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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 18th and June 25th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary for HOW HARD CAN IT BE?, the long-awaited sequel to Allison Pearson's 2002 novel, I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT.
Bookreporter.com readers know that we’re all about spreading a love of reading, and we’re always eager to introduce you to reading programs across the country that catch our eye. Talbots, the nationally renowned womenswear retailer, is hosting a summer-long book club event to get shoppers (and readers!) to share books they love and discover new ones. In partnership with Talbots, we're giving away a fabulous grand prize --- a $250 Talbots gift card and a bundle of books! To enter this very special contest, all you have to do is fill out this form by Friday, June 29th at noon ET.
Our 7th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event took place earlier this month at BookExpo. Twenty-four publishers presented fall/winter titles of interest to book group leaders, booksellers and librarians. While this is an amazing event to experience in person, we wanted to be sure that all of our readers have the information that was shared that day. You can see PDFs of the presentation here, as well as an Excel document with all of the featured books.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News: Bookreporter.com Bets On HOW HARD CAN IT BE? by Allison Pearson
HOW HARD CAN IT BE? by Allison Pearson (Fiction/Humor)
For a while, I have been looking for a book that would make me laugh; it’s been a real challenge. I found that in HOW HARD CAN IT BE? by Allison Pearson. Many remember her protagonist, Kate Reddy, from I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. Kate is now a stay-at-home mother who is eager to return to the workforce, but she is 49 and companies are not exactly opening their doors to her. Her children are teenagers who test her nerves, and her husband has left his job to plot a new career as a therapist, but he seems to be spending a lot more time on his high-end bike than he is plotting his future. Layer in aging parents, and Kate is at her wit’s end.
So what to do? She decides to shave a few years off her ego, hire a trainer to get her back into shape, and join a Women Returners group to plot her re-entry into the workforce. What happens from there is one really fun ride. I found myself laughing out loud, a lot, and her line “How hard can it be?” is one that many women will understand all too well. By the way, I both read it and listened to it on audio, the latter of which is narrated by Poppy Miller. I highly recommend both formats.
HOW HARD CAN IT BE? would be a great book for a book group discussion.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read a review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
Click here for more books we're betting you'll love.
On Sale the Week of June 18th in Hardcover
June 19th
THE ANOMALY by Michael Rutger (Thriller)
Nolan Moore is a rogue archaeologist hosting a documentary series derisively dismissed by the “real” experts, but beloved of conspiracy theorists. He sets out to retrace the steps of an explorer from 1909 who claimed to have discovered a mysterious cavern high up in the ancient rock of the Grand Canyon. And, for once, he may have actually found what he seeks. Then the trip takes a nasty turn, and the cave begins turning against them in mysterious ways. The only way out is to answer a series of intriguing questions: What is this strange cave? How has it remained hidden for so long? And what secret does it conceal that made its last visitors attempt to seal it forever?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538761854
BRING ME BACK by B.A. Paris (Psychological Thriller)
Finn and Layla are driving along the highway when Finn decides to stop at a service station to use the restroom. When he returns, Layla is gone. That is the story Finn told to the police. But it is not the whole story. Ten years later, Finn is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen. Their shared grief over what happened to Layla drew them close. Still, there’s something about Ellen that Finn has never fully understood. His heart wants to believe that she is the one for him, even though a sixth sense tells him not to trust her. Then, not long before he and Ellen are to be married, Finn gets a phone call. Someone from his past has seen Layla --- hiding in plain sight. If Layla is alive --- and on Finn’s trail --- what does she want? And how much does she know?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250151339
THE COMPLETIONIST by Siobhan Adcock (Dystopian Thriller)
After months of disturbing behavior, Gardner Quinn has vanished. Her older sister Fredericka is desperate to find her, but Fred is also pregnant --- miraculously so, in a near-future America struggling with infertility. So she entrusts the job to their brother, Carter. Just home from war, Carter’s search for his sister is a welcome distraction from mysterious physical symptoms he can’t ignore...and his slightly-more-than recreational drinking. Carter’s efforts to find Gardner lead him into a dangerous underground, where he begins to grasp the risks she took on as a Nurse Completionist. But his investigation also leads back to their father, a veteran of a decades-long war just like Carter himself, who may be concealing a painful truth.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501183478
THE DEPENDENTS by Katharine Dion (Fiction)
After the sudden death of his wife, Maida, Gene is haunted by the fear that their marriage was not all it appeared to be. Alongside Ed and Gayle Donnelly, friends since college days, he tries to resurrect happy memories of the times the two couples shared, raising their children in a small New Hampshire town and vacationing together at a lake house every summer. Meanwhile, his daughter, Dary, challenges not only his happy version of the past but also his view of Maida. As a long-standing rift between them deepens, Gene starts to understand how unknown his daughter is to him --- and how enigmatic his wife was as well. And a lingering suspicion seizes his mind that could upend everything he thought he knew.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316473873
THE FALL OF SHANNARA: THE SKAAR INVASION by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
The Four Lands are under siege. Wielding a magical ability virtually impossible to combat, mysterious invaders defeat the most fearsome Troll armies, then focus their savagery on the Druid order. Dar Leah, once the High Druid’s Blade, has crossed paths --- and swords --- with their ruthless leader before. So he knows that if any hope exists, it rests in the hands of the Druid Drisker Arc, now trapped inside vanished Paranor. As Drisker races to find the ancient knowledge that could free him, Dar goes in search of Tarsha Kaynin, whose magic could draw Drisker back into the world of the living. But little do they know that what appeared to be a formidable invading force may only be the forerunner of a much larger army --- one intent on nothing less than total conquest.
Del Rey | 9780553391510
FIND YOU IN THE DARK by Nathan Ripley (Thriller)
For years, Martin Reese has been illegally buying police files on serial killers and obsessively studying them, using them as guides to find the missing bodies of victims. On his latest dig, Martin searches for the first kill of Jason Shurn, who may have been responsible for the disappearance of his wife’s sister. But when he arrives at the site, he finds a freshly killed body lying among remains that were left there decades ago. Someone else knew where Jason Shurn left the corpses of his victims…and that someone isn’t happy that Martin has been going around digging up his work. Hunted by a real killer and by Detective Sandra Whittal, Martin realizes that in order to escape, he may have to go deeper into the killer’s dark world than he ever thought.
