Oct 7

Oct 7 Books Publishing This Week

The afternoon in early October has a particular kind of glow, a warmth that isn’t summer-bright but instead rich and golden, like the season itself is leaning into its own beauty. The sun filters through the trees, catching on the amber, rust, and gold of leaves in mid-turn, and you find yourself drawn to the quiet of the day. The air is crisp but not cold, and it carries the earthy scent of fallen leaves mixed with the faint sweetness of apples ripening somewhere nearby.

You’ve chosen to spend this afternoon with a new book, one you’ve been saving for a time when the world feels both settled and alive, as it does now. You carry it with you to your chosen spot—a wooden bench in the park, a porch chair overlooking your yard, or maybe even a cozy corner near a window where you can watch the season change. Wherever you settle, the light slants just right, wrapping you in an atmosphere that feels made for beginnings.

The book rests in your lap for a moment, its cover cool under your fingertips. You pause to sip from a mug you brought with you, perhaps filled with spiced tea or dark coffee, the steam curling into the cool afternoon air. The first sip is grounding, steadying, reminding you to slow down. With a deep breath, you open the book, the spine cracking faintly, the pages smooth and untouched.

The first words invite you in, setting the stage with a kind of quiet authority. You lean back and let yourself sink into the rhythm of the sentences, the story slowly unfolding around you. The sound of rustling leaves above becomes the background music to your reading, blending seamlessly with the words in your lap. It feels like you’ve stepped into a private world, one layered gently over the real one.

Every so often, you pause to look up. The trees sway, a few leaves loosen and drift lazily to the ground, and the sky takes on the soft hue of autumn afternoons. The light has that particular October quality—golden, fleeting, tender. You smile to yourself, feeling grateful that you chose this moment to begin something new.

You take another sip of your drink, the warmth threading through you, and continue reading. The characters are starting to feel familiar, the setting becoming vivid in your mind. There’s no rush to move quickly; instead, you savor each page, knowing this is just the beginning of a story you’ll carry with you over the coming days.

Time slips easily in afternoons like this. You read until the shadows lengthen and the air sharpens, cool enough that you pull your sweater tighter. The book rests open on your lap, your finger marking your place while you watch the last of the day’s sunlight thread through the trees. You feel suspended in the gentle magic of October: the crisp air, the scent of leaves, the comfort of a story just begun.

Eventually, you close the book, sliding a bookmark into place. You sit for a moment longer, letting the weight of the story linger, letting the beauty of the afternoon sink in. The season is shifting, the year moving forward, but for now, you’re grounded right here—in the richness of an early October afternoon, with a new book and the quiet joy of having begun.

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Books Publishing October 5 - 11

Wilderness Mother by Deanna Barnhardt Kawatski

Books Set in 1970s

In 1978 Deanna met her hermit husband in Northern BC while she was working as a forestry lookout attendant. For the next thirteen years she led the life of a pioneering mother in the wilderness, giving birth to her first child on the dirt floor of their remote homestead in the Ningunsaw Valley to the sound of loons on the nearby lake. Over a hundred miles from the nearest paved road and cut off from most contact with the outside world, Deanna and her husband Jay built a life and raised their children in the stunning beauty and staggering isolation of the Ningunsaw Valley.

This 30th-anniversary edition of the Canadian indie ecofeminist classic has been called Canada’s Walden, albeit from a female point-of-view. Deanna has been a naturalist her whole life and nature breathes as a character in this book. Deanna is synonymous in Canada with this title.

This new edition includes chapters that expand on her relationship with Jay, his mental health challenges and the break-up of their marriage. Thirty years ago, these subjects were less discussed but today she opens up candidly about raising her family, not only alone in the wilderness and but also often doubly isolated because of her partner's mental health.

Overdue by Stephanie Perkins

A SPARKLING ADULT DEBUT FROM BELOVED NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR STEPHANIE PERKINS

Is it time to renew love or start a new chapter?

Ingrid Dahl, a cheerful twenty-nine-year-old librarian in the cozy mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement to a woman she’s only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They'll take a one-month break to date other people, then they'll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind: her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she’s secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they’re not ready to resume their relationship—and Ingrid’s harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated.

Overdue is a beautiful, slow-burn romance full of lust and longing about new beginnings and finding your way.

Sister Creatures by Laura Venita Green

In the muggy, insect-ridden town of Pinecreek, Louisiana, college dropout Tess Lavigne is watching two bickering siblings while their parents are away. Her listless day drinking is interrupted when someone emerges from the woods behind the house. Filthy and feral, the daughter of religious fundamentalists, the girl known in town as Sister Gail convinces Tess to take her in for the night. The strange events of that evening will set the course for Tess's future, and Sister Gail's ultimate fate.

Meanwhile, other residents of Pinecreek try to cobble together a future from what little they have, their lives intersecting in small and not-so-small ways. Sisters fight to define independence for themselves (and from each other), while two young women on a bicycling trip wonder what their relationship promises, or threatens. Throughout, a deeply unsettling presence connects the characters to the buried secrets of Pinecreek: the ominous Thea, a malevolent shape-shifting entity whose rage and despair stems from a tragic history of misogyny, maternal loss, and stolen ambitions.

