(15 books)

Isola
Allegra Goodman
A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance.Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

Broken Country
Clare Leslie Hall
“The farmer is dead. He is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”When her brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart all those years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son Bobby, who died a few years earlier.As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel and Leo’s lives, tensions around the village rise, and jealousy rears its ugly head. Beth and her gentle and kind husband Frank are happily married, but they have their fair share of secrets, and their relationship relies on the past staying buried. And when the truth begins to come out, events spiral out of control, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice—between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.Perfect for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing. A sweeping, sexy love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.Endorsements“An evocative, sensitive, and compelling novel.” — Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing

The Three Lives of Cate Kay
Kate Fagan
Who is Cate Kay?Cate Kay is the most famous author on the planet. But it's just a name. Somehow, despite her bestselling novels and the record-breaking film franchise, the writer has remained completely anonymous.Anne Marie Callahan is the name nobody knows. Only the people she left behind. And Annie knows there's no one there anymore who could connect the dots between the girl who ran away all those years ago and the famous novelist.If you asked, she'd say her name was Cass Ford. That's what her barista shouts each morning. And it's how she introduces herself to the woman she'll eventually call the love of her life.Three names, three lives. But Cate Kay is finally ready to tell you who she really is. And when the truth is out, will everyone's favourite novelist hold on to her place in our hearts or are some betrayals impossible to forgive?EndorsementsKate Fagan is the author of several New York Times bestselling nonfiction books.

Heiress Takes All
Emily Wibberley
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Owens isn't thrilled that her dad's getting remarried...again. She's especially not thrilled that he cheated on her mom, kicked them out of their Rhode Island home, and cut Olivia out of her rightful inheritance.But this former heiress has a plan for revenge. While hundreds of guests gather on the grounds of the gorgeous estate where she grew up, everyone will be thinking romance—not robbery. She'll play the part of dutiful daughter, but in reality she'll be redistributing millions from her father's online accounts. She only needs the handwritten pass code he keeps in the estate's safe.With the help of an eclectic crew of high school students and one former teacher, Olivia has plotted her mid-nuptial heist down to the second. But she didn't plan for an obnoxiously nosy wedding guest, an interfering ex-boyfriend intent on winning her back, greedy European cousins with their own agenda, or a vengeful second wife. When everything seems like it's going wrong, Olivia has to keep her eyes on what really matters: getting rich. And when she's done, "something borrowed" will be the understatement of the year.The Inheritance Games meets Ocean's 11 in this thrilling YA adventure about a teenager determined to pull off the perfect heist in the midst of her father's wedding.

Great Big Beautiful Life
Emily Henry
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be Margaret Ives. She is a tragic heiress, a former tabloid princess, and the daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th century.When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a serious publication.Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the-core way that suggests he sees her as competition.But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story: pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

All That Life Can Afford
Emily Everett
I would arrive, blank like a sheet of notebook paper, and write myself new.Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library—its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs. But when she finally arrives after college, the real London is a moldy flat and the same paycheck-to-paycheck grind—that fairy-tale life still out of reach.Then Anna meets the Wilders, who fly her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter. Swept up by the sphinxlike elder sister, Anna soon finds herself plunged into a heady whirlpool of parties and excess, a place where confidence is a birthright. There she meets two handsome young men—one who wants to whisk her into his world in a chauffeured car, the other who sees through Anna’s struggle to outrun her past. It’s like she’s stepped into the pages of a glittering new novel, but what will it cost her to play the part?A taut and lyrical coming-of-age debut about a young American woman navigating class, lies, and love amid London’s jet-set elite. Sparkling with intelligence and insight, All That Life Can Afford peels back the glossy layers of class and privilege, exploring what it means to create a new life for yourself that still honors the one you’ve left behind.

The Heir Apparent
Rebecca Armitage
It's New Year's Day in Tasmania, and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out. She's in the second year of her medical residency, lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends, Finn and Jack, and is about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack—when a helicopter abruptly lands.Out steps her grandmother's right-hand man, bearing the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident.Lexi's grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and, in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne—a role she has publicly disavowed.Returning to London as the heir apparent, Princess Alexandrina, Lexi is greeted by a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection, a grieving sister-in-law harboring an explosive secret, and a scheming uncle determined to claim the throne himself.Her recent life—and Jack—grow ever more distant as she feels the tug of tradition, of love for her grandmother, and of obligation. When her grandmother grants her one year to decide, Lexi must chart her own course: will it be the life determined by an accident of birth, or the one chosen by her own heart?An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family—or to her own heart.

To the Moon and Back
Eliana Ramage
My mother took my sister and me, and she drove through the night to a place she felt a claim to, a place on earth she thought we might be safe. I stopped asking questions. I picked little glass pieces from my sister’s hair. I watched the moon.Steph Harper is on the run. When she was six, her mother, Hannah, fled an abusive husband—with Steph and her younger sister, Kayla, in tow—to Cherokee Nation, where she hoped they might finally belong. In response, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.Spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph’s turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her: Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph’s college girlfriend Della Owens, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla’s mother, who has held up her family’s tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her children, all the while keeping her own past a secret.In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women to the point of breaking, at once betraying their love and generosity, and forcing them to reconsider their own deepest desires in her shadow. Told through an intricately woven tapestry of narrative, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths to which one woman will go to find space for herself.One young woman’s relentless quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut will irrevocably alter the fates of the people she loves most in this tour de force of a debut about ambition, belonging, and family.

