Jun 23

Jun 23 Books Publishing This Week

By late June, summer has settled into its rhythm. The excitement of its arrival has softened into something more comfortable, more familiar. The days are long and sun-drenched, the evenings lingering almost impossibly late, and there is a sense that time itself has loosened its grip. You find yourself measuring the season not by dates or obligations, but by simpler things—the scent of sunscreen still lingering on your skin, the sound of sprinklers in the distance, the first peaches appearing at the market, and the steady stack of books waiting beside your bed.

There is something about the end of June that makes you want to slow down and savor it. Summer still stretches before you, but now you are fully inside it. The days no longer feel like a promise. They feel like a gift.

You decide it is the perfect time to begin a new book.

Maybe you've just returned from the farmers market with a bouquet of sunflowers resting in a pitcher on the kitchen table. Maybe there are fresh cherries in the refrigerator or blueberries waiting to be added to breakfast tomorrow morning. The windows are open, allowing the breeze to move through the house, carrying the scent of cut grass and blooming gardens.

The book has been sitting nearby for several days now, waiting patiently. You have looked at it more than once, wondering if today might be the day. And somehow, without any fanfare or grand decision, you realize that it is.

You pour yourself something cold—a glass of lemonade, perhaps, or iced tea with fresh mint—and carry it outside. You settle into a chair on the porch or beneath the shade of a tree where sunlight filters through the leaves in shifting patterns. The warmth of the day wraps around you, softened by the occasional breeze. Somewhere nearby, bees hum lazily among the flowers. A neighbor's wind chimes ring gently, and the world feels entirely content with itself.

For a moment, you simply sit.

Late June invites this kind of stillness. Not because there is nothing to do, but because there is beauty in choosing not to hurry. You notice the hydrangeas blooming in heavy clusters, the butterflies drifting from flower to flower, and the way the sky seems impossibly blue overhead.

Then you open the book.

There is always a certain magic in those first pages. The crisp paper, the unbroken spine, the knowledge that you are standing at the beginning of something unknown. Entire worlds lie ahead. People you have never met. Conversations you have yet to overhear. Places you have not yet imagined.

The story unfolds slowly, matching the pace of the season. You read a few pages, then pause to take a sip of your drink or watch the breeze ripple through the trees. Nothing feels rushed. There is no need to race toward the ending. Summer, after all, teaches you that some of life's greatest pleasures come not from finishing, but from lingering.

As the afternoon stretches toward evening, the sunlight softens. Shadows grow longer. The air cools just enough to make the warmth feel pleasant rather than intense. You find yourself increasingly drawn into the book. The characters become familiar. The setting comes alive. You begin to feel that quiet attachment that forms when a story starts to settle into your life.

Eventually, you mark your place and close the book, though not because you are ready to leave it. You know you'll return tomorrow, and the next day, and perhaps on countless summer evenings still to come.

You rest the book in your lap and look out at the world around you. The sky is turning golden now, and somewhere in the distance, you hear children laughing and the faint chirp of crickets beginning their evening song.

Late June has a way of making ordinary moments feel extraordinary. And sitting there with a new book in your hands, surrounded by the warmth and abundance of summer, you realize that happiness often arrives quietly—not in grand occasions, but in afternoons that stretch lazily into evening and stories that begin exactly when they are meant to.

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Books Publishing June 21 - 27

The Vacation Shift by Lily Chu

Ivy Yu is cursed. Her parents separated six months ago, and she’s fallen into a fog. To help, her mother books an impulsive trip to Japan (cool) on a bus tour (very uncool). Ivy should be grateful, but this summer is her last chance to get her situationship, Connor, to fall in love with her.

When they arrive in Tokyo, it’s even worse than she imagined. Ivy and her Mom are the youngest of a group of seniors. Make that two of the youngest: there’s brooding Matteo, with his single dad, Keith.

Then Ivy discovers her mother and Keith are getting close, and her crush back home is hooking up with someone else. Desperate for some semblance of control and a distraction from the heaviness she can’t seem to shake off, she makes a deal with Matteo to keep their parents apart. Luckily, he agrees—and their devious plans begin.

Dodging nosy old ladies on the bus ride through Japan, their strange partnership begins to blossom into something unexpected and exciting—but can their romantic spark survive the journey?

Abby Offsides by Anna McCallie

In this witty and heartfelt debut, a woman's impulsive journey across the pond after a broken engagement leads her to a new love—and a new version of herself.

