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Week of May 19, 2025

New in Paperback

Week of May 19, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of May 19th include LIES AND WEDDINGS by Kevin Kwan, an outrageous comedy of manners about a forbidden affair that erupts volcanically amid a decadent tropical wedding; MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, a jaw-dropping thriller from Riley Sager, in which a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend --- and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood; Taffy Brodesser-Akner's LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE, an exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, and the wild legacy of trauma and inheritance; and the paperback original WHISTLE by Linwood Barclay, a supernatural chiller in which a woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors - Fiction

May 20, 2025

The three Blue sisters are exceptional --- and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left the family reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment in which they were raised. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize that the greatest secrets they’ve been keeping might not have been from one another but from themselves.

The Daughters' War by Christopher Buehlman - Fantasy/Adventure

May 20, 2025

Galva --- Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill --- has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind. The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted --- not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.

Disturbing the Dead: A Rip Through Time Novel by Kelley Armstrong - Historical Mystery/Thriller

May 20, 2025

Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. But inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray and is developing true friends --- and feelings --- in this century. So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.

Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods by Bob Harig - Sports

May 20, 2025

In 1997, at the age of 21, Tiger Woods won the Masters. He became the youngest golfer ever to win the Masters and the first African- or Asian-American player to win a major. History had been made --- and would continue to be made over the next 15 years. Woods has proven to be a complicated figure through his decades in the spotlight. Plagued by marital scandal, a DUI arrest, and severe back injuries that resulted in what even he believed would be a career-ending spinal fusion surgery in 2017, Woods’ career finally seemed to be coming to an end. That all changed through 2018 and into 2019 as he returned slowly from the surgery. In 2019, Woods made history once again, winning the Masters. In DRIVE, Bob Harig brings readers the true story of the grit and perseverance of Tiger Woods in the final years of his career.

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna - Fiction

May 20, 2025

It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on London’s parks, beer gardens and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive. Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she’s wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie’s best friend, Phil, and harboring secret dreams of his own. Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith has a boyfriend. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who has just been diagnosed with cancer and is traveling to London to tell her son. As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever.

Exhibit by R. O. Kwon - Fiction

May 20, 2025

At a lavish party, Jin Han meets Lidija Jung. A brilliant young photographer, Jin is at a crossroads in her work, in her marriage to her college love, and in who she is and who she wants to be. Lidija is an alluring, injured world-class ballerina on hiatus from her ballet company under mysterious circumstances. Drawn to each other by their intense artistic drives, the two women talk all night. Jin finds herself telling Lidija about an old familial curse, breaking a lifelong promise. She's been told that if she doesn’t keep the curse a secret, she risks losing everything; death and ruin could lie ahead. As Jin and Lidija become more entangled, they realize they share more than the ferocity of their ambition, and they begin to explore hidden desires. Something is ignited in Jin, but can she avoid the specter of the curse?

Forever Home by Graham Norton - Fiction

May 20, 2025

Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland. A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging --- and sparks a flurry of speculation. What does a woman like her see in a man like that? What happened to his wife who abandoned him and his children all those years ago? Carol and Declan know their relationship is the talk of the town, but the gossip only serves to bring the couple closer. When Declan becomes ill, their relationship falters. His children are untrusting and cruel, and Carol is forced to leave their beloved home and move back with her parents. It seems there are secrets in Declan's past, strange rumors that were never confronted, and suddenly the house they shared takes on a more sinister significance that affects them all.

The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris - Historical Fiction

May 20, 2025

Oregon, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of Portland's notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she's a "shanghaied" victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor. Although well accustomed to adapting for survival --- being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment --- she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance. As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, revelations emerge of a child left in peril. Desperate, Celia must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove deadlier than the dark recesses of Chinatown.

A Good Life written by Virginie Grimaldi, translated by Hildegarde Serle - Fiction

May 20, 2025

Sisters Emma and Agathe were thick as thieves when they were young but have always been as different as can be. Five years older, Emma was the defender, protector and worrier for her fiery younger sister until tragedy marred their relationship. For a long time, Emma has kept her distance from Agathe and her chaos. But when their adored grandmother dies, they must return together to Spain to empty out her house and, in the process, reconcile, remember and pour out what is hidden inside their hearts. Alternating between the sisters' childhood and the present day, Virginie Grimaldi's delicately wrought prose paints complex portraits of the two women, asking if the scars of the past can ever truly be healed, and what, in the end, is a good life.

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley - Fiction

May 20, 2025

It’s been five years since Patrick O’Hara’s summer as his niece Maisie and nephew Grant’s caretaker after their mother’s passing. The kids are back in Connecticut with their dad, and Patrick has relocated to New York to remain close by and relaunch his dormant acting career. After the run of his second successful sitcom comes to a close, Patrick feels on top of the world…professionally. He is single again after breaking things off with Emory. But at least he has a family to lean on. Until that family needs to lean on him again. When Patrick's brother, Greg, announces he’s getting remarried in Italy, Maisie and Grant are not thrilled. Patrick feels drawn to take the two back under his wing. As they travel through Europe on their way to the wedding, Patrick tries his best to help them understand love, much as he once helped them comprehend grief.

