One Golden Summer
A radiant, new escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune
I never anticipated Charlie Florek.
Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.
Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.
Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.
Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

The Wife Upstairs
Victoria Barnett has it all.
A great career. A handsome and loving husband. A beautiful home in the suburbs and a plan to fill it with children. Life is perfect—or so it seems.
Then she’s in a terrible accident… and everything falls apart.
Now Victoria is unable to walk. She can’t feed or dress herself. She can’t even speak. She is confined to the top floor of her house with twenty-four-hour care.
Sylvia Robinson is hired by Victoria’s husband to help care for her. But it turns out Victoria isn’t as impaired as Sylvia was led to believe. There’s a story Victoria desperately wants to tell... if only she could get out the words.
Then Sylvia discovers Victoria’s diary hidden away in a drawer.
And what’s inside is shocking.

Klara and the Sun
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives.
By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson--the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan--and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.
Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren't alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them. But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?

Polybius
Stranger Things meets The Walking Dead in this shivery novel based on a terrifying urban legend about a small seaside town descending into chaos when an unusual video game is unveiled at the local arcade.
Having recently moved to the gentrifying seaside town of Tasker Bay with her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money for her escape to Silicon Valley. Though it’s owned by the shadiest resident in town, she takes a job at the dingy arcade Home Video World.
Pining over Andi is Ro, the son of Tasker Bay’s sheriff. With his friend’s matchmaking help, he begins spending more time at the arcade and soon, Andi finds herself opening up to Ro. But when the store gets an unusual new game of unknown origin, the floor is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting to get some time on the machine. Seemingly overnight, a virus-like epidemic sweeps through the town while a major coastal storm rolls in, further isolating them from the outside world. Time is of the essence as residents collectively experience anger, paranoia, hallucinations, and even catatonia. And when one heinous act of violence goes unsolved, the town descends into utter chaos. Realizing no one is coming to their rescue, Andi and Ro take matters into their own hands to get to the bottom of the spiraling madness…until it begins affecting them, too.

Sour Cherry
A stunning reimagining of Bluebeard—one of the most mythologized serial killers—twisted into a modern tale of toxic masculinity, a feminist sermon, and a folktale for the twenty-first century.
The tale begins with Agnes. After losing her baby, Agnes is called to the great manor house to nurse the local lord’s baby boy. But something is wrong with the child: his nails grow too fast, his skin smells of soil, and his eyes remind her of the dark forest. As he grows into a boy, then into man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Trees wither at the roots, fruits rot on their branches, and the town turns against him. The man takes a wife, who bears him a son. But tragedy strikes in cycles and his family is forced to consider their own malignancy—until wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. The ghosts become a chorus, and they call urgently to our narrator as she tries to explain, in our very real world, exactly what has happened to her. The ghosts can all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting and unforgettable debut novel, Sour Cherry, confronts age-old systems of gender and power, long-held excuses made for bad men, and the complicated reasons we stay captive to the monsters we love.

What a Time to Be Alive
‘A dark coming-of-age story set in Stockholm [with] a really light touch that makes it really beautiful’ – Natasha Brown, author of Assembly
‘A fresh, tender, and resonant bildungsroman from the wonderfully large-hearted Jenny Mustard’ – R. O. Kwon, author of Exhibit
‘Jenny Mustard writes with honesty and wit about the strange, mundane, and wondrous aspects of youth’ – Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists
‘Enchanting and piercing, a dance and a delight. Mustard's prose captures the effervescent and the luminescent, a joy to read and share’ – Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal
Twenty-one, friendless, without money but not without hope, Sickan's arrival at Stockholm University represents a new start. Her lonely childhood in a small southern town has left her utterly unprepared for intimacy: for friends, for sex, for love even. But Sickan is determined to build a new version of herself from the ground up, to make up for lost time. To simply be normal.
Just as Sickan seems to be finding her first ever friends, in whose company she finally feels safe, she meets Abbe: beautiful, charming - and by some miracle he wants her too. Unlike Sickan, Abbe seems completely at ease in his own skin. A solid foundation then, on which to build a relationship? Maybe?
What a Time to Be Alive is a story of class, sex, loneliness, and the trials of young womanhood. But above all, it's a story of firsts: the first party you're actually invited to, the first moment you fall in love, the first time you betray a friend. The first time you ask yourself, how much of myself am I willing to sacrifice, to finally fit in?
‘A beautifully plangent coming-of-age novel, What a Time to be Alive is written with an openness and a melancholy that frequently catches you off guard, and will go straight to your heart.’ – Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days
‘I loved it … beautifully forthright, unexpected, and totally absorbing’ – Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy
‘Playful and witty, a charming meditation on coming-of-age, privilege, and grief. With her sharp prose, Mustard conveys a vivid sense of longing’ – Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls
‘Fresh, sharp, graceful... the work of such an original writer. I loved it’ – Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors
‘Reminiscent of the power and grace of writers like Rachel Cusk and Raven Leilani. Tender and enigmatic’ – Molly Aitken, author of Bright I Burn
‘Subtle, fresh and authentic. A coming-of-age without pretensions’ – Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives
