Skip to main content

Week of June 9, 2025

New in Paperback

Week of June 9, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of June 9th include THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB, Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan, which finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances; JACKIE, a mesmerizing novel about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis from Dawn Tripp, who has crafted an intimate story of love and power, family and tragedy, loss and reinvention; Janice Hallett's THE EXAMINER, an innovative page-turner --- told in emails, text messages and essays --- that follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry; and two paperback originals: JILL IS NOT HAPPY by Kaira Rouda, a twisty and page-turning domestic thriller in which an ill-fated road trip resurrects a married couple's darkest secrets, and Amy Poeppel's FAR AND AWAY, a charming novel about a house swap gone wonderfully awry.

The Conditions of Unconditional Love: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith - Mystery

June 10, 2025

It seems as if Isabel Dalhousie’s life has fallen into a comfortable and tidy rhythm. Well, as tidy as things can be with two small boys wreaking havoc around the house. But when her husband, Jamie, invites a woman named Dawn --- recently embroiled in a contentious affair with a member of Jamie’s orchestra --- to stay with them, things begin to go awry. Strange noises can be heard from the upper floor, even when Dawn is supposedly at work, and the couple wonders if something more nefarious may be afoot. If that weren’t enough, Professor Robert Lettuce is staging an academic conference and has asked Isabel to publish the conference papers in a special issue of the Review of Applied Ethics. But something is definitely suspect about the funding, and it will be up to Isabel to sort it out.

A Darkness Returns: Book One of The Dragonwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist - Fantasy/Adventure

June 10, 2025

Hatushaly, last scion of the Firemane dynasty; his beloved Hava; and their dubious friend, Donte, have been transported across space and time from their war-torn world of Garn to the relative peace of Midkemia. There, on Sorcerer’s Isle, Hatu will explore and expand his unique magical abilities: for if Garn is to be saved, they will be needed. With the evil Pride Lords defeated, the Church of the One has risen to bring death and destruction to Hatu’s home world. The kingdom of Ilcomen has fallen, and now the Church is sending forces to Marquensas, where Daylon Dumarch has declared himself king, and master swordsmith Declan Smith finds himself suddenly raised to the status of prince and war commander. But there are even greater menaces than the Church of the One waiting in the wings, beings from the Void, creatures born of Darkness.

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry - Gothic Mystery/Romance

June 10, 2025

Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits --- torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished 19th-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of 20 years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit.

The Examiner by Janice Hallett - Mystery

June 10, 2025

Gela Nathaniel, head of Royal Hastings University’s new Multimedia Art course, must find six students for her new master’s program before the university cuts her funding. Jem, a talented sculptor, is eager to make her mark as an artist at any cost. Jonathan has little experience aside from running his family’s gallery. Patrick manages an art supply store, but can barely operate his phone, much less design software. Ludya is a single mother and graphic designer more interested in a paycheck than homework. Cameron is a marketing executive in search of a hobby or a career change. And Alyson, already a successful artist, seems to be overqualified. When the examiner, the man hired to grade students’ final works, sifts through their final essays, texts and message boards, he becomes convinced that someone is in danger…or already dead.

Far and Away by Amy Poeppel - Fiction

June 10, 2025

Lucy’s hometown of Dallas has gone from home sweet home to vicious snake pit in the blink of an eye after her son makes a mistake he can’t undo. Greta’s beloved flat in Berlin is suddenly up for grabs when her husband, Otto, takes a dream job in Texas without even telling her. In their rush to leave town, Lucy and Greta make a deal, pack their bags, and have absolutely no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Trading Southern charm and barbecue for European sophistication and schnitzel, the two women get a lot more than a change of scenery as they move into each other’s houses, neighborhoods and lives. Through jet lag, culture shock, suspiciously nice neighbors, and scandals that refuse to be left behind, Lucy and Greta will have to decide if they can ever go home again.

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd - Mystery/Thriller

June 10, 2025

Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx. Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations. But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?

