May 6, 2025 New Book Releases

May 6 New Book Releases

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The May 6 new book releases are here, and The Tenant by Freida McFadden is the one everyone’s talking about. If you’re in the mood for a twisty thriller, this should be at the top of your list. There’s also plenty for romance and fantasy readers to get excited about.

We’ve also got a fresh review of Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, along with a summary if you want to see what it’s about. Keep scrolling for the full list of this week’s best new releases and don’t forget to tell us where you get your books from in the poll below.

📚 Where do you usually get your books?

📚 Where do you usually get your books?

Local indie book store
39 votes
9.3%
Amazon (Physical Copies)
48 votes
11.5%
Barnes and Noble
55 votes
13.1%
Library
106 votes
25.3%
Used book stores
26 votes
6.2%
Digital (Kindle, Kobo etc)
88 votes
21%
Audiobooks (Audible, Libro etc)
25 votes
6%
Other big retailer (Target, Walmart)
27 votes
6.4%
Bookshop.org
5 votes
1.2%
Total votes: 419
The Tenant cover

The Tenant

Author Freida McFadden
Genres Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Adult
Publication Date May 6, 2025

There’s no place like home…

Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he’s desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She’s exactly what Blake’s looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn’t quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets…

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it’ll be far too late. The trap is already set.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour…

My Friends cover

My Friends

Author Fredrik Backman
Genres Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult, Book Club, Adult Fiction, Sweden
Publication Date May 6, 2025

#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.

One Golden Summer cover

One Golden Summer

Author Carley Fortune
Genres Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Adult, Chick Lit, Summer Romance
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A radiant, new escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune

I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

The Names cover

The Names

Author Florence Knapp
Genres Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Historical, Adult
Publication Date May 6, 2025

The extraordinary debut that Can a name change the course of a life?

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she’d like to call the child, Cora hesitates…

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora’s and her young son’s lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the “one . . . precious life” we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.

The Devils cover

The Devils

Author Joe Abercrombie
Genres Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Adult, Historical Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Historical
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

Parents Weekend cover

Parents Weekend

Author Alex Finlay
Genres Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Adult, Audiobook
Publication Date May 6, 2025

From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.

What Happens in Amsterdam cover

What Happens in Amsterdam

Author Rachel Lynn Solomon
Genres Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Second Chance, Adult, Second Chance Romance
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Falling in love with your husband is anything but convenient in this steamy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Business or Pleasure.

Dani Dorfman has somehow made it to her thirties without knowing what she wants to do with her life. So when an office romance ends poorly and gets her fired, she applies for a job in Amsterdam, idly dreaming of escaping the mess she’s created, but never imagining she’ll actually get it.

Except she does. By the end of her first week in Amsterdam, she’s never felt more adrift or alone. Then she crashes her bike into her high school ex-boyfriend—and suddenly life is blooming with new opportunities.

Wouter van Leeuwen was a Dutch exchange student Dani’s family hosted, a forbidden love that ended in a painful breakup. Years later, there’s still sizzling chemistry between them, and okay, maybe a little animosity. More importantly, Wouter needs to be married to inherit a gorgeous family home on a canal—and when Dani’s job falls apart, she needs a visa. As the marriage of convenience pushes them together in unexpected ways, Dani must decide whether her new life is yet another mistake—or if it’s worth taking a risk on a second chance.

The Original Daughter cover

The Original Daughter

Author Jemimah Wei
Genres Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Asia, Family, Historical
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In this dazzling debut, Stegner Fellow Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in working-class Bedok, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the two girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a place where the urgent insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice. Knowing that failure is not an option, the sisters learn to depend entirely on one another as they spurn outside friendships, leisure, and any semblance of a social life in pursuit of academic perfection and passage to a better future.

When a stinging betrayal violently estranges Genevieve and Arin, Genevieve must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love, home versus the outside world, and allegiance to herself versus allegiance to the people who made her who she is.

In the story of a family and its contention with the roiling changes of our rapidly modernizing, winner-take-all world, The Original Daughter is a major literary debut, rife with emotional clarity and searing social insight.

The Manor of Dreams cover

The Manor of Dreams

Author Christina Li
Genres Horror, Gothic, Mystery, Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Adult
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Mexican Gothic meets Everything I Never Told You in Christina Li’s haunting novel about the secrets that lie in wait in the crumbling mansion of a former Hollywood starlet, and the intertwined fates of the two Chinese American families fighting to inherit it.

They say what you don’t know can’t hurt you. But silence can be deadly.

Vivian Yin is dead. The first Chinese actress to win an Oscar, the trailblazing ingénue rose to fame in the eighties, only to disappear from the spotlight at the height of her career and live out the rest of her life as a recluse.

Now her remaining family members are gathered for the reading of her will and her daughters expect to inherit their childhood Vivian’s grand, sprawling Southern California garden estate. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead—one that has suddenly returned after decades of estrangement.

In hopes of staking their claim, both families move into the mansion. Amidst the grief and paranoia of the families’ unhappy reunion, Vivian’s daughters race to piece together what happened in the last weeks of their mother’s life, only to realize they are being haunted by something much more sinister and vengeful than their regrets. After so many years of silence, will the families finally confront the painful truth about the last fateful summer they spent in the house, or will they cling to their secrets until it’s too late?

Told in dual timelines, spanning three generations, and brimming with romance, betrayal, ambition and sacrifice, The Manor of Dreams is a thrilling family gothic that examines the true cost of the American dream—and what happens when the roots we set down in this country turn to rot.

The Thrashers cover

The Thrashers

Author Julie Soto
Genres Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Fiction, Romance
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Either you’re in or you’re out.

Welcome to the Thrashers, the elite friend group at New Helvetia High.

They’re everything everyone wants to be.

Jodi Dillon was never meant to be one of them. Julian, Lucy, Paige, and the infamous Zack Thrasher are rich, sophisticated, and love attention. Jodi feels out of place, but Zack’s her childhood best friend, so she’s in.

Then Emily Mills, who desperately wanted to be a Thrasher, dies—and the whispers about the Thrashers begin. As Emily’s journal surfaces, detectives close in, and Jodi faces an impossible choice: betray her friends or protect herself.

But as eerie messages and strange occurrences escalate, it becomes clear—Emily isn’t done with them yet.

A twisty thrill-ride of unforgettable drama and suspense that “encapsulates the vulnerability of adolescents playing adult games” (Ali Hazelwood) from USA Today bestselling author Julie Soto, The Thrashers will keep you up at night desperate to read just one more page.

“A tour-de-force YA debut from Julie Soto.” – Alexa Donne

“For fans of Karen McManus and Kara Thomas, The Thrashers had me holding my breath, sweaty-palming my e-reader, and dying to flip each page to see what would happen next.” – Susan Lee

“Expertly plotted and full of flawed, morally gray characters you still can’t help rooting for, The Thrashers is one of the best books I’ve read this year.” – Evelyn Skye

Shield of Sparrows cover

Shield of Sparrows

Author Devney Perry
Genres Fantasy, Romantasy, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Paranormal, Slow Burn
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Shield of Sparrows is a slow-burn, high-stakes romantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros―where enemies become lovers, monsters stalk a cursed realm, and a forgotten princess finds the strength to tear off her crown and become the warrior she was never meant to be.

The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel.

I’ve spent my life kneeling―to their will and to my father’s. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king.

I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood.

