Books Coming Out in March
Book Roundup - Books Coming Out in March
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Five Conversations About Peter Sellers by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Five Conversations About Peter Sellers is an essay that begins as an exploration of the author’s burgeoning obsession with Peter Sellers, and specifically his role in hijacking and derailing production of the spy spoof, Casino Royale, in the late 60s. But what begins as a reported piece on how the film set erupted into chaos, quickly devolves into its own chaos as the essay splits into 5 different narrators, each with their own idea of what the essay is actually about. Is it about how Peter Sellers and his oversize ego ruined Casino Royale? Is it about how society has too long allowed horrible men to run the world? Is it an exploration of the nature of the essay as a creative form? Or is Peter Sellers and his genius at impersonation actually a vehicle through which the author probes her own shifting identity as a bi-ethnic person? The answer is...yes.
Quantum Radio by A.G. Riddle
At CERN, a scientist has just made an incredible discovery - a breakthrough that may answer the deepest questions about human existence.
But what he's found is far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. At CERN, he analyses data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, Ty believes he's found a pattern in its output. It looks like an organised data stream, being broadcast over what he calls a quantum radio.
Could it be a signal from another universe? A message sent from the future? Or something else entirely?
As Ty peels back the layers of his discovery, he learns that what he's found isn't what he thought it was. The encoded message is far more profound. It may alter our understanding of human existence and the universe.
But Ty is not the only one looking for it. Someone has been following his research for a long time. And they'll do anything to prevent him from unravelling what is being broadcast by the quantum radio...
Because the first one to discover the truth may well control the future.
Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem
“What I am looking for―what I desperately need, Mrs. Weiss―is a spy.”
Adolf Hitler is still a distant rumble on the horizon, but a Jewish spymaster and his courageous spies uncover a storm of Nazi terror in their own backyard.
In the summer of 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler is the new and powerful anti-Semitic chancellor of Germany. But in Los Angeles, no-nonsense secretary Liesl Weiss has concerns much closer to home. The Great Depression is tightening its grip and Liesl is the sole supporter of two children, an opinionated mother, and a troubled brother.
Leon Lewis is a Jewish lawyer who has watched Adolf Hitler’s rise to power―and the increase in anti-Semitism in America―with growing alarm. He believes Nazi agents are working to seize control of Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known. The trouble is, authorities scoff at his dire warnings.
When Liesl loses her job at MGM, her only choice is to work with Leon Lewis and the mysterious Agent Thirteen to spy on her friends and neighbors in her German American community. What Leon Lewis and his spies find is more chilling―and more dangerous―than any of them suspected.
Code Name Edelweiss is based on a true story, unknown until recent years: How a lone Jewish lawyer and a handful of amateur spies discovered and foiled Adolf Hitler’s plan to take over Hollywood.
Confidence by Rafael Frumkin
Best friends (and occasional lovers) Ezra and Orson are teetering on top of the world after founding a company that promises instant enlightenment in this thrilling caper about scams, schemes, and the absurdity of the American Dream.
At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going for him: he’s shorter than average, snaggle-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He’s also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie.
But Ezra’s summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet—Nulife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss—things start to spin wildly out of control.
Searing and charming, with the suspense of The Talented Mr. Ripley, the decadence of The Great Gatsby, and the wit of Succession, Confidence is a story for anyone who knows that the American Dream is just another pyramid scheme.
The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church
A searing book club novel for fans of Where the Crawdad's Sing and The Girls in the Stilt House following one girl fighting for her family, her body, and her right to create a future all her own
Some folks will do anything to control the wild spirit of a Carolina girl...
For fourteen-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is as simple as it is free. Devoted to her lumberjack father and running through the wilds where the forest meets the shore, Leah’s country life is as natural as the Loblolly pines that rise to greet the Southern sky.
When an accident takes her father’s life, Leah is wrenched from her small community and cast into a family of strangers with a terrible secret. Separated from her only home, Leah is kept apart from the family and forced to act as a helpmate for the well-to-do household. When a moment of violence and prejudice thrusts Leah into the center of the state’s shameful darkness, she must fight for her own future against a world that doesn’t always value the wild spirit of a Carolina girl.
Set in 1935 against the very real backdrop of a recently formed state eugenics board, The Last Carolina Girl is a powerful and heart-wrenching story of fierce strength, forgotten history, autonomy, and the places and people we ultimately call home.
Conquer the Kingdom (The Gargoyle Queen, #3) by Jennifer Estep
Magic reigns, plots abound, and a new love might not conquer all, in this must-read finale to the epic Gargoyle Queen trilogy by international bestselling author Jennifer Estep.
Time is running out for crown princess Gemma Ripley. Despite being a cunning spy and a powerful mind magier, Gemma hasn’t been able to track down the most dangerous enemy her kingdom of Andvari has ever seen. Adding to her worries is the Sword and Shield tournament. With gladiators flocking to the capital city of Glanzen, Gemma can’t tell who is friend—or foe.
Determined to protect Andvari at any cost, Gemma hatches a bold plan, but things aren’t what they seem. Soon, everything she holds dear is being threatened, including her burgeoning relationship with Prince Leonidas Morricone.
With the kingdom she holds dear slipping through her fingers, Gemma will have to conquer her fear and unlock the true secret of her magic—or watch her friends and family die and her beloved Andvari fall . . .
Go as a River by Shelley Read
Victoria Nash is just a teenager in the 1940s, but she runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land in the Four Corners region, who wants to believe one place is just like another. When Victoria encounters Wil on a street corner, their unexpected connection ignites as much passion as danger and as many revelations as secrets. Victoria flees into the beautiful but harsh wilderness of the nearby mountains when tragedy strikes. Living in a small hut, she struggles to survive in the unforgiving conditions with no clear notion of what her future will be. What happens afterward is her quest to regain all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River rises to submerge her homeland and the only life she has ever known. GO AS A RIVER is a story of love and loss but also of finding home, family, resilience—and love—where least expected.
A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley
Mariel Spark is prophesied to be the most powerful witch seen in centuries of the famed Spark family, but to the displeasure of her mother, she prefers baking to brewing potions and gardening to casting hexes. When a spell to summon flour goes very wrong, Mariel finds herself staring down a demon—one she inadvertently summoned for a soul bargain.
