Editorial Content for The Love Haters
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Reviewer (text)
When I read my first Katherine Center rom-com, I realized that her novels are about so much more than “just” romance and falling in love. Her latest book, THE LOVE HATERS, exemplifies this concept perfectly. It's certainly about two people falling in love, but it's also about love in general (not the romantic kind) and learning to love ourselves. At times, especially in our current social media culture, we feel that everything needs to be perfect. But how many of us truly are? Read More
Teaser
Katie Vaughn has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer, or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie is not exactly qualified. She can’t swim --- but pretends that she can. Plus, Cole and Hutch are brothers. And they don’t get along. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen…but maybe a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two. Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes and stolen kisses ensue --- along with chances to tell the truth, face old fears, and be truly brave at last.
Promo
Katie Vaughn has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer, or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie is not exactly qualified. She can’t swim --- but pretends that she can. Plus, Cole and Hutch are brothers. And they don’t get along. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen…but maybe a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two. Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes and stolen kisses ensue --- along with chances to tell the truth, face old fears, and be truly brave at last.
About the Book
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating in the newest laugh-out-loud, all-the-feels rom-com by New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past --- now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer, or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie is not exactly qualified. She can’t swim --- but pretends that she can.
Plus, Cole and Hutch are brothers. And they don’t get along. Next stop: paradise! But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen...but maybe a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes and stolen kisses ensue --- along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
Audiobook available, read by Patti Murin
Editorial Content for Mark Twain
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Reviewer (text)
Esteemed biographer Ron Chernow offers an extensive, intensive and sensitive view of Mark Twain, whose writings --- both fictional and factual --- comprise true American literature. Read More
Teaser
Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care.
Promo
Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care.
About the Book
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain.
Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper, writing dispatches that attracted attention for their brashness and humor. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize.
In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist and lecturer, he eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. He threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture, and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.
Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization and foreign wars, and who was the most important white author of his generation to grapple so fully with the legacy of slavery. Today, more than 100 years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.
Audiobook available, read by Jason Culp
Editorial Content for Parents Weekend
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Reviewer (text)
Alex Finlay’s PARENTS WEEKEND cuts right to the heart of a very real nightmare that anyone who is a parent regularly experiences --- the possibility that their child might be abducted.
In this story, which is told mostly from the perspective of five sets of parents who are visiting a small private college in Northern California, we are thrust into the middle of Parents Weekend and the realization that something may be up when none of the five students show up for an agreed-upon private dinner with their folks at a local restaurant. Read More
Teaser
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids --- five residents of Campisi Hall --- never show up at dinner. As the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix and Stella --- The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers and TikTok sleuths call them --- come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers that have come to cause them peril, or a threat to the friend group from within?
Promo
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids --- five residents of Campisi Hall --- never show up at dinner. As the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix and Stella --- The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers and TikTok sleuths call them --- come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers that have come to cause them peril, or a threat to the friend group from within?
About the Book
From the bestselling author of IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids --- five residents of Campisi Hall --- never show up at dinner.
At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl, and questions arise.
Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix and Stella --- The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers and TikTok sleuths call them --- come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers that have come to cause them peril, or a threat to the friend group from within?
Told through multiple points of view in past and present --- and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from EVERY LAST FEAR and THE NIGHT SHIFT --- PARENTS WEEKEND explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.
Audiobook available, read by Brittany Pressley
Editorial Content for The Last Ferry Out
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Reviewer (text)
Andrea Bartz, the New York Times bestselling author of THE SPARE ROOM and the Reese’s Book Club pick WE WERE NEVER HERE, is back with another twisty, suspenseful thriller. This time, she takes her fiction abroad to the Mexican Caribbean, where secrets roll in as sneakily as the waves. Read More
Teaser
When Abby steps foot on Isla Colel, she isn’t sure what she’ll find. She only knows that she needs to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died to try and make sense of the tragic accident. Though the island was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane has left it a shell of its former self, with only a handful of residents remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now runs every week or so. There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s final days. Before he can tell her more, though, he vanishes from the island. As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life.