But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father’s throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life.

Now I’m crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him―bound to a future I didn’t choose and a husband I barely know.

Everyone wants me to be something I’m not―a queen, a spy, a sacrifice.

But what if I refused the role chosen for me? What if I made my own rules? What if there’s power in being underestimated?

And what if―for the first time―I reached for it?

My Name Is Emilia del Valle cover

My Name Is Emilia del Valle

Author Isabel Allende
Genres Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Adult, Audiobook
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In this spellbinding historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The Wind Knows My Name, a young writer journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father—and herself.

In San Francisco 1866, an Irish nun, left pregnant and abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia Del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman.

To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of sixteen, she begins to publish pulp fiction under a man’s pen name. When these fictional worlds can’t contain her sense of adventure any longer, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at the San Francisco Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan.

As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, along with Eric, and while there, begins to uncover the truth about her father and the country that represents her roots. But as the war escalates, Emilia finds herself in danger and at a crossroads, questioning both her identity and her destiny.

A riveting tale of self-discovery and love from one of the most masterful storytellers of our time, My Name is Emilia del Valle introduces a character who will never let hold of your heart.

Silver Elite cover

Silver Elite

Author Dani Francis
Genres Fantasy, Dystopia, Romance, Romantasy, Science Fiction, Adult, Enemies To Lovers
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In the first book of a searing new dystopian trilogy, a young woman must conceal her psychic powers—and her attraction to her handsome, infuriating commanding officer—as she works undercover to take down a brutal government from within.

The world is divided. On the Continent, you’re either a Prime—immune to the biotoxin that nearly wiped out the Earth’s population 150 years ago—or a Modified, one who was enhanced by the toxin, developing powerful psychic gifts.

As conflict rages between the two sides, Wren Darlington lives in hiding. Occasionally running the odd op for the rebel Uprising against the Primes’ oppressive rule, she must keep a low profile. After all, if the enemy finds out that she is a Mod with a staggering four psychic abilities, she won’t just be sent to the labor camps. She’ll be executed—immediately and without trial.

When a careless mistake puts Wren in the crosshairs of the Continent’s military, she is taken captive and forced to join their most elite Silver Block. Unwittingly, they’ve handed her the perfect opportunity for the Uprising to strike a devastating blow from inside their ranks. That is, if she can keep her powers hidden, survive training, and prove herself to Cross Redden, her maddeningly cocky commanding officer.

Despite the explosive chemistry between them, Cross doesn’t trust her—even as he seems determined to destroy the remaining shreds of Wren’s self-control. Yet as the war between Primes and Mods escalates, and as Wren and Cross find themselves unable to stay away from each other, they must decide how far they’re willing to go for their secrets—and how much of the Continent is worth saving.

The Retirement Plan cover

The Retirement Plan

Author Sue Hincenbergs
Genres Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Thriller, Humor, Cozy Mystery, Adult
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Three middle-aged best friends turn to murder in order to collect on their husbands’ life insurance policies…but are unaware that their husbands have a devious plan of their own, in this darkly funny debut—perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club and Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

Three wives wanting a new life, three husbands in their way…

After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong, and their dreams of beachfront condos and a sunny, carefree retirement vanish. The golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.

But when one husband dies in a freak accident, the other three women are shocked to see his widow rebound with a huge life insurance payout and a new life in Florida. In the aftermath, the women discover that their husbands have identical, seven-figure life insurance policies. A new dream forms, and this time, it involves a hitman.

Meanwhile, their husbands have a secret retirement plan of their own. So, when things begin to go awry, they fear their own scheme may have backfired…with deadly consequences. The husbands scramble to stay alive, but they may not be fast enough to outmaneuver their wives.

What follows is a high-stakes tale of cat and mouse, both laugh-out-loud funny and unbearably tense, while ultimately a bighearted look at marriage, friendship, and middle-age. 

Friends with Benefits cover

Friends with Benefits

Author Marisa Kanter
Genres Romance, Audiobook, Contemporary, Friends To Lovers, Adult, LGBT, Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Lifelong best friends say ‘I do’ to a marriage of convenience, trading vows for a financial safety net and benefits. Perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Katherine Center.

Evie Bloom pays attention to the details. Her very job depends on it—as an aspiring Foley artist, she’s responsible for every crisp footstep, smacking kiss, and distinct sound in film and television. So when she’s selected for a fellowship opportunity that would make all her career dreams come true, she’s quick to spot the there are no health benefits, and for someone with a chronic illness, that’s a non-starter.

Theo Cohen is an elementary school teacher who can’t afford to live on his own in LA, and is facing eviction after his roommates couple up and move out of their dream of a rent-controlled apartment. But there is one loophole in his each tenant must meet an income threshold, unless the tenants are married.

For Theo, the answer is obvious. Marry Evie, his best friend since forever. It’s not as if they don’t spend all their free time together anyways. Not only will Theo be able to keep his apartment, but Evie can be added to his insurance plan so she can accept her dream fellowship. It’s such a logical, practical solution. Never mind that Evie doesn’t really want to be married—not to Theo, not to anyone—ever. Or the small, complicating fact that Theo has always been a little bit in love with Evie.

But it doesn’t have to be a big deal. Marriage. It will just give them space to breathe, and much-needed relief from the daily financial stress. It won’t change anything.

It’s . . . going to change everything.

Up in Smoke cover

Up in Smoke

Author Nick Brooks
Genres Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Audiobook
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Perfect for fans of Karen McManus and The Hate U Give, this edge-of-your-seat thriller from the author of Promise Boys follows a girl determined to clear her brother’s name and a boy desperate to keep his own out of the line of fire. As the heat turns up in a murder investigation, old feelings reignite between them, but a shocking secret could tear them apart.

Unmask a murderer or take the fall.

After Cooper King is pressured by big brother figure Jason to go on a looting spree during a local march, the unthinkable gunshots ring in the air and someone ends up dead. After Cooper flees, the news shows four teens in ski masks near the scene of the murder—Cooper and his friends. Cooper fears the cops will come knocking at his door, and the pressure only mounts when a suspect is taken into Jason.

Monique, Jason’s sister and Cooper’s longtime crush, is willing to go any length to clear her brother’s name. Even if she needs to go into the belly of the beast and confront the killer herself. When she teams up with Cooper, they fall down the investigation rabbit hole and start to fall for each other. But little does Monique know that within this web of deception, Cooper is shrouding the truth that he was there when the shots went off. If the pair fail to uncover the real murderer, Jason will get locked up for a crime he didn’t commit—and drag down Cooper with him.

Pick this up if you

  • High stakes, dual POV thrillers
  • Page-turning mysteries
  • Will-they-won’t-they romance
  • Twists and turns you never see coming
Riding the High cover

Riding the High

Author Paisley Hope
Genres Romance, Westerns, Friends To Lovers, Small Town Romance, Forced Proximity, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In the steamy third novel in the Silver Pines Ranch series, a newly appointed sheriff and a congressman’s daughter must keep their impulsive Vegas nuptials hidden to protect their reputations—but what happens in Vegas rarely remains secret.

Her heart is wild. Only he can capture it.

When Cole Ashby is appointed Laurel Creek’s sheriff, he is determined to prove to the town, his family, and most importantly to himself that he’s the responsible choice for the job. A devoted single dad, his main goal is to lay steady roots for his young daughter.

