Adult

Jo Wright always swore she’d never step foot on Little Bridge Island --- not as long as her nemesis, bestselling author Will Price, is living there. Then Jo is given an offer she can’t refuse: an all-expense paid trip to speak and sign at the island’s first-ever book festival. Even though arrogant Will is the last person Jo wants to see, she could really use the festival’s more-than-generous speaking fee. Will is not only at the festival, he seems genuinely sorry for his past actions --- and more than willing not only to make amends, but to prove to Jo that he’s a changed man. Things seem to be looking up until disaster strikes, causing Jo to wonder: Do any of us ever really know anyone?

The Somerville sisters believe in love, but they’ve lost faith it will happen for them. Reggie hasn’t been home since the end of the world’s shortest engagement. When her parents decide to renew their vows, she buffs up her twinkle to help with the Christmas wedding. Unexpectedly, Toby, her first love, is back too, and the spark between them shines as brightly as ever. Will they let go of past hurts and greet the New Year together? Dena is pregnant and on her own. Then a gorgeous, sad-eyed songwriter checks into a room at her inn. Micah, unable to write since he lost his wife, finds inspiration in Dena’s determination to be a mom. But Dena is afraid to believe that a rock star could fall for a cookie-cutter small-town girl like her.

On her own since the age of 18, Cass Macklin dated brilliant, troubled Ben McGreavy. They partied their way through their 20s, slowly descending into a bleak world of binge-drinking and broken promises. Now Ben is dead, and Cass is broke, homeless, scared…and pregnant. Determined to have a healthy pregnancy and raise Ben’s baby, Cass has to find a way to stop drinking and build a stable life for herself and her child. But with no money, skills, or sober friends or family, the task seems insurmountable. At wit’s end, Cass turns to the only person with the means to help her: Ben’s brother Scott, third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, a man with a temper and problems of his own. The two make a deal that neither one of them is sure they can live up to.

When the roar of a low-flying plane awakens him in the middle of the night, Sheriff Winston Barnes knows something strange is happening at the nearby airfield on the coast of North Carolina. But nothing can prepare him for what he finds: a large airplane has crash-landed and is now sitting sideways on the runway, and there are no signs of a pilot or cargo. When the body of a local man is discovered --- shot dead and lying on the grass near the crash site --- Winston begins a murder investigation that will change the course of his life and the fate of the community that he has sworn to protect.

Two criminal empires together control all of New England. Until a beautiful modern-day Helen of Troy comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance and set a city on fire. Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save his family and friends, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die. From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, Danny Ryan will forge a dynasty.

Abandoned by her parents, young Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village in the early years of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against ingrained chauvinism to find her place in a world run by lesser men. When Olga falls in love with her neighbor, Herbert, the son of a local aristocrat, her life is irremediably changed. While Herbert indulges his thirst for exploration and adventure, Olga is limited by her gender and circumstance. Her love for Herbert goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, but even when they are separated, it endures.

Liam O’Connor unknowingly changed the course of destiny when he fell in love with Cora McLeod over a century ago. Their passion was intense, brief and tragic. And the angels have been trying to restore the balance of fate ever since. Now police officers in Providence Falls, North Carolina, Liam and Cora are partners on a murder investigation. The intensity of the case has drawn them closer together --- exactly what Liam is supposed to avoid. The angels have made it clear that Cora must be with Finley Walsh. But headstrong Cora makes her own decisions, and she’s starting to have feelings for Liam --- the only thing he’s ever really wanted. Liam knows this is the last chance to save his soul. But does he love Cora enough to let her go?

After burning out in her corporate marketing career, Michelle Amato has built a thriving freelance business as a graphic designer. She’s perfectly fine being the black sheep of her marriage-obsessed Puerto Rican-Italian family. The only guy who ever made her want happily-ever-after disappeared 13 years ago. Gabriel Aguilar left the Bronx at 18 to escape his parents’ demanding expectations, but it also meant saying goodbye to Michelle. He’s now the successful co-owner of LA’s hottest celebrity gym, with an investor who insists on opening a New York City location. It’s the last place Gabe wants to go, but when Michelle is unexpectedly brought on board to spearhead the new marketing campaign, everything Gabe has been running from catches up with him.

THE ACTUAL STAR takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents. Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne of a Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion and racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change. In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hate --- until all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see.

When animal behaviorist Guy Schermerhorn demonstrates on a TV game show that he has taught Sam, his juvenile chimp, to speak in sign language, Aimee Villard, an undergraduate at Guy's university, is so taken with the performance that she applies to become his assistant. A romantic and intellectual attachment soon morphs into an interspecies love triangle that pushes hard at the boundaries of consciousness and the question of what we know and how we know it. What if it were possible to speak to the members of another species --- to converse with them, not just give commands or coach them but to really have an exchange of ideas and a meeting of minds?