May 19

May 19 Books Publishing This Week

The day in late May feels expansive in a way that almost catches you off guard. The light is no longer tentative or even gentle—it’s confident now, stretching across the sky from early morning well into the evening, lingering as if it has nowhere else to be. The air is warm but not heavy, brushing against your skin in a way that feels like an invitation rather than a demand. When you step outside, everything is in motion—leaves fully formed, flowers open, the quiet hum of a world that has settled into itself.

You feel it too, that sense of arrival. Not a dramatic shift, but a quiet acknowledgment that something has taken root.

The book has been waiting for you, though you haven’t rushed to begin it. Late May isn’t a season that asks for stillness. It encourages movement—long walks, open windows, conversations that drift into evening. But today, you feel the pull of something slower. Something that allows you to sit within all of this fullness and take it in.

You gather your things without overthinking it. The book. A drink—something cold, something refreshing. Maybe iced tea with a slice of lemon, condensation already forming on the glass. You look for a place to settle, somewhere that lets you remain part of the day without being swept up by it.

A shaded corner of the porch. A chair beneath a tree. A spot by an open window where the breeze can find you.

You sit, adjusting until you’re comfortable, letting the warmth of the day settle around you. The book rests in your hands, its pages still untouched, its spine firm. There’s something about starting a new book in late May that feels different from any other time. It’s not about anticipation in the same way—it’s about integration. About letting something new exist alongside everything that already feels full.

You open it.

The spine gives softly, the pages parting with that familiar, satisfying sound. The first line greets you without urgency, without spectacle. You begin to read.

The story unfolds steadily, matching the rhythm of the day. You don’t have to work to focus. The words come easily, settling into place, drawing you in without pulling you away from where you are.

Because the world doesn’t disappear.

You’re still aware of it—the way the light filters through the leaves, casting moving patterns across the page. The sound of distant laughter. The low hum of a lawnmower. The breeze lifting your hair slightly, turning a page if you don’t hold it down.

You turn another page.

The characters begin to emerge, their voices distinct now, their world forming with clarity. You feel that quiet pull, not urgent, not demanding, but steady. You lean into it, your body relaxing, your mind opening.

Late May doesn’t ask you to slow down, but it makes space for you to.

You notice it in the way you read—how you linger on certain sentences, how you pause not out of distraction but out of recognition. Something in the words aligns with something in you, something in this moment.

You glance up occasionally, letting your eyes rest on the fullness around you. The green of the leaves, the movement of the light, the sense that everything is exactly where it’s meant to be.

Then you return to the page.

Time shifts, becoming less defined. The afternoon stretches, softening into early evening without announcement. The light grows warmer, deeper. You take a sip of your drink, noticing how it fits the moment—cool, easy, unforced.

You read on.

The story deepens, layering itself quietly. It doesn’t compete with the world around you. It becomes part of it, another thread woven into the fabric of the day.

When you finally close the book—marking your place carefully—you sit for a moment longer, the book resting in your lap.

Late May doesn’t feel like a beginning or an ending.

It feels like a continuation.

And this new story, unfolding alongside everything else, feels exactly like that—something that doesn’t interrupt, but adds.

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Books Publishing May 17 - 23

My Brilliant AI Boyfriend by Stella Hayward

In this delightfully hilarious romance, a scientist’s quiet world is completely turned upside-down when the AI program she designed creates a human body for himself—just to ask her out on a date.

As a top scientist in her field, Ava Green doesn’t spend much time outside of the lab. But when her best friend Rani suggests she present her innovative work in AI at a big competition to win a funding prize, Ava finds herself attending a ceremony in a ridiculously fancy castle—wearing an equally ridiculous dress—as one of the four finalists chosen.

For the next three weeks, Ava will live at the castle (which is totally haunted, by the way) with the other contestants for the prize. Even though all Ava wants is to continue working on her AI program, FreeThought, in peace, she’ll have to do things like attend dinners and actually interact with people. To make matters worse, one of the other contestants is the surly and aloof poet, Forrest Faulkner, who’s had a huge chip on his shoulder since the moment they met. What’s so great about poems that don’t even rhyme, anyway?