Ozroth the Ruthless is a legend among demons. Powerful and merciless, he drives hard bargains to collect mortal souls. But his reputation has suffered ever since a bargain went awry—if he can strike a bargain with Mariel, he will earn back his deadly reputation. Ozroth can't leave Mariel's side until they complete a bargain, which she refuses to do (turns out some humans are attached to their souls).
But the witch is funny. And curvy. And disgustingly yet endearingly cheerful. Becoming awkward roommates quickly escalates when Mariel, terrified to confess the inadvertent summoning to her mother, blurts out that she's dating Ozroth. As Ozroth and Mariel struggle with their opposing goals and maintaining a fake relationship, real attraction blooms between them. But Ozroth has a limited amount of time to strike the deal, and if Mariel gives up her soul, she'll lose all her emotions—including love—which will only spell disaster for them both.
Burning Distance by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
When ten-year-old Elizabeth West's father dies in a tragic plane crash over the Persian Gulf, her family uproots their life in Washington, D.C., and moves to London. Her mother marries a knighted British businessman who has two children, and Elizabeth (Lizzy) and her two sisters move in with their new family.
At age sixteen, while attending the American School of London, Lizzy meets and falls in love with Adil Hasan-- but when Adil's father, a noted arms middleman, is deported, Lizzy and Adil are separated.
Lizzy's family has also become involved with French-German industrialist Gerald Rene Wagner. Little does she know that Adil's family has ties to the man, as well. When a member of her family is murdered in Berlin under mysterious circumstances, questions surface about Wagner's dealings, and Lizzy reexamines what really may have happened to her father. All the while, she endeavors to reunite with her lost love, Adil, and reclaim the connection that was ripped away.
Set in the years before and after the first Gulf War, Burning Distance is a journey through family secrets and competing loyalties, contemporary history, and the dark world of arms trafficking.
Goodnight From Paris by Jane Healey
In Nazi-occupied France, an American film star takes on the most dangerous role of her life in a gripping novel about loyalty and resistance, inspired by a true story, from the Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Secret Stealers.
Paris, 1939. Hollywood actress Drue Leyton, married to Frenchman Jacques Tartière, lives as an expatriate in love. But when her husband is dispatched to Brittany to work as a liaison for the British military, Drue finds herself alone with her housekeeper, adrift and heartsick in her adopted city. With her career and fame forty-five hundred miles away, Drue accepts an opportunity that will change her life forever.
Befriended by seasoned wartime journalist Dorothy Thompson and urged on by political operative Jean Fraysse, Drue broadcasts radio programs to the United States. Her duty: shake America from its apathy and, as Nazis encroach and France is occupied, push for resistance and help from the US. As Drue and Jean fall under suspicion, Hitler sends his own message: when Drue’s adopted country is conquered, she will be executed.
In a Paris that is no longer safe, Drue’s political passion is ignited. She’s prepared to risk anything to fight the enemy no matter how dangerous it gets―for her, for everyone she loves, and for everything she’s fighting for.
Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto
In this disarming and candid memoir, cultural critic Clarkisha Kent unpacks the kind of compounded problems you face when you’re a fat, Black, queer woman in a society obsessed with heteronormativity.
There was no easy way for Kent to navigate personal discovery and self-love. As a dark-skinned, first-generation American facing a myriad of mental health issues and intergenerational trauma, at times Kent’s body felt like a cosmic punishment. In the face of body dysmorphia, homophobia, anti-Blackness, and respectability politics, the pursuit of “high self-esteem” seemed oxymoronic.
Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto is a humorous, at times tragic, memoir that follows Kent on her journey to realizing that her body is a gift to be grown into, that sometimes family doesn’t always mean home, and how even ill-fated bisexual romances could free her from gender essentialism. Kent’s debut explores her own lived experiences to illuminate how fatphobia intertwines with other oppressions. It stresses the importance of addressing the violence scored upon our minds and our bodies, and how we might begin the difficult-but joyful-work of setting ourselves free.
Your Dream for Me by Alison Schaffir
Unlike her theatrically-gifted parents, seventeen-year-old Scarlett doesn’t like spending time in the spotlight. With dreams of becoming a fashion designer, she sneaks into her school's costume shop, where she comes face-to-face with Nathaniel, a talented theater student who piques a new interest. With fashion still her main priority, Scarlett vows to make a dress for her best friend, Macie. After all, she needs a strong portfolio of work to get into the Fashion Institute of Technology. The one problem? She has no idea how to operate a sewing machine.
With Nathaniel's encouragement, Scarlett decides to shadow the school's drama teacher to practice her skills, hoping to fuse her passion for fashion with theater... and be closer to Nathaniel. But then a distressing event involving Macie shakes everyone in Scarlett's world—causing their friendship to falter and Nathaniel to pull away. With high school drama threatening the rest of the year, including a rival who wants to ruin her reputation, Scarlett must rely on herself and newfound sewing skills to keep her fashion dreams—and her most important relationships—from unraveling.
The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton
It’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind―find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated.
There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family, offering what she hasn't felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it's time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future.
But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha's fragile security and threaten the lives of her new-found family―or it could save them all.
Sasha's journey is a meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world.
The Beautiful Misfits by Susan Reinhardt
When an overwhelmed Atlanta news anchor accidentally spills her son’s struggles with addiction on air, she destroys her career, alienates her son, and ends up selling makeup at a mall with other fallen, disgraced celebs. Retreating to the North Carolina mountains, she’s ready to risk everything, taking a chance on a man from her past whose seemingly outlandish rehab center may be her last chance to repair her and her son’s strained relationship.
Perfect for fans of Mary Kay Andrews, Carolyn Brown, and Joshilyn Jackson, this gut-punching novel about a mother’s unflinching love for her son masterfully weaves heartbreak with humor, exploring what it’s like for a woman to walk the almost indistinguishable lines between loving and enabling, letting go and holding fast.
Good Morning, Hope: A True Story of Refugee Twin Sisters and Their Triumph over War, Poverty, and Heartbreak by Argita Zalli and Detina Zalli
Good Morning, Hope is the inspiring true story of the Zalli family, forced by war to flee their beloved homeland.
In 1997, Albania experienced a financial crisis far worse than the global financial crisis that would come a decade later. The new free market economy toppled, and pandemonium broke out in the streets. Tons of munitions were looted from Soviet-era armories, and every male age twelve and older was forced to carry a gun to survive.
