My Sister Is Going To Kill Me

An exciting murder mystery that takes readers on a wild rafting trip, while probing sisterhood and secrets.

 

Nina Simon’s character-driven first murder mystery probed the bonds between mothers and daughters (Mother-Daughter Murder Night). In My Sister Is Going To Kill Me, her second book, she again focuses on family dynamics, this time tackling the bond shared between two, very different adult sisters who get swept up into a murder investigation.

 

Every year, the Chisholm sisters leave their respective lives, meet up, and take a joint vacation. This year, they decide on a whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River at the base of the Grand Canyon. But the river isn’t the only thing that needs taming. Liv--the older, more exacting and conscientious sister with a fear of heights--is challenged by her more free-spirited, fun-loving, younger sister Mandy. Together, the two join a tour of other adventure-seekers as they travel down the river, learning how to navigate the charged waterway. Initially awed by the breathtaking beauty of nature and wildlife, dark emotional undercurrents--namely personality clashes and issues of trust--shift the tide. When one of their traveling companions is found dead, along with another corpse, their idyllic trip suddenly becomes a deeper journey of dangerous survival as everyone is cast into a potential murder suspect—including Liv and Mandy.

 

Readers will need to hold on tight and buckle up as Simon’s winning, fast-paced thriller delivers red herrings and more hairpin twists and turns than the Colorado River itself!

 

My Sister is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon

William Morrow (HarperCollins), $30.00 hardcover, 9780063478022, 352 pages

Publishing Date: August 18, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about Nina Simon HERE

The Castle in the Glen

An absorbing, dual-plotted mystery that resurrects a cold-case murder investigation from Scotland.

Two intricate plots encompass The Castle in the Glen, an ambitious, absorbing historical mystery by Rhys Bowen. 

The primary story is set in 1965 Scotland, where Emma Callander--an Australian writer stalled in her career--is tasked with completing the final installment in a series of mystery novels written by Iris Blackburn, a lauded Australian expat now losing her memory. Iris’s book centers on a murder that occurred in the early 1900s on the Isle of Sky: two young lovers drown under suspicious circumstances, but it’s the disappearance of another woman called “Wild Girl” who emerges front and center. 

As Emma begins to unravel the material Iris has mapped out on the page, she discovers the story might actually be true—a real-life mystery that’s remained unsolved for 50+ years. With the help of Iris’s handsome lawyer, Tony Gordon, Emma joins forces with him as they set off through the Scottish Highlands to learn more, unearthing long-buried family secrets, red herrings, and a host of suspects who might just bridge the past and the present. 

Readers are in for a real treat through atmospheric Scotland, as Bowen (Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure, From Cradle to Grave) entangles a large cast of well-drawn characters amidst two dark and dangerous plots that entwine to form a well-rendered, intriguing conclusion.

Castle in the Glen by Rhys Bowen

Lake Union Publishing, $28.99 hardcover, 9781662527210, 429 pages

Publishing Date: August 4, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Rhys Bowen HERE

Summer of Love

A deeply engrossing, fully realized family saga about three independent women and how personal choices affect their lives. 

Feminist themes embody the soul of Kerri Maher’s novels. She’s fictionally explored the historical lives of fiercely independent public women like Kick Kennedy (The Kennedy Debutante) and Grace Kelly (The Girl in White Gloves). She’s also told the story of a humble woman who changed the world and the literary community of the 1920s in The Paris Bookseller. And in All You Have to Do is Call, she evoked the 1970s, extoling the power of female support systems. 

In Maher’s fifth novel, Summer of Love, she braids together two eras, 1967 and 2015, depicting how the past informs the present for three women of the Hartley family. 

Ambitious and inventive Miranda Hartley, the “first woman vintner” of Napa Valley, is inspired and challenged by overseeing the family-run winery. Miranda grew up with her free-spirited sister, Winnie, a poet, who bailed on the family business and took off to San Francisco in the 1960s. When Miranda’s now adult daughter, Dawn, a freelance set designer--and a closeted alcoholic grappling with sobriety and finding her place in the world--exhumes a family secret, the delicate balance of life comes undone and questions long buried about the sisters must get answered. 

Maher is an evocative storyteller whose literary prowess is on full display. Summer of Love delivers an impactful, surprising story about the bonds shared between sisters, mothers and daughters, and friends—and how hard it is to hold on to those we love and also learn to let go. 

Summer of Love by Kerri Maher

Berkley (Penguin Random House), $30.00 hardcover, 9780593816394, 368 pages

Publishing Date: July 7, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Kerri Maher HERE

The Scoop

An unflinching look at what happens to the integrity of an ambitious journalist when she--in desperation--takes a job at an online tabloid news outlet. 

