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Spring Preview 2018

Spring Preview

Spring Preview 2018

The arrival of spring signals the end of our Spring Preview contests. Many thanks to all who entered --- and a big congratulations to all our winners! You can see the winners here, and below are the books that we believe you’ll be talking about over the next few months.

After Anna by Lisa Scottoline - Thriller

Dr. Noah Alderman has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie Ippolitti. Despite her longing for the daughter she hasn’t seen since she was a baby, Maggie is happy too, and she’s even more overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets another chance to be a mother to the child she thought she'd lost forever: her only daughter, Anna. But events take a heartbreaking turn when Anna is murdered, and Noah is accused and tried for the heinous crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her daughter, but the realization that Anna's murder may have been at the hands of a husband she loves. In the wake of this tragedy, new information drives Maggie to search for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she ever could have imagined.

All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church - Historical Fiction

Lily Decker never meant to become a showgirl. As a young girl in small-town Kansas, she danced to forget the pain of losing her family in a car accident. And dancing made her feel beautiful when the attentions of her Uncle Miles only brought shame. In 1967, Lily is grown and ready to leave her past behind. She changes her name to Ruby Wilde and heads to the Rat Pack’s Las Vegas to make a name for herself as a troupe dancer. However, the competition is fierce, and she finds work as a showgirl instead, doing fan-kicks in sky-high headdresses and sparkling costumes. Her new life brims with glamour and excitement, but something is still missing. Is it love? What choices will she make to feel whole again, and at what cost?

American by Day by Derek B. Miller - Thriller


She knew it was a weird place. She’d heard the stories, seen the movies, read the books. But now police Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård has to leave her native Norway and actually go there: to that land across the Atlantic where her missing brother is implicated in the mysterious death of a prominent African-American academic. AMERICA. Sigrid is plunged into a United States where race and identity, politics and promise reverberate in every aspect of daily life. Working with --- or, if necessary, against --- the police, she must negotiate the local political minefields and navigate the backwoods of the Adirondacks to uncover the truth before events escalate further.

Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe - Thriller

Duke McKenna has run more guns, cooked more meth and killed more men than anyone around. His daughter, Harley, has been working for him since she was 16 --- collecting debts, sweet-talking her way out of trouble, and dreading the day he'd deem her ready to rule the rural drug empire he's built. The Springfields, her family's biggest rivals, are moving in. Years ago, they were responsible for her mother's death, and now they're coming for her. Harley is forced to confront the truth: that her father's violent world will destroy her. If she wants to survive and protect the people she loves, she must take out Duke's operation and the Springfields.

Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer - Fiction

Annie is a drug addict and a thief, and is in trouble again. Her sister Lexie has always helped her, but this time, she’s not just strung out --- she’s pregnant and in premature labor. If she goes to the hospital, she’ll lose custody of her baby and maybe even go to prison. But the alternative is unthinkable. As the weeks unfold, Lexie finds herself caring for her fragile newborn niece while her carefully ordered life is collapsing around her. She’s in danger of losing her job, and her fiancé only has so much patience for Annie’s drama. In court-ordered rehab, Annie attempts to halt her downward spiral by confronting long-buried secrets from the sisters’ childhoods, ghosts that Lexie doesn’t want to face.

The Brightest Sun by Adrienne Benson - Fiction


Leona, an isolated American anthropologist, gives birth to a baby girl in a remote Maasai village and must decide how she can be a mother, in spite of her own grim childhood. Jane, a lonely expat wife, follows her husband to the tropics and learns just how fragile life is. Simi, a barren Maasai woman, must confront her infertility in a society in which females are valued by their reproductive roles. In this affecting debut novel, these three very different women grapple with motherhood, recalibrate their identities, and confront unforeseen tragedies and triumphs.

Can't Help Myself: Lessons & Confessions from a Modern Advice Columnist by Meredith Goldstein - Memoir

Every day, Boston Globe advice columnist Meredith Goldstein takes on the relationship problems of thousands of dedicated readers. In her column, she has it all figured out, but in her real life she is a lot less certain. Whether it's her own reservations about the traditional path of marriage and family, her difficulty finding someone she truly connects with, or the evolution of her friendships as her friends start to have their own families, Meredith finds herself looking for insight, just like her readers. As she searches for responses to their concerns, she's surprised to discover answers to her own. But it's after her mother is diagnosed with cancer that she truly realizes how special her "Love Letters" community is.

The Coincidence Makers by Yoav Blum - Fiction

What if the drink you just spilled, the train you just missed, or the lottery ticket you just found was not just a random occurrence? What if it’s all part of a bigger plan? What if there’s no such thing as a chance encounter? What if there are people we don’t know determining our destiny? And what if they are even planning the fate of the world? Enter the Coincidence Makers --- Guy, Emily and Eric --- three seemingly ordinary people who work for a secret organization devoted to creating and carrying out coincidences. When an assignment of the highest level is slipped under Guy’s door one night, he knows it will be the most difficult and dangerous coincidence he’s ever had to fulfill.

