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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 2nd and June 9th 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 review of THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB. In Martha Hall Kelly's latest novel, which is inspired by true events, two sisters living on Martha’s Vineyard during World War II find hope in the power of storytelling when they start a wartime book club for women.
Carol Fitzgerald's's latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Chris Pavone. His new thriller, THE DOORMAN, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection and is being called a modern-day BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, which is spot-on. Chris talks about the book’s setting, the Bohemia, which drew inspiration from the apartment building where he now lives. He had long conversations with Johnny, one of the building’s doormen, and shares what their friendship brought to the story.
The novel takes place over the course of just one day, focusing on the doorman and a couple of the building’s personnel, as well as the occupants of two apartments in the Bohemia. Chris has a number of book ideas that he is noodling at any one time, but he explains how this one spoke to him to be written, and how he pivoted along the way. He also muses about New York City today, and how much has changed from when he was growing up in Brooklyn.
Last Wednesday evening, Beatriz Williams joined us for May’s “Bookaccino Live” Book Group program to discuss HUSBANDS & LOVERS, a Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Beatriz shares her inspiration for the novel, as well as her research. Spoilers are included here as we assume that everyone who attended the event has read the book.
Beatriz also previews her next novel, UNDER THE STARS, which releases on July 29th (readers may recognize the setting and some of the characters), and she teases the manuscript that she is finishing for her 2026 book. And yes, she talks about her writing relationship with Lauren Willig and Karen White.
We are thrilled to announce that Fiona Davis will be our next “Bookaccino Live” Book Group guest. The event will be held on Tuesday, June 24th at 8pm ET. We will talk about her novel, THE STOLEN QUEEN, a New York Times bestseller and a Bets On selection. The book transports readers from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.
There will be a two-part Q&A session after Carol talks to Fiona.
For the first part, those who are asking a question on camera will be featured. This includes spending time with Fiona backstage in our virtual green room before the show starts. If you would like to ask your question "live on screen" this way, please email Carol with the subject line "Fiona" by noon ET on June 24th. Be sure to include your name, city and state, as well as your question. If you do not want to appear on camera but still would like to ask a question, please note that you want to be off camera, and share your question --- adding your name, city and state.
Then we will take questions from other members of the audience.
Our latest Summer Reading prize book is THE GHOSTWRITER by Julie Clark, an upcoming Bets On selection about a ghostwriter who is hired to write the last book for her horror novelist father: a memoir about the brutal murder of both his siblings in the summer of 1975.
The 24-hour contest is now up, so be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies of the book. The deadline for your entries is TOMORROW, Wednesday, June 4th at noon ET.
We will be hosting our 14th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event on Friday, June 13th at 1pm ET. If you are a bookseller, librarian, or book club leader of four or more groups, and you would be interested in attending this event, please email Carol and tell her a bit about yourself using the subject line “Speed Dating.” This is a “trade only” event, but we will be sharing the publisher videos, PowerPoint slides and other materials with you later this month.
This Thursday, June 5th at 7pm ET, Mary Ann Naples will host the first-ever Buzz Books Editors & Authors Nonfiction Panel, a free virtual event sponsored by Publishers Lunch and the American Booksellers Association.
Four breakout authors will chat with their editors about their upcoming books: Char Adams (BLACK-OWNED: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore), Angela Buchdahl (HEART OF A STRANGER: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging), Dr. Gerta Keller (THE LAST EXTINCTION: The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs), and Christine Kuehn (FAMILY OF SPIES: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor).
Be sure to download Buzz Books 2025: Fall/Winter, the 27th edition of Publishers Lunch’s celebrated sampler series. This collection offers readers an exclusive preview of some of the season’s most anticipated releases, curated to showcase both established voices and emerging talents across fiction, debut fiction, nonfiction and young adult categories.
P.S. For those of you who shop online, if you use the store links that appear on our site for shopping, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound. As you read our reviews and features, we would appreciate your considering this as you buy!
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Review of THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD
BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly
THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly (Historical Fiction)
Audiobook available; read by Mary Elizabeth Kelly, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw, Imani Jade Powers and EJ Lavery
In 2016, 34-year-old Mari Starwood travels to Martha’s Vineyard with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Deveraux. Mari isn’t sure what to expect when she finally makes it to the reclusive artist’s stunning waterfront property, but she is shocked to find out that her relationship to the island runs deeper than she ever thought possible. In 1942, the Smith sisters are faced with the impossible task of holding their family farm together during WWII as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard and their brother ships out to fight on the front lines. In an attempt at normalcy, the girls start a book club that soon grows in both number and influence. But their lives are upended when a mysterious man washes up on the shore, and they find themselves questioning who they can truly trust in these turbulent times. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
Click here to read our review.
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
Here are three upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.
Wednesday, June 4th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a Summer Kick-Off Beach Party featuring Mary Kay Andrews, Annabel Monaghan, Meg Mitchell Moore, Martha Hall Kelly, Wendy Francis, Amy Mason Doan and Brooke Lea Foster.
Thursday, June 5th at 7pm ET: Buzz Books Editors & Authors Nonfiction Panel: Mary Ann Naples will host the first-ever Buzz Books Editors & Authors Nonfiction Panel, a virtual event sponsored by Publishers Lunch and the American Booksellers Association. Four breakout authors will chat with their editors about their forthcoming titles.
Monday, June 9th at 7:30pm ET: “Lisa Live”: Join Lisa Scottoline on Facebook every Monday night through July 7th as she reveals her inspirations behind her upcoming novel, THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA. And be sure to enter the Pre-Order Sweepstakes for the book. Lisa will be giving away an exciting prize each week during her “Lisa Live” events, leading up to the book's July 15th publication.
On Sale the Week of June 2nd in Hardcover
June 2nd
THE FIRST GENTLEMAN by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (Political Thriller)
The President of the United States is up for reelection. Her husband is on trial for murder. Is the First Gentleman a killer? A pair of brilliant investigative journalists set out to answer that burning question about the NFL star-turned-political spouse. THE FIRST GENTLEMAN has all the twists and turns, and the authenticity, one expects from the #1 bestselling authors of THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING and THE PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316565103
June 3rd
ATMOSPHERE: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Fiction)
Joan Goodwin is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
Ballantine Books | 9780593158715
BADLANDS: A Nora Kelly Novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found --- and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands --- lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods. Is it suicide or…sacrifice? Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found --- exactly like the other --- the two realize the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538765821
THE BIG HOP: The First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean and Into the Future by David Rooney (History)
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in “the Big Hop”: an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying 16-hour flight, made it to Ireland. Celebrated on both continents, the transatlantic contest offered a surge of inspiration --- and a welcome distraction --- to a public reeling from the Great War and the influenza pandemic. But the seven airmen who made the attempt were quickly forgotten, their achievement overshadowed by the solo Atlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart years later. In THE BIG HOP, David Rooney grants the pioneering aviators of 1919 the spotlight they deserve.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324050964
BLONDE DUST by Tatiana de Rosnay (Historical Fiction)
Pauline, a young chambermaid who works at the legendary Mapes Hotel in Reno, Nevada, is asked to step in for a colleague and clean Suite 614. Although she was told the rooms were empty, a dazed, sleepy woman appears before her. This is Mrs. Miller, aka Marilyn Monroe, whose stay in Reno coincides with the breakdown of her marriage to Arthur Miller and the filming of what was to be her last film, The Misfits. Set in the American West in 1960 where the mustang horses run wild, an unexpected friendship unfolds between the most famous movie star in the world and a young cleaning woman whose life will be changed forever through the course of a few weeks.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770962
BUCKLEY: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus (Biography)
In 1951, with the publication of GOD AND MAN AT YALE, a scathing attack on his alma mater, 25-year-old William F. Buckley, Jr., seized the public stage --- and commanded it for the next half-century as he led a new generation of conservative activists and ideologues to the peak of political power and cultural influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the full, uncensored story of his life and times, granting him extensive interviews and exclusive access to his most private papers. Thus began a deep investigation into the vast and often hidden universe of Bill Buckley and the modern conservative revolution.