As the daughter of a Kentucky congressman, elementary school teacher Ginger Danforth’s life has always been about neat appearances. But inside she’s dying to break free from the restraints of reputation and embrace the sense of adventure that runs through her veins.

When the Laurel Creek crew heads to Las Vegas for a weekend away, long-time friends Ginger and Cole play a game of truth or dare and, after a few too many drinks, wake up the next morning having exchanged marriage vows in a Vegas chapel.

With no chance of an immediate annulment, the two make a stay married for ninety days in secret, until Ginger’s father is re-elected and Cole is out of his probationary period as county sheriff.

But when Ginger agrees to help watch Cole’s daughter for the summer and the pair are forced to spend an increasing amount of time in each other’s company, riding the high of their accidental marriage, the more it begins to feel real. Until they start to forget their marriage was ever meant to be temporary. . .

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His Face Is the Sun

Author Michelle Jabès Corpora
Genres Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology, Young Adult Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romantasy
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Ancient Egyptian Game of Thrones for YA readers! Romance, magic, adventure, and horror collide in the start to this lush, epic trilogy perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sarah J. Maas.

Desire, War, Magic, Monsters…a forgotten oracle will unite them against an ancient enemy. But who will be on the throne when the red dust of Khetara settles?

The Kingdom of Khetara is gift of the River Iteru, the jewel of the desert. Yet a crisis looms on the horizon. The crowns of the north and south were joined through war a generation before, but Khetara remains a land divided. The pharaoh is wasting away from a mysterious illness—and forces in the south and within his own family are plotting against him. As rebellion grows and secrets flourish, an even more deadly threat emerges. An ancient evil awakes among the rolling dunes of the Red Land that threatens to destroy everything in its path.

Four strangers—a princess, a young priestess, a rebel, and a tomb robber—are ripped from their lives and thrown into the conflict. Amid murder and betrayal, magic and monsters, gods and visions, love and war, these four unlikely heroes find themselves connected by a forgotten oracle that whispers insistently across the land. Only together can they save the kingdom from destruction, but when the bloodshed is done, who of Khetara’s children will sit on the throne?

Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind cover

Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind

Author Nate Bargatze
Genres Nonfiction, Humor, Memoir, Audiobook, Comedy, Essays, Biography
Publication Date May 6, 2025

One of the hottest stand-ups working today, Nate Bargatze brings his everyman comedy to the page in this hilarious collection of personal stories, opinions, and confessions.

Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my brain got, like, dented or something.” Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a brain doctor, or maybe a math person who does like, math things for a living.” Afterwards, a voice in his head told him, “It’s okay. You’re dumb now. All you got is standup.”* But the “math things’ industry’s loss is our gain because Nate went on to become one of today’s top-grossing comedians who breaks both attendance and streaming records.
 
In his highly-anticipated first book, Nate talks about life as a non-genius. From stories about his first car (named Old Blue, a clunky Mazda with a tennis ball for a stick shift), life as a Southerner (Northerners constantly ask him things like, do you believe in dinosaurs?), and his first apartment where a rat chewed a hole right through the wall to how his wife keeps him in line and so much more. He also reflects on such topics as Vandy football and the origins of sushi (how can a Philadelphia roll be from old-time Japan?).
 
Nate’s book is full of heart and it will make readers laugh out loud and nod in recognition, but it probably won’t make them think too much.

*Nate’s family disputes this entire story

The Last Sunrise cover

The Last Sunrise

Author Anna Todd
Genres Romance, Coming Of Age, Contemporary
Publication Date May 6, 2025

New York Times bestselling author and “the biggest literary phenom of her generation” (Cosmopolitan) Anna Todd returns with a moving and empowering new romance about a sheltered young woman whose life transforms during a summer in Majorca with a mysterious local.

Between chronic health issues and an overprotective mother, twenty-two-year-old Oriah Pera feels like she’s stuck waiting for her life to begin. But when her mother’s job takes them to Majorca, Ry knows this summer could be the start of her very own coming-of-age story.

In her first small act of rebellion, she heads off to the beach alone and meets an infuriatingly charming Spaniard. Julian makes Ry feel even more naive and inexperienced than she normally does, but she can’t tamp down her growing attraction.

As the summer continues, Julian pulls Ry out of her shell and into the adventures she’s always craved. But with her return to America looming, Ry must decide if she’s brave enough to finally follow her heart and live for herself.

The Survivor Wants to Die at the End cover

The Survivor Wants to Die at the End

Author Adam Silvera
Genres Romance, Young Adult, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Contemporary, Fantasy
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In this third book of the USA Today and #1 New York Times mega-bestselling They Both Die at the End series, two strangers—each with their own complicated relationship to Death-Cast—help each other learn to live.

Paz Dario stays up every night, waiting for the Death-Cast call that would mean he doesn’t have to keep faking his way through this lonely life. After a devastating day, Paz decides he’s done waiting around for Death-Cast. If they say he’s not dying, he’ll just have to prove them wrong. But right before Paz can die, a boy saves his life.

Alano Rosa is heir to the Death-Cast empire that encourages everyone to live their best lives, but he doesn’t feel in control of his own existence thanks to his father. And with a violent organization called the Death Guard threatening Alano, his End Day might be closer than he thinks. It’s time to live.

Fate brings Paz and Alano together, but it’s now up to the boys to survive the tragic trials ahead so no one dies at the end.

This book contains themes that some readers may find difficult.

Jilted cover

Jilted

Author Vi Keeland
Genres Romance, Audiobook, Fiction, Slow Burn, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, He Falls First
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Bramble’s first never-before-published title from #1 New York Times bestseller Vi Keeland is Jilted, a slow-burn, swooning romance where 27 Dresses meets The Hating Game.

Weddings. I spend every working minute thinking and talking and writing about weddings, when the very concept makes me want to scream. After my fiancé abandoned me at the altar last year, my dream job at Bride magazine has turned reoccurring nightmare.

To add insult to injury, I’ve been conscripted into the bridal party of some bridezilla just because she knows the owners’ son. So of course I spend all afternoon bickering with one of the groomsmen and all evening making out with him.

Things only get better when I learn that of course he’s the owner’s son and I’ll have to spend the rest of the season working with him at every single wedding I cover this year.

Can the jilted bride and the man who is afraid of love find a way to heal each other?

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship

Author Tiffany Watt Smith
Genres Nonfiction, Feminism, Memoir, History, Biography Memoir, Womens, Audiobook
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A smart and thought-provoking memoir, history, and cultural critique about the turmoil and complexity of female friendship

Our culture today is inundated with narratives about the strength of female friendship, whether through images of girl power, BFFs, or work wives. Yet cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith has always found her own life much messier. She has had dramatic friend breakups, friendships that felt like too much or not enough, friendships that drifted into silence, and friendships built on convenience rather than a meeting of minds. And there are older cultural scripts to contend the competitive rival, the jealous backstabber, the underminer, the fair-weather friend.

We have all been bad friends. It’s impossible to be a perfect one; as Watt Smith points out, women’s friendships have long been magnified, scrutinized, praised, and admonished, creating a legacy of impossible ideals. In Bad Friend, Watt Smith reflects on her own experience and thoroughly mines the rich cultural history of female friendship to look for a new paradigm that might encompass the struggles along with the joy.

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Other People’s Summers

Author Sarah Morgan
Genres Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance, Womens Fiction, Family
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A famous actress whose life is unraveling flees to an idyllic English lakeside resort and the best friend she ghosted in this poignant and witty story from the USA TODAY bestselling author of The Book Club Hotel.  