As time marches forward, so does Tess, creating a new path for herself while accepting what can never be entirely left behind. At times atmospheric and eerie, and at others all too real, Sister Creatures is about manufacturing resilience from nothing but the bonds that tie us together.

The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch

In 1950s Hong Kong, Mei is a young refugee of the Chinese Communist revolution struggling to put her past in Shanghai behind her. When she receives a shocking invitation—to take part in a competition in one of the city's most notorious haunted houses, pitting six spirit mediums against one another in a series of six séances over six nights, until a single winner emerges—she has every reason to refuse.

Except that the hostess, a former Shanghainese silent film star, is none other than the wife of the man who once destroyed Mei’s entire life.

It is promised the winner will receive a fortune, but there is only one prize Mei wants: revenge.

Decades later, the final night of that competition has become an infamous urban legend: The police were called to the scene of a brutal massacre but found no evidence, dismissing it as a collective hallucination. Mei knows what she saw, but now someone else is convinced they know what she did. She must uncover the truth about the last night she ever spent in that house—even if the ghosts of her past are waiting for her there. . . .

Willing Prey by Allie Oleander

Post-divorce and buried in student loan debt, Claire Collins eagerly enters a spicy business agreement with an acquaintance who wants to explore his primal desires. The deal is simple—thirty days as his sexual prey, $30,000 in her bank account. All she has to do is give Shane Underwood the hunt of his life.

Claire’s a physical education teacher and perfectly happy to spend her summer having wild, kinky sex instead of working her usual serving job. But once they cross the tree line, she realizes how little she knows about the corporate lawyer paying her to be his prey.

Shane is different in the woods. Brutal. Devastating. Feral. That’s okay with Claire—she is, too. And she’s sinking her teeth deeper into Shane’s heart every time he catches her.

Over Yonder by Sean Dietrich

It's never too late to find your purpose.

Woody Barker steps out of prison planning to live out his years on his houseboat docked on the Alabama Gulf Coast. As a defrocked priest with a heart condition and an ex-wife who still runs his life, he needs peace and a path to redemption.

Caroline Boyer is seventeen, pregnant, and stuck in a loop of bad choices. At her mother's deathbed, Caroline finds herself at the center of an unexpected plot that has the potential to turn her world upside down. At the funeral, she discovers a father she's never known . . . Whether she likes it or not, her life will never be the same.

Soon Woody, Caroline, and an emotional support goldfish named Gary are on a grand adventure through the Deep South. Chased by the men who are desperate to learn what Caroline's mother told her before she passed away, they use every skill they have as a new family to stay one step ahead of danger. To make it worse, former parishioners of the church that cast Woody out are determined to throw him a welcome home party. As Caroline and Woody look for answers and try to avoid disaster, they also learn how to redefine family, hope, and faith they thought they'd lost.

With dry humor and compassion, beloved writer Sean Dietrich highlights the good of humanity and the light that's always just around the corner.

The Second Story Bookshop by Denise Hunter

She inherits the bookshop of her dreams . . . But she has to run it with the ex she vowed never to speak with again.

Shelby Thatcher adores working in the charming small-town bookshop her grandmother opened years ago. Since high school she's helped Gram turn the shop into a community hub for book lovers in the lakeside town of Granville, NC. When her beloved grandma passes away, Shelby inherits the bookstore. But to her shock, Gram leaves half ownership to Gray Briggs, the man who broke Shelby's heart years ago.

Granville residents have been vilifying Gray as long as he can remember. After graduating high school he couldn't skip town fast enough, even though it meant leaving the girl he'd fallen deeply in love with and alienating her family once and for all. Now he's back, the beneficiary of his elderly friend's will. Facing the town's animosity is difficult, but seeing Shelby again is sheer torture. No one could ever stir his heart the way she did.

As the adversaries are forced to work together, Gram's beyond-the-grave scheme is working--Shelby's old feelings for Gray begin to resurface. But the problems that destroyed their relationship before still remain, and a new one surfaces--one that threatens Gram's beloved bookshop. Is their love doomed to fail again, or will they find a way to make it work this time around?

The Highly Sensitive Rabbit by Dr. Judith Orloff

High in the Sonoran Desert, where crickets chirp and cactus grow, lives a tiny cottontail rabbit named Aurora. Aurora is very sensitive to the beauties of nature and to the feelings of everyone around her. She likes to spend time alone, and she worries a lot. Aurora’s brothers and sister tell her she is “too sensitive” and often leave her out of their rough-and-tumble play.

When a flash flood destroys her family’s burrow, Aurora must learn to face her sensitive nature head-on. She meets a spiny lizard, spotted skunk, cactus wren, and javelina, all of whom have lessons to teach her about kindness and self-care. Will Aurora learn to embrace her nature and thrive as a highly sensitive rabbit?

