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FEATURED ON LITHUBCBC BOOKS: 2024 SPRING FICTION PREVIEWDickinson after her death: a novel of the trio of women who brought Emily Dickinson's poems out of the shadows When she died, Emily Dickinson left behind hundreds of texts scribbled on scraps of paper. She also left behind three formidable women: her steadfast sister, Lavinia; her brother's ambitious mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd; and his grief-stricken wife, Susan Gilbert Dickinson. With no clear instructions from Emily, these three women would, through mourning and strife, make from those scraps of paper a book that would change American literature.From the author of Paper Houses, this is the improbable, almost miraculous, story of the birth of a book years after the death of its author. In these sensitive and luminous pages, Dominique Fortier explores, through Dickinson's poetry, the mysterious power that books have over our lives, and the fragile and necessary character of literature.

From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes a love story that will define a generation. Being single is like playing the lottery. There's always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she'd spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there's only a name: Jake. But as Jake and Daphne's story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper's prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn't, information that—if he found out—would break his heart. Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.

‘a compelling, intricate and multifaceted tale'–The Saturday Paper ‘Politica can't make war make sense (what can?), but it does offer a small balm. In her book Kassab looks horror in the eye, dignifies private desires and grieves their loss, and in doing so reminds us what being human looks like.'–Meanjin ‘Like an impressionist painter, Kassab uses words like brushstrokes to build a vivid picture of intertwined lives set against the continuing drumbeat of war. The narrative moves between past, present and future and uses time as an effective device to illustrate how the effects of war linger long after its cessation.'– Books and PublishingA captivating literary journey that delves into the intertwined lives of a town, its people, and a region shaped by revolution and war. The war broke out and she decided to call her dad. Weeks and weeks they do not speak, and the weeks become months and then they are so many years. She imagines herself starting this story. She imagines how she will tell this story later to someone else.We hadn't spoken for years but then the war broke out... As conflict plays out across an unnamed region, its inhabitants deal with the fallout. Families are torn apart and brought together. A divide grows between those on either side of the war, compromises are struck as the toll of violence impacts near and far. We learn about those who are left behind and those who choose to leave in a great scattering. As the stories of those affected play out, they weave together to show the whole of a society in the most extreme of circumstances. Even after the last shot is fired, their world will never recover. From the acclaimed author of The House of Youssef, Australiana and The Lovers comes a powerful new novel that asks again if it's possible to ever measure the personal cost of war.PRAISE FOR POLITICA: ‘In a 2022 interview, Kassab said a responsibility of the novelist is to “write with an eye towards humanity”. And she never falters in this, with Politica always drawing us back to war's immeasurable personal cost.'– The Guardian‘a rewarding tale of real people navigating war, love, loss, poverty and many other challenges, all linked by time and location. The novel asks if it is possible to ever measure the personal cost of war. Through all the stories she creates here, Kassab makes it clear that it can never be.'– The Saturday Paper ‘an evocative literary tale'– Australian Women's Weekly

'No one writes about food like Ruth Reichl... I consider her essential nourishment.'NIGELLA LAWSON Ripping open the envelope, she read Celia's last words to her. There was just one line written on the paper:'Go to Paris.'The last word anyone would use to describe Stella St. Vincent is adventurous. She's perfectly comfortable with the familiar, strict routines of her life as a copyeditor in New York. Or at least, she is until she receives a mysterious note from her late mother and a one-way plane ticket to Paris. Alone and overwhelmed in a foreign city, Stella avoids new people and ventures out as little as possible. But then she meets Jules, an octogenarian art collector with very different ideas about how she should spend her time in the French capital. And to start with, there's a vintage Dior dress with her name on it. Somewhere between the cramped shelves of Shakespeare and Company bookshop, the crisp tablecloths of the Brasserie Les Deux Magots and a pile of discarded paintings at a busy flea market, long-buried truths about Stella's own past begin to emerge. Soon she starts to wonder if there might not have been more to her mother's suggestion than she first suspected...'Ruth Reichl is one of our greatest storytellers. No one writes as warmly and engagingly about the all-important intersection of food, life, love, and loss.'ALICE WATERS

The never-before-published novel by Charmian Clift. ‘In those days the end of the morning was always marked by the quarry whistle blowing the noon knock-off. Since everybody was out of bed very early, morning then was a long time, or even, if you came to think about it, a round time — symmetrical anyway, and contained under a thin, radiant, dome shaped cover…'During the years of the Great Depression, Cressida Morley and her eccentric family live in a weatherboard cottage on the edge of a wild beach. Outsiders in their small working-class community, they rant and argue and read books and play music and never feel themselves to be poor. Yet as Cressida moves beyond childhood, she starts to outgrow the place that once seemed the centre of the world. As she plans her escape, the only question is: who will she become? The End of the Morning is the final and unfinished autobiographical novel by Charmian Clift. Published here for the first time, it is the book that Clift herself regarded as her most significant work. Although the author did not live to complete it, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. It is published here alongside a new selection of Clift's essays and an afterword from her biographer Nadia Wheatley. ‘The End of the Morning is full of feeling, animated by that formless, aching questioning of childhood, and a fascinating glimpse of the forces that shaped Clift as a person and a writer.'— Fiona Wright ‘Reading her, even a glimpsed paragraph of her, is like quaffing the finest champagne on earth.'— Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald ‘Forthright, funny and with an indefinable flair, Charmian Clift's writing plays second fiddle to nobody.'— Richard Cotter, Sydney Arts Guide

