June 30, 2025
There is something about the summer that allows me to get a lot of books read. How can I possibly have more time in the summer than I do in the winter? Well, I do save time watering the house plants as they are all outside being watered by the sprinkler system, but I am trying to figure out what else lends itself to more reading time. I seem to have no problem reading beside the pool, or in the pool. I feel like there are fewer distractions. I can even tune out the birds, the squirrels and the chipmunks! There is just a calm that moves over the summer that lets me unwind.
Fiona Davis Book Group Event
Fiona Davis Book Group Event
Editorial Content for Glass Girls
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In the realm of horror, family dysfunction is not an unusual theme. Ghosts and haunted houses may be stand-ins for trauma or violence in the past. Danie Shokoohi’s debut novel, GLASS GIRLS, joins the ranks of authors exploring both the metaphysical and the familial with a story of abuse, recovery and magic. Read More
Teaser
Alice Haserot thought she’d escaped the curse. For 16 years, she’s lived far from her family and the ghosts she used to conjure. But her past isn’t so easily left behind. When Alice discovers she’s pregnant and her estranged sister, Bronwyn, turns up on her doorstep, her carefully built new life begins to unravel. Bronwyn offers an ultimatum: one of her daughters is trying to possess the other, and only Alice has the power to save them. If Alice refuses, Bronwyn will go to their abusive mother and expose her location. Forced to confront the terrors of her childhood, Alice returns home to face the inheritance of her family curse.
Promo
Alice Haserot thought she’d escaped the curse. For 16 years, she’s lived far from her family and the ghosts she used to conjure. But her past isn’t so easily left behind. When Alice discovers she’s pregnant and her estranged sister, Bronwyn, turns up on her doorstep, her carefully built new life begins to unravel. Bronwyn offers an ultimatum: one of her daughters is trying to possess the other, and only Alice has the power to save them. If Alice refuses, Bronwyn will go to their abusive mother and expose her location. Forced to confront the terrors of her childhood, Alice returns home to face the inheritance of her family curse.
About the Book
A former child medium is forced to face her deadly past and the ghosts she left behind in this electrifying debut.
Alice Haserot thought she’d escaped the curse. For 16 years, she’s lived far from her family and the ghosts she used to conjure. But her past isn’t so easily left behind.
When Alice discovers she’s pregnant and her estranged sister, Bronwyn, turns up on her doorstep, her carefully built new life begins to unravel. Bronwyn offers an ultimatum: one of her daughters is trying to possess the other, and only Alice has the power to save them. If Alice refuses, Bronwyn will go to their abusive mother and expose her location.
Forced to confront the terrors of her childhood, Alice returns home to face the inheritance of her family curse. Tautly paced and gorgeously written, GLASS GIRLS explores the deep, complicated bonds of family and the shadows that follow us, no matter how far we run.
Audiobook available, read by Christine Lakin
Editorial Content for Far and Away
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
FAR AND AWAY is as large as life, as its Texas setting might imply. But it's also filled with art and culture, as one might presume from the other setting in Berlin. Amy Poeppel is brutally frank about the Texas heat in the summer, but she's equally upfront about the culture shock an American might experience in Germany. This novel is touching and tender, but it's also quirky and filled with misunderstandings and missed opportunities. There's humor and deception, but most of all, there's love of family. Read More
Teaser
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.
Promo
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.
About the Book
The “absolutely hilarious” (Real Simple) Amy Poeppel delights once again with a charming new novel about a house swap gone wonderfully awry.
Perfect strangers Lucy and Greta have agreed to a house swap --- and boy, are they going to regret it.
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. And 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 --- thanks to martinis, desperation, and some very rusty German --- 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. Greta and Lucy’s husbands are no help: Otto is winning over his colleagues, swimming laps in the backyard pool, and rooting for the Rangers, while Lucy’s husband is doing a six-month stretch out west, either in a NASA biosphere or in jail, depending on who you ask. Meanwhile, Greta’s daughter, Emmi, and Lucy’s son, Jack, get tossed into each other’s orbits, where they both discover secrets they can’t ignore.
When Greta’s biggest career achievement --- the buzzworthy purchase of a Vermeer at auction --- is thrown into question and Lucy’s past with a hot Viking named Bjørn invades her present, the two women need each other in ways they never could have imagined. 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.
Audiobook available; read by Patti Murin, Lisa Flanagan, Jennifer Jill Araya, Kevin R. Free and Pete Simonelli
Editorial Content for The Medusa Protocol
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Rob Hart follows up his immensely unique work, ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS, with a sequel, THE MEDUSA PROTOCOL. In the first book, we met Mark, who had spent years as a feared assassin with the nickname Pale Horse. Read More
Teaser
When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign…or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message? Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. It turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone, up.
Promo
When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign…or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message? Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. It turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone, up.
About the Book
Welcome back to Assassins Anonymous, the only 12-step group where joining can be deadly.
When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign…or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?
Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. It turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone, up.
Audiobook available, read by Amy Landon and Neill Thorne












