April Newsletter |
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Happy April!
Spring has officially come again, and we hope that you're enjoying the sunshine and fresh blooms. We're planning to spend lots of time reading in the sun!
Be sure to check out some of our favorite Easter and Earth Day picks below, along with National Poetry Month!
We also have an abundance of fantastic events coming up this spring, so be sure to check those out below. We hope to see you there!
Enjoy the warmer days, and have a wonderful Easter and Passover season!
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THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! |
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From the Team at Fiction Addiction: -Nancy -Jill -Lee -Grace Anne -Melissa
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International Shipping Policy:
International Shipping is officially back for packages under 4lbs!
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Our event program is back up and running, and we could use a roster of volunteers who are generally available to help out with events and would love to be involved. If you're interested, reach out to info@fiction-addiction.com and we'll be in touch with the next steps.
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April 9th is National Poetry Month |
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1/10/23 - Square Fis - $11.99
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
A debut YA novel-in-verse by Amber McBride, Me (Moth) is about a teen girl who is grieving the deaths of her family, and a teen boy who crosses her path.
Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted.
Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.
Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable.
Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.
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12/7/21 - Viking Books for Young Readers - $24.99
The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman
Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.
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April 9th is National Unicorn Day! |
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3/21/23 - Penguin Workshop - $18.99
Don't miss our event with Jonathan Fenske on April 1st!
From the comedic mind of Jonathan Fenske, Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor-winning creator of A Pig, a Fox, and a Box, comes a hilarious picture book about what happens when a unicorn, a dinosaur, and a shark "walk" into a book. Fenske's appealing illustration style and clever text make this intriguing book a must-have for every young reader's shelf.
Absurdity abounds in this funny picture book that tries to tell the tale of a unicorn, a dinosaur, and a shark.
While the narrator insists that the characters are in the best book ever, they are all less than impressed, and won't cooperate with the storyteller's cues. Can the narrator find a way to convince them to stick around, or will the creatures choose to skedaddle off the page?
Perfect for fans of The Book with No Pictures and Kevin the Unicorn: It's Not All Rainbows!
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3/23/21 - Abrams Books for Young Readers - $18.99
Do you have a child in your life who loves kitties and unicorns? (Or do YOU love kitties and unicorns?) If so, you need this book! It's about a kitty who thinks she's actually a unicorn, despite what all her friends say. Then one day, a real unicorn shows up...but he's jealous of all of Kitty's kitty-ness! An adorable book about friendship and being who you really are. - recommended by Melissa O., store employee
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2/1/23 - Hometown World - $10.99
Search for Easter eggs with Little Bunny and hippity-hop around the Palmetto State with this springtime read-aloud children's picture book!
It's Easter, which means Little Bunny is searching for eggs! Eggs are hidden all around Charleston, Columbia, Rock Hill, and more—can you help Little Bunny find them? Follow along on a tour of local landmarks such as The Citadel and Edventure Children's Museum. Join in as Little Bunny makes sweet memories with adorable animal friends along the way. This Easter basket stuffer is the best way to celebrate the holiday in South Carolina, full of sweet illustrations and rhyming text ideal for parents and kids to read-aloud.
- An engaging story for boys and girls ages 3-7 that combines local South Carolina sites with a celebration of family and Easter blessings
- Includes hidden eggs on every page so toddlers and kids can join in on Little Bunny's egg hunt
- A perfect Easter gift to celebrate the holiday and start a fun new tradition!
- Enjoy landmarks such as Skywheel, Harbour Town Lighthouse, Rainbow Row, and more
- Perfect for kids who live in or have relatives in South Carolina or visit the South
With one egg in the basket,
the bunnies stop beside a brook.
Mount Pleasant, Sumter, or Spartanburg?
Oh, which way should they look?
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2/28/23 - Applesauce Press - $29.95
Come along on an adventurous journey with the world's most beloved bunny, Peter Rabbit, in The Classic Tale of Peter Rabbit and Other Cherished Stories. This beautiful Collectible Leather edition features illustrations by award winning artist, Charles Santore.
Valuable lessons can be learned from the mischievous and disobedient Peter Rabbit as he ignores his mother’s warning about Mr. McGregor and his vegetable garden. As Peter gets into trouble, he’ll have to ask for help to find a way home. Explore the other characters in Beatrix Potter’s enchanted world with several other stories about Peter’s animal friends. These timeless children’s classics provide kids with tales about values, morals, and virtue.
This Collectible Leather edition features:
- A beautifully designed leather hardcover with gold foiling - A large four-page foldout opens to 46 inches and brings this story to life for little ones - Other classic tales by Beatrix Potter included are: The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, and The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies - Illustrations by renowned, New York Times #1 Bestselling artist Charles Santore
The Classic Tale of Peter Rabbit and Other Cherished Stories:
- Makes a great gift for baby showers, spring holidays such as Easter, or birthdays - Is perfect for family and bedtime reading, or preschool lessons - A wonderful classic to add to family collections as a keepsake
The critically-acclaimed illustrator, Charles Santore, has been celebrated with recognitions such as the prestigious Hamilton King Award, the Society of Illustrators Award of Excellence, and the Original Art 2000 Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. He is best known for his luminous interpretations of classic children’s stories, including The Night Before Christmas, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Aesop's Fables, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Wizard of Oz, and more!
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2/21/23 - Little Bee Books - $18.99
Twenty million people across the country made their voices heard on the first Earth Day.
Some came out to celebrate the environment, while others protested and demanded change.
A movement was born.
In 1969, Union Oil caused an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara that would change the world. Hazardous crude oil from the blowout flooded the Pacific Ocean, harming wildlife and devastating habitats. But from this ecological disaster sprang a new wave of environmental activism that continues to this day.
Based on actual events, Black Beach: A Community, an Oil Spill, and the Origin of Earth Day follows Sam and her classmates as they fight back. Sam initially feels powerless watching her parents and neighbors try to clean up the oil spill. But as her awareness grows, she learns she's not alone in caring for the Earth. The impact of the spill seeps into living rooms and classrooms across the nation. People everywhere are motivated to act, and a movement to protect and celebrate the environment is born.
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3/21/23 - Roaring Brook Press - $18.99
A wonderful tale of compassion and kindness inspired by amazing true stories of animal survival during the devastating Australian wildfires. -recommended by Jill Hendrix, store owner
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An Attic Journal is a unique piece of the past that was handmade to hold important bits of your story. Harvested at the cusp of the landfill, the creator uses hard-bound vintage school & library books that were destined for dumpsters, but given new life in their Portland production studio. Each journal is made to last with approximately 75 pages of blank 22 or 24# sustainably sourced paper, and a sturdy wire binding that allows your journal to lay flat or fold over so you can jot down your thoughts wherever your story takes you. Each journal is completely unique, but you can share your favorite animal, hobby, classic, or children's book in the comments during checkout to help guide our order.
