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Featured Guide

Rachel Hawkins, author of The Heiress

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of Ruby’s death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money --- and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Camden and his wife, Jules, back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable. And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Camden and Jules, questions about the infamous heiress come to light.

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Ashley Elston, author of First Lie Wins

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes --- especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to --- her real identity --- just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her.

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Ella Berman, author of Before We Were Innocent

Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures. While the girls were never convicted, Joni capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. Except now Joni needs a favor, and when she turns up at her old friend's doorstep asking for an alibi, Bess has no choice but to say yes. But as the two friends try desperately to shake off their past, they have to face reality. Can you ever be an innocent woman when everyone wants you to be guilty?

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Katherine Faulkner, author of The Other Mothers

When a young nanny is found dead under mysterious circumstances, new mom Tash is intrigued. She has been searching for a story to launch her career as a freelance journalist. But she also has been searching for new friends to help her navigate motherhood. She sees them at her son’s new playgroup. The other mothers. A group of sleek, sophisticated women. When the mothers welcome her into their circle, Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of and is quickly swept up into their wealthy world. But when another young woman is found dead, it’s clear there’s much more to the community than meets the eye. Are these women really her friends? Or is there another, more dangerous reason that she has been so quickly accepted into their exclusive world?

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Lauren Grodstein, author of We Must Not Think of Ourselves

In November 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends and neighbors. One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate Sala Wiskoff, who is married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, Adam and Sala fall in love. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: Whom can he save, and at what cost?

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Ariel Lawhon, author of The Frozen River

Maine, 1789: The Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice. Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine the cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, every murder and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred four months earlier. Now, one of the men accused of that heinous attack has been found dead in the ice. While Martha is certain she knows what happened the night of the assault, she suspects that the two crimes are linked. Over the course of one long, hard winter, Martha’s diary lands at the center of the scandal and threatens to tear both her family and her community apart.

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Nita Prose, author of The Mystery Guest: A Maid Novel

With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, Molly Gray has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead on the hotel’s tearoom floor. When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows that she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago she knew J. D. Grimthorpe.

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Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her --- and she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

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Cesca Major, author of Maybe Next Time

It is an ordinary Monday, and harried literary agent Emma is flying out of the door. Preoccupied with work and her ever-growing to-do list, she fails to notice that her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. As she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary, she hears the screech of brakes. Dan is dead. The next day Emma wakes up…and Dan is alive. It’s Monday again. And again. And again. Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up. But will she have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children and love her husband?

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Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of A Very Inconvenient Scandal

Frankie Attleboro returns home to Cape Cod with thrilling news. She’s met the love of her life, and they’re getting married with a baby on the way. That’s the moment her widowed father makes his own jaw-dropping announcement. At 60, he’s getting married as well, to Frankie’s best friend, Ariel, who is also pregnant, and due soon. As Frankie and Ariel struggle to adjust to their new relationship, Ariel’s estranged mother, Carlotta, returns after a decade-long absence. She claims to be a changed woman. But is she really? And where has she been all these years? Frankie is suspicious, and as Carlotta’s unpredictable behavior intensifies, Frankie must untangle the threads of the past to protect Ariel’s future --- and her own.

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