Random House | 9780375502347
THE CATCH by Yrsa Daley-Ward (Fiction)
Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. As infants they were adopted into different families. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life --- the very life, it seems, she might have had if the girls had never been born. As with most things, Clara and Dempsey cannot see eye to eye on the confounding appearance of this woman. Clashing over this stranger who burrows deeper and deeper into their lives, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts --- together.
Liveright | 9781324092513
CHARLES SUMNER: Conscience of a Nation by Zaakir Tameez (Biography)
Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner’s status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped the Union win the Civil War and ordain the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In this comprehensive but fast-paced narrative, Zaakir Tameez presents Sumner as one of America’s forgotten founding fathers, a constitutional visionary who helped to rewrite the post–Civil War Constitution and give birth to modern civil rights law.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250362551
A DIFFERENT KIND OF POWER: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern (Memoir)
What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. A DIFFERENT KIND OF POWER is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made political history and changed our assumptions of what a global leader can be. Through her personal experiences and reflections, Ardern is a model for anyone who has ever doubted themselves, or has aspired to lead with compassion, conviction and courage.
Crown | 9780593728697
DON'T FORGET ME, LITTLE BESSIE by James Lee Burke (Historical Thriller)
At the beginning of the 20th century, Bessie Holland yearns for the love that she has never known. She finds a soulmate and mentor in a brilliant but tormented suffragette English teacher, who inspires Bessie to fight the forces of evil that permeate her world. Watching the vast Texas countryside being destroyed by an oil company and a menacing figure with a violent past, Bessie is prepared to defend her home and her family. But when she accidentally kills an unarmed man to defend her father, Hackberry, she must flee to New York. There, her older brother introduces her to boys who will grow into gangsters. But as children admire and respect Bessie’s spirit and fortitude, she is cast into a gangland that yearns for justice and mercy.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802164520
THE DRY SEASON: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex by Melissa Febos (Memoir)
In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break. For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships and sex. Ever since her teens, Febos had been in one relationship after another with men and women. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster. Over those first few months, Febos gleaned insights into her past. She decided to extend her celibacy, not knowing it would become the most fulfilling and sensual year of her life. No longer defined by her romantic pursuits, she learned to relish the delights of solitude, the thrill of living on her own terms, the distinct pleasures unmediated by lovers, and the freedom to pursue her ideals without distraction or guilt.
Knopf | 9780593537237
ENDLING by Maria Reva (Fiction)
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down. Yeva already dates plenty of men --- not for love, but to fund her work --- entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Together they embark across hundreds of miles. But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades.
Doubleday | 9780385545310
A FAMILY MATTER by Claire Lynch (Fiction)
1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter. 2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He’s an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child --- the person around whom his life has revolved --- seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can’t reveal all the other secrets he’s been keeping from her for so many years.
Scribner | 9781668078891
FLASHLIGHT by Susan Choi (Fiction)
One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. What really happened to Louisa’s father?
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374616373
THE GHOSTWRITER by Julie Clark (Psychological Thriller)
June 1975. The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write. After 50 years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464221286
HOW TO LOSE YOUR MOTHER: A Daughter's Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast (Memoir)
Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of a famous woman, writer Erica Jong, whose sensational book FEAR OF FLYING launched her into second-wave feminist stardom. She grew up yearning for a connection with her dreamy, glamorous, just-out-of-reach mother, who always seemed to be heading somewhere that wasn’t with Molly. When, in 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia just as Molly’s husband discovered he had a rare cancer, Jong-Fast was catapulted into a transformative year. HOW TO LOSE YOUR MOTHER is a compulsively readable memoir about an intense mother–daughter relationship, a sometimes chaotic upbringing with a fame-hungry parent, and the upheavals that challenge our hard-won adulthood.
Viking | 9780593656471
IN THE FAMILY WAY by Laney Katz Becker (Historical Fiction)
In 1965 America, women can’t have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal. Every week, a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday canasta game. When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, discovers she’s pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca’s suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who’s never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, have her own baby, and agree never to contact the family again. But things quickly get complicated. Lily, who has opened her home to the teenager, never planned on opening her heart, yet that’s exactly what happens.
Harper | 9780063423244
THE LISTENERS by Maggie Stiefvater (Historical Fiction)
The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles. Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Tucker Minnick presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.
Viking | 9780593655504
MEET ME AT THE CROSSROADS by Megan Giddings (Fiction)
On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger. Ayanna and Olivia, two Black midwestern teens --- and twin sisters --- have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? When one of them goes missing, will the other find solace on her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?
Amistad | 9780063337978
NOTES ON INFINITY by Austin Taylor (Fiction)
Zoe, the daughter of an MIT professor, can envision her future anew at Harvard. Jack, a boy in Zoe’s organic chemistry class, matches her intellect and curiosity with every breath. When Jack refers Zoe for a position in a prestigious professor’s lab, the two become entwined as colleagues. They find themselves on the cusp of a breakthrough: the promise of immortality through a novel anti-aging drug. Zoe and Jack set off on their new project in secret. Finding encouraging results, they bring their work to an investor, drop out of Harvard, and form a startup. But after the money, the magazine covers, and the national news stories detailing their success, Zoe and Jack receive a startling accusation that threatens to destroy both the company they built and their partnership.
Celadon Books | 9781250376107
PARALLEL LINES by Edward St. Aubyn (Fiction)
It’s the summer, and Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him grappling with his fragile grip on reality and his persistent hunger to connect with the biological mother who abandoned him as a child. His therapist, Martin, is facing challenges of his own, including his adopted daughter’s tenuous relationship with her own biological mother --- a predicament that makes Sebastian’s struggle feel uncannily proximate to her own. Olivia is producing a radio series on catastrophic natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life, as her best friend, Lucy, faces a grave diagnosis, and her husband, Francis, pursues his mission of re-wilding the world. Over the course of the next year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, as each of their destinies is revealed in a marvelous new light.
Knopf | 9780593535349
PARK AVENUE by Renée Ahdieh (Fiction)
The daughter of Korean bodega owners, Jia Song has just made junior partner at her prestigious Manhattan law firm, and she is about to score the ultraluxe gold-on-gold Birkin bag of her dreams. So when her boss asks her to sit in on the hush-hush family implosion of a high-level client, she accepts without hesitation --- only to find out that it is one of the most famous Korean families in the world. The Park family’s net worth is estimated at a billion dollars, and their mega-successful Korean beauty brand has shaped the culture for the past two decades. But the patriarch is filing for divorce while his wife is dying, and their three children can’t stop snapping at one another. With both the family fortune and legacy under threat from the worst kind of scandal, it’s up to Jia to set things right --- and she only has a month to do it.
Flatiron Books | 9781250897954
THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY by Allison King (Fiction)
Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she's always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their 90s, and Monica worries about them constantly --- especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade. Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue.
William Morrow | 9780063446236
THE PLAYING LESSON: A Duffer's Year Among the Pros by Michael Bamberger (Sports/Memoir)
Nearly 50 years after taking up the game, Michael Bamberger made a pair of startling discoveries: golf had never meant more to him, and he knew almost nothing about it. He decided to cover himself in green in a whole new way. He spent a year inside the ropes of professional golf --- playing, caddying, competing, volunteering and interviewing --- looking for a door into the sport’s sanctum sanctorum. In THE PLAYING LESSON, Bamberger goes on the ultimate golfing bender. You’ve read about St. Andrews before, but here you will experience the home of golf in a whole new way. You’ll join the author as he volunteers in one tournament, caddies in others, plays in men’s and women’s pro-ams, and conducts intimate interviews with elite figures in the game.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668060155
THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER: A Memoir by Bridget Crocker (Memoir)
After Bridget Crocker’s parents’ volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River --- until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle. The one constant in her life, the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself, was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she’d found her calling. On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears --- both on the water and off.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118546
THE SISTERHOOD OF RAVENSBRÜCK: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp by Lynne Olson (History)
Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror for those with knowledge of this infamous all-women’s concentration camp, better known since it became the setting of Martha Hall Kelly’s bestselling novel, LILAC GIRLS. Particularly shocking were the medical experiments performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80 percent of its inmates were political prisoners, among them a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance. Already well-practiced in sabotaging the Nazis in occupied France, these women joined forces to defy their German captors and keep one another alive.
Random House | 9780593732304
SO HAPPY TOGETHER by Olivia Worley (Psychological Thriller)
For 24-year-old Jane, finding love in New York City is even harder than making it as a playwright. So when Jane meets Colin, she can’t believe her luck: they’re perfect for each other. Even when Colin breaks off their relationship after six dates, Jane knows this is just a stumbling block. She’ll get him back. She knows she will. That is, until Colin starts dating Zoe --- perfect, luminous Zoe. Even worse, she’s actually kind of nice. But Zoe doesn’t have what it takes to love Colin. All Jane has to do is prove it, and they’ll be so happy together. But when Jane sneaks into Colin’s apartment, she makes a shocking discovery --- one that will ensnare them all in a dark web of lies, secrets and murder.
Minotaur Books | 9781250372307
SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE by Lydi Conklin (Fiction)
SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she's forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking --- and her complicated history with a friend and mentee --- while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member.
Catapult | 9781646222513
STUART WOODS' FINDERS KEEPERS: A Stone Barrington Novel by Brett Battles (Thriller/Adventure)
After attending an Arrington properties meeting at the group’s newest location, The Vineyard Arrington on Martha's Vineyard, Stone Barrington returns to New York City to catch up with his old friend, Jack Coulter. Over lunch, Jack requests Stone’s help in settling his niece, Sara, into city life post-divorce. Always one to please, Stone takes Sara under his wing. But when various men from Sara’s past start getting hurt, and Jack’s loved ones find themselves a target in a deadly scheme, it’s up to Stone to put the pieces together...before the shrouded conspirer manages to tear them all apart, permanently.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593854716
THE VERY HEART OF IT: New York Diaries, 1983-1994 by Thomas Mallon (Diaries)
In 1983, Thomas Mallon was a literature professor at Vassar College. The AIDS epidemic was beginning to surge in New York City, the ever-bustling epicenter of literary culture and gay life. Riding the success of his debut, A BOOK OF ONE’S OWN, he became a fixture within the city’s literary scene, crossing paths with cultural giants and becoming an editor at GQ. He captured it all in his daily journals. But in some ways it was the worst possible time for a gay coming-of-age in the city. One of his lovers succumbed to AIDS, and the illness of others was both a heartbreaking reality and a constant reminder of his own exposure. Tracing his own life day by day, Mallon evokes all that those years encompassed: the hookups, intensifying politics and personal tragedies, as well as his own blossoming success and eventual romantic happiness.
Knopf | 9780593801802
WHAT KIND OF PARADISE by Janelle Brown (Mystery/Thriller)
Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of 19th-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to him has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is here where she will come to question everything she values.
Random House | 9780593449783
THE YEAR OF THE TIGER: The Major Run That Made Tiger Woods by Brody Miller (Sports)
In the annals of golf, one achievement towers above all others --- the Tiger Slam. A quarter century ago, between 2000 and 2001, Tiger Woods accomplished a feat so extraordinary, it may never be replicated. Published in time for the 25th anniversary of this remarkable event, THE YEAR OF THE TIGER transports readers back in time to witness the sheer brilliance and unrelenting determination that propelled Woods to the pinnacle of his game. Through vivid storytelling, meticulous research and fresh interviews, the book uncovers new details about the four major championship victories that cemented Tiger’s status as an all-time great --- while also exposing the cracks in his superstardom that led to his inevitable downfall.
Harper | 9780063418127
On Sale the Week of June 2nd in Paperback
June 1st
THE PALACE AT THE END OF THE SEA by Simon Tolkien (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
New York City, 1929. Young Theo Sterling’s world begins to unravel as the Great Depression exerts its icy grip. He finds it hard to relate to his parents. His father, a Jewish self-made businessman, refuses to give up on the American dream, and his mother, a refugee from religious persecution in Mexico, holds fast to her Catholic faith. When disaster strikes the family, Theo must learn who he is. A charismatic school friend and a firebrand girl inspire him to believe he can fight Fascism and change the world, but each rebellion comes at a higher price, forcing Theo to question these ideologies too. His harrowing journey from boy to man is set against a backdrop of societies torn apart from within, teetering on the edge of a terrible war to which Theo is compulsively drawn like a moth to a flame.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662528644
June 3rd
1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose (Memoir)
During her 20s, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories --- and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York. What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam War, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and an artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity.
Harper Perennial | 9780063314108
ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND PICKLEBALL by Kate Spencer (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Bex Martin’s racquet club is her entire world. But the business she inherited from her mother has started to feel more like a sinking ship. That is, until Nikolaus Karras --- a former tennis bad boy with an ego as big as his serve --- makes himself at home on her courts. Niko has something to prove, and a high-stakes pickleball tournament is just what he needs to get back in the game after a career-ending injury. When he is finally able to set his ego aside to ask for Bex’s help, everyone assumes that they are a couple --- on and off the court. But she needs the prize money to save the club, and he needs a win to restore his reputation. So now they have a fake relationship, as well as a doubles partner they can’t seem to resist. Game on!
Forever | 9781538771068
BAD TOURISTS by Caro Carver (Psychological Thriller)
Best friends Darcy, Camilla and Kate escape for a post-divorce retreat in the Maldives, the perfect place to relax, reset and embrace a fresh start in life. Darcy is learning how to be a free woman at 42. Camilla has found the perfect calling as a fitness and wellness influencer with a devoted following. And Kate is finally working on the book she was meant to write after years of telling other people’s stories. Their dream getaway? The exclusive and isolated Sapphire Island Resort. With luxurious private villas, crystal-clear waters and sun-drenched white sand beaches, relaxation is guaranteed. But this is no ordinary friendship, and they’re not the only guests on the island with secrets. Who left the body on the beach --- and who’s next?
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668058855
BLOOD LIKE MINE by Stuart Neville (Horror/Thriller)
On a cold December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a passing stranger. Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered. Meanwhile, Special Agent Donner of the FBI has been hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains their victims of blood before severing their spinal cords. As Agent Donner’s investigation brings him closer to the Carters, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly imperiled.
Hell’s Hundred | 9781641297073
THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller (Sports)
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller’s inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside was having an undefeated season. After years of covering war, wildfires, the pandemic and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story of this group of high school boys. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated young men and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. Fuller packed his bags and drove seven hours to the Riverside campus. THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history.
