May 20, 2025 New Book Releases

May 20 New Book Releases

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May 20 new book releases week is shaping up to be a feast for every kind of reader. At the center of the chatter sits Rachel Gillig’s The Knight and the Moth, a fog-drenched romantasy where Sybil, a dream-gifted prophetess, must work alongside the one knight whose fate is hidden from her. The hefty hardcover lands on May 20 and already looks like the book everyone will be passing to a friend.

While you wait for release day, check out two of our new posts: summary, review, and ending-explained deep-dive for Count My Lies by Sophie Strava, plus our April Reading Recap that breaks down everything we devoured last month. Both are perfect teasers before you dive into this week’s haul.

Where do you find out about new books?📚

Where do you find out about new books?📚

This blog (Well thank you 😌)
27 votes
25.5%
BookTok
28 votes
26.4%
Bookstagram
14 votes
13.2%
Goodreads
20 votes
18.9%
Friends
2 votes
1.9%
Whatever catches my eye at the bookstore
7 votes
6.6%
Author Newsletters / Blogs
2 votes
1.9%
Other (reveal your secret source in the comments 👀📚)
6 votes
5.7%
Total votes: 106
The Knight and the Moth cover

The Knight and the Moth

Author Rachel Gillig
Genres Fantasy, Romantasy, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Gothic, Adult, Fiction
Series The Stonewater Kingdom #1
Publication Date Expected publication May 20, 2025

From BookTok sensation and NYT bestselling author Rachel Gillig, comes the next big romantasy phenomenon: a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a prophetess who is forced beyond the safety of her cloister on an impossible quest to defeat the gods with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight.

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

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Rewind It Back

Author Liz Tomforde
Genres Romance, Sports Romance, Sports, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Hockey, Fiction
Publication Date May 20, 2025

When I was eleven, my family moved next door to his.
When I was thirteen, he was my first crush.
When I was sixteen, we fell for each other.
And when I was nineteen, we broke each other’s hearts.

Six years later, I’ve landed an internship with a big-name interior designer in a new city. Unfortunately, that city just so happens to be the one he plays hockey for.

I thought Chicago was big enough to avoid him, until I get the surprise of a lifetime and unknowingly move in right next door. Even worse? The renovation project I’m assigned to in hopes of turning that internship into my full-time dream job…

It’s house.

But how am I supposed to update his bachelor pad into a family home when we can’t even stand to be in the same room?

I may have loved Rio DeLuca once, but I’m not that same girl anymore.

I never thought I’d be the only single one left in my friend group. But after years of trying to find love, I’ve concluded it may not exist for me anymore.

That is, until I accidentally hire Hallie Hart to renovate my house and our jaded history has me rewinding memories I’ve kept secret for years.

You see, there’s something that my friends don’t know.

That connection I’ve been looking for since I moved to Chicago, that one person some search their entire lives to find… I had already found her when I was twelve years old.

And now the only girl I’ve ever loved is moving into the house next door.

Again.

The Love Haters cover

The Love Haters

Author Katherine Center
Genres Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Audiobook, Chick Lit, Adult
Publication Date May 20, 2025
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
Left of Forever cover

Left of Forever

Author Tarah DeWitt
Genres Romance, Second Chance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Second Chance Romance, Forced Proximity, Small Town Romance
Publication Date May 20, 2025
An emotional, spicy, second-chance romance from USA Today bestselling author Tarah DeWitt.

This time, they’ll get it right.


Wren and Ellis Byrd fell in love as kids, had their son Sam when they were only teenagers, and built a life together in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon. They were made for one another…until they fell apart.

Now divorced and in their 30s, Wren runs the bakery in town, while Ellis works as a firefighter. They live separate lives, though they are hardly off each other’s minds.

When Sam gets accepted into college and the pair help him move in together, Ellis convinces Wren to take an extended road trip back to Spunes with him to see if they can give their relationship one last chance. Amid the gorgeous scenery of the California coastline, dreamy destinations, and a great deal of long-yearned-for proximity, Wren starts to think it just might be possible. But the two still have to contend with their tumultuous past in order to move forward. And when spoken words fail, sometimes the written word must bridge the gap.
Will they make the most of what’s left of forever? Or will they let each other go for good?

Brimming with big feelings and packed with steam, Left of Forever is bestseller Tarah DeWitt at the top of her game.
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The Memory Collectors

Author Dete Meserve
Genres Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery Thriller
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Four strangers time travel to the past and find themselves stuck on the day all their lives were changed in this stunning speculative mystery from award-winning film and television producer Dete Meserve, perfect for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Wrong Place Wrong Time and The Paradox Hotel.

What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past? Four strangers in the beach town of Ventura, California are about to find out. 

Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake.

Enter Aeon Expeditions, the groundbreaking time travel invention of Mark Saunders—which allows some lucky clients  the chance to spend an hour in their past. Even though Aeon’s technology ensures time travel can’t alter the future, all four clients, including Mark’s ex-wife Elizabeth, yearn to revisit the hour that changed their lives forever. 

But when their “hour” extends beyond sixty minutes, they find themselves stranded in the past. As their paths intertwine unexpectedly, they unearth shocking secrets hidden in the shadows of their shared All their lives were shattered the same night on a secluded highway by the beach. As they delve into the hidden truths of that pivotal hour, a startling revelation emerges. They were not alone. Someone else was present, harboring deadly intentions.

The Memory Collectors is a heart-wrenching, genre-bending novel brimming with hope, grief and second chances.

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The Starving Saints

Author Caitlin Starling
Genres Horror, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Historical
Publication Date May 20, 2025
From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.
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Heart of the Sun

Author Mia Sheridan
Genres Romance, Dystopia, Contemporary, Second Chance, Audiobook, Contemporary Romance, Slow Burn
Publication Date May 20, 2025
For a limited time only. From mega-bestseller and TikTok sensation Mia Sheridan comes an all-new epic second-chance romance with an unexpected and gritty speculative twist, in deluxe paperback with beautiful sprayed edges and foil detail. Pre-order your copy today!

When the world is plunged into darkness, who would you turn to?


Amid the sun-drenched orange groves of California, childhood friends Tuck Mattice and Emily Swanson shared a bond that seemed unbreakable—until life ripped them apart.

