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The Devil in Oxford

Jess Armstrong

Set after the Great War, Jess Armstrong’s USA Today bestselling and award-winning series is historical gothic murder mystery at its best, and Ruby Vaughn returns in The Devil in Oxford.

If someone were to ask American heiress Ruby Vaughn how exactly the occult came to play such a large role in her life, she would immediately point to her octogenarian housemate and employer, Mr. Owen. Together, the pair run a rare book shop in Exeter. Mr. Owen’s penchant for arcane, unusual—and occasionally illegal—books has been known to get Ruby into her fair share of trouble. And after the last year, she is looking forward to spending a quiet holiday in picturesque Oxford while Mr. Owen attends the annual meeting of his antiquarian society. Secretly, Ruby is also looking for a holiday from her confounding feelings for Ruan Kivell, the intriguing folk healer Pellar that she met in Cornwall. 

When Mr. Owen secures two tickets to an upcoming exhibition of artifacts amassed by disgraced scholar Julius Harker, Ruby reluctantly agrees to attend. The evening turns out to be more eventful than either of them bargained for. Harker’s dead body is discovered amongst the collection, his business partner is hastily arrested, and Ruan arrives...wanting to speak with Ruby. It seems both the arcane and her Pellar have followed Ruby to Oxford.

The murder case is suspicious at best, but the last thing Ruby wants is another investigation. That is, until an old friend comes begging for Ruby’s help. It soon becomes painfully clear that there is more going on in Oxford than meets the eye. Ruby and Ruan will have to uncover the dark secrets of the competitive world of antiquities while trying to understand the peculiar force that keeps drawing them back together.

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Deeper Than the Ocean

Mirta Ojito

A moving multigenerational novel about the enduring power of a mother's love, the ripple effect of secrets, and the strength of family bonds from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

In 1919 Spain, Catalina Quintana is the eldest daughter in a family of silkworm farmers on the tiny island of La Palma in the remote Canary Islands. Fiercely independent, Catalina dreams of building a life with her childhood love. But when a devastating fire ruins her family's silkworm farm, she's forced into a loveless marriage and a journey across the sea to Cuba aboard a doomed ocean liner. 
A century later, in 2019, journalist Mara Denis travels to La Palma to cover a modern-day disaster near the island. But the trip becomes personal when her mother asks her to find a long-lost birth certificate. Long haunted by the sea and plagued by dreams of a daughter she's never had, Mara begins to uncover a hidden family history that centers on Catalina, her great-grandmother who, she soon discovers, is listed among the dead in the infamous Valbanera shipwreck. As Mara follows Catalina's trail across Spain, Cuba, and Key West, she unearths a story of forbidden love and resilience that echoes through six generations. 
Told in a dual narrative that moves seamlessly between past and present, Deeper than the Ocean is a meditation on the strength of women, the enduring power of a mother's love, and the corrosive hold of family secrets across oceans and time.

This sweeping novel is perfect for fans of Isabel Allende, Julia Alvarez, and Kristin Hannah.

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Days at the Torunka Café

Satoshi Yagisawa

From the internationally bestselling author of the Morisaki Bookshop novels comes a charming and poignant story set at a quiet Tokyo café where customers find unexpected connection and experience everyday miracles.

Tucked away on a narrow side street in Tokyo is the Torunka Café, a neighborhood nook where the passersby are as likely to be local cats as tourists. Its regulars include Chinatsu Yukimura, a mysterious young woman who always leaves behind a napkin folded into the shape of a ballerina; Hiroyuki Numata, a middle-aged man who's returned to the neighborhood searching for the happy life he once gave up; and Shizuku, the café owner's teenage daughter, who is still coming to terms with her sister's death as she falls in love for the first time.

While Café Torunka serves up a perfect cup of coffee, it provides these sundry souls with nourishment far more lasting. Satoshi Yagisawa brilliantly illuminates the periods in our lives where we feel lost--and how we find our way again.

