Recommended Reads Books (List)

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Trouble

Lex Croucher

Emily Laurence is a liar. She is not polite, she's not polished, and she has never taught a child in her life. This position was meant to be her sister's––brilliant, kind Amy, who isn't perpetually angry, dangerously reckless, and who does (inexplicably) like children.

But Amy is unwell and needs a doctor, and their father is gone and their mother is useless, so here Emily is, pretending to be something she's not.

If she can get away with her deception for long enough to earn a few month's wages and slip some expensive trinkets into her pockets along the way, perhaps they'll be all right.

That is, as long as she doesn't get involved with the Edwards family's dramas. Emily refuses to care about her charges - Grace, who talks too much and loves too hard, and Aster, who is frankly terrifying but might just be the wittiest sixteen-year-old Emily has ever met - or the servants, who insist on acting as if they're each other's family. And she certainly hasn't noticed her employer, the brooding, taciturn Captain Edwards, no matter how good he might look without a shirt on...

As Fairmont House draws her in, Emily's lies start to come undone. Can she fix her mistakes before it's too late?

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Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places

Claire Kann

Lucky Hart has a special affinity for the supernatural but almost no one takes parapsychology seriously. She’s estranged from her family, lost her friends, and has been rejected from graduate school. Twice. But her big break finally arrives when she gets insider info about a troubled production company. Every actor on their new show mysteriously quits after spending three nights inside Hennessee House, an old Victorian with a notorious reputation.

After scheming her way onto the show to investigate, Lucky meets Maverick Phillips and chemistry instantly crackles between them. He tempts her in ways no one ever has, challenging and supporting her, and making her finally feel seen. Their connection is so palpable everyone notices it–including Hennesee House.

Now Lucky and Maverick’s relationship has a challenger: the lonely, sentient house desperate for her undivided attention. As love begins to clash with career, Lucky refuses to choose one over the other because everyone deserves a happily ever after, even houses with haunted hearts. But when all her plans begin backfiring one-by-one, she realizes that if she wants to have it all? She'll have to risk everything.

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Just for the Summer

Abby Jimenez

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other's out, and they'll both go on to find the love of their lives. It's a bonkers idea... and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected - including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

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At First Spite

Olivia Dade

When Athena Greydon's fiancé ends their engagement, she has no choice but to move into the Spite House she recklessly bought him as a wedding gift. Which is a problem, for several reasons: The house, originally built as a brick middle finger to the neighbors, is only ten feet wide. Her ex's home is literally attached to hers. And Dr. Matthew Vine the Freaking Third - AKA the uptight, judgy jerk who convinced his younger brother to leave her - is living on her other side, only a four-foot alley away.

If she has to see Matthew every time she looks out her windows, she might as well have some fun with the situation. By, say, playing erotic audiobooks at top volume with those windows open. A woman living in a Spite House is basically obligated to get petty payback however she can, right?

Unfortunately, loathing Matthew proves more difficult than anticipated. He helps her move. He listens. And he's kind of...hot? Dammit.

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Cleat Cute

Meryl Wilsner

Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t—a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.

Phoebe Matthews is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other.

As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position. With every tackle the tension between them grows, and both players soon have to decide what's more important—being together or making the roster.

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Late Bloomer

Mazey Eddings

Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin's life. After quitting her dead-end job where she’d earned minimum wage and even less respect, she’s bombarded by people knocking at her door for a handout the second they found out her bank account was overflowing with cash. And Opal can’t seem to stop saying yes.

With her tender heart thoroughly abused, Opal decides to protect herself by any means necessary, which to her translates to putting almost all her new money to buying a failing flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina, to let the flowers live out their plant destiny while she uses the cabin on the property to start her painting business.

But her plans for isolation and self-preservation go hopelessly awry when an angry (albeit gorgeous) Pepper Boden is waiting for her at her new farm. Pepper states she’s the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms, and isn’t moving out. The unlikely pair strike up an agreement of co-habitation, and butt heads at every turn. Can these opposites both live out their dreams and plant roots? Or will their combustible arguing (and growing attraction) burn the whole place down?

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The Wild Lavender Bookshop

Jodi Thomas

The trees that circle Someday Valley near Honey Creek are dressed in their fall finest, providing a pretty backdrop for the local businesses - including the little bookshop loved by schoolteacher Cora Lee Buchanan. There, under the watchful eye of owner Noah O’Brien, Cora Lee and her sister, Katherine, meet each Wednesday. Their talk mostly revolves around one subject: their father, known to everyone in town as Bear.

Both Cora Lee and Katherine worry about Bear Buchanan. They’ve no idea Bear has a secret life of his own. As for the sisters, Katherine, beautiful and self-absorbed, is in search of her third husband, while Cora Lee is in love for the first time. On warm nights, she climbs up to her building’s roof to chat with Noah and listen to the melody of the water below. Yet there is more intrigue afoot in Honey Creek...

Andi Delane has arrived in town to hear the last wishes of the father she never met. She was shocked to get a letter from lawyer Jackson Landry, and she has few expectations - of this mysterious will, or of Deputy Danny Davis who’s been assigned to protect her. But fall always brings changes, and this year there will be enough to alter not just the lives of those who call Honey Creek home, but the future of Someday Valley itself. 

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Till There Was You

Lindsay Hameroff

Culinary student Lexi Berman, 24, has one goal: to make her late mother proud by becoming an executive chef in a Michelin-star restaurant. And she isn’t going to let anything–or anyone–get in the way. But when she meets Jake Taylor, a dive bar musician who charms her with show tunes, she makes a rare exception to her no-dating rule. After a steamy weekend together, Jake leaves for L.A. to record his demo, and Lexi never expects to see him again. And she definitely doesn’t expect him to become an overnight celebrity, with a breakout single that’s almost certainly about her famous blueberry pancake recipe.

As Jake’s star rises and the world speculates about the subject of his song, Lexi keeps the affair to herself. After all, she’s finally found her footing at her new restaurant job, and even has a prospective romance with her coworker. But when a distraught Jake turns up on her doorstep late one night, her carefully-laid plans are thrown for a loop. Though she and Jake try to be friends, things between them soon reheat faster than a bowl of Lexi's matzah ball soup. But a relationship with Jake means risking her face in tabloids, withstanding cruel internet comments, and worst of all, jeopardizing her career. As Jake’s upcoming tour approaches, and rumors swirl about him and another pop star, Lexi has to decide if holding onto her meticulously-planned future is worth walking away from what could be the perfect recipe for love.

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Always Remember

Mary Balogh

Left unable to walk by a childhood illness, Lady Jennifer, sister of the Duke of Wilby, has grown up to make a happy place for herself in society. Outgoing and cheerful, she has many friends and enjoys the pleasures of high society - even if she cannot dance at balls or stroll in Hyde Park. She is blessed with a large, loving, and protective family. But she secretly dreams of marriage and children, and of walking - and dancing.

When Ben Ellis comes across Lady Jennifer as she struggles to walk with the aid of primitive crutches, he instantly understands her yearning. He is a fixer. It is often said of him that he never saw a practical problem he did not have to solve. He wants to help her discover independence and motion - driving a carriage, swimming, even walking a different way. But he must be careful. He is the bastard son of the late Earl of Stratton. Though he was raised with the earl’s family, he knows he does not really belong in the world of the ton.

Jennifer is shocked - and intrigued - by Ben’s ideas, and both families are alarmed by the growing friendship and perhaps more that they sense developing between the two. A duke’s sister certainly cannot marry the bastard son of an earl. Except sometimes, love can find a way.

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You Should Be So Lucky

Cat Sebastian

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O'Leary's life. He can't manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he's living out of a suitcase, and he's homesick. When the team's owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he's ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he's already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he's barely even managing to do that much. He's had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he'd never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York's obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.

Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he'll never be someone's secret ever again, and Eddie can't be out as a professional athlete. It's just them against the world, and they'll both have to decide if that's enough.

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Here We Go Again

Alison Cochrun

A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.

Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other - and their complicated past - they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.

But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip - from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine - that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.

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To Woo and to Wed

Martha Waters

West, the Marquess of Weston, and Sophie, Lady Fitzwilliam Bridewell, have lately been spending a considerable amount of time together. But West and Sophie are not new acquaintances. In fact, years ago, they had once been nearly engaged until West’s almost fatal curricle accident and his meddling father threw them off course.

Now recently widowed, Sophie has put aside all thoughts of romance. But when her widowed sister, Alexandra, mentions a fondness for an earl, Sophie realizes that she may be holding her sister back. Alexandra won’t move forward with an engagement until Sophie, too, settles down again, and so Sophie approaches West with a plan. They will announce their engagement and break things off once Alexandra is happily married. It’ll be simple. After all, it’s not like she is going to fall for West a second time, not when Sophie has sworn not to risk her heart again.

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The Irish Goodbye

Amy Ewing

Cordelia James was once at the top of her game - a renowned street photographer with a massive social media following, gallery showings in Chelsea, and a lucrative book deal. But after the sudden death of her father, Cordelia can barely force herself to leave her apartment. That is, until she sees an ad for a summer gig at a cozy cottage on Ireland’s picturesque Inishmore island. Cordelia is on a plane before she can talk herself out of it.

