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THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE

The Song of Achilles meets The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue in this queer, Asian reimagining of an epic love story blending historical figures with Chinese folklore. The novel gives us blood, sex, and adventure across three lifetimes and deals with themes of acceptance, belonging, and free will.

The Good Ones Are Taken

When Maggie’s college best friend admits he’s in love with her, she’ll have to decide whether it’s worth giving up something good, for something that could be amazing in this laugh out loud friends to lovers romcom.

Good Girls Lie

Ash Carlisle has crossed continents to attend an exclusive, prestigious prep school in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The Goode School is a “Silent Ivy” — sought after for its reputation of being a feeder school to the Ivy League. The school, situated at the top of a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, accepts only 200 new students a year, making it one of the most challenging to get into in the U.S. Its elite status and long-held traditions make it a stunning, albeit gothic, backdrop. Ash is running from a dark secret, one she believes she’s left behind. And in her first few weeks at Goode, as she settles in, makes several new friends, and emerges as a popular, sought-after student, it seems her plan has worked. When Ash is tapped for a secret society known only as Ivy Bound, she truly feels like she belongs, especially when the head of the society, an enigmatic, gorgeous, accomplished upperclassman takes her on as her protege. But when she challenges Ash to a series of increasingly disturbing tasks Ash refuses to go along and the members of the society begin a silent campaign against her. Ash goes from revered to reviled, cast-out and castigated. Then students begin to die… and Ash is the clear suspect. As the dominoes of her life begin to topple, and the influential parents of the students get involved, Ash realizes someone knows her secret, and is hell-bent on revealing it in the cruelest ways possible. Who is Ash Carlisle? Why is someone out to get her? Or are the horrors from her past stalking her again?

A Willing Murder

#1 New York Times bestselling romance author Jude Deveraux makes her debut in the world of mystery with a story of old secrets, deadly grudges and the improbably group of friends who are determined to uncover the truth regardless of the consequences. When two dead bodies are accidentally discovered in the quiet town of Lachlan, Florida, an unlikely trio comes together to solve a mystery everyone else seems eager to keep under wraps.

The Orphan’s Tale

Seventeen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier during the occupation of her native Holland. Heartbroken over the loss of the baby she was forced to give up for adoption, she lives above a small German rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep. When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants, unknown children ripped from their parents and headed for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the baby that was taken from her. In a moment that will change the course of her life, she steals one of the babies and flees into the snowy night, where she is rescued by a German circus. The circus owner offers to teach Noa the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the façade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their unlikely friendship is enough to save one another—or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.

Things We Have In Common

Fifteen-year-old Yasmin Doner is a social misfit—obese, obsessive, and deemed a freak by her peers at school. Struggling to cope since the death of her father and feeling an outsider in her mother’s new marriage, Yasmin yearns for a sense of belonging, finding comfort only in food and the fantasy of being close to Alice Taylor, a girl at school. Rejected by her classmates, Yasmin will do anything to become friends with pretty and popular Alice—even if Alice, like everyone else, thinks she’s a freak. When Yasmin sees a sinister man watching Alice from the school fence, she believes he is planning to abduct her. Yasmin decides to find out more about this man so that, when he takes Alice, she will be the only one who can save her—and so, will finally win her friendship. But as Yasmin forges a relationship with this man, who is kinder to her than anyone else, her affections begin to shift. Perhaps, she was wrong about him. Perhaps, she doesn’t need Alice after all. And then Alice vanishes.

We Are Unprepared

Ash and Pia, in their mid-30s, uproot themselves from Brooklyn to northeast Vermont seeking a more self-reliant lifestyle. Though Ash is well aware they are something of a hipster cliché, he looks forward to returning to his native state and a simpler life. But, after only a few months, paradise begins to vanish. Strange weather patterns emerge and the government cautiously predicts that a catastrophe could be coming. Ash and Pia begin to prepare along with the rest of the community, but a divide among the citizenry is mirrored in their own household. Ash supports the town’s establishment in its disaster preparedness, but Pia falls in with radical “preppers” who want to move off the grid. When “The Storm” finally hits, it razes both external and internal landscapes, leaving everything—and everyone—permanently altered.

Only Daughter

In 2003, sixteen-year-old Rebecca Winter disappeared. She’d been enjoying her teenage summer break: working at a fast food restaurant, crushing on an older boy and shoplifting with her best friend. Mysteriously ominous things began to happen—blood in the bed, periods of blackouts, a feeling of being watched—though Bec remained oblivious of what was to come. Eleven years later, she is replaced. A young woman, desperate after being arrested, claims to be the decade-missing Bec.

Soon the imposter is living Bec’s life. Sleeping in her bed. Hugging her mother and father. Learning her best friends’ names. Playing with her twin brothers. But Bec’s welcoming family and enthusiastic friends are not quite as they seem. As the imposter dodges the detective investigating her case, she begins to delve into the life of the real Bec Winter—and soon realizes that whoever took Bec is still at large, and that she is in imminent danger.

The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine

When young journalist Thomas Cleary is sent to dig up quotes for the obituary of a legendary film producer, the man’s eccentric daughter offers him entrée into the exclusive upper echelons of Hollywood society. A small-town boy with working-class roots, Thomas is a stranger in this opulent world of private jets and sprawling mansions. Then he meets Matilda Duplaine. Matilda is a beautiful and mysterious young woman who has never left the lush Bel-Air estate where she was raised. Thomas is immediately entranced by the enigmatic girl, and the two begin a secret love affair. But what starts as an enchanted romance soon unravels a web of secrets and lies that could destroy their lives—and the lives of everyone around them—forever. A modern-day Gatsby tale filled with unforgettable characters and charm, The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine is a sparkling love letter to Los Angeles and a captivating journey beyond the golden gates of its most glamorous estates. Timeless, romantic and utterly absorbing, it is a mesmerizing tale of privilege, identity and the difficult choices we make in the pursuit of power.