Jul 7

Jul 7 Books Publishing This Week

Early July has a way of making life feel almost cinematic. The days are long and golden, stretching lazily from bright mornings into evenings that linger well past dinner. Hydrangeas are in full bloom, gardens are overflowing, and the scent of sunscreen and freshly cut grass seems to drift through the air no matter where you are. Summer no longer feels new. It feels established, generous, and wonderfully unhurried.

You notice it the moment you wake. Sunlight pours through the curtains, casting warm rectangles across the floor. Outside, the trees are full and green, moving gently in the morning breeze. Somewhere nearby, birds carry on their endless conversations, and you can hear the distant whir of sprinklers beginning their work before the heat of the day settles in.

The world feels relaxed in early July. People seem to linger a little longer over coffee, conversations stretch without anyone glancing at the clock, and evenings are approached with the quiet confidence that there will still be daylight left when dinner is over. There is time. Plenty of it.

And so, naturally, it feels like the perfect season to begin a new book.

Perhaps you've been saving this one. Maybe it arrived in a stack of summer reads you've been looking forward to for months, or perhaps you've chosen it on a whim, drawn to its cover or title in the same way you might be drawn to a roadside farm stand or a bouquet of sunflowers.

Whatever the reason, today feels right.

You pour yourself something cold—iced coffee sweetened with cream, lemonade with slices of fresh lemon floating on top, or sparkling water poured into a glass that catches the sunlight. Then you search for the perfect place to read.

Maybe it's a wicker chair on the porch where the ceiling fan turns lazily overhead. Maybe it's a striped cushion beneath the shade of a large umbrella in the backyard. Or perhaps it's simply a comfortable chair beside an open window, where warm breezes carry in the sounds of summer.

You settle in and, for a moment, simply observe.

The sunlight filtering through the leaves overhead.

The bees drifting among lavender and coneflowers.

The occasional laughter of neighbors enjoying the same beautiful day.

The slow movement of clouds across a brilliant blue sky.

Everything around you feels abundant.

Then you open the book.

There is always something magical about those first pages. The crisp paper. The untouched spine. The delicious uncertainty of not knowing where the story will lead. Entire worlds are waiting just beyond the first chapter, and all you have to do is turn the page.

The story unfolds easily, matching the rhythm of the season. You read slowly, without urgency. Early July isn't a month that encourages rushing. It rewards lingering. You pause occasionally to take a sip of your drink or glance up at the breeze moving through the trees.

Gradually, the characters begin to emerge. Their voices become familiar. A setting takes shape. Questions arise. And somewhere between one chapter and the next, you realize you've become invested.

Not because the story demanded your attention, but because it earned it.

Time stretches differently in summer. Hours seem softer somehow, less rigid. Before you realize it, the sunlight has shifted, becoming warmer and more golden. Shadows grow longer across the lawn. The heat of the day begins to ease.

Still, you remain where you are.

The book resting comfortably in your hands.

The sounds of summer surrounding you.

The day unfolding slowly around you.

Eventually, you mark your place and close the cover, though not because you're ready to leave the story behind. Quite the opposite. There is a quiet pleasure in knowing you'll return tomorrow. Summer books are companions. They travel with you through vacations and lazy afternoons, through beach days and quiet evenings, becoming forever intertwined with memories of sunshine and long days.

As you sit there, watching the light soften into evening, you realize that this may be one of the things you'll remember most about the season—not a grand adventure or a major milestone, but the simple happiness of beginning a new book in early July, while the world around you hums with warmth and possibility, and summer itself seems endless.

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Books Publishing July 5 - 11

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto by James Burgess and Julia Sophia

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto proposes that the three outer planets may be understood as three facets of one consciousness—a Holy Trinity of spiritual qualities: freedom (Uranus), creativity (Neptune), and evolution (Pluto). This teaching is underpinned by the authors’ central innovation: a new midpoint calculation in astrological analysis that encourages a novel way of looking at the outer planets’ transpersonal functions, serving as guidance for individual spiritual practices and self-realization.