Throwback
Maurene Goo
Samantha Kang has always butted heads with her mom, Priscilla, who is a first-generation Korean American, a former high school cheerleader and expects Sam to want the same all-American nightmare. Meanwhile, Sam is a girl of the times who has no energy for clichéd high school aspirations. After a huge fight, Sam is desperate to get away from Priscilla, but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back.To her shock, Sam lands in the '90s... alongside a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now, Sam has to deal with outdated tech, regressive '90s attitudes, and a time-crossed romance with the right guy in the wrong era.With the clock ticking, Sam must figure out how to fix things with Priscilla or risk being trapped in an analog world forever. Sam's blast to the past has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom... and herself.Back to the Future meets To All the Boys in this thrilling new YA time-travel romance by award-winning author Maurene Goo.Endorsements"No one can blend family, humor, satire, and love into a single perfect story like Maurene Goo can..." — Marie Lu, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author

To The Moon And Back
Jill Mansell
Jill Mansell writes with sensitivity and optimism about love, loss and new beginnings in To the Moon and Back.When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband she feels her life is over. But eventually she's ready for a new start — at work, that is. She doesn't need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company.Moving to North London, Ellie meets neighbour Roo, who has a secret of her own. Can the girls sort out their lives? Guilt is a powerful emotion, but a lot can happen in a year in Primrose Hill...Not to be missed by readers of Jojo Moyes and Veronica Henry.

Once Upon a Time in Dollywood
Ashley Jordan
A playwright must grapple with her difficult year and writer’s block while falling for the single dad living next door in this emotional debut novel from Ashley Jordan.Eve Ambroise may be a rising star playwright, but her personal life is falling apart. Desperate for a fresh start, she breaks up with her fiancé, cuts off her parents, and heads to the Tennessee mountains. But keeping up the lie that she’s just on a writing retreat becomes near impossible when faced with the well-meaning townspeople and a neighbor who has just as much baggage as she has.Coming off a contentious custody battle, Jamie Gallagher is restructuring what his life looks like as a single dad, and spending more days at his cabin makes his new “free time” a little less empty, especially when he meets the beautiful—and prickly—woman next door. The last thing he needs is a new romance to shake up his family dynamics even more, but there’s something about Eve.What starts out as a fling quickly becomes more serious, and it’s not long before Eve is running scared once again. She’s loved and lost in every possible way, and risking it one more time could finally break her. But like the fireflies that fill the mountains around them, Jamie’s and Eve’s lives keep falling into sync. A fairy-tale ending could be in the cards, but only if the new couple can get out of their heads and put their hearts first.

Spectacular Things
Beck Dorey-Stein
Mia and Cricket have always been close. The gifted daughters of a young single mother, the “Lowe girls” are well-known in the small Maine town they call home. Each sister has a role to fill: The responsible and academically minded Mia assumes the position of caregiver far too young, while Cricket, a bouncing ball of energy and talent, seems born for soccer stardom. But the cost of achieving athletic greatness comes at a steep price.As Mia and Cricket grow up, they must grapple with the legacy of their mother’s secret past while navigating their own precarious future. Can Mia allow herself to fall in love at the risk of repeating a terrible history? Will Cricket’s relentless chase of a lifelong goal drive her sister away? When does loyalty become self-sabotage?A sharply observed and tender portrait of sisters, love, and ambition, Spectacular Things is a sweeping story about the impossible choices we’re forced to make in pursuit of our dreams.Two sisters examine what they owe each other and what they are willing to sacrifice to make their family dreams come true. What would you give up for the person you love most? What would you expect in return?

The Phoenix Pencil Company
Allison King
Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she's always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly—especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade.Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica’s discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun’s own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive.Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A Tale for the Time Being with the uplifting, emotional magic of The Midnight Library, Allison King’s stunning debut novel asks: who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy.In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic—of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life—holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother, and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.EndorsementsA Reese's Book Club pick.

Stuck Up and Stupid
Angourie Rice
Lily has the whole summer stretched out before her—endless days of sunshine and friends at beautiful Pippi Beach. Then superstar Dorian Khan arrives with his party of Hollywood types. While most of the locals, including Lily’s glamor-obsessed mum, are thrilled to be so close to the A-listers, Lily can’t help but see them as superficial and arrogant, especially Dorian, the most famous of them all. But as Lily’s and Dorian’s paths continue to cross, she begins to wonder if she’s got him all wrong. Playwright Kate Rice and her daughter, Hollywood actor Angourie Rice, team up to write a teen romance novel from those who know firsthand what the international film industry is really like. Inspired by the ever-popular Austen fandom, Stuck Up and Stupid is for a generation of teens who are definitely not looking for love.An ordinary girl. A Hollywood star. A love story that could change everything. Pride and Prejudice gets a modern twist from two debut authors who know their material—and deliver it with heart and hilarity.

Wild Dark Shore
Charlotte McConaghy
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.