It took over two years for twin sisters Argita and Detina Zalli and their parents to escape the madness. When they finally made it to England, smuggled out by truck, the thirteen-year-old twins believed life would be much better, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Now refugees, the girls were mercilessly bullied by their peers and constantly afraid they would be sent back to Albania and their parents would be sent to jail. To make matters worse, their father could not find work.
But not only did the twins survive, they thrived. Their sense of humor, coupled with their inherent genius, charm, and near-psychic ability to work together, helped them overcome their many challenges. Together, they outsmarted the bullies and went on to become highly accomplished PhD research scientists and lecturers.
In Good Morning, Hope, Argita and Detina share their remarkable, action-packed journey, as well as their unique bond as twins, which nurtured and sustained them throughout their perilous ordeal.
Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood
A legendary YA debut. This dazzling sapphic fantasy inspired by Greek mythology will captivate fans of Circe and The Song of Achilles.
Each spring, Ithaca condemns twelve maidens to the noose. This is the price vengeful Poseidon demands for the lives of Queen Penelope’s twelve maids, hanged and cast into the depths centuries ago.
But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. A girl named Melantho, who says one more death can stop a thousand.
The prince of Ithaca must die—or the tides of fate will drown them all.
Sarah Underwood weaves an epic tapestry of lies, love, and tragedy, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Alexandra Bracken, and Renée Ahdieh.
First Light by Lucas Matthiessen
A deeply felt literary memoir of one man’s journey to redemption through vision loss, alcoholism, and the burden of a family legacy.
Born to the author Peter Matthiessen, young Lucas traveled through life believing himself a disappointment to his famous father. From an early age, Lucas was exposed to the fanciful ideas of his parent’s group of renowned bohemians as well as to their addictive pastimes. Within the shadow of his father’s professional success came another source of darkness—the deterioration of Lucas’s vision from retinitis pigmentosa. With blindness looming imminently, Lucas spirals downward, unsure of how to turn his degree in English Literature into a job and relying more and more on alcohol. As Lucas’ drinking and eyesight worsen, so too do his interpersonal relationships and first career in publishing.
First Light is a memoir of loss and learning. By pulling himself out of addiction and accepting that he will lose his sight completely, Lucas transitions from being “the son of” someone famous to an individual with his own strong sense of self. Despite continued personal tragedies, Lucas develops a second sight that is aimed inward, laying his triumphs and failures bare.
With great honesty, Lucas Matthiessen creates a vivid portrait of self-destruction and rebirth, which is, above all, a vision of hope.
Philanthropists: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners by Rozlan Mohd Noor
While COVID-19 rages, the killings don’t stop—a new Inspector Mislan thriller for fans of Michael Connelly, James Ellroy, and John Burdett.
Eight months after the assassination attempt that nearly ended his life, Inspector Mislan Latif is back on twenty-four-hour duty with his assistant, Detective Sergeant Johan Kamaruddin, when the call comes in: double murder in a house in the police district of Sentul. The two dark-skinned men were killed identically, execution-style. In the master bedroom of the rental, in plain sight on the bed, is almost three pounds of drugs, while no identfying documents, wallets, phones, and the like are to be found. No shots were heard, or the neighbors won’t admit to hearing them, but someone called the killings in to notify the police. In the area, drugs are rampant and also foreign nationals, legal and illegal. If the vics were foreign, without papers, where do they start?
Just as Mislan and Jo begin to dig into the case, they face an unprecedented hurdle. COVID-19 is spreading in the country at an alarming rate, prompting a nationwide Movement Control Order. Pursuing their leads in spite of the new restrictions, the investigators come into contact with members of the underworld and the refugee community, before realizing that the real culprits may be closer than they think.
The Farrows of Hollywood by Marilyn Ann Moss
The first intimate look at the cracked fairytale life of Hollywood's first family, the Farrows.
John Farrow was Hollywood royalty. An Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter, he was married to the talented and beautiful actress Maureen O'Sullivan, best known for playing Jane in Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller. Together they had seven children, including esteemed actress Mia Farrow, mother of journalist Ronan Farrow. From the outside, they were a fairytale Hollywood family. But all was not as it seemed.
The Farrows of Hollywood: Their Dark Side of Paradise reveals that Mia Farrow's allegations of sexual molestation by Woody Allen of their seven-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan, has roots in Farrow’s childhood relationship with her father, John Farrow. John was often an abusive father to his children, his wife, and to his co-workers in Hollywood. Called the most disliked man in Hollywood, John Farrow was a tortured, tragic artist and father. He left his children a legacy of trauma and pain that the family kept hidden. It erupted only years later when Mia Farrow unknowingly revealed her pain through her words and behavior in her allegations aimed at Allen.
The book includes new research, never-before-revealed interviews with actors who worked with John Farrow, and an original theory from author, biographer, and documentarian Marilyn Ann Moss.
Death Watch by Stona Fitch
DEATH WATCH is a dark satire of consumer culture gone awry, where a devious ad campaign persuades customers to buy a luxury watch that might kill them.
Son of a legendary adman, Coe Vessel has selling in his blood. To win a plum account for his struggling NYC agency, Coe travels to Tokyo to pitch the artist-provocateur Watanabe, who is unveiling his latest creation—a mysterious watch called Cassius Seven. Coe spends a week courting the enigmatic Watanabe, who claims the watch can kill its wearer. Reassured by the artist’s son that Cassius Seven (AKA Death Watch) is a high-art hoax, Coe straps a prototype watch around his wrist to show solidarity with Watanabe and win the lucrative account.
Back in New York, Coe and his team of renegade creatives work furiously to create a campaign to convince the world that Death Watch is the must-have accessory for end-time capitalism.
Thanks to the team’s inventive campaign, Death Watch finds eager buyers among the brazenly cocky, thoroughly disillusioned, and silently suicidal. Death Watch soon becomes a cultural phenomenon, harbinger of a new nihilism, and a target for moral outrage—exactly what Watanabe envisioned. But his hoax turns horrific when the watches start going off, killing their wearers.
Appalled, Coe and his team reverse course and work feverishly to alert potential buyers. But can they stop Death Watch, the juggernaut they set in motion?
The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward
"An impressively hectic spin on the Gothic tradition"―Telegraph
The winner of BEST HORROR NOVEL at the British Fantasy Awards by the author of The House on Needless Street!
What if it's not your mansion that's haunted―it's you?