Pre-order the BRAND NEW novel from the bestselling author of A Year at the French Farmhouse, Gillian Harvey!Would you swap houses with a stranger?Nina has always played it safe. But when her divorce papers come through on her fortieth birthday she decides enough is enough.She's always chosen the sensible route, staying in her stable job and marrying her rather boring ex. In fact – she realises – she's chosen security over excitement for years. Ever since she refused to elope with her first love: beautiful, poetic, thoughtful Pierre, the man she met aged 17, on her French exchange. The only man who ever made her heart race.Maybe it's time to take a few risks?Impulsively she goes online and finds another kind of French exchange… a house-swap. She can't imagine what French businessman Jean-Luc wants with her terraced home in rural England, but she can't wait to stay in his beautiful, spacious, bougainvillea-strewn villa on the French riviera.She's not just there for the house though. She's decided to find the love she missed all those years ago. But will Pierre still be the man of her dreams after all this time?As two lives collide, will love bloom on the French riviera? A gorgeously escapist story for fans of The Holiday, from the bestselling author of A Year at the French Farmhouse.Readers love Gillian Harvey:‘Irresistible! Sparkles with warmth, wit and compassion. A treat from start to finish!'Nicola Gill, author‘Wonderfully warm and enchanting… With empathy, insight, and humour… Will delight readers seeking their own escape.'Natalie Jenner, author‘An uplifting, heartwarming, escapist novel to be read with a DO NOT DISTURB sign, because once you start that very first page, you are not going to want to put it down.'Kim Nash, author‘Just wonderful!… In one of the chapters, I cried my way through the whole of it… just so moving and meaningful… [But] this book is also funny and had me giggling and smiling at certain things that happen… This has been the perfect book, in the perfect setting, with perfect characters.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘A joy… Honestly, I loved this story so much. It is filled with hope, and there are emotional moments as well.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Such a great, escapist read!'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘The entertainment, the friendships, the drama, the laughs, a book that transports you to the South of France = A Great Summer Read!… Fun, entertaining and enjoyable… I'm all in!'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Gillian Harvey's books are the ultimate treat… Funny, witty, emotional, endearing… Her books are everything!'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The first major book from a longtime legend in underground literature; known by citation and word of mouth, but only now emerging with a work that will earn a broad audience.“Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts is why I want to read. There are few books at all that expand the exploration of family, outsider sex, animal love, therapy and surreal vision and even fewer writers who do it as well as Claire Donato. My mind and heart are thankfully changed forever.” —JAMIE STEWART of Xiu Xiu and author of Anything That Moves “Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts moves and feels like a novel of ideas, yes, but also a lookbook of Rorshachs; a concept cookbook for famished phantoms; a fragmentary tour de force a la Duras. On every page, it lines the mind with vibrant space, as extraordinary in its candor about desire, artifice, and intimacy as it is with wordplay, wit, and social theory. “Death is a mirror of time, and life is not as heavy as it seems,” Donato writes, beckoning us forward through the void of realism as might an imaginary friend we thought we'd lost—or should I say ‘guardian angel'?” —BLAKE BUTLER, author'In Claire Donato's fiction, I am both looking in and being looked at. The depths of desire are on display, laying bare the complexity and the ugliness that often comes with it.'—MOLLY SODA, artist'Claire Donato's prose is at once playful and masterful, charming and haunting—I loved these short stories with huge imaginations.'—CHELSEA HODSON, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else'Love is a source of radical questioning whose only enemy is indifference. Claire Donato's fever dream of a novel goes toe to toe with today's anomie, stretching our only resource left, language, so we can navigate a 21st century landscape of violently changing relationships, with one another, with the natural world, and with our bodies.'—JAMIESON WEBSTER, psychoanalyst and author In the disquieting stories of Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts, a fractaled Claire Donato contemplates grief and disgust in heterosexuality, deconstructing the romance myth and the illicit fantasies which reflect our haunted selves. These fictions are populated with Lynchian characters, draped in memory and the subconscious mind, who imagine their way out of the painful limits of their world: a turtle retreats into its shell and becomes a real girl. A porn addict turns into a baby boy in the arms of his barren cyber-girlfriend. And a digitally-marred depressive joins forces with the ghost of Simone Weil to kill a chicken. Donato's fictions are precise and cutting, seamlessly integrating a vast knowledge of art through sharp criticism and a history of cult traditions: Donnie Darko, Wings of Desire, Daisies, and Twin Peaks and artists including Clarice Lispector, M.F.K. Fisher, Sibylle Baier, and The Velvet Underground. Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts concludes with'Gravity and Grace, the Chicken and the Egg, or: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian', a novella-in-vignettes that frames cooking as an entrypoint to light, awareness, and connection. With associative lyricism and a preternatural ability to gaze into the void with tenderness, Donato relays an indescribably strange perception of our world, in which maniacal grief turns to a gleeful protest before becoming, against all odds, a love letter to what remains. Cover photo: Jimmy DeSana Contact Paper, 1980 Vintage C-print © the Jimmy DeSana Trust Courtesy of the Jimmy DeSana Trust and P·P·O·W, New York

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024A young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic, highly anticipated debut novel from Kimberly King Parsons, author of the story collection, Black Light (long-listed for the National Book Award).'Kimberly King Parsons sings the lushest, cruelest, kindest, weirdest, darkest and most hilarious songs on paper; I want to hang these sentences in my house and admire them like the interdimensional multisensory illuminated artworks they truly are.'—Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Swamplandia!The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit's best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They'll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she's lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.When she returns home to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle in to her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother's phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit's mind, she's reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they'd go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She's imagining an impossible threesome with her kid's pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone?Neon bright in its insight, both devastating and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction—a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.

New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt returns with a tantalizing, courageous story about mothers and daughters, guilt and innocence, and the lengths we go for love. As a teenager, for a moment, Ella Fitchburg found love—yearning, breathless love—that consumed both her and her boyfriend, Jude, as they wandered the streets of New York City together. But her glorious life was pulled out from beneath her after she was accused of trying to murder Jude's father, an imperious superior court judge. When she learns she's pregnant shortly after receiving a long prison sentence, she reluctantly decides to give up the child. Ella is released from prison after serving only six years and is desperate to turn the page on a new life, but she can't seem to let go of her past. With only an address as a possible lead, she moves to Ann Arbor, Michigan, determined to get her daughter back. Hiding her identity and living in a constant state of deception, she finds that what she's been searching for all along is a way to uncover—and live with—the truth. Yet a central mystery endures: neither Jude nor Ella can remember the events leading up to the attempted murder—that fateful night which led to Ella's conviction. For fans of Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace and Allegra Goodman's Sam, Caroline Leavitt's Days of Wonder is a gripping high-drama page-turner about the elusive nature of redemption and the profound reach of love.

First published in 1928, now public domain in the US. When Martha accepts a place at university, her decision is met with a mixture of hostility and pride by her uncomprehending family. This is the story of a young woman's journey to maturity and independence, struggling to cope with the intellectual and emotional challenges that surround her, at a time when such space was rarely given freely to women. In The Quarry Wood,Nan Shepherd's subtle prose is matched with intense and memorable descriptions of the natural world, and a dry sense of humour. Ninety years after the first publication, it remains as fresh and original today.

First published in 1926, public domain in the US and Canada. The renowned Pentland family name has stood for wealth, position, and elegance for many years. Yet, change was in the air in the years following the First World War, with many nouveaux-riches pretenders undermining the favoured family's authority as the arbiters of morals and class. Strong-willed Olivia Pentland leads a routine life that is mainly devoid of emotion or excitement. She is the cold and distant heir to the family fortune and the wife of Anson. Olivia, who is trapped in an oppressive marriage, must weigh her moral obligations against the sudden excitement and allure of a new love.

‘The Love of a Widow'is an emotional, highly entertaining and even educational book by a talented new young Ugandan writer. The book tells the story of a kind lady, Pollah, who tragically lost her family in a terrible accident. This led to her becoming a widow and being lonely and bereft of support in the world. Yet Pollah never gave up trying to find new love, she expressed her new love in helping the children at the school who were once strangers but subsequently became part of her world. Several of their dreams came true because of Pollah's inspirational help.‘The Love of a Widow'shows that not only love drives out hate but also there is a great strength of spirit that can be gained by being useful even when initially you may think you have nothing to offer. Pollah the country widow's story touches us all.

A creative, individualistic woman risks following a vision to a place that ends up changing her to a new, true, risky, loving self. Dostoyevsky said,'Beauty saves,'and, in Jacqueline Gay Walley's The Waw, a woman leaves her New York life to follow an image she has seen of a small town of great beauty by the sea in England. She does not quite know why she does this and is frequently asked and gives different answers. There she encounters remarkable people of strength with whom she explores music, love, dignity, and the gifts of solitude coupled with the gifts of community. She, in addition, is having a collection of her writings published which is daunting to her since she knows she will now be revealed, and not so pleasantly, and this unglues her. Along the way, the reader gets a wry look at publishing. The narrator is also wrestling with how the world's changing is being reported in such a vituperative manner. She also has a boyfriend in New York who visits and reveals himself in ways unforeseen. At the same time, she meets two men on the island, who astound her in their lack of artifice and sly profundity. She finds herself in love and more open than ever before. All of this put together strips her down to her essence, where the beauty of the place and people are able to transform her to a better self. The book is written in an inventive style: novelistic, seemingly memoir, often poetic, sometimes with a touch of magic realism.'