Atria Books | 9781501178207
THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Fiction)
It is 1985, and Yale Tishman is the development director for an art gallery in Chicago. As his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying, and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. In these intertwining stories, Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.
Viking | 9780735223523
LITTLE PANIC: Dispatches from an Anxious Life by Amanda Stern (Memoir)
Growing up in the 1970s and ’80s in New York, Amanda Stern experiences the magic and madness of life through the filter of unrelenting panic. Plagued with fear that her friends and family will be taken from her if she's not watching, Amanda treats every parting as her last. Shuttled between a barefoot bohemian life with her mother in Greenwich Village, and a sanitized, stricter world of affluence uptown with her father, Amanda has little she can depend on. And when Etan Patz disappears down the block from their MacDougal Street home, she can't help but believe that all her worst fears are about to come true.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711927
THE LOST VINTAGE by Ann Mah (Fiction)
Kate travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There, she is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history, driving her to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?
William Morrow | 9780062823311
MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK: An Aimée Leduc Investigation Set in Paris by Cara Black (Mystery)
A dying man enters the office of Éric Besson, a lawyer in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. He is carrying a dilapidated notebook full of meticulous investment records. For decades, he has been helping a cadre of dirty cops launder stolen money. The notebook contains his full confession. He is adamant that Besson get the notebook into the hands of La Proc, Paris’s chief prosecuting attorney, so the corruption can finally be brought to light. But en route to La Proc, Besson’s courier --- his assistant and nephew --- is murdered, and the notebook disappears. Private investigator Aimée Leduc is reluctant to get involved, as her father was a cop and was murdered by the same dirty syndicate the notebook implicates.
Soho Crime | 9781616959272
NUMBER ONE CHINESE RESTAURANT by Lillian Li (Fiction)
When disaster strikes at the Beijing Duck House, each character is forced to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay. Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late father’s homespun establishment for a fancier one. Jimmy’s older brother, Johnny, and Johnny’s daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a father’s absence and a teenager’s silence pushed them apart. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their 30-year friendship into something else. And when Nan’s son, Pat, and Annie find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250141293
THE PERFECT COUPLE by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom's wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate. But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony --- and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield --- and no couple is perfect.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316375269
PROVIDENCE by Caroline Kepnes (Supernatural Thriller)
Jon and Chloe are the only ones who truly understand each other and their intense connection. But just when Jon is ready to confess the depth of his feelings, he is kidnapped by his substitute teacher, a discredited scientist who has a plot to save humanity. After four years in captivity, Jon finally escapes, only to discover that he now has an uncontrollable power that endangers anyone for whom he has intense feelings. He runs away to Providence to protect Chloe while he searches for answers. Across town, Detective Charles "Eggs" DeBenedictus is fascinated by a series of strange deaths --- young, healthy people whose hearts just...stop. Convinced these deaths are a series of connected, vigilante killings, he jeopardizes his job and already strained marriage to uncover the truth.
Lenny | 9780399591433
THE SHADES by Evgenia Citkowitz (Mystery)
A year has passed since Catherine and Michael Hall lost their teenage daughter in a car accident, leaving them and their 16-year-old son, Rowan, reeling in the aftermath of the tragedy. After Rowan escapes to boarding school, Catherine withdraws from her life as a successful London gallerist to Hamdean, an apartment in a Georgian country manor, where she and Michael had hoped to spend their retirement. When a beguiling young woman, Keira, appears at the house claiming to have once lived there, Catherine is reanimated by the promise of a meaningful connection. However, their relationship soon shifts to one of forbidding uncertainty as the mysteries of the past collide with the truth of the present.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393254129
TANGO LESSONS: A Memoir by Meghan Flaherty (Memoir)
Tango was an unlikely choice for Meghan Flaherty. A young woman living with the scars of past trauma, she was terrified of being touched and shied away from real passion. But by her late 20s, she knew something had to change. She dug up an old dream and tried on her dancing shoes. As Meghan moved from beginner classes to the late-night dance halls of New York’s vibrant tango underground, she discovered that more than any footwork, the hardest and most essential lesson of the dance was to follow with strength and agency; to find her balance, regardless of the lead. And as she broke her own rule --- never mix romance and tango --- she started to apply those lessons in every corner of her life.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544980709
WE BEGIN OUR ASCENT by Joe Mungo Reed (Fiction)
Sol and Liz are a couple on the cusp. He’s a professional cyclist in the Tour de France, a workhorse but not yet a star. She’s a geneticist on the brink of a major discovery, either that or a loss of funding. They’ve just welcomed their first child into the world, and their bright future lies just before them --- if only they can reach out and grab it. But as Liz’s research slows, as Sol starts doping, their dreams grow murkier and the risks graver. Over the whirlwind course of the Tour, they enter the orbit of an extraordinary cast of conmen and aspirants, who draw the young family ineluctably into the depths of an illegal drug smuggling operation.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501169205
WHEN KATIE MET CASSIDY by Camille Perri (Fiction)
Katie Daniels, a 28-year-old Kentucky transplant with a strong set of traditional values, has just been dumped by her fiancé when she finds herself seated across a negotiating table from native New Yorker Cassidy Price, a sexy, self-assured woman wearing a man's suit. At first neither of them knows what to make of the other, but soon their undeniable connection will bring into question everything each of them thought they knew about sex and love.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212817
WHY TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD MATTERS: What Harper Lee's Book and the Iconic American Film Mean to Us Today by Tom Santopietro (Literary Criticism/Performing Arts)
Tom Santopietro traces the writing of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, the impact of the Pulitzer Prize, and investigates the claims that Lee’s book is actually racist. Here for the first time is the full behind-the-scenes story regarding the creation of the 1962 film, one that entered the American consciousness in a way that few other movies ever have. From the earliest casting sessions to the Oscars and the 50th anniversary screening at the White House, Santopietro examines exactly what makes the movie and Gregory Peck’s unforgettable performance as Atticus Finch so captivating.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250163752
YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS by Michelle Sacks (Psychological Thriller)
Merry, Sam and Conor are the perfect family in the perfect place. Merry adores the domestic life. Sam, formerly an academic, is pursuing a new career as a filmmaker. When Merry's childhood friend Frank visits their Swedish paradise, she immediately becomes part of the family. She befriends the neighbors, and even finds herself embracing the domesticity she's always seemed to scorn. All their lives, Frank and Merry have been more like sisters than best friends. And that's why Frank soon sees the things others might miss --- treacherous things, which are almost impossible to believe when looking at this perfect family. But Frank, of all people, knows that the truth is rarely what you want the world to see.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316475402
On Sale the Week of June 18th in Paperback
June 19th
AN ALCHEMY OF MASQUES AND MIRRORS: Book One in the Risen Kingdoms by Curtis Craddock (Historical Fantasy)
Born with a physical disability, no magical talent and a precocious intellect, Princess Isabelle des Zephyrs has lived her life being underestimated by her family and her kingdom. The only person who appreciates her true self is Jean-Claude, the fatherly musketeer who had guarded her since birth. All shall change, however, when an unlikely marriage proposal is offered, to the second son of a dying king in an empire collapsing into civil war. But the last two women betrothed to this prince were murdered, and a sorcerer-assassin is bent on making Isabelle the third. Step by dangerous step, Isabelle must unravel the lies of her enemies and discovers a truth more perilous than any deception.
