Best of
Novels

2022

Reminders of Him


Colleen Hoover - 2022
    But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

Impossible to Forget


Imogen Clark - 2022
    In her final letter, Angie has charged her four closest friends with guiding Romany through her last year of school—but is there an ulterior motive to her unusual dying wish?Each of the four guardians possesses an outlook on life that Angie wants to give her daughter as a legacy. Three of them have known each other since university: the eternally nomadic and exotically named Tiger; the shy and practical Leon with his untapped musical genius; and Maggie, a brilliant lawyer who doesn’t know her own abilities. But the fourth guardian is a mystery to the others: they’ve never even heard of former model Hope before…As the guardians reflect on their friendship with Angie, it becomes apparent that this unusual arrangement is as much about them as it is about Romany. Navigating their grief individually and as a group, what will all five of them learn about themselves, their pasts—and the woman who’s brought them all together?

To Love and Be Loved


Amanda Prowse - 2022
    Now, can she put the shame behind her and finally find happiness?Young and desperately in love, Merrin had the whole world ahead of her. But just as her new life was about to start, the ground beneath her feet was cruelly swept away. Devastated by the humiliation, she ran far away from the beloved fishing village she had always called home to lick her wounds and escape her gossiping friends and neighbours.It hasn’t been easy, but six years later Merrin has forged a new life for herself far from the sea, burying the impulsive girl she once was. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to return to the village she swore she’d never set foot in again.Reluctantly back in the arms of her community, Merrin begins to realise what she’s been missing out on all these years. As she begins to remember the person she used to be, she is forced to make choices about her future, and to question the past. What does she want from her life? Who is important to her? Who is to blame for everything that went wrong? And can she forgive them, let old wounds heal and finally be her true self again?

The Bluebonnet Battle


Carolyn Brown - 2022
    She wants room at the table for her own style of consolation and closure: healthy, modern, and vegan. But this is about more than fried chicken versus tofu turkey. Matilda’s return is also stirring up their volatile, unresolved history. And just when they thought it couldn’t get more personal…Matilda’s son, Nick, and Liddy’s niece, Amelia, have met and the sparks are flying. For Matilda and Liddy, their precious kin’s romance is their worst nightmare. Now, it’s all Nick and Amelia can do to survive a family feud that has the whole town talking.The battle for the funeral dinner crown is on. As two strong-willed women wrestle for control, making peace with the past may be the only way to serve the star-crossed lovers a happy ending.

Olga Dies Dreaming


Xóchitl González - 2022
    Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers.Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets...Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

Under the Oak Tree: Season 1


Suji Kim - 2022
    As a consequence of the physical and mental trauma, she develops a crippling inferiority complex about both her stutter and her physical appearance as well as a general lack of self-respect.When Maxi’s father, Duke Croyso, receives a royal order from the King to fight the Red Dragon Sektor, he decides to marry his daughter off to Riftan Calypse, a peasant knight. Duke Croyso’s plan is to push off his martial responsibilities to his son-in-law. Maxi thus finds herself forced into a marriage with a man she barely knows. The newlyweds spend their first night together, but they become separated immediately as Riftan leaves for war early next morning.Fast forward three years later, and the couple reunites when Riftan comes back to the city to celebrate his victory in war. Although the two spent only one night together and Riftan is a stranger to Maxi, she is afraid that he might want to divorce her, for the divorce would mean a death sentence for the young woman.What are Riftan’s intentions? Will Maxi find the strength to overcome her trauma and lack of self-confidence? Will the couple survive and find love against all odds?This volume collects episodes 1–39 of the web novel Under the Oak Tree.

Memory's Legion


James S.A. Corey - 2022
    A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series is available in this collection* — includes a brand new novella. Now a major television series.Contents:Drive (2012)The Butcher of Anderson Station (2011)The Churn (2014)Gods of Risk (2012)The Vital Abyss (2015)Strange Dogs (2017)Auberon (2019)Memory’s Legion (2022)*does not include The Last Flight of the Cassandra

Lighthouse Jive


Jonathan Dunne - 2022
    But who cares? Theodore’s wife, Amber, is convinced that the end of the world is coming in the form of a giant asteroid.Needing a holiday, Theodore and his family find themselves living in a mystical island lighthouse on the wild Atlantic coast of Ireland, far away from the lunacy of the modern world. But not far enough, apparently...

