THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  Michelle Gable's new novel, THE LIPSTICK BUREAU (GraydonHouse) is inspired by a real-life female spy, a WWII-set novel about a woman challenging convention and boundaries to help win a war, no matter the cost. 1944, Rome. Newlywed Niki Novotná is recruited by a new American spy agency to establish a secret branch in Italy's capital. One of the OSS's few female operatives abroad and multilingual, she's tasked with crafting fake stories and distributing propaganda to lower the morale of enemy soldiers. Despite limited resources, Niki and a scrappy team of artists, forgers and others—now nicknamed The Lipstick Bureau—find success, forming a bond amid the cobblestoned streets and storied villas of the newly liberated city. But her work is also a way to escape devastating truths about the family she left behind in Czechoslovakia and a future with her controlling American husband. As the war drags on and the pressure intensifies, Niki begins to question the rules she's ...

  THE SECRET SOCIETY of SALZBERG (Harlequin) by Renee Ryan at its heart is about women's friendships and what they will do for one another, even face death. The loyalty each character has for the other is nothing short of brilliant. London, 1933   At first glance, Austrian opera singer Elsa Mayer-Braun has little in common with the young English typist she encounters on tour. Yet she and Hattie Featherstone forge an instant connection—and strike a dangerous alliance. Using their friendship as a cover, they form a secret society with a daring goal: to rescue as many Jews as possible from Nazi persecution.   Though the war’s outbreak threatens Elsa and Hattie’s network, their efforts attract the covert attention of the British government, offering more opportunities to thwart the Germans. But Elsa’s growing fame as Hitler’s favorite opera singer, coupled with her secret Jewish ancestry, make her both a weapon and a target—until her future, too, hangs in the balance.   ...

 h Tis the season to be jolly. Able Barrett offers up a holiday treat that will warm readers hearts. Andrew and his older brother Nicholas were separated as children.   Nicholas had been snatched away by the Prince of Darkness, and Andrew had all but given up hope, but now their mother is ill, and he's determined to reunite them before she passes - despite her objections.   With his dog Jenny by his side, Andrew sets out on an epic and perilous crusade well beyond his wildest imagination, facing evil protectors, giant wolves, dark magic, Sorcerers, Goblins, and even the Prince of Darkness himself.   Then there's The Great Tree.    It's enormous, with a presence that's nearly impossible to describe...   And it's clearly the heart of the kingdom of the wicked Sorcerer.    This is the setting for the adventure story that changed Christmas forever!   Young people and adults of all ages will enjoy this thrilling fable in the same way we've en...

The holidays wouldn't be as festive without a Viola Shipman Christmas novel - and of course, Viola Shipman doesn't disappoint. A WISH FOR WINTER (GraydonHouse) is here this holiday season just in time for readers to sit on a comfy sofa with a cuppa hot cocoa. Despite losing her parents in a tragic accident just before her fourteenth Christmas, Susan Norcross has had it better than most, with loving grandparents to raise her and a gang of quirky, devoted friends to support her. Now a successful bookstore owner in a tight-knit Michigan lakeside community, Susan is facing down forty—the same age as her mother when she died—and she can’t help but see everything she  hasn’t  achieved, including finding a love match of her own. To add to the pressure, everyone in her small town believes it’s Susan’s destiny to meet and marry a man dressed as Santa, just like her mother and grandmother before her. So it seems cosmically unfair that the man she makes an instant connection wi...

  Last year we celebrated Christmas with Anita Hughes in her warm and fuzzy novel, A MAGICAL NEW YORK CHRISTMAS (StMartinsGriffin). This holiday, we're off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in her new novel, CHRISTMAS AT THE RANCH (StMartinsGriffin). It’s days before Christmas and Samantha Morgan is in her Brooklyn apartment when her editor, Charlie, shows up. Her publisher Arthur Wentworth is throwing a Christmas party and wants Samantha to be the guest of honor. Samantha tries to come up with an excuse to miss it. She writes a series of books featuring a female James Bond-type heroine named Sloane Parker and Charlie is the only person who knows that Samantha is the opposite of Sloane, though the marketing team has built up an entire social media presence for her claiming that she is just as adventurous. In reality, Samantha rarely leaves her neighborhood and does her research online. She is afraid of almost everything and is only happy when she’s sitting in her apartment and writing. Sama...

  If you're a rock music fan, I mean hardcore rock, this will excite you. Brian Johnson, lead singer of the band AC/DC has published his memoir, ROCK LEGEND. THRILLSEEKER. ENTERTAINER. (Dutton). As you'll read in his memoir, sometimes his career was on a "Highway to Hell." Brian Johnson’s memoir from growing up in a small town to starting his own band to ultimately replacing Bon Scott, the lead singer of one of the world biggest rock acts, AC/DC. They would record their first album together, the iconic  Back in Black , which would become the biggest selling rock album of all time. Brian Johnson was born to a steelworker and WWII veteran father and an Italian mother, growing up in New Castle Upon Tyne, England, a working-class town. He was musically inclined and sang with the church choir. By the early ’70s he performed with the glam rock band Geordie, and they had a couple hits, but it was tough going. So tough that by 1976, they disbanded and Brian turned to a blue-c...

THE RISEN CITY by Isabelle Steiger (StMartinsPress) is the powerful finale of the Paths of Lantistyne series, which returns us to a continent in the midst of an epic battle for salvation. Imperator Elgar’s dire strategy for conquering the continent has finally been laid bare, and those who would stop him must prepare to make their final stand. The surviving rogues of the Dragon’s Head are split in two: half help dismantle Elgar’s plot from the shadows of their home city, while the rest chase down rumors and revolts in the east. Valyanrend’s rebels and thieves have made common cause for the first time in centuries, but they form only half of the resistance necessary to challenge the imperator. For the other half, they must look to the continent’s remaining royals for a foreign army. Unfortunately, most of Lantistyne’s royals have seen better days. King Kelken is imprisoned in Araveil, at the mercy of the brutal Administrator Selwyn. And Arianrod Margraine, the brilliant marquise of Esth...

  From the Author of the New York Times bestseller Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story What would you do if you learned you were going blind? In her gripping memoir, Ingrid takes readers into her world as she grapples with the devastating news that an incurable blinding eye disease is eating away at her vision. Terrified that she will miss out on her daughters’ lives, become a burden to her husband and lose the career and independence that defines her, Ingrid, a thirty-seven-year-old journalist and mother of two, embarks on a quest to save her sight. Through her journey, she learns to focus on the Now, go after her dreams and see what really counts—something no amount of vision loss can take from her. Ingrid Ricks is a New York Times bestselling author, memoir coach, and inspirational speaker who is passionate about leveraging personal storytelling to foster healing, awareness, empathy, and change. Over the past decade, she has helped thousands of students of every age find healing and empo...

  A cross between  Firefly Lane  and  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,  THE SUNSHINE GIRLS is a dual-narrative about two sisters who realize their mother isn’t who they’d always thought when a legendary movie star shows up at her funeral, unraveling the sweeping story of a friendship that begins at a nursing school in Iowa in 1967 and onward as it survives decades of change, war, fame—and the secrets they kept from each other and for each other. A moment of great change sparks the friendship of a lifetime... 1967, Iowa: Nursing school roommates BettyKay and Kitty don’t have much in common. A farmer’s daughter, BettyKay has risked her family’s disapproval to make her dreams come true away from her rural small town. Cosmopolitan Kitty has always relied on her beauty and smarts to get by, and to hide a devastating secret from the past that she can’t seem to outrun. Yet the two share a determination to prove themselves in a changing world, forging an unlikely bond...