February 25, 2025

February 25, 2025

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 24th and March 3rd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com. One book group will win up to 12 copies of SHELTERWOOD by Lisa Wingate, a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller that is now available in paperback and was a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick when it released in hardcover last year. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, March 12th at noon ET.

Join Us Tomorrow Night!

This Week's Bonus News:
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Enter to Win Up to 12 Copies of
SHELTERWOOD by Lisa Wingate for Your Group

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

Here are six upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.

Wednesday, February 26th at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Gillian McAllister will talk about her latest book, FAMOUS LAST WORDS, an addictive thriller that finds a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime.

Wednesday, February 26th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with C. J. Box about BATTLE MOUNTAIN, the 25th installment in his Joe Pickett series, which finds outlaw falconer Nate Romanowski off the grid and out for revenge.

Wednesday, February 26th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Lisa Wingate about her novel, SHELTERWOOD, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Lisa also will answer questions from guests who will be "on stage," as well as from other members of the audience.

Saturday, March 1st at 1pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's presents Julia Kelly as she discusses her new book, THE DRESSMAKERS OF LONDON, with Heather Webb. This heartfelt novel is about estranged sisters who inherit their late mother’s dress shop in World War II London.

Monday, March 3rd at 7pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: James L'Etoile will talk about his new novel, RIVER OF LIES. When the homeless camps of Sacramento fall victim to a string of devastating arson attacks, Detective Emily Hunter and her partner, Javier Medina, dive into the investigation.

Tuesday, March 4th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Jessica Soffer for a live virtual event to discuss her latest novel, THIS IS A LOVE STORY, which is February's B&N Book Club pick. Jessica will be in conversation with Lexie Smyth, B&N's Fiction Category Manager.

On Sale the Week of February 24th in Hardcover

February 25th

BACK AFTER THIS by Linda Holmes (Romantic Comedy)
After a disastrous relationship with a colleague who stole her heart and her ideas, podcaster Cecily Foster has put romantic love on hold. When the boss who’s disappointed her again and again finally offers her the chance to host her own show, she wants to be thrilled. But the show will be about Cecily’s dating life, and she has to follow the guidance of influencer and newly minted relationship coach Eliza Cassidy. Once she’s committed to 20 blind dates of Eliza’s choosing, Cecily finds herself unable to stop thinking about Will, a photographer she helped to rescue a lost dog. Even though there are sparks between the two, Will’s own path is uncertain, and Eliza’s skeptical comments about Cecily’s decision-making aren’t helping. As Cecily struggles to balance the life she truly desires and the one Eliza wants to create for her, she finds herself at a crossroads.
Ballantine Books | 9780593599259

BATTLE MOUNTAIN: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
The campaign of destruction that Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett left both men in tatters, especially Nate, who lost almost everything. Wondering if the civilized life left him vulnerable to attack, Nate dropped off the grid with his falcons in tow to prepare for vengeance. When Joe gets a call from the governor asking for help finding his son-in-law, who has gone missing in the Sierra Madre mountain range, he enlists the help of a local, a rookie game warden named Susan Kany. As Nate and fellow falconer Geronimo Jones circle closer to their prey, Joe and Susan follow the nearly cold trail to Warm Springs. Little do Nate and Joe know that their separate journeys are about to converge…at Battle Mountain.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593851050

BOY by Nicole Galland (Historical Fiction)
Alexander “Sander” Cooke is the most celebrated “boy player” in the Chamberlain’s Men, William Shakespeare’s theatre company. Indeed, Sander’s androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever. Joan Buckler, Sander’s best friend, is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she’s been exposed. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day. Only in disguise can she learn to her heart’s content. Joan’s covert intellectual endeavors, coupled with Sander’s theatrical triumphs, attract the attention of none other than Francis Bacon. Their lives will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very survival.
William Morrow | 9780063342859

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO 10 by Lisa Unger (Psychological Thriller)
Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be. Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.
Park Row | 9780778333364

CRUSH by Ada Calhoun (Romance)
She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life --- a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose. Using Ada Calhoun’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, CRUSH is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and, most of all, the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes.
Viking | 9780593832028

THE DARK MIRROR: A Bone Season Novel by Samantha Shannon (Dystopian/Urban Fantasy)
Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade, but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory. Her journey back to the revolution soon takes her to Venice, where the Domino Programme has uncovered evidence of a secret Scion plan. Before Paige can return to London, she must help the network unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist, which threatens to bring Europe to its knees in weeks. And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories --- Arcturus Mesarthim --- also might hold the key to thwarting Scion, allowing the revolution to strike an unprecedented blow.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639733965

DEATH TAKES ME written by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker (Literary Mystery)
A professor named Cristina Rivera Garza stumbles upon the corpse of a mutilated man in a dark alley and reports it to the police. When shown a crime scene photo, she finds a stark warning written in tiny print with coral nail polish on the brick wall beside the body: “Beware of me, my love / beware of the silent woman in the desert.” The professor becomes the first informant on the case, which is led by a detective newly obsessed with poetry and trailed by a long list of failures. But what has the professor really seen? As the bodies of more castrated men are found alongside lines of verse, the detective tries to decipher the meaning of the poems to put a stop to the violence spreading throughout the city.
Hogarth | 9780593737002

DEEP CUTS by Holly Brickley (Fiction)
It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy --- who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it --- can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night. Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs --- and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?
Crown | 9780593799086

FAGIN THE THIEF by Allison Epstein (Historical Thriller)
Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of 19th-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob's whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream. Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London's highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him.
Doubleday | 9780385550703

FAMOUS LAST WORDS by Gillian McAllister (Domestic Thriller)
It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note. Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive and tell her that Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband --- doting father, eternal optimist --- is the gunman. What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says.
William Morrow | 9780063338425

A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE by Diana McCaulay (Fiction/Magical Realism)
When the stones of her house begin to rattle and shift and call out mysterious messages to her in the middle of the night, 99-year-old Pauline Sinclair knows she will not make it to her 100th birthday. She has lived a modest life in Mason Hall, a rural Jamaican village, educating herself with stolen books, raising her two children, and experiencing both deep passion and true loss with her beloved baby father. But Miss Pauline has buried many secrets. To avenge her enslaved ancestors, she has built her house, stone by stone, from the ruins of a plantation on her land. And she knows more than she has told about the disappearance of Turner Buchanan --- a white American man who came to Mason Hall decades ago to claim her land. The whispering stones are telling Miss Pauline that she must make peace with the past before she dies.
Algonquin Books | 9781643757223

THE REBEL EMPRESSES: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe by Nancy Goldstone (History)
When they married Emperors Franz Joseph and Napoleon III, respectively, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France became two of the most famous women on the planet. Becoming cultural and fashion icons of their time, they also played a pivotal role in ruling their realms during a tempestuous era characterized by unprecedented political and technological change. Fearless, adventurous and independent, Elisabeth and Eugénie represented a new kind of empress --- one who rebelled against tradition and anticipated and embraced modern values. Yet both women endured hardship in their private and public lives. Between them, Elisabeth and Eugénie were personally involved in every major international confrontation in their turbulent century, which witnessed thrilling technological advances, as well as revolutions, assassinations and wars.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316419420