Providing relevant case studies, the book draws upon Sufi cosmology, as well as Sabian symbols, to broaden and deepen the analysis of the Trinity Point. This is accompanied by a comprehensive transit analysis, listing all major transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, relating to the luminaries and angles. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto constitutes a practical guide that studies the diversity of life expression at the highest level of sacredness and encourages a novel way of looking at the planet’s transpersonal function.

By engaging with these energies consciously, readers can realize their highest spiritual potential.

The Crafty Witch's Guide to Cord Magic by Loren Morris

Venture into many metaphysical and witchcraft shops, and you will often see long, braided cords, typically hanging from high surfaces. Beads, shells, amulets, and other magical materials may be braided into the cords. These cords may resemble decoration or ornamentation, but actually they are a form of magic. Using textiles, knots, and the crafter’s intention, they form a physical manifestation of a spell.

Whether called cord magic, braid magic, or knot magic, this type of spell has ancient roots. Witches were once accused of controlling weather through the use of knotted cords, unleashing or calming storm winds by releasing or tightening knots. A photograph of the Witch’s Ladder, one of the most famous types of knot magic, may be found in Taschen’s Library of Esoterica book Witchcraft.

The Crafty Witch’s Guide to Cord Magic includes detailed instructions on how to craft specific cords for diverse intentions, as well as photographs taken by the author that show finished cords as well as cords in progress. Author and artist Loren Morris, owner of the Primitive Witchery store, is a master of braid magic, and her work is on display in the movie Hocus Pocus 2.

This is a complete guide that combines ancient wisdom and modern practice, teaching readers how to craft their own powerful and personalized spell cords. Loren shows the reader how to turn the act of braiding into a tool for manifesting intentions and deepening one’s own magical practice, with comprehensive instructions and spiritual insight.

Man Overboard! by Kathleen Rooney

Patrick “Kick” Kilpatrick hates the ocean. Has always been terrified of it. And now he’s in a real pickle.

Drifting alone in the sea after falling (or jumping? He can’t remember as the all-inclusive drinks on the cruise he was taking with his extended family were, well, inclusive) Kick must survive. Breath by breath, hour by hour in the lonely sea.

As the waves crash over him, so too do the thoughts and memories of just how he got there. A Thanksgiving cruise with an obnoxious brother-in-law he has to bite his tongue to keep from screaming at. A father who gives the Great Santini a run for his money. And a mother, who already left the family boat, so to speak, a long time ago. His family may be complicated, and the pains of life may seem unbearable—infuriating enough to leap from the deck—but maybe the will to survive is stronger.

Man Overboard! is an inventive, slyly hilarious, and inspiring novel about what it means to be alive, stay alive, and what keeps us going no matter how choppy the waves of our journey become. Hold on for dear life!

Summer of Love by Kerri Maher

It’s the summer of 1967 and the counterculture revolution is in full swing in San Francisco. Every street is alive with the music of Jim Morrison and Dionne Warwick, and in view of the Golden Gate bridge young people come together, waving anti-war signs and shouting for equal rights. No one is more into the messages of love and peace than Winnie Hartley who has just graduated from UC Berkeley determined to use poetry to capture the ever-shifting world around her. When she reconnects with her high school boyfriend, an aspiring musician, their creative bond further fuels her work, and it feels like her life is finally taking off.

Meanwhile, miles up the winding coast, her sister Miranda stays close to home, throwing herself into running the family business, Hartley Vineyard. She’s determined to make California wine that rivals French. But change is in the air this wild and heady summer, and each sister will make choices that set their lives hurdling down paths neither would have imagined.

Fifty years later, Dawn Hartley stays as far as possible from her family’s famous vineyard, until a work assignment requires her to research the bestselling Vineland novels penned by a famously anonymous author. Determined to discover the identity of this mysterious writer—who seems to know things no one should about her family—Dawn embarks on a soul-searching journey along the windswept coast of California to uncover her family’s secrets even as she’s keeping a big one of her own.

