Dodger (The Dodger Papers Book 1) (affiliate link)
People of London, guard your pockets! Jack Dawkins – otherwise known as the Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens – is back on patch.
Having spent the past five years in an Australian penal colony, Victorian London’s top thief has returned with a triumphant swagger to the underworld slums of his birth, tasked with finding a hidden jewel. But danger lurks behind every street corner, the clock is ticking and the consequences of failure will be murderous.
With a killer accomplice, Dodger must track down childhood friends, old flames and uncover dark secrets if he is to find and steal the prize before the fatal deadline.
Hopeless Romantic (McCabe Brothers Book 1) (affiliate link)
When he falls, he falls hard.
Millie Baylin just moved to a new city to start college. Introverted and studious, she plans on spending most of her time holed up in the library working on her novel and keeping to herself. But when she gets dragged along to a school football game by her fun, football-mad new roommate, the hot star quarterback almost drops the ball at his very first sight of her.
Bo McCabe is saving himself. A hopeless romantic at heart, he’s holding out for the real thing. As soon as he lays eyes on the shy stranger with the striking gray eyes and the angel’s face, he’ll stop at nothing to find out if she’s the one he’s been waiting for all along.
Millie thinks Bo’s insta-obsession is insanity and wants nothing to do with him. But Bo is determined. Because, somehow, Millie has already stolen his heart … and he is now utterly obsessed with winning hers.
Danger Lies Within (The Ranfurly Mysteries Book 1) (affiliate link)
Courtney Drake prefers her peaceful life in the mountains. Her little town is quiet and unchanged, the only excitement an occasional dragon sighting. When she takes a position as a nanny for five-year-old twins of the captivating Lord Robert Ranfurly, the last thing she plans on is falling in love. But as much as she tries to push back her feelings, the attraction for her new employer is undeniable.
When a member of Lord Robert’s staff is murdered and the entire household is in question, Courtney finds herself caught in a world of whispers and covert affairs. Little does Courtney know that Lord Robert lives a double life and keeps many secrets.
House of Suns (affiliate link)
Only there is no Gathering. Someone is eliminating the Gentian line. And now Campion and Purslane — two shatterlings who have fallen in love and shared forbidden experiences — must determine exactly who, or what, their enemy is, before they are wiped out of existence . . .
Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir (affiliate link)
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.
The Outlaw Noble Salt: A Novel (affiliate link)
When infamous outlaw Butch Cassidy decides to go straight, he discovers that too many of the powerful men he crossed won’t let bygones be bygones. To have a chance at a new life, he’ll have to become someone else entirely.
A brief, fateful encounter with the celebrated singer Jane Touissant on the eve of his escape offers a glimpse of what might have been, but Butch disappears, leaving her behind, until their paths unexpectedly converge again in Paris.
Despite having discovered his true identity, Jane trusts the outlaw and enlists his protection on her upcoming American tour. Although Butch is reluctant to agree, fearing his sordid past may put the woman and her young son in danger, the salvation she offers is too hard to resist.
As they set forth on their journey, Butch’s past and Jane’s secrets put them at risk from threats far greater than the law, and this legend of the American West will have to decide what matters most—his life, his legacy, or the woman he loves.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3