SHOW DON'T TELL: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Fiction/Short Stories)
In her second story collection, Curtis Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long-held beliefs are overturned. In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel PREP a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.
Random House | 9780593446737

SOMETHING IN THE WALLS by Daisy Pearce (Psychological/Supernatural Thriller)
Newly minted child psychologist Mina aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. That is, until she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day. Alice Webber is a 13-year-old girl who claims she’s being haunted by a witch. Living with her family in their crowded home in the remote village of Banathel, Alice’s symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better. But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. As Mina races to uncover the truth behind Alice’s condition, the dark cracks of Banathel begin to show.
Minotaur Books | 9781250334381

THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O. by Karen Thompson Walker (Fiction)
A year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations and an inexplicable sense of dread. Three days after her first visit to a psychiatrist, Jane suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue. When she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her. Are Jane’s strange experiences the result of being overwhelmed by motherhood, or are they manifestations of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died 20 years ago and who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever deeper into the farthest reaches of her mind and cause him to question everything he thinks he knows about so-called reality --- including events in his own life.
Random House | 9781984853943

SWORDHEART by T. Kingfisher (Fantasy/Romance)
Halla unexpectedly has inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she also is saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her. While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it --- and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword. And for Halla, a most unusual wielder, he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all --- the sword itself.
Bramble | 9781250400222

THE TALENT by Daniel D'Addario (Fiction/Humor)
As Hollywood prepares for its most glamorous evening, five actresses compete to see who will claim the top prize. Adria, a dignified and highly regarded grand dame of the movie industry, is intent on cementing her legacy as one of the greatest thespians of all time. Bitty must keep a nervous breakdown --- and an increasingly debilitating alcohol addiction --- at bay as she searches for genuine closeness in an unforgiving landscape. Contessa, a former child star, is determined to make the world, and her leading man, take her seriously. Davina attempts to find her footing in superficial Los Angeles, a far cry from her roots as a serious London stage actress. And Jenny --- always the underdog to her rival, Adria --- sees this awards season as her personal redemption, a chance to atone for past mistakes and make up for missed opportunities.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668075470

WHEN WE GROW UP by Angelica Baker (Fiction)
Married to the love of her life, with a major deal for her first novel, Clare has everything she thought she wanted. So then why does it all feel so wrong? When she agrees to a weeklong vacation with five of her oldest friends, she is hoping for an escape with the people who know her best. There is Jessie, who won’t stop talking about her new boyfriend; Mac, who is trying to pretend he hasn’t outgrown the group; Kyle, the eternal peacemaker; and Renzo, who brought them all together but keeps picking fights. And then, of course, there’s Liam, the guy Clare barely has seen since high school but somehow can’t get out of her head --- or her bed. But when a terrifying news alert shatters their peace, it becomes harder to ignore how much the world has changed since they were teenagers.
Flatiron Books | 9781250345776

On Sale the Week of February 24th in Paperback

February 25th

AFTER ANNIE by Anna Quindlen (Fiction)
When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, children and closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the linchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie’s children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father, and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life. Over the course of the next year, what saves them all is Annie --- ever-present in their minds, loving but not sentimental, caring but nobody’s fool, a voice in their heads that is funny, sharp and remarkably clear. The power she has given to those who loved her is the power to go on without her. The lesson they learn is that no one beloved is ever truly gone.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593229828

AMERICAN SPIRITS by Russell Banks (Fiction)
A husband sells property to a mysterious, temperamental stranger and is hounded on social media when he publicly questions the man’s character. A couple grows concerned when an enigmatic family moves next door, and the children start sneaking over to beg for help. Two dangerous criminals kidnap an elderly couple and begin blackmailing their grandson, demanding that he pay back what he owes. AMERICAN SPIRITS explores the hostile undercurrents of our communities and American politics at large, as well as the ways local tragedies can be both devastating and, somehow, everyday.
Vintage | 9780593470497

ANNA O by Matthew Blake (Psychological Thriller)
Anna Ogilvy was a budding 25-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive --- and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty” by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.” Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O” case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect --- he has career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own. As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and if Anna should be held responsible for her crimes.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063314146

DAYBREAK by Matt Gallagher (Fiction)
Thirty-three-year-old Luke “Pax” Paxton has been out of the US military for almost a decade, haunted by a mistake made in an unforgiving moment of combat. When an old army friend suggests they travel to Ukraine to help fight against the Russian invasion, he agrees, and together they cross an ocean to Lviv, the City of Lions. He carries with him the address of a former love, a Ukrainian woman named Svitlana whom he had known as a young soldier. His feverish journey through Lviv takes him down winding and missile-cratered streets as he forms surprising connections. And when Pax gets the chance to save someone dear to Svitlana, he just might be able to correct the wrongs that have wracked him with guilt for so many years.
Washington Square Press | 9781501177866

EVERY SINGLE SECRET by Christina Dodd (Romantic Suspense)
In an isolated lighthouse on the California coast, Rowan Winterbourne lives a solitary life with only her secrets for company. For she has a mission that drives her --- to avenge herself against Gregory Torval, the powerful drug and arms dealer who murdered her mother and vowed to eliminate everyone in her family. Then Joe Grantham arrives at her door, and for the first time Rowan lets her guard down --- a dangerous mistake when he blackmails her to go with him to Torval's private island. There Torval’s decadent birthday celebration rages, and while Joe pursues his own agenda, she’ll provide the perfect distraction. On Raptor Island, Torval’s will is law, and Joe, the closest she has to an ally, is an enigma she can’t trust. One false move, one careless word, and Rowan will die.
Canary Street Press | 9781335477019

FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry (Romantic Comedy)
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?
Berkley | 9780593441213

GALWAY CONFIDENTIAL: A Jack Taylor Mystery by Ken Bruen (Mystery/Thriller)
Jack Taylor wakes up from a coma to discover that much of the world has changed since he last walked the streets of Galway. The pandemic had hit while he was under, devastating the lives of many in his beloved city and beyond. Now, as Jack tries to recover from the attack that put him in the hospital and absorb the incredible changes in the world around him, a woman approaches him with a distressing case. Two local nuns have been bludgeoned by a mysterious man wielding a hammer, and more are sure to follow. Initially wary of becoming involved in the investigation, Jack finds he cannot stay away from the mystery surrounding these vicious attacks. He also cannot shake a feeling of darkness that has haunted him since he awoke from his coma --- a darkness that is far too close for comfort.
Mysterious Press | 9781613166383

