July 2018 list by Donalee Jacobs
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All We Ever Wanted
by Emily Giffin
Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville's elite. Her husband's tech business is booming, and her son, Finch, is bound for Princeton. Thomas Talone is a single dad working multiple jobs. His daughter, Lila, was recently accepted to Nashville's most prestigious private high school on a scholarship. Then one devastating photo changes everything. Lila passes out at a party, drunk and half-naked. Finch snaps a picture, types out a caption, and sends it out to a few friends. The photo spreads quickly, and before long, an already divided community takes sides, throws blame, and implodes. And in the midst of it all, Nina and Tom are forced to question all their assumptions about love and loyalty.
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All Your Perfects
by Colleen Hoover
Quinn and Graham's perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.
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The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)
by Terri-Lynne Defino
Set on the water in one of New England's most beautiful locales, the Bar Harbor Home was established specifically for elderly writers needing a place to live out their golden years. A faithful staff of nurses and orderlies surround the writers, and are drawn into their orbit, as they are forced to reckon with their own life stories. Among them are Cecibel Bringer, a young woman who knows first-hand the cost of chasing excess. A terrible accident destroyed her face and her sister in a split-second decision that Cecibel can never forgive. Cecibel never anticipated the impact of meeting her favorite writer, Alfonse Carducci—or the effect he would have on her existence. In Cecibel, Alfonse finds a muse who returns him to the passion he thought he lost. As the words flow from him, weaving a tale taken up by the other residents of the Pen, Cecibel is reawakened to the idea of love and forgiveness. As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created.
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Before and Again
by Barbara Delinsky
Mackenzie Cooper took her eyes off the road for just a moment but the resulting collision was enough to rob her not only of her beloved daughter but ultimately of her marriage, family, friends, and privacy. Now she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid, in a small house with her cats and dog. Her only goal is to stay under the radar and make it through her remaining probation. But she isn't the only one in this peaceful town with secrets.
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Between You and Me
by Susan Wiggs
Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around family, farm, faith—and long-held suspicions about outsiders. When disaster strikes, Caleb is thrust into an urban environment of high-tech medicine and the relentless rush of modern life. Dr. Reese Powell is poised to join the medical dynasty of her wealthy, successful parents. Bold, assertive, and quick-thinking, she lives for the addictive rush of saving lives. When a shocking accident brings Caleb Stoltz into her life, Reese is forced to deal with a situation that challenges everything she thinks she knows—and ultimately emboldens her to question her most powerful beliefs.Then one impulsive act brings about a clash of cultures in a tug-of-war that plays out in a courtroom, challenging the very nature of justice and reverberating through generations, straining the fragile threads of faith and family.
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The Cabin at the End of the World
by Paul Tremblay
The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts gives a new twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense.
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Confessions of the Fox
by Jordy Rosenberg
Recently jilted and increasingly unhinged, Dr. Voth throws himself into his work, obsessively researching the life of Jack Sheppard, a legendary eighteenth century thief. No one knows Jack's true story-his confessions have never been found. That is, until Dr. Voth discovers a mysterious stack of papers titled Confessions of the Fox. Dated 1724, the manuscript tells the story of an orphan named P. Sold into servitude at twelve, P struggles for years with her desire to live as "Jack." P resides in the London underworld where scamps and rogues clash with London's newly established police force, queer subcultures thrive, and ominous threats of an oncoming plague abound. Has Dr. Voth finally found one of the most notorious-and most wanted-thieves in history?
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Dear Mrs. Bird
by A. J. Pearce
London 1940. Bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a lady war correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.
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The Family Tabor
by Cherise Wolas
Harry Tabor is about to be named Man of the Decade, a distinction that feels like the culmination of a life well lived. Gathering together in Palm Springs for the celebration are his wife, Roma, a distinguished child psychologist, and their children: Phoebe, a high-powered attorney; Camille, a brilliant social anthropologist; and Simon, a big-firm lawyer, who brings his glamorous wife and two young daughters. But immediately, cracks begin to appear in this smooth facade.
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It All Falls Down
by Sheena Kamal
When Nora Watts father killed himself, she denied her grief and carried on with her life. Then a chance encounter with a veteran who knew him raises disturbing questions Nora can't ignore. Finding the truth about her father's life and his violent death takes her from Vancouver to Detroit where Sam Watts grew up. Thanks to a government policy starting in the 1950s, thousands of Canadian native children like Sam were adopted by American families. In the Motor City, Nora discovers Sam's suicide is more unsettling than she'd imagined. Yet no matter how far away Nora gets from Vancouver, she can't shake trouble. Private investigator Jon Brazuca is looking into the overdose death of a billionaire's mistress. His search uncovers a ruthless opiate ring and a startling connection to Nora, and she may not see the danger heading her way until it's too late.
