LibraryReads for November 2023

While a few billionaires lead the world to certain doom, Martha Einkorn, working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything, and Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, when their paths unexpectedly cross, work together to prevent the cataclysmic end of civilization.

"Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk--so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it. What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected. "Take a break from epic battles and saving the world"-- Provided by publisher.

"Lucy Young is twenty-six and tired. Tired of fetching coffees for senior TV producers, sick of going on disastrous dates, and done with living in a damp flat with roommates who never buy toilet roll. After another disappointing date, Lucy stumbles upon a wishing machine. Pushing a coin into the slot, Lucy closes her eyes and wishes with all her might: Please, let me skip to the good part of my life. When she wakes the next morning to a handsome man, a ring on her finger, a high-powered job, and two storybook-perfect children, Lucy can't believe this is real - especially when she looks in the mirror, and staring back is her own forty-something face. Has she really skipped ahead like she's always wanted, or has she simply forgotten a huge chunk of her life? As Lucy begins to embrace new relationships and the perks of maturity, she'll have to ask herself: Can she go back, and if so, does she want to?"-- Provided by publisher.

"April 5th, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel's younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house - and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. And then there is Nathan, age ten, taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents. April 5th, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts - and his secret Instagram life -- for company. April 5th, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality - with what they've learned, what they've lost, and how they might go on"-- Provided by publisher.

"Sparks fly when an occult expert and a disgraced archeologist become rivals with benefits in this steamy opposites-attract romance from "go-to author" Rosie Danan (The New York Times Book Review). Riley Rhodes finally has the chance to turn her family's knack for the supernatural into a legitimate business when she's hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. Used to working alone in her alienating occupation, she's pleasantly surprised to meet a handsome stranger upon arrival-until he tries to get her fired. Fresh off a scandal, Clark Edgeware can't allow a self-proclaimed "curse breaker" to threaten his last chance for professional redemption (or his traitorous heart). After he fails to get Riley kicked off his excavation site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even. Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep ending up on top of each other. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around. If they're not careful, by the end of all this, more than the castle will end up in ruins"-- Provided by publisher.

"The captain of a ragtag mercenary ship is given an offer she can't refuse by the ruthless head of an intergalactic noble family. The only catch? She'll have to team up with his son--an upsettingly competent hardbody with his own agenda--to get her reward. She's got a ramshackle spaceship, a misfit crew, and a big problem with its sexy newest member... Temperance Reed, banished from the wealthy and dangerous Fifteen Families, just wants to keep her crew together after their feckless captain ran off with the intern. But she's drowning in debt and revolutionary new engine technology is about to make her beloved ship obsolete. Enter Arcadio Escajeda. Second child of the terrifying Escajeda Family, he's the thorn in Temper's side as they're sent off on a scouting mission on the backwater desert planet of Herschel 2. They throw sparks every time they meet but Temper's suspicions of his ulterior motives only serve to fuel the flames between them. Despite volcanic eruptions, secret cultists, and deadly galactic fighters, the greatest threat on this mission may be to Temper's heart."-- Provided by publisher.

"A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren't their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone. Celia is trapped in a life that's not hers. Celia wakes up in a house that's supposed to be hers. There's a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family-and this life-is not hers... Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip-but then her friend's boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong... Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she's in a dangerous situation and she doesn't know who put her there or why. She'll have to fight with everything she has to survive... Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This captivating novel will keep readers guessing until the very end"-- Provided by publisher.

"Light and dark-this is the destiny placed upon Natasha and Clara, the birthright bestowed by their godfather, the mysterious sorcerer Drosselmeyer. Clara, the favorite, grows into beauty and ease, while Natasha is cursed to live in her sister's shadow. But one fateful Christmas Eve, Natasha gets her chance at revenge. For Drosselmeyer has brought the Nutcracker, an enchanted present that offers entry into a deceptively beautiful world: the Kingdom of Sweets. In this land of snow and sugar, Natasha is presented with a power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy, who is also full of gifts . . . and dreadful bargains. As Natasha uncovers the dark destiny laid before her birth, she must reckon with powers both earthly and magical, and decide to which world she truly belongs"-- Provided by publisher.

To overcome her writer's block, romance author Sophie Lyon, who's never been in love, reunites with her exes to learn why, getting some social media assistance from her reclusive landlord, a former teen heartthrob, and as they grow closer, she suggests a friends-with-benefits arrangement-what could possibly go wrong?

"Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America's educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother's triumph against all odds"-- Provided by publisher.

When her husband Tom is found dead, Nicole, whose life has been forever changed after a massive lottery win, finds her dream world turning into a nightmare, realizing that big money can bring big problems and big threats, making her wonder if Tom's death was really a tragic accident-and if she's next.

"Written by two female historians, this is a fascinating history of the Pleasant Company, the creators of the American Girl franchise, with pop culture digressions, based on the popular podcast"-- Provided by publisher.

"Secrets! Magic! Enemies to. . .something more? Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he's drawn reluctantly back into that world. Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross. Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package. When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall--Jack's ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it's grown a personality as prickly as its owner--Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end"-- Provided by publisher.

"The story of the unrivaled desire for healing and the power of familial bonds across five generations of Métis women and the land and bison that surround them"-- Provided by publisher.

"When an acclaimed author dies at the Regency Grand Hotel, it's up to a fastidious maid to uncover the truth, no matter how dirty"-- Provided by publisher.

"Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she's fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She's immediately given a choice--join their group or die. Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his pirate crew are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn't expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she'll steal. But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, danger escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price..."-- Provided by publisher.

"Graphic designer Sonya MacTavish is stunned to learn that her late father had a twin he never knew about--and that her newly discovered uncle, Collin Poole, has left her almost everything he owned, including a majestic Victorian house on the Maine coast, which the will stipulates she must live in it for at least three years. Her engagement recently broken, she sets off to find out why the boys were separated at birth-and why it was all kept secret until a genealogy website brought it to light. Trey, the young lawyer who greets her at the sprawling clifftop manor, notes Sonya's unease-and acknowledges that yes, the place is haunted...but just a little. Sure enough, Sonya finds objects moved and music playing out of nowhere. She sees a painting by her father inexplicably hanging in her deceased uncle's office, and a portrait of a woman named Astrid, whom the lawyer refers to as "the first lost bride." It's becoming clear that Sonya has inherited far more than a house. She has inherited a centuries-old curse, and a puzzle to be solved if there is any hope of breaking it."-- Provided by publisher.

"Rupert's 30th birthday party is a black-tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's-catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot. The morning after, his girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, a single stiletto heel jutting from under a bush. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally. This investigation is going to be about aristocrats and Classics degrees, Instagram influencers and whose father knows who. Or is it 'whom'? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. He's sharply dressed, smart, and thoroughly modern-he discovers Clemmie's body on his early morning jog. As he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxurious life of these London socialites, a wall of staggering wealth and privilege threatens to shut down his investigation before it's even begun. Can Caius peer through the tangled mess of connections in which the other half live-and die-before the case is wrenched from his hands? Bitingly funny, full of shocking twists, and all too familiar, The Other Half is a stunning debut from your next favorite crime writer"-- Provided by publisher.

"Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment in Martha Wells's New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series. Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse. Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there's an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can't have the planet, they're sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there's something wrong with Murderbot; it isn't running within normal operational parameters. ART's crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza's SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they're going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what's wrong with itself, and fast! Yeah, this plan is... not going to work. The Murderbot Diaries All Systems Red Artificial Condition Rogue Protocol Exit Strategy Network Effect Fugitive Telemetry System Collapse"-- Provided by publisher.