GREEN DOT by Madeleine Gray (Fiction/Humor)
At 24, Hera is a clump of unmet potential. To her, the future is nothing but an exhausting thought exercise, one depressing hypothetical after another. She is sharp in more ways than one, adrift in her own smug malaise, until her new job moderating the comments section of an online news outlet --- a role even more mind-numbing than it sounds --- introduces her to Arthur, a middle-aged journalist. Though she has preferred women to men for years now, she soon finds herself falling into an all-consuming affair with him. She is coming apart with want and loving every second of it. Well, except for the tiny hiccup that Arthur has a wife --- and she has no idea Hera exists.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250890573

GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE by Sloane Crosley (Memoir)
How do we live without the ones we love? After the pain and confusion of losing her closest friend to suicide, Sloane Crosley looks for answers in philosophy and art, hoping for a framework more useful than the unavoidable stages of grief. For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, Sloane's apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place. When Russell dies exactly one month later, his death propels Sloane on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll of the pandemic.
Picador | 9781250371782

THE HIDDEN LIFE OF CECILY LARSON by Ellen Baker (Historical Fiction)
In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago. Three years later, Cecily is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected --- and dangerous --- course. In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she has raised and claimed as her own for nearly 70 years.
Mariner Books | 9780063351219

THE HUMBLE LOVER by Edmund White (Fiction/Humor)
Aldwych West, an 80-year-old modern-day aristocrat living alone in his Manhattan townhouse, is used to having what he wants. And when he sets eyes on August Dupond, a strong, stunningly beautiful soloist in the New York City Ballet, he decides he must have him. Soon they strike up a closeness that falls between the blurry lines of friendship, sponsorship and love, and August moves in with Aldwych. But eventually August starts bringing home other men, and a formidable woman in Aldwych's circle named Ernestine also takes a deep interest in the young, enchanting star. Messy entanglements and fierce rivalries ensue.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639735273

IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles (Historical Mystery)
New York, 1908: The days are getting longer --- and warmer --- in Manhattan. Molly Murphy Sullivan doesn’t want to leave her home in the city, but typhoid is back, and she’s expecting. So she heads north with the children to summer with her mother-in-law in Westchester County. Her great friends, Sid and Gus, are headed to the Catskills to visit Sid’s family. Though her mother-in-law is a surprisingly excellent host, Molly quickly grows bored. And when Sid and Gus invite her to visit, Molly jumps at the chance to stay with them at an artist’s community. But Sid isn’t so enthusiastic about having to visit her family in the nearby Jewish bungalow community. Deep in the Catskills, tensions are running high, and it’s not long before a body delays Molly’s return to Westchester.
Minotaur Books | 9781250890801

LONG ISLAND by Colm Tóibín (Historical Fiction)
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family. It is the spring of 1976, and Eilis is now 40 with two teenage children. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades. One day, when Tony is at work, an Irishman comes to the door asking for Eilis by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that, when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’ doorstep. It is what Eilis does --- and what she refuses to do --- in response to this stunning news that makes LONG ISLAND so riveting and suspenseful.
Scribner | 9781476785127

MIDDLETIDE by Sarah Crouch (Literary Thriller)
In the small, Puget Sound town of Point Orchards, the lifeless body of Dr. Erin Landry is found hanging from a tree on the property of prodigal son and failed writer Elijah Leith. Sheriff Jim Godbout’s initial investigation points to an obvious suicide, but upon closer inspection, there seem to be clues of foul play when he discovers that the circumstances of the beautiful doctor’s death were ripped straight from the pages of Elijah Leith’s own novel. Out of money and motivation, Elijah throws himself into restoring the ramshackle cabin his father left behind and rekindling his relationship with Nakita, whom he betrayed but was never able to forget. As the town turns against him, Elijah must fight for his innocence against an unexpected foe who is close and cunning enough to flawlessly frame him for murder.
Atria Books | 9781668035108

MRS. GULLIVER by Valerie Martin (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1954 on far-flung Verona Island, a tropical paradise with a fragile economy and a rising crime rate. Prostitution is legal, and Lila Gulliver is proud of her business, a high-end brothel where her clients are guaranteed privacy and discretion. When Carità Bercy, a young, destitute and beautiful blind woman, arrives at her door seeking employment, Lila decides to give her a chance. Carità proves to be a valuable asset to the house, as well as a psychological puzzle to her employer. One hot night, Ian Drohan, a handsome youth and the scion of the wealthiest family on the island, visits Lila’s house and falls madly in love with Carità. Lila doubts his sincerity and fears for Carità’s future. Carità has no such fears. In fact, she is a reckless force of nature, determined to succeed in ways Lila hasn’t even contemplated.
Vintage | 9780593471210

MY SIDE OF THE RIVER: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez (Memoir)
Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips. She was preparing to enter her freshman year of high school as the number one student when her own country suddenly took away the most important right a child has: the right to have a family. When her parents’ visas expired and they were forced to return to Mexico, Elizabeth was left responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide. Armed with only her passport, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250817426

THE PARADISE PROBLEM by Christina Lauren (Romantic Comedy)
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed. Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck, while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his $100 million inheritance. There’s just one catch. Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years, and pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse. He has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents --- his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
Gallery Books | 9781668017739

THE SECRET HISTORY OF AUDREY JAMES by Heather Marshall (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Northern England, 2010. After a tragic accident upends her life, Kate Mercer leaves London to work at an old guest house near the Scottish border. When she arrives, she begins to unravel the truth about her past, but discovers that the mysterious elderly proprietor is harboring secrets of her own. Berlin, 1938. Audrey James is weeks away from graduating from a prestigious music school in Berlin, where she’s been living with her best friend, Ilse Kaplan. As war looms, Ilse’s family disappears and high-ranking Nazi officers confiscate the house. In desperation, Audrey becomes their housekeeper, while Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic. When a shocking turn of events embroils Audrey in the anti-Hitler movement, she must decide what matters most: protecting those she loves, or sacrificing everything for the greater good.
Ballantine Books | 9780593975480

SIMPLY THE BEST: A Chicago Stars Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Romantic Comedy/Mystery)
Brett Rivers is the hottest sports agent in the business. Rory Garrett is a disaster. She has a big heart, an empty bank account, a passion for making exquisite chocolate, and a huge inferiority complex from living in the shadow of Brett’s most important client, her football legend brother. Brett and Rory never should have met, and they never should have had to deal with the consequences of one stupid, drunken night, one disastrous lie, one career in jeopardy, one missing football player…and a very dead body. To Rory, Brett represents skewed values and a devious mind. To Brett, Rory is forbidden fruit who is off limits. A woman who has succeeded at nothing and a man who has succeeded at everything confront the challenge of their lives as they struggle with themselves and each other.
Avon | 9780063248571

STUART WOODS’ SMOLDER: A Stone Barrington Novel by Brett Battles
(Thriller/Adventure)
Finally enjoying some downtime in Santa Fe, Stone Barrington agrees to attend an art exhibit with a dear friend. There, he encounters an intriguing woman who is on the trail of a ring of art thieves. Always one to please, Stone offers his help. From Santa Fe to Los Angeles, it quickly becomes clear that her investigation has links to Stone --- particularly to rare Matilda Stone art, his mother’s paintings. And when old grudges come to light, Stone is forced to reckon with a familiar enemy. Stone must act fast before whoever is out to get him finally closes in on him…for good.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593540114

