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Editorial Content for Act Your Age, Eve Brown

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Talia Hibbert has been writing sexy, diverse romances for a while now, but she really rocketed into the awareness of many readers (and onto their TBR piles) with GET A LIFE, CHLOE BROWN, which introduced the memorable title character discovering love and romance despite living with chronic pain. We also became acquainted with Chloe’s larger-than-life family, especially her two sisters, Dani and Eve. Dani got her own happily-ever-after last year, and now it’s Eve’s turn for a moment in the spotlight. Read More

Teaser

No matter how hard she strives to do right, Eve Brown’s life always goes horribly wrong. Bed and breakfast owner Jacob Wayne is on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he turns her down. Then she hits him with her car --- supposedly by accident. Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen --- and his spare bedroom. Sunny, chaotic Eve is Jacob’s natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else.

Promo

No matter how hard she strives to do right, Eve Brown’s life always goes horribly wrong. Bed and breakfast owner Jacob Wayne is on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he turns her down. Then she hits him with her car --- supposedly by accident. Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen --- and his spare bedroom. Sunny, chaotic Eve is Jacob’s natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else.

About the Book

In USA Today bestselling author Talia Hibbert’s newest rom-com, the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard --- literally.

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong. So she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It's time for Eve to grow up and prove herself --- even though she's not entirely sure how.

Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner is on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car --- supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen --- and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore...and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.

Audiobook available, read by Ione Butler

Editorial Content for Too Good to Be True

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Carola Lovering, the author of TELL ME LIES, returns with TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, an enthralling thrill ride about one man, his two wives and the three versions of the truth that exist between them. Read More

Teaser

Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips, she’s also battled crippling OCD, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result. But now Burke says he wants her. Forever. But Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends. In a third perspective, set 30 years earlier, a scrappy 17-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past --- or will he find his way into her future?

Promo

Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips, she’s also battled crippling OCD, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result. But now Burke says he wants her. Forever. But Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends. In a third perspective, set 30 years earlier, a scrappy 17-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past --- or will he find his way into her future?

About the Book

ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH. An obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, from the beloved author of TELL ME LIES.

Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips --- she’s smart, beautiful and from a well-off family --- she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was 11, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.

But now Burke --- handsome, older and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before --- says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.

In a third perspective, set 30 years earlier, a scrappy 17-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past --- or will he find his way into her future?

On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.

Audiobook available; read by Amy McFadden, Andi Arndt and Stephen Dexter

Editorial Content for Festival Days

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Allison Theresa

Jo Ann Beard’s essay collection, FESTIVAL DAYS, fixates on the strange flexibility of time. Through nine pieces --- wildly different in genre, length, topic and tone --- she unravels the mysteries of experiencing time through moments of change and crisis. After a year defined by such moments, these essays are a compassionate companion. Read More

Teaser

When “The Fourth State of Matter,” her now famous piece about a workplace massacre at the University of Iowa, was published in The New Yorker, Jo Ann Beard immediately became one of the most influential writers in America, forging a path for a new generation of young authors willing to combine the dexterity of fiction with the rigors of memory and reportage, and in the process extending the range of possibility for the essay form. Now, with FESTIVAL DAYS, Beard brings us the culmination of her groundbreaking work. In these nine pieces, she captures both the small, luminous moments of daily existence and those instances when life and death hang in the balance.

Promo

When “The Fourth State of Matter,” her now famous piece about a workplace massacre at the University of Iowa, was published in The New Yorker, Jo Ann Beard immediately became one of the most influential writers in America, forging a path for a new generation of young authors willing to combine the dexterity of fiction with the rigors of memory and reportage, and in the process extending the range of possibility for the essay form. Now, with FESTIVAL DAYS, Beard brings us the culmination of her groundbreaking work. In these nine pieces, she captures both the small, luminous moments of daily existence and those instances when life and death hang in the balance.

About the Book

A searing and exhilarating new collection from the award-winning author of THE BOYS OF MY YOUTH and   IN ZANESVILLE,    who “honors the beautiful, the sacred, and the comic in life” (Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner for THE FRIEND).

