Jan 20

Jan 20 24 Books Publishing This Week

The evening in mid-January settles in slowly, almost imperceptibly, as though the day is reluctant to let go. Outside, darkness arrives early, wrapping the world in quiet blue shadows. The cold presses gently against the windows, a reminder of winter’s steady presence, but inside, everything feels calm and contained. This is the hour you’ve been waiting for—the kind of evening that asks nothing of you except stillness.

You move through your space deliberately, dimming the lights, turning on a lamp that casts a warm, amber glow across the room. The contrast between inside and out feels comforting: the hush of snow or frost beyond the glass, the warmth of lamplight and familiar corners within. You make yourself something warm to drink—tea steeped just long enough, perhaps, or a mug of cocoa rich and thick—and cradle it in your hands as you settle into your favorite chair.

A blanket waits for you, folded just so. You pull it across your lap, feeling its weight ground you, as though it’s holding you in place. Mid-January has a way of stretching on, of feeling endless and bare, but tonight, you welcome its simplicity. The outside world feels far away, its demands muted by the cold and the dark.

The book rests on the table beside you, its cover smooth beneath your fingers when you pick it up. You’ve been saving it for a night like this—when the year has begun but hasn’t yet gathered speed, when the calendar feels open and undecided. There’s something reassuring about starting a new book now, about choosing a story to keep you company through the long winter evenings ahead.

You open it slowly. The spine resists for just a moment, then yields with a soft, satisfying sound. The first page greets you quietly, without spectacle. The words are steady, deliberate, as though they understand the mood of the season. You take a sip of your drink and begin to read.

Outside, the wind shifts, rattling bare branches. A car passes occasionally, headlights briefly washing the room with light before disappearing again. Inside, the only sounds are the gentle hum of the heater and the soft turn of pages. You sink deeper into the chair, the blanket pulled higher, the world narrowing to the story in your hands.

The characters begin to emerge, their voices growing clearer with each page. The setting unfolds, slowly and carefully, and you feel the edges of the day fall away. This is the quiet magic of mid-January: when everything feels pared down, essential, and there is room to pay attention. You read without urgency, letting the story settle at its own pace.

Every so often, you pause—not out of distraction, but out of appreciation. A line catches you. A thought lingers. You glance toward the window, where the glass reflects the warm light of the lamp and the dark of the night beyond. Winter feels close now, intimate rather than oppressive.

The warmth of your drink fades, but you keep the mug close, enjoying the comfort of it. Time moves differently in moments like this, unmeasured and gentle. The book deepens, and you realize you’ve gone farther than you intended, the pages slipping by without effort.

Eventually, you mark your place and close the book, resting it in your lap. The evening has fully arrived, the night settled into its quiet rhythm. You sit for a moment longer, wrapped in warmth and stillness, feeling grounded and calm.

This is how mid-January asks to be lived: slowly, thoughtfully, with a story unfolding beside you.

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Books Publishing January 18 - 24

An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole

A modern-day dark academia fantasy with a twist, perfect for fans of Babel and A Deadly Education.

Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones—and forbidden magic—of its most prized BIPOC students…hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright. No matter who they must sacrifice along the way.

Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her Freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.

Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can’t convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.

"Draws readers into its spell before asking readers to consider who pays the true price of power—and what it means to refuse to let the powerful win." — Laura R. Samotin, author of The Sins on Their Bones

Cross Your Heart and Hope He Dies: A Novel by Jenny Elder Moke

Hobnobbing with Seattle's elite on a super-yacht, Juliette Winters is about to land the deal of the century - if she doesn't get arrested first. She Doesn't Have A Clue author Jenny Elder Moke returns with another riotous mystery rom-com that delights in rich people behaving badly.

Juliette Winters is used to taking care of business alone. She has no time for petty things like romance, friendships, or emotional commitments. Love is for people who believe in reality TV dating and holding hands in public. She's too busy dominating the publishing world by single-handedly saving her company from financial ruin with the book deal of the century.

Business magnate Warren Ellingham has guaranteed Juliette exclusive rights to his explosive memoir that promises to expose the secrets of his ultra-exclusive country club, Pacific Pines. But when Warren drops dead of an apparent heart attack and the memoir is stolen, Juliette suspects that someone was willing to resort to murder to keep their secrets from being exposed.