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Want to send a wishlist to your friends and family for an upcoming birthday or special celebration? Wanting to add some bookish flair as you create your wedding registry or prep for that upcoming baby shower? Create a wishlist through our Bookshop page!
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Are you a local author looking for help marketing your books?
If you live in the Carolinas or your books are set in North or South Carolina, Fiction Addiction can help you market your books. Click HERE or click the image above to learn more!
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We love to take customer pre-orders!
If the book is on our website, go ahead and order there. Otherwise:
- Email us the title and author of the book (best for pickup).
- Pre-order from our Bookshop site (best for shipped books).
The earlier we get your pre-orders (a month early is ideal!), the better chance you'll get the book by its pub date.
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5/2/23 - Disney Publishing Group - $19.99
Demigods Nico di Angelo and Will Solace must endure the terrors of Tartarus to rescue an old friend in this thrilling adventure co-written by New York Times #1 best-selling author Rick Riordan and award-winning author Mark Oshiro.
Percy Jackson fans, rejoice! Nico and Will have a book of their own!
As the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo has been through so much, from the premature deaths of his mother and sister, to being outed against his will, to losing his friend Jason during the trials of Apollo. But there is a ray of sunshine in his life—literally: his boyfriend, Will Solace, the son of Apollo. Together the two demigods can overcome any obstacle or foe. At least, that's been the case so far...
Now Nico is being plagued by a voice calling out to him from Tartarus, the lowest part of the Underworld. He thinks he knows who it is: a reformed Titan named Bob whom Percy and Annabeth had to leave behind when they escaped Hades's realm. Nico's dreams and Rachel Dare's latest prophecy leave little doubt in Nico's mind that Bob is in some kind of trouble. Nico has to go on this quest, whether Mr. D and Chiron like it or not. And of course Will insists on coming with. But can a being made of light survive in the darkest part of the world? and what does the prophecy mean that Nico will have to "leave something of equal value behind?"
Nico will have to face demons both internal and external as his relationship with Will is tested to the core in this standalone adventure featuring two of the most popular characters in the Percy Jackson saga.
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5/2/23 - Farrar, Straus and Giroux - $18.99
A laugh-out-loud picture book from #1 New York Times–bestselling author Jory John and illustrator Erin Kraan about a rabbit who insists that nothing's wrong, until a good friend helps him open up—a companion to the popular picture book, Something's Wrong!
Anders does not seem like himself.
He and his friend Jeff are headed for a picnic, but no matter how much Anders insists that he’s feeling just fine, Jeff gets the sense that his best friend isn’t being totally honest. Should he check in on Anders or give him space? Should he help him out or just be by his side? How can he be a good friend if he doesn’t know what his friend might need?
Nothing's Wrong! reminds us that even when nothing seems to go right, a good friend will be there for you at the end of the day.
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5/16/23 - Penguin Random House - $28.00
A young woman pretends to be someone she isn’t in this stunning novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls.
“Alex drained her wineglass, then her water glass. The ocean looked calm, a black darker than the sky. A ripple of anxiety made her palms go damp. It seemed suddenly very tenuous to believe that anything would stay hidden, that she could successfully pass from one world to another.”
Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.
A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.
With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.
Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline’s The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.
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5/23/23 - Doubleday - $29.00
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of While Justice Sleeps returns with another riveting and intricately plotted thriller, in which a blackmailed federal judge, a secret court and a brazen murder may lead to an unprecedented national crisis.
Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid ground after unraveling an international conspiracy in While Justice Sleeps. But as the sparks of Congressional hearings and political skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she died. Desperate to understand what happened, he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved.
Another shocking murder leads Avery to a list of names – all federal judges – and, alarmingly, all judges on the FISA Court (the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), also known as America’s "secret court." It is this body which grants permission to the government to wiretap Americans or spy on corporations suspected of terrorism. As Avery digs deeper, she begins to see a frightening pattern – and she worries that something far more sinister may be unfolding inside the nation’s third branch of government. With lives at stake, Avery must race the clock and an unexpected enemy to find the answer.
Drawn from today’s headlines and woven with her unique insider perspective, Stacey Abrams combines twisting plotlines, wry wit, and clever puzzles to create another immensely entertaining suspense novel.
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6/6/23 - Flatiron - $27.99
After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county.
Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.
Now, Titus must pull off the impossible: stay true to his instincts, prevent outright panic, and investigate a shocking crime in a small town where everyone knows everyone yet secrets flourish. All while also breaking up backroads bar fights and being forced to protect racist Confederate pride marchers.
For a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South, that’s no easy feat. But Charon is Titus’s home and his heart, and he won’t let the darkness overtake it. Even as it threatens to consume him...
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7/11/23 - Disney Publishing Group - $18.99
Celebrate all things spooky with #1 New York Times best-selling author Ryan T. Higgins's beloved Mother Bruce.
Bruce is a bear who does not like holidays, and he really doesn’t like Halloween. His family of mice and geese decides the only way to get Bruce excited about Halloween is to tell a spooky story.
But their campfire tale takes a turn when a ghostly visitor appears. Will Bruce get in the Halloween spirit? Or will the Halloween spirit get Bruce?
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7/25/23 - Random House Children's Books - $19.99
The global phenomenon returns with the third book in the One of Us Is Lying series, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen M. McManus. When someone from the Bayview Four’s past resurfaces, history begins to repeat itself—and the consequences are deadly.
The third time’s a charm.
It’s been almost two years since Simon died in detention, and the aftermath has been hard to shake. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren’t killers. Then a new generation outwitted a vengeful copycat. Now the entire Bayview Crew is back home for the summer, and everyone is trying to move on. Only, this is Bayview, and life is never that simple. At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad joke: Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the Bayview Crew disappears, it’s clear this “game” is serious—and whoever’s in charge isn’t sharing the rules. Or maybe there aren’t any. Bronwyn. Cooper. Addy. Nate. Maeve. Phoebe. Knox. Luis. Kris. Everyone’s a target. And now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things could start getting deadly. The thing is, Simon was right about secrets—they all come out eventually. And Bayview has a lot it’s still hiding.
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8/8/23 - Riverhead Books- $28.00
From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.
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9/19/23 - Tor Books - $28.99
Following the bestselling The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi returns with Starter Villain, another unique sci-fi caper set in the strangest of all worlds, present-day Earth.