Thirteen years later, Emily is a rising pop sensation in need of security, and Tuck, a brooding ex-con, is in need of a fresh start. When fate brings them together once again, Emily hires him on as her new bodyguard. They butt heads and bicker, just like the old days—yet neither can deny the heat rekindling between them.

But when a cataclysmic solar flare disrupts the electrical grid, society is suddenly plunged into chaos and darkness. For Emily, the familiar comforts of fame and fortune crumble, but for Tuck, this stark new reality could be the chance he needs to finally prove himself. As they come to terms with all they’ve lost and the bitterness that’s kept them apart, they must find their way back to one another and discover a new place, under the sun.

For fans of:
• Enemies to Lovers
• Childhood Best Friends
• Slow Burn Romance
• Second Chances
• Popstar + Bodyguard
• New Adult Dystopian fiction
• The HBO show The Last of Us
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Aftertaste

Author Daria Lavelle
Genres Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Paranormal, Magical Realism, Horror, Ghosts
Publication Date May 20, 2025
What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of Under the Whispering Door with the high-stakes culinary world of Sweetbitter, Aftertaste is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.

Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around Kostya ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes for them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. He thinks his life’s purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers, and sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, Aftertaste is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger—and how far we’d go to find satisfaction.

Lavelle’s debut is a multi-course tasting menu of a book that will sate, delight, excite, comfort, and inspire even the pickiest of readers.
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The Last Ferry Out

Author Andrea Bartz
Genres Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Adult, Suspense, LGBT
Publication Date May 20, 2025
On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident—and the killer’s still on the island—in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here.

When Abby decided to come to Isla Colel, she wasn’t sure what—if anything—she’d find. She only knew that she needed to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died, to try and make sense of everything that happened. 

The island is nothing like Abby expected; though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane a few years earlier left it a shell of its former self, with only a few locals and expats remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now only runs every week or so.

There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s last days.  Before she can see him, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the other expats are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.

As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects one of them is Eszter’s killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will she discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
Whistle cover

Whistle

Author Linwood Barclay
Genres Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Paranormal, Supernatural
Publication Date May 20, 2025
“Terrific.”— Stephen King on Whistle

New York Times bestselling author Linwood Barclay enters new territory with a supernatural chiller in which a woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.

Evil has a one track mind…

Annie Blunt has had an unimaginably terrible year. First, her husband was killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident, then one of the children’s books she’s built her writing and illustrating career on ignited a major scandal. Desperate for a fresh start, she moves with her son Charlie to a charming small town in upstate New York where they can begin to heal.

But Annie’s year is about to get worse.

Bored and lonely in their isolated new surroundings, Charlie is thrilled when he finds a forgotten train set in a locked shed on their property. Annie is glad to see Charlie happy, but there’s something unsettling about his new toy. Strange sounds wake Annie in the night—she could swear she hears a train, but there isn’t an active track for miles—and bizarre things begin happening in the neighborhood. Worse, Annie can’t seem to stop drawing a disturbing new character that has no place in a children’s book.

Grief can do strange things to the mind, but Annie is beginning to think she’s walked out of one nightmare straight into another, only this one is far more terrifying…
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Behooved

Author M. Stevenson
Genres Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy Romance, Adult, Fiction, Queer
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A charming slow-burn romantasy featuring a duty-bound noblewoman with a chronic illness, a prince who would rather be in a library than on a throne, and a magical ride through a world of cozy enchantment

*This beautiful paperback edition features sprayed edges.*

Bianca knows her duty comes before her heart. So when the threat of war looms, she agrees to marry the neighboring kingdom’s heir. But not all royal weddings are a fairytale, and Prince Aric, Bianca’s betrothed, is cold, aloof, and seems to hate her on sight.

To make matters worse, on their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes awry―leaving Aric magically transformed into a horse. Bianca does what any bride in this situation would do: she mounts her new husband and rides away to safety.

Sunset returns Aric to human form, but they soon discover the assassination attempt is part of a larger plot against the throne. Worse, Bianca has been framed for Aric’s murder, and she’s now saddled with a husband who is a horse by day and a frustratingly attractive man by night.

As an unexpected romance begins galloping away with their hearts, Bianca and Aric must rely on each other to unravel the curse and save the throne.
We Live Here Now cover

We Live Here Now

Author Sarah Pinborough
Genres Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Gothic, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Adult
Publication Date May 20, 2025
After an accident that nearly kills her, Emily and her husband, Freddie, move from London to a beautiful Dartmoor country house called Larkin Lodge. The house is gorgeous, striking—and to Emily, something about it feels deeply wrong. Old boards creak at night; fires extinguish; and books fall from the shelves—all of it stemming from the terrible presence she feels in the third-floor room.

But these things happen only when Emily is alone, so are they happening at all? She is still medically fragile. Her post-sepsis condition can cause hallucinatory side effects, which means she cannot fully trust her senses. Freddie does not notice anything odd and is happy with their chance at a fresh start. She, however, starts to believe the house is haunted by someone who had been murdered in it even though she can find no evidence of a wrongful death. As bizarre events pile up and her marriage starts to crumble, Emily becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about Larkin Lodge. But just as the house has secrets so do Emily and her husband.
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Wandering Wild

Author Lynette Noni
Genres Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Adventure, Contemporary Romance, Survival
Publication Date May 20, 2025
She hates him. He needs her. Can they survive when all they have is each other?

Zander Rune was the darling of Hollywood until he fell from glory and was labelled a problematic bad boy. His public image needs fixingfastor he’ll lose the role of a lifetime, and all his dreams with it.

Charlie Hart is a regular teenage girl who despises everything Zander represents. But thanks to her scheming best friend and an ill-timed social media competition, Charlie finds herself pretending to be Zander’s biggest fan on a four-day reality TV adventure led by renowned survivalist Rykon Hawke.

When their trip goes horribly wrong, Charlie and Zander are left stranded in the wilderness. No Rykon, no film crew, no rescue. The only way they’ll survive is if they trust each other. But in order to do so, both will have to let go of the ghosts of their pasts, and just maybe find themselvesand one anotherin the process.
Bad Publicity cover

Bad Publicity

Author Bianca Gillam
Genres Romance, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Second Chance
Publication Date May 20, 2025

A sparkling rom-com in which an unexpected reunion could lead to a career-ending catastrophe or a second-chance romance . . .

