Author: Asgarian, Roxanna, 1987- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: 364.152 Format: Books Summary: "The shocking, deeply reported story of a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children-and a searing indictment of the American foster care system"-- On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and several children at the bottom of a cliff beside the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart, it turned out, were a white married couple who had adopted the six Black children from two different Texas families in 2006 and 2008. Behind the family's loving facade, however, was a pattern of abuse and neglect that went ignored as the couple withdrew the children from school and moved across the country. It soon became apparent that the State of Texas knew very little about the two individuals to whom it had given custody of six children. As a journalist in Houston, Asgarian became the first reporter to put the children's birth families at the center of the story. We follow the author as she runs up against the intransigence of a state agency that removes tens of thousands of kids from homes each year in the name of child welfare, while often failing to consider alternatives. Her reporting uncovers persistent racial biases and corruption as children of color are separated from birth parents without proper cause. The result is a riveting narrative and a deeply reported indictment of a system that continues to fail America's most vulnerable children while upending the lives of their families.
Author: Chakraborty, S. A., author. Allyn, Virginia, illustrator. Published: 2023 Call Number: F CHAKRABO Format: Books Summary: "The first book of "a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman's determined quest to seize a final chance at glory--and write her own legend ... Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean's most notorious pirates, she's survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But when she's tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she's offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade's kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum..."--
Author: Wein, Elizabeth, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y WEIN Format: Books Summary: Stella North is one of twelve young pilots competing in a 1937 air race meant to promote peace in Europe, but when one of her competitors is sabotaged, Stella races to determine who is capable of murder, and who might be the next victim. From the beloved #1 bestselling author of Code Name Verity, this thrilling murder mystery set in 1937 Europe soars with intrigue, glamour, secrets, and betrayal. When Stella North is chosen to represent Britain in Europe's first air race for young people, she knows all too well how high the stakes are. As the only participating female pilot, it'll be a constant challenge to prove she's a worthy competitor. But promoting peace in Europe feels empty to Stella when civil war is raging in Spain and the Nazis are gaining power--and when, right from the start, someone resorts to cutthroat sabotage to get ahead of the competition. The world is looking for inspiration in what's meant to be a friendly sporting event. But each of the racers is hiding a turbulent and violent past, and any one of them might be capable of murder...including Stella herself.
Author: McKenzie, Elizabeth, 1958- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F MCKENZIE Format: Books Summary: "From the National Book Award long-listed author of The Portable Veblen. Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over; she's quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother Dr. Pincer keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what's possible when all else fails"-- Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over; she's quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother Dr. Pincer keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what's possible when all else fails. Elizabeth McKenzie, beloved novelist of California and its idiosyncrasies, follows Penny on her quest for a fresh start. There will be a road trip in the Dog of the North, an old van with gingham curtains, a piñata, and stiff brakes. There will be injury and peril. There will be a dog named Kweecoats and two brothers who may share a toupee. There will be questions: Why is a detective investigating her grandmother, and what is "the scintillator"? And can Penny recognize a good thing when it finally comes her way? This slyly humorous, thoroughly winsome novel finds the purpose in life's curve-balls, insisting that even when we are painfully warped by those we love most, we can be brought closer to our truest selves.
Author: Lyu, Sarah, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y LYU Format: Books Summary: Overachiever Chase struggles to confront the details surrounding the mysterious death of her best friend turned girlfriend, Lia. Welcome to Meadowlark, Long Island--expensive homes and good schools, ambition and loneliness. Meet Chase Ohara and Lia Vestiano: the driven overachiever and the impulsive wanderer, the future CEO and the free spirit. Best friends for years--weekend trips to Montauk, sleepovers on a yacht--and then, first love. True love. But when Lia disappears, Chase's life turns into a series of grim snapshots. Anger. Grief. Running. Pink pills in an Altoids tin. A cheating ring at school. Heartbreak and lies. A catastrophic secret. And the shocking truth that will change everything about the way Chase sees Lia--and herself.