Based on Dr. Judith Orloff’s teachings about living an empowered life as an empath, this beautifully illustrated story teaches us to live with beauty, sensitivity, and joy.

Yours For The Season by Emily Stone

Could a fake relationship with your ex over Christmas in Scotland be the perfect opportunity for revenge—or a second chance at love? One woman is about to find out in this charming holiday romance from the author of Always, in December and A Winter Wish.

Melanie hasn’t had a good year. Her work life isn’t what she dreamed it would be, her best friend has moved to the other side of the world, and Finn, the man she was sure was the love of her life, dumped her. In front of everyone. At his sister’s engagement party.

So when Finn shows up at Mel’s doorstep two weeks before Christmas, asking if she’ll help him, her first instinct is to slam the door in his face—or punch him.

But he has a proposal for her: Spend the week of Christmas with him and his family in a vacation cottage in the Scottish Highlands. His mother is obsessed with the idea of a perfect Christmas—and to make this dream come true Finn told his mother that he and Mel are dating again. All Mel has to do is come with him and pretend they’re back together.

Mel may hate Finn, but she loves his mom. So she agrees—on one condition. At the end of the week, Finn will allow Mel to publicly dump him so that she can get her dignity back and he can experience the same humiliation she felt.

It’s only a week. Mel can pretend to still be in love with Finn for one week, surely. Except as the festivities bring her closer than ever to Finn and his family, Mel starts to lose track of which feelings are fake and which are for real.

The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood by Shigeko Ito

At age twenty-two, Shigeko Ito immigrated to America to escape Japan’s rigid society and a neglectful childhood home that landed her in a mental hospital at seventeen. She thrived in her new, healthier environment and thought her traumatic past was all behind her.

Until it wasn’t.

Motherhood, she realized, was far more challenging than she could have ever imagined. But it was her son’s high school years that proved to be particularly daunting, and that was when her past reemerged—in the form of intense flashbacks to her childhood trauma and tumultuous teenage years. With the stream of daily stresses compounded by menopausal irritability, Shigeko often found herself regressing into a bunker-like mentality with childish coping mechanisms, a pattern that threatened to undo her most prized achievement: her happy family.

In The Pond Beyond the Forest, Shigeko faces her past head-on, taking the reader along on her quest to uncover the root causes of her lifelong struggles—a journey that leads to deeper self-awareness, understanding, and acceptance, and ultimately saves her family and marriage.

Chicago's Holiday Train by Daniel Moreno

Chicago’s Holiday Train is a vibrant celebration of the festive spirit that lights up Chicago’s transit system. Every year, the Chicago Transit Authority transforms a number of trains into moving winter wonderlands. Photographer Daniel Moreno has spent years capturing these holiday trains as they move throughout Chicago. Featuring dynamic shots of the holiday train passing through the Loop’s elevated tracks, bustling stations, and Chicago’s snow-dusted neighborhoods, Chicago’s Holiday Train evokes a sense of joy and nostalgia and is the perfect book for Chicago locals, transit enthusiasts, and anyone who loves the magic of the holiday season.

Photograph by Brian Freeman

From New York Times bestselling author Brian Freeman, Photograph is an emotional cold case mystery of hidden identities and startling twists—perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Mary Kubica, and Freida McFadden.

Shannon Wells is a private investigator who helps women with nowhere else to go. Last year, a woman named Faith Selby came to Shannon with a strange request: Find out who I really am.

Shannon soon discovered that Faith was hiding a whole other life, but was unable to penetrate the web of mystery the woman had built around her past. Now Faith is dead. The only clue to who she was and why she was murdered is an old photograph of a little girl in the rain outside a Midwestern motel.

The hunt for answers takes Shannon from the hot beaches of Florida to a remote small town in Michigan as she peels away layer after layer of a shocking cold case that has rippled violently into the present. With each secret she uncovers, the danger around her grows—and forces Shannon to confront the demons hiding in her own past.

Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan

Best Nicholas Sparks Books

When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation—that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family—sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world.

Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love—while transformative—can sometimes be frightening.

A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death?

In the Light of the Sun by Angela Shupe

Books Set in the 1940s

The year is 1941, and in the Philippines, Caramina Grassi dreams of training in Italy to become an opera singer like her older sister, Rosa. But as war erupts, her world is shattered, forcing her to cling to the music that has always been her refuge. When her family’s lives are threatened and they are forced to flee to the jungle, she comes to understand that music is more than comfort. It becomes a muse that fuels her courage, sacrifice, and unwavering focus on the light.

Meanwhile, in Florence, just as Rosa Grassi’s long-awaited opera debut arrives, Mussolini tightens his grip on Italy. Drawn into la Resistenza, the underground resistance, Rosa feels lost in a fog of deception that clouds everything she thought to be true. In a time when family or friend could be foe, Rosa will learn that performing isn’t just for the stage. Facing a devastating betrayal, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the one she loves.

