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New Adult Fiction - Authors L - O |
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Newest items are displayed first. Click on a title for more information or to place a hold. |
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The Pirate Queen
by Ariel Lawhon
Grace O'Malley was born to be a sea captain. But despite her natural
skill on the water, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the
helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family. As
the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she's sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son--a man she cannot have. Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband's power, only to be ousted from his lands.
But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O'Malley's mighty fleet. Just as she finds true
independence, Queen Elizabeth's incursions into Ireland grow bolder
and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-hungry English deputies, who will stop at nothing to check her influence. Keenly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon's new action-packed novel channels the untamed beauty and harsh realities of sixteenth-century Ireland, as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine who rightly became the Pirate Queen of Ireland.
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Stitched
by Eli McCann
Betty Lou Dearden has been a member of the Ogden Quilters
Association for more than twenty years when it is announced that the biggest quilting competition in the country is coming to Utah. With the clock ticking and a chance to finally beat their long-time rival quilting circle, the women welcome two young gay men to their group as they bicker their way to an award-worthy entry. With disarming humor and extraordinary heart, Eli McCann takes readers deep into the cozy but cutthroat world of competitive quilting and the sometimes-messy friendships that shape our lives.
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A Tender Age
by Chang-Rae Lee
A spellbinding exploration of American masculinity and family dynamics as seen through the confused eyes of a prepubescent child of immigrants, A Tender Age joins the rich tradition of the American bildungsroman. The natural descendent of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caufield, Korean-American Jeon-Gi is torn between competing ideas of himself. At home, his working-class parents dote on him. Outside, he is part of a roving pack of kids with dominion over a derelict baseball field, weedy parking lot, and rusty jungle gym. Getting into and out of trouble is all-consuming. But the summer he turns eleven, he becomes embroiled in a staggering series of events reverberating far beyond himself and his family. Devastating in its emotional precision, A Tender Age captures a family and community in striking distance of the American dream, and a young person on the precipice of adult knowledge, looking at his own culpability and looking away--then thinking about it for the rest of his life.
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Beginning Middle End
by Valeria Luiselli
This story begins when a mother and her daughter take off on a trip. It is a summer of rapidly changing winds, volcanic rumbles, and sudden tempests. They've landed in Sicily, near the ancient ruins where the mother's grandmother worked long ago on an archaeological dig. The narrator's marriage has collapsed, her mother is losing her memory, and her daughter is on the threshold of adolescence, starting to ask difficult questions and form complex memories. How do you begin again? the narrator wonders, pondering her family line. How do you begin again if you got the beginning wrong? While the mother tries to figure out how to reconstruct their lives as a duo--cooking meals side by side, reading out loud to each other, playing chess, bickering and making up--her daughter takes the reins of the story, and their journey soon becomes a quest for origins, not just to the familial past across continents, languages, and generations, but also farther back, to a mythical and even geological past. Beginning Middle End evolves into a road novel of exquisite tenderness, spanning four generations of women.
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Adversary to the Villain: A Cozy Fantasy Romantic Comedy
by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
HR Update: The position of adversary to the villain has been filled. Evie Sage does not recall applying. Evie has always tried to be helpful, loyal, and only mildly involved in treason. But with a dangerous prophecy threatening the very magic of Rennedawn--not to mention the race to claim its necessary artifacts before King Benedict does--things are starting to feel...less like a career path and more like a serious problem. The prophecy won't stop pointing in Evie's direction. The Villain's magic keeps choosing her. And honestly, if you're going to be accused of evil anyway, you might as well commit. Unfortunately, the more Evie leans into her alleged villain era, the more her boss starts acting like the hero of a completely different story. Trystan is getting closer--closer than is wise, advisable, or even remotely professional--and looking at her like she's already chosen a side. His. Which is deeply inconvenient, because if Evie can't save the kingdom's magic, she might just become its greatest threat.
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That Night
by Gillian McAllister
On vacation in Europe, Frannie makes two urgent phone calls. One to her sister, and one to her brother. The siblings come running, and they find their sister covered in blood, kneeling over an unmoving body. There's been an accident: Frannie has hit a man with her car, and she needs their help. They bury the body, and they make a promise. They'll never tell anyone. But when the police come calling, the siblings' lies start to spiral. They begin to doubt their trust in each other. Because what really happened that night? And who will be the first to crack?
With the incredible twists and turns and a unique look at family relationships that McAllister has become known for, That Night is the ultimate summer thriller that asks: what would you do to protect your family?
