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Editorial Content for The Couple in the Photo

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

Lucy and Adam, and Cora and Scott, have been best friends for years. Each couple has two children, who also are best friends. It’s common for Cora and Scott to show up at Lucy and Adam's door with a bottle of wine for a spontaneous evening --- maybe order a pizza and watch the kids romp. And it’s not unusual for Lucy and Adam to drop by Cora and Scott’s for a barbecue. Read More

Teaser

Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. They vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on vacation with another woman. Then she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing. Lucy can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. But searching for answers might uncover secrets about Scott, Cora and even her own husband that could destroy the picture-perfect lives they have built together. Or maybe she was never part of the picture at all. Is it possible that everyone knows more than they are letting on? If so, what are the consequences of exposing the truth?

Promo

Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. They vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on vacation with another woman. Then she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing. Lucy can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. But searching for answers might uncover secrets about Scott, Cora and even her own husband that could destroy the picture-perfect lives they have built together. Or maybe she was never part of the picture at all. Is it possible that everyone knows more than they are letting on? If so, what are the consequences of exposing the truth?

About the Book

Be careful who you sleep with. They've already made their bed.

Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. The four are practically family --- they vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on vacation with another woman.

Then she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing. Lucy can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. But searching for answers might uncover secrets about Scott, Cora and even her own husband that could destroy the picture-perfect lives they have built together. Or maybe she was never part of the picture at all. Is it possible that everyone knows more than they are letting on? If so, what are the consequences of exposing the truth?

Audiobook available, read by Naomi Frederick

Editorial Content for No Way Out: A DI Adam Fawley Thriller

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Cara Hunter, one of Britain’s queens of crime, brings us her latest effort, NO WAY OUT. Set during Christmas time in Oxford, England, the book revolves around a horrific tragedy: a house fire.

Prior to diving into this incident, the novel opens with a report from a firefighter who was called to the scene. Hunter gives us an explicit walkthrough of what happened and the extreme damage done to the house, where it appears no one survived. The residents are identified as Michael and Samantha Esmond, along with their two children: three-year-old Zachary and 10-year-old Matty. Read More

Teaser

It's Christmas in Oxford, and firefighters have pulled two children from the smoking ruin of their home. The mystery deepens when it becomes clear that the parents are nowhere to be found. Why were the children left in the house alone? Why is neither parent answering their phone? Were they kidnapped? Murdered? From the start, DI Adam Fawley knows that this house fire is the scene of a crime, not an accident. Then new evidence comes to light and confirms the team’s worst suspicions. The blaze was arson. Who would have torched a seemingly happy family’s home on Christmas? As DI Fawley and his team of detectives sift through the evidence, old tensions and new problems in the family are slowly revealed. Something terribly out of the ordinary has happened, and the truth slowly begins to reveal itself.

Promo

It's Christmas in Oxford, and firefighters have pulled two children from the smoking ruin of their home. The mystery deepens when it becomes clear that the parents are nowhere to be found. Why were the children left in the house alone? Why is neither parent answering their phone? Were they kidnapped? Murdered? From the start, DI Adam Fawley knows that this house fire is the scene of a crime, not an accident. Then new evidence comes to light and confirms the team’s worst suspicions. The blaze was arson. Who would have torched a seemingly happy family’s home on Christmas? As DI Fawley and his team of detectives sift through the evidence, old tensions and new problems in the family are slowly revealed. Something terribly out of the ordinary has happened, and the truth slowly begins to reveal itself.

About the Book

From Cara Hunter, author of the New York Times bestseller MURDER IN THE FAMILY, comes book three of her DI Adam Fawley series, one of Britain’s most enduringly popular and mega-selling crime series. Fawley investigates a ghastly house fire on Christmas Day and launches an investigation that shocks a community.

It's one of the most disturbing cases DI Adam Fawley has ever worked.

It's Christmas in Oxford, and firefighters have pulled two children from the smoking ruin of their home. The mystery deepens when it becomes clear that the parents are nowhere to be found. Why were the children left in the house alone? Why is neither parent answering their phone? Were they kidnapped? Murdered? From the start, DI Fawley --- still reeling from his own personal tragedy --- knows that this house fire is the scene of a crime, not an accident.

Then new evidence comes to light and confirms the team’s worst suspicions. The blaze was arson. Who would have torched a seemingly happy family’s home on Christmas?

As DI Fawley and his team of detectives sift through the evidence, old tensions and new problems in the family are slowly revealed. Something terribly out of the ordinary has happened, and the truth slowly begins to reveal itself.

A gripping and provocative tale of arson, murder and family intrigue, NO WAY OUT is everything you’d expect from one of Britain’s queen of crime, Cara Hunter.

