Editorial Content for The Girls Who Grew Big
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Leila Mottley writes books about women who she thinks are being ignored as they weather tough circumstances in a contemporary world. Read More
Teaser
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Promo
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
About the Book
From the author of the Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller NIGHTCRAWLING, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.
Adela Woods is 16 years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck.
The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.
Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.
Audiobook available; read by AhDream Smith, Erin Spencer and Khaya Fraites
Editorial Content for The Frozen People
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Our fascination with time travel was officially sparked with the 1895 release of H.G. Wells’ THE TIME MACHINE. That fervor has continued through modern times in classic films like Back to the Future and bestselling novels like THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE. Now, with THE FROZEN PEOPLE, Elly Griffiths has made her own mark in one of my favorite subgenres. Read More
Teaser
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen --- or so their inside joke goes. Nobody knows that her team has a secret: they can travel back in time to look for evidence. The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London to clear the name of Cain Templeton, an eccentric patron of the arts. Rumor has it that Cain is part of a sinister group called The Collectors. Ali arrives in the Victorian era to another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. As the clock counts down, Ali becomes more entangled in the mystery, yet danger lurks around every corner. She soon finds herself trapped, unable to make her way back to her beloved son, Finn, who is battling his own accusations in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?
Promo
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen --- or so their inside joke goes. Nobody knows that her team has a secret: they can travel back in time to look for evidence. The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London to clear the name of Cain Templeton, an eccentric patron of the arts. Rumor has it that Cain is part of a sinister group called The Collectors. Ali arrives in the Victorian era to another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. As the clock counts down, Ali becomes more entangled in the mystery, yet danger lurks around every corner. She soon finds herself trapped, unable to make her way back to her beloved son, Finn, who is battling his own accusations in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?
About the Book
Some murders can’t be solved in just one lifetime.
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen --- or so their inside joke goes. Nobody knows that her team has a secret: they can travel back in time to look for evidence.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London to clear the name of Cain Templeton, an eccentric patron of the arts. Rumor has it that Cain is part of a sinister group called The Collectors. Ali arrives in the Victorian era to another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions.
As the clock counts down, Ali becomes more entangled in the mystery, yet danger lurks around every corner. She soon finds herself trapped, unable to make her way back to her beloved son, Finn, who is battling his own accusations in the present day.
Could the two cases be connected? In a race through and against time, Ali must find out before it’s too late.
Audiobook available, read by Julie Maisey
Editorial Content for What the Night Brings: A Tom Thorne Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Mark Billingham’s books featuring London police detective Tom Thorne have long been one of my favorite series. A few of the early titles were turned into a wonderful BBC program starring David Morrissey. WHAT THE NIGHT BRINGS is the 19th installment and quite frankly one of the best yet. Read More
Teaser
The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful. As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal. To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.
Promo
The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful. As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal. To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.
About the Book
WHAT THE NIGHT BRINGS by Mark Billingham is the latest mystery in the bestselling Tom Thorne series, and this time, a killer is targeting the police. Is it payback? And is it justified?
“Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime…”
The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful.
As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal.
To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.
Audiobook available, read by Mark Billingham
Editorial Content for The Starving Saints
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Good horror, like speculative fantasy and science fiction, has the ability to transport readers to places and times that they will never experience themselves. In the process, minds are expanded, iconic images are formed, and in the case of horror tales like THE STARVING SAINTS by Caitlin Starling, indelible nightmares are created to the point of being nearly unshakeable. Read More
Teaser
Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low, and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.
Promo
Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low, and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.
About the Book
From the nationally bestselling author of THE LUMINOUS DEAD and THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE, a transfixing fever dream of medieval horror following three women in a besieged castle that descends ravenously into madness under the spell of mysterious, godlike visitors.
Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low, and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.
Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.
As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness --- forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy --- these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters, or each other, and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are and a reorganization of the very world itself.
Audiobook available, read by Barrie Kreinik
Editorial Content for The Big Hop: The First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean and Into the Future
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
On June 14, 1919 --- the day Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown made an undignified near-crash landing in an Irish bog to become the first aviators to cross the Atlantic Ocean in one “hop” --- my British grandmother was preparing to give birth to her first child. Read More
Teaser
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in “the Big Hop”: an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying 16-hour flight, made it to Ireland. Celebrated on both continents, the transatlantic contest offered a surge of inspiration --- and a welcome distraction --- to a public reeling from the Great War and the influenza pandemic. But the seven airmen who made the attempt were quickly forgotten, their achievement overshadowed by the solo Atlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart years later. In THE BIG HOP, David Rooney grants the pioneering aviators of 1919 the spotlight they deserve.