Inspired by true events, In the Light of the Sun is an unforgettable story of sisterhood, hope, and the enduring power of music to uplift the human spirit—even in the darkest of times.

The Devouring Light by Kat Ellis

Clown in a Cornfield meets The Cabin in this twisty, blood-curdling delight from acclaimed author Kat Ellis about a group of rivals stranded in an abandoned house that seems to have its own plans for them.

When Haden Romero and her rival, Deacon Rex—alongside their bands, including Haden’s ex, Cairo—are stranded on their way to a rock festival, she thinks missing the gig is the worst thing that could happen.

She’s wrong.

Marooned in treacherous swamplands with no way out, the group stumbles upon an eerie, decaying house. It seems like a safe haven, a place to wait out the storm.

The house, however, isn’t just abandoned—it’s been waiting for them.

Bodies begin to pile up. The walls start to close in. Twisted secrets come to light. And unless Haden and the others can survive long enough to escape, the house will claim them—forever.

The House of Cavanaugh by Polly Dugan

Books Set in the 1960s

New York City, 1964. Joan Cavanaugh—a young wife and mother yearning for more—falls into a passionate affair with Peter “Hutch” Hutchinson. When the affair ends, she returns to her marriage, raising three daughters with her devoted husband, Graham. For nearly three decades, she keeps her secret locked away, taking the truth of her daughter Anne’s paternity to her grave when she succumbs to cancer in 1989.

Portland, 2014. Carolyn Cavanaugh and Julia Hutchinson are next-door neighbors and the closest of friends. But when Carolyn’s father, Graham, visits for Thanksgiving, his path collides with Julia’s parents, Hutch and Alice. The revelation that unfolds following Graham’s trip upends both families, bringing a truth to light that will shake two families to their core.

As decades of deception unravel, bonds are tested, loyalties waver, and the meaning of family is redefined. The House of Cavanaugh is a poignant and gripping exploration of love, betrayal, and the unexpected ways secrets can bind us—or break us apart.

Dust Storm by Maggie Gates

For Christian Griffith, his number one rule is: You ride in my truck, you let me open the door. Another problem in his busy life was the last thing he needed. Unfortunately, argumentative Cassandra Parker showing up on his family’s ranch and sticking her nose in their business isn’t even his biggest problem—neither is the fact that with nowhere else to live, she’s in his house. The biggest problem? The engagement ring on her finger.

Cassandra has a life motto: If you’re going to kill someone, make it look like an accident, cry at the funeral, admit to nothing, and deny everything. Exiled from New York and stranded on a cattle ranch, she didn’t exactly choose to be Christian’s problem. Living with the single dad and his daughters was a downgrade from her high-rise office and city comforts, but she agreed for one simple reason: desperation to save her job and salvage what’s left of her career. And this hot cowboy won’t lasso her into staying a second longer than necessary.

The Ordeals by Rachel Greenlaw

In this lush, atmospheric romantasy, an illusionist competes in a series of deadly trials for a spot at an elite magical college—that is, if another hopeful doesn’t kill her first.

Twenty-year-old Sophia DeWinter has only known life bound to her cruel uncle, the Collector, thanks to a blood bond he exacted from her as a child. When she learns of Killmarth College, an elite academy for magic wielders outside of the Collector’s control, she knows it is her only chance to finally break free. But to gain entry, she will have to compete against other illusionists, masquiers, botanists, and alchemists in a series of brutal trials that many hopefuls don’t survive—the Ordeals.

Sophia knows her skills as an illusionist are weak; she only makes it through the first challenge by teaming up with a powerful (and insufferably sexy) botanist, Alden Locke. To make it out alive, she will have to hone her magic and learn to identify who is a rival, who could be an ally, and who is a murderer.

Because now, not only does she have to protect her heart, but her very life. Hopefuls are being viciously picked off one by one between the challenges. In her haste to escape the Collector’s trap, Sophia may have fled straight towards her own death sentence.

Well of Deception by Cynthia Leal Massey

Everyone knows who killed Maggie Schneider. But why?

On the morning of March 14, 1958, breeder Maggie Schneider, the Poultry Queen of Lipan County, is shot and killed while feeding her prize-winning, White Holland turkeys on her farm in south central Texas. Everyone knows who did it, but finding the killer isn’t so easy. The search uncovers a troubled family history of insanity, accidental deaths, and suicides. Was Maggie Schneider’s murder the result of a tainted bloodline, a family feud gone too far, or something more sinister?

Inspired by true events, novelist Cynthia Leal Massey weaves an intricate tale that spans the decades from the Great Depression to the crippling drought of the fifties. This is not a whodunnit. The mystery here is more profound: Why did he do it?

Higher Magic by Courtney Floyd

First-generation graduate student Dorothe Bartleby has one last chance to pass the Magic program’s qualifying exam after freezing with anxiety during her first attempt. If she fails to demonstrate that magic in classic literature changed the world, she’ll be kicked out of the university. And now her advisor insists she reframe her entire dissertation using Digimancy. While mages have found a way to combine computers and magic, Bartleby’s fated to never make it work.