Tor Books | 9780765389602
BLACK MAD WHEEL by Josh Malerman (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
The Danes are a washed-up band, eager to once again have a number one hit. That is, until an agent from the US Army approaches them. Will they travel to an African desert and track down the source of a mysterious and malevolent sound? So they embark on a harrowing journey through the scorching desert --- a trip that takes their front man, Philip Tonka, into the heart of an ominous and twisted conspiracy. Meanwhile, a nurse named Ellen tends to a patient recovering from a near-fatal accident. The circumstances that led to his injuries are mysterious --- and his body heals at a remarkable rate. Ellen will do the impossible for this enigmatic patient, who reveals more about his accident with each passing day.
Ecco | 9780062259691
A CAST OF VULTURES by Judith Flanders (Mystery)
Usually clear-headed editor Samantha Clair stumbles through her post-book-party morning with the hangover to end all hangovers. But before the ibuprofen has even kicked in, she finds herself entangled in an elaborate saga of missing neighbors, suspected arson and strange men offering free tattoos. By the time the grisly news breaks that the fire has claimed a victim, Sam is already in pursuit. Never has comedy been so deadly as she faces down a pair from Thugs ’R’ Us, aided by nothing more than a Scotland Yard boyfriend, a stalwart Goth assistant, and an unnerving knowledge of London’s best farmer’s markets.
Minotaur Books | 9781250183293
THE COTTAGES ON SILVER BEACH: A Haven Point Novel by RaeAnne Thayne (Romance)
Paperback Original
Megan Hamilton never really liked Elliot Bailey. He turned his back on her family when they needed him the most, and it almost tore them all apart. So she’s shocked when Elliot arrives at her family’s inn, needing a place to stay and asking questions that dredge up the past. Megan will rent him a cottage, but that’s where it ends. Coming back home to Haven Point was the last thing bestselling writer Elliot Bailey thought he’d ever do. But the book he’s writing now is his most personal one yet, and it’s drawn him back to the woman he can’t get out of his mind. Seeing Megan again is harder than he expected, and it brings up feelings he’d thought were long buried. Could this be his chance to win over his first love?
HQN | 9781335007018
DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates (Mystery/Short Stories)
At the heart of this collection are girls and women confronting the danger around them, and the danger hidden inside their turbulent selves. In the title story, a precocious 11-year-old named Jill is in thrall to an older male relative, the mysterious, attractive black sheep of the family. Without telling her parents, Jill climbs into his sky-blue Chevy to be driven to an uncertain, and unforgettable, fate. In “The Drowned Girl,” a university transfer student becomes increasingly obsessed with the drowning/murder of another female student, as her own sense of self begins to deteriorate. And in the final story, “Welcome to Friendly Skies,” a trusting group of bird-watchers is borne to a remote part of the globe, to a harrowing fate.
Mysterious Press | 9780802128119
THE DEMON CROWN: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers a horror like no other, an island where all life has been eradicated, consumed and possessed by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks the group, killing all but one --- Professor Ken Matsui, an expert on venomous creatures. Strangest of all, this inexplicable threat traces back to a terrifying secret buried a century ago beneath the National Mall: a cache of bones preserved in amber. The artifact was hidden away by a cabal of scientists --- led by Alexander Graham Bell --- to protect humankind. But they dared not destroy it, for the object also holds an astonishing promise for the future: the very secret of life after death.
William Morrow | 9780062381743
EVENSONG by Kate Southwood (Fiction)
Margaret Maguire --- a widow and grandmother, home from the hospital in time for Christmas --- is no longer able to ignore the consequences of having married an imperious and arrogant man. Despite her efforts to be a good wife and mother in small-town Iowa, her adult children are now strangers to one another, past hope of reconciliation. Margaret’s granddaughter could be the one to break the cycle, but she can’t do it without Margaret’s help. It’s time to take stock, to examine the past --- even time for Margaret to call herself to account.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393355833
FOREVER AND A DEATH by Donald E. Westlake (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Two decades ago, the producers of the James Bond movies hired legendary crime novelist Donald E. Westlake to come up with a story for the next Bond film. The plot Westlake dreamed up --- about a Western businessman seeking revenge after being kicked out of Hong Kong when the island was returned to Chinese rule --- had all the elements of a classic Bond adventure, but political concerns kept it from being made. Never one to let a good story go to waste, Westlake instead wrote an original novel based on the premise --- a novel he never published while he was alive. Now, nearly a decade after Westlake’s death, Hard Case Crime is proud to give that novel its first publication ever.
