The US government, the US military, and world-renowned scientists with unlimited funding are all desperately hunting for the same thing—the Atlantis gene, carried by descendants of the mythical lost island. If such a gene exists, its power could reshape warfare, medicine, and human evolution itself. Sixteen-year-old Jaxon Andersen knows absolutely nothing about her mysterious origins and has been shuffled through different foster homes ever since she can remember, never staying anywhere long enough to form real attachments. Trouble follows her like a shadow—bullies target her, foster parents give up on her, schools expel her—but those same bullies consistently underestimate her small stature and discover too late that she possesses inexplicable superhuman strength and can kick some genuinely serious butt when provoked. 🌊S.A. Beck delivers an action-packed YA fantasy that blends Atlantis mythology with government conspiracies and a heroine discovering she’s far more than human. Jaxon tries desperately for a fresh start at the Forever Welcome Group Home for Juveniles, hoping this placement might finally stick. Dr. Hollis, her assigned psychiatrist, becomes utterly fascinated by Jaxon’s off-the-charts intelligence and increasingly astounded by her strange powers that defy medical explanation—the way she heals impossibly fast, her reflexes that border on precognition, her ability to sense things she shouldn’t be able to know. But even at Forever Welcome, Jaxon remains an easy target for cruel teenagers who mistake her quiet demeanor and small frame for weakness. She seeks refuge in the unexpected friendship of Otto Heike, an eighteen-year-old athlete and boys’ resident assistant whose kindness feels almost foreign after years of hostility. 💫
The tentative connection between Jaxon and Otto deepens as he sees past her defensive walls to the intelligent, funny, fiercely loyal person underneath. But Jaxon lives in constant fear of the moment when Otto discovers her secrets—when he witnesses her inhuman strength, when he realizes she’s different in ways that can’t be explained away, when he inevitably decides she’s a freak like everyone else does. Will he run? Will he betray her trust? Will he look at her with the same fear and revulsion she’s seen in so many eyes before? The questions torment her even as their friendship transforms into something deeper and more dangerous. ⚡
Meanwhile, forces Jaxon doesn’t even know exist are closing in on her location. The US military has been performing terrifying genetic experiments for years, trying to recreate the legendary abilities of Atlantis, and they’ve finally tracked down what might be their holy grail—a girl whose DNA holds secrets that could change everything. Scientists want to study her, generals want to weaponize her, and shadowy government agencies have plans she can’t begin to imagine. As Jaxon’s powers become harder to hide and the net tightens around Forever Welcome, she faces a choice: run and spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, or stand and fight against forces that have unlimited resources and zero moral boundaries. ⚔️
What makes this compelling: Beck crafts a fast-paced YA fantasy with a kickass heroine, Atlantis mythology, government conspiracies, and the sweet tension of first love against impossible odds. First in The Atlantis Saga, perfect for fans of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series or Kiera Cass’s Selection novels who love heroines with superhuman abilities, found family in unexpected places, and teenagers fighting against adults who want to control them.
