The Heir & the Spare
From New York Times bestselling author Harper L. Woods comes The Heir & the Spare, a never-before-published novella in the Of Flesh & Bone series!
SPOILER WARNING: This book is overflowing with spoilers and should only be read after devouring What Sleeps Within the Cove.
Once, Iโd spent my life in the tunnels beneath the mountains. Now, Iโm bound to a husband I didnโt want.
My mother waited centuries to find me on the other side of the Veil of Flesh and Bone where the Lunar Witches hid me. She sent her greatest weapon, the God of the Dead, when the Veil finally fell.
But I never expected to love his human mate, Estrella, the way I didโto feel the sisterly bond between us as if it had never been interrupted in our lifetimes spent apart since a rogue witch took her away.
But Mab sees love as a weakness, and she uses my bond with Estrella to manipulate me into a betrothal I never desired.
This marriage is a cage, a means of control that goes against everything within me.
But when Estrella is banished into Tartarus, I am left no choice but to journey to the Summer Court and take my place as a bride and a queen.
No matter what I leave behind.
Of Flesh & Bone Reading Order:
What Lies Beyond the Veil
What Hunts Inside the Shadows
What Lurks Between the Fates
What Sleeps Within the Cove
The Heir & The Spare
What Roams Beneath the Stars
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Superfan
Freshman Minnie is adrift at college in Austin, Texas, when she discovers a boy band called HOURglass and the online forums that worship them. She especially loves Halo, whose sharp edges feel somehow familiar. After a brief romance goes painfully awry, Minnie pours everything into her new fandom, clinging to each livestream and bonding with other fans online. But when a scandal threatens to expose Halo to harm, Minnie decides that she is the only one who can save him.
Except Haloโs secret is darker than anything the tabloids could imagine. Before he was a superstar heartthrob, he was a high school dropout haunted by a tragic accident. When he is recruited for HOURglass, it feels like a chance to become someone else. And when he is onstage in front of his fans, he can almost forget the horrors of his pastโuntil one of those very fans threatens to destroy everything.
Dazzling, entrancing, and deeply heartfelt, Superfan is about fandom in all its magic and its terror, and the extreme lengths to which we go to rid ourselves of loneliness.
Mass Mothering
A. is an amateur translator, living alone in an unforgiving, late-capitalist metropolis. Adrift and burdened by debt following a medical trauma, she makes rent caring for a young boy who is not and could never be her own. Her nights are spent on the dance floor, chasing spontaneous connection. There, she encounters N., who shares her numbed state and sometimes her bed.
Among N.โs meager possessions, A. comes across a slim book about an unnamed foreign town of disappearing boys. The book, Field Notes, documents the stories of a community of mothers who assemble to mourn their missing sons together. A. is transfixed by this collective chorus of primal grief, the mothersโ preternatural strength, and their intuitive care for each other. When a near-assault stuns A. out of her inertia, she takes off for the city where Field Notes was written in search of its author and the end of his story. But A.โs digging leads her instead to the traces of a murdered poet, a mysterious woman whose legacy will intersect unexpectedly and pivotally with A.โs own life.
Poignant and profoundly humane, Mass Mothering is told through layered voices, written fragments, and recorded testimonies. It is a luminous story of the mutuality of grief, the aftershocks of violence in a globalized era, and the world-bending force of a motherโs love.
How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day
In a world grappling with major societal shifts and increasing isolation, itโs easy to feel like nothing you do matters. Even when weโre at the top of our game in our careers and have reached the personal milestones weโve always dreamed about, so many of us still feel like something is missing, disconnected, and stuck. There must be more to life than simply surviving each dayโbut how do we uncover it?
Bestselling authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, the โempoweringโ (Publishers Weekly) visionaries behind Stanfordโs renowned Life Design Lab, have already inspired millions of readers to use design thinking principles to craft lives and careers they love. Now, in How to Live a Meaningful Live, they take on the most profound design problem of how to make a life rich with meaning and purpose. Evolving their revolutionary framework, Burnett and Evans present the latest research on what makes life worth living, showing us how to bring wonder, coherence, flow, and community into our everyday experiences. Instead of cramming more into an already packed life, they give us the steps we need to extract more out of it, moment by moment.
Through actionable insights and with Burnett and Evansโs signature compassion and warmth, How to Live a Meaningful Life equips you with the tools to turn your ordinary days into an extraordinary life today.