Hard Case Crime | 9781785654640
LEFT: A Love Story by Mary Hogan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It started as a dream vacation in Spain, with Fay and Paul Agarra enjoying all the delights of a European holiday. But when Paul inexplicably disappears from a Barcelona street corner, Fay knows something is terribly wrong. Once reunited, Paul shrugs off the episode as a simple misunderstanding --- but Fay suspects her almost perfect life has taken a dark and sudden turn. Soon there are more signs that Paul is beginning to change. Fay’s worst suspicions are realized when she learns that he is succumbing to the ravages of dementia. As her husband transforms before her very eyes, Fay copes with her fears by retreating into a fantasy life filled with promise instead of pain.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062678379
LOVE AND OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES by Jamie Ford (Historical Fiction)
Twelve-year-old Ernest Young, a half-Chinese orphan, is raffled off at the 1909 World’s Fair. The winning ticket belongs to the flamboyant madam of a high-class brothel, famous for educating her girls. There, Ernest becomes the new houseboy and befriends Maisie, the madam’s precocious daughter, and a bold scullery maid named Fahn. But as the grande dame succumbs to an occupational hazard and their world of finery begins to crumble, all three must grapple with hope, ambition and first love. Fifty years later, in the shadow of Seattle’s second World’s Fair, Ernest struggles to help his ailing wife reconcile who she once was with who she wanted to be, while trying to keep family secrets hidden from their grown-up daughters.
Ballantine Books | 9780804176774
LOVE LIKE BLOOD: A Tom Thorne Novel by Mark Billingham (Mystery/Thriller)
DI Nicola Tanner needs Tom Thorne’s help. Her partner, Susan, has been brutally murdered, and Tanner is convinced that it was a case of mistaken identity --- that she was the real target. The murderer’s motive might have something to do with Tanner’s recent work on a string of cold-case honor killings she believes to be related. Tanner is now on compassionate leave but insists on pursuing the case off the books and knows Thorne is just the man to jump into the fire with her. He agrees but quickly finds that working in such controversial territory is dangerous in more ways than one. And when a young couple goes missing, they have a chance to investigate a case that is anything but cold.
Grove Press | 9780802127860
LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT WE ATE: A Memoir by Padma Lakshmi (Memoir)
Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home --- and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India. LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT WE ATE is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of “Top Chef” and beyond.
Ecco | 9780062868572
THE MYTH OF PERPETUAL SUMMER by Susan Crandall (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Tallulah James’ parents’ volatile relationship, erratic behavior and hands-off approach to child rearing set tongues to wagging in their staid Mississippi town, complicating her already uncertain life. She takes the responsibility of shielding her family’s reputation and raising her younger twin siblings onto her youthful shoulders. When betrayal and death arrive hand in hand, she takes to the road, headed to what turns out to be the not-so-promised land of Southern California. The dysfunction of her childhood still echoes throughout her scattered family, sending her brother on a disastrous path and drawing her home again. There she uncovers the secrets and lies that set her family on the road to destruction.
Gallery Books | 9781501172014
RAINY DAY FRIENDS by Jill Shalvis (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Six months after Lanie Jacobs’ husband’s death, it’s hard to imagine anything could deepen her sense of pain and loss. But then Lanie discovers that he left behind several other women who, like Lanie, each believe she was his legally wedded wife. Desperate to make a fresh start, Lanie impulsively takes a job at the family-run Capriotti Winery. With no real family of her own, she’s bewildered by how quickly they all take her under their wing and make her feel like she belongs. Everything is finally going well for her, but the arrival of River Green changes all that. The fresh-faced 21-year-old seems as sweet as they come...until her dark secrets come to light --- secrets that could destroy the new life Lanie has only just begun to build.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062448149
RETURN TO GLORY: The Story of Ford's Revival and Victory in the Toughest Race in the World by Matthew DeBord (Business/Transportation)
In January 2015, Ford unveiled a new car at the Detroit auto show and the automotive world lost its collective mind. This wasn’t some new Explorer or Focus. Onto the stage rolled a supercar, a carbon-fiber GT powered by a mid-mounted six-cylinder Ecoboost engine that churned out over 600 horsepower. It was sexy and jaw-dropping, but more than that, it was historic, a callback to the legendary Ford GT40 Mark IIs that stuck it to Ferrari and finished 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 1966. Detroit was back, and Ford was going back to Le Mans. Journalist Matthew DeBord has been covering the auto industry for years, and in RETURN TO GLORY he tells the story of Ford’s revival as a company as exemplified by the new GT.
Grove Press | 9780802127952
THE ROOSTER BAR by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
Mark, Todd and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. But maybe there's a way out. Maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process.
Dell | 9781101967706
SLOWLY WE DIE by Emelie Schepp (Medical Thriller)
Paperback Original
A tragic incident on the operating table leaves a patient damaged for life and leads a young surgeon to abandon his profession as a physician. Now, years later, a series of senseless, gruesome murders are rocking the same medical community. The weapon? A surgical scalpel. But who exactly is preying on these victims? And why? What does this grisly pattern reveal? And who will be the one to stop it? Special prosecutor Jana Berzelius, who has her own dark secrets to hide, is in charge of the investigation. What she can’t know, until she is finally closing in on the murderer, is just how her own mother’s recent death is intimately connected.
Mira | 9780778319665
WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP by Estep Nagy (Historical Fiction)
For generations they've shared the small Maine island of Seven, but the Hillsingers and the Quicks have always kept apart, even since before Jim Hillsinger and Billy Quick married sisters. When Jim is ousted from the CIA under suspicion of treason, he begins to suspect that he has been betrayed --- by his brother-in-law, Billy, and also by his own wife, Lila. In retaliation, he decides to carry out an old threat: to send their 12-year-old son, Catta, to a neighboring island to test his survival skills. Set over three summer days in 1964, Estep Nagy's debut novel moves among the communities of Seven --- the families, the servants and the children --- as longstanding tensions become tactical face-offs in which love, loss and long-held secrets become brutal ammunition.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632868428
THE WORLD OF TOMORROW by Brendan Mathews (Historical Fiction)
June 1939. Francis Dempsey and his shell-shocked brother Michael are on an ocean liner from Ireland bound for their brother Martin's home in New York City, having stolen a small fortune from the IRA. During the week that follows, the lives of these three brothers collide spectacularly with big-band jazz musicians, a talented but fragile heiress, a Jewish street photographer facing a return to Nazi-occupied Prague, a vengeful mob boss, and the ghosts of their own family's revolutionary past. When Tom Cronin, an erstwhile assassin forced into one last job, tracks the brothers down, their lives begin to fracture.