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Brain Damage
by Freida McFadden
Dr. Charly McKenna had the perfect life: a thriving dermatology practice, a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, and a handsome husband who adored her. Until the night a bullet tore through her skull... and stole everything. Now Charly wakes in a rehabilitation hospital unable
to walk, speak, or remember her own name. All she knows is that someone tried to kill her--and they may still be out there. As fragments of memory surface, so do unsettling questions about the people around her, including the attentive man who keeps appearing at her bedside. The truth of what happened that night lives somewhere inside her
brain. And as Charly pieces together the jagged edges of her past, she begins to realize the most terrifying possibility: the person who wants her dead might be the one she once trusted most.
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Time Travel for Beginners
by Jaclyn Moriarty
On a bustling road in Sydney, Australia, lies a nondescript storefront known simply as the Time Travel Agency. Inside, you'll be welcomed by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, a selection of baked goods...and the question, Where in time do you wish to go? The guidelines are simple: you can go whenever you wish into the past, and there's no fear of altering the present. Have tea with Jane Austen, scream at a Beatles concert, witness the Olympics in ancient Greece. Perhaps a more personal trip? Visit your long-lost grandmother, recapture the heady
days of your youth, return to the idyllic time when your teen was a babbling baby--or watch yourself make the one decision that changed everything. Is it a hoax? And if it's real, what's the catch? When single mother Anna is offered a job at the agency, she glimpses the possibility of happiness. Meanwhile, Teddy's a customer hoping to untangle his recently imploded marriage. And Jade, who has a deeply buried secret, despises the agency for offering false hope. In Jaclyn Moriarty's incandescent novel, Anna, Teddy, and Jade leap headlong into time, hurtling on a crash course toward one another.
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Sunlight Finds You
by Laura Moriarty
It's 1949, early in the Cold War, but St. Petersburg, Florida is warm,
lush, and booming with newcomers seeking sunshine and opportunity. For seventeen-year-old Nora, St. Pete feels like paradise, especially after she meets and wins over Leonard, the shy, brilliant son of transplanted New Yorkers. Nora and Leonard are soon spending balmy days and evenings together, and in her adoring, encouraging company, he grows more confident, even as he remains tender and caring. Leonard's sophisticated mother welcomes Nora into their lives, but his father distrusts her motives. When his suspicions are seemingly confirmed, Nora is forced to cut contact. In her longing and fear, she takes a
chance that changes her life, exiling her from the family she loves and setting off a chain of secrets and betrayals that will follow her into adulthood. It is a mature Nora who tells the story of her turbulent past. Wiser and more worldly, she commits to an honest but compassionate account, and to a future based on trusting, first and foremost, herself.
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Big Little Truths
by Liane Moriarty
The last time we saw the women of Big Little Lies--Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie--their children were five years old. If
someone wasn't invited to a birthday party, feelings were hurt. But ten years have passed and the kids are in high school, navigating all of the drama that accompanies teendom (goodbye playdates, hello drugs, sex, and alcohol). When the high school principal receives a threatening package in the mail, word quickly spreads throughout the community and parents are in an uproar. But Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie have other things to worry about. Celeste's mother-in-law, Mary Louise, is behaving oddly--is it old-age forgetfulness and bluntness or something more sinister? Madeline is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of her life, Jane is at a dangerous fork in her marriage,
Bonnie has realized there's only so much solace in yoga. And Renata? Renata is living her best life--revenge is sweet. When a stranger begins lurking around the school asking supposedly innocent questions, this tightly connected group of women must finally face the full
repercussions of the big little truths they have and haven't shared with their kids. Because the stakes are now much higher than not being invited to an ice-skating party--and the ice has never been thinner for any of them.
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Heather
by Caitlin Mullen
1990. In the myth-riddled woods of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, sixteen-year-old Annabelle Riley's twin sister, Sabrina, has been having an affair with a mysterious older man, and Annabelle is determined to uncover what's going on. Then, inexplicably, both sisters disappear. In this same town years later, newly instated police chief Callie Hauser makes an arrest that unexpectedly resurrects details from a heartbreaking cold case. As she digs deeper, the past and the present collide, challenging everything Callie believes about right and wrong, who she is, and the town she's always called home. A propulsive
mystery as incisive as it is forgiving, Heather bears a visceral reminder that the truth of a woman's life is often complicated and unknowable--
to those on the outside, and sometimes even to herself.
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Sunrise
by Téa Obreht
In 2024, Nina's small-engine plane crashes into a lake in the Wyoming mountains. Her boyfriend Ben, who was flying it, is nowhere to be
found. Lost and freezing on the shore, Nina is armed with only a few
old protein bars, a phone with no service, and a vague hope of rescue.