Could you trust the sister you've never met before?When tragedy brings biological sisters Jessica Williams and Reeve Elliot together, the initial shock of learning of each other's existence is quickly replaced by a commitment to be there for each other.For Reeve, it's the support she needs at a time when her life is falling apart – she's having blackouts and memory loss, exactly what her beloved late mother suffered from just a few years before.For Jess, it's a chance to find solace in family and move beyond the abandonment and trauma she experienced as a child forced to grow up in the foster care system.As the bond between the two women deepens, their relationship is tested in ways they'd never have imagined. When Jess's past comes back to haunt her, the nightmare that is Reeve's present intensifies.With a large inheritance at stake, the lines between greed and family, as well as right and wrong, begin to blur. Someone is lying. Someone is manipulating the truth. But is it one of the sisters? And – as secrets unravel, both sisters will question… who can they truly trust?A powerful, twisty emotional page turner that readers of Jodi Picoult, Amanda Prowse and Emma Robinson will love.Readers love Louise Guy:‘WOW, WOW and WOW, this book is awesome what a fabulous story, truly do not miss this book. It had me turning the pages, so many thoughts going through my mind.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘OMG, this book was riveting. Best I've read in a long time. Had my heart in my throat but just couldn't stop turning the pages.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I inhaled it. It's intense, captivating, fascinating, emotional and dynamic… completely hooking from the very first page.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Wow, what a page turner… I swear that Louise's books get more intriguing with each new release – such a brilliant storyteller!!'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘OMG! I'm still flabbergasted at how brilliant this book is… Cleverly and masterfully written… Left me in awe… Another WOW read from the domestic drama goddess who has fast become one of my favourite writers.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Riveting… I could hardly put the book down. I just had to know how it would end.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Just wonderful… An incredibly tense and suspenseful novel that is wonderfully realistic and moving… The characters are very real as are the situations… I was still reading at 5am unable to sleep until I knew what was happening. Louise writes with passion and empathy and incredible understanding… Just brilliant.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘What an absolute ripper of a book!!… I literally read this book in two sittings and I cannot speak highly enough of the writing and the plot, it ticked all my boxes.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘This book was incredible! I couldn't put it down once I picked it up… So heartfelt…The struggles both women went through and to find the friendship they did, it was emotional but heart-warming… A MUST READ!'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I couldn't put it down – the very definition of a page turner.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘The twists and turns in the story kept me wanting more and more and wondering what would happen next. The secrets kept, why they were kept, the revelation and after effect were amazing… Very thought-provoking and emotional.'Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Slogum House'lay on the winter flat of Oxbow like the remains of some great, hulking animal that had foraged the region long ago, leaving its old gray carcass to dry and bleach at the foot of the hogback.'Ruled by Gulla Slogum, the house was headquarters for a clan that terrorized what it couldn't seduce or steal. Using her daughter as poisoned bait and her sons as predators, Gulla plotted to put a whole county under her control. She had been insulted too often and worked too hard; now she sought power, land, and revenge.

'I, The Second Option'has many sources as an inspiration fountain, and it presents the perspective of a feminine protagonist, a woman who's constantly identifying in the second place of every aspect of her life, incapable of overcoming her moral condition. The story reaches its climax with the protagonist's realization that even a pure and noble feeling such as love has the power of placing her second, resulting, thus, in her continuous psychological and behavioral defragmentation, making her unrecognizable to herself and those around her. By assuming that all of us are born innocent, untouched by the typical flaws of society, this book follows the story of a young woman who experiences the truest kind of suffering, rediscovering herself while morally degrading steadily by having an affair with a married man. Through this story, the author outlines, among other things, the psychological portrait of Amalia, who learns along her journey that the only place she'd be able to find the necessary strength to pass all of destiny's challenges is within herself. This story is both classical and contemporary. Its purpose is not to appease the feminine public with motivational speeches, to judge the actions of others, or to bring awareness to infidelity. It aims to expose as clearly as possible an ordinary character of today's society, and its tumultuous journey of degrading her persona in the name of love, manifesting changes, learning (or not) from her mistakes, and last but not least, taking decisions that are bound to carry heavy consequences regardless of the circumstances. The key to all these consequences is accountability, which creates an interior battle within Amalia, a character analyzed in the book from a psychological perspective, in a semi-erotic manner.

‘Fay Keenan's books are filled with warmth and humour. They are the perfect escape!'Jessica RedlandAurora Henderson and Leo McKendrick were love's young dream when they first dated as teenagers.But like many a first love, parents, life, and distance got in the way, and the couple lost touch. Now, twenty years later, Aurora – Rory to her friends – needs a break. Burnt out from her teaching career and longing to write a novel, Rory heads to the idyllic village of Roseford for a summer of writing and relaxation.Leo needs a change too. Ex-pat life in Australia has come to a sticky end so the opportunity to run his family's B&B, Roseford Villas, for the summer is too good to turn down.Neither Rory nor Leo believe in fate, but when Leo opens the door to his latest guest, he might just have to reconsider. And when a sultry summer fills with nostalgia and memories and six weeks flies by too fast, love's young dream might just get a second chance…Romance and friendship, community and colourful characters mean Fay Keenan's latest story is perfect for fans of Holly Martin, Cathy Bramley and Jo Bartlett.Authors love Fay Keenan's novels:‘Guaranteed to put a spring in your step. Feel-good, frisky and great fun with a hearty dash of romance and intrigue.'Julie Houston'This is fast becoming a favourite series of mine. If you enjoy my books I'm sure you will love Fay's too!'Sarah Bennett'This novel has such a gorgeous setting. A lovely light read and the perfect book to pack in your suitcase and take on holiday. Recommended.'Della Galton'A gorgeous rural romance full of warmth and charm.'Victoria Connelly'Moving, funny, thoughtful and romantic. Bring on the next one!'Jenny KaneReaders love Fay Keenan's novels:‘Heartwarming, hopeful, uplifting, romantic – and just a thoroughly lovely read. This is a series I'm very much enjoying – and I hope there will be many more books to come.'‘In these stressful days it is such a pleasure to find well-crafted, well-written, happy story to bury oneself in. Fay has done it again!'‘I am a huge fan of Fay's work and have been for a few years now. I have read and loved each and every book that she has released to date.'‘It was lovely being back in Roseford. I couldn't put this book down. A whirlwind love story. I loved every minute of it and I hope there is more. It felt like it was leaving open for another story. Here's hoping!'

As the war reaches London, they'll band together…War strikes close to home for chief librarian Cordelia when her flat is bombed, and her beloved Robert is called up and sent abroad. Fortunately, her colleagues Mavis and Jane can help see her through hard times.The three friends find purpose in making the Silvertown library a friendly sanctuary for their deprived and devastated community. But sinister forces, from callous bureaucrats to crafty criminals, still lurk among the stacks. Worse, Jane's soldier husband is injured and suffers both physically and mentally.With so many struggles Cordelia and her friends might need more than books to survive war's shadow. Can they find light in the darkness?A captivating tale of resilience and determination, perfect for fans of Lizzie Lane, Elaine Roberts and Lesley Eames.'a compelling story of friendships and the hardships of war, with excellent sketches of the East End. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend.'Rosie Clarke'I was hooked from page one. Rich in historical detail and with characters you feel you know... Highly recommended!'Lynette Rees'A brilliant read - the sort of book you can immerse yourself in completely... You couldn't read the story without it reaching your heart, or without wanting to know what will become of these women'Fran Smith