Back Bay Books | 9780316382182
On Sale the Week of June 25th in Hardcover
June 26th
ALL THAT IS LEFT IS ALL THAT MATTERS: Stories by Mark Slouka (Fiction/Short Stories)
In these 15 stories --- ranging from occupied Czechoslovakia to California’s Central Valley to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest --- Mark Slouka explores moments in life when our back is to the wall. Here he captures the depth and emotional range of an array of characters --- from a young boy attempting to shield his father from painful memories in "The Hare’s Mask" to a lonely man whose beloved dog inexplicably begins to sprout razor blades from her skin in "Dog." Whether battling the end of desire, the fact of injustice, or death itself, the men and women in these stories are doing everything possible to tighten their grip on life.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393292282
ALL WE EVER WANTED by Emily Giffin (Fiction)
Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she has strayed from the person she once was. Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school. Then one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina and Lyla are forced together --- all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning.
Ballantine Books | 9780399178924
BEFORE AND AGAIN by Barbara Delinsky (Fiction)
Mackenzie Cooper took her eyes off the road for just a moment, but the resulting collision was enough to rob her not only of her beloved daughter but ultimately of her marriage, family and friends. Now she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid. She’s thankful for the new friends she’s made, though she can’t risk telling them too much. But she isn’t the only one in this peaceful town with secrets. When a friend’s teenage son is thrust into the national spotlight, accused of hacking a powerful man’s Twitter account, Maggie is torn between pulling away and protecting herself --- or stepping into the glare to be at their side. As the stunning truth behind their case is slowly revealed, Maggie’s own carefully constructed story begins to unravel as well.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250119490
BETWEEN YOU AND ME by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around family, farm and faith. When disaster strikes, Caleb is thrust into an urban environment of high-tech medicine and the relentless rush of modern life. Dr. Reese Powell lives for the addictive rush of saving lives. But when a shocking accident brings Caleb into her life, Reese is forced to deal with a situation that challenges everything she thinks she knows --- and ultimately emboldens her to question her most powerful beliefs. Then one impulsive act brings about a clash of cultures in a tug-of-war that plays out in a courtroom, challenging the very nature of justice and reverberating through generations.
William Morrow | 9780062425539
BIMINI TWIST: A Jane Bunker Mystery by Linda Greenlaw (Mystery)
In BIMINI TWIST, part-time deputy sheriff Jane Bunker takes on a missing person case --- a young woman working at the Bar Harbor Inn has disappeared. The Inn employs foreign exchange students from all over the world during the busy summer season, and the missing Bianca Chiriac is one of them. When it becomes clear that Bianca isn’t just sleeping off a late-night party, Jane is plunged into the underbelly of the resort town, and must find the missing woman before the worst happens.
Minotaur Books | 9781250107589
THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Paul Tremblay (Psychological Thriller)
Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. One afternoon, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen, but he is young and friendly, and wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault." Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."
William Morrow | 9780062679109
CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX by Jordy Rosenberg (Speculative Historical Fiction)
Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers and lovers of 18th-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript --- a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’ adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? Dr. Voth obsessively annotates the manuscript, desperate to find the answer. As he is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’ tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined --- and only a miracle will save them all.
One World | 9780399592270
THE KILLING HABIT: A Tom Thorne Novel by Mark Billingham (Mystery/Thriller)
While DI Nicola Tanner investigates the deadly spread of a dangerous new drug, Tom Thorne is handed a case that he doesn’t take too seriously, until a spate of animal killings points to the work of a serial killer. When the two cases come together in a way that neither could have foreseen, both Thorne and Tanner must risk everything to catch two very different killers.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802128249
THE POSSIBLE WORLD by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz (Fiction)
It seems like just another night shift for Lucy, an overworked ER physician, until six-year-old Ben is brought in as the sole survivor from a horrifying crime scene. Lucy, who’s grappling with a personal upheaval of her own, feels a profound, unexpected connection to the little boy. She wants to help him…but will recovering his memory heal him, or damage him further? Across town, Clare will soon be turning 100 years old. She has long believed that the lifetime of secrets she’s been keeping don’t matter to anyone anymore, but a surprising encounter makes her realize that the time has come to tell her story. As Ben, Lucy and Clare struggle to confront the events that shattered their lives, something stronger than fate is working to bring them together.
Scribner | 9781501166143
THE RACE TO SAVE THE ROMANOVS: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family by Helen Rappaport (History)
The murder of the Romanov family horrified the world, and its aftershocks still reverberate today. In Putin's autocratic Russia, the Revolution itself is considered a crime, and its anniversary was largely ignored. In stark contrast, the centenary of the massacre of the Imperial Family in Ekaterinburg will be a huge ceremony. While the murders themselves have received major attention, what has never been investigated in detail are the various plots and plans behind the scenes to save the family. Helen Rappaport refutes the claim that the fault lies entirely with King George V, as has been the traditional claim for the last century. The responsibility for failing the Romanovs must be equally shared.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250151216
REMIND ME AGAIN WHAT HAPPENED by Joanna Luloff (Fiction)
Claire wakes in a hospital room in the Florida Keys. She has no idea how she got there or why. The loss of so many memories is paralyzing. Some things she can piece together by looking at old photos saved by her husband, Charlie, and her best friend, Rachel, and by combing through boxes of letters and casual jottings. But she senses a mystery at the center of all these fragments of her past, a feeling that something is not complete. Is Charlie still her husband? Is Rachel still her friend? Told from alternating points of view, the story unfolds as the smudge that covers Claire’s memory is gradually, steadily wiped away, until finally she can understand the why and the how of her life.
Algonquin Books | 9781565129221
SALT LANE by William Shaw (Mystery/Thriller)
Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi, a recent transfer from the London metro police to the rugged Kentish countryside, faces a bizarre case: a woman found floating in local marsh land, dead of no apparent cause. The case gets even stranger when detectives contact the victim's next of kin, her son, a high-powered graphic designer living in London. Adopted at the age of two, he'd never known his mother until a homeless woman knocked on his door, claiming to be his mother, just the night before --- at the same time her body was being dredged from the water. Detective Cupidi must discover who the woman really was, who killed her, and how she managed to reconnect with her long lost son, apparently from beyond the grave.