Seeking a fresh start after leaving her cheating fiancé, Abby McIntyre makes a series of spontaneous decisions: She quits her job. She books a one-way flight to the UK. She even gets bangs!

Newly arrived in Liverpool, she lands a job with the Mersey Football Club and meets Lachlan Ramsay, the recently recruited Scottish star midfielder. Both lonely in a new city, the pair bond quickly, and Abby finds it nearly impossible to deny their chemistry—despite the nagging guilt she feels about Lachlan’s mysterious wife who didn’t relocate with her husband.

When Abby’s housing falls through, Lachlan insists she move into his massive penthouse. As they spend almost every waking moment together, Abby wonders if it’s possible that the world-famous footballer could be falling for her, too. But with her job and his marriage dependent on them staying firmly in the friend zone, can Abby risk being caught offside?

Crackling with witty banter and palpable sexual tension, Abby Offsides is at once a smoldering, slow-burn romance and a nuanced exploration of one woman’s journey to reclaim her own dreams and desires after years of living life on autopilot.

A Treason of Magic by Melissa Marr

In a world where magic, desire, and duty collide, it is beauty who is fated to kill the beast in a lush historical fantasy of secrets and star-crossed love by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr.

Two young women. Heirs to altogether different hereditary burdens. Yet bound by a monstrous threat to their village.

Gabrielle is the first woman in Alveus to carry the mantle of Hunter, which comes with an obligation to kill the faery beasts murdering travelers in Brimmond Wood. Wary of the power she wields as guardian of her people, Gabrielle is summoned by her first love, a seductress who shattered her heart into pieces a decade ago.

Isabeau is the rarest of nobility—a lady duke. She is also afflicted by a curse that leaves her in a deep sleep between the gloaming and daylight. How can she begin her tenure as protector when she can’t keep her village safe from whatever stalks its darkest hours? For that, she needs the help of the Hunter.

Against her will, Gabrielle is falling in love all over again. But what new threats will arise when Gabrielle and Isabeau’s star-crossed destinies collide with the beast of Brimmond Wood?

Chase Me If You Can by Heather Frances

Wedding photographer Sloane Michaels spends most of her year running after brides, but she lives for the six weeks each spring she chases tornadoes instead. When the prestigious magazine Nature Shots announces a storm cover contest, Sloane knows that winning could be her best opportunity to establish herself in landscape photography.

The last thing she needs is a distraction in the form of reckless “Wild Wes” Talbot. A legend among storm chasers, he’s been Sloane’s close, personal frenemy for the last decade and is the man to beat for the cover contest.

Sloane isn’t surprised when Wes gets in an accident that jeopardizes his chances. But with an active weather pattern emerging, she doubles down on her need to beat Wes fair and square, and begrudgingly invites him to join her for the remainder of the season.

As they race through hail, high winds, and stormy skies, Sloane realizes that Wes might be more than the rich, flirty, Texas wildcard she thought she knew — and that the feelings blooming between them are more charged and dangerous than the storms they’re chasing.

In Every Possible Way by Alicia Thompson

After yet another disastrous date where Jess is too awkward, too earnest, too whatever, she’s ready to put her romantic daydreams aside. Other than an enchanting Irish accent, her latest date is no Prince Charming. Then the night goes from bad to worse when she’s mugged in the parking lot and hits her head. Hard.

Hard enough that when Jess wakes up, she’s in Ireland.

The first person she meets is Eamonn, a quiet, gruff mechanic. Since Jess is stranded with no passport, cell phone, or way to get home, Eamonn becomes her reluctant knight in shining armor.

Over the next forty-eight hours, they meander through the cobblestone streets of Dublin and explore the Irish countryside, sharing their deepest fears, quiet hopes, and softest aches. It’s a connection that is as electrifying as it is terrifying, because what if Jess falls asleep and Eamonn vanishes like a dream? But a love like this—touched by magic and a little bit of luck—is never quite as it seems.

The Girl on the Beach by Carol Snow

On the surface, Sonia and Graham Starr were a glamorous couple: She, the sleek entrepreneur; he, the boyishly handsome painter with an irrepressible zest for life. They had everything money can buy and the one thing it can’t—a precious, precocious four-year-old named Roxie. But when Roxie disappears into the Pacific Ocean on a perfect August afternoon, their world crumbles around them.