Dirty Metal
Since the fall of the USSR, a new crop of Russian criminals have been arriving in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. It's now Parker's job to cover them. But her old beat keeps calling to her, especially when she learns of a murdered woman whose case the cops want to ignore.
Trying to run down two stories at onceโa simmering mafia turf war, and a homicide that leads to two more with no clear link between themโParker must also fight the pull of her pills and the arrogant men who get in her way at every turn. Despite it all, she's determined to find truth and redemption for herself, the victims, and a city in chaosโif her demons don't get to her first.
All We Once Had
Piper and her older sister could not be more different. Tati assumed guardianship when their parents were killed by a drunk driver, and some days Piper feels more kinship with her best friend and her family. Except Gabi isn't speaking to Piper, just when Piper could really use a friend. Which is not how she expected to start the summer before senior year.
Escaping to their apartment complex's pool for some space, Piper is stunned to see Henry. Her Henry. The boy who, three years ago, sat next to her at this same pool and offered the kind, calming presence she needed while she was deep in her grief. Together, they walked the beach, talked about their passions, and ultimately, shared a kiss. It was a perfect night. Except Piper hasn't seen him since.
Henry is back in Florida to spend time with his dad and escape the relationship drama he left at home. Fate has brought Piper and Henry back together when their lives are most complicated with devastating secrets. With no one to confide in but each other, Piper and Henry must confront their painful pasts and the tumultuous present. Is this the start of another goodbye or a second chance at love?
The Hospital at the End of the World
In a time not so far from our own, society is run by a global AI system controlled by an all powerful corporation. The Shepherd Organization oversees every medical school in the country save one in New Orleans, the renegade Hippocrates which still insists on human-led medicine. It is the last choice school for an ambitious young New Yorker named Pok. But after his fatherโhimself a physicianโdies under mysterious circumstance that seems connected to โthe shepherdsโ and their megalomaniacal young CEO, Pok finds himself on a quest for answers that leads right to Hippocrates. Once enrolled, he stumbles upon a further mystery: a strange illness is plaguing newcomers to New Orleans who grew up under shepherd rule. What is causing this fatal anomaly? And how does it relate to the mystery of Pokโs fatherโs death and his own mysterious past?
Holy Boy
Four wildly different women are consumed by Yosep, a dreamy twenty-one-year-old K-pop idol known as โthe boy.โ
Ahna, a woman in her forties, first sought the company of younger men to quell the loneliness she experienced accompanying her husband on his trips abroad. When an affluent friend introduces her to the boy and she sees him on television, Ahna joins his cultish fandom. She soon bonds with Mihee, a beautiful, socially isolated woman in her twenties, who also worships the boy, and they eventually meet two other Nami, a young shaman, and Heeae, who worked as a maid for Ahnaโs family and is Yosepโs birth mother. Heeae gave her son up for adoption to ensure him a better life but yearns to be reunited.
Fierce and unapologetic, each woman has her own reason for wanting Yosepโa yawning desperation that spawns a dangerous plan. After taking the young singer hostage at a mansion in the mountains of South Koreaโs Gangwon Province, Ahna, Yosep, Mihee, Nami, and Heeae will go to extreme lengths to keep him there, no matter how coerciveโor murderousโthe means. But the fervency that united this formidable team begins to fracture them, igniting a holy war over that sets each woman against the other. Who will emerge the victor? And just how far will she go to win the boy for herself?
A probing, psychological novel as thrilling as a rollercoaster ride, told in exquisite, breathtaking prose, Holy Boy is a subversive, intricately plotted novel that explores the perils of objectification, the dark undercurrents of female desire, and the precarity of love.
Translated from the Korean by Joheun Lee
Cauldrons, Charms and Chai
Vaskel came to Wayside seeking to shed his adventuring past and be with old friends. But as snow covers the rooftops and strange things begin happening to him, he realizes his old life isn't quite done with him. Afraid of how this could threaten his peaceful new life, he turns to Iris, the village apothecary, who isn't the least bit fearful of the Hellkin or his fiendish nature.
As they work together to unravel the mystery threatening Vaskel and soon the entire village, something even sweeter than chai begins to simmer between them, despite their heavily guarded hearts. When the truth emerges, will Vaskel and Iris realize that being truly seen and loved might be the most powerful magic of all?
