Billionaire entrepreneur Cole needs a respectable, committed image fast. Facing crucial investor negotiations and intense family scrutiny, his bachelor reputation is threatening to derail the biggest business acquisition of his career. Enter Daisy, a down-on-her-luck, sharp-witted woman who is desperate for cash to save her family business and take care of her mounting obligations. Cole presents an irresistible business proposition: play his devoted fiancée in public for thirty days, collect a massive paycheck, and walk away with no strings attached.
The contract is clear, legal, and straightforward—until the fake dating begins in earnest. Attending high-society galas, posing for paparazzi, and sharing close quarters during weekend family getaways, the rehearsed smiles and scripted touches begin feeling dangerously authentic. Daisy’s warmth and honesty penetrate Cole’s guarded, ruthless exterior, while Cole’s surprising protectiveness forces Daisy to wonder if her heart can survive their expiration date.
Weston Parker delivers an engaging contemporary romance brimming with emotional tension, laugh-out-loud banter, and undeniable chemistry. The beloved fake-fiancé trope is handled with fresh charm and emotional depth, showing two cautious people discovering that love cannot be contained within a business contract.
Why this warms: a fun, sizzling fake-relationship romance packed with witty banter, lavish high-society drama, and a billionaire hero who falls hopelessly hard for his fake bride.
The Duke of Ravensthorpe is notorious throughout London ballrooms as the “Duke of Ruin”—a brooding, scandalous nobleman whose dark past and wicked repute keep high society whispering behind their silken fans. Hardened by betrayal and entirely indifferent to the marriage mart, he intends to live out his days on his own terms. But when family obligations and impending financial ruin require him to produce an heir, he resolves to enter a loveless, purely practical union with an unassuming bride.
Lady Charlotte has spent her young life quietly fading into the background of society, deliberately dodging the calculating matches orchestrated by her overbearing guardians. When a compromising scandal orchestrated by rivals forces her into a hasty betrothal with the fearsome Duke, Charlotte prepares herself for a cold, miserable exile. Instead, she finds a complex, fiercely protective man whose wicked public facade conceals deep honor, lingering scars, and a desperate hunger for genuine companionship.
Claudia Stone spins an intoxicating Regency romance filled with simmering chemistry, society intrigue, and emotional redemption. The tension between Charlotte’s quiet inner strength and Ravensthorpe’s fierce protectiveness drives a captivating narrative of trust, forgiveness, and passionate discovery.
What makes this special: a lush, atmospheric Regency romance that brings together a brooding hero and a resilient heroine in a beautifully crafted journey from scandal to true love.
Deep within the secluded, mist-shrouded woodlands of rural New England, the remote township of Blackwood prepares for an approaching lunar cycle that the locals have dreaded for generations. When tourists and hunters begin vanishing without a trace from the dense forest trails, local authorities dismiss the disappearances as tragic encounters with rogue bears. But the mutilated remains discovered on the outskirts tell a far more terrifying story: an ancient, primal evil has awakened in the wilderness.
As the night of the full moon draws near, an isolated ensemble of townspeople, outdoor campers, and visiting lawmen find themselves cut off from the outside world when phone lines go dead and mountain roads wash out. Trapped inside fortified buildings while inhuman roars echo through the pines, the survivors quickly discover that the monstrous predators stalking their doorsteps are cunning, coordinated, and utterly merciless in their hunger.
Bestselling horror author Matt Drabble delivers a visceral, claustrophobic creature feature that pays homage to vintage monster cinema while delivering modern suspense. The tension ratchets up steadily as barricades splinter and the trapped survivors are forced into a desperate, bloody fight for dawn against a legendary nightmare made flesh.
Why this grips from page one: a terrifying, fast-paced supernatural horror novel packed with chilling woodland atmosphere, visceral monster attacks, and pure relentless survival dread.