In school, Milly Beckett and Nicole Raven were as close as sisters. Now, years later, a gulf separates them, and not just because of the different spheres they inhabit. Nicole is a global superstar with the world at her fingertips, but when scandal breaks, she turns to the only person she trusts.

Fresh from a painful divorce and struggling to balance her work and raising her daughter alone, Milly is tempted to refuse her friend’s plea for help. Nicole wasn’t there for her when she needed her most, and that’s hard to forgive. But Nicole is desperate and Milly agrees to give her the sanctuary she needs.

Against a stunning Lake District backdrop, stilted small talk gradually gives way to soul-deep revelations as the two women slowly find their way back to one another. Living with Milly gives Nicole a glimpse of a different path for herself, and Milly starts to see a life beyond her divorce, including the possibility of a new romance. But Nicole can’t stay hidden forever—and neither can the secret she’s been keeping from Milly, a secret that threatens both her future happiness and the fragile bond between them.

Heartwarming and hopeful, Other People’s Summers explores the beauty of friendship, the power of forgiveness, the impact of the choices we make and the many ways in which life can surprise us. 

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Overgrowth

Author Mira Grant
Genres Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adult, Fantasy, Dystopia, Aliens
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Annihilation meets Day of the Triffids in this full-on body horror/alien invasion apocalypse.

This is just a story. It can’t hurt you anymore.

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she’s an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has been willing to listen.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it’s already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia’s biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

What happens when you know what’s coming, and just refuse to listen?

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Home of the American Circus

Author Allison Larkin
Genres Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Family, Adult, Adult Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

The acclaimed author of the “lyrical coming-of-age novel” (Good Morning America) The People We Keep returns with a luminous new story of redemption, breaking generational curses, and the power of family in its truest form.

After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents. Despite attempts to lay low, Freya encounters childhood friends, familial enemies, and old flames—as well as her fifteen-year-old niece, Aubrey, who is secretly living in the derelict home. As they reconnect, Freya and Aubrey lean on each other, working to restore the house and come to terms with the devastating events that pulled them apart years ago.

Set in the birthplace of the American circus, this deeply moving novel is an exploration of broken families, the weight of the past, and the complicated journey of finding home.

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All We Lost Was Everything

Author Sloan Harlow
Genres Romance, Thriller, Young Adult, Mystery, Dark Romance, Mystery Thriller, Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A sexy, dark romantic thriller—with a shocking twist—by the author of Everything We Never Said.

River Santos is stuck—in her job at the diner, in her dead-end town, in her grief. Her father died in a house fire just a few months ago, her mother has been MIA for nearly a year, and the only people she can count on are the aunt she lives with and her best friend Tawny. 

Things feel like they’re turning around when Logan—the hot guy at the diner who’s always ignored her—seems interested. It’s complicated by her ex-boyfriend Noah, who she really needs closure with, and the fact that Tawny doesn’t think either of them is good enough for River… but the tension between River and Logan can’t be denied.

But love takes a backseat when new information surfaces about the fire. After all these months trying to move forward, River is forced to rethink everything… including the idea that maybe it wasn’t an accident after all. But who would commit this deadly act? And why?

River isn’t sure who to trust or who to turn to, but she needs to figure it out, fast. Because someone has more than love on their mind. They want revenge.

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The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin

Author Alison Goodman
Genres Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Fiction, Historical, Adult, Cozy Mystery
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In Regency England, the eccentric Colebrook sisters are amateur detectives who use their wits and invisibility as “old maids” to fight injustice in this delightful and fiercely feminist novel of mystery and adventure from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman.

To most of Regency high society, forty-two-year-old Lady Augusta Colebrook, or Gus, and her twin sister, Julia, are just unmarried ladies of a certain age—hardly worth a second glance. But the Colebrook twins are far from useless old maids. They are secretly protecting women and children ignored by society and the law.

When Lord Evan—a charming escaped convict who has won Gus’s heart—needs to hide his sister and her lover from their vindictive brother, Gus and Julia take the two women into their home. They know what it is like to have a powerful and overbearing brother. But Lord Evan’s complicated past puts them all in danger. Gus knows they must clear his name of murder if he is to survive the thieftakers who hunt him. But it is no easy task—the fatal duel was twenty years ago and a key witness is nowhere to be found.                    

In a deadly cat-and-mouse game, Gus, Julia, and Lord Evan must dodge their pursuers and investigate Lord Evan’s past. They will be thrust into the ugly underworld of Georgian gentlemen’s clubs, spies, and ruthless bounty hunters, not to mention the everyday threat of narrow-minded brothers. Will the truth be found in time, or will the dangerous secrets from the past destroy family bonds and rip new love and lives apart?

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Audre & Bash Are Just Friends

Author Tia Williams
Genres Romance, Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult Romance, Young Adult Contemporary, Teen
Publication Date May 6, 2025

This sweet, funny, electrifying romance stars sixteen-year-old Audre Mercy-Moore, first introduced in the NYT bestseller, Seven Days in June. Perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Nicola Yoon!
 
MEET AUDRE. Junior class president. Debate team captain. Unofficial student therapist. Desperately in need of a good time.
 
MEET BASH. Mysterious new senior. Everybody’s crush. Tall, floppy, great taste in jewelry. King of having a good time.
 
It’s the last day of school at Cheshire Prep, Brooklyn’s elite academy—and Audre Mercy-Moore’s life is a mess. Her dad cancelled her annual summer visit to his Malibu beach house. Now? She’s stuck in a claustrophobic apartment with her mom, stepdad, and one-year-old sister (aka the Goblin Baby).
 
Under these conditions, she’ll never finish writing her self-help book—ie, the key to winning over Stanford’s admissions board.
 
Cut to Bash Henry! Audre hires him to be her “fun consultant.” His job? To help her complete the Experience Challenge—her list of five wild dares designed to give her juicy book material. She’ll get inspo; he’ll get paid. Everybody wins.
 
He isn’t boyfriend material. And she’s not looking for one. Can they stay professional despite their obvious connection?
 
SCORCHING-HOT SUMMER. SCORCHING-HOT CHEMISTRY. But Audre and Bash can’t forget—they’re just friends.
 

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Austen at Sea

Author Natalie Jenner
Genres Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Books About Books, Audiobook, Adult Fiction, Romance
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England and Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother and keeper of a long-suppressed, secret legacy.

In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.

In Philadelphia, Nicholas & Haslett Nelson—bachelor brothers, veterans of the recent Civil War, and rare book dealers—are also in correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, who lures them, too, to England, with the promise of a never-before-seen, rare Austen artifact to be evaluated.

The Stevenson sisters sneak away without a chaperone to sail to England. On their ship are the Nelson brothers, writer Louisa May Alcott, Sara-Beth Gleason—wealthy daughter of a Pennsylvania state senator with her eye on the Nelsons—and, a would-be last-minute chaperone to the Stevenson sisters, Justice Thomas Nash.

It’s a voyage and trip that will dramatically change each of their lives in ways that are unforeseen, with the transformative spirit of the love of literature and that of Jane Austen herself.

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Disco Witches of Fire Island

Author Blair Fell
Genres Fantasy, LGBT, Queer, Historical Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Historical
Publication Date May 6, 2025

In the late 1980s, a coven of queer witches on New York’s Fire Island strives to protect a young man facing a devastating tragedy.