Promo
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in “the Big Hop”: an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying 16-hour flight, made it to Ireland. Celebrated on both continents, the transatlantic contest offered a surge of inspiration --- and a welcome distraction --- to a public reeling from the Great War and the influenza pandemic. But the seven airmen who made the attempt were quickly forgotten, their achievement overshadowed by the solo Atlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart years later. In THE BIG HOP, David Rooney grants the pioneering aviators of 1919 the spotlight they deserve.
About the Book
The inspiring story of a pathbreaking 1919 flight and the courageous fliers who risked their lives to make aviation history.
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in “the Big Hop”: an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying 16-hour flight, made it to Ireland.
Celebrated on both continents, the transatlantic contest offered a surge of inspiration --- and a welcome distraction --- to a public reeling from the Great War and the influenza pandemic. But the seven airmen who made the attempt were quickly forgotten, their achievement overshadowed by the solo Atlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart years later.
In THE BIG HOP, David Rooney grants the pioneering aviators of 1919 the spotlight they deserve. From Harry Hawker, the pilot who as a young man had watched Houdini fly over his native Australia, to the engineer Ted Brown, a US citizen who joined the Royal Flying Corps, Rooney traces the lives of the unassuming men who performed extraordinary acts in the sky.
Mining evocative first-person accounts and aviation archives, Rooney also follows the participants’ journeys: learning to fly on flimsy airplanes made of timber struts and varnished fabric; surviving the bloodiest war that Europe had ever yet seen; and battling faulty coolant systems, severe storms and extreme fatigue while attempting the Atlantic. Rooney transports readers to the world in which the great contest took place, and traces the rise of aviation to its daredevil peak in the early decades of the 20th century.
Recounting a deeply moving adventure, THE BIG HOP explores why flights like these matter, and why we take to the skies.
Audiobook available, read by Jeremy Clyde
Editorial Content for Fog and Fury: A Haven Thriller
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Rachel Howzell Hall is an accomplished author, and her latest novel, FOG AND FURY, is the start of her first series. The setting is an idyllic California coastal town that some people are aiming to turn into a posh tourist destination and has the nickname "Mayberry by the Sea." But things are not as harmonious and peaceful as the movers and shakers in town would have people believe. Read More
Teaser
After 10 years on the force, LAPD cop Sonny Rush relocates with her elderly mother to peaceful Haven, California, to join her godfather’s burgeoning PI business. Sonny’s first case: find Figgy, a missing goldendoodle last seen sporting a Versace collar. At least scouting out a dognapper gives Sonny a chance to get to know her new neighbors. Forty-eight hours in town and Figgy’s disappearance entangles Sonny in an unwelcome reunion with her ex, one of Haven’s wealthiest citizens. And when the body of a teenage boy is found along a popular hiking trail, Sonny is drawn into a web of strange beyond anything she ever saw in LA. Then comes a local’s warning: question everything. Haven hides secrets that could destroy its idyllic facade. Or destroy Sonny first.
Promo
After 10 years on the force, LAPD cop Sonny Rush relocates with her elderly mother to peaceful Haven, California, to join her godfather’s burgeoning PI business. Sonny’s first case: find Figgy, a missing goldendoodle last seen sporting a Versace collar. At least scouting out a dognapper gives Sonny a chance to get to know her new neighbors. Forty-eight hours in town and Figgy’s disappearance entangles Sonny in an unwelcome reunion with her ex, one of Haven’s wealthiest citizens. And when the body of a teenage boy is found along a popular hiking trail, Sonny is drawn into a web of strange beyond anything she ever saw in LA. Then comes a local’s warning: question everything. Haven hides secrets that could destroy its idyllic facade. Or destroy Sonny first.
About the Book
She’s a new PI in a beautiful seaside town. It’s dirtier than it looks --- and more dangerous too --- in a twisting novel of suspense by the Anthony Award-nominated author of THESE TOXIC THINGS.