Author: Taslim, Priyanka, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y TASLIM Format: Books Summary: When her mother sets her up with handsome, aloof Harun, eighteen-year-old Bangladeshi American Zahra pretends to date him while she pursues her coworker, Nayim, but she quickly finds herself second-guessing her true feelings. "Zahra Khan is basically Bangladeshi royalty, but being a princess doesn't pay the bills in Paterson, New Jersey. While Zahra's plans for financial security this summer involve working long hours at Chai Ho and saving up for college writing courses, Amma is convinced that all Zahra needs is a 'good match,' Jane Austen-style." --Front jacket flap
Author: Maxwell, Jessa, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: LP F MAXWELL Format: Large print Summary: "Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for "Bake Week" but also the childhood home of the show's famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin. The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as "America's Grandmother," Betsy Martin isn't as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection, and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. As the baking competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it's merely sabotage--sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high--but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect. A sharp and suspenseful thriller for mystery buffs and avid bakers alike, The Golden Spoon is a brilliant puzzle filled with shocking twists and turns that will keep you reading late into the night until you turn the very last page of this incredible debut" --
Author: Hunter, Stephen, 1946- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: LP F HUNTER Format: Large print Summary: During the D-Day invasion, sniper Earl Swagger embarks on a secret and dangerous mission to find the spy who is tipping off the Germans about American positions. "July, 1944: The lush, rolling hills of Normandy are dotted with a new feature - German snipers. From their vantage points, they pick off hundreds of Allied soldiers every day, bringing the D-Day invasion to its knees. It's clear that someone is tipping off these snipers with the locations of American GIs, but who? And how? General Eisenhower demands his intelligence service to find the best shot in the Allied military to counter this deadly SS operation. Enter Pacific hero Earl Swagger, assigned this crucial and bloody mission. With crosshairs on his back, Swagger can't trust anyone as he infiltrates the shadowy corners of London and France for answers."--
Author: Geron, Eric, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y GERON Format: Books Summary: When long-lost twins Edward, a closeted prince, and Billy, an out-and-proud cowboy, meet by chance in New York City, their lives are forever changed as they each come to terms with who they really are and what they really want. "Edward Dinnissen leads a charmed life. He's the Crown Prince of Canada, gets the royal treatment at his exclusive private school, and resides in a ritzy mansion. He thrives off being the perfect prince as he prepares for the Investiture Ceremony on his eighteenth birthday, the final step in his role as heir--and Canada's future king. But this closeted Crown Prince has just one tiny problem: he's unsure how to tell his parents, his beloved country, and his adoring fans that he's gay. Billy Boone should be happy with the simple life. His family's ranch is his favorite place in the world, he loves his small town, and his boyfriend is the cutest guy at Little Timber High. So why does it feel like something's still missing? Maybe it has to do with the fact that this out-and-proud cowboy feels destined for something more... When Edward and Billy meet by chance in New York City, they discover that they are long-lost twins, and their lives are forever changed. Together, will these twin princes--'twinces'--be able to take on high school, coming out, and coronations? Or will this royal reunion quickly become a royal train wreck?"--Amazon.com
Author: Bowen, Rhys, author. Broyles, Clare, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F BOWEN Format: Books Summary: "Retired" detective and police captain's wife Molly Murphy Sullivan tangles with Tammany Hall in All That Is Hidden, the latest in Rhys Bowen's New York Times bestselling historical mystery series..."-- New York, Autumn, 1907: Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is happy with her place in the world. She and her policeman husband, Daniel, have built quite a life for themselves in Greenwich Village, in their modest-yet-beautiful-home in Patchin Place, filled with family, friends, and laughter. Molly and Daniel have a good marriage, a true partnership where they value each other's opinions in all things. So when he tells her they're moving to a fancy home on Fifth Avenue, and that he's running for the sheriff of New York Molly is left reeling. Daniel begs Molly to trust him, but why would he run for sheriff on the Tammany ticket? A party known more for kickbacks and quid pro quo than anything else, it used to be everything Daniel despised. So what's changed? And why didn't he discuss it with her beforehand? Molly can't help but wonder what Daniel's got himself tangled up in ... and whether he needs her help to get out.