This time is no exception. Her revised working goes horribly wrong, creating a talking skull named Anne that narrates Bartleby’s inner thoughts—even the most embarrassing ones—like she's a heroine in a Jane Austen novel. Out of her depth, she recruits James, an unfairly attractive mage candidate, to help her stop Anne’s glitches in time for her exam.

Instead, Anne leads them to a shocking and dangerous discovery: magic students who seek disability accommodations are disappearing—quite literally. When the administration fails to act, Bartleby must learn to trust her own knowledge and skills. Otherwise, she risks losing both the missing students and her future as a mage, permanently.

The Bridge by Shanna Hatfield

Author Interview with Shanna Hatfield

One Bridge. Five Strangers.
A Christmas Eve That Changes Everything.
On a bridge suspended above the Willamette River, five lives collide for a journey through hope and hardship in a suspenseful, heartwarming tale of courage, connection, and the magic of second chances.

Sergeant Archer Raines has worked every holiday all year for one reason: to finally spend Christmas with his wife. But when a desperate man threatens to jump from Portland’s St. Johns Bridge, Archer’s expert negotiation skills are required to defuse the situation.

Rosalee, a high-powered accountant and mom-to-be, only meant to swing by home for a forgotten phone and client file. Then her car is caught in the chaos on the bridge, she unexpectedly goes into labor, and her carefully planned world begins to unravel amidst the unfolding drama.

Exhausted nurse Nova just wants to make it home for Christmas after too many night shifts. When the pileup halts traffic and Rosalee’s baby is on the way, Nova puts her own plans on hold to help a stranger in need.

Carter, the owner of a busy tow truck business, regrets taking the call to clear the multi-car collision off the bridge. He’d intended to spend the day tackling last-minute holiday errands. Instead, he’s praying the lunatic pointing a gun at him doesn’t pull the trigger.

Fresh out of college and anxious to kick-start his career, Ian’s running late when his car won’t start the morning of his big interview. His rideshare driver turns out to be a captivating girl with a penchant for aggressive driving that narrowly saves them from being part of the wreck on the bridge, sending Ian on an unexpected path of his own.

The Bridge is the perfect uplifting holiday read and a story of how one frozen moment can thaw even the loneliest of hearts.

The Stranger in Room Six by Jane Corry

You may not know the stranger in room six. But they know everything about you.

It's been fifteen years since Belinda was wrongly convicted of her husband's murder. Now, she's ready for her life to begin again, and she's set on that happening at Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart.

The owner, Mabel, has spent her life here. First as an evacuee during the Blitz and now as the care home's oldest resident, Mabel has held the secrets of this house for as long as she can remember. Secrets that could kill if in the wrong hands.

But history won't stay hidden forever and someone is onto them both. Watching and listening from room number six, they'll stop at nothing to find out the truth.

With a past this dark, is anyone as innocent as they seem?

Leta Pearl's Love Biscuits by Arlon Jay Staggs

Perfect for fans of “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe”, “Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits” (Koehler, October 7, 2025) is a tender and charming debut that delves into small-town politics, a long-buried tragedy, and a mother whose mysterious love-laced baked goods are stirring up gossip and a mess of feelings.

It’s 1982 in Bailey Springs, Alabama, where Trudy has kept her head down since high school, when folks blamed her for ruining the life of star quarterback Jimmie Beaumont. Now engaged to a blue-blood politician, Haskel Moody, Trudy’s back in the spotlight—especially after taking a job teaching chemistry to save his campaign for mayor.

As Trudy encounters old high-school ghosts, she also confronts Coach Shug Meechum, whose laid-back charm and infuriating grin incite more than just her frustrations. Meanwhile, Trudy’s mother, Leta Pearl, has been giving some chemistry lessons of her own—slipping her mysterious love-inducing biscuits to the men in town.

Devil's Hand by Lori B. Duff

Author Interview with Lori B. Duff

A two-time winner of Georgia Bar Journal’s annual fiction competition, lauded attorney and judge Lori B. Duff was fed up with novels detailing unrealistic courtrooms scenes with settings that misrepresented the South. So the acclaimed humor author pivoted from essays to fiction to pen her Fischer at Law series, whose second book “Devil’s Hand” (Oct. 7, 2025, She Writes Press) will be released this fall.

Attorney Jessica Fischer is back, and this time she feels good about helping her client. Susan Wolan is the wife of a county commissioner and the victim of domestic violence. Jessica knows the abuse happened — she’s seen the handprints on Susan’s body. But she also suspects her client is holding something back from her. What is it — and can she help save Susan from her powerful and connected abuser without damaging her own career?

As if all this weren’t enough, Jessica is simultaneously forced to deal with her estranged father, who has just come back into her life with secrets of his own. After a fall lands him in the emergency room, Jessica realizes that he and her paralegal, Diane — a person she depends on to keep her sane — might be falling for each other. She wonders if she’ll be able to stop herself from falling … apart.

