THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  FORTY LOVE (ZibbyPublishing) by Jane Costello is a fun, sexy rom-com about learning to take big swings, discovering new passions, filling an empty nest, and maybe another shot at love Jules has lived next door to the local tennis club for years without picking up a racket. As a full-time buyer for a national chain of lifestyle stores and a single, widowed mother of a teenager, she doesn’t have time for a hobby. And then, there is the matter of that run-in with her old school crush, Sam, who recently joined the club. In a surge of boldness, Jules decides to stop playing it safe and accepts an invitation to join the amateur tennis team. Soon enough, she has fully embraced the tennis life and finds herself loving the game and her teammates, but that’s not all. Her intense attraction to Sam is gaining an advantage over her. Now Jules is facing a whole new kind of match with her insecurities, her desires, and maybe—just maybe—a second shot at love. And boy, does it have some spin on i...

  Celebrity gossip can cut to the quick, but when it turns deadly, it’s up to an aspiring reporter and her quirky neighbors to close the case in RACHEL WEST and the FALLEN STAR (Berkley), the first of a witty and nostalgic new mystery series. Baby doll top, gladiator sandals, and fully loaded iPod at the ready: it’s 2008 in Los Angeles, and Rachel West is a little less starry-eyed than your average ingenue. Copyediting a celeb gossip rag isn't the glossy entertainment journalism Rachel thought she would be doing, but hey, it pays the bills. Some of them, anyway. Rachel’s life changes overnight after meeting Molly Byrne, a former child star and current tabloid fave for her drunken escapades and rotating cast of boyfriends, and what begins as a chance encounter in a nightclub bathroom quickly grows into a genuine friendship. When Molly is found dead, Hollywood accepts her death as an overdose. But Rachel knows for a fact her friend was clean —and she’s not alone in her suspicions tha...

  ,  In BURNOUT SUMMER (Saturdaybooks), four years after graduation, life isn’t going the way Camille Luna expected. Her corporate career is soul-sucking, she's in debt from student loans, and her breakup with her ex has created a serious rift between her college best friends. When her spiraling lands her in jail for the night, it's Danny Brennan —the lovable burnout from their college clique— who bails her out and offers the perfect solution to her quarter-life crisis: a summer by the beach. Cam is whisked away to Elswick, Rhode Island, where former slacker Danny has taken over his uncle’s restaurant and turned it into a seaside hotspot. But while Danny has grown into a devoted boss and dog dad, his carpe diem life philosophy is still as fiery as ever. The hazy summer days start to blur between shifts at the restaurant, dips in the ocean, and a reignited passion for writing, all alongside Danny, who makes her laugh like nobody else. Cam can't help but wonder —is it the sal...

  A SPINKLE of SWEET SERENDIPITY (Berkley) is a tantalizing novel about a struggling chocolatier who is granted a magical vision of the future of her dreams, only to realize that her heart may desire something else entirely, from the bestselling author of The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie. Paris-trained chocolatier and single mother Emmie Wynne gave up her own dreams six years ago when she returned to her Pacific Northwest coastal tourist town to run her family’s struggling candy store. Now on her thirty-fourth birthday, Emmie has only one wish, to be granted the vision that every Wynne woman is given once in her lifetime—a shimmering glimpse of her true destiny. This year, when she blows out her candles, it will finally come true. Her vision is more delectable than she could’ve imagined—her very own artisanal chocolate shop filled with decadent truffles and caramels, and her celebrity crush, Henry Summers, down on one knee. And when Henry suddenly arrives in town for the summer, of...

  Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in. Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.   Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped, and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway, and the plane flies off.   An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly viole...

  Recipient of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize “One of America’s greatest storytellers.”—Jonathan Evison The acclaimed Willy Vlautin returns with a heartbreaking and tender novel about two young brothers, the vicissitudes of fate, and unexpected connection—a beautiful and bittersweet portrait that illuminates the power of friendship and how it can save lives in multiple ways. Eddie Wilkens is a workaholic house painter in his early forties. His wife has left him to her regret, and his main employee, Houston, is a loafer and scoundrel who barely shows up for work. Unassuming and self-reliant, Eddie is a thoughtful man who rarely gets angry, despite life's frequent provocations, but he is ruled by a guilt that he has carried for nearly twenty years. Next door, a woman and her two sons move in with their frail, aging mother. The youngest boy, Russell, eight years old, is quiet and small for his age and lives in constant terror of his increasingly lost and troubled fifteen-year-old br...