Katie Cotugno

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Utah

A Novel

The beloved New York Times bestselling author of Birds of California hits it out of the park with this smart, sexy, thrilling take on the celebrity-athlete story--a funny, sizzling, ripped-from-the-headlines romance between an international pop star and a major league baseball player who thought his best days were behind him. Taylor and Travis. Jennifer and A-Rod. Marilyn and Joe. When a professional athlete and a megawatt star fall in love, the world is obsessed . . . With four chart-topping albums, Lacey Logan is a superstar whose life no longer feels like her own. Her every move is photographed, videoed, and dissected online, and her carefully curated Instagram feed studied by fans worldwide. To maintain her privacy, Lacey skillfully controls her narrative, showing fans and paparazzi what she wants them to see. But when Lacey discovers her boyfriend is hiding two devastating secrets--a bad cocaine habit and a pregnant girlfriend--she begins to lose confidence and control of her own story. Then big-shouldered baseball player Jimmy Hodges, a former Rookie of the Year when Lacey was in high school, walks into the bar where she's venting to a friend. With his shaggy beard and unfashionable button-down, Jimmy is the opposite of the picture-perfect guy Lacey thinks she wants. Soon, sparks fly and inhibitions go out the window when Lacey dares to take some chances. Lacey and Jimmy are polar opposites. But could this be the forever after they both need?

Heavy Hitter

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Kat Tang

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

In Kat Tang’s exciting and resonant debut, a “Rental Stranger”—a companion hired under various guises—walks the line between personal and professional in surprising new ways. Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? Your husband? In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app—a place where users can hire a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients. But, when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life. Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about the commodification of relationships in a gig economy, isolation in a hyperconnected world, and the risk of asking for what we want from those who cannot give. This is the story of a man who finds out who he is by being anyone but himself.

Five-Star Stranger

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İnci Atrek

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Holiday Country

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Isabel Banta

For fans of Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Emma Cline's The Girls, and Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter, a coming-of-age story that follows the stunningly talented popstar Amber Young as she skyrockets to fame in the late 90s.It is 1997 and Amber Young is about to become one of the most infamous pop stars of her era. Plucked from a small town in New Jersey to join the newly formed girl group Cloud9 in Los Angeles, Amber is given the opportunity of a lifetime.Enter Gwen Morris and Wes Kingston, two of Amber's musical contemporaries who are in a highly publicized relationship. Gwen has the top music video on MTV's Total Request Live and Wes is a member of the most popular boy band in the world, ETA. In Gwen, Amber finds the first friend who can truly understand her - maybe the only person who ever will. But when Amber goes on tour with ETA as one of their opening acts, she develops an infatuation with Wes that threatens both her friendship with Gwen and the career she is so desperately trying to build. Under the spotlight, Amber is forced to reckon with her own desires, agency, and sense of self - and how the kaleidoscope of public opinion can distort everything.Through meticulous research about this era of pop music, and featuring iconic moments from early 2000s pop culture, Isabel Banta's debut novel, Honey, reimagines the pop stars of the late 90s and early 2000s, who we idolized and hated, oversexualized and underestimated, giving them the fresh, multifaceted story they deserve.

Honey

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Nora Murphy

A gripping debut domestic suspense novel, Nora Murphy's thrilling The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands.

"A thrilling debut--I couldn't put it down!"--Shari Lapena, #1 internationally bestselling author of Not a Happy Family and The Couple Next Door

Leaving would be dangerous. Staying could be worse.

Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.

They don't--ever--find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop.

They don't--ever--discuss their problems and find common ground.

They don't--ever--acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.

Leah understands that what's inside a home can be far more dangerous than what's outside. So when she notices someone else who may be starting down the same path she's on, she pays attention. She watches over McKenna from afar. Until one night she sees more than she bargained for. Leah knows she can't save herself, but perhaps she can save McKenna.

Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.

The Favor

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Dominic Lim

"Quito Cruz might be a composing and piano genius, but he's a few notes short of success. Broadway, here I don't come. But Quito knows what the problem is. Or rather who. Because ever since that night in college-with pretty-boy jock Emmett Aoki-his inspiration has been completely MIA ... Now Quito's beloved dad wants him to put on a charity performance in his hometown. And there's one hella big string attached: convince Emmett--now one of Hollywood's biggest stars--to perform. It's all shaping up to be the biggest musical fiasco of Quito's life. Especially when that undeniable vibe with Emmett is still there. But there's nothing simple about falling for a closeted movie star ... even when he's pitch-perfect"--

All the Right Notes

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Monica Heisey

"Hilarious, heart-warming, wise." -- Paula Hawkins

A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman's messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She's doing really good, actually. Sure, she's broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée(tm).

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and "get back out there" sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call "happiness". This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

Really Good, Actually

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Cecilia Rabess

They say love is all you need...