Formula Zero by Meredith Lanzen

Madeline Clarke didn't think her life would be all fun and trophies after earning her spot in the solar system's most elite zero-gravity racing circuit, but she definitely thought it'd be better than this. Aside from being a female pilot in a male-dominated sport, her boss is a controlling jerk, her estranged father is a beloved figure from her team's past glory days (and an absolute ass), and she's performing so poorly she risks losing her contract. And worst of all, there's Julian Casperi.

Julian was Clarke's childhood best friend and is a rising star in the league. The dance between them has always been complicated, but when Clarke walked away from her feelings years ago and Julian didn’t stop her they became nothing more than competitors—until Clarke gets into a near-fatal accident on the track and Julian comes to her rescue.

Now back in each other’s orbits, the tension between them is at an all-time high. But navigating their relationship might be the least of Clarke’s problems. Things keep going wrong on the track, and she suspects there's something shady at play. If she wants to come out on top, she needs to move fast and make bold choices—about her team, her future, and her heart.

The Final Score by Lana Ferguson

Jack Baker is on top of the world now that he’s back on the rink where he belongs. But the high comes crashing down when he reinjures his arm immediately following his return to the ice, and this time, he might never be able to play again. After a lifetime as the strong, happy hockey guy whose sister needed him, Jack is left questioning everything he knows about himself.

Abigail Thompson feels like she’s hit rock bottom. It’s only been a few months since the massive scandal that finally severed the cord between her and her narcissistic father. And now, in her last weeks of grad school, she’s been kicked out of her building with very short notice. The last thing she wants to do is ask her half-brother for help after what she’s put him through, but it’s looking like his best friend’s spare room might be her only choice.

Jack is flighty, flirty, and a little full of himself—all the things Abby’s learned to avoid in men. However, spending every day together breaks the ice between them, and she starts to realize that Jack might not be who he seems. It’s possible that maybe, just maybe, he might be struggling as much as she is. Soon, confiding in each other leads to falling into bed, and this fling will either play with their hearts—or score them the ultimate goal of love.

The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen

An ambitious young scholar is sent to research the mysteries of an adventurer's inn—only to uncover a centuries-old secret while finding true friendship and a new home in this heartwarming cozy fantasy.

Mount Vengeance is legendary. For most, it’s an adventure, or a quest to prove themselves worthy of fame and glory. For Ainsworth Gladsly, it’s the perfect thesis material.

Ainsworth is an ambitious research fellow and up-and-coming historian, finally ready to make his mark on the world. When his supervisor learns of the rumored Misnich Inn at the foot of Mount Vengeance, she sends Ainsworth to be the first to document the exploits of the bold adventurers who seek to face the perils of the mountain and the dragon said to inhabit it.

The inn is far from the sophisticated city life he’s grown to love, but even as he grudgingly warms to its rustic charm—and its lovely innkeeper, Honey—the mystery of the mountain refuses to reveal itself. Worse, Ainsworth can’t find evidence that anyone has ever undertaken the climb. Even the bravest warriors who stay at the inn turn away from Mount Vengeance the next day.

With Ainsworth’s reputation as an academic on the line, it’s a mystery he can’t allow to remain unsolved—even if he has to push the adventurers up the mountain himself.

Love You More by Emily Giffin

A woman is newly engaged to a man she adores when she receives a call from her first love with news that shatters her carefully ordered world, in this emotionally powerful novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Pact.

Billie has built the perfect life. Her medical practice in New York City is thriving, and she’s finally found the right partner in Dean after years spent trying to move on from her high-school sweetheart, Mick. Their young love had been intense and true, but distance and ambition pulled them apart when she left Wisconsin for medical school.

Then one morning, just after she’s accepted Dean’s romantic marriage proposal, Billie’s phone rings. It’s Mick—calling for the first time in nearly a decade. His news is urgent and in a moment, everything changes.

