Kristin Koval

Penitence is a poignant exploration of love and forgiveness.  It’s a suspenseful, addictive page-turner filled with literary insight that compels readers to consider whether the worst thing we’ve ever done is all that defines us.

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

North Carolina

A Novel

With masterful storytelling and unexpected twists, Kristin Koval’s debut novel Penitence is a multigenerational story of grief and hope that asks powerful questions: When and why should we forgive? And are some things unforgivable? Late one night in Lodgepole, Colorado, 13-year-old Nora Sheehan fatally shoots her older brother Nico in their family’s home. Her parents, Angie and David, recruit small-town lawyer Martine Dumont in their fight against an overreaching prosecutor determined to try Nora as an adult, but soon-to-be-retired Martine faces a crucial challenge in building the defense: Nora refuses to speak. Several years before, Nico was diagnosed with juvenile Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative illness with a grim prognosis, and the family must now grieve Nico’s death earlier than expected. Angie, unsure how to continue loving her daughter, refuses to visit Nora in jail, and her marriage to David is on the brink of falling apart. David, desperate for help, asks Martine’s son Julian—a successful New York criminal defense attorney and Angie’s ex-boyfriend—to step in on the case. When Julian arrives in Lodgepole, he and Angie are forced to consider their former life together in New York and their joint culpability in a tragic accident decades ago. For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a compelling and intimate portrait of a family pulled apart in the wake of tragedy that will leave readers and book clubs thinking long into the night.

Penitence

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Julie Iromuanya

When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, Fidelis Ewerike, a Florida-based attorney, poet, and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War, begins to go mad.  Consumed by memories of his younger sister, Ugochi, who went missing during that conflict and fearful that the same fate awaits Amara, his sixteen-year-old daughter - who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ugochi - Fidelis locks her in her bedroom and offers no explanation.

A Season of Light

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Costanza Casati

A common woman.  A governor she married.  The king who loved them both.  Welcome to the empire of gods and men… and the one queen destined to rule them all.

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history, as Casati reimagines the rise to power of the Assyrian empire's only female ruler, Semiramis. When kings fall, queens rise. Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy or the power she would come to wield. A female ruler, once an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire - certainly no one in Ancient Assyria would bend to her command willingly. Semiramis was a woman who knew if she wanted power, she would have to claim it. There are whispers of her fame in Mesopotamian myth- Semiramis was a queen, an ambitious warrior, a commander whose reputation reaches the majestic proportions of Alexander the Great. Historical record, on the other hand, falls eerily quiet. In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her. The world Casati expertly builds is rich with dazzling detail and will transport her readers to the heat of the Assyrian Empire and a world long gone.

Babylonia

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Joanne Tompkins

Sometimes the only way forward is together.  After the shocking deaths of two teenage boys tear apart a community in the Pacific Northwest, an unfamiliar pregnant girl emerges out of the woods and into the lives of those same boys’ families.  Why the boys died and what their tragedy has to do with this girl are the propulsive mysteries at the center of JoAnne Tompkins’s story.  But just as urgent is the question of how the families will move forward.  What comes after grief?  What does forgiveness look like?

Named a top beach read of summer by Oprah Daily, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, and more “Nail-biting wallop of a debut . . . a thoughtful, unexpectedly optimistic tale.” —The New York Times “If you enjoyed The Searcher by Tana French, read What Comes After by JoAnne Tompkins. . . . a mystery—and a gritty meditation on loss and redemption, drenched in stillness and grief.” —The Washington Post After the shocking death of two teenage boys tears apart a community in the Pacific Northwest, a mysterious pregnant girl emerges out of the woods and into the lives of those same boys’ families—a moving and hopeful novel about forgiveness and human connection. In misty, coastal Washington State, Isaac lives alone with his dog, grieving the recent death of his teenage son, Daniel. Next door, Lorrie, a working single mother, struggles with a heinous act committed by her own teenage son. Separated by only a silvery stretch of trees, the two parents are emotionally stranded, isolated by their great losses—until an unfamiliar sixteen-year-old girl shows up, bridges the gap, and changes everything. Evangeline’s arrival at first feels like a blessing, but she is also clearly hiding something. When Isaac, who has retreated into his Quaker faith, isn’t equipped to handle her alone, Lorrie forges her own relationship with the girl. Soon all three characters are forced to examine what really happened in their overlapping pasts, and what it all possibly means for a shared future. With a propulsive mystery at its core, What Comes After offers an unforgettable story of loss and anger, but also of kindness and hope, courage and forgiveness. It is a deeply moving account of strangers and friends not only helping each other forward after tragedy but inspiring a new kind of family.