Hard to Kill: A Jane Smith Thriller by James Patterson and Mike Lupica - Legal Thriller

May 20, 2025

Attorney Jane Smith is mounting an impossible criminal defense. Her client, Rob Jacobson, is the unluckiest of the unlucky. No sooner is he accused of killing a family of three in the Hamptons than a second family is gunned down. It’s not double jeopardy. It’s not double murder. It’s double triple homicide. Jane’s career has spanned from NYPD beat cop to Hamptons courtroom. She’s tough to beat. She’s even tougher to kill. The defense may never rest. 

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue - Fiction/Humor

May 20, 2025

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text color to white so no one can see. That is until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions. When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it. But who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this just might be the key to saving her job.

I Want You More by Swan Huntley - Domestic Thriller/Dark Humor

May 20, 2025

Reeling from her father’s death, Zara Pines accepts a ghostwriting gig for celebrity chef Jane Bailey. Jane, star of the wildly popular cooking show “30 Bucks Tops,” invites Zara to live in her East Hampton home for the summer. Zara doesn’t want to go, but Jane insists. As the two women create Jane’s book, their attachment grows stronger. Zara, who’s lost and in search of an identity, finds one in the shadow of Jane. She starts wearing Jane’s clothes. And speaking like Jane. And adopting Jane’s mannerisms. Eventually, the line between them blurs, and Zara starts to see the side Jane keeps hidden from the cameras.

Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth - Fiction

May 20, 2025

Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-bestselling fantasy series The Falling Children --- written as "F.T. Goldhero" to maintain her privacy. When the last manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Already suffering from crippling anxiety, Libby's symptoms quickly accelerate. After she forgets her dog at the park one day --- then almost discloses her identity to the journalist who finds him --- Libby has to admit it: she needs help finishing the last book. Desperately, she turns to 11-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the books even better than she does but harbors her own dark secrets. Tensions mount as Libby's dementia deepens --- until both Peanut and Libby swirl into an inevitable but bone-shocking conclusion.

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan - Fiction

May 20, 2025

Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel, has a problem: the legendary Gresham Trust has been depleted by decades of profligate spending, resulting in a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution is for Rufus to attend his sister’s wedding at a luxury eco-resort and seduce a woman with money. Should he marry Solène de Courcy, a French hotel heiress with honey blond tresses and a royal bloodline? Should he pursue Martha Dung, the tattooed venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or should he follow his heart, betray his family, squander his legacy, and finally confess his love to the humble daughter of a doctor? When a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials and a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, the Gresham family plans --- and their reputation --- go up in flames.

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner - Fiction

May 20, 2025

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, and the family moves on with their lives. But now, nearly 40 years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures.

Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell - Psychological Thriller

May 20, 2025

Recently ghosted and sick of watching her friends fade into the suburbs, thirty-something Hannah finds community in a true-crime forum that’s on a mission to solve the murders of four women in Atlanta. After William, a handsome lawyer, is arrested for the killings, Hannah begins writing him letters --- and he writes back. Her interest in the case goes from curiosity to obsession, leaving space for nothing else as her life implodes around her. After she loses her job, she heads to Georgia to attend the trial and befriends fellow true-crime junkies. When a fifth woman is discovered murdered, the jury has no choice but to find William not guilty, and Hannah is the first person he calls upon his release. The two of them quickly fall into a routine of domestic bliss. Well, as blissful as one can feel while secretly investigating their partner for serial murder.

Making a Killing: A DI Fawley Thriller by Cara Hunter - Mystery/Thriller

May 20, 2025

When Nick Vincent, the producer of the true-crime show “Infamous,” hears about an explosive new angle on a high-profile case --- the 2016 murder of an eight-year-old girl in Oxford --- he leaps at the chance to send a researcher to verify the claims. Two months later, a dog walker discovers a woman’s body, bound and buried in a shallow grave in the woods. Forensic evidence links the corpse to the disappearance of that same child. DCI Adam Fawley, the original investigating officer, is called in to run the enquiry. He arrested the child’s mother for murder, which he now knows she didn’t commit. The investigation raises more questions than answers. What connects the two crimes? Where has the dead girl been all these years? How did she manage to disappear?

Maya Blue: A Memoir of Survival by Brenda Coffee - Memoir

May 20, 2025

At 21, Brenda Coffee surrendered herself to her marriage and became a woman who would do almost anything her charismatic and powerful older husband, Philip Ray, wanted. Regardless of whether it was dangerous, adventurous, sexual or illegal, she wanted to be the one woman he couldn’t live without. Brenda and Philip’s life together was a fairy tale until it wasn’t. Until Philip, the founder of two high-profile, groundbreaking public companies, began making real cocaine in their basement and became addicted. Until the Big Six tobacco companies threatened their lives for creating the first smokeless cigarette --- Brenda coined the terms vape and vaping --- and brutal Guatemalan military commandos forced her into the jungle at gunpoint.