As Billie boards a plane back to Wisconsin, her past comes rushing in—her hometown friendships, the love she and Mick shared, and the choices that shaped them all. What awaits her is a reckoning with what she’s lost, what she’s built, and what she still wants.

Gripping and deeply moving, Love You More is a story about the plot twists life throws at us—and how love, in all its forms, has the power to change everything.

The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts by Robert Thorogood

Judith Potts has always been the sharpest mind in the room—unmasking liars, cracking secrets, solving the murders no one else could. But this time, the whispers are about her.

As suspicion closes in and buried truths resurface, Judith must follow the clues—because if she can’t solve this puzzle, she won’t just lose her reputation. She could lose everything.

When superstar footballer Gary Wise and bestselling thriller writer Tony Sexton are found dead on the quiet streets of Marlow, Judith, Suzie, and Becks uncover a lethal web of blackmail and scandal. With DI Malik suspended and no police backup, the Marlow Murder Club is on its own for the first time.

As suspects multiply and tabloid secrets explode, a final threat emerges: someone is ready to expose Judith’s darkest past.

Can they catch the killer—and save their friend—or will this be the case that tears them apart?

Roommate Rule by Georgia Stone

Dylan is the kind of person who is always fifteen minutes early and never leaves things to chance--so she can’t believe she’s about to spend six weeks on a last-minute trip to Wales that she didn’t plan, living in a cabin with a man she’s only met once.

Max always goes with the flow, and after his plus-one drops out of his all-expenses-paid travel influencer trip, he’s happy for his sister’s friend to take the spot. After all, from what he remembers of their brief meeting a year ago, Dylan is the kind of woman he’d be more than happy to spend some alone time with.

Not that anything is going to happen between them, because Dylan knows getting involved with this reckless, irrepressible flirt is the last thing she needs. So she makes a house rule: they are roommates only, and under no circumstances can anything . . . untoward . . . happen between them.

But as the days go by, Max starts to realize how much he enjoys chipping away at the walls Dylan hides herself behind, while Dylan begins to admit to herself that there may be more to Max than she first assumed. And before she knows it, she finds herself wondering if their “roommate rule” might be one rule she actually wants to break…

Just for the Season by Rachel Griffiths

For fans of Lisa Kleypas and Sarah MacLean, Rachel Griffiths’s latest historical romance is a sexy, laugh-out-loud romp that’s The Bachelorette set in Regency England with shades of Bridgerton.

Lady Charlotte Louisa Aveton knows all of London’s rules, and better yet, knows how to break them. But when she takes it too far and stumbles into a serious scandal, she knows only one thing will save her—marriage, as soon as possible.

With only one summer to pick a husband, Charlotte invites all of England’s most eligible bachelors to an extravagant summer retreat at a country manor house. There’s a brooding artist, a wickedly handsome Russian prince, and one of the richest men in all of Europe...so why do her eyes keep sliding over to the Duke of Warrick, the only man who’s ever come close to breaking her heart?

Does Charlotte’s summer of suitors have any room for second chances?

Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs

From New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs, a wrenching but life-affirming novel based on a true story of survival, friendship, and redemption. Set in the turbulent Vietnam era in the All-American city of Buffalo, New York, six girls are condemned to forced labor in the laundry of a Catholic reform school.

In 1968 we meet six teens confined at the Good Shepherd—a dark and secretive institution controlled by Sisters of Charity nuns—locked awaymerely for being gay, pregnant, or simply unruly.

Mairin— free-spirited daughter of Irish immigrants, committed to keep her safe from her stepfather.

Angela—denounced for her attraction to girls, sent to the nuns for reform, but instead found herself the victim of a predator.

Helen—the daughter of intellectuals detained in Communist China, she saw her “temporary” stay at the Good Shepherd stretch into years.

Odessa—caught up in a police dragnet over a racial incident, she found the physical and mental toughness to endure her sentence.

Denise—sentenced for brawling in a foster home, she dared to dream of a better life.

Janice—deeply insecure, she couldn’t decide where her loyalty lay—except when it came to her friend Kay, who would never outgrow her childlike dependency.