Young Iris Villarca is the last of her family's line. They are haunted by "her," a curse passed down through the generations that marks each Villarca for certain heartbreak and death. For generations, the Villarcas have died young, under mysterious circumstances.
But Iris dares to fall in love, and the consequences of her choice are immediate and terrifying. As the world falls apart around her, she must take a final journey back to Rawblood where it all began, and where it must all end…
Perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Susan Hill, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Girl from Rawblood will pull readers through time into the early 1800s and 1900s, mesmerizing them with this lyrical story of cunning folk horror right until the breathtaking finish.
A History of Silence (The Heartland Trilogy, Book One) by Cynthia J. Bogard
Four women, unknowingly bound together by one man’s violent past.
Johnny Wharton is a history professor and descendant of a Texas “planter family” — a legacy that’s followed him all the way to 1985. Tough-girl Jenny (Johnny’s daughter), runs away to Madison, blotting out her past with distance, drugs, and sex. Her loner lifestyle is upended by her new roommate’s scary insistence on friendship. Emotionally damaged Jane (Johnny’s new graduate student) gives Johnny’s offer of an affair a try, thinking she might manage if it’s furtive and part-time. Maddie (his lesbian colleague) is grief-stricken; her longtime Black lady love Roz left her — inexplicably. Conservatively raised Liz (Johnny’s wife) is desperate to reconnect with her estranged daughter. She’s beginning to realize that Johnny’s past has left unspeakable scars on her family’s present.
As the lives of these four women intertwine in unexpected ways, each learns the past can’t be conquered until it’s confronted, and its secrets revealed — and shared.
Return to the River by Dave Pelzer
On the eve of the 50-year anniversary of his rescue from a horrific childhood of abuse and into the safety of the foster care system—Dave Pelzer (author of A Child Called "IT") reflects on the battles he’s fighting in his own heart. In his deeply personal new memoir, he shares the next chapter of his life offering a transformative and brutally honest spiritual journey of loss, redemption, and resilience, as he returns to his childhood utopia of the Russian River.
Sapphire Storm by Christopher Rice writing as C. Travis Rice
Ethan Blake has dedicated his life to satisfying other people’s appetites. At forty-three, he’s finally landed his dream job—head pastry chef at an exclusive resort. Now he’s got a jet-setting career that’s taken him to romantic locations all over the world. But years before, after his parents threw him out for being gay, Ethan supported himself in a manner he’d rather keep under the covers today.
Roman Walker is a twenty-five-year-old fitness celebrity awash in thirsty followers. But when he walks through the doors of Sapphire Cove, it’s not just to oversee the menu for his celebrity client’s wedding. Decades ago, Roman and Ethan crossed paths on a New York street corner during a terrible, life-changing moment that scarred them both. Now Roman’s back for revenge.
But when his plan goes wildly off the rails, Roman suddenly finds himself at the center of an even stranger and darker plot concocted by his most famous client. Well-versed in the ways of the wealthy and the entitled, Roman’s former target offers to be his strongest ally during a moment that might derail the young man’s newfound career. But the experienced older man’s offer also ignites an irresistible and forbidden attraction that threatens to consume them both, even as it exposes old secrets and incurs the wrath of the powerful and the famous.
Our Lying Kin by Claudia Hagadus Long
In this follow-up to Long's murder mystery Nine Tenths of the Law, Zara and Lilly are back, but their relationship has some cracks in it. Through the long pandemic isolation, Zara’s gone from straight-laced to rigid, while Lilly, true to form, has indulged in some dubious — and not-particularly-legal — adventures.Just as they set out to make peace with each other, a woman calls, claiming a shocking connection to their deceased father. Zara and Lilly turn their considerable sleuthing talents toward unraveling a series of family mysteries…but their quest begins in earnest when they learn that the murderer and thief who nearly killed Lilly has escaped from custody.Filled with humor, sibling rivalry, and love, Zara and Lilly’s return is a haunting, quirky, rollicking story of the ravages of the pandemic and the power of family.
The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch
THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL (Berkley Hardcover; on sale March 14, 2023) is a saga about family and love, inspired by Russian literature and folklore, and told through the lens of three generations of women living at pivotal moments in Russian history.
In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land...
These are the words that came to shape Rosie’s life, the words at the beginning of the strange stories that her mother used to tell. Rosie’s own childhood now seems like fairytale to her – the days when she lived happily in Russia with her family, until the night that everything changed. Now, a decade later and studying at Oxford University, Rosie is intent on understanding the tragic past that she can’t seem to escape. What happened on that terrible night in Moscow, and why? After Rosie’s mother passes away, she journeys to Russia to uncover the mysteries that still haunt her, and to answer her burning questions -- what happened to her family, and why?
Upon her arrival in Moscow, Rosie uncovers more than she ever could have imagined – a family history spanning generations, tied together through cryptic stories. At the center is Tonya, a young noblewoman living in 1917 Russia on the brink of revolution, and the fateful love story that started it all…
We're All Lying by Marie Still
Someone is hunting Cass.
Cass lives an enviable life: a successful career, two great kids, and a handsome husband. Then an email from her husband's mistress, Emma, brings the façade of perfection crumbling around her, setting off a chain of events where buried secrets come back to haunt her.
A taunting email turns into stalking and escalates into much worse. Ethan and Cass try to move on, then Emma disappears.
No longer considered a victim, Cass finds herself the prime suspect and center of the investigation. Her dark secrets—including ones she didn't know existed—threaten to destroy everything they've worked for.
A fast-paced psychological thriller with jaw-dropping twists, the novel examines buried family secrets and how desperation can lead to fatal mistakes when We're All Lying.
The Good Luck Cafe by Annie Rains
The Thursday night book club is back! Annie Rains returns to Somerset Lake, North Carolina, with a heartwarming story that follows the book lovers as they band together to help Moira who is determined to save her mother's cafe, Sweetie’s Bake Shop, from eviction. Moira, a 911 dispatcher, is thrown into the town’s limelight after helping a man with special needs who is also the brother of the town’s mayor. Mayor Gil grew up with Moira and always harbored a crush on her. It’s just when sparks start to fly between the two, that Moira decides she has to campaign against Gil and run for mayor in order to save the bakery.
The fourth installment in the popular Somerset Lake series The Good Luck Cafe will delight readers looking for a sweet and heartfelt romance set in a charming small town.