Mulholland Books | 9780316563505
THE SECRETS BETWEEN US by Thrity Umrigar (Fiction)
Poor and illiterate, Bhima had faithfully worked for the Dubash family, an upper-middle-class Parsi household, for more than 20 years. Yet after courageously speaking the truth about a heinous crime perpetrated against her own family, the devoted servant was cruelly fired. Bhima’s fortunes take an unexpected turn when her path intersects with Parvati, a bitter, taciturn older woman. The two acquaintances soon form a tentative business partnership, selling fruits and vegetables at the local market. As they work together, these two women seemingly bound by fate grow closer, each confessing the truth about their lives and the wounds that haunt them.
Harper | 9780062442208
THOSE OTHER WOMEN by Nicola Moriarty (Psychological Thriller)
Overwhelmed at the office and reeling from betrayals involving the people she loves, Poppy feels as if her world has tipped sideways. With her colleague, Annalise, she creates an invitation-only Facebook group that quickly takes off. Suddenly, Poppy feels like she’s back in control --- until someone begins leaking the group’s private posts and stirring up a nasty backlash. Feeling judged by disapproving female colleagues and her own disappointed children, Frankie, too, is careening towards the breaking point. She also knows something shocking about her boss. As things begin to slide disastrously and dangerously out of control, carefully concealed secrets and lies are exposed with devastating consequences.
William Morrow | 9780062657176
On Sale the Week of June 25th in Paperback
June 26th
ACT OF BETRAYAL: A Will Cochrane Novel by Matthew Dunn (Thriller)
Three years ago, intelligence officer Will Cochrane was brought in by a Delta Force colonel to assassinate a terrorist financier in Berlin. After the job, the commander vanished and hasn’t been heard from since. The details don’t quite add up, and one of the CIA agents who was involved has been investigating the mission. He reaches out to Will for help, but before they can connect, the CIA man is poisoned. Will is determined to uncover the truth about Berlin, even if it means putting himself in the crosshairs. Framed for multiple murders, the skilled former spy has gone deep underground to evade his enemies and the feds. But honor and loyalty to his old colleague thrust him into danger once again.
William Morrow | 9780062427236
ANY MAN by Amber Tamblyn (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A violent serial rapist who hunts for men is on the loose. Her victims must live the aftermath of their assault in the form of doubt from the police, feelings of shame, alienation from their friends and family, and the haunting of a horrible woman who becomes the phantom on which society projects its greatest fears, fascinations and even misogyny. All the while, the police are without leads and the media hound the victims, publicly dissecting the details of their attack. What is extraordinary is how as years pass, these men learn to heal, by banding together and finding a space to raise their voices.
Harper Perennial | 9780062688927
BONFIRE by Krysten Ritter (Psychological Thriller)
It has been 10 years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small-town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands. But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life she painstakingly created starts to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town’s most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’s biggest scandal from more than a decade ago, involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends --- just before Kaycee disappeared for good.
Three Rivers Press | 9781524759858
BOOK OF JUDAS by Linda Stasi (Thriller)
When her infant son is placed in mortal danger, New York City reporter Alessandra Russo is forced to save him by tracking down the missing pages of the Gospel of Judas, a heretical manuscript that was unearthed in Al-Minya, Egypt, in the 1970s. The manuscript declares that Judas was the beloved, not the betrayer, of Jesus. The Gospel disappeared for decades before being rediscovered, rotted beyond repair, in a safety deposit box. Rumors insist that the most important pages had been stolen --- pages that Alessandra now must find, if they even exist. Alessandra plunges into a dark world of murder, conspiracy and sexual depravity...and most importantly, a race against the clock to save her own child.
Forge Books | 9780765378767
THE BOOK OF THE UNWINDING: A Witches of New Orleans Novel by J. D. Horn (Fantasy/Horror)
Paperback Original
With their magic diminishing, warring factions of New Orleans witches desperately search for the Book of the Unwinding --- a legendary grimoire, hidden by spells, that holds the key to unimaginable powers. As a ruthless struggle erupts in a maelstrom of malevolent magic, psychic Nathalie Boudreau finds her destiny intertwined with that of an exiled witch. Her name is Alice Marin, a vulnerable young woman trapped in a realm of illusion. Only Nathalie can free her, but first she must come to understand and master her own extraordinary abilities. Now, in a world where betrayals have become the order of the day, it will fall to two women to restore rightful balance amid terrifying chaos.
47North | 9781503901094
FITNESS JUNKIE by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza (Fiction/Humor)
When Janey Sweet, CEO of a couture wedding dress company, is photographed in the front row of a fashion show eating a bruffin --- the delicious lovechild of a brioche and a muffin --- her best friend and business partner, Beau, gives her an ultimatum: Lose 30 pounds or lose your job. So Janey throws herself headlong into the world of the fitness revolution, signing up for a shockingly expensive workout pass, sweating through boot camp classes run by Sri Lankan militants, and spinning to the screams of a Lycra-clad instructor with rage issues. As Janey eschews delicious carbs, pays thousands of dollars to charlatans, and is harassed by her very own fitness bracelet, she can't help but wonder: Did she really need to lose weight in the first place?
Anchor | 9781101974070
THE GIRL IN THE TOWER by Katherine Arden (Historical Fantasy)
Vasilisa has grown up at the edge of a Russian wilderness, where snowdrifts reach the eaves of her family’s wooden house and there is truth in the fairy tales told around the fire. Her gift for seeing what others do not won her the attention of Morozko --- Frost, the winter demon from the stories --- and together they saved her people from destruction. But Frost’s aid comes at a cost, and her people have condemned her as a witch. So Vasilisa opts to dress herself as a boy and sets off astride her magnificent stallion. But after she prevails in a skirmish with bandits, the Grand Prince of Moscow anoints her a hero for her exploits. Before she can untangle herself from Moscow’s intrigues, Vasilisa will also confront an even graver threat lying in wait for all of Moscow itself.