When Andie lands her dream job as a senior book publicist, she’s ready to take the world of New York publishing by storm.

Until her first day, when she discovers that her biggest author is Jack Carlson—the same Jack who ruined her life at university. Whom she hasn’t spoken to in five years. Who is not only still infuriatingly hot but also incredibly successful. And whose campaign she definitely cannot mess up, if she wants to keep her job.

To make matters even worse, the central part of this career-defining campaign is a book tour. For a month, Andie will have to travel across Europe with the man whom, if she were being totally honest, she’d like to hit with her car.

But she will not lose this opportunity, especially not because of him. One month on tour with Jack Carlson, visiting some of the most romantic spots in Europe. Deep breath. She can do this.

The Butcher’s Daughter: The Hitherto Untold Story of Mrs. Lovett cover

The Butcher’s Daughter: The Hitherto Untold Story of Mrs. Lovett

Author Corinne Leigh Clark
Genres Horror, Historical Fiction, Gothic, Thriller, Historical, Retellings, Adult
Publication Date May 20, 2025
The story of the vengeful barber Sweeney Todd has gripped fans across literary, stage, and screen renditions—but little has been told of Mrs. Lovett, Todd’s partner in crime. Until now.

Enclosed herewith: a bloodcurdling correspondence of horror and intrigue, based on the original Victorian penny dreadful that started it all.

“Your fingers may bleed with paper cuts as you tear through The Butcher’s Daughter . . . I am spellbound.”—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

London, 1887: At the abandoned apartment of a missing young woman, a dossier of evidence is collected, ordered chronologically, and sent to the Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police. It contains a frightening correspondence between an inquisitive journalist, Miss Emily Gibson, and the woman Gibson thinks may be the infamous Mrs. Lovett—Sweeney Todd’s accomplice, “a wicked woman” who baked men into pies and sold them in her pie shop on Fleet Street. The talk of London Town—even decades after her horrendous misdeeds.

As the woman relays the harrowing account of her life—from her upbringing on Butcher’s Row in the unruly streets of Victorian London to her daring escape from a mad doctor—her missives unlock an intricate mystery that brings Miss Gibson closer to the truth, even as that truth may cost her everything.

A hair-raising and breathtaking novel for fans of Sarah Waters and Gregory Maguire, The Butcher’s Daughter is an irresistible literary thriller that draws richly from historical sources and shines new light on the woman behind the counter of the most disreputable pie shop ever known.
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Fallen Court

Author Geneva Lee
Genres Fantasy, Romantasy, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Fae, Contemporary, Modern
Publication Date May 20, 2025
One fae prince. One deadly bargain. And a mortal caught between desire and damnation.

Cate thought she knew darkness. As a trauma nurse, she had witnessed the worst of humanity. But nothing―not the blood, the violence, or the despair―could have prepared her for the fae underworld. A realm where beauty is a weapon, desire is a trap, and mortals who stray too far don’t return.

She almost didn’t.

Until Lachlan Gage―shadowed, ruthless, and feared even among his own kind―bound her to him with a deadly bargain. As the prince of New Orleans and ruler of the Nether Court, he is as much a curse as he is salvation. And with the Wild Hunt at his heels and war stirring between the fae courts, even his protection may not be enough to save her.

Because Cate is more than just his reluctant mortal. She is wanted. Coveted. And the prince of the Hallow Court will do anything to claim her.

But something ancient is rising in the dark, warping fae magic into something unnatural and cruel. It has nothing to do with Cate’s past―or so she tells herself. Even though the ring left behind by her mother whispers otherwise.

There is only one thing more dangerous than the fae who would kill for her.

The fae who would die for her.

And Lachlan Gage has never been one to lose.
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Rebel in the Deep

Author Katee Robert
Genres Fantasy, Romance, Pirates, Romantasy, LGBT, Adult, Fantasy Romance
Publication Date May 20, 2025
The rebellion’s fight turns into a battle for their hearts aboard the next sexy fantasy romance from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of Hunt on Dark Waters.

Nox has been steadfastly working as a quartermaster for the rebellion for years. They don’t ask for much in return, except for one crucial condition—their ex, the noble Lord Bastian, stays as far away from them as possible. To say things ended poorly between them is a gross understatement . . . and it’s the only relationship Nox has never quite recovered from.

But now the rules have changed. Siobhan, the rebel leader, has emerged from hiding to tell Nox that Bastian’s involvement in the rebellion has been discovered, and he’s being taken to stand trial in the capital as a traitor. The fate of the entire rebellion now rests on Nox and Siobhan’s ability to rescue Bastian from the Cŵn Annwn ship.

Saving Bastian is only the start of their hardships, as the trio is tracked by ferocious pirates across Threshold. And Nox’s complicated relationships and entanglements with Bastian and Siobhan put not only their life at risk but their heart on the line.
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Our Last Wild Days

Author Anna Bailey
Genres Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Adult, Suspense, Adult Fiction
Publication Date May 20, 2025
From the author of the “irresistible” (Paula Hawkin, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Where the Truth Lies, an atmospheric novel about a young woman who searches for answers after her estranged friend is found dead in the bayou of their rural Louisiana hometown.

The Labasques aren’t like other families.

Living in a shack out in the swamps, they made do by hunting down alligators and other animals. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are troublemakers and outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want in your community.

So, when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her mother. When she left town at eighteen years old, she betrayed Cutter. Now with a ragtag group from the local paper where she works, Loyal goes in search of answers, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption that implicates those in town. It may be too late to apologize to Cutter, but Loyal has restitution in mind.

Weaving through the swamps and bayous of rural Louisiana, Our Last Wild Days is an atmospheric, smoldering suspense about our darker impulses—and how to set things right.
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Nightshade

Author Michael Connelly
Genres Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Crime, Suspense
Publication Date May 20, 2025
#1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.

Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.” Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

Propulsive and atmospheric, Nightshade launches a brand new character into the Connelly universe, and proves without question that Michael Connelly is “the undisputed master of the modern crime novel” (Real Book Spy).
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Ride with Me

Author Simone Soltani
Genres Romance, Sports Romance, Contemporary, Sports, Adult, Contemporary Romance, Fiction
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A marriage of convenience threatens to go off track in this steamy Formula 1 romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Cross the Line.

