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Editorial Content for How to End a Love Story

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Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

By all accounts, Helen Zhang's life has been a success story. She's the bestselling author of one of the most popular young adult fantasy series in recent years that is now under development as a television show, for which she has been included on the writing team. But almost no one knows that Helen is lonely in New York or that she’s looking forward to a brief respite from writing --- not because of the chance to rub elbows with stars but because she's been unable to produce a new novel. Read More

Teaser

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the 13 years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels. Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well-liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects. But when secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. Yet the key to making peace with their past --- and themselves --- just might lie in holding on to each other in the present.

Promo

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the 13 years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels. Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well-liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects. But when secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. Yet the key to making peace with their past --- and themselves --- just might lie in holding on to each other in the present.

About the Book

A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang.

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the 13 years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except...

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him --- charming, funny, popular and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen is exactly as Grant remembers too --- brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. Yet the key to making peace with their past --- and themselves --- might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

Audiobook available, read by Katharine Chin and Andrew Eiden

Editorial Content for A Game of Lies

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Reality competition television has long been a regular form of programming around the world and has become fodder for the psychological thriller genre. Clare Mackintosh tackles this subject in her latest novel, A GAME OF LIES. Read More

Teaser

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they've signed up for. Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won't just be eliminated --- they'll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they'd ever imagined, and they're trapped. The disappearance of a contestant wasn't supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she's watched on screen and find out who these people really are --- knowing she can't trust any of them. And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi…and a secret worth killing for.

Promo

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they've signed up for. Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won't just be eliminated --- they'll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they'd ever imagined, and they're trapped. The disappearance of a contestant wasn't supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she's watched on screen and find out who these people really are --- knowing she can't trust any of them. And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi…and a secret worth killing for.

About the Book

They say the camera never lies. But on this show, you can't trust anything you see.

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they've signed up for.

Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won't just be eliminated --- they'll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they'd ever imagined, and they're trapped.

The disappearance of a contestant wasn't supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she's watched on screen and find out who these people really are --- knowing she can't trust any of them.

And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi…and a secret worth killing for.

Audiobook available, read by Chloe Angharad Davies

Editorial Content for The Gathering

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Imagine a horror novel that combines Stephen King’s SALEM’S LOT with the creepy film 30 Days of Night, and you will have just a small “bite” of what C.J. Tudor has created in what may be her most powerful book to date. Read More

Teaser

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods. Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing --- and authorize a cull. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone. As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found.

Promo

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods. Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing --- and authorize a cull. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone. As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found.

About the Book

A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caught up in the dark secrets and superstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of THE CHALK MAN.

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart haven’t seen a killing like this in 25 years. But they know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods.

Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing --- and authorize a cull. Old suspicions die hard in a town like Deadhart, but Barbara isn’t so sure. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone.

As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found. While the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, a killer stalks Deadhart, and two disparate communities circle each other for blood. Time is running out for Atkins and Tucker to find the truth: Are they hunting a bloodthirsty monster...or a twisted psychopath? And which is more dangerous?

Audiobook available, read by Lorelei King

Editorial Content for All That Happiness Is: Some Words on What Matters

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

In his 2023 book, THE REAL WORK: On the Mystery of Mastery, Adam Gopnik drew from his own experience as a novice in activities that ranged from baking to boxing, urging readers to “better see yourself as a self, a constructed self, made out of appetites turned into accomplishments.” One might consider ALL THAT HAPPINESS IS --- a single essay about the length of one of Gopnik’s longer pieces for The New Yorker, his home as a staff writer for nearly fo Read More

Teaser

Our society is obsessed with achievement. Young people are pushed toward the next test or the “best” grammar school, high school or college they can get into. Adults push themselves toward the highest-paying, most prestigious jobs, seeking promotions and public recognition. As Adam Gopnik points out, the result is not so much a rat race as a rat maze, with no way out. Except one: to choose accomplishment over achievement. Achievement, Gopnik argues, is the completion of the task imposed from outside. Accomplishment, by contrast, is the end point of an engulfing activity one engages in for its own sake. In ALL THAT HAPPINESS IS, Gopnik demonstrates that while self-directed passions sometimes do lead to a career, the contentment that flows from accomplishment is available to each of us.

