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Reviews

by Lyn Liao Butler - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Two days before Tam and Tony Kwan receive their letter of acceptance for the son they are adopting from China, Tony and his estranged cousin, Mia, are killed unexpectedly in an accident. A shell-shocked Tam learns she is named the guardian to Mia’s five-year-old daughter, Angela. With no other family around, Tam has no choice but to agree to take in the girl she hasn’t seen since the child was an infant. Overwhelmed by her life suddenly being upended, Tam also must decide if she will complete the adoption on her own and bring home the son waiting for her in a Chinese orphanage. But when a long-concealed secret comes to light just as she and Angela start to bond, their fragile family is threatened.

by James Patterson and Howard Roughan - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Imagine everyone’s surprise when Carter von Oehson, a sophomore in Dr. Dylan Reinhart’s Abnormal Psychology class, posts on Instagram that he plans to kill himself. Twenty-four hours later, and still no one has seen him. A massive search ensues. But when Carter’s sailboat rolls in with the tide without him or anyone else on it, the worst seems to be confirmed. He really did it. Or did he? The one person convinced he’s still alive is his father, Mathias von Oehson, founder and CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund. But what Mathias knows and how he knows it ultimately would reveal a secret so damaging that it would be as if he were committing suicide himself.

by Janice Hallett - Fiction, Mystery

The Fairway Players, a local theater group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their fellow castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival. But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy --- nor of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material with a growing suspicion that a killer may be hiding in plain sight.

by Rachel Hawkins - Fiction, Gothic, Suspense, Thriller

Beautiful, wild and strange, Meroe Island is a desolate spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism and even rumors of murder. Six stunning twentysomethings are about to embark on a blissful, free-spirited journey --- one filled with sun-drenched days and intoxicating nights. But as it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in, sending them on a dangerous spiral of discovery. When one person goes missing and another turns up dead, the remaining friends wonder what dark currents lie beneath this impenetrable paradise --- and who else will be swept under its secluded chaos.

by Thrity Umrigar - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly. Long ago, she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena --- a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man --- Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment.

by Diane Chamberlain - Domestic Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction

1965: Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley has chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register Black voters. But as she follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. 2010: Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident. And her neighbor, Ellie Hockley, is harboring long-buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

by Alafair Burke - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle. She eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet she always wondered what she may have left behind. Now, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again. Her friend, Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, discovers that she has vanished without a trace --- the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer. Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, who fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related to her father's death 20 years earlier.

by Julia Kelly - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

When it’s announced that 1958 will be the last year debutantes are to be presented at court, thousands of eager mothers and hopeful daughters flood the palace with letters seeking the year’s most coveted invitation: a chance for their daughters to curtsey to the young Queen Elizabeth and officially come out into society. In an effort to appease her traditional mother, aspiring university student Lily Nichols agrees to become a debutante and do the Season, a glittering and grueling string of countless balls and cocktail parties. But the glorious effervescence of the Season evaporates once Lily learns a devastating secret that threatens to destroy her entire family.

by Catherine Ryan Hyde - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he has found true friends in Nick, Suki and Ollie, sons of field workers, and is beginning to acknowledge that his feelings for Nick amount to more than friendship. When the bombing of Pearl Harbor draws the US into World War II, Suki and his family are forced to leave their home for the internment camp at Manzanar. Ollie enlists in the army and ships out. And Nick must flee. Betrayed by his own father and accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he turns to Steven for help. Hiding Nick in a root cellar on his family’s farm, Steven acts as Nick’s protector and lifeline to the outside world. After Nick unexpectedly disappears one day, Steven’s life focus is to find him.

by Marissa Stapley - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky --- and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then --- through a combination of hard work and serendipity --- she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing.