January 21, 2025
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 20th and January 27th 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 the Most Requested Guides of 2024 on ReadingGroupGuides.com. We pulled together the 30 guides that were accessed the most by you last year. Your top five picks are THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah, THE FROZEN RIVER by Ariel Lawhon, DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver, HELLO BEAUTIFUL by Ann Napolitano, and HORSE by Geraldine Brooks. We always love seeing which guides appealed to you the most!
January 21, 2025
This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this winter. Read more about it, and enter our Winter Reading Contest by Wednesday, January 22nd at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of THE BUSINESS TRIP by Jessie Garcia, which is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!
Editorial Content for Playworld
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
When a novelist who had a role in a major Hollywood film at age 12 and went on to devote himself to the sport of wrestling in high school creates a protagonist who shares those experiences, it’s tempting to read too much into obvious autobiographical correspondences. To whatever extent Adam Ross clearly has incorporated elements from his life into PLAYWORLD, the author of MR. Read More
Teaser
Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show “The Nuclear Family” and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep --- along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach --- he's teetering on the edge of collapse. Then comes Naomi Shah, 22 years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink --- whom he shares with his father, mother and younger brother, Oren --- Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.
Promo
Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show “The Nuclear Family” and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep --- along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach --- he's teetering on the edge of collapse. Then comes Naomi Shah, 22 years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink --- whom he shares with his father, mother and younger brother, Oren --- Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.
About the Book
A big and big-hearted novel --- one enthralling, transformative year in the life of a child actor coming of age in a bygone Manhattan, from the critically acclaimed author of MR. PEANUT.
“In the fall of 1980, when I was 14, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was 36, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn’t seem strange at the time.”
Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show “The Nuclear Family” and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep --- along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach --- he's teetering on the edge of collapse.
Then comes Naomi Shah, 22 years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink --- whom he shares with his father, mother and younger brother, Oren --- Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.
Less a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation, PLAYWORLD is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era --- with Jimmy Carter on his way out and a B-list celebrity named Ronald Reagan on his way in. Surrounded by adults who embody the age’s excesses --- and who seem to care little about what their children are up to --- Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.
Audiobook available, read by Adam Ross
Editorial Content for Cross My Heart
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
CROSS MY HEART is one of those mysteries that might surprise you. The premise is that Rosie Lachlan, who has been very unlucky in love, gets a heart transplant. She finds out that her new heart is probably from the spouse of a local, very successful novelist whose wife, Daphne, died unexpectedly. Rosie becomes obsessed with Morgan Thorne and feels that he could be "the one." She works in her parents’ bridal shop, so romance is never far from her thoughts. Read More
Teaser
A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, Rosie Lachlan is working at her parents’ bridal salon. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects that her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect. But Rosie has a secret: Now that she has his wife’s heart, she’s convinced that she and Morgan are meant to be together. As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie is keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death?
Promo
A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, Rosie Lachlan is working at her parents’ bridal salon. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects that her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect. But Rosie has a secret: Now that she has his wife’s heart, she’s convinced that she and Morgan are meant to be together. As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie is keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death?
About the Book
She has his wife’s heart; the one she wants is his. The author of THE FAMILY PLOT brings her signature “taut, emotionally charged, and propulsive” (Jeneva Rose, New York Times bestselling author) prose to a twisty novel about a heart transplant patient who becomes romantically obsessed with her donor’s husband.
Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One.
A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents’ bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.
As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie’s keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death? And can Rosie’s heart sustain another break --- or is she next?
Audiobook available, read by Gail Shalan and Chris Andrew Ciulla
Editorial Content for Pro Bono
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Thomas Perry is a great thriller writer, and his latest stand-alone release is clear evidence of that. Following the acclaim he has received for the FX series “The Old Man,” which is based on his 2017 book of the same name, Perry has been in demand. Read More
Teaser
Los Angeles attorney Charles Warren has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme --- one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before and led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience. He can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at and has his briefcase stolen. As Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.
Promo
Los Angeles attorney Charles Warren has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme --- one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before and led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience. He can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at and has his briefcase stolen. As Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.
About the Book
A tenacious attorney grapples with a dangerous group of thieves in this new thriller from the author of THE OLD MAN.
Los Angeles attorney Charles Warren has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme --- one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before and led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience.
Charlie can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at and has his briefcase stolen. It’s clear that someone doesn’t want him following the trail of the missing money. But as Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.
A nail-biting tale of conspiracy and pursuit from Thomas Perry, “a dominating force in the world of contemporary suspense thrillers” (Publishers Weekly), PRO BONO will have readers looking over their shoulders as constantly as they keep turning pages.
Audiobook available, read by L.J. Ganser