The moment she steps off the boat, she crashes - literally - into Niall O’Connor, a grumpy local who’s just returned home to Inishmore from Dublin. Niall is nursing a broken heart and trying to patch up a broken life, and he has no time for posh American tourists. The more Cordelia’s and Niall’s paths cross, the more they make each other’s lives hell. But as with all rivalries, their hatred is about to reach a tipping point - and it’s going to heat up their cool coastal nights.

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The Royal Game

Linda Keir

American pop singer Jennie Jensen is ready to marry the love of her life, England's Prince Hugh, but someone is determined to keep her from becoming a princess - any way they can. To give her fairy tale a happy ending, she'll have to play the royal game.

Jennie Jensen is touring Europe, already living her dream, when Prince Hugh of Wales - the future King of England - appears at a gig and requests his favorite song. He's already smitten, and soon so is she. After a secretive, whirlwind romance, Hugh proposes, and when Jennie accepts, her world changes overnight. She's still learning to navigate the minefield of constant scrutiny, barbed social interactions, and royal protocol (there are rules about pantyhose), as she learns that not everyone in England is excited about the prospect of an American princess.

When Jennie receives a threatening note, she can't help but see the parallels between herself and another young woman who struggled to adjust to royal life: Hugh's mother, Princess Penelope, who was killed in a mysterious plane crash. And as the threats to Jennie grow more serious, she digs into Penelope's past, discovering a woman who also suspected someone in the palace was out to get her. Was Penelope murdered? And is Jennie next? With the eyes of a nation on her as the royal wedding approaches, she's in a race against time to save her marriage... and her own life.

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The Au Pair Affair

Tessa Bailey

Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She's also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween.

Her tween charge isn't the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to...well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the "right" thing - breaks her own heart and walks away.

Though Burgess knows it's for the best - he's too jaded, with too much baggage - a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.

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Welcoming Your Puppy from Planet Dog

Kathy Callahan, CPDT-KA

After a decade of guiding people who’ve just added a puppy to the family, dog trainer Kathy Callahan has learned a fundamental truth: at some point every one of them feels overwhelmed. When they seek out expertise, they’re flooded with impossibly detailed advice, conflicting opinions, and a surprising number of techniques that seem unkind.

In contrast, Callahan reassures owners that success flows not from nailing an intimidating list of disciplinary tactics, but from adopting a mindset of “trusted guide” rather than “master.” The key to great training is recognizing that we have essentially kidnapped these puppies from their own vastly different culture. In fun-to-read chapters loaded with empathy for both the beleaguered humans and their confused puppies, Welcoming Your Puppy from Planet Dog paves the way for a rewarding friendship between a relaxed, well-prepared human and a canine family member who’s happily at ease in our world.

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The Forever Dog Life

Rodney Habib

In The Forever Dog, Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker explained that your dog's longevity starts with proper nourishment. In The Forever Dog Life, they offer simple ways you can help your dog live longer and better from the inside-out and outside-in, including easy-to-follow tools, recipes, and tips.

Learn to prepare healthy, homemade meals your dog will love, with more than 120 nutritionally packed recipes for delicious food bowls, fresh food toppers that supercharge any type of pet food, and nourishing broths and stews that entice the pickiest of eaters. And don't forget DIY training treats, cookies, jerkies, and chews. Accompanying the recipes are science-rich tips for the best ingredients, food hacks, and tools to use in the kitchen.

But food is only one aspect of a dog's good health. The Forever Dog Life teaches you how to make your home as healthy as possible, with practical instructions for creating your own non-toxic DIY cleaners, natural disinfectants, and lawn care solutions that can easily replace hazardous chemical-based products that negatively impact our pet's health. Also included are all-natural recipes for body care, including shampoos and conditioners, skin rinses, oral and ear care, and chemical-free flea and tick solutions. Habib and Becker make it easy to incorporate their science-backed tips into your home, so your dog (and cat!) can live a long, happy, and healthy life.

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The Year of the Puppy

Alexandra Horowitz

Few of us meet our dogs at Day One. The dog who will, eventually, become an integral part of our family, our constant companion and best friend, is born without us into a family of her own. A puppy's critical early development into the dog we come to know is usually missed entirely. Dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz aimed to change that with her family's new pup, Quiddity (Quid). In this scientific memoir, she charts Quid's growth from wee grub to boisterous sprite, from her birth to her first birthday.

Horowitz follows Quid's first weeks with her mother and ten roly-poly littermates, and then each week after the puppy joins her household of three humans, two large dogs, and a wary cat. She documents the social and cognitive milestones that so many of us miss in our puppies' lives, when caught up in the housetraining and behavioral training that easily overwhelms the first months of a dog's life with a new family. In focusing on training a dog to behave, we mostly miss the radical development of a puppy into themselves—through the equivalent of infancy, childhood, young adolescence, and teenager-hood.

By slowing down to observe Quid from week to week, The Year of the Puppy makes new sense of a dog's behavior in a way that is missed when the focus is only on training. Horowitz keeps a lens on the puppy's point of view - how they (begin to) see and smell the world, make meaning of it, and become an individual personality. The Year of the Puppy is indispensable for anyone navigating their way through the frustrating, amusing, and ultimately delightful first year of a puppy’s life.

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Doctor Dogs

Maria Goodavage

In this groundbreaking book, Goodavage brings us behind the scenes of cutting-edge science at top research centers, and into the lives of people whose well-being depends on their devoted, highly skilled personal MDs (medical dogs). With her signature wit and passion, Goodavage explores how doctor dogs are becoming our happy allies in the fight against dozens of physical and mental conditions.

We meet dogs who detect cancer and Parkinson's disease, and dogs who alert people to seizures and diabetic lows or highs and other life-threatening physical ailments. Goodavage reveals the revolutionary ways dogs are helping those with autism, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. And she introduces us to intrepid canines who are protecting us from antibiotic-resistant bugs, and to dogs who may one day help keep us safe from epidemic catastrophe. Their paycheck for their lifesaving work? Heartfelt praise and a tasty treat or favorite toy.

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Who's a Good Dog?

Jessica Pierce

Who’s a Good Dog? is an invitation to nurture more thoughtful and balanced relationships with our canine companions. By deepening our curiosity about what our dogs are experiencing, and by working together with them in a spirit of collaboration, we can become more effective and compassionate caregivers.

With sympathy for the challenges met by both dogs and their humans, bioethicist Jessica Pierce explores common practices of caring for dogs, including how we provide exercise, what we feed, how and why we socialize and train, and how we employ tools such as collars and leashes. She helps us both to identify potential sources of fear and anxiety in our dogs’ lives and to expand practices that provide physical and emotional nourishment. Who’s a Good Dog? also encourages us to think more critically about what we expect of our dogs and how these expectations can set everyone up for success or failure. Pierce offers resources to help us cultivate attentiveness and kindness, inspiring us to practice the art of noticing, of astonishment, of looking with fresh eyes at these beings we think we know so well.

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Lost Companions

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Over 84 million Americans - almost 3/4 of the US population - own a pet, and our society is still learning how to recognize and dignify that relationship with proper mourning rituals. We have only recently allowed the conversation of how to grieve for our non-human family members to come front and center.

Lost Companions fills a specific, important demand, a massive need in the market for an accessible, meaningful book on pet loss. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson takes a very personal, heartfelt approach to this difficult subject, allowing readers to explore their own responses and reactions, suggesting ways through and out of grief, as well as meaningful ways to memorialize our best friends.

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Finding Grace

Larry Randolph

After a devastating series of personal losses, Larry Randolph finally had things under control. Then one morning while praying, he felt God speak two simple words to his heart: "Therapy dogs."

There was only one problem. Larry didn't have a dog, and hadn't since the loss of his beloved basset hound, Gus. Why would God say that? Could Larry even open himself up to loving a dog again? He had far more questions than answers.

But then came Grace.

Together, Larry and his beloved yellow lab Gracie brought hope and healing to hundreds of sick and lonely people. But when Larry's own life takes a shocking and terrifying turn, it's up to Gracie to rescue Larry and his family too.

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All-American Dogs

Andrew Hager

President Biden's German shepherds, Major and the late Champ, are the latest in a long line of presidential dogs. Dating all the way back to George Washington, dogs have been constant companions to nearly all of America's presidents. Of the past 46 presidents, 31 have had at least one dog at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Organized by historical eras, All-American Dogs will take readers through the captivating history of the White House's four-legged friends, the impact they had on their owner-in-chiefs, and, ultimately, American history. From the assassination of President's Lincoln's dog after Lincoln's own death to President's Hoover's Belgian shepherd, King Tut, who helped President Hoover win the election after appearing in a campaign photo, these furry members of the first family often had a lasting impact on the administrations that kept them.

As historian-in-residence at the Presidential Pet Museum, Andrew Hager will include original research and rare photographs from the National Archives to trace the history of America's first dogs. From post-Revolutionary dogs, to Civil War era dogs, to Cold War dogs, Hager will show the differences and similarities of how our nation viewed man's best friend.