Join MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER Portia MacIntosh for a close proximity, friends-to-lovers, summer romantic comedy.Gigi isn't looking for the one. Just someone...!As she gears up for her sister's destination wedding in Hawaii, the countdown is on for Gigi to find a date. Just someone to prove to her friends and family that she's ok, and to stop the pitying looks would be great!Of course she can't wait to be bridesmaid for her sister, but it's just not ideal that the best man is also her ex… especially when he is bringing his hot new reality star girlfriend!But when Gigi arrives at the hotel in Hawaii to find there has been a mix-up with her room, and she's been upgraded to a suite, things start to look up. Not only is the room bigger than her entire flat, but the staff are waiting on her hand and foot, and she's being treated like royalty!Something isn't quite right, but The Suite Life suits Gigi, and why shouldn't she pamper herself while she mends her broken heart? It may even lead to her finding the perfect date after all…MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER Portia MacIntosh's laugh-out-loud romantic comedies are guaranteed to put a smile on your face.Praise for Portia MacIntosh:'Smart, funny and always brilliantly entertaining, every book from Portia becomes my new favourite rom com.'Shari Low'I laughed, I cried - I loved it.'Holly Martin'The queen of rom com!'Rebecca Raisin‘This book made me laugh and kept me turning the pages.'Mandy Baggot'A fun, fabulous 5 star rom com!'Sandy Barker on Your Place or Mine?'Loved the book, it's everything you expect from the force that is Portia! A must read'Rachel Dove on Your Place or Mine?'Fun and witty. Pure escapism!'Laura Carter on Fake It Or Leave It'A hilarious, roaringly fun, feel good, sexy read. I LOVED it!'Holly Martin on Honeymoon For One'A heartwarming, fun story, perfect for several hours of pure escapism.'Jessica Redland on Honeymoon for One'A feel good, funny and well written book. I read it in 2 days and enjoyed every second!'A.L. Michael on Honeymoon for One'Super-romantic and full of festive spirit. I loved it!'Mandy Baggot on Stuck On You

Despite knowing it's a mad idea, Lily agrees to take her mother on one last road trip around the UK, in this new novel by the bestselling author of His Other Woman. This trip will be challenging because Lily's mother can no longer be described as “just a bit forgetful”: Moira has started talking to imaginary friends and singing ABBA songs in public, and last week she began emptying boxes of cereal onto the floor in the supermarket. Lily is worried and embarrassed by her mother's behavior but, despite her recent dementia diagnosis, Moira is happy—albeit in a sweary sort of way—and insists the journey will help her write a memoir. As they trundle across the country in an ancient VW campervan, Lily feels the strain as she struggles to deal with her mother's decline, her own daughter's criticism and her ex-husband's upcoming wedding plans to a younger woman. One night, leaving Moira alone in the hotel, Lily meets a man in a bar and, for the first time in years, she feels alive. This road trip was intended to celebrate the past. But will it end in crisis, or might Lily's chance encounter help build a new future for this fractured family?Praise for Sarah Edghill's A Thousand Tiny Disappointments “Thoroughly gripping... Sarah Edghill knows how to pinpoint what goes on in families.” —Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry “An accomplished, moving and ultimately uplifting novel.” —Hannah Persaud, author of The Codes of Love

Rose is divorced, fifty, and estranged from her daughter. At a student art opening on a rainy March evening she meets Morrison, a genial hoarder and womb-twin survivor, who leads us to Abbey, a dancer who is losing the chance to become a mother, who leads us to Iris, a bright ten-year-old doing her best to handle her family breaking apart. When her daughter vanishes completely, Rose seeks out her old friend Mab, the cheerful keeper of little bad signs. Following her only clue, a postcard bearing just a signature and a photo of a pristine lake, Rose chases after her daughter and her past mistakes. A ghost on the shore of Maxhamish Lake may hold the key to the true mystery, one unknown even to Rose, buried deep in the heart. The Signs of No is a story of guilt and grief, of finding one's footing in middle life, and of discovery and reinvention. It traces the spiderweb cracks of invisible loss, common and uncommon, the losses that go without memorial or acknowledgment. It is a story about women, about motherhood, and the ways middle-aged women are underestimated, even by themselves.

No matter how far you run, you can't escape yourself--or outrun the love of God When her husband dies, Charlotte can't face the things she's done, things that could tear her family apart. So she drops a goodbye letter in the cookie jar and flees south to escape everything--her life, her three daughters, the mistakes she's made, and the secrets that have been eating her alive. She's desperate to find the peace she's looking for somewhere out there. Now Gracey and her sisters are alone on Chicago's South Side with nothing but their home and their belongings, not a parent to be seen. They're doing everything they can to stay together as a family. But three young girls--sixteen, fourteen, and twelve--aren't meant to parent themselves. The close-knit community gathers around them to keep them fed and clothed with the utilities on, but it isn't enough. The girls are struggling and making destructive decisions as a way of coping with abandonment. Hundreds of miles away, Charlotte is trying to keep her own head above water. She's made a close friend who talks to her about God in a way Charlotte's never heard before. But when her demons catch up to her, she must face her past head-on. Will she be able to find the courage to embrace motherhood? And will that be enough not to lose her family altogether? Debut author Tina Shelton drops readers straight into 1980s South Side Chicago. Her raw, authentic writing welcomes those who are willing to come alongside characters dealing with generational trauma, abandonment, hidden abuse, destructive choices, and the desire to be set free. This Ain't No Promised Land will appeal to readers of Black Cake, Miss Pearly's Girls, and Michelle Obama's Becoming.

The sister forgotten by history who had the fate of her family in her hands...Bestselling author Nicola Cornick is back with a captivating, gripping, unforgettable tale of treachery and treason, love and loyalty, perfect for fans of Barbara Erskine, Philippa Gregory, Elena Collins and Christina Courtenay‘Nicola's writing is so vivid and beautiful and perfectly pitched, her plotting addictive.'Jenny Ashcroft1671 – LondonThe Civil War is over and Charles II, the ‘Merry Monarch', is revelling in the throne of his murdered father and all the privileges and power that comes with it. Sharing the spoils is his favourite companion, the celebrated beauty, actress Nell Gwyn. Beloved of the English people, Nell has come a long way from selling oranges and a childhood in a brothel, but as her fortunes have turned, her sister Rose has taken a different path. Marriage to a feckless highwayman has left Rose in the grim Marshalsea prison and now she needs her sister's mercy to help get her out. But Nell needs Rose too. A plot to steal the Crown Jewels has gone tragically wrong, and Nell's future with her protector King is at risk. If Rose can't solve the riddle of the jewels both Gwyn sisters will head straight to the Tower.Present DayLibrarian and history enthusiast Jess Yates has hit rock bottom. With her ex behind bars for fraud, Jess needs to lay low – easier said than done with a celebrity sister. But Tavy has her uses. Her latest TV project involves renovating Fortune Hall, and she needs a house sitter while she's jetting around the world. The opportunity is too good to miss, especially when Jess discovers that Fortune Hall has links to the infamous Nell Gwyn.Slowly the house begins to reveal its mysteries, and secrets that have laid buried for centuries can no longer be ignored. Jess hears echoes from a tragic past and as she struggles to understand her sister, Jess feels ever closer to Rose Gwyn, the sister forgotten by history but who had the fate of her family in her hands.'An enchanting tale weaving together past and present with a compelling mystery at its heart.'Anita ChapmanPraise for Nicola Cornick:'Wow! I have no other word for this story which has totally blown me away – it is a master-class in timeslip writing and I loved it!'Christina Courtenay'I ended this book with tears in my eyes, so invested was I in the story of Rose Gwyn and her heroic Captain Forster. The 17th century is so alive on the page I could taste and smell it. A really wonderful read.'Jane Dunn‘What a fascinating story. I enjoyed every moment of it. Intriguing and with a lovely time-slippery twist'Barbara Erskine on The Last Daughter‘A treasure trove of historical insight, casting a new light on a compelling mystery that binds the present to the distant past.'Fiona Valpy on The Last Daughter‘An ingenious tale of mystery and suspense… Enchanting.'Dinah Jeffries on The Last Daughter ‘An enchanting timeslip novel that kept me spellbound.'Christina Courtenay on The Winter Garden‘Fascinating and captivating.'Sarah Morgan on The Winter Garden‘Glorious… I adored it.'Kathleen McGurl on The Winter GardenReaders love Nicola Cornick:‘Ten stars! I loved this book. A perfect mix of past and present. Best historical/timeslip I have read in a long time. Bravo Nicola Cornick.'‘This book was one I just wanted to keep reading and not put down. Really great characters drawn, fascinating insights to the historic period and just all round good read.'‘I had to stop myself from reading too quickly, meaning its delights would be at an end. Some books really grab you and this was one. Highly recommended if you love history, historical fiction and dual

