From the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spells comes an enchanting tale filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go.
Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.
Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits—a stunning old cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe, and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.
When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on an island outside of Charleston she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written.
About Sarah Addison Allen
New York Times bestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Sarah grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set on an isolated Pacific island with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
When Lux McAllister and her boyfriend, Nico, are hired to sail two women to a remote island in the South Pacific, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Stuck in a dead-end job in Hawaii, and longing to travel the world after a family tragedy, Lux is eager to climb on board The Susannah and set out on an adventure. She’s also quick to bond with their passengers, college best friends Brittany and Amma. The two women say they want to travel off the beaten path. But like Lux, they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape.
Shimmering on the horizon after days at sea, Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. But what they don’t expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe’s sandy beaches. The owners of the Azure Sky, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple: gorgeous, laidback, and if their sleek catamaran and well-stocked bar are any indication, rich. Now a party of six, the new friends settle in to experience life on an exotic island, and the serenity of being completely off the grid. Lux hasn’t felt like she truly belonged anywhere in years, yet here on Meroe, with these fellow free spirits, she finally has a sense of peace.
But with the arrival of a skeevy stranger sailing alone in pursuit of a darker kind of good time, the balance of the group is disrupted. Soon, cracks begin to emerge: it seems that Brittany and Amma haven’t been completely honest with Lux about their pasts––and perhaps not even with each other. And though Jake and Eliza seem like the perfect pair, the rocky history of their relationship begins to resurface, and their reasons for sailing to Meroe might not be as innocent as they first appeared.
When it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in on them. And when one person goes missing, and another turns up dead, Lux begins to wonder if any of them are going to make it off the island alive.
About Rachel Hawkins
Rachel Hawkins is the author of Rebel Belle and theNew York Times bestselling series Hex Hall. Born in Virginia and raised in Alabama, Rachel taught high school English for three years before becoming a full-time writer.
A delicious twist on a Gothic classic, Rachel Hawkins's The Wife Upstairs pairs Southern charm with atmospheric domestic suspense, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Megan Miranda.
Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.
But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie––not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.
Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past––or his––catches up to her?
With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending?
About Rachel Hawkins
Rachel Hawkins is the author of Rebel Belle and theNew York Times bestselling series Hex Hall. Born in Virginia and raised in Alabama, Rachel taught high school English for three years before becoming a full-time writer.
I received this book free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us
Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.
When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking…and what she’s hiding. As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.
From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us comes an electrifying new novel about doubt, passion, and just how much you can trust someone.
“We all have reasons for our actions. Even if we hide the reason from those who think they know us best. Even if the reasons are so deeply buried we can’t recognize them ourselves.”
Jessica Farris is a makeup artist in New York City and when she overhears information about a psychological study for some quick cash she finds a way to get into it. Sitting in an empty room she answers questions on a computer on ethics and morality. She’s prompted to be as honest as possible and she is; she has no reason not to be. This is an anonymous study after all where she is referred to only as Subject 52. She’s generously paid and when the individual in charge of the study, Dr. Shields, dangles the carrot of further payment if she continues the study outside of the classroom she accepts. The things Jess is asked to do are slightly unnerving and confusing, unsure how it has anything to do with ethics and morality, but the desire to help her struggling family out is more than enough incentive to quiet the discontent in her mind. The more studies she completes though, the more the discontent grows.
Most mysteries these days tend to count on unreliable narrators to keep the reader guessing. In the end, you’re thrown a curveball of an answer that causes you to question the hundreds of pages you’ve just consumed. It can be just as fun to work your way back through the story, reevaluating everything you assumed but now with a new understanding. That’s what I enjoyed most about An Anonymous Girl, you think you know exactly what’s going on, and you might be right, but there’s just enough uncertainty that you can’t be sure, so you keep reading. Alas, the lead up was great, but the ending wasn’t quite the shocker that I had anticipated and felt a little too ‘easy’ of a conclusion when compared to the chaos that led up to it. I sometimes feel that by reading too many mysteries that I’m dulling any future enjoyment, that I become too adept at deciphering what’s truly going on. Or maybe this was simply a mediocre mystery.