"Extraordinarily brave...plain funny as hell, too." --Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl

When Jess lands a job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, she's less than thrilled to learn she'll be on the same team as Josh, her preppy, white, conservative sparring partner from college. Josh loves playing the devil's advocate and is just...the worst.

But when Jess finds herself the sole Black woman on the floor, overlooked and underestimated, it's Josh who shows up for her in surprising--if imperfect--ways. Before long, an unlikely friendship--one tinged with undeniable chemistry--forms between the two. A friendship that gradually, and then suddenly, turns into an electrifying romance that shocks them both.

Despite their differences, the force of their attraction propels the relationship forwards, and Jess begins to question whether it's more important to be happy than right. But then it's 2016, and the cultural and political landscape shifts underneath them. And Jess, who is just beginning to discover who she is and who she has the right to be, is forced to ask herself what she's willing to compromise for love and whether, in fact, everything's fine.

A stunning debut that introduces Cecilia Rabess as a blazing new talent, Everything's Fine is a painfully funny, poignant, heartfelt novel that doesn't just ask will they, but...should they?

Everything's Fine

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Mary Beth Keane

From the bestselling author ofAsk Again, Yes, a masterful novel about a couple in a small town who must navigate the complexities of marriage, family, and longing.

Malcolm Gephardt, handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss finally retires, Malcolm stretches to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to transform it into a bigger success, but struggles to stay afloat.

His smart and confident wife, Jess, has devoted herself to her law career. After years of trying for a baby, she is facing the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future.

Award-winning author Mary Beth Keane's new novel takes place over the course of one week when Malcolm learns shocking news about Jess, a patron of the bar goes missing, and a blizzard hits the town of Gillam, trapping everyone in place. With a deft eye and generous spirit, Keane explores the disappointments and unexpected consolations of midlife, the many forms forgiveness can take, the complicated intimacy of small-town living, and what it means to be a family.

The Half Moon

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Jamie Ford

The New York Times bestselling author of the “mesmerizing and evocative” (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations. Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help. Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America. As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

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Josie Silver

A young chef stumbles on a secret family recipe that might lead her to the love—and life—she's been looking for in this stunning novel from the New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December When Iris decides to move to New York and restart her culinary career, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic, New York-set movies she'd watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe ice cream didn't quite do it justice. And after spending the last few years in a relationship with a man who kept her world as small as possible, she's feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. But Bobby, Iris's best friend, isn't about to let her hide away. He convinces her to come with him to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy. As they walk around enjoying all the food and life the neighborhood has to offer, a little family-run gelato shop catches her eye—it's the same shop that's in an old photo of her mother's. When Iris returns the next day out of curiosity, she meets the handsome Gio and learns that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their secret family gelato recipe, is in a coma so the family can't make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato recipe and her ice cream recipe are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows it, when she's not sure why Gio's uncle gave it to her mother in the first place? So Iris offers her services as a chef to help them recreate the recipe and begins to find herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio's uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she's been building all winter long.

A Winter in New York

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Adriana Mather

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Adriana Mather comes a heartwarming tale of love, family, and pastry perfection. Maddi DeLuca is coming home for the holidays with her nine-year-old son, only it's not the triumphant return she might have hoped for. She recently broke down on a reality TV baking show, letting the entire country know she feels like a colossal failure. And she can be certain her mother will remind her of all the ways she hasn't lived up to expectations over the years. Ten years ago, all Maddi dreamt of was running her father's beloved bakery in their tiny coastal town of Haverberry Cove, MA. Her best friend, Wilder Buenaventura, had his own dream--a life with Maddi. And for one brilliant moment when they were seventeen, those dreams collided. They baked together. They loved each other insatiably. But like a fallen soufflé, their relationship imploded, taking their lifelong friendship with it. If she had her way, Maddi would have stayed in California, hiding her head in its beautiful white sands. But at her mother's request, she has returned to her hometown to help deal with an urgent matter concerning her father's will and his nostalgia-filled bakery. What Maddi doesn't know is that this issue also mysteriously involves the one person she's spent forever trying to forget--Wilder. Now she finds herself forced to make an impossible decision: give up her father's bakery and her lifelong dream, or find a way to coexist with Wilder without murdering him with a cookie cutter.

Mom Com

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Meet the girl who's "Most Likely to Make Everything Worse."



TV writer Ellie Jenkins worked her butt off to put her nerdy, outcast teen years behind her. So there's a certain delicious irony in that she works for a hit show about popular high school kids when she was So. Not. Cool. And now she's been offered the promotion of a lifetime--if she attends her reunion. But Ellie's memory of High School Hell isn't nearly as traumatic as the reality . . .   



