Madison Library District
Choice Awards
FICTION NOMINEES FOR 2026
Voting begins August 18.
Find all the nominees below.
Nominees
Novel Threat
by Traci Hunter Abramson
Brandon Hale, a seasoned CIA case officer, contemplates walking away from the covert world of espionage to embark on a quieter …
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Reconnect
by Traci Hunter Abramson
Deep in the jungles of Nicaragua, the members of the Saint Squad were faced with an impossible decision: neutralize the threat to national …
Read the full synopsis
Beg, Borrow, or Steal
by Sarah Adam
Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she …
Read the full synopsis
My Friends
by Fredrik Backman
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a …
Read the full synopsis
A Time Traveler’s Masquerade
by Danielle L. Jensen
One moment, Isla Crawford is inside McQuivey’s Costume Shop trying on a Jacobean-style gown for the parliamentary Autumn Ball, and the next, she is standing in an unfamiliar …
Read the full synopsis
First-Time Caller
by B.K. Borison
Aiden Valentine has a secret: he’s fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the …
Read the full synopsis
Battle Mountain
by C.J. Box
The campaign of destruction that Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett left both men in tatters, especially Nate, who …
Read the full synopsis
The Note
by Alafair Burke
Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high …
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The Love Haters
by Katherine Center
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her …
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The Best-Kept Secrets
by Sarah M. Eden
With her ever-ready smile, Eve O’Doyle faces life’s challenges with boundless optimism. However, even she finds it difficult to see the silver lining in her …
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Echoes of the Sea
by Sarah M. Eden
For Kipling Summerfield, the glamour of Hollywood is becoming a distant memory. After losing the role of a lifetime, he’s forced to take a lesser job as a historical reenactor on …
Read the full synopsis
The Tides of Time
by Sarah M. Eden
Fleeing the clutches of Robespierre’s revolutionary Tribunal in France, Lili Minet makes a desperate escape on a ship headed to England, but her dangerous flight takes an unexpected turn …
Read the full synopsis
The Correspondent
by Virginia Evans
Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her …
Read the full synopsis
Beautiful Ugly
by Alice Feeney
Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he …
Read the full synopsis
One Golden Summer
by Carley Fortune
Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer there at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she …
Read the full synopsis
The Knight and the Moth
by Rachel Gillig
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a …
Read the full synopsis
Isola
by Allegra Goodman
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 …
Read the full synopsis
Broken Country
by Clare Leslie Hall
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their …
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Great Big Beautiful Life
by 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 …
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Say You’ll Remember Me
by Abby Jimenez
There’s no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediate …
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Accomplice to the Villain
by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized …
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Wild Dark Shore
by Charlotte McConaghy
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to …
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The Crash
by Freida McFadden
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can …
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The Surrogate Mother
by Freida McFadden
Abby wants a baby more than anything. But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems …
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The Tenant
by Freida McFadden
Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he …
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An Unexpected Grace
by Tracie Peterson &
Kimberley Woodhouse
After a decade away, Parker Bennett returns home with a traveling troupe to perform a play based on Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Kalispell Opera House. Parker has relished his life on …
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The Perfect Divorce
by Jeneva Rose
It’s been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress. Sarah has long since moved on, starting a …
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Three Days in June
by Anne Tyler
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been …
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Tell Me What You Did
by Carter Wilson
Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her …
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Onyx Storm
by Rebecca Yarros
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and …
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Novel Threat by Traci Hunter Abramson
Brandon Hale, a seasoned CIA case officer, contemplates walking away from the covert world of espionage to embark on a quieter path in publishing. But his plan takes an abrupt turn when a critical source within the Labyrinth terrorist organization is assassinated, leaving behind a cryptic message about a New York publishing house. Rather than submitting his resignation, Brandon finds himself going undercover at Monroe Publishing to stop the next terrorist strike against the US.
Kimber Seidel, a CIA finance officer with secret aspirations of becoming a novelist, enjoys a serendipitous encounter with a handsome book lover like herself on her way home from London. Though she cannot reveal her true employment to her new friend, Brandon Hale, she can’t deny the instant spark that ignites between them. When Kimber’s manuscript is unexpectedly shopped to Monroe Publishing as a pawn in the CIA’s counterterrorism plot, Kimber must navigate the intersection of her literary dreams and her covert life as well as her deepening connection with Brandon.
Though each decoded message is leading Brandon and Kimber closer to the truth, it is also leading them into the line of fire, where the stakes are higher than anyone ever imagined.
book 1 in the Pen & Dagger series
Reconnect by Traci Hunter Abramson
Deep in the jungles of Nicaragua, the members of the Saint Squad were faced with an impossible decision: neutralize the threat to national security or ensure that all their team members walked out alive. Choosing his safety over the country’s was a risk Brent wasn’t willing to take. He ran headlong into danger to save the nation and did not come back with his team . . .