Months later, Roxie’s twenty-one-year-old former nanny, plagued by guilt and confusion, returns to the Starrs’ beach house on the “American Riviera,” the rarified stretch of land around Santa Barbara where the mountains meet the sea. Her first night back, she gazes out at the sand, only to see a child who bears a striking resemblance to Roxie. When she calls out, the child runs away.

Colleen never believed that Roxie, who was afraid of the surf, would run into the ocean on her own. Now, is determined to get to the truth, even if it means facing her greatest fears.

Lost in France by Claire Ross Dunn

Dedicated single mom and overworked film festival staffer Marlow buys a house online for one euro—then finds out there are strings attached. To sort out the mess, Marlow decides to take an impromptu holiday in France. But when the impossible local bureaucrat refuses her a refund, she decides to renovate and flip the house.

Along for the ride is Marlow’s teenage daughter, Sabine. Recently graduated but adrift, Sabine uses the trip as a chance to secretly reconnect with her Parisian father. And when a cute but arrogant boy enters the picture, things get even more complicated.

Meanwhile, Marlow finds herself caught between two men, the fascinating but irascible village handyman and the wealthy and charming owner of a nearby champagnerie. Torn between a safe but predictable life back in Toronto and a wonderful if uncertain future abroad, Marlow and Sabine must embrace spontaneity and the transformative power of being a little lost.

The Door in Penrose Forest by Sean David Robinson

As a boy, Nico once accompanied his mother on a research trip to investigate a stalled migration of monarch butterflies. One night, upon hearing her sneak out of their rented cabin, he followed her to a clearing in the forest where a famed mansion once stood. Paralyzed with fear, he watched his mother climb a staircase and vanish, along with the stairs and the strange glowing door at its peak. No one believed his story, and as he grew older, he too stopped believing it was real.

As an adult, Nico returns to his hometown to care for his ailing father. But something strange is happening to the town. There are unexplained power fluctuations, people are going missing, and, reportedly, phantoms are roaming the woods. When Nico finds his mother’s field journal from the week she disappeared, including her account of the vanishing staircase, he begins to pick apart the mystery.

All the tangled strings trail back to the same starting point: the gilded age family whose mansion burned down under mysterious circumstances in those very same woods where his mother vanished.

Equally a compelling mystery and a moving story of family and destiny, this speculative novel will spellbind readers of Emily St. John Mandel and Susanna Clarke.

Isis of Egypt: Goddess of Thrones by Malayna Evans

Isis, goddess of thrones and magic, steals the crown of Egypt and hands the power to her husband, Osiris. Together, Isis and Osiris live an idyllic life, ruling justly until the god of chaos, set on revenge for a crime Isis knows nothing about, traps Osiris in a box—a box that quickly vanishes.

Driven by rage and desperation, Isis spends decades disguised as a human woman, isolated from home and family as she searches for her lost love. When she finally uncovers the box, what she finds will change her life—and the fate of gods and mortals—forever. Unless Isis can right the wrongs of a betrayal she didn’t commit and deliver Egypt into the hands of a worthy leader, Egypt will fall into chaos.

Isis of Egypt: Goddess of Thrones is a feminist retelling about the woman behind one of the ancient world’s most widespread and enduring cults, a goddess whose message of empathy and resilience resonates still today.

A Bitter Cut by Anna Lee Huber

Lady Kiera Darby plans to spend the summer reconnecting with friends and family in anticipation of the betrothal of her beloved brother. But when a future in-law is implicated in a murder, the party takes a deadly turn. . . .

July 1833. Lady Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage, are settling into their newly renovated home at Bevington Park in Warkwickshire with their young daughter. With the breach between them and Sebastian’s father recently healed, they've agreed to help host a country house party for friends and family to share in their joy. Kiera is also anxious to help promote a match between her brother, Trevor, and the woman he’s fallen in love with, inviting her family to join them. However, Kiera swiftly discovers that the would-be bride’s family is not without their detractions. Her brother is unpleasant. Her mother is abrasive. And her father—the prosperous industrialist Jeremiah Birnam—is brusque, discourteous, and, at times, downright rude.