THE WAGER: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
(True Crime/History)
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were 30 emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. Six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The 30 sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes --- they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth.
Vintage | 9780307742490

WE ARE MADE OF STARS by Rochelle B. Weinstein (Fiction)
Paperback Original
At the Vis Ta Vie inn, Reneé and Jean-Paul De La Rue face the daunting decision to close their beloved home for good. Their guests include three couples in crisis: Hollywood celebs Leo and Penny are spending their silver anniversary together while on the cusp of divorce. Lucy, a practical-minded therapist, and Henry, an astronomer with his head in the stars, are struggling to find common ground. And former lawyer and current stay-at-home mom Sienna and charismatic sports agent Adam look perfect but are hiding rifts of their own. Thrown into the mix are self-absorbed single mother Cassidy and her sullen 15-year-old daughter, Rosalie. The stage is set for a week of betrayals, regrets and shocking truths that can rend the heart or heal it.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662520884

WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? by Dervla McTiernan (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Until they leave for a weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home. His explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn’t add up. Nina’s parents push the police for answers, and Simon’s parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fueled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive "fans." Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters --- finding their daughter.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063042261

THE YOUNGER WOMAN by Cate Ray (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Gabby and Fred have just begun to adapt to their new life as empty nesters when Gabby makes a stunning realization: she can’t stand her husband. One night at a bar, Gabby meets an enigmatic younger woman named Ellis, and in a haze of drunkenness, she confesses that she wishes Fred dead. Surely she didn’t expect anything to come of it, but when she tries to track Ellis down again, she realizes that Ellis might not have been who she said she was. As Gabby begins to unravel the truth about Ellis, and what Fred might be hiding, she is thrown into a whirlwind of lies and manipulation. How much is she willing to risk to expose the truth? And who is the real target?
Park Row | 9780778368335

On Sale the Week of March 3rd in Hardcover

March 4th

BABY, IT'S MURDER: The Concluding Mike Hammer Novel by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
The concluding Mike Hammer novel begins with a 21st-century funeral before flashing back to the summer of 1973. Nine years after the events of Dig Two Graves, Hammer takes another unlikely vacation --- this time on Long Island to help look after his partner Velda Sterling’s 17-year-old sibling, Mikki. Mikki must deal with the attention of two boys vying for her affection --- Hammer preferring the good kid from a wealthy family over the long-haired doper with an Easy Rider vibe. When Mikki gets hooked on heroin, Hammer --- filled with contempt for dope dealers --- goes on a rampage. He will find those behind the drug racket and teach them what shooting up is all about. But a final resolution awaits him in the future at that funeral.
Titan Books | 9781803364599

BLOOD MOON by Sandra Brown (Romantic Suspense)
Recently divorced and slightly heavy-handed with his liquor, Detective John Bowie does all that he can to cope with the actions taken (or not taken) during the investigation of Crissy Mellin, a teenage girl who disappeared more than three years prior. But now, “Crisis Point,” a long-running true crime television series, is soon to air an episode documenting the unsolved case. Beth Collins, a senior producer on “Crisis Point,” is convinced that Crissy’s disappearance was not an isolated incident. A string of disappearances of teenage girls in nearby areas has only one thing in common: They took place on the night of a blood moon. In a last-ditch effort to find out the truth, Beth leaves New York City for Louisiana to enlist Detective Bowie in helping her figure out what happened to Crissy and find the true culprit before he acts on the next blood moon --- in four days’ time.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538742983

BROKEN COUNTRY by Clare Leslie Hall (Historical Fiction)
Beth and her gentle, kind husband, Frank, are happily married, though their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager --- the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son, Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was and the woman she has become.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668078181

COUNT MY LIES by Sophie Stava (Domestic Thriller)
Sloane Caraway is a liar. Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad little life a bit more interesting. So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can’t help herself. She tells the girl’s (very attractive) dad that she’s a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl’s foot. With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. They’re the perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island. But maybe Sloane isn’t the only one lying, and all that’s picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668079348

DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DIE by Marshall Karp (Domestic Thriller)
I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of 43, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday. My mother also died at 43. I was 17, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine and my sister’s. I am not letting that happen to my family. I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie. You’re probably thinking that I’ll never do it. Did I mention that in high school I was voted “Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants”?
Blackstone Publishing | 9798874824396

DREAM COUNT by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fiction)
Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until --- betrayed and brokenhearted --- she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America --- but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.
Knopf | 9780593802724

THE DREAM HOTEL by Laila Lalami (Dystopian Fiction)
Sara has just landed at LAX when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for 21 days. The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass, and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.
Pantheon | 9780593317600

EXPECT GREAT THINGS!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women by Vanda Krefft (History)
It’s a safe bet that most of the secretaries on the TV series “Mad Men” would have attended the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City. In its heyday in the 1950s and ‘60s, the iconic institution was synonymous with supplying secretaries --- always properly attired in heels, ladylike hats and white gloves --- to male executives. In EXPECT GREAT THINGS!, Vanda Krefft turns the notion of a “Gibbs girl” on its head, showing us that while the school was getting women who could type 90 words per minute into the C-suite, its more subversive mission was to get them out of the secretarial pool to assume positions of power on the other side of the desk. And Gibbs graduates did just that, tackling the sexism of the era and paving the way for 21st-century women to succeed in any profession.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753171

FAR FROM HOME by Danielle Steel (Historical Fiction)
In July 1944, Arielle von Auspeck arrives at the glamorous Hotel Ritz in occupied Paris. Half French, half German, she is happy to be back in France, where her husband, Gregor, a retired colonel, will join her soon from Germany. But then she receives word that Gregor was part of Operation Valkyrie, a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in Poland, and has been shot as a traitor. Now, she is whisked away from Paris under cover of darkness for her own safety. As the Allies storm the beaches, she goes into hiding in a small village in Normandy under an assumed name. There, she forms a friendship with Sebastien Renaud, whose wife and daughter were deported in 1941, and who eventually reveals himself as a forger in the Resistance. As war rages on, Arielle and Sebastien work for the Resistance and hold out for the time when they can search for their loved ones.
Delacorte Press | 9780593498675

FINLAY DONOVAN DIGS HER OWN GRAVE by Elle Cosimano (Mystery/Humor)
Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go…except Finlay’s house, right across the street. Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case --- or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. But when the focus of the investigation widens to include Finlay’s ex-husband, Steven, Finlay and Vero are left with little choice but to get closer to Mrs. Haggerty and uncover her secrets…before the police start digging up theirs. But who will solve the mystery first?
Minotaur Books | 9781250337344

FIRSTBORN GIRLS: A Memoir by Bernice L. McFadden (Memoir)
On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. FIRSTBORN GIRLS traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, SUGAR. Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.” Interwoven with Bernice's personal journey is her family's history, beginning with her four-times enslaved great-grandmother, Louisa Vicey Wilson. Her descendants survived Reconstruction and Jim Crow, joined the Great Migration, and mourned Dr. King’s assassination during the Civil Rights Movement.
Dutton | 9780593184974