Inheriting your mysterious uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might imagine.
Sure, there are the things you'd expect. The undersea volcano lairs. The minions. The plots to take over the world. The international networks of rivals who want you dead.
Much harder to get used to...are the the sentient, language-using, computer-savvy cats.
And the fact that in the overall organization, they're management...
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Our Partners |
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Fiction Addiction offers additional book services through these affiliate partnership links.
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Fiction Addiction's Featured Reader: Jonathan Fenske, Author
We're excited to be implementing a new segment in our monthly newsletter: Fiction Addiction's Featured Reader! Everyone has a story behind the books that mean the most to them, and we want to tell yours. Want to be featured? Reply to this email and let us know, and you might see yourself in an upcoming newsletter!
Don't miss our event with Jonathan TODAY, April 1st, from 2-4pm!
What was your favorite childhood read and why?
Go Dog, Go! by PD Eastman. I wanted so badly to live in the party treehouse.
Do you have a go-to-comfort book that you're read over and over?
I don't know how comforting they are, but, loving the outdoors like I do, I always enjoy rereading James Dickey's Deliverance and To The White Sea.
Why do you love reading?
I love my life, but it's also fun to live the life of others for a little while!
What's the best book you've read so far this year?
Liberation Day by George Saunders.
What's on your nightstand now?
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, Calloustown by George Singleton, and Colorado's Fourteeners by Gerry Roach!
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4/18/23 - Workman Publishing Company - $27.00
Don't miss our upcoming event with the author on May 3rd!
This funny and endearing novel of family, secrets, and aging follows an elderly man who heads off on a joyride with a new young friend—who may have some secrets of her own.
A driving force in literature, the one and only Lee Smith returns with a road trip novel, a story full of hope and humor about not going away quietly—at any age.
Aging Herb’s charmed life with his dear wife, Susan, in their Key West house is coming undone. Susan now needs constant care, and Herb is in denial about his own ailing health. The one bright spot is the arrival of an endlessly optimistic manicurist calling herself Renee. She sings to Susan during manicures, gets her to paint, and brings her a sense of contentment.
But then Herb and Susan’s adult children arrive to stage an intervention on their stubborn, independent father, and as a consequence, Renee’s gig with Susan—and her grand plans for her own life—start to unravel as well. So much had seemed as if it could change for Renee, who is not the happy, uncomplicated young girl she pretends to be. She is actually named Dee Dee, and she’s fleeing a dark past.
And Herb can’t just let go of all that he has ever had. So, he suggests one last joy ride in his Porsche. And the two take off north out of Key West, soon setting off a Silver Alert. As the unlikely friendship between Herb and Dee Dee deepens, we see how as one life is closing down, another opens up.
In this buoyant novel, the masterful Smith asks: What do we deserve? And how do we make it our own? Sometimes, you just have to seize the wheel.
Fans of Smith’s many books in her storied, bestselling career won’t want to miss her newest novel. And readers of novels like Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes will adore Silver Alert. (Recommended by Mary Jane!)
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4/4/23 - Berkley- $17.00
From author Alicia Bessette comes an all-new mystery series featuring Callie Padget, a former reporter turned bookshop clerk in the Outer Banks who is pulled into a deadly web of secrets when a mysterious fall at a lighthouse echoes a tragedy from her past.
When Callie is laid off from her reporting job, she returns to her hometown of Cattail Island and lands a gig at the local bookstore—the same one where she found comfort after her mother died.
In fact, the anniversary of her mother’s infamous death is approaching. Years ago, Teri Padget tumbled from the top of the lighthouse. As islanders are once again gossiping about the tragedy, devastating news strikes: the lighthouse has claimed another victim. Eva Meeks, of Meeks Hardware.
The police are calling it suicide, but Callie does not believe Eva jumped any more than she believes her mother did—especially because Callie knows that before her death, Eva had dug up a long-forgotten treasure hunt that could have put a target on Eva’s back.
In Callie’s search for answers, she enlists the help of some beloved books and several new friends, including the handsome local martial arts instructor, Toby Dodge. But when another death rocks Cattail Island, Callie must face her fears alone. As she earns enemies in pursuit of the truth, Callie knows she will either uncover the killer or become a victim herself.
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4/18/23 - Grand Central Publishing - $30.00
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 6:20 Man comes a twisting new psychological thriller in which two women—one a former detective, the other a dangerous con artist—go head-to-head in an electrifying game of cat and mouse.
Mickey Gibson, single mother and former detective, leads a hectic life similar to that of many moms: juggling the demands of her two small children with the tasks of her job working remotely for ProEye, a global investigation company that hunts down wealthy tax and credit cheats.
When Mickey gets a call from a colleague named Arlene Robinson, she thinks nothing of Arlene’s unusual request for her to go inventory the vacant home of an arms dealer who cheated ProEye’s clients and fled. That is, until she arrives at the mansion to discover a dead body in a secret room—and that nothing is as it seems.
Not only does the arms dealer not exist but the murder victim turns out to be Harry Langhorne, a man with mob ties who used to be in Witness Protection. What’s more, no one named Arlene Robinson works at ProEye.
In the blink of an eye, Gibson has become a prime suspect in a murder investigation—and now her job is also on the line until she proves that she was set up. Before long, Gibson is locked in a battle of wits with a brilliant woman with no name, a hidden past, and unknown motives—whose end game is as mysterious as it is deadly.
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4/25/23 - William Morrow - $28.99
From the New York Times bestselling author of Never Have I Ever comes the hair-raising story of a mother who moves herself and her daughter across the country to lose a dangerous stalker—only to discover that it will take more than distance to escape him.
HIS GAME.
HIS RULES.
HER LIFE.
It started with the letters…
For actress Meribel Mills, disturbing fan mail is part of the price of fame. So when she starts getting creepy letters written in fruit-scented marker she is mostly unphased and diligently files them along with her other messages from unhinged fans. After all, she’s a single mom approaching forty, not the kind of hot young celeb who sparks dangerous obsessions. But there’s something different about Marker Man…
He’s been in her home…
Meribel’s sheets smell of unfamiliar cologne, and objects have gone missing around the house. Plus, the letters have become more perverse, with drawings of a naked Meribel tied up or chopped into pieces. While the police insist that stalkers hardly ever escalate to violence, Meribel has played the dead girl one too many times on TV to risk becoming her in real life. She and her daughter move from Los Angeles to Atlanta for a fresh start—but no distance is great enough.