Grim Reaper Charley Davidson is back in the final installment of Darynda Jones’ New York Times bestselling paranormal series!
Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper extraordinaire, is pissed. She’s been kicked off the earthly plain for eternity – which is the appropriate amount of time to make a person starkraving mad. But someone’s looking out for her, and she’s allowed to return after a mere hundred years in exile. Is it too much to hope for that not much has changed? Apparently it is. Bummer.
She’s missed her daughter, she’s missed Reyes, and Beep, but now that she’s back on earth, it’s time to put to rest burning questions that need answers. What happened to her mother? How did she really die? Who killed her? And are cupcakes or coffee the best medicine? It all comes to a head in an epic showdown between good and evil in this final smart and hilarious novel.
About Darynda Jones
NYTimes and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won numerous awards for her work, including a prestigious RITA, a Golden Heart, and a Daphne du Maurier. As a born storyteller, she grew up spinning tales of dashing damsels and heroes in distress for any unfortunate soul who happened by, annoying man and beast alike. She currently has two series with St. Martin's Press, the Charley Davidson Series and the Darklight Trilogy. Darynda lives in the Land of Enchantment, also known as New Mexico, with her husband of more than 25 years and two beautiful sons, the Mighty, Mighty Jones Boys. She can be found at www.daryndajones.com.
Leningrad, Russia, 1968. Alexander Karpenko is no ordinary child, and from an early age, it is clear he is destined to lead his countrymen. But when his father is assassinated by the KGB for defying the state, he and his mother will have to escape from Russia if they hope to survive. At the docks, they are confronted with an irreversible choice: should they board a container ship bound for America, or Great Britain? Alexander leaves that choice to the toss of a coin . . .
In a single moment, a double twist decides Alexander’s future. During an epic tale of fate and fortune, spanning two continents and thirty years, we follow his triumphs and defeats as he struggles as an immigrant to conquer his new world. As this unique story unfolds, Alexander comes to realize where his destiny lies, and accepts that he must face the past he left behind in Russia.
With a final twist that will shock even his most ardent fans, this is #1 New York Times bestseller Jeffrey Archer’s most ambitious and creative work since Kane and Abel.
About Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author and former politician.
He was a Member of Parliament and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, and became a life peer in 1992. His political career, having suffered several controversies, ended after a conviction for perverting the course of justice and his subsequent imprisonment. He is married to Mary Archer, a scientist specialising in solar power. Outside politics, he is a novelist, playwright and short story writer.
I’ve never actually read anything from this author, but I just found out that the audio narration is being done by Richard Armitage and if you haven’t listened to anything he’s narrated, what are you even doing with your life?
I received this book free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth's, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he's an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute - unless she does as he says.
This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally as the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way.
Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.
About T. Greenwood
T. Greenwood is the author of twelve novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and, most recently, the Maryland State Arts Council. She has won three San Diego Book Awards. Five of her novels have been BookSense76/IndieBound picks. BODIES OF WATER was finalist for a Lambda Foundation award. Her twelfth novel, RUST & STARDUST, will be published in August 2018.
She teaches creative writing for San Diego Writer's Ink and online for The Writer's Center. She and her husband, Patrick, live in San Diego, CA with their two daughters. She is also a photographer.
“She couldn’t ever tell anyone the things he had done and said to her. The secrets her skin kept now, the horror that flowed in her veins. Her marrow poisoned.”
Rust & Stardust is an affecting novelization of the true crime story that ultimately inspired Nabokov’s writing of Lolita. The facts: Sally Horner was kidnapped from Camden, New Jersey, in the summer of 1948, by a man claiming to be with the FBI after he caught her stealing a five-cent notebook. The man’s real name was Frank La Salle who had been released from state prison in January of the same year for sex crimes against young girls. The unknown: All of the tiny details that Greenwood had to infer in order to recreate the tragic story of Sally Horner.