Author: Hargrave, Kiran Millwood, 1990- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F HARGRAVE Format: Books Summary: "In this gripping historical novel, the internationally bestselling author of The Mercies weaves a spellbinding tale of fear, transformation, courage, and love in sixteenth-century France. Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by true events, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge"-- Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob. Outside the city, pregnant Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law, tending the bees that are the family's livelihood. Though Lisbet is removed from the frenzy of the dancing plague afflicting the city's women, her own quiet life is upended by the arrival of her sister-in-law. Nethe has been away for seven years, serving a penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name. It is a secret Lisbet is determined to uncover. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, Lisbet becomes caught in a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion. Like the women of Strasbourg, she too, is dancing to a dangerous tune.
Author: Gerstenblatt, Julie, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F GERSTENB Format: Books Summary: "Set against Nantucket's Great Fire of 1846, this sweeping, emotional novel brings together three courageous women battling to save everything they hold dear... Nantucket in 1846 is an island set apart not just by its geography but by its unique circumstances. With their menfolk away at sea, often for years at a time, women here know a rare independence -- and the challenges that go with it. Eliza Macy is struggling to conceal her financial trouble as she waits for her whaling captain husband to return from a voyage. In desperation, she turns against her progressive ideals and targets Meg Wright, a pregnant free Black woman trying to relocate her store to Main Street. Meanwhile, astronomer Maria Mitchell loves running Nantucket's Atheneum and spending her nights observing the stars, yet she fears revealing the secret wishes of her heart..." --
Author: Gómez-Jurado, Juan, author. Caistor, Nick, translator. Published: 2023 2018 Call Number: F GOMEZJUR Format: Books Summary: "Introducing Antonia Scott--the most compelling and original detective since Lisbeth Salander--in Juan Gómez-Jurado's Red Queen, the #1 international award-winning bestseller & thriller that has taken the world by storm. Antonia Scott--the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother--has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she's refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment. Jon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao--disgraced, suspended, and about to face criminal charges--is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case..."--
Author: Ellison, J. T., author. Published: 2023 Call Number: LP F ELLISON Format: Large print Summary: "Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can't be fulfilled by marble counters or the perfect rug. She desperately wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she's at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park. DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park's son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don't have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold--or how many children he has sired. As the murder investigation goes deeper, more terrible truths come to light. With every revelation, Olivia must face the unthinkable. The man she married has fathered a killer. But can she hold that against him when she keeps such dark secrets of her own?" --
Author: Hurwitz, Gregg, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: LP F HURWITZ Format: Large print Summary: "Evan Smoak returns in The Last Orphan, the latest New York Times bestselling Orphan X thriller--when everything changes and everything is at risk. As a child, Evan Smoak was plucked out of a group home, raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government as part of the Orphan program. When he broke with the program and went deep underground, he left with a lot of secrets in his head that the government would do anything to make sure never got out. When he remade himself as The Nowhere Man, dedicated to helping the most desperate in their times of trouble, Evan found himself slowly back on the government's radar. Having eliminated most of the Orphans in the program, the government will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat they see in Evan. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers. Until he makes one little mistake... Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal--eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live and, in turn, she'll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what's more important--his principles or his life"--
Author: Fenkl, Heinz Insu, 1960- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F FENKL Format: Books Summary: "Growing up outside a US military base in South Korea in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Insu--the son of a Korean mother and a German father enlisted in the US Army--spends his days with his "half and half" friends skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black market, watching Hollywood movies, and testing the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. When he hears a legend that water collected in a human skull will cure any sickness, he vows to find some in order to heal his ailing Big Uncle, a geomancer who has been exiled by the family to a mountain cave to die. Insu's quest takes him and his friends on a sprawling, wild journey into some of South Korea's darkest corners, opening them up to a world beyond their grasp. Meanwhile, Big Uncle has embraced his solitude and fate, and as he recalls his wartime experiences of betrayal and lost love, he attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can see--or think we know. Largely autobiographical and deeply rooted in time and place, Skull Water is the story of a boy coming into his own--and the ways the past continues to haunt the present in a country struggling to confront its troubled history as it moves into modernity"--
Author: Sambury, Liselle, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y SAMBURY Format: Books Summary: Told in alternating timelines, seventeen-year-old Daisy and her mother move into her deceased uncle's mansion, only to find horrors waiting inside, and ten years later, Brittney investigates the mystery behind the Miracle Mansion that turned her mother's life around.