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Olive, Mabel & Me

Andrew Cotter

When sporting events were put on hold in March 2020, commentator Andrew Cotter shifted to working from home. The one-on-one competitors? His two Labrador retrievers, Olive and Mabel. In the hilarious videos that ensued, the dogs engage in various contests, from bone-snatching and breakfast-eating to crushing it on the dog walk, while Cotter narrates to hilarious effect. The scene of Mabel, simply standing still in a fetid pond was one of the most popular. Why? Because this is how dogs live, and Cotter captured it with humor and joy. It’s why the series has been viewed more than 50 million times, entertaining dog owners, sports fans, and celebrities around the world.

Olive and Mabel are more than online celebrities, however, as revealed in this charming narrative. Filled with stories about how Cotter fell in love with his dogs, his passion for hiking with them through the glens and over the peaks of his native Scotland, and the ongoing relationship between Olive and Mabel (particularly the “competitive fire” lit during these days of quarantine), the memoir is by turns side-splittingly funny and thoughtfully tender. It’s sure to resonate with all dog lovers.

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Dog-Eared

Duncan Wu

Dogs are at once among the most ordinary of animals and the most beloved by mankind. But what we may not realize is that for as long as we have loved dogs, our poets have been seriously engaged with them as well.

In this collection, English professor Duncan Wu digs into the wealth of poetry about our furry friends to show how varied and intimate our relationships with them have been over the centuries. Homer recounts how Odysseus's loyal dog recognizes his master even after his long absence. Thomas Hardy wrote poems from a pooch's perspective, conveying a powerful sense of dogs' innocent and trusting nature. And a multitude of writers, from Lord Byron to Emily Dickinson, have turned to poetry to mourn the loss of beloved dogs. Rich and inviting, Dog-eared is a spellbinding collection of poetic musings about humans and dogs and what they mean to each other.

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The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks

Shauna Robinson

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything.

Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.

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The Wishing Game

Meg Shaffer

Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

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Yellowface

Rebecca F. Kuang

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena's a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song - complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

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The Keeper of Hidden Books

Madeline Martin

All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things during times of hardship: books and her best friend, Janina. But no one could have imagined the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. As the bombs rain down and Hitler's forces loot and destroy the city, Zofia finds that now books are also in need of saving.

With the death count rising and persecution intensifying, Zofia jumps to action to save her friend and salvage whatever books she can from the wreckage, hiding them away, and even starting a clandestine book club. She and her dearest friend never surrender their love of reading, even when Janina is forced into the newly formed ghetto.

But the closer Warsaw creeps toward liberation, the more dangerous life becomes for the women and their families - and escape may not be possible for everyone. As the destruction rages around them, Zofia must fight to save her friend and preserve her culture and community using the only weapon they have left - literature.

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Fatal First Edition

Jenn McKinlay

Briar Creek Library director Lindsey Norris and her husband, Sully, are at a popular library conference in Chicago to hear book restoration specialist Brooklyn Wainwright give a keynote address. After the lecture, Lindsey looks under her seat and finds a tote bag containing a first edition of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, inscribed to Alfred Hitchcock. Brooklyn determines the novel is one of a kind and quite valuable, so Lindsey and Sully return the book to the conference director, not wanting to stir up any trouble.

But just hours after the pair boards the train back to Connecticut, rumors that the Highsmith novel has gone missing buzz amongst the passengers, and they soon find the conference director murdered in his private compartment. And worse - the murderer planted the book in Lindsey and Sully’s room next door, making them prime suspects. Now, they must uncover the murderer and bring them to the end of their line, before they find themselves booked for a crime they didn’t commit.

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The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Julia Alvarez

Alma Cruz doesn't want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories - literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.

Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas and soon begin to defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener to the secret tales unspooled by Alma's characters. Among them, Bienvenida, dictator Rafael Trujillo's abandoned wife who was erased from the official history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.

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Miss Morgan's Book Brigade

Janet Skeslien Charles

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen - children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.

1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsessive research, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.

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How to Read a Book

Monica Wood

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn't yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland - Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman - their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

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Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Satoshi Yagisawa

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has enjoyed a relatively easy existence - until the day her boyfriend Hideaki, the man she expected to wed, casually announces he's been cheating on her and is marrying the other woman. Suddenly, Takako's life is in freefall. She loses her job, her friends, and her acquaintances, and spirals into a deep depression. In the depths of her despair, she receives a call from her distant uncle Satoru.

An unusual man who has always pursued something of an unconventional life, especially after his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years earlier, Satoru runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo's famous book district. Takako once looked down upon Satoru's life. Now, she reluctantly accepts his offer of the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store. The move is temporary, until she can get back on her feet. But in the months that follow, Takako surprises herself when she develops a passion for Japanese literature, becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she makes new friends, and eventually meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who's going through his own messy breakup.

But just as she begins to find joy again, Hideaki reappears, forcing Takako to rely once again on her uncle, whose own life has begun to unravel. Together, these seeming opposites work to understand each other and themselves as they continue to share the wisdom they've gained in the bookshop.

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Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books

Kirsten Miller

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on a mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books - none of which she's actually read. To replace the "pornographic" books she's challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she's sure the town's readers need.

What Lula doesn't know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula's library with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, witchy spell books, Judy Blume novels, and more. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean's library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean's enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town's disgraced mayor.

That's when all the townspeople who've been borrowing from Lula's library begin to reveal themselves. That's when the showdown that's been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.

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The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza

Mac Barnett

"Ridiculously fun and brilliantly illustrated." --Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants

As seen on The TODAY Show! New York Times bestselling Mac Barnett and Caldecott Honor award-winning illustrator Shawn Harris turn their massively popular The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza live cartoon into an action-packed and hysterical graphic novel series--perfect for fans of Dav Pilkey, Raina Telgemeier, and Jeff Kinney. A Kids' Indie Next List Pick, an Indie Bestseller, and a Junior Library Guild Selection!

Something terrible is happening in the skies! Rats are eating the MOON!

There's only ONE hero for the job, a bold and fearsome beast bioengineered in a secret lab to be the moon's savior and Earth's last hope! And that hero is . . . a cat. A cat who will be blasted into space!

Accompanied by the imperious Moon Queen and LOZ 4000, a toenail clipping robot, the First Cat in Space journeys across a fantastic lunar landscape in a quest to save the world. Will these unlikely heroes save the moon in time? Can a toenail-clipping robot find its purpose in the vast universe? And will the First Cat in Space ever eat some pizza?

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The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game

Griffin McElroy

Taako, Magnus, and Merle are forced to gamble everything in The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game, a hilarious and heart-wrenching adaptation of the explosively popular D&D podcast! As we enter the home stretch of this campaign, there’s never been a better time to join the party! And if you’re a fan of Critical Role and Dimension 20, then this here’s a bet that’ll sure to pay off.

Our heroes are finally nearing the end of their quest to collect the seven Grand Relics, dangerous magical artifacts which threaten the world as they know it. The penultimate item on their adventuring to-do list is the Animus Bell, which The Director tells them is hidden at the heart of Wonderland, a carnival of torment. Once inside, the boys will have their shot at winning the Bell...but each step forward comes at a horrible cost. And the deeper they go ― the closer they get ― the higher a price they’ll pay.

And if they can secure the Bell, surely then the worst will be over, right? Surely they’ll go back up to their Moonbase in the sky, and hand the Bell over to The Director, and Bureau life will return to normal while they begin their hunt for the final relic, right? They’re so close to the end, after all, and they’ve gone through so much to get this far. There can’t possibly be any further surprises in store...

Praise for The Adventure Zone series:

"Topping the New York Times bestseller list and building out its stories in fascinating new ways . . . it’s become a cultural phenomenon." —Entertainment Weekly

"Full of charm and snark and wit. Join the party!" —Felicia Day, author of Embrace Your Inner Weird

"The Adventure Zone is fun, hilarious, and also smart. Hey, guys, can I have a cameo next time?” —Adam Savage, MythBusters

“My excitement about this existing cannot be dwarfed by anything. You see what I did there.” —Jean Grae, hip-hop artist, actor, and comedian

“Gorgeous art—the characters come to life! I am so happy that this graphic novel is a thing that exists in the world.” —Hank Green, author of Crash Course and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Books in The Adventure Zone series:

The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins (Book 1)
The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited (Book 2)
The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal (Book 3)
The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom (Book 4)
The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour (Book 5)
The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game (Book 6)

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Conditions of a Heart

Bethany Mangle

Two starred reviews!

“Achingly touching, heartfelt, and true, Brynn’s story of reinvention and self-discovery resonates on every page. A book to savor and hold dear.” —Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces and The Agathas

For fans of Talia Hibbert and Lynn Painter comes an “emotionally rich” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and unflinchingly honest story about a teen who must come to terms with her disability and what it means for her identity, her love life, and her future.

Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.

But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being, Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one wanted: herself.

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Deadpool By Posehn & Duggan Vol. 1

Brian Posehn

Collects Deadpool (2012) #1-14, #20 And #26. Comedy writing partners Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan bring the funny, Deadpool-style, in one of the most celebrated eras of the Merc with a Mouth! Wade Wilson must take down an army of dead presidents — and things only get wilder from there! Deadpool is hired by a demon to reclaim damned souls; gets in touch with his feminine side; targets a man with aquatic powers; and teams up with the Superior Spider-Man! Plus: The debut of the flashback “inventory issue” tales Posehn and Duggan made famous, featuring Deadpool’s adventures in yesteryear! Deadpool drowns his sorrows with Iron Man, gets funky with Power Man and Iron Fist, wreaks Kirby-fied havoc on a cosmic level and fights Hitler alongside Cable and Nick Fury! Deadpool has never been more hilarious!

