May 26 is another packed week. This week’s top book is The Divorce by Freida McFadden and if her track record holds, someone’s hiding something. Let’s dig in.
The Divorce
Naomi was living the quintessential love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, buy a dream house, start a familyโฆ
Thenโhe kicks her out, hires the cityโs best divorce lawyers, drains their accounts, and takes up with a 20-something.
Itโs a brutal end to the story. Naomi should accept defeat: move into a dingy apartment, get back into the workforce, and piece together the shattered remains of her life.
Except, why should she?
Instead, Naomi fixates on her husbandโs new girlfriend. What begins as cynical curiosity soon twists into obsessionโand then into something far darker. As Naomi uncovers secrets she never imagined, she realizes her own life may be in danger.
But if it keeps her perfect family intact, isnโt it worth it?
In The Divorce, #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a razor-sharp, subversive thriller where love curdles into vengeance, and survival becomes the most dangerous game of all.
The Midnight Train
No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.
For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.
Before he gave it all away.
He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .
A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.
Guess Again: Deluxe Stenciled Edges
Ten years ago, seventeen-year-old high school volleyball star Callie Jones vanished from her quiet Wisconsin lake community. A highly publicised search followed but her body was never found. The case went cold, but the echoes still linger.
Ethan Hall, a former renegade detective turned ER doctor, left law enforcement to escape the horrors of the kid crime division. But on the tenth anniversary of Callieโs disappearance, his former partner, Pete Kramer, makes a desperate request. Pete is the veteran detective who originally investigated the case. Now heโs dying, and to ease his conscience and get closure for the Jones family, he needs Ethan to find out what happened to Callie, once and for all.
Word soon spreads and everyone in the small town of Cherryview feels a rush of hope that answers will finally be found. Amid a sweltering heatwave, Ethanโs investigation gains momentum, and soon he is drawn into a twisted psychological game.
There is much more to the nightmare of Callieโs disappearance than he imagined, including a connection with his own dark past... and secrets that are still worth killing for.
An edge-of-your-seat thriller perfect for fans of Riley Sager, Stacy Willingham, and Karin Slaughter.
Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It
Because is it possible to find true love when going on a date makes you want to throw up?
Phoebe Berman fears the one thing she wants the most: love. Thanks to an extremely unfortunate first kiss attempt, crippling intimacy anxiety has plagued her since she was a teen.
Phoebe has so much going for her: a dream teaching job, a supportive and hilarious group of best friends, and all the romance novels a girl could want at her fingertipsโbut she canโt help but beat herself up over the one thing she canโt quite seem to figure out. Determined to change this, she drafts up the ultimate "Guide to Losing My Virginity" checklist with the hope of finally getting laid.
Suddenly, she goes from a relatively boring (basically non-existent) dating life to juggling three romantic prospects at once. There's the gorgeous new fourth grade teacher at her school, a former high school classmate that resurfaces through Words with Friends, and there will always be her roommate, who might just be the best friends-to-lovers situation of her dreams.
Phoebe Bermanโs Gonna Lose It is a brutally honest and completely relatable story for anyone whoโs ever felt stuck between coming of age and coming apart.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NEW YORK TIMESย TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2025
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
The critically acclaimed author of the โcrazily enjoyableโ (The New York Times)ย Whalefallย returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.
Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Manโs Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.
What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.
Angel Downย plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.
Losers: Part Two
I made one foolish mistake and ended up with a debt I had only one way to pay...by bowing my head and submitting to the men I swore I hated. But in their dominance I found catharsis. In the darkness we share, parts of myself were brought to the light.
I've been wearing a mask for far too long.
Now I'm torn between the future I thought I wanted, and a life I once believed was only fantasy.
These feelings between us were never just a game.
What am I willing to sacrifice? My pride and carefully laid plans, my determination that I can do it all alone? Or my new-found freedom to live without boundaries with the men who turned my world on its head? How much am I willing to give up?
Who am I willing to lose?
Although not required, it is recommended to read the novella, The Dare, prior to reading Losers.
This book is part 2 of a duet. It is is First Person, Multi POV.
Losers is an 18+ polyamorous bisexual romance between one woman and four men, including MF, MM, and group scenes. Reader discretion is strongly advised, this is a dark read. This book contains graphic sexual scenes, intense scenes of BDSM, graphic violence, and strong language. A full content note can be found in the front matter of the book.
Dolly All the Time
If they begin by pretending, can they end with something real?
Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldnโt solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home.
So when she comes across Stewart Whitfieldโannoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield familyโwith a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, itโs in her nature to help. But Stewartโs proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and swinging on the porch, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. Sheโs never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?
Birds of a Feather
Tyler Carter Jennings is an enigma. Charged with the task of guarding the Ravenhood as well as every secret of those who belong to it, he keeps those burdens, along with his past and personal heartbreak, to himself. As a highly trained Marine and tactical reckoning force, thereโs never been a situation he couldnโt handle . . . until her.
Larissa DiCicco is all too familiar with the weight of secrets and their consequences. A member of one of the most powerful and influential families in the world, she was just a teenager when her older brother disappeared. Charged with the responsibility of maintaining her familyโs legacy, she has no choice but to seek refuge in the only man who may be able to help her escape her fate.
When Larissa and Tyler collide, they both recognize what powerful adversaries they are. And that losing their hearts to one another while sharing all they know might be the most damning and dangerous thing theyโve ever done . . .
Behind Five Willows
As the dutiful second-eldest daughter of a poor family, society would have Haewon believe that her only hope of a decent life is to marry well. But during a time of rampant government censorship and book banning, she instead works as an illegal book transcriber in order to make a little extra money. Itโs dangerous work, but she loves itโespecially when she gets to transcribe the work of her favorite author, known as Black Lotus.
When her older sister becomes smitten with a wealthy young gentleman, Haewon is roped into chaperoning them during their courtship. Which wouldnโt be so terrible... if it werenโt for the young manโs uptight and annoying best friend who also accompanies them.
As the only son of a noble, Seojun has a lot expected of him. Wealth. Status. Respectability. Certainly not frivolous and often illicit activities such as reading fiction. But Seojun loves to do something even more scandalous: writing. Heโs kept his work secret from his father and friends, but with each passing day, the pressure of being his fatherโs son and the dispiriting actions of the government make Seojun question the purpose of it all. The only thing keeping him going are the encouraging letters he receives from his transcriber, known only as Magpie.
When his best friend falls hard for a girl of lower social status, Seojun finds himself forced to act as chaperone to the infatuated coupleโalong with the girl's younger sister, who is as irritating as she is judgmental. But as Haewon and Seojun spend more time together, they begin to suspect they may have judged each other too quickly...
The Land and Its People
There is sadness hereโscrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceasedโbut also delight: he revels in authorโs biographies, the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke, and pair of well-made cotton underpants. He is bitten by a dog. A train passenger vomits in his face. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesnโt. Look how hard it is to be alive!
Throughout these essaysโat once acerbic and tender, playful and profoundโSedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.
The Final Target
He showed up at Arden Bowieโs debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that.
Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistakeโฆ
An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitudeโbut now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustinโs wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility.
Arden decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?
Just My Luck: Deluxe Limited Edition
You would be correct.
To make matters worse, Abel King is a grumpy local brewer with a criminal past. He also happens to be my boss and a total stick-in-the-mud. Every time I come to work with a smile and wave, Iโm lucky if I can get a grunt in response.
When I accidentally-on-purpose overhear that heโs having trouble securing a business loan due to his criminal record, I hatch a plan to help the both of us.
The arrangement is perfectโa business transaction and nothing more. Like having a roommate without the hassle of other people bugging you for dates.
I will definitely not be falling in love with himโno matter how many times he says โmy wifeโ and tingles dance in all the right places.
Trouble is, as time goes on, things stop feeling like business and start feeling a whole lot like pleasure... and really, thatโs just my luck...
Every Exquisite Thing
Bad Boy Era
Everly is the matchmaking mastermind of her family, but her own love life is a bit of a flop.
Back from four years in Dublin, sheโs ready for a quiet summer on Fletcher Mountain helping launch her auntโs animal rescue centerโuntil Conri โWolfโ Reilly shows up.
Wolf is her college roommateโs infuriating twin brother. Heโs brooding, Irish, and college rugbyโs resident bad boy with thighs that could crack a watermelon.
His red card reputation has trashed his rugby prospectsโฆuntil a training camp in Denver comes calling. As a favor, Everly reluctantly gets Wolf a place to stay if he volunteers at the rescue center.
Now Everlyโs finds herself working and living next door to the Irish tattooed grump who treats her like a nuisanceโbut looks at her like he could press her up against a hay bale until they forget their own names.
Wolf swore he came to America to fix his image, not fall for his sisterโs best friend, but the more time he spends with Everly, the harder it is to keep his distance.
Perhaps Everlyโs in her bad boy eraโฆor maybe Fletcher Mountain might has its own matchmaking plans.
Perfect for fans of:
โข Grumpy x Sunshine
โข Small Town Romance
โข Irish Rugby Players
โข Overprotective family
โข Meghan Quinn and Tessa Bailey
A Fortune of Sand
Detroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where glittering wealth conceals a graveyard of secrets.