A gripping novel of magic, romance, and hope—perfect for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea, the Tales of the City series, and Red, White, and Royal Blue.

It’s 1989, and Joe Agabian and his best friend Ronnie set out to spend their first summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island Pines. Joe is desperate to let loose and finally move beyond the heartbreak of having lost his boyfriend to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The two friends are quickly taken in by a pair of quirky, older house cleaners. But something seems off, and Joe starts to suspect the two older men of being up to something otherworldly. In truth, Howie and Lenny are members of a secret disco witch coven tasked with protecting the island—and young men like Joe—from the relentless tragedies ravaging their community. The only problem is, having lost too many of their fellow witches to the epidemic, the coven’s protective powers have been seriously damaged.

Unaware of all the mystical shenanigans going on, Joe starts to fall for the super-cute bisexual ferryman who just happens to have webbed feet and an unusual ability to hold his breath underwater. But Joe’s longing to find love is tripped up by his own troublesome past as well as the lure of a mysterious hunk he keeps seeing around the island—a man Howie and Lenny warn may be a harbinger of impending doom.

The Disco Witches need to find help—fast—if they’re to save Joe and the island from the Great Darkness. But how? Fans of queer romances with a dash of fantasy will fall in love with this stunning novel of community, love, sex, magic, and hope in desperate times.

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Time Loops & Meet Cutes

Author Jackie Lau
Genres Romance, Time Travel, Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Adult, Contemporary
Publication Date May 6, 2025

The “masterful, inspiring, and full of heart” (Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author) Jackie Lau returns with a thoroughly unique love story about a woman reliving the same Friday over and over again—and the intriguing man who can’t quite remember her.

Noelle Tom really shouldn’t have eaten those dumplings at the night market. But the old lady at the stall said they’d give her what she needed most, and what Noelle desperately needed after another long workweek was food.

Except now she’s reliving the same Friday over and over. Every morning her alarm goes off at 6:45 no matter what, the Wordle answer is always “happy,” and she watches a silly squirrel video go viral day after day. And no matter how much she works on the same proposal, it’s always erased when she wakes up. It seems Monday will never come in this workaholic’s worst nightmare.

Noelle has no idea how being trapped in a time loop is the “thing she needed most,” especially now that everything seems meaningless. Sure, three fancy meals in a row is a fun treat, but it’s getting repetitive. Noelle’s not sure what lesson the old lady was trying to impart. Even a trip to the dumpling stall doesn’t help…because there’s no sign of it.

But then she meets a young woman who also ate the dumplings, and good-looking Cam, who appears in multiple places on her Friday. While he seems to have no memory of their encounters, there are signs he might be the key to getting un-stuck. But Noelle will have to put work aside and live a little in order to make him notice her. As their flirtation progresses, Noelle begins to worry that if she ever gets to turn the calendar page, Cam won’t know who she is and her life may never return to what it was before that fateful Friday…

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Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

Author Neon Yang
Genres Fantasy, Queer, Lesbian, Dragons, Novella, LGBT, Adult
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A new Queer, Asian-inspired fantasy novella about a renowned dragon slayer who never takes her armor off in public, Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame reads like She Who Became the Sun meets The Mandalorian, with dragons!

The fiercely independent nation of Quanbao is isolated, reclusive, and something of a mystery to the rest of the world. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper but instead loved and worshiped.

Yeva is perhaps a strange emissary to these people. Not only because their face has never been seen in public, but because they are a hero born to a birthright that makes them suited for their task—hunting dragons.

And so the dragon hunter must woo Quanbao’s queen—the Lady Sookhee—to understand what secrets she is hiding. A woman reasonably suspicious of Yeva’s intentions, and the imperial might of the throne she represents, Sookhee bears the burden of the safety of her entire people. How can she trust this stranger newly arrived to her court, a weapon forged in blood and fire, to understand what her people need and how best to safeguard their future?

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Where There Be Monsters

Author Alby C. Williams
Genres Middle Grade, Fantasy, Childrens
Publication Date May 6, 2025

For fans of AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS and THE MARVELLERS, Alby C. Williams’ debut middle grade fantasy is a sweeping adventure filled with monsters, mysteries, and mischief.

Eleven-year-old Glory Brown is desperate for adventure far from her family’s quaint, quiet life at The Light Inn. Generations of Browns have been stewards of this humble hotel, which acts as a sanctuary in the stretch of monster-filled land called the Seam. But Glory wants nothing more than to learn how to use her Moxie, a special magic only kids have, and to train to become a Spherinaut like her mother, exploring and documenting the perilous depths of the Outersphere.

When a mysterious boy named Marcus appears one day on a top-secret mission for the Parliamentarium – the school for aspiring Spherinauts – Glory packs up her beloved books and sets off on a once-in-a-lifetime journey that will shuttle her across time and space…and reveal new dangers lurking in the worlds beyond the Seam.

For there’s mischief afoot that’s threatening the balance between the worlds, its magic, and its monsters. And it’s up to Glory to find a solution before it’s too late.

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Murder Land

Author Carlyn Greenwald
Genres Thriller, Young Adult, Mystery Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Queer, Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Murder Land opens tonight. Not everyone will survive. Buckle up for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

Seventeen-year-old Billie feels like she is on top of the world. She gets to spend the summer with her best friend, sparks are flying with her crush, and she has received a promotion to ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new attractions in the theme park she works at. But the first night on the new job takes a dark turn when her creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, when she isn’t authorized to be running it.

At first, it seems like he died by heart attack, but by the time she returns to the body with help, it looks like a broken neck. Had she just imagined him sitting upright a few minutes ago? It’s as if someone is trying to pin his death on her, and she has one night to figure out who is really responsible before she is blamed.

Billie recruits the help of her friends to sneak around the park after-hours and search for the truth. But as the night stretches on and more people wind up dead, Billie realizes she may not make it out of Murder Land alive. And her friends may know more than they’re letting on.

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Detective Aunty

Author Uzma Jalaluddin
Genres Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Cozy, Adult, Contemporary
Publication Date May 6, 2025

When her grown daughter is suspected of murder, a charming and tenacious widow digs into the case to unmask the real killer in this twisty, page-turning whodunnit—the first book in a cozy new detective series from the acclaimed author of Ayesha at Last.

After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she’s been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved.

And the facts of the case are Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is telling.

With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar can’t predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way…

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Changing Tides

Author Linny Mack
Genres Romance
Publication Date May 6, 2025

“I think about how a person can be like a Cape May diamond. A dull piece of quartz but when the tide changes, as it always does, they can become shiny and new again.”

Sometimes the tide that sweeps you away can bring you home…

After thirteen years of marriage and seven years of infertility with her supposed soulmate, Sophie Bennett’s life is turned upside down. Not only does she discover her husband is having a sordid affair, on her birthday, but his mistress is also pregnant with his baby. Seeking solace, Sophie flees to Cape May, New Jersey, a quiet coastal town where she spent many summers as a child. There she encounters Liam Harper, a brooding carpenter who seems intent to keep everyone at a distance. Despite his best efforts, Sophie recognizes the vulnerability under his prickly exterior, sparking a curiosity about him that she can’t ignore.