Enlisting the help of Charlie Hawkins, a doctor with a heart of gold and abs of steel, Juliette dives into the glamorous and messy world of Pacific Pines Country Club. As the investigation heats up, so does the tension between Juliette and Charlie. But Juliette can't afford any distractions because the bodies keep dropping, and Juliette is tee-d up to take the blame. If she doesn't uncover Warren's killer soon, the thing that was supposed to secure her future might just be the thing that ends it.

Jenny Elder Moke's twisty mystery rom-com blend will delight readers with its outrageous characters, laugh-out-loud jokes, and opposites attract romance.

Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph

Welcome to Bleak Haven: The town you won't (or can't!) leave... Deep fake murders have taken over the high school, but what happens when they start to become real?

Would you Swipe to Die?

When the new craze takes over Bleak Haven High, Ava Wilson refuses to join in. As the niece of an infamous murderer, it’s the last thing she needs.

The mysterious website allows people to view their own ‘death’ – an AI generated version of their final slasher-movie-moments. But, when some of her classmates’ deepfakes are replicated in real life, Ava can either catch the killer…or be the next victim.

Night Terror by Vincent Ralph

Welcome to Bleak Haven: The town you won't (or can't!) leave... The second nail-biting novel in the Bleak Haven series, in Vincent Ralph's signature, terrifying style!

Bleak Haven High's senior class of 1987 have already survived the town's most horrifying tragedy to date. As a result, 17-year-old Noah understands everything there is to know about monsters.

When the bookstore that Noah works in is held up by masked attackers, he assumes they want cash. But the assailants aren't demanding a ransom. They are searching for Bleak Haven's very own urban legend - The Burning Book.

After something with a thirst for flesh creeps from the book's pages, Noah must use his knowledge of Bleak Haven's terrifying history to help his fellow hostages escape the mall, without turning their town into another bloodbath.

Leyla's House by Zülfü Livaneli

Evicted from her Istanbul mansion, an elderly aristocrat forms surprising new connections across class and culture.

A colorful, nuanced novel about old and new money, the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, from the internationally bestselling author of Disquiet.

The last living member of a great Ottoman family, the refined yet sheltered Leyla finds herself homeless and vulnerable when her house is sold by the bank to a business tycoon and his ambitious wife. Forced out of this historic mansion on the bank of the Bosphorus, Leyla is rescued and taken in by Yusuf, the son of her family’s former gardener who has become a journalist. She follows him to a modern, cosmopolitan district of Istanbul where she discovers a world of artists and outcasts alongside Yusuf’s partner, Roxy, real name Rukiye, a hip-hop singer. Despite initial hostility, a real friendship gradually develops between these two very different women.

When Leyla’s former home is emptied of its furniture, a hidden family history resurfaces thanks to the discovery of a photo revealing the old lady’s uncanny resemblance to a British officer. Could Leyla be the product of an illegitimate union between an Ottoman woman and an Englishman?

With a marked sense of romance, this vibrant novel displays all the layers of a society where social classes as diverse as the former Ottoman aristocracy, the nouveau riche, and the Turks who returned after immigrating to Europe coexist.

The Lies We Trade by Kristine Delano

A high-powered Wall Street career, a beautiful family in a quiet suburban neighborhood―she seems to have everything. Which means she has everything to lose.

Meredith Hansel should be having the best week of her life. After establishing herself as a portfolio manager at a prestigious Wall Street firm, she’s in the national spotlight for the innovative funds she created. But as Meredith prepares to celebrate, the plates she’s kept spinning for years begin to crash: Her strained marriage reaches a breaking point. Her conscientious teenage daughter acts out under mysterious pressures. Someone vandalizes her home with disturbing graffiti. And Betsey, her most trusted ally at the financial firm, goes rogue, and Meredith is forced to sign a restraining order against her.

Then her worlds collide when she receives a thumb drive and a cryptic note from Betsey threatening to reveal a secret that could have devastating effects on Meredith’s family . . . unless she can figure out what Betsey wants and deliver it in time.

As Meredith begins to dig into the data, however, she begins to suspect that it’s no coincidence her life is crumbling. That maybe what’s happening to her family is connected to what’s boiling beneath the surface at her investment company. Soon Meredith realizes there’s only one way to avoid taking the fall, and it all hinges on Betsey’s true motives. Was she really threatening Meredith or trying to warn her?

