Oct 6

Oct 6 Books Publishing This Week

The beginning of October feels like an invitation to settle in. You step outside in the morning and immediately notice the crispness in the air, the kind that makes you pull your sweater a little closer and reconsider the iced coffee you've been stubbornly ordering since summer. The trees aren't yet at their most brilliant, but patches of yellow, amber, and red have begun appearing among the green. Fallen leaves collect along sidewalks, mums brighten front steps, and pumpkins are beginning to appear on porches. Autumn has officially arrived, and suddenly a new book feels almost essential.

You choose one from the stack that's been waiting for you and carry it to your favorite reading spot. On a sunny afternoon, you might still sit outside, letting the October sun warm your face while leaves rustle overhead. On a cooler day, you stay inside near a window with a mug of coffee or tea, enjoying the particular coziness that comes from watching the season change from somewhere warm.

When you open the book, you pause for a moment on that wonderfully untouched first page. You don't know yet which characters you'll love, what secrets are hidden in the chapters ahead, or whether this will become one of those books you forever associate with a particular season. You only know that you have a new story waiting and an October afternoon stretching ahead of you.

Soon, the pages begin to turn more quickly. Outside, the light grows softer and the shadows longer. You take another sip of your drink and settle deeper into your chair, already imagining all the reading evenings this month will bring.

October is made for new stories, and fortunately, the publishing calendar is offering plenty of them. If you're looking for your next book to curl up with as autumn settles in, here are the new books publishing this week.

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Books Publishing October 4 - 10

The Undercover Bookshop by Katherine Reay

During the winter of 1950 in the small Cotswold village of Great Rollright, amateur sleuth Gemma Brown starts to suspect that the town’s best baker, Ursula Beurton, is a Soviet spy, tumbling her headlong into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse that ends with a decision that will lead her to The Undercover Bookshop and change her life forever.

Recently moved to the English Cotswolds, Gemma Brown desperately wants to create the kind of idyllic life she’s read about in her favorite mystery novels with herself as the leading lady. But fitting in proves difficult as Gemma is more adept at solving mysteries and setting up the village’s first bookstore than she is at baking cakes or grasping social niceties. Nevertheless, she finds a friend in Peggy, a young woman recently moved to town herself, and Ursula Beurton, who is not only the village’s best baker but an enigmatic figure who sparks controversy in the small-town gossip network.

As Gemma spends more time with Ursula, she begins to suspect all those novels are affecting her thinking. The oddities she starts to notice must be her imagination because, if not, they point to something far more dangerous than winning the local baking contest or being placed on the church committee. Could her neighbor be a real spy?

Following her instincts and a few skills learned through fiction, Gemma soon becomes embroiled in an international intrigue involving the village’s mysterious benefactor, Lady Marchmont, MI5, and the KGB. In an unexpected twist, however, Ursula asks Gemma for a favor which may endanger all their lives as their next chapter unfolds in Gemma’s new venture, The Undercover Bookshop.

The Haunted Librarian by Auralee Wallace

A lonely librarian finds love, friends, and a few ghosts between the shelves in this cozy, paranormal tale from beloved bestselling author Auralee Wallace.

It’s a dark and stormy night…and Amelia Bates is caught in the rain. Life hasn’t always been kind to her, and being a ghostseer certainly doesn’t make things any easier.

Glowing warmly through the autumnal downpour is her safest haven: the library. Amelia, the newly hired librarian, has always relished the comfort of curling up with a novel, vastly preferring it to the company of humans (alive or ghostly).

But Amelia is shocked to discover the building is full of more than quiet stories and warm cups of tea. There are curious, talkative patrons, a shy, bespectacled head librarian who makes her heart skip a beat, and three quirky spirits causing paranormal havoc that endangers the future of the library.

To help the ghosts and save the building, Amelia will have to gather all her bravery and wits, because learning to trust others might just be the first step to a happily ever after she only thought was possible in books.

Before You Were Anne by Emiko Jean

After a woman is killed and her daughter vanishes, detective Chelsey Calhoun uncovers a legacy of violence and survival that spans from Japan to Seattle in the new novel by the author of The Return of Ellie Black.

A murdered woman. A missing daughter. A truth buried across two continents.

Married, pregnant, and thriving in her career, Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life finally feels whole, until an explosive new case shatters everything. A mother is dead. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Naomi, has disappeared. And the search will awaken questions about Chelsey’s own origins—questions she’s spent a lifetime afraid to ask.

The victim called herself Anne Walker. But she was born Rika Takahashi, and her journey from a remote Japanese farm to suburban Seattle conceals decades of deception. Across Tokyo’s shadowed underworld, an isolated Idaho town, and years of carefully constructed lies, Rika reinvented herself at every turn. But she was always running—from someone, or something.

Now, Chelsey must find Naomi before she becomes the next victim. But the deeper she delves into Rika’s hidden life, the more she discovers: some secrets are worth killing for. And the most dangerous truths may be the ones closest to home.

Told in three interwoven voices, Before You Were Anne is a gripping suspense novel about the lies that bind families and the sins that echo across generations.

House Haunters by KC Jones

From Bram Stoker Award finalist KC Jones comes House Haunters, a fast-paced thrill ride perfect for fans of How to Sell a Haunted House and Play Nice, in which a skeptical reality TV show producer and a misanthropic ghosthunter must team up to survive a shoot from hell.

