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Winter Reading 2018

Winter Reading

Winter Reading 2018

At Bookreporter.com, we kicked off 2018 with our fourth annual Winter Reading Contests and Feature. We hosted a series of 24-hour contests spotlighting a book releasing this winter (or a book publishing in the spring that we wanted to get on your radar now) and gave five lucky readers a chance to win it.

Even though our contests have wrapped up, we encourage you to take a look at this year's featured titles, as these are the books you'll want to read during the winter months --- and into the warmer ones!

- Click here to see the winners of our 2018 Winter Reading contests.

Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser - Psychological Thriller


Three years into their marriage, Violet and Finn have a wonderful little boy. Life is good, and Violet can’t believe her luck. So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach and takes their son with him. Violet is suddenly in her own worst nightmare, and faced with the knowledge that the man she’s shared her life with, she never really knew at all. Caitlin and Finn have been best friends for the longest time. But when Finn shows up on Caitlin’s doorstep with the son he’s wanted for kidnapping, demands that she hide them from the authorities, and threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy her own family if she doesn’t, Caitlin faces an impossible choice.

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen - Fiction

Some days, Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life --- except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. The owners watch one another’s children grow up. They use the same handyman. They trade gossip and gripes, and they maneuver for the ultimate status symbol: a spot in the block’s small parking lot. Then one morning, Nora returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the enviable dead-end block turns into a potent symbol of a divided city.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - Fiction


Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan - Thriller

Sophie Whitehouse has a lovely home, two adorable children, and a handsome, successful husband. But everything changes the night James comes home and confesses an indiscretion. It turns out that his revelation is just the tip of the iceberg: a larger scandal is about to explode. James stands accused of a terrible crime, and their family is shoved into the spotlight as his trial begins. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, another woman is working to destroy Sophie’s husband. Sophie remains convinced of James’ innocence and is desperate to protect her precious family from the rumors that threaten to rip them apart. Is James the guilty perpetrator or an innocent victim of a toxic agenda?

Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience by Allison Pataki - Memoir

When Allison Pataki's husband suffers a stroke, he wakes up with a complete loss of memory. At five months pregnant, Allison has lost the Dave she knew and loved. Within a few months, she found herself caring for both a newborn and a sick husband, struggling with the fear of what was to come. As a way to make sense of the pain and chaos of their new reality, Allison started to write daily letters to Dave. Not only would she work to make sense of the unfathomable experiences unfolding around her, but her letters would provide Dave with the memories he could not make on his own. She was writing to preserve their past, protect their present and fight for their future. Those letters became the foundation for this beautiful, intimate memoir.

The High Season by Judy Blundell - Fiction


In a beach town overrun with vacationers and newly colonized by socialites, Ruthie Beamish will go to extreme lengths when the life she loves is upended. Ruthie's house is her nest egg, recently renovated and located by the sea in a quiet village two ferry rides from the glitzier Hamptons. But to afford the house, she must rent it during the summer --- and this year to Adeline Clay, who is elegant, connected and accompanied by a “gorgeous satellite” stepson. Adeline forces herself into Ruthie's life, and when she's on the verge of losing everything, Ruthie discovers a new talent for pushing back. Nothing will be the same.

The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu - Fiction

At Forevermore, a sleepaway camp in the Pacific Northwest, campers are promised adventures in the woods, songs by the fire and lifelong friends. Bursting with excitement and nervous energy, five girls set off on an overnight kayaking trip to a nearby island. But before the night is over, they find themselves stranded, with no adults to help them survive or guide them home. THE LOST GIRLS OF CAMP FOREVERMORE follows Nita, Andee, Isabel, Dina and Siobhan beyond this fateful trip, showing us the lives of the haunted and complex women these girls become.

The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida - Historical Fiction


Maria Vittoria is 25 when her father brings home the man who will become her husband. It is 1923 in the austere Italian mountain village where her family has lived for generations. Taking just the linens she has sewn that make up her dowry and a statue of the Madonna that sits by her bedside, Maria leaves the only life she has ever known to begin a family. But her future will not be what she imagines. THE MADONNA OF THE MOUNTAINS follows Maria over the next three decades, as she moves to the town where she and her husband become shopkeepers, through the birth of their five children, through the hardships and cruelties of the National Fascist Party Rule and the Second World War.

