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Editorial Content for When We Were Bright and Beautiful

Teaser

The acclaimed, bestselling author of THIS COULD HURT returns with her biggest, boldest novel yet --- an electrifying, twisty and deeply emotional family drama, set on Manhattan’s glittering Upper East Side, that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty and the high cost of truth.

Promo

The acclaimed, bestselling author of THIS COULD HURT returns with her biggest, boldest novel yet --- an electrifying, twisty and deeply emotional family drama, set on Manhattan’s glittering Upper East Side, that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty and the high cost of truth.

About the Book

The acclaimed, bestselling author of THIS COULD HURT returns with her biggest, boldest novel yet --- an electrifying, twisty and deeply emotional family drama, set on Manhattan’s glittering Upper East Side, that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty and the high cost of truth.

You can have everything, and still not have enough. 

Cassie Quinn may only be 23, but she knows a few things. One: money can’t buy happiness, but it’s certainly better to have it. Two: family matters most. Three: her younger brother, Billy, is not a rapist.

When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her big brother, Nate, and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the best legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the all-too-familiar sex-offender profile --- white, athletic and privileged --- that makes headlines and sways juries.

Meanwhile, Cassie struggles to understand why Billy’s ex, Diana, would go this far, even if the breakup was painful. And she knows how the end of first love can destroy someone: Her own years-long affair with a powerful, charismatic man left her shattered, and she’s only recently regained her footing.   

As reporters converge outside their Upper East Side landmark building, the Quinns gird themselves for a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows she’ll do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means exposing her own darkest secrets to the world?

Lightning-paced and psychologically astute as it rockets toward an explosive ending, WHEN WE WERE BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL is a dazzling novel that asks: Who will pay the price when the truth is revealed?

October 2022 Bookaccino Live Event

October 2022 Bookaccino Live Event

Alexander McCall Smith, author of A Song of Comfortable Chairs: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (23)

Grace Makutsi’s husband, Phuti, is in a bind. An international firm is attempting to undercut his prices in the office furniture market. Phuti has always been concerned with quality and comfort, but this new firm seems interested only in profits. To make matters worse, they have a slick new advertising campaign that seems hard to beat. Nonetheless, with Mma Ramotswe’s help, Phtui comes up with a campaign that may just do the trick. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is approached by an old friend who has a troubled son. Grace and Phuti agree to lend a hand, but the boy proves difficult to reach. It will require not only all of their patience and dedication, but also the help of Mma Ramotswe and the formidable Mma Potokwani in order to help the child.

September 13, 2022

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 12th and September 19th 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 our review of Jamie Fiore Higgins' eye-opening memoir, BULLY MARKET, which will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. This rare, riveting insider’s account on Wall Street is an updated LIAR'S POKER, where greed coupled with misogyny and discrimination enforces a culture of exclusion in the upper echelons of Goldman Sachs.

September 13, 2022

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this fall. Read more about it, and enter our Fall Preview Contest by Wednesday, September 14th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of ANYWHERE YOU RUN by Wanda M. Morris, which releases on October 25th. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Editorial Content for The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Curtis Edmonds

Historical fiction, like any other form of fiction, has its rulebook, and the author flouts it at his or her peril. While the author can --- and almost certainly does --- take liberties with history, there are serious, prudential limitations in doing so. One can’t, for example, write about Davy Crockett and then not have him die at the Alamo. (Well, you can, but then you’ve left the precincts of historical fiction for the broad pastures of alternative history, which in turn has its own rules.) Read More

Teaser

Sage Winters’ twin sister, Rosemary, died from pneumonia six years ago. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet, despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could have imagined.

Promo

Sage Winters’ twin sister, Rosemary, died from pneumonia six years ago. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet, despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could have imagined.

About the Book

Girl, Interrupted meets "American Horror Story" in 1970s Staten Island, as New York Times bestselling author Ellen Marie Wiseman blends fact, fiction and urban legend for a haunting story about a young woman mistakenly imprisoned at Willowbrook State School, the real-life institution later shuttered for its heartbreaking abuses.

Sage Winters always knew her sister was a little different, even though they were identical twins. They loved the same things and shared a deep understanding, but Rosemary --- awake to every emotion, easily moved to joy or tears --- seemed to need more protection from the world.

Six years after Rosemary’s death from pneumonia, Sage, now 16, still misses her deeply. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet, despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing.

Sage knows little about Willowbrook. It’s always been a place shrouded by rumor and mystery. A place local parents threaten to send misbehaving kids. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could have imagined.