Marjorie Lennox is the youngest daughter of a powerful automotive dynasty, a family known for money, not manners. Artistic, impulsive, and always slightly out of step, Marjorie has long been dismissed by her controlling father and self-absorbed siblings. But when she secretly applies to an exclusive arts program funded by an elusive benefactor, she sees a chance to redefine herself on her own terms.
The building is grand. The participants are gifted. But somethingโฆis off.
The program is uncomfortably restrictive. Doors lock at odd hours. Strange sounds echo through the halls amid whispers that women are disappearing. And the handsome benefactorโs presenceโmostly absent, yet somehow everywhereโbegins to unnerve her. As Marjorieโs sense of self begins to slip, so does her grip on the truth. What happens to women who donโt fit neatly into a gilded frame?
Set against the crumbling grandeur of 1920s Detroit and inspired by actual, long-buried historical events, A Fortune of Sand is a haunting mosaic of glamour and griftโa novel about those who vanish, and those who demand to be seen.
The Last Book Club
Making friends in a new town can be murder, so when Jordyn is invited to attend a book club meeting in her new Saratoga Springs neighborhood, itโs safe to say sheโs excited. But she has no intention of making friends with the tight-knit groupโshe has plans for revenge.
Jordynโs foster sister was a member of the book club until she was killed in a hit and run after a meeting one year prior. Members of the book club had serious motives and Jordyn is determined to read between the lines and find their secretsโฆand her sisterโs killer.
When the book club hosts a murder mystery party, secrets begin bubbling to the surfaceโand the murder part of the game becomes stranger than fiction.
This bookish mystery will thrill readers looking for stories full of twists, turns, and tantalizing secrets.
The Rainshadow Orphans
The first novel in a dazzling fantasy trilogy inspired by Japanese folklore and Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away, set within a mythical archipelago brimming with dragons and Sun Spirits, high-tech hackers and bubble tea.
Life is hard for the inhabitants of Rainshadow City, a place where poverty and corruption are rife and where they are terrorized by an underground criminal organization known as the Lucky Crows.
Toshiko, Jun and Mei Kawakami are a family, bonded through loyalty if not blood, who live outside the increasingly corrupt law and who are seeking revenge for the murder of their beloved โauntโ Reiko by the Lucky Crows. Haru is the son of the Emperor, destined to one day rule over the Archipelago and uphold his motherโs ignoble legacy, but he is more interested in making friends with the magical Sun Spirits it seems only he can see. Theo, forced to leave his homeland, is a reluctant foot-soldier for the Lucky Crows. He doesnโt want to be a gangster, but as an illegal immigrant to the city, his choices are severely limited.
When Toshiko steals a dragon pearl from the leader of the Crows, it sets them all on a thrilling path which will determine the future of Rainshadow City. Tightly set across two days and peopled with unforgettable characters, The Rainshadow Orphans blends the anime fantasy of works like Pokรฉmon and Studio Ghibli and the anime science fiction of revolutionary cyberpunk like Akira to explore what it means to stand up to corruption and take charge of destiny.
Invitation to Murder
After inheriting her motherโs printing and party-planning business, Lacey Langdon moves back to her sleepy hometown of Willow Bluffs, perched on New Jerseyโs Palisades. When her great aunt, Tessa Langdon Vander Horn, a well-known and beloved soap opera star, sells her nineteenth-century estate and donates ten acres to the development of a community park, Laceyโs new venture is put at the helm of the opening ceremony. But the festivities quickly come to an end when the body of town councilman Glenn Hartman is found on the bank of the Hudson River.
Partnering with her former classmate, lawyer Derek Conover, they dig deep into the case to find out who is behind the murder. Suspicions abound, but Lacey and Derek hit a snag when one of their prime suspects drops dead at Laceyโs next event. With a second body added to the count, tensions rise in Willow Bluffs.
Caught in the crossfire when remnants of a family tragedy resurface, Lacey and Derek must act swiftly before another body drops dead.
Perfect for readers of Ellie Brannigan and Laurien Berenson, this cozy mystery is a charming small-town read.
When Sparks Fly
Twenty-two-year-old heiress Rachel Henderson has one goal this summer: hide out at her familyโs lake house and recover from the most mortifying breakup Manhattan society has ever witnessed. Sun, swimming, and zero paparazziโwhat could go wrong?
But her quiet summer by the lake goes up in literal flames when a spa-day candle mishap sets her motherโs designer curtains on fire. When the local fire department shows upโspecifically the ridiculously hot fire captainโthe house is saved, but the captain scorches her pride with a lecture about fire safety.
Determined to prove she can handle life on her own without her familyโs help, Rachel finds a new roommate and a new jobโtoo bad sheโs terrible at it. Oh, and she keeps running into Captain Tall-Dark-and-Infuriating (which definitely isnโt a hardship). The more time they spend together, the more their conversations start o get real, and Rachel finds herself falling for Wyatt. She thinks he might even feel the same way.
The only problem? Wyatt is all about roots and permanence, while Rachel is the very definition of flighty. But this summer, she just might be tempted to stay โฆ
Have a Great Summer
If time is supposed to heal all wounds, Lina Marianoโs broken teenage heart never quite got the messageโbut 15 sunny, sandy, angsty Jersey Shore summers later, she finds herself unexpectedly facing her old crush, getting a new perspectiveโand maybe even a hopeful glimpse of the future . . .
Lina Mariano is stuckโin her hometown, in her job, and in the past. And after six years of writing up local weddings as a columnist for a popular lifestyle website, sheโs wholeheartedly sick of nuptials. Worse, the next one on her list is none other than Sebastian Nikolaouโs.
Working high school summers with sweet, handsome Sebastian at his motherโs iconic beach restaurant, teenage Lina was totally wrapped up in the way he made her feelโuntil the night that everything changed. Even so, sheโs embarrassed to admit how often she still thinks of him, and now, comparing their present lives is wrenching. It will take a careful look at her younger self, and some wisdom from the best friend who was there for it all, to see that making her dreams come true is up to her aloneโwhether or not those dreams still include Sebastian . . .
Poignant, engaging, and insightful, Have a Great Summer is an ode to the confused teenager in all of us, and a reminder of the blissful, excruciating, delicious days of summers gone by.
I'll Watch Your Baby
1974. Lottie Turner is already infamous. Running a wheel of schemes and scams, sheโs willing to work for what she wants inโฆcreative ways. But no business is more lucrative than desperate families looking to adopt a childโand thereโs only one way to procure children quickly.
And the only way to take whatโs owed you is to cross the line no one else is willing to cross.
1994. Bless has finally found the family she deserved. After suffocating slowly with lackluster parents and a non-starter past, sheโs found the friends that means everything to her. That sheโd live and die for. As they make their way across the country, one smash and grab at a time, Bless is used to acting fast and thinking on her feet.
But someone is playing a long game. Someone has unfinished business. Soon Bless is trapped in a web of horrors past and present, where the only escape hatch is a path only she can walk, if she finds the courage to take it.
Bone of My Bone
The year is 1635.
Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, and Elsebeth, a sharp-witted peasant, escape a band of marauding soldiers and disappear into the Bavarian forest. War scorches the land, and no one survives it alone. Amid the devastation, they find something in the arms of a dying the gilded skull of a saint.
It is said that if you reunite the saint's skull with her body, a wish will be granted. Desperate for salvation, and each with secret desires of their own, Ursula and Elsebeth follow a ragged map across the blighted countryside. But darkness follows them. A necromancer, drawn to the relic's power. The saint herself, whispering at night. And as the lines between blessing and curse blur, the women must face a harrowing the magic they seek comes at a cost.
At the journey's end, they'll face an impossible choiceโone that could tear apart everything they knowโฆ or bind them to each other forever.
Wings of Life
***DELUXE LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER with stenciled edges, a beautiful foil-stamped hardcover, exclusive interior design with full-color endpapers*** Only while supplies last.
They cast me off to Rihtlond as a bride.
They donโt care if I come back alive.
Too sharp-tongued and too curious, I am my motherโs greatest lament and my fatherโs constant frustration. Unwilling to bow to their will, Iโve become expendable, worth sending on a mission doomed to fail.
Armed with nothing but a coded journal, a quill, and my wits, Iโm thrust into the kingdom of our oldest enemyโa land of storms and warriorsโto wed their high daneโs son. Trapped on their ruthless continent, I am no blushing bride. Iโm a spy sent to unlock Rihtlondโs weaknessesโฆ a cuckoo in the robinโs nest.
But my heart still bleeds red when the weaponmaster of these strange people steals it away. Through him, I learn to unlock their secrets. What I uncover is more dangerous than I ever imagined: magic thrumming in the roots of Rihtlond, a dragon hidden in plain sight, and a love I was never meant to feel. Holding this knowledge, I am meant to return home and bind myself to a future I was given long ago.
Now, as war rises and alliances crumble, I must choose between duty and desire, between the family who cast me aside and the bond that awakens who I truly am. To protect what Iโve foundโand who I becomeโI must risk everything. Even if it brands me a traitor. Even if it costs me my life.
Henry & Kate
An opposites-attract, slow-burn billionaire romance set in a world of London luxury and scandal, featuring exclusive art and sprayed edges.
He can't afford distractions. She can't afford to get caught.