Liam Harper is walking around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Haunted by a tragedy from his past that changed him forever, Liam doesn’t believe he deserves love or happiness. After being unexpectedly awarded permanent custody of his one-year-old niece, Liam’s script flips yet again. He doesn’t know the first thing about parenthood, and his gruff exterior makes it hard for him to ask for help. When the beautiful and heartbroken Sophie becomes his new neighbor, Liam never expects her to be the one to chip away his defenses.

As the two navigate their attraction and work to heal old wounds, emotions run high. If they want to change the tides of their futures, they must decide whether love is worth the risk. Will they walk away forever, or will fate step in and see them through?

Content Warnings:
PTSD
Infidelity
Infertility (not directly on page)
Fatal Car Crash

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Old School Indian

Author Aaron John Curtis
Genres Fiction, Indigenous, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult, Native American
Publication Date May 6, 2025

There There meets All Fours in this irreverent coming-of-middle-age story about an Indigenous man’s hunger for intimacy, healing, and a second chance.

Abe Jacobs is Kanien’kehá:ka from Ahkwesáhsne―or, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen, Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back. He met the love of his life, started writing poetry, and began an open marriage.

Now at forty-three, Abe is suffering from a rare disease―one his doctors in Miami believe will kill him. Running from his diagnosis and a marriage teetering on collapse, Abe returns to the Rez, where he’s persuaded to undergo a healing at the hands of his Great Uncle Budge. But Budge―a wry, recovered alcoholic prone to wearing punk T-shirts―isn’t all that convincing. And Abe’s time off the Rez has made him a thorough skeptic.

To heal, Abe will undertake a revelatory journey, confronting the parts of himself he’s hidden ever since he left home and wrestling with the imprint left by his once-passionate marriage.

Delivered with crackling wit and heart-wrenching tenderness, Old School Indian is a striking exploration of the power and secrets of family, the capacity for healing and intimacy, and the ripple effects of history and culture.

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The Lost Queen

Author Aimee Phan
Genres Fantasy, Young Adult, Contemporary, Mythology, Fiction, Retellings, Young Adult Fantasy
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A heroine like no other, ancient magic unleashed, a fated epic battle–the first book in an enchanting YA fantasy duology inspired by Vietnamese lore, weaving magic, sisterhood, and self-discovery.

Jolie Lam, a high school sophomore in San Jose, is known for two her bizarre freakout at last year’s swim meet and her fortuneteller grandfather with visions of dragons and earthquakes. Friendless and ostracized, Jolie’s life takes a dramatic turn for the better when she saves the school’s it-girl, Huong Pham, during a haunting vision of her own. Taken under Huong’s wing, Jolie’s world transforms, in more ways than one.

As Jolie and Huong’s bond deepens, they unlock long lost telepathic abilities, fluency in Vietnamese, and eerie premonitions. This leads them to a shocking they are the reincarnates of legendary queens and goddesses, the Trung Sisters. While a thrilling discovery, it also sets them on a perilous journey.

The girls must navigate dreams and portals to piece together their past lives and reclaim their immortal elements before their ancient enemies strike again. But all is not what it seems, and Jolie must determine friend from foe, truth from lie, and ultimately right from wrong in this battle for all she loves and the fate of the world.

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Shopgirls

Author Jessica Anya Blau
Genres Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adult Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Coming Of Age, Family
Publication Date May 6, 2025

From the author of the “delightful” (New York Times Book ReviewMary Jane, a new novel of found family, growing up, and the best and worst of the 1980s, revolving around San Francisco’s most exclusive department store, I. Magnin.

Nineteen-year-old Zippy can hardly believe she’s the newest and youngest salesgirl at I. Magnin, “San Francisco’s Finest Department Store.” Every week, she rotates her three spruced-up Salvation Army outfits and Vaseline-shined pumps; still, she’s thrilled to walk those pumps through the employee entrance five days a week as she saves to buy something new. For a girl who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment above a liquor store with her mother and her mother’s madcap boyfriend, Howard; a girl who wanted to go to college but had no help in figuring out how; I. Magnin represents a real chance for a better and more elegant life. Or, at the very least, a more interesting one.

Zippy may not be in school, but she’s about to get an education that will stick with her for decades. Her fellow salesgirls (lifetime professionals) run the gamut from mean and indifferent to caring and helpful. The cosmetics ladies on the first floor share both samples and advice (“only date a man with a Rolex”); and her new roommate, Raquel, an ambitious lawyer, tells Zippy she can lose ten pounds easy if she joins Raquel in eating only every other day. Just when Zippy thinks she’s getting a handle on how to be an adult woman in 1985, two surprises threaten both her sense of self and her coveted position at I. Magnin.

Set in the Day-Glo colors of 1980s San Francisco, Shopgirls is an intoxicating novel of self-discovery, outrageous fashion, and family both biological and found. 

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The Ones We Love

Author Anna Snoekstra
Genres Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Fiction, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Mystery Thriller
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Tensions bubble to the surface in a family of four newly transplanted to L.A. when the oldest daughter wakes up bruised and battered from a night she can’t remember… and no one wants to talk about it.

Meet the Jansen family:

Since the weekend of the party – the one Liv can’t remember, the one that left her covered in bruises – there’s been a padlock on the door of her bedroom. Her parents said they found mold, and it needs to be decontaminated, but they’re behaving oddly. Her friend Leilani isn’t answering her texts, so maybe Liv did get a little out of control that night. Sharing a room with her younger brother Casper for a while isn’t the end of the world, as long as he doesn’t tell their parents that she’s started sleepwalking. They’re already acting strangely enough.

The guilt over that weekend is getting to her father Janus. He’s forever looking over his shoulder. Janus, a horror author, is on a deadline to adapt his book into a screenplay.  Now he’s now finding it hard to stomach the violence of his own stories. But Janus brought his whole family from Australia to LA to chase his dream, and he can’t let them down. Not again.

Kay wasn’t sure she wanted to be a mother when she got pregnant with Liv, but she gave up everything for her daughter and then her son, Casper. She’ll do whatever she has to do to take care of her kids. Her marriage, though, is a different story. And the neighbors – well, she’ll just have to be more careful.

Casper was away that weekend, but he knows something isn’t right. His parents don’t look each other in the eye anymore. His father’s hands tremble for no reason. And where does Liv keep disappearing to in the middle of the night? Casper decides to find out what no one will tell him about that weekend, and what lies behind the padlocked door.

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Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

Author Cynthia Timoti
Genres Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Adult, Foodie, Fake Dating
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Crazy Rich Asians meets Always Be My Maybe in this deliciously sugar-free rom-com from debut author Cynthia Timoti.

Ellie Pang has had enough of her controlling family​ who has been micromanaging her life since her type 1 diabetes diagnosis​. When her parents orchestrate a public proposal from their business partner’s son, a proposal that goes humiliatingly viral, Ellie escapes to the other side of the country to put her dream of opening a sugar-free bakery into action. Afterall, she’d done her research. How hard can it be?

She hits a snag when her storefront turns out to be a dump and in need of major renovations. Worse, the only person who can help her turn things around is Alec Mackenzie, her brother’s best friend and the man responsible for crushing her teenage heart ten years ago.

But Alec has a proposal of his own: he needs a pretend girlfriend in order to cement a business deal. All they need to do is feign love and affection, while trying not to maim each other. But when the thin line between hate and fake-madly-in-love starts to blur, and buried secrets resurface, Ellie must learn to trust her heart, and choose between love and family.