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Wolverine Vol. 1

Paul Cornell

Collects Wolverine (2013) #1-6. Pay attention very closely: there's a mystery here that even Wolverine hasn't sniffed out yet. When Wolverine finds himself the bargaining chip in a hostage situation, he must make a decision that will follow him forever...literally! How can a berserker fight what he can't see? And how far will he go to assert his humanity in the face of the unknown? Guest-starring Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Then, Wolverine has to track down a boy on a deadly rampage before he does the unthinkable! How will Logan defeat an enemy with no permanent body to slash and claw? And what does the Watcher have to do with all of this? Find out when superstars Paul Cornell (CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI:13, Doctor Who, Action Comics) and Alan Davis (AVENGERS, CLANDESTINE, EXCALIBUR, UNCANNY X-MEN) take on the Wolverine!

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Futari Escape Vol. 1

Shouichi Taguchi

SLACKERS UNITE!

Two young women—one an overworked manga artist, the other a jobless slacker—try to escape the realities of adulthood. Whether it’s by going into debt while splurging on an epic meal or taking an impromptu trip, "Kouhai" and "Senpai" find a way to make the most of their days! Kick back and relax with this adorable yuri comedy!

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With Love, Miss Americanah

Jane Igharo

With Love, Miss Americanah—the Young Adult contemporary romance debut from Jane Igharo—sees a teenager move from Nigeria to America and navigate her senior year with the help of classic teen movies and a new crush, all while working through grief and the rigid expectations of her mother.

17-year-old Enore Adesuwa doesn’t dive into things, she walks in carefully. So when she, her mother, and her sister move from Nigeria to America shortly after her father’s death, she wants to be extremely prepared before attending an American high school. Her cousin, Adrian, doesn’t have time to explain the ins and outs to her but, luckily, he recommends the perfect research tool: teen movies.

Still dealing with grief but armed with a set of rules of survival gathered from these movies (including the crucial rule of keeping a low profile), Enore is ready for her senior year. But when she meets Davi Santiago, it may be much harder than she thought to keep to her rules. Because not only is he super thoughtful (and okay, very good looking), he constantly encourages her to share her incredible singing talent. Enore prefers the background but it just might be time for her to take center stage, even in spite of her mother’s strict expectations.

Maybe it would be easier to follow all the rules, the ones Enore set for herself and the ones her mom imposes, but as every teen movie has taught her, a coming-of-age is nothing without a little rebellion. And with help from her crush, her sister, and some new friends who don’t quite fit the roles she expects them to play, Enore’s senior year might indeed be cinematic.

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Be Not Far from Me

Mindy McGinnis

Hatchet meets Wild in this harrowing YA survival story about a teenage girl's attempt to endure the impossible, from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Female of the Species, Mindy McGinnis.

The world is not tame. Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof.

So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine.

Morning brings the realization that she's alone--and far off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with nothing but the clothes on her back, Ashley must figure out how to survive with the red streak of infection creeping up her leg.

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The Getaway

Lamar Giles

"Timely, thrilling, and gripping from start to finish. An absolute page-turner." --Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying

 

 

Jay is living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world's most famous resorts. He's got his family, his crew, and an incredible after-school job at the property's main theme park. Life isn't so great for the rest of the world, but when people come here to vacation, it's to get away from all that.

 

As things outside get worse, trouble starts seeping into Karloff. First, Jay's friend Connie and her family disappear in the middle of the night and no one will talk about it. Then the richest and most powerful families start arriving, only... they aren't leaving. Unknown to the employees, the resort has been selling shares in an end-of-the-world oasis. The best of the best at the end of days. And in order to deliver the top-notch customer service the wealthy clientele paid for, the employees will be at their total beck and call.

 

Whether they like it or not.

 

Yet Karloff Country didn't count on Jay and his crew--and just how far they'll go to find out the truth and save themselves. But what's more dangerous: the monster you know in your home or the unknown nightmare outside the walls?

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Bite Me, Royce Taslim

Lauren Ho

Acclaimed author of Last Tang Standing and Lucie Yi is Not a Romantic in her YA debut: a sharp yet sweet rivals-to-romance romp through Kuala Lumpur--perfect for fans of Emiko Jean, Abigail Hing Wen, and Kat Cho.

Agnes Chan never expected to be the punchline of her own life . . .

But how else do you explain getting accidentally run over and seeing a lifetime of careful preparation, endless training, and all your hopes of a track scholarship to college destroyed in a split second? Not to mention the only witness to your humiliation being your #1 archnemesis, Royce Taslim.

So, when Agnes finds a new answer to her scholarship predicament in the form of an international stand-up comedy contest for teens, the last person she expects to be up against is also the last person she wants to see: Royce. Because for years Royce has represented everything Agnes loathes: extreme privilege, popularity, and physical perfection (ok maybe she doesn't hate that part so much).

Behind the scenes, though, Royce's flawless façade fades away, revealing someone Agnes never expected--someone who shows her that perhaps the best parts of life are the ones you aren't prepared for--and as the competition heats up, so do things between these two rivals. But will the pressure to win be too much for them to handle--or will Agnes (and Royce) get the last laugh?

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It Came from the Trees

Ally Russell

The legend of Bigfoot gets a bone-chilling update in this scary story about a young girl and her scout troop who are willing to brave the woods to find her missing friend when no one else will. Perfect for fans of Daka Hermon and Claribel A. Ortega!

The wilderness is in Jenna’s blood. Her Pap was the first Black park ranger at Sturbridge Reservation, and she practically knows the Owlet Survival Handbook by heart. But she’s never encountered a creature like the one that took her best friend Reese. Her parents don’t believe her; the police are worthless, following the wrong leads; and the media isn’t connecting the dots between Reese’s disappearance and a string of other attacks. Determined to save her friend, Jenna joins a new local scout troop, and ventures back into the woods.

When the troop stumbles across suspicious signs: huge human-like footprints near the camp, scratch marks on trees, and ominous sounds from the woods, Jenna worries that whatever took Reese is back to take her too. Can she trust her new scout leader? And will her new friend Norrie—who makes her laugh and reminds her so much of Reese—believe her?

After the unthinkable happens, the scouts, armed with their wits and toiletries, band together to fight the monster and survive the night.

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Flirty Little Secret

Jessica Lepe

Guidance counselor Lucy Galindo works hard at being Harview High's Most Likely to Blend In. Between managing her anxiety and depression and having never found her place, Lucy knows she'd crumble at the center of attention. So when she spills boiling tea on the hot new teacher (in front of everyone!), it's a nightmare come to life.

Aldrich Fletcher is having the worst first day: thanks to a clumsy (and well, beautiful) mystery woman, his pants are soaked; his ex-girlfriend is his new co-worker, and his estranged dad won't stop trying to talk to him. Thankfully, he can count on his online confidant, the wildly popular @TheMissGuidedCounselor, for advice: like how to woo Lucy, for whom he's falling hard.

Only Lucy has a secret: she's @TheMissGuidedCounselor. And because her alter-ego is everything she's not-brave, confident, wise-Lucy's terrified of her two lives meeting. So when Fletcher realizes the truth, how can he find the courage to tell her-knowing it might end their growing romance? But for them to have a future, Lucy will need to realize she and her alter-ego aren't so different. Because loving yourself can be the bravest thing of all.

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The Framed Women of Ardemore House

Brandy Schillace

Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn't know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism.

After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn't be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger--and she's also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo's mysterious family history.

With the aid of a Welsh antiques dealer, the morose local detective, and the Irish innkeeper's wife, Jo embarks on a mission to clear herself of blame and find the missing painting, unearthing a slew of secrets about the town--and herself--along the way. And she'll have to do it all before the killer strikes again...

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The Mystery Guest

Nita Prose

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tearoom floor.

When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery posthaste. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever.

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The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed

Noreen Mughees

Thirty-three-year-old hijabi Sana Saeed has put away her childhood dream of ishq—an all-consuming, sweeping love. The arranged dates she’s agreed to have failed time after time, and she has responsibilities to consider—namely her sweet, autistic younger brother, Zia. Sana and Zia are a package deal, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But their traditional mother won’t allow Sana to be named as his future guardian... unless she’s married.

When Daniel Malik walks into Sana’s office at the Department of Environmental Conservation, she’s astonished—their childhood friendship has been a cherished memory ever since a feud between their families put an end to it eighteen years ago. But there’s no chance of them becoming close again; Daniel may be as hot as a Bollywood heartthrob, but not only is he Sana’s new boss, her mother would disown her if she ever brought him home.

With the clock ticking, Sana agrees to a marriage arranged by her family. She’s seen plenty of arranged marriages grow into love; maybe that will happen for her too. But when a high-stakes case at work forces Sana and Daniel to team up, they find themselves less able—and willing—to play their parts of “good desi children."

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Bear with Me Now

Katie Shepard

After a panic attack puts him in the hospital, charity executive Teagan Van Zijl is dragged by his sister to a wilderness therapy retreat in Montana. Lost in the woods while absconding from midafternoon meditation, Teagan is nearly eaten by a bear before his rescue by a furious angel in muddy hiking boots: the program’s handywoman, Darcy Albano, who was mostly worried for the bear. 

