New Adult Fiction
The bishop's daughter
Brunstetter, Wanda E., author.
2024
After her father's tragic accident, Leona's faith wavers. When outlander Jimmy Scott is hired to paint an Amish schoolhouse, Jimmy and Leona find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other. Can anything good come from the love between an Amish woman and an English man? What secrets will be revealed and what miracles await God's people in Lancaster County?
The blue hour : a novel
Hawkins, Paula, author
2024
An isolated Scottish island, accessible to the mainland only twelve hours a day. A famous (some might say infamous) artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared after visiting her twenty years ago. A present-day discovery that intimately connects three people and unveils a web of secrets and lies. A masterful and propulsive novel that asks searing questions of ambition, power, gender and perception, The Blue Hour recalls the very best of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins's place among the very best of our most nuanced, powerful and stylish storytellers.
A Christmas duet : a novel
Macomber, Debbie, author
2024
Hailey Morgan's life has always revolved around music. She once had big dreams of composing her own songs, but the reality of life has led her to working as an assistant high school band teacher in Portland, Oregon. As the holidays approach, Hailey dreads the annual tradition of Christmas with her meddling family, where she'll have to play nice while dodging their traditional expectations. When Hailey's close friend offers her family's empty cabin for a rejuvenating solo retreat, Hailey finally decides to do something to make herself happy. However, her arrival in small-town Podunk, Washington, is anything but peaceful when she discovers the cabin is occupied by several wild animals. Luckily, Jay, the mayor's son--who happens to be an incredibly charming former musician--is more than willing to help. Soon Hailey and Jay are nearly inseparable, chopping down and decorating a Christmas tree, sipping hot cocoa in front of a cozy fire, and best of all, playing music together. Jay's encouragement and feedback inspire Hailey to believe she might succeed as a songwriter after all. But even in her snow-dusted oasis, family holiday drama still finds Hailey, threatening her newfound peace and confidence, while she realizes Jay might be more than he presents himself to be. Suddenly her Christmas paradise has become a winter storm and Hailey must weather through the challenges to stand up for herself and embrace the holiday spirit.
The December market
Thayne, RaeAnne, author.
2024
Amanda Taylor isn't a fan of Christmas, but as the owner of a local soap shop, ignoring the holiday season isn't an option. To forget the pain of Christmases past, Amanda focuses on making the season bright for her customers at the Shelter Springs Holiday Giving Market. But when her beloved grandmother, Birdie, starts dating the dashing new resident of the Shelter Inn retirement community, Amanda smells trouble. Fortunately, Rafe Arredondo, the grandson of Birdie's charming suitor, is equally dubious of the match. Unfortunately, he's just as fiery as his grandfather--and Amanda has zero interest in getting burned. As a single father, paramedic and assistant fire chief, Rafe has more than enough on his plate. Sure, he and Amanda share a common goal in keeping their grandparents apart. Still, that doesn't mean he should allow himself to feel as drawn to her as he does. Even if she is great with his young son. Even if she does help the burden of his own painful past feel a little lighter. But when their paths keep crossing at the holiday market, it starts to feel like fate, prompting them both to wonder if taking a chance on love might gift them everything they've been wishing for.
Given our history
Miller, Kristyn J., author
2024
"In this sparkling romance, two professors with a complicated past get a second chance to prove history won't repeat itself.-- Amazon.ca
The Great Hippopotamus Hotel
McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948-, author
2024
Mma Ramotswe has a deft hand in delicate cases, and never allows an act of injustice to pass unanswered. So, when it comes to her attention that a matter involving dubious motives has arisen, and that it will require the utmost discretion to resolve, she has no choice but to lend her skills in the arts of detection and reconciliation. She is, after all, head of Botswana's premier detective agency, but that doesn't mean she can't use the help of Mma Makutsi and Mma Potokwane. Meanwhile, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has found himself in complicated circumstances of his own, requiring not a little of Mma Ramotswe's time and expertise. In the end, as each of these predicaments comes untangled, Mma Ramotswe draws on her goodwill and generosity to bring important truths to light: of friendship, honesty, and love.
The grey wolf
Penny, Louise, author
2024
A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list--and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching. Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders.
The holiday cottage : a novel
Morgan, Sarah (Romance fiction writer), author
2024
To the outside world, Imogen is a marketing dynamo. Her colleagues don't know that while her high-achieving professional image is real, the happy childhood stories she spins are as fake as her pretend enthusiasm for Christmas. Working 24/7 has always been her solution to surviving the festive season--until burnout leads to a catastrophic blunder.