A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas
Charlotte Holmes’s brilliant mind and deductive skills are pulled into a dangerous investigation at sea in this new mystery of the bestselling Lady Sherlock series.
After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.
Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder takes place on the ship.
Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her college-aged son is up to.
Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.
What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
Daughters of Nantucket by Julie Gerstenblatt
Set against Nantucket’s Great Fire of 1846, this sweeping, emotional novel brings together three courageous women battling to save everything they hold dear…
Nantucket in 1846 is an island set apart not just by its geography but by its unique circumstances. With their menfolk away at sea, often for years at a time, women here know a rare independence—and the challenges that go with it.
Eliza Macy is struggling to conceal her financial trouble as she waits for her whaling captain husband to return from a voyage. In desperation, she turns against her progressive ideals and targets Meg Wright, a pregnant free Black woman trying to relocate her store to Main Street. Meanwhile, astronomer Maria Mitchell loves running Nantucket’s Atheneum and spending her nights observing the stars, yet she fears revealing the secret wishes of her heart.
On a sweltering July night, a massive fire breaks out in town, quickly kindled by the densely packed wooden buildings. With everything they possess now threatened, these three very different women are forced to reevaluate their priorities and decide what to save, what to let go and what kind of life to rebuild from the ashes of the past.
The Last Lion of Karkov by Dale Griffin
For royal twin sisters, Jillian and Natalia, there’s nothing that can come between them. Natalia is set for marriage to another kingdom and Jillian prepares to take up the throne as the first Lioness of Karkov. Raised to be warlords and rulers, Jillian’s path to the throne is met with opposition when the old warriors bring forth a male rival. Jillian must fight for her rightful position on the throne, but things change when she starts to develop feelings for her challenger. As destinies are altered and nations are spun into turmoil, Jillian and Natalia must reckon with the consequences of love and war.
The Love Wager by Lynn Painter
Two people make a wager on who can find love first, not realizing what they should be betting on is each other, in this new romantic comedy by Lynn Painter, USA Today bestselling author of Mr. Wrong Number.
Hallie Piper is turning over a new leaf. After belly-crawling out of a hotel room (hello, rock bottom), she decides it’s time to become a full-on adult. She gets a new apartment, a new haircut, and a new wardrobe, but when she logs onto the dating app that she has determined will find her new love, she sees none other than Jack, the guy whose room she snuck out of.
After agreeing they are absolutely not interested in each other, Jack and Hallie realize they’re each other’s perfect wing-person in their searches for The One. They text each other about their dates, often scheduling them at the same restaurant so that if things don’t go well, the two of them can get tacos afterward.
Spoiler: they get a lot of tacos together.
Discouraged by the lack of prospects, Jack and Hallie make a wager to see who can find true love first, but when they agree to be fake dates for a weekend wedding, all bets are off. As they pretend to be a couple, lines become blurred and they both struggle to remember why the other was a bad idea to begin with.
Walking with Gorillas by Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka
An Inspiring Memoir, for Fans of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Frans De Waal.
In her enchanting memoir, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian, tells the remarkable story from her animal-loving childhood to her career protecting endangered mountain gorillas and other wild animals. She is also the defender of people as a groundbreaking promoter of human public health and an advocate for revolutionary integrated approaches to saving our planet. In an increasingly interconnected world, animal and human health alike depend on sustainable solutions and Dr. Gladys has developed an innovative approach to conservation among the endangered Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and their human neighbors.
Walking with Gorillas takes the reader on an incredible personal journey with Dr. Gladys, from her early days as a student in Uganda, enduring the assassination of her father during a military coup, to her veterinarian education in England to establishing the first veterinary department for the Ugandan government to founding one of the first organizations in the world that enables people to coexist with wildlife through improving the health and wellbeing of both. Her award-winning approach reduced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on critically endangered mountain gorillas.
In the face of discrimination and a male dominated world, one woman’s passion and determination to build a brighter future for the local wildlife and human community offers inspiration and insights into what is truly possible for our planet when we come together.
Death and Croissants by Ian Moore
DEATH AND CROISSANTS by UK comedian Ian Moore, takes readers to the rural French countryside in an unputdownable, hilarious upmarket cozy trade paperback mystery
"A very funny page-turner. Fantastique!" —Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt
Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that's the way he likes it.
One day, however, one of his older guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wallpaper. Another guest, the exotic Valérie, persuades a reluctant Richard to join her in investigating the disappearance.
Richard remains a dazed passenger in the case until things become really serious and someone murders Ava Gardner, one of his beloved hens... and you don't mess with a fellow's hens!
All the Queen's Spies by Oliver Clements
The “lively” (The New York Times) Agents of the Crown series continues with this thriller about Queen Elizabeth I’s advisor John Dee in a race to save the Empire with the help of a mysterious manuscript that offers global power.
With rumors of the end times swirling, philosopher and astronomer John Dee travels to Prague in an effort to prevent one of Catherine de Medici’s seductive ladies-in-waiting from luring the Holy Roman Emperor into a crusade against England.
To convince the famously occult-loving Emperor to join his side, Dee entices him with the esoteric Book of Secrets, a volume that, if decoded, could provide the chance to control the levers of heaven and earth. But Dee faces enemies at every turn, including a female codebreaker who could be the undoing of Dee and the British Empire.
Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future.
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack.
Sean’s tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she’s invading.
Deep Fake by Ward Larsen
Absolute Power meets The Manchurian Candidate in this explosive political thriller from USA Today bestselling author Ward Larsen, Deep Fake.
The Cold War is back—but for some it never ended.
Sarah Ridgeway is living the life she’s always envisioned. She has a devoted husband, a loving daughter, and a comfortable home. The path to reach it, however, has not always been smooth. For twelve years her husband, Bryce, served in the Army, deployed to some of the world’s worst trouble spots. After his service ended with a combat injury, the future had seemed precarious, but with Sarah’s support and that of his wealthy family, combined with his exemplary service record, he is elected to congress.
Then, in a moment, everything changes: at a drab Washington fundraiser, the junior congressman intervenes in a terrorist attack, and narrowly escapes with his life. When videos of his bravery go viral, he quickly becomes a national hero. The timing could not be more fortuitous. The presidential primaries are heating up, and Bryce’s party is desperate for a fresh candidate to challenge the vulnerable incumbent.