Grace Wonderly needs a hit show. Desperately.

If the aspiring director-turned-reality television producer doesn’t find the next big thing, she may have to abandon her dream job.

Her long-time friend might have just the solution: a misanthropic ghost hunter named Frank Pendleton (and his trusty corgi sidekick, Fish Stick). But Frank is no ordinary ghost hunter. He claims that he can’t feel fear, which makes him more sensitive to paranormal phenomena. Skeptical but intrigued, Grace gathers a film crew to shoot a proof-of-concept for her studio.

What should be a straightforward shoot quickly spirals into a nightmare and Grace must confront some hard truths: ghosts are real; and though callous and distant, Frank is their only hope of getting out alive.

The Christmas Yes List by Melissa Ferguson

SOON TO BE A STREAMING ORIGINAL MOVIE!

All she wants for Christmas is a rejection.

Chloe Hollis is done being a people-pleaser. After one too many bad decisions–including a job that asked her to cross a line she couldn’t–she’s determined to change. Her plan? Collect ten nos before Christmas by asking strangers for the most ridiculous favors she can think of.

It should be easy.

But then? Then she meets James.

Instead of shutting her down, the charming out-of-towner keeps saying yes–to Christmas karaoke, to small-town holiday traditions, to every spontaneous, hilarious, totally chaotic idea she throws his way. And the more he says yes, the harder it becomes for Chloe to stick to her plan . . . or protect her heart.

Because James has a reason for saying yes to everything, too–and it might cost them both more than they bargained for.

As their opposite missions collide in a swirl of festive mishaps, unexpected courage, and undeniable chemistry, Chloe starts to wonder if the biggest risk isn’t rejection after all . . . but saying yes to something real.

When You Tell by Steena Holmes

A glamorous psychological thriller about Bree, a ghostwriter who reconnects with her former best-friend-turned-viral-influencer Miranda (or Randi, to her followers) when she's hired to ghostwrite her latest book. As a public scandal threatens Randi's carefully curated life, Bree begins to see just how fragile fame, identity, and loyalty can be.

Tristan 4 America by Bruce Overby

After the pandemic costs him his career—and his sense of purpose—Tristan Heller makes an unthinkable decision: he runs for president of the United States. Not to win, but to say what no one else will.

Backed by a scrappy crew of Silicon Valley outsiders, Tristan’s long-shot campaign cuts through the noise of the 2024 election with blunt, incendiary truth. What begins as a protest quickly gains traction—drawing attention from voters hungry for honesty ... and from forces far more dangerous.

As his message spreads, so does the backlash. Online fury spills into the real world. Money, misinformation, and power close ranks. And Tristan finds himself in a fight he never intended to start, against a system that doesn’t reward disruption, and the people who will do anything to silence it.

In a nation defined by division, speaking the truth can make you a target.

A sharp, provocative literary novel with the pulse of a political thriller, Tristan 4 America is a story about ambition, disillusionment, and the high cost of trying to change a country on the brink.

What Do I Tell My Daughter?: Hard-Won Wisdomms for Tomorrow's Women

For fans of Glennon Doyle’s Love Warrior and Lisa Marchiano’s Motherhood, a candid debut memoir about one woman’s struggles with resentment and loss of identity—and eventual journey back to self—after leaving her dream job to focus on being a mom.

Katie Trexler was at the top of her game—thriving in her high-profile job as a local television news anchor, raising healthy young twins, and leading a nearly idyllic life with her husband in the suburbs of Denver. Then believing it was the right decision for her family—and unaware of the toll it would take on her well-being—she gave up her dream career.

Years later, unsatisfied with where her path has led, Katie wonders, What do I tell my daughter about the choices I’ve made as a woman and mother? With raw honesty, What Do I Tell My Daughter? delves into the real and sometimes hidden costs of sacrificing parts of ourselves for the people we love—a reality Katie confronts first as a young mom and then again almost a decade later when her seemingly ideal life unexpectedly shatters.

Punctuated by hard-earned lessons about inner strength, self-love, and equality in relationships, this unflinchingly candid memoir is for any woman, any person, who has ever lost themselves while caring for others—and who is determined to reclaim their voice, redefine success, and model courage and awareness for the next generation.

Red Seal by Rosa Kwon Easton

A Korean mother and son navigate wars, displacement, and identity across decades and borders in a moving multigenerational saga by the author of White Mulberry.

In 1943 Japan, the Pacific War rages on. Miyoung, a Korean-born single mother and nurse, defies an order to serve in the Imperial Japanese Army and instead flees with her six-year-old son, Ko-chan, who is leaving everything familiar behind, including the grandparents he loves. Miyoung hopes Ko-chan will finally claim his heritage and that she can reclaim her own as well.

Miyoung promises her anxious son an adventure. Their life-changing trek to Miyoung’s homeland takes them first to Japan-occupied Manchuria, where Miyoung’s brother offers shelter and Ko-chan, coming of age, begins to question where his future lies. When Japan’s defeat in World War II forces them to escape again, it triggers a decades-long odyssey of survival, sacrifice, and―for the generations to follow―a search for identity across three nations.