Cauldrons, Charms & Chai is a wholesome, cozy fantasy brimming with holiday magic, gentle romance, found family, and mouthwatering baking. It features no kingdoms to save or epic battles, only gentle intrigue, enchanted creatures, the warmth of a tavern and village worth protecting, and the hope that love can bloom one cup of chai and whispered charm at a time.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes a legendary standalone novel that navigates the seas and the stars of a far-future Cosmere. Illustrated by Esther Hiโilani Candari.
All his life, Sixth of the Dusk has been a traditional trapper of Aviarโthe supernatural birds his people bond withโon the deadly island of Patji. Then one fateful night he propels his people into a race to modernize before they can be conquered by the Ones Above, invaders from the stars who want to exploit the Aviar.
But itโs a race theyโre losing, and Dusk fears his people will lose themselves in the effort. When a chance comes to sail into the expanse of the emberdark beyond a mystical portal, Dusk sets off to find his peopleโs salvation with only a canoe, his birds, and all the grit and canniness of a Patji trapper.
Elsewhere in the emberdark is a young dragon chained in human form: Starling of the starship Dynamic. She and her ragtag crew of exiles are deep in debt and on the brink of losing their freedom. So when she finds an ancient map to a hidden portal between the emberdark and the physical realm, she seizes the chance at a lucrative discovery.
These unlikely allies might just be the solution to each otherโs crises. In their search for independence, Dusk and Starling face perilous bargains, poisonous politics, and the destructive echo of a dead god.
Sanderson expands his thrilling novella โSixth of the Duskโ into a mythic novel of legends, lore, and warring galactic superpowers.
In the follow-up to the highly acclaimed, instant bestseller, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, comes the second โbrilliant and highly anticipated fairy tale retelling from the New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Award-winning creators, Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis.
Once upon a time there was a clever girl with a not-so-clever father. When her father claims she can spin straw into gold, the king forces the girl to perform this impossible task. She has no other choice than to accept a strange deal from a mysterious little man. But when he arrives and attempts to collect the debt, the fiendish trickster Rumpelstiltskin discovers that he is the one who has been tricked! This is the second in the groundbreaking new collection of masterfully retold fairy tales crafted by one of today's most celebrated and esteemed authors, Mac Barnett, paired with the stunning illustrations of the acclaimed and award-winning creator, Carson Ellis.
With Barnett's signature pacing and wit, his subversive storytelling style and narrative voice, and Ellis's stunning folk-art style, this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin will introduce this classic story to a new generation of readers!
The acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of Pax delivers an historical novel about an orphan during WWII who discovers unexpected courage within himself when he becomes involved with the Resistance.
Petit รฉclair. Thatโs what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Lucas is tired of his cowardly reputation, just as heโs tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs to show how brave he can be.
He gets the chance when he saves a litter of kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see him: Alice, the daughter of a horse trainer, who is hiding her filly from German soldiers.
Soon Lucas begins to realize they are not the only ones in the village with secrets. The housekeeper at the German maternity home and a priest at the orphanage pass coded messages; a young mother at the home makes dangerous plans to keep her baby from forced adoption; and a neighbor in town may be harboring a Jewish family.
Emboldened by the unlikely heroes all around him, Lucas is forced to decide how much he is willing to risk to make the most courageous rescue of all.
Perfect for fans of Alan Gratz, Ruta Sepetys, and Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, this accessible novel, told in short chapters, illuminates a little-known aspect of World War II history.
Jasper the Rabbit is back! A little older and wiser, he collects creepy stories to share as cautionary tales. If youโre ready for some chills and chuckles alike, tune in as Jasper weaves the yarn of Thadeus Badger and the sticky situation he found himself in.
Now, Thadeus is a typical badger. He and his best friend, Oliver Possum, love burgers as much as they dislike exercise. And they hate eating veggies even more. But when they make a deal with Oliverโs parents to eat an entire saladโฆwell letโs just say the chompers might soon become the chomped. This is a creepy tale after all and even the healthiest things can turn on you.
Join Jasper and Thadeus in this second Creepy Tale chapter book and learn from Thadeusโs mistakes before itโs too late!
Wuthering Heights (Movie Tie-In)
Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before. What unfolds is the tale of the intense love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrenders to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments down below.

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