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Editorial Content for 1861: The Lost Peace

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Curtis Edmonds

“Not that I gave a two-cent dam for that, you understand, and still don’t. They could have kept their idiotic Civil War for me, for (my own skin’s safety apart) it was the foulest, most useless conflict in history, the mass suicide of the flower of the British-American race --- and for what? Black freedom, which would have come in a few years anyway, as sure as sunrise. And all of those boys could have been sitting in the twilight…” Read More

Teaser

1861: THE LOST PEACE is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision to go to war against the Confederacy at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions. Through Jay Winik’s singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Readers will glimpse inside Lincoln’s cabinet, which rivaled the executive in its authority --- a fact too often forgotten --- and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death.

Promo

1861: THE LOST PEACE is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision to go to war against the Confederacy at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions. Through Jay Winik’s singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Readers will glimpse inside Lincoln’s cabinet, which rivaled the executive in its authority --- a fact too often forgotten --- and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death.

About the Book

From an award-winning historian and New York Times bestselling author, a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln's decision to go to war against the Confederacy.

1861: THE LOST PEACE is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.

Through Jay Winik’s singular reporting and storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Readers will glimpse inside Lincoln’s cabinet, which rivaled the executive in its authority --- a fact too often forgotten --- and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death.

A perfect read for history buffs, with timely overtones to our current political climate.

Audiobook available, read by Arthur Morey

Editorial Content for Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

For 20 years, Lloyd McNeil has been a cop with the Atlanta PD. Unfortunately, he’s not going to make it to 21. It has nothing to do with his job and everything to do with the brain tumor growing in his head. And it’s not just any brain tumor but a glioblastoma, the mother of all brain tumors. His doctor told him that he probably has just three months left, so it’s time to get his affairs in order. Read More

Teaser

Lloyd McNeil has just learned he has months to live. He also learns that his 20 years as a beat cop in Atlanta haven’t earned him enough money to take care of his teenage son, Bishop, after he’s gone. But when Lloyd discovers his police benefits will increase exponentially if he dies in the line of duty, he comes up with a plan. Lloyd begins to throw himself into one life-threatening situation after another to try to get himself killed and to provide for his son…but he keeps failing --- and surviving. To his shock, his accidental heroics make him an inspirational icon in the community. But time is still running out for Lloyd to get his affairs in order, to teach Bishop the lessons he needs to be a good person, and to say goodbye.

Promo

Lloyd McNeil has just learned he has months to live. He also learns that his 20 years as a beat cop in Atlanta haven’t earned him enough money to take care of his teenage son, Bishop, after he’s gone. But when Lloyd discovers his police benefits will increase exponentially if he dies in the line of duty, he comes up with a plan. Lloyd begins to throw himself into one life-threatening situation after another to try to get himself killed and to provide for his son…but he keeps failing --- and surviving. To his shock, his accidental heroics make him an inspirational icon in the community. But time is still running out for Lloyd to get his affairs in order, to teach Bishop the lessons he needs to be a good person, and to say goodbye.

About the Book

From the Alex Award-winning and Edgar-nominated author of HOW LUCKY, this twisty, funny and ultimately uplifting novel follows a father in a race against time to provide for his child.

Lloyd McNeil has just learned he has months to live. He also learns that his 20 years as a beat cop in Atlanta haven’t earned him enough money to take care of his teenage son, Bishop, after he’s gone. But when Lloyd discovers his police benefits will increase exponentially if he dies in the line of duty, he comes up with a plan.

Lloyd begins to throw himself into one life-threatening situation after another to try to get himself killed and to provide for his son…but he keeps failing --- and surviving. To his shock, his accidental heroics make him an inspirational icon in the community. But time is still running out for Lloyd to get his affairs in order, to teach Bishop the lessons he needs to be a good person, and to say goodbye.

LLOYD McNEIL'S LAST RIDE is a surprising, unforgettable blend of suspense, humor and compassion. It is a novel about what we leave behind and what we learn along the way, a big-hearted and stirring story about the depths of a father’s love for his son.

Audiobook available, read by Chris Andrew Ciulla

Editorial Content for Endling

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Although it starts off somewhat traditionally, the beginning of Maria Reva's ENDLING does lay the groundwork for the experimental structure that follows by throwing a variety of seemingly unrelated strands at readers. The novel opens with a snapshot of the overall mundanity of life in wartime: “In the cities, buildings still stood whole…. Beyond the cities, fields. Yellow and brown, pockmarked by farmhouses, sliced by trenches for irrigation. Beyond the fields, sky…. Not much fell from it yet, the occasional bird.” Read More

Teaser

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.

Promo

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.

About the Book

Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love and the impact of war.

Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab. She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down and finally start a family of her own. What they don’t know: 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 --- a flamboyant protestor who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours.

So begins a journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.

But their plans come to a screeching halt as Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious metafictional spiral, ENDLING brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing on Reva’s own experiences tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from overseas: can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion?

ENDLING is a tour de force from an author on the cutting edge of fiction, weaving a story of love, loss, humor and devastation that only she can tell.