Your Roots Don't Define You by Chris Appleton

We all know that feeling: when you’re stuck in self-doubt, boxed in by the person you’ve been in the past, crippled by fear that you’ll never break free from the lies and insecurities holding you back. But what if you had the chance to reinvent yourself from the ground up?

World-renowned celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton gives us the hard-earned advice to do just this. After years of working with the most badass women on the planet, he’s seen firsthand how transformation is possible at any stage of life, even when society tells you that you’re “too old,” when it feels like the whole world is closing in on you, or when the person you thought you’d spend your life with is now your ex. You don’t have to feel limited by your roots. The comeback you want can be yours.

In this book, you'll learn:

How to stop letting your past define you
The secret connection between style and self-worth
How to silence your inner critic
The real reason confidence isn’t about luck or looks
How to detox from relationships that drain you
The formula to becoming unapologetically YOU

Filled with candid wisdom and deeply personal stories from Chris’s life and anonymous clients, this book is your invitation to take a seat in Chris’s chair and experience the inside-out transformation that you didn’t know you needed.

Remember to Eat and Other Stories by Meryl Ain

Following a Jewish family from before World War II to the not-too-distant future, this collection of loosely linked short stories explores the experiences of Marjorie, a baby boomer; her mother, Alice; and the friends and family that make up their community over the decades. As they each pursue higher education and choose career paths, both mother and daughter encounter challenges as they make choices within a changing society—from in-law problems to illness to antisemitism and beyond.

Sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, Remember to Eat takes on themes including patriarchy, technology, the changing role of women, the challenges of raising children, the COVID-19 pandemic, complex family relationships, and what it means to be a Jew with empathy and insight. Ultimately, the twenty-two stories contained in these pages offer not only an intimate journey into these women’s lives but also an illuminating portrait of the times in which they live.

A Tiny White Light: A Memoir of a Mind in Crisis by Linda Bass

Author Interview with Linda Bass

Only weeks after nineteen-year-old Linda’s family moves from a small, rustic town in Wisconsin to the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of Los Angeles in 1967, her family disintegrates: her parents divorce and she and her younger brother, Brian, suddenly must fend for themselves. Linda finds a foothold in academic pursuits and part-time work, but Brian quickly spirals downward—behaving erratically, landing in psychiatric hospitals and jails, and, finally, committing an irrevocable act. Plagued with guilt over Brian’s deterioration, Linda loses her sense of purpose, abandons a promising career in psychology, and finds herself in a life she never envisioned—poor, alcoholic, an accidental parent in an unhappy marriage, feeling invisible and alone.

At her husband’s urging, Linda starts seeing a psychologist, Sam, who quickly becomes a touchstone for what she has lost: her sense of self. Feeling truly seen, she falls in love with Sam and believes he might return her feelings, but he gives mixed messages. The ambiguity, mingled with other overwhelming stresses, triggers her descent into a psychotic episode—one that echoes her dreams, Brian’s experience, and Sam’s own phobia.

Standing at the brink of self-destruction, Linda realizes she is at a turning point: She can continue stumbling down her brother’s path—or she can find her way back to herself and create the life she longs to live.
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Better the Devil by Erik J. Brown

When a runaway teen is arrested for shoplifting, he's desperate not to be sent back to the hyper-religious parents he knows will never accept him. While at the police station, he notices a resemblance to the aged-up photos of Nate Beaumont, a child who went missing ten years ago—and, in a moment of desperation, he takes Nate’s identity in hopes that it will help him make a quick getaway.

Before he can run again, Nate’s family arrives and welcomes him home to a life he never had. As "Nate" watches and waits for his chance to escape, he finds that the Beaumonts are nurturing and loving, very different from his own parents.

But soon unsettling things start to happen—vandalism, alarms going off in the middle of the night—and it becomes clear that someone knows "Nate" isn't who he says he is...and that the real Nate wasn't kidnapped, but murdered.

As he starts to unravel the mystery, he gets ever closer to the devil he may know—and learns he might be their next victim.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Revenge

The identity of a deadly Chinese spy lies hidden in Jason Bourne’s lost memory in this latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Shadow – the head of Treadstone – has found evidence of massive Chinese espionage activity in the U.S. The spy running the operations is a shadowy American known only by the codename Bai Ze. No one knows who he is, but when Shadow consults the Files – the hacked AI database she stole from the Chinese – she discovers that Jason Bourne encountered Bai Ze during an operation eight years earlier.