He’s watching her…
Years of being in front of a camera have given Meribel a superpower—she can feel eyes on her, a creeping sensation like bees inside her skin. And someone definitely has her in their sights. Could Marker Man have followed her all the way across the country?
Who else might be watching—her ex-husband? The lover she left behind in LA? Her new neighbor? Suddenly, every man in her life is a suspect, but she can’t keep herself and her daughter safe from a monster she can’t identify. When the paths of all of these men collide, Meribel will find herself alone in the fight of her life, desperate to protect those she loves as danger closes in from all sides.
If he can't have her, no one can.
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4/11/23 - Ecco - $29.99
From the New York Times bestselling author of Cold Mountain and Varina, a stunning new novel that paints a vivid portrait of life in the Great Depression
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper—and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.
One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.
In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.
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4/4/23 - Graydon House - $18.99
In post–World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library and must untangle its powerful secrets…
With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.
The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own.
Rumors swirl in the village about the abbey’s previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library’s mysteries in order to reclaim her own story—before it vanishes forever.
Lush, atmospheric and transporting, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library is a skillful reflection on memory and female agency, and a love letter to books from a writer at the height of her power.
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4/25/23 - Harper - $28.99
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River—an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.
One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances.
The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.
Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.
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4/18/23 - Graydon House - $17.99
One woman. Two childhood loves. The dazzling place where it all began.
“An exciting, emotional page-turner.” —KRISTIN HARMEL, New York Times bestselling author
When Emma Jansen discovers that the grand Long Island estate where she grew up is set to be demolished, she can't help but return for one last visit. After all, it was a place filled with firsts: learning to ride a bike, sneaking a glass of champagne, falling in love.
But once Emma arrives at the storied mansion, she can't ignore the more complicated memories. Because that's not exactly where Emma grew up. Her mother and father worked for the family that owned the estate, and they lived over the garage like Audrey Hepburn's character in the film Sabrina. Emma never felt fully accepted, except by the family's grandson, Henry—a former love—and by the driver’s son, Leo—her best friend.
As plans for the property are put into motion and the three are together for the first time in over a decade, Emma finds herself caught between two worlds and two loves. And when the house reveals a shattering secret about her own family, she’ll have to decide what kind of life she really wants for herself now and who she wants to be in it.
“Readers will find themselves engrossed by this absolute treat of a book.” —PAM JENOFF, New York Times bestselling author
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4/18/23 - Anchor Books - $28.00
A gripping page-turner from the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: Music professor Bern Hendricks discovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time—his music may have been stolen from a Black Jazz Age prodigy named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth that a powerful organization wants to keep hidden, Bern will stop at nothing to right history's wrongs and give Josephine the recognition she deserves.
"At once a celebration of music and also a cautionary tale about legacy, privilege, and creative genius." —Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid
Bern Hendricks has just received the call of a lifetime. As one of the world’s preeminent experts on the famed twentieth-century composer Frederick Delaney, Bern knows everything there is to know about the man behind the music. When Mallory Roberts, a board member of the distinguished Delaney Foundation and direct descendant of the man himself, asks for Bern’s help authenticating a newly discovered piece, which may be his famous lost opera, RED, he jumps at the chance. With the help of his tech-savvy acquaintance Eboni, Bern soon discovers that the truth is far more complicated than history would have them believe.
In 1920s Manhattan, Josephine Reed is living on the streets and frequenting jazz clubs when she meets the struggling musician Fred Delaney. But where young Delaney struggles, Josephine soars. She’s a natural prodigy who hears beautiful music in the sounds of the world around her. With Josephine as his silent partner, Delaney’s career takes off—but who is the real genius here?
In the present day, Bern and Eboni begin to uncover more clues that indicate Delaney may have had help in composing his most successful work. Armed with more questions than answers and caught in the crosshairs of a powerful organization who will stop at nothing to keep their secret hidden, Bern and Eboni will move heaven and earth in their dogged quest to right history’s wrongs.
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4/18/23 - Ballantine Books - $28.99
Two former female spies, bound together by their past, risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi doctor in the aftermath of World War II—a pulse-pounding novel inspired by true events from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls
“Martha Hall Kelly deftly illuminates little-known complexities of the post-war era while painting a vivid portrait of the deep scars and trauma that Holocaust survivors carried.”—Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Sapphire
American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves, renowned across France and hunted by the Gestapo. Their courage will cost them everything. When they are finally arrested and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, along with their loved ones, a reclusive Nazi doctor does unspeakable things to Josie’s mother, a celebrated Jewish singer who joined her daughter in Paris when the world seemed bright. And Arlette’s son is stolen from her, never to be seen again.
A decade later the Doves fall headlong into a dangerous dual mission: Josie is working for U.S. Army Intelligence and accepts an assignment to hunt down the infamous doctor, while a mysterious man tells Arlette he may have found her son. The Golden Doves embark on a quest across Europe and ultimately to French Guiana, discovering a web of terrible secrets, and must put themselves in grave danger to finally secure justice and protect the ones they love.
Martha Hall Kelly has garnered acclaim for her stunning combination of empathy and research into the stories of women throughout history and for exploring the terrors of Ravensbrück. With The Golden Doves, she has crafted an unforgettable story about the fates of Nazi fugitives in the wake of World War II—and the unsung female spies who risked it all to bring them to justice.
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4/18/23 - Basic Books - $23.99
An “absorbing” and “visceral” (New York Times) account of the five most crucial days in twentieth-century diplomatic history: from Pearl Harbor to Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States
By early December 1941, war had changed much of the world beyond recognition. Nazi Germany occupied most of the European continent, while in Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned China into a battleground. But these conflicts were not yet inextricably linked—and the United States remained at peace.
Hitler’s American Gamble recounts the five days that upended everything: December 7 to 11. Tracing developments in real time and backed by deep archival research, historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman show how Hitler’s intervention was not the inexplicable decision of a man so bloodthirsty that he forgot all strategy, but a calculated risk that can only be understood in a truly global context. This book reveals how December 11, not Pearl Harbor, was the real watershed that created a world war and transformed international history.
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4/4/23 - PublicAffairs - $30.00
A Murder on the Orient Express–style adventure, set in China’s republican era In May 1923, when Shanghai publisher and reporter John Benjamin Powell bought a first-class ticket for the Peking Express, he pictured an idyllic overnight journey on a brand-new train of unprecedented luxury—exactly what the advertisements promised. Seeing his fellow passengers, including mysterious Italian lawyer Giuseppe Musso, a confidante of Mussolini and lawyer for the opium trade, and American heiress Lucy Aldrich, sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr., he knew it would be an unforgettable trip. Charismatic bandit leader and populist rabble rouser Sun Mei-yao had also taken notice of the new train from Shanghai to Peking. On the night of Powell’s trip of a lifetime, Sun launched his plan to make a brazen political statement: he and a thousand fellow bandits descended on the train, capturing dozens of hostages. Aided by local proxy authorities, the humiliated Peking government soon furiously gave chase. At the bandits’ mountain stronghold, a five-week siege began. Brilliantly written, with new and original research, The Peking Express tells the incredible true story of a clash that shocked the world—becoming so celebrated it inspired several Hollywood movies—and set the course for China’s two-decade civil war.