Audiobook available, read by Max Meyers and Saskia Maarleveld

Editorial Content for Their Double Lives

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Jaime Lynn Hendricks knows how to construct a craveable thriller. THEIR DOUBLE LIVES provides a puzzle of a mystery involving multiple narratives, character perspectives and timelines. Read More

Teaser

A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then a mysterious figure called The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink; when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life. Her target turns out to be Tony Fiore, Kim’s bad boy ex-boyfriend from high school. Stunned to see Tony again, Kim can’t bring herself to go through with spiking his drink. Instead, it is Tony’s gorgeous fiancée, PJ Walsh, who dies horrifically at the table just as dinner ends.

Promo

A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then a mysterious figure called The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink; when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life. Her target turns out to be Tony Fiore, Kim’s bad boy ex-boyfriend from high school. Stunned to see Tony again, Kim can’t bring herself to go through with spiking his drink. Instead, it is Tony’s gorgeous fiancée, PJ Walsh, who dies horrifically at the table just as dinner ends.

About the Book

Living a double life always comes with a cost.

A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then her luck seems to change when a mysterious figure identifying themself only as The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink; when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life.

Her target turns out to be Tony Fiore, Kim’s bad boy ex-boyfriend from high school. Fifteen years have passed, and he now goes by Anthony Fuller. He’s cleaned up, made tens of millions, and his gorgeous fiancée, 22-year-old PJ Walsh, is on his arm.

PJ had her own agenda from the second she met Anthony. Find him, trick him, marry him, kill him. It was supposed to be easy, but she finds that while living her double life, the lines blur between who she is and who she’s pretending to be.

Stunned to see Tony again, Kim can’t bring herself to go through with spiking his drink. Instead, it is PJ who dies horrifically at the table just as dinner ends. Was someone else at the club --- member or worker --- tasked with poisoning PJ just as she had been instructed to do to Tony? Who would want both of them dead? With no one to trust and The Stranger to answer to, Kim must peel back the layers of deceit to reveal a deeply buried truth, more shocking than she could ever imagine.

Audiobook available, read by Emma Love

Which of the following fiction titles releasing in June do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.

June 6, 2025, 1266 voters

June 6, 2025 - June 20, 2025

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of June 6 - June 20.

June 6, 2025

Late last Friday night, I received a message from Annalisa Hartlaub, who shared the incredibly sad news that her father, Joe Hartlaub --- our Senior Writer Emeritus and beloved mystery/thriller/crime book reviewer --- died last Thursday after a brief illness at the way too young age of 73.

Joe had retired from writing for us in 2021 after 24 years and over 3,000(!) reviews (he joined us just one year after Bookreporter launched). He leaves behind his family and so many friends, including authors who appreciated his writing about their work. He loved wearing hats, favoring fedoras but sporting the pork pie hat on occasion as well. Joe’s full obituary is here. He will be so missed. His upbeat voice on the phone always made us smile, and his Happy Birthday serenades were so special.

Week of June 23, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of June 23rd include Kevin Barry’s first novel set in America, THE HEART IN WINTER, a savagely funny and achingly romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana; BEAR by Julia Phillips, a mesmerizing novel of two sisters whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor; Fiona Barton's TALKING TO STRANGERS, a nail-biting mystery that finds Detective Elise King’s investigation into a woman’s murder getting derailed by a reporter who insists on doing her own investigation; ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, a groundbreaking oral history of one of the most enduring musical acts of all time, from Beatles intimate Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines; and the paperback original WRITING MR. WRONG by Kelley Armstrong, a second-chance rom-com about a debut author who unexpectedly goes viral when readers discover that her hero was inspired by a beloved pro hockey player --- and her high school crush.

Week of June 16, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of June 16th include WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?, an unputdownable thriller from the “queen of the one-sit read,” Shari Lapena, that unravels the secrets of the seemingly peaceful town of Fairhill, Vermont; BETWEEN THE WORLD AND METa-Nehisi Coates' profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about America's racial history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son; NOW OR NEVER, the 31st Stephanie Plum mystery from Janet Evanovich, who has written a staggering 45 New York Times bestsellers over the last three decades; J. Courtney Sullivan's THE CLIFFS, an enthralling novel of family, secrets, ghosts and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine; and BEN & MEan unconventional biography in which Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, mining his life for inspiration and practical lessons for living a purposeful and virtuous life.

Week of June 9, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of June 9th include THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON CLUB, Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan, which finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances; JACKIE, a mesmerizing novel about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis from Dawn Tripp, who has crafted an intimate story of love and power, family and tragedy, loss and reinvention; Janice Hallett's THE EXAMINER, an innovative page-turner --- told in emails, text messages and essays --- that follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry; and two paperback originals: JILL IS NOT HAPPY by Kaira Rouda, a twisty and page-turning domestic thriller in which an ill-fated road trip resurrects a married couple's darkest secrets, and Amy Poeppel's FAR AND AWAY, a charming novel about a house swap gone wonderfully awry.