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Never Tell A Lie


Gail Schimmel - 2021
    She’s always been content with her little family―but then she finds an old postcard that throws her whole past into question…When an invitation arrives for her high school reunion, Mary jumps at the chance of a distraction from the shock discovery, and meeting her old classmate April feels like a gift. Despite barely remembering April, Mary throws herself into the new friendship and finds her previously quiet social life reinvigorated.But as the bonds between them are forged, Mary finds herself drawn further and further into April’s life and marriage, increasingly fearing that everything is not as perfect as it seems. Is her own painful past clouding her judgement, or is Mary right to suspect that the people she trusts most are the ones with the most to hide?

Fated in Darkness


Robert J. Crane - 2015
    Those who live in this world are faced with two choices: live an ordinary life or become an adventurer and seek the extraordinary. In the underground city of Saekaj Sovar, a tyrant sits up the throne. For too long, he has ruled the fates of the dark elven people without mercy or challenge. Until now. Terian Lepos, J'anda Aimant and Aisling Nightwind are veterans of the guild Sanctuary who find themselves trapped in darkness of Saekaj, with danger and betrayal lurking around every corner. When the three of them find themselves pitted against forces trying to steer the course of Saekaj Sovar, who will end up triumphant? And who will end up dead?

Tiger Drive


Teri Case - 2018
    Too many secrets. Four people who want to matter. In Nevada, Sloan family matriarch, Janice, is tired of her white trash life--dealing with debt, kids, her son's motorcycle gang, and Harry, her drunk of a husband. She can't shake her lifelong dream of singing at the Grand Ole Opry.As Janice's teen daughter, Carrie, plans her escape to college, Janice confronts the fact that she's forty-eight and running out of time. She decides to leave her two young sons with Harry and move to Nashville for one year to pursue her dream. But before Janice can leave, Harry's worst betrayal yet destroys everyone's plans, and detectives start digging up the family dirt.Times are desperate for the Sloan Family. They might survive if they can become each other's unlikely heroes. Do they have what it takes to confront the truth about their lives and each other and break free from their way of life on Tiger Drive?Debut novelist, Teri Case puts us inside the minds of mother, father, daughter, and son to portray how addiction, poverty, and secrets can derail the best of intentions. But with a little hope and a dose of trust, the human spirit can prevail."Tiger Drive is an outstanding [novel], with . . . layered characters, relationships that make me ache for the characters and yearn for a positive resolution, and character journeys that intertwine in heartbreaking, soul-soaring ways." --Deborah Halverson, DearEditor.com"I LOVED Tiger Drive so much . . . I know I'll be thinking about these characters for a long time." --Lizette Clarke, Author Accelerator

Wired


Douglas E. Richards - 2005
    But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania? David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions. But when Desh learns that the bioterror plot is just the tip of the iceberg, he is thrust into a byzantine maze of deception and intrigue, and he becomes a key player in a deadly game he can't begin to understand. A game that is certain to have a dramatic impact on the future course of human history. . .

Scars


Avery Ford - 2017
    For years, he'd thrived on the adrenaline rush, the danger thrumming under his skin, the tangible efforts of his labor a secondary reward when the flames flickered away to nothing and he was able to save a building, or save a life. He'd thought that the Johnson City Fire Station 10 was his home - until he got caught in a building with no way out. Henry wasn't always shy and meek. As a child he'd always been buoyant and vivacious; in university he was the life of the party. And then he met Pritchard, and before he knew it he was skipping classes, flunking out, and isolated from his friends and family on threat of Pritchard's fists. Finally finding the courage to leave him was the best thing that Henry's ever done for himself - and also the hardest. Caleb and Henry are both trying to put their lives back together, both scarred in different and lingering ways. Henry's bruises might have healed - but Pritchard's fists had left their mark on his soul. And Caleb's body is still healing from the burns and broken bones he'd suffered in that burning house. Neither of them are looking for love. Neither of them want someone to look beyond the surface. A quick jolt of pleasure is all they need before going their separate ways again... right? Scars is a steamy, standalone gay romance novel, with a happily ever after ending and no cliffhangers.

Cleansed by Fire


James R. Callan - 2012
    Father Frank DeLuca, pastor of Prince of Peace Church, is thrust into an impossible dilemma when he hears that another church will be burned. But the disturbing information comes to him via the confessional, and church law forbids him from telling anyone—even the police.He doesn’t know which church, when, or by whom. Still, he can’t sit idly by, and no law prevents him from looking into the matter himself. The crimes have set the town’s residents on edge, fraying the bonds of trust. Is the mysterious newcomer with ties to the drug scene involved? What about the man who says maybe the churches deserved to burn? Or the school drop-out into alcohol and drugs who attacks the priest with a knife? Countering this are a young widow whose mission is to make others shine, and a youth choir determined to help those whose churches have been destroyed by the arsonist. Father Frank’s investigation leads him dangerously close to the local drug scene and he soon discovers the danger has come to him. Can he save his own church? Can he save his own life?