So when Mr. Birnam’s secretary is found murdered with Birnam standing over her body, many are content to allow him to take the blame. But neither Kiera nor Sebastian believes he did it, and in spite of his bluster and boorish behavior, they can’t let an innocent man be hung for another’s crime. Unfortunately, Birnam had his fair share of enemies at the house party, and any one of them might have struck out at his secretary in order to get to him. It's up to Kiera and Sebastian to uncover the truth and salvage Birnam’s reputation. As the couple slowly inches their way closer to the truth and threats emerge against their loved ones, Kiera begins to fear that the price of solving the crime may mean sacrificing her brother’s future happiness.

When You Loved Me by Beatriz Williams

A young widow returns to her late father’s New England estate, only to be drawn into the hunt for the rumored pirate treasure that consumed his life, in this thrilling and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers.

Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers catastrophe: The property is mired in debt she canʼt repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep.

Thirteen summers ago, the teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabody, Lucy’s best friend. Those few weeks were the best and worst of Lucy’s life, dooming her friendship with Laura. Now, after a fatal accident ended his dazzling NFL career, Ben has returned to live quietly in the Peabodys’ caretaker lodge. He’s also the last person who saw Lucy’s father alive.

As Lucy reconstructs her father’s troubling final days, she uncovers his research on the frozen winter of 1717, when a desperately wounded pirate sought refuge on Winthrop Island with an enigmatic healer. To Lucy, this history points the way to a different kind of treasure: how to heal from the fractures of the past and earn a second chance at love. But just as Lucy’s long-buried emotions sear to the surface, a shocking turn of events reveals that someone else on the island will do whatever it takes to claim the fabled plunder.

A timeless story of love and atonement, When You Loved Me maps both a centuries-old treasure hunt and the intimate territory of the human heart, weaving together past and present as only Beatriz Williams can.

Be Well by Sarah Flocken

Summer 2009: Brand-new college graduate Ann Ward has sent out nearly three hundred job applications, but nobody will employ her. The last thing she wants to do is leave Los Angeles, return to her desert hometown, and live in the shadow of her fame-hungry televangelist father–and it's starting to look like that's her fate. Thankfully, Ann's luck turns after a humiliating failed job interview, when she meets the magnetic founder of upscale holistic wellness collective Sagebrush. She's quickly drawn deep into the privileged, demanding world of Sagebrush, inventing Anneliese - a dubious new persona - to fit in.

But when her funds run out and her lies blow up, Ann must choose between facing reality or doing whatever she has to do in order to get the future she wants. Both a "funny ha-ha-" and a "funny oh no" read for anyone who survived the Great Recession, Be Well explores just how easy it is to believe in something unquestioningly–and lie to ourselves and others–when everything feels uncertain and the future isn't guaranteed.

Shaken to the Core by Dara Levan

When life is cut short, what do we do with the time we have left?

Joy Stern, a free-spirited photographer, thought she had it all together. She built a traveler’s life with her husband, Andre, an architect who designed their days like the buildings he created. Children weren’t part of the plan.

When Joy’s mom dies suddenly, everything changes. Being behind the lens, capturing photos of families, doesn’t feel like enough anymore—until Joy discovers a hidden key to her mother’s diary. One entry inspires a choice that could transform the trajectory of her life.

Then the unthinkable happens: Andre receives devastating news, which upends their carefully constructed world. As Joy struggles to pursue her own dreams while supporting the man she loves, Joy wonders: Can she do it all?

An uplifting story of hope amid heartbreak, Shaken to the Core explores motherhood, chosen family, and love that transcends life’s greatest hardships.

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Philip Marlowe meets Redwall in this superior adult noir tale, where all the characters are animals, fighting for survival in the city underneath the humans.

In the solar cities of the future, the humans relax in the sun and the animals work in the shadows. Genetically engineered Little Helpers, serving humanity—unseen, unheard.

Meet Skotch. Raccoon, PI—yours for a few buttons as long as the job isn't too illegal, whatever that means.

A mouse has gone missing. Normally this wouldn't raise any hackles, nor any alarms, but this mouse has something that everyone seems to want, though nobody appears particularly eager to say what that something is.

The fee is good—perhaps too good. Certainly not something Skotch can easily turn down.

If only Skotch can work out where the mouse is hiding, what he’s hiding, and why his secrets are upsetting a lot of animals caught up in the Green City wars.

The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus

Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks’s The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy spanning adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall and Angel Down.

Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue.

The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fém is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.

Landscape In Lavender: A Young Man's Search For His Gay Identity by Brooks Kolb

For readers of Armistead Maupin’s Logical Family, a heartfelt coming-out and coming-of-age story of a young man uniting his divided self and finding proof of eternal love’s existence.