Darcy thought she was going to work as a trail guide when she was hired onto the camp staff but ended up cleaning and hauling instead—merely the latest screwing-over she’s endured since her ex stole her car and her parents ruined her credit score. Teagan becomes the silver lining she didn’t expect, a man clearly going through something yet willing to commit to Darcy’s unique brand of wilderness education as the cure for what ails him.

After weeks in the mountains with Darcy, Teagan doesn’t want to return to New York without her. He hires Darcy as his sober companion—a position he doesn’t actually need filled and for which Darcy is completely unqualified—hoping she can help him figure out a way to move forward. But once they get to the city, all Teagan can think of is how to confess the truth without losing her. Together, they begin to imagine what their lives might look like if they could depend on each other for help—even in outrunning a bear.

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A Nest of Vipers

Harini Nagendra

This latest novel in the Bangalore Detectives Club mystery series takes the reader deep into the historical era surrounding the visit by Edward, Prince of Wales, to Bangalore in 1921. When the prince begins a tour of a number of Indian cities, he encounters passionate crowds demanding independence from Britain, with rioting on the streets of Bombay in November 1921.

The mood of the prince's subsequent trip to Bangalore and Mysore in January 1922 appears, at first glance, very different and is made up of large, welcoming crowds. But perhaps all is not what it seems to be. While exploring another (seemingly unrelated) crime scene, Kaveri and Ramu become tangled in a complex web of intrigue, getting pulled into a potentially dangerous plan that could endanger the life of the visiting prince.

This new novel also takes us into the world of jadoo—Indian street magic—with sleight-of-hand magicians, snake charmers, and rope tricks. Kaveri and Ramu continue their sleuthing, with help from the Bangalore Detectives Club, amidst the growing rumblings of Indian independence and the backdrop of female emancipation.

This is the third installment of the "Bangalore Detectives Mystery" series. 

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Dead Tired

Kat Ailes

Being a new mom is murder.

Alice didn’t think her maternity leave would involve so much, well, murder. Before becoming proud new moms, she and her friends bonded more than members of a prenatal group usually would, as they became accidental amateur sleuths and solved a crime together. Now, with all this behind them and Alice’s son Jack somehow already a year old, Alice is keen to finally catch up on some sleep. So when an opportunity presents itself in the unlikely form of an eco-protest, Alice and her friends willingly chain themselves to trees and settle in as an excuse to get some overdue rest. Not the most comfortable arrangement ever, but at this point, they’ll take what they can get.

However, the next morning one of their fellow protesters is found strangled, and any hope of a peaceful interlude is suddenly swept away. Soon Alice and her friends become entangled in a plot involving rogue artists, an enigmatic local entrepreneur, and nude (optional) protesting, offering an unexpected—but not necessarily unwelcome—break from changing diapers and wrestling baby toys away from Helen the dog.

Alice, whose success rate in solving countryside murder is at an all-time high (one out of one), cannot resist the chance to demonstrate her detective skills once more, and assembles her gang of new moms to investigate this latest mystery in their not-so-sleepy English countryside village.

This is the second installment of the "Expectant Detectives Mystery" series. 

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The Framed Women of Ardemore House

Brandy Schillace

Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn't know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism.

After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn't be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger--and she's also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo's mysterious family history.

With the aid of a Welsh antiques dealer, the morose local detective, and the Irish innkeeper's wife, Jo embarks on a mission to clear herself of blame and find the missing painting, unearthing a slew of secrets about the town--and herself--along the way. And she'll have to do it all before the killer strikes again...

This is the first installment of the "Netherleigh Mystery" series. 

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The Stranger in the Library

Eva Gates

When a traveling show of impressionist art comes to Nags Head, North Carolina, librarian Lucy and the staff at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library are inspired to create an educational display about art history. Their launch of the display is a huge success, but the morning after, they discover that a reproduction of a famous painting has gone missing.

No one knows why anyone would bother stealing it: the picture is of no value–the real, priceless painting is under lock and key at the art show itself. Lucy gets an invite to the glitzy opening night for the real show, where she notices unusual tension among the show’s organizers. Then, the man scheduled to give the welcoming speech fails to arrive, and a party-goer is discovered drowned in a fish pond.

Meanwhile, Louise Jane is totally captivated by Tom Reilly, a handsome, charming art dealer lurking at the edges of the receptions on both nights. Tom slipped away from the party early, and he cannot be located by the police. Who, Lucy asks, is Tom Reilly, the shadowy figure threatening to break Louise Jane’s heart? Something is afoot in Nags Head, and it’s up to Lucy and her friends to get to the bottom of it before it’s not just paintings being framed.

This is the 11th installment of the "Lighthouse Library Mystery" series.

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Molten Death

Leslie Karst

Retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen have come to the Big Island of Hawai'i to treat themselves to a well-earned tropical vacation. After the recent loss of her brother, Valerie is in sore need of a distraction from her troubles and is looking forward to enjoying the delicious food and vibrant culture the state has to offer.

Early one morning, the couple and their friend - tattooed local boy, Isaac - set out to see an active lava flow, and Valerie is mesmerized by the shape-shifting mass of orange and red creeping over the field of black rock. Spying a boot in the distance, she strides off alone, pondering how it could have gotten there, only to realize to her horror that the boot is still attached to a leg - a leg which is slowly being engulfed by the hot lava.

Valerie's convinced a murder has been committed - but as she's the only witness to the now-vanished corpse, who's going to believe her?

This is the first installment of the "Orchid Isle Mystery" series. 

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Kill or Bee Killed

Jennie Marts

The small town of Humble Hills, Colorado, is abuzz with excitement over the upcoming annual Bee Festival, sponsored by Bailey’s Granny Bee and the Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch. The long weekend of festivities includes a beauty pageant, beekeeping demonstrations, a local restaurant bake-off, and a 3K Bear Run where all the participants are dressed as bears. The bake-off brings in a television crew from California to film, so it’s the most drama-filled part of the weekend, especially when the famous celebrity host winds up dead.

Because the celebrity was holding her bracelet and had been witnessed having an altercation with Bailey’s best friend Evie shortly before his death, everyone suspects Evie of the murder—and Bailey is quickly on the hunt for clues to clear Evie’s name, alongside Granny Bee and her bunch of geriatric misfit friends. Bailey’s potential new honey, Sheriff Sawyer Dunn, is none too pleased to have Bailey buzzing around the investigation, but Bailey’s determined to uncover the truth, rescue her grannie’s beloved Bee Festival, and save her bestie. 

This is the second installment of the "Bee Keeping Mystery" series. 

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Murder is a Piece of Cake

Valerie Burns

With small town New Bison’s Spring Festival just around the corner, the pressure is on Maddy to continue her late great-aunt Octavia’s legacy. That means scoring the top prize and transforming Baby Cakes into Southwest Michigan’s must-visit bakery, even though her inexperience in the kitchen brings nightmares of humiliating tagged photos and scathing reviews.

There’s another reason for lost beauty sleep. A second bakery is opening in town under the ownership of CJ Davenport, a shrewd investor with a reputation for sabotaging anyone who gets in his way. And savvy, flashy Maddy tops his list. It’s a sticky spot to be in—more so when Davenport turns up dead with a Baby Cakes’s knife stuck in his back.

Maddy’s whole life just went from #thriving to barely surviving. Now, supported by the crafty Baker Street Irregulars and her new boyfriend, she must find the courage to face off against a killer who could very well get her name trending for the first and last time.

This is the second installment of the "Baker Street Mystery" series. 

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Nonna Maria and the Case of the Lost Treasure

Lorenzo Carcaterra

As Nonna Maria’s longtime pal and sometimes colleague, Captain Murino, in charge of the local carabinieri, never wanted to see harm brought to the doorstep of everyone’s favorite espresso-brewing, counsel-giving amateur sleuth. But when you live a long life, you’re bound to make a few enemies. And when those enemies come calling, you have to rely on friends. Faced with an assassin seeking revenge for a decades-old grudge, Captain Murino has no choice but to turn to Maria, who must use all her neighborly resources, clever faculties, and web of connections to save him from his perilous predicament.

On the other side of the island, a second mystery begins to unfold at the deathbed of another of Maria’s old friends, as he hands his granddaughter a yellowed map and tells her of a treasure to be found in one of Ischia’s secret caverns. However, there are traps and pitfalls. There will be others with sinister motives who will do all they can to make the treasure their own. But this map is a guide—the only gift he has to give. When the granddaughter needs help cracking the code, she turns to her grandfather’s most trusted friend: Nonna Maria.

This is the third installment of the "Nonna Maria" series.

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Ill-Fated Fortune

Jennifer J. Chow

Felicity Jin grew up literally hanging onto Mom’s apron strings in their magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods, including puffy pineapple buns and creamy egg tarts, bring instant joy to all who consume them. Felicity has always been hesitant in the kitchen herself after many failed attempts, but a takeout meal gone wrong inspires her to craft some handmade fortune cookies.

They become so popular that Felicity runs out of generic fortunes and starts making her own personalized predictions. When one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder, Felicity’s suspiciously specific fortune has the police focusing on her as the main culprit. Now Felicity must find a way to turn her luck around and get cleared from suspicion.