Amid the whirlwind, Sarah senses something amiss. Since the attack, Bryce has been forgetful and acting strangely. Could it be the stress? she wonders. Might the recent explosion have aggravated his combat trauma? For the first time ever, she finds herself doubting a man she has always trusted. Confessing her fears to her closest friend, together they quietly search for answers. What they uncover is stunning: the man who might soon be president has a deeply held secret. A secret that will likely destroy Sarah’s life—and certainly lead the nation to ruin.
The Fun Widow's Book Tour by Zoe Fishman
From the author of Inheriting Edith comes a brave new novel about the intersection of art and grief after the tragic loss of her own husband in 2017.
Mia used to be fun. She was the class clown; a member of the mile high club; the mom who made her sons giggle with her bad British accent and well-placed tickles.
But three years after the death of her husband, there’s no time for that. She’s the only parent they have.
Now, her memoir is out and she has to promote it. But how to sell herself when her heart is still broken? And so her three best friends—Chelsea, Rachel and George—organize her book tour in their respective hometowns. With her father Ira on deck for the boys, Mia sets off on a week-long journey to San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta: her hometown.
Although, Mia’s not just going for herself. Armed with her trademark agenda, she plans to fix her friends’ lives as a means of repayment for all they’ve done. And reluctantly visit Judy, her new stepmother, because she has to—not because she wants to. But even the best agenda is often rendered useless by reality, and Mia realizes that the stories she’s been telling herself are just that. Stories.
If she can rewrite who she is now by revisiting who she was then, maybe she can reignite the flame in all of them.
Our Best Intentions by Vibhuti Jain
A suspenseful drama about an immigrant family caught in a criminal investigation, perfect for readers of Everything I Never Told You.
“Our Best Intentions is a thoughtful, gripping suspense that shakes up definitions of family and identity in a beautiful and refreshing way!” —Kal Penn, actor and national bestselling author of You Can't Be Serious
“With subtlety, humor and piercing insight, Vibhuti Jain creates a propulsive page-turner that will touch your heart. A must-read!” —Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee
Babur “Bobby” Singh, single parent and owner of fledging Uber business “Move with Bobby,” remains ever hopeful about ascending the ladder of American success. He lives in an affluent suburb of New York with his daughter Angie, an introverted teenager who is uncomfortable in her own skin unless she’s swimming.
During summer break, Angie is walking home after training at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a classmate from a wealthy, prominent family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and—it’s later discovered—wasn’t properly enrolled in the public high school.
The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. As the town fractures, Angie must navigate conflicting narratives and wrestle with her own moral culpability. Meanwhile, Babur’s painstaking efforts to shield Angie and protect his hard-earned efforts to assimilate overshadow his ability to see right from wrong.
Alternating between multiple perspectives, Our Best Intentions is a pulsating story about a father and daughter re-examining their familial bonds and place in the community. Both a gripping page-turner and an intimate portrait of an immigrant family, Vibhuti Jain’s provocative debut explores how easily friendships, careers, communities, and individual lives can unravel when the toxicity of privilege and racial bias are exposed.
Daughter Dalloway by Emily France
Perfect for fans of Marie Benedict and Renée Rosen, Daughter Dalloway is both an homage to the Virginia Woolf classic and a brilliant spin-off—the empowering, rebellious coming-of-age story of Mrs. Dalloway’s only child, Elizabeth.
London, 1952: Forty-six-year-old Elizabeth Dalloway feels she has failed at most everything in life, especially living up to her mother, the elegant Mrs. Dalloway, an ideal socialite and model of perfection until she disappeared in the summer of 1923—and hasn’t been heard from since.
When Elizabeth is handed a medal with a mysterious inscription from her mother to a soldier named Septimus Warren Smith, she’s certain it contains a clue from the past. As she sets out, determined to deliver the medal to its rightful owner, Elizabeth begins to piece together memories of that fateful summer.
London, 1923: At seventeen, Elizabeth carouses with the Prince of Wales and sons of American iron barons and decides to join the Bright Young People—a group of bohemians whose antics often land in the tabloids. She is a girl who rebels against the staid social rules of the time, a girl determined to do it all differently than her mother. A girl who doesn’t yet feel like a failure.
That summer, Octavia Smith braves the journey from the countryside to London, determined to track down her older brother Septimus who returned from the war but never came home. She falls in with a group of clever city boys who have learned to survive on the streets. When one starts to steal her heart, she must discover whether he is a friend or foe—and whether she can make it in the city on her own.
Elizabeth and Octavia are destined to cross paths, and when they do, the truths they unearth will shatter their understanding of the people they love most.
Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig
From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig: a dramatic coming-of-age story with a dual timeline and a single heroine—a bold and adventuring young woman who finds herself caught up in two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic.
September 1896: An aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into the male-dominated field of excavation. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously. But when a simmering conflict between Greece and Turkey erupts into open warfare, Betsy throws herself into the conflict as a nurse, not knowing that the decision will change her life forever—and cause a deep and painful rift with her oldest friend, Ava.
June 1898: Betsy has sworn off war nursing—but when she gets the word that her estranged friend Ava is headed to Cuba with Clara Barton and the Red Cross to patch up the wounded in the Spanish-American War, Betsy determines to stop her the only way she knows how: by joining in her place. Battling heat, disease, and her own demons, Betsy follows Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders straight to the heart of the fighting, where she is forced to confront her greatest fears to save both old friends and new….
Set during an electrifying era of nation-building, idealism, and upheaval, Two Wars and a Wedding is the tale of two remarkable women striving to make their place in a man’s world—an unforgettable saga of friendship, love, and fighting for what is right.
The Woman Beyond The Sea
A mesmerizing novel about three generations of women who have lost each other―and the quest to weave them back into a family.
An immersive historical tale spanning the life stories of three women, The Woman Beyond the Sea traces the paths of a daughter, mother, and grandmother who lead entirely separate lives, until finally their stories and their hearts are joined together.
Eliya thinks that she’s finally found true love and passion with her charismatic and demanding husband, an aspiring novelist―until he ends their relationship in a Paris café, spurring her suicide attempt. Seeking to heal herself, Eliya is compelled to piece together the jagged shards of her life and history.
Eliya’s heart-wrenching journey leads her to a profound and unexpected love, renewed family ties, and a reconciliation with her orphaned mother, Lily. Together, the two women embark on a quest to discover the truth about themselves and Lily’s own origins…and the unknown woman who set their stories in motion one Christmas Eve.