Vintage | 9780593471142
BREAK EVERY RULE by Brian Freeman (Thriller)
Tommy Miller is a man with deadly skills, hiding in Florida under a false identity. After being set up on an overseas mission, he's on the run from terrorists --- and from the government that betrayed him. So when his wife and daughter are violently abducted, it seems his ghosts are finally catching up with him. But Tommy isn't the only one with secrets. His wife has been concealing her own dangerous past. With a hotshot police detective, Lindy Jax, close on his trail, Tommy follows a twisted path that brings him face to face with ruthless enemies. His search for answers soon puts him on the wrong side of the law --- hunted by the police and pursued by men who want him dead. Worst of all, if he hopes to save his wife and daughter, he must become the man he once was --- a killer operating from the deepest shadows.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228364769
BROILER by Eli Cranor (Noir Thriller)
Gabriela Menchaca and Edwin Saucedo are hardworking, undocumented employees at the Detmer Foods chicken plant in Springdale, Arkansas. While dealing with personal tragedies of their own, the young couple endures the brutal, dehumanizing conditions at the plant in exchange for barebones pay. When the plant manager, Luke Jackson, fires Edwin to set an example for the rest of the workers --- and to show the higher-ups that he’s ready for a major promotion --- Edwin is determined to get revenge on Luke and his wife, Mimi, a new mother who stays at home with her six-month-old son. Edwin’s impulsive action sets in motion a devastating chain of events that illuminates the deeply entrenched power dynamics between those who revel at the top and those who toil at the bottom.
Soho Crime | 9781641297059
DESPERATION REEF by T. Jefferson Parker (Thriller)
Jen Stonebreaker hasn't entered into a big-wave surfing competition since witnessing her husband's tragic death 25 years ago at the Monsters of the Mavericks. Now, she is ready to tackle those same Monsters with her twin sons, Casey and Brock, who have become competitive surfers in a perilous sport. Casey spends his days helping with the family restaurant. His love for the ocean and his willingness to expose illegal poachers on his platforms puts him on a collision course with a crime syndicate eager to destroy anyone threatening their business. The founder of Breath of Life, a church and rescue mission that assists with natural disasters that no one else will touch, Brock has lived an adventurous and sometimes violent life. But threats to destroy his mission --- and his family --- swirl around him.
Forge Books | 9781250907905
THE EXPAT AFFAIR by Kimberly Belle (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Following a nasty divorce, Rayna Dumont came to Amsterdam for a fresh start. She’s never been the type for a one-night stand, but Xander is more than willing to go along for the ride. Until the morning after, when Rayna finds him dead on the shower floor and millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds missing from his safe. From her lavish home in the heart of the city, Willow Prins is captivated by the news. Her husband is Xander’s former boss and heir to a diamond house, and the scandal strains their already-rocky marriage. As the house comes under scrutiny, Willow wonders if her life is about to implode --- and how much of the blame she can place on Rayna. Soon, Willow and Rayna are dragged into the dark and dangerous underbelly of the diamond market, where they’ll have to uncover the truth to survive.
Park Row | 9780778310945
FAREWELL, AMETHYSTINE: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
January 1970. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, has a loving family, a beautiful home and a thriving investigation agency at 50 years old. All is right with the world…and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing, which is a simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation, he trips. He falls into the memory of things past --- little things, like loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas. The missing ex, a young white man named Curt Fields, is found dead. Easy’s only real friend in the LAPD, Melvin Suggs, has gone into hiding rather than allow his femme fatale wife to go to the gas chamber. And that’s only the beginning. Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning.
Mulholland Books | 9780316491129
GO AS A RIVER by Shelley Read (Fiction)
Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land. Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118638
HUM by Helen Phillips (Dystopian Science Fiction/Thriller)
In a near-future world addled by climate change and inhabited by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. Desperate to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance. Seeking reprieve from her recent hardships and her family’s addiction to their devices, May splurges on passes for her family to spend three nights' respite in the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams and animals still thrive. But when her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives to save her family.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668008843
HUMOR ME by Cat Shook (Fiction/Humor)
Presley Fry has been an assistant at the Late Night Show for way too long. She’s adopted a “business casual” approach to dating to save herself from the embarrassment of seeking genuine connection, and she’s content to let her gregarious roommate, Isabelle, orchestrate her entire social life. Not completely disillusioned, Presley is enamored with the world of stand-up comedy. The joy she finds in discovering up-and-coming comedians is enough for now. Presley is still reeling from her mother's death. Enter Susan Clark, her late mother's childhood best friend. Susan is married to the head of the network where Presley works, and she’s determined to take Presley under her wing. She’s equally determined to connect Presley with her son, the bright and affable Lawrence, who couldn’t be further from Presley’s type.
Celadon Books | 9781250904737
INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE by Josh Malerman (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day, “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger and bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel. But Other Mommy needs an answer.
Del Rey | 9780593723142
IT HAD TO BE YOU by Eliza Jane Brazier (Thriller)
When Eva and Jonathan hook up on the sleeper train from Florence to Paris, they think they’ll never see each other again. Which is too bad, because neither has ever felt a spark like this for another person. But love isn’t on the agenda in their line of work. Six months later, they run into each other in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. This encounter is not by chance, because Eva has been hired to kill Jonathan. She’s a contract killer, but what she doesn’t know is that he is too. Their meeting kicks off a high-stakes adventure across Western Europe. There will be tourism. There will be bodies. Eva and Jonathan might even fall for each other. As the two get closer to completing their assignments, it becomes clear that they are also being hunted --- by something even more dangerous than love.
Berkley | 9780593438916
JUST BEACHY by Wendy Wax (Fiction)
Paperback Original
After losing her long-time acting gig on the hit show “Murder 101,” Sydney Ryan decides she needs a break from Hollywood politics. She heads to Treasure Island, Florida, where her grandmother has been visiting and now refuses to leave. But Sydney’s plan to lie low for a bit quickly goes awry as she is swept up in her grandmother’s now flourishing social life. Grand is helping her neighbor, Myra, open a bookstore in Pass-a-Grille. But when someone breaks into Grand’s house repeatedly, Sydney realizes that her grandmother is keeping something from her. Determined to ferret out the truth and protect her grandmother, Sydney enlists the help of the Ten Beach Road ladies and Luke, a local police officer who was once her high school crush.
Berkley | 9780593335963
LADYKILLER by Katherine Wood (Thriller)
Gia and Abby have been friends since childhood, forever bonded by the tragedy that unfolded in Greece when they were 18. Now 30, heiress Gia is back in Greece with her shiny new husband, while bookish Abby is working 14-hour days as an attorney. When Gia invites Abby on an all-expenses-paid trip to Sweden to celebrate her birthday, Abby is thrilled to reconnect. But on the day of her flight, Abby receives an ominous email that threatens to unearth the skeletons of her past. When she and Gia’s brother, Benny, arrive in Sweden, Gia isn’t there. Worried, Abby and Benny fly to Greece, where they find Gia’s beachfront estate eerily deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts the manuscript she penned, detailing the events leading up to her disappearance. How much of Gia’s story is true? Where is she now? And will Abby find her before it’s too late?