Promo
When Abby steps foot on Isla Colel, she isn’t sure what she’ll find. She only knows that she needs to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died to try and make sense of the tragic accident. Though the island was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane has left it a shell of its former self, with only a handful of residents remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now runs every week or so. There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s final days. Before he can tell her more, though, he vanishes from the island. As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life.
About the Book
On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident --- and the killer is still on the island --- in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese's Book Club pick WE WERE NEVER HERE.
Paradise hides a deadly secret.
When Abby steps foot on Isla Colel, she isn’t sure what --- if anything --- she’ll find. She only knows that she needs to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died to try and make sense of the tragic accident.
The island is nothing like Abby expected. Though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane has left it a shell of its former self, with only a handful of residents remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now runs every week or so.
There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s final days. Before he can tell her more, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the others are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.
As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects that one of them is Eszter’s killer --- and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will Abby discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
Audiobook available; read by Dani Martineck, Imani Jade Powers and Natasha Soudek
Editorial Content for Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE reminds us once again of a well-known quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” Read More
Teaser
Rich Cohen’s MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE is the chilling, unputdownable story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan Country School one morning and vanished. Her body has never been found. Dulos was in the midst of an ugly divorce --- one of the most contentious in Connecticut state history. The couple, a beautiful, highly connected pair, met at Brown University, had five children, and led what appeared to be a charmed life. In the wake of her disappearance, Dulos’ husband and his girlfriend were arrested. He killed himself on the day he was supposed to report to court. She was tried and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.
Promo
Rich Cohen’s MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE is the chilling, unputdownable story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan Country School one morning and vanished. Her body has never been found. Dulos was in the midst of an ugly divorce --- one of the most contentious in Connecticut state history. The couple, a beautiful, highly connected pair, met at Brown University, had five children, and led what appeared to be a charmed life. In the wake of her disappearance, Dulos’ husband and his girlfriend were arrested. He killed himself on the day he was supposed to report to court. She was tried and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.
About the Book
A nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Jennifer Dulos and the aftershocks that rattled a wealthy suburb.
Rich Cohen’s MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE is the chilling, unputdownable story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan Country School one morning and vanished. Her body has never been found.
Dulos was in the midst of an ugly divorce --- one of the most contentious in Connecticut state history. The couple, a beautiful, highly connected pair, met at Brown University, had five children, and led what appeared to be a charmed life. In the wake of her disappearance, Dulos’ husband and his girlfriend were arrested. He killed himself on the day he was supposed to report to court. She was tried and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.
A gripping story of status, wealth, love and hate, MURDER IN THE DOLLHOUSE peers beneath the sparkling veneer of propriety that surrounded the Duloses to uncover the origins and motivations of a crime that has become a national obsession.
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini
Editorial Content for Death at a Highland Wedding: A Rip Through Time Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The fourth and latest entry in Kelley Armstrong’s delightful time-travel mystery series, DEATH AT A HIGHLAND WEDDING, might be my favorite one yet. Mallory Atkinson, a 21st-century Canadian detective who has traveled back in time to the 1870s, journeys with her employer, Duncan Gray, along with his family and friends, to Scotland for the wedding of Hugh McCreadie's sister. Read More
Teaser
After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchell and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie. Mallory, Gray and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie's younger sister's wedding. When they arrive at the Cranston estate, Gray and Mallory decide to explore the castle and the surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who's been caught and severely injured. When one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.
Promo
After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchell and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie. Mallory, Gray and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie's younger sister's wedding. When they arrive at the Cranston estate, Gray and Mallory decide to explore the castle and the surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who's been caught and severely injured. When one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.
About the Book
DEATH AT A HIGHLAND WEDDING is the fourth installment in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's gripping Rip Through Time novels.
After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchell. Although it isn’t what she expected, she's developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.
Mallory, Gray and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie's younger sister's wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful, so Gray, and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness.
They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who's been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat's injuries don't match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.
New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s unique time travel mystery series continues to entertain as Mallory adjusts to life in the 1870s.