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3/28/23 - Ulysses Press - $12.95
Celebrate your love of Wednesday Addams with this morbidly charming coloring book inspired by the hit Netflix show.
Color your way through Wednesday's dark and twisted world with original, hand-drawn illustrations that will pull you by your braids into Jericho, Vermont and leave your head spinning.
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4/4/23 - Balzer & Bray - $19.99
Internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas makes her middle grade debut with the launch of an inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore.
It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.
All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of...to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.
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4/4/23 - Quill Tree Books - $18.99
In this evocative and playful companion to their New York Times bestselling picture book How to Read a Book, Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander teams up with poet Deanna Nikaido and Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet to celebrate the magic of discovering your very own poetry in the world around you.
Begin
with a question
like an acorn
waiting for spring.
From this first stanza, readers are invited to pay attention—and to see that paying attention itself is poetry. Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido’s playful text and Melissa Sweet’s dynamic, inventive artwork are paired together to encourage readers to listen, feel, and discover the words that dance in the world around them—poems just waiting to be written down.
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Signed First Editions Club! |
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Our picks have won awards, been made into movies, or have simply been really good reads. Moving forward, we will not be announcing our Signed First Edition Club picks ahead of time. To sign up for a surprise Signed First Edition each month, register here.
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4/4/23 - HAlfred A. Knopf - $28.00 |
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Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully by Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett
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I really liked the 10 vital signs of health and mobility that the authors picked and how they explained their importance, how to test each vital sign, and exercises to improve if you fell short. This book had me re-thinking other health advice, such as drink 8 glasses of water a day, which likely fall under their advice to create a mobility-rich environment. It's been amazing how much adopting my puppy Branding has changed my own movement habits.
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4/25/23 - Random House Books for Young Readers - $18.99 |
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Always Anjali by Sheetal Sheth
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Any child who has ever been teased will relate to this delightful picture book about a young girl who at first feels embarrassed for being perceived as different and then learns to celebrate her own uniqueness. It also has lovely themes of family and friendship. Interestingly enough, my name Jill inspired a very similar schoolyard rhyme as the one that Anjali experiences in the story.
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Nancy M. (Jill's mom)
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I love mysteries & thrillers, police procedurals, and psychological mysteries. I also love well written southern fiction set in the early to late 1900's.
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4/25/23 - Ecco - $27.99 |
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The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh
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Nothing in this terrific domestic thriller is as it seems. Daisy and Craig have drifted apart two years into their marriage. Daisy knows about Craig’s infidelity but she also knows she loves him and decides she needs to find out if they have any hope of making it together. The Eden Test is a program developed by psychologists to help couples in troubled relationships try to repair their lives. It involves a week in an isolated cabin in rural NY and 7 questions to answer. Daisy signs them up, unbeknownst to Craig thinking it will be the perfect opportunity to find out if Craig really loves her and to finally tell him about her past. Unreliable narrators, multiple secrets, and a cast of experienced actors doing what they do best makes this a compulsive read. Especially when the book opens with two bodies being carried out of the cabin.
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4/11/23 - Stella Maris Books - $16.99 |
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Big Trouble on Sullivan's Island by Susan Boyer - SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
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Don't miss our upcoming event with the author on April 11th!
Susan Boyer has once again used her unique gift of words to introduce us to a whole new set of characters and to another charming area of the Low Country. Hadley Cooper is a PI with a lot of baggage, mainly because her mother died when she was 17 and only then did she find out who her father was (and he didn't know she existed) and that she had a half-brother only two days younger than she. Big Trouble on Sullivan's Island is a great name for this start to a fabulous new series of Carolina Tales. There is a lot of trouble on Sullivan's Island stemming from a current murder and secrets from the past. Hadley Cooper may not be Liz Talbot, but she is every bit as interesting and entertaining, as are her friends.
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4/11/23 - Minotaur Books - $27.99 |
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Heart of the Nile by Will Thomas
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How have I missed this fabulous traditional mystery series by Will Thomas? I was looking for something to relax with in place of the thriller/suspense books I have been reading, and I definitely found it. This easily reads as a standalone - you will not feel like you have missed a thing - but I definitely will go back and read some earlier books. It is a terrific mystery set in Victorian London. Barker and Llewelyn are Inquiry Agents who sometimes work with Scotland Yard but more often do their own thing. It is full of typical dry British humor, beautiful writing, and an accurate look at crime and policing at the time. Heart of the Nile also gives you a great lesson in Egyptology and a look at the famous British museum. For fans of Jacquelyn Winspear, Charles Todd, Anthony Horowitz, and Alex Grecian, to name a few.
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1/31/23 - Poisoned Pen Press - $17.99 |
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And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling
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And There He Kept Her was a dark and gritty police procedural and thriller that shows us the true nature of evil, but which shone because of Ben Packard. Ben is the acting sheriff, who came to the small, northern MN town he used to spend summers in as a child to escape demons of his own. While he is working hard to discover what happened to two missing teens, one of whom is the daughter of his cousin, he also slowly reveals why he left the big city to come back to this rural town, which also holds a mystery related to his past. I look forward to the next Ben Packard mystery.
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2/14/23 - Berkley - $27.00 |
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Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Koller Croft
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Stone Cold Fox is a wickedly clever story of a con artist who has decided it is time to settle down and find the rich husband that she knows she deserves. We should hate Bea - who is definitely not the typical well-liked protagonist. She is a snobbish, conceited, narcissistic con artist, but she is also determined, witty, and smart. Knowing about her horrible childhood makes you root for her even if she isn't very likeable and hope that she does end up with a nice rich husband and lives happily ever after. It looks like she is about to reach her goal when she meets Colin. She knows his uber-rich family will be against her but is confident she can mesmerize him into choosing her over them. Mainly because she is unbelievably beautiful, has had lots of experience conning men, and had the best teacher. It isn't until his best friend Gale (who is secretly in love with Colin) tries to stop the match that Bea becomes worried that her past may be revealed, and the cat fight starts in earnest. The superb dialogue and character development produced a book that had me rooting for someone I would normally despise, had me devouring every clever insult that Bea and Gale could throw at each other, and kept me reading until way too late at night.