Stella Baldwin thought her life couldn’t get worse. Being left at the altar was bad enough, and the drunken rant she posted to her social media followers in the aftermath was the cherry on top. But having to show up at her cousin’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas barely two weeks later feels like a cruel joke.

Thomas Maxwell-Brown is just looking for a good time. With his family’s expectations pressing down, his career as a Formula 1 driver threatened by fresh talent, and a new reputation as the most hated man on the grid, he needs a break to clear his head. And what better way to decompress than with a stag party in Vegas?

Stella isn’t the woman Thomas expects to meet that night. And Thomas isn’t the man Stella expects to wake up next to in the morning—with a ring on her finger. Staying married might be the perfect solution to all their problems, even if it is a little wild. Sometimes, what happens in Vegas doesn’t need to stay there. . . .
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The Doorman

Author Chris Pavone
Genres Mystery, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Audiobook, Suspense
Publication Date May 20, 2025
In the new novel from the bestselling author of Two Nights in Lisbon, on the worst night in the greatest city on Earth, a doorman at the toniest address in town is drawn into a web of intrigue, robbery, and murder.

Chicky Diaz stands on his little patch of the earth, the clean quiet sidewalk in front of the Bohemia Apartments, there sure are a lot of great places to kill someone in this city.

Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, New York City’s world-famous home of celebrities, financiers, and the cultural elite.

Chicky serves at the pleasure of residents like Emily Longworth, who, up in her penthouse, leads a life of her perfect kids in her perfect home, her perfect worries about museum boards, charity work, and so on. Emily’s husband, though . . . perfectly wealthy, but she has quietly loathed Whit Longworth since well before the revelations that he’s a private-equity war profiteer. But their marriage came with an iron-clad prenup, and Emily can’t bring herself to leave all that. Yet.

Meanwhile, in apartment 2A, there’s nothing perfect about Julian Sonnenberg’s middle-aged life. Already struggling with the indignities of turning fifty—a stale marriage, teenage kids who no longer need him, his work as an art gallerist making him feel culturally obsolete—and now his doctor tells him that he needs openheart surgery, immediately. Things are falling apart awfully fast.

In the basement staff room, the life-and-death stakes of daily life are hardly news to the primarily Black and Latino hospitality. So when the NYPD fatally shoots an unarmed Black man and the streets swell with both protestors and counterprotestors, the staff’s concerns are less about the building and more about their survival—and what justice will look like.

Enter Chicky in his epauletted suit, manning the line between the turbulent streets outside the Bohemia and the far more sanguine world within. And not that the Bohemia’s residents care much (except maybe Emily Longworth), but Chicky has his own problems, the kind that mean that for tonight’s shift, for the first time in thirty years, Chicky will be carrying a gun. Because someone, tonight, is going to die.

In what is far away his best and most ambitious book yet, Chris Pavone has delivered a piercing portrait of the way we live now that is also a finely honed thriller of ticking-clock suspense. The Doorman is a book about class and privilege in a city poised to boil over its proverbial melting pot, and the ever starker divisions testing everything the City likes to believe about itself.
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What Will People Think?

Author Sara Hamdan
Genres Fiction, Contemporary, Coming Of Age, Audiobook
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Mia’s secret comedy career, forbidden office crush, and a long-guarded family secret take center stage, threatening her newfound confidence and her one shot at fame in this hilarious, heartfelt coming-of-age story perfect for fans of Curtis Sittenfeld and Etaf Rum.

Mia Almas has a secret. By day, she works at a respectable job as a media fact checker—a position her conservative, Arab grandparents approve of—and, by night, she takes to the stages of New York City comedy clubs. She holds herself back in a lot of ways, especially in the romance department, but being on stage lights her up and makes being a wallflower the rest of the time more bearable. That is, until Phaedra, her stylish and bold new neighbor, inspires Mia to take a few risks.

As Mia pursues a forbidden romance with her boss, her standup gets better and bolder, leading to a surprise spotlight that exposes her secret gig. Horrified and worried that her rebellious act could mean big consequences for her reserved Palestinian-American family, Mia frantically dives into damage control. But all of her efforts to pull back from the spotlight expose a family scandal from the 1940s that could change everything…

Equal parts funny and tender, What Will People Think? is a heart-bursting exploration of what it means to discover and embrace the hidden parts of yourself, and how love in all forms can make you whole.
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Food Person

Author Adam D. Roberts
Genres Fiction, Food, Foodie, Adult Fiction, Cookbooks, Contemporary
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A delectable comedy of manners about cooking, ambition, and friendship set in the food world as a young and socially awkward writer takes a job ghostwriting the cookbook for a famous (and famously chaotic) Hollywood starlet.

Isabella Pasternack is a food person. She revels in the beauty of a perfectly cooked egg, she daydreams about her first meal at Chez Panisse, and every inch of her tiny apartment teems with cookbooks, from Prune to Cooking by Hand to Roast Chicken and Other Stories. What Isabella is not, unfortunately, is a gainfully employed person. In the wake of a disastrous live-streamed soufflé demonstration, Isabella is summarily fired from her job at a digital food magazine and must quickly find a way to keep herself in buckwheat and anchovy paste. When offered the opportunity to ghostwrite a cookbook for Molly Babcock, the once-beloved television actress now mired in scandal, Isabella warily accepts. Unfortunately, Molly quickly proves herself to be a nightmare hungover, flakey, shallow, and—worst of all—indifferent to food. But between Molly’s bizarre late-night texts, goofy confessions, and impromptu road trips, Isabella reluctantly begins to see Molly’s charms. Can Isabella corral Molly out of the gossip rags and into the kitchen? Can she find the key to Molly’s heart and stomach? Or will Isabella’s devotion to her culinary idols and Molly’s monstrous ego send the entire cookbook—and both of their careers—up in flames?

