Adult

When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity --- they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives --- and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge. Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything --- including race, class, and gender --- is rigidly defined.

Amina al-Sirafi thinks she’s struck gold. Tasked with hunting down arcane artifacts for the council of immortal peris, she can savor the occasional rollicking adventure on the high seas with her cherished criminal companions while still returning home to raise her beloved daughter, Marjana. But when Raksh, the spirit of discord with whom she is reluctantly wed, provokes the council’s wrath, Amina is charged with a seemingly impossible quest: steal a spindle capable of rewriting fate from a mysterious sorceress on an island no one can escape. Amina finds her mission almost immediately thrown into peril. But deadly storms, an erratic poison mistress, and old enemies are the least of her worries. For the peris’ story is unraveling, hinting at a far deadlier game whose rules Amina must swiftly puzzle out. A game that sets her against an adversary more cunning and powerful than she has ever faced.

For much of her adult life Ruth Pearl has lived in the small New England town of Wells, Connecticut, on the shore of Lake Topaqua. Decades back, when she was 14, she and her parents fled German-occupied Amsterdam after the murder of her beloved older sister Sophia, and in the wake of such loss, Ruth has long taken comfort in the natural beauty of her lake view. But in the winter of 2000, Ruth’s neighbor builds an addition to his home that blocks Ruth’s view, a disruption of her peace that sparks fear that her tumultuous past is happening again. One day, seeking solace, Ruth heads out for a cathartic skate on the lake only to spot a boy in the distance falling through the ice. Together, Ruth and Arthur save Ian Lima, a despairing 16-year-old, and over the days to come, as Ruth and Arthur help Ian heal, they find themselves healing too.

In the heart of revolutionary Boston, Abigail Adams raises her children amid riots, blockades, and the outbreak of war. While her husband, John Adams, rises from country lawyer to nation-builder, often away for years at a time, Abigail builds her own independence --- managing their farm, making lucrative investments, amassing savings, battling plague and loss, and defending their home. Unafraid to speak her mind, she famously offers fearless political counsel, urging John to “remember the ladies” in the new government. Through it all, she becomes his most trusted confidante and indispensable ally. When peace is secured, Abigail steps onto the world stage --- exchanging ideas with Thomas Jefferson in the French countryside, navigating court life as the wife of the Minister to Great Britain, and presiding over the parlor politics of the early American republic in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

There is nothing that Simone won’t do for her daughter, Lucy. The two have always been close, and with Lucy about to leave home for university, they depart the UK for a vacation to Texas to spend some quality time together. But when Simone awakens on their first morning in the desert, Lucy is gone, missing from their rental cabin. In her place is a cell phone, and a voice on the other line issues a shocking ransom demand. Don’t tell the police. Come to this location. And be prepared to do a deal... That night, she drives to the isolated meet-up. What she finds there changes everything. The mysterious kidnapper doesn’t want money. They want Simone to do something. The unthinkable. A catastrophic chain of events is set in motion, with chilling consequences that extend beyond Simone and her family. 

Running a five-star Cornish hotel should have been Evie Hamilton’s dream job. But restoring it to its former glory is going to take a miracle. All Evie has is grit, and a hoard of unruly staff who love to speculate about her love life. She needs back-up, and fast. Enter Abby Jones. Parachuted in by the hotel’s umbrella company for the summer, Abby thinks Evie could be the best friend she never had. But Abby has her own agenda for being in Cornwall. If her real motives are uncovered, their friendship is going to melt away faster than an ice cream in the summer sun. With the help of a charming chef and a gruff pub owner, they begin to embrace their true selves and the bonds that unite them. But it’s not just the hotel’s five-star reputation that needs rebuilding --- Evie and Abby will also have to brave tearing down their lives in order to reshape their futures...

Jesse is 15. She loves her friends, her little brother and her parents, even when they’re arguing, which feels constant these days. But most of all, she loves playing video games. Even from her hospital bed. Alex is 29. He doesn't love a lot of things and isn’t really sure he knows how to. A virtual reality games designer, his work desk is empty except for his computer, much like his life sometimes feels. Then Jesse makes a wish. A simple one: a video experience made of her life, something to be there, just in case she isn’t. One loving teenager. One lonely adult. Which one will get the happy ending?

Jamie Lynn Sigler is both the girl-next-door and a superstar. Tapped at the young age of 16 to star as Meadow Soprano, daughter of mob boss Tony Soprano, by the time the series ended in 2007, Jamie, then 25, suffered from an eating disorder, kept private her diagnosis of MS, and entered a disastrous early marriage --- all under the scrutiny of a less-than-kind public eye. Over the next years, Jamie would remarry, become a mother, launch a hugely popular podcast and, most recently, nearly lose her beloved son to a mysterious illness. Amidst the stardust showered and all the slings and arrows that life has thrown, Sigler emerges with grace and a generosity of spirit that she is ready to share. In this unflinching account, Jamie holds nothing back; her resilience, candor, and her heart-bursting capacity for love shine through on every page.

In the summer of 1857, when British newspapers warned of an approaching comet about to destroy the earth, an unusual-looking stranger arrived at Charles Dickens's home, Gad's Hill, in the countryside outside London. Dickens had met Hans Christian Andersen at a dinner party, a decade before, and, in a moment of desperation, had invited him to visit. The visit did not go well. The eccentric Danish author of classic fairy tales, who barely spoke English, outstayed his welcome and alienated the Dickens household. Even the oblivious, obsessively self-conscious Andersen sensed the increasing tension between Dickens and his unhappy wife, Catherine, but was slow to understand --- or to believe --- that Dickens had fallen in love with a young actress appearing in his new play. For Andersen, those five weeks were ultimately a lesson in how life's most humbling experiences can be transformed into art.

Liliana Soto Walker is an 18-year-old freshman who arrives at Harvard from the humble Appalachian home of her Cuban immigrant mother and Black American father. As Lily navigates the complexities of college life, her mother, Marisol, finally begins to reveal her past through heartfelt letters, sparking Lily's journey to uncover hidden histories and discover what it means to endure --- and find happiness again. Marisol, Lily’s mother, is a bright young woman with dreams of becoming a journalist. But as the calls for a government coup reach a deadly crescendo, one deadly night ahead of the Cuban Revolution forces Marisol to flee her homeland, leaving her scarred in ways she has never revealed. Through their letters, the secrets Marisol has kept hidden for years finally begin to surface, challenging Lily’s understanding of who her mother really is --- and by extension, herself.