A Novel Proposal by Denise Hunter
In her writing and her life, Sadie loved to play it safe. But maybe a little risk was just the plot twist she needed.
When novelist Sadie Goodwin must stop writing her beloved westerns and instead pen a romance at her publisher’s request, there’s only one tiny problem: She’s never been in love.
But desperate to salvage her career, Sadie accepts an invitation to hole up at her friend’s beach duplex for the summer and devote herself to this confounding genre. After all, where better to witness love than on the beautiful South Carolina shore?
Sadie soon gets to know the beach regulars—sunbathers, walkers, and surfers alike. She even attempts conversation with Sam Ford, the grumpy neighbor on the other side of the duplex. But things take an unexpected turn when Sadie comes across a novel with a secret compartment—and a beautiful engagement ring tucked inside.
Suddenly, finding the owner of the ring becomes the perfect way to put off writing that romance. Sadie draws a reluctant Sam into her mission. As the two get closer to discovering the answer to the secret proposal, Sadie discovers a tender side to Sam. She begins to wonder if he might make the perfect hero for her romance novel—or maybe even her heart.
From the bestselling author of The Convenient Groom (now a beloved Hallmark Original movie) comes a sweet and sizzling story of a romance writer surprised by her own happily ever after.
Jane & Edward by Melodie Edwards
A former foster kid, Jane has led a solitary life as a waitress in the suburbs, working hard to get by. Tired of years of barely scraping together a living, Jane takes classes to become a legal assistant and shortly after graduating accepts a job offer at a distinguished law firm in downtown Toronto. Everyone at the firm thinks she is destined for failure because her boss is the notoriously difficult Edward Rosen, the majority stakeholder of Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield LLP. But Jane has known far worse trials and refuses to back down when economic freedom is so close at hand.
Edward has never been able to keep an assistant—he’s too loud, too messy, too ill-tempered. There’s something about the quietly competent, delightfully sharp-witted Jane that intrigues him though. As their orbits overlap, their feelings begin to develop—first comes fondness and then something more. But when Edward’s secrets put Jane’s independence in jeopardy, she must face long-ignored ghosts from her past and decide if opening her heart is a risk worth taking.
Woman of the Year
A deliciously twisty thriller about the dark side of female friendship and a revenge plot that gets a little out of hand from the New York Times bestselling author of the “intense, captivating, and astonishing” (New York Journal of Books) A Simple Favor.
Twenty years ago, gregarious Lorelei and mousy Holly became fast friends as students in the same college psychology seminar. Taught by an expert in control and human behavior, the two students also grew close to their charismatic professor. But in one twisted moment of gaslighting, their friendship flamed out and Lorelei’s once-promising future fell apart.
Flashforward, Holly has everything Lorelei ever wanted, while Lorelei is a lonely cat lady. Now, Holly is even up for an award at a Woman of the Year ceremony, and Lorelei finally has the perfect opportunity to get the revenge she’s wanted for years. But she’s not the only person who has been obsessively following Holly’s career—and when someone winds up dead, Lorelei realizes she may be in danger, too.
Topanga Canyon: Fire Season by Barbara Bryan
Matt, a teenage boy from Chicago, is exiled to his grandfather's horse ranch in Topanga, California by his alcoholic mother. There, he must learn to adapt to an alien lifestyle filled with strangers and animals he finds terrifying.
As Matt's new life unfolds and his love for horses grows, he realizes that his grandfather is in danger of losing his beloved ranch due to outstanding debts. Desperate to keep the ranch, his grandfather leases out one of the barns to an unscrupulous horse trainer named Robert Sinclair.
Matt soon witnesses the antiquated and brutal methods of training Sinclair uses on his Tennessee Walking Horses. Confronted by an unwillingness by everyone at the ranch to oppose Sinclair and his use of horse soring, Matt searches for a way to make the outside world aware of the horse's needless torture. With the help of his friend Ariel, they devise a plan to expose Sinclair and his brutal methods. But will the fury of the yearly Santa Ana winds ignite a devastating fire and give Sinclair his chance for revenge?
Topanga Canyon: Fire Season by Barbara Bryan weaves a tale that reignites the essential truth that we all intrinsically possess the courage to face the myriad of challenges in today's world and restores the knowledge that, through us, change is possible.
The Wedding at Moonglow Bay by Lori Wilde
A wedding brings a shocking surprise in New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde’s newest Moonglow Cove novel. Perfect for fans of Susan Wiggs, Jill Shalvis, and Robyn Carr.
It wasn’t the wedding night she’d expected!
When Samantha said “I do” to Luca Ginelli, she knew she’d found a reliable soulmate—a strong, sexy man who’d stand beside her through thick and thin. And so she’d started her wedding day filled with joyful expectation, only to have her dreams shattered when the man she married years before shocking, unexpectedly, reappears, insisting she was still his wife!
Seven years before, Luca’s brother, Nick, had stubbornly set off in a sailing adventure, ignoring the pleas of his young bride and all common sense. He’d disappeared without a trace; everyone thought he was dead—but now he’s expecting to pick up where they’d left off. He’d once been Samantha’s “lightning strike,”—the person you know is the one from the moment you first see them.
But seven years is a long time and so much has changed. Now Samantha is faced with an impossible choice and no matter which decision she makes, it threatens to shred the very fabric of the one thing she holds most dear—family.
Daddy's Girl by Michael Schnabel
In his heartfelt debut memoir, Daddy’s Girl: A Father, His Daughter, and the Deadly Battle She Won (Armin Lear Press, March 23, 2023, $19.99, Paperback), Michael Schnabel chronicles the powerful story of his daughter’s fight to survive her cancer diagnosis in order to live life with her newborn son and the author’s grandson.
How does a young mother overcome an 8 percent chance of living to raise her newborn son? She becomes a warrior and provides hope for others.
In each person's life there are events that forever change their course. Twenty-seven-year-old Stephanie experienced two of these events in fourteen days; the birth of her only child and discovery that she only has an 8 percent chance of living. She is haunted by the thought that this baby will only know her through pictures, until she makes that mental image her motivation to survive.