When society is primed to regard you as an outcast even before a sexually transmitted disease starts killing your gay brothers, coming out of the closet is hard enough—but even that is only the first step. Afterward, it can be challenging to cultivate self-respect, let alone find the lasting love you deserve and the home you crave.

In this earnest, hopeful memoir, Brooks Kolb explores the conflict between his personal and professional identities as he traces his round trip journey from Seattle to Paris, Philadelphia, London, and San Francisco against the backdrop of the 1970s sexual revolution and the devastating AIDS pandemic that followed. During his travels, Brooks becomes a landscape architect, comes out of the closet, crosses racial barriers to win lasting love, loses that love, and finds belonging. Along the way he learns that freedom demands that one construct their own morality in the face of social ostracism, that loss is an inherent attribute of love, and that the need to belong can be just as urgent as the need for love.

Heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring, Landscape in Lavender will charm readers across generations—LGBTQ+, cisgender, and straight alike—who struggle, or have struggled, to live a truly authentic life.

Massawa by Pam Webber

In 1942, “Wild Bill” Donovan—the director of the United States’ first spy agency—believes women are the key to winning the intelligence battle against the Nazis. He partners fledgling agent Kit Thomas with British MI6 agent Mark Williams and sends them to one of the most perilous places in the world—Massawa, Eritrea—to investigate the theft of millions in military payroll funds. There, Kit and Mark discover a conspiracy by Nazi sympathizers to shut down the only Allied naval base on the Red Sea, which is an essential resource in stopping the Nazi invasion of North Africa. As they work to reveal the conspirators, Kit and Mark engage in a heated dance of trust versus mistrust.

The Lovers, The Liars, And Me by DeAndra Davis

A teen travels to Jamaica hoping to answer questions about her absent mother, only to discover more about her identity than she could have ever expected—and find herself caught up in an unexpected love triangle—in this dazzling young adult coming-of-age novel by award-winning author DeAndra Davis.

Jaliya Powell has never had a real adventure, a real boyfriend, or spoken up for herself. She’s never even been kissed. Despite being valedictorian of her high school class, Jaliya is used to fading into the background.

But this summer will be different.

This summer, Jaliya is visiting her uncle and his family in Jamaica. Under the guise of one last vacation before college, she plans to find out more about her estranged mother, whose absence has remained an unspoken mystery. But things have changed in the seven years since Jaliya last visited. Her cousin has his own life and is reluctant to let Jaliya in, her childhood crush has only gotten hotter and more unavailable, and her aunt and uncle aren’t everything she remembered, either. Then she meets India, who’s vibrant, gorgeous, and free-spirited. And who makes Jaliya feel something she’s never felt before.

While searching for traces of her mother across the island, Jaliya finds herself entangled in complicated relationships, tricky secrets, and a passionate new love. As she navigates this perfectly complicated summer, Jaliya must choose between who she has always been or who she hopes to become.

What Gentlemen Do by Todd Babiak

A lost young man’s sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreakingattempt at navigating adulthood, online culture, and friendship in this coming-of-age story for our times.

Waylon Gans did not mean to start a riot on the university campus. He was only there because he wanted to be in the audience while one of his heroes, Josh Modley, recorded a live podcast.

The problem, as Waylon sees it, is that he is trash: he lives in Walleye, a town everyone wants to leave; his parents are losing their home due to a bad cryptocurrency investment; his job at the used bookstore is a dead-end; Derby, the love of his life, cannot even look at him; and he’s worried he’s falling back under podcaster Josh Modley’s influence and the comfort of blaming everything on the “feminists, globalists, and communists.” Half-heartedly pursuing an associate degree, Waylon is enrolled in Philosophy 118: Introduction to Stoicism. He becomes entranced by these teachings.

In a voice that is by turns comic and unusually wise, What Gentlemen Do is an unvarnished look at a young man wrestling with the consequences of his actions, the shakiness of his beliefs, and jeopardizing important relationships. Waylon tries to dismantle his own perception of truth and to build something meaningful in the process.

