Skip to main content

Week of March 7, 2022

New in Paperback

Week of March 7, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of March 7th include HER PERFECT LIFE, a thrilling stand-alone novel from Hank Phillippi Ryan that revolves around beloved television reporter Lily Atwood, who must protect a life-changing secret in order to keep her perfect life; HOMO IRREALIS, a collection of André Aciman's thoughts on time, the creative mind, and great lives and works --- a deep reflection on the imagination’s power to forge a zone outside of time’s intractable hold; TRIO by William Boyd, an enthralling novel that asks the vital questions: What makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn’t?; Tracey Enerson Wood's THE WAR NURSE, a sweeping work of historical fiction based on a true story that takes readers on an unforgettable journey through World War I France; and the paperback original MY DARLING HUSBAND, a heart-pounding thriller from Kimberly Belle in which a masked home invader reveals the cracks in a marriage.

2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis - Speculative Thriller

March 8, 2022

On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.

Angels of the Pacific: A Novel of World War II by Elise Hooper - Historical Fiction

March 8, 2022

Tess Abbott, an American Army nurse, has fled the hardships of the Great Depression at home for the glamour and adventure of Manila, one of the most desirable postings in the world. But everything changes when the Japanese Imperial Army invades. Tess and her band of nurses serve on the front lines until they are captured as prisoners of war. When the Japanese occupation of her beloved homeland commences, Flor Dalisay, a Filipina university student, will be drawn into the underground network of resistance. As the war continues, Tess and Flor face danger, deprivation and terror, leading them into a web of danger as they unexpectedly work together to save lives and win their freedom.

DoubleBlind: A Georgia Davis Novel of Suspense by Libby Fischer Hellmann - Mystery/Thriller

March 8, 2022

With little work during the pandemic, Chicago PI Georgia Davis agrees to help the best friend of fellow sleuth Ellie Foreman. Susan Siler’s aunt died suddenly after her COVID booster, and Susan’s distraught mother wants the death investigated. However, Georgia’s investigation is interrupted by a family trip to Nauvoo, Illinois, the one-time Mormon heartland. It’s there that her life unexpectedly intersects with the runaway spouse of a Mormon Fundamentalist. Back in Evanston, after Georgia is almost killed by a hit-and-run driver, she discovers that she and the escaped woman look remarkably alike. Is someone trying to kill Georgia because of her death investigation? Or is it a case of mistaken identity?

The Fourth Child by Jessica Winter - Fiction

March 8, 2022

Book-smart, devoutly Catholic and painfully unsure of herself, Jane becomes pregnant in high school; by her early 20s, she is raising three children. In the fall of 1991, she adopts a little girl from Eastern Europe. But Mirela is a difficult child. As Jane becomes consumed with chasing therapies that might help Mirela, her relationships with her family begin to fray. Feeling estranged from her mother and unsettled in her new high school, Lauren begins to discover the power of her own burgeoning creativity and sexuality. But when the teen is confronted with the limits of her youth and independence, Jane is forced to reconcile her principles and faith with her determination to keep her daughters safe.

The Gates of Athens by Conn Iggulden - Historical Fiction

March 8, 2022

Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army --- swollen by 10,000 warriors known as The Immortals --- have come to subjugate the Greeks. In their path, vastly outnumbered, stands an army of freeborn Athenians. Among them is a clever, fearsome and cunning soldier-statesman, Xanthippus. Against all odds, the Athenians emerge victorious. Ten years later, Xanthippus watches helplessly as Athens succumbs to the bitter politics of factionalism. Trust is at a low ebb when the Persians cross the Hellespont in ever greater numbers in their second attempt to raze Athens to the ground. Facing overwhelming forces by land and sea, the Athenians call on their Spartan allies for assistance --- to delay the Persians at the treacherous pass of Thermopylae.

A Good Day for Chardonnay by Darynda Jones - Mystery/Humor

March 8, 2022

Full-time sheriff Sunshine Vicram has to deal with a bar fight gone bad, a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer, and the still unresolved mystery of her own abduction years prior. All evidence points to a local distiller, a dangerous bad boy named Levi Ravinder, but Sunny knows he’s not the villain of her story. Still, perhaps beneath it all, he possesses the keys to her disappearance. At the very least, beneath it all, he possesses a serious set of abs. Between policing a town her hunky chief deputy calls four cents short of a nickel, that pesky crush she has on Levi that seems to grow exponentially every day, and an irascible raccoon that just doesn’t know when to quit, Sunny’s life is about to rocket to a whole new level of crazy.

Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan - Psychological Thriller

March 8, 2022

Beloved television reporter Lily Atwood has it all --- fame, fortune, Emmys, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: #PerfectLily. To keep it, all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret. Her own. Lily has an anonymous source who feeds her story tips --- but suddenly, the source begins telling Lily inside information about her own life. How does he --- or she --- know the truth? Lily understands that no one reveals a secret unless they have a reason. Now she’s terrified someone is determined to destroy her world --- and with it, everyone and everything she holds dear. How much will she risk to keep her perfect life?