Mary, Mrs. A. Lincoln: A Novel
In 1875, ten years after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his grieving widow Mary Todd Lincoln is betrayed by her only surviving son, Robert, and forcibly committed to Bellevue Place insane asylum in Batavia, Illinois. Confined to a sterile room under constant surveillance, Mary refuses to let history write her off as a madwoman. Picking up her pen, she sets down the true chronicle of her extraordinary, tempestuous life in an impassioned bid to reclaim her dignity and sanity.
Newman gives Mary an unforgettable, fiercely intelligent voice, tracing her journey from an ambitious, politically astute belle in Kentucky to her complex courtship with the awkward, melancholy young lawyer from Springfield. Through Mary’s intimate gaze, readers experience the suffocating pressures of the Civil War White House, the horrific toll of the war on her fractured family, the crushing loss of three beloved sons, and the traumatic evening at Ford’s Theatre that permanently shadowed her mind.
Rather than accepting the caricature of an unstable, hysterical spendthrift created by contemporary critics, Janis Cooke Newman brings forth a complex, deeply loving, and tragic heroine whose brilliance was too large for nineteenth-century social constraints. The result is a sweeping, deeply researched epic that breathes vibrant humanity into one of America’s most misunderstood historical figures.
Why this touches the heart: an evocative, richly textured biographical novel that restores humanity, intellect, and fiery resilience to a maligned First Lady fighting for her legacy from within asylum walls.
While celebrated universally as the paramount scientific genius of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein was equally devoted to the moral survival and social conscience of civilization. Written during one of the most perilous epochs in modern world history—between 1931 and 1950—this powerful collection of essays, speeches, and open letters captures the legendary physicist stepping away from formulas to address the urgent ethical dilemmas threatening global peace.
Einstein articulates his deep personal commitment to democratic socialism, anti-militarism, academic freedom, and human dignity. Writing with remarkable clarity, he reflects on the rise of fascism in his native Germany, the catastrophic advent of the atomic bomb, and the moral duty of scientists to oppose authoritarian brutality. His words demonstrate that scientific progress divorced from ethical responsibility poses an existential hazard to humanity’s collective future.
Beyond politics and geopolitical friction, these writings reveal Einstein’s warm, contemplative soul. He muses on the nature of creative inspiration, religious wonder without dogma, and the necessity of social justice to allow the human spirit to flourish. Decades later, his lucid insights into nationalism, fanaticism, and education read not as historical curiosities, but as vital, prophetic guideposts for our troubled contemporary world.
What makes this essential: a profound, intellectually luminous collection that showcases Einstein’s moral vision, offering timeless guidance on intellectual liberty, social justice, and world peace.
In July 1863, amidst the rolling hills and rocky orchards of Gettysburg, the fate of the American republic hung precariously in the balance. While countless regiments fought and bled across those three fateful days, soldiers from the northern frontier of Maine played an outsized, decisive role in securing the Union victory. Historian Tom Huntington traces the convergence of these four thousand rugged volunteers, showing how lumberjacks, fishermen, and scholars answered the national call to arms.
Huntington skillfully follows the separate roads that led Maine’s native sons to the Pennsylvania crossroads. He chronicles iconic commanders like Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, whose desperate bayonet charge on Little Round Top saved the Union left flank, and Major General Oliver Otis Howard, whose foresight secured the high tactical ground of Cemetery Hill. But the narrative equally honors the everyday infantrymen, artillery crews, and sharpshooters who stood fast under Pickett’s Charge and held back Confederate breakthroughs at terrifying human cost.
Drawing upon letters, diaries, regimental accounts, and battlefield reports, Huntington crafts an intimate and panoramic military narrative. He captures the grit, community bonds, and quiet determination of the Pine Tree State troops, offering a fresh, deeply human lens on the defining clash of the American Civil War.
Why this belongs on your shelf: an impeccably researched, stirring military history that brings the bravery, sacrifices, and pivotal contributions of Maine’s soldiers to life with cinematic clarity and narrative power.
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