Audiobook available; read by Lee Ingleby, Emma Cunniffe and Roy McMillan

Editorial Content for Second Chances in New Port Stephen

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

TJ Alexander, the critically acclaimed author of the queer love stories CHEF’S KISS and CHEF’S CHOICE, pens their first holiday romance with SECOND CHANCES IN NEW PORT STEPHEN. This hilarious and poignant rom-com is led by Eli Ward, a trans man who is visiting his home state of Florida to spend Christmas with his parents for the first time since his transition. Read More

Teaser

Eli Ward hasn’t been back to his suffocating hometown of New Port Stephen, Florida, in ages. Post-transition and sober, he’s a completely different person from the one who left years ago. But when a scandal threatens his career as a TV writer and comedian, he has no choice but to return home for the holidays. Just when he thinks this trip couldn’t get any worse, Eli bumps into his high school ex, Nick Wu, who’s somehow hotter than ever. Divorced and in his 40s, Nick’s world revolves around his father, his daughter and his job. But even a busy life can’t keep him from being intrigued by the reappearance of Eli. Against the backdrop of one weird Floridian Christmas, the two must decide whether to leave the past in the past…or move on together.

Promo

Eli Ward hasn’t been back to his suffocating hometown of New Port Stephen, Florida, in ages. Post-transition and sober, he’s a completely different person from the one who left years ago. But when a scandal threatens his career as a TV writer and comedian, he has no choice but to return home for the holidays. Just when he thinks this trip couldn’t get any worse, Eli bumps into his high school ex, Nick Wu, who’s somehow hotter than ever. Divorced and in his 40s, Nick’s world revolves around his father, his daughter and his job. But even a busy life can’t keep him from being intrigued by the reappearance of Eli. Against the backdrop of one weird Floridian Christmas, the two must decide whether to leave the past in the past…or move on together.

About the Book

A trans man returns to his Florida hometown for Christmas after his career goes up in flames, only to cross paths with his high school ex in this charming rom-com about family and second chances from the author of the “delectable” (Time) CHEF'S KISS.

Eli Ward hasn’t been back to his suffocating hometown of New Port Stephen, Florida, in ages. Post-transition and sober, he’s a completely different person from the one who left years ago. But when a scandal threatens his career as a TV writer and comedian, he has no choice but to return home for the holidays. He can only hope he’ll survive his boisterous, loving, but often misguided family and hide the fact that his dream of comedy success has become a nightmare.

Just when he thinks this trip couldn’t get any worse, Eli bumps into his high school ex, Nick Wu, who’s somehow hotter than ever. Divorced and in his 40s, Nick’s world revolves around his father, his daughter and his job. But even a busy life can’t keep him from being intrigued by the reappearance of Eli.

Against the backdrop of one weird Floridian Christmas, the two must decide whether to leave the past in the past…or move on together.

Audiobook available, read by Aden Hakimi and Feodor Chin

How many print books and e-books did you read in 2023? How many audiobooks did you listen to?

December 15, 2023, 664 voters

December 15, 2023 - January 5, 2024

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of December 15 - January 5.

We wrap up this year’s Holiday Author Blog series with Allison Pataki, the New York Times bestselling author of THE TRAITOR'S WIFE, THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS, SISI, THE QUEEN'S FORTUNE and THE MAGNIFICENT LIVES OF MARJORIE POST, as well as the memoir BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN PLACES. Her upcoming novel, FINDING MARGARET FULLER, publishes on March 19th and is an epic imagining of the life of Margaret Fuller --- America’s forgotten leading lady and the central figure of a movement that defined a nation. In 1985, Allison’s aunt gave her and her siblings a copy of the just-released THE POLAR EXPRESS for Christmas. It quickly became a Christmas Eve tradition that her family would gather around and read Chris Van Allsburg’s beloved book before bedtime. What a joyous, comforting and emotional experience it was…and continues to be!

Allison Pataki

Allison Pataki is the New York Times bestselling author of THE TRAITOR'S WIFE, THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS, SISI, THE QUEEN'S FORTUNE, THE MAGNIFICENT LIVES OF MARJORIE POST and FINDING MARGARET FULLER, as well as the memoir BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN PLACES. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.

December 15, 2023

As this is our last Weekly Update newsletter of 2023, I want to give you a bit of an update on what happened this year. Consider it our version of the family holiday card.

We hosted 11 “Bookaccino Live” book preview events and eight “Bookaccino Live” Book Group programs, and I conducted 40 “Bookreporter Talks To” interviews. We have 583,540 video and podcast views, and 4,421 subscribers to our YouTube channel. We reviewed 678 books, and we have enjoyed your responses to our polls, as well as your comments on Word of Mouth.

Bookreporter Reviewers' Favorite Books of 2023

Recently we asked our reviewers to provide us with a list of their favorite books from 2023. Included is a mix of fiction and nonfiction titles, all published for the first time this year. Take a moment to read these varied lists of titles and see if you agree with any of their selections! Please note that due to personal and professional commitments, some reviewers were not able to participate in this feature.

Armando Lucas Correa is the author of the international bestseller THE GERMAN GIRL; THE DAUGHTER’S TALE; and THE NIGHT TRAVELER, for which he was awarded the Cintas Foundation Creative Writing Fellowship. His latest novel, THE SILENCE IN HER EYES, releases on January 16th. This bold and suspenseful psychological thriller is about a young woman with a rare neurological condition who is convinced her neighbor is going to be murdered. Armando grew up in Cuba with his sister, and there was a long period of time when Christmas and Three Kings Day were banned in that country. However, as he explains in this powerful piece, that did not stop his grandparents from continuing to celebrate the holidays.