Can love blossom in times of trouble?Life-long friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate are following in the footsteps of their families, working at the Clarks shoe factory.But when Britain declares war on Germany, the Somerset village of Street is shaken to its core. The Clarks factory is at the heart of life in the village, but the Clark family are Quakers and pacifists. Before long, there are fierce debates amongst the workers and tensions between those who oppose the war and those who believe the village men should go to fight.Each of the girls must decide her own position but as brothers and sweethearts leave for France, Louisa is relieved that her beloved Mattie, a Quaker, won't be signing up. But she'll soon find that they face fierce opposition at home as well as across the Channel.Will the girls'friendship be enough to keep them together, as everything around them falls apart?A heartwarming and gripping new saga series perfect for fans of Elaine Everest and Rosie Clarke.

A humorous, heartwarming tale of love, loss, and the power of community Fair Meadows Retirement Community might as well be a country club for most of the retirees enjoying the pool, golf course, and book clubs. But for the caregivers whose family members reside upstairs in the special Memory Care Unit, vacation is over. Comforting these caregivers is exactly why the Woolgatherers group has formed. They make prayer shawls to support those affected by the heartbreaking reality of not being recognized by a loved one-people like Sam Talbot, who has been barely existing since his wife moved into Memory Care. He finds that his life has lost all color and meaning without her. That's something the Woolgatherers can't bear to see. Flirtatious Jenny Alderman, cranky crocheter Edna O'Brian, kind Rose Harker, and the rest of the prayer shawl group weave him into the circle. Sam has no idea how he got tangled up with them, and he's no good at knitting. But when one member talks him into taking up his wife's old crochet hooks, he discovers that this one small gesture might just have the power to heal his life--or even save it. Full of Sharon Mondragon's characteristic humor and heart, this book wrestles with the loneliness of being the forgotten spouse of a dementia patient, moving past the fear that the spouses often face into the love and compassion that can make all the difference.

A fictional portrayal of a real-life Revolutionary spy and her daring deeds, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room.Agent 355 is a result of author Marie Benedict's quest to bring history's most fascinating and courageous women to life for contemporary readers. Known to history only by her alias, this mysterious female spy, able to move freely and unobtrusively in Loyalist circles, became a member of George Washington's New York–based Culper Ring. This thrilling novella depicts who Marie Benedict thinks Agent 355 could have been, though her true identity remains unknown. During the sweltering summer of 1779, eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Morris attends the social events of the British-occupied city, but the forced merriment holds no charm for her. She finds herself in the company of enemy soldiers, who think nothing of discussing matters of government and war in front of mere women. This invisibility becomes Elizabeth's greatest asset as she offers her services to Robert Townsend, a Continental sympathizer. Her bravery will bring down one of the most notorious traitors in American history and ultimately seal her fate as a woman willing to sacrifice everything for love and country.

The BRAND NEW read from Saturday Kitchen's Helen McGinn'I was hooked from the start and raced through to the end, rooting for Martha the whole way. Wonderful'Sara Lawrence, Daily MailMartha is the youngest of three sisters and, in her mid-thirties, has the dubious honour of being the only one to call off a wedding at the last moment.Now, feeling as if she'll be single forever, and trying to keep her low opinion of her sister Iris's fiancé to herself for risk of looking bitter, Martha needs a change of scene.When she is given the opportunity of a holiday to Paxos it seems too good to turn down, though the idea of travelling alone is daunting. And when the trip to the Greek island gets complicated, Martha wonders if this has all been a mistake.But soon the island and its residents start to work their magic on Martha, and when she meets single father Harry and his adorable son Milo, a new way of living is revealed in contrast with the drab routine of her life back home. How can Martha leave behind the warmth of the people, the freedom and the fun, not to mention Harry and Milo when it's time for her to go home…Let Helen McGinn magic you away to a world of sunshine and serenity, romance and relaxation. Perfect for fans of Erica James, Carol Kirkwood and Karen Swan.Praise for Helen McGinn:'This is McGinn's third novel and it's her best yet. Packed full of emotional wisdom, heartbreak and hope and is particularly brilliant on the importance of friendship and taking things one day at a time. Wonderful — I loved it.'Daily Mail'This is a lovely uplifting book that transported me away, firstly to the beautiful city of Rome and then to gorgeous Cornwall. It's a moving and emotional story of families in all their messy wonderfulness, of people losing one another, and then coming together again - sometimes in unexpected ways. A hugely enjoyable family tale, it was exactly what I wanted to read at this time.'Louise Douglas‘This Changes Everything is the perfect tonic. An uplifting, forget-about-everything-else read that I couldn't put down. Romantic, emotional and page-turning, Helen McGinn's debut novel can't fail to cheer you up!'Zoe Folbigg'I loved reading this book. I needed escapism and it gave me Rome, Cornwall and a family who immediately felt like old friends. I took it to the bath, to bed and had finished it within 24 hours. It was the perfect antidote to tough times.'Victoria Moore The Daily TelegraphReaders love Helen McGinn:‘The author has one of those writing style that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. She has a way of grabbing the reader's attention and draw them into what proves to be one hell of a read.'‘This book was a breath of fresh air. I basically couldn't put it down. I love Italy so a sprinkle of Florence in the middle was just perfect.'‘A beautifully written book packed with gorgeous characters who just come to life with their vivid description.'‘A great read with twists & turns. Characters you can believe in, made me want to go to Florence! Look forward to the next book.'‘I really enjoyed this book, Helen is such an authentic and genuine writer. Read it in one day, just loved all the twists.'

How does art mirror and shape our lives? Can it transcend the boundaries of time, wealth, and circumstance? Debra Spark—whose previous work the Washington Post described as'richly imaginative'and'real world magic'—explores these themes in her new novel Discipline. With a trio of important paintings missing, the book weaves together three narratives that span almost a century. From an inhumane boarding school in Maine in the late 1970s to a contemporary Boston art appraiser struggling with raising a teen to the long-lost love letters between a painter and his wife, Discipline is a propulsive literary mystery about family strife and devotion, ambition and authorship, and the abiding and mysterious power of art. Inspired by the life and family of Walt Kuhn (the painter responsible for the 1913 Armory Show that introduced Americans to modernism) and the scandal-ridden Elan boarding school that was forced to shut down in 2011, this richly drawn, suspenseful novel shows Spark at her most masterful.

A smashing debut collection from award-winning filmmaker Lulu Keating Splinter & Shard is the debut story collection by acclaimed filmmaker-turned-writer Lulu Keating. Vivid and precise, the stories in this collection offer an uncompromising journey into what it means to be human. Keating catches her characters at their pivotal moments of discovery, self-reckoning, and change. A dutiful mother of grown children learns a life-shattering secret about two of her children that upends her life. A macho man in mid-life must reconcile himself to his new role as a cosmetics consultant. A young woman, pregnant and unhappy, travels to the Yukon to bury her husband. An old woman turns away from her family to bond with the convicts of the small jail next door. An orphaned girl stumbles onto an unexpected connection with a stranger. In these stories, flaws and strengths are writ large as characters fumble toward redemption. From flash fiction to deep-dive character studies, Splinter & Shard turns over the rocks of everyday experience to reveal the psychological and philosophical truths underneath. The stories range back and forth in time, from Nova Scotia to the Yukon (with a side trip to Florida), and explore universal themes — loss, infidelity, faith, mortality, and love.