This is the first installment of the "Magical Fortune Cookie" series. 

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The Queen of Poisons

Robert Thorogood

The Marlow Murder Club is on the hunt for a killer...

Geoffrey Lushington, Mayor of Marlow, dies suddenly during a town council meeting. When traces of aconite--also known as the queen of poisons--are found in his coffee cup, the police realize he was murdered. But who did it? And why

The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart's content... which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet.

This is the third installment of the "Marlow Murder Club" series. 

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A Pose Before Dying

Alex Erickson

Finding this killer will be a real stretch...

Ashley Branson has a lot to prove with her new cat yoga studio, A Purrfect Pose. It's a place for humans to find inner wellness—and adopt adorable cats from the local shelter. It’s also a chance for Ash to run her own life, out from under her overbearing mother and a stifling relationship. So far, so successful. Until she discovers one of her new clients, a much-disliked college professor, dead in her studio, locked in child’s pose.

To make matters worse, Ash’s hapless always-in-trouble brother, Hunter, instantly becomes the cops’ prime suspect. Determined to clear his name and save her business, Ash does a deep lunge into the surprising—and strange—connections the victim had with her other clients. But countless suspects, contradictory leads, not to mention people desperate to see her studio shut down, mean Ash will have to stretch to the max to outthink a clever killer who’s ready to strike her red in tooth and claw. 

This is the first installment of the "Cat Yoga" series. 

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Cirque du Slay

Rob Osler

Pint-sized Seattle middle school teacher and gay dating blogger Hayden McCall and his best friend Hollister are invited to a fundraiser for Bakers Without Borders. The celebrity performer, Kennedy Osaka, is the artistic director of Mysterium, an upscale circus arts show combining magic, acrobatics, and a Michelin-star dinner. But Kennedy is a no-show—until she’s found dead in her hotel suite.

When frenemy Sarah Lee is discovered in the room with the body, Hayden and Hollister are on the case to find the real culprit before Sarah Lee is charged with the crime.

The suspects for the murder are as unique as Mysterium itself: a Russian trapeze artist, a cowgirl comedian sharp-shooter, an over-cologned operations director, a feisty, green-haired costume manager, and Adrenalin!, a sexy troop of Romanian male acrobats. If Hayden and Hollister are to clear Sarah Lee of suspicion, they’ll have to outsmart a killer for whom trickery is art.

This is the second installment of the "Hayden & Friends" series. 

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A Murder Most French

Colleen Cambridge

The graceful domes of Sacré Coeur, the imposing cathedral of Notre Dame, the breathtaking Tour Eiffel... Paris is overflowing with stunning architecture. Yet for Tabitha Knight, the humble building that houses the Cordon Bleu cooking school, where her friend Julia studies, is just as notable. Tabitha is always happy to sample Julia’s latest creation and try to recreate dishes for her Grand-père and Oncle Rafe.

The legendary school also holds open demonstrations, where the public can see its master chefs at work. It’s a treat for any aspiring cook—until one of the chefs pours himself a glass of wine from a rare vintage bottle—and promptly drops dead in front of Julia, Tabitha, and other assembled guests. It’s the first in a frightening string of poisonings that turns grimly personal when cyanide-laced wine is sent to someone very close to Tabitha.

What kind of killer chooses such a means of murder, and why? Tabitha and Julia hope to find answers in order to save innocent lives—not to mention a few exquisite vintages—even as their investigation takes them through some of the darkest corners of France’s wartime past.

This is the second installment of the "American in Paris Mystery" series. 

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The Question of the Dead Mistress: An Asperger's Mystery

E. J. Copperman

"Is my husband having an affair with a dead woman?"

For Samuel Hoenig, the proprietor of a unique agency called Questions Answered, the answer to this most recent question is simple. Since there's absolutely no evidence that apparitions exist, it would be impossible for Ginny Fontaine's husband to be having an affair with one.

But Samuel's associate, Janet Washburn, isn't so easily convinced.

Wrestling with his complicated feelings for Ms. Washburn, Samuel proposes that she take the lead on the question. As soon as her research begins, the husband in question ends up dead, leaving Janet and Samuel wondering if they stand a ghost of a chance at unraveling this twisted tale of danger and deceit.

This is the fifth installment of the "Asperger's Mystery" series. 

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Death by Chocolate Raspberry Scone

Sarah Graves

Summer guests are eager to sink their teeth into the tantalizing desserts Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and Ellie White serve at their bakeshop in the island village of Eastport, Maine. But attracting the wrong kind of attention can be deadly . . .

With the August heat strong enough to melt solid chocolate into syrup, Jake and Ellie crave a break from the bakery ovens, despite tourist season promising a sweet payday. But they never envisioned spending the last weeks of summer drifting around Passamaquoddy Bay searching for pirate’s treasure—and a dead body.

Sally Coates believes her husband was murdered off the coast, and begs Ellie, a trusted childhood friend, to locate his remains. It’s unusual that a skilled fisherman would vanish along with the gold doubloon he inherited from his grandfather. And Sally isn’t the only one coveting the valuable heirloom for her own.

As Jake and Ellie island-hop for answers, they find themselves caught between hungry sharks and hungrier suspects. Can the duo tempt fate and dodge danger before there’s blood in the water—or are they destined to fall into the jaws of a killer’s trap?

This is the seventh installment of the "Death By Chocolate Mystery" series. 

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Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt (A Narwhal and Jelly Book #2)

Ben Clanton

New York Times Bestselling series

“Hilarious and charming. The most lovable duo since Frog and Toad.” —NYT-bestselling creator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series, Dav Pilkey

Narwhal and Jelly are back in action for a SUPER adventure! Join Super Narwhal and sidekick Jelly Jolt as they take on three SUPER new stories in this early graphic novel series.

Happy-go-lucky Narwhal and no-nonsense Jelly find their inner superheroes in three new under-the-sea adventures. In the first story, Narwhal’s superhero alter-ego is revealed, and Narwhal enlists Jelly to help figure out what their superpower is. Next, Narwhal helps a friend find his way back home. In the third story, Jelly is feeling blue and Narwhal comes to the rescue. Ben Clanton showcases the joys of friendship and the power of believing in yourself and others through this irresistible duo. 

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Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt (A Narwhal and Jelly Book #2)

Ben Clanton

New York Times Bestselling series

“Hilarious and charming. The most lovable duo since Frog and Toad.” —NYT-bestselling creator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series, Dav Pilkey

Narwhal and Jelly are back in action for a SUPER adventure! Join Super Narwhal and sidekick Jelly Jolt as they take on three SUPER new stories in this early graphic novel series.

Happy-go-lucky Narwhal and no-nonsense Jelly find their inner superheroes in three new under-the-sea adventures. In the first story, Narwhal’s superhero alter-ego is revealed, and Narwhal enlists Jelly to help figure out what their superpower is. Next, Narwhal helps a friend find his way back home. In the third story, Jelly is feeling blue and Narwhal comes to the rescue. Ben Clanton showcases the joys of friendship and the power of believing in yourself and others through this irresistible duo. 

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And We Rise

Erica Martin

A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout.

In stunning verse and vivid use of white space, Erica Martin's debut poetry collection walks readers through the Civil Rights Movement—from the well-documented events that shaped the nation’s treatment of Black people, beginning with the "Separate but Equal" ruling—and introduces lesser-known figures and moments that were just as crucial to the Movement and our nation's centuries-long fight for justice and equality.

A poignant, powerful, all-too-timely collection that is both a vital history lesson and much-needed conversation starter in our modern world. Complete with historical photographs, author's note, chronology of events, research, and sources.

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Wide Awake Now

David Levithan

From the New York Times bestselling author of Every Day, this is a queer love story set against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential election, in a reimagining of David Levithan’s 2004 novel Wide Awake.

When David Levithan published Wide Awake in 2004, he set it in an imagined 2024, where a gay Jewish man had just been elected president of the United States, until a governor decides that some election results in his state are invalid, awarding crucial votes to the other candidate and his fellow party member. What follows is the story of teens Jimmy and Duncan as they explore their relationship, their politics, and their country.

In Wide Awake Now, David Levithan is flipping the script and rewriting Jimmy and Duncan’s story in the real 2024, rather than his imagined version. This is a protest novel for today.

Once again, David Levithan proves the critical importance of standing up for what you believe in and the cost of apathy in today’s political climate.

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We Mostly Come Out at Night

Rob Costello

An empowering cross-genre YA anthology that explores what it means to be a monster, exclusively highlighting trans and queer authors who offer new tales and perspectives on classic monster stories and tropes.

Be not afraid! These monsters, creatures, and beasties are not what they appear. We Mostly Come Out at Night is a YA anthology that reclaims the monstrous for the LGBTQA+ community while exploring how there is freedom and power in embracing the things that make you stand out. Each story centers on both original and familiar monsters and creatures-including Mothman, Carabosse, a girl with thirteen shadows, a living house, werebeasts, gorgons, sirens, angels, and many others-and their stories of love, self-acceptance, resilience, and empowerment. This collection is a bold, transformative celebration of queerness and the creatures that (mostly) go bump in the night.

Contributors include editor Rob Costello, Kalynn Bayron, David Bowles, Shae Carys, Rob Costello, H.E. Edgmon, Michael Thomas Ford, Val Howlett, Brittany Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Sarah Maxfield, Sam J. Miller, Alexandra Villasante, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.

