The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.
On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi
Ghanaian-American Angela Appiah has checked off all the boxes for the Perfect Immigrant Daughter: Enroll in an elite medical school; Snag a suitable lawyer/doctor/engineer boyfriend; Surround self with a gaggle of successful and/or loyal friends.
But then it quickly all falls apart: her boyfriend dumps her, she bombs the most important exam of her medical career, and her best friend pulls away. And her parents, whose approval seems to hinge on how closely she follows the path they chose, are a lot less proud of their daughter. It’s a quarter life crisis of epic proportions.
And just when things couldn’t get more complicated, enter Ricky Gutierrez— brilliant, thoughtful, sexy, and most importantly, seems to see Angie for who she is instead of what she can represent.
The Catch by Alison Fairbrother
Two years out of college, Ellie Adler has a job in journalism, an older lover, and a circle of smart friends. Then she finds herself shaken by the unexpected death of her father, James. At the reading of his will, Ellie learns that instead of leaving her his prized possession–a baseball that holds emotional resonance for them both–he has left her a seemingly ridiculous, even insulting gift. Worse, he’s given the baseball to someone no one in the family knows.
In her grief, Ellie wonders who could have possibly meant more to her father than she did. Setting out to track this person down, she learns startling information about who her father really was and who she herself is becoming. Unforgettable, witty, and heartbreaking, The Catch is a story of the gifts we’re given over the course of a lifetime–the ones we want and the ones we don’t yet understand that we need.
Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
In 1473, fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover Frederic Chopin arrive in the village, Blanca is still there: a spirited, funny, righteous ghost, she’s been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants.
Blanca is enchanted the moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited longing—the impossible love of a teenage ghost for a woman who can’t see her and doesn’t know she exists. As George and Chopin, who wear their unconventionality, in George’s case, literally on their sleeves, find themselves in deepening trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly and reflects on the circumstances of her own death.
Gilt by Jamie Brenner
The Pavlin family built an empire on love. As the first jewelers to sell diamond rings exclusively for proposals, they started a tradition that has defined engagements ever since. But when an ill-fated publicity stunt pits the three Pavlin sisters against one another for a famous family jewel, their bond is broken. No ordinary diamond ring, the Electric Rose splinters the sisters, leaving one unlucky in love, one escaping to the shores of Cape Cod, and the other, ultimately, dead. Now, over a decade later, Gemma Maybrook is still reconciling the reality of her mother’s death. Left orphaned and cast out by her family after the tragic accident, Gemma is ready to reclaim what should have been hers: the Electric Rose. And, as a budding jewelry designer in her own right, Gemma isn’t just planning on recovering her mother’s lost memento, she’s coming back for everything. From Manhattan’s tony Fifth Avenue to the vibrant sands of Provincetown, Gilt follows the Pavlin women as they are forced to confront the mistakes of the past if they have any hope of finding love and happiness of their own.
Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer
New York, 1997. As the city’s gritty edges are being smoothed into something safer and shinier, two girls meet at a music magazine. Rose–brash and self-possessed–is a staff writer. Charlotte–hesitant, bookish– is an editor. First wary, then slowly admiring, they recognize in each other an insatiable and previously unmatched ambition. Soon they’re inseparable, falling into the kind of friendship that makes you better, makes every day an adventure, and makes you believe that you will be extraordinary.
Together, Charlotte and Rose find love and lose it; they hit their strides and stumble; they make choices and live past them. But then the steady beats in their sisterhood fall out of sync. They have seen each other through so much–marriage, motherhood, divorce, career glories and catastrophes, a million small but necessary choices–what will it mean to give up their dreaming together? That the friendship that once made them sing out shuts them down? And even if they can reconcile themselves to the lives they’re living, can they survive the ones they didn’t?
The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings
Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women keep the order, and where songs walk, talk and keep the spirit of the city alive. To those from Far Away, Nola might seem strange. To failed magician, Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. Then the rhythm stutters.
Nine songs of power have escaped from the magical piano that maintains the city’s beat and without them, Nola will fail. Unexpectedly, Perry and his sister, Brendy, are tasked with saving the city. But a storm is brewing and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Even if they capture the songs, Nola’s time might be coming to an end.
The Self-Made Widow by Fabian Nicieza
After suburban mother of five and former FBI profiler Andie Stern solved a mysterious murder–and unraveled a decades old conspiracy–in her New Jersey town, both her husband and the West Windsor police hope that she will set aside crime-fighting and go back to carpools, changing diapers, and lunches with her group of mom-friends, who she secretly calls The Cellulitists. But Andie can’t help but get involved after the husband of Queen Bee Cellulitist Molly Goode is found dead–and signs point to Molly’s involvement. As Andie begins to dig into the case, she risks more than just the clique’s wrath–and what she discovers might hit shockingly close to home.
Meanwhile, journalist Kenny Lee is enjoying his rehabilitated image after his work with Andie. But he too is drawn back into the thicket of suburban scandals in West Windsor, which in this involve secrets, affairs, and a huge sum of money. Andie and Kenny once again are thrust into a mystery that is in turns terrifying and titillating–and altogether original.