A powerful tribute to the endurance of family bonds, Red Seal explores the struggle to define oneself when torn between multiple worlds and by cultural upheaval, and the resilience it takes to find a place to call home.

Looks Perfect by Jessica Siskin

What comes between a fashion icon’s perfect image and her genuine self? The perfect stranger―in a sharp and witty novel about identity, performance, and what it takes to make a true connection.

One million people follow Stella Lerner’s every move. And now the buzzy fashion designer is fulfilling her lifelong dream and taking her indie clothing brand global with the help of the industry’s biggest investor. Sounds perfect. Except offline, the optics aren’t so great.

Her relationship with her boyfriend, Alex, is crumbling just as the pressure to curate her image online only builds. Feeling trapped between the picture-perfect life she’s promised her followers and the messy reality she’s facing, Stella anonymously joins a new dating app. Blindr promises deep, private conversations, free from the burden of anyone’s expectations, especially her own. That’s when Stella connects with a stranger called Pineapple who’s intuitive, honest, and empathetic. Stella may be watched by millions, but this man, who’s never even laid eyes on her, makes her feel seen.

What starts as a diversion becomes a journey of radical transformation. As Stella’s search for authenticity intensifies, every chat with Pineapple takes her further down a path she never could’ve imagined.

The Dues and Don'ts of Magic by Delemach

Spidena Kettle runs a quiet magic shop at the edge of town, selling just enough spells and potions to keep herself afloat—and out of trouble—when Benthrop Hozel enters her shop one day. On the run from the nefarious sort, he simply wishes to be forgotten by his pursuers. In exchange, he promises a favor.
Such a deal could have dire consequences if Ben is unable to fulfill his end of the bargain. Not that the witch is overly concerned—after all, there’s no risk to her making such an arrangement with a normal human. Only…Ben may be more than he seems. With their fates forcibly intertwined for a full journey, Spidena and Ben must not only evade their enemies and use precious magical resources to get by, but confront the secrets they’ve long kept…that is, if they can manage to stop getting on each other’s last nerve for long enough to do so.

Fortune and Glass by John Mutter

How do you stay human inside a regime built to erase you?

Berlin, 1932. Germany’s fragile democracy is fracturing, its ideals cracking like thin glass as political violence and paranoia seep into the streets. In the midst of this tension, Rudi, a young Foreign Ministry official, meets Sara, an unpredictable, morally fierce Jewish woman whose connection with him is immediate and combustible. By 1943, the Germany they knew has vanished. Rudi works at the center of Nazi power, performing his duties by day and passing intelligence to the Allies by night—until Sara’s unexpected return threatens to unravel the life he has carefully constructed to survive.

A debut novel, Fortune and Glass is philosophical spy fiction and a literary love story about private choices, secret resistance, and the cost of staying human inside a system determined to erase individuality. Lyrical, atmospheric, and morally complex, it explores the gray zones of living under authoritarianism and asks a timeless question: Who are you when everything falls apart?

Melding literary fiction, psychological suspense, and historical storytelling, Fortune and Glass is an intimate exploration of identity, conscience, and quiet resistance inside a society sliding into extremism. It explores how ordinary people navigate love, loyalty, and moral responsibility inside systems that reward silence and punish dissent—questions that feel as urgent now as they did then. Emotionally rich and philosophically resonant, it turns away from spectacle and heroics to focus on the private cost of survival.

Fortune and Glass is a deeply human story that reimagines the WWII novel by shifting the lens inward toward the moral choices that define us when history fractures beneath our feet. For readers of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, The Book Thief, The Alice Network, and the espionage of John le Carré, this debut novel from an established publishing voice blends intimacy, danger, and moral complexity into a story that feels both timeless and urgent.

The Chain House by J. H. Markert

In the tradition of Stephen King, this multi-POV, page-turning horror thriller from author J. H. Markert is packed with mind-bending twists.

Days before his execution, notorious mass murderer Sal Batise, known as the Breaker of Chains by his cult followers, grants an unlikely interview to a young filmmaker, Sam Harper.

This interview could launch Sam’s career. But his carefully planned questions—including the one about the recently kidnapped governor’s wife—fall apart when Batise seizes control.

On live TV, Batise claims that he is Mallard Malone, the anonymous author of a blockbuster thriller series. Stay his execution, and he’ll release the final unpublished manuscript that holds the key to finding his victims’ bodies.

Meanwhile, a ransom note arrives with a single demand to save the governor’s wife: Batise’s execution must go on as planned.

Desperate for more information, Sam teams up with Jennifer Daley, a childhood survivor of Batise’s cult, to locate the missing manuscript and uncover the truth behind their own ties to Batise.

As fiction and reality collide, a deadly chain of events leads to a race against time to stop an execution that could have catastrophic consequences on the world.

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

The perfectly twisted word-of-mouth phenomenon that set the internet on fire

When Eamon and his two closest friends, Caroline and Mark, journey to Addington Isle, they hope to explore the island that inspired their favorite book, Winterset Hollow—a timeless tale about a tribe of animals preparing for their yearly end-of-summer festival. But when the trio break into the author’s apparently abandoned estate, they discover that much of what the world believes to be fantasy is real, and that the truth behind their beloved story is darker and more dangerous than they ever imagined. In fact, making it through the final chapter might just cost them everything.