Promo

Our society is obsessed with achievement. Young people are pushed toward the next test or the “best” grammar school, high school or college they can get into. Adults push themselves toward the highest-paying, most prestigious jobs, seeking promotions and public recognition. As Adam Gopnik points out, the result is not so much a rat race as a rat maze, with no way out. Except one: to choose accomplishment over achievement. Achievement, Gopnik argues, is the completion of the task imposed from outside. Accomplishment, by contrast, is the end point of an engulfing activity one engages in for its own sake. In ALL THAT HAPPINESS IS, Gopnik demonstrates that while self-directed passions sometimes do lead to a career, the contentment that flows from accomplishment is available to each of us.

About the Book

From New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, a slim, elegant volume presenting a radical alternative to our culture of relentless striving.

Our society is obsessed with achievement. Young people are pushed toward the next test or the “best” grammar school, high school or college they can get into. Adults push themselves toward the highest-paying, most prestigious jobs, seeking promotions and public recognition. As Adam Gopnik points out, the result is not so much a rat race as a rat maze, with no way out. Except one: to choose accomplishment over achievement. Achievement, Gopnik argues, is the completion of the task imposed from outside. Accomplishment, by contrast, is the end point of an engulfing activity one engages in for its own sake.

From stories of artists, philosophers and scientists to his own fumbling attempts to play Beatles songs on a guitar, Gopnik demonstrates that while self-directed passions sometimes do lead to a career, the contentment that flows from accomplishment is available to each of us.

A book to read and return to at any age, ALL THAT HAPPINESS IS offers timeless wisdom against the grain.

Editorial Content for Assassin Eighteen

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN follows the opening installment of John Brownlow’s series, SEVENTEEN: Last Man Standing. Each "assassin" is named for his numerical place as the world's #1 killer for hire. When the up-and-coming prospective assassin manages to kill the current top assassin, he or she then takes the latter role and assumes the next number as his or her "title." In the first book, Seventeen was given the assignment to kill Sixteen. Read More

Teaser

Agent Seventeen, the most infamous hit man in the world, has quit. But whoever wants to become Assassin Eighteen must track him down and kill him first. So when a bullet hits the glass inches from his face, he knows who fired it. Doesn't he? It turns out that the sniper isn't the hardened killer he was expecting. It's Mireille, a mysterious silent child abandoned in the woods with instructions to pull the trigger. Reuniting with his spiky lover, Kat, Seventeen has to protect Mireille and discover who sent her to kill him and why. But the road he must travel is littered with bodies. And the answer, when it comes, will blow apart everything Seventeen thought he knew.

Promo

Agent Seventeen, the most infamous hit man in the world, has quit. But whoever wants to become Assassin Eighteen must track him down and kill him first. So when a bullet hits the glass inches from his face, he knows who fired it. Doesn't he? It turns out that the sniper isn't the hardened killer he was expecting. It's Mireille, a mysterious silent child abandoned in the woods with instructions to pull the trigger. Reuniting with his spiky lover, Kat, Seventeen has to protect Mireille and discover who sent her to kill him and why. But the road he must travel is littered with bodies. And the answer, when it comes, will blow apart everything Seventeen thought he knew.

About the Book

I am waiting for someone to kill me. Tonight would be a good night for it.

Agent Seventeen, the most infamous hit man in the world, has quit. But whoever wants to become Assassin Eighteen must track him down and kill him first. So when a bullet hits the glass inches from his face, he knows who fired it. Doesn't he?

It turns out that the sniper isn't the hardened killer he was expecting. It's Mireille, a mysterious silent child abandoned in the woods with instructions to pull the trigger. Reuniting with his spiky lover, Kat, Seventeen has to protect Mireille and discover who sent her to kill him and why. But the road he must travel is littered with bodies. And the answer, when it comes, will blow apart everything Seventeen thought he knew.