Bantam | 9780593726464
LARRY McMURTRY: A Life by Tracy Daugherty (Biography)
In over 40 books, in a career that spanned over 60 years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains’ keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Tracy Daugherty's latest book traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country’s pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as bestselling novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of the beloved LONESOME DOVE, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, public intellectual and passionate bookseller.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250354587
PLAYING FROM THE ROUGH: A Personal Journey through America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses by Jimmie James (Sports/Memoir)
Jimmie James spent his entire life defying the odds. He was born invisible. His birth certificate, long since filed away in some clerk’s office in East Texas, recorded facts about him that were deemed most relevant in the late 1950s: “colored” and “illegitimate.” His great-great-grandmother was enslaved, and his early life was confined by the privation and segregation of the late Jim Crow-era South. Four decades later, he embarked on his journey to play the 100 greatest golf courses in the United States. In a single year. From the first tee at Augusta National, the distance between the world he grew up in and the world of extreme privilege to which he’d now managed to gain access was impossible to ignore.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668005989
SISTER, BUTCHER, SISTER by KD Aldyn (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
The Rowling sisters have secrets. But when Kate, the eldest, finally returns to buy her late grandfather's home, the dark things each sister has kept buried soon rise to the surface. Is Kate having unexplained visions tied to a past she can hardly recall? Is Aurora, the married mother of two, finally acting out in the face of her sisters' indiscretions? Is Peggy, the youngest and a recovering addict, able to move on from the memories that haunt her? And then there's SHE. SHE is one of them, but SHE is not like them at all. SHE is defined only by the carnage she lets the world see, the murders that have swept through their coastal community. And as the police close in on their newest serial killer, scrutiny lands on the Rowlings, forcing them to face their demons and reveal all they have kept hidden.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464236631
SLOW DANCE by Rainbow Rowell (Romance)
Shiloh Butler was supposed to get out of north Omaha. She used to sit out on the front porch with her best friend, Cary, and plot their escape. Shiloh was going to be an actress, and Cary was laser-focused on the Navy. Sharp, stoic, golden-eyed Cary was probably the most decent person Shiloh has ever known. She hasn’t spoken to him in 14 years. When Shiloh gets an invitation to a high school friend’s wedding, Cary is the first and only thing on her mind. She desperately wants to see him again, but she doesn’t know if she can bear being seen by him. What would Cary think of Shiloh at 33? A divorced mom living in the same house she grew up in. Someone who works behind a desk, not onstage. Would Cary even want to see Shiloh after all this time? After everything? The answer, it turns out, is yes.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063380202
SOUTHERN MAN by Greg Iles (Political Thriller)
Fifteen years after the events of the Natchez Burning trilogy, Penn Cage carries a mortal secret that separates him from the world. But his exile comes to an end when a brawl at a Mississippi rap festival triggers a bloody mass shooting that nearly takes the life of his daughter. Antebellum plantation homes continue to burn, and the deadly attacks are claimed by a Black radical group as historic acts of justice. Panic sweeps through the tourist communities, driving them inexorably toward a race war. But what might have been only a regional sideshow of the 2024 Presidential election explodes into national prominence, thanks to the stunning ascent of Robert E. Lee White, a Southern war hero who seizes the public’s imagination as a third-party candidate. To triumph over the national party machines, Bobby evolves a plan of unimaginable daring.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062824912
STRANGE HOUSES written by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion (Mystery/Horror)
Paperback Original
When a writer fascinated by the macabre is approached by an acquaintance, he finds himself investigating an eerie house for sale in Tokyo. At first, with its bright and spacious interior, it seems the perfect first home. But upon closer inspection, the building’s floor plans reveal a mysterious "dead space” hidden between its walls. Seeking a second opinion, the writer shares the floor plans with his friend Kurihara, an architect, only to discover more unnerving details throughout. What is the true purpose behind the house’s disturbing design? And what happened to the former owners who disappeared without a trace? When a body suddenly appears and a young woman reaches out about a second house, it soon becomes clear that the writer and his friend may be in over their heads.
HarperVia | 9780063433151
THE SUMMER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING by Brenda Novak (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It's been 15 years since Lucy Sinclair saw her father. Fifteen long years since she sat in a courtroom and watched him sentenced to life in prison. He murdered three victims --- all people she knew --- which ruined her life at just 17. But now she’s back in Virginia to talk to him, wondering if there’s more to the story of what happened that fateful night. An old flame, Ford Wagner, makes his own return to North Hampton Beach, fleeing a marriage that seems destined for divorce. He’s wary of Lucy and her digging into the past, but the more time they spend together, the closer they get and the more he finds himself reconsidering the truth behind the death of their mutual friend that summer. The problem is, there are plenty of those in this small coastal town who would prefer things stay quiet.
Mira | 9780778387688
THE SUMMER WE RAN by Audrey Ingram (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the summer of 1996, Tess Murphy’s mother landed a new job as a cook at an affluent Virginia estate and didn’t want anything to risk the opportunity, least of all her outspoken daughter. What no one saw coming was Tess falling deeply in love with the boy next door, high-society Grant Alexander. Their love blooms so ferociously it feels utterly impossible that anything can keep them apart --- until tragedy strikes, and the teenagers find themselves pained by betrayal with little hope to repair the damage that’s been done. Now, two decades after their epic teenage romance abruptly ended in heartbreak, Tess and Grant are both running for Governor of Virginia, where secrets from that summer threaten to shatter their families, futures and the love they once shared.
Zibby Publishing | 9798989923069
SUMMERS AT THE SAINT by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation at St. Cecelia. But she could work there. One fateful summer she did, and she married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help --- including the daughter of her estranged best friend --- Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250822352
TELL ME WHO YOU ARE by Louisa Luna (Psychological Thriller)
Brooklyn psychiatrist Dr. Caroline Strange is certain she knows what's best for her patients, her family and pretty much everyone else. But that all changes when a troubled young man arrives for his appointment and makes a pair of alarming confessions: I am going to kill someone, and I know who you really are. It seems Nelson Schack may be one step ahead when detectives show up later that day, inquiring about a missing woman. It looks like Nelson has made good on his threat --- yet somehow it’s Dr. Caroline who becomes the prime suspect. Convinced the police are incompetent, Dr. Caroline takes matters into her own hands, chasing down the elusive Nelson and running headlong into a past she has spent her entire life trying to forget.
Picador | 9781250390523
THERE ARE REASONS FOR THIS by Nini Berndt (Dystopian Fiction)
Paperback Original
Lucy’s brother, Mikey, is dead. Two years ago, when he left their small Eastern Colorado town and moved west to Denver, he had intended to bring Lucy along. But Lucy has only just arrived and is in search of Helen, a woman Mikey loved. But when Lucy moves in across the hall, she finds nothing is as she expected: the city is crumbling; the weather is tempestuous; a predator is on the loose; the old woman in the attic needs company; desire is being compressed into pills and distributed like candy; and she finds herself becoming obsessed with Helen, who is nothing like she expected --- and who has no idea who Lucy really is. As their lives become more entwined, Lucy begins to realize that the real reasons she came to Denver are deeper and stranger than a simple desire to understand what happened to her brother.
Tin House Books | 9781963108262
TIDAL CREATURES by Seanan McGuire (Dark Fantasy)
All across the world, people look up at the moon and dream of gods. Gods of knowledge and wisdom, gods of tides and longevity. Over time, some of these moon gods incarnated into the human world alongside the other manifest natural concepts. Their job is to cross the sky above the Impossible City --- the heart of all creation --- to keep it connected to reality. And someone is killing them. There are so many of them that it's easy for a few disappearances to slip through the cracks. But they aren't limitless. In the name of the moon, the lunar divinities must uncover the roots of the plot and thwart the true goal of those behind these attacks --- control of the Impossible City itself.