River to the Ocean (Rydell River Ranch Series, #15)


Leanne Davis - 2022
    only he doesn't know that...He appears out of nowhere, leaving Lillian shaken and guilt-ridden. How the hell, after all these years, did the father of her only child find her? He is totally unaware of the son they conceived. Long ago, Lillian accepted her life as a single mother, and proceeded to set up a successful veterinarian practice in the town she was raised in. It was smooth sailing until Matt Griffin showed up.But how can she trust him, a complete stranger, with her precious son’s life? She can’t. She won’t. She will however, meet Matt, and unbeknownst to him, secretly administer the interview of his life. Can Matt fill the enormous role of becoming the father of her child?Lillian shows up in Westport, the oceanside town where Matt lives and works as a charter boat captain. Although he wonders why she’s there, he isn’t about to lose another shot, possibly his last, with her. Little does he realize what Lillian is about to bring into his life: pivotal changes more immense than the ocean he sails on every day.When he meets his six-year-old son, Matt has no idea what to do with the boy, but sincerely wants to learn how to be a dad. But there is no ocean where Matt can charter a boat in River’s End, but he also can’t be a real father to his only son from half a state away. Can they find a compromise? One that shows them how to prevail over the challenges that separate them?Binge read this contemporary, western romance series, full of hot cowboys and family entanglements that is based around the Rydell River Ranch brought to you by small-town romance author Leanne Davis…Recommended Reading Order for River's End Series:River's EndRiver's EscapeRiver's ReturnRiver RoadRiver on FireRiver's LostRiver of ChangeRiver's DestinyRiver's RescueRiver's WinterContinue reading the next generation with The Rydell River Ranch Series:River in DarknessRiver in LightRiver in the MountainsRiver at the RanchRiver to the OceanRiver from the CityRiver Through the ValleyEach book is a standalone with a happily-ever after but the journey getting there? Never easy and always epic! You’ll get to check in with beloved characters in this interconnected standalone series.

The Mother


Jane Caro - 2022
    She was thrilled when her younger daughter Ally married her true love, but as time goes by Miriam wonders whether all is well with Ally, as she moves to the country and gradually withdraws, finding excuses every time Miriam offers to visit. Their relationship has always had its ups and downs, and Miriam tries to give her daughter the distance she so clearly wants. But is all as it seems?When the truth of her daughter's situation is revealed, Miriam watches in disbelief as Ally and her children find themselves increasingly vulnerable and cut off from the world. As the situation escalates and the law proves incapable of protecting them, Miriam is faced with an unthinkable decision. But she will do anything for the people she loves most in the world. Wouldn't you?A stunning, gripping novel that goes to the heart of a mother's love and asks what any of us might do when faced with a threat to the people we hold most dear.

Dead Horse Gap


Lee Christine - 2022
    Could the bitterness that has been carried through the years have anything to do with the death of the pilot?Meanwhile, Detective Constable Nerida Sterling is already deep undercover in the Snowies, her assignment to infiltrate a drug ring operating in the mountains and to ultimately hunt down a murderer. As her cover becomes more and more tenuous, what lengths will Sterling go to in order to get the information that she needs?

A Sunrise Over Bali


Sandy Barker - 2022
    When Jaelee Tan leaves her high-flying PR job in Miami for a sabbatical in Bali, the last thing she expects is for it to become permanent. But when her boss demands the trip be cut short, Jae does the only thing she can think of and quits on the spot. With two months in Bali, a new group of friends and the gorgeous scenery and beaches, Jae is determined to make the most of her new-found freedom. And when she locks eyes with hunky Scot, Alistair, Jae wonders if she’ll lose her heart to more than just a Balinese sunrise. Escape to Bali in this uplifting novel full of friendship, laughter and romance, perfect for fans of Mandy Baggot, Julie Caplin and Holly Martin.

The Swimmers


Julie Otsuka - 2022
    But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war. Narrated by Alice's daughter, who witnesses her stark and devastating decline, The Swimmers is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss, written in spellbinding, incantatory prose. The most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master.

