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MS. MEBEL GOES BACK TO THE CHOPPING BLOCK by Jesse Q. Sutanto - Spotlight

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  Mebel, a doting Chinese Indonesian trophy wife, is 63 and completely unprepared for life’s next act: her husband of 40 years, Henk, leaving her for their much-younger private chef.  But rather than wallow, Mebel does what any self-respecting almost-divorcée would do: she enrolls in culinary school. After all, any good wife knows that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Take that, Henk’s mistress! Henk will be running back to Mebel in no time!  Except, instead of kicking off her plans for revenge in a fabulous culinary institute in Paris, Mebel accidentally enrolls in a tiny program in the rainy English countryside.  Amid culture shock, kitchen disasters, and unexpected friendships, Mebel begins to realize that maybe this escapade isn’t about getting her husband back. Maybe it’s about finding herself for the first time. Hullooos! Jesse here! Thank you so much for dropping by my website. I spent a heck of a long time trying to make it not-terrible. There...

THISTLEMARSH by Moorea Corrigan - Spotlight

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  Faeries disappeared over one hundred years ago, as suddenly as slipping through a doorway. It was only the very foolish, or the very determined, who held out hope for their return. Welcome to Thistlemarsh—a ramshackle estate where an impoverished orphan and a beguiling Faerie collide in an enchanting novel of love, revenge, and ruin. In the wake of World War I, the world is a decidedly unmagical place for Mouse Dunne. She once dreamed of becoming a Faerie anthropologist, but with one telegram, her world shattered. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin’s body disappeared into the mud, and her brother was left with debilitating shell shock. It was time, she knew, to put aside childish dreams. When Mouse receives news that her uncle has left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother’s side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch in her uncle’s. If Mouse does not rehabil...

DOG PERSON by Camille Pagan - Spotlight

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  In this delightfully heartwarming novel, an elderly dog named Harold is determined to help his grieving owner, Miguel, find a reason to go on after loss. Now if only Miguel would stop getting in Harold’s way by being so very . . . human. Harold may be an aging mutt—but Amelia May, the romance novelist who adopted him, taught him a thing or two about the human heart before she died. And she left Harold with a final task: to help her partner, Miguel, find love again. Trouble is, the grief-ridden recluse rarely goes out, not even to the bookstore he and Amelia owned together. Now it’s in danger of going under, and when a renowned author doesn’t show up for his event, it pushes the store’s already precarious finances into the red. In a final attempt to save the bookstore, Miguel and Harold set out to find the no-show and insist he fulfill his obligation. But instead, they’re greeted by Fiona, his sunny yet secretive sister. Fiona is intent on protecting her brother’s privacy—and to H...

WHEN THE WOLVES ARE SILENT by C.S. Harris - Spotlight

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A brutal string of ritualistic killings terrorizes a city already shaken by economic and political turmoil in this chilling new historical mystery from C. S. Harris,  USA Today  bestselling author of  Who Will Remember. London, 1816:  When a notorious young aristocrat is burned alive on a windswept hill popular with neo-Druids, former cavalry officer Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, finds himself plunged into a murder investigation shadowed by tales of ancient human sacrifices and long-buried secrets.  The victim, Marcus Toole, was the only son and heir of a prominent nobleman. His closest friend—Sebastian’s own nephew, Bayard—claims to have passed out drunk before the attack and remembers nothing. But when Sebastian and his brilliant wife, Hero, delve deeper into the sordid activities of Bayard and his friends, they come to realize that Bayard may not be as innocent as he pretends. Following a tangled trail that leads from a disaffected former sold...

CHERRY BABY by Rainbow Rowell - Spotlight

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  #1  New York Times  bestselling author Rainbow Rowell returns with a breathtakingly honest novel about a woman who lost everything — and isn't sure she wants it back. Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie . . . Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home. Tom is the creator of  Thursday —a semi-autobiographical webcomic that's become an international phenomenon. Semi-autobiographical . That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry . . . "Baby." Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby. Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page—let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store. While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wa...

THE INSOMNIACS by Allison Winn Scotch - Spotlight

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  The lives of four sleepless strangers intersect late at night as they attempt to solve not just their own anxieties but also the mysterious disappearance of one of their own, from New York Times bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch. In the city that never sleeps, it’s not always easy to share what’s on your mind with the people who know you best. Huddled in an all-night diner over coffee and pancakes, a lonely middle-aged mom, an injured baseball pro, an elusive retiree, and a young waitress examine the thoughts that plague them in the middle of the night. Empty-nester Sybil does what she does best: rolls up her sleeves and spearheads the efforts to turn this group of strangers into friends. Aimless after an injury threatens to ruin his career, Zeke finds genuine connection among the unlikely group. Tight-lipped Julian, who’s seemingly adrift in retirement and attempting to rebuild a relationship with his daughter, expands their circle when he takes their cagey diner waitress, ...

AMERICAN FANTASY by Emma Straub - Spotlight

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When the  American Fantasy  cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood. Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up, and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend—she has accessed a new sense of possibility. In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, and marriage, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story ...