No one at the reunion is what Ellie expected. Not her ex-best friend, who still has the ability to see right through Ellie. And not her secret crush, who has only gotten hotter, sexier, and way more complicated. The only way she's going to survive this whole weird ordeal is by fixing her bad high school karma, kissing the boy who got away, and getting the hell out of Ohio for good. But Ellie's discovering that in real life, she can't just rewrite the script. 

Ellie Is Cool Now

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From author and body-positive activist Leah Vernon comes a daring dystopian novel that explores the power of friendship in a future society built on violence and division.

A thousand years in the future, a Black elite class reigns. The lower classes toil in the fields or scrape by in blighted cities, serving their rulers in a cruel, divided world.

Among the Elites is eighteen-year-old Avi Jore, born to a powerful father and destined to rule. But as she comes of age, Avi cannot help but notice the injustices in her world--the treatment of enslaved workers, the oppression of the lower classes. Her disillusionment grows when she meets Saige Wilde, a mixed-race enslaved girl whose only goal is escaping beyond the borders of their brutal nation.

When Saige saves Avi from an assassination attempt, their paths become intertwined in ways they never imagined. As Saige plots her path to freedom, Avi tries to enact change from the inside. But it's a complicated endeavor, fraught with danger and malice.

Together, their efforts could spark a revolution--and underscore the staggering power of friendship.

Publisher Note: This title was previously self-published as Impure. This edition of The Union includes substantial editorial revisions.

The Union

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#hardcover #fiction #bookstomovies #hulu 

Fleishman is in Trouble

Includes a Bonus Novella

This wedding needs to be the event of the season. Unfortunately, the best man is doing everything he can to derail it . . .



Wedding planner Beth Shipley has seen it all: bridezillas, monster-in-laws, and last-minute jitters at the altar. But this wedding is different--and the stakes are much, much higher. Not only is her best friend the bride, but bookings at her family's inn have been in free fall ever since an unfortunate food-poisoning incident. Beth's got one chance to save her family's business, and she knows she can do it. As long as she doesn't let Sawyer Silva's good looks and overprotective, overbearing older brother act distract her.



Sawyer learned firsthand that forever doesn't last. So when his brother decides to race down the aisle with a woman he barely knows, Sawyer is determined to keep him from making the biggest mistake of his life. Yet the more time Sawyer spends around the passionate and hardworking Beth, the more trouble he has disentangling his feelings--about the wedding and the wedding planner. When Beth discovers Sawyer's plans, can he convince her that his only real objection is to a future that doesn't include her?

Something Blue

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A Chicago Stars Novel

#1 New York Times bestseller Susan Elizabeth Phillips returns to her beloved Chicago Stars series with a romance between a Chicago Stars quarterback and one of the world's greatest opera singers--and a major diva.

"Re-entering the world of the Chicago Stars is like a beloved friend come to call." -- #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr



Thaddeus Walker Bowman Owens, the backup quarterback for the Chicago Stars, is a team player, talented sideline coach, occasional male underwear model, and a man with a low tolerance for Divas.

Olivia Shore, international opera superstar, is a driven diva with a passion for perfection, a craving for justice, too many secrets--and a monumental grudge against the egotistical, lowbrow jock she's been stuck with.

It's Mozart meets Monday Night Football as the temperamental soprano and stubborn jock embark on a nationwide tour promoting a luxury watch brand. Along the way, the combatants will engage in soul-searching and trash talk, backstage drama and, for sure, a quarterback pass. But they'll also face trouble as threatening letters, haunting photographs, and a series of dangerous encounters complicate their lives. Is it the work of an overzealous fan or something more sinister?

This is the emotional journey of a brilliant woman whose career is everything and a talented man who'll never be happy with second place.  Tender and funny, passionate and insightful, this irresistible romantic adventure proves that anything can happen...when two superstars collide.

When Stars Collide

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#hardcover #fiction #historicalfiction #bookofthemonth #botm #bipoc #literary 

A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina

A Phenomenal Book Club Pick * "Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you're swimming under a big, sparkling night sky."--Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022--The Millions, Electric Lit, Lit Hub, Book Riot

There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.

Luz "Little Light" Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors' origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.

Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine's singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love--filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.

Woman of Light

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#hardcover #fiction #holidayromance #botm #lgbtq #romanticcomedy 

Kiss Her Once For Me 

#paperback #sisters #comedy #family #fiction #generalfiction 

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Beth Harbison, New York Times bestselling author of The Cookbook Club,  has written her strongest novel yet: a story filled with humor, heart and a little bit of snark. This unforgettable story about two very different sisters who must come together and face their past if they can make their future better is perfect for fans of Jennifer Weiner, Sophia Kinsella, and Christina Lauren.

They were two sisters with nothing in common but their parents.