A Soul As Cold As Frost


Jennifer Kropf - 2022
    She knew what it was like to wear clothes from donation bins and be mocked by the beautiful girls in high school. She thought those brutal experiences made her ready for anything, but she wasn't ready for this.After an eccentric girl opens Helen's eyes to let her see the realm of Winter—a world with intersects tucked carefully into the cracks of our own, where monarchs have risen and fallen, it's forbidden to mention the name of The Dead King, and the currency is gold rings—Helen discovers things are far from ordinary in Winter. After trying to deny the existence of a disrupting train horn ringing in her ears for days, Helen receives a mysterious summons from a group who call themselves “The Crimson Court” to enter into The Quarrel of Sword and Bone—a traditional duel performed before one thousand witnesses that leaves only one survivor—and she’s forced to finally pay attention to the handsome boy who's been following her around with a warning on his tongue.When the arrival of wicked villains propels Helen into the heart of Winter where there’s no going back, she finds herself being pursued by something else too—a whispered prayer battling on her behalf, and an ancient Truth that breathes living words of wisdom—the very wisdom forgotten by the Rime Folk when their disunity drove them to draw lines in the snow in an age of the past.Helen must find a way out, or she’ll be dragged into the arena to face the crooked Queen head on before a crowd ready to watch her die. The Winter Souls Series blends action and warm Christmas traditions, bringing the old forgotten tales of the season to life with new and grittier versions of famous characters out of old holiday legends, folklore, and myths; such as St. Nicholas, the Snow Queen, the Scrooge, and the Nutcracker.A Soul as Cold as Frost is Jennifer Kropf's debut novel, ideal for fans of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms by Meredith Rusu and Ashleigh Powell

River from the City (Rydell River Ranch Series, #16)


Leanne Davis - 2022
    Eventually, his marriage, identity and lifelong dreams crumble in the blink of an eye, leaving him not only heartbroken, but burned out and jaded.Self-medicating with gallons of alcohol, Hunter has no clue about his next move so he chooses to wallow in his wretched situation. The only good thing he can still appreciate is Kyomi Wade, a girl whom he likes to hang out with. She dates his cousin and often visits the ranch where he insists on hibernating. Soon, however, she and Hunter spend more time together than either of them do with Asher. Their strong friendship gradually helps Hunter's broken heart to heal. Kyomi, however, refrains from exposing very much about herself. Hunter can only wonder why she settles for a few crumbs from Asher while he longs to give her the entire world, which she deserves.Eventually, a compelling secret from Hunter’s past invades his present. Hunter fears losing the new life he now embraces because of the grave influences of his former life. How can he handle such an explosive secret without losing all that he managed to gain since he snubbed the city and his recent past?Binge read this contemporary, western romance series, full of hot cowboys and family entanglements that is based around the Rydell River Ranch brought to you by small-town romance author Leanne Davis…Recommended Reading Order for River's End Series:River's EndRiver's EscapeRiver's ReturnRiver RoadRiver on FireRiver's LostRiver of ChangeRiver's DestinyRiver's RescueRiver's WinterContinue reading the next generation with The Rydell River Ranch Series:River in DarknessRiver in LightRiver in the MountainsRiver at the RanchRiver to the OceanRiver from the CityRiver Through the ValleyEach book is a standalone with a happily-ever after but the journey getting there? Never easy and always epic! You’ll get to check in with beloved characters in this interconnected standalone series.

Prison Life is Easy for a Villainess: Volume 1


Hibiki Yamazaki - 2022
    Rachel informed everyone she had not committed the acts they were accusing her of, but she was dragged away out of the party venue and thrown into the palace dungeon.And so Rachel thought,“Hooray for my slow doing-whatever-I-want life! No more queen’s education, no more noisy servants–today marks the start of my long vacation!”Between enjoying all of the preparations she had made for this very occasion and constantly harassing the annoying Prince, Rachel is going to enjoy her slow prison life to the fullest!

Vagabonds!


Eloghosa Osunde - 2022
     As in Nigeria, vagabonds are those whose existence is literally outlawed: the queer, the poor, the displaced, the footloose and rogue spirits. They are those who inhabit transient spaces, who make their paths and move invisibly, who embrace apparitions, old vengeances and alternative realities. Eloghosa Osunde's brave, fiercely inventive novel traces a wild array of characters for whom life itself is a form of resistance: a driver for a debauched politician with the power to command life and death; a legendary fashion designer who gives birth to a grown daughter; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a wife and mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her world. As their lives intertwine—in bustling markets and underground clubs, churches and hotel rooms—vagabonds are seized and challenged by spirits who command the city's dark energy. Whether running from danger, meeting with secret lovers, finding their identities, or vanquishing their shadowselves, Osunde's characters confront and support one another, before converging for the once-in-a-lifetime gathering that gives the book its unexpectedly joyous conclusion. Blending unvarnished realism with myth and fantasy, Vagabonds! is a vital work of imagination that takes us deep inside the hearts, minds, and bodies of a people in duress—and in triumph.