A mouth-watering, hilarious debut peppered with insider food world detail—the real writers behind celebrity chef cookbooks, the hot restaurants that run on the backs of their sous-chefs, the secret to perfect blinis á la Russe—Adam Roberts’ Food Person is a literary soufflé—a deceptively light, deliciously rich, showstopping confection.
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The Girls of Good Fortune

Author Kristina McMorris
Genres Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Adult, Asian Literature, Adult Fiction, Womens Fiction
Publication Date May 20, 2025

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday and The Ways We Hide 

 She came from a lineage known for good fortune…by those who don’t know the whole story. 

 Portland, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of the notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she’s a “shanghaied” victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor, leaving behind those she loves most. Although well accustomed to adapting for survival—being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment—she fears that far more than her own fate lay at stake. 

 As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, from serving as a maid for the family of a dubious mayor to becoming entwined in the case of a goldminers’ massacre, revelations emerge of a child left in peril. Desperate, Celia must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove even more deadly than the dark recesses of Chinatown.

 A captivating tale of resilience and hope, The Girls of Good Fortune explores the complexity of family and identity, the importance of stories that echo through generations, and the power of strength found beneath the surface.

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Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride

Author Will Leitch
Genres Fiction
Publication Date May 20, 2025
From the award-winning author of How Lucky and The Time Has Come, this heartfelt and humorous novel follows an Atlanta police officer who learns he has months to live and determines to get killed in the line of duty to provide for his son . . . but keeps failing in unexpected ways.

Lloyd McNeil has served as an officer with the Atlanta Police Department for 20 years while being a devoted father to his teenage son. But then he learns the worst possible  He has learned he has an inoperable brain tumor, and he has only months left to live.

Lloyd begins throwing himself into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, but things don’t go according to plan. Instead of dying, he becomes a civic hero. Meanwhile, a malevolent force from his past shadows Lloyd as he tries to get his affairs in order, teach his son the lessons he needs to be a good person, and to say goodbye.

Told in Lloyd’s wistful but wonderfully comedic voice, Untitled is a masterful blend of suspense, humor, and compassion. It is a novel about what we leave behind and what we learn along the way, a bighearted story that brings into focus the depths of a father’s love for his son.
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Marguerite by the Lake

Author Mary Dixie Carter
Genres Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Adult Fiction, Suspense
Publication Date May 20, 2025
From Mary Dixie Carter comes an atmospheric, tense novel about the death of a wealthy garden designer, her lonely widower, and the scrappy young gardener who smoothly steps into her life.

Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. Her presence is overpowering, her taste, legendary. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of the Gray Marguerite and her husband Geoffrey. Phoenix came from humble beginnings, and now she works hard to craft the landscape that underpins Marguerite’s brand.

When a storm threatens the launch party for Marguerite’s latest book, it’s Phoenix who spots the danger to the guests and rushes to Geoffrey’s side to save him from a falling tree. Geoffrey is grateful—perhaps too grateful. Marguerite is . . . jealous. Phoenix senses the danger of being drawn deeper into their lives but can’t resist the attention, becoming embroiled in an affair that could destroy her career.

But soon after the affair begins Marguerite falls to her death, from the same high point at Rosecliff where she posed for Marguerite by the Lake. Now Phoenix has another secret, one that haunts her even as Geoffrey invites her to move into the manor with him. A secret that Detective Hanna and Marguerite’s daughter—her spitting image—are circling closer and closer to. Phoenix tries to put it all behind her and find her rightful place at Rosecliff. But as every gardener knows, nothing stays buried forever.
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Rules for Ruin

Author Mimi Matthews
Genres Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Historical, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery
Publication Date May 20, 2025
No one betrays the Academy. But now Euphemia must decide: break the rules for her enemy, or let the rules break her heart.

On the outskirts of London sits a seemingly innocuous institution with a secretive aim—train young women to distract, disrupt, and discredit the patriarchy. Outraged by a powerful politician’s systematic attack on women’s rights, the Academy summons its brightest—and most bitter—pupil to infiltrate the odious man’s inner circle. A deal is struck: bring down the viscount, and Miss Euphemia Flite will finally earn her freedom.

But betting shop owner Gabriel Royce has other plans. The viscount is the perfect pawn to insulate Gabriel’s underworld empire from government interference. He’s not about to let some crinoline-clad miss destroy his carefully constructed enterprise—no matter how captivating he finds her threats.

From the rookeries of St. Giles to the ballrooms of Mayfair, Euphemia and Gabriel engage in a battle of wits and wills that’s complicated by a blossoming desire. Soon Euphemia realizes it’s not the broken promises to her Academy sisters she should fear. . . . It’s the danger to her heart.
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Death at a Highland Wedding

Author Kelley Armstrong
Genres Mystery, Historical Fiction, Time Travel, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Historical, Audiobook
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth installment in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s gripping Rip Through Time Novels.

After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she’s developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie’s younger sister’s wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who’s been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat’s injuries don’t match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s unique time travel mystery series continues to entertain as Mallory adjusts to life in the 1870s.
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Sike

Author Fred Lunzer
Genres Fiction, Adult
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A story of boy meets girl meets AI therapist, Sike explores our aching pursuit of love and self-control

Adrian earns his living writing lyrics for rappers he never meets, and finds success with a hit song about his own fruitless search for love. After his last relationship ends in a spiral of angst, Adrian decides it’s time to try the new lauded and elite AI psychotherapy app that tracks your every move and emotion, and guides you toward mental contentment.

He soon falls for Maquie, a smart and pragmatic venture capitalist scouring London’s tech scene for the next business boom. She can see no potential investments though, nothing sparkles. She wants to find a business as successful as Sike, and yet she is also one of the holdouts who refuse to use it.

Shifting between Adrian and Maquie’s perspectives as it tracks the fraught first year of their relationship, Sike is a story of two people wrestling with connection, identity, anxiety, success, and the limits of our obsession with self-analysis and awareness.

For fans of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and the modern love stories of Sally Rooney, Fred Lunzer’s debut novel brings us an incisive and intimate deep dive into the reach for clarity by a curious and ambitious, anxious and irresolute generation.
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Courtroom Drama

Author Neely Tubati Alexander
Genres Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Chick Lit, Mystery, Adult Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Legally Blonde and Jury Duty meet The Real Housewives in this high-stakes courtroom love story—a sexy and sweet but heartfelt novel about friendship, romance, and reality television from the acclaimed author of Love Buzz and In a Not So Perfect World.