Audiobook available, read by Morgan Hallett

Editorial Content for Back to the Garden

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In the prologue to Laurie R. King’s BACK TO THE GARDEN, a man in an Army poncho watches as a strange car approaches his homestead on a rainy night. Exiting the vehicle is an individual who resembles a junior partner at a law firm. He’s looking for Rob Gardener, and the man in the poncho responds, “Has the Old Bastard finally died?” This scene from the past kicks off the family saga of the Gardener Estate that is at the heart of this novel, which jumps back and forth in time as secrets are uncovered and revealed. Read More

Teaser

A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 12th-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye. Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

Promo

A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 12th-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye. Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

About the Book

A 50-year-old cold case involving California royalty comes back to life --- with potentially fatal consequences --- in this gripping stand-alone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series.

A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 20th-century Eden.

And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.

Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.

Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

To Raquel --- a woman who knows all about colorful pasts --- the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate’s archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.

Everything she finds keeps bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.

But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child and Rob’s brother, Fort.

The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case --- before The Highwayman slips away or another Gardener vanishes.

Audiobook available, read by Vivienne Leheny

Editorial Content for The Bad Angel Brothers

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

Three years separate the Belanger brothers. However, the age gap between Cal and Frank is the smallest and most insignificant difference one can say about them. Younger brother Cal likes a simple life; he’s most content when out prospecting for gold and gems, existing in nature, uncomplicated by the burden of possessions. Frank, on the other hand, craves the almighty buck. But more so he craves control, and he will manipulate, cheat and lie to achieve it. To be totally honest, what Frank wants most is to control Cal. Read More

Teaser

Cal has always lived in the shadow of his manipulative and domineering brother, Frank, who was doted upon by their mother and beloved by the girls in their small New England hometown --- including Cal’s own girlfriends. In an attempt to escape Frank’s intrusive presence, Cal pursues a different kind of freedom in the world’s wild spaces, prospecting for gold and precious minerals. Soon he is dripping in wealth, his pockets full of gold nuggets and emeralds, but the money means far less to him than his independence. As Cal’s success grows, so too does Frank’s power and his influence in Cal’s affairs, the devastating threat he creates at the center of his little brother’s life. When Frank decides to commit the ultimate betrayal, Cal is left with only one, final solution.

Promo

Cal has always lived in the shadow of his manipulative and domineering brother, Frank, who was doted upon by their mother and beloved by the girls in their small New England hometown --- including Cal’s own girlfriends. In an attempt to escape Frank’s intrusive presence, Cal pursues a different kind of freedom in the world’s wild spaces, prospecting for gold and precious minerals. Soon he is dripping in wealth, his pockets full of gold nuggets and emeralds, but the money means far less to him than his independence. As Cal’s success grows, so too does Frank’s power and his influence in Cal’s affairs, the devastating threat he creates at the center of his little brother’s life. When Frank decides to commit the ultimate betrayal, Cal is left with only one, final solution.

About the Book

From the legendary American master Paul Theroux comes a brilliant new novel of chilling psychological depth, the tale of a younger brother whose lifelong rivalry with his older brother --- a powerful lawyer with a pattern of gleefully vicious betrayals --- culminates in the ultimate plan: murder.

Cal has always lived in the shadow of his manipulative and domineering brother, Frank, who was doted upon by their mother and beloved by the girls in their small New England hometown --- including Cal’s own girlfriends. In an attempt to escape Frank’s intrusive presence, Cal pursues a different kind of freedom in the world’s wild spaces, prospecting for gold and precious minerals everywhere from the heat of the desert at the Mexican border to the Alaskan chill, to central Africa and Colombian mines where he will meet the love of his life, Vida. Soon he is dripping in wealth, his pockets full of gold nuggets and emeralds but the money means far less to him than his independence.

To Frank, however, “Cash is king.” As Cal’s success grows, so too does Frank’s power and his influence in Cal’s affairs, the devastating threat he creates at the center of his little brother’s life. And, ultimately, when Frank decides to commit the ultimate betrayal, Cal is left with only one, final solution.

Few writers have as keen an eye for human nature as the inimitable Paul Theroux, and this riveting tale of adventure, betrayal and the true cost of family bonds is an unmissable new work from one of America’s most distinguished and beloved novelists.

Audiobook available, read by Joe Knezevich

Editorial Content for You're Invited

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

I had jumped at the opportunity to review Amanda Jayatissa’s debut novel, MY SWEET GIRL, because it sounded so unique. It offered exotic locations and characters I was not familiar with, along with an opportunity to escape into a different type of story. I had no idea that I was entering into one of the best reads of 2021, which ended up winning Best First Novel at this year’s International Thriller Awards. So you can imagine how excited I was to read her second novel. Read More

Teaser

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Amanda Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after.

Promo

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Amanda Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after.

About the Book

What could be worse than your ex-boyfriend marrying your childhood best friend? Getting accused of her murder. From the author of MY SWEET GIRL comes a dangerously addictive new thriller about a lavish Sri Lankan wedding celebration that not everyone will survive.

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back.

When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Amanda Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after.

Audiobook available; read by Shimali De Silva, Soneela Nankani and Deepa Samuel