Frances Turner has a confession to make: her sister, Crosby, who has built her life on good luck and good looks, drives her crazy. The woman wakes up in the morning with perfect hair. Men flock to her. And she somehow managed to jump out of the frying pan and into fame, writing a blockbuster novel--and making a zillion bucks--without even trying. And Frances, who has followed every rule, is stuck in pause.

Crosby Turner has a confession as well: Frances locks herself in a miserable little box and Crosby can't understand it. With her fear of the unknown and her "Franic Attacks," her sister is a small-time actress with big-time dreams--and talent--but playing by the rules gets her nowhere. Heck, the closest Frannie gets to famous is as a caterer to the stars. Why can't she break loose and climb out of her rut?

Then fate intervenes, throwing these incompatible siblings together in this sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking novel of sisterhood, grown-ups who need to grow up, and the realization that no one in a family is invisible.

Confessions of the Other Sister

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#legalsuspense #paperback #fiction #lgbtqia #robyngigl #suspense #thriller #mystery 

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

+ free ARC of second book!

Attorney and activist Robyn Gigl tackles the complexities of gender, race, power and public perception in By Way of Sorrow, a gripping debut legal thriller with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot and a unique protagonist who, like the author herself, is a transgender attorney. Erin McCabe is a criminal defense lawyer doing her best to live a quiet life in the wake of profound personal change. But when a young, Black, transgender prostitute is accused of murdering a wealthy politician's son, Erin feels duty-bound to defend her - even if it puts her career and life in jeopardy... Four months ago, William E. Townsend, Jr., son of a New Jersey State Senator, was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a nineteen-year-old transgender prostitute, is in custody, and given the evidence against her, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict. Erin knows that defending Sharise will blow her own private life wide open, and doubtless deepen her estrangement from her family. Yet as a trans woman, she feels uniquely qualified to help Sharise, and duty-bound to protect her from the possibility of a death sentence. Sharise claims she killed the senator's son in self-defense. As Erin assembles the case with her partner, former FBI agent Duane Swisher, the circumstances hint at a more complex and chilling story with ties to other brutal murders. Senator Townsend is using the full force of his prestige and connections to publicly discredit everyone involved in defending Sharise. Behind the scenes, his tactics are even more dangerous. His son had secrets that could destroy the senator's political aspirations--secrets worth killing for. And as leads begin mysteriously disappearing, it's not just the life of Erin's client at stake, but her own...

By Way of Sorrow

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#paperback #nonfiction #memoir #indigenous 

My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way

*#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER *Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction *Winner, Indigenous Voices Awards *Winner, High Plains Book Awards *Finalist, CBC Canada Reads *A Globe and Mail Book of the Year *An Indigo Book of the Year *A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of the Year In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. If I can just make it to the next minute...then I might have a chance to live; I might have a chance to be something more than just a struggling crackhead. From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts. Throughout it all, the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling with all that had happened, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. Finally, he realized he would die unless he turned his life around. In this heartwarming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds.

From the Ashes

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#paperback #HistoricalFiction #royals #queenelizabeth 

The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters

Perfect for fans of The Crown, this captivating biography from a New York Times bestselling author follows Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret as they navigate life in the royal spotlight. They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when, in a quixotic twist of fate, their uncle Edward Vlll decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Forever more Margaret would have to curtsey to the sister she called 'Lillibet.' And bow to her wishes. Elizabeth would always look upon her younger sister's antics with a kind of stoical amusement, but Margaret's struggle to find a place and position inside the royal system--and her fraught relationship with its expectations--was often a source of tension. Famously, the Queen had to inform Margaret that the Church and government would not countenance her marrying a divorcee, Group Captain Peter Townsend, forcing Margaret to choose between keeping her title and royal allowances or her divorcee lover. From the idyll of their cloistered early life, through their hidden war-time lives, into the divergent paths they took following their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, this book explores their relationship over the years. Andrew Morton's latest biography offers unique insight into these two drastically different sisters--one resigned to duty and responsibility, the other resistant to it--and the lasting impact they have had on the Crown, the royal family, and the ways it adapted to the changing mores of the 20th century.

Elizabeth and Margaret

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#hardcover #fiction #historicalfiction #botm #womensfiction

“The Summer Wives is an exquisitely rendered novel that tackles two of my favorite topics: love and money. The glorious setting and drama are enriched by Williams’s signature vintage touch. It’s at the top of my picks for the beach this summer.” —Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Perfect Couple New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season—an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off the New England coast . . . In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But beneath the island’s patrician surface, there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel’s privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he’s determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph’s enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end, Miranda’s caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two decades. Now, in the landmark summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its surface, the Island remains the same—determined to keep the outside world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself, and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years earlier. What’s more, Miranda herself is no longer a naïve teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice for the man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.

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