It is up to her to survive in the vast wilderness. But then she stumbles upon Sunrise--a town of the Old West that is strangely well maintained, but seemingly abandoned. A place that holds the missing link to a
ghost story one hundred years in the making. In 2003, Sand Daw's golden boy Coll is putting the finishing touches on the town's annual historical reenactment. But when an upstart would-be author comes to him with questions about one of Sunrise's most beloved figures, it threatens to upend everything he thought he knew about the city--and himself. In 1902, town founder, gunslinger, and legendary pulp hero Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise and quickly takes charge of a group searching for a missing boy. But who really is Vargas? What does he know about the boy's disappearance? And why has he returned after such a long absence? These three strangers are separated by time and circumstance. But Sunrise's many secrets are like gunpowder: quiet, contained, until they encounter a spark. Magisterial and suspenseful,
Tea Obreht's novel challenges the myths we think we know: of heroes and villains, of the people and places to which we lay claim, and, most
of all, of our own lives.
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Henry Tudor Must Die
by Jillian Laine
One queen exiled. Another headed for the gallows. Both hungry for revenge. England's most infamous queens unite in vengeance against Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn is going to die, and neither her cleverness nor her witchery can save her. So when her late rival, Catalina de Aragon, miraculously appears in her cell at the Tower of London on the eve of
her execution, very much alive and offering a daring escape plan, no
one is more surprised than Anne. Lina doesn't have Anne's magic-but she has just as much hate for England's wretched king. Severed from
her daughter and stripped of all her influence, Lina breathes only for
the Hellebore Sisterhood, a clandestine and powerful society with a vested interest in keeping both queens alive...and using their particular skills to advance womankind. Anne and Lina's old rivalries pale in comparison to a common enemy. And they're not alone: Anna von
Kleve, Kat Howard, and even Catherine Parr all have their own bones to pick with the king. One by one, they capture their pawns, infiltrating the court, and eliminating the men who plotted against them. Always
inching closer to their true target... And they want his head.
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Getting Away with Murder
by Shari Lapena
Jill and Ted adore their New York brownstone the way others adore
their children. They have carefully, expensively, made every inch of it their own. It reflects who they are, their status and tastes. With the grand mahogany staircase and state-of-the-art kitchen, it is the stuff of glossy magazines and real-estate dreams. It is their sanctuary. So when Ted's inheritance runs out and he makes a bad investment, they panic. How can they protect their beloved home and enviable lifestyle? The answer is obvious. Or at least, it is obvious to Jill and Ted. The death of one wealthy family member--from whom they stand to inherit millions--could solve all their problems. Together, they will get away with murder. As long as they trust each other. As long as neither makes a mistake.
As long as there are no surprises...
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The Romance Revival
by Christina Lauren
Three years ago, scientist Emery Finch did something completely out of character: She got married. To Luca--the impossibly charming
landscaper she met on one blistering night in Vegas who made her laugh, made her dance, made her feel. But now, Emery is consumed by her top research, missing dinners, forgetting anniversaries, and promising herself Luca will understand once her cutting-edge
discoveries come to light. Until the unthinkable happens: A tragic accident takes Luca from her. Desperate not to lose him, Emery breaks every rule, using the classified technology she's developed to bring him back to life. And Luca would probably thank her for it, if only he could remember her. Their first kiss, their Sunny Sundays at the beach, the
life they built together...all of it is gone. It may be a miracle of science, but for Emery it's her one shot at a second chance. And this time, she won't waste it--because true love is always worth reviving.
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Perfect Life
by Meredith Lavender
Welcome back to Winter Park, where looks can kill and secrets refuse to stay buried. Este Walker didn't move to Florida to make friends. Five years ago, she ghosted her life in California to reinvent herself among the lakefront estates of Florida's elite. With a cocktail in hand, more money than she could ever spend, and a past she intends to keep hidden, she's finally content--or, you know, close enough. Her husband, Beau, and her best friend, Nora, are the only company Este needs. But when someone she'd much rather forget resurfaces, the past begins to close on her. And then a mysterious death turns Winter Park upside down--and Beau, who's keeping secrets of his own, is implicated, . Thrust into a high-stakes murder investigation, Este must unravel a
web of lies and deception to answer the question: What exactly happened in California, and has it come back to haunt her? More important: How is she going to get herself out of this mess?