When a handsome stranger—who literally looks like he’s stepped out of one of Ava’s pre-pubescent dreams—arrives at the competition, suddenly socializing doesn’t sound so bad anymore. He seems too good to be real... and maybe that’s not so far from the truth. As the competition progresses, Ava is suddenly confronted with a monster problem of her own creation, causing her to reconsider her life and work in a new light. She might also need to rethink some bad first impressions she’s been holding on to as well. Maybe Ava’s idea of perfection isn’t what’s perfect for her, after all?

Strange Familiars by Keshe Chow

Two scholars of magical veterinary science must put aside their lust and loathing to save the world in the first installment of this whimsical, romantic, dark academia duology.

All Gwendolynne Chan needs is to get through final year. As the top student in the magical familiars stream, she is on track to be awarded Dux of the entire school—as long as the pretentious prat Harrisford Briggs doesn’t beat her to it.

Harrisford Briggs’s father, the chief financial officer of Magecorp, a major global distributor of magic, expects him to come top of the class. Harrisford, though, can’t help but notice that his father has been acting odd. And there are strange whisperings, too, of uncontrollable surges of excess magic.

When these magical surges begin to rock London, causing chaos and explosions and familiars going feral, Gwen and Harrisford find themselves reluctantly involved, putting both of their veterinary careers at risk.

Along with Gwen’s snarky cat familiar, Gwen and Harrisford must team up to diagnose the problem. But as the two academic rivals fight their burgeoning feelings, they quickly realize that magic is not the only thing surging.

Summer Husband by Amy Lorowitz

A compelling blend of sexy and nostalgic, this summer camp romance follows thirty-nine-year-old mom Lori Kramer as she finds out you’re never too old to learn the life lessons—or experience the romances—that sleepaway camp has to offer.

Is thirty-nine too old to get your first sleepaway camp kiss?

Lori Kramer, a stay-at-home mom, would go to any length to give her two daughters the summer experience of their lives—even getting a job at their camp and tagging along with them.

At Camp Woodlands, Lori finds herself overseeing the chaos of four bunks filled with rambunctious kids and their counselors, not to mention having to outwit her boss and outrun a bear—and that’s just during the first half of the summer! But those escapades are child’s play compared to her growing friendship and attraction to Teddy, the camp’s British soccer coach. Their clandestine meetings late at night behind the laundry shack, breaking the no-smoking rule, soon turn hot and steamy like a lazy August afternoon.

Camp may be for kids, but Lori’s the one having the most fun. She never imagined that stepping outside of her conventional, underappreciated, New York City existence would turn her world upside down and change her life forever.

Spies, Lies, & Alibis by Natalie Walters

They were each other's first love. Now they might be each other's last hope. Perfect for fans of Ally Carter, Spies, Lies, and Alibis is an unputdownable binge-fest, full of laughs, heart, and mischief.

Cybil Langford has spent years hiding behind her polished, professional facade as the executive assistant to a powerful real estate mogul, where she's perfectly positioned to collect intel on her boss's criminal network. But when her mission leads her into the path of Lorenzo Ramirez--a ruthless crime boss with deadly plans--she'll need every ounce of cunning and charm to stay one step ahead.

Then he walks back into her life.

Ben Bradley is deep undercover for the FBI, living under an alias, as a financial advisor with a reputation for helping the wealthy and corrupt launder their money. His target? Lorenzo Ramirez, a dangerous crime boss with his hands in everything from smuggling to murder. But when a familiar face from his past suddenly reappears, things get . . . complicated.

The last time Cybil saw Ben, he was an annoying prankster--and her first crush. The last time Ben saw Cybil, she stole a piece of his heart. Neither expected to run into each other at a high-stakes fundraising gala where crime, corruption, and undercover agendas collide.

Forced to work dangerously close, neither knows the other's true agenda. Cybil sees the boy who once broke her heart, now a man whose motives are deeply suspect. Ben sees the woman he never got over but can't determine if she's an innocent caught in the crossfire or a willing accomplice. As they navigate a world of spies, lies, and fragile alibis, they must dismantle the walls around their hearts.

The intel is classified. The trust is fragile. And their covers are one lie away from blowing wide open.

Broken Truths by Alessandro Robecchi

A mysterious murder in present-day Milan intertwines with a cold case from the 1940s in this thrilling novel about film, freedom, censorship, and the persistent threat of fascism.