The story melds the horrifying point of view of Sally Horner with that of the family she left behind and various individuals that were unwittingly impacted by La Salle’s crimes. Sally’s story is, of course, heinous especially when you consider this girl was a mere 11-years-old and the ease with which she was convinced that her minor crime was worth what she endured was heartbreaking. But it was the normalcy of life that her family was forced to revert back to that was the most heartbreaking for me. The efforts they were forced to exude, all because of the continuous passing of time with the vestiges of hope deteriorating with each passing day.
‘How sad it is that grief has a shelf life […]. It’s only fresh and raw for so long before it begins to spoil. And soon enough, it will be replaced by a newer, brighter heartache – the old one discarded and eventually forgotten.’
Within the first 100 pages you start to feel as if Sally had already endured a lifetime of suffering, but of course, the book was far from over. Her story, far from over. It’s hard to understand how an 11-year-old could be convinced the situation was credible, but then again, this happened in the year 1948 when crime wasn’t quite so common and it was normal for children to be mostly sheltered from the nightmares of the world. Also, we’re taught at a very early age to respect authority, especially police officers, so I can understand even if something seemed wrong, how would someone at that age really know? And of course, it wasn’t until months into her abduction as Sally grew up that she finally started asking the questions that you, as the reader, were no doubt screaming at her to question when this all began.
Rust & Stardust was, as expected, a most difficult read but Sally’s story was gracefully told. Do yourself a favor and don’t go searching for Sally’s story to find out what became of her; I made the mistake of doing just this and I wish I hadn’t so that the ending could have remained elusive.
Grim Reaper Charley Davidson is back in the twelfth installment of Darynda Jones’ New York Times bestselling paranormal series.
Ever since Reyes escaped from a hell dimension in which Charley accidently trapped him, the son of Satan has been brimstone-bent on destroying the world his heavenly Brother created. His volatile tendencies have put Charley in a bit of a pickle. But that’s not the only briny vegetable on her plate. While trying to domesticate the feral being that used to be her husband, she also has to deal with her everyday life of annoying all manner of beings—some corporeal, some not so much—as she struggles to right the wrongs of society. Only this time she’s not uncovering a murder. This time she’s covering one up.
Add to that her new occupation of keeping a startup PI venture—the indomitable mystery-solving team of Amber Kowalski and Quentin Rutherford—out of trouble and dealing with the Vatican’s inquiries into her beloved daughter, and Charley is on the brink of throwing in the towel and becoming a professional shopper. Or possibly a live mannequin. But when someone starts attacking humans who are sensitive to the supernatural world, Charley knows it’s time to let loose her razor sharp claws. Then again, her number one suspect is the dark entity she’s loved for centuries. So the question becomes, can she tame the unruly beast before it destroys everything she’s worked so hard to protect?
*spoilers to follow from the previous installments*
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with society. No one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.”
Charley always seems to have a crazy amount of stuff to deal with but I think in Twelfth Grave she managed to surpass herself. After Reyes escapes from the Hell dimension she accidentally trapped him in, she’s having to deal with his new feral nature and trying to figure out if the God side of him has won over the human side or not. And the actual God has given her a timeframe to fix it, or else. She’s having to actually cover up a murder in order to save a friend. Cookie’s daughter Amber and Quentin have decided to open their own detective agency after someone starts stealing office supplies and Charley says she’d help them out to find the culprit (and to keep them out of trouble). Add to that, the Vatican is asking a lot of questions about Charley’s daughter, Beep, who is still in hiding from the dangerous entities that wish to cause her harm. Oh, and did I mention that Charley can’t sleep? Every time she closes her eyes she’s visited by this new godly version of her husband and the visits are becoming increasingly disturbing. Charley’s running on nothing but fumes and an ungodly (ha) amount of coffee.
“But noooo. The man with the balls had to go in because he’s manly with manly balls and a penis to guide him. And now he’s all savage and wild, but he still has his balls. That’s all that’s important, by God. His man parts.”