The Scoop, a searing and suspenseful first novel by Erin Van Der Meer, centers on ambitious, 29-year-old Francesca “Frankie” Miller who loses her editorial job at an elitist New York City-based magazine. 

For three months, she scrambles to find work. Losing hope and in desperation, Frankie takes a job at The Scoop, a cultural tabloid-like news website cast as a fictionalized off-shoot of a stereotypical FOX News and/or its parent company The Wall Street Journal. Frankie hopes this job will be a mere stop-gap employment measure, especially as it seems that no reporting is off-limits at this "click-bait" digital news outlet. In need of a steady paycheck and lured by the prospect of a better future job dangled by her domineering male boss, Frankie plays along. She launches a juicy tell-all story that takes down a rock star, but this becomes the tipping point that forces Frankie to ultimately question herself; her morales, values, and integrity; and her ambitions.

 

Van Der Meer presents an authentically based, provocative exposé of the contemporary news industry, delivering insights via the acerbic wit of her protagonist whose plight ultimately descends into a much deeper, surprisingly profound and personally reflective story.

 

The Scoop by Erin Van Der Meer

Grand Central Publishing, $29.00 hardcover, paperback, 9781538776339, 320 pages

Publishing Date: April 21,2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Erin Van Der Meer HERE

Lost in the Summer of '69

The thrill of the 1960s is brought back to life when a rebellious, forgetful 69-year-old goes on a zany cross-country road trip.  

Spry, spunky, independent females are hallmarks of Eliza Knight’s fiction. In Confessions of a Gramma Queen, Knight tackled the story of a feminist copy editor entrenched in the male-dominated publishing world of the 1960s. In Lost in the Summer of ’69, Knight takes readers on another exciting 1960s journey where a former rock singer/guitarist sets out on a zany quest to recapture her glory days before the threat of Alzheimer’s descends and robs her of cherished memories.

In 1969, widowed 69-year-old Eleanor Bell gets a devastating medical diagnosis that propels her to have one last great hurrah. Always a rebel, Eleanor sets off on her own, hellbent on attending every USA music festival she can over the summer. But when her adult daughter Leanne realizes her mother has taken to the road, she and Nora--her own daughter, a Yale undergrad--are forced to chase after Eleanor as she crisscrosses the country. As Eleanor serenades the public and wins their adoration, becoming a wandering celebrity, she remains just shy of the frustrated reach of her daughter and granddaughter.

Music lovers and fans of the 1960s will find great appeal in Eliza Knight’s adventurous multigenerational story that weaves social, political and cultural history into a comic novel that resonates with poignant heart and soul.

 

Lost in the Summer of ’69 by Eliza Knight

Sourcebooks Landmark, $17.99 paperback, 9781464255113, 400 pages

Publishing Date: June 9, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Eliza Knight HERE

 

The Rainy Day Bookshop

A warmhearted multigenerational romance centered on a grief-stricken mother and daughter juggling family demands, love interests, and a local bookshop. 

Four generations of woman reside at the center of The Rainy Day Bookshop by RaeAnne Thayne, a moving multigenerational romance about how the past can influence the future.

 

Widowed Rosie Lucas has her hands full. Her 72-year-old mother, Sylvia--who established and maintained The Rainy Day Bookshop in the small town of Wood Briar on the Oregon coast--is slow to convalesce from an ice-skating accident. And her estranged daughter, Emma, returns to town with Olivia, her three-old-old, Rosie’s granddaughter, in tow. The timing seems providential, as Emma can now help out at the store. However, Emma’s return forces Rosie and Emma to deal with a secret that drove a wedge between their relationship years before. In the midst of them revisiting the past, a quirky, loner writer and single dad becomes a loyal confidante for Rosie, and Emma crosses paths with an old flame from middle school.  Can the two women, riddled with grief, reconcile their mother-daughter relationship? And are they willing to open their hearts to romance again? 

 

Small town life and the complexities of women’s issues are Thayne’s (Snow Kissed, The Lost Book of First Loves) specialties—and they shine in this tender-hearted novel of family dynamics and blossoming love.

 

The Rainy Day Bookshop by RaeAnne Thayne

MIRA Books (HarperCollins), $29.00 hardcover, paperback, 9780778307433, 384 pages

Publishing Date: June 2, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about RaeAnne Thayne HERE

 

Love on the Shelf

 

A fast-paced rom-com that offers a thought-provoking cultural commentary on love—most notably, the virtues of romance novels.

With 60 books under her belt, Sheila Roberts (The Man Next Door) once again tackles the genre she knows best--romantic comedy. Love on the Shelf is a wry send-up that cleverly pits a hopefully romantic bookseller against a jaded, romance-averse, radio shock-jock.