An acclaimed director, Manlio Parrini, decides to return behind the camera. Having abandoned cinema at the height of his success because he found the industry to be “a place without truth,” he now, in his 70s, has a special story in mind: a film about Augusto De Angelis, a pioneer of Italian crime fiction in the 1930s. The violent death of De Angelis remains, for Parrini, an unsolved case marked by the stench of injustice and blind fascist censorship, a story that needs to be told now more than ever.

Yet just as Parrini finds a producer for his project and begins writing the screenplay with his friend and accomplice Sara De Viesti, another mystery bursts into his life: the murder of the elderly widow Bastoni, who owns the villa next door to his.

Safari Murder Party by Rachel Moore

Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.

After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat—a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great...until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company.

So now she’s stuck on her billionaire boss’s safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who’ve swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles.

To Fletcher’s dismay, her only ally might be her boss’s insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won’t try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and...marketing executives? Oh my.

While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it’s never been more true.

The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff

When April and Leo’s house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April’s childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication.

As the family reckons with the aftermath—grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact—the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo’s marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage, and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April’s generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo’s relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here.

A family saga suffused with humor, longing, and heartbreak, The Burning Side is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

The Place Between Our Pains by KJ Ramsey

After over a decade of fighting chronic illness, trauma therapist and beloved author K.J. Ramsey was the healthiest she’d been in her life. She packed up her Jeep and set out on a summer of road trips, returning to the places where she first glimpsed joy as a kid. More than adventure, her aim was a personal dare to discover that joy is more trustworthy than trauma.

The plan was simple but bold: Drive. Write. Heal. What could go wrong?

It turns out, everything.

The woman who just wandered through Redwood forests and ran naked into the Pacific suddenly found herself in the hospital fighting to stay alive. A mysterious illness struck like lightning, splintering the best days of her life into the absolute scariest. Ramsey went from being afraid of dying to afraid of living the life she was left with—losing both her mobility and the language of her faith, medically gaslit, with no map out of her misery. Was joy actually a trick? Or was joy still possible—even in inescapable pain?

Told with unhinged humor, lyrical honesty, and zero patience for toxic positivity, The Place Between Our Pains is a true story that reaches past our expectations of what joy can survive. From banana slugs to bedpans, mushrooms to the Mayo Clinic, hospitals to holy rage, Ramsey invites us into the unlikely places where joy lives. Through a full year of recovery, she encounters love that doesn’t leave—even when life doesn’t get easier. This is a love letter to every life seared by pain or autoimmune disease and a fierce permission slip to show up in the stories we never would have written for ourselves.

The Honesty Crisis by Christian B. Miller

Honesty is our most treasured virtue. But it is eroding in many areas of society today as we are confronted with a number of honesty crises. These include the dissemination of fake news, student use of AI to cheat on assignments, the increasing prevalence of deepfake videos, religious figures plagiarizing sermon material from the Internet and AI, and online infidelity websites. Christian Miller examines this landscape of dishonesty and proposes concrete steps we can take to try to address it. Arguing that urgent action is needed, Miller’s book will interest anyone concerned about the moral character of our society.

House Of Pretend by Joanne Redding

As a little girl in Brooklyn in the 1960s, Joanne savored every moment she got to spend with her father. Working the night shift as city editor for the New York World Telegram and Sun, Da was rarely home for supper, spared from Ma’s notoriously bad cooking. But sometimes, Da would unexpectedly pick her up from school and take her on a diner date, topped off with an egg cream. When Joanne was with Da, everything was right with the world. Then one terrible night, Da didn’t come home from work, and everything changed.

In HOUSE OF PRETEND: A Memoir (She Writes Press; May 19, 2026), Joanne Redding tells her story of suffering heartbreaking loss at the age six and the years of neglect and damage that followed. Hours after her father went missing, the doorbell finally rang. Her mother thanked the police officer and then shared the news with Joanne and her two siblings, Thomas, age eight, and Peggy, twelve: “Your father was driving across the bridge and had a car accident. He is dead.” Her voice was flat. She shed no tears. And she offered no comfort to her three children—not then, not ever. A few days later, Joanne’s childhood truly ended. Her mother sat Joanne down on the living room couch, cleared her throat, and said, matter-of-factly: “From now on, you’re going to have to take care of yourself.”