GALWAY'S EDGE: A Jack Taylor Mystery by Ken Bruen (Mystery/Thriller)
Edge, a shadow organization made up of the most powerful figures in Galway society, exists to rid the city of criminals and abusers who have evaded the law. Long wary of the organization, the Vatican is not pleased when rumors start swirling that one of the Catholic Church’s own priests has joined its ranks. An envoy to the Archdiocese shows up at private detective Jack Taylor’s door, asking him to go speak to a priest named Kevin Whelan and dissuade him from any involvement with Edge. Jack accepts the mission, but the next day Father Whelan is found dead. As more Edge members are murdered, the Vatican grows alarmed that someone even worse will take their place. It’s up to Jack Taylor to nail the culprit before Edge is dissolved completely and Galway is thrown into chaos.
Mysterious Press | 9781613166000

THE GIRL FROM GREENWICH STREET: A Novel of Hamilton, Burr, and America's First Murder Trial by Lauren Willig (Historical Mystery/Legal Thriller)
Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house --- and doesn’t come home. Her body is eventually found in the Manhattan Well. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma. But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor. Aaron Burr’s legal practice can’t finance both his expensive tastes and his ambition to win the 1800 New York elections. To defend Levi Weeks is a double win: a hefty fee plus a chance to grab headlines. Alexander Hamilton has his own political aspirations; he isn’t going to let Burr monopolize the public’s attention. If Burr is defending Levi Weeks, then Hamilton will too. As the trial and the election draw near, Burr and Hamilton race against time to save a man’s life --- and destroy each other.
William Morrow | 9780063306110

HANG ON ST. CHRISTOPHER: A Sean Duffy Novel by Adrian McKinty
(Mystery/Thriller)
It's July 1992, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after 25 apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to "Shortbread Land." Duffy is a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It's an easy gig, if he can keep his head down. But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protege is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something is not right, and as Duffy probes, he discovers that the painter was an IRA assassin. So the question becomes: Who hit the hitman, and why? This is Duffy's most violent and dangerous case yet, and the whole future of the burgeoning "peace process" may depend upon it.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212905022

A HARVEST OF HEARTS by Andrea Eames (Fantasy/Romance)
Everyone in Foss Butcher’s village knows what happens when the magic-workers come. They harvest human hearts to use in their spells. But Foss never expected that anyone would want hers. So when a sorcerer snags a piece of Foss’ heart without meaning to, she is furious. She stomps toward the grand City to keep his enchanted House and demands that he fixes her before she keels over and dies. But the sorcerer, Sylvester, is not what she expected. Petulant, idle and new to his powers, Sylvester has no clue how to undo the heart-taking, or how to do much of anything. Foss’ only friend is a talking cat, and even the House’s walls themselves have moods. As Foss searches for a cure, she accidentally uncovers that there is much more to the heart-taking --- and to the magic-workers themselves --- than she ever could have imagined.
Erewhon Books | 9781645661887

I LEAVE IT UP TO YOU by Jinwoo Chong (Fiction)
A coma can change a man, but the world Jack Jr. awakens to is one he barely recognizes. His advertising job is history, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the love of his life has left him behind. He’s been asleep for two years; with no one to turn to, he realizes it’s been 10 years since he last saw his family. Lost and disoriented, he makes a reluctant homecoming back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee, New Jersey; back into the waiting arms of his parents, who are operating under the illusion that he never left; and back to Joja, their ever-struggling sushi restaurant that he was set to inherit before he ran away from it all. There is value in the joyous rhythms of this once-abandoned life. But second chances are an even messier business than running a restaurant, and the lure of a self-determined path might prove too hard to resist.
Ballantine Books | 9780593727058

KILLS WELL WITH OTHERS by Deanna Raybourn (Thriller)
After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie are called back into action. When they receive a summons from the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready to tackle the greatest challenge of their careers. Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster with an iron fist, some serious criminal ambition, and a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. This new nemesis is murdering agents who got in the way of their power-hungry plans, and the aging quartet of killers is next. Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster who seems to know their next move before they make it.
Berkley | 9780593638514

THE LAST MANAGER: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball by John W. Miller (Sports/Biography)
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982. Beyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball character. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. THE LAST MANAGER uncovers the story of Weaver’s St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and “desk contracts” to the modern era of free agency, video analysis and powerful player agents.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668030929

NO LESS STRANGE OR WONDERFUL: Essays in Curiosity by A. Kendra Greene (Essays)
In 26 sparkling essays, illuminated through both text and image, celebrated author and artist A. Kendra Greene is trying to make sense of the things that matter most in life: love, connection, death, grief, the universe, meaning, nothingness and everythingness. Through a series of encounters with strangers, children and animals, the wild merges with the domestic; the everyday meets the sublime. Each essay returns readers to our smallest moments and our largest ones in a book that makes us realize --- through its exuberant language, playful curation and delightful associative leapfrogging --- that they are, in fact, one and the same.
Tin House Books | 9781963108088

ONE GOOD THING by Georgia Hunter (Historical Fiction)
1940, Emilia-Romagna. Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara. There is a war being fought across borders, and in Italy, Mussolini’s Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an “inferior” Jewish race, but life somehow goes on --- until Germany invades northern Italy, and the friends find themselves in occupied territory. Esti convinces Lili to flee first to a villa in the countryside to help hide a group of young war orphans, then to a convent in Florence, where they pose as nuns and forge false identification papers for the Underground. When disaster strikes at the convent, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: to go on the run with Esti’s son, Theo. Terrified to travel on her own, Lili sets out on an epic journey, doing everything she can to keep Theo safe.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9781984880932

THE PERSIANS by Sanam Mahloudji (Fiction)
Meet the Valiat family. In Iran, they were somebodies. In America, they’re nobodies. First there is Elizabeth, the regal matriarch, who remained in Tehran despite the revolution. She lives alone but is sometimes visited by Niaz, her Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter, who takes her partying with a side of purpose and yet manages to survive. Elizabeth’s daughters wound up in America: Shirin, a charismatic and flamboyantly high-flying event planner in Houston, and Seema, a dreamy idealist turned housewife languishing in the chaparral-filled hills of Los Angeles. And then there’s the other granddaughter, Bita, a disillusioned law student in New York City trying to find deeper meaning by quietly giving away her belongings. When an annual vacation in Aspen goes wildly awry and Shirin ends up in jail, the family’s upper-class veneer is cracked open.
Scribner | 9781668015797

PLAY IT FORWARD: How Women Are Changing Sports to Change the World by TOGETHXR (Sports)
PLAY IT FORWARD features 25 inspirational stories of badass women from all corners of the sports universe, curated by TOGETHXR, a sports media company founded by legends Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, Simone Manuel and Chloe Kim. From profiles of professional athletes and Olympians at the top of their game to everyday women putting in the work without a crowd, these are true tales of fierce competitors, dedicated teammates and passionate advocates who are all too accustomed to hearing the word “no.” Each story highlights an inspiring athlete or team who is defying expectations and rebelling against inequality in big and small ways.
Chronicle Books | 9781797232171