They say nothing is worth having if you don’t have the courage to fight for it, and Jace Butler and Cat Nichols have proven time and again they’ll fight for their love no matter what obstacles get thrown in their path. After years of living in darkness and despair that nearly consumed him completely, former Marine Jace Butler finally found true love with his beautiful brown-eyed Cat in Someday Girl. He made it abundantly clear to everyone who’d spent years making Cat feel insignificant and worthless that he would always be there to defend and protect her during their emotional journey through One Day His. Together they’ve overcome family trauma, faced down toxic relationships, and built something beautiful from broken pieces. 💕Melanie Shawn delivers the emotional conclusion to her beloved Someday series, bringing Cat and Jace’s love story full circle. But when Cat’s mother Angelica James—the heartless, narcissistic famous actress who’s spent Cat’s entire life making her daughter feel worthless—exposes a life-changing truth meant to destroy their relationship, Jace suddenly realizes someone else desperately needs his love and protection. The revelation Angelica drops like a bomb threatens to shatter everything Cat and Jace have built together, forcing them to confront painful truths about the past and make impossible decisions about their future. ⚡
The discovery Angelica cruelly reveals isn’t just another manipulation tactic in her endless campaign to control and diminish her daughter—it’s information that fundamentally changes the landscape of Cat and Jace’s relationship, adding a new person who needs their care and completely unexpected responsibilities neither of them anticipated. The question becomes whether this bombshell disclosure, meant to drive them apart forever and prove that Cat will always be unworthy of real love, will actually have the opposite effect. Could this crisis bring them closer together instead of tearing them apart? 💔
As Cat and Jace navigate this new reality, dealing with the emotional fallout and practical implications of Angelica’s revelation while simultaneously managing Cat’s ongoing trauma from years of maternal abuse, they must decide if their love is strong enough to weather even this storm. Jace has always been Cat’s fierce protector, but now he faces challenges that can’t be solved with Marine training or sheer determination. Sometimes love means being vulnerable, asking for help, and trusting that the bond you’ve built is unbreakable even when tested in ways you never imagined. Find out if Cat and Jace’s love story gets the happy ending they’ve fought so hard to deserve in this emotional, satisfying conclusion. ✨
What makes this essential: Shawn delivers an emotional finale that ties up Cat and Jace’s journey with heart, healing, and the kind of love that survives even the cruelest revelations. Book 3 in The Someday Series, perfect for readers who’ve followed the couple from the beginning or fans of Colleen Hoover’s emotional contemporary romances who love stories about overcoming trauma, chosen family, and love that refuses to quit no matter how hard life pushes back.
Born in a workhouse and orphaned within minutes of his first breath, Oliver Twist begins life with every disadvantage Victorian England can heap upon a child. Charles Dickens, the master chronicler of 19th-century social injustice, delivers a searing indictment of a society that treats its most vulnerable citizens as disposable commodities. Oliver’s crime is simply existing—being poor, being hungry, being a child without family or fortune in a world designed to crush such unfortunate souls. When he commits the unforgivable sin of asking for more gruel after enduring starvation rations at the workhouse, young Oliver sets in motion a journey through the darkest corners of London that will test his inherent goodness against overwhelming corruption. 🍲Expelled from the workhouse for his audacity in requesting adequate food, Oliver tumbles into London’s criminal underworld where he falls under the influence of the calculating Fagin, who runs a school for pickpockets, and the violent Bill Sikes, whose brutality represents the worst of humanity. Dickens populates Oliver’s world with unforgettable characters—the Artful Dodger with his streetwise charm, Nancy whose loyalty wars with her conscience, and the truly evil Monks whose schemes threaten Oliver’s very existence. Through Oliver’s eyes, Dickens exposes the hypocrisy of Victorian society: workhouses that brutalize rather than help, institutions that punish poverty as though it were a moral failing, and a legal system more interested in protecting property than protecting children. 📚
Yet amid the filth, violence, and moral degradation of London’s underbelly, Oliver maintains an almost miraculous innocence and inherent sense of right and wrong that no amount of hardship can corrupt. Dickens uses Oliver’s pure heart to highlight the question at the novel’s core: is goodness innate or shaped by circumstance? Can a child raised in squalor and surrounded by criminals resist becoming one himself? As Oliver’s true heritage gradually reveals itself through Dickens’s masterfully plotted twists, readers discover that birth and breeding matter less than character, and that society’s assumptions about class and criminality deserve challenging. ⚡
More than just a gripping tale of a boy’s survival against impossible odds, Oliver Twist stands as a powerful social commentary that helped change Victorian attitudes toward poverty and child welfare. Dickens’s vivid descriptions of workhouse conditions and child exploitation shocked his contemporary readers into recognizing systemic injustices they’d preferred to ignore. His combination of melodrama, social criticism, memorable characters, and ultimate justice served with generous helpings of sentimentality created one of literature’s most enduring stories—a tale that remains relevant wherever societies fail their most vulnerable members. This classic continues to resonate because poverty, exploitation, and the struggle between innocence and corruption remain universal human concerns. 🌟
Why this endures: Dickens crafts a timeless story that’s equal parts thrilling adventure, scathing social commentary, and affirmation that goodness can survive even the worst circumstances. Perfect for readers discovering Dickens for the first time or revisiting this masterpiece that influenced everything from child welfare laws to modern storytelling, proving that classic literature addresses issues that never truly become outdated when societies continue failing their children.