Homo Irrealis: The Would-Be Man Who Might Have Been: Essays by André Aciman - Essays

March 8, 2022

One of the great prose stylists of his generation, André Aciman returns to the essay form in HOMO IRREALIS to explore what time means to artists who cannot grasp life in the present. Irrealis moods are not about the present or the past or the future; they are about what might have been but never was but could in theory still happen. From meditations on subway poetry and the temporal resonances of an empty Italian street to considerations of the lives and work of Sigmund Freud, C. P. Cavafy, W. G. Sebald, John Sloan, Éric Rohmer, Marcel Proust and Fernando Pessoa, and portraits of cities such as Alexandria and St. Petersburg, HOMO IRREALIS is a deep reflection on the imagination’s power to forge a zone outside of time’s intractable hold.

My Darling Husband by Kimberly Belle - Psychological Thriller

March 8, 2022

Jade and Cam Lasky are by all accounts a happily married couple with two adorable kids, a spacious home and a rapidly growing restaurant business. But their world is tipped upside down when Jade is confronted by a masked home invader. As Cam scrambles to gather the ransom money, Jade starts to wonder if they’re as financially secure as their lifestyle suggests, and what other secrets her husband is keeping from her. Cam may be a good father, a celebrity chef and a darling husband, but there’s another side he’s kept hidden from Jade that has put their family in danger. Unbeknownst to Cam and Jade, the home invader has been watching them and is about to turn their family secrets into a public scandal.

Sarahland: Stories by Sam Cohen - Fiction/Short Stories

March 8, 2022

In SARAHLAND, Sam Cohen explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us, providing for its cast of Sarahs new origin stories, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new possibilities for life itself. In one story, a Jewish college Sarah passively consents to a form-life in pursuit of an MRS degree and is swept into a culture of normalized sexual violence. Another reveals a version of Sarah finding pleasure --- and a new set of problems --- by playing dead for a wealthy necrophiliac. A Buffy-loving Sarah uses fan fiction to work through romantic obsession. As the collection progresses, Cohen explodes this search for self, insisting that we have more to resist and repair than our own personal narratives.

Six Weeks to Live by Catherine McKenzie - Psychological Thriller

March 8, 2022

Jennifer Barnes never expected the shocking news she received at a routine doctor’s appointment: she has a terminal brain tumor --- and only six weeks left to live. While stunned by the diagnosis, the 48-year-old mother decides to spend what little time she has left with her family close by her side. But when she realizes she was possibly poisoned a year earlier, she’s determined to discover who might have tried to get rid of her. Separated from her husband and with a contentious divorce in progress, Jennifer focuses her suspicions on her soon-to-be ex. But with her daughters doubting her campaign against their father, she can’t help but wonder if the poisoning is all in her head --- or if there’s someone else who wanted her dead.

Star Father by Charlie N. Holmberg - Fantasy/Romance

March 8, 2022

It happens in an instant, filling Aija with dread: the Sun is suddenly cast from the sky, throwing the Earth into midday darkness. On the fourth day of endless night, Aija finds an unconscious man by the river. His skin is as hot as her lantern’s glass and just as golden. To Aija, a farmhand with the soul of an artist, this beautiful stranger is an inspiration --- and a mystery. He calls himself Saiyon. He bleeds light. His friends are celestial. His enemies are godlings of the moon. Stunningly, Aija is falling in love with the earthbound Sun God. When Saiyon’s faltering powers are restored to full glory, what then? Aija chooses to follow her heart to places darker and more dangerous than she realizes.

The Suite Spot by Trish Doller - Romantic Comedy

March 8, 2022

One of the few bright lights in Rachel Beck’s life is her job at a Miami Beach luxury hotel --- until she’s fired for something she didn’t do. On impulse, she inquires about a position at a brewery hotel on a tiny island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, not even the grumpy voice on the line can dissuade her from packing up her whole life and making the move. What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, reclusive man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel --- and rebuild her life --- from the ground up.

Trio by William Boyd - Historical Fiction/Satire

March 8, 2022

It’s summer 1968, and the world is reeling from war and assassinations, protests and riots. In a sunny British seaside town, a producer, a novelist and an actress are enduring their own more private crises on the set of a disaster-plagued movie. All are leading secret lives --- one is in the closet; another is an alcoholic; and the third is sleeping with her costar --- and as the shoot zigs and zags, these layers of secrets become increasingly more untenable. Pressures build inexorably...and that’s before the FBI and CIA get involved. Someone is going to crack. Or maybe they all will.

The War Nurse by Tracey Enerson Wood - Historical Fiction

March 8, 2022

Superintendent of Nurses Julia Stimson must recruit 65 nurses to relieve the battle-worn British, months before American troops are ready to be deployed. She knows that the young nurses serving near the front lines will face a challenging situation, but nothing could have prepared her for the chaos that awaits when they arrive at British Base Hospital 12 in Rouen, France. When trainloads of soldiers stricken by a mysterious respiratory illness arrive one after the other, overwhelming the hospital's limited resources and threatening the health of her staff, Julia faces an unthinkable choice --- to step outside the bounds of her profession and risk the career she has fought so hard for, or to watch the people she cares for most die in her arms.