Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

For fifty years, Venetia Hargreaves’s world revolved around her husband. She built their life around his big career, with dinner on the table at six, a lovely home, and a dutiful son just as business-minded as his father. Now Venetia’s a wealthy widow left with a beautiful but empty home, an enviable bank balance, and a distinct feeling that she missed the boat. Once upon a time, she was a dance instructor who dreamed of opening her own ballroom school with a fellow teacher who won her heart. Instead, Venetia chose the safer path.

So, at seventy-four years of age, Venetia declares her independence, first with a makeover, and then by adopting a new dog. But something is still missing…until on one of her dog walks by the river she passes by a building she remembers all too well. In her youth it was the spectacular Phoenix Ballroom, where she used to teach waltzes and tangos. These days it’s a community center and spiritualist church, funded by a mysterious benefactor who only pays for the upkeep.

Eager to revive at least one meaningful thing from her past, Venetia buys the Phoenix Ballroom, and finds a supportive and loving community of lost souls who become a delightful multigenerational family-by-choice.

As the ballroom regains its former glory, the community and Venetia’s humdrum life are revived as well…proving wonderful things can come from the darkest of places.

In this compelling adventure, Clay Barlow’s idyllic way-of-life, in the Texas Hill Country, is shattered when he returns home to find his family savagely murdered. Clay must find the strength to grow beyond his seventeen years.

After burying his loved ones, his search for justice takes him to the Rio Bravo and into Mexico. On his quest, he’ll face death, find love, and strive to conquer his youth and inexperience. Will he live long enough to learn? Is he prepared to take a life? Did his retired, deputy sheriff father teach him enough to survive against experienced killers?

Ride with Clay Barlow. Experience his fears, his failures, and his successes, as he seeks to bring the killers of his family to justice and become a man, along the way.

Forty-Four Caliber Justice is a fast-paced, guns-blazing, white-knuckle Western you will find impossible to put down.

But the reason he now finds himself staked out in a dry river bed in West Texas was his thoughts of the girl he met in Austin. He had ignored his first rule. Always be alert. His mind, occupied with smiling lips, blonde hair, and blue eyes, failed to register the desperados until they had the drop on him.

Now, the searing West Texas sun beats down on his exposed skin with the intensity of a blacksmith’s furnace. Pain hammers every inch of his body, not only from the sun but from the hundreds of giant red ants that are devouring him one tiny bite at a time.

What kind of trouble is Jake in?

Is he still waiting in Presidio?

Most importantly, will Clay survive the sun and the ants to help his friend?

The bright, courageous boy Alma knew could never have murdered anyone. But she barely recognizes the man Asku has become, cold and embittered at being an outcast in the white world and a ghost in his own. Her lawyer husband, Stewart, reluctantly agrees to help defend Asku for Alma’s sake. To do so, Alma must revisit the painful secrets she has kept hidden from everyone—especially Stewart.

Told in compelling narratives that alternate between Alma’s childhood and her present life, Between Earth and Sky is a haunting and complex story of love and loss, as a quest for justice becomes a journey toward understanding and, ultimately, atonement.

But Maid of Honor Franchesca Baranski takes her duties seriously. Kidnapped groom? She’s got this. Rude attendees? You just watch her handle them. So a Best Man with a big attitude and an even bigger…checkbook? Yeah, there’s no way she’s going to let that pretentious, judgmental jackhole ruin her best friend’s wedding. No matter how sexy he is. (Well, that’s the plan anyway…)

Aiden Kilbourn doesn’t do long-term relationships. He’s busy ruling the business world, and has yet to find a woman he can tolerate for longer than a month, two at the outside. Conquering the unconquerable is basically his bread and butter. And he hasn’t met a challenge that he can’t win. But Franchesca Baranski? This smart-mouthed girl from Brooklyn may just be his downfall.

Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

Does he have time to change it?

Albert, a Princeton mathematics professor, has discovered a secret known as The Tree of Knowledge–a method of predicting and manipulating the future with mathematical precision.

But he’s not the only one.

Cristina Culebra, and her insurgent RED movement, seek to harness this same power to gain control of the United States and eventually the world.

Albert’s only hope to stop Cristina’s victory lies in a secretive global network dedicated to toppling tyrants the world over. But as Albert and his friends grow more enmeshed, they begin to question whether they’ve chosen the wrong side.

Or if there is a right side?

Faced with a frightening new world order, Albert races to save his friends and family and searches for the key to the cipher that may hold the secret to the Tree of Knowledge and possibly to life itself.

The Tree of Life is a heart-pumping thriller that explores what happens when the brightest minds go to the darkest places.

Does he have the power to change it?

An unstoppable force is sweeping the United States. Powered by a secret ability to predict and manipulate events, Cristina Culebra and her RED Army relentlessly accumulate followers with one goal in mind: Absolute Power.

While Cristina and her movement captivate the country, the one man who knows their next move– who knows their every move–Mathematics Professor Albert Puddles, hides, grief-stricken from the loss of his one and only mentor. Hoping that Albert holds the key to solving the secrets of the RED Army, his comrades in arms, known as the “Book Club”, recruit friends and foes alike to bring him back from exile.

But they may be too late, for a new enemy has risen to challenge Cristina and disrupt the Book Club’s plans, a mysterious terrorist known only as “The Cipher”.