“Nora Decter has written a wrenching, knowing, and wry novel about coming of age into a rough world.” — Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion For fans of Miriam Toews, an absorbing, darkly funny story of family, addiction, and survival The summer Bria Powers turns 16 is sinister. Waves of insects plague her hometown of Beauchamp, where fentanyl has recently infiltrated the drug stream. Forest fires muddy the normally wide-open skies, and everything smells like a barbecue all the time. It's also the summer Bria goes from having saved a life to ruining her own. Since her drug-dealing father disappeared and his girlfriend overdosed, Bria has lived with her aunt Tash and best friend/cousin Ains. By day, Bria and Ains babysit Ains's younger siblings and sling fast food at Burger Shack. But at night, Bria has her own secret world, sneaking out to see Someboy, an older guy who captivates her sometimes. Other times, he angers-insults-upends her, and that has a certain charm too. But trouble comes for Beauchamp and for Bria in the form of bears that wander into town, dick pics texted from a mystery number, and a creeping dependence on what Bria should hate most of all. Steeped in tragicomedy and written in starkly observed prose, What's Not Mine explores inheritance, addiction, and survival when the odds are against you.

When Brid Harcus is sent to the Orkney Islands, in the far reaches of Scotland, she has high hopes for her trip being short, straightforward and lucrative.Her mother has inherited a cottage from her Great Aunt Jennet which has been unlived in and unloved for decades, and the time has come to make it habitable and saleable. Easy, right?But Midness Cottage has other ideas. For one thing it's rather more ‘fixer upper'than Country Living, with a resident goose and her goslings who have made themselves at home. And Brid definitely hadn't planned for the strongly-held local belief that the cottage is meant to be the home of the Orkney Witch, and whomever lives in it must fulfil this role. Not the best message for the estate agent brochure and of course Brid doesn't believe in magic, let alone have healing powers.But Orkney does have healing powers. Its beauty and peace are enchanting, its people welcoming, and Brid's handsome new friend Magnus is rather charming too. When her life back in York starts calling her home, will Brid sell up and ship out? Or did the last Orkney Witch cast a spell and leave a legacy of love if only Brid believed in magic…Praise for Jane Lovering:'I adored the dual timeline aspect of this gorgeous story and discovering the secrets from the past. Beautifully written and both heartbreaking and heartwarming'Jessica Redland'A funny, warm-hearted read, filled with characters you'll love.'Matt Dunn on A Country EscapeWhat readers are saying about Jane Lovering:‘I love a Jane Lovering book, she writes so wonderfully about real lives, relatable characters and situations. They are full of humour, as well as serious issues too but always the perfect balance so drama/sadness and joy/humour. Jane has her own unique style, one that I find full of heart, emotion, so engaging and enjoyable her books are just full of love.'‘This was another wonderful read from an author who never disappoints – and yes, you've guessed it, it might just be my new favourite. Go on, add it to your reading list – you're going to love it too!'‘This is a sensitively written masterpiece and it grieves me to only award five stars because it truly deserves a 10 plus! Having finished it in less than a day, I am off to read it a second time because it is simply just that good!'‘Jane has an easy going writing style that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. In fact reading one of Jane's books feels more like a chat between friends rather than reading a book. I hope that makes sense. Jane's love for her characters shines through in the very vivid and realistic way in which she describes them. She makes her characters seem just as real as you and I.'‘Another well written and cunningly contrived book from Jane. Once more she combines humour, sensitivity and serious social issues with her well drawn and filled out characters.'

•• Pre-order SECOND CHANCES AT THE BOARD GAME CAFE, the new cosy, uplifting romance in the Board Game Cafe series, now! ••Scrabble fan Jo always seems to pick the wrong guys. Now she's moved to the Yorkshire village of Hebbleswick, and decided to give dating one last chance. This time, there's a catch: she will only date men whose names would score highly in her beloved word game. After Tarquin (16 points) proves just as disappointing as the rest, she meets low-scoring local doctor Ras (3 points). Her rules mean she can't date him – but when he asks her to organise a Scrabble festival with him, she can't say no.As the event draws nearer and Jo and Ras grow closer, will Jo ignore her rule and let true love blossom over the triple letter scores?•••Perfect for fans of:Small-town settingsCosy romanceSlow burn•••Praise for Love Letters on Hazel Lane:'An absolute delight from the very first page to the delicious end!'Faith Hogan'Word perfect! I loved it!'Heidi Swain'Another cracker from Jennifer Page! This is a hug of a book.'Caroline James'A heart-warming romance perfect for curling up with. I absolutely loved it.'Kitty Wilson

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2024 BY VOGUE, ELLE, NYLON, NPR, PURE WOW, SHONDALAND, BOOK RIOT and more!In the vein of Luster and Queenie, an unflinching portrayal of high-paid sex work in the age of the internet-an intoxicating, bold debut from a dazzling new voice. Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a mixed-race 21-year-old whose life seems to be heading nowhere. Still living at home, she works as a cleaner and spends all her money in clubs on the weekends searching for distractions from her mundane life. That is until she meets Emily, daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model... and a sugar baby, dating rich older men for money. Emily's life is the escape Agnes has been longing for-extravagant tasting menus, champagne on tap, glamorous hotels with unlimited room service, designer gifts from dates who call her beautiful. But this new lifestyle is the last straw for her religious mother Constance. Kicked out of her family home, Agnes moves in with Emily and the other sugar babies in their fancy London flat and is drawn deeper and deeper into their world. But these women come from money: they possess a safety net Agnes does not. And as she is thrown from one precarious relationship to the next-a married man who wants to show off the glamourous, exotic girl on his arm; a Russian billionaire's wife who makes Agnes central to a sex party in Miami-she finds herself searching for fulfillment just as desperately as she was before. A compelling journey of self-discovery that offers sharp commentary on race, beauty, and class, Sugar, Baby is an electric, original, spellbinding novel that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.

The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie in this bold novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling author: a recent divorcee's exclusive Big Sur resort vacation unravels when she discovers a dead body on the day of a wedding, in this “clever, witty and fast-paced whodunit.” (Harlan Coben) Ellery Wainwright is alone at the edge of the world. She and her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their twentieth wedding anniversary together at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California. Where better to celebrate a marriage, a family, and a life together than at one of the most stunning places on earth? But now she's traveling solo. To add insult to injury, there's a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now, she isn't certain of anything except for her love for her kids and her growing realization that this place, though beautiful, is unsettling. When Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool in the rain, she realizes that she is not the only one whose future is no longer guaranteed. Before the police can reach Broken Point, a mudslide takes out the road to the resort, leaving the guests trapped. When another guest dies, it's clear something horrible is brewing. Everyone at Broken Point has a secret. And everyone has a shadow. Including Ellery.

