Adult

Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can. But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen. The more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, and the lives of those who dwelled in the ruins she discovers in the woods, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family’s secrets are wrapped up in these hills.

Zeke and Lexi thought it would be just a night of fun. They had no intentions of seeing each other again. Zeke is only in town for the weekend to buy back his late father’s houseboat. Lexi has no time for dating when she needs to help take care of her best friend's daughter. Going back home with a stranger seems like a perfect escape from their problems. But a miscommunication in the dark, foggy night means that no one tied the houseboat to the dock. The next morning, Zeke and Lexi realize all they can see is miles and miles of water. With just a few provisions on the idle boat, Zeke and Lexi must figure out how to get back home. But aside from their survival, they’re facing another challenge. Because when you’re stuck together for days on end, it gives you a lot of time to get to know someone --- and to fall in love with them.

Life has been good for Vera Wong. Her teahouse is bustling, and her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend. All thanks to Vera, because Tilly's girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray --- the very same Officer Gray she had harassed while investigating the murder at her shop. Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena's, Vera finds Selena's briefcase. Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer --- who also happens to be the friend the young woman was looking for. Online, Xander had it all, including a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can't seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents.

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life. Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of children to have been evacuated to the countryside, Molly has been away from her home for nearly five years. But now she’s confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there. Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep. But Charlie’s escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someone has been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is harboring his own secrets, which could have terrible consequences for all of them.

Still working through his grief over the passing of his wife, ex-Detroit cop Kurt Argento finds himself house-sitting for a friend with his loyal companion, Hudson, a Chow Chow-Shepard mix. Then Kristin Reed shows up with her young son, Ethan, and begs Argento to help find her missing husband. Argento starts to notice that Fenton, Arizona, is more than meets the eye. First there's the large, overly equipped public safety team complete with specialized tactics and sophisticated weaponry. Then there's the unusual financial boosting of failing small businesses by the U.S. government. Finally, there's a man with no name who seems to have an unprecedented control over the town. Argento finds himself unraveling not just the truth behind the disappearance of a family, but a conspiracy that's taken a whole town to cover up.

There's no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes --- all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediate yes. That is, until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving someone like him wrong…unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date, Samantha is forced to admit the truth --- that her family is in crisis, and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is enough to forget what's between them.

Somewhere in New York City, Lata Murthy knows there is another person with her name living a much more interesting life. That's because Lata often receives the other Lata's emails. Lata's own life feels pathetic in comparison. So one day, she decides to take on this other Lata's identity and jumps headfirst into the glamorous New York lifestyle. At first, it all feels like a fairy tale. All of Lata's NYC dreams come true: she gets a higher-paying job, moves into a chic Chelsea apartment, and is embraced by an elite friend group that includes Rajeev, an up-and-coming fashion designer intent on making a splash at New York Fashion Week. But Lata doesn't just catch the attention of the handsome fashion designer --- she also incurs the wrath of the mysterious woman she is impersonating. And this Other Lata wants Lata to pay...but in the oddest of ways.

Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: their 22-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit-and-run accident. At a Shanghai hospital they wait at her bedside, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. The accident unearths a deeper fissure in the family: the shocking event that ended the Litvaks’ marriage and turned Lindsey against them. Estranged from her parents, she has confided only in her younger sister, Grace, adopted as an infant from China. As Claire and Aaron struggle to get their bearings in bustling, cosmopolitan Shanghai, the newly prosperous “miracle city,” they face troubling questions about Lindsey’s life there, in which nothing is quite as it seems.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general --- also known as her tough-as-talons mother --- has ordered her to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter --- like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect that leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Gabby and Fred have just begun to adapt to their new life as empty nesters when Gabby makes a stunning realization: she can’t stand her husband. One night at a bar, Gabby meets an enigmatic younger woman named Ellis, and in a haze of drunkenness, she confesses that she wishes Fred dead. Surely she didn’t expect anything to come of it, but when she tries to track Ellis down again, she realizes that Ellis might not have been who she said she was. As Gabby begins to unravel the truth about Ellis, and what Fred might be hiding, she is thrown into a whirlwind of lies and manipulation. How much is she willing to risk to expose the truth? And who is the real target?