Sydney Parks thinks she might be the first person in the world to look forward to serving jury duty. When Margot Kitsch, an OG cast member of the hit reality show Authentic Moms of Malibu is arrested after the untimely death of her cast member husband, Joe, Sydney knows being selected for the jury is the most interesting thing that ever happened to her. 

However, it doesn’t take long for Sydney to realize that being part of a sequestered jury in a high-profile case is not at all what legal dramas had led her to expect—especially when she learns that her childhood best friend, Damon, whom she hasn’t seen in ten years, is also a jury member.

As the trial wears on, Sydney realizes there’s a lot more to the case than she first thought. And there’s also a lot more to Damon—she soon finds herself falling under his spell despite the court’s instructions not to fraternize. His tendency to break the rules and find adventure is hard to resist in their otherwise dull juror’s world. But getting close to Damon also means having to face the complicated reasons their friendship abruptly ended just when they were on the precipice of something more.

With all the drama in and out of the courtroom, how is Sydney supposed to ignore the fraught history between them? How is she supposed to avoid him when he’s sitting next to her in the jury box every day with his broad shoulders and intoxicating smell? And how is she supposed to ensure Margot gets a fair trial if her unfinished business with Damon causes the mistrial of the century?
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Making a Killing

Author Cara Hunter
Genres Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Suspense
Publication Date May 20, 2025
From the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok sensation Murder in the Family and the popular DI Adam Fawley series comes a brand-new gripping thriller in which a true-crime TV show turns up the heat on a controversial case from Fawley’s past…

When Nick Vincent, producer of true-crime show Infamous, hears about an explosive new angle on a high-profile case—the 2016 murder of an eight-year-old girl in Oxford—he leaps at the chance to send a researcher to verify the claims.

Two months later, a dog walker discovers a woman’s body, bound and buried in a shallow grave in the woods. Forensic evidence links the corpse to the disappearance of that same child.

DCI Adam Fawley, the original investigating officer, is called in to run the enquiry. And he remembers the case well—he arrested the child’s mother for murder. A murder he now knows she didn’t commit.

The investigation raises more questions than answers. What connects the two crimes? Where has the dead girl been all these years? How did she manage to disappear? For Adam Fawley, this is personal…
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Songs of Summer

Author Jane L. Rosen
Genres Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Adult
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A young woman crashes the wedding of the summer on Fire Island in search of her birth mother—and gets a whole lot more than she bargained for—in this warm, heart-stopping getaway from Jane L. Rosen

Maggie Mae Wheeler is content with her life. At 30, she has grand plans for her vintage record shop in the charming Midwestern town where she grew up, and is soon to be engaged to her childhood best friend.

But when she discovers a letter she wrote to herself at thirteen, being content doesn’t feel like enough anymore—Maggie needs answers to figure out who she is and where she belongs. Since losing her parents, the only family she has ever known, Maggie decides that finding her birth mother is the best place to start.

Her search leads her to Fire Island, an idyllic summer getaway where her birth mother is attending a wedding. As Maggie observes her biological family from a distance, she sees that they come with a lot of… drama. Torn between diving deeper into their world or returning to her peaceful life and cozy relationship, her decision gets more complicated when a handsome local offers to take her to the wedding — if she will pose as his date.

Is it the magic of the island, the rush of the music, the fun of jumping into the weekend’s events with her fake beau? Suddenly, playing the part of his girlfriend starts to feel way too real, and the words to every love song seem to be about them.
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What Not to Do on Vacation

Author Rachel Magee
Genres Romance, Chick Lit, Clean Romance, Adult
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Ten Things I Hate About You meets How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days in this fun story about the special bond between sisters and the often bumpy road of falling in love.

Savannah is determined to reconnect with her two sisters. Her plan? To recreate their epic childhood summers at the beach. She has rented the same beach house, convinced her sisters to clear their calendars for a whole month, and made a bucket list of beach activities they need to relive. A little bit of nostalgia and summer fun will be the perfect antidote to the divide that has been plaguing the Prestley sisters for years. Did the secret she’s hiding have anything to do with her planning the trip? Maybe, but that’s beside the point. The fact is, everyone could use a little vitamin sea in their life. It’s going to be great! What could go wrong?

Bianca has a surprise. She’s getting married! Of course her sisters aren’t as thrilled at the announcement as they should be, which she probably should’ve expected. Her entire life, she’s been trying to prove that just because she’s the youngest doesn’t mean she’s a baby. So maybe she had some trouble getting her act together in the past, but that’s different now. She’s determined to show her sisters just how together her life is. And if the only way to do that is to find a soulmate for her closed-off-sister to prove that the dating site she used to meet her future husband is legit, then Cora better get ready. She’s about to be swept off her feet. Bianca’s going to make sure of it. Who’s the one lacking follow-through now?

Cora knew there was a good reason she does her own thing. It’s because people in general–her sisters specifically–are ridiculous. Bianca needs to give up her delusion that this new relationship will work out perfectly. It won’t. And Savannah needs to let go of her hopes of Cora getting married. It’s not going to happen. She likes being alone. Life is better when she’s alone. Safer. But she’ll go on this date if it will show her sisters just how ludicrous they’re being. And since they set her up with the town playboy who has never been on a second date in his life, proving her point has never been easier. She’s got this all under control.

At least she thinks she has it under control.

Not under control at all.
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Feeders

Author Matt Serafini
Genres Horror, Fiction, Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Adult Fiction, Mystery Thriller
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A would-be influencer’s dreams of online fame spiral into nightmare territory when she encounters a mysterious and dangerous social media platform.

When a video depicting the brutal murder of a former classmate leaks online, Kylie Bennington’s curiosity gets the better of her, leading to the discovery of an off-the-grid social media app called MonoLife. As it turns out, she must adhere to certain cryptic and frightening rules in MonoLife’s user agreement—for this is a platform that primarily rewards the worst in human behavior. Now Kylie’s going to find out just how far she’s willing to go on her unyielding rise to the top—even if that means coming face-to-face with the ruthless forces behind the app.
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All the Perfect Days

Author Michael Thompson
Genres Romance, Fantasy, Adult Fiction, Magical Realism
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Family doctor Charlie Knight is in his late thirties, still playing tennis against the same people every Friday night. Still jogging the same streets every morning. Still treating the same patients every day—fixing the high blood pressure and arthritic knees of folks who’ve known him since he was a kid. But Charlie has a secret plan to escape. A plan to live the life he wants, even if the woman he was meant to do it with has left him behind.