The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers - Romance


Successful LA artist Roman Velasco appears to have everything he could possibly want. Only Grace Moore, his reluctant, newly hired personal assistant, knows how little he truly has. The demons of Roman’s past seem to echo through the halls of his empty mansion and out across his breathtaking Topanga Canyon view. Like Roman, Grace is wrestling with ghosts and secrets of her own. After a disastrous marriage threw her life completely off course, she vowed never to let love steal her dreams again. But as she gets to know the enigmatic man behind the reputation, it’s as if the jagged pieces of both of their pasts slowly begin to fit together...until something so unexpected happens that it changes the course of their relationship --- and both their lives --- forever.

The Mother's Promise by Sally Hepworth - Fiction


All their lives, Alice Stanhope and her daughter, Zoe, have been a family of two. Zoe has always struggled with crippling social anxiety, and her mother has been her constant and fierce protector. With no family to speak of, and the identity of Zoe’s father shrouded in mystery, their team of two works until it doesn’t. Until Alice gets sick and needs to fight for her life. Desperate to find stability for Zoe, Alice reaches out to two women who are practically strangers, but who are her only hope: Kate, a nurse, and Sonja, a social worker. As the four of them come together, they must confront their sharpest fears and secrets about abandonment, abuse, estrangement and the deepest longing for family.

A Perfect Universe: Ten Stories by Scott O'Connor - Fiction/Short Stories


Welcome to the often-overlooked corners of sun-bleached Los Angeles, where a teenaged bicycle thief searches for a kidnapped boy, a young musician emerges as the lone survivor of a building collapse, and an aging actor faces the erasure of his past. There, far from the Hollywood spotlight, we also meet two sisters locked in a destructive cycle of memory and illness, coffee-shop regulars whose lives are torn apart by a stunning moment of violence, and the desperate, fraudulent writer whose fictions connect these characters in subtle and surprising ways.

The Spectrum of Hope: An Optimistic and New Approach to Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias by Gayatri Devi, MD - Health/Medicine


Imagine finding a glimmer of good news in a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. And imagine how that would change the outlook of the five million Americans who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, not to mention their families, loved ones and caretakers. A neurologist who has been specializing in dementia and memory loss for more than 20 years, Dr. Gayatri Devi rewrites the story of Alzheimer’s by defining it as a spectrum disorder --- like autism, Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects different people differently. She encourages people who are worried about memory impairment to seek a diagnosis, because early treatment will enable doctors and caregivers to manage the disease more effectively through drugs and other therapies.

Things to Do When It's Raining by Marissa Stapley - Fiction

Mae Summers has it all: a loving fiancé, Peter, a job at the flourishing company he owns, and a beautiful New York City apartment. But Mae’s life shatters when she wakes up one morning to discover Peter gone and the company in shambles. There’s only one place for Mae to go: home to Alexandria Bay, where she was raised by her grandparents. And not all is right in Alex Bay, either: Mae finds her grandmother struggling with dementia, separated from Mae’s grandfather thanks to a terrible secret she never meant to reveal. She also finds Gabe, her childhood best friend who became the love of her young life --- now a handsome if brooding adult, working through a private trauma that still haunts him.

Two Good Dogs by Susan Wilson - Fiction

Single mom Skye Mitchell has sunk her last dime into a dream, owning the LakeView Hotel in the Berkshire Hills. It’s here where she believes she’ll give her 14-year-old daughter, Cody, a better life. But Cody is keeping an earth-shattering secret that she’s terrified to reveal. When Adam March and his pit bull Chance check into the hotel, it becomes the first of many visits, as he and the beleaguered innkeeper form a tentative friendship. And then there is Mingo, a street kid with a pit bull dog of his own. When Cody discovers an overdosed Mingo, Adam takes the boy’s dog not just for safekeeping, but to foster and then rehome. A makeshift family begins to form as four lost people learn to trust and rely on each other, with the help of two good dogs.

The Unforgotten by Laura Powell - Mystery/Thriller

Fifteen-year-old Betty Broadbent’s world is upended in the summer of 1956 when a string of brutal murders brings London’s press corps flooding into the village, many of whom find lodging at the Hotel Eden, a boarding house run by her mother. She is instantly transfixed by one of the reporters, Mr. Gallagher --- and he, fully twice her age, seems equally transfixed by her. The unlikely relationship that blooms between them is as overlaid with longing and desire as it is with impropriety and even menace. And as the shocking death toll rises, both Betty and Mr. Gallagher are forced to make a devastating choice, one that will shape their own lives --- and the life of an innocent man --- forever.

White Houses by Amy Bloom - Historical Fiction


Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, “Hick,” as she’s known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future First Lady deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen - Psychological Thriller


When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement --- a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing. THE WIFE BETWEEN US exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage --- and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn - Psychological Thriller


Anna Fox lives alone --- a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times...and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, mother and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble --- and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, no one --- and nothing --- is what it seems.