How do you celebrate Barley Day? You run, friend. You run.

This edition features the complete version of the book within the book, Winterset Hollow, as written by Edward Addington!

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Murder by Jacqueline Frost

New parents Holly White and Sheriff Evan Gray are sleep deprived but incandescently happy to be celebrating their baby’s first Christmas. Their family, friends, and neighbors are spoiling the newest addition. Adding to the perfect holiday season is the recent completion of their newly built home. All that’s left to do is move in and send off those change-of-address cards. But their cup full of cheer turns sour when Holly discovers a dead body.

It all started with a sweet trip down memory lane—Candy Cane Lane and Toyland were two of Holly’s favorites as a child, and she had been looking forward to sharing them with her baby. Then she stumbled upon the body of Greysen, the animal keeper, left among the reindeer at the petting zoo.

Earlier in the day, Holly witnessed a fight between Greysen and a stranger. Stranger still, the reindeer petting zoo had originally been empty that day—no reindeer in sight until they reappeared along with a corpse.

As Holly fights to keep the Christmas spirit alive, she is Greysen’s only chance at justice–and her baby’s only chance at a happy first Christmas.

Murder on Thin Ice by Laurie Cass

It’s winter in northwest lower Michigan, which means librarian Minnie Niswander and her cat, Eddie, are staying cozy in the bookmobile. But not everything is as it should be.

When an elderly housebound patron, Gerald Arnold, fails to answer his door, Minnie knows something is wrong. Her fears are confirmed when the police discover Gerald’s body beneath the surface of a small frozen lake.

Minnie knows that the kind and cautious Gerald would never have been so careless as to fall through the ice, and she suspects foul play. But law enforcement rules the old man’s death an accident, and Minnie knows she will have to take the investigation into her own hands.

As she and Eddie dig deeper, Minnie is troubled to learn that Gerald—and many of her friends—had been suspects in a decades-old cold case. Were the two murders connected? If so, it looks like justice is long overdue.

Not Another Christmas Movie by Ashley Cowan

Thirty-something Annie Meyers is having a rough year. Her situationship with the noncommittal Chris fizzled out, and her best friend’s impending engagement is the final crunch of the candy cane. Her solution: to spend the holiday slugging boxed rosé and ignoring the rest of the world.

That is, until she falls asleep and wakes up in her worst nightmare: a made-for-TV Christmas movie version of her quaint hometown. To make matters worse, Chris is now the town’s hunky widower and owner of a Christmas tree farm. But Annie isn’t trapped alone: Her dorky childhood neighbor, Nick, is here too. Only, he’s not quite as dorky as she remembers.

After some mild panic, Annie and Nick realize their escape hinges on playing into classic rom-com tropes. The plan is simple: Annie will woo Chris—the now “perfect boyfriend”—and Nick, his childhood sweetheart, Bailey.

But after holiday hoedowns, ice-skating dates, and cookie-baking montages, Annie begins to wonder if the real magic of Christmas—and love—is much closer to home.

Grace Through Fire by Deborah Samuel

For fans of Cheryl Strayed and Glennon Doyle, a raw and redemptive memoir of surviving generational trauma, caregiving, and spiritual awakening that chronicles one woman’s journey from southern survival to West Coast freedom.

When her elderly mother shoots her abusive husband—Deborah’s father—in their Arkansas home, Deborah is thrust into a storm of media frenzy, grief, and caregiving. As she fights for justice, supports her paralyzed wife, and battles personal demons, Deborah begins to unravel a deeper legacy of generational trauma—and realizes the need to rescue herself.

Told with gripping honesty, Grace Through Fire follows Deborah’s odyssey through murder trials, chronic illness, financial collapse, and spiritual reckoning. From the chaos of the rural South to the stillness of yoga studios and the healing waters of Lake Powell and Crater Lake, Deborah rediscovers her strength, sobriety, and purpose.

This is a narrative of transformation and fierce resilience—a memoir for anyone who has ever questioned their worth, carried the pain of their family, or longed for a fresh start. At the heart of it all is a bold love story, a leap of faith, and one woman’s courageous choice to create a life of freedom, service, and light on the California coast.

The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain

In this enthralling novel—already in production as a major movie starring Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Catriona Balph and Emma Laird— the award-winning author of Absolutely & Forever and The Road Home brilliantly reimagines Daphne du Maurier, and the origins of her timeless bestseller Rebecca.

This daring and emotional tale of an illicit affair is narrated by a Mrs. Danowski, known as Danni, who is hired as housekeeper at Manderville Hall, Lord Grenville-Whithers’ mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. A loyal and lonely woman troubled by childhood memories of alienation, Danni dreams of finding love.

Those dreams are fulfilled when Daphne du Maurier arrives at Manderville Hall for lunch with Grenville-Whithers. Succumbing to her secret sexual desire for women, Daphne begins a love affair with Danni, meeting on the housekeeper’s days off in the secluded boathouse at Manderville Cove. For both women, this forbidden passion is both beautiful and terrifying.

But of course such a love cannot last—and both Danni and Daphne must deal with the aftermath of their passion. While Danni struggles to find a new place in the world, Daphne reconfigures the experience into her most famous work, Rebecca, with surprising results.