Twenty-year-old Kate Hamilton has lost everything: her family, her job, her home. For months, she's been surviving alone on London's streets. Henry Darlington, on the other hand, seems to have it allโwealth, privilege, and his family's luxury hotel empire. But beneath The Darlington's glittering facade lies a darker truth: a scandal involving Henryโs father has tainted the hotelโs reputation, and as the eldest son, Henry is left to pick up the pieces.
When desperation drives Kate to steal Henryโs phone, their worlds collide in an unexpected confrontation. Instead of calling the police, Henry makes a surprising offer: a job at The Darlington, and a chance for Kate to escape the dangers of the street.
What begins as a fragile truce soon deepens into something neither of them anticipated. Within the hotelโs opulent walls, Kate glimpses a life she never thought possible, while Henry is drawn to the resilient, sharp-witted woman who refuses to be cowed by his world. But as their connection grows, both must face the question: can love survive the secrets, scandals, and social divides that threaten to keep them apart?
A Curse of Beasts and Magic
Raine Stone was the sole survivor of a horrific creature while camping. Her account of the attack was attributed to shock, but Raine knows all too well that her story is true because now she carries that same Beast inside her!
Sheโs been restraining its violent urges by letting it 'feed' on the pain and chaos sheโs exposed to as an ER nurse, and by playing vigilante against would-be muggers at night. But when Raine uses the Beastโs energy to heal a frail elderly gentleman from a seemingly random attack, she opens herself to a new world of dangerโliterally.
Remington โRemyโ Byrne knows that the wall between a realm of deadly mythic creatures and our own world is very thin; heโs the Warden who guards the gateways between them. He also rules the supernatural creatures living in secret among us. Raineโs Beast makes her an intruder on Remyโs territory, but the elderly gentleman she saved is Remyโs grandfather, and her Beast contains power that could tip the scales in a sinister plot against Remyโs ruleโif Raine allies with him.
Will they be friends or foesโฆor will the dangerous attraction between them turn into something else? And can our world be saved by their explosive alliance?
Night Objects
It is true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy.
Lenny Winter is fifteen years old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest's elite, where wealth and tradition rule.
Blanchard is dazzling, insularโand haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school's greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lennyโs choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoningโand a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming. Sweeping, suspenseful, and deeply moving, Bright Work is both a gripping mystery and a profound coming-of-age storyโasking what we risk, what we become, and who we hold dear, when the need to belong eclipses everything else.
The Summer Share
Free-spirited travel influencer Hannah Spencer has spent five years touring the country in her vintage van. An unexpected inheritance from her Pops brings Hannah to Cape Split, North Carolina, where she learns sheโs the new owner of a worse-for-wear seaside beach house. Or, rather, fifty percent of one. Turns out Simon OโMalley inherited the other half from his Gramps.
As Simon and Hannah spend the summer tag-teaming repairs on the crumbling cottage, they discover the house was once home to a timeless love story. Soon, they begin to wonder if the houseโs romantic past may be a good omen for their future together. But thereโs one problemโSimon is set on selling the property at the end of the summer.
Hannah thought one summer at the Split would be enough, except it isnโt like any place sheโs ever been, and Simon isnโt like any man sheโs ever knownโand sheโs thinking about putting down some roots. She just needs Simon to see their budding relationship and this newfound community the same way or their first summer share might also be their last.
Bromantasy
BROMANTASY is a cozy, queer fantasy about the mortifying ordeal of being known by your totally platonic best friend and the epic quest that might force you to confront the truth.
Fellas, is it gay to kiss your bff while on a quest through the forest youโre unqualified for?
Juniper O'Reilly is good at only two things: demolishing a pint of mead and finding the perfect skincare routine. Everything elseโtaking care of the farm, bartering for goods, any sort of manual laborโfalls to Juniperโs best friend, the absurdly capable, endlessly patient Mo Elmthorn.
But when Juniper accidentally volunteers them both for a quest to kill a fearsome monster, he knows heโs finally gotten in over his head. Juniper hates camping, he hates the dark, and thereโs no way all these foraged mushrooms are going to sit well in his stomach. One thing he doesnโt hate? How good Moโs thighs look in his questing pantsโhe doesnโt have time to think about that, though, with a monster to hunt and their futures on the line.
But monsters come in all shapes and sizes. When Juniper and Mo realize that the terrifying beast theyโve sworn to kill is just a scared little girl torn from their family, theyโre off to find not only the true villain of the story, but maybe even a happy ending.
The Lake House
When Pixie Nolan first came to Bramble, Kentucky, the abandoned and desperate young single mother found hope, healing, and a fresh start. With the loving support of her best friendsโMarlow Heddings and her handsome Marine husband, CortโPixie is now happily raising her toddler son in a cozy cottage, managing Marlowโs thriving boutique, and designing firefly logo t-shirts that are selling like hotcakes. The past is behind her, and life is good.
She never expected to make an electrifying connection with a summer renter, a retired Navy SEAL with his own complicated past . . .
A rugged warrior with scars both seen and unseen, Brogan Rafferty arrives with an adorable baby girl in tow and settles into the lake house next door. And while heโs a stunning addition to the gorgeous scenery, itโs his caring devotion that captures Pixieโs heartโthe way he gently snuggles away the precious infantโs cries, or swoops Pixieโs delighted little boy high in the air with his tattooed, muscular arms.
But itโs no coincidence that Brogan has found Pixie, and his startling revelations make it clear sheโs the key to healing old regrets and building new dreams. And when a hostile stranger turns up with shocking accusations against Brambleโs new hometown hero, Pixie must put her own fears and heartbreak away for goodโand learn what it truly means to trust.
It Happened One Murder
Harriet Baker thought that when she left Logan Island, she was leaving for good. But after getting fired from her dream magazine job, she finds herself stuck back in the sleepy New Jersey beach town living with her eccentric mother and desperate to escape.
And her ticket out might beโฆmurder?
When Harriet's extravagant birthday party ends with a dead body, all fingers point to Sara Allbright, the troublesome sister of none other than Nic, Harriet's short-lived fling from years ago that she's been eager to forget. And the feeling is entirely mutual. But murder makes for a good story, and when Harriet is told that she can get her old job back if she writes an article uncovering what really happened the night of her party, she readily agrees. To write her piece, Harriet will need Nic's full cooperation, and if Nic wants to clear his sister's name, he'll need Harriet's investigative skills. But working together? That's less than ideal.
As the two team up to find the real killer, they'll uncover the dark underbelly of their seemingly perfect hometown, uncover long buried feelings, and maybe, just maybe, realize that they might work well together after all.
Frozen Heart
What a pathetic, absurd illusion.
A fairy tale spun for weak, useless bastards,
Too blind to grasp the world as it truly is.
The world is a rotting, godforsaken wasteland
Where only lies and deception thrive.
Everyone wears a mask.
Everyone hides a blade.
There are no saints here.
Nothing left but shades of grey.
I swore by that claim for years,
Until I met her.
A single innocent soul in a world drenched in sin.
A ray of sunshine in the bottomless black abyss,
A delicate flower from whom I must stay as far away as possible.
I can't.
I am going to steal her light,
Even knowing it was never meant for me.
Babylon, South Dakota
When Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee, move from China to the United States to take possession of a 160-acre homestead bequeathed to them by a distant relative, all they have are the possessions on their back, some hidden gold, and a pocketful of chrysanthemum seeds. After a rocky start and a long, harsh winter, the couple find themselves successfully raising chrysanthemums and livestock, and soon after, a daughter, Mara.
But when representatives from the US Army Corps of Engineers buy an acre of the Hsiuโs farmland and begin building a missile silo, the inexplicable starts to Mara can commune with the animals on the farm, Mei develops a hidden talent for augury, and the chrysanthemums become impervious to everything. When the Hsius learn that the project on their farm is an effort to make Americaโs nuclear deterrent invulnerable, they see firsthand the long arm of power and empire.
In the years and generations that follow, increasingly impacted by the silo and its residue, the Hsius experience strange, wondrous, and tragic events on their farm. An ambitious epic and an ode to the beauty and glory of our connection to the natural world, Babylon, South Dakota upends the idea of "strangers in a strange land" to become a classic American story. It is a daring novel about how choices reverberate across generations and asks us what we owe to one another.
Dead Weight
Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.
Trying to do the right thing, Unnur reunites the lost pet with its ownerโa young woman named รsta who is in desperate need of some help. Unnur reluctantly agrees to take in the cat until รsta is able to care for it again herself.
Soon, รsta becomes a fixture in Unnur's life and the two form an unlikely friendship. But like a black cat, trouble is tailing รsta, and Unnur is the only one there when things take a violent turn.
Nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.
When No One Else Will
When a friend tells her of a women's clinic in need of a nurse, Mimi hesitates. Such places are illegal and at odds with her religious upbringing. But Dr. Gablerโs office isn't the dingy establishment Mimi envisioned. The space is clean, bright, and welcoming, the staff skillful. Patients are treated with dignity and compassion, even as they are sworn to secrecy about what happens within its walls.