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Cursed Daughters: a Read with Jenna Pick

Oyinkan Braithwaite

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK

A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer ("A bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious'--New York Times)

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: New York Times, Washington Post, People, Goodreads, E! News, Kirkus, LitHub, Book Riot

"A triumph: bold, searing, and utterly original. From the first page, it grips with an electric pulse....Impossible to put down."
--Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with the Louding Voice

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.

There is also the matter of the family curse: "No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace..." which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. 

When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family's history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?

Cursed Daughters is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. With its unforgettable cast of characters, it asks us what it means to be given a second chance and how to live both wisely and well with what we've been given.

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The Bridesmaid

Cate Quinn

From the acclaimed author of The Clinic comes a pulse-pounding thriller about a society wedding turned deadly, for fans of The Unwedding.

The Kensingtons invite you to the society wedding of the decade. There's just one hitch. You might not make it out alive.

When a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered weeks before an exclusive society wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted as an unlikely undercover replacement. As she works to unpick the lives of the notoriously private Kensington family, glamour-averse Holly discovers a new worst enemy in bridezilla Adrianna. Heir to a multimillion dollar fortune, Adrianna is set on throwing the event of the decade, and she won't let anything get in her way.

But beneath the veneer of poise and sophistication, Adrianna and her bridesmaids have secrets worth killing for.

As the wedding day gets closer, it's clear that one of the five hand-picked bridesmaids has committed murder - and a destination wedding is a perfect place to strike again. Soon, Holly finds herself on the playground of the rich and famous, but if she wants to find answers, she'll have to make it out alive.

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Some Bright Nowhere

Ann Packer

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

"Profound and moving and real."--Andrew Sean Greer

"Some Bright Nowhere is a novel that draws you in deeply and holds you there. Wonderful."--Meg Wolitzer
The bestselling, beloved author returns with her first novel in over a decade, an intimate and profoundly moving look at a long marriage and the ways in which a startling request can change a couple's understanding of who they are, together and apart.
Eliot and his wife Claire have been happily married for nearly four decades. They've raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and have weathered the inevitable ups and downs of a long life spent together. But eight years after Claire was diagnosed with cancer, the end is near, and it's time to gather loved ones and prepare for the inevitable.
Over the years of Claire's illness, Eliot has willingly--lovingly--shifted into the role of caregiver, appreciating the intimacy and tenderness that comes with a role even more layered and complex than the one he performed as a devoted husband. But as he focuses on settling into what will be their last days and weeks together, Claire makes an unexpected request that leaves him reeling. In a moment, his carefully constructed world is shattered.
What if your partner's dying wish broke your heart? How well do we know the deepest desires of those we love dearly? As Eliot is confronted with this profound turning point in his marriage and his life, he grapples with the man and husband he's been, and with the great unknowns of Claire's last days.
Ann Packer makes a triumphant return with this powerful novel that is tender and raw, visceral and unexpected. Emotionally vibrant and complex, Some Bright Nowhere explores the profound gifts and unexpected costs of truly loving someone, and the fears and desires we experience as the end of life draws near.
 

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Next Time Will Be Our Turn

Jesse Q. Sutanto

A grandmother tells her granddaughter about her twisty, often surprising, journey to who she is now in this sweeping love story by USA Today bestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto.

Izzy Chen is dreading her family’s annual Chinese New Year celebration, where they all come together at a Michelin-starred restaurant to flaunt their status and successes in hopes to one up each other. So when her seventy-three-year-old glamorous and formidable grandmother walks in with a stunning woman on her arm and kisses her in front of everyone, it shakes Izzy to her core. She’d always considered herself the black sheep of the family for harboring similar feelings to the ones her Nainai just displayed.