PROPAGANDA GIRLS: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak (History)
Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. As members of the OSS during World War II, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Betty, Zuzka, Jane and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250275592

THE RAGPICKER KING by Cassandra Clare (Fantasy/Romance)
Kel Saren, body double to Conor, crown prince of the dazzling city of Castellane, is caught between two worlds. In order to protect his beloved prince, Kel must find the culprits responsible for a massacre at the royal palace --- and the only clues are held by the Ragpicker King, the notorious criminal who rules Castellane’s underworld. The trail Kel follows leads back to the Hill, where a dark conspiracy to destroy the royal family has taken hold --- a conspiracy headed up by the monstrous Artal Gremont, the man engaged to marry the woman Kel adores. Meanwhile, to save the life of a dying friend, Lin Caster has falsely claimed to be the Goddess Reborn. Now the terrifying leader of her people has arrived to test her powers. The price of failure is exile, and only through her alliance with the Ragpicker King can she continue to access the magic that may save her.
Del Rey | 9780525620020

RAISING HARE: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (Memoir)
Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it, slept in your house for hours on end, and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality. RAISING HARE chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature and folklore.
Pantheon | 9780593701843

RED DOG FARM by Nathaniel Ian Miller (Fiction)
Growing up on his family’s cattle farm in western Iceland, young Orri has gained an appreciation for the beauty found in everyday things. But the outer world still beckons, so he leaves his no-nonsense Lithuanian Jewish mother and his taciturn father, Pabbi, to attend university in Reykjavík. No longer able to find joy in his way of life, Pabbi falls into a depression soon after Orri goes away to school. Feeling adrift and aimless at the end of his first semester, Orri comes home. For the first time, Pabbi allows Orri to help him run the farm. Meanwhile, Orri meets a kindred spirit on the internet: Mihan, a part-time student. Over time, their connection deepens. By year’s end, Orri must decide whether he wants to --- or should --- return to university, and what a future with Mihan would hold, if she’ll have him.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316575140

THE RIVER HAS ROOTS by Amal El-Mohtar (Fantasy)
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honor an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk.
Tordotcom | 9781250341082

TAKING MANHATTAN: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America by Russell Shorto (History)
In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general. TAKING MANHATTAN reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393881165

UNIVERSALITY by Natasha Brown (Fiction)
Late one night on a Yorkshire farm, in the midst of an illegal rave, a young man is nearly bludgeoned to death with a solid gold bar. An ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth surrounding the attack, connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic newspaper columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm. She solves the mystery, but her viral exposé raises more questions than it answers.
Random House | 9780593977309

THE VANISHING KIND by Alice Henderson (Thriller)
When wildlife biologist Alex Carter is tasked with locating jaguars on a vast desert preserve in New Mexico, she is ecstatic. While jaguars once roamed throughout the Southwest, they are now endangered, and Alex hopes that some of the sleek and elusive creatures have found their way to the protected sanctuary. Meanwhile, an archaeological team is excavating the gravesite of a 16th-century Spanish conquistador on a neighboring piece of land. While learning about their discoveries, Alex encounters a dangerous group of anti-immigrant vigilantes roaming the area, threatening the team and demanding they leave. And when the militants learn of Alex’s mission, they become bent on stopping her. And then there are the strange holes that keep appearing on the preserve. Who is digging them, and what are they looking for?
William Morrow | 9780063223059

WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH by Colwill Brown (Fiction)
“Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punchline of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.” But Doncaster is also the home of Rach, Shaz and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin plotting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace. The girls are inseparable, and their friendship as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250342881

WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy (Fiction)
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. As they nurse Rowan back to strength, it begins to feel like she might be just what they need. Rowan starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes that Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late.
Flatiron Books | 9781250827951

WOODWORKING by Emily St. James (Fiction)
Erica Skyberg is 35 years old, recently divorced --- and trans. Not that she's told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit. Abigail is 17, Mitchell High’s resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It’s a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She's also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty --- and loneliness --- that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn’t the only one struggling to shed the weight of others’ expectations. As their unlikely friendship evolves, it comes under the scrutiny of their community.
Zando – Crooked Media Reads | 9781638931478

On Sale the Week of March 3rd in Paperback

March 1st

MR. WHISPER by Andrew Mayne (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Investigator Sloan McPherson finds a frightened vagrant suffering from amnesia living in a Florida swamp --- and then learns he disappeared from Oregon when he was a teenager. To find out how he ended up 3,000 miles from home 30 years later, Sloan enlists the help of two brilliant colleagues. FBI agent Jessica Blackwood and scientist Theo Cray have already made an alarming connection. A female classmate of the Everglades drifter disappeared at the same time, and their high school journals reveal ties to an enigmatic figure they both called Mr. Whisper. Under his influence, they did as they were told. The case is also attracting the attention of corporate security expert Brad Trasker, whose trail is leading to the dark heart of a master manipulator. Jessica, Theo, Sloan and Brad must now bring their unique skills to the table to take down a diabolical adversary.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662522482

THE WARBLER by Sarah Beth Durst (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Paperback Original
Ten months. That’s the longest Elisa has stayed any place, constantly propelled by her fear that if she puts down roots, a family curse will turn her into a tree. But she’s grown tired of flitting from town to town and in and out of relationships. When she discovers a small town in Massachusetts where mysterious forces make it impossible for the residents to leave, she hopes she can change her fate. As Elisa learns about the town’s history, she understands more about the women in her family, who seem doomed to never get what they want. Now she believes she’s stuck, too. Is that a patch of bark on her arm? But her neighbor’s collection of pet birds sings secrets that Elisa can almost understand --- secrets she must unravel in order to be truly alive.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662524110

March 4th

3 SHADES OF BLUE: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan (Music/History)
In 1959, America’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity. James Kaplan’s 3 SHADES OF BLUE captures how that golden era came to be, and its pinnacle with the recording of Kind of Blue. It’s a book about music, business, race, heroin, the cities that gave jazz its home, and the Black geniuses behind its rise. It’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange environments where it can flourish most. It’s a book about the great forebears and founders of a lost era, and the disrupters who would take the music down truly new paths. And it’s about why the world of jazz most people know is a museum to this never-replicated period. But above all, 3 SHADES OF BLUE is a book about three very different men --- the greatness and varied fortunes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans.
Penguin Books | 9780525561026

THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (Historical Fiction)
Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite --- and with help from these strong women --- Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.
One World | 9780593729410

ANITA DE MONTE LAUGHS LAST by Xochitl Gonzalez (Fiction)
1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City. But by 1998, Anita’s name has been all but forgotten --- certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student, is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret. But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
Flatiron Books | 9781250786241