Gutted by Maida Korte

What if the only way to rebuild your life is to begin by tearing down the walls?
When a successful designer, entrepreneur, and lifelong city dweller hesitantly agrees to follow her husband’s dream of country living, she doesn’t expect to be undone by a sagging Victorian farmhouse and the relentless wind howling through uninsulated walls. But as holes are patched and rooms slowly take shape, something surprising happens: space opens up. Not just in their crumbling home, but in her heart.
Told with humor, vulnerability, and the insight of a woman rebuilding more than just a house, Gutted: How an Old House Remodeled Me is a love story—not only between a wife and her husband but also between a woman shaped by fast-paced living and a slower, quieter way of life. With each creaky floorboard and stripped layer of old wallpaper, Maida Korte discovers unexpected beauty, remembers buried dreams, and finds strength in the women who came before her.
For anyone who has ever wondered what lies beyond the edge of timelines and control, this is a warm, wise, and deeply human invitation to slow down, dig deep, and make peace with change—one shingle at a time.

A Twist in the River by Stig Abell

Stig Abell’s A Twist in the River is an atmospheric, character-driven mystery in which former London detective Jake Jackson’s quiet life in the English countryside is shattered when women begin disappearing along the riverbank. As social-media speculation spirals and the body count rise, Jake is pulled into a chilling investigation that blends small-town unease, sharp psychological tension, and the addictive pull of a standout crime series.

Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan

New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan delivers a pulse-pounding thriller about one family fighting for their land against both human enemies and Mother Nature.

After the sudden death of her husband, Ellen McKenna is doing everything she can to keep her Texas farm afloat. She and her family hope to expand their operation, but times are tough and making ends meet is more expensive than she imagined, much less trying to grow. Many of their neighbors in Cooke County have thrown in the towel and agreed to sell their farms to a local businessman, but despite similar pressure, Ellen refuses to let her dreams die.

On top of the usual hardships, a series of recent storms has left the region partly flooded, and as the heavy rain begins again one morning, all the members of the McKenna family jump into action to protect their land and animals. Ellen’s oldest son discovers an injured dog—and the dog leads him to a man barely clinging to life, the apparent victim of a brutal home invasion. Then, Ellen’s younger kids go to check on a nearby neighbor and walk into a threat none of them saw coming.

Before anyone can figure out what’s really going on in their idyllic rural valley, the storm picks up again in intensity, and the McKenna kids find themselves in over their heads with no way to call for help. To protect her farm--and her family—Ellen must face down all the forces trying to tear them apart.

Allison Brennan's talent for twisty, tense pacing combines with a deeply drawn family drama and the unforgiving power of nature in this compelling standalone thriller.

Dark is the Morning by Rupert Thomson

A man’s inner demons threaten his chance at love with a childhood friend in this poignant, propulsive novel set against the beauty of modern Italy.

Dark is the morning that passes
without the light of your eyes
—Cesare Pavese

As a 9-year-old schoolgirl, Franca tells Gino that she will marry him one day, and against all the odds her prophecy comes true. Set in a mountain village in Abruzzo in the early 2000s, Dark Is the Morning is the story of two ordinary young people who fall in love and seem destined for a life of happiness. But there is something in Franca’s past that haunts Gino. His curiosity gradually turns into obsession—an obsession that will have heartbreaking consequences.

Dark Is the Morning has a timeless, eternal quality, like a fable or a fairy-tale. In a world where women’s strength often holds communities together, it speaks to male fragility and to the insidious and corrosive power of jealousy. Shifting between tenderness and paranoia, between beauty and tragedy, this is an extraordinary novel from one of the UK’s most unpredictable and celebrated writers.

The Cozy Nook Bookshop by Jeannie Chin

A small-town bookseller finds that fate has taken to writing romance in this delightfully cozy love story about making your own happy ending—perfect for fans of Laurie Gilmore and grumpy/sunshine love stories!

Emma Rogers-Li is having her worst chapter yet. She’s lost her friends, her apartment in Manhattan, and a jerk of an ex. When a job opens to run a bookshop in the quirky small town of Heart’s Hope Crossing, Vermont, Emma jumps at the chance to start over. For the first time in years, she feels like she’s finally calling the shots in her own life … until she runs smack into Hunter Hall.

According to town legend, it’s fate—couples who meet (or collide) at that corner are meant to be. And while Emma doesn’t believe the town gossips now convinced she and Hunter are meant for each other, something about the tall, gruff forest ranger sends her completely off-balance. Falling in love with Heart’s Hope Crossing might be the best thing to happen to Emma.

But Hunter has a complicated past of his own when it comes to love. Can they both take one last chance on a perfect happily-ever-after?

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