This is a story of one family facing the most daunting of circumstances, at once celebration and devastation. Michael Schnabel, Stephanie's father tells the story of survival and how three generations of a family respond to crisis. Stephanie's courage is fueled by her son's deep brown eyes and unconditional love. Her faith comes from the belief that something greater than us provides what we need, when we need it. Daddy's Girl illuminates a range of emotions, and delivers them with humor, love—as well as some miracles!
Her Lost Words by Stephanie Marie Thornton
1792. As a child, Mary Wollstonecraft longed to disappear during her father’s violent rages. Instead, she transforms herself into the radical author of the landmark volume A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she dares to propose that women are equal to men. From conservative England to the blood-drenched streets of revolutionary France, Mary refuses to bow to society’s conventions and instead supports herself with her pen until an illicit love affair challenges her every belief about romance and marriage. When she gives birth to a daughter and is stricken with childbed fever, Mary fears it will be her many critics who recount her life’s extraordinary odyssey…
1815. The daughter of infamous political philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, passionate Mary Shelley learned to read by tracing the letters of her mother’s tombstone. As a young woman, she desperately misses her mother’s guidance, especially following her scandalous elopement with dashing poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary struggles to balance an ever-complicated marriage with motherhood while nursing twin hopes that she might write something of her own one day and also discover the truth of her mother’s unconventional life. Mary’s journey will unlock her mother’s secrets, all while leading to her own destiny as the groundbreaking author of Frankenstein.
A riveting and inspiring novel about a firebrand feminist, her visionary daughter, and the many ways their words transformed our world.
Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni
A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? A twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.
Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.
Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.
As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.
The File by Gary Born
Enter Sara West, a tenacious botany graduate student on a scientific expedition in the heart of the African jungle. During her research, she stumbles upon a cache of WWII Nazi files in the wreck of a German bomber hidden deep within the jungle. Those hidden files reveal the location of a multibillion-dollar war chest, secretly deposited by the Nazis in numbered Swiss bank accounts at the end of WWII.
But Sara isn’t the only one interested in the war chest. Former KGB agent Ivan Petronov and Franklin Kerrington III, deputy director of the CIA, both have deeply personal reasons for acquiring the files Sara has found.
With two dangerous men — and their teams of hit men — on her trail, will Sara be able to escape the jungle alive?
Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton
One fateful encounter upends the lives of two women in this tense domestic thriller, a modern spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train that flips the script on race and gender politics.
“I’m a big believer that women should help each other, Tasha,” she says. “Don’t you think?”
Tasha Jenkins has finally found the courage to leave her abusive husband. Taking her teenage son with her, Tasha checks into a hotel the night before their flight out of D.C. and out of Kordell Jenkins’s life forever. But escaping isn’t so easy, and Tasha soon finds herself driving back to her own personal hell. As she is leaving, a white woman pounds on her car window, begging to be let in. Behind the woman, an angry man is in pursuit. Tasha makes a split-second decision that will alter the course of her life: she lets her in and takes off.
Tasha and Madison Gingell may have very different everyday realities, but what they have in common is marriages they need out of. The two women want to help each other, but they have very different ideas of what that means . . .
They are on a collision course that will end in the case files of the D.C. MPD homicide unit. Unraveling the truth of what really happened may be impossible‒and futile. Because what has the truth ever done for women like Tasha and Madison?
Murder in Postscript by Mary Winters
When one of her readers asks for advice following a suspected murder, Victorian countess Amelia Amesbury, who secretly pens the popular Lady Agony column, has no choice but to investigate in this first book in a charming new historical mystery series.
Amelia Amesbury—widow, mother, and countess—has a secret. Amelia writes for a London penny paper, doling out advice on fashion, relationships, and manners under the pen name Lady Agony. But when a lady’s maid writes Amelia to ask for advice when she believes her mistress has been murdered—and then ends up a victim herself—Amelia is determined to solve the case.
With the help of her best friend and a handsome marquis, Amelia begins to piece together the puzzle, but as each new thread of inquiry ends with a different suspect, the investigation grows ever more daunting. From London’s docks and ballrooms to grand country houses, Amelia tracks a killer, putting her reputation—and her life—on the line.
Bayou Beloved by Lexi Blake
Quaid Havery always planned to follow in his father’s footsteps. He went to law school and then came home to take over his dad’s legal practice. Being the only lawyer in small-town Papillon, Quaid is pretty sure he’s seen everything. After all, he was once asked to sue an alligator for defamation of character. He’s prepared for anything the town can throw at him, until he encounters Jayna Cardet. She’s gorgeous, smart, funny, and unlike any woman he’s met before....Except he has.
Jayna never thought she’d return to Papillon, but when her life gets turned around she must learn to live in the close-knit community again. She certainly never dreamed she would practice law in her little town, but she finds herself in the courtroom, and the opposing counsel is her former high school crush, Quaid. It wouldn’t be so bad if the man had developed a beer belly, but Quaid is more handsome than ever. And instead of ignoring her like he did in high school, he’s made it plain that he wants to get to know her.
Thus begins a courtship destined to end in a wedding or a war. Either way, the locals are popping some corn and eagerly awaiting the outcome.
Hiss & Tell: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown
When a series of mysterious deaths spoil the Christmas season in Crozet, Virginia, Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen and her beloved cats and dogs lend the police a helping paw in this exciting holiday mystery from Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown.
Christmas is coming and Harry’s to-do list is a mile long. The days are filled with delivering holiday baskets to neighbors in need, chopping down the perfect tree with her best friend, Susan Tucker, and hunting for that elusive special gift for her beloved husband, Pharamond “Fair” Harristeen. Harry also decides to try her hand at dog showing, enrolling her handsome Irish Wolfhound puppy Pirate in classes to prepare for a future exhibition. Through it all, holiday cheer—and plenty of treats for Pirate—keep spirits high.
But the holidays aren’t cheerful for everyone. Harry’s friend on the police force, Cynthia Cooper, warns that the season can bring an uptick in crime. Her words prove tragically prescient when Harry and Susan discover the body of a man by the side of the road, dead, without any clues to his identity. One suspicious death is bad enough, but when Cooper reports that two more bodies have been found, also unidentified, Harry knows trouble is afoot. The autopsies for all three bodies reveal the presence of a deadly drug. Could their deaths have been accidental, or is a devious killer on the prowl?
With help from her feline sidekicks, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, as well as Tee Tucker the corgi and Pirate, Harry vows to find the answers and stop the spate of deaths so that all of Crozet can have a very merry Christmas.