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Girls with Long Shadows

Author Tennessee Hill
Genres Thriller, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary
Publication Date May 6, 2025

With the haunting, romantic voyeurism of The Virgin Suicides and the atmosphere and emotional intensity of Where the Crawdads Sing, an intoxicating Southern Gothic debut novel about identical triplets whose lives are devastated when their burgeoning desires turn deadly.

“There never was a gator killing around here, contrary to everlasting rumor, and there was only one real murder, but it seems each bad thing that happens is like an incantation invoking the Binderup family, its women and their dying.”

Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup were welcomed into the world as their mother was ushered out of it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram, Isadora. Nineteen years later, the triplets work at their Gram’s crumbling golf course in Longshadow, Texas, where the ever-watchful eyes of the town observe them serving up glasses of ice-cold lemonade to golfers, swimming in the murky waters of the neighboring bayou, or slipping t-shirts off their sunburnt shoulders in hopes of attracting the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand.

Cautious Baby B watches as lustful Baby A and introverted Baby C find matches among the town boys. Even Baby B has noticed that the town’s golden boy seems to be intrigued by her, only her. Just as each girl’s desire to be seen for herself is becoming fulfilled, a seemingly trivial kiss is bestowed on the wrong sister, leading to a moment of unspeakable violence that will upend the triplets’ world forever.

Pulsating with menace and narrated with hypnotic lyricism, Girls with Long Shadows is an electrifying literary thriller that captures how female teenage angst can turn lethal when insecurities are weaponized and sibling bonds are severed. Tense, lush, and painfully beautiful, it forces us to consider the lengths to which we will go to claim our own personhood.

I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body cover

I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body

Author Carla Sosenko
Genres Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Disability, Mental Health
Publication Date May 6, 2025

An intimate, irreverent memoir about one woman’s experience living with a deformity, and her quest to find freedom and joy in her body.

Carla Sosenko was born with Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome, a rare vascular disorder that resulted in a mass of flesh on her back,­­ legs of different sizes, a hunched posture, and other idiosyncrasies big and small. She spent years trying to hide, but later experimented with reckless exhibitionism in a masochistic quest to be seen. She couldn’t stop worrying about how she measured up; she ruminated on the comments other people felt comfortable making about her body.

In this candid and funny memoir, Carla shares what existing in an unconventional body has meant for her self-image, mental health, relationships, and career. She writes of having liposuction at eight years old and obsessively gaming Weight Watchers points. She probes the way the materialistic, looks-obsessed Long Island town of her childhood influenced her psyche. She wrestles with the rise of Ozempic after years of working to reject diet culture. And she tries to parse whether it is in spite of or because of her physical differences that she is a chatty, outgoing social butterfly who chose a high-profile career in media and is obsessed with fashion. Most of all, Carla explores the ways in which she’s felt alone and without not disabled but different; the recipient of pretty privilege, but also fatphobia; too much, but still never enough. We see what it means when she learns to claim her body—and mind and spirit and life—for exactly what they her own.

A clarion call for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider or believed they should take up less space, I’ll Look So Hot In a Coffin offers hope, recognition, and a new way to understand ourselves—by celebrating what sets us apart.

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Dianaworld: An Obsession

Author Edward White
Genres Nonfiction, Biography
Publication Date May 6, 2025

For more than forty years, Diana, Princess of Wales, has been mythologized to the most extraordinary degree. Adored and lionized by some, ridiculed and traduced by others, Diana has always commanded a cultural presence unmatched by any other member of the royal family.

In Dianaworld, Edward White offers both a portrait of the princess and a group portrait of those who existed in her orbit—from her royal in-laws, her servants, and the dilapidated ranks of the British aristocracy from which she rose, to drag performers, artists, Britain’s ethnic minorities, and the Gen Z superfans who maintain her status as a cultural icon.

Drawing on a wide array of sources and perspectives, many never used in books about Diana or the royal family, White vividly recreates the world Diana lived in, explores the growth of her global reputation, and illuminates her lasting impact on the world she left behind.

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I Will Blossom Anyway

Author Disha Bose
Genres Romance, Fiction, Contemporary
Publication Date May 6, 2025

A romantic coming-of-age story about one woman’s inspiring journey to find self love, reconnect with family, and forge a new path for her future, from the author of the Good Morning America book club pick Dirty Laundry.

Durga is named after the Bengali goddess, pure of heart, filled with goodness. But the goddess has an alter-ego, fearless Kali, of fire and crackling with energy.

The third of four children born to a middle-class Calcutta family, quiet Durga is surprisingly the first to leave the nest of her loving, overbearing family. She is not as charming as her sister, Tia, as lighthearted as her brother, Arjun, or as clever as her youngest sister, Parul. But when she arrives in Ireland to work at a tech company, she finds that for the first time ever she is free—to have fun, to stay out, to sample everything that life has to offer. Suddenly, Durga can be whoever she wants to be. And she wants it all.

But freedom comes at a price. Durga falls in love with handsome, charismatic Jacob, and grows close with his sister, Joy, now Durga’s flatmate, and best friend. But when Jacob breaks up with Durga, she’s unmoored. Who will she choose to be: fearless Kali or peace-loving Durga? Will she stay in Ireland with her newfound identity and livelihood, or will she return to India, where she is comfortable? Perhaps neither option is enough. Durga must summon her inner Kali, the brave and fearless warrior, and fight for the life she truly desires.

Modern, thought-provoking and mirthful, I Will Blossom Anyway is a story about what it means to be caught between opposing worlds, the pressures and freedoms of millennial life, and what it really means to be a modern woman today—anywhere.

Give Me a Shot cover

Give Me a Shot

Author Gia de Cadenet
Genres Romance, Contemporary Romance, Adult, Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Sparks fly between an amateur blacksmith and an outspoken professor with a passion for archery in this heartfelt contemporary romance from the author of Getting His Game Back and Not the Plan.

Mo Sarda carefully guards his peaceful life from other people’s messy feelings. He coparents his daughter with no drama, sits quietly at family gatherings, spends plenty of time alone tending to his plants, and volunteers to teach blacksmith skills at the local folk school. No one seems to get him, except for his family, and that’s completely fine with Mo—there’s no one else he needs. Then along comes Jessica Anderson and her damn crossbow.

After the unexpected death of her sister, Jess has moved to Michigan to move forward with her life. Her grief still stings, but she’s excited to start her new professorship job and continue pursuing her passion for archery. Luckily, her new town has a folk school with ample practice space. Then Jess has a combative run-in with Mo Sarda and all her plans to avoid complicated feelings start to crumble. No one should look that hot banging an anvil.

Before long, the two are drawn to work together to save the beloved folk school from closing its doors. The heat is on them to plan a Renaissance Faire to raise the much-needed funds, but the more worthy pursuit could be the fire growing between them—if only they would be willing to give each other a shot.

We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions cover

We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions

Author Glennon Doyle
Genres Nonfiction, Self Help, Mental Health
Publication Date May 6, 2025

The #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcasters Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle created We Can Do Hard Things —the guidebook for being alive—to help fellow travelers find their way through life.

When you travel through a new country, you need a guidebook.

When you travel through love, heartbreak, joy, parenting, friendship, uncertainty, aging, grief, new beginnings – life – you need a guidebook, too.

We Can Do Hard Things is the guidebook for being alive.

Every day, Glennon Doyle spirals around the same questions: Why am I like this? How do I figure out what I want? How do I know what to do? Why can’t I be happy? Am I doing this right?