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Following the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Sabrina Thompson finds herself adrift in their Malibu beach house, surrounded by memories and unable to imagine a future that doesn’t include him. Her three adult children—scattered across continents from New York to London to Milan—watch helplessly as their mother withdraws into grief, and they gently encourage her to take a trip somewhere, anywhere, to break the paralyzing cycle of sorrow. Paris seems like a safe choice, a beautiful city to wander and remember without the weight of home pressing down on her. 🎨Danielle Steel, beloved author of over 190 novels exploring family, love, and resilience, delivers a story about finding unexpected purpose after devastating loss. Once in Paris, an impulsive day trip to Biarritz leads Sabrina on a winding road to the charming medieval village of Arcangues in the Basque countryside, with its distinctive iconic blue shutters and historic château that seems frozen in another century. The château belongs to Xavier de Bonport, who faces his own quiet desperation—trapped in a loveless marriage, struggling financially after a business collapsed during the pandemic, and desperately needing rental income to save his family’s ancestral home. He needs a tenant as urgently as Sabrina needs a refuge from grief. 🏰
With Xavier living in a smaller cottage on the sprawling property, maintaining respectful distance while managing the estate, Sabrina begins the delicate work of transforming the château into a temporary home. It’s in the quiet moments—sharing coffee on the terrace, discussing the château’s history, working side by side in the gardens—that they each begin to sense something unexpected in the other. Compassion and resilience, yes, but also kindness in a world that’s been unkind to both of them recently. A genuine friendship blossoms between two wounded souls who understand loss in ways words can’t quite capture. 💙
Inspired by the remarkable true stories of Xavier’s grandmother, who risked everything to save hundreds of Jewish children during World War II, hiding them in the château and defying Nazi occupation with quiet courage, Sabrina considers a bold proposal from the local Dominican nuns. Their orphanage overflows with children who need temporary homes, and the château has so much empty space. As a newfound family begins to fill the ancient rooms with laughter and life, bringing purpose to Sabrina’s days and joy she thought she’d never feel again, both she and Xavier begin to wonder if their friendship is becoming something deeper. Can two people shattered by loss find the courage to hope again? Steel weaves past and present together, showing how acts of courage echo through generations. ✨
Why this moves: Steel delivers her signature blend of romance, family dynamics, and historical inspiration with a story about choosing hope even when grief seems permanent. Perfect for fans of Nicholas Sparks’s emotional journeys or readers who love stories where second chances come when you’ve stopped looking, where healing happens in unexpected places, and where the color of hope might just be the blue of Basque shutters against a medieval château.