When “The Fourth State of Matter,” her now famous piece about a workplace massacre at the University of Iowa, was published in The New Yorker, Jo Ann Beard immediately became one of the most influential writers in America, forging a path for a new generation of young authors willing to combine the dexterity of fiction with the rigors of memory and reportage and in the process extending the range of possibility for the essay form.
 
Now, with FESTIVAL DAYS, Beard brings us the culmination of her groundbreaking work. In these nine pieces, she captures both the small, luminous moments of daily existence and those instants when life and death hang in the balance --- ranging from the death of a beloved dog to a relentlessly readable account of a New York artist trapped inside a burning building, as well as two triumphant, celebrated pieces of short fiction.
 
Here is an unforgettable collection destined to be embraced and debated by readers and writers, teachers and students. Anchored by the title piece --- a searing journey through India that brings into focus questions of mortality and love --- FESTIVAL DAYS presents Beard at the height of her powers, using her flawless prose to reveal all that is tender and timeless beneath the way we live now.

Audiobook available, read by Suehyla El-Attar

Editorial Content for Are We There Yet?

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

From Kathleen West, the author of MINOR DRAMAS & OTHER CATASTROPHES, comes ARE WE THERE YET?, a drama-filled novel about three families stuck navigating the ins, outs and unbelievable aspects of middle school and middle age. Read More

Teaser

On the same day Alice Sullivan learns that her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin. When it comes to light that the incident is part of a new behavior pattern for her son, one complete with fake social media profiles with a lot of questionable content, Alice’s social standing is quickly eroded to one of “those moms” who can’t control her kids. Soon she’s facing the very judgment she was all too happy to dole out when she thought no one was looking (or when she thought her house wasn’t made of glass). Then her mother unloads a family secret she’s kept for more than 30 years, and Alice’s entire perception of herself is shattered.

Promo

On the same day Alice Sullivan learns that her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin. When it comes to light that the incident is part of a new behavior pattern for her son, one complete with fake social media profiles with a lot of questionable content, Alice’s social standing is quickly eroded to one of “those moms” who can’t control her kids. Soon she’s facing the very judgment she was all too happy to dole out when she thought no one was looking (or when she thought her house wasn’t made of glass). Then her mother unloads a family secret she’s kept for more than 30 years, and Alice’s entire perception of herself is shattered.

About the Book

Among fake Instagram pages, long-buried family secrets and the horrors of middle school, one suburban mom searches to find herself in a heartfelt and thought-provoking novel from the author of MINOR DRAMAS AND OTHER CATASTROPHES.

Alice Sullivan feels like she’s finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin. 

When it comes to light that the incident is part of a new behavior pattern for her son, one complete with fake social media profiles with a lot of questionable content, Alice’s social standing is quickly eroded to one of “those moms” who can’t control her kids. Soon she’s facing the very judgment she was all too happy to dole out when she thought no one was looking (or when she thought her house wasn’t made of glass).

Then her mother unloads a family secret she’s kept for more than 30 years, and Alice’s entire perception of herself is shattered. 

As her son’s new reputation polarizes her friendships and her family buzzes with the ramification of her mother’s choices, Alice realizes that she’s been too focused on measuring her success and happiness by everyone else's standards. Now, with all her shortcomings laid bare, she’ll have to figure out to whom to turn for help and decide who she really wants to be.

Editorial Content for The Bone Maker

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

The heroes we see in movies and read about in books are usually striking young people in the prime of their lives. We don't know what happens to them after time passes and they get wrinkled and older with aches and pains like the rest of us. We especially don't think about them if disaster strikes. Can middle-aged folks save the day? Read More

Teaser

Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor --- a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived. Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice --- for each day he lives, she will live one less. She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. Defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility: Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all.

Promo

Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor --- a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived. Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice --- for each day he lives, she will live one less. She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. Defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility: Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all. 

About the Book

From award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst, a stand-alone epic fantasy set in a brand-new world of towering mountains and sparkling cities, in which a band of aging warriors have a second chance to defeat dark magic and avenge a haunting loss.

Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor --- a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived.

Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice --- for each day he lives, she will live one less.

She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. The dead are burned --- as are any bone workers who violate the law. Yet Kreya knows where she can find the bones she needs: the battlefield where her husband and countless others lost their lives.

But defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility. Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all.

Five warriors --- one broken, one gone soft, one pursuing a simple life, one stuck in the past, and one who should dead. Their story should have been finished. But evil doesn’t stop just because someone once said “the end.”

Audiobook available, read by Soneela Nankani

Editorial Content for Gathering Dark

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

A new novel from Australian author Candice Fox has become a must-read event for me. Recent pairings with James Patterson have given her work much-deserved recognition, and now she has become a domestic sensation as well. Read More

Teaser

Dr. Blair Harbour, once a wealthy, respected pediatric surgeon, is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s determined to keep her nose clean and win back custody of her son. But when her former cellmate begs for help to find her missing daughter, Blair is compelled to put her new-found freedom on the line. Detective Jessica Sanchez has always had a difficult relationship with the LAPD. And her inheritance of a multi-million-dollar mansion as a reward for catching a killer has just made her police enemy number one. It’s been 10 years since Jessica arrested Blair for cold-blooded murder. So when Jessica opens the door to the disgraced doctor late one night, she expects abuse, maybe even violence. What comes next is a plea for help.

Promo

Dr. Blair Harbour, once a wealthy, respected pediatric surgeon, is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s determined to keep her nose clean and win back custody of her son. But when her former cellmate begs for help to find her missing daughter, Blair is compelled to put her new-found freedom on the line. Detective Jessica Sanchez has always had a difficult relationship with the LAPD. And her inheritance of a multi-million-dollar mansion as a reward for catching a killer has just made her police enemy number one. It’s been 10 years since Jessica arrested Blair for cold-blooded murder. So when Jessica opens the door to the disgraced doctor late one night, she expects abuse, maybe even violence. What comes next is a plea for help.

About the Book

GATHERING DARK is a new stand-alone thriller set in Los Angeles from #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author Candice Fox.

A convicted killer. A gifted thief. A vicious ganglord. A disillusioned cop. Together they’re a missing girl’s only hope.

Dr. Blair Harbour, once a wealthy, respected pediatric surgeon, is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s determined to keep her nose clean and win back custody of her son. But when her former cellmate begs for help to find her missing daughter, Blair is compelled to put her new-found freedom on the line.

Detective Jessica Sanchez has always had a difficult relationship with the LAPD. And her inheritance of a multi-million-dollar mansion as a reward for catching a killer has just made her police enemy number one.

It’s been 10 years since Jessica arrested Blair for cold-blooded murder. So when Jessica opens the door to the disgraced doctor late one night she expects abuse, maybe even violence. What comes next is a plea for help.

Audiobook available, read by Erin Bennett and Karissa Vacker

Editorial Content for Justine

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

During the summer of 1999, Ali gets a job at a Huntington, Long Island grocery store. On the day she applies, she sees Justine and is struck at once with feelings different than those she gets from her boyfriend. At work, the two high schoolers start a fast friendship, taking them from dingy basement hangouts to North Shore mansions, frequenting record stores and malls along the way, all the while drunk and high. Justine is the titular object of Ali’s affection and fascination in Forsyth Harmon’s brutal and lovely illustrated book, JUSTINE. Read More

Teaser

Bored, restless and lonely, Ali never expected her life would change as dramatically as it did the day she walked into the local Stop & Shop. But she’s never met anyone like Justine, the store’s cashier. Ali applies for a job on the spot, securing a place for herself in Justine’s glittering vicinity. As Justine takes Ali under her wing, Ali learns how best to bag groceries, what foods to eat (and not to eat), how to shoplift, who to admire, and who she can become outside of her cold home, where her inattentive grandmother hardly notices the changes in her. Ali becomes more and more fixated on Justine, reshaping herself in her new idol’s image, leading to a series of events that spiral from superficial to seismic.

Promo

Bored, restless and lonely, Ali never expected her life would change as dramatically as it did the day she walked into the local Stop & Shop. But she’s never met anyone like Justine, the store’s cashier. Ali applies for a job on the spot, securing a place for herself in Justine’s glittering vicinity. As Justine takes Ali under her wing, Ali learns how best to bag groceries, what foods to eat (and not to eat), how to shoplift, who to admire, and who she can become outside of her cold home, where her inattentive grandmother hardly notices the changes in her. Ali becomes more and more fixated on Justine, reshaping herself in her new idol’s image, leading to a series of events that spiral from superficial to seismic.