A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall


Andy Abramowitz - 2020
    Brothers and sisters. Mothers and daughters. Okay, everybody. Hold on tight. Davis Winger has it all. A respected engineer who designs roller coasters in theme parks across the country, he is deeply in love with his wife and has a beautiful young daughter and a happy home. Until an accident strikes on one of his rides. Nothing fatal—except to his career. And to his marriage, when a betrayal from his past inadvertently comes to light. In one cosmically bad day, Davis loses it all.His sister, Molly, is at a crossroads herself. She’s coasting through a dire relationship with an incompatible man-child. And she’s a journalist whose deeply personal columns about mothers and daughters are forcing her to confront the truth about her own mother, who abandoned Molly and Davis years ago and disappeared.For these two siblings, it’s just a matter of bracing themselves for one turbulent summer in this redemptive and painfully funny family drama about making the best of the sharp turns in life—those we choose to take and those beyond our control.

The End of Everything


Megan Abbott - 2011
    Then one afternoon, Evie disappears, and as a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the balmy suburban community, everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, or upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger?Compelled by curiosity, Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power as the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secret after secret and begins to wonder if she knew anything at all about her best friend.

Darling Rose Gold


Stephanie Wrobel - 2020
    She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.After serving five years in prison, Patty begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes. And Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling...And she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

The Night Always Comes


Willy Vlautin - 2021
    Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she’s been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland’s housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it’s their last best chance to own their own home—and obtain the security they’ve never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they’re set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.Set over two days and two nights, The Night Always Comes follows Lynette’s frantic search—an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers, those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered, Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious, frenzied spiral. In trying to save her family’s future, she is plunged into the darkness of her past, and forced to confront the reality of her life.A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise?

The Darkest Flower


Kristin Wright - 2021
    Attempted murder? Inexplicable accident? Either way, a PTA mom struggled for her life in an elementary school cafeteria, poisoned by wolfsbane. Now all eyes are on the accused, the victim, and a woman hired to look deeper.Ambitious defense attorney and single mother Allison Barton is anxious to escape the shadow of the low-down dog of a marquee partner carrying their renowned Virginia law firm. A win for her high-profile new client will give Allison the career she deserves. And PTA president Kira Grant certainly appears innocent—except for the toxic bloom in her backyard and perhaps a bit of a malicious streak. But no one said the innocent had to be likable—or entirely honest. Besides, with an image as carefully cultivated as her garden, Kira would be insane to risk everything on something as outrageous as the attempted murder of one of her closest friends.What about those in Kira’s orbit, a sunny suburb of moms behaving badly? What do they really know about Kira? What does Kira know about them? For Allison, the answers are getting darker every day.

The Girl Before


Rena Olsen - 2016
    . . wasn’t? Clara Lawson is torn from her life in an instant. Without warning, her home is invaded by armed men, and she finds herself separated from her beloved husband and daughters. The last thing her husband yells to her is to say nothing. In chapters that alternate between past and present, the novel slowly unpeels the layers of Clara’s fractured life. We see her growing up, raised with her sisters by the stern Mama and Papa G, becoming a poised and educated young woman, falling desperately in love with the forbidden son of her adoptive parents. We see her now, sequestered in an institution, questioned by men and women who call her a different name—Diana—and who accuse her husband of unspeakable crimes. As recollections of her past collide with new revelations, Clara must question everything she thought she knew, to come to terms with the truth of her history and to summon the strength to navigate her future.

The Jade Emperor


Suzanne Jenkins - 2017
    A marriage of nearly half a century faces its greatest challenge when a stranger arrives, bearing life changing news. Although Steve and Kelly Boyd live together, they barely tolerate each other. Marrying in their teens and quickly becoming parents, the separation due to the war in Vietnam forms the foundation for the next forty-five precarious years.Filling the empty marriage with the companionship of her twin sister, Karen, and the family she made with Steve, Kelly’s life revolves around her six adult children.The stranger’s sudden appearance clarifies so much about Steve’s lifetime behavior to Kelly.Heartfelt conversations at the local coffee shop where son Reggie works as a barista, help the family resolve differences, build new relationships, and grow in acceptance of one another.At the end, love outweighs everything.

Rage


Netta Newbound - 2019
     Unbeknownst to Lizzi, Charlie’s doctors have agreed to allow his sister, Miriam, to take him home to die on the strict understanding he remains in an induced coma, due to his history of assaulting women—a side effect of his brain tumour. Miriam goes away on business, leaving Lizzi in charge, but a mishap with Charlie's medication has Lizzi questioning why he is spending his final days comatose. Deciding he is being sedated without just cause, she makes the call to wake him up. However, a string of events and the discovery of a girl's body at the bottom of the garden lead her to wonder if she’s made the right decision. Who is the killer? Could Lizzi be his next victim? Don’t miss RAGE by bestselling author Netta Newbound - A gripping psychological thriller that will keep you turning pages long into the night.

How to Be Lost


Amanda Eyre Ward - 2004
    . . Ward's depiction of family, with its attendant love and guilt, will keep you turning pages."--PeopleJoseph and Isabelle Winters seem to have it all: a grand home in Holt, New York, a trio of radiant daughters, and a sense that they are safe in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the family are exposed: Joseph, once a successful businessman, succumbs to his demons; Isabelle retreats into memories of her debutante days in Savannah; and Ellie's bereft sisters grow apart--Madeline reluctantly stays home, while Caroline runs away.Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in a magazine. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missing sister. Armed with copies of the photo, an amateur detective guide, and a cooler of Dixie beer, Caroline travels through the New Mexico desert, the mountains of Colorado, and the smoky underworld of Montana, determined to salvage her broken family.