Shy, single, bookish Alice Willoughby believes in love and happy endings. She and her mother own and operate HEA Books, a fun, “haven and happy place” bookstore in Seattle, Washington. Since Alice graduated college and became a local merchant, she has taken pride in promoting romance titles--even successfully serving as a ‘book matchmaker’ for readers hungry to find the perfect literary love story escapes.

Enter Parker Black, who is bitter from a soured, broken relationship with a romance writer who later poison-penned their story, casting him as a villain. Parker uses his popular radio platform and machismo to take-down all things romance—including ‘evil’ romance novels. His outspokenness ultimately stirs up trouble for Alice and HEA until an on-air debate sends sparks flying between the two that not only incite a public protest about the nature of love and happy endings but suddenly shifts the perspectives of the two disparate souls.

Nobody does the charm of witty romance better than Sheila Roberts!  Love on the Shelf is a thought-provoking cultural commentary on the romance book industry, offering well-defined characters in whom readers will root to fall in love.

The Man Next Door by Sheila Roberts

MIRA Books (HarperCollins, Harlequin), 18.99 paperback, 9780778305828, 336 pages

Publishing Date: May 26,2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Sheila Roberts HERE

Your Promise

A spellbinding novel about a writer who breaks a promise and faces the implications of penning the story of a shattered romantic relationship.

Your Promise, an exciting new novel by award-winning French writer, Camille Laurens, packs one helluva punch! This riveting psychological thriller examines self-awareness when played out amidst the memory of a shattered, long-term romantic relationship. 

The story launches with 50-year-old, Claire Lancel, who writes the story of an old love, Gilles Fabian—this despite her once making a promise to never to share details about him, his domineering, narcissist proclivities, and/or their relationship. 

Readers know right from the start that the story of Claire and Gilles will not end well, but that is precisely the hook.  Claire conveys her story from prison. Why is she incarcerated? What did she do? 

These questions drive a masterfully constructed narrative rooted in a legal court case that slowly divvies out details about the lovers. This includes witness testimonies that trace--and often contradict--the story of an idyllic and seductive relationship, where emotion and passion turn to pain, and “love” succumbs to terminal insidiousness. Claire ultimately becomes a victim of control that forces her to grapple with hard truths about who she was and who she is; her choices and mistakes; and the meaning of her now reduced life. 

Laurens (In His Arms, Girl) renders her story with spellbinding suspense. She sets up a broad canvas then gradually zooms in closer and closer on stark details that ultimately trap and ensnare her characters--and surprise readers.

Your Promise by Camille Laurens (Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter)

Other Press, Paperback $18.99, 978163545734, 400 pages

Publication Date: May 12, 2026

To order this novel on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about Camille Laurens and her work HERE

 

Summer State of Mind

A heartfelt Southern romance, infused with an air of mystery, that begs the questions: “Who are we?” and “Where do we belong?”

Kristy Woodson Harvey returns readers to the coziness of small-town Southern charm in Summer State of Mind, a simmering, heartfelt story that gently explores family dynamics and the challenges of new beginnings.

 

The story starts when Daisy Stevens of Charlotte, North Carolina--a single, deeply dedicated, yet burned out nurse--decides she needs a change. After working for ten years as a Neo-Natal Intensive Unit (NICU) nurse in a Charlotte, North Carolina hospital, she packs up and takes what she believes will be a “simpler” job in Cape Carolina, a “sleepy seaside town” she had idealized since she was a child.

 

On Daisy’s first day on the job, a baby is found--cast off in a garbage dumpster--and is brought to the hospital by Mason Thaysden, the high school baseball coach. Mason was once a Major League prospect whose dreams were sidelined by an injury that forced him to stay put in his own hometown.

 

The abandoned newborn becomes the talk-of-the-town and forges a bond between Daisy and Mason. As the couples’ affection and love deepens, they are both forced to examine their hearts, hopes, and dreams. Along the way, Mason’s quirky Aunt Tilley also plays a part in reconciling her own mysterious past—a past that has the power to send ripples through the community. 

 

Readers have come to relish and take comfort in Woodson Harvey's (Beach House Rules) firm grasp on the perks--and drawbacks--of small-town living, the deep-seated complexities of love, and how “family” can often be defined beyond a mere bloodline.

 

Summer State of Mind by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Gallery Books (Simon and Schuster), Hardcover $29.00, 9781668074886, 384 pages

Publication Date: May 5, 2026

To order this book via Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about author Kristy Woodson Harvey HERE

 

A Founding Mother

A fascinating novel of Historical Fiction--most apropos for America's 250th Anniversary--that traces the life and influence of Abigail Adams. 