Author: Weaver, Jessie, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y WEAVER Format: Books Summary: "When four teens discover the dead body of influencer Summer Cartwright, they must piece together the truth behind her online persona to find out who killed her"-- Social media influencer Summer Cartwright has millions of followers, a newly minted book deal, the coolest friends. And until recently, the hottest boyfriend at her über-elite prep school. Then she goes missing during a Halloween party--and a post appears on her feed claiming she'll be dead within the next five minutes. Those closest to Summer--friends and enemies alike--know it isn't a media stunt. And no filter is strong enough to mask the lies they tell themselves when Summer's body is found. --adapted from jacket
Author: Bryant, Elise (Elise M.), author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y BRYANT Format: Books Summary: "Delilah always keeps her messy, gooey insides hidden behind a wall of shrugs and yeah, whatevers. She goes with the flow--which is how she ends up singing in her friends' punk band as a favor, even though she'd prefer to hide at the merch table. Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master and self-declared Blerd. He spends his free time leading quests and writing essays critiquing the game under a pseudonym, keeping it all under wraps from his disapproving family. These two, who have practically nothing in common, meet for the first time on New Year's Eve. And then again on Valentine's Day. And then again on St. Patrick's Day. As their holiday meetings continue, the two begin to fall for each other. But what happens once they realize they've each fallen for a version of the other that doesn't really exist?"-- "From the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Happily Ever Afters comes a dual POV rom-com about Reggie and Delilah, who fall in love through missed connections and chance meetings on holidays over the course of a year. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han, with crossover appeal for readers of Jasmine Guillory and Talia Hibbert romances. Delilah always keeps her messy, gooey insides hidden behind a wall of shrugs and yeah, whatevers. She goes with the flow--which is how she ends up singing in her friends' punk band as a favor, even though she'd prefer to hide at the merch table. Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master and self-declared Blerd. He spends his free time leading quests and writing essays critiquing the game under a pseudonym, keeping it all under wraps from his disapproving family. These two, who have practically nothing in common, meet for the first time on New Year's Eve. And then again on Valentine's Day. And then again on St. Patrick's Day. It's almost like the universe is pushing them together for a reason."--
Author: Liang, Ann (Young adult author), author. Published: 2023 Call Number: Y LIANG Format: Books Summary: When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin's entirely fictional essay about meeting her perfect boyfriend goes viral at her international school in Beijing, she has to make a deal with the handsome and charming Caz Song to play the part--but when the relationship starts to feel real all her career plans are suddenly threatened. Eliza Lin's essay about meeting the love of her life unexpectedly goes viral, she gains the approval of her classmates at her new international school in Beijing, and a career-launching internship opportunity at her favorite magazine. Unfortunately, Eliza's essay is completely fiction. All good writing is lying, right? To hide the truth, Eliza strikes a deal with an actor in her class, the charming but aloof Caz Song. She'll help him write his college applications if he poses as her boyfriend. When her face relationship with Caz starts feeling a little too convincing, it will threaten her plans--and may break her own heart.--