Tor Books | 9781250333599
THE UNWEDDING by Ally Condie (Mystery/Thriller)
Ellery Wainwright and her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their 20th wedding anniversary together at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California. But now she’s traveling solo. To add insult to injury, there’s a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery isn’t certain of anything except for her love for her kids and her growing realization that this place, though beautiful, is unsettling. When Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool in the rain, she realizes that she is not the only one whose future is no longer guaranteed. Before the police can reach Broken Point, a mudslide takes out the road to the resort, leaving the guests trapped. When another guest dies, it’s clear something horrible is brewing.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538757598
THE VERY LONG, VERY STRANGE LIFE OF ISAAC DAHL by Bart Yates (Fiction)
At the age of 96, Isaac Dahl sits down to write his memoir. For Isaac, an accomplished journalist and historian, finding the right words is never a problem. But this book will be different from anything he has written before. Focusing on 12 different days, each encapsulated in a chapter, Isaac hopes to distill the very essence of his life. There are days that begin like any other, only to morph through twists of fate. An avalanche strikes Bingham, Utah, and eight-year-old Isaac and his twin sister, Agnes, survive when they are trapped in an upside-down bathtub. Other days stand apart --- including a day in 1942, when Isaac, stationed on the USS Houston in the Java Sea as a rookie correspondent, confronts the full horror of war. And there are days spent simply, with his lifelong friend, Bo, or with Danny, the younger man whose love transforms Isaac’s later years.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496750464
WHEN THE SEA CAME ALIVE: An Oral History of D-Day by Garrett M. Graff (Oral History)
June 6, 1944 --- known to us all as D-Day --- is one of history’s greatest and most unbelievable military triumphs. The surprise sunrise landing of more than 150,000 Allied troops on the beaches of occupied northern France is one of the most consequential days of the 20th century. Now, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, historian and author of THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY and WATERGATE, brings them all together in a one-of-a-kind, bestselling oral history that explores this seminal event in vivid, heart-pounding detail.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668027820
THE WINNER by Teddy Wayne (Literary Thriller/Dark Humor)
Conor O’Toole has never been anywhere as casually glamorous as Cutters Neck, a gated community near Cape Cod. It’s a sweet deal for the summer: free lodging in a guest cottage in exchange for tennis lessons. In this oceanfront paradise, however, new clients prove hard to come by, and Conor has bills to pay. Then a sharp-tongued divorcée appears, offering him double his usual rate. Soon he realizes Catherine is expecting additional, off-the-court services for her money, and Conor tumbles into a secret erotic affair unlike anything he’s experienced before. Despite his steamy flings with a woman twice his age, he simultaneously finds himself falling for the artsy, outspoken girl he met on the beach. Conor somehow finds a way to manage this tangled web --- until he makes one final, irreversible mistake.
Harper Perennial | 9780063353619
On Sale the Week of June 9th in Hardcover
June 10th
THE BACHELORETTE PARTY by Camilla Sten (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
On a remote island nestled off the coast of Sweden, four friends meet every year. The idea is to drink beer, dance by the water, and shake off the weight of life's expectations. The location of the island is a secret to everyone but them. Ten Years Later. Ever since she was a teenager, Tessa Nilsson has been consumed by the story of four friends who disappeared. Her best friend, Anneliese, wants to have a bachelorette party before she walks down the aisle. The destination is Baltic Vinyasa, a sleek, sophisticated yoga retreat on a small island off the coast --- one with such similar characteristics to the tragedy years ago that it raises the hair on Tessa’s neck. Tessa will not pass this up. It’s her last chance to find out what happened to the four women. And it’s someone else’s last chance to get revenge.
Minotaur Books | 9781250868503
BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL by V. E. Schwab (Historical Fantasy)
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. 1827. London. A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow --- but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined. 2019. Boston. College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, present and future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers…and revenge.
Tor Books | 9781250320520
DEATH AT THE WHITE HART by Chris Chibnall (Mystery)
The villagers of Fleetcombe like to think of it as one of the most picturesque spots on England’s coast. But now, it’s a disturbingly macabre crime scene. A man is found dead, tied to a chair in the middle of the road, a stag’s antlers on his head. The gruesome scene stuns the town, especially when the victim is identified: Jim Tiernan, who ran the White Hart pub. Tiernan’s pub is at the center of village life, and he knew everyone’s secrets. Detective Nicola Bridge grew up in Fleetcombe and has now returned, for the good of her family, from a life away in Liverpool. DC Harry Ward, despite his newcomer status, is determined to earn Nicola’s trust. Because they don’t have long to find out just what the people of Fleetcombe have to hide. And now, in the place she thought she knew so well, Nicola is asking questions.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593831571
GREAT BLACK HOPE by Rob Franklin (Fiction)
An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil as he is pulled into the court system and mandated treatment. It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate, Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle --- as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, only to buckle under the weight of expectations from his family of doctors and lawyers and their history in America. But when Smith returns to New York, it’s not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life --- drawn back into the city’s underworld, where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668077436
KAKIGORI SUMMER by Emily Itami (Fiction)
Rei, Kiki and Ai are three sisters divided by distance and circumstance. Ambitious Rei works in finance in London; Kiki is the single mother of a young son, working in a retirement home in Tokyo; and Ai, the youngest, is a peripatetic Japanese music idol. Having lost both parents, one way or another, the sisters rely on each other as family, far-flung as they are. When Ai is embroiled in a scandal, Rei and Kiki pause their own lives to rescue their baby sister. Over the course of a summer spent in their childhood home on the Japanese coast, the sisters will reunite with their sharp-edged grandmother, care for Kiki’s irrepressible son, and silently worry about Ai, all while carefully not talking about the circumstances of their mother’s death 15 years before. But silence between sisters can only last for so long.
Mariner Books | 9780063432161
KILL YOUR DARLINGS by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over 25 years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet, and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband. What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives --- their 50th birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague --- all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.
William Morrow | 9780063433625
KING OF ASHES by S. A. Cosby (Thriller)
When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family --- and the family business --- together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident, and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger. Roman, a financial whiz, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he’s forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills.
Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar | 9781250832061
KNAVE OF DIAMONDS: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King (Historical Mystery)
When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years --- until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a load of problems for his clever niece. Not the least of which is the reason the family rejected him in the first place: He was involved --- somehow --- in the infamous disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels from an impregnable safe in Dublin Castle. It was a theft that baffled not only the Dublin police and Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes himself. And now, Jake expects Russell to step into the middle of it all? Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.
Bantam | 9780593873984
THE NANTUCKET RESTAURANT by Pamela Kelley (Fiction)
Mandy, Emma and Jill O'Toole are as close as three sisters who live hundreds of miles apart can be. They grew up together on Nantucket but have scattered around the country. When their beloved grandmother passes peacefully in her sleep a week before her 99th birthday, she leaves them quite a surprise. In addition to her Nantucket home, they learn that they've inherited Mimi's Place, one of Nantucket's most popular year-round restaurants. They had no idea that she was the silent owner of a restaurant, and no idea how they're going to handle this kind of inheritance. There is, of course, a catch. She left the restaurant equally to Mandy, Emma and Jill --- and also to Paul, the executive chef for the past 15 years. And before they can sell, all three women need to work at the restaurant for a period of one year.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464246197
ORDINARY LOVE by Marie Rutkoski (Romance)
By all appearances, Emily has a perfect life: a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, two healthy children, and a husband who showers her with attention. But the truth is more complicated: Emily’s marriage is in trouble, her relationship with her parents is fraught, and she is still nursing a heartbreak from long ago. When Emily runs into her high school girlfriend at a cocktail party, that heartbreak comes roaring back. But Gen Hall is no longer the lanky, hungry kid with holes in her shoes who Emily loved in her youth. Instead, she is a famous Olympic athlete with sponsorship deals and a string of high-profile ex-girlfriends. Emily and Gen circle one another cautiously, drawn together by a magnetic attraction and scarred by their shared history.