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The Kings of Vegas
by Karen Mack
When Josie King left Las Vegas in the 90s, she never looked back. The daughter of gambling mogul Roy King, spirited math whiz Josie grew up on the casino floor but deliberately turned away from the family business. She’s been living a quiet life in LA as an accountant and a single mom when she finds herself summoned back to Sin City. Now, fifteen years later, her father has died unexpectedly, and Josie’s siblings are already gathered for the reading of his will...only to discover that in order to inherit they must spend three years working together at the notorious family casino, The Jackpot. Josie’s pride won’t let her walk away from the family empire again, so she agrees to take charge of the casino’s finances. She quickly discovers that while Roy King was once
the most powerful man in Vegas, times have changed. These days, everyone has a piece of the action: Josie’s brothers, the FBI, the local mobsters, even the sexy rival casino owner who’s more than a friend. Las Vegas is more dangerous than ever, but Josie knows that to save
the family business she’ll have to wade in deeper…
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The Butler: A Thriller
by Clare Mackintosh
The South of France is stunning, though not without its imperfections, from pickpockets to burglars to the occasional cold-blooded killer. But in his twenty-five years of service, Baxter--with a spotless reputation as a polished, well-mannered butler--has never run into any issues catering
to the ultrawealthy. Until now. Baxter's latest assignment is at Villa Serenite, where Alec Prescott is hosting a colorful cast of characters, including his ex-wife, his much younger lady friend, and some
Hollywood hotshots, after the Cannes Film Festival. But it doesn't take long for a week of sun, wine, and a family birthday celebration to devolve into bickering and backstabbing. And soon, secrets aren't the only thing floating to the surface. When one of the guests is found dead in the villa's glittering pool, the gendarmes turn to the unflappable Baxter to help determine who's responsible. A good butler is expected
to see everything and say nothing--but what if he too becomes a
target?
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Country People
by Daniel Mason
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting
dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he's become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life. But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate's words, a great capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere. And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself
entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world's delusions in
an Inventory of Wrong Ideas. The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon
a bizarre--perhaps ridiculous--local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all. Joyous, absurd, and life-affirming, Country People is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
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Alan Opts Out
by Courtney Maum
Alan Anderson is a powerful advertising executive who has built a successful life and thriving business by making people buy stuff they don't actually need. He's up for the biggest pitch of his career and the account everyone wants, US Dairy: cow's milk sales are plummeting,
and the C-Suite wants to see trendy oat milk kicked to the curb. But when an anarchist farmer tanks Alan's presentation, Alan bombs the pitch but ends the day with an epiphany. No longer will he exploit the insecurities of others in the service of capitalism. Alan is opting out.
This development is anathema to his wife, Vivian. She's just a few positive affirmations, a swimming pool, and an exacting series of social tests away from finally becoming part of the elite women's club, the Queen Annes, in their adopted town of Greenwich, Connecticut. As if contending with a daughter who wants to write plays (!) and another who has an unnatural empathy with animals isn't enough to manage, she can only watch as Alan moves into their backyard playhouse to live off the land and--worse--spend time with the family. But instead of shocking the neighbors, Alan's commitment to a less-is-more lifestyle seems to be catching on. Could everyone want what Alan's not selling?
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Every Version of You
by Natalie Messier
Joey Vasquez's life is the definition of good on paper. At thirty-two,
she's a lawyer on the cusp of making partner, she owns her house in
Los Angeles, and she almost keeps pace with her doctor sister in her parents' eyes. When she reluctantly arrives at the very couple-y dinner party hosted by Elijah Aarons, the best friend she's secretly pined after for fourteen years, she's dismayed to find that the last person on earth she'd ever want to see again is also there: Alex Aquino - your basic rich Silicon Beach bro asshole. The night couldn't possibly get worse--and then she dies. When Joey is given a second chance at life, she finds herself eighteen again, the year she first met both Elijah and Alex. Armed with memories from her first life, Joey is certain she's come
back to finally convince the one man she ever loved to love her back--
so why does she find herself strangely drawn to the man she thought she hated?
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The Intrigue
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters
in order to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won't last forever, and he's desperate to get his hands on a real fortune. He thinks he's found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he
finds something he didn't expect. The woman has a niece, Ines, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt's household. When Ines discovers Ulises's true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They'll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast, and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Ines is more alluring than he bargained for. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated. Venture into the streets of a small town where a patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.
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It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories
by Sigrid Nunez
In It Will Come Back to You, Nunez brings together thirteen of her best stories from the decades-long sweep of her career, tracing the origins of her style and her remarkable artistic range. Moving from the
momentous to the mundane, Nunez maintains her expert balance between gravity and levity while probing the philosophical questions
that illuminate her work.
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The Frenzy: Stories
by Joyce Carol Oates
Frenzy (noun): a temporary madness; a violent mental or emotional agitation; intense usually wild and often disorderly compulsive or agitated activity. Joyce Carol Oates is a master of the short story and
one of the legends of the form. Her collections of short fiction have
twice been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and have won numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story. In The Frenzy: Stories, Oates plunges us into the lives of her characters at moments of crisis and confusion, when much of what they understand about themselves and those they love comes undone. A young woman on a supposedly romantic weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey, turns the tables on her older, married lover. A freak bicycle accident on a bridge haunts one family for decades. A girl jealous of her popular cousin discovers she is the lucky one. A widow waits at her riverside house for her dead husband's return. A young man hiking in the woods comes upon a couple in a heated, possibly violent argument--should he intervene? Suspenseful and psychologically astute, Oates's short stories enthrall
and captivate as they dissect her character's deepest fears--revealing
our own in turn.
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