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Fake Dates and Mooncakes

Sher Lee

Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.

Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.

Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.

In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.

Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?

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The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie

Lee Wind

What if you discovered that the whole concept of a gender binary is an illusion?

While many people identify as men or women, that is not all there is. The idea that all humans fall into one of two gender categories is largely a construct created by those who benefit from that belief. The reality is that gender is naturally diverse, falling inside and outside of those boxes, and more expansive ideas of gender have always existed.

In the second book of the Queer History Project, The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities around the World, author Lee Wind uses historical evidence and primary sources--poetry, ancient burial sites, firsthand accounts, and news stories--to explore gender roles and identities. Gender identities and physical bodies are as diverse as the human experience. Get ready to shatter those preconceived notions of nothing but a gender binary and dive deep into expressions of gender--both past and present--that reveal the infinite variety and beauty of everyone's gender.

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True Love and Other Impossible Odds

Christina Li

Inventing a formula to predict people's perfect partners doesn't equate to love in this contemporary YA novel that New York Times bestsellers Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick call "honest, raw, and breathtakingly real."

College freshman Grace Tang never meant to rewrite the rules of love. She came to college to move on from a grief-stricken senior year and to start anew. So she follows a predictable routine: Attend class, study, go home and visit her dad every weekend. She doesn't leave any room in her life for outliers or anomalies.

Then, Grace comes up with an algorithm for her statistics class to pair students with their perfect romantic partners. Though some people are skeptical, like Julia, Grace's prickly coworker, Grace is confident that her program will take all the drama out of relationships. That's why she keeps trying to make things work with her match, a guy named Jamie. But as the semester goes on and she grows closer to Julia, Grace starts to question who she's really attracted to.

In award-winning author Christina Li's YA debut, Grace will have to make a choice between the tidy equations she knows will protect her from heartbreak or the possibility that true love doesn't follow any formula.

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Time and Time Again

Chatham Greenfield

In this debut YA speculative romance perfect for fans of Rachael Lippincott, two queer, disabled, Jewish teens find themselves stuck in a time loop--and falling love.

Phoebe Mendel's day is never ending--literally.

On August 6th, she woke up to find herself stuck in a time loop. And for nearly a month of August 6ths since, Phoebe has relived the same day: pancakes with Mom in the morning, Scrabble with Dad in the afternoon, and constant research into how to reach tomorrow and make it to her appointment with a doctor who may actually take her IBS seriously. Everything is exactly, agonizingly the same.

That is, until the most mundane car crash ever sends Phoebe's childhood crush Jess crashing into the time loop.

Now also stuck, Jess convinces Phoebe to break out of her routine and take advantage of their consequence-free days to have fun. From splurging on concert tickets, to enacting (mostly) harmless revenge, to all-night road trips, Jess pulls Phoebe further and further out of her comfort zone--and deeper in love with them. But the more Phoebe falls for Jess, the more she worries about what's on the other side of the time loop. What if Jess is only giving her the time of day because they're trapped with no other options? What if Phoebe's new doctor dismisses her chronic pain? And perhaps worst of all: What if she never gets the chance to find out?

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The Deep Dark: a Graphic Novel

Molly Knox Ostertag

From Molly Knox Ostertag, writer-illustrator of the New York Times and ABA Indie bestselling The Witch Boy trilogy and The Girl from the Sea, comes a darkly beautiful story of identity, family, love, loss, and magic.

 

Everyone has secrets. Mags's has teeth.

 

Magdalena Herrera is about to graduate high school, but she already feels like an adult with serious responsibilities: caring for her ailing grandmother; working a part-time job; clandestine makeouts with a girl who has a boyfriend. And then there's her secret, which pulls her into the basement each night, drains her of energy, and leaves her bleeding. A secret that could hurt and even kill if it ever got out -- like it did once before.

 

So Mags keeps her head down, isolated in her small desert community. That is, until her childhood friend Nessa comes back to town, bringing vivid memories of the past, an intoxicating glimpse of the future, and a secret of her own. Mags won't get attached, of course. She's always been strong enough to survive without anyone's help.

 

But when the darkness starts to close in on them both, Mags will have to drag her secret into the daylight, and choose between risking everything... or having nothing left to lose.

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Breathe

Maia Kobabe

A graphic guide to chest binding with real-life stories and research-backed advice from bestselling Gender Queer author MAIA KOBABE and University of Michigan professor SARAH PEITZMEIER.

Breathe arose from the need for a resource for folks considering chest binding as gender-affirming care. Dr. Peitzmeier interviewed twenty-five people of different ages and backgrounds about their journeys with binding, and then she and Kobabe combined excerpts from those interviews with evidence-based resources on binding into this extremely accessible guide. 

Breathe is both a practical resource for trans and nonbinary folks and an engaging and perspective-broadening read for anyone interested in what it means to be on a journey of expressing one’s gender in ways that are joyful, healthy, and affirming.

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What Did You Eat Yesterday? 1

Fumi Yoshinaga

From award-winning author Fumi Yoshinaga comes a casual romance between two middle-aged men and the many meals they share together.

A hard-working middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo come to enjoy the finer moments of life through food. After long days at work, either in the law firm or the hair salon, Shiro and Kenji will always have down time together by the dinner table, where they can discuss their troubles, hash out their feelings and enjoy delicately prepared home cooked meals!

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The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich (a Graphic Novel)

Deya Muniz

NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

A New York Public Library Best Book of 2023 - Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2023 - YALSA 2024 Great Graphic Novel for Teens - An ALA Rainbow List Pick - 2024 ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

"A spectacular, feel-good, comfy romance." --Kirkus Reviews

A nobleman with a secret and a princess on a mission find love--and lots of grilled cheese sandwiches--when they least expect it, in this funny, heartfelt graphic novel rom-com.

Lady Camembert wants to live life on her own terms, without marriage. Well, without marrying a man, that is. But the law of the land is that women cannot inherit. So when her father passes away, she does the only thing she can: She disguises herself as a man and moves to the capital city of the Kingdom of Fromage to start over as Count Camembert.

But it's hard to keep a low profile when the beautiful Princess Brie, with her fierce activism and great sense of fashion, catches her attention. Camembert can't resist getting to know the princess, but as the two grow closer, will she able to keep her secret?

A romantic comedy about mistaken identity, true love, and lots of grilled cheese.

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Becoming Who We Are

Lilah Sturges

Becoming who you are is a journey, and all journeys start somewhere.

 

In a collection of stories from across the spectrum of real-life experience, nine members of the trans community share their inspirational childhood stories. These are tales of questioning, affirming, transitioning, and growing up; courageous, gripping accounts from musicians, actors, teachers, scientists, forest rangers, and activists of how they overcame their unique challenges to become who they truly are.

 

Featuring work by HAZEL NEWLEVANT, LILAH STURGES, CYNTHIA YUAN CHENG, KAMERON WHITE, SUNMI, and many more!

 

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Good News, Planet Earth

Sam Bentley

If you feel like climate change and the state of our planet just keeps getting worse and there’s nothing we can do to stop it then you’ve picked up the right book–because tons of efforts are already underway to save our planet, and we’d love for you to join the fight.

Good News, Planet Earth is your go-to guide to learn about all the amazing sustainable developments that are being put in place worldwide to combat warming temperatures, pollution, deforestation, the use of wasteful products, and threats to our diverse wildlife.

Sustainability enthusiast Sam Bentley takes you on a journey around the world to teach you about everything from the net-free zone established in the Great Barrier Reef, a road that charges electric vehicles while they drive in Detroit, and the opening of carbon capturing plants in Europe that suck CO2 out of the air and store it safely underground.

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A Wing and a Prayer

Anders Gyllenhaal

Three years ago, headlines delivered shocking news: nearly three billion birds in North America have vanished over the past fifty years. No species has been spared, from the most delicate jeweled hummingbirds to scrappy black crows, from a rainbow of warblers to common birds such as owls and sparrows.

In a desperate race against time, scientists, conservationists, birders, wildlife officers, and philanthropists are scrambling to halt the collapse of species with bold, experimental, and sometimes risky rescue missions. For the past year, veteran journalists Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal traveled more than 25,000 miles across the Americas, chronicling costly experiments, contentious politics, and new technologies to save our beloved birds from the brink of extinction. Through this compelling drama, A Wing and a Prayer offers hope and an urgent call to action: Birds are dying at an unprecedented pace. But there are encouraging breakthroughs across the hemisphere and still time to change course, if we act quickly.

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Cougars on the Cliff

Maurice Hornocker

North America's biggest cat was once killed for bounty dollars, slaughtered with impunity and driven toward extinction. But today's cat of intrigue, despite our lingering fears and misconceptions, has returned to much of its native range in the western United States and gained respect as a predator integral and necessary to wild ecosystems. This turnaround was triggered by one man: Maurice Hornocker. 

Maurice Hornocker is recognized worldwide as the first scientist to unravel the secrets of America's most enigmatic predator--the mountain lion. A story of redemption, this book is a memoir about the never-before-told adventures, challenges, and controversies surrounding Hornocker's groundbreaking study of cougars in the remote reaches of the Idaho Primitive Area.