Finding Happy: A User's Guide to Your Life, with Lessons from Mine by Peter Samuelson - Self-Help/Personal Growth

June 10, 2025

Almost everyone looks back on their youth and thinks, I wish I knew then what I know now. FINDING HAPPY is for young adults starting their adult journey, and for those well into theirs who have not yet sighted land. It is written by a master storyteller who learned to scale walls and blew them up rather than be stopped, and who learned in the process that our happiness flows from leaving the world a better place than we found it. Ultimately, it’s about how best to channel this glorious life we are each privileged to enjoy and to make it truly happy. The book is filled with gripping adventures and misadventures that demonstrate just how possible the seemingly impossible often is.

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne - Memoir

June 10, 2025

Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. In the midst of it all, Griffin’s 22-year-old sister, Dominique, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne’s career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist. But THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its lovable, infuriating, funny and moving characters --- its author most of all.

Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot - Mystery/Thriller

June 10, 2025

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten. Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb - Psychological Thriller

June 10, 2025

Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then, when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA. All she has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.

Holy City by Henry Wise - Thriller

June 10, 2025

After a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, Will Seems returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia, taking a job as deputy sheriff in a landscape given way to crime and defeat. His efforts to go about his life are wrecked when a mysterious, brutal homicide claims the life of an old friend, Tom Janders, forcing Will to face the true impetus for his return: not to honor his mother's memory, but to pay a debt to a Black friend who, in an act of selfless courage years ago, protected Will and suffered permanent disfigurement for it. Meanwhile, a man Will knows to be innocent is arrested for Tom's murder. Will must weigh his personal guilt against his public duty when the local Black community hires Bennico Watts, an unpredictable private detective from Richmond, to help him find the real killer.

House of Flame and Shadow: A Crescent City Novel by Sarah J. Maas - Fantasy/Romance

June 10, 2025

Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust. Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley - Fiction/Humor

June 10, 2025

When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards. The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac; to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades; to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign. But when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide. When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door --- as well as the teenage father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog --- to save the building.

Jackie by Dawn Tripp - Historical Fiction

June 10, 2025

JACKIE is the story of a woman who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is 21 and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure, yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor and his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds --- that’s all it was --- a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not.”

Jill Is Not Happy by Kaira Rouda - Domestic Thriller

June 10, 2025

If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you that she and her husband, Jack, are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. With their daughter, Maggie, away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect. Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past that he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what. But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding. So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge.

The Last Note of Warning by Katharine Schellman - Historical Mystery

June 10, 2025

By day, Vivian Kelly is a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to New York City's wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can't quite forget the allure of the Nightingale's sultry owner, Honor Huxley. Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. The police and the press are both eager to name a culprit, and Vivian finds herself the primary suspect.

Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel by Kiersten White - Gothic Fantasy/Romance

June 10, 2025

Her name was written in the pages of someone else’s story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula’s first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula’s clutches --- and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants. Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in 21st-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’ family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power. Lucy has long believed she would never love again. Yet she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris, while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces.

Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West - Mystery

June 10, 2025

It feels like kismet when Sarah Jones, newly relocated to Minneapolis after abruptly calling off her engagement, gets invited to join a group of women who share her same (very common) name. For years, Sarah has received all types of correspondence intended for different Sarah Joneses, but now it seems that this mistake has given her the opportunity for an instant community. What starts as a low-stakes meet-up called “The Sarah Jones Project” soon turns sinister when another local Sarah Jones is found dead, under suspicious circumstances, at the base of the downtown Minneapolis bridge. After fielding numerous calls from concerned loved ones ruling out their Sarah as the victim, the surviving Sarahs decide to take matters into their own hands.

Malas by Marcela Fuentes - Fiction

June 10, 2025

In 1951, a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and, in a heated outburst, lays a curse on Pilar and her family. More than 40 years later, Lulu Muñoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled father’s moods, his rules, her secret life as singer in a punk band, but most of all her upcoming quinceañera. When her beloved grandmother passes away, Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town. Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulu’s family’s past. As the quinceañera looms --- and we move between these two strong, irascible female voices --- one woman must make peace with the past, and one girl pushes to embrace her future.

