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From USA TODAY bestselling author Kathleen Fuller comes a cozy, kisses-only romance about fresh starts, fall leaves, and finding love right next door, perfect for fans of Gilmore Girls and Sarah Adams.
AUTUMN AT THE CAT CAFE
Autumn at the Cat Cafe by Kathleen Fuller
Via Dalton has sworn off men to focus on the two things she loves most: her quirky cat café, Pawsitive Vibes, and the charming town of Pecan Corner, Ohio. But her peaceful world is shaken when Earl Brewster, the owner of the beloved Second Chapter Books next door, passes away. Via is determined to buy the shop and preserve Earl’s legacy, but her plans hit a snag in the form of a tall, handsome, and completely unexpected heir.
Leo Brewster’s life is thriving in LA, and the last thing he needs is an inheritance in the middle-of-nowhere, Ohio. But the alternative–letting his estranged mother inherit–has him packing his bags to receive the inheritance, quickly sell it off to the highest bidder, and hightail it back to LA. What he didn’t count on was the list of stipulations in the will that has him staying in the small town for a month. Oh, and the determined, sunny café owner next door who refuses to let him destroy the town’s heart without a fight.
Desperate to convince Leo the bookstore is vital to her community, Via challenges Leo to complete her Autumn Bucket List. As they navigate corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and fall festivals, Leo begins to see the magic in Pecan Corner–and in Via. Despite her vow to stay single and his plan to leave, the attraction between them simmers like hot cider.
Can a season of small-town charm convince a city boy to stay, or will Via lose both the bookstore and her heart?
Grab a warm drink and curl up with this delightful grumpy/sunshine, opposites-attract story of unexpected love and small-town charm.
Purchase Links
Thomas Nelson | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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An epic, emotionally charged novel about love, art, and survival spanning 1900s colonial India to Blitz-era London by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.
A THOUSAND PAINTED HOURS
A Thousand Painted Hours by Barbara O’Neal
In the shadow of the London Blitz, artist Elsie Turner clings fiercely to her canvases, refusing to let war dim the colors that define her. The bombs test her nerve, but the struggle also stirs memories of her golden youth in India and of the long-lost love of her life.
The daughter of a British civil servant in the Himalayan station of Nainital, Elsie crosses cultural divides to forge an unlikely bond with Tanveer Singh, a Sikh prince with hopes, dreams, and far-reaching ideas. What begins as shared sketchbooks and stargazing becomes first love and a secret correspondence. When Elsie’s father is summoned to England, Elsie is severed from the world she knows—and is determined to preserve it through both her art and a connection with Tanveer that endures through the most tumultuous years of their lives.
Across four decades and two continents, Elsie navigates a journey from lush colonial India to war-torn London, amid landscapes of beauty, protest, and peril. As past and present collide, the most impossible choices and sacrifices are yet to be made in the name of love, war, and survival.
“From the forested hills of India to the bomb-scarred streets of London to the searing heat of Cairo, A Thousand Painted Hours is a colorful, transportive, and heartrending novel. In a sweeping tale of friendship and love through the ages, O’Neal grabs her readers by the heart and doesn’t let go. Not to be missed!” —Heather Webb, USA Today bestselling author of The Hope Keeper
Purchase Links
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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A twisty, genre-bending metafictional mystery set in Cuba past and present about a writer returning to her long-lost hometown to seek the buried truth about two suspicious deaths at her Havana high school, perfect for fans of Chanel Cleeton and Jean Hanff Korelitz
THE NOVEL DETECTIVE
The Novel Detective by Teresa Dovalpage
2020: Teresa, a Cuban-born mystery writer now living in America, gets an unexpected call from her childhood best friend, Estrella, inviting her to Havana. Estrella is determined to get answers about a case that has haunted them both for decades: the purported dual suicides of a teacher and student at their high school. Though Teresa doesn’t quite understand why Estrella is taking the story so personally, she’s along for the ride—as she always wanted to write a novel about this case.
1980: Fourteen-year-old Teresita, bespectacled, awkward and mystery novel–obsessed, is “nosy, but not a tattletale.” She knows who’s been skimming off the top of the amphetamine stash in her mother’s pharmacy, which teacher keeps cyanide in his cabinet at school and that their classmate Yoyi is sleeping with their English teacher. Over the course of one fateful day, Teresita gets closer than ever to learning the “Truth of Life”—her catchall term for the intricacies of adult existence—even if it means coming face to face with death.
Drawing upon the tradition of Latin American realism and directly inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States, this resonant tale is at once personal and universal, full of nostalgia, candor and danger.
Purchase Links
Soho Crime | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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“An irresistible start to what’s sure to be a binge-worthy series.” – USA Today bestselling author Sarah Fox
MURDER AT THE AGENCY
Murder at the Agency by Kylie Forsythe
Who knew the marketing world could be so dangerous?
Just when it seems like everything in twenty-eight year old Cassidy Blayne’s life is falling apart, a thrilling coffee shop encounter leads to the opportunity of a lifetime. Landing her dream job as Creative Director with an elite advertising firm in a nearby lakeside town fills her with renewed purpose. She’s no longer going to allow herself to settle, and resolves to rebuild her life on her own terms.
