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Reviews

Reviews

by M. T. Anderson - Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction

The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to serve the sick. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus. Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for “liberating” holy relics from their tombs. The 700-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas are rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick, Tyun says. For the humble price of a small fortune, he will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the “dreamer,” will be his guide. What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides, and alongside even stranger bedfellows, to commit sacrilegious theft.

by Jamie Brenner - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Author Shelby Archer found inspiration for her first novel while living on the picturesque shores of Provincetown on Cape Cod. When she comes to the town to celebrate her new bestseller, she is expecting a warm homecoming. But instead she is confronted with the cold shoulders of friends and neighbors who feel exposed and betrayed. Heartbroken, Shelby tries to move on and focus on her next novel. But then an unexpected call comes: her dear friend, who owns the beloved Land's End bookshop, needs help for the summer. Shelby reluctantly returns to the Cape to manage the store. Back at the beach, she sets her focus on the tiny seaside shop. But as her manuscript deadline nears, Shelby is again forced to choose between her own success and a second chance at love and belonging.

by Sarah Beth Durst - Fantasy, Fiction, Romance

As a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, Kiela and her assistant, Caz --- a magically sentient spider plant --- have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers a nosy neighbor who keeps showing up to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have --- jam --- and her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. She risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much-needed secret spellshop.

by Robyn Harding - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Camryn Lane is living her dream. After years of struggle and rejection, her first novel finally has been published. Her editor is happy, and her loved ones are proud and excited for her. She’s on top of the world --- until she receives a disturbing message from an anonymous reader. Rattled by the accusations she finds there, Camryn vows to put the missive out of her mind. But the disturbing allegations spread, and soon her book is flooded with bad reviews. Camryn is relentlessly trolled online, accused of the unthinkable. It’s clear that someone is trying to ruin her --- personally and professionally. But why? As the online harassment creeps into Camryn’s personal life, she vows to find out who’s behind it. And when the abuse turns deadly, it will take everything Camryn has to unmask the enemy so intent on destroying her.

by Rachel Khong - Fiction

REAL AMERICANS begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when 22-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love. In 2021, 15-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.

by Terah Shelton Harris - Fiction

All four Solomon siblings must return to North Carolina to save the Kingdom, their ancestral home and 200 acres of land, from a development company that has their sights set on turning the valuable waterfront property into a luxury resort. The siblings also must save themselves from the secrets they've been holding onto. Junior, who is married to his wife for 11 years, is secretly in love with another man. Mance can't control his temper, which has landed him in prison more than once. CeCe, a lawyer, has embezzled thousands of dollars from her firm's clients. Tokey wonders why she doesn't seem to fit into this family, which has left an aching hole in her heart that she tries to fill in harmful ways. As the Solomons come together to fight for the Kingdom, each of their façades begins to crumble and collide in unexpected ways.

by Kaliane Bradley - Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and shortly afterward is told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to determine if time travel is feasible --- for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as “1847,” or Commander Graham Gore. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.

by Caroline Leavitt - Fiction, Women's Fiction

As a teenager, Ella Fitchburg found love that consumed both her and her boyfriend, Jude, as they wandered the streets of New York City together. But her glorious life was pulled out from beneath her after she was accused of trying to murder Jude’s father, an imperious superior court judge. When she learns she’s pregnant shortly after receiving a long prison sentence, she reluctantly decides to give up the child. Ella is released from prison after serving only six years and is desperate to turn the page on a new life, but she can’t seem to let go of her past. With only an address as a possible lead, she moves to Ann Arbor, Michigan, determined to get her daughter back. Yet a central mystery endures: neither Jude nor Ella can remember the events leading up to the attempted murder --- that fateful night that led to Ella’s conviction.

by Emily Henry - Comedy, Fiction, Humor, Romance, Women's Fiction

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met, fell in love and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he actually was in love with his childhood best friend, Petra. Daphne is now stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, with a dream job as a children’s librarian and proposes to be roommates with Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak. The roommates mainly avoid one another until one day they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them? But it’s all just for show, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex. Right?

by Holly Gramazio - Fiction, Women's Fiction

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem --- she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years. As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a light bulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a light bulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?