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The Heartbeat of the Wild

David Quammen

For more than two decades, award-winning science and nature writer David Quammen has traveled to Earth’s most far-flung and fragile destinations, sending back field notes from places caught in the tension between humans and the wild. This illuminating book features 20 of those assignments: elegantly written narratives, originally published in National Geographic magazine and updated for today, telling colorful and impassioned stories from some of the planet’s wildest locales.

Quammen shares encounters with African elephants, chimpanzees, and gorillas (and their saviors, including Jane Goodall); the salmon of northeastern Russia and the people whose livelihood depends on them; the lions of Kenya and the villagers whose homes border on parks created to preserve the species; and the champions of rewilding efforts in southernmost South America, designed to rescue iconic species including jaguars and macaws.

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Return of the Bison

Roger Di Silvestro

Return of the Bison is the story of how this symbol of the American West was once almost lost to history and of the continuing journey to bring bison back from the brink. Author and naturalist Roger Di Silvestro explores the complex history of the bison's decimation and how a rising awareness of their possible extinction formed the roots of many modern wildlife conservation approaches. Weaving in natural history and fascinating historical context featuring personalities such as Teddy Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and William T. Hornaday, Di Silvestro traces the decades it took to begin to save the bison, often with little hope and plagued by discouraging setbacks.

Di Silvestro also explores the key role in the story of America's Indigenous people, whose fate was intertwined with the bison's and whose conservation work is important not only for the animal's recovery but also for their own cultural renewal.

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The Climate Book

Greta Thunberg

You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope—but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.

In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts—geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and Indigenous leaders—to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?

We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.

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The Last Two

Bostjan Videmsek

The last two remaining northern white rhinos, an already functionally extinct species, are kept behind three electrical fences and protected by a squad of rangers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Their names are Najin and Fatu. Both are descended from the last male northern white rhino, Sudan. Najin is his daughter, while Fatu is his granddaughter. Along with Sudan and another male named Suni, they were transferred to Kenya in 2009, in the hope that returning them to their natural habitat might help them regain their zest for life and reproduction.

Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan. With the deaths of Sudan and Suni, the northern white rhinos' destiny is now in the hands of their Kenyan caretakers and a team of scientists at the BioRescue international consortium, which is developing and using several different techniques to resurrect the species, including assisted reproduction and stem cell technologies. 

Will science prevail, or is it too late? Journalists Bostjan Videmsek and Maja Prijatelj Videmsek explore this question by taking readers on a journey through the history of the northern white rhinos. They introduce the rangers, conservationists, and scientists fighting for the future of the northern white rhinos and dissect what led the species to the brink of extinction, from wars and climate change to poaching and the black market. The Last Two offers hope for the future of the environment and the fight to save the many species that call Earth home.

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Crossings

Ben Goldfarb

Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. Creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate in search of food and mates; invasive plants hitch rides in tire treads; road salt contaminates lakes and rivers; and the very noise of traffic chases songbirds from vast swaths of habitat.

Yet road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California's mountain lions and tunnels for English toads, engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests, animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania's car-orphaned wallabies, and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities.

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The Bald Eagle

Jack E. Davis

The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you’re not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as “majestic” and “noble,” yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the nation’s founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside it peacefully with that when others, whether through hunting bounties or DDT pesticides, twice pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction.

Filled with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves—monogamous creatures, considered among the animal world’s finest parents—The Bald Eagle is a much-awaited cultural and natural history that demonstrates how this bird’s wondrous journey may provide inspiration today, as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale.

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We Are the Middle of Forever

Dahr Jamail

For the Indigenous people of the world, radical alteration of the planet, and of life itself, is a story that is many generations long. They have had to adapt, to persevere, and to be courageous and resourceful in the face of genocide and destruction. Their experience has given them a unique understanding of civilizational devastation. The essays in this book place Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today's environmental crisis. People from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities, generations, and geographic regions share their knowledge and experience, their questions, their observations, and their dreams of maintaining the best relationship possible to all of life. 

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Rebugging the Planet

Vicki Hird

Remember when there were bugs on your windshield? Ever wonder where they went? We need to act now if we are to help the insects survive. Robin Wall Kimmerer, David Attenborough, and Elizabeth Kolbert are but a few voices championing the rewilding of our world. Rebugging the Planet explains how we are headed toward “insectageddon” with a rate of insect extinction eight times faster than that of mammals or birds, and gives us crucial information to help all those essential creepy-crawlies flourish once more.

This book also shows us small changes we can make to have a big impact on our littlest allies, such as learning how to rewild parks, schools, sidewalks, roadsides, and other green spaces; leave your garden to grow a little wild and plant weedkiller-free, wildlife-friendly plants; take your kids on a minibeast treasure hunt and learn how to build bug palaces; and make bug-friendly choices with your food and support good farming practices. Begin to understand how reducing inequality and poverty will help nature and wildlife too—it’s all connected.

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The Book of Hope

Jane Goodall

Looking at the headlines—the worsening climate crisis, a global pandemic, loss of biodiversity, political upheaval—it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed.

Drawing on decades of work that has helped expand our understanding of what it means to be human and what we all need to do to help build a better world, The Book of Hope touches on vital questions, including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? What is the relationship between hope and action? Filled with moving and inspirational stories and photographs from Jane’s remarkable career, The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with Jane Goodall, the world's most famous living naturalist and one of the most beloved figures in the world today.

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A Life on Our Planet

David Attenborough

See the world. Then make it better.

I am 93. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.

As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day -- the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity.

I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet is my witness statement, and my vision for the future. It is the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake -- and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right.

We have one final chance to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited. All we need is the will to do so.

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Saving America's Amazon

Ben Raines

Though almost no one knows it, the most diverse forests and aquatic systems in the nation lie in Alabama. Described as America's Amazon, Alabama has more species per square mile than any other state. Its rivers are home to more species of fish, crayfish, salamanders, mussels, snails and turtles than any other aquatic system in North America. And the contest isn't even close.

But the wild places of the state are also under siege. Alabama has suffered more aquatic extinctions than any other state. In fact, nearly half of all extinctions in the United States since the 1800s happened in Alabama, which has been logged, mined, and poisoned by a succession of industries. In this compelling portrait of the rough history of Alabama's rivers and the lands they flow through, Raines makes a case that more has been lost in Alabama than any other state thanks to the destructive hand of man. 

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Our Planet

Alastair Fothergill

With six hundred members of crew filming in fifty countries over four years, the directors that brought us the original Planet Earth and Blue Planet now take readers on a journey across all the globe’s different biological realms to present stunning visuals of nature's most intriguing animals in action, and environmental change on a scale that must be seen to be believed. 

Featuring some of the world's rarest creatures and previously unseen parts of the Earth―from deep oceans to remote forests to ice caps―Our Planet takes nature-lovers deep into the science of our natural world. Revealing the most amazing sights on Earth in unprecedented ways, alongside stories of the ways humans are affecting the world’s ecosystems―from the wildebeest migrations in Africa to the penguin colonies of Antarctica―this book places itself at the forefront of a global conversation as we work together to protect and preserve our planet.

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James

Percival Everett

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin...), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

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The Great Divide

Cristina Henriquez

It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection.

Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone and with no resources, she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her ailing sister's surgery. When she sees a young man--Omar--who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid.

John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada's bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.

Searing and empathetic, The Great Divide explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers--those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.

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The Royal Game

Linda Keir

American pop singer Jennie Jensen is ready to marry the love of her life, England's Prince Hugh, but someone is determined to keep her from becoming a princess--any way they can. To give her fairy tale a happy ending, she'll have to play the royal game.

Jennie Jensen is touring Europe, already living her dream, when Prince Hugh of Wales--the future King of England--appears at a gig and requests his favorite song. He's already smitten, and soon so is she. After a secretive, whirlwind romance, Hugh proposes, and when Jennie accepts, her world changes overnight. She's still learning to navigate the minefield of constant scrutiny, barbed social interactions, and royal protocol (there are rules about pantyhose), as she learns that not everyone in England is excited about the prospect of an American princess.

When Jennie receives a threatening note, she can't help but see the parallels between herself and another young woman who struggled to adjust to royal life: Hugh's mother, Princess Penelope, who was killed in a mysterious plane crash. And as the threats to Jennie grow more serious, she digs into Penelope's past, discovering a woman who also suspected someone in the palace was out to get her. Was Penelope murdered? And is Jennie next? With the eyes of a nation on her as the royal wedding approaches, she's in a race against time to save her marriage... and her own life.

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The Deepest Lake

Andromeda Romano-Lax

Rose, the mother of twentysomething aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter’s death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen?

When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, the body possibly lost forever in Central America’s deepest lake, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion—and find closure. When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter’s literary hero, the famous writing teacher Eva Marshall, a charismatic woman known for her candid—and controversial—memoirs. As Rose uncovers details about the days leading up to Jules’s disappearance, she begins to suspect that this glamorous retreat package is hiding ugly truths. Is Lake Atitlán a place where traumatized women come to heal or a place where deeper injury is inflicted?

The Deepest Lake is both a sharp look at the sometimes toxic, exclusionary world of high-class writing workshops and an achingly poignant view of a mother’s grief.

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One Perfect Couple

Ruth Ware

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

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