The penultimate book! Gah. I know that this series is due to end with the thirteenth book but man, I could read the hilarious antics of Charley Davidson forever. We’re finally getting pieces of the mythology behind Charley and the origins of her creation, of Reyes’ purpose in it all, and of course Beep. It’s fascinating although at times it can feel a little rambling since we’re missing all the connecting pieces still. But with only a final book left, I fear we have a lot to cover still but I remain hopeful that Jones is going to knock it out of the park. Her writing has maintained throughout this entire series to be consistent in delivering exciting, non-stop thrills. She continues to heighten the intensity in the final pages, leaving enormous cliffhangers, routinely leaving us readers in the midst of an existential crisis.
Existential crisis or not, I’ll take all that I can get. Fingers crossed this includes a spin-off Beep series. The countdown to the release of book 13 on October 30, 2018 begins. 354 days to go.
“The most exciting literary adventure fiction I've read since Deliverance.” –Howard Frank Mosher, author of God's Kingdom
Two brothers travel a storied river’s past and present in search of the truth about their father’s death in the second novel by the acclaimed author of Fallen Land.
The Altamaha River, Georgia’s “Little Amazon,” has been named one of the 75 “Last Great Places in the World.” Crossed by roads only five times in its 137-mile length, the blackwater river is home to thousand-year-old virgin cypress, descendants of 18th-century Highland warriors, and a motley cast of rare and endangered species. The Altamaha has even been rumored to harbor its own river monster, as well as traces of the most ancient European fort in North America.
Brothers Hunter and Lawton Loggins set off to kayak the river, bearing their father’s ashes toward the sea. Hunter is a college student, Lawton a Navy SEAL on leave; both young men were raised by an angry, enigmatic shrimper who loved the river, and whose death remains a mystery that his sons hope to resolve. As the brothers proceed downriver, their story is interwoven with that of Jacques Le Moyne, an artist who accompanied the 1564 expedition to found a French settlement at the river’s mouth, which began as a search for riches and ended in a bloody confrontation with Spanish conquistadors and native tribes, leaving the fort in ruins and a few survivors fleeing for their lives.
In The River of Kings, SIBA-bestselling author Taylor Brown artfully weaves three narrative strands—the brothers’ journey, their father’s past, and the dramatic history of the river’s earliest people—to evoke a legendary place and its powerful hold on the human imagination.
About Taylor Brown
Taylor Brown is a recipient of the Montana Prize in Fiction, and he's been a finalist for the Press 53 Open Awards, Machigonne Fiction Contest, and Doris Betts Fiction Prize. He is the author of In the Season of Blood and Gold (Press 53, 2014),Fallen Land (St. Martin's, 2016), and The River of Kings. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he is the founder and editor of BikeBound, a custom motorcycle blog.
New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden’s supernatural thriller about a mountain adventure that quickly turns into a horrific nightmare of biblical proportions.
Fans of Dan Simmons’ The Terror will love Ararat, the thrilling tale of an adventure that goes awry. When a newly engaged couple climbs Mount Ararat in Turkey, an avalanche forces them to seek shelter inside a massive cave uncovered by the snow fall. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that many quickly come to believe is really Noah’s Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark for the first time, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses. The artifact tempts their professional curiosity; so they break it open. Inside, they find an ugly, misshapen cadaver—not the holy man that they expected, a hideous creature with horns. A massive blizzard blows in, trapping them in that cave thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain…but they are not alone.
About Christopher Golden
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Snowblind, Tin Men, The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, and Of Saints and Shadows. He has also written books for teens and young adults, including Poison Ink, Soulless, and the thriller series Body of Evidence, honored by the New York Public Library and chosen as one of YALSA's Best Books for Young Readers.
Golden co-wrote the illustrated novel Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire with Mike Mignola, which became the launching pad for the cult favorite comics series Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, The New Dead, and The Monster's Corner, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, a BBC radio play, the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson), and a network television pilot.
Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen 
Reckless Girls by 
The Wife Upstairs by 
An Anonymous Girl by 
Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave by 
Heads You Win: A Novel by 
Rust & Stardust by 
The Trouble with Twelfth Grave by 
The River of Kings by 
Ararat by 