For the lovely Billy Harper, Butternut Lake is the place she feels most at home, even though lately she feels that the only one listening to her is Murphy, her faithful Labrador Retriever. Her teenage son, Luke, has gone from precious to precocious practically overnight. Her friends are wrapped up in their own lives, and Luke’s father, Wesley, disappeared before his son was even born. But Billy is about to learn that anything is possible during the heady days of summer. Coming to terms with her past --- the death of her father, the arrival of Cal Cooper, a complicated man with a definite interest in Billy, even the return of Wesley --- will force her to have a little bit of faith in herself and others...and realize that happiness doesn’t always mean perfection.
Three years have passed since estate-clearing handyman Jay Porter almost lost his life following a devastating accident on the thin ice of Echo Lake. The traumatic, uncredited events cost him his wife and his son, and left him with a permanent leg injury. Jay is just putting his life back together when a mysterious stranger stops by with an offer too good to be true: a large sum of cash in exchange for finding a missing teenage boy who may have been abducted by a radical recovery group. Skeptical of gift horses and weary of reenlisting in the local drug war, Jay passes on the offer. The next day his boss is found beaten and left for dead, painting Jay the main suspect. As clues begin to tie the two cases together, Jay finds himself back on the job and back in the line of fire.
It is the summer of 1992, and a gypsy moth invasion blankets Avalon Island. It is also the summer Leslie Day Marshall --- the only daughter of Avalon's most prominent family --- returns with her husband, a botanist, and their children to live in "The Castle," the island's grandest estate. Leslie's husband Jules is African-American, their children are bi-racial, and islanders from both sides of the tracks form fast and dangerous opinions about the new arrivals. Maddie Pencott LaRosa falls in love with Brooks, their son, and that love feels as urgent to Maddie as the questions about the new and deadly cancers showing up across the island. Could Grudder Aviation, the pride of the island --- and its patriarch, the Colonel --- be to blame?
The year is 1972, and the beaches of Los Angeles are the center of the world. Dropping into the embers of the drug and surf scene is Suzy Whitman, who has tossed her newly minted Vassar degree aside to follow her older sister into open skies and the borderless adventures of stewardessing for Grand Pacific Airlines. In Sela del Mar, California --- a hedonistic beach town in the shadow of LAX --- Suzy skateboards, suntans, and flies daily and nightly across the country. Motivated by a temporary escape from her past, and a new taste for danger and belonging, Suzy falls into a drug-trafficking scheme that clashes perilously with the skyjacking epidemic of the day.
When former prosecutor Cal Claxton’s neighbor, Jim Kavanaugh, the owner and gifted vintner of an up-and-coming winery, is accused of murdering his wife, his freedom --- and the grape harvest --- is suddenly in jeopardy along with his reputation, and his business begins to slide. No gentleman farmer, this puts the rugged winemaker's property, his only financial asset, in play. When a blackmail plot is hatched against the owner of adjacent land, it begins to look like a brutal game of real-life Monopoly is underway. Cal agrees to defend Jim, a good friend, which pulls him reluctantly into the blackmail plot and might well make him the next target of a vicious, cunning killer.
In GENEROUS FRUITS, the first comprehensive chronicle of American homesteading from earliest settlement to the current day, author Barbara Bamberger Scott quickly establishes her voice as a passionate urban homesteader and accomplished writer. Scott’s personal, "I’ve-been-there" approach to the subject --- its roots and branches, its past and future --- targets both the avid practitioner and the armchair philosopher.
Single dad Hogan Guthrie is getting his life back on track, and working as the "barbecue master" at a local diner is just a temporary detour. He and restaurant owner Violet Shaw constantly butt heads…until one night they end up mingling other parts instead. Nathan Hawley traded his SWAT team credentials for a sheriff's badge, but a gorgeous new neighbor is shaking up his orderly life. Nathan has a hunch there's more to Brooklin Sweet than meets the eye --- but given her caution about getting involved, he has his work cut out for him. Still, there's something about the elusive beauty Nathan can't walk away from --- and helping her come to terms with her past might pave the way to the future they both secretly long for.
Daniel Graham MacCormick is living in Key West, the proud owner of a 42-foot charter fishing boat, The Maine. But truth be told, his finances are more than a little shaky. Carlos, a hotshot Miami lawyer heavily involved with anti-Castro groups, wants to hire Mac and The Maine for a 10-day fishing tournament to Cuba. After meeting Carlos’ clients --- a beautiful Cuban-American woman named Sara Ortega, and a mysterious older Cuban exile, Eduardo Valazquez --- Mac learns there is 60 million American dollars hidden in Cuba by Sara’s grandfather when he fled Castro’s revolution. With the “Cuban Thaw” underway between Havana and Washington, Carlos, Eduardo and Sara know it’s only a matter of time before someone finds the stash --- by accident or on purpose.
The bestselling and “perennially hilarious” mother-daughter team is back with a new collection of stories from their real lives, guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Join Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella as they regret drunk-shopping online, try smell-dating, and explore the freedom of a hiatus from men --- a Guyatus. They offer a fresh and funny take on the triumphs and facepalm moments of modern life, showing that when it comes to navigating the crazy world we live in, you are always your own best lifeguard.
When Katie Doyle moves across the country to the Hamptons, she is hoping to find summer employment, new friends for her young son, and a chance to explore a new love affair with George, a dazzling investor. What she finds is a strange cocktail of classes, where society’s one-percenters vacation alongside local, hardworking people who’ve lived in the Hamptons for generations. Though she’s looking forward to her move, Katie is wary about mingling in her boyfriend’s East Coast elite circles. She soon discovers Southampton isn’t all that it seems to be on the surface --- and neither are the people who live there.
Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from July 11th to July 25th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of CULPABILITY by Bruce Holsinger and THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA by Lisa Scottoline.
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Coming Soon
Curious about what books will be released in the months ahead so you can pre-order or reserve them? Then click on the months below.
July's Books on Screen roundup includes the series premieres of "Ballard" on Prime Video, "Dexter: Resurrection" on Paramount+ with Showtime, "The Institute" on MGM+, "Washington Black" on Hulu, and "The Hunting Wives" on Netflix; the season premieres of Apple TV+'s "Foundation" and Prime Video's "The Summer I Turned Pretty"; the season finales of "Nine Perfect Strangers" on Hulu and "Sullivan's Crossing" on The CW; the films Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of Juliet & Romeo, The Amateur and The Actor.