After 10 years on the force, LAPD cop Sonny Rush relocates with her elderly mother to peaceful Haven, California, to join her godfather’s burgeoning PI business. What crimes could possibly happen in a town nicknamed “Mayberry by the Sea”? Sonny’s first case: find Figgy, a missing goldendoodle last seen sporting a Versace collar. At least scouting out a dognapper gives Sonny a chance to get to know her new neighbors.
Forty-eight hours in town and Figgy’s disappearance entangles Sonny in an unwelcome reunion with her ex, one of Haven’s wealthiest citizens. And when the body of a teenage boy is found along a popular hiking trail, Sonny is drawn into a web of strange beyond anything she ever saw in LA.
Then comes a local’s warning: question everything. Haven hides secrets that could destroy its idyllic facade. Or destroy Sonny first.
Audiobook available, read by Inger Tudor
Editorial Content for The Final Episode
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Edgar Award-winning author Lori Roy utilizes all of her talents in THE FINAL EPISODE, which includes not just mystery and thrills, but also the modern-day obsession with true-crime TV shows and podcasts to examine an unsolved child abduction. Read More
Teaser
Jennifer Jones and her best friends spend every summer at Big Cypress Swamp, and this summer, Jennifer finally will turn 11. She hopes to gain the “second sight” foretold by family legend and fulfill her destiny. Instead, the swamp serves up dangers greater than the gators lurking on Halfway Creek. Little Francie Farrow vanishes --- and Jennifer’s father goes to prison. Twenty years later, Jennifer has almost shed the label of Paul Jones’ daughter when her past comes barreling back. “Inspired by True Events,” a TV series that solves the unsolvable, is recreating that fateful summer. As the series plays out, Jennifer wonders: Did the show finally find Francie Farrow? And is Jennifer’s father truly guilty? Someone else wants answers even more than Jennifer does, and they won’t let her forget it.
Promo
Jennifer Jones and her best friends spend every summer at Big Cypress Swamp, and this summer, Jennifer finally will turn 11. She hopes to gain the “second sight” foretold by family legend and fulfill her destiny. Instead, the swamp serves up dangers greater than the gators lurking on Halfway Creek. Little Francie Farrow vanishes --- and Jennifer’s father goes to prison. Twenty years later, Jennifer has almost shed the label of Paul Jones’ daughter when her past comes barreling back. “Inspired by True Events,” a TV series that solves the unsolvable, is recreating that fateful summer. As the series plays out, Jennifer wonders: Did the show finally find Francie Farrow? And is Jennifer’s father truly guilty? Someone else wants answers even more than Jennifer does, and they won’t let her forget it.
About the Book
When a true-crime series chronicles the tragic childhood summer that changed her life forever, a young woman must grapple with the truth about her father…and herself.
Jennifer Jones and her best friends spend every summer at Big Cypress Swamp, and this summer, Jennifer finally will turn 11. She hopes to gain the “second sight” foretold by family legend and fulfill her destiny. Instead, the swamp serves up dangers greater than the gators lurking on Halfway Creek. Little Francie Farrow vanishes --- and Jennifer’s father goes to prison.
Twenty years later, Jennifer has almost shed the label of Paul Jones’ daughter when her past comes barreling back. “Inspired by True Events,” a TV series that solves the unsolvable, is recreating that fateful summer. As the series plays out, Jennifer wonders: Did the show finally find Francie Farrow? And is Jennifer’s father truly guilty?
Someone else wants answers even more than Jennifer does, and they won’t let her forget it.
As the series nears its finale and the long-awaited truth, Jennifer must come to terms with who her family is…and what that makes her.
Audiobook available, read by P.J. Morgan
Which of the following fiction titles releasing in July have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.
July 11, 2025, 693 voters
July 11, 2025
It was great to have a four-day weekend with nothing on the agenda except time for reading.
I started by finishing Lisa Scottoline's THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA, which is a page-turner and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Julia, the protagonist, heads to the Italian countryside to learn more about a piece of property that has been left to her. Lisa’s descriptions of the landscape, food and culture of Italy will have you feeling like you are doing armchair travel. To enhance the experience even more, Lisa has a fabulous video series on her website where she shares the locations and flavors of Italy. She also is profiled in the “By the Book” section of the New York Times this week. You can read that piece here. Our review is scheduled to run next week, and I am hoping to see Lisa in Doylestown, PA on Tuesday night.