THE BIRD HOTEL by Joyce Maynard (Fiction/Magical Realism)
After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano. THE BIRD HOTEL tells the story of this young American who, after suffering tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way, we meet a rich assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel. While the world that Joyce Maynard brings to life on the page is rendered from her imagination, it’s one informed by the more than 20 years of which she has spent a significant amount of her time in a small Mayan indigenous village in Guatemala.
Arcade | 9781648210761

THE BOXCAR LIBRARIAN by Brianna Labuskes (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Works Progress Administration editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series --- travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work. Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns. She thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand. Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063376304

BURN BOOK: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher (Business & Economics/Memoir)
While covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, Kara Swisher developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the facts about this new world order. Swisher has interviewed everyone who matters in tech over three decades, right when they presided over an explosion of world-changing innovation that has both helped and hurt our world. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few whom Swisher made sweat --- figuratively and, in Zuckerberg’s case, literally. Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982163907

CLEAR by Carys Davies (Historical Fiction)
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland --- Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted. Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar, who takes him home and tends to his wounds. The two men do not speak a common language, but as John builds a dictionary of Ivar’s world, they learn to communicate. And as Ivar sees himself for the first time in decades reflected through the eyes of another person, they build a fragile, unusual connection.
Scribner | 9781668030677

DARLING GIRLS by Sally Hepworth (Domestic Thriller)
For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life. But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250371706

DRAGONS OF ETERNITY: Dragonlance Destinies, Volume 3 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (Fantasy/Adventure)
When Destina Rosethorn and her companions were transported to a time centuries before their birth --- to the days of the Third Dragon War --- the Graygem of Gargath brought chaos to the battlefield and changed the course of history. Upon returning to the Inn of the Last Home, where their journey began, Destina’s party discovered a world completely changed. The forces of evil now hold sway over their land. The River of Time is rising, flowing inexorably toward the present day. Destina and her friends must make one last, desperate attempt to restore time’s river to its proper channel. If they do not succeed, the altered past will sweep over the present until no trace of their old world remains.
Random House Worlds | 9781984819444

FINDING SOPHIE by Imran Mahmood (Domestic Thriller)
For the last 17 years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block --- number 210, across the street --- whose occupant refuses to break his silence. As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed and why she disappeared.
Bantam | 9780593723609

THE FURY by Alex Michaelides (Psychological Thriller)
Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time --- it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder. We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered. But who am I? My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.
Celadon Books | 9781250758996

A GIRL WITHIN A GIRL WITHIN A GIRL by Nanda Reddy (Fiction)
Paperback Original
On an ordinary day in an upscale Atlanta suburb, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a red-and-blue-striped envelope on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny? Maya is sent reeling back to her childhood in Guyana --- a time when Sunny was her only name. Unbeknownst to her husband, Maya is not who she claims to be. The letter, from her long-lost sister Roshi, now threatens to expose her true identity and shatter the seemingly perfect existence Maya worked so hard to build. As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the details of her childhood journey to America from Guyana --- and the traumatic events that forced her to leave her past behind.
Zibby Publishing | 9798989532513

A GREAT COUNTRY by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (Fiction)
Pacific Hills, California: Gated communities, ocean views, well-tended lawns, serene pools, and now the new home of the Shah family. For the Shah parents, who came to America 20 years earlier with little more than an education and their new marriage, this move represents the culmination of years of hard work and dreaming. For their children, born and raised in America, success is not so simple. For the most part, these differences among the five members of the Shah family are minor irritants. But one Saturday night, the 12-year-old son is arrested. The fallout from that event will shake each family member’s perception of themselves as individuals, as community members and as Americans, and will lead each to consider: How do we define success? At what cost comes ambition? And what is our role and responsibility in the cultural mosaic of modern America?
Mariner Books | 9780063324350

THE HATERS by Robyn Harding (Psychological 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.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538766118

THE HAZELBOURNE LADIES MOTORCYCLE AND FLYING CLUB by Helen Simonson (Historical Fiction)
It is the summer of 1919. Now that all the men have returned from the front, Constance Haverhill has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. She is sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after rescuing the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy, from a social faux pas. Poppy runs a ladies’ motorcycle club, to which she plans to add flying lessons. She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9781984801333

HELD by Anne Michaels (Historical Fiction)
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls --- a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts with messages he cannot understand. So begins a narrative that spans four generations of connections and consequences that ignite and reignite as the century unfolds.
Vintage | 9780593470848

THE HOUSEKEEPER by Joy Fielding (Domestic Thriller)
Jodi Bishop is a top-notch real estate agent. Her husband, Harrison, is a middling writer who resents his wife’s success. Jodi’s father, Vic, is a very controlling man. His wife, Audrey, was herself no shrinking violet. But things changed when Audrey developed Parkinson’s 10 years ago, and now Jodi starts interviewing housekeepers to help care for her parents. She settles on Elyse Woodley, an energetic and attractive widow who seems perfect for the job. Jodi is pleased to have an ally, someone she can talk to and occasionally even confide in. Until Elyse shuts Jodi out. And Audrey’s condition worsens --- rapidly. Who is this woman suddenly wearing her mother’s jewelry? What is she after? And how far will she go to get it?
Ballantine Books | 9780593158944

INDIAN BURIAL GROUND by Nick Medina (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on --- just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her --- things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down. But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects that something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands. After over a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets, horror and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers. But as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to wonder if it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.
Berkley | 9780593546895

THE LAST DAYS OF KIRA MULLAN by Nicci French (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
After suffering a psychotic break that ruined friendships, stalled her fledgling restaurant and forced her to move out of her comfortable flat, Nancy North will do anything to get back to normal. She and her partner, Felix, move into a new flat for a fresh start. Nancy is taking her pills, seeing her therapist and avoiding unnecessary stress. But on the first day in the new flat, she hears them again --- the mysterious voices that triggered her first episode. It could be just the unfamiliar sounds of water in the pipes, or the screaming baby across the hall, but deep down she knows something more sinister is going on. Her fears are confirmed when the young woman in the downstairs flat, Kira, is found dead. Felix, her neighbors and even the police insist it’s a tragic suicide, but the pieces aren’t adding up for Nancy. Can she trust her own instincts, or is it all in her head?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063298378

LEAVING by Roxana Robinson (Fiction)
Sarah and Warren’s college love story ended in a single moment. Decades later, when a chance meeting brings them together, a passion ignites. Since they parted in college, each has married, raised a family and made a career. When they meet again, Sarah is divorced and living outside New York, while Warren is still married and living in Boston. Seeing Warren sparks an awakening in Sarah, who feels emotionally alive for the first time in decades. Still, she hesitates to reclaim a chance at love after her painful divorce and years of framing her life around her children and her work. Warren has no such reservations: he wants to leave his marriage but can’t predict how his wife and daughter will react. As their affair intensifies, Sarah and Warren must confront the moral responsibilities of their love for their families and each other.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324105121