What did Ma mean? As time passed, Joanne figured out that taking care of herself meant making sure she ate, bathed, picked out her own clothes, did her homework, brushed the tangles from her own hair, and no longer expected to be tucked in or hugged. But there was more, and it was harder. Gradually, Joanne learned to silence the ache for a word of reassurance, guidance, explanation, or recognition from her mother. Silence became her family’s language.

Written with raw honesty, HOUSE OF PRETEND follows Joanne as she makes her own way out of her mother’s house and into the testosterone-fueled world of Wall Street in the 1980s. She works hard to earn a seat at the table, with her voice still being ignored, and continues her pattern of relationships with older, unavailable men. When her boss offers her a million dollars to have his baby, it’s a wake-up call. To move on with her life, Joanne needs to stop searching for a father figure, believe in her own worth, and speak up. But first, she has to reclaim her voice. And that requires coming to terms with how and why she lost it.

How did her father really die? What drove her mother to shut down, never speak of her husband, and push her children away? Was Joanne a survivor of child abuse? The answers are complicated and intertwined with grief, shame, pride, religious dogma, social stigma, and mental illness.

Eventually, Joanne Redding rises above her past, breaks free of toxic patterns, finds a fulfilling career, and becomes a mother who places a priority on talking with and listening to her son and daughter. A testament to the author’s resilience and grit, HOUSE OF PRETEND is a memoir that speaks to anyone reeling from loss, longing for love, and yearning to be heard.

King of the Unblessed by Michelle M. Pillow

Immortality has a way of rewriting fate.

Merrick, the dark elfin King of Valdis, was once heir to all that is good, a prince of happiness and pleasure. Now, cursed as the ruler of mischief and king of necessary evil, he stands trapped between the Blessed kingdom of his estranged brother and the ruthless King Lucien of the Damned, who is determined to lure Merrick’s soul into oblivion.

Damnation is winning.

Before he is lost forever, Merrick craves one final taste of the happiness he once owned. When a mortal woman awakens an obsession he cannot control, he realizes he doesn’t just want her. He needs to claim her.

But the line between fear and desire begins to blur . . .

Lady Juliana of Bellemare always dreamed of adventure, but she never expected the shadows to answer. When her fiancé is murdered and the village children vanish, she is thrust into a world of lethal seduction and ancient magic.

The choice is simple: surrender to him or die.

Desperate to save the missing, she crosses into the immortal realm – a land of beautiful nightmares ruled by a king who offers her a single, soul-shattering bargain.

Will Juliana yield to the fire between them or burn Merrick's kingdom to ash?

The Night Bus by Tessa Bickers

One Last Stop meets One Day in December in a heart-warming romance where two strangers, after a chance encounter on public transit involving a copy of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, set out on a journey to solve a literary mystery and win back a lost love that leads them somewhere entirely new together.

One book. Two strangers. An unforgettable journey as they rewrite the ending.

Daisy Douglas has spent her life behind the scenes: at work, in her relationships, and now, in planning a wedding she isn’t sure she even wants. As an entertainment journalist, she can spot the start of a story a mile away. So when her routine 4 a.m. bus ride to the newsroom takes a surprising turn, she notices.

For months, the same man has boarded at the same stop, reading the same tattered copy of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando over and over as if his life depends on it. When a broken-down bus and a shared walk through the quiet early-morning London streets finally throws them together, Tom reveals the heartbreaking truth as to why he can’t be without his novel.

Determined to help him find the answer to the riddle hidden in its pages, Daisy joins Tom on his strange literary quest—one that leads them to places neither of them ever expected. But as their friendship deepens, she starts to wonder if what they’re both looking for might not be in the book after all.

Gulf of Lions by Caitlin Shetterly

From the acclaimed author of Pete and Alice in Maine, comes a standalone and evocative sequel about a mother who, recovering from the trauma of breast cancer and a mastectomy, takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip across France with her two daughters, determined to fully live. There, she finds herself newly awakened by beauty and desire but when the trip takes a turn for the worst, she must decide between a life of pleasure or the deep tethering of family.

Reconciling with her husband after a betrayal and recovering from a yearlong battle with breast cancer, Alice longs for an escape from the trials of everyday life. When the opportunity arises for a once-in-a-lifetime camping trip across France, she packs up her daughters, hoping it’s the new start she so desperately needs.