Amy Miller watched the video feed as her husband disappeared in a furious explosion. Even so, without hard evidence to the contrary, she refuses to believe Brent is dead. She and the rest of the Saint Squad fight to launch a rescue mission to recover him even as they battle the threat against the United States. The clock is ticking, and the Saint Squad must face their enemy head-on to thwart a plan that spells imminent devastation.
And this time, there can be no mistakes.
book 14 in the Saint Squad series
Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adam
Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year, with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.
Jackson Bennett is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he’s even more excited for—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.
With their chemistry-fueled animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school’s principal that could reveal her secret literary side hustle. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—she hates to admit—is just the man to help her. Surprisingly, Jack agrees. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?
book 3 in the When in Rome series
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
A Time Traveler’s Masquerade by Sian Ann Bessey
One moment, Isla Crawford is inside McQuivey’s Costume Shop trying on a Jacobean-style gown for the parliamentary Autumn Ball, and the next, she is standing in an unfamiliar garden, barefoot, coatless, and at the mercy of a fierce storm. Confused, she seeks refuge in a Tudor manor, where she discovers that she has inexplicably traveled back to 1605, mere weeks before the culmination of Guy Fawkes’s infamous Gunpowder Plot.
Simon Hartworth, Lord Bancroft, finds his orderly seventeenth-century life disrupted when a mysterious woman appears on his sister’s doorstep during a storm. Intrigued by the stranger’s quirks and bewildering speech, he feels compelled to protect her and heed her warnings about a fatal plot against Parliament. As Simon is drawn into Isla’s dangerous scheme to stop the evildoers, he can’t help but also feel drawn to her.
With seemingly no way to get back home, Isla uses her twenty-first-century knowledge of the past to try to thwart Guy Fawkes and his coconspirators without altering the course of history forever. She and Simon must race to unravel the threads of the treasonous plot even as they wonder how their hearts will navigate their deepening connection and the seemingly insurmountable four centuries that separate their lives.
part of the McQuivey’s Costume Shop Romance series
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison
Aiden Valentine has a secret: he’s fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore’s romance hotline, that’s a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.
Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life—or lack thereof—she begins to question if she’s as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending… even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.
Battle Mountain by C.J. Box
The campaign of destruction that Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett left both men in tatters, especially Nate, who lost almost everything. Wondering if the civilized life left him vulnerable to attack, Nate dropped off the grid with his falcons in tow to prepare for vengeance.
When Joe gets a call from the governor asking for help finding his son-in-law, who has gone missing in the Sierra Madre mountain range, he enlists the help of a local, a rookie game warden named Susan Kany. As Nate and fellow falconer Geronimo Jones circle closer to their prey, Joe and Susan follow the nearly cold trail to Warm Springs. Little do Nate and Joe know that their separate journeys are about to converge . . . at Battle Mountain
book 25 in the Joe Pickett series
The Note by Alafair Burke
It was meant to be a harmless prank.
Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.
But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she’s had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.
When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.
What had they gone and done?
The Love Haters by Katherine Center
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.
The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.
Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!
But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
The Best-Kept Secrets by Sarah M. Eden
With her ever-ready smile, Eve O’Doyle faces life’s challenges with boundless optimism. However, even she finds it difficult to see the silver lining in her parents’ disaster has struck, leaving their genteel family in dire financial straits. But all is not lost. In the name of economizing, Eve will skip the London Season—even if it means dooming herself to spinsterhood. Determined that her sister, Nia, should enjoy their Christmas gathering with the Huntresses and the Pack, Eve will keep the truth quiet and soak in her last fleeting moments of lighthearted revelry with her friends. But from the moment she departs from her family’s Dublin estate, nothing goes as planned.
Exhausted by his relentless role as family peacemaker, Duke Seymour anticipates the brief respite of a festive holiday with friends. Escorting two of the Huntresses to the party is no hardship—the O’Doyle sisters are always a delight. But when an unforeseen winter storm waylays the group at a country inn, Duke and Eve form a surprising attachment that runs far deeper than friendship. And though they are eager to explore these new feelings, upon their arrival at the party, the couple is immediately met with unexpected opposition—they soon realize that no matter their feelings, the weight of responsibility they both feel toward their families may crush their dream of a happy ending for themselves.
book 3 in The Huntresses series
Echoes of the Sea by Sarah M. Eden
For Kipling Summerfield, the glamour of Hollywood is becoming a distant memory. After losing the role of a lifetime, he’s forced to take a lesser job as a historical reenactor on England’s Guilford Island. But a sudden storm changes everything, casting him into the ocean—and into the care of a mysterious lighthouse keeper. Kip assumes everyone he meets and the island’s historical setting are just an elaborate performance—until he meets the captivating Amelia Archibald, whose quiet strength feels too real, making him question everything about Guilford.
Amelia has spent her life as an unimportant poor relation and is now trapped by her late grandfather’s will on an island she loathes because of her great fear of the sea. When Kip stumbles into her world, his strange ideas and warm presence are both a disruption and an unexpected light.