Audiobook available, read by Kate Handford
Editorial Content for The Lilac People
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Reviewer (text)
Transgender people have been part of every major civilization and social movement across time on this planet, yet so little of the effect of world events on this community gets told. Thankfully, Milo Todd is doing something about it. His debut novel, THE LILAC PEOPLE, looks at the plight of trans individuals during and after World War II, a period when the LGBTQ+ Holocaust survivors experienced both the hope of a better life and the fear of continued oppression, even in a free world. Read More
Teaser
In 1932 Berlin, a trans man named Bertie and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond. But everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The Institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation. In the final days of the war, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him --- not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country.
Promo
In 1932 Berlin, a trans man named Bertie and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond. But everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The Institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation. In the final days of the war, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him --- not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country.
About the Book
A moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis and then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves, for readers of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE and IN MEMORIAM.
In 1932 Berlin, a trans man named Bertie and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond. But everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The Institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation.
In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him --- not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies' vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation is to flee to the United States.
Brimming with hope, resilience and the enduring power of community, THE LILAC PEOPLE tells an extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an unknown moment of World War II and trans history.
Audiobook available, read by Max Meyers
Editorial Content for Heart, Be at Peace
Book
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Reviewer (text)
Life in Ireland’s small towns has provided a seemingly inexhaustible source of material to the writers of a country whose contribution to world literature dwarfs its population. It’s not necessary to reach back into literary history to find them when there are so many fine recent examples, like Niall Williams’ TIME OF THE CHILD, Colin Barrett’s WILD HOUSES, and Caoillin Hughes’ THE ALTERNATIVES. Read More
Teaser
In a small town in Ireland, the local people have weathered the storm of economic collapse and now look to the future: The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the scars of its history, new stories have begun to unfold. But an insidious menace now creeps through back-alley shadows and into the lives of the townspeople. Old grudges fester, and new ones arise. Young people are lured by the promise of fast money, while the generation above them tries to hold back the tide of an enemy beyond their control. And the peace of this town is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way.
Promo
In a small town in Ireland, the local people have weathered the storm of economic collapse and now look to the future: The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the scars of its history, new stories have begun to unfold. But an insidious menace now creeps through back-alley shadows and into the lives of the townspeople. Old grudges fester, and new ones arise. Young people are lured by the promise of fast money, while the generation above them tries to hold back the tide of an enemy beyond their control. And the peace of this town is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way.
About the Book
From one of the most acclaimed Irish writers today, a new novel about small-town Ireland that explores a community on the mend and the power of love and trauma to both bring people together and divide them.
“I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise...”
In a small town in Ireland, the local people have weathered the storm of economic collapse and now look to the future: The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the scars of its history, new stories have begun to unfold.
But an insidious menace now creeps through back-alley shadows and into the lives of the townspeople. Old grudges fester, and new ones arise. Young people are lured by the promise of fast money, while the generation above them tries to hold back the tide of an enemy beyond their control. And the peace of this town is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way.
A stunning, lyrical novel told in 21 voices, HEART, BE AT PEACE reveals a community that together looks to overcome the betrayals, secrets and grudges that can divide families, neighbors and entire generations.
Audiobook available; read by Anne Marie Ryan, Ciaran O'Brien, Eva Bartley, Gerry Howard, Killian Coyle, Roy McMillan and Toni O'Rourke
Editorial Content for The Red House
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
It has been three decades since Laura’s mother, Viola, vanished. One day, Viola left the remnants of her sandwich and her life behind and simply walked away. In a quest to find out why, Laura heads off to Italy to retrace her mother’s footsteps. She has few leads, but she does have Viola’s paintings, some of which show a mysterious red house. Read More
Teaser
Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys, and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant. Decades later, Laura returns to Italy, where her parents met after World War II. Laura spent the earliest years of her childhood there before the family moved to New Jersey and settled into an American dream that eventually became a nightmare. Viola, who claimed to be an orphan, staunchly refused to speak of her life before marriage. In Italy, Laura finds herself on a strange scavenger hunt to solve the puzzle of her mother’s lost years.