Sleepers in the Snow by Joanne Harris

A gripping and powerful suspense story of love, loss, and the mysteries of memory by internationally bestselling author Joanne Harris.

Out on the moor, in the snow, a house stands beneath a pylon. It is a house full of memories, and full of old things. And, in the dark, when the pylon sings in the wind, it is a house full of ghosts and fading memories . . .

The house, Kirkhill, has a new occupant—just moved in, fresh from a bitter divorce and looking for a fresh start. The moor is the perfect place for it: isolated, beautiful in the changing seasons, peaceful, and with just enough of the previous owners' belongings that it's a perfectly self-contained and cosy home.

Only as the nights start to draw in, and the weather takes a turn, so does the house. The cosy isolation becomes menacing, animals begin acting strangely, and it seems someone could be watching the house . . . and the diaries of the previous owners begin to reveal a terrible tragedy which befell Kirkhill - one which its new occupant may be unable to escape . . .

20 Over 60 co-edited by Beth Weinhouse and David Galef

20 Over 60 is a collection of 20 stories written by authors older than 60, including Richard Bausch, Nicholas Delbanco, Jane Gardam, Lisa William Kline, Joyce Carol Oates, Eileen Pollack, A. R. Taylor, and Paul Theroux. The tales address an array of topics and themes such as: aging in place, assisted dying, dementia, distant or estranged adult children, downsizing, finding companionship in senior care facilities, lost loves, marital dynamics that fluctuate over decades, illness, infidelity, nostalgia, and relationships with grandchildren. An "outstanding anthology" (Library Journal) emphasizing the vivid reality of life after 60.

The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires by Will Dowd

Nearly twenty years ago, a medical condition rendered writer Will Dowd visually impaired and exiled him from the world of books—at least as he had known them. A lifelong compulsive reader, he could no longer read a page or leave his home—except for medical visits—so he went searching for a back door into literature. He found another way in: through his dreams. For a full year, Dowd fell asleep each night wearing Dormio, an experimental dream-incubation device developed at the MIT Media Lab. At the precise moment he crossed into sleep, the device played archival recordings of dead poets—Anne Sexton, James Merrill, Audre Lorde—drawn from Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room, seeding his dreams with their voices. A gong would pull him back to the surface minutes later, and he'd try to capture what he'd seen, mumbling into a recorder before his dream dissolved.
The result is THE TASTE OF RAIN IN BUENOS AIRES: twenty surreal, funny, and unexpectedly moving stories harvested from the hypnagogic borderland between waking and sleep. A service dog navigates grief after his owner's death. A time-travel tour guide misplaces tourists across the centuries. An alien researcher falls in love with Earth despite himself. It is the first work of fiction ever created this way—and, poignantly, a book its own author will only ever experience through someone else's voice.

Counting Down to You by Emily Stone

In this heartfelt romance from the author of Always, in December and Yours for the Season, a bittersweet Christmas countdown opens the door to healing, hope . . . and maybe even love.

Ali has always loved Christmas, but this year she doesn’t think she’ll make it through. Christmas was always her and her best friend Robyn’s holiday: Every year, they exchanged Advent calendars filled with challenges. Tell the hot guy at the coffee shop you like him. Delete your ex’s number. Throw out the bathroom scales.

But this Christmas, Robyn is gone, because she didn’t get the heart transplant she needed.

There is one last calendar, though—given to Ali before Robyn died, with a promise to open it in December.

The first challenge sends Ali to the Alps, where she takes a seasonal job at the ski lodge that she and Robyn had planned to visit together. But when another challenge leads her co-workers to think she’s dating her boss—the stoic, seriously hot Leo—things get complicated.

To save her embarrassment, Leo agrees to play along. As Ali spends more time with him, she realizes that he’s grieving, too. And as he helps her complete Robyn’s challenges, she starts to wonder if their fake relationship could become something real.

But the truth behind Leo’s grief could bring them closer . . . or tear them apart for good.

A Series of Opinionated Animals by Michelle Lerner

A Series of Opinionated Animals is a moving and uproarious memoir about the radical, world-changing act of recognizing the personhood in every creature. It is a story of unconventional family, profound grief, and the kind of love that transcends species—a love that is messy, demanding, and ultimately transformative.

Evie Walters Takes the Wheel by Kathleen Fox

In this warmhearted and witty debut, a mysterious gift spurs a widow to take a cross-country journey to find its sender—and along the way, she rediscovers herself.

Evie Walters has lived most of her seventy-one years according to others’ expectations. But on the day of her husband’s funeral, she receives an anonymous delivery: an egret orchid. The same flower a Montana ranch hand once gave her decades ago—Novel Daniels, the boy who thought she could do anything.

So now, she does.

Defying her children’s plans to move her into a retirement home, Evie buys a camper van and leaves life in North Carolina abruptly behind. Accompanied by her devoted rescue dog, she heads west to find her cowboy, befriending an unlikely cast of characters along the way. Free-spirited young vanlifers, roadside waitresses, eccentric billionaires, and kindhearted widowers all show Evie a side of life worth living.

But Evie’s drive toward the future takes her back to the past, to memories of the family ranch and childhood dreams. Now, with a second chance as open as the road before her, there’s no telling who Evie Walters will become.