Sister Bernadette—rescued from a dreadful childhood, she owed her loyalty to the Sisters of Charity even as her conscience weighed on her.

Wayward Girls is a haunting but thrilling tale of hope, solidarity, and the enduring strength of young women who find the courage to break free and find redemption...and justice.

Matcha on Monday by Michiko Aoyama

Across a bridge in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, a popular coffeeshop called the Marble Cafe closes on Mondays -- and in its place, the Matcha Cafe opens to its customers. On one day of the week, people from all walks of life frequent this cozy haven and experience the joys of human connection. Among them include:

A singer who has just broken up with his lover
An unsociable young owner of a tea wholesaler
A husband who has made his wife angry
A designer and owner of a lingerie shop
A Kamishibai artist who doesn't get along with his grandmother

This heart-warming story spans Tokyo and Kyoto over 12 months, bringing together a dozen eclectic, unique characters and their stories -- all starting with a cup of matcha.

False Prophet by Afsheen Farhadi

A grieving actor-turned-memoirist reimagines his mother’s encounter with Jim Jones, the deadliest cult leader of all time—the only problem is, it’s mostly all lies . . .

Actor Jal Persad is enjoying moderate success when the death of his mother, Rita, sends him into a tailspin—after all, how could he grieve a woman he barely knew? Rita had grown up in Guyana during the rise and fall of the Jonestown cult, but never spoke of her home to Jal, always keeping him at a distance.

After months of avoiding work, a misunderstanding at lunch with his manager leads Jal into a web of lies. He soon finds himself writing a memoir of his mother’s adolescence, one that places her in direct contact with Jim Jones himself. There’s just one issue–Rita never met the man. Suddenly, the book goes viral, and Jal must face the looming threat of exposure, and his own guilt.

Alternating between Jal’s rapid rise and Rita’s distorted story, False Prophet confronts the intergenerational legacy of colonialism, the allure of power, and the age-old question–how much of yourself are you willing to lose in order to succeed?

Traitors by Robert B. McCaw

Robert Cooper—deputy assistant attorney general for counterintelligence in the DOJ’s National Security Division—has built a storied career distinguished by high-profile arrests and prosecutions of enemy spies. One morning, he’s approached by a Russian sleeper agent looking to defect. The agent offers Cooper alarming information: Russian operatives have infiltrated the US government at its highest levels, including a mole in the senior ranks of the FBI. Cooper’s investigations lead to the discovery of a clandestine Russian plot involving deep-cover agents in senior government positions. As Cooper and his team at the DOJ race to uncover the Kremlin’s plans and unmask the traitors, a coup in Russia brings to power a militant extremist regime seemingly intent on sidelining the US on the world stage while Russia retakes its former Soviet territories. In Robert B. McCaw’s fast-paced novel, high-stakes political intrigue mixes with riveting moments of international espionage.

Kiss, Marry, Kill by Cara Tanamachi

Will she catch feelings … or catch a killer?

True crime podcaster Ella Takeda is a sucker for a good mystery. She has an uncanny knack for pinpointing killers … until she gets it wrong. Turns out that identifying an innocent man as the Canceled Killer—a serial murderer who targets high-profile fraudsters—is cause for immediate backlash.

Now she’s returned to her small Midwest town, but the Canceled Killer may not be done with her yet. Ella has a terrible suspicion she’s his next target … and worse, she might be dating him. Could it be Jude, the sexy, cheese-loving nerd her mom is convinced she’s going to marry? Or Aaron, the hot Chicago detective who’s the walking embodiment of every Swipe Right fantasy? And finally, there’s Mateo—a Hollywood stunt double who’s got allll the right moves.

Trusting guys is hard enough, especially when one wants her dead. Will she be able to unmask the killer before she becomes the next victim?

Love Wells Kept by Bailey Hannah

After an accident erases years of his memory, a man returns to his family's ranch in hopes of piecing back together the life and love he thought he had lost forever.