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Last Seen Alive
by Claire Douglas
As much as Libby Hall needs a vacation, she's never considered taking one until she sees the note for a house swap. Suffering a miscarriage was a personal turning point. Saving a child from a burning school was a public one. Just as the emotional fallout of both incidents takes its toll, along come her lifesavers—the Heywoods, a couple in need of a getaway of their own. Libby and her husband Jamie can't believe their good fortune when they arrive at the Heywood's isolated seaside estate with its panoramic views. Libby almost feels guilty until the home yields disquieting surprises: a fortune in hidden surveillance equipment, a stranger in the garden who watches them, and the make-shift operating room in the basement... When Jamie falls dangerously ill, all Libby wants is to return to their comfortably imperfect lives. But it's already too late.
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The Last Time I Lied
by Riley Sager
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she—or anyone—saw of them. Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees. Assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, she soon discovers a security camera pointed directly at its door. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.
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The Lido
by Libby Page
Kate is a twenty-six-year-old riddled with anxiety and panic attacks who works for a local paper in Brixton, London. When she's assigned to write about the closing of the local lido (an outdoor pool and recreation center), she meets Rosemary, an eighty-six-year-old widow who has swum at the lido daily since it opened its doors when she was a child. It was here Rosemary fell in love with her husband, George; here that she's found communion during her marriage and since George's death. The lido has been a cornerstone in nearly every part of Rosemary's life. But when a local developer attempts to buy the lido for a posh new apartment complex, Rosemary's fond memories and sense of community are under threat. As Kate dives deeper into the lido's history--with the help of a charming photographer--she pieces together a portrait of the pool, and a portrait of a singular woman, Rosemary.
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The Lost Country
by William Gay
The Lost Country centers on Edgewater, who's recently been discharged from the Navy, and a one-armed conman named Roosterfish who takes him under his wing as they both search desperately for a forgotten past and a future that may never come.
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Murder in Paradise
by James Patterson
Three pulse-pounding stories from the world's number one bestselling writer in one book! Includes The Lawyer Lifeguard, The Shut-In and The Doctor's Plot.
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Playing With Matches
by Hannah Orenstein
When Sasha Goldberg's dream career falls through, she uses her family's darkest secret to land a job as a matchmaker for New York City's elite at the dating service Bliss. Despite her inexperience, Sasha throws herself into her new career, trolling for catches on Tinder, coaching her clients through rejection, and dishing out dating advice to people twice her age. She sets up a TV exec who wanted kids five years ago, a forty-year-old baseball-loving virgin, and a consultant with a rigorous five-page checklist for her ideal match. But when she is betrayed, Sasha spirals out of control-and right into the arms of a writer with a charming Southern drawl, who she had previously set up with one of her clients. Fresh, sweet, and laugh-out-loud funny, Playing with Matches is about dating in today's swipe-heavy society, and a young woman trying to find her own place in the world.
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The Secrets Between Us
by Thrity Umrigar
Bhima, the unforgettable main character of Thrity Umrigar's beloved national bestseller The Space Between Us, returns in this triumphant sequel—a poignant and compelling novel in which the former servant struggles against the circumstances of class and misfortune to forge a new path for herself and her granddaughter in modern India.
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Somebody's Daughter
by David Bell
When Michael Frazier's ex-wife, Erica, shows up on his doorstep pleading for help, she drops a bombshell that threatens to rip his family apart: Erica's nine-year-old daughter is missing, and Michael is the father. But finding Felicity comes at a price, the closer Michael gets to the truth, the further into jeopardy his marriage falls and the faster his family begins to unravel.
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Spinning Silver
by Naomi Novik
Miryem father's inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, she sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk, Miryem's fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar. But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.
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The Summer List
by Amy Mason Doan
A tender yet tantalizing novel about two friends, the summer night they fell apart, and the scavenger hunt that reunites them decades later, until the clues expose a breathtaking secret that just might shatter them once and for all.
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Three Days Missing
by Kimberly Belle
When Kat Jenkins awakens to the police on her doorstep, her greatest fear is realized. Her nine-year-old son, Ethan, is missing—vanished from the cabin where he'd been on an overnight class trip. Kat rushes to the campground, but she's too late; the authorities have returned from their search empty-handed after losing Ethan's trail in the mountain forest. Stef Huntington hardly knows Kat, except for the vicious gossip that swirls around her traumatic past. But as the police investigation unfolds, Ethan's disappearance has earth-shattering consequences for Stef, and her path crosses with Kat. As the two mothers race against the clock, their desperate search for answers reveals how the greatest dangers lie behind the everyday smiles of those they trust the most.
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Truth or Dare
by Fern Michaels
After Joe Espinosa and his dog, Cyrus, discover three scared children alone in the woods off an isolated country road, the Men of the Sisterhood launch an investigation that will shock them beyond belief.
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When Katie Met Cassidy
by Camille Perri
Katie Daniels is a perfection-seeking 28-year-old lawyer living the New York dream. She's engaged to charming art curator Paul Michael, has successfully made her way up the ladder at a multinational law firm, and has a hold on apartments in Soho and the West Village. But the rug is swept from under Katie when she is suddenly dumped by her fiance, leaving her devastated and completely lost. On a whim, she agrees to have a drink with Cassidy Price, a self-assured, woman she meets at work. The two form a newfound friendship, which soon brings into question everything Katie thought she knew about sexuality--and love.
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