The Nurse at Baker Hospital by Jocelyn Cullity

A new nurse at America’s famous cancer-cure hospital becomes caught in one of the Ozarks’ greatest scams.
Inspired by the true story of Norman Baker — the infamous “King of the Quacks” — this historical mystery is set in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1939, where Baker ran a fraudulent cancer hospital promoted through one of the most powerful radio stations in America. Told through the eyes of a young nurse, the novel explores how charisma, fear, and silence allowed medical deception to flourish, culminating in one of the longest criminal trials in Little Rock history.

After her father’s death, nurse Della King is on the brink of homelessness—until she lands a job at the prestigious Baker Hospital in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. What promises safety and purpose—for both Della and the terminally ill patients who come from across the country— hides a far darker reality. When her beloved patients begin to die, Della must confront her deepest fears and navigate a web of secrets that tests her loyalty, courage, and sense of self. Torn between survival and doing what is right, she risks everything to uncover the truth. The Nurse at Baker Hospital is a gripping tale of mystery, hidden histories, and self-discovery, exploring what it takes to find one’s place in a dangerous, unpredictable world.

Author Interview with Jocelyn Cullity

Reap & Sow by Charlotte B. Plumb

A young woman bargains with a demon to save her brothers, only to lose her heart in this slow-burn romantasy about dark magic, unlikely love, and the imperfect beauty of mortality, and the first book of a duology.

The Memory of Borrowed Books by Meg Anderson

With the emotional resonance of How to Read a Book and the magical edge of The Lost Bookshop comes a stunning ode to community following one librarian who discovers a mysterious room with shelves of her patron's unfinished memories, and the one memory that might save both herself, and her library, from disappearing forever.

In the New England coastal town of Foxhollow Bay, librarian Claire Ashford lives quietly tucked away in the centuries old library where she works, keeping all things, herself included, in order. But when the town threatens to shut down the library, Claire is bereft to know her safe haven will be no more. That's when, while wandering the shelves after hours, she finds a door that shouldn't exist, and behind it, a room filled with books that no one else can see.

Every book she opens pulls her into someone else’s memory. Unfinished stories and snippets of lives that have passed through the library long before her. And when she opens a book showing her a bridge with a figure standing in the center, the memory refuses to let go, calling to her in a way that she cannot explain. And when she meets Julian Thomas, a patron who sketches the same bridge she’s been seeing, she realizes their lives may be tangled in ways neither of them fully understands.

With time running out and the library on the brink of being demolished, Claire must confront what she’s spent years trying to erase, the memory she has locked away that is fighting to get out, before the truth and the library itself are gone forever.

The Angel at the Gates by Karen Lord

THE ANGEL AT THE GATES by Karen Lord (Akashic Books; October 6, 2026) Hoping to make sense of his father’s unspoken trauma, Malachi journeys to return a family heirloom to the land of its origin. He finds himself in a seaside town surrounded by rumors of war. He visits the priory, a place of welcome that quickly draws him in— and also a place of duty that refuses to let him go. The priory, its people, and its resident Angel have their own purpose in a far larger history of trauma and conflict. Malachi learns of ancient and modern atrocities and his grandfather’s helplessness in the face of both. Past echoes become present concerns as a new battle approaches. Malachi repeatedly tries and fails to leave the escalating danger. This is not his land, nor is it his war. He did not inherit his grandfather’s vocation, nor take his grandfather’s vows. None of this is his fault, nor even his responsibility. And yet the Angel will not let him go until their last judgment is complete. Karen Lord is the author of Redemption in Indigo (winner the Frank Collymore Literary Award), The Best of All Possible Worlds (winner of the Frank Collymore Literary Award), and The Blue, Beautiful World (long-listed for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction). She was born, raised, and still resides in Barbados.

Penguin Huddle by Ross Montgomery; illustrated by Sarah Warburton

"A gleeful ode to friendship and problem-solving.” —Kirkus Reviews

All day long the penguin colony plays and plays, and when the sun goes down and the night grows cold and dark, they squeeze and squish together (“penguin huddle!”) to stay warm and snug. But one morning, after a freezing gale, the penguins find themselves stuck, frozen together like a giant penguin ice pop. When no one in the Antarctic can unstick them (“penguin muddle!”), Pipsqueak, the smallest penguin of all, leads his fellows out of their snowy home to a city across the sea in search of help. Whimsical adventures ensue in this global giggle-fest teeming with colorful details—a warm, wintry treat for fans of penguins, playful antics, and celebratory cuddles.

The Smushkins: In the Snow by Claudia Rueda

Join the Smushkins as they romp and play in the snow in a new board book that’s poised to be a wintertime favorite.

There are so many things to do in the snow with the Smushkins! Join Puff, Bloo, and Tippi for some sledding (and a surprise encounter with Mr. Moose). Go snowshoeing with Opie (and make an aww-fully cute new friend). Try skiing with Iona (oops! oof!), or maybe try hot-tubbing instead. Amid a tumble of bright scarves, hats, and gloves, the adorable Smushkins return to frolic in a winter wonderland. With the gentle spirit of Lucy Cousins’s Maisy and the offbeat charm of the Moomins, the Smushkins are sure to delight the youngest of readers.