For fans of the new Matlock reboot, a legal thriller featuring an idealistic young lawyer who believes her bruised and abused client … even after discovering that client is keeping secrets that are beyond belief.

Keep This for Me by Jennifer Fawcett

Books Set in the 1990s

One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again.

That woman was Fiona Green’s mother.

When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave of bodies is discovered in his backyard, but Fiona’s mother isn’t there. Thirty years later, on his prison deathbed, Ward insists that he didn’t kill her, so Fiona finds herself back in the small town where her mother disappeared. Fighting demons of her own, she’s shocked when history repeats itself: another woman, another roadside breakdown, and another disappearance. Only this time, the primary subject is Jason Ward, Eddie’s son. Desperate, Fiona hunts down answers, unaware that she is being drawn into a dangerous trap.

With Jennifer Fawcett’s signature “suspenseful and immersive” (Library Journal) prose, Keep This for Me is a fresh, spellbinding exploration of what we unwillingly inherit from our parents and how one random act can send ripples years into the future.

Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World by Mark Waddell

WARNING! Under no circumstances must employees strike a deal with unauthorized personnel on Dark Enterprises property. Such behavior may result in death…or the end of the world.

Colin is a low-level employee at Dark Enterprises, a Hell-like multinational corporation solving the world’s most difficult problems in deeply questionable ways. After years of toiling away in a cubicle, he’s ready to climb the corporate ladder and claim the power he’s never had.

The only problem is, he’s pretty sure he’s about to be terminated. Like, terminated. That’s tough, because his BFF has just set him up with a great guy. In fact, maybe he’s a little too great. And he asks a lot of questions . . .

When Colin meets a shadowy figure promising his deepest desire in return for a small, unspecified favor, he can’t resist the urge to fast-track his goals. He asks for the one thing that will improve his life: a promotion.

But that small favor unleashes an ancient evil. People in New York are disappearing, the world might be ending, and Management is starting to notice. Getting to the top is never easy, and now it’s up to Colin to save the world. It’s the ultimate power move, after all.

Hollow by Karina Halle

A sexy, dark fantasy reimagining of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where Katrina Van Tassel doesn't have to choose between Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane, and there are worse things haunting them than the Headless Horseman.

Kat Van Tassel's life was predestined from childhood; she was to marry her best friend, Brom Bones. But Brom vanished from Sleepy Hollow years ago, leaving Kat alone to enroll in Sleepy Hollow Institute, a shadowy university for advanced witchcraft run by her powerful family. And now she finds herself drawn to the school's enigmatic new teacher, Ichabod Crane, as he delves into dark magic.

When Brom returns, suffering from amnesia and a dark transformation, the trio must confront gruesome murders attributed to a vengeful spirit, The Headless Horseman, while navigating their tangled relationships.

As Kat, Ichabod, and Brom seek answers, their bonds deepen, and forbidden desires take hold. But Sleepy Hollow holds secrets more sinister than they imagined. The Headless Horseman lurks, threatening to claim them, while something even more terrifying looms in the shadows. Embark on a journey of dark mysteries, desire, and danger in the eerie heart of Sleepy Hollow.

How to Fake a Haunting by Christa Carmen

A desperate woman’s plot to frighten her husband out of her life takes a nightmarish turn in a chilling novel of modern horror by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

Lainey Taylor is being pushed to the brink by her alcoholic husband, Callum. Prone to hallucinations and erratic behavior, it’s only a matter of time before he puts Lainey’s life―and that of their daughter, Beatrix―in jeopardy. A divorce and full custody is out of the question. In Callum’s words: Over my dead body.

Lainey’s sympathetic friend Adelaide has a wild solution. They’ll stage a haunting so convincing it will drive Callum out of Lainey’s life for good. Nothing too over the top: strange smells, noises in the walls, and flies unleashed along the windowsills. It could work. Considering Callum’s alcohol-induced night terrors, he’s already close to broken. With each new scare, Lainey is closer to seeing the haunting through to its bitter, freeing end.

But in a house filled with so much rage, resentment, and fear, is it any wonder that Lainey and Adelaide’s plan goes horribly wrong? As their fake haunting spirals into something no one can control, Lainey discovers that the only way out of this frightening trap is to join forces with Callum, or die trying.

Snow Kissed by RaeAnne Thayne

Author Interview with RaeAnne Thayne

Tis the season for a little white lie…

Christmas has always been single mom Holly Goodwin Moore’s favorite time of year. The twinkly lights on the tree, the cookies in the oven, the snow on the ground. But she’s just not feeling it this year. The wedding in her ex’s family is almost here, her daughter, Lydia, is bursting at the seams to be a flower girl…and Holly couldn’t be dreading it more. She told a little white lie about having a new boyfriend as her plus-one, hoping to save face. She needs a date for the wedding…and she needs it now.

Ryan Caldwell wants to be free this holiday season. So even he isn’t sure how he landed in Shelter Springs, looking after his niece, Audrey, with his estranged father down the road. But when he meets Holly, she makes him want to belong for the very first time. So they make a deal: he’ll be her date if she’ll help him give Audrey a true Christmas to remember while her mom is away.