One hook-up is about to become one seriously hilarious situationship in this vibrant and lively romantic comedy about taking chances... and breaking the rules. Prima ballet dancer Lillian Jackson is all about control—on stage and in bed. Which is precisely why she keeps her hook-ups to one night, and one night only. No strings. No phone numbers. No scones in the morning. There's no room for mistakes, especially now that her dance company's survival depends entirely on winning a million-dollar cash prize in one of America's biggest reality competitions. That is, until one night with a certain curvy, blue-haired siren changes everything... As burlesque dancer “Blue Lenox,” Izzy Wells is the queen of on-stage seduction. Almost no one knows that she's close to losing everything—her theater, her home, and her troupe—unless she wins this competition. Now she's going toe-to-toe with a gorgeous ballerina in front of the world. The chemistry between them is hot, but even more distracting are the feelings they're starting to develop. There's no way Lillian can fit Izzy into her life, and Izzy knows better than to fall for someone who can't put her first. But if they can make it through the show with their hearts and dreams intact, they just might win the biggest prize of all.

Bachelorette fan-favorite and New York Times bestselling author Hannah Brown delivers the perfect beach read with her fiction debut—“a fun, fast, epic rom-com'(Abby Jimenez, #1 New York Times bestselling author). Emma Townsend can sum up her situationship with hot-as-hell romantic red flag Finn Hughes in one word: almost. They almost dated in high school. They almost hooked up after college. They almost took things too far one magical night. Their whole story is one series of “almosts” and “nearlys,” and now they just kind of can't stand each other. Like, at all. But this weekend, one of their mutuals is getting married... and Emma and Finn will have to pretend they don't remember how disastrous it was the last time they were in a room together. Emma's doing a stellar job of playing it cool—until the bride goes missing. Now, with two days before the wedding, Emma and Finn are hitting the road in a sweet vintage sports car in hopes of salvaging someone else's happily-ever-after. Yet somewhere between Emma's breakfast burrito throw down, a high-stakes kayak chase (it can happen), and an outrageous Vegas detour, these sworn enemies are crossing more than just state lines. As old feelings spark once more, Emma begins to question whether risking your heart is ever really a mistake.

Competition for a Southern bridal magazine cover unleashes mayhem, forcing a mastermind maid of honor to stop being a people pleaser and start figuring out what she wants out of life. A hilarious, smart coming-of-age story. Olivia “Liv” Fitzgerald's life is on ambition autopilot. The soon-to-be-lawyer has her life plan set and can talk anyone into anything. Well, almost anything. When her scheming aunt throws her cousin, Kali, into a competition for Southern Charm's cover alongside Liv's best friend, Leighton, all hell breaks loose. To save the day, Liv only has to: a) Secure the Southern Charm cover for Leightonb) Keep Aunt Charlotte happy—and keep Kali's Atlanta wedding running smoothlyc) Finish her final year of law school in Nashville and nab a coveted NYC big law jobd) Win over the guy of her dreams Easy, right? From engagement parties to rehearsal dinners, readers will root for Liv as she balances her schemes, dreams, and double maid of honor duties.

A ghostwriting gig in the Hamptons becomes far more than a job in this sexy, atmospheric, and deliciously tense story. Reeling from her father's death, Zara Pines accepts a ghostwriting gig for celebrity chef Jane Bailey. Jane, star of the wildly popular cooking show 30 Bucks Tops, invites Zara to live in her East Hampton home for the summer. Zara doesn't want to go, but Jane insists. As the two women create Jane's book, their attachment grows stronger. Zara, who's lost and in search of an identity, finds one in the shadow of Jane. She starts wearing Jane's clothes. And speaking like Jane. And adopting Jane's mannerisms. Eventually, the line between them blurs and Zara starts to see the side Jane keeps hidden from the cameras. This dark and twisty novel about fame, lies, and obsession will make even the most open-hearted reader question how safe it is to trust the people they love.

A glorious and tantalizing new escape from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune.This summer they'll keep their promise. This summer they won't give into temptation. This summer will be different.Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn't know he's her best friend's younger brother. Lucy and Felix's chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.It's easier said than done.Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won't wind up in Felix's bed. Again.If Lucy can't help being drawn to Felix, at least she's always kept her heart out of it.When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she's never been able to. But Felix's sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy's beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.

While Stella Miles Franklin took on the world, her beloved sister Linda led a short, domestic life as a wife, mother and sister. In a remarkable, genre-bending debut novel Amy Brown thrillingly reimagines those two lives – and her own – to explore and explode the contradictions embedded in brilliant careers and a woman's place in the world. Sliding Doors meets Wifedom. Stella Miles Franklin's autobiographical novel My Brilliant Career launched one of the most famous names in Australian letters. Funny, bold, often biting about its characters, the novel and its young author had a lot in common. Miles went on to live a large, fiercely independent and bohemian life of travel, art and freedom. Not so her beloved sister Linda. Quiet, contained, conventional, Linda was an inversion of Stella. A family peacemaker who married the man Stella would not, bore a son and died of pneumonia at 25. In this reflective, witty and revealing novel, Amy Brown rescues Linda, setting her in counterpoint with Stella, and with the lives of two contemporary women: Ida, a writer whose writing life is on hold as she teaches and raises her young daughter; and Stella, a singer-songwriter who has sacrificed everything for a career, now forcibly put on hold. Binding the two is the novella that Linda might have written to her sister Stella – a brilliant alternative vision of My Brilliant Career. Innovative and involving, My Brilliant Sister is an utterly convincing (and hilarious) portrait of Miles Franklin and a moving, nuanced exploration of the balance women still have to strike between careers and family lives. It gives a fresh take on one of Australia's most celebrated writers and an insight into life now.

A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated BookA debut coming-of-age novel that delicately illuminates the fullness of identity despite fractures in language, culture, and relationshipsIn Silver Repetition, Lily Wang's endless, perfect loops of memory and dream, loss and return, combine to create a formally inventive coming-of-age novel. Told from the perspective of a young Asian immigrant thoughtfully navigating dual identities, grief, family, migration, and modern relationships, this is a novel infused with the rich language of a poet.Having left China for Canada with her parents as a child, Yuè Yuè yearns to discover who she is as she nears the end of her undergraduate degree and starts a new relationship. In urgent poetic fragments, she seeks common ground with her Canadian-born younger sister and grieves the beloved cousin she lost touch with back home. After Yuè Yuè receives a call from a girl making accusations, her date ghosts her. Meanwhile, her mother's illness advances like snow. On a walk in the woods, Yuè Yuè sees a little girl digging in the mud, but when she peeks behind the curtain of black hair, her own face haunts her.In a moving reunion, Yuè Yuè's cousin comes to visit and everyone is caught, laughing, in the rain. The novel shows how, despite the weight of grief, isolation, and difference, even the most delicate family bonds can knit together tightly enough for the future to overcome the past.

A sharply hilarious and ultimately heartfelt novel about a former teen superstar who grudgingly agrees to a reboot of the show that made her (in)famous, from the author of Reasonable Adults. Twenty years after Ocean Views went off the air, the beloved TV show about teenage romance and angst is back. No one is more surprised than its former star, Agnes “Ness” Larkin, that she's agreed to step back into the role of Hailey Grant. After her father/manager took off with her earnings, Ness ran away from the spotlight in shame. But maybe it's time to stare her past, and her castmates, in their discreetly Botoxed faces. That enthusiasm lasts until the first table read, which, in co-star Coco's words, is “like a high school reunion without the dim lighting or booze.” Ness assumed her old fling Hayes Beaumont would be too busy doing Big Hollywood Things to take part, but there he is, seated beside her, exuding pheromones and success. En route to the deluxe Bahamas resort where they're to start filming, the cast gets stranded by a storm. Stuck on a tiny island with a paltry cache of food and quite possibly the most useless survival group in history, Ness tries to reconcile her youthful dreams with where she's ended up—figuratively and literally. The producers wanted drama on and off-screen, and they're going to get it, but where will Ness be when it's all over?