Knopf | 9780593803264
THE POTENCY OF UNGOVERNABLE IMPULSES by Malka Older
(Science Fiction/Mystery)
When a former classmate begs Pleiti for help on behalf of her cousin --- who’s up for a prestigious academic position at a rival Jovian university but has been accused of plagiarism on the eve of her defense --- Pleiti agrees to investigate the matter. Even if she has to do it without Mossa, her partner in more ways than one. Even if she’s still reeling from Mossa’s sudden isolation and bewildering rejection. Yet what appears to be a case of an attempted reputational smearing devolves into something decidedly more dangerous --- and possibly deadly.
Tor Books | 9781250396068
THE RIVER IS WAITING by Wally Lamb (Fiction)
New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown Corby Ledbetter’s marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation still might be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668006399
A SHIPWRECK IN FIJI: A Sergeant Akal Singh Mystery by Nilima Rao (Historical Mystery)
Sergeant Akal Singh, an unwilling transplant to Fiji, is just starting to settle into his life in the capital city of Suva when he is sent to the neighboring island of Ovalau on a series of fool’s errands. First: investigate strange reports of Germans, thousands of miles from the front of World War I. Second: chaperone two strong-willed European ladies, Mary and Katherine, on a sight-seeing tour. And third: supervise the only police officer currently on Ovalau, an 18-year-old constable with a penchant for hysterics. Akal and his friend, Taviti, become embroiled in a series of local issues: the gruesome death of an unpopular local and the imprisonment of a group of Norwegian sailors in Taviti’s uncle’s village. To add to Akal’s woes, Katherine, the charming aspiring journalist, harbors an agenda of her own.
Soho Crime | 9781641295475
SO FAR GONE by Jess Walter (Fiction)
At Thanksgiving a few years back, a fed-up Rhys Kinnick punched his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the mouth, chucked his smartphone out a car window, and fled for a cabin in the woods, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons. Now Kinnick’s old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no internet and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia? With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a wild journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he’d left behind.
Harper | 9780062868145
WELCOME TO MURDER WEEK by Karen Dukess (Mystery/Humor)
When 34-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming “murder week” in England’s Peak District. A whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself --- and begins a journey she never could have anticipated. Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, Cath sets about solving the “crime” and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668079775
WITH A VENGEANCE by Riley Sager (Historical/Psychological Thriller)
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution. Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of 13 hours. Her goal? Confront the people who have wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge --- and they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.
Dutton | 9780593472408
On Sale the Week of June 9th in Paperback
June 10th
THE CONDITIONS OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
It seems as if Isabel Dalhousie’s life has fallen into a comfortable and tidy rhythm. Well, as tidy as things can be with two small boys wreaking havoc around the house. But when her husband, Jamie, invites a woman named Dawn --- recently embroiled in a contentious affair with a member of Jamie’s orchestra --- to stay with them, things begin to go awry. Strange noises can be heard from the upper floor, even when Dawn is supposedly at work, and the couple wonders if something more nefarious may be afoot. If that weren’t enough, Professor Robert Lettuce is staging an academic conference and has asked Isabel to publish the conference papers in a special issue of the Review of Applied Ethics. But something is definitely suspect about the funding, and it will be up to Isabel to sort it out.
Vintage | 9780593688212
A DARKNESS RETURNS: Book One of The Dragonwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist (Fantasy/Adventure)
Hatushaly, last scion of the Firemane dynasty; his beloved Hava; and their dubious friend, Donte, have been transported across space and time from their war-torn world of Garn to the relative peace of Midkemia. There, on Sorcerer’s Isle, Hatu will explore and expand his unique magical abilities: for if Garn is to be saved, they will be needed. With the evil Pride Lords defeated, the Church of the One has risen to bring death and destruction to Hatu’s home world. The kingdom of Ilcomen has fallen, and now the Church is sending forces to Marquensas, where Daylon Dumarch has declared himself king, and master swordsmith Declan Smith finds himself suddenly raised to the status of prince and war commander. But there are even greater menaces than the Church of the One waiting in the wings, beings from the Void, creatures born of Darkness.
Harper Voyager | 9780063391857
ENLIGHTENMENT by Sarah Perry (Gothic Mystery/Romance)
Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits --- torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished 19th-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of 20 years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit.
Mariner Books | 9780063352629
THE EXAMINER by Janice Hallett (Mystery)
Gela Nathaniel, head of Royal Hastings University’s new Multimedia Art course, must find six students for her new master’s program before the university cuts her funding. Jem, a talented sculptor, is eager to make her mark as an artist at any cost. Jonathan has little experience aside from running his family’s gallery. Patrick manages an art supply store, but can barely operate his phone, much less design software. Ludya is a single mother and graphic designer more interested in a paycheck than homework. Cameron is a marketing executive in search of a hobby or a career change. And Alyson, already a successful artist, seems to be overqualified. When the examiner, the man hired to grade students’ final works, sifts through their final essays, texts and message boards, he becomes convinced that someone is in danger…or already dead.
Atria Books | 9781668023433
FAR AND AWAY by Amy Poeppel (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Lucy’s hometown of Dallas has gone from home sweet home to vicious snake pit in the blink of an eye after her son makes a mistake he can’t undo. Greta’s beloved flat in Berlin is suddenly up for grabs when her husband, Otto, takes a dream job in Texas without even telling her. In their rush to leave town, Lucy and Greta make a deal, pack their bags, and have absolutely no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Trading Southern charm and barbecue for European sophistication and schnitzel, the two women get a lot more than a change of scenery as they move into each other’s houses, neighborhoods and lives. Through jet lag, culture shock, suspiciously nice neighbors, and scandals that refuse to be left behind, Lucy and Greta will have to decide if they can ever go home again.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668022856
THE FINAL ACT OF JULIETTE WILLOUGHBY by Ellery Lloyd (Mystery/Thriller)
Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx. Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations. But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?
Harper Perennial | 9780063323018
FINDING HAPPY: A User's Guide to Your Life, with Lessons from Mine by Peter Samuelson (Self-Help/Personal Growth)
Paperback Original
Almost everyone looks back on their youth and thinks, I wish I knew then what I know now. FINDING HAPPY is for young adults starting their adult journey, and for those well into theirs who have not yet sighted land. It is written by a master storyteller who learned to scale walls and blew them up rather than be stopped, and who learned in the process that our happiness flows from leaving the world a better place than we found it. Ultimately, it’s about how best to channel this glorious life we are each privileged to enjoy and to make it truly happy. The book is filled with gripping adventures and misadventures that demonstrate just how possible the seemingly impossible often is.
Regalo Press | 9798888458716
THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (Memoir)
Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. In the midst of it all, Griffin’s 22-year-old sister, Dominique, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne’s career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist. But THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its lovable, infuriating, funny and moving characters --- its author most of all.
Penguin Books | 9780593652848
HER FIRST MISTAKE by Kendra Elliot (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten. Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.
Montlake | 9781662525759
THE HOLLYWOOD ASSISTANT by May Cobb (Psychological Thriller)
Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then, when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA. All she has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.
Berkley | 9780593546833
HOLY CITY by Henry Wise (Thriller)
After a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, Will Seems returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia, taking a job as deputy sheriff in a landscape given way to crime and defeat. His efforts to go about his life are wrecked when a mysterious, brutal homicide claims the life of an old friend, Tom Janders, forcing Will to face the true impetus for his return: not to honor his mother's memory, but to pay a debt to a Black friend who, in an act of selfless courage years ago, protected Will and suffered permanent disfigurement for it. Meanwhile, a man Will knows to be innocent is arrested for Tom's murder. Will must weigh his personal guilt against his public duty when the local Black community hires Bennico Watts, an unpredictable private detective from Richmond, to help him find the real killer.