MONA OF THE MANOR: A Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin (Fiction)
When Mona Ramsey married Lord Teddy Roughton to secure his visa --- allowing him to remain in San Francisco to fulfill his wildest dreams --- she never imagined that by age 48, she would be the sole owner of Easley House, Teddy’s grand, romantic country manor in the UK. She also didn't imagine that she’d need to open the manor’s doors to paying guests to afford the electric bill and repair the leaking roof. Yet somehow, she and her young friend, Wilfred --- whom guests assume is serving as Easley’s charming-but-clumsy butler --- and the loopy old gardener, Mr. Hargis, are making it work. This delicate equilibrium is upended when Americans Rhonda and Ernie Blaylock arrive for a weekend vacation at Easley, and Wilfred stumbles onto their terrible secret.
Harper Perennial | 9780062973603

A MURDER IN ZION: A National Park Mystery by Nicole Maggi (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Grief-stricken over her mother’s death and bruised by her failure on her most recent case, Special Agent Emmeline Helliwell with the National Park Service returns to her Utah hometown to heal and regroup. She’s determined to turn in her badge and take over her mother’s bakery for a much quieter life…until the body of a childhood friend turns up in The Narrows of Zion National Park. The case is too personal for Emme to turn down, but the seemingly simple investigation turns treacherous as clues that connect to her previous case grow too glaring to ignore. When bodies start to pile up, Emme must track down the killer before they take more lives, venturing deep into Zion National Park to uncover the sordid secrets hiding beneath its stunning beauty.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096381

THE MURDER OF MR. MA by John Shen Yen Nee and S. J. Rozan (Historical Mystery)
London, 1924. When shy academic Lao She meets larger-than-life Judge Dee Ren Jie, his quiet life abruptly turns from books and lectures to daring chases and narrow escapes. Dee has come to London to investigate the murder of a man he’d known during World War I when serving with the Chinese Labour Corps. No sooner has Dee interviewed the grieving widow than another dead body turns up. Then another. All stabbed to death with a butterfly sword. Will Dee and Lao be able to connect the threads of the murders --- or are they next in line as victims?
Soho Crime | 9781641296748

THE MUSEUM OF LOST QUILTS: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini (Fiction)
Summer Sullivan, the youngest founding member of Elm Creek Quilts, has spent the last two years pursuing a master’s degree in history at the University of Chicago. Her unexpected return home to the celebrated quilter’s retreat is met with delight but also concern from her mother, Gwen; her best friend, Sarah; master quilter Sylvia; and her other colleagues. Stymied by writer’s block, Summer hasn’t finished her thesis, and she can’t graduate until she does. She finds welcome distraction in organizing an exhibit of antique quilts as a fundraiser to renovate Union Hall, the 1863 Greek Revival headquarters of the Waterford Historical Society. But Summer’s research uncovers startling facts about Waterford’s past, prompting unsettling questions about racism, economic injustice and political corruption within their community, past and present.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063080805

PIGLET by Lottie Hazell (Fiction)
An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, Piglet has lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit. One of the many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking. But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. By the day of her wedding, Piglet is undone but is also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250289810

THE SUNLIT MAN: A Cosmere Novel by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy/Adventure)
Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next. But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him. Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun…or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival but for his very soul.
Tor Books | 9781250899729

THE UNWORTHY written by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses (Dystopian/Literary Horror)
Paperback Original
From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find --- discarded ink, dirt, even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe --- cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled and punished, but safe. But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past --- and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened.
Scribner | 9781668051887

THE UPTOWN LOCAL: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion: A Memoir by Cory Leadbeater (Memoir)
As an aspiring novelist in his early 20s, Cory Leadbeater was presented with an opportunity to work for a well-known writer whose identity was kept confidential. Since the tumultuous days of childhood, Cory had sought refuge from the rougher parts of life in the pages of books. Suddenly, he found himself the personal assistant to a titan of literature: Joan Didion. In the nine years that followed, Cory shared Joan’s rarefied world, transformed not only by her blazing intellect but also by her generous friendship and mentorship. But secretly, Cory was spiraling. He reeled from the death of a close friend. He spent his weekends at a federal prison visiting his father, who was serving time for fraud. He struggled day after day to write the novel that would validate him as a real writer. And meanwhile, the forces of addiction and depression loomed large.
Ecco | 9780063371583

WARD D by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
First Publication by Poisoned Pen Press
Ward D is the hospital's mental health unit, and as a medical student, Amy is required to gain experience on the floor. But little do her colleagues know that it may force her to confront a past she has fought hard to forget. The night starts. The countdown begins. As the hours tick by, Amy grows increasingly convinced that something terrible is happening within the ward's tightly secured walls. When patients and staff start to vanish without a trace, it becomes clear that everyone on the unit is in grave danger. Amy never wanted to spend the night on Ward D. Now she might not make it out alive.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464227271

THE WHARTON PLOT by Mariah Fredericks (Historical Mystery)
New York City, 1911. Finding herself at a crossroads with both her marriage and her writing, Edith Wharton makes the decision to leave America, her publisher and her loveless marriage. And then, dashing novelist David Graham Phillips --- a writer with often notorious ideas about society and women’s place in it --- is shot to death outside the Princeton Club. Edith herself met the man only once, when the two formed a mutual distaste over tea in the Palm Court of the Belmont hotel. When Phillips is killed, Edith's life takes another turn. His sister is convinced Graham was killed by someone determined to stop the publication of his next book, which promised to uncover secrets that powerful people rather would have stayed hidden. Though unconvinced, Edith is curious. What kind of book could push someone to kill?
Minotaur Books | 9781250371355

WIZARD OF MOST WICKED WAYS by Charlie N. Holmberg (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Whimbrel House is changing. Merritt and Hulda are raising a family. Owein has signed a marriage contract with the magically compatible Lady Cora, a heavyweight of British nobility who’s an ocean away. And the lovely shape-shifting druid Fallon makes a distractingly fetching friend for Owein. But another change is in the air. The greatest wizard of the millennium, Silas Hogwood, is back --- after five years dead. New body, same foul scent, and driven by madness and revenge. Fearing he isn’t strong enough to fend off Silas, Owein seeks Cora’s help and influence in England. Queen Victoria dispatches her League of Magicians, including her personal necromancer, to aid in Owein’s defense. As magic, both good and evil, converges on Blaugdone Island, Owein realizes how harrowing the forces against them are.
47North | 9781662516825

YOU KILLED ME FIRST by John Marrs (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
It’s November 5th, and a woman awakens to a nightmare. Bound and gagged, she lies trapped in the heart of a towering bonfire. As the smoke thickens, panic sets in; she’s moments away from being engulfed in flames. How did it come to this? Rewind 11 months. Margot, a faded TV star, and her long-suffering friend, Anna, watch as glamorous Liv and her flawless family move into their street. The three women soon fabricate the perfect pretense of friendship, but each harbors her own deadly secret --- and newcomer Liv senses something is terribly wrong beneath the polished exteriors. As cracks widen in the veneer of perfection and lies escalate out of control, tension ignites. Bonfire Night is approaching, and someone is set to burn. But who will it be?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662506499

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