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4/25/23 - William Morrow - $30.00 |
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The Last Word by Taylor Adams
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Wow! I can not believe what I just read. A story within a story, unreliable narrators, unbelievable heroes, and the roughest most stressful rollercoaster ride I have ever encountered. Reminiscent of the slasher films of the 80's, The Last Word will definitely give you nightmares. And, because of this book I will never give a book a one star review.
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4/4/23 - St. Martin's Press - $28.99 |
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The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth
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The Soulmate is about two couples, Pippa and Gabe and Amanda and Max. It is a story of family, mental illness, and what it means to truly love someone. The riveting thriller is told from the viewpoints of the two wives, both in the past and the present. Pippa, who is very much alive, is trying to understand what has happened and what she can do to protect her family. Amanda, who is dead is trying to discover exactly what happened that led to her death. One of the best domestic thrillers I have read in ages, the short chapters make you want to read 'just one more' so you can find out what has happened and what is going to happen.
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4/25/23 - Gallery Books - $17.99 |
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The Marsh Queen by Virginia Hartman
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The Marsh Queen is a beautifully written, slow paced novel about family and love and hidden secrets with a mystery and lots of tension thrown in. The descriptions of the birds and the Florida marshes help make this an atmospheric novel that you won't want to miss.
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4/4/23 - Bantam - $18.00 |
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Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell
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This is the first book in a tongue-in-cheek British mystery series featuring Professor Hilary Tamar. Professor Tamar is called upon to rescue Julia Larwood, a friend of a former pupil. Julia, a scatter-brained tax attorney on vacation in Italy, wakes up next to a corpse and soon becomes the prime suspect. A light, amusing summer read for fans of British whodunnits.
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4/11/23 - G.P. Putnam's Sons - $17.00 |
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Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild
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Ruby is a licensed therapist, so she understands and rationalizes that while she has killed three people, she is not a sociopath. She is a kind and loving and empathetic human being. Perhaps because she is such a kind and caring person, she has convinced herself that she has done nothing wrong because the three people she killed were truly vile and evil. But she is now suspected of killing her husband - a person she loved and who was a kind and caring person. I loved every minute of this cleverly written book. The story is told from Ruby's point of view and the author does an incredible job making her a really likeable character despite the fact she freely admits (to herself) that she is a murderer.
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4/4/23 - Penguin Books - $12.00 |
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A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena
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A Stranger in the House is another fantastic domestic thriller from Shari Lapena. It seems to be a fairly straight forward and predictable mystery at first: wives with secrets, husbands with secrets, creepy neighbor with secrets and a convenient case of amnesia. Or, is it? At first, after her accident in a seedy part of town she would never have visited and then the discovery of a murder victim nearby, it seems that Karen is probably faking her amnesia. Then other things make us think perhaps she is really suffering from amnesia, because no one can be that good of an actress. Karen lies to the police, her husband Tom lies to the police and their neighbor Brigid lies to the police. But, they all lie for different reasons and about different things. As time goes by it becomes fairly obvious to the reader what happened and then - the totally unexpected.
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3/21/23 - Crooked Lane Books - $28.99 |
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The Guilty One by Bill Schweigart
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Patrol officer Cal Farrell dreamed of being a detective one day, but he never dreamed he would make detective so suddenly and solely because the department decided the city of Alexandria, VA, needed a hero after a horrific mass shooting in which Cal's partner was killed and Cal was the last person to see the killer alive - before the killer shot himself. Cal couldn't remember anything that happened once he made it into the conference room with all of the bloody bodies and the killer. But he and the rest of the department know the killer actually took his own life. Cal knows he wasn't a hero, and his fellow cops know, so he has no confidence at all in himself. And then people around him start dying. This book veered off in directions I never saw coming. What started out as an interesting psychological look at what happens when a young, inexperienced policeman witnesses things no one should have to see turns into an intense thriller that you won?t be able to put down.
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Melissa O., Operations
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I love the faster pacing of books written for a younger audience (middle grade and young adult), but will try just about anything fiction, especially if it has some romance. I also have a soft spot for really special picture books.
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4/4/23 - Penguin - $17.00 |
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What the Hex by Jessica Clare
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A grumpy/sunshine witchy rom-com that will satisfy any romance reader looking for some magic and spice in their reading life. I loved the relationship growth between grumpy warlock Willem and sunny familiar Penny, and I'm looking forward to reading more from Jessica Clare.
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3/28/23 - Berkley - $27.00 |
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The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley
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Since an injury made it impossible for her to play soccer and she can't afford to go back to college, Tanner's been spending her time playing video games and stewing in her anger. Until her parents kick her out. Enter Louise, an octogenarian whose overbearing kids are making her hire a live-in caretaker after she broke her hip. Tanner and Louise are like oil and water, but that doesn't stop Tanner from wondering about all the locked-up places in Louise's house, and the mug shot on the news that looks like Louise. And it doesn't stop Louise from insisting that Tanner join her on a middle-of-the-night cross-country road trip. As things get crazier and assumptions get disproven, a certain fondness (for lack of a better word) develops between the two. This irreverent buddy road-trip story will have you laughing while you try to guess the twists and nodding along as Tanner and Louise both figure out what they want out of life. Louise is a hoot and had me cackling out loud so many times.
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4/4/23 - Random House - $28.00 |
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Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
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Sally, a writer for a late-night live Saturday night comedy TV show, is not interested in looking for love. But that doesn't stop her from noticing that average-looking men are more likely to date super-hot and powerful women than the reverse. In fact, she decides to write a sketch about it. But this week's guest host and musical talent, Noah, seems to go against everything Sally has learned about dating dynamics, especially when he seems to maybe actually be attracted to her, even though he can't possibly be because that's not how these things work. Taking place half in 2018 and half in 2020, Sittenfeld has written a relatable pandemic love story, with engaging commentary on societal expectations of gender and dating (and readers will be at least half in love with Noah themselves after reading this).
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4/18/23 - Berkley - $17.00 |
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The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton
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You've read about the pirates of the Wisteria Society and the witches of the League of Gentlewomen Witches (and if you haven't, what are you waiting for? They're delightful!). Now prepare yourself for the servants who spy on them both! Alice Dearlove and Daniel Bixby have been sent on a secret mission where they must pretend to be married and infiltrate a pirate house party to find a secret weapon and thwart an assassination attempt on the Queen. But amid all the piratic shenanigans and mayhem and chaos and PEOPLE, they realize that they might care more than they ever expected or intended to. This book is like if Amelia Bedelia were a spy with a butler-spy romantic interest, and it's littered with all kinds of fun literary references and misquotes. It's amazing, and I can't wait for more from India Holton.