The Cutting Edge: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver - Thriller

In the early hours of a quiet, weekend morning in Manhattan's Diamond District, a brutal triple murder shocks the city. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs quickly take the case. As more crimes follow, it becomes clear that the killer's target is not gems, but engaged couples themselves. The Promisor vows to take the lives of men and women during their most precious moments --- midway through the purchase of an engagement ring, after a meeting with a wedding planner, trying on the perfect gown for a day that will never come. Soon the Promisor makes a dangerous mistake: leaving behind an innocent witness, Vimal Lahori, a talented young diamond cutter who can help Rhyme and Sachs blow the lid off the case.

Dead Girl Running by Christina Dodd - Psychological Thriller

Tough, capable Kellen Adams takes a job as assistant manager of a remote vacation resort on the North Pacific Coast. There, amid the towering storms and the lashing waves, she hopes to find sanctuary. But when she discovers a woman's dead and mutilated body, she's soon trying to keep her own secrets while investigating first one murder, and then another. Now every guest and employee is a suspect. Every friendly face a mask. Every kind word a lie. Kellen is driven to defend her job, her friends and the place she's come to call home. Yet she wonders --- with the scar of a gunshot on her forehead and amnesia that leaves her unsure of her own past --- if the killer could be staring her in the face.

The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

From the outside, Essie’s life looks idyllic: a loving husband, a beautiful house in a good neighborhood, and a nearby mother who dotes on her grandchildren. But few of Essie’s friends know her secret shame: that in a moment of maternal despair, she once walked away from her newborn, asleep in her carriage in a park. When a new woman named Isabelle moves in next door to Essie, she is an immediate object of curiosity in the neighborhood. As the two women grow closer and Essie’s friends voice their disapproval, it starts to become clear that Isabelle’s choice of neighborhood was no accident. And that her presence threatens to bring shocking secrets to light.

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian - Psychological Thriller


Cassandra Bowden, a flight attendant, is no stranger to hungover mornings. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together. She quietly slides out of bed and looks at the man she spent the night with. What she sees is blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police, Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it's too late to come clean --- or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did?

If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin - Psychological Thriller


Late one night in the quiet Hudson Valley town of Havenkill, a distraught woman stumbles into the police station --- and lives are changed forever. Aimee En, once a darling of the ’80s pop music scene, claims that a teenage boy stole her car, then ran over another young man who had rushed to help. As Liam Miller’s life hangs in the balance, the events of that fateful night begin to come into focus. But is everything as it seems? The case quickly consumes social media, transforming Liam, a local high school football star, into a folk hero, and the suspect, a high school outcast named Wade Reed, into a depraved would-be killer. But is Wade really guilty? And if he isn't, why won't he talk?

The Little French Bistro by Nina George - Fiction


Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After 41 years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as “the end of the world.” Here she meets a cast of colorful and unforgettable locals who surprise her with their warm welcome and the natural ease they all seem to have, taking pleasure in life’s small moments. And, as the parts of herself she had long forgotten return to her in this new world, Marianne learns it’s never too late to begin the search for what life should have been all along.

Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman - Fiction/Humor


As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors’ private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, and Bill Horton’s wife is mysteriously missing. After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, though, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that’s a notion easier said than done when Anne’s husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families --- and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.

Providence by Caroline Kepnes - Supernatural Thriller


Seven years after first contact, Providence Five launches. It is an enormous and deadly warship, built to protect humanity from its greatest ever threat. On board is a crew of just four --- tasked with monitoring the ship and reporting the war's progress to a mesmerized global audience by way of social media. But while pursuing the enemy across space, Gilly, Talia, Anders and Jackson confront the unthinkable: their communications are cut, their ship decreasingly trustworthy and effective. To survive, they must win a fight that is suddenly and terrifyingly real.

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney - Psychological Thriller

Amber Reynolds wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from 20 years ago, Alice Feeney's debut psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey - Memoir/Essays


Franchesca Ramsey didn't set out to be an activist. Or a comedian. Or a commentator on identity, race and culture. But then her YouTube video "What White Girls Say...to Black Girls" went viral. Faced with an avalanche of media requests, fan letters and hate mail, she had two choices: Jump in and make her voice heard, or step back and let others frame the conversation. After a crash course in social justice and more than a few foot-in-mouth moments, she realized she had a unique talent and passion for breaking down injustice in America in ways that could make people listen and engage. In her first book, Ramsey uses her own experiences as an accidental activist to explore the many ways we communicate with each other.