A tale of two girls—one living in a parable, the other in ManhattanAni, journeying across a great distance accompanied by a stolen kitten, meets many people along her way, but her encounters only convince her that she is meant to keep searching. Annamae, journeying from childhood to young adulthood alongside her mother, older brother, and the denizens of her Manhattan neighborhood, never outgrows her yearning for a friend she cannot describe. From their different worlds, Ani and Annamae reach across the divide, perhaps to discover—or perhaps to create—each other.Told in two mirrored narratives that culminate in a new beginning, To & Fro unleashes the wonders and mysteries of childhood in a profound exploration of identity, spirituality, and community.

Sparks fly between two women pitted against each other in this delectable new romantic comedy by Taleen Voskuni, author of Sorry, Bro. Twenty-seven-year-old Nazeli “Ellie” Gregorian enjoys the prestige of her tech marketing job but is sick of the condescending Patagonia-clad tech bros, her micromanaging boss, and her ex-boyfriend, who she's forced to work with every day. When Ellie's lovingly overbearing parents ask her to attend PakCon—a food packaging conference in Chicago—to help promote their company and vie to win an ad slot in the Superbowl (no big deal), she's eager for a brief change and a delicious distraction. At the conference, she meets witty, devil-may-care Vanya Simonian. Ellie can't believe how easy it is to talk to Vanya and how much they have in common—both Armenian! From the Bay Area! Whose families are into food! Their meet-cute is cut short, however, when Ellie's parents recognize Vanya as the daughter of the owners of their greatest rival, whose mission (according to Ellie's mother) is to whitewash and package Armenian food for the American health-food crowd. Sworn as enemies, Ellie and Vanya must compete against each other under their suspicious parents'scrutiny, all while their feelings for each other heat to sizzling temps.

The answer to the biggest question of her life lies in someone else's past.Shea Anderson's beloved Nonna had endless rules for a happy, healthy life: avoid owls, never put a hat on a bed, and never, ever accept a marriage proposal that comes with an heirloom ring. Happily ever after is hard enough without bad karma in the mix.Naturally, panic sets in when Shea's boyfriend, John, proposes with an heirloom ring. Yes is her answer, but Nonna's warning sets Shea on a mission to ensure the ring contains forever energy: She will find its previous owners wherever they may be. With the help of her long-suffering big sister and a nosy journalist eager for a big story, Shea embarks on a journey that takes her from Los Angeles and New York to Italy and Portugal.Sophisticated, cinematic, and full of lively observations, The Heirloom is a diamond-sharp read for everyone who's ever tried to make their own good luck.

A daring novel from the acclaimed author of Those Who Are Saved: female rage, grief, and creativity collide in the present and animate the past, when a woman reconnects with her essential self during a summer journey, and discovers an ancient female world that offers parallels to her ownKept busy by her obligations as a wife and mother, art history professor Ava Zaretsky has little time to devote to her research and writing. Now tagging along on her film-producer husband's shoot in Bulgaria for the summer, where she's mostly solo parenting her sweet son and rebellious budding tween daughter, she has a chance encounter with her fierce feminist mentor from college, which changes everything.Ava is swept up into a circle of women who reenact ancient Greco-Roman mystery rites of initiation, bringing her research to life and illuminating the story of a 5th-century-BC mother-daughter pair whose sense of female loyalty to each other and connection to the divine feminine guides Ava in her exploration of the eternal stages of womanhood. Reaching across time and deep into the female psyche, The Mother of All Things delivers a revelatory tale of a woman coming to terms with her evolving sense of responsibility to herself and her family, as she achieves a new appreciation of the gifts of female wisdom and self-belief.

One of Zibby Mag's Most Anticipated Books Coming Out in 2024 | One of SheNet's Highly Anticipated Books of 2024A genre-bending story about love and loss, hope and heartbreak, and the healing to be found in life's little limbos, those in-between spaces where you're no longer who you were and not yet the person you will be About her debut, Out of Love, Hazel Hayes said, “The journey from writing horror to writing love stories was a short one. There is nothing more horrific than love.” In her new novel, she sets out to prove it. This genre-defying, meta-modern novel is unlike anything you have ever read, and yet at its core it is a story we all deeply understand. A story of love and liminality, and the ways in which grief grips us all. Prepare to laugh and cry; Hazel Hayes will break your heart, but then she'll mend it for you. Following a breakup, Kate and Finn decide to keep sharing their house until the lease runs out in twelve weeks'time, alternating week by week so that they are occupying the same space but never at the same time. Practically, the plan makes sense, but coming back each Sunday to a home where Finn has been and gone feels far too much like living with a ghost. Kate lost her mother at a young age and now this fresh grief dredges unhealed sorrows up to the surface, and soon, Kate finds herself adrift in her own subconscious, trapped in the liminal space between loving someone and letting go.

A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters'harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family storyDaughters are the Ang family's curse.In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed.Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family's crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they've known also comes new freedom—to take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story.Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.

Two sisters reconnect and pursue their dreams on the beautiful island of Nantucket, overcoming life's challenges and finding new love, in this heartwarming and hopeful novel by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer.Eddie Grant is happy with her life and her work as a personal assistant to Dinah Lavender, one of the most famous and renowned romance authors in the business. But being a spectator to notoriety and glamour isn't as fulfilling as she once thought. Thankfully, Eddie has the perfect excuse for a vacation: Her hardworking younger sister, Barrett, is opening her gift shop on Memorial Day weekend, and could use all the help she can get. But going home to the beautiful island of Nantucket means facing the family's difficult past. Shortly after the death of Eddie and Barrett's brother, their mother left them and their father made the spontaneous decision to buy a small farm. Eddie stayed there for only a year before her family's grief threatened to consume her as well, and had been living in Manhattan ever since. Now that she is back, Eddie must face all she left behind: her father's increased eccentricities, which has led to a house bursting at the seams with books; her sister's resentment over Eddie's escape; and a past love connection, one that is still undeniable and complicated, all these years later. But the Grant sisters are nothing if not resilient and capable, opening a used bookstore in their father's abandoned barn to manage his hoarding, and navigating the discovery of a long-buried family secret that will change all of them forever. In The Summer We Started Over, beloved storyteller Nancy Thayer transports readers with a moving story about family, courage, and the resiliency of young women.

The perfect boyfriend only exists on paper…doesn't he?Fresh off the heels of a bad breakup, Chloe Anderson poured her heart into penning the perfect boyfriend—and the result was an off-the-charts debut beach read that resonated with women worldwide. Now, Chloe's scripted hero is headed for Hollywood, with her book destined to become a major motion picture.When Chloe gets wind that silver screen bad boy Liam Hamilton has been cast as the ideal-in-every-way hero of her novel, she's horrified by the film director's choice. How could a player like Liam possibly do Chloe's perfect hero justice? Unafraid to speak her mind, Chloe lets her executive producer know she's one hundred percent opposed to the casting. And oops—the call is on speakerphone, where the annoyingly attractive Hollywood star hears Chloe's unbridled outrage firsthand.With Liam's reputation already on the rocks, his agent concocts a PR plan to upgrade Liam's image while putting the story—and the film—in the spotlight. The catch? During the movie's filming in Chloe's cute hometown of Stillwater, North Carolina, Chloe and Liam will fake a wholesome, committed relationship. Both stand to gain something from the arrangement. Liam's fans will see him in a new light, while Chloe can boost her struggling social media following and further her writing career. What could possibly go wrong?As author and actor navigate the waters of the PR relationship, they're unpre­pared when their professional agreement turns into an actual friendship. And when serious sparks start to fly—well, that's an unread chapter for both of them.Charming contemporary romanceStand-alone novelBook length: approximately 83,000 wordsIncludes discussion questions for book clubs