Struggling single mom Finlay is in the middle of a nasty divorce, behind on her bills, and months late delivering her latest book to her agent. When a woman overhears her explaining the plot of her newest murder mystery to her agent in a Panera, she thinks that Finlay is a contract killer, and tries to hire her to murder her husband. Needless to say, things don’t go as planned. This is a smart, laugh out loud book for both mystery lovers and non-mystery readers alike. Click here to find a copy

Try it if you liked: the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich

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To save her job at her beloved radio station, Shay partners with irritating colleague Dominic on a new show where they’ll pretend that they’re friendly exes giving dating advice. When the show takes off and they start developing real feelings, their careers and budding romance are suddenly at stake. This is a fun, witty romance that's perfect for some light summer reading. 

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Anna does boring things for awful people, because even the most evil need office assistants. When a run-in with a superhero leaves her badly injured, Anna loses her job and vows to show the world the true cost of heroics. With an impressive set of spreadsheets and a cheerful disregard for boundaries, Anna proves her point, and draws the attention of one of the most impressive bad guys around. This is a fast, laugh out loud funny novel for anyone who likes a good superhero movie.

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Fourteen years ago, Emmie released a balloon with her biggest secret tied to the string. Weeks later and hundreds of miles away, Lucas found the balloon and started emailing Emmie. As the years passed, the two became inseparable, and Emmie fell secretly, desperately in love with Lucas. Now an adult, Emmie’s life revolves around Lucas, until the shocking announcement that he’s gotten engaged. Her greatest hopes dashed, Emmie is finally able to see-and nurture-the parts of her life that she's long neglected. 

 Try it if you liked: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman or Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

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After the brutal murders of her closest friends, half-Fae Bryce is left heartbroken and alone. When the murders continue even after a suspect is jailed, Bryce vows to find the real killer and take revenge, aided by the Fallen angel Hunt. 

This novel has everything I love to see in good fantasy. The worldbuilding is entirely convincing and absolutely meticulous, and the stakes feel appropriately high. I thought that the characters were nuanced and well done, and the romance added to the plot instead of distracting from it. While this is clearly meant for an adult audience, I thought that there was plenty of crossover potential for mature YA/new adult audiences. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and I wish I didn’t have to wait for the next!

 Try it if you liked: Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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It’s the height of the Great Flu and the tail end of WWI, and seasoned nurse Julia Power finds herself in charge of her Dublin maternity ward, where each patient has the Flu. Over the course of three fraught days, she helps three women deliver with the help of new volunteer Bridie and revolutionary Dr. Lynn, two women destined to change her entire life. It’s always a big deal when Donoghue publishes a new book, and this is no exception. It’s a beautiful, often challenging slice of life in pandemic times that sometimes uncomfortably mirrors what we’re experiencing today.

Content warning: this novel contains child loss and detailed descriptions of medical procedures.

 Try it if you liked: My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira.

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Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for space ship captain Nia, who lives for nothing more than her next paycheck. When a young boy unexpectedly enters her life, she finds new purpose in raising him and hiding his existence from the company that stands to make a fortune by exploiting a genetic anomaly that only he has. This is a beautifully written, accessible novel for readers who’d like to try science fiction but aren’t sure where to start.

Try it if you liked: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or Light From Other Stars by Erika Swyler.

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Morgan Christopher has a bright future in the art world when she takes the fall for her boyfriend after a drunk driving accident. After a year in prison, she’s approached by a lawyer with a proposition. If Morgan will restore a mural for an upcoming exhibition, he will petition for her early release. Now free, Morgan throws herself into researching and beginning to restore the bizarre WPA mural that artist Anna Dale had created for a North Carolina post office. Once a promising artist herself, Anna disappeared in 1940 before the mural could be completed. What happened to her, and how did the mural end up with one of her acquaintances? This is a compelling, twisty page-turner of a novel that tackles some truly thorny topics.

Try it if you liked: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, The Art Forger by BA Shapiro, or The Muse by Jessie Burton.

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Meg Mackworth has found a niche for herself in New York City designing personalized, hand lettered journals and planners for the elite. When she inks a hidden word into a wedding invitation for a clearly mismatched couple, her actions have far reaching consequences that put her on a collision course with the groom to be. This is a funny, sweet, and often thoughtful romance for readers that like complex characters that change and grow.

Try it if you liked: If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane, The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa, or Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey.

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Carly Kirk has always been fascinated by the story of her missing Aunt Viv. In 1982, Viv set out for New York City to become an actress, stopping to work along the way. She was last seen at her job at the Sun Down Motel in the tiny town of Fell, New York. Now it’s 2017 and Carly, at loose ends, decides to start looking into the disappearance. She travels upstate to the Sun Down and lands a job at the motel just as her aunt did, and quickly begins to realize that more is amiss than just one missing woman. St. James is well known for her creepy, unputdownable novels, and this book is no exception. 

Try it if you liked: The Shining by Stephen King, The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher, or The Return by Rachel Harrison.

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Aging artist Julian Jessop often wonders what the world would be like if everyone didn’t always feel the need to pretend to be someone that they weren’t. One day, he decides to find out: he writes about his life in a small green notebook and leaves it in a local café for its owner Monica to find. Monica reads Julian’s story and then writes about her own life and how lonely she is. She leaves the book at the wine bar across the street for someone else to find and write in. With this plot device, we meet six different characters who are brought together into a kind of found family. This is a funny, heartwarming novel for readers who could use a pick me up, as well as a solid book club selection.

Try it if you liked: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, or A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.

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True crime buffs will find lots to like in this debut biography of Frances Glessner Lee, the mother of modern forensics. Born in Chicago in the 1870s, Lee was a wealthy socialite when she began to develop an interest in crime. When she learned that detectives received no real training in working with crime scenes and routinely destroyed evidence, she was inspired to begin her life’s work, the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. This series of dollhouses appears normal until you spot the small details; overturned chairs, blood stained carpets, and tiny bodies that wore clothing that she knit on sewing pins. Because of this work, detectives for the first time had a chance to study and practice their craft, and procedures were finally developed to standardize the way that scenes were investigated. Goldfarb is the current curator of the Nutshell Studies, and he’s written a fascinating, hard to put down portrait of an early feminist and formidable thinker.

Try it if you liked: Netflix’s Mindhunter, Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, or Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.

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