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4/11/23 - Forever - $16.99 |
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Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
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Briana is all set to be the next head of the ER at her hospital. Until Jacob comes in, and her boss says he's going to wait to retire so Jacob has a chance at the promotion. Oh, and also Briana's divorce from her terrible cheater ex is almost over. And her brother needs a kidney transplant. So really her life is kind-of the worst. And Jacob is an ass. Except...maybe he's not? When he writes Briana a letter explaining their terrible first impressions were due to his social anxiety, she starts to thaw towards him, and friendship unfolds. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much while reading a book (though there were definitely tears by the end). Fans of Emily Henry will eat this up and not regret it.
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4/4/23 - Union Square & Co. - $15.99 |
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Be the Bus: The Lost & Profound Wisdom of The Pigeon by Mo Willems - SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
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A must-have gift book for every adult fan of Mo Willems' Pigeon (with a short foreword by none other than the Bus Driver himself!). This is exactly the kind of advice you would expect from Pigeon, and it is delightful. You will laugh, and then you will immediately want to find a friend (or someone nearby who's sure to know who Pigeon is) to show them, too. In fact, you should probably buy two -- one for yourself and one to give as a gift!
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4/4/23 - Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - $18.99 |
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Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef - SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
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Marjan is having to deal with a lot for a teenager -- her mom died years ago, leaving her with a strained relationship with her dad...but now her dad's died suddenly, too, and Marjan has to keep his veterinary practice up and running in addition to her schoolwork and basic necessities. Then Marjan finds out that her dad wasn't just a vet, that the mythical animals from the stories he told her are real, and he would treat them when needed -- and now Marjan has inherited that responsibility, as well. It's a responsibility that Marjan isn't sure she wants, but she decides to at least see what it's all about. And her life changes, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better, but ultimately in the ways she needs. A story that will appeal to both middle-grade and young adult readers who love myths, about discovering the missing parts of yourself -- whether you know they're missing or not, and whether or not you want them.
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4/18/23 - Avon - $19.99 |
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The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur
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Tansy has never been great at dating, but she also hates going to family dinners, so she invented a fake girlfriend based on romance cover model Gemma months ago to get her family off her back. Imagine her surprise when she actually meets Gemma at a family wedding -- not only meets her, but gets sucked into agreeing to a marriage of convenience so Gemma can inherit her grandfather's company. What starts as a fake engagement becomes something real as Tansy and Gemma get to know each other. But Gemma's family is kind-of the worst, so when they get involved, there's no telling what chaos will ensue and whether Tansy and Gemma's new relationship will be collateral damage. Bellefleur's characters are so well-rounded, and no matter what situations they get themselves into, they never fail to delight.
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4/18/23 - Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - $12.99 |
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Blaine for the Win by Robbie Couch
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Blaine is all set to say yes when his boyfriend of a year asks him to vacation with his family, which he's sure is going to happen tonight, on their anniversary. Except instead, Blaine gets dumped. Because his (now ex) boyfriend -- class president, Northwestern-bound, future president of America -- thinks he should be with someone more 'serious'. So Blaine decides to become a Serious Guy by running for senior class president to win his ex back. What Blaine doesn't count on is actually wanting to be class president and make positive change...or meeting Danny. Fans of Legally Blonde will definitely recognize Blaine's struggles in the beginning, and will be happy to stick around for his subsequent self discovery. A fun high school rom-com that will have you rooting for Blaine through everything.
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4/25/23 - Tor Books - $28.99 |
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In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune - SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
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Vic was raised by robots -- his father Giovanni, slightly psychotic nurse robot Nurse Ratched, and anxious vacuum robot Rambo. One day while scrounging in the scrap heaps near their home in the forest, Vic finds another android, Hap. And this small adventure brings big consequences -- Hap turns out to be a machine Vic should be scared of, and Vic's foray to the scrap yards that day brings dangerous machines from Gio's past to their doorstep. Now Vic and his odd family have to travel to the City of Electric Dreams to find the Blue Fairy and rescue Gio, and Vic has to face the past and choose how he wants to live and love in the future, if he has one. Inspired by Pinocchio and set in a Wall-E-type world, with characters that will have you ROLLING with laughter (I want to be Rambo's best friend), Klune takes this story a step beyond found family to chosen (and even created) family in both the most basic and most elaborate senses, while exploring what it means to be human and to love.
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4/25/23 - Berkley - $27.00 |
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Happy Place by Emily Henry
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Harriet lives for the one week a year she gets to spend with her best friends from college, which has always included her longtime boyfriend Wyn. Except she and Wyn broke up months ago, and they still haven't told anyone. Now, to keep the peace and make this last vacation as perfect as everyone needs it to be, Harriet and Wyn are pretending to still be together. In fact, there's a lot of pretending going around, and a lot of ways their friend group has changed over the years, even though no one has seen it -- or they've chosen not to. Emily Henry takes the second-chance romance trope and turns it a little sideways, giving readers both the before and after of Harriet and Wyn's failed relationship, but this book is so much more than just a romance. This is also a love story about friends, and chosen family, and the ways we care about each other express that love, and most of all about that feeling of coming home to your people. (Also, ALL THE FEELS. Have the Kleenex ready!) (Seconded by Grace Anne!)
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4/11/23 - Tor Books - $19.99 |
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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
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In a small town in France in 1714, all Addie LaRue wants is to be free, to not be tied down to a husband and family she doesn't want. In a moment of desperation, while running from her wedding, she makes a deal with a devil -- she will have her freedom, and he can have her soul when she is done with it. The catch -- she is immortal, but no one will remember her. Until one day, in a small bookshop in 2014, someone does remember, and Addie experiences real human relationship for the first time in her long life. A Faustian fairy tale that asks not only what love is, but what it isn't, and what people will do to have it, and to keep it once found. It takes Addie LaRue 300 years to find these answers, but what a beautiful, heartbreaking story she has to tell at the end.
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4/4/23 - St. Martin's Griffin - $16.99 |
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The Plus One by Mazey Eddings
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Don't miss our upcoming event with the author on May 13th!