What Comes After

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Matt Haig

When retired math teacher Grace Winters js left a rundown house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her.  She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook, and no plan.  Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended.  What she uncovered is stranger than she could have dreamed.  But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.  Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

“A wry and tender love-letter to the best of being human.” —Benedict Cumberbatch The remarkable next novel from Matt Haig, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Midnight Library, with more than nine million copies sold worldwide “What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…” When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

The Life Impossible

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Marissa Stapley

What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it in?

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A thrilling roller-coaster ride about a heist gone terribly wrong, with a plucky protagonist who will win readers’ hearts. What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it in? Lucky Armstrong is a tough, talented grifter who has just pulled off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. She’s ready to start a brand-new life, with a new identity—when things go sideways. Lucky finds herself alone for the first time, navigating the world without the help of either her father or her boyfriend, the two figures from whom she’s learned the art of the scam. When she discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means she’ll be arrested for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune. As Lucky tries to avoid capture and make a future for herself, she must confront her past by reconciling with her father; finding her mother, who abandoned her when she was just a baby; and coming to terms with the man she thought she loved—whose dark past is catching up with her, too. This is a novel about truth, personal redemption, and the complexity of being good. It introduces a singularly gifted, multilayered character who must learn what it means to be independent and honest...before her luck runs out.

Lucky

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Rosie Danan

Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on modern intimacy, the perfect solution to each of their problems - until they discover a new one … their growing attraction to each other.  They’ve built the syllabus for love’s latest experiment, but neither of them expected they’d be the ones putting it to the test.

When the sex-positive start-up she cofounded becomes a sensation, Naomi Grant's responsibilities shift from the bedroom to the boardroom. She wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing, but higher ed won't hire her. Ethan Cohen was recently named one of the city's hottest bachelors by LA Mag, and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. But the temple is low on both funds and congregants, and Ethan has three months to turn things around or else the doors of his synagogue will close for good. Naomi and Ethan co-host a seminar series on Modern Intimacy, and their growing attraction puts them to the test. -- adapted from back cover

The Intimacy Experiment

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Chris Whitaker

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, All the Colors of the Dark is about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope.

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes an epic novel about a man fixated on finding a missing woman―and the FBI agent on his tail, who might be even more obsessed than he is. "A huge achievement." ―Alex Michaelides "Amazing. Haunting. Unforgettable." ―Patricia Cornwall 1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another. A soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.

All the Colors of the Dark

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Joanna Gaines

Chip Gaines

Sometimes the messiest stuff and the biggest mistakes can take you someplace wonderful

National Bestseller--New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher's Weekly

The Magnolia Story

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Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking novel set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years - from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban, to post-Taliban rebuilding - and puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms.  It is a story of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, and find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Two women born a generation apart witness the destruction of their home and family in wartorn Kabul, incurring losses over the course of thirty years that test the limits of their strength and courage.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

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Annie Sprinkle

Dr. Sprinkle’s Spectacular Sex introduces a dynamic program for enriching the overall quality of life through better understanding and embracing what can be one of the most powerful sources of happiness in our lives: our sexuality.

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Make Over Your Love Life with One of the World's Great Sex Experts

Dr. Sprinkle's Spectacular Sex

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Carol S. Dweck

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea - the power of our mindset.