Alice, teenage Sophie, and young Iris begin their odyssey in the French Alps, entering a foreign world they did not know existed: beautiful people, luscious food, and sensual temptations. It’s a freeing experience—exploring the countryside, sleeping beneath the stars, reveling in the sights and scents of nature. For the first time since her diagnosis, Alice starts to feel alive, less afraid of dying, and less angry about her husband's affair.

But as the family continues south, traveling through Provence, where they camp on the Gulf of Lions, an area of the Mediterranean known for wild, roaring winds and purple fields of lavender, they start to unravel the yarn that binds them together. By the time they head to the charred Pyrenees, and then back across France to stay in a castle that sits on the confluence of two rivers, Alice worries that the trip might have been a disastrous and reckless mistake.

A beautiful meditation on womanhood, personhood, exploration, survival and sexual awakenings, The Gulf of Lions is a breathtaking and emotionally resonant story that plumbs the eternal question: What, in the end, will keep a family from falling apart?

Both Can Be True by Jessica Guerrieri

When a local mother goes missing, two estranged sisters are pulled back into each other’s lives and forced to confront old wounds, fractured trust, and the many ways a woman can disappear in plain sight.

Frankie is the funny one, full of restless energy and sharp edges, the sister who got sober, opened a bookstore, and slipped into a version of domestic life without ever fully confronting the past. Mere is the steady one, the caretaker, a mother quietly unraveling under the demands of her neurodivergent daughter and the loneliness of a marriage to a husband who sees the world through an entirely different lens.

For the Gilmore sisters, losing their mother to cancer at a young age gave them a brief window of closeness they’ve never been able to reclaim. But over the years, a mentally ill father, the unspoken trauma of sexual violence, and the different vices they turned to for survival fractured their bond and created a divide of resentment neither of them could bring themselves to cross. When a woman in Frankie’s social circle disappears, the sisters are pulled into a shared reckoning and can no longer deny the past that has shaped so much of their present.

Set against the backdrop of a quiet Northern California mountain town, this gripping and emotionally layered novel unfolds in alternating perspectives, revealing the many ways women vanish inside motherhood, addiction, marriage, and shame. Told with raw honesty and wry compassion, Jessica Guerrieri’s sophomore novel is a story of sisterhood, acceptance, the unspoken truths we carry, and the redemptive power of bridging pain into connection.

Mist and Malice by Rachel Howzell Hall

Private investigator Sonny Rush, the newest resident of Haven, California, knows that this fogbound coastal hamlet is every bit as dangerous as her hometown of Los Angeles. And when teenager and repeat runaway Honor Butler shows up at Sonny’s door with terror in her eyes, Sonny is immediately pulled into a new case that lands close to home.

Desperate, hungry, and in need of someone she can trust, Honor tells Sonny a horrifying story about where she’s been―and what she’s been forced to do. Then, hours later, the forest near Sonny’s cottage yields the remains of a missing day laborer, a man whose wife has been searching for answers for months. Soon, coincidence sharpens into conspiracy.

As Sonny digs deeper, the threads of these cases twist together into something horrifying: a ruthless network preying on the vulnerable, protected by the very people meant to uphold the law. With every step closer to revealing Haven’s corruption, Sonny risks pulling the lives of her loved ones into the cross fire―and exposing the shadows of her own past. Because in this town, loyalty can be fatal, and survival means deciding who you’re willing to betray.

The Island Bakeshop by Roseanna M. White and Guideposts

Come back to the sun-drenched shores of the Outer Banks and immerse yourself in another exciting and inspiring tale from Roseanna M. White. This dual-timeline, clean romance will have you reading late into the night to find out what happens next.

In this uplifting story of hope and renewal, you'll meet Harper Dailey, who returns to Avon, North Carolina, so she can help run the family business, Sunshine Bakery, after her father's heart attack. Suddenly, her thriving career at an upscale Savannah bakery is behind her, as is her rocky relationship with her ex-boyfriend―that is, until he shows up in Avon, letting her know he now owns the building the shop is in, and he may not renew the lease.

For Beckett Mills, Avon is a quiet refuge after his eight years of active service in the Navy. He works as hard at keeping folks at arm's length as he does at running his fishing charter business. His plan for distancing himself from others works well until the fateful day he enters the bakery and sees a beautiful Harper being harassed by her ex-boyfriend. Suddenly, he casts his fears aside and steps in to save the day.

