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Reviews

Reviews

by Adrienne Young - Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance

Luca Matius must carry on the family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city's Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people. Maris Casperia was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel's inner workings, and she knows what her future holds --- a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War has made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives. As a secret comes to light, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance. But when an execution forces Luca to become the symbol of rebellion, he and Maris are thrown onto opposite sides of a holy war.

 

 

by Heather Webber - Fiction, Magical Realism, Women's Fiction

Months after a freak accident involving lightning, Juliet Nightingale is fully recovered but is left feeling that something is missing from her life. Impulsively, she decides to take a solo summer road trip. Newly single mom Tallulah Byrd Mayfield is hanging by a thread after her neat, tidy world was completely undone when her husband decided that their marriage was over. In the aftermath of the breakup, she and her two daughters move in with her 80-year-old grandfather. Tallulah starts a new job at the Forget-Me-Not Library, where old, treasured memories can be found within the books --- and where Lu must learn to adapt to the many changes thrown her way. When a road detour leads Juliet to Forget-Me-Not, Alabama, and straight into Tallulah’s life, the two women soon discover there’s magic in between the pages of where you’ve been and where you still need to go.

 

 

by Oyinkan Braithwaite - Fiction, Women's Fiction

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin, Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end. There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which causes three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. But when Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. She ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all?

by Jamie Brenner - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Maggie Hodges and her daughter, Piper, are looking forward to a restful knitting retreat in the picturesque village of New Hope, Pennsylvania. But instead, they are surprised to find themselves sharing their charming riverside inn with a rowdy bushcraft bachelor party. Undaunted by the clash of interests and personalities, Maggie suggests a lighthearted competition --- a battle of crafts --- that sparks a rivalry between the two groups, and perhaps something more. But as the weekend unfolds, old mistakes and buried resentments begin to surface, threatening to destroy Maggie and Piper’s cherished connection. In knitting, one can easily fix mistakes by picking apart each stitch and starting anew. But life’s tangles aren’t so easily mended. With tensions rising and the retreat coming to a close, Maggie must act quickly before she loses everything she holds dear.

by Alix E. Harrow - Fantasy, Fiction, Romance

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters. But her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory --- failed soldier, struggling scholar --- falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives --- and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend --- if they want to tell a different story --- they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

by Jaquira Díaz - Fiction

When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, the beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begins to envision a life beyond the tight-knit community of el Caserío, Puerto Rico. But breaking free proves more difficult than she imagined, and she soon finds herself struggling to make a home for herself; Rey; his young brother, Tito; and, eventually, their daughter, Nena. Until one fateful day changes everything. Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation as the community that once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Now Nena, a teenager haunted by loss and betrayal and exploring her sexual identity, must learn to fight for herself and her family in a world not always welcoming.

by Kate Belli - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction

November 2001: Chloe Harlow wakes up late, with hazy memories of the party the night before but no recollection of how she got back to her Brooklyn apartment. When she finally arrives at the exclusive Upper East Side art gallery where she works, she is immediately called into her boss’s office. A pair of NYPD detectives greet her, also very curious to know how her evening ended…because the host of the party, a rising painter and the gallery’s newest artist, is dead. Navigating both the sophisticated high-stakes art world and her personal life in burgeoning Williamsburg, Chloe struggles to piece together a complete picture of that lost night. As she digs deeper, inconsistencies emerge between what she remembers and what people tell her actually happened, and more questions are raised.

by Beth Macy - Memoir, Nonfiction

Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. But as her mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. This was not an assignment Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the 40 years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues.

by Marie Lu - Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy

Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more. Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city --- and the paths of their lives --- will be irrevocably transformed.

by Joan O'Leary - Fiction, Humor, Mystery, Women's Fiction

The iconic Gloria Beaufort, founder of the billion-dollar beauty empire Glo, has personally chosen Christine to cover her grandson’s wedding for Bespoke, the cult fashion magazine that every A-list bride dreams of being featured in. A career-making scoop and a free trip to a castle turned five-star hotel on the Emerald Isle? It feels too good to be true. Because it is. Gloria is found dead on the very first morning of the celebratory weekend, and her entire family wants to keep her death a secret and for the wedding to march on. When Gloria’s heirs issue a chilling warning to Christine to keep things quiet, she can’t help but wonder if one of them is guilty. As Christine navigates a world where glamour masks grimy secrets and everyone she meets is a suspect, she realizes that among this glitzy elite, nothing is as it seems.