About the Book

Summer 1999. Long Island, New York. Bored, restless and lonely, Ali never expected her life would change as dramatically as it did the day she walked into the local Stop & Shop. But she’s never met anyone like Justine, the store’s cashier. Justine is so tall and thin she looks almost two-dimensional, and there’s a dazzling mischief in her wide smile. “Her smile lit me up and exposed me all at once,” Ali admits. “Justine was the light shining on me and the dark shadow it cast, and I wanted to stand there forever in the relief of that contrast.”

Ali applies for a job on the spot, securing a place for herself in Justine’s glittering vicinity. As Justine takes Ali under her wing, Ali learns how best to bag groceries, what foods to eat (and not to eat), how to shoplift, who to admire, and who she can become outside of her cold home, where her inattentive grandmother hardly notices the changes in her. Ali becomes more and more fixated on Justine, reshaping herself in her new idol’s image, leading to a series of events that spiral from superficial to seismic.

JUSTINE, Forsyth Harmon’s illustrated debut, is an intimate and unflinching portrait of American girlhood at the edge of adulthood --- one in which obsession hastens heartbreak.

Editorial Content for Saving Grace

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Debbie Babitt’s debut psychological thriller is a mix of Southern noir and Gothic horror, but is so realistic that it reads like a work of true crime. SAVING GRACE may not be dripping with Southern mysticism like a Greg Iles novel, but you clearly know where it takes place, and the backdrop speaks volumes. Read More

Teaser

For 24 years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at 11, she was forced to go live with her Bible salesman uncle, wheelchair-bound aunt, and a cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her only best friend, and changed a second time when that friend and another classmate vanished two months later, never to be seen again. Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her rural town, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the locals. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter suspected in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance...and another sixth grader vanishes.

Promo

For 24 years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at 11, she was forced to go live with her Bible salesman uncle, wheelchair-bound aunt, and a cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her only best friend, and changed a second time when that friend and another classmate vanished two months later, never to be seen again. Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her rural town, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the locals. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter suspected in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance...and another sixth grader vanishes.

About the Book

In this gripping suspense debut, the first female sheriff of a small mountain village investigates a disappearance that echoes the crimes that shattered her town decades before. 

For 24 years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at 11, she was forced to go live with her Bible salesman uncle, wheelchair-bound aunt, and a cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her only best friend, and changed a second time when that friend and another classmate vanished two months later, never to be seen again.

Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her rural town, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the locals. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter suspected in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance...and another sixth grader vanishes. 

With old prejudices and new secrets spilling out into the open, the modern world soon illuminates the village’s darkest corners. The case becomes even more fraught as a cult of white supremacists brings its gospel of hate to Repentance and violence explodes, claiming more lives. Racing to find the missing girl while fearing for the safety of her own sixth-grade daughter, Mary Grace must confront an unspeakable truth --- and face a decision no parent should ever have to make. 

Set in a remote mountain town, where the secrets run as deep as the hollows, SAVING GRACE is at once a spell-binding tale of innocence lost and a twisty, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller. This startling debut novel introduces a captivating protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl --- then and now.

Audiobook available, read by Kate Mulligan

Nadia Hashimi, author of Sparks Like Stars

Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. But her world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name --- Aryana Shepherd --- and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon. New York, 2008: Forty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana’s world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family.

J.T. Ellison, author of Her Dark Lies

Jutting from sparkling turquoise waters off the Italian coast, Isle Isola is an idyllic setting for a wedding. In the majestic cliff-top villa owned by the wealthy Compton family, up-and-coming artist Claire Hunter will marry handsome, charming Jack Compton, surrounded by close family, intimate friends…and a host of dark secrets. From the moment Claire sets foot on the island, something seems amiss. Skeletal remains have just been found. There are other, newer disturbances, too. Menacing texts. A ruined wedding dress. And one troubling shadow hanging over Claire’s otherwise blissful relationship --- the strange mystery surrounding Jack’s first wife. Then a raging storm descends, the power goes out --- and the real terror begins.