The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve - Speculative Mystery/Science Fiction

May 20, 2025

Elizabeth aches for one more precious hour with her son, who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love, who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan craves the rush of surfing and mountain climbing, yearning to reclaim the freedom he lost after a misstep landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke is looking for an hour of relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake. Enter Aeon Expeditions, the groundbreaking time travel invention of Mark Saunders, which allows some lucky clients the chance to spend an hour in their past. But when their “hour” extends beyond 60 minutes, Elizabeth, Andy, Logan and Brooke find themselves stranded in the past. As their paths intertwine unexpectedly, they unearth shocking secrets hidden in the shadows of their shared history.

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager - Psychological Thriller

May 20, 2025

One July night, 10-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent on a manicured lawn in a quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again. Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle? The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place --- be it quiet forest or suburban street --- is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.

Pearce Oysters by Joselyn Takacs - Fiction

May 20, 2025

Set on the Louisiana coastline during the historic 2010 oil spill, PEARCE OYSTERS follows the Pearce family, local oyster farmers whose business, family and livelihood are all on the brink of collapse. It highlights the grit and beauty of lives lived in an overlooked corner of the American South and the interdependence of nature and man. Diving deep into the bonds of family, culture, community, class and industry, debut novelist Joselyn Takacs elevates the voices of her deeply sympathetic characters: Jordan, the reluctant head of his family’s storied oyster business; May, his distressed, widowed mother who has her own unexpected drama; and Benny, the beatnik musician brother who returns from New Orleans to help with the crisis.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Shadow by Brian Freeman - Thriller/Adventure

May 20, 2025

When a desperate stranger in Zurich asks for Jason Bourne's help, she calls him by the name David Webb, which is the identity he left behind years ago to become Jason Bourne. This woman tells him an incredible story --- that her sister disappeared with David’s help after the deaths of four terrorists in the mountains. Now men from this same extremist group are trying to hunt her down. Bourne remembers none of it, but when the Swiss bistro erupts in violence, he finds himself on the run, chasing the ghosts of his very first Treadstone mission. Operating on pure instinct, Bourne plunges into a maelstrom unlike any he’s ever experienced, hoping to rescue a woman he once loved. He soon discovers that no one in this world of shadows can be trusted --- and everything he’s been told about his past is a lie. 

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Science Fiction/Adventure

May 20, 2025

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they also can do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human well-being is having to find a new purpose.

Songs of Summer by Jane L. Rosen - Fiction

May 20, 2025

At 30, Maggie May Wheeler has big plans for her vintage record shop and is about to be engaged to her childhood best friend. But when she stumbles across a letter she wrote to her future self when she was 13, she realizes it may not be enough. The letter ignites a desire to find her birth mother and discover where she really belongs. Her search takes her to dreamy Fire Island, where her birth mother is a guest at a wedding. As Maggie spies on her biological family, she’s caught between diving into their chaotic lives and returning to her comfortable world. Things heat up when a charming local makes her an offer to crash the wedding as his date. Is it the island’s magic, the whirlwind of the weekend, or the thrill of a fake beau that has her rethinking everything?

Summer on Highland Beach by Sunny Hostin - Fiction

May 20, 2025

Highland Beach, the oldest historically Black beach community in America, was founded in the late 1800s along the Chesapeake Bay by the son of Frederick Douglass. Inside this proud and secluded community of about 100 private homes is Olivia Jones’ legacy. But Olivia’s legacy comes with thorns. Intertwined are secrets of her aunt’s death; a controlling grandmother who is determined to crush anyone or anything that will interfere with her son’s political career; and a father who wants to rebuild the family he rejected decades ago. In the midst of tense family drama, Olivia must decide if she wants to return to the beautiful life she’s created in Sag Harbor --- with the neighbors and wonderful man who've become central to her happiness --- or finally achieve her dream of having a family and home to call her own in Highland Beach.

Their Double Lives by Jaime Lynn Hendricks - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

May 20, 2025

A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then a mysterious figure called The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink; when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life. Her target turns out to be Tony Fiore, Kim’s bad boy ex-boyfriend from high school. Stunned to see Tony again, Kim can’t bring herself to go through with spiking his drink. Instead, it is Tony’s gorgeous fiancée, PJ Walsh, who dies horrifically at the table just as dinner ends.

Whistle by Linwood Barclay - Supernatural Thriller/Horror

May 20, 2025

Annie Blunt has had an unimaginably terrible year. First, her husband was killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident, then one of the children’s books she’s built her writing and illustrating career on ignited a major scandal. Desperate for a fresh start, she moves with her son, Charlie, to a charming small town in upstate New York. Bored and lonely in their isolated new surroundings, Charlie is thrilled when he finds a forgotten train set in a locked shed on their property. But there’s something unsettling about his new toy. Strange sounds wake Annie in the night --- she could swear she hears a train, but there isn’t an active track for miles --- and bizarre things begin happening in the neighborhood. Worse, Annie can’t seem to stop drawing a disturbing new character that has no place in a children’s book.