He’s forgotten their love story. She’ll help him write a new one.

Jackson and Kate have been happily married for over ten years and live a beautifully chaotic life raising two young children on Wells Ranch. But when Jackson sustains a severe head injury that sends him into a coma, years of his memory are gone by the time he wakes. Doctors are confident it will return with time, but Jackson feels like a stranger in his own life. How can he have a wife and children but not know them?

Kate tries to remain strong for her family, but she secretly mourns the loss of the man she knew and fears he may never return. She leans on her Wells Ranch family, who she needs now more than ever. It’s scary and difficult, but she won’t give up on Jackson and their love, no matter how long it takes.

Despite early struggles, Kate and Jackson share tender moments that stir something in Jackson, even though he doesn’t fully understand it. As more time passes, bits and pieces of Jackson’s memories return, and he starts slowly rediscovering his instincts as a husband and dad. And though Jackson and Kate’s love story may need a rewrite, they’ll come to discover this new chapter might just be stronger than all the ones that came before.

Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson

From USA Today bestselling author Freya Sampson comes a swoon-worthy, high-concept romance that begs the question: what if your book boyfriend jumped from the pages of their story and into your life?
Meet Zoe Knight, a romance lover and struggling writer who has sworn off men following a disastrous break-up. Once a firm believer in happily ever after, she now curbs her loneliness by imagining her very own meet-cutes with the best boyfriends in literature. And for Zoe, there is no better book boyfriend than Mr. Darcy. So when she stumbles into a classic London bookshop and argues with the annoyingly hot owner, Nick, who refuses to sell romance novels, she decides to liberate him of a dusty copy of Pride & Prejudice abandoned on a top shelf.
But unbeknownst to her, this is no ordinary, well-loved copy of her favorite Austen novel.
After reading from the pages on a dirty London bus, Zoe finds herself in an impossible situation: she has accidentally summoned Mr. Darcy to the real world and is now face-to-face with the man she’s been in love for as long as she can remember. Mr. Darcy has always been there for her on the page, through the toughest moments of her life, but can he ever be as good IRL as in the novel? And if he’s here, in the real world, what will happen to the literary world he came from? With Nick (the last man she could ever be prevailed upon to work with) urging her to send the fictional Darcy back to his own story, Zoe will have to decide what she really wants from a happy ending, before it’s too late…

Because I Deserve It: What Chronic Illness Taught Me About Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System by Kenitra W. Dominguez

“Because I Deserve It” is a memoir and practical guide about learning to take an active role in your own care. Through Kenitra’s experience living with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), she shares what it means to move from fear and confusion to clarity and confidence in the healthcare system.

The book combines storytelling with practical tools such as questions to ask, ways to prepare for appointments, and strategies for building supportive care teams. It is for anyone who has felt unheard or overwhelmed by the medical process and wants to approach their health with more knowledge, calm, and self-trust. What makes this book different is its mix of honesty, reflection, and real-world guidance that helps readers feel less alone and more capable in their own journey, especially empowering women of color who experience unique barriers due to systemic racism and misogyny in healthcare.

Conspiracy by Colleen Coble

Conspiracy, the third book in USA TODAY bestselling author Colleen Coble’s Sanctuary series (following Ambush and Prowl), delivers exactly what her fans want: the ideal blend of suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat with just the right amount of romance. Perfect for fans of Laura Dave, Allison Brennan, and Lynette Eason.

Fifteen years of secrets. Once chance for justice.

Just as wildlife veterinarian Paradise Alden begins to envision a future with Blake Lawson, the ghosts of her past return with a vengeance. The murder of her parents has shadowed her for fifteen years, but a new threat brings the cold case into the terrifying present. A trained leopard–a chilling embodiment of Paradise’s deepest fears–is now stalking her.

Haunted by resurfacing memories, Paradise, Blake, and her newfound brother, Drew, follow a trail of clues that leads them into a web of dark family secrets. The deeper they dig, the more shocking the connections become, linking their families to a dangerous conspiracy that someone is still willing to kill to protect.