A Founding Mother, written by author duo Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, is a precisely researched and beautifully presented novel of historical fiction that details the astounding life and wide-ranging influence of Abigail Adams.

Abigail is largely known as the wife of John Adams, a man who rose from being a country lawyer to signing the Declaration of Independence and going on to become the second President of the United States. Abigail was also mother to six children—son John Quincy Adams would become the sixth U.S. President.

However, Abigail’s domestic life--her 'holding the fort' while her husband worked tirelessly to advance independence and forge equality in the country--is only one part of her story. And Dray and Kamoie present a fair and honest, well-rounded fictional portrait of a strong, determined woman--a woman of great charm, intellect and resourcefulness--and how she helped to shape the United States of America and its politics.

Rendered in intimate prose as narrated by Abigail herself, readers are treated to Abigail’s thought processes in her own voice:  In 1814, on the precipice of entering her 70s, she looks back on her life: “Fathers might wield the ploughs that till the fields of our future, but mothers provide the water, pull the weeds, and nurture the buds. Because men oversee the harvest, they take the credit for the crop. But without mothers, not one sprout would grow—whether the fruit be a child or a nation.”

A journal-like, episodic chronology traverses Abigail’s life from 1776 to 1817, where Abigail shares the many joys and struggles of domesticity she faces in the background of revolution. There are stories of raising her family; confronting illnesses and loss; she and John’s many separations and their often-intellectual repartee. Abigail is also forced to defend her home, her life and the lives of her children, while protecting and building her family’s nest egg. As the years unfurl and the country becomes liberated, Abigail’s astute intellect and hard-fought and hard-won wisdom eventually impact world leaders and politics.

There have been countless books dedicated to Abigail Adams—her life and her influence. However, what sets A Founding Mother apart is how Dray and Kamoie (America’s First Daughter, My Dear Hamilton) intently aim their focus on Abigail’s role as an early feminist (before the term “feminist” ever existed) and the influence of her fervent advocacy for women’s rights and equality.

A Founding Mother by Stephanie Dray and Laurie Kaomie

William Morrow (HarperCollins), Paperback $19.99, 9780063234765, 464 pages

Publication Date: May 5, 2026

To order this novel on Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

To learn more about A FOUNDING MOTHER, link HERE

Emergency Pizza Ordering 911

A very funny, behind-the-scenes tell-all guidebook about fast-food pizzeria culture.

Top social media influencers like Vito Iacopelli (pizza dough expert) and Dave Portnoy (“One-Bite Pizza Reviews”) have made the popular culinary dominance of pizza reign supreme. And first-time author Tricia Wood can be added to the list as a “Literary Pizza Influencer,” as her book Emergency Pizza Ordering 911 offers a wholly unique take on fast-food-service aspects of this once humble, now ubiquitous Neapolitan delicacy whose fatty, flavorful versatility can trigger brain cravings.

 

With laser-focus and razor-sharp wit, Wood, a self-proclaimed “perfectionist” pizzamaker, shares her 20+ years of experience working in the often “bizarre and unpredictable,” fast-paced trenches of Papa’s Pizza in North Philadelphia: “My work life has become a battle between my desire to please my customers and my need to maintain order and sanity in the kitchen.”  Not an easy task!

 

In lively, easy-to-read prose, Wood shares stories of the chaos and comedy of often-demanding (incessantly eccentric) customers. This includes geometric dilemmas of multi-ingredient-topped pizza pies and how some “spout off their orders like they are reciting Shakespeare and expect us to catch every word.” Wood details “outrageous” culinary requests from intricate substitutions, convoluted plate-sharing, and ordering items like loaded French fries topped with pineapple and pepperoni? And why does silverware often go missing?

 

There are also sections on the “proper” way to place orders and register complaints; the etiquette of tipping; and frustrations with delivery situations—navigating dark, obstacle-course-like, snowed-in driveways; battling overly zealous pets; and price-hikers like GrubHub and DoorDash (“These guys are like the annoying cousins who show up at every family gathering and somehow manage to eat all the food without bringing anything to the table”) as they rake in a 30% profit from restaurants.

Wood--a hard-working, dedicated, unsung hero--demonstrates the joys, challenges, and absurdities of fast-food service culture that caters to customers, some of whom have “zero appreciation for the unique and honorable art of pizza making.” However, Wood’s entertaining, comprehensive insider’s literary guide is truly enlightening—and should be required reading for anyone who avails themselves of (or works within) the food service industry. 

“Emergency Pizza Ordering 911”: Ordering Pizza Without Annoying Us by Tricia Wood

Independently published, $10.99 paperback, 9798330608508 / 9798300952501, 78 pages

Publication Date: November 22, 2024

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about author (and pizza maker) Tricia Wood, link HERE