Intermezzo
Rooney, Sally, author
2024
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties - successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father's death, he's medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women - his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude - a period of desire, despair and possibility - a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
The last gifts of the universe : a novel
August, Riley, author
2024
A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes. When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left - and whatever came for the others will one day come for them. Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals - anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago. Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.
The last one at the wedding : a novel
Rekulak, Jason, author
2024
Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He's even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right. He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate--very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she's marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it's difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn't seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.
Libby lost and found
Booth, Stephanie (Stephanie Elaine), author
2024
Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-best-selling fantasy series, The Falling Children--written as "F.T. Goldhero" to maintain her privacy. When the last manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Already suffering from crippling anxiety, Libby's symptoms quickly accelerate. After she forgets her dog at the park one day--then almost discloses her identity to the journalist who finds him--Libby has to admit it: she needs help finishing the last book. Desperately, she turns to eleven-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the books even better than she does but harbors her own dark secrets. Tensions mount as Libby's dementia deepens--until both Peanut and Libby swirl into an inevitable but bone-shocking conclusion.
The man in black : and other stories
Griffiths, Elly author
2024
"The Man in Black includes ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss. In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends of lore of Norfolk. In "Justice Jones and the Etherphone," a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary poswar London. To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in "Flint's Fireside Tale." And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile." -- page [4] of cover.
Midnight and blue
Rankin, Ian, author
2024
As new allies and old enemies circle, and the days and nights bleed into each other, even the legendary detective struggles to keep his head. That is, until a murder at midnight in a locked cell presents a new mystery. They say old habits die hard... However, this is a case where the prisoners and the guards are all suspects, and everyone has something to hide. With no badge, no authority and no safety net, Rebus walks a tightrope - with his life on the line.
The mistletoe mystery
Prose, Nita, author
2024
Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly's most joyful yet. But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential--and personal--mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?
Night & day
Connolly, John, 1968- author.
2024
"New York Times bestselling author John Connolly returns with a shivery collection of supernatural tales"-- Provided by publisher.
A promise of Peridot
Golden, Kate, author
2024
"A prophecy of death. A weapon of hope. A sacrifice of love. Arwen Valondale is sailing for the mysterious Kingdom of Citrine after the battle of Siren's Bay. Reeling from shocking revelations and her newfound powers, Arwen directs all of her pain and rage toward the man who betrayed her: King Kane Ravenwood. Kane's presence is unavoidable as he travels with Arwen and her friends to seek the Blade of the Sun, a legendary weapon inextricably tied to her fate and the future of the realm. Even an uneasy truce proves difficult as Arwen fights against her unresolved feelings for Kane, who is willing to become darkness itself to protect her. As Arwen faces creatures, foes, and magic beyond her wildest imaginings, she must discover the secrets of her past to defeat the monstrous Fae king Lazarus. But finding the light within might mean the death of her and everyone she loves"-- Provided by publisher.
Valley
McEwan, Stacey, author.
2024
With a contingent of hundreds, Dawsyn Sabar must lead her people home, but she has no way of knowing what will lie ahead -- or what might follow behind. 'Valley' is the final instalment in the bestselling 'Glacian' trilogy from TikTok darling Stacey McEwan.
We need no wings : a novel
Cardinal, Ann Dávila, author.
2024
""To be free, we must learn to fly. Tere Sanchez has always known who she was: a professor, a wife, a mother, and a friend. But when her husband dies unexpectedly, she finds herself completely broken. Taking a leave from the university, Tere hopes that she can mourn her husband and get back on her feet, but instead, she spends a year consumed by grief. Until the day she levitates. Suddenly, Tere's life is thrown into disarray, and the repeated incidents of levitation not only make her question her sanity, but also put her in danger. She decides she will do anything to stop them. So when she's reminded that her family is related to the renowned levitating mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, she leaves the refuge of her home and travels to Spain, hoping to find answers. But Saints can be elusive, and not all answers are easily found. Tere will soon have to decide whether to remain shrouded in her grief, or open her heart to a world where we need no wings to fly... "-- Provided by publisher.
The wood at midwinter
Clarke, Susanna, author
2024
Set in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. 'A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.' Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scot is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees-and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods. One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst-and the path of her life is changed forever.
The wrong hands
Billingham, Mark, author.
2024
"Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Still desperate to solve the murder of his wife, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne'er-do-well Wayne Cutler-a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife's death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately, he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of. Chuck in a Midsomer Murders-obsessed hitman, a psychotic welder, and a woman driven over the edge by a wayward Crème Egg, and Miller is in a mess that even he might not be able to dance his way out of"-- Provided by publisher.