Beyond the Wire


James D. Shipman - 2022
    Like other members of the Sonderkommando, Jakub was selected on arrival for an unthinkable job: sorting through the clothes of the dead and moving their bodies from the gas chambers to the crematoriums. In this hell within a hell, Jakub clings to the promise he made to his murdered father--to live, at any cost--and to the moments he is able to spend in the company of Anna, imprisoned in the women's camp.Every morning, Anna marches miles to the union munitions factory where she works alongside other prisoners. Even Jakub doesn't know that she and a few other women have been taking the ultimate risk, smuggling trace amounts of gunpowder back in their clothing. A bold plan is brewing to revolt against the SS and liberate the camp. Jakub, pressured to join the resistance, knows that any uprising faces impossible odds. Added to this already stark choice is another desperate reality--the risk from informers who see their only chance of survival in betraying their fellow Jews.Powerfully moving and unflinching in its authenticity, Beyond the Wire tells of the women and men who, though outnumbered and outgunned, fought to free themselves, sparking a brilliant flash of light and hope amidst the darkest evil that humans can conceive.

Cold Enough for Snow


Jessica Au - 2022
    All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here - is it only the daughter? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey? At once a careful reckoning and an elegy, Cold Enough for Snow questions whether any of us speak a common language, which dimensions can contain love, and what claim we have to truly know another's inner world.Selected from more than 1,500 entries, Cold Enough for Snow won the Novel Prize, a new, biennial award offered by Fitzcarraldo Editions, New Directions (US) and Giramondo (Australia), for any novel written in English that explores and expands the possibilities of the form.

Sooley: The Gripping Bestseller from John Grisham - The perfect Christmas present


John Grisham - 2022
    

Bad Blood Sisters


Saralyn Richard - 2022
    For one thing, her brother finally undergoes transplant surgery. For another, Quinn’s estranged BFF, her “blood” sister, is brought into the family mortuary, bludgeoned to death. Quinn’s haunted by the past, her friendship gone awry, and the blood oath she’s sworn to keep secret. The police consider her a person of interest, and someone threatens her not to talk. Quinn is the only one who knows enough to bring the killer to justice, but what she’s buried puts her in extreme danger.Fans of Lisa Jewell, Shari Lapena, and “Six Feet Under” will stay up late reading BAD BLOOD SISTERS.

Lapvona


Ottessa Moshfegh - 2022
    One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him as a baby, as she did so many of the village’s children. Ina’s gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina’s home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place. Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, civility and savagery, will prove to be very thin indeed.

A Hero of Our Time


Naben Ruthnum - 2022
    Aided by his colleague turned comrade-in-arms Nena, who loathes and tolerates him in equal measure, Osman delves into Olivia's twisted past. But at every turn, he's stymied by his unfailing gift for cruel observation, which he turns with most ferocity on himself, without ever noticing what it is that stops him from connecting to anyone in his past or present. As Osman loses his grip on his family, Nena, and everything he thought was essential to his identity, he confronts an enemy who may simply be too good at her job to be defeated.A Hero of Our Time cracks the veneer of well-intentioned race conversations in the West, dismantles cheery narratives of progress through tech and "streamlined" education, and exposes the venomous self-congratulation and devouring lust for wealth, power, and property that lurks beneath.

Secrets and Truths (Otherside Heat #1)


Whitney Hill - 2022
    When her boss makes it clear he's got a target on her back, she seeks dangerous allies to regain control of her future.Vampire vagabond Cade is running from his past and thirsty for more powerful blood than mundanes can offer. Most of Otherside is off-limits, but the human-blooded are fair game. When he and Lya cross paths in a scandalously sexy way at a Raleigh nightclub, Cade finds the perfect target. But nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems in the supernatural community, not even lust. And for love to win, predator and prey must find a way to meet in the middle—or die trying. Told from two perspectives, this red-hot, action-packed vampire romance has no cheating, no cliffhangers, and a happy ending.Fans of the Shadows of Otherside series will see some familiar faces alongside the new, with this story set approximately four years before the events of Elemental. Newcomers can read this book as a standalone entry.Content warnings: consensual on-page sex, physical violence, on-page death, blood drinking, swearing, slurs (not toward any real racial or ethnic group/identity), alcohol use, threat of sexual violence, implied past sexual violence, and remembrance of past abusive relationship.

Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World


Sasha Fletcher - 2022
    It's winter. It's so cold outside you could execute billionaires in the street about it. Sam lives with Eleanor and they are in love. He has three or four outstanding invoices that would each cover rent for a month. At some point, the President is going to make some absolutely wild announcements that will only end in doom. In a surreal, funny, and heart-breaking version of reality, Sasha Fletcher's highly anticipated first novel occupies that rare register that manages to speak to an increasingly incomprehensible world. Through scenes that poetically transform the mundane into the sublime and the absurd into the tragic, Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World is about the exquisite beauty of being in love in a world that is falling apart.