Faced with twin threats to everything he holds dear, Albert is forced to use his singular power to decode the riddles of a dead man while reckoning with the ghosts of his past.

As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story…until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s sordid past and into the secrets kept within its walls. What she discovers pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken.

With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him.

Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…

Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.

In classic Alex Finlay form, If Something Happens to Me is told by several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The novel cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is powerful; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye—and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.

Packed with sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy plot twists, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake is the ultimate escapist read . . . no lake house required.

In January 1986 the Wheat Ridge Police Department uncovered one of the most vicious crime sprees in Colorado’s history. Dating back to 1920, in the small town of Stratton, Colorado, the officers discovered decades of brutal killings and slaughter involving transient farm workers that had been hired to work the fields of the now infamous McCormick farm. With over 70 bodies buried on the 2,800 acre farm and dozens of others scattered around the country, the body count was extreme. But with murder, comes the ghostly remains of the dead. Faced with angry spirits and buckets full of body parts brought up by their plow, the farm’s new owners contacted S.P.O.O.K.S Paranormal team for help. Join author Tracy Beach as she digs through mountains of police casefiles, missing person reports, interview’s, court transcripts, autopsy reports and two scrap books full of decomposed bodies being removed from the earth, in her quest to piece together the demented mind of Michael McCormick and figure out what made him tick…and who is really haunting the farm.

“Whenever I teach a class on how to administer a Polygraph test, I’m always asked if I’ve ever done one on a Psychopath. I tell them I have only done it once and it was on Michael McCormick… and he passed. Why? Because a Psychopath doesn’t feel shame or guilt and you need those to fail the test.” –The Wheat Ridge Police Department

“I’ll give Michael credit for one thing, he knew how to play people and he did it better than anyone I’ve ever met.” –Investigator Michael Gallagher

Two Truths and a Lie. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and Emma played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into the darkness. The last she—or anyone—saw of the teenagers was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips….

Fifteen years later, Emma is a rising star in the New York art scene, turning her past into paintings—massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches over ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to come back to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor.

Despite her guilt and anxiety—or maybe because of them—Emma agrees to revisit her past. Nightingale looks the same as it did all those years ago, haunted by a midnight-dark lake and familiar faces. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, although the security camera pointed at her door is a disturbing new addition.

As cryptic clues about the camp’s origins begin to surface, Emma attempts to find out what really happened to her friends. But her closure could come at a deadly price.

When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.

When the war finally ends, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

This group of brilliant kids come together from all four corners of the globe to fix problems, solve mysteries and gather knowledge all over the planet – and beyond. Whenever their help is needed, a special sign will appear on a door. They step through to the Exploration Station, and receive their mission…

In The Secret Explorers and the Jurassic Rescue, dinosaur expert Tamiko and geology expert Cheng travel back to the age of the dinosaurs in an effort to rescue a dinosaur egg from destruction. However, to save the egg, the Secret Explorers first have to use all their courage and skills to outsmart a fierce Allosaurus, rescue a baby Stegosaurus, and find a way to attract an Archaeopteryx. Tamiko and Cheng soon find that, to succeed, they need to come up with some unusual solutions…

Packed with fun illustrations and facts about dinosaurs, fossils, and why modern birds are dinosaurs, this thrilling adventure is perfect for young readers. Informative diagrams tell kids all they need to know about different species of dinosaur, from Stegosaurus to Allosaurus. The action-packed narrative keeps kids engaged and makes learning about dinosaurs even more fun!

In this story, Leah the biology explorer and Connor the marine expert set off into the Mexican desert. There, they have to rescue a pack of wolf cubs while avoiding dust storms! The gripping narrative is filled with scientific facts as the explorers navigate the desert and come across different species and habitats.

In this story, Connor and Kiki go in search of pirate treasure, but their plans change when they encounter a basking shark in need of help. Can they find the treasure as well as rescue the shark? Only time will tell!! The gripping narrative is filled with scientific facts as the explorers navigate the ocean and come across different ocean life and species.

Meet the Secret Explorers – a band of brainiac kids from all around the world, here to take young readers on a series of fact-filled fictional adventures! Each with their own specialty, from technology to plants, these young globetrotters will teach kids that learning can be fun, encouraging them to become experts in something they are passionate about.

With thrilling narratives and plenty of humor, children will love the first four books in the fact-filled series included in this collection: The Secret Explorers and the Rainforest Rangers, The Secret Explorers and the Smoking Volcano, The Secret Explorers and the Missing Scientist, and The Secret Explorers and the Plant Poachers. Join rainforest expert Ollie on a mission to rescue a lost orangutan, volcano brainiac Cheng who journeys to witness a volcanic eruption, engineering expert Kiki as she tries to free a trapped arctic research ship, and biology boffin Leah who races to stop a band of plant poachers.

Sara’s harrowing experience movingly demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives. As Grandmère tells Julian, “It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything.” With poignant symbolism and gorgeous artwork that brings Sara’s story out of the past and cements it firmly in this moment in history, White Bird is sure to captivate anyone who was moved by the book Wonder or the blockbuster movie adaptation and its message.

First published as a graphic novel and now a major motion picture starring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson, R. J. Palacio’s unforgettable story demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives in the darkest of times.