Adam Zantz is still driving for Lyft, struggling to make ends meet, when his beloved former piano teacher makes a deathbed request: He wants Zantz to prove his son’s innocence in a decades-earlier murder case. There doesn’t seem to be much hope of solving such a cold case --- until Zantz stumbles onto a test pressing of a never-released vinyl LP. The recording is of a high school garage band lost to the tides of the Paisley Underground, the acid-fueled early ’80s music scene that spawned the Bangles and the Three O'Clock. Down the psychedelic rabbit hole Adam falls, tracing the band's journey from the middle-class garage to the precipice of fame --- a twisted tale marked by crooked DJs, elder-scammers, wellness hucksters, a teen cult, and the woman who held the key to the band’s triumph and ruin.
When Harry Kincaid’s older sister decides to join her husband on an Egyptian expedition, Harry is left minding her three unruly children and giant, mad dog. But Harry has a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all his attention. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies prepared to pay whatever it takes to hire an emergency governess. Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgie Rowe believes childhood should be everything hers wasn’t. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after instantly embrace her unconventional educational approach. However, their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle is another matter entirely. Georgie and Harry continue to butt heads over their differences, but with time it seems that their attraction is undeniable.
Liv and Finn meet six summers ago working in a bar on the rugged Cornish coastline, their futures full of promise. When a night of passion ends in devastating tragedy, they are bound together inextricably. But Finn’s life is in LA with his band, and Liv’s is in Cornwall with her family, so they make a promise. Finn will return every year, and if they are single they will spend the summer together. This summer, Liv crosses paths with Tom, a mysterious new arrival in her hometown. As the wildflowers and heather come into bloom, they find themselves falling for one another. For the first time, Liv can imagine a world where her heart isn’t broken every autumn. Now Liv must make an impossible choice. And when she discovers the shocking reason that Tom has left home, she’ll need to trust her heart even more.
Karissa Newcomb is ready for a new start in a new neighborhood, as far away as she can get from Seattle, where her husband cheated on her with the neighbor who was supposed to be her best friend. She and her nine-year-old daughter are moving on to the city of Gig Harbor on the bay in Puget Sound. She even has a new job as an assistant at a small publishing company right in Gig Harbor. Her new boss seems like a bit of a curmudgeon, but a job is a job, and she loves to read. Meanwhile, her new neighbors, Alice and Margot, are dealing with their own crises. Alice is still grieving her late husband and hasn’t been able to get behind the wheel of a car since a close call after his death. Margot is floundering after getting divorced and laid off in quick succession. They all could use a distraction, and a book club seems like just the ticket.
As a bloodline vampire, Lizzie has never had a problem taking what she wants, and right now what she wants are the family heirlooms that were stolen from her and a portal home. Too bad even that short list is impossible to accomplish on her own --- and her allies have bigger things to worry about. When they rescue a selkie from captivity, it’s the perfect solution to her problem. Lizzie needs a guide through Threshold, and the selkie needs someone to help her get her skin back. Maeve didn’t choose to give up her skin --- it was stolen from her. Now she’s in an uneasy partnership with a dangerous woman who seems more apt to kill than to share a kind word. Even though she knows it will end in heartbreak, Maeve can’t help being drawn to Lizzie and her all-too-pleasurable vampire bite. Unfortunately, the danger to Maeve’s heart is the least of her worries.
Tansy and her husband, Guy, are the newest arrivals in Bellinas, a lush oasis tucked into the coast of northern California where a reclusive, creative community is beginning to take shape. Helmed by Guy’s cousin Mia, a famous model-turned-wellness-luminary, and her tech mogul husband, the group renounces the outside world in pursuit of purity, fashioning their own rules about what to eat and how to live. Everything seems perfect in Bellinas: food is abundant, flowers are always in bloom, and nearby wildfires leave the town remarkably unscathed. While Guy is happy in their new lives, Tansy becomes more and more suspicious of the community and increasingly desperate to save her already-fragile marriage. And as lonely women have throughout the ages, she wants to believe in what may only be a beautiful lie.
It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on London’s parks, beer gardens and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive. Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she’s wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie’s best friend, Phil, and harboring secret dreams of his own. Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith has a boyfriend. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who has just been diagnosed with cancer and is traveling to London to tell her son. As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever.
Romance novelist Jacqueline Matthis’ big career has gone bust, and she has ditched the bright lights of New York City for her more affordable South Carolina hometown. Jac dreams up a comeback plan --- she is going to be a contestant on “the 1,” the most obsessively watched reality dating show in the world. On set, Jac quickly establishes herself as a front-runner for bachelor Marcus’ heart, but she’s shocked to discover who’s actually pulling the strings. How was she to know that Henry Foster, her last one-night stand before the show, was actually a longtime producer on “the 1”? As Jac plays the game and the show unfurls, she slowly discovers that she’s getting the villain edit. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but as Jac’s secret plan begins crumbling around her, she’s not so sure.
Emilia Ward lives in suburban London with her husband, their young son, and a teenager from her first marriage. Emilia is an ordinary mom --- and she’s also the bestselling author of the Miranda Moody detective novels. But when writing her 10th --- and most difficult --- book, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident mimicking the plot of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, right? Until it happens again. And again. Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she's currently writing. Why is someone doing this? What do they want? How could they possibly know what she’s thinking --- and writing? Is Emilia and her family next?
Shiloh Butler was supposed to get out of north Omaha. She used to sit out on the front porch with her best friend, Cary, and plot their escape. Shiloh was going to be an actress, and Cary was laser-focused on the Navy. Sharp, stoic, golden-eyed Cary was probably the most decent person Shiloh has ever known. She hasn’t spoken to him in 14 years. When Shiloh gets an invitation to a high school friend’s wedding, Cary is the first and only thing on her mind. She desperately wants to see him again, but she doesn’t know if she can bear being seen by him. What would Cary think of Shiloh at 33? A divorced mom living in the same house she grew up in. Someone who works behind a desk, not onstage. Would Cary even wantto see Shiloh after all this time? After everything? The answer, it turns out, is yes.
We have listed 12 of Carol’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks that are now or soon to be in paperback. Which of these books have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.
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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.
August's Books on Screen roundup includes the films The Thursday Murder Club, My Oxford Year and Night Always Comes on Netflix, the Providence Falls trilogy on Hallmark, The Map That Leads to You on Prime Video, and She Rides Shotgun in theaters; the series premieres of "Outlander: Blood of My Blood" on STARZ and "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" on Prime Video; the season premieres of "The Marlow Murder Club" on PBS "Masterpiece" and "My Life with the Walter Boys" on Netflix; the conclusion of MGM+'s "The Institute"; the season finales of HBO Max's "And Just Like That..." and AMC's "Nautilus"; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of The King of Kings and How to Train Your Dragon.