Del Rey | 9781101885987
THE GIRL WHO TAKES AN EYE FOR AN EYE: A Lisbeth Salander Novel by David Lagercrantz (Thriller)
When a sadistic gang leader nicknamed Benito starts to torture Faria, a young Bangladeshi prisoner, Lisbeth Salander finds it impossible not to intervene. Now a target of Benito and her gang, Salander's time in prison is further complicated by news from her old guardian, who tells her she may have been a subject in a secret experiment known as the Registry. She enlists her friend Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium magazine, to help her look into it. Once Salander is released, she devotes her time to uncovering the truth in the case that landed Faria in prison, and Blomkvist continues his search into Salander's background. But when the two cases start to dovetail, Salander and Blomkvist must join together to fight for justice and their lives.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9781101974162
THE GODDESSES by Swan Huntley (Psychological Suspense)
When Nancy and her family arrive in Kona, Hawaii, they are desperate for a fresh start. Nancy's marriage is in shambles, and she and her husband sleep in separate bedrooms. Their twin sons have been acting out, exhibiting risky behavior. But Hawaii is a refreshing paradise, and Nancy resolves to make a happy life for herself. It's then that she takes a yoga class and is stricken by the charismatic teacher, Ana. Soon, they are spending all their time together and relaxing in Ana's hot tub. Nancy starts neglecting her family, skipping dinners, and leaving her children to their own devices. But she doesn't care. She feels understood in a way she's never experienced, and she knows that she will do anything Ana asks of her.
Anchor | 9780525432333
GRACE by Paul Lynch (Historical Fiction)
Early one October morning, Grace's mother snatches her from sleep and brutally cuts off her hair, declaring, "You are the strong one now." With winter close at hand and Ireland already suffering, Grace is no longer safe at home. And so her mother outfits her in men's clothing and casts her out. When her younger brother Colly follows after her, the two set off on a remarkable odyssey in the looming shadow of their country's darkest hour. The broken land they pass through reveals untold suffering as well as unexpected beauty. To survive, Grace must become a boy, a bandit, a penitent and, finally, a woman --- all the while afflicted by inner voices that arise out of what she has seen and what she has lost.
Back Bay Books | 9780316316286
THE HALF-DROWNED KING by Linnea Hartsuyker (Historical Fantasy)
Ragnvald Eysteinsson, the son and grandson of kings, grew up believing that he would one day take his dead father’s place as chief of his family’s lands. But sailing home from a raiding trip to Ireland, the young warrior is betrayed and left for dead by men in the pay of his greedy stepfather, Olaf. Rescued by a fisherman, Ragnvald is determined to have revenge for his stepfather’s betrayal, claim his birthright and the woman he loves, and rescue his beloved sister Svanhild. Opportunity may lie with Harald of Vestfold, the strong young Norse warrior rumored to be the prophesied king. Ragnvald pledges his sword to King Harald, a choice that will hold enormous consequence in the years to come.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062563705
THE LOST ONES by Sheena Kamal (Psychological Thriller)
It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for 15 years --- since the day she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren’t looking, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope. Caring despite herself, Nora sets out to find Bonnie, knowing she risks reopening wounds that have never really healed --- and plunging into the darkness with little to protect her but her instincts and a freakish ability to detect truth from lies. The search uncovers a puzzling conspiracy that leads Nora on a harrowing journey of deception and violence.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062565976
MAN OF THE YEAR: A Memoir by Lou Cove (Memoir)
In 1978, 12-year-old Lou Cove is uprooted from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Salem, Massachusetts --- a backwater town of witches, Puritans and sea-captain wannabes. An old friend of Lou’s father, free-wheeling (and free-loving) Howie Gordon, announces his intention of posing nude for Playgirl magazine and a wild idea for how to do it: win Playgirl’s Man of the Year. And he knows just who should manage his campaign. As Lou and Howie canvas Salem for every vote in town --- little old ladies at bridge club, the local town witch, construction workers, and everyone in between --- Lou is forced to juggle the perils of adolescence with the pursuit of Hollywood stardom.
Flatiron Books | 9781250123985
MIDNIGHT BLUE by Simone van der Vlugt (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Following the sudden death of her husband, 25-year-old Catrin leaves her small village and takes a job as a housekeeper to the successful Van Nulandt merchant family. Madam Van Nulandt passes her time taking expensive painting lessons from a local master, Rembrandt van Rigin. When Catrin takes up a brush to finish some of her mistress's work, Rembrandt realizes the maid has genuine talent and encourages her to continue. When a figure from her past threatens her new life, Catrin flees to the smaller city of Delft, where she earns a living painting pottery at a local workshop. But when tragedy strikes, Catrin must decide whether to defend her newfound independence or return to the village that she had fled.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062686862
THE MISFORTUNE OF MARION PALM by Emily Culliton (Fiction)
Marion Palm prefers not to think of herself as a thief but rather "a woman who embezzles." Over the years she has managed to steal $180,000 from her children’s private school, money that has paid for European vacations, a Sub-Zero refrigerator they had to have, and state-of-the-art exercise equipment, gathering dust. When the school faces an audit, Marion pulls piles of rubber-banded cash from her basement and runs. Leaving her husband and two daughters to grapple with the consequences of her crime, and the mother-shaped hole in their house, Marion is on the lam, hiding in plain sight.
Vintage | 9780525432623
MY ABSOLUTE DARLING by Gabriel Tallent (Fiction)
At 14, Turtle Alveston roams the woods along the northern California coast. But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous: Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother. Her social existence is confined to her middle school and her life with her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her.
Riverhead Books | 9780735211186
ON HER MAJESTY’S FRIGHTFULLY SECRET SERVICE: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
When royal sleuth Georgie Rannoch receives a letter from her dearest friend Belinda, who’s awaiting the birth of her illegitimate baby, she yearns to run to her side. If only she could find a way to get there! But then opportunity presents itself in a most unexpected way --- her cousin the queen asks her to attend a house party in the Italian Lake Country. The Prince of Wales AND the dreadful Mrs. Simpson have been invited, and Her Majesty is anxious to thwart a possible secret wedding. What luck! A chance to see Belinda, even if it is under the guise of stopping unwanted nuptials. Only that’s as far as Georgie’s fortune takes her. She soon discovers that she attended finishing school with the hostess of the party --- and the hatred they had for each other then has barely dimmed.