A grounded plane. A questionable Greyhound bus. A brotherhood determined to make it home for Christmas no matter what disasters stand in their way. When the Chicago Falcons’ team plane gets unexpectedly grounded right before the holidays, the players face a choice: stay put and miss Christmas with their families, or launch their own Planes, Trains, and Automobiles-style mission across the country to reach home in time. For these professional football players who’ve faced down 300-pound linebackers, the decision is obvious—nothing will stop them from getting back to their wives and kids, not weather, not transportation disasters, not anything. 🏈Piper Rayne, bestselling authors known for their hockey and football romances filled with brotherhood and banter, deliver a hilarious holiday romp that proves determination conquers all obstacles. Meanwhile, back in Chicago, the Falcons’ wives juggle their own chaos: babies who refuse to sleep, pregnancy tests that need taking, and a mysteriously missing gender-reveal envelope that’s causing minor panic. The contrast between the guys’ increasingly ridiculous cross-country journey and the domestic comedy unfolding at home provides non-stop entertainment as both groups navigate their separate but equally chaotic challenges. 🎄
From FaceTime flirting sessions that go hilariously wrong when kids interrupt at the worst possible moments, to a Greyhound bus disaster involving questionable passengers and even more questionable smells, the Falcons’ determination never wavers despite mounting evidence they should probably just give up. But these men know that nothing says “I love you” quite like sprinting through a snowstorm at 2 AM, hitching rides with strangers, and refusing to accept defeat when every transportation option seems designed to keep them from their families. The brotherhood that makes them great teammates translates perfectly into their collective mission to make it home before Christmas morning. ❄️
As the clock ticks down and the miles stretch out, the journey becomes less about football players on an adventure and more about husbands and fathers who would move mountains (or at least endure terrible bus stations) to keep their promises. With Rayne’s signature humor, heart, and the kind of male friendship that involves equal parts trash talk and genuine support, this holiday romance delivers everything readers want: laugh-out-loud moments, swoon-worthy declarations made via spotty cell phone connections, and the reminder that sometimes the journey home is what makes you appreciate the destination. 🌟
Why this scores: Rayne delivers holiday romance with sports bromance, domestic chaos, and the kind of determination that makes you root for these guys to make it home. Perfect for fans of their other series or readers who love Kennedy Fox’s sports romances, ensemble casts, and holiday stories where love means doing whatever it takes—including surviving a Greyhound bus—to be together for Christmas morning.
Three estranged siblings and one high-maintenance cockatoo reunite under the worst possible circumstances in this luminous novel about forgiveness, connection, and the beautiful messiness of family. Upon the sudden deaths of their bird-obsessed parents in a tragic accident, the three Shah siblings—Aliza, Aden, and Sammy—find themselves reluctantly gathering under one roof for the first time in years, navigating grief while confronting all the reasons they’ve been avoiding each other. The tension could be cut with a knife, old resentments simmering just below the surface of polite funeral conversations. 🐦Farah Naz Rishi, author of Sorry for the Inconvenience, delivers a poignant exploration of family dysfunction and the long road to reconciliation. Aliza has spent years serving as the family glue, holding everyone together while sacrificing her own dreams and desires to care for their younger brother Sammy, who needs more support than anyone wants to acknowledge. She’s exhausted, resentful, and desperately hoping this reunion might lead somewhere positive. Meanwhile, Aden finds himself reluctantly named executor of the estate, a responsibility he never wanted, forcing him to deal with the one family member who always received their parents’ undivided love and attention: Coco, their famous Bollywood-bopping cockatoo whose dance videos went viral and who was treated like royalty while the human children competed for scraps of affection. 💔
One reckless night, fueled by frustration and too many emotions he can’t quite name, Aden opens Coco’s cage and simply lets her go—allowing the bird to do exactly what he did a decade ago when he flew away from home and never looked back. It’s an impulsive act of rebellion that immediately spirals into panic when everyone realizes what’s happened. The cockatoo their parents adored more than their own children is missing, and if they don’t find her, they’ll have lost the last living connection to their complicated, bird-obsessed parents. 🚗
Armed with only Coco’s tracking chip and the fragile hope that maybe, just maybe, this shared mission might help them set things right, the siblings embark on what they assume will be a quick search and rescue. Instead, it becomes a two-week cross-country road trip where old grudges resurface with a vengeance, relationships get tested in ways none of them anticipated, and long-buried dreams begin to stir awake. Rishi crafts a story that’s equal parts funny and heartbreaking, exploring how families fracture, how resentments calcify over years of silence, and how sometimes it takes chasing a cockatoo across America to remember why you loved your siblings in the first place. Through arguments in gas station parking lots, late-night confessions in cheap motels, and the simple act of spending uninterrupted time together, the Shah siblings begin the messy work of becoming a family again. 🌟
Why this soars: Rishi delivers a luminous novel about complicated sibling relationships, cultural identity, and finding your way back to family even when they drive you crazy. Perfect for fans of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s emotional family dramas or readers who loved The Nest or Commonwealth—stories where family reunions are messy, complicated, and ultimately worth the pain of showing up.