Promo
Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys, and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant. Decades later, Laura returns to Italy, where her parents met after World War II. Laura spent the earliest years of her childhood there before the family moved to New Jersey and settled into an American dream that eventually became a nightmare. Viola, who claimed to be an orphan, staunchly refused to speak of her life before marriage. In Italy, Laura finds herself on a strange scavenger hunt to solve the puzzle of her mother’s lost years.
About the Book
Award-winning novelist Mary Morris weaves together an unsolved family mystery, a poignant coming-of-age story, and a little-known corner of World War II history in this lyrical novel of family, loss and, ultimately, love.
Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys, and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Viola was never found, and her family never recovered. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant.
Decades later, at a crossroads in her marriage and her life, Laura returns to Italy, where her parents met after World War II. Laura spent the earliest years of her childhood there before the family moved to New Jersey and settled into an American dream that eventually became a nightmare. Viola, who claimed to be an orphan, staunchly refused to speak of her life before marriage.
In Italy, Laura finds herself on a strange scavenger hunt to solve the puzzle of her mother’s lost years. She is certain that the paintings of the red house hold the answer to her mother’s past, and her search takes her from her hometown of Brindisi, deep into Puglia where she encounters a man who knew her mother and who illuminates little-known secrets of Italy’s Second World War.
Blending elements of true crime with settings that evoke Elena Ferrante, Laura follows her mother’s trajectory as she ventures north to Naples, Turin, and finally home. Along the way, she confronts the dark truth of her mother's story and at last makes sense of her own.
Audiobook available, read by Alyssa Bresnahan
Editorial Content for Marguerite by the Lake
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
A gardener with a troubled past unravels after the sudden death of her employer in Mary Dixie Carter’s spare and elliptical psychological thriller, MARGUERITE BY THE LAKE. Read More
Teaser
Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of Marguerite and her husband, Geoffrey. When a storm threatens the launch party for Marguerite’s latest book, Phoenix rushes to Geoffrey’s side to save him from a falling tree. Geoffrey is grateful --- perhaps too grateful. Marguerite is…jealous. Phoenix becomes embroiled in an affair that could destroy her career. But soon after the affair begins, Marguerite falls to her death. Now Phoenix has another secret, one that haunts her even as Geoffrey invites her to move into the manor with him.
Promo
Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of Marguerite and her husband, Geoffrey. When a storm threatens the launch party for Marguerite’s latest book, Phoenix rushes to Geoffrey’s side to save him from a falling tree. Geoffrey is grateful --- perhaps too grateful. Marguerite is…jealous. Phoenix becomes embroiled in an affair that could destroy her career. But soon after the affair begins, Marguerite falls to her death. Now Phoenix has another secret, one that haunts her even as Geoffrey invites her to move into the manor with him.
About the Book
From Mary Dixie Carter comes an atmospheric, tense novel about the death of a glamorous garden designer, a widower trying to keep his secrets buried, and the beautiful young gardener who finds herself entangled in their lives.
Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. Her presence is overpowering, and her taste is legendary. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of the Gray family: Marguerite and her husband, Geoffrey. Phoenix came from humble beginnings, and now she works hard to craft the landscape that underpins Marguerite’s brand.
When a storm threatens the launch party for Marguerite’s latest book, it’s Phoenix who spots the danger to the guests and rushes to Geoffrey’s side to save him from a falling tree. Geoffrey is grateful --- perhaps too grateful. Marguerite is...jealous. Phoenix senses the danger of being drawn deeper into their lives but can’t resist the attention, becoming embroiled in an affair that could destroy her career.
But soon after the affair begins, Marguerite falls to her death, from the same high point at Rosecliff where she posed for Marguerite by the Lake. Now Phoenix has another secret, one that haunts her even as Geoffrey invites her to move into the manor with him. A secret that Detective Hanna and Marguerite’s daughter --- her spitting image --- are circling closer and closer to. Phoenix tries to put it all behind her and find her rightful place at Rosecliff. But as every gardener knows, nothing stays buried forever.
Audiobook available, read by Helen Laser