Berkley | 9780425283516
THE REASON YOU’RE ALIVE by Matthew Quick (Fiction)
After 68-year-old David Granger crashes his BMW, medical tests reveal a brain tumor that he readily attributes to his wartime Agent Orange exposure. He wakes up from surgery repeating a name no one in his civilian life has ever heard --- that of a Native American soldier whom he was once ordered to discipline. David decides to return something precious he long ago stole from the man he now calls Clayton Fire Bear. It may be the only way to find closure in a world increasingly at odds with the one he served to protect. It may also help him to finally recover from his wife’s untimely demise.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062424310
THE RULES OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman (Historical Fiction)
For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the ’60s, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. From the start, she sets down rules for them, the most important of which is to never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Yet the children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501137488
THE SABOTEUR by Andrew Gross (Historical Thriller)
February 1943. Both the Allies and the Nazis are full speed ahead to construct the decisive weapon of the war. Kurt Nordstrum, an engineer in Oslo, puts his life aside to take up arms against the Germans as part of the Norwegian resistance. After the loss of his fiancée, and with his outfit whittled to shreds, Kurt escapes to England to transmit secret evidence that the Nazis are closing in on the atomic bomb. His mission: to disrupt their plans before they advance any further. Parachuted onto the unforgiving terrain in Europe, Kurt must lead the most daring raid of the war. But completing it may come at the cost of the one person he has grown to love.
St. Martin's Paperbacks | 9781250079534
SCORPION STRIKE: A Jonathan Grave Thriller by John Gilstrap (Thriller)
Paperback Original
An island paradise held hostage. A band of dangerous killers unleashed. A sinister plot that could push the superpowers to the brink of war. For Jonathan Grave and Gail Bonneville, the Crystal Sands Resort has become the ultimate flashpoint. Their mission: defeat the attackers before more lives are lost. Their only hope is Grave’s partner Boxers, but he’s hundreds of miles away. Grave may be without weapons, but he’s never without resources. That’s when he’s most lethal --- when he will strike fast, hard and without warning.
Pinnacle | 9780786039807
A STEEP PRICE by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
The body of a young woman turns up in an abandoned well. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short. Solving the mystery behind the murder isn’t Tracy Crosswhite’s only challenge. The detective is keeping a secret of her own: she’s pregnant. And now her biggest fear seems to be coming true when a new detective arrives to replace her. Meanwhile, Tracy’s colleague, Vic Fazzio, is about to take a fall after his investigation into the murder of a local community activist turns violent and leaves an invaluable witness dead. Two careers are on the line. And when more deadly secrets emerge, jobs might not be the only things at risk.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503954182
STRANGE WEATHER: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (Thriller/Horror)
In STRANGE WEATHER, a collection of four chilling novels, Joe Hill deftly exposes the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life. A Silicon Valley adolescent finds himself threatened by "The Phoenician," a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories. A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump…and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud. On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails --- splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. And a mall security guard courageously stops a mass shooting, but under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062663122
THE SUMMER LIST by Amy Mason Doan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Laura and Casey were once inseparable: as they floated on their backs in the sunlit lake and teamed up for the wild scavenger hunts in their small California lakeside town. Until one summer night, when a shocking betrayal sent Laura running through the pines, down the dock, and into a new life, leaving Casey and a first love in her wake. But after 17 years away, Laura is pulled home and into a reunion with Casey she can’t resist --- one last scavenger hunt. With a twist: this time, the list of clues leads to the settings of their most cherished summer memories. But just as the game brings Laura and Casey back together, the clues unravel a stunning secret that threatens to tear them apart.
Graydon House | 9781525804250
SURPRISE ME by Sophie Kinsella (Fiction)
After 10 years together, Sylvie and Dan have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs and beautiful twin girls, and they communicate so seamlessly they finish each other’s sentences. They have a happy marriage and believe they know everything there is to know about each other. Until it’s casually mentioned to them that they could be together for another 68 years…and panic sets in. They decide to bring surprises into their marriage to keep it fresh and fun. But in their pursuit of Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise, with disastrous and comical results. Gradually, surprises turn to shocking truths. And when a scandal from the past is uncovered, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other at all.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780399592904
THREE DAYS MISSING by Kimberly Belle (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Kat Jenkins awakens to the police on her doorstep, her greatest fear is realized. Her nine-year-old son, Ethan, is missing --- vanished from the cabin where he’d been on an overnight class trip. Another mother from the school, Stef Huntington, seems like she has it all. She hardly knows Kat, except for the vicious gossip that swirls around Kat’s traumatic past. But as the police investigation unfolds, Ethan’s disappearance has earth-shattering consequences for Stef, as her path crosses with Kat. As the two mothers race against the clock, their desperate search for answers reveals how the greatest dangers lie behind the everyday smiles of those they trust the most.
Park Row | 9780778307716
THE WHALE: A Love Story by Mark Beauregard (Historical Fiction)
In the summer of 1850, Herman Melville finds himself hounded by creditors and afraid his writing career might be coming to an end. His last three novels have been commercial failures, and the critics have turned against him. In despair, Melville takes his family for a vacation to his cousin’s farm in the Berkshires, where he meets Nathaniel Hawthorne at a picnic --- and his life turns upside down. THE WHALE chronicles the fervent love affair that grows out of that serendipitous afternoon. The two develop a deep connection marked by tensions and estrangements, and feelings both shared and suppressed.
Penguin Books | 9780399562358
THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET by Randy Susan Meyers (Fiction)
Phoebe recognizes fire in Jake Pierce’s belly from the moment they meet as teenagers. As he creates a financial dynasty, she trusts him without hesitation --- unaware his hunger for success hides a dark talent for deception. When Phoebe learns that her husband’s triumph and vast reach rest on an elaborate Ponzi scheme, her world unravels. As Jake’s crime is uncovered, the world obsesses about Phoebe. Did she know her life was fabricated by fraud? Was she his accomplice? While Jake is trapped in the web of his deceit, Phoebe is caught in an unbearable choice. Her children refuse to see her if she remains at their father’s side, but abandoning him feels cruel and impossible.
Washington Square Press | 9781501131363
THE WITCHES’ TREE: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton (Mystery)
Driving home from a dinner party in the village of Sumpton Harcourt, Rory and Molly Devere, the new vicar and his wife, strain to see the road ahead --- and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. An elderly spinster has been murdered --- and the villagers just can’t fathom who among them could commit such a crime. Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion (a little glad for the excitement, she must admit, after a long run of lost cats and divorces on the books). But when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation and, since the village happens to have its own coven of witches, her own life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250057471
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