As Kip and Amelia work to save Guilford Island, an undeniable connection blooms between them. But when Kip uncovers the truth about where—or when—he is, he must make an impossible choice: rise to meet the expectations of Amelia’s world and build a life worthy of her station or walk away from the love that has redefined his very existence.
book 2 in the Storm Tide series
The Tides of Time by Sarah M. Eden
Fleeing the clutches of Robespierre’s revolutionary Tribunal in France, Lili Minet makes a desperate escape on a ship headed to England, but her dangerous flight takes an unexpected turn when a violent storm catapults her off the ship and eighty years into the future, leaving her stranded in the unfamiliar world of 1873 England.
When lighthouse keeper Armitage Pierce rescues a woman from the tumultuous sea, he does not anticipate her silent, cold response to his gallant efforts. Though he is wary of this woman and her odd behaviors, he finds she is just as wary of him. And he can sense that she is not telling him something of great import to her. Only Armitage’s grandfather, a man seasoned by the mysteries of the sea, can seem to penetrate Lili’s defenses to offer her support. But as Lili heals from the physical and emotional wounds of her ordeal and Armitage continues to offer light and safety to her, a tender friendship blossoms between the two.
Yet the shadow of danger looms as the threat that chased Lili from France all those years ago reemerges in her new present. Together Lili and Armitage must navigate the challenges of a romance that grows to defy the boundaries of time and the perils that reach across the decades to ensnare Lili. As the storm clouds gather, Lili and Armitage face the ultimate test—discovering whether their bond is strong enough to rewrite the pages of history itself to save them and their love.
book 1 in the Storm Tide series
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length… Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.
Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years – and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on.
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible — a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer there at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.
Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.
Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.
Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.
book 2 in the Barry’s Bay series
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
book 1 in The Stonewater Kingdom series
Isola by Allegra Goodman
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 by Clare Leslie Hall
“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s 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 years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping 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.
Great Big Beautiful Life by 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 the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and 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.
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
There’s no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediate yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong … unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake.
But after one incredible and seemingly endless date, Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is enough to forget what’s between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.
book 1 in the Say You’ll Remember Me series
Accomplice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”
Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.
Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire―or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.
Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.
book 3 in the Assistant to the Villain series
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.
Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.
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.
The Crash by Freida McFadden
The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.
She never arrives at her destination.
Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.
But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.
And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself―and her unborn child.
The Surrogate Mother by Freida McFadden
Abby wants a baby more than anything.
But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future. That is, until her personal assistant Monica makes a generous offer that will make all of Abby’s dreams come true.
Or all of her nightmares.
Because it turns out Monica isn’t who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby’s child has dark, twisted secrets.
And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
The Tenant by Freida McFadden
There’s no place like home…
Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he’s desperate to make ends meet.
Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She’s exactly what Blake’s looking for. Or is she?
Because something isn’t quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets…
Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it’ll be far too late. The trap is already set.
An Unexpected Grace by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse
Can unexpected grace lay the foundation for a second chance at love?
After a decade away, Parker Bennett returns home with a traveling troupe to perform a play based on Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Kalispell Opera House. Parker has relished his life on the road, but being home awakens long-buried emotions when he encounters his first love, Johanna St. John. He can’t help but wonder if there might still be a place for him in her heart.
Widowed for three years, Johanna devotes all her time to a demanding toddler, an injured father, and a successful millinery business. After the loss of her husband, she desires to move on, but reconnecting with her past love leaves her unsure of what lies ahead. Both committed to God’s distinct calling on their lives, Johanna and Parker struggle to see how their futures can unite, and when strange things start happening around town, their second chance at a life together seems more unlikely than ever.
book 3 in The Jewels of Kalispell series
The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose
Till death do us part. Yours. Not Mine.
It’s been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress. Sarah has long since moved on, starting a family with her new husband, Bob Miller, and changing careers. Her life is back to being exactly how she always wanted … or is it?
After discovering Bob engaged in a one-night stand, Sarah wastes no time filing for divorce. However, amid their ugly separation, new DNA evidence is uncovered in the case against Adam, forcing the police to reopen the investigation and putting Sarah right back in the spotlight. Everyone wants to know what really happened, most of all former Deputy Hudson, who is hell-bent on finding the truth.
But when the woman Bob slept with is reported missing, he and Sarah start to fight dirty, and a high-stakes game of cat and mouse ensues. Can Bob and Sarah achieve the perfect divorce? Or will it be “’til death do us part”?
book 2 in the Perfect series
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.
But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.
Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers.
Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson
She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…
Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her “guests,” but her show grants simultaneous anonymity and instant fame—a potent combination that’s proven difficult to resist. After an episode recording, Poe usually erases both criminal and crime from her mind.
But when a strange and oddly familiar man appears on her show, Poe is forced to take a second look. Not only because he claims to be her mother’s murderer from years ago, but because Poe knows something no one else does. Her mother’s murderer is dead.
Poe killed him.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath.
book 3 in The Empyrean series
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