Indira is a successful psychiatrist who is determined to prove that she has her life together by working on her relationship with her boyfriend...who she walks in on having relations with someone else. So she goes to stay with her brother, who's in the midst of planning his wedding, and runs into her childhood nemesis Jude. Jude is an emergency doctor who's struggling with PTSD from the trauma he's experienced while traveling to countries with humanitarian crises to treat emergencies. And he's equally as displeased that he and Indira are being thrown together. But with all of the wedding festivities, Indira has had enough of seeing her ex with his new girlfriend, and Jude wants an easy excuse to get away from people when it gets to be too much, so they agree to be each other's fake date to the wedding. Of course, with all of their history, it's impossible for it to stay fake for long. Eddings does a great job of handling sensitive mental health issues while still delivering a great rom-com.
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4/4/23 - Delacorte Press - $12.99 |
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Not Here to Stay Friends by Kaitlyn Hill
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A fun, light read about friends who have just reconnected in person and find that they might be feeling a bit more than friendly toward each other...complicated by the fact that one of them has just been cast on a Bachelor-style teen reality show where she'll compete for the attentions of the star of their favorite teen drama. Sloane and Liam's relationship is adorable, and this is a perfect teen summer read.
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4/4/23 - Joy Revolution - $18.99 |
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Queen Bee by Amalie Howard
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A fun Count of Monte Cristo retelling set amid the finery of the ton in Regency England. Also a great introduction to Regency romance for anyone who's been thinking about getting into it. I love the diversity of the characters, and who doesn't love a good revenge plot every now and then?
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Grace Anne J., Digital Marketing Specialist
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I love historical fiction, with World War II fiction usually topping my list of favorites. I also love YA contemporaries, mysteries, and adore anything having to do with musical theatre.
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4/4/23 - Tiny Reparations Books - $17.00 |
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Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
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Who does art belong to - the creators, or the conquerors? And when loss is all you've ever known, how do you know who you really are - or what home truly means? Stunningly executed with a lyrical style that feels straight out of a dream, Portrait of a Thief is the story of five Chinese American college students tasked with reclaiming five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. It's fresh and exciting and introspective, the perfect blend of thrilling and thought provoking. The pieces of college life were so much fun, and each character had such a unique arc and fantastic development. If I didn't know any better, I would never believe that this is a debut novel, but I can't wait to read more from Grace D. Li.
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Linda H., Volunteer
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I enjoy nonfiction the most: biographies, true crime, sociology, and civil rights narratives to name a few. When I read fiction, I choose historical novels or literary fiction most often.
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4/11/23 - William Morrow - $18.99 |
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The Half of It by Juliette Fay
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Juliette Fay, how could you do this to me? Get me so emotionally invested your novel, The Half of It, that I think about Helen and Cal, the main characters, constantly? It didn't help that like Helen and Cal, I also came of age in the early 80s. Their chance meeting 40 years later gives them an opportunity to correct some things from the past and decide if they want to go in another direction. But how those adult children can interfere! Add grandkids to the mix to make a fine family drama and love story that was hard for me to put down. And Ms. Fay, we will talk about that ending some other time.
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4/25/23 - Avon - $18.99 |
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Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon
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If you are looking for a quirky little story about a dysfunctional family, this is your book. Laugh-out-loud funny at times, occasionally heartfelt, HelenKay Dimon's novel is a great reprieve for a slow day. The Moorewoods consider vice and deception the family business. Can they ever go legal? When Jillian Moorewood is released from prison, she intends to find out. It doesn't hurt that she is assigned a hunky bodyguard that wants to help. An entertaining read!
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4/25/23 - Dutton - $17.00 |
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The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani
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Once again, Adriana Trigiana has written a novel with breathtaking descriptions of Italy's land and people. The Cabrelli family has a storied past that includes generations of gem cutters and a mysterious Irish ancestor. Matelda, the family matriarch, recalls her parents' amazing love story and the strife that Italy faced during World War II. Matelda's granddaughter Anina, facing her own personal problems, takes the Cabrelli family history to heart as she decides her own future. Trigiana's latest work will have you mesmerized!
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4/4/23 - Berkley - $17.00 |
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Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
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Take My Hand is a beautiful novel that tackles an unpleasant subject-the forced sterilizations of African American girls in the early 1970s. Based on a true story, author Perkins-Valdez personalizes it with her conflicted protagonist, young nurse Civil Townsend. Civil's involvement with a local family forces her to face truths about herself as well as the system that accepted the sterilizations as public policy. Unable to bear the harm done to her young patients, Civil takes action in a way that may jeopardize her most trusted relationships.
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Brent B., Volunteer
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There are no limits to what I love to read, however I tend to gravitate to mystery/thriller action stories that are fast paced with lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing all the way to the end. There is nothing I love more than an ending that comes completely out of left field that I never saw coming.
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4/4/23 - Minotaur Books - $27.99 |
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Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen
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Brilliantly conceived and plotted. The world is recovering from a global pandemic that has struck the entire human population rendering all of the people completely blind. With the help of a technology giant however, a solution has been developed where 'vidders' can be physically attached to the human skull and stream live images directly into the brain, giving people the ability once again to 'see.' Owens and Peterson are detectives working the mean streets which have only recently started to recover from the rampant violence and chaos driven by the global 'blinding.' The new 'vidders' help immensely as they can be tracked and the images used to identify criminals immediately. A number of suspects report incidents of malfunctions, which to these detectives only proves the guilt of the suspect. Until Owens experiences it himself - when he witnesses a murder that he reports was performed by a 'blackened out blob' in his 'vidder,' he is not only met with doubt, but himself becomes a suspect in the murder. This starts Owens down a twisted and tangled path to find the truth that brings danger to himself and those he loves. Can he learn the truth and stop whoever is behind this before he loses everything? This fast paced an well constructed story will keep you turning pages late into the night.
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4/4/23 - Flatiron - $28.99 |
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Panther Gap by James A. McLaughlin
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Bowman and Summer grew up in a remote mountain wilderness raised a father who ingrained in them not only a love for the land, but also in teaching his son and daughter all of the skills needed to survive everything it might throw at them. But Dad has been gone for years, and Summer is finding it harder to hold on to the vast patch of wilderness, made even more difficult with brother Bowman living off the grid in Central America. When Summer learns of a surprise inheritance from her father's mysterious past, she must find Bowman in order to access it and to survive the forces that will stop at nothing to prevent them from getting it. James McLaughlin paints a beautiful picture of the land and mankind's tenuous and sometimes metaphysical connection to it. Wrapped within the story is a white knuckle thriller that will keep the reader furiously turning pages until the very end. I can't wait to see what Bowman and Summer's future will hold!
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Jackie W., Volunteer
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I enjoy suspense, complex political plots, psychological thrillers, really any good mystery. I also enjoy southern historical novels, especially those set in Appalachia as well as regency romance.
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