Catching Cheats by Erik Lie

A renowned researcher takes readers inside the hunt for Wall Street's biggest frauds, revealing the forensic techniques that catch corporate criminals in the act.

The world of business runs on trust, but that trust is routinely broken. From stock market manipulation to accounting fraud, corporate executives and Wall Street insiders find endless, creative ways to cheat the system. With engaging stories and compelling data analysis, Erik Lie reveals how these schemes work and how to catch them.

Through real cases such as Martha Stewart’s insider trading, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and the LIBOR rate-fixing scandal, readers will learn the following:

Two powerful methods for detecting systematic fraud using data
How cheaters leave behind telltale statistical patterns
Why some of Wall Street's biggest frauds persisted for years despite red flags
The role of whistleblowers, journalists, and researchers in exposing deception

Packed with intriguing examples and whimsical illustrations, this eye-opening guide shows how anyone can help expose corporate misconduct hiding in plain sight.

The Dark Will End the Dark by Darrin Doyle

A group of tugboat passengers grapples with a disturbing loss. A
record-holding hiccuper confronts his condition - and a troubling secret. A
wife wonders what to do when her husband's head stops working - but his body
stays alive. A man struggles with the memory of the time he saw his friend
swallowed whole by a neighborhood girl with supernatural powers.

In this classic set of Midwestern Gothic stories by Darrin Doyle, we see the
strange hold hands with the familiar - and seem all the more strange as a
result. A set of tall tales (and medium-height ones) told with Nabokovian
prose, this stunning and visceral collection by the author of The Beast in
Aisle 34 will linger long after the last page.

The Holiday Hookup List by Alexis Daria

Valencia
After calling it quits with my cheating fiancé, I’m definitely not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. But when my best friend invites me to a holiday dance party, I show up ready for anything! Except I must be on Santa’s naughty list, because who do I run into? My infuriatingly sexy high school archnemesis, Gideon Noble. The pulsing music, red and green strobe lights, and Gideon’s bitable bottom lip make me reckless, so I drag him onto the dance floor. And then? I take him home with me.

Gideon
If this is my second chance with Valencia, I’m not wasting it. We’re both alone this Christmas, so we create a naughty and nice list that would make Santa blush: twelve days of wholesome yuletide cheer, and twelve nights decking each other’s halls. As Christmas Eve, and the end of our list, approaches, I realize that twelve days with Valencia Torres isn’t enough. I

The Betrayal: The Lies We Fear

Angelette Arabella has spent her life in the shadow of the man the nation calls a hero—her father, Valerius, the revered leader of Libertis. To the world, he’s a savior. To her, he’s simply “Dad.” But when a staged kidnapping spirals into something far more dangerous, Angelette is forced to face the truth: her life, her family, and the world she’s always known are carefully crafted illusions. And the man who built them is hiding more than secrets—he’s hiding control.

As betrayal bleeds from every corner of her life—her brothers vanished, her mother silenced, and her only friend not who she seems—Angelette must decide: remain the obedient daughter, or become the threat her father fears most.

Because the truth isn’t just dangerous in Libertis, it’s treason.

The Betrayal, book 1 in the Lies We Fear series, is a gripping dystopian fantasy about power, loyalty, and what happens when love is weaponized.

Groove by Bernice L. McFadden

The first of two steamy and entertaining romance novels, published under the beloved and distinguished author’s real name for the first time

You never know what’s going on behind someone’s groove.

New York City, April 2002: Geneva, Crystal, Noah, and Chevy, a close friend group, are all mid-thirty, flirty—and ready to embrace the heat of the summer.

But behind closed doors, each of them has struggles of their own: Geneva keeps accidentally falling for the charms of her good-for-nothing ex-husband; Crystal is a high-flying executive with a picture-perfect life and a boyfriend who might just be too good to be true; Noah is attempting to keep the spark alive between him and his European boyfriend, but the flames of temptation keep catching fire in the most unexpected of places; and then there’s Chevy, who couldn’t care less about love and only wants a life of champagne dinners and designer bags, no matter the cost.

But as the city heats up and tensions keep bubbling under the surface, Chevy gets entangled with a hot and mysterious stranger. The group must come together to save their friend before it’s too late—and before secrets break their forever friendship.

Fever by Bernice L. McFadden

The second of two steamy and entertaining romance novels, published under the beloved and distinguished author’s real name for the first time

Three years have passed since four friends—Geneva, Chevy, Crystal, and Noah—had a steamy summer of secrets and sleeping around. As another summer is fast approaching, they’ve sworn off any extracurricular activities, but as the temperature rises in the city, the friends find themselves in hot water again.

