We are back with the latest book releases of August 2020.
The Comeback by Ella Berman
On the eve of what should be a golden moment in her acting career, teen star Grace Turner disappears into a self-imposed exile. One year later Grace returns, sober and numb. “But when Grace is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to director Able Yorke—the man who controlled her every move for eight years — she realises that she can’t run from the secret behind her spectacular crash and burn for much longer.”
Luster by Raven Leilani
Edie is a Black woman in her early twenties in New York City, trying to figure out life as an artist. When she finds herself unemployed, Edie cautiously moves in with Eric — a married man in a newly open relationship with his wife — and his family.
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
Team Edward members, unite! Stephenie Meyer is back with her much-anticipated companion novel to “Twilight.” Told from Edward’s point of view, “Midnight Sun” gives reader’s new details on Edward’s past, thoughts, and inner vampire struggle as he begins to fall in love with the mysterious, intriguing and beautiful Bella.
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Franny Stone arrives in Greenland with only one goal: Find the world’s last flock of Arctic terns and follow their migratory route. Franny convinces a captain and his crew to take her aboard with the promise that the terns will lead to fish. However, when dark secrets about Franny’s past begin to emerge, the crew starts to wonder if Franny is really the scientist she claims, or if there’s something else she’s running from — or toward.
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
In a small town in southeastern Nigeria, a woman opens her door to find her son’s body. “The Death of Vivek Oji” follows Vivek’s family as they struggle to understand a gentle but mysterious child they perhaps didn’t know as well as they thought.
The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi
Thirty years ago, mathematics professor Grant McAllister identified seven different sequences of events that make up the perfect murder mystery. He quietly published a book with seven such stories and then retired to a small Mediterranean island. Decades later, a young editor named Julia Hart tracks McAllister down to republish his book. However, when Julia starts to notice inconsistencies in the stories, she winds up trying to solve a bigger mystery than she anticipated.
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
After committing crimes befitting nineteenth-century London, Evangeline, a naive and pregnant governess, and Hazel, a young midwife and herbalist, are sentenced to Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. There, the native Aboriginal people are slowly being displaced, including Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe.
The Mother Code by Carole Stivers
In 2049, a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control. To preserve the human race, scientists put genetically engineered children in large-scale robot cocoons, to be birthed and then raised by robots programmed with the Mother Code. Kai is one of these children. But when government survivors decide Mothers should be destroyed, Kai must decide if he’ll fight for his mother bot, Rho-Z, or break the only parental bond he has ever known.
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
Rachel Krall, the host of a popular true-crime podcast, gets more than she expected when she investigates a rape trial in a small town. A mysterious woman named Hannah is stalking Rachel, leaving Rachel notes begging her to investigate the death of Hannah’s sister twenty-five years ago. Could that cold case be connected to the current trial?
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
In 1913, Laura Lyons lives inside the famed New York Public Library where her husband is superintendent. Yet she struggles with her traditional role as a housewife and begins a degree in journalism. In 1993, Sadie, Laura’s granddaughter, becomes the curator of one of the library’s collection. When rare books begin to disappear, Sadie finds that history is repeating itself.
Behind the Red Door by Megan Collins
Fern Douglas has an overwhelming feeling of deja vu when watching the news. Astrid Sullivan has been kidnapped again. Fern doesn’t remember the story from twenty years ago when Astrid was kidnapped as a teen, but she can’t shake the sense that she somehow knows Astrid.
Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan
Paediatrician Liz Trenchard doesn’t know what to think when her friend shows up in the ER with her injured baby girl. Jess has always been the perfect mom, and yet her story of how Betsey suffered a skull fracture doesn’t add up.
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
The story of a woman pondering the events that sent her down a radical path and landed her in prison. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugees, Nahr has not had an easy life. Jilted by her husband, she becomes a prostitute to provide for her family. After being driven out of Kuwait after the US invasion of Iraq, Nahr resettles in Palestine, where she finally finds a home.
Three Perfect Liars by Heidi Perks
After her maternity leave, Laura returns to work at a successful advertising agency only to find herself sidelined by the new hire. In her absence, Mia has ingratiated herself into the workplace, with her own reasons for desperately wanting to stay. Meanwhile, Janie, the CEO’s wife, grates at her husband’s lifestyle. A deadly fire reveals the tangled layer of secrets of these three ambitious women.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
Tiffany McDaniel uses her mother’s life as inspiration in her novel about Betty, a young girl born in 1954 to a white mother and a Cherokee father. A cycle of poverty and violence underscores Betty’s family life growing up in rural Southwest Ohio as the sixth of eight children.