But from the moment she steps foot out of the elevator, she senses things may not be as they seem at Turner & Nash Advertising. Despite her wariness, Cassie puts all her energy into landing her first big account. Arriving early on the day of the presentation, she’s shocked to find one of the owners dead and herself a suspect.
She embarks on a desperate search for answers, unknowingly putting her and the people she cares about in danger. As she pieces things together with some help from her spunky new roommate, twin childhood best friends, an uptight detective, and a gorgeous up-and-coming rock star, warnings and threats escalate. It’s clear the killer will stop at nothing to keep her quiet.
Cassie must risk everything to unravel the murder before someone takes her off the market for good.
Purchase Links
Rowan Prose Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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“Leah Rochelle breathes new life into an old Greek myth and turns tragedy into triumph.”–Sarah Glenn Marsh, author of Our Rogue Fates
OENONE
Oenone by Leah Rochelle
When Oenone, a Princess of Troy, wakes up in modern day St. Louis, her last memories from ancient Troy are of dying. She’s alone, confused, and reeling from her own death as well as the guilt at having refused to help her husband, Paris, who’d been shot by countless Greek arrows.
Aphrodite, who caused the Trojan War and the downfall of Paris, arrives to explain why Oenone has been brought back to life. Aphrodite feels remorseful for Oenone, an unintended victim, and decides to offer a second chance at the happiness she was robbed of 3,000 years ago. But as always with the gods, there is a catch.
While Paris has been reborn, he has no memories of his previous life, whilst Oenone remembers everything, but has no knowledge of the new and modern world she now exists in. Aphrodite instructs her to figure it out for herself, warning her not to waste the opportunity she has been given. She must somehow find her husband and make him love her again.
The cultural disparities and the losses she’s faced are a struggle. Divine retribution may strike with failure. Newfound friends and a budding attraction help her learn more about herself, but as she gains independence and a sense of self, she begins to wonder if another relationship with Paris is what she truly wants.
But how can she turn away from a mission given by a Goddess?
Fans of “Love and Other Conspiracies” by Mallory Marlowe and “A Touch of Darkness” by Scarlett St. Clair will enjoy “Oenone” by Leah Rochelle.
Purchase Links
Rowan Prose Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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Thousands of years ago, seven gods rebelled against their own and attempted to seize the Crown, an artifact that gave its bearer the power to rule the Heavens.
FRACTURES OF THE FALLEN
Fractures of the Fallen by Ella Dupuie
In punishment for their crimes, the souls of the seven gods were each divided into seven different fragments that were then scattered across the Earth. In place of each fragment, a being known as a Fracture was born. Fractures know nothing of their peculiar existence-that they were once part of a god and still bear residual powers which make them greater than most humans. And, most dangerously, that they can grow in power and return to their godly state if all seven Fractures of a god meet.
Valen is an assassin of The Preservation Society, an organization dedicated to monitoring Fractures. Having been exposed to nothing but The Society, Valen knows only one thing with absolute certainty: Fractures are dangerous and must never realize their power.
Unaware of The Preservation Society’s existence, Cassandra lives in a psychiatric facility, locked away by her parents because she’s plagued by psychic visions. Visions that, unbeknownst to her, reveal her status as a Fracture. After having a particularly revealing vision, she’s taken by The Preservation Society and imprisoned in their headquarters.
When Valen learns of Cassandra’s presence within The Society, she soon discovers the organization harbors deadly secrets about the Fractures to which they guard. Armed with a trove of forbidden knowledge, Valen and Cassandra flee from The Society, determined to outrun the organization before they can be killed for the information they hold.
Luck nor time is on their side.
Purchase Links
Rowan Prose Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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For readers curious about life in assisted living facilities comes a collection of essays that break stereotypes and distill vital lessons from people in later life.
HOW TO AGE GRACEFULLY: Essays About the Art of Living
How to Age Gracefully by Barbara Hoffbeck Scoblic
A thoughtful and poignant meditation on aging and mortality, How to Age Gracefully tells the story of author Barbara Scoblic’s life inside an assisted living facility through essays and conversations.
When she entered an assisted living facility in Bethesda, Maryland, at age eighty-three, journalist and memoirist Scoblic wasn’t expecting to find such rich subject matter. But the residents and staff surprised her with their kindness, wisdom, and sometimes wicked sense of humor—and inspired her to begin taking notes on their conversations, both those she was a part of and those she overheard. The pieces in this collection, which consider grief, the occasional indignities of living in an aging body, the importance of friendship and community, and the surprising ways we can grow more creative as we grow older, are born of Scoblic’s observations and experiences of life in assisted living. The resulting work is essential for anyone entering the later years of life—or anyone who intends to.
Purchase Links
Amazon | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble
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Please fill out our super short registration form (click the “Enter Now” button above) by August 31st for a chance to win a set of up to ten copies of one of these great books for your book club! We will randomly choose a winner at the end of the month. This giveaway is open to clubs in the US only (our apologies to friends in other countries).