Seeing herself in her teenage granddaughter's struggles with identity and acceptance, Magnolia Chen tells Izzy her own story, of how as a teen she was sent by her Indo-Chinese parents from Jakarta to Los Angeles for her education and fell in love with someone completely forbidden to her by both culture and gender norms—Ellery, an American college student who became Magnolia's best friend and the love of her life. Stretching across decades and continents, Magnolia's star-crossed love story reveals how life can take unexpected turns but ultimately lead you to exactly who you're meant to be.

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The Merge

Grace Walker

A thrilling and ominously prophetic debut set in a world when Earth and its resources have been pushed to breaking point, giving rise to a revolutionary--and highly controversial--procedure in which two people's consciousness can be combined to exist in one body.

How far would you go to never say goodbye?

Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer's. Her daughter Amelia, a once fiery and strong-willed activist, can't bear to see her mother's mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world's first experimental merging process for Alzheimer's patients, in which Laurie's ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia's healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.

Soon Amelia and Laurie join the opaque and mysterious group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his addict daughter Lara. As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation center for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.

An exhilarating, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, The Merge is a personal story of love, family, and sacrifice, as well as a thought-provoking examination of the limits of control, resistance, and freedom in our modern world.

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Evensong

Stewart O'Nan

"Stewart O'Nan has been one of the best chroniclers of the lives of American women." - Susan Straight

An intimate, moving novel that follows The Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of women of a certain age who band together to help one another and their circle of friends in Pittsburgh as they face the challenges of their golden years

The Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors' appointments, they have to pick up the slack.

Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they've pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty club represents the power of community and chosen family.

Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O'Nan revisits beloved characters from his past work -- most notably Emily Maxwell -- to fashion a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm, and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.

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The Cathedral of Lost Souls

Paula Brackston

Book two in the Hecate Cavendish series from New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston - a magic infused series about an eccentric and spirited young woman who can see ghosts.

Hereford, England 1881.

The adventure continues! After the fire and the tumultuous events in the cathedral library, Hecate is determined never again to come so close to losing the beloved mappa mundi. She has shown herself to be the greatest threat to the Essedenes and their plans and they will stop at nothing to be rid of her. With the help of her
archeologist father, and the support of the redoubtable and loyal Inspector Winter, she must take the fight to her enemies.

But the numbers of Embodied Spirits are growing with terrifying speed, and an atmosphere of violence and danger has taken hold of the ancient city of Hereford. Hecate dare not trust anyone beyond her inner circle, no matter how benevolent they might seem. Nor will she risk the lives of those she loves ever again. The goddess Hekate has called her to action. She must draw upon all her gifts, and the assistance of her family of ghostly allies, if the city is not to be lost to darkness forever.

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Aphrodite

Phoenicia Rogerson

From the award-winning author of Herc, an enrapturing feminist tale that brilliantly reimagines the story of Aphrodite and how she transformed herself from a lowly outsider to the darling goddess of love, for readers of Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint.

Aphrodite saw the gods on Mount Olympus and decided she wanted a piece of what they had. Only problem is, she's not a goddess, just a lowly being who's supposed to remain in a distant cave, keeping the threads of Fate woven neatly. But Aphrodite's never let anyone tell her what to do...

Weaving herself a web of lies and careful deceptions, she convinces everyone she's the goddess of love and that her rightful place is among the Olympians, who lord it over everyone else at the top of the world, but under the stifling rule of Zeus. For the first time, she has the best of everything, as well as friends, peers, even loved ones. Only, being a goddess isn't quite like she thought. Those who oppose Zeus tend to disappear, or worse. And one day, Aphrodite decides she's had enough...

"Rogerson's impressive talent leaps from the pages." --Carly Reagon, author of The Toll House, on Herc

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The Amberglow Candy Store

Hiyoko Kurisu

In this charming, fable-like book from Japan, a fox spirit sells magical confections to troubled humans, only for them to get a little more than they bargained for...

Welcome. We don't get many humans here.

In a cozy night-alley lies a very special store. It's only open between the full moon and the new moon, and it's full of wagashi, Japanese sweets. Each candy claims to cure some ailment of the heart or the head. But who is the mysterious proprietor, and why does he study his customers so closely?

