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Reviews

Reviews

by Lyn Liao Butler, writing as Lyn Liao - Comedy, Fiction, Humor, Romance

Kimmie Park has finally met a man who gets her and laughs at her jokes. Matt West is kind, compassionate and a smoking hot FDNY firefighter. But they’ve never met in person. He doesn’t know that her life recently imploded when she very publicly quit her retail job and became a meme in a viral video, known as the woman who twerked as she tells off her boss. Kimmie now focuses on her Etsy shop designing purses and accessories. She’d posted pictures of her best friend Alicia with her merchandise, not realizing that people would assume Alicia was Kim from My Crafty Bao. As the chemistry between her and Matt sizzles, she knows that she needs to tell him the truth. Especially since Matt’s father, the CEO of a huge retail store, sees Kimmie’s shop and wants to partner with her.

by Beatriz Williams - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Beatriz Williams’ novels inhabit a category all their own: nuanced yet propulsive, innovative yet addictive, packed with human truth and told in an incomparable narrative voice that evokes a stunning sense of period while still feeling new and immediate. Now the beloved author returns with another remarkable summer novel. In these gorgeous sun-washed pages, Williams sets THE BEACH AT SUMMERLY in the exclusive New England summer enclave readers first discovered in THE SUMMER WIVES and fills it with new love, old rivalries and the Cold War intrigue of the 1960s.

by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans - Comedy, Fiction, Humor, Romance, Women's Fiction

With an ex-husband relocated across the country, her father bouncing back after the loss of his beloved wife, and her daughter, Xandra, thriving at boarding school, Nina Morgan Clarke is stepping into her dream job as a trifecta: a first-generation, Black female head of the storied Royal-Hawkins School. To mark the moment, Nina and her best friend, Marisol, take a long-overdue girls’ trip to celebrate the second half of Nina’s life --- which is shaping up to be the best part of her life. As Nina’s school year gets underway, all seems to be progressing as planned. Before long, wunder-hire Jared Jones relentlessly pushes Nina to her ethical limits. Soon after, dutiful Xandra accuses one of her teachers of misconduct. And most alarming, the repercussions of her trip with Marisol force Nina into a life-altering choice.

by Carolyn Mackler - Fiction, Humor, Women's Fiction

Lauren, the mother of twins, stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage. When Madeline learns that she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy. Sophie obsesses over her ex-husband’s Family 2.0 --- all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself. It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, as Lauren, Madeline and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let’s build an app that monetizes the mental load. And maybe get revenge on our exes in the process? Soon the Wife App is born, and before long, it’s the fastest growing start-up in New York City. But then life intervenes. Love intervenes. Ex-husbands intervene. And the consequences are bigger than anything Lauren, Madeline or Sophie could have expected.

by Sara Bader - Nonfiction, Reference, Self-Help

An animal’s love is deep, uncomplicated, unconditional and forgiving. Our lives are intricately intertwined with our pets, and together, over time, we establish rituals that are as steady as a metronome. It’s no wonder that the grief is crushing when they depart. Even those who’ve had time to prepare describe feeling stunned, devastated and cracked in two. THE BOOK OF PET LOVE AND LOSS is a collection of quotations --- poignant thoughts and memories discovered in letters, journals, diaries, memoirs and other original sources --- from beloved cultural figures who understood this singular experience so deeply, they felt compelled to write about it. Their comforting and wise words are what every animal lover needs on this journey of heartbreak and healing.

by Nicole Baart - Domestic Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Mother and daughter Charlie and Eva never sought social media fame, but when a stunning photo of Eva went viral, fame found them. Now, after more than two years documenting life on the road, the duo has temporarily settled on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Eva is happily finishing her senior year of high school and applying to college, but Charlie longs for the adventures they left behind. When Eva goes missing less than a week before her graduation, it’s Charlie who is immediately suspected of foul play --- not just by their fans, but also by the police and the FBI. As a fight about one more road trip comes to light, and the truth about their relationship is questioned, Charlie realizes the rosy facade they portrayed online hid a complicated and potentially dangerous reality.

by Hazel Gaynor - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

1940, Kent: As the threat of German invasion looms, a plane crash near her home awakens a strength in Alice King she’d long forgotten. She finds a role perfectly suited to her experience as a schoolteacher --- to help evacuate Britain’s children overseas. 1940, London: Lily Nicols’ humble home is her world until war tears everything asunder. She is faced with an impossible choice: keep her son and daughter close, knowing she may not be able to protect them, or enroll them in a risky evacuation scheme. When a Nazi U-boat torpedoes the S. S. Carlisle carrying a ship of children to Canada, a single lifeboat is left adrift in the storm-tossed Atlantic. Alice and Lily, strangers to each other, will quickly become one another’s very best hope as their lives are fatefully entwined.

by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Cinnamon Haynes has fought hard for a life she never thought was possible. Her life’s mantra is to be good, quiet and grateful. Until something shifts, and Cinnamon is suddenly haunted by a terrifying question: “Is this all there is?” Daisy Dunlap has had her own share of problems in her 19 years on earth. Her hopes for her future are threatened when she gets unexpectedly pregnant. She hides this development from everyone close to her and then makes a drastic decision with devastating consequences. When Cinnamon finds an abandoned baby in a park and takes the newborn into her home, the ripple effects of this decision risk exposing the truth about Cinnamon’s own past, which she has gone to great pains to portray as idyllic to everyone…even herself.

by Nora Roberts - Fiction, Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller

Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate, Nina, helps her make the mortgage payments, as does her job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party --- attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy --- her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor. A horrific truth soon emerges: "Luke" is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder. It turns out that Nina wasn't his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan's nightmare is just beginning.

by Kristin Harmel - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life --- her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves. When a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it. When the war finally ends, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble --- and Juliette nowhere to be found.