The New Psychology of Success

Reveals how established attitudes affect all aspects of one's life, explains the differences between fixed and growth mindsets, and stresses the need to be open to change in order to achieve fulfillment and success.

Mindset

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Rachel Gillig

A maiden must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom in this dark, lush gothic fantasy debut.

For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom--but the monster in her head isn't the only threat lurking.



Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.



Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home--she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King's own nephew, Captain of the Destriers...and guilty of high treason.

He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards--the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

One Dark Window

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Abby Jimenez

Four dates, a kiss … and a breakup.  That’s all it will take to find their soulmate.

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A sharp and scintillating summer novel that will make readers laugh out loud and cry happy tears from the New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly. Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other's out, and they'll both go on to find the love of their lives. It's a bonkers idea... and it just might work. Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka. It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

Just for the Summer

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Kyle Prue

Have you ever been badgered by an annoying pick-up artist at the bar?  Ever felt a burning desire to emotionally torture a friend’s boyfriend?  Have you ever endured just talking to a man before?  If so, then this book is for you.

106 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego

BE NO MAN'S PEACE. Have you ever been badgered by an annoying pick-up artist at the bar? Ever felt a burning desire to emotionally torture a friend's boyfriend in an act of revenge? Have you ever endured just talking to a man before? If so, then this book is for you. With more than 100 phrases, questions, and comebacks, How to Piss Off Men is your essential guide to sending even the most relentless mansplainer into an existential crisis. Whether it's referring to his expensive NFL jersey as "cosplay" or letting him know he has the confidence of a much taller man, this handbook will ensure you're equipped to combat toxic masculinity in any situation.* * The advice in this book has been thoroughly tested for effectiveness. Even on the author, bless his heart.

How to Piss off Men

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This house eats and is eaten.  When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam to visit her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring.  She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.  But the house has other plans.  Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed.  The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong.  She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended.  And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.

She Is A Haunting

Katya Adaui

Rosalind Harvey

Here Be Icebergs is a collection of twelve short stories and a Wunderkammer of connections imperfectly made.  With a style that finds beauty in those cold flashes of reality and that uses an arsenal of remarkable narrative elements (grammatical inversions, theatrical set pieces), Adaui finds poetry in the weird, fetid, familiar discomfort of family.

The weird, fetid, familiar discomfort of family is front and centre in these short stories of all the ways we remain a mystery to each other.

Here Be Icebergs

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Sara Raasch

Get ready for this sexy, quirky rom-com where the golden-hearted Prince of Christmas falls for the totally off-limits Prince of Halloween!

Featuring beautiful ruby sprayed edges! Red, White & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas in a sexy, quirky romcom where the golden-hearted Prince of Christmas falls for the totally off-limits Prince of Halloween. Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make- out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night. But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it. Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand...and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween. It’s a fake competition between two holiday princes who can’t keep their hands off each other over a marriage of convenience that no one wants. And it all leads to one of the sweetest, sexiest, messiest, most delightfully unforgettable love stories of the year.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas

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Brynne Weaver

The viral friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and sizzling chemistry

The Ruinous Love Trilogy

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice--unlike anything you've read before--now available in all bookstores When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive--the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

Butcher and Blackbird

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Siân Hughes

“Pearl, an exceptional debut novel, is both a mystery story and a meditation on grief, abandonment and consolation, evoking the profundities of the haunting medieval poem…It’s a book that will be passed from hand to hand for a long time to come.” - Booker Prize 2023 judges

Heartbreaking and redeeming, Pearl is the story of a young woman in a small English village who is struggling with the disappearance of her mother, what feels like a lifetime ago. Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood. As time passes, Marianne finds it difficult to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Yet, in one of her mother’s dusty old books, she discovers a medieval poem called Pearl, and, trusting in the promise of its consolation, it seems as if her life begins to parallel the poem's course. But questions remain. Marianne is ever more tormented by the unmarked gravestone in the abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, and as her childhood home begins to crumble, the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. Can Marianne ever come to understand her mother’s choices? And will her own future as a mother help her find her peace?