Geneva is busy taking care of her daughter and trying not to get too involved with her son’s young business manager. Chevy gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to assist a diva who might want more than what’s in the employment contract. Crystal has promised to save herself for Mr. Right (instead of jumping into bed with another Mr. Right Now), but her commitment is tested when an old acquaintance reenters her life. And while Noah is getting very cozy with his new neighbors in London, he’s still everyone’s favorite (and only) confidant who can’t stop himself from meddling in other people’s business.

But secrets don’t stay secrets for long among these friends, and with sexual tensions high on both side of the pond, everyone is sure to catch the fever. . . .

Deliver Me by Elle Nash

At a meatpacking facility in the Missouri Ozarks, Dee-Dee and her co-workers kill and butcher 40,000 chickens in a single shift.

The work is repetitive and brutal, with each stab and cut a punishment to her hands and joints, but Dee-Dee’s more concerned with what is happening inside her body. After a series of devastating miscarriages, Dee-Dee has found herself pregnant, and she is determined to carry this child to term.

Dee-Dee fled the Pentecostal church years ago, but judgment follows her in the form of regular calls from her mother, whose raspy voice urges Dee-Dee to quit living in sin and marry her boyfriend Daddy, an underemployed ex-con with an insect fetish. With a child on the way, at long last Dee-Dee can bask in her mother’s and boyfriend’s newfound parturient attention. She will matter. She will be loved. She will be complete.

When her charismatic friend Sloane reappears after a twenty-year absence, feeding her insecurities and awakening suppressed desires, Dee-Dee fears she will go back to living in the shadows. Neither the ultimate indignity of yet another miscarriage nor Sloane’s own pregnancy deters her: she must prepare for the baby’s arrival.

My First Milestones: Ready to Walk by Lee Wildish

From the New York Times bestselling creator of HOW TO BABYSIT A GRANDPA comes a charming new series of fun and family-centric milestone books, launching with a celebration of the most iconic of all beginnings: getting READY TO WALK!

The Extremities! by Samantha Kimmey

One day at work, a young newspaper reporter is suddenly struck with a mysterious pain in her hands that renders her unable to type. Kim initially believes the disorder—as she refers to it—will disappear quickly. But attempts at treatment fail and no medical professional seems able to diagnose her. Is it a problem of posture? Stress from work? Fear of nearby wildfires or a past trauma, perhaps connected to the tragic death of her maybe-a-hoarder mother many years ago? Though the disorder puts her job, her relationship, and her state of mind in jeopardy, Kim begins to feel a strange kinship to the pain, a desire to “obey” it—a sentiment affirmed by her naturalist boyfriend, who has plans of his own for an idyllic future. Will submitting to the pain enable Kim to transcend it, or will it further derail her from the life she intends to lead?

A Version of the Truth by Marsh Rose

After forty years of sharing quiet companionship with Jack, meeting twice a week, living separately and loving each other in their own way, Marsh Rose is left with more questions than answers after a sudden crisis ends their time together. In her new memoir, A Version of the Truth (Sunbury Press, October 7), Marsh reflects on the mysteries that even deep intimacy can never fully solve.
Set in Northern California wine country, the book moves through decades of small but meaningful moments, from home repairs to bird feeder battles to the adoption of a dog, and ending with a surreal twist, painting a portrait of an unconventional love. This is a story of grief, aging and coming to peace with uncertainty.
With tenderness and clarity, A Version of the Truth invites readers to consider what it means to truly know another person and how we construct meaning from what we’ll never fully understand.

From Sexless Marriage to Sex Goddess: A Memoir, Dr. Alisa Kriegel

After her husband of 25 years came out as gay, psychologist Alisa Kriegel set aside clinical detachment and used herself as a case study.

From Sexless Marriage to Sex Goddess (Latah Books, 10/8/25) is her account of what followed: a deeply personal and often surprising exploration of shame, desire, and reinvention. The book moves through the frustration of a low-intimacy marriage into the messy, often illuminating realities of midlife dating and self-exploration. Drawing on both her professional and lived experience, Kriegel examines how long-buried desire resurfaced once she gave herself permission to seek it.

Breaking from therapeutic convention, Kriegel writes openly about her own sexual reawakening. With over 20 years as a practicing psychologist, she has guided clients through shame, disconnection, and the complexities of intimacy—challenges she faced firsthand. The result is a memoir that skirts the line between clinical insight and personal vulnerability.

The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery by Patricia Crisafulli

Author Interview with Patricia Crisafulli

The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery is the much-anticipated third book in the Ohnita Harbor Mystery series, reuniting readers with beloved protagonist Gabriela Domenici, the smalltown librarian whose accidental sleuthing puts her on the frontlines of death and danger. At the heart of the mystery is The Traitor’s Map—a highly inaccurate spy map from the American Revolution that could be a hoax, a ruse used against the British, or a poor attempt by an 18th century amateur cartographer. When Gabriela assigns the map as a research project to a group of college students, one of them is found murdered on the lakeshore—triggering a spiral of death and deceit that soon embroils Gabriela and the man she loves. The Secrets of the Old Post Cemetery tells a riveting story with emotional complexity as it explores love, betrayal, murder, and a chance for redemption.

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