Corroded: A Novel of Friendship and Autism


Carrie Dalby - 2022
    No matter what she does or where she goes, Mary never feels she measures up to her older sister's legacy.Ben Thomas, a seventeen-year-old neighbor on the autism spectrum, crosses paths with Mary. He fights against the weight of his rigid lifestyle because he doesn't want his sensory issues to block their road to friendship.An unlikely relationship forges between someone hiding from the world and another seeking to find her place in it. Will Ben and Mary discover what it takes to strengthen their lives that have been corroding around them?

Faith


Itoro Bassey - 2022
    who resettles in Nigeria. The novel is a meditation where several generations of women riff on ideas of faith, expectation, identity, and independence. It's a poignant conversation between the dead and the living, the past and the present, and a young woman grappling to find her place in it all.

Call Me a Cab


Donald E. Westlake - 2022
    Westlake - a wild, romantic road trip across America by taxi cab -- demonstrates why this beloved author is so fondly remembered and so dearly missed. "A book by this guy is cause for happiness."Stephen KingDONALD E. WESTLAKEGOES OFF THE BEATEN PATHIn 1977, one of the world's finest crime novelists turned his pen to suspense of a very different sort - and the results have never been published, until now.Fans of mystery fiction have often pondered whether it would be possible to write a suspense novel without any crime at all, and in CALL ME A CAB the masterful Donald E. Westlake answered the question in his inimitable style. You won't find any crime in these pages - but what you will find is a wonderful suspense story, about a New York City taxi driver hired to drive a beautiful woman all the way across America, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, where the biggest decision of her life is waiting to be made. It's Westlake at his witty, thought-provoking best, and it proves that a page-turner doesn't need to have a bomb set to go off at the end of it in order to keep sparks flying every step of the way.

The Memories We Painted


Caitlin Miller - 2022
    Six-year-old Josie Carter never expects to wake up one morning in a hospital bed with a chronic health diagnosis: paralytic poliomyelitis. Being so young, Josie doesn’t understand what this means for her, but she soon discovers that she will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair, battling for her health. While Josie reels from the bitter loss of her health, her mom helps her find something she can do despite what she now can’t. In the process, Josie discovers something she most likely wouldn’t have if not for her health diagnosis. New York, 1951. Now a young adult, Josie sets out for a small town in New York to stay at her aunt and cousin’s unoccupied home for the summer. While there, Josie is offered two unexpected things: a job and a friendship with her neighbor’s son. But blessings and setbacks go hand in hand, and when life deals Josie a devastating blow, it brings her to another unexpected place in life—one that changes her forever.

The Tenderest of Strings


Steven Schwartz - 2022
    Reuben, a former copyeditor at the Chicago Tribune, purchases the local town paper, the Welton Sentinel. Ardith stays home and copes with the task of fixing up an older house, which suffers such disrepair that on Halloween it’s mistaken for part of a haunted house tour. Teenaged Harry continues his life as a troubled loner, skipping school and losing his tooth in a mysterious encounter. Meanwhile, Reuben, unaware that Ardith is having an affair, worries about his wife’s growing unhappiness and distance from the family. One night, after a cookout at some friends’ dairy farm, a fatal hit-and-run occurs that shocks the community, exposes a secret, and begins to rip apart the Rosenfeld family. The Tenderest of Strings is a riveting, full-hearted story of what it takes to survive as a family in a small Western town that beckons from afar but will put its newcomers to the test of their lives.

Plutoshine


Lucy Kissick - 2022
    Four billion miles from the Sun and two hundred degrees below zero, what this worldlet needs is light and heat. Through captured asteroids and solar mirrors, humanity's finest scientists and engineers are set to deliver them.What nobody factored in was a saboteur - but who, and why?From the start, terraformer Lucian is intrigued by nine-year-old Nou, traumatised to muteness after a horrifying incident that shook the base and upended her family into chaos. If he could reach her, perhaps he could understand what happened that day - and what she knows about the secrets of Pluto.For Nou possesses unspoken knowledge - something that could put a stop to the terraforming. But crippled by her fears, and unable to trust her family, there is no one she can talk to. Only through Lucian's gentle friendship does she start to rediscover her voice - and what she has to say will transform our sense of place in the Universe.