Night of the Mallrats by Nicolina Torres

Five friends travel back to the 1990s to solve the brutal murder and disappearance of two of their high school peers in this thrilling debut novel from a promising new voice in horror—a murderous, nightmarish romp that is nostalgic, terrifying, and impossible to put down.

Shop ’til you drop . . . dead

Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it’s not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank.

Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.

Haunting, wistful, pulse-pounding fun, Night of the Mallrats is a time-travel thriller that asks a question with an unforgettable answer: What really happened to Beth Packard?

Cozy Little Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne

Christmas in Shelter Springs is the season of twinkling lights, open hearts and unexpected second chances. And for Hannah Goodwin, it also brings the one person she never wanted to see again...

Hannah’s built a full life for herself in the warmth of her close-knit town, with her family, her work and her music. And when her dear friend Morgan desperately needs her help, Hannah temporarily steps in to care for Morgan’s children. That’s what friends do—especially at the holidays. But she never expected to run into Wes Kenner...

Moving back home is the last thing K9 law enforcement officer Wes Kenner ever wanted. It’s where he fell in love with Hannah—and where an accident changed his mother’s life forever. But when his grandfather needs a helping hand, he can’t say no. It’s the perfect opportunity for him and his beloved K9, Kodiak, to recover. Still, seeing Hannah again fills him with regret—and hope.

After all this time, Hannah still represents all of the joy and light Wes pushed out of his life. Everything he’s desperate to get back. And as Hannah brings much-needed holiday magic to Morgan—and her kids—he realizes this is his chance. Because this Christmas, all he wants is her.

Ruth Muskrat and the So-Called Indian Problem: The Fight for Native American Civil Rights by Jen Loren and Rebecca Lee Kunz

From Caldecott Medalist Rebecca Lee Kunz and award-winning filmmaker and TV host Jen Loren comes a sweeping biography of a singular woman at the heart of the movement for Native American civil rights in the 20th century.

The “Indian Problem”―that was the term used by the government in the 19th and 20th centuries. What to do with the hundreds of Native nations and tribes in and around the United States? When the goal wasn't destruction, it was assimilation.

But Native people had their own plans―and one Cherokee woman, Ruth Muskrat Bronson, helped lead that charge. A poet, educator, and activist, Ruth knew that Native Americans could and should fight for their civil rights while still retaining their tribal identities. Speaking in front of the President to gain Native citizenship, penning groundbreaking poems and books, founding and leading the National Congress of American Indians, she left a legacy that still blazes brightly today.

Sisters Rebecca Lee Kunz and Jen Loren―both nieces of Ruth and citizens of the Cherokee Nation―bring that legacy and the wider story of the Native American civil rights movement to richly imagined life.

Engineering a Love Story by Kathleen Reidy

At the height of the boom, ambition is easy —love is the real gamble

It’s the year 2000—dot-coms, Bush v. Gore, and sky-high San Francisco rents. But while the country swoons with irrational exuberance, Chelsea Lefevre’s life is deflating faster than a tech bubble.

She’d had everything she thought she was supposed to want: a house on Boston’s North Shore, exquisite wedding china, a Waspy mother-in-law. A safe, steady marriage.

But after a mortifying slip-up, Chelsea finds herself heading into the 21st century alone. Her lifeboat? A new job advising tech execs, taken to escape the misogyny she endured as a software engineer—only to discover she has a surprising knack for spotting the next hot thing.

Determined just to stay afloat, Chelsea doesn’t have time to wonder if anything beyond safe and steady is possible.

Then, on a West Coast assignment, she meets Seth Murphy, a magnetic sales executive at one of the country’s hottest startups. Professional boundaries make him off-limits, but she can’t resist his pull. What begins as a secret, casual affair soon jeopardizes Chelsea’s career, her newfound independence—and her heart.

Witty and warm, Engineering a Love Story questions how much a smart woman can risk when she’s the only female in the room.

The Seoul Letter Shop by Baek Seungyeon

A moving story of loss and connection, The Seoul Letter Shop is a poignant exploration of the distance that separates us—and the words that just might bring us home.

At twenty-eight, Woo Hyo-young has mastered the art of silence—especially when it comes to her sister, Hyo-min. After years of shouldering the burden left behind by Hyo-min’s betrayal, and sacrificing her own dream of becoming a film director, Hyo-young is worn thin. When letters of apology from her estranged sister begin to arrive, each one a reminder of everything she’s lost, Hyo-young does the only thing she can: she runs.

Landing in Seoul with nowhere to go, Hyo-young accepts a quiet position at Geulwol, a tucked-away letter shop run by her former classmate, Seon-ho. Surrounded by the quiet rustle of paper and the comfort of handwritten notes, Hyo-young begins to witness the power of letters to bridge distances, mend wounds, and reveal hidden truths.

Then she meets Yeonggwang, a warm yet guarded webtoon artist and regular customer at the shop. Through their growing bond—and the stories of strangers who bravely write what they cannot say aloud—Hyo-young begins to confront her own past.

As the seasons pass, Geulwol letter shop becomes more than a refuge; it becomes a mirror. One that reflects Hyo-young’s unspoken pain, the beauty of forgiveness, and the tender courage it takes to pick up a pen and finally speak up.