The patients, too, are not who Mimi expected. Some are heartbreakingly young. Most are married, and many already have children. Police and state prosecutors are paid handsomely to turn a blind eye. As Mimi finds kinship with her colleagues and with an officer on retainer, she begins her own private reckoning between what is legal and what is necessary, no matter how painful or inconvenient. But Mimi senses the tide turning against them. She knows, too, that soon she must decide how much she will risk to defend the ideals she's come to embrace through hard-won experience . . .
Missed Connections
Sabrina Sorensen is 37, single, and recently finished her tenure as the general manager of a posh Parisian restaurant. When her younger sister gets engaged at Christmas, it's an open door for her mother and siblings to prod Sabrina for her itinerate lifestyle and her inability to commit to any of her previous relationships. What they don't know is that Sabrina, after fifteen long years, has attained her goal of becoming a MICHELIN Guide Inspector. And due to the anonymity required to preserve the integrity of the ratings, they never will. After her mother's final clumsy attempt to fix her up with the charming "boy next door," Sabrina is more than ready to return to DC where she will begin her dream job.
She arrives at the airport, resolved to put the family conflict behind her and focus on her work, but now her mother's critical voice fills her with doubts. Sure, she attained the job she's always wanted, but at what cost? She's neglected not only romantic relationships but meaningful friendships as well. Once in her concourse, Sabrina's airline is hosting a "Spin the Wheel" game. Sabrina plays along, hoping for perhaps a free drink ticket or a bit of extra legroom. She lands on "Time Travel for NYE": the chance to fly to Tokyo, then back to Hawaii to experience the turning of the new year twice.
Once in the airport's lounge, the ticket agent offers her something far more the opportunity to revisit each of her past relationships to answer the burning had any of these relationships been worth salvaging, or was she, as her mother accuses, too quick to cast these men aside? Spanning fifteen years and thousands of miles, Sabrina will have the rare opportunity to know for certain if all her choices had led her down the right path.
Waiting on a Friend
So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear.
Renata has other problems, too. There's something strange happening in her advertisements for paranormal 'exterminators' who promise to clear out bad energy keep showing up. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts as part of a city-wide gentrification plot to make downtown safe for Reaganites.
Told with humour and pathos, Waiting on a Friend is a genre-bending retelling of Queer history that manages to be both heartbreaking and healing.
Murder Most Delicious
Once a rising star in the wine world, Olivia was one of a handful of women in the world to hold the distinction of being a Master Sommelier before COVID stole her sense of tasteโand her career. Adrift and depressed, she gets a second chance when beloved celebrity chef Jacques de Bizet invites her to Paris for a job interview. But as the interview begins, he collapses, poisoned, making Olivia the prime suspect.
Olivia is in trouble, but she has an advantage: her extraordinary nose is still sharp enough to detect the subtlest of scents, including the poison that killed Jacques. Olivia knows sheโs innocent, but how can she prove it?
Enter the Paris Neighborhood Watch, an eccentric circle of locals determined to protect their quartier. At the helm is the mysterious Augusta Dupin, a brilliant but agoraphobic detective, aided by her intuitive British shorthair cat, Chateaubriand. Olivia and Augusta join forces with a group of neighborhood amateur sleuthsโa pรขtissier, a cafรฉ owner, a part-time librarian, a florist and a kind-hearted cop who may be falling for Oliviaโto solve the crime, a search that helps them find not only the killer but fresh purpose in their lives.
Warm, witty, and brimming with food, friendship, and intrigue, Murder Most Delicious transports you to a cozy Parisian neighborhood where the comforts of French daily life soothe the soul even in the darkest times.
Beneath a Broken Sky
Detective Ben Packard has put down roots in the small town of Sandy Lake. A difficult thing to do; it's a hot, miserable summer, and a tornado has swept through causing irreparable damage. Trees are felled, homes destroyed, and people are desperate. Worse, the storm has also blown in a group of storm chasers with something to hide.
Then a woman is killed in her home. The mother of a gay boy and unpopular among the locals for the hell she recently raised at school when the administration refused to punish a group of students who were bullying her son, there's almost too many suspects to count.
But to Packard, the case hits close to home. And when someone from his past shows up on his doorstep out of the blue, he realizes he'll have to confront the reality of navigating life as a gay man in a small town bent on tradition, no matter the cost.
The heat suffocates. The violence simmers. Before the summer is out, someone else will die.
In Case I Go Missing
Seventeen-year-old Fenny Allen has been Sarah Vincenty's sidekick for as long as she can remember, ever since the two of them solved the mystery of the stolen library books back in elementary school. Over the years, Sarah has ruffled a few feathers in their small town, building a reputation as both an amateur detective and a vigilante who has dispensed her own form of justice.
Now Sarah is missing. The police have written her off as yet another teen runaway, but Fenny is convinced that something more sinister has happened. When she discovers a binder Sarah left behind entitled In Case I Go Missing, Fenny learns that at the time of her disappearance, Sarah was investigating her biggest case yet.
Fenny knows that it's up to her to finish what Sarah had begun. As she and her friend Sam piece together the clues that Sarah left for them, they find themselves up against a decades-old mysteryโone that links to the town's dark history. But is this binder a guide to finding Sarahโor are Fenny and Sam already too late?
The more the pair uncover, the clearer it becomes that those involved will go to great lengths to keep their secretsโeven as far as murder.
Ode to the Half-Broken
Be is an old robot who was there, and doesnโt want to think about what happened, or what role they played in that conflict. They have settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned ruins of an old mill in the former New York Botanical Gardens, disinterested in what has happened in the outside world since they stepped away from the war. Someone out there, though, has not forgotten about them, and when they are attacked, their person vandalized, and one of their leg stolen, they set out to find the thief accompanied by a cyborg dog and a human mechanic.
The world has changed, but the recovery from the war is uneven and faltering, and Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle the old conflict and finish what was started. In order to stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past and who they have become, and how everything and everyone else they knew has changed in their absence. Being left alone is no longer an option, and peace may be impossible.
This is a story about coming to terms with your past, with who youโve become and who you still want to be: a tale of resilence and hope, an ode to those struggling to become whole in a world half-broken.
This Must Be the Place
Inheriting a gay bar from your secretive great-uncle? Awkward. Trying to save it while catching feelings for the wrong girl? Complicated. From the author of She Drives Me Crazy comes an exuberant YA novel about queer joy, found family, and standing your ground.
When eighteen-year-old Louisa Wade inherits a gay bar from her late great-uncle, she figures thereโs been some kind of mistake. Thereโs no way Uncle Georgeโfootball legend and hometown hero of Rustin, Alabamaโcould have secretly owned a queer barโฆ right?
But The Frisky Cricket is real, and so is the messy legacy Uncle George left behindโincluding his grumpy ex-partner, Hatch, who wants nothing more than to sell the bar. Louisa may have zero business experience, but sheโs determined to keep it open for the vibrant queer community that calls it home.
As the summer heats up, Louisaโs crusade puts her on a collision course with Aubrey Calhoun: the pretty, popular, and sharp-tongued daughter of Rustin Universityโs newly crowned football coach. The girls start off on the wrong foot, but a tentative truce leads to late nights, shared secrets, and a growing spark.
But things threaten to sputter out when Coach Calhoun sets his sights on The Frisky Cricket, scheming to replace it with a new athletic facilityโcelebrating Uncle Georgeโs football career while erasing his queerness. Now Louisa must decide if she can fight for Uncle Georgeโs legacy without losing sight of herself in the process.
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION
Don't miss the other YA offerings from Kelly Quindlen, "master at portraying the teen experience." (SLJ)
*HER NAME IN THE SKY: Kelly's debut novel that started it all, a sapphic romance about two best friends who fall in love and find the courage to chooseโand beโthemselves.
*SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY: a sapphic enemies-to-lovers, fake dating rom-com about a high school basketball player and the pretty cheerleader she gets into a fender bender with.
*LATE TO THE PARTY: a queer coming-of-age story about what it means to be a "real" teenager and an ode to late bloomers everywhere.
Made
From New York Times Bestselling author, Sadie Kincaid comes a contemporary friends to lovers romance.
Maddox James is the entire package. Soulful, deep, hotter than the fiery pits of hell. Heโs also my best friend, and did I mention, heโs celibate?
Two years ago, we were strangers sharing sunsets, secrets, and a connection neither of us could ignore. For one perfect night, I thought something extraordinary was beginningโuntil he rejected me without explanation, leaving me feeling humiliated.
Now, fate has thrown us together again in the worst possible way: heโs my bossโs younger brother. Still maddeningly handsome, endlessly compassionate, and impossible to ignore. The worst part? Heโs impossible to dislike too. Beneath the sexy confident smiles and effortless charm is someone quieter than I remember, someone carrying shadows I donโt understand. And when he finally tells me the truth, that rejecting me had nothing to do with him not wanting meโit changes everything.
Somewhere between late-night conversations, daily laughter and sharing our dreams, he becomes my best friend. Which would be fine if I wasnโt falling for him all over again.
Because friendship starts to feel dangerously small when every touch lingers too long, every look feels like a confession, and the man who once swore off intimacy begins breaking every rule he made for himself.
But love doesnโt erase the past. And when the darkest parts of our lives come back to claim us, weโll have to decide if what we have is strong enough to survive the things that almost destroyed us both.
MADE is a slow-burn, emotional romance about healing, forgiveness, and discovering that love is worth risking everything for.