But then Genevieve Longstaff comes back to their hometown, just as something extraordinary happens. Charlie begins to have a vision of the exact number of days a person has left until they die.

Charlie believes it’s a gift. It certainly seems like one—after all, he’s using it to help his patients, family and friends make the most of their to mend relationships, to travel, to retire. But this gift comes with awful consequences, and soon Charlie realizes there are things he doesn’t want to know—especially about the woman he still loves.
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The Ascent

Author Allison Buccola
Genres Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Mystery Thriller
Publication Date May 20, 2025
What would you do if the past showed up on your doorstep? A woman who grew up in a cult must decide if she can trust the stranger claiming to have answers to the dark mysteries of her childhood in this “irresistible”* thriller.

*Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

Twenty years ago, the members of a reclusive commune outside Philadelphia vanished without a trace. The mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. No sightings of the members were ever verified, and no bodies ever found. But the group did leave one thing behind: a twelve-year-old girl wandering alone on the side of the road in search of her lost family.

In the years since that morning, Lee Burton has tried to put the pain of her past behind her. She has built a new identity for herself, with a doting husband and seven-month-old daughter, Lucy. No one in her life now knows about her connection to “the cult that went missing,” not even her husband. But new motherhood is proving a bigger challenge than she anticipated. She doesn’t want to let Lucy out of her sight even for a moment. She can’t return to work. She’s not sleeping, and she’s starting to have paranoid thoughts of Lucy being harmed.

Then a stranger shows up on her doorstep, offering to finally answer all of Lee’s questions about her past—if she could only trust that the woman is who she says she is. As she digs deeper into the woman’s history, the safe, stable life that Lee has constructed for herself threatens to shatter. In The Ascent, Allison Buccola has crafted a nerve-rattling thriller about motherhood, identity, and the truths we think we know about our families.
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Aggregated Discontent: Confessions of the Last Normal Woman

Author Harron Walker
Genres Nonfiction, Essays, Memoir, LGBT, Short Story Collection
Publication Date May 20, 2025
A searing journey through the highs and lows of twenty-first century womanhood from an award-winning journalist beloved for her unflinchingly honest and often comedic appraisals of pop culture, identity, and disillusionment

After a brief fling with corporate stability in her twenty-something cis era, Harron Walker has transitioned into a terminally single freelancer and part-time shopgirl. She’s in the throes of her second adolescence and its requisite daily spirals. She wants it all, otherwise known as: basic human rights, a stable job with good pay and healthcare benefits, someone to love, the ability to feel safe and secure, the pursuit of satisfaction and maybe even contentment. And when she starts to acquire those things—well, as The Monkey’s Paw famously asked, “What could go wrong?”

In sixteen wholly original essays that blend memoir, cultural criticism, investigative journalism, and a dash of fanfiction, Walker places her own experiences within the larger context of the pressing and underdiscussed aspects of contemporary American womanhood that make up daily life. She recounts an attempt to eviscerate a corporation’s attempt at pinkwashing their way into bath bomb sales while simultaneously confronting her “pick me” impulse to do so. She interrogates her relationship to labor, from the irony of working in a transphobic workplace in order to cover gender-affirming surgery to the cruel specter of the girlboss that none of us ever think we’ll become. She explores the allure and violence of assimilating into white womanhood in all its hegemonic glory, exposes the ways in which the truth of trans women’s reproductive healthcare is erased in favor of reactionary narratives, and considers how our agency is stripped from us—by governments, employers, partners, and ourselves—purely on account of our bodies.

With razor-sharp, biting prose that’s as uncompromising as it is playful, Walker grapples with questions of love, sex, fertility, labor, embodiment, community, autonomy, and body fluids from her particular often at the margins, conditionally at the center.
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The Palace of Sinners and Saints

Author Ammar Merchant
Genres Mystery Thriller, Thriller
Publication Date May 20, 2025
In this action-packed thrill ride perfect for fans of Jack Reacher, a small band of mercenaries must infiltrate a 12th-century Middle Eastern castle turned black-site prison, where the life of a hero of democracy hangs in the balance.

Irfan Mirza is the ultimate killing machine. Kidnapped as a child and forced to train to become an elite gun for hire at an “orphanage,” he is now a ruthless, freelance mercenary.

In a wealthy Middle Eastern kingdom surrounded by desert, the despotic King Nimir is determined to quash all dissidents calling for free elections. Billionaires, clerics, influencers, and journalists who dared to challenge King Nimir’s regime have vanished without a trace. Unfortunately for him, the latest person he has “disappeared” happens to be Irfan’s “sister.”

Now things are personal, and Irfan Mirza doesn’t like personal. He likes justice.

Assembling a ragtag team of specialists, a.k.a. his “family,” Irfan sets off on a wild rescue mission, determined to save the imprisoned from a medieval fortress, now transformed into a heavily fortified black-site. The palace is surrounded by endless stretches of uninhabited sand, difficult to approach and impossible to escape.

The Palace of Sinners and Saints is an absolute thrill ride, perfect for fans of Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series, where courage and loyalty reign and anyone who wants freedom must pay a price.
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Slipstream

Author Madge Maril
Genres Romance, Sports Romance, Contemporary, Sports, Slow Burn, Fiction, He Falls First
Publication Date May 20, 2025
In the high-speed world of Formula 1, documentarian Lilah teams up with racing driver Arthur Bianco for a whirlwind of revenge—and perhaps something more.

Lilah Graywood never imagined she’d be spending her summer amidst the roaring engines and adrenaline-fueled world of Formula 1 racing. As a serious documentarian, her passion lies in capturing the raw, unfiltered truth. But when her best friend, business co-owner, and secret boyfriend Max decides to pivot their documentary company to film the Ignition Energy Drink Racing team, Lilah is thrust into a world she despises. Her disdain turns to fury when Max blindsides her, not only ending their relationship but also threatening the company she painstakingly built.