Pearl

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A provocative novel about being caught between marriage and memories of a more sensual past - the first of a three-part series based on the #1 fiction podcast.

Dirty Diana

Porochista Khakpour

Meet the Milanis: Fast-Food Heiresses, L.A. Royalty, and your Newest Reality TV Obsession

MEET THE MILANIS. FAST-FOOD HEIRESSES, L.A. ROYALTY, AND YOUR NEWEST REALITY TV OBSESSION Iranian-American multimillionaires Ali and Homa Milani have it all—a McMansion in the hills of Los Angeles, a microwaveable snack empire, and four spirited daughters. There’s Violet, the big-hearted aspiring model; Roxanna, the chaotic influencer; Mina, the chronically-online overachiever; and the impressionable health fanatic Haylee. On the verge of landing their own reality TV show, the Milanis realize their deepest secrets are about to be dragged out into the open before the cameras even roll. Each of the Milanis—even their aloof Persian cat Pari—has something to hide, but the looming scrutiny of fame also threatens to bring the family closer than ever. Dramatic, biting yet full of heart, Tehrangeles is a tragicomic saga about high-functioning family dysfunction and the ever-present struggle to accept one’s true self.

Tehrangeles

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Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple. They go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.  Every year, they take a holiday from their lives to drink for too much wine with their favorite people in the world.  Except this year, they are lying through their teeth, because Harriet and Wyn broke up six months ago.  And they still haven’t told anyone.  But the cottage is for sale so this is the last time they’ll all be here together.  They can’t bear to break their best friends’ hearts, so they’ll fake it for one more week.  But how can you pretend to be in love - and get away with it - in front of the people who know you best?

Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple - they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Every year, they take a holiday from their lives to drink far too much wine with their favourite people in the world. Except this year, they are lying through their teeth, because Harriet and Wyn broke up six months ago. And they still haven't told anyone. But the cottage is for sale so this is the last time they'll all be here together. They can't bear to break their best friends' hearts so they'll fake it for one more week. But how can you pretend to be in love - and get away with it - in front of the people who know you best?

Happy Place

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Katie Peterson

Confusion frames the human predicament.  In Katie Peterson’s ‘Fog and Smoke’, confusion is, literally, our climate.  Writing to and from the California landscape, Peterson sees fog and smoke as literal - one a habitual, natural weather event, the other an increasingly common after effect of the West’s drought-caused fires.  But they are also metaphysical.  Fog and smoke reflect the true conditions (and frustrations) of our ability to perceive and to connect.  Peterson writes, “I’ve been speaking about it at a distance. / Now I want to talk about its thickness. / A person could get killed in here.”

Poems

Peterson unfurls the quotidian fabric of our lives, patterned with the difficulties of language and this moment. Confusion frames the human predicament. In Katie Peterson’s Fog and Smoke, confusion is, literally, our climate. Writing to, and from, the California landscape, Peterson sees fog and smoke as literal—one a natural weather event, the other an aftereffect of the West’s drought-caused fires—but they are also metaphysical. Fog and smoke subsume the poet and reflect the true conditions (and frustrations) of our ability to perceive and to connect. She writes, “I’ve been speaking about it at a distance. / Now I want to talk about its thickness. / A person could get killed in here.” The collection moves through three sections: First, the poet follows her local fog’s cyclical journey of descent and dispersion; second, in a sort of pastoral interlude, she travels widely, almost erratically, to the California desert, the greater world, and ancient history; finally, she descends into the enclosed space of the household, and the increased confinement and intimacy of raising a child during the pandemic. Peterson unfolds the small moments that make up our lives and reveals the truths contained within them, and her poems capture the lyricism of our daily rhythms—the interruptions, dialogues, and epiphanies.

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