The trouble is, Bourne doesn’t remember him.

As Bourne hunts for the elusive spy, he meets a reporter named Laney Reese who shares his strange affliction: eight years ago, Laney lost her entire memory, too. For Bourne, that can’t be a coincidence. He’s convinced that whatever happened to both of them is at the heart of the Chinese espionage operation.

With Laney at his side, Bourne follows a zigzagging trail of clues to a quirky billionaire and his ex-wife, both of whom may have ties to Bai Ze. As he gets closer to his ruthless adversary, Bourne begins to suspect that he’s walking into a trap. But it’s a trap with an almost irresistible bait – the chance to recover his forgotten memories.

Now Bourne must decide how far he’ll go to get his life back.

Good Guys by Sharon Bala

From the bestselling author of The Boat People comes a page-turning moral drama about money, the dark side of philanthropy, and what happens when you try to change the world for all the wrong reasons.

"The easiest choices are the ones you make for other people."

Claire Talbot is the publicist at Children of the World, an international aid charity. Morally burnt out after decades working in reputation management, Claire is relieved to finally use her PR skills for good. Too bad the organization is on the verge of bankruptcy. In a last-ditch effort to keep them afloat, Claire arranges for an A-list actress to volunteer at one of their overseas orphanages. When the actress decides to adopt a baby and promises a massive donation, it seems as if Claire has single-handedly saved the day. But after a journalist digs into their operations and reveals a shocking crime, Claire and her colleagues must reckon with their complicity and all the ways their work abroad has harmed the very people they set out to save.

Moving between Children of the World’s headquarters in Toronto and their compound in Central America, Good Guys charts the charity’s rise and fall. Scathing yet compassionate, the novel is a thought-provoking exploration of power, philanthropy, and the lengths we go to for redemption. Emotionally engrossing, tightly paced, and sharply observed, it ultimately asks: Is it possible to do good in an imperfect world?

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao

When you lose your way in life, the Elsewhere Express just might find you. Step on board the train that may take you to your life’s purpose in this wistful, Ghibli-esque fantasy from the bestselling author of Water Moon.
You can’t buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it’s a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace, and belonging.

Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead.

One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she’s swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world.

Together they find a train full of wonders, from a boarding car that’s also a meadow to a dining car where passengers can picnic on lily pads to a bar where jellyfish and whales swim through pink clouds.

Over the course of their long, strange night on the train, they also discover that it harbors secrets—and danger: A mysterious stranger has stowed away and brought with him a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train.

But in investigating the stowaway’s identity, Raya also finds herself drawing closer to the ultimate question: What is her life’s true purpose—and is it a destination the Elsewhere Express can take her to?

When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen

In 1952, Norma Jeane Baker follows documentary photographer Eve Arnold into a powder room on the night they first meet. She has a proposition for her. Norma Jeane created Marilyn Monroe to be photographed, and she wants Eve to do it. Eve is better than anyone she’s seen at capturing a person’s inner truth. Together they can help each other. Together, she says, they can make something brilliant.

Skeptical of this cipher of a young woman, Eve demurs. She’s looking for more serious subjects than this ambitious starlet. But she keeps getting drawn back into Marilyn’s orbit, and the women come to recognize something in each other—something fundamental. Nothing will get in the way of what they want, and when Marilyn’s star takes off to teetering heights, neither will ever be the same.

A lavish and transporting novel, When We Were Brilliant captures the halcyon days of an icon and the grit of women determining their own futures as it explores the exceptional and complicated friendship between Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold.

Wandering Souls by Philip Caputo

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Caputo returns to the heart of the human condition with Wandering Souls, a collection of powerful stories that explore war, love, nature, life, and death.

In the gripping title story, a Vietnam vet revisits the war-torn landscape of his past, searching for the grave of a forgotten soldier—only to uncover far more than he bargained for. In another tale, a wildlife photographer in the African savanna risks everything for a chance at true love. A thief escaping Central America finds himself aboard a ship, only to be thrust into the peril of an approaching storm. These and other stories in Wandering Souls are told with the authenticity and keen insight that have made Caputo’s writing unforgettable, offering emotionally intense and richly atmospheric narratives.

With his distinctive style, Caputo delves into the complex relationship between man and memory—sometimes haunting, sometimes redemptive—capturing moments of profound emotional reckoning that compel his characters to confront their pasts and the indelible marks left by the places that shaped them. In Wandering Souls, the past is never truly gone; it is a force that defines us, for better or worse.

