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The Confluence: A novel of family, adoption, and a mother’s love (affiliate link)
The story of a young woman adopting her son as she brings her estranged family back together in fictionalized Sudan and India.
Fans of family dramas and literary fiction including The Namesake, Amitav Ghosh, and Khaled Hosseini will love this heartfelt and compelling story about adoption, personal, and family struggles set in the backdrop of political upheaval.
In 2045, Naina Ranjeeva writes a letter to recount the journey that led to the adoption of her son Nikhil.
Decades earlier, she stumbles upon a lead on the location of her aunt, who had disappeared when Naina was just a child.
After her aunt’s disappearance, Naina’s family also completely lost contact with her beloved younger cousin, Nitu. With her aunt’s location in hand, Naina takes the first step toward locating her cousin by traveling to the Republic of East Africa to search for her aunt.
Her journey eventually leads her to Calcutta where she finds her cousin Nitu and his three-year-old son Nikhil.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time: A Rafferty P.I. Mystery (Rafferty : Hardboiled P.I. Book 4) (affiliate link)
It should have been the easiest cash he’d ever make.
But Rafferty forgot the golden rule.
If it looks too good to be true …
When bounty hunter Toby Wells offered Rafferty two hundred bucks for fifteen minutes work the answer was obvious.
There was no way he could know Wells would murder an innocent man and use Rafferty as cover for his getaway.
Payback will taste sweet.
And would be a whole lot easier to come by if Rafferty wasn’t already spending his days protecting Thorney—the octogenarian uncle of a good friend.
But a deal is a deal. He’s not about to cut the old guy loose just because things got complicated.
Harmion (Book 1) (affiliate link)
Across four decades the war…
…turned the world into a wasteland.
Is Tritan the hero they need?
As a soldier, he excelled, but it meant doing terrible things. It haunts him. The day his father left him for dead, his life changed. In the desolate country he calls home, Tritan must find his father. But will his journey for redemption, blind him to the greater threat?
Could the rumour be true?
Was immortality waiting?
Across the barren lands, at the border of the north, some say there is a magic so powerful as to grant eternal life. Such a prize won’t be given away.
By the Light of Embers: A Haunting Story of Forbidden Love (affiliate link)
It’s 1954, and 22-year-old Lucia Lafleur defies expectations by graduating with a big dream: to become a physician.
When she’s accepted to medical school in Pennsylvania, Lucia is ready to show the world that women can be doctors, too. Yet in the midst of her triumph, her fiancé delivers a heartbreaking ultimatum: choose her career, or him.
Agonizing over her decision, she heads home to Louisiana for the summer, where she meets Nicholas, a dark-skinned poet whose dignity and intellect are a balm to her aching heart. Their bond, initially forged from a shared love of literature and a mutual dislike for society’s strictures, soon blossoms into something as bewitching as it is forbidden.
Beagles Love Cupcake Crimes (affiliate link)
Is this murder she baked?
If you love cooking wrapped around a mystery, then this is the series for you!
Cooking is all celebrity chef Lyra St. Claire ever wanted to do. Plucked from school and being thrown into the limelight was not the plan. When everything goes wrong, she yearns for her hometown and a simpler life. Where people aren’t pretending to be your friend.
But first, she must find a murderer. Sure, it isn’t the wisest thing to do, but since the police have no leads, and Cinnamon the beagle agrees, it’s time to sniff out who dislikes Lyra and her friends enough to ruin their lives.
Crimes and clues aside, what could be the motive?
You Loved Me Once (affiliate link)
I’m losing myself trying to save everyone else…
As a doctor, I walk a dangerously delicate balance of being compassionate but not overly invested. The same is true in my personal life–love is a luxury I can’t afford.
It isn’t until Dr. Westin Grant breaks down all my walls and offers me a future, I find myself wondering if I’m brave enough to risk my heart.
When who I was and who I’ve tried to become collide during my clinical trial, the fate of one patient changes everything.
In a single moment, everything I’ve worked for is jeopardized. My integrity, my career, and even my relationship with Westin.
He loved me once, I just hope he can love me always …
Rescuing Lord Inglewood (affiliate link)
All he wants is someone he can trust. All she wants is to belong. But when compromising circumstances force them together, do they have a chance at finding love?
Silas Riley, Earl of Inglewood, is known among his peers in Parliament as the man made of stone. As a wealthy peer, there are few he trusts with his friendship. He guards his heart and his honor with vigilance, and when an accident nearly takes his life, he’s faced with a situation which threatens his standing in society.
Growing up in the shadow of her older brother, Esther Fox’s acceptance in his circle has been indifferent at best. So when she ends up in a compromising situation as she saves the life of her brother’s dearest friend, the Earl of Inglewood, she is forced to marry him to save her own reputation. Once again, she finds herself accepted only because of the situation, and not because she is truly wanted.
The Last Kashmiri Rose (Joe Sandilands Book 1) (affiliate link)
In a land of saffron sunsets and blazing summer heat, an Englishwoman has been found dead, her wrists slit, her body floating in a bathtub of blood and water. But is it suicide or murder? The case falls to Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands, who survived the horror of the Western Front and has endured six sultry months in English-ruled Calcutta. Sandilands is ordered to investigate, and soon discovers that there have been other mysterious deaths, hearkening sinister ties to the present case.
Now, as the sovereignty of Britain is in decline and an insurgent India is on the rise, Sandilands must navigate the treacherous corridors of political decorum to bring a cunning killer to justice, knowing the next victim is already marked to die.
The Silent Ones (affiliate link)
When ten-year-old cousins Maddy and Brianna are arrested for a terrible crime, Maddy’s mother Juliet cannot believe it. How could her bright, joyful daughter be capable of such a thing?
As the small village community recoils in horror, the pressure of the tragedy blows Juliet and her sister’s lives apart. And things get even worse when their daughters retreat into a self-imposed silence. Can anyone reach Maddy and discover the truth before her fate is sealed?
Juliet is crushed. Nothing will ever be the same for her darling girl. But she knows that to find out what really happened that day, she and her sister must unlock the secrets of their own terrible past, a past they swore never to speak about again…
A collection of short stories by the legendary and iconic Ursula K. Le Guin—selected with an introduction by the author, and combined in one volume for the first time.
The Unreal and the Real is a collection of some of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best short stories. She has won multiple prizes and accolades from the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to the Newbery Honor, the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, and PEN/Malamud Awards. She has had her work collected over the years, but this is the first short story volume combining a full range of her work.
He loves nothing better than to tease her.
She considers him her nemesis…
…until the day she does not.
England 1801: LADY LOUISA, daughter to the EARL OF WHICKERTON, never thought she would ever have reason enough to hate anyone; especially not PHINEAS HAWKE, VISCOUNT BARRINGTON, the man with the most wickedly dark eyes she has ever seen. Yet, at an innocent ball, Louisa is suddenly forced to realize that the man she could easily have lost her heart to has discovered her most shameful secret. And that is not all.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2