- Contemporary romance
- Friends to Lovers
- Second Chance
- Curvy FMC
- Golden retriever energy, with a dark dirty side
- He falls first (and hard)
- Standalone with HEA
A Dark and Wild Wood
Ever since she was a child, Salomรฉ has been plagued by visions of spirits and dangerous powers she canโt control. After watching her foster mother burn as a witch, she and her beloved sister Rochelle are raised together in a convent, a grim and dreary existence. Until one day, Rochelle vanishes.
Determined to find a way to save her, Salomรฉ runs: first to a brothel, and then, after a terrible accident, away from the village and into the woods. Deep amongst the trees of the wild Black Forest, she comes face-to-face with Lord Death.
Rather than taking her life, he brings her to his home at the heart of the woods, a strange manor full of locked rooms and mysterious corridors, crumbling one moment, magnificent the next. He promises to make her his apprentice and teach her how to harness her mind and magic. His words are as seductive as his presenceโbut should one trust Death?
A swirling mirage of dark fairy tale, gothic romance, and historical fantasy, A Dark and Wild Wood is a novel best devoured all at once. But proceed with caution, as everything is not what it seems...
Evening the Score
Don't get mad โ get even.
A grudge hates to see Olivia Hinckley coming. Years ago, a dirty hit ended her late fatherโs NHL career with the Minnesota Freeze. It was never fair that Erik Parker walked away with little more than a penalty, but itโs worse that her father's rival is now up for Hall of Fame induction. On top of that, Erik's sonโhockeyโs golden boy, Brodyโjust signed on to play for the Freeze. Determined to dismantle the Parker legacy, Olivia enacts a revenge plot that has her donning the Freezeโs mascot costume to gain intel on the Parkers. And she canโt help but mess with Brodyโs gameplayโand his heart for good measure. After all, whatโs a little fake dating between enemies?
Brody Parker only ever wanted to play hockey for fun, but the pressure of being part of hockeyโs โFirst Familyโ has him dodging nepotism allegations along with high sticks. Erik might act like Father of the Year when the cameras are on, but behind closed doors, Brody struggles with his fatherโs impossible expectations. Preserving Erikโs image is a full-time job, but lucky for Brody, his new connection with Olivia is a welcome (spicy) distraction.
When Brody finally opens up to Olivia, she never expected sheโd pity a Parker for anything. Suddenly, she wants to protect her once-enemy. The romantic feelings she faked are now unexpectedly real, but after leading Brody on for so long, can she keep the lies and the truth straight before she accidentally blows up his whole life?
FOR FANS Fake dating He falls first Secret identity Adversaires to lovers Bookish heroes
Curses, Keys, and Secret Societies
Elรฉa Deniz has dreamed of her home in the French countryside for the last four years after nearly dying in the Forgotten Forest. But when she finally returns, she finds the estate has become host to the Shadowcraft Academy, an elite graduate school where a world of mysteries and power plays await. Itโs there she discovers a secret about her magic thatโs not just a threat to the established order, but a prophecy that could change everything. Whatโs worse, her father is the schoolโs enigmatic and ruthless headmaster with an agenda of his ownโone that could tear their world apart if she canโt find a way to stop him.
As alliances shift and her power is tested, Elรฉa becomes torn between Alex, her stoic first love whose loyalties are as murky as his past, and the brash, irreverent Logan, who challenges her to see herself in new ways. Faced with her fatherโs schemes, a secret society, and the weight of her own magic, Elรฉa must decide: Will she embrace her fate, or fight to reclaim her power and forge her own path? Destiny is calling... and it demands a price.
A Queen Crowned in Flames
Aemyra Daercathian is a queen on the run. Having failed to take รird Lasair and betrayed by her husband-whom she grew to trust and 'and was beginning to fall for during her time in captivity-Aemyra is forced to retreat with a raging desire for revenge. But before she can settle the score and fulfill a sacred promise to kill Fiorean, her forces must rest and replenish their strength.
No one can know the truth.
Even though Aemyra has a fierce dragon and a large army of elemental wielders called Dรนileach standing behind her, she has lost what's most important to her-her fire magic. Haunted by her love for her enemy, and unsure if she is even goddess-blessed anymore, Aemyra vows to do right by her people. Even if that means she must make a new kind of alliance, one that could mean winning back her kingdom. At a cost to her heart...
From the ashes, Aemyra must emerge a new kind of queen, but will she be the dawn for her people or the fire that burns everything to the ground?
By the Bootstraps
Fueled by a love of romance novels, Luna Starr was destined for a life with her head in the clouds. Her delusional tendencies serve her wellโฆor at least they used to. When life throws her a curveball, she decides itโs time to turn her cowboy fantasies into reality and purchases a tiny farm in Celestial, Texas. After all, donโt all heroines try to outrun grief?
Tate Jacobs hates cowboys, which is a small problem, considering his family happens to own the largest ranch in Celestial. Life might not have gone the way he wanted, but as head coach at his old high school and the townโs best (and only) handyman, heโs figured out how to stay busy and keep his head downโuntil the new girl in town shows up. Lunaโs new property is a bad accident waiting to happen unless someone helps her with her DIY home renovations.
As Tate and Luna spend more time together fixing up her house, unexpected feelings and undeniable chemistry bubble to the surface. Luna mightโve moved to Celestial to make her cowboy dreams come true, but somewhere beneath the vast Texas skies, she discovers that love in the real world can be far better than she imagined.
The Let That Sh*t Go Guide to Life: Say Nope to Nonsense and Live a Kickass Life
Lifeโs too short to be doing emotional heavy-lifting all the time! The Let That Sh*t Go Guide to Life is a place where positive profanity and not giving a f*ck are the keys to living a more peaceful, self-assured life. Inside, youโll find a dose of the funny stuff alongside helpful advice to understand the stress that zaps its way into your day, call out the chaos that you can let go of, and give you the helpful shove to embrace the good sh*t that truly matters. Thereโs no perfect way to scatter your stress like glitter, but you can enjoy:
โข A friend-to-friend approach to unpacking all of the heavy sh*t youโre carrying
โข A place to look inward with humor and humility, and outward with sass but not suspicion
โข An opportunity to let go of what you canโt control and feel jazzed up about what you can
Hop around the pages of this book to uncover which areas of your lifeโwhether it's work, goal-setting, love, friendship, or just not being so f*cking hard on yourselfโcan be a little bit lighter, a little bit more joyful, and a little more yours. You donโt have to have it all figured out, the rules might just be a bunch of BS, and the horizon line is right over there.
The Summer Boy
Tell me, do you know why the most beautiful love stories must always end badly?
In the summer of 1985, on a scruffy resort island off the coast of France, six teenagersโfive boys and one girlโband together for a final golden season before adulthood. Their days are drenched in sun and freedom, and their nights simmer with secrets, jealousy, and longing. Philippe is drawn to Nicolas, the quiet new boy who sees him in a way that no one else does. As their bond deepens, part of Nicolas remains unreachableโuntil a sudden tragedy brings their summer to a brutal end.
The Cherry Blossom Boathouse
When Sophie Bennet gets fired from her high-profile marketing job and dumped by her boyfriend for being "too boring," she decides to take a riskโfueled by wineโand launches a crowdfunding campaign called "Help a Boring Girl Buy a Bookshop." To her shock, what started as a joke goes viral, raising enough money for her to leave London and buy a rundown boathouse in the sleepy small town of Solace Springs, Washington, marking the start of her new chapter.
Local boatbuilder and professional grump Luke Rhodes has had it with outsiders coming to Solace Springs and disturbing his carefully cultivated quiet life. So when Sophie, his annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor, moves in with her endless optimism, relentless determination, and distracting curves, he wants nothing to do with her renovation project. Too bad fateโand the town residentsโhave other plans. As Luke gets roped into working with Sophie, he starts to find that the cherry blossoms arenโt the only thing blooming in town.
In the midst of clashing over paint samples and arguing over structural integrity, things start to heat up between the town local and the new resident. But just as Lukeโs carefully constructed walls begin to crack, Sophieโs sudden viral fame threatens the tranquility of Solace Springs. Theyโll have to decide if their unexpected connection will wilt away or bloom into something more.
The Case Study
When Mia was a young woman, she read a magazine article about a murderous teenage girl with a rare and disturbing psychiatric delusion. Fascinated by the details, she sought out the doctor whoโd treated the girl, and eventually married him. Twenty years later, Miaโs curiosity is piqued once again when her husband announces that his famous case study will be republishedโand that he will be reconnecting with his former patient.
Lainey has never felt that her feet are fully on the groundโnot since she was released from a psychiatric institution at the age of twenty-one. When her former doctor reaches out, she decides to tell him the truth about what happened all those years ago. Perhaps she can finally lighten the darkness that has defined her entire existence.
With mirroring software, Mia pores over every recorded therapy session with Lainey, almost as though sheโs watching a true crime drama unfold. On the opposite side, Lainey becomes intensely interested in her doctorโs family. How far will she go to insert herself into his seemingly perfect life?
Ghalen
One of the most acclaimed writers working today, Walter Mosley spins magic once again in this beautiful novel that explores the lives of Black characters and one remarkable family through a lens both universal and unique. It touches on the lives of those whose deepest thoughts and motivations are seldom exploredโincluding the neurodivergent, the incarcerated, and the immigrant tortured by their pastโcharacters who will stay with you and change how you see the world.
Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man, is the son of two seemingly mismatched parents. His mother, a gifted scientist, whose own mother expected her to exceed all the achievements in her family, and his father, a gentle cook at a small vegetarian restaurant, whose idiosyncratic nature shows the young woman a radically different love and understanding of life, despite his inexperience and lack of education.
His parentsโ grand love story starts it all off, setting us up to follow Ghalen and his family so deeply, that each new twist and turn feels personal.
The journey through Ghalenโs coming-of-age tale, as he ventures out into the world, is marked with peaks and valleys and such a drive that you canโt help but strap in for it all, while not wanting it to end.
Lush and cinematic, with the narrative drive and indelible power of Barbara Kingsolverโs Demon Copperhead and Paul Murrayโs The Bee Sting, Ghalen is one of this bestselling, prize-winning writerโs finest achievements.
No God But Us
โA new kind of novel, with vast geographies of nation and heart.โ โSarah Schulman, author of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity
In this seductive, provocative debut, two gay Afghan menโcast out of their respective countries of birth by circumstances beyond their controlโcollide in Istanbul, a city that will test their willingness to sacrifice everything for the ones they love.
When Delbarโa hapless twenty-something with dreams of becoming a drag queenโis spectacularly outed, he flees the insular immigrant-dense suburbs of Washington, DC to seek refuge with his sympathetic aunt in Istanbul. There, he discovers a vibrant community of dissidents, sex workers, activists, poets, and heretics. Among them are Leif and his boyfriend, Mansur, with whom Delbar quickly develops a blazing fascination.
But Mansur also nurses a wounded heart, having left his own family, and his first love, behind in Iran. This time, Mansurโs learned not to dream bigger than his own survival. Heโll keep a low profile, work hard to send money back, and remain faithful to Leifโat least until his refugee status is granted.
When riot police descend on attendees of the annual Istanbul Pride march, Mansur and Delbar are thrust into dangerous proximity. With the country surging into authoritarianism, each person must ask what constitutes a life well-lived, and how high is the price of freedom?
Told through the alternating viewpoints of Delbar and Mansur, Bobuq Sayedโs debut is a story of borders and boundaries transgressed, and a deeply engrossing exploration of what it means to make a home at the margins of society. At once an immigrant family saga, a thwarted love story, and a searing portrait of politics made intimately personal, No God but Us is an ambitious introduction to a bold new voice.
The Blackthorn Women
After her husbandโs infidelity, devastated Katrine Blackthorn reluctantly returns to Faith Falls, Minnesota, to her familyโs Queen Anne mansion on the hill and the magic that binds them all.
Her grandmother Velda charms everyone she meets. Her mother, Ursula, is a brewer of potions who sees a threat around every corner. And thereโs her estranged sister, Jasmine, broken by something no one will name. With Katrineโs return, all that the Blackthorns have feared seems to be manifesting. The snakes amassing with the spring thaw and the stranger whoโs rolled into town are just the first omens threatening the fragile peace the family is rebuilding.
Now Katrine must face the darkest secret of her lineage and rediscover her own magic if the Blackthorn women are to survive.
Revised Previously published as The Catalain Book of Secrets, this edition of The Blackthorn Women includes editorial revisions.
A Kiss of Crimson Ash
Nandapore is a city of secrets and spellcasters where seduction reigns and a power-hungry king is never satisfied, plotting to unleash a weapon that has only lived in mythโฆ until now.
To stop him, an ancient goddess seeks out a newly crowned queen, a heartsick prince, a common thief, and a courtesan with magic in her blood. Together, they chart a course through brothels, temples, taverns, and palaces, setting a trap for the empireโs most powerful men.
Linked by desire, destiny, and a dangerous foe, they each must decide...
What will they risk for a weapon worth dying for, and a love worth staying alive?
The Arcadian
Spain in the 1500s. The Iberian Peninsula is fractured, faiths collide, and war brews. Into this world rides Telamonโsoldier, killer, eternal outcastโdrawn into a brutal conflict between Portuguese invaders and desperate Andalusian defenders. But he is not alone. Traveling with him through time and lifetimes are othersโcomrades, lovers, enemiesโeach reborn in a new guise, all of them entangled in a tale of cosmic justice. As he builds to a siege that represents one of the most remarkable battles ever put to paper, Steven Pressfield, the renowned master of the historical epic, poses questions that every warrior Can a man born to fight ever lay down his sword? And is redemption possible after so many lifetimes soaked in blood? A gripping standalone novel, as grounded in gritty realism as it is in the mysticism of the ancient Greek world, The Arcadian is a tale of war, fate, and the search for release from a cycle as old as time itself.
The Tuxedo Society
They are fierce patriots. They are licensed to kill. And they are really, really gay. Welcome to democracyโs secret weapon, the Tuxedo Society.
When Andrew Birnbaum, a struggling actor making ends meet by working in a candle shop, gets invited to have dinner with the exclusive Tuxedo Society by his best friend, Brock, his life takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a group of wealthy socialites gathering for gossip and cocktails quickly spirals into a world of espionage, danger, and hilarity.
Andrew soon meets Reggie OโMalley, a Navy SEAL with a penchant for black tie, who recruits Andrew to join the societyโs covert mission to protect national security. Armed with gadgets like an inflatable life raft backpack, a yoga mat that doubles as an assault rifle, and, of course, an AMEX Black Card, Andrew quickly finds himself tackling spies, thwarting assassinations, and facing a host of unexpected threats in settings from the White House to the Vatican to the Summer Olympic Games.
The stakes escalate when Andrew and his comrades are sent on a jet-setting mission to uncover the truth about an ancient artifact. Along the way, they clash with oligarchs, crooked senators, and a smarmy televangelist with sinister plans for world domination.
Packed with Paul Rudnickโs signature wit, The Tuxedo Society is a wild ride through decadence, danger, and unexpected heroism, as Andrew discovers that saving the world might just be the role heโs been waiting for.
The Black Cat Detectives
Precocious kittens Bippity, Boppity, and Boop are exceedingly loyal to their human, the 28-year-old mediocre magician Mila. She saved them from starving to death in a dingy Corvinโs Crossing alleyway and has been nothing but loving ever since, even though her own life is in shambles.
So when Milaโs sketchy boyfriend and business manager turns up dead at the end of her big magic showโsheโs the prime suspect. With evidence mounting, thereโs nothing stopping the sheriff from hauling away Mila to the human pound. Unless the kittens can solve the crime and clear her name.
The kittens will have to use their dubious control over the laws of physics and every whisker of know-how theyโve got to catch the real killer if they want to save their happy home with Mila. This is one meow-stery more tangled than any ball of yarn theyโve encountered yet.
The Maidenheads
Jamie is bad at endings, which is why she's stuck at a dead-end Baltimore newspaper job, continuing to have break-up sex with her first-ever hetero partner, and haunted by the what-ifs of her ex-girlfriend Mariโa charismatic and brilliant musicianโand their former band together, the Maidenheads. Since they (and their band) broke up a decade ago, Jamie hasn't been able to sing.
Then an unexpected opportunity to perform in DC with Mari's successful new band arises, and Jamie jumps at it. What begins as a return to music becomes a reckoningโwith the weight of unfinished love, the voice she long buried, and her own complicated past. But as Jamie channels more of her energy into the band, other threads in her life begin to fray, and she must make some urgent choices about her future.
Electric, spine-tingling, and filled to the brim with tenderness and honesty, The Maidenheads is a novel about the tenacity of first love, the life-changing power of music, and the difficult, necessary work of becoming yourself.
Too Fast To Fall
But maybe itโs love at first lap dog?
Yesterday, Piper Murphy was just another dog sitter helping her sister with wedding prep while pretending sheโs over her own broken engagement.
Today, sheโs the fill-in dog sitter for Formula One driver Emilio Baquero. Brooding, gorgeous driver + naughty, cute Lab? Woof, down boy.
When Emilio offers her a five-week gig as his live-in dog nanny in London, Piper canโt help but say yes. Itโs out of her comfort zone, sure, but itโs also a ticket to travel, racing, and caring for a dog she already adores. All while escaping the wedding planning thatโs put her failures front and center.
Only being under the same roof means thereโs no escaping Emilioโs intensity, or grumpiness. Piper tries to be a sunny presence, but their clashes just fuel the slow-burn tension to something near combustible.
Because falling for your boss is risky when you have a broken heart. Falling for your famous boss and his adorable dog? Thatโs a crash waiting to happen.
Too Fast to Fall is part of the Fast Track series from Karen Booth. Don't miss the first book, Not So Fast.
Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You
Isolated in a dreary Bogotรก apartment, Ignacioโs light has dimmed, leaving his teenage daughter Valentina to raise herself in the wake of her motherโs death. Valentina longs to discover the details of her motherโs drowning and for Ignacio to snap out of his depressionโhis listless afternoons spent smoking cigarettes in long blonde wigs, telenovelas humming in the background, haunted by memories of the young man he loved and betrayed.