From the girl who craves more time with her boyfriend to the friends with some buried resentments, each customer learns a valuable lesson from these sugary treats. The candies can give you what you most desire, but not always in the way you expect...

Back to the shop owner—did that shadow just make it look like he has a pair of ears? Surely, not a tail? If he is a half-fox spirit, so be it. But why is he so keen to study human emotions, and why does he say each candy has a "dosage"? Patience. Like the center of a gooey caramel, the best things take time to reveal themselves.

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Secret Nights and Northern Lights

Megan Oliver

Childhood best friends and first loves are reunited on a make-or-break work trip to Iceland, with old feelings coming to the surface in this charming romance from debut author Megan Oliver.

Mona Miller lives her life by platitudes: she’s just fine, thanks; all good; not a problem! Everything is right as rain—even if it’s all a lie. Everyone at the travel magazine where she works knows her as a team player (in other words, the one who won’t complain about the endless fluff pieces pushed her way). But, feeling snubbed after being passed over for a promotion, Mona jumps at an international assignment to Iceland, even though she’s woefully unprepared. 

She’s determined to prove her worth, though, and her can-do attitude will scale any glacier. But the freelance photographer paired with her is none other than Benjamin Carter. Ben, her childhood best friend who understood her even when her family didn’t. Ben, her first love—first everything. And Ben, the boy who ghosted her fourteen years ago and left her brokenhearted. 

There is a decade’s worth of resentment Mona needs to ignore if she wants to make it through this trip. She’ll put on her “No worries!” façade and hold Ben at a distance. But the more time they spend together, the more the ice around her heart melts. And as those old feelings spark back to life, Mona must decide if she’s willing to go on the biggest adventure of all.

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The Bookshop Below

Georgia Summers

Below the streets of London, a secret network of magical bookshops has existed for millennia. But they're slowly disappearing, and no one knows why. Only one dishonored bookseller can uncover the truth and rewrite her story--in this spellbinding standalone fantasy novel from the author of The City of Stardust.

If you want a story that will change your life, Chiron's bookshop is where you go. For those lucky enough to grace its doors, it's a glimpse into a world of powerful bargains and deadly ink magic.



For Cassandra Fairfax, it's a reminder of everything she lost, when Chiron kicked her out and all but shuttered the shop. Since then, she's used her skills in less ethical ways, trading stolen books and magical readings to wealthy playboys and unscrupulous collectors. 



Then Chiron dies under mysterious circumstances. And if Cassandra knows anything, it's this: the bookshop must always have an owner.



But she's not the only one interested. There's Lowell Sharpe, a dark-eyed, regrettably handsome bookseller she can't seem to stop bumping into; rival owners who threaten Cassandra from the shadows; and, of course, Chiron's murderer, who is still on the loose. 



As Cassandra tries to uncover the secrets her mentor left behind, a sinister force threatens to unravel the world of the magical bookshops entirely...



"Georgia Summers's magical bookshop is my new favorite place. The Bookshop Below is a delicious read, I loved every second of it." --Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author



"Steeped in bookish magic and infused with the comfort and terror of a favorite tragic fairytale, The Bookshop Below is darkly whimsical and utterly heart-wrenching." --Tori Bovalino, author of My Throat is An Open Grave

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And Then There Was You

Sophie Cousens

She's found the perfect man . . . There's just one big twist.

Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn’t where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her "most likely to succeed" at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn’t want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash—and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away—she turns to a mysterious dating service.

Enter Rob, her handsome, well-read, and charming match, the perfect plus-one to take to her reunion. The more she gets to know him, the more perfect he appears to be. Could it be that this dating service knows her better than she knows herself? And can she overlook the one big catch? As Chloe reconnects with old friends, she begins to question everything she thought she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, revisiting the past is exactly what she needs to move forward.

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