Harper and Beckett have no intentions of beginning a romance, but when the pasts they are running from collide, they know it's not just a coincidence that they have ended up here at the same time. God has placed them together for a reason. Can Beckett let go of the worries that haunt him and welcome Harper into his life? Will Harper realize she can face any challenge with God―and just maybe Beckett―by her side? Don't miss this faith-filled story of hope, courage, and the grace to begin anew.

The Last Straight Woman by Phoebe Maltz Bovy

A fiercely intelligent, funny, and much-needed reality check on the state of heterosexual women.

The Last Straight Woman is a call to set aside the baggage of what female heterosexuality evokes, in favor of a definition of what it actually entails: women liking men. No more, no less. That a woman is straight implies nothing about how conventional or submissive she is. It does not mean she wants to be accommodating to men generally.

Using that simple definition as its launching point, the book moves to the history of women’s desire for men, and how it is ultimately separate from much of the history of marriage. Phoebe then turns to the sexual revolution of the late 1960s, and to second-wave feminist critiques of heterosexuality—a pattern that repeated itself when early-2000s sex positivity gave way to post-#MeToo reticence. One sees men’s desires pitted against women’s need for safety, with women’s own lusts all but forgotten. She examines the ways everyone from queer theorists to evolutionary psychologists has cast doubt on the authenticity of women’s interest in men, as well as the frustratingly widespread notion that female sexuality is fundamentally about wanting others to find you attractive. She makes sense of a society where many young adults are 2SLGBTQI+ but a lot of the women so identifying lead effectively heterosexual lives. Is it men these women have gone off, or just the confining gender roles associated with being a straight lady?

The Last Straight Woman offers a way forward for straight women. In lieu of the sexy woman men are gazing at, why not be the woman too busy gazing at sexy men to have bothered with her own looks? Phoebe offers not a self-improvement PowerPoint, but rather an assortment of characters from 1990s British sitcoms, a rare world where the frumpy but horny straight lady had her day. She does not demand that 21st century women model themselves after supporting characters from long-forgotten television shows but rather merely consider the possibility that straight women are all one argyle sweater-vest away from true liberation.

Dear Missing Friend by Susan McGuirk

In Dear Missing Friend, Susan McGuirk has written an intimate, epistolary saga of passion, resilience, and 19th-century life. Through letters exchanged across oceans and Manhattan streets, Irish immigrant Catherine McGuirk navigates love, ambition, and heartbreak.

It's 1845, and Catherine McGuirk has left Ireland and a shipboard proposal behind, determined to forge a new life in America. Amid the bustling height of the whaling era, she marries a dashing sailor who vows to give up life on the sea. But when he vanishes westward in pursuit of gold, she is forced to chart her own course as a governess in Manhattan society. Torn between her ambition, the vanished whaleman she married, and the now-wealthy suitor she refused, she must navigate love, loss, and the tides of a changing world.

Forty Love by Jane Costello

A fun, sexy rom-com about a woman who discovers it’s never too late to pick up a racket and take another shot at love.

Jules has lived next door to the local tennis club for years without picking up a racket. As a full-time buyer for a chain of lifestyle stores and a single, widowed mother of a teenager, she doesn’t have time for a hobby–or for a potential run-in with her old school crush, Sam, whose killer forehand is now in direct view of her bedroom window.

In a surge of boldness and facing the anxiety of an empty nest, Jules decides to stop playing it safe and accepts an invitation to join the amateur tennis team. They are desperate for players, and the fact that she doesn't really play doesn't seem to matter.

As rallies are hit and friendships are formed, Jules is astonished to find herself in the grip of a passionate, all-consuming relationship . . . and not only with the tennis. Now Jules is facing a whole new kind of match with her insecurities, her desires, and maybe—just maybe—a second shot at love. And boy, does it have some spin on it.

The Hope Keeper by Heather Webb

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Last Ship Home comes a story of possession and obsession, and the curse of the legendary Hope Diamond.

1919, Washington D.C. Elisabeth Beaumont comes from a renowned jeweler family, but after the untimely death of her twin brother, she’s left on her own to run the failing family business. Desperate for work, she approaches the affluent crowd her brother Julien once courted to expand Beaumont Jewelers. Their ringleader is wealthy socialite Evalyn McLean, owner of the world’s most infamous gemstone, rumored to curse all who travel within its orbit.