The Wicked Sister by Karen Dionne
Rachel Cunningham has spent the last 15 years in a self-imposed exile living in a psychiatric facility. Now Rachel begins to question if she did murder her parents when she was a child. What if it was someone else? Maybe even her sister.
All the Right Mistakes by Laura Jamison
At 40, Elizabeth, Sara, Martha, Carmen, and Heather are wildly successful in their careers, but when Heather uses her four friends’ personal choices as the basis for an advice book on mistakes women should avoid making they begin to question their decisions.
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Set against the backdrop of the 1992 Rodney King Riots, The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed follows Ashley Bennett, a wealthy Black girl with plans to spend her summer sunbathing with her friends. Then four police officers are acquitted in the beating of Rodney King sparking protests across Los Angeles that force Ashley to look at her life, family, and friends in a different light.
Bronte’s Mistress by Finola Austin
The infamous love affair between Branwell Brontë and Lydia Robinson gets a fictional retelling courtesy of Finola Austin’s fascinating Brontë’s Mistress. Some literary devotees blame the real Robinson for bringing down the Brontë family as Branwell began engaging in dangerous behaviour after their entanglement, but Austin is allowing Lydia to shed the title of “mistress” to reveal a complex woman with a story of her own.
Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms
Told through the eyes of a 10-year-old named Misty trying to rediscover the magic of her holler in the Appalachian Mountains after being assaulted by her neighbour.
The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis
Set in the far reaches of space, the story centres on a comfort woman abandoned by the soldiers she travels with, a soldier who is no longer sure which side he should be fighting for, and a non-binary hero on a quest to save the whole solar system.
Lobizona by Romina Garber
Manuela Azul is an undocumented immigrant whose life is upended when her grandmother is attacked and her mother taken away by ICE. Alone with only a single clue about her past, Manuela discovers that there’s another world beneath our own, a world of magic and power where for the first time she feels as if she belongs.
Poetic Licence by Gretchen Cherington
Gretchen Cherington’s memoir Poetic Licence allows her to tell her story after years of keeping the secret that her father, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Richard Eberhart, sexually violated her. By delving into her father’s archives, Cherington retraces her father’s past and her own in hopes of sharing her truth with the world.
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
The Silent Wife is a thriller that finds Will on the trail of a serial killer. What starts as an investigation into a murder during a prison riot soon turns into a much bigger case for Slaughter’s hero when an inmate reveals that he’s locked up for a murder he didn’t commit, leaving the real killer on the loose — and potentially still claiming victims a decade later.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim
Vanessa Yu sees people’s fortunes in tea leaves, but it’s a gift she’d rather not have. When she sees death in the leaves for the first time, she heads to Paris with her aunt in hopes of ridding herself of her ability once and for all, but she soon finds that there’s more to her gifts than she realised.
With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt
After spending years putting her own life on hold to support her partner’s dreams, Stella awakens from a two month coma to find everything in her life has been upended. As she grapples with her new normal, Stella makes the startling discovery that she can now draw portraits that reveal the subject’s innermost desires.
You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
Soap opera star Jasmine Lin Rodriguez just wants the media to turn their attention back to her career after a messy public breakup, and landing the leading role in a bilingual romantic comedy should do the trick. What she doesn’t anticipate is her co-star being telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez, with whom she has a smouldering, but complicated chemistry.
Before You Go by Tommy Butler
In his debut novel Before You Go, Tommy Butler weaves a story of longing and loneliness about three people drifting through life until they find each other. Elliot has never felt at home in the world, and that feeling only magnifies as he gets older, leading him to a New York support group where he encounters Sasha, who leaves codes in advertisement copy she writes, and Bannor, who can so vividly tell stories of the future they might just be true.
Kiss My Cupcake by Helena Hunting
Blaire owns an Instagram-worthy cupcake and cocktails shop that happens to be opening on the same day as Ronan’s sports bar across the street. Soon the duo are battling it out for customers even as the palpable chemistry between them grows.
Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth
Told through the thoroughly modern lens of social media, emails, and texts, Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth captures the millennial struggle with humour and honesty. Jenny McLaine’s life is in shambles, and she has no idea where to start picking up the pieces. When her mother decides to move in with her, Jenny realises it’s time to get real about embracing adulthood and sorting out her life.