From Ignacioโs dark past emerges the luminous Mamadora Elรฉctrica, the wise travesti who introduced Ignacio to the cityโs queer scene years prior. Stepping into a maternal role for Valentina, Mamadora fears the that Ignacioโs self-loathing may have unleashed a curse on them all. A profound and irreverent story about coming undone, Pretend Youโre Dead and I Carry You affirms Juliรกn Delgado Lopera as a brilliant and singular voiceโโa writer who is grinding their own colorsโ (Dwight Garner, The New York Times).
Vesper
Fiercely witty and sharply narrated, VESPER is an anti-romance literary novel about independence, love, and self-discovery through the eyes of consultant Vesper. Blending the cultural zeitgeist of Sex and the City with the philosophical depth of Milan Kundera, itโs perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton, Sarah Rose Etter and Adelle Waldman.
Vesper Elsegood is in love. With being single.
She can't understand why any of her friends would want to settle down. Because if she's learnt anything about New York's ruthless dating scene, it's that love is an ever-changing concept, a silly game, and there are rarely any winners.
But when Caspian walks into her life, an enigmatic and ambitious entrepreneur with a vision for launching a prestigious global prize to celebrate philosophical thinking, Vesper is momentarily undone. And as the chemistry between them intensifies, she soon finds herself re-examining everythingโher relationships, her career, her ability to rewrite her own story.
In this restless city, where everyone seems fixated on either finding themselves or finding their perfect match, Vesper must decide whether she's met the one she wasn't looking for, or if she's the only one she really needsโฆ
A bold and unapologetic observation of what it means to be a single woman in New York City, Marks' debut novel is equal parts emotional portrait, cultural inquiry, and contemporary coming-of-ageโa story about subverting gender norms, dismantling inherited narratives, and choosing a life that is wholly oneโs own.
The Memory Foundation
Wealthy clients looking for the cure for memory loss find themselves trapped in a remote mountainous facility in this ingenious thriller, perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and Alex Michaelides.
Struggling new single mom Natasha Walker is desperate to get back to her job as an investigative journalist. When she receives an anonymous tip about the Memory Foundation, a secretive research clinic that promises the cure for memory loss, she is instantly intrigued. Given her motherโs dementia diagnosis, the story hits close to home. Despite the perilous snowbound location, sheโs determined to uncover the truth about the mysterious founders and their patients.
Meanwhile, Lydia Hunter has faithfully worked alongside her husband, Wade, the founder of the Memory Foundation, to revolutionize the way the world understands memory. But the research is expensive, and theyโre hemorrhaging money. In order to gain more financial support, they open up the facility to an exclusive group of wealthy guests, promising that each one will experience a โmemory flightโ that will allow them to relive precious memories.
But when the wealthy clients arrive at the Memory Foundation, set high in the Alps in an area prone to avalanches, all is not what it seems. And when the weather takes a turn for the worse and power outages and a growing sense of paranoia begin affecting everybody, it becomes clear that no one at the Memory Foundation will ever be the sameโand not everyone will survive the week.
The Player's Promise
Anna's not looking for love. Fresh out of a divorce, she needs an escape. One reckless night of fun - and the gorgeous Irishman who buys her a drink at the bar promises exactly that. No last names, no strings, just fireworks.
Liam's used to hiding behind his game face. But after a brutal betrayal and an even messier brawl, he's lost everything: his football career, his team, and his reputation. A one-night stand with a stranger? Just the distraction he needs. He never expected to see Anna again...until she turns out to be his son's new teacher.
Anna knows she shouldn't get involved with a student's father, especially not him. But Liam's not the man the tabloids say he is. He's everything she thought she wasn't ready for. Which makes him so much worse.
Bestselling author and TikTok sensation Tierney Page returns with Book 3 in the London Hearts series - a spicy forbidden romance about second chances, secrets and lies that will sweep you away!
I Hear a New World
It's 1958 and Dennis Knuckleyard has decided to leave his adventures in the Great When in the past where they belong. For nine years, he's avoided so much as thinking about the magical version of London, until he rediscovers an unpleasant reminder of his last adventure-a key that he'd secretly brought into his own world from the other for safekeeping.
But while Dennis may believe he's done with the Great When, it's far from done with him. When Dennis gives the key to a friend, its magical properties reawaken, bringing creatures from the other world into Dennis's and sparking riots in Notting Hill. Even worse, Dennis's old crush Grace Shilling has been forced into the Great When to investigate strange happenings in both cities.
Desperate to keep Grace safe, Dennis follows her into Long London. But once inside the other city, it will not let him go away again so easily, and Dennis and Grace must fight to set things right in the Great When and their own world, or forever lose their lives-and each other.
Full of Moore's characteristically stunning world building and rollicking prose, I Hear a New World is the extraordinary second adventure in the Long London series.
House of Margins
Anaya Sebeya is missing.
Before her disappearance, Anaya was a brilliant a rising star. Invited to a prestigious writing residency at Gรผnter Huis, an eerie colonial mansion on the slopes of Devilโs Peak, Anaya was supposed to craft the next great African literary masterpieceโand so were four other young, emerging writers, all competing for the grand prize. But Anaya never made it home.
When a sensationalized true crime podcast about Anaya emerges, claiming to reveal everything that happened at Gรผnter Huis, her sister Ranewa is both skeptical and furious. But with each surreal episode, Ranewa begins to piece together a truth worse than she ever could have imaginedโฆ
At Gรผnter Huis, Anayaโs nightmares consume her. Time slips away from her. Gรผnter Huis inflicts distorted visions and terrible supernatural visitations, pushing Anaya to tell a story no one dares. But exorcising the houseโs endless cycle of evil requires a sacrifice that neither Anaya nor her fellows are ready to make.
In House of Margins, award-winning Motswana author Tlotlo Tsamaase delivers a mesmerizing story of a young generation facing colonialismโs cultural legacy in Africa.
Half Wylde
*****
When an unexpected attack on the nearby village effectively renders Wren homeless, she encounters the wild and frightening Thain, who would take her to the Wyldes: the land of the fae creatures. As a half breed raised among humans, Wren was shunned for her non-human half and taught to fear the fae. Now that she's living among them, she has to face her fears and accept her own heritage in order to live among them. But as the mystery of her parentage begins to unravel, Wren might find herself in more danger than she could have ever imagined.
Book 1 of the Wylde Series
Cash and Gravity
โ Stephen Graham Jones, NYT Bestselling author of The Only Good Indians
A thrilling sci-fi western and the first in a genre- and mind-bending series bearing shades of Old Manโs War, Murderbot Diaries, and The Monkey Wrench Gang.
A high-stakes chase across the American West. A device that could change the world. Three unlikely allies thrown together by fate.
In the not so distant future, six mega corporations and their privatized armies have supplanted the American government. They compete for resources, market position, and the ultimate long game prize of colonizing the stars.
Chevy Cole left her conservative family behind for life as a Launch Tech marine and never looked back, proud of her role as a first-into-the-fire grunt, even if she were well below the revered female super soldiers known as Aces. When rumors spread that one of the Big Six has created a fusion device that would put the stars within reach, all-out war looms.
After the catastrophic failed siege of a Nevada mine leaves most of her comrades dead, Chevy encounters a dying Ace in possession of a mysterious package and a this Ace is a man. Joined by Dolon, an aging mercenary "phantom" sent by Launch Tech to transport the package to an Idaho safehouse, the three form an uneasy alliance.
As they try to outrun a rival corporationโs ruthless agents across the desert in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Chevy realizes that their survival may also determine who controls the future. But when greed is the only rule of law, who can she trust?
When the Forest Dreams
New York City, 2013. Emmaโs life is as dry as day-old breadโworking at her familyโs bakery, birdwatching in central park, and dreaming a recurring dream that feels more real than her waking world. Meanwhile, her handsome, wealthy neighbor Jake exists just out of reach, part of a world sheโs never dared to step into.
But when a life-changing diagnosis forces Emma to rethink everything, she decides itโs time to truly liveโbefore itโs too late. After unlikely circumstances bring her and Jake together, she dives into a fake engagement whirlwind of dazzling parties, an unexpected modeling job, and an obsession with a bird that may not even existโthe elusive ivory-billed woodpecker. Her search takes her deep into the Arkansas wilderness, where she hopes to find more than just a rare creature. But just as she begins to embrace a future she never thought possible, everything is turned upside down. Will hope be enough to guide her through the storm?
A moving tale of love, resilience, and the beauty of the unknown, The Green Forestโa modern retelling of L. M. Montgomeryโs The Blue Castleโreminds us all to seek joy in the most unexpected places.
The Chowder House Murder
Ever since Halibut Coveโs popular eatery, The Chowder House, started serving matriarch Maggie Holbrookโs famous clam chowder itโs been in high demand. Cooked up at the restaurant by Maggieโs ambitious 19-year-old granddaughter, Audrey, the dish even has a regular nightly customer, retiree Chips Hogan. . . . Until one fateful Sunday night.
After serving Chips his chowder, Audrey rushes off to Maggieโs hilltop home for the weekly family dinner with the rest of the Holbrooksโher three uncles, and her mom, Jill. But before the mealโs end, Jill, a police chief, gets an alarming call. Chips has been found in the streetโdead. Jill races out to investigate . . . and is shocked to learn Chipsโ chowder was poisoned.
When a Chowder House server recalls seeing local diner cook Waldo Duggan in the alley that same evening, he becomes a suspect. And when itโs uncovered that Waldo bitterly believed the Holbrooks stole the lucrative chowder recipe from the Duggans in the 1930โs, heโs only further implicated . . .
Despite everything, Maggie canโt believe Waldo would murder anyone. For fair-minded Maggie, to keep an innocent man out of jail, and to ease Audreyโs guilt over serving the chowder, thereโs no choice but to team-up to crime solve. Soon grandmother and granddaughter are immersed in a stew of rivalries, long held feuds, and looming threats. Because beneath the surface, even a pretty town has its ugly side . . .
The Architect
โRemember what your name means. Iโm so sorry.โ
Just two weeks before her final architecture exams, Sloane Connolly receives this cryptic handwritten note from her estranged mother. When her calls go unanswered, Sloane returns to her hometown in northwest Massachusetts to discover that her mother has vanished. A thorough search turns up no trace of herโand the police are ultimately forced to give up and rule her disappearance a suicide.
As Sloane deals with the aftermath, she distracts herself by taking on a mysterious to design a memorial for six strangers whose connection to her anonymous clientโknown to her only as The Employerโis deliberately kept in the dark. To complete this project, Sloane must trace the lives of all six individuals and uncover the hidden links between them. With the promise of a multimillion-dollar payday and a prestigious jump start to her career, itโs an opportunity too important to pass up.
But as the trail pulls her from Maine to Miami, Sloane begins to realize that the memorial is far more than just an academic exercise. The secrets she uncovers begin to weave dangerously into her own familyโs tragic history, forcing her to question everything she thought she knewโand to discover for herself just how far sheโs willing to go to survive.
Teddy Bears Never Die
When the fledgling coastal town of Yamu is rocked by a mass-poisoning attack at the Seaview Parc, a luxury high-rise meant to revitalize the city, Hwayoung is one of many who lost family members. Except, she has never believed that her mother was poisoned. Now, fueled by grief and a desire for revenge, Hwayoung spends her time hustling to save every penny and bring those responsible to justice.
Across town, Doha wakes up in a teddy bear and realizes something sinister has taken his body. When fate brings Hwayoung and Doha together, the two team up for a revenge quest that will shake the city's shiny faรงade to its rotten core.
This time, revenge is not just personalโit's supernatural.
How to Lose a Laird
Despite their village's wild, insistent rumors, middle sister Freya MacLeod is no more a witch than her extraordinary siblings. Quiet and observant, she can't control the weatherโalthough her magnificently skilled drawings often predict it. But now a very different sort of storm has besieged their home of Castle Cairncross. When Freyaโs fearless younger sister disappears and is accused of murder, Freya is determined to prove her innocenceโand bring her back. That means matching wits with a warriorโno matter how dangerous he may be . . .
A reluctant laird, Callum is glad to escape his clanโs intrigues. But helping to protect Castle Cairncross as a favor to a friend is far more difficult than he thought. Especially when the seemingly timid Freya eludes him, his battle-honed instinctsโand enrages the village into putting a bounty on both their heads . . .
As they flee, Freya is stunned to see how caringโand vulnerableโCallum can be. . . . But he must keep his growing feelings for her hidden in order to honor a secret promise to his clan. Yet as their peril increases, they may find that battling side-by-side will uncover something more precious than gold . . .
Wimmy Road Boyz
Set over the course of a single, surreal night, Wimmy Road Boyz follows three British-Muslim men in their early 20s who drive up and down Manchesterโs Curry Mile, bringing all sorts of baggage with them.
In pursuit of a wild time, these boys donโt yet know that their first night out in so long will also be their last. WIMMY ROAD BOYZ is a blistering story of masculinity, violence and love set over the course of a single, surreal night from a wholly original new British talent.
The Lost Soldiers
Faced with such a fantastical conundrum, Samson resorts to a fantastical investigation stitching his operative's severed ear into a bathhouse worker's jacket, he is able to eavesdrop on his every move. But he discovers far more than he bargained for, uncovering human remains in the stoves and the presence of a sinister religious cult in the city.
With his quick-witted new wife Nadezhda at his side, Samson must not only solve the case but navigate the political turmoil that still grips Kyiv as civil war looms and trust between neighbours and comrades is eroded day by day.
In this third volume, Andrey Kurkov, Ukraine's greatest living novelist, and a true master of absurd storytelling, vividly depicts a city filled with political turbulence and eccentric characters - and draws playful parallels with the present day.
How to Train Your Billionaire
Accountant Frankie Anderson seems down for the count. Laid off, single, and desperate for a fresh start, she takes an unlikely job as travel companion to billionaire Charles Winthropโa grandfatherly eccentric with a private jet and a soft spot for strays. The perks? Staying in luxury estates, sun-soaked days in Hawaii, and glamorous nights on the French Riviera. The catch? His nephew.
Hayes Winters is grumpy, guarded, and annoyingly good-looking. Their first encounterโa spat erupting from her all-out battle with a broken vending machineโconvinces him he doesnโt want Frankie anywhere near him or his family. He doesnโt trust her motives, and she doesnโt care what he thinks. But somewhere between late-night omelets and lavender fields, their banter turns into something neither of them expected.
And maybe, just maybe, thatโs exactly what old Charles had in mind. Because sometimes the best journeys arenโt the ones you planโtheyโre the ones that lead you home.
In Love and Revenge
Sheโs the woman whoโll stop at nothing to get justice.
Even if it means getting uncomfortably close to the man she hates.
Rafael devastatingly handsome, notoriously difficult billionaire CEO of Fairfax Guardian. His staff alternately love him and loathe him.
Heโs also the brother of my best friend, Dove. I have every reason to despise him after I hear him talking about my father one day. Unfortunately, I need him too.
Because my father is in prison for fraud, and Iโm determined to get him released. If I can get close to Rafael by working for his company, Iโm confident I can prove his innocence.
It wonโt be easy. Rafael is adamant that my father is a crook, and seems personally invested in him staying in prison. But if dealing with Rafael is the price I have to pay for justice, then so be it. He might be cold and grouchy, and glare at me like he hates me. But just sometimes I catch him looking at me and thereโs a flicker of something else entirelyโฆ
In Love and Revenge is a sizzling billionaire boss, enemies to lovers, dual point of view romance, starring gorgeous, arrogant CEO Rafael Fairfax and his secret obsession, beautiful, determined Aurora Thorne, thatโs perfect for fans of T L Swan and Rosa Lucas.
The Nightmare Keeper
Azalee Saunders is a dream wielder whose wellness magic calms a troubled nightโs sleep. Her enemy since childhood, Gabriel Ford, is the grandson of the High Witch, Salemโs honored protector, and was raised to distrust all who share Azaleeโs powers. But when Azalee saves Gabrielโs life, the life debt makes him a dream wielder tooโa secret that could cost him succession to his grandfatherโs reign.
For Azalee, fighting the dangerous myth that dream wielders stalk, unchecked, through strangersโ dreamscapes is vital. Especially as the publicโs fears and bigotry escalate amid a string of murders in Salem. Azalee knows this is the work of Nightmares, whose mutated magic frightens people to death in their sleep. To prove it, she needs the help of an adversary. After all, Gabriel owes her big-time.
As the death toll rises, Azaleeโs sacred gift and future are at stake, and she and Gabriel must work together. But for both of them, uncovering the truth and vanquishing the real evil in Salem will be a nightmare.
The Land and Its People
He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh's hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds and fails. He buys his sister a cape and discusses his brother with a jaded Duolingo bot. He walks dozens of miles with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. Ever adding to his list of "Countries I Have Been To," he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest's cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo.
There is sadness here--scrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceased--but also delight: he revels in authors' biographies, the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke, and pair of well-made cotton underpants. He is bitten by a dog. A train passenger vomits in his face. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn't. Look how hard it is to be alive!
Throughout these essays--at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound--Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.
All We Say
For 250 years, we have debated what it means to be American. This question shaped the compromises in our Constitution and the arguments weโve been having ever sinceโspawning abolitionism, secession, and civil war; populism, mass migration, and global leadership; movements for reform and the backlashes to them. In All We Say, Ben Rhodes tells the story of fifteen speechesโsome iconic, others long forgottenโwhich have both shaped and reflected the argument Americans have been having from our founding to the intense divisions of our time.
Through riveting and beautifully rendered accounts of the people, movements, and moments that produced these speeches, Rhodes traces the history of our battle over identity. The result is a singular and revealing portrait of America itself: a nation divided between two storiesโone of inheritance, power, and exclusion, the other of equality, striving, and belonging. Drawing on a decade writing for Barack Obama, Rhodes also shows us how words can redirect a nation, what makes a speech enduring, and why oratory is a unique form of persuasion in American democracy.
From Benjamin Franklinโs call for compromise at the Constitutional Convention, to Alexander Stephensโ case for white supremacy as the cornerstone of the Confederacy; from Martin Luther Kingโs dream of true equality to Donald Trumpโs rallying cry against democracy itself, these speeches remind us that history is a living argument. At a time when American identityโand truthโis contested, All We Say offers a fresh and powerful look at who we really are and who we could still become.
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments down below.




Leave a Comment