River Through the Valley (Rydell River Ranch Series, #7)


Leanne Davis - 2022
    But it ended up following her to work, home and possibly into forever…Melanie Rydell meets a strange man that she has a strong connection with on the very night she comes home to River’s End with new ambitions for her life. A short fling is not in her plans, so she refuses to give him her name, or take his. But she can’t deny their amazing weekend and agrees to consider seeing him again.Melanie is a successful artist who jointly works in the construction field. Reporting to work framing houses in the Rydell River Valley, she comes face to face with the man she had shared everything with that one weekend. Everything but her name.Kyle Wade has family connections in the Rydell River Valley that were the source of his greatest trauma, shame, rejection, and pain. But now he’s working ten miles from that place. Forced to be there, he lets the short fling with the mysterious woman, help soothe the bitter taste of being back in this valley. But when the woman shows up as his employee… all thoughts and plans morph into making sure no one finds out what was between them. Even as Kyle can’t resist the unique person he finds in Melanie Rydell.What Melanie doesn’t realize is the intense connection that her boss has to the rest of her family. It is not small thing and something that will change everything between everyone, but most especially between them.Binge read this contemporary, western romance series, full of hot cowboys and family entanglements that is based around the Rydell River Ranch brought to you by small-town romance author Leanne Davis…Recommended Reading Order for River's End Series:River's EndRiver's EscapeRiver's ReturnRiver RoadRiver on FireRiver's LostRiver of ChangeRiver's DestinyRiver's RescueRiver's WinterContinue reading the next generation with The Rydell River Ranch Series:River in DarknessRiver in LightRiver in the MountainsRiver at the RanchRiver to the OceanRiver from the CityRiver Through the ValleyRiver of RegretsEach book is a standalone with a happily-ever after but the journey getting there? Never easy and always epic! You’ll get to check in with beloved characters in this interconnected standalone series.

Pure Colour


Sheila Heti - 2022
    It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.Here we are, just living in the first draft of Creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart.In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal—to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.

The Voids


Ryan O’Connor - 2022
    Voids are flats that have been vacated, that will never be lived in again. But there never were any signs of life. Only the wind whistling through vacant interiors.’In a condemned tower block in Glasgow, residents slowly trickle away until a young man is left alone with only the angels and devils in his mind for company. Stumbling from one surreal situation to the next, he encounters others on the margins of society, finding friendship and camaraderie wherever it is offered, grappling with who he is and what shape his future might take.The Voids is an unsparing story of modern-day Britain, told with brilliant flashes of humour and humanity.

The Death of James Jones, sort of


Adam R Fletcher - 2022
    He’s already lost his job, his life savings, and Tabby, his decoy girlfriend—and it’s not even dinner time.He needs help. And common sense. And skills. And crumpets.Fortunately, he’s about to get all that and more from a secret group of misfits; a taxi-driving, movie-obsessed man-boy; and a devastatingly direct Goth poet. All sure there’s something very special about James, if he can learn how to use it.But that means doing what he’s never done before: fighting back. His fate, and perhaps all of Nottingham, depends on it.The Death of James Jones, sort of, is an absurd, comic crime caper of hilarious heists, bubble wrap burglary, and relentless drizzle.The unluckiest person in Britain is about to push their luck…

Iron Curtain: A Love Story


Vesna Goldsworthy - 2022
    She enjoys limitless luxury and limited freedom; the end of the Cold War seems unimaginable.When she meets Jason, a confident British poet, Milena is appalled by his political naivety and his poor choice of footwear. Still, they fall into bed together, and before long Milena is secretly planning to escape to Britain.1980s London defies her privileged expectations. The rented flat is grim and the food is disgusting but she is with the man she loves and there are no hidden cameras to record her every move. But then Milena discovers that Jason's idea of freedom hurts even more...With sharp wit and tender precision, Vesna Goldsworthy unpicks the failures of family and state. Iron Curtain is a sly, elegant human drama that challenges the myths we tell ourselves.'A pacy page-turner... Full of humour, pathos and poignancy' Irish Independent'Vesna Goldsworthy's finely wrought third novel explodes into life... Potent' Spectator'A wonderful, perfectly-pitched novel: full of delightful intrigue and wry insight about the human predicament and its unique tensions' William Boyd

Black Bird, Blue Road


Sofiya Pasternack - 2022
    When her brother’s leprosy dooms him to this terrible fate, 12-year-old Ziva teams up with a demon to find the legendary lost city of Luz, a place with no disease—and guarded by the Angel of Death.