Enter Arthur Bianco, the charismatic and enigmatic F1 reserve driver whose career is as tumultuous as the races he dreams of winning. Initially, Lilah is supposed to document Arthur’s relegation to backup driver, but together they concoct a plan to take control of Max’s documentary, each with their own motives—Lilah’s revenge and Arthur’s redemption. Their secret alliance promises to change the narrative, both on and off the track.

As they navigate the glamorous circuits and behind-the-scenes secrets of Formula 1, an unexpected speedbump forces Lilah and Arthur’s partnership to evolve into a fake relationship that feels all too real. The chemistry between them is off-limits and undeniable, and as Arthur’s cinematic comeback plays out over the hot globe-trotting summer, Lilah finds herself drawn to his true charm and hidden vulnerability. But as the cameras roll and the world watches, Lilah must confront her own feelings and the reality that no script can dictate the course of true love.

Slipstream is a captivating tale of love, revenge, and the unexpected turns life takes. With its blend of humor, heart, and high-speed drama, this contemporary romance is a must-read for anyone who believes in the power of second chances and the thrill of the chase.
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Their Double Lives

Author Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Genres Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Suspense
Publication Date May 20, 2025
Living a double life always comes with a cost.


A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then her luck seems to change when a mysterious figure identifying themself only as The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t Put a pill in the new member’s drink and, when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life.



Her target turns out to be Tony Fiore—Kim’s bad boy ex-boyfriend from high school. Fifteen years have passed, and he now goes by Anthony Fuller. He’s cleaned up, made tens of millions, and his gorgeous fiancée, twenty-two-year-old PJ Walsh, is on his arm.



PJ had her own agenda from the second she met Anthony. Find him, trick him, marry him, kill him. It was supposed to be easy, but she finds that while living her double life, the lines blur between who she is and who she’s pretending to be.



Stunned to see Tony again, Kim can’t bring herself to go through with spiking his drink. Instead, it is PJ who dies horrifically at the table just as dinner ends. Was someone else at the club—member or worker—tasked with poisoning PJ just as she had been instructed to do to Tony? Who would want both of them dead? With no one to trust and The Stranger to answer to, Kim must peel back the layers of deceit to reveal a deeply buried truth, more shocking than she could ever imagine…
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Salvación

Author Sandra Proudman
Genres Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, Historical Fiction, Historical, Young Adult Fantasy, Fiction
Publication Date May 20, 2025
In this Latinx YA fantasy inspired by El Zorro, Lola de La Peña becomes the masked heroine Salvación in order to save her family and town from a man who would destroy it for the magic it contains…if she doesn’t fall in love with one of his men first.

Lola de La Peña yearns to be free from the societal expectations of a young Mexican lady of her station. She spends her days pretending to be delicate and proper while watching her mamá cure the sick and injured with sal negra (black salt), a recently discovered magic that heals even the most mortal of sicknesses and wounds. But by night, she is Salvación, the free-spirit lady vigilante protecting the town of Coloma from those who threaten its peace and safety among the rising tension in Alta California after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

But one night, a woman races into Coloma, barely alive, to tell the horrifying tale of how her town was obliterated by sal roja, a potent, deadly magic capable of obliterating anything it comes into contact with and the man who wields it: Damien Hernández. And when Hernández arrives the next day with a party of fifty strong and promises of returning Alta California to México, Lola knows it’s only a matter of time before he brings the region under his rule—all Hernández needs is the next full moon and the stolen, ancient amulet he carries to mine enough sal roja to conquer the land. Determined to protect everything she loves, Lola races against time as Salvación to stop his plans. What she didn’t count on was the distracting and infuriating Alejandro, who travels with Hernández but doesn’t seem to share his ambitions. With the stakes higher than ever and Hernández getting closer to his goals, Lola will do anything to foil his plans, even teaming up with Alejandro—who she doesn’t fully trust, but can’t help but fall in love with.
Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA cover

Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA

Author John Lisle
Genres History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Psychology, Mental Health, Science
Publication Date May 20, 2025
The inside story of the CIA’s secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves.

Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s most cunning chemist. As head of the infamous MKULTRA project, he oversaw an assortment of dangerous―even deadly―experiments. Among them: dosing unwitting strangers with mind-bending drugs, torturing mental patients through sensory deprivation, and steering the movements of animals via electrodes implanted into their brains. His goal was to develop methods of mind control that could turn someone into a real-life “Manchurian candidate.”

In conjunction with MKULTRA, Gottlieb also plotted the assassination of foreign leaders and created spy gear for undercover agents. The details of his career, however, have long been shrouded in mystery. Upon retiring from the CIA in 1973, he tossed his files into an incinerator. As a result, much of what happened under MKULTRA was thought to be lost―until now.

Historian John Lisle has uncovered dozens of depositions containing new information about MKULTRA, straight from the mouths of its perpetrators. For the first time, Gottlieb and his underlings divulge what they did, why they did it, how they got away with it, and much more. Additionally, Lisle highlights the dramatic story of MKULTRA’s victims, from their terrible treatment to their dogged pursuit of justice.

The consequences of MKULTRA still reverberate throughout American society. Project Mind Control is the definitive account of this most disturbing of chapters in CIA history.

You picking up anything this week? Did I miss anything? Let me know with a comment below!

I’m reading about 3-4 books a month how many you all doing?

On average, how many books do you read each month?

On average, how many books do you read each month?

1-2
22 votes
5.9%
3-5
99 votes
26.7%
5-10
119 votes
32.1%
10+
131 votes
35.3%
Total votes: 371

Comments

  1. SweetDanger Avatar
    SweetDanger

    I get suggestions from Librarians/Library , best sellers lists and my book club.

    1. Travis Williamson Avatar

      That’s mostly where I get mine too. Working on getting the indie best sellers on the website soon!

  2. A Reader Avatar
    A Reader

    thank you so much for this site! always browsing here for new releases to add to my TBR list. i like how you include summaries and genres for each book. keep up the awesome work!

    1. Travis Williamson Avatar

      That means a lot, thank you! I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts.

  3. Bren Avatar
    Bren

    Just discovered this website and it’s exactly what I needed. As I prefer new releases over older books. Also is nice that it isn’t all indie. Thanks for doing this

    1. Travis Williamson Avatar

      Glad you like the site! I’m working on next week’s (May 27) new book releases right now, it should be up by tomorrow.

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