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe - Fiction/Humor

June 10, 2025

The child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet enrolls at her local junior college. She is still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor or get pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby. Now, at 20, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed and on the verge of eviction. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon she finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Before she knows it, she has turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles - Historical Thriller/Gothic Horror

June 10, 2025

England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle’s parlor. Claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman --- an outsider with no fortune or connections --- Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella agrees. The new bride is quickly whisked away to Korringhill Manor, the Blakersby family estate, and far from everything she knows. Expecting splendor, Orabella is shocked to find decay, skittish servants and curt elders. But her kind new husband’s loving touch promises of a happy life together, and his assurances she’ll never want for anything soothe her concerns. Yet there is a darkness deep within this house.

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse - Historical Fantasy

June 10, 2025

Serapio, avatar of the Crow God Reborn and the newly crowned Carrion King, rules Tova. But his enemies gather both on distant shores and within his own city as the matrons of the clans scheme to destroy him. And deep in the alleys of the Maw, a new prophecy is whispered, this one from the Coyote God. It promises Serapio certain doom if its terrible dictates are not fulfilled. Meanwhile, Xiala is thrust back amongst her people as war comes first to the island of Teek. With their way of life and their magic under threat, she is their last best hope. And in the far northern wastelands, Naranpa, avatar of the Sun God, seeks a way to save Tova from the visions of fire that engulf her dreams. But another presence has begun stalking her nightmares, and the Jaguar God is on the hunt.

Moonbound by Robin Sloan - Science Fiction/Adventure

June 10, 2025

It is 11,000 years from now. A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history --- and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.

Never Been Shipped by Alicia Thompson - Romantic Comedy

June 10, 2025

Micah's relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise. John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who had been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn't take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John has never been one to rock the boat, but he's faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music --- and Micah --- back in his life. Onboard, Micah can't help but see John with brand new eyes, and John's feelings only intensify as the discordant band's tension grows to a breaking point.

One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day - Domestic Thriller

June 10, 2025

The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters --- Iris, Vicki and Faith --- have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air --- and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out. In the mix is the Precipe’s 19-year-old chambermaid, Charley Kelley, who is smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits. The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or, even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run? Could this reunion be the death of them all?

The Paris Vendetta by Shan Serafin - Thriller

June 10, 2025

The Paris conference was supposed to be the biggest moment of investment banker Adam Macias’ career. Instead, he arrives at a glamorous rooftop party in time to see his CEO --- and his career --- go up in flames when a dangerous conflagration interrupts the event. Now Adam is a suspect in the investigation into the life-threatening arson. After all, he’d used his ID to let a suspicious woman past a security checkpoint and up to the roof just moments before the fire broke out. Adam finds himself suddenly jobless, and the one woman who could provide him with an alibi --- his best friend and coworker, Jenn --- isn’t returning his calls. Adam knows that only the mysterious woman from the party can save him, but once he finally finds her, he discovers a whole new world of trouble.

The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons - Fantasy/Adventure

June 10, 2025

Anahrod lives only for survival, forging her own way through the harsh jungles of the Deep with her titan drake by her side. Even when an adventuring party saves her from capture by a local warlord, she is eager to return to her solitary life. But this is no ordinary rescue. It’s Anahrod’s past catching up with her. These cunning misfits --- and their frustratingly appealing dragonrider ringleader --- intend to spirit her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard. There’s only one problem: the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas --- and she wants Anahrod dead.

Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver - Romantic Comedy

June 10, 2025

Talent agent Charlie Francisco has three problems: a divorce that ended his screenwriting career, a business he never planned to inherit, and a take-your-breath-away romance novel whose author wants nothing to do with its publication. The book is a surefire hit, if only his agency can find someone to “play” author on its summer book tour. Enter Kate Elliott, a former soap actress who’s miraculously right for the part at the very moment her life seems to be going all wrong. But she can’t know who really wrote the remarkable story --- the one so beautiful it’s made her believe in love again. When Kate and Charlie meet, they’re all friction and sparks. As the summer heat ups and the lies get bigger and bigger, can they stick to their lines…or will they go off-script?

The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza - Fiction

June 10, 2025

Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores --- Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes --- were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico, but at great expense, nearly costing him his marriage to his wife, Elena. Years later, in East Los Angeles, his son, Freddy Vega, is struggling to save his father’s gym, while Freddy’s own son, Julian, is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes.

The Will of the Many by James Islington - Historical Fantasy

June 10, 2025

The Catenan Republic --- the Hierarchy --- may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus --- what they call Will --- to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me. But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.