Cry Havoc by Rebecca Wait

A humorous dark academia novel, set in a failing English girls’ school in the 1980s, in which a teen running from her past becomes immersed in a dangerous and intriguing mystery involving a shady new teacher and a strange contagion afflicting her classmates.

The Room in the Attic by TM Logan

It was everything they wanted…and more than they bargained for.

Adam and Jess move into a new house—a rambling Victorian villa at the very top of their price range—with their three young children. Before long Adam discovers a door hidden behind a fitted wardrobe, concealing a secret room . . .

Inside Adam, discovers a collection of forgotten items: a wallet, an expensive watch and an old mobile phone. Jess thinks they should throw them away. But Adam resists. He is fascinated by these items and how they came to be inside the hidden room.

But like the house, Adam has his secrets too. And soon he will find himself setting in motion a series of events that will place his family in terrible danger . . .

Upside-Down Love: A Memoir in Two Voices by Sari Bashi

With a message of hope that is both timely and timeless, Upside-Down Love is an extraordinary memoir-irreverent, funny, and profoundly uplifting-of an Israeli lawyer, a Palestinian professor, and a love that transcends all division.

Osama is a Palestinian professor, originally from Gaza, who cannot leave the West Bank city of Ramallah. Sari is an Israeli-American lawyer and long-distance runner who petitions Israel's Supreme Court for his right to travel freely. When the case began, neither expected to fall in love-and when it was over, nobody expected their love to endure.

First published in Hebrew in 2021, Osama and Sari's star-crossed romance-an intimate, vulnerable portrait of an astoundingly resilient Israeli-Palestinian relationship-has since become a beacon of hope in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. Now on its way to becoming an international cult sensation, Upside-Down Love speaks to the unique circumstances of this specific moment in history, while also illustrating a timeless truth: Love will triumph over bigotry and destruction.

The Double Standard Sporting House by Nancy Bernhard

For fans of Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River, debut historical fiction about a brothel nurse in nineteenth-century New York City who fights brutality in the sex trade and pioneers treatments for survivors of sexual violence.

A high-class brothel that entertains New York’s most powerful men, the Double Standard Sporting House funds a free clinic for women. When the Tammany Hall criminal syndicate takes over the city in 1868 and starts kidnapping girls, the house’s owner Nell “Doc” Hastings cannot stay quiet—especially after sixteen-year-old Vivie arrives at the clinic bruised and bleeding.

Resolving to seek justice for Vivie and girls like her, Doc builds an unlikely alliance with religious reformers, a rare honest ward cop, and an alluring newspaper publisher she can’t seem to keep away from. Even with their help, Doc will have to use her sharpest tools—secrets, guile, and a surgical blade—to prevent a dark turn in the sex trade.

Full of intrigue, friendship, and love, this timely story of a heroine erased from history by the sexual double standard reminds us that women help and heal one another, even when shameless criminals come to power.

A Satchel of Richards by Lee Taylor

Novelist Bridget Stanton’s life needs a massive rewrite. Between the mortgage on her first home, and the cost of feeding her horse-sized dog—she’ll never be able to quit her day job. Until it quits her. Suspended for teaching A Wrinkle in Time, her childhood favorite, she is desperate for a book advance. So she throws herself at the mercy, literally, of her brand new, witty, suave, unflappably charming agent, who has reluctantly inherited her.

His advice: skip the Lit Fic and write steamy romance instead. Has he met her? Actually, no. But Bridget knows nothing about passionate sex. Ever ready with advice, he proposes a solution: research—she needs to get herself a satchel of Richards.

Enter Josh, a wildly successful romance cover model with Hollywood screenwriting dreams. His vivid descriptions have helped numerous authors navigate their spiciest scenes, but Bridget, it seems, needs a more hands-on approach.

As their "research" heats up, she offers him credit on the book—a big break that could help launch his wished-for career. But her publisher balks. The God of Abs cannot share the byline.

Now, Bridget must choose: do it their way and save her way of life or risk it all for a real life love story.

Bourbon & Lies by Victoria Wilder

From Booktok sensation Victoria Wilder comes the first in a small-town romantic suspense series with all the steam, drama, and banter you could ask for, perfect for fans of Paisley Hope, Catherine Cowles, and Elsie Silver.