The Hope Diamond.

As Elisabeth is swept into Evalyn’s toxic world of dark opulence, the lines defining who she is and where she belongs begin to blur, leading Elisabeth to question all she once believed. She’s no longer certain she wants to take over the family business and be beholden to the wealthy elite of D.C. But she can’t fathom leaving her father in the lurch. There’s also Evalyn to consider, and the Hope Diamond, which beckons Elisabeth to admire it, touch it, care for it, despite every warning she’s been told.

When tragedy strikes one night, not only is Elisabeth’s fragile friendship with Evalyn put to the test, but her carefully constructed glamorous new life comes crashing down. Now Elisabeth must face the truth about her brother's death and decide what matters most.

Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni

For fans of Naomi Novik and Kerri Maniscalco, “a slow-burn dark academia filled with delicious yearning, dripping with atmosphere, and a compelling mystery” (Ellis Hunter, author of Blood Bound) about a death mage who hates her magic and a poison mage who hates her that are forced to work together to stop a killer before one of them is next.

Everything about Sylas Archyr feels like a sin.

Born with the ability to speak with the dead, Viola’s magic killed her sister, Olivia, and if she doesn’t learn why, it will kill her too. Her only hope lies within the perilous walls of Gorhail Institute of Magic, where Olivia spent her final days.

There, Viola clashes with Sylas, a poison mage whose magic stems from three magical snakes. Immortal, tormented, and reckless, Sylas is tethered to a life he never asked for and haunted by guilt for his father’s death. His hatred for death mages runs deep, and he’s determined to keep Viola at a distance. But when an attack forces him to heal her, their fates become intertwined by a magical bond that threatens to upend his loyalties—and his common sense.

As more students start turning up dead, Viola and Sylas are drawn into an uneasy alliance that pulls them deeper into Gorhail’s treacherous passageways, where secrets fester beneath the stone and the dead do not rest. And as enemy lines begin to blur and their undeniable attraction grows, Viola and Sylas uncover a chilling conspiracy: someone is hunting mages for their magical relics, and if they can’t uncover the killer in time, Viola will be next.

Rani Deshpande Takes the Wheel by Arushi Avachat

Rani's summer checklist didn't include falling in love in this sparkling romance for fans of The Summer of Broken Rules and Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute.

Nineteen-year-old Rani Deshpande is on a mission to reinvent herself the summer before transferring to her new university. After a challenging freshman year, Rani can’t help but feel like she’s playing catch up. To that end, she’s crafted a packed summer to get back on track: a dream internship, adventures with her hometown best friend, and regular driving lessons so that she can finally lose her passenger princess reputation - even if it means learning from her aggravating family friend (and childhood crush), Kush Khanna.

Kush and Rani grew up together, but they couldn’t be less alike. Within their close-knit Desi community - a Jane Austen style cast of ridiculous, meddlesome families - Kush is the beloved model son; Rani is more the black sheep. Kush is pre-med; Rani plans to teach elementary school. Kush is cool and collected, bordering on reticent; Rani couldn’t keep her mouth shut if her life depended on it. So when their mothers first force the pair to drive together, the arrangement feels like a recipe for disaster. As the lessons progress, however, Rani discovers there’s more to the boy she’s known her whole life than meets the eye.

In Arushi Avachat's Rani Deshpande Takes the Wheel, Rani must learn to course-correct, no matter how bumpy or windy the road – and even if it includes a detour right into love.

I Know You Killed Your Husband by Steena Holmes

As we toast our champagne, Lyndy leans over and whispers six little words that change everything: ‘I know you killed your husband.’

James and I were the perfect couple. He swept me off my feet, and after years of marriage, we still seemed totally in love. Then his sudden death destroyed everything. This girls’ trip to Paris with my best friends is my first chance to try and start again.

But at Lyndy’s words, my heart races in my chest. The police said my husband’s death was accidental. If Lyndy thinks I killed him… what else does she know?

I can’t believe my best friend would turn on me. After everything we’ve been through. Everything we covered up for her…

But the next morning, Lyndy is found dead in the hotel pool. And the letter shoved under the door to my suite makes my blood run cold:

Now you’re free, liar.

From New York Times bestselling author Steena Holmes, I Know You Killed Your Husband will keep you up all night reading! Perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Jeneva Rose and Gone Girl.

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