With every step closer to the truth, the killer becomes more desperate. Paradise, Blake, and Drew must race to expose a murderer who has remained hidden for fifteen years, but this time, they are the ones being stalked. If they can’t unmask the killer, the past will destroy both the fragile future Paradise and Blake are trying to build and the family she has finally found with her brother.

A conspiracy of lemurs is a family. But a conspiracy of people can be deadly.

Colleen Coble’s Conspiracy combines gripping suspense with slow-burn romance and includes intriguing mysteries from both the past and present, sabotage and danger, second-chance romance, found family, and themes of overcoming pain and how the past doesn’t have to define you.

Candy Apple Kisses by Amy Clipston

This autumn, love is in the air.

Artist Emily Carmichael has always considered Splendid Lake her home, but she never imagined she would ever return. However, when she learns her childhood best friend, Jake Hughes, is struggling to save the beloved Hughes Family Orchard, she doesn’t hesitate to pack her bags and head back to the North Carolina mountains–even if it means battling a corporate giant and resisting the temptation of too many candy apples.

For Jake, the orchard is more than just a business; it’s a living legacy, a bond with his father and a promise to his family. As Jake and Emily work side-by-side to prepare for the orchard’s centennial anniversary, long-held feelings, once hidden beneath years of friendship, begin to surface. For Jake, Emily’s return illuminates what’s been missing in his life, and for Emily, being with Jake stirs long-dormant emotions she’s too scared to name. The air is crisp, the apples are sweet, and the sparks? They’re flying higher than a bonfire.

But with Jake’s ex-girlfriend’s dramatic reappearance and the mounting pressure to keep the orchard from failing, their budding romance is put to the test. Can these two best friends turn a season of chaos into a lifetime of love, or will their romance fall flat before the first frost?

“Clipston’s heartfelt writing and engaging characters make her a fan favorite.” —Library Journal

First-run copies of this print edition come with an exclusive scratch and sniff apple-scented sticker–a little extra sweetness for the readers who were here from the beginning. Because some stories are meant to be felt with all your senses. Cozy up. Scratch. Sniff. Swoon.

Single Girls by John Searles

An infectious and utterly charming fictionalization of the iconic Helen Gurley Brown’s early years at the helm of Cosmopolitan, and the intrepid group of women she took under her wing to create one of the most talked about magazines of all time.

In 1965, Helen Gurley Brown, a soft spoken, self-professed “mouseburger,” is fresh off the runaway success of her book Sex and the Single Girl, a revolutionary call to single women urging them not to rush into marriage on anyone’s timeline but their own, and, even more radically, to enjoy their sex lives, gloriously free of shame. Upon the book’s publication, half the country is outraged (her mother, for one, hates it), and the other half will follow her anywhere. Moved by the thousands of letters arriving at her doorstep from readers desperate for advice, she marches from one Manhattan magazine conglomerate to another, looking for a perch from which to dispense her unconventional wisdom. At her last stop, she finally gets her shot: just three issues to turn around the flailing magazine Cosmopolitan.

Helen quickly assembles a team of smart, savvy single girls up to the task. Soon, their lives become the stuff of magazine cover lines: the gorgeous Book Editor’s doomed romance with a man she didn’t know was married—and her bold idea for revenge. The (unofficial!) Sex Editor’s trip to soak in the world’s first champagne glass hot tub, which takes a very wrong turn. The Entertainment Editor’s clash with Joan Crawford and interview with a Park Avenue call girl that leads to unexpected revelations.

Single Girls begins at the dawn of Helen’s storied tenure and journeys back to her youth, envisioning the devastations and people who forged her into a controversial legend. It imagines the way one unsinkable group of women navigated gender roles and workplace power dynamics long before these issues entered the headlines. With dazzling, high-energy prose, it recreates not just a movement, but a mood: one of ambition, reinvention, and the intoxicating thrill of being young when a new world was possible for a single girl if only she was fearless enough to reach out and grab it.

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