Find Me Where It Ends by Cassandra Khaw

A woman wakes up to find the black hound of Death at her front door in this hauntingly beautiful tale from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw.

Antigone is no stranger to death.

For the women of her family, death always comes in the form of a black dog.

When Antigone’s own black dog arrives, she isn’t afraid. She invites it inside, where it soon becomes a daily source of companionship and comfort. It also forces her to reflect on the life she’s led—the parts of herself she’s hollowed out for the sake of others, and the bone-deep exhaustion that’s hounded her every step.

Her Death’s arrival must be a sign, permission to finally let go. To rest. Because while mortality is inevitable, living is a choice.

But a good death comes at a price.

The Scarlet Ball by Nghi Vo

From USA Today bestselling author Nghi Vo, this all-consuming tale of ballrooms and bloodshed weds The Gilded Age with the Gothic vision of Guillermo del Toro.

Pick a face, pick a fate.

Judith Ban, former convent girl, courtesan, and failed thief, is on the lookout for her next identity. The daughter of a Vietnamese adventuress and a French naval officer, she’s no stranger to risk, but she’s unprepared for the secrets of New York’s legendary Four Hundred, or for the women who build their power at the city’s heart through blood-soaked, gold-etched rituals of demonic marriage.

In exchange for enough wealth to outrun her past, Judith strikes a deal with the matriarch of the powerful Howard family: she will stand in for the missing Howard granddaughter, who was poised to make her debut when she disappeared. With Miss Iphigenia Marshall’s face stitched over her own, Judith is white, rich, and about to risk body and soul in the deadly games that determine which girls will find a match—and which will be devoured. If she can keep her wits and her life, her reward will be a husband with undreamt-of power who will be hers to command...so long as she can keep his infinite hungers fed. But to survive the season, Judith will have to seduce a storm in the shape of a man, before the night to which everything has been leading—the Scarlet Ball where the demons choose their brides.

A razor-sharp subversion of romance tropes and nightmare of manners, Vo's fusion of history and fantasy does for Edith Wharton what her acclaimed debut The Chosen and the Beautiful did for F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Stormheart by Julia Makin

A fugitive princess. A ruthless pirate. A deadly bargain.

Once an enslaved princess, now a fugitive, Tan is hunted across the Empire after a fatal mistake brands her its most wanted criminal. Desperate to survive, she strikes a perilous bargain with Kier—a cold, calculating pirate from the rebel stronghold of Stormheart. His promise: freedom on the open sea aboard the Revenge, a ship ruled by the sadistic Captain Blackthorn.

The price: her soul, bound to Blackthorn in an eternal blood-oath.

Unless she can win it back. To break the bond, Tan must defeat one of Blackthorn’s criminals in a deadly game, relying on Kier’s brutal training—and navigating the dangerous pull between them. But when passion awakens an ancient power even the Empire fears, Tan becomes the spark that could ignite a war.

As dark tides rise and loyalties fracture, she must choose: surrender to the darkness rising within her, or carve her own destiny before it’s too late.

Between the Light and Me: A Memoir of Beauty and Violence by Kathleen Kilcup

Between the Light and Me is a stirring exploration of the ways in which darkness and light bleed together in both the world and the human heart.

Just one month before September 11, Kathleen Kilcup enlisted in the US Army with all the fervent idealism of an untested teenager. Between the Light and Me is her unflinching account of encountering violence—both in the military and beyond—and a desperate, sometimes ill-conceived search for God that sustained her through addiction and trauma, on the long road to true freedom. Written with a poet’s uncanny knack for the luminous detail, Between the Light and Me is a riveting portrait of modern spiritual hunger manifest in barracks, chapels, bars, and church basements where communion tastes like stale coffee sipped from Styrofoam cups. This is memoir as spiritual investigation, written for anyone who has ever wondered how grace might find us in the places where we least expect it.

Author Interview with Kathleen Kilcup

Dance in a Madhouse by Jess Wright

The gripping psychological tale of a young doctor who fights to escape an early-1900s Philadelphia asylum―and expose the plot to destroy him.

Philadelphia, 1905. A month ago, Owen Townsend was a medical intern primed for success. Now he is locked in Fairmount Lodge, an asylum where the public is invited to gawk at the patients. His fall was sudden: typhoid fever, delirium, an act of violence. Is Owen sane―a victim of a toxin no longer in his system? Or is he as psychotic as his doctor claims?

There are fires at Fairmount. Attacks that defy logic. Terror instead of treatment. Though others dismiss his concerns as paranoia, Owen soon realizes that someone wants him put away forever―or dead. To survive, he not only must navigate the labyrinth of the madhouse but also must recruit someone on the outside to his cause. Brumbaugh, a shrewd police inspector, is the man for the job―and Celeste, an enigmatic young opera singer who transfixes him after he saves her from suicide, might have the clues they need to solve the mystery. But if Owen is going to find a way to freedom, he’ll first have to decipher riddles from Celeste’s tortured past.

Set at the dawn of modern psychiatric treatment, Dance in a Madhouse is a thrilling testament to courage and resilience. Can Owen and Celeste overcome the odds against them? Are redemption and healing possible? The dances will tell.

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