In Fiasco, Kentucky, there is one rule: never fall for a Foxx brother.

Any woman who did ended up dead—or so the rumor goes. Townies call it a curse. But I've lived it, and I won't survive it again.

I'm not a cop anymore, but I've seen enough danger to know that Laney Young, the beautiful stranger who just showed up in my small town, is running from it. She's lying about where she came from and what she's doing here.

I don't want her near my family or the quiet life I've made for myself. But my brothers have other plans. Now she's everywhere–working at my distillery, living in our guest house, calling me "cowboy" and skinny-dipping in my horse trough.

But it's the way she dishes out attitude from that pretty mouth of hers that has me wanting things I've sworn to myself I'd never want again. I should push her away, forget how her lips taste, and ignore how she makes me want more out of life again.

When her past shows up and mingles too closely with mine, her lies begin to unravel. The rules don't matter anymore. I mess up, dig too far, and get too close. Only two things have the power to keep her safe now: bourbon and lies.

When There Are No More Stars Left to Count by María Martínez

In the aftermath of the accident that changed her life, one young woman leaves everything behind to search for the father she never knew, and finds the man of her dreams and the found family she's always wanted in the charming streets of Sorrento, from international bestselling author Maria Martinez, for fans of emotional new adult romance.

After a car collision ends her career as a ballet soloist with the National Dance Company in Madrid, 22-year-old Maya Rivet finds herself abandoned by her vindictive grandmother to mourn her past life alone. When she discovers some vintage photos in an old music box, Maya musters the courage to travel to Sorrento, Italy, in search of the man she suspects is her birth father.

There she meets handsome and fascinating 29-year-old Lucas Velasco, who fled Madrid years ago to escape his toxic family. He arrived in Sorrento a lost and broken young man with no plan, no resources, and no confidence. But he found a community that welcomed him with open arms and created for himself a beautifully carefree life.

Seeing the opportunity to share that warmth with Maya, who has nowhere to go, he takes her into his home, and what starts as an uplifting friendship blossoms into love. But when Lucas discovers the secrets that Maya has been keeping from him, their love is tested to the limit, and when both return to Madrid, the turmoil of family ties and conflict tear them apart. Only when they can resolve their family traumas, can they begin to find their way back to each other.

The Method by Matthew Quirk

A silent war.

An unlikely spy.

She’s done playing by their rules.

Actress Anna Vaughn is fearless—on screen, at least. She tends to play doomed brunettes with a badass streak, and has put in countless hours training for parts and learning how to fight, shoot, and drive like a pro.

She likes to believe she is as tough as her characters, but off-camera she leads a far quieter life: trying to keep her acting career alive so she can take care of her younger sister.

When her best friend Natalie, her rock, disappears after a night out with a mysterious new man, the signs point to foul play and a circle of spies operating in Manhattan. Anna must use all the tricks she’s learned for her roles to hunt for her missing friend. She quickly learns the dangers are all too real.

She crosses paths with Kevin Matthews, an FBI agent on the same trail, tracking a string of killings and disappearances and a powerful clique of oligarchs. With Matthews as her handler, she has only days to prepare for the greatest performance of her life—going undercover. She will follow in her friend’s footsteps through the gilded mansions, yachts, and secret clubs of New York to infiltrate the conspiracy and bring Natalie home.

As the killers close in, her only chance for survival is to become as lethal as the characters she once played.

No camera. No script. Just instinct.

Her Daughter by Fran Hawthorne

"I'm only telling you in case the police contact you. Esme was arrested, but I'm handling everything, and she doesn't want to hear from you."

That email from her ex-husband is almost the only information Alice Wilson has had about her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Esme, in the six years since Esme abruptly ended all communication.

As Alice, an environmental activist, scrambles to learn why Esme was arrested and what might happen next, she inevitably also rethinks the past. Her obsessive search up and down the California coast antagonizes her friends and jeopardizes her job. But none of that matters to Alice as she uncovers hints of a daughter she'd never known-and of her then-husband's role in their estrangement, even while they were married.

Who is the Robert Corning who was arrested with Esme, and why did she pay his bail? Why did Esme become bulimic in college? Why is she continuing to push Alice away while still being chummy with her father? Most importantly, will Esme agree to meet with Alice? And if she does, will Alice say the wrong thing-whatever that wrong thing is?

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