The harder life gets, the less likely she is to remember the answers she’s spent her life learning. She wonders: I’m almost fifty years old. I’ve overcome a hell of a lot. Why do I wake up every day having forgotten everything I know?

Glennon’s compasses are her sister, Amanda, and her wife, Abby. Recently, in the span of a single year, Glennon was diagnosed with anorexia, Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Abby’s beloved brother died. For the first time, they were all lost at the same time. So they turned toward the only thing that’s ever helped them find their way: deep, honest conversations with other brave, kind, wise people.

They asked each other, their dearest friends, and 118 of the world’s most brilliant wayfinders: As you’ve traveled these roads—marriage, parenting, work, recovery, heartbreak, aging, new beginnings—have you collected any wisdom that might help us find our way?

As Glennon, Abby, and Amanda wrote down every life-saving answer, they discovered two things:

1. No matter what road we are walking down, someone else has traveled the same terrain.
2. The wisdom of our fellow travelers will light our way.

They put all of that wisdom in one place: We Can Do Hard Things —a place to turn when you feel clueless and alone, when you need clarity in the chaos, or when you want wise company on the path of life.

We are all life travelers. We don’t have to travel alone. We Can Do Hard Things is our guidebook.

All the Signs cover

All the Signs

Author Jessie Rosen
Genres Romance, Fiction, Italy, Chick Lit, Adult, Adult Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

From the author of The Heirloom comes another dreamy, escapist adventure about a die-hard skeptic woman who sets off on a mission to prove her horoscope wrong.

Leah Lockhart is proudly science-minded and woo-woo averse. But the life she’s carefully curated is knocked suddenly off course, first by a destabilizing case of vertigo, and then by an astrology reading that claims she’s living way out of line with what was written in her stars. 

Incensed, Leah sets off on a mission to prove that all of astrology is bogus by finding her star twins in the world—people born with her exact same astrology. But her true guides on a whirlwind journey through Venice, Istanbul, New Orleans and beyond turn out to be three people already in her the mother she thinks abandoned her, the father she thinks saved her, and the former boy next door whose love could be the path to her truest self.

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The Star of Camp Greene

Author Joy Callaway
Genres Historical Fiction, Historical, Romance, World War I, Fiction
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Sometimes heroism is found in dreams deferred.

Charlotte, NC. 1918. Broadway darling Calla Connolly had it a rising career on the stage and a loving fiancé, a fellow stage actor. But after his tragic death early in the war, Calla is touring the American training camps, hoping to convince General Pershing to let her tour the French front to cheer the men and honor her fiancé’s memory. But her hopes are dashed when she contracts Spanish flu while performing at Camp Greene.

While convalescing, Calla inadvertently overhears a sensitive Army secret and is ordered to remain at Camp Greene for the duration of the war while her former mentor and rival steals her tour out from under her. Having no choice but to stay at the camp, she becomes the resident performer and forms attachments to several musician soldiers.

When she falls in love with the man responsible for trapping her at camp, the mission she’s sworn to keep secret threatens the men she’s come to care for. Calla is forced to decide what her dreams are worth–and if the future she never expected might only be possible if she lets those dreams go.

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The Children of Eve

Author John Connolly
Genres Thriller, Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Crime, Adult
Publication Date May 6, 2025

The “consistently high-quality” (Booklist) Charlie Parker series continues with a white-knuckled new thriller from New York Times bestselling author John Connolly.

Wyatt Riggins, the boyfriend of rising Maine artist Zetta Nadeau, has gone missing, leaving behind a cell phone containing a single-word RUN. Private investigator Charlie Parker is hired to find out why Riggins has fled, and from whom.

Parker discovers that Riggins, an ex-soldier, has been involved in the abduction of four children from Mexico: three girls and a boy, all belonging to the cartel boss Blás Urrea—except Urrea’s family is safe and well in Mexico, which means the abductees cannot be his children. Yet whoever they are, Urrea wants them back, and has dispatched his agents to secure them, even if it means butchering everyone who stands in their way.

One of those agents is Eugene Seeley, a clever, ruthless solver of other men’s problems. The other is an unknown woman.

Every child has a mother. Now Charlie Parker will face one unlike any other, and learn the terrifying truth about the Children of Eve.

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Hive

Author D.L. Orton
Genres Science Fiction, Dystopia, Time Travel, Fiction, Romance, Fantasy
Publication Date May 6, 2025

What if saving the future meant rewriting the past?
 
In a dying world overrun by microdrones, humanity’s last survivors cling to life inside the Eden-17 biodome. Isabelle Sanborn knows her time is running out, but one desperate plan might give humanity a second chance. With the help of Madders, an enigmatic AI built from the memories of a brilliant physicist, Isabelle sends Diego Nadales—the love of her life—35 years into the past. His mission? To change the course of history and prevent their world’s collapse.
 
When Diego arrives in the vibrant yet fragile Main Timeline, he’s forced to confront ghosts of the past, including a younger, ambitious version of Isabelle. As he battles to shape a better future, Diego must navigate a delicate web of relationships and events without destroying the very fabric of time.
 
Brimming with suspense, heart-pounding action, and a poignant love story that transcends time, Madders of Time – Book One is a breathtaking science fiction adventure. Award-winning author DL Orton weaves a tale that explores sacrifice, resilience, and the timeless power of love.
 
Fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Dark Matter will find themselves captivated by this unforgettable journey through parallel worlds and intertwining destinies.
 
The clock is ticking. Can love survive the collapse of time itself?
 
Prepare to lose yourself in the first installment of the Madders of Time series—a story that will keep you turning pages and leave you hungry for more.

Lore Olympus: Volume Eight cover

Lore Olympus: Volume Eight

Author Rachel Smythe
Genres Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Romance, Mythology, Greek Mythology, Fiction, Retellings
Publication Date May 6, 2025

Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love—the Greek tale of Hades and Persephone gets a romantic modern update in the gorgeously illustrated, Eisner Award-winning Lore Olympus, including a brand new bonus short story!

“You have no authority here.”

Revelations rock Olympus as Persephone’s trial ends, threatening to throw the gods into a new war.

Though Persephone and Hades become closer than ever after she opens up to him about all she has endured, their peace is shattered when another truth is revealed: Apollo is Zeus’s son. The announcement shocks the pantheon, and the king of the gods realizes that the would-be usurper wants Persephone’s power to take the throne.

Zeus banishes Persephone to the Mortal Realm and, out of fear, cuts it off entirely from the rest of the gods. This decree succeeds in undercutting Apollo’s plan, but also inadvertently begins a decade-long divine cold war when Hades strikes back by shuttering the Underworld. With the gods scattered and weakened, Kronos uses the ensuing bedlam to finally escape his imprisonment and begin staging his own coup.

Persephone has only one choice when she discovers all the realms on the verge of collapse: Descend into the Underworld to try to defeat the power-hungry Titan, claim her rightful place as queen, and reunite with her one true love.

This edition of Smythe’s original Eisner Award–winning webcomic Lore Olympus features a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel Smythe and brings the Greek pantheon into the modern age in a sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 180–206 of the #1 WEBTOON comic Lore Olympus.

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

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. Jan Shure-Hurwitz Avatar
    Jan Shure-Hurwitz

    Where is SHE KNOWS, Goddess Willing on Amazon? Best read ever.

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