Audiobook available, read by Adam Sims

Editorial Content for Don't Turn Around

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

It is a full moon that initially draws 11-year-old Kate Summerlin into the backyard of her home in Alexander in upstate New York. Her father is a professor at nearby Seagate College, and she has quite an imagination. While looking for the perfect place to see the moon in the middle of the night, she travels beyond the confines of the family barn. Read More

Teaser

When Kate Summerlin was 11 years old, she climbed out her bedroom window looking for a taste of freedom. But what she found as she wandered in the woods near her house was something else: the body of a beautiful young woman, the first of Merkury’s victims. And before she could come to grips with what she was seeing, she heard a voice behind her --- the killer’s voice --- saying: “Don’t turn around.” Now, Kate is a successful true crime writer, but she has never told anyone the truth about what happened on that long-ago night. When Merkury claims yet another victim, a college student, Kate finds herself drawn back to the town where everything started. She sets out to make sense of this latest crime, but the deeper she gets into the story, the more she comes to realize that it’s far from over.

Promo

When Kate Summerlin was 11 years old, she climbed out her bedroom window looking for a taste of freedom. But what she found as she wandered in the woods near her house was something else: the body of a beautiful young woman, the first of Merkury’s victims. And before she could come to grips with what she was seeing, she heard a voice behind her --- the killer’s voice --- saying: “Don’t turn around.” Now, Kate is a successful true crime writer, but she has never told anyone the truth about what happened on that long-ago night. When Merkury claims yet another victim, a college student, Kate finds herself drawn back to the town where everything started. She sets out to make sense of this latest crime, but the deeper she gets into the story, the more she comes to realize that it’s far from over.

About the Book

The police call him Merkury. He’s a killer who seems to choose his victims at random. He leaves no evidence behind, and no witnesses. Except for one. But what did she really see?

When Kate Summerlin was 11 years old, she climbed out her bedroom window on a spring night, looking for a taste of freedom in the small college town where she was living with her parents. But what she found as she wandered in the woods near her house was something else: the body of a beautiful young woman, the first of Merkury’s victims. And before she could come to grips with what she was seeing, she heard a voice behind her --- the killer’s voice --- saying: “Don’t turn around.”

Now, at the age of 29, Kate is a successful true crime writer, but she has never told anyone the truth about what happened on that long-ago night. When Merkury claims yet another victim --- a college student named Bryan Cayhill --- Kate finds herself drawn back to the town where everything started. She sets out to make sense of this latest crime, but the deeper she gets into the story, the more she comes to realize that it’s far from over. Her search for the truth about Merkury is leading her down into a dark labyrinth, and if she hopes to escape, she’ll have to meet him once again --- this time face-to-face.

April 26, 2024

As I have traveled the country over the past couple of decades, I have enjoyed spending time in indie stores in sooooooo many cities. I count a number of indie booksellers as friends, and I love hearing about their experiences as small business owners, as much as I love hearing their book recommendations. Many of them are tastemakers, whose opinions on books are sought way before the time of publication. Some get very early copies of books, typically just beyond the final manuscript stage, to share their feedback for early praise. A few of them are “go-to” people for me when I am looking to discuss books for the upcoming seasons.

Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda

April 2024

Megan Miranda has ratcheted up her thriller game with DAUGHTER OF MINE. First, let’s pull in a climate/environmental issue with a lake receding as there are days without rain and a clear forecast. Feeling parched as you read? I get it. So what happens when the water recedes? Well, things that were hidden suddenly come to light. Sitting on the edge of your seat yet?

If not, try this. Hazel, the daughter of the local longtime detective of Mirror Lake, inherits her childhood home. Why is this so unexpected? I’m not going to give it away, but there’s twist number one when you get there. Hazel has left town for almost a decade at this point, and she is not ready to race back, even if there is a house waiting for her. She has her own business with two friends, and she’s happy with her new life.

The Wives: A Memoir by Simone Gorrindo

April 2024

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a pre-publication lunch and talking to Simone Gorrindo about THE WIVES. At the time, I had heard about the book but had not read a word of it. I enjoyed our conversation, and when I was reading it, I found Simone’s voice on the page to be as honest and engaging as she had been in person. I started off listening to the audiobook; I always love it when an author reads his or her memoir. I later picked up the book as I can read faster than I listen.

There are so many moments that I loved here, but what Simone wrote so well is about the camaraderie among these women, all of whom were united by one common thread --- they were the wives of men in combat or training for combat.

Is there an independent bookstore near your home?

April 26, 2024, 558 voters