Grove Press | 9780802164988
HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW: A Crescent City Novel by Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy/Romance)
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust. Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639736058
HOW TO AGE DISGRACEFULLY by Clare Pooley (Fiction/Humor)
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards. The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac; to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades; to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign. But when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide. When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door --- as well as the teenage father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog --- to save the building.
Penguin Books | 9780143137948
JACKIE by Dawn Tripp (Historical Fiction)
JACKIE is the story of a woman who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is 21 and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure, yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor and his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds --- that’s all it was --- a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not.”
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812987089
JILL IS NOT HAPPY by Kaira Rouda (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you that she and her husband, Jack, are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. With their daughter, Maggie, away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect. Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past that he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what. But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding. So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge.
Scarlet | 9781613166079
THE LAST NOTE OF WARNING by Katharine Schellman (Historical Mystery)
By day, Vivian Kelly is a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to New York City's wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can't quite forget the allure of the Nightingale's sultry owner, Honor Huxley. Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. The police and the press are both eager to name a culprit, and Vivian finds herself the primary suspect.
Minotaur Books | 9781250325815
LUCY UNDYING: A Dracula Novel by Kiersten White (Gothic Fantasy/Romance)
Her name was written in the pages of someone else’s story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula’s first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula’s clutches --- and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants. Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in 21st-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’ family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power. Lucy has long believed she would never love again. Yet she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris, while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces.
Del Rey | 9780593724422
MAKING FRIENDS CAN BE MURDER by Kathleen West (Mystery)
Paperback Original
It feels like kismet when Sarah Jones, newly relocated to Minneapolis after abruptly calling off her engagement, gets invited to join a group of women who share her same (very common) name. For years, Sarah has received all types of correspondence intended for different Sarah Joneses, but now it seems that this mistake has given her the opportunity for an instant community. What starts as a low-stakes meet-up called “The Sarah Jones Project” soon turns sinister when another local Sarah Jones is found dead, under suspicious circumstances, at the base of the downtown Minneapolis bridge. After fielding numerous calls from concerned loved ones ruling out their Sarah as the victim, the surviving Sarahs decide to take matters into their own hands.
Berkley | 9780593335536
MALAS by Marcela Fuentes (Fiction)
In 1951, a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and, in a heated outburst, lays a curse on Pilar and her family. More than 40 years later, Lulu Muñoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled father’s moods, his rules, her secret life as singer in a punk band, but most of all her upcoming quinceañera. When her beloved grandmother passes away, Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town. Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulu’s family’s past. As the quinceañera looms --- and we move between these two strong, irascible female voices --- one woman must make peace with the past, and one girl pushes to embrace her future.
Penguin Books | 9780593655801
MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe (Fiction/Humor)
The child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet enrolls at her local junior college. She is still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor or get pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby. Now, at 20, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed and on the verge of eviction. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon she finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Before she knows it, she has turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063356597
MIDNIGHT ROOMS by Donyae Coles (Historical Thriller/Gothic Horror)
England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle’s parlor. Claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman --- an outsider with no fortune or connections --- Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella agrees. The new bride is quickly whisked away to Korringhill Manor, the Blakersby family estate, and far from everything she knows. Expecting splendor, Orabella is shocked to find decay, skittish servants and curt elders. But her kind new husband’s loving touch promises of a happy life together, and his assurances she’ll never want for anything soothe her concerns. Yet there is a darkness deep within this house.
Amistad | 9780063228108
MIRRORED HEAVENS by Rebecca Roanhorse (Historical Fantasy)
Serapio, avatar of the Crow God Reborn and the newly crowned Carrion King, rules Tova. But his enemies gather both on distant shores and within his own city as the matrons of the clans scheme to destroy him. And deep in the alleys of the Maw, a new prophecy is whispered, this one from the Coyote God. It promises Serapio certain doom if its terrible dictates are not fulfilled. Meanwhile, Xiala is thrust back amongst her people as war comes first to the island of Teek. With their way of life and their magic under threat, she is their last best hope. And in the far northern wastelands, Naranpa, avatar of the Sun God, seeks a way to save Tova from the visions of fire that engulf her dreams. But another presence has begun stalking her nightmares, and the Jaguar God is on the hunt.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781534437715
MOONBOUND by Robin Sloan (Science Fiction/Adventure)
It is 11,000 years from now. A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history --- and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
Picador | 9781250390509
NEVER BEEN SHIPPED by Alicia Thompson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Micah's relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise. John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who had been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn't take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John has never been one to rock the boat, but he's faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music --- and Micah --- back in his life. Onboard, Micah can't help but see John with brand new eyes, and John's feelings only intensify as the discordant band's tension grows to a breaking point.
Berkley | 9780593640951
ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY by Jamie Day (Domestic Thriller)
The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters --- Iris, Vicki and Faith --- have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air --- and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out. In the mix is the Precipe’s 19-year-old chambermaid, Charley Kelley, who is smart, resilient, older than her years, and in desperate straits. The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or, even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run? Could this reunion be the death of them all?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250382801
THE PARIS VENDETTA by Shan Serafin (Thriller)
The Paris conference was supposed to be the biggest moment of investment banker Adam Macias’ career. Instead, he arrives at a glamorous rooftop party in time to see his CEO --- and his career --- go up in flames when a dangerous conflagration interrupts the event. Now Adam is a suspect in the investigation into the life-threatening arson. After all, he’d used his ID to let a suspicious woman past a security checkpoint and up to the roof just moments before the fire broke out. Adam finds himself suddenly jobless, and the one woman who could provide him with an alibi --- his best friend and coworker, Jenn --- isn’t returning his calls. Adam knows that only the mysterious woman from the party can save him, but once he finally finds her, he discovers a whole new world of trouble.
Mysterious Press | 9781613166741
THE SKY ON FIRE by Jenn Lyons (Fantasy/Adventure)
Anahrod lives only for survival, forging her own way through the harsh jungles of the Deep with her titan drake by her side. Even when an adventuring party saves her from capture by a local warlord, she is eager to return to her solitary life. But this is no ordinary rescue. It’s Anahrod’s past catching up with her. These cunning misfits --- and their frustratingly appealing dragonrider ringleader --- intend to spirit her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard. There’s only one problem: the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas --- and she wants Anahrod dead.
Tor Books | 9781250342027
SLOW BURN SUMMER by Josie Silver (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Talent agent Charlie Francisco has three problems: a divorce that ended his screenwriting career, a business he never planned to inherit, and a take-your-breath-away romance novel whose author wants nothing to do with its publication. The book is a surefire hit, if only his agency can find someone to “play” author on its summer book tour. Enter Kate Elliott, a former soap actress who’s miraculously right for the part at the very moment her life seems to be going all wrong. But she can’t know who really wrote the remarkable story --- the one so beautiful it’s made her believe in love again. When Kate and Charlie meet, they’re all friction and sparks. As the summer heat ups and the lies get bigger and bigger, can they stick to their lines…or will they go off-script?
Dell | 9780593722886
THE SONS OF EL REY by Alex Espinoza (Fiction)
Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores --- Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes --- were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico, but at great expense, nearly costing him his marriage to his wife, Elena. Years later, in East Los Angeles, his son, Freddy Vega, is struggling to save his father’s gym, while Freddy’s own son, Julian, is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668032794
THE WILL OF THE MANY by James Islington (Historical Fantasy)
The Catenan Republic --- the Hierarchy --- may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus --- what they call Will --- to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me. But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781982141189
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