favorite books

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Summer and Leo would do anything for each  other. Inspired by the way each has had to carve her place in a hostile  and unforgiving world, and united by the call of the open road, they  travel around sunny California in Summer’s tricked-out Land Cruiser.  It’s not a glamorous life, but it gives them the freedom they crave from  the painful pasts they’ve left behind. But even free spirits have bills  to pay. Luckily, Summer is a skilled pickpocket, a small-time thief,  and a con artist—and Leo, determined to pay her own way, has learned a  trick or two.

Eager for a big score, Leo catches in her  crosshairs Michael Forrester, a self-made billionaire and  philanthropist. When her charm wins him over, Leo is rewarded with an  invitation to his private island off the California coastline for a  night of fabulous excess. She eagerly anticipates returning with photos  that can be sold to the paparazzi, jewelry that can be liquidated, and  endless stories to share with Summer.

Instead, Leo disappears.

On her own for the first time in years, Summer decides to infiltrate  Michael’s island and find out what really happened. But when she  arrives, no one has seen Leo—she’s not on the island as far as they  know. Plus, there was only one way on the island—and no way off—for the  coming days. Trapped in a scheme she helped initiate, could Summer have  met her match?

 For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been  told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family  tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an  idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy  family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone  thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be  unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a  moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and  thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was  always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is  discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find  themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime  suspects? 

Growing up in a beautiful house in the English countryside, Katie Shaw  lived a charmed life. At the cusp of graduation, she had big dreams, a  devoted boyfriend, and a little brother she protected fiercely. Until  the day a violent stranger changed the fate of her family forever.

Years  later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to  her brother, Chris, and now with a child of her own to protect, Katie  struggles to separate the real threats from the imagined. Then she gets  the phone call: Chris has gone missing and needs his big sister once  more.

Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is facing a particularly  gruesome crime. A distinguished professor of fate and free will has  been brutally murdered just hours after firing his staff. All the leads  point back to two old cases: the gruesome attack on teenager Christopher  Shaw, and the despicable crimes of a notorious serial killer who,  legend had it, could see the future. 

Sarah Piper's lonely, threadbare existence changes when her temporary agency sends her to assist a ghost hunter. Alistair Gellis—rich, handsome, scarred by World War I, and obsessed with ghosts—has been summoned to investigate the spirit of nineteen-year-old Maddy Clare, who is haunting the barn where she committed suicide. Since Maddy hated men in life, it is Sarah's task to confront her in death.

Soon Sarah is caught up in a desperate struggle. For Maddy's ghost is real, she's angry, and she has powers that defy all reason. Can Sarah and Alistair's assistant, the rough, unsettling Matthew Ryder, discover who Maddy was, where she came from, and what is driving her desire for vengeance—before she destroys them all?

 You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow.  You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now, you’re crashing in  your big brother’s spare room.
 

That’s when you meet the man next door. He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive.
 

You find yourself watching him. All the time. But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.
 

Or that someone is watching you. 

 I finally have everything I’ve ever wanted: a career saving lives, my  dream home among the pines, and my caring fiancé, Elton. He doesn’t know  about my past. And I’ll do anything to keep it that way…

I’m so  excited for my life with Elton—we’ve even discussed which room would  make the perfect nursery. And we’re working together in our new jobs in  the ICU at Portland General Hospital.

But when I walk in on my  first day, I see my ex-husband Jameson. His familiar broad shoulders are  unmistakable in his white doctor’s coat. The shock knocks the air from  my lungs.

I’m thrown back to the moment Jameson and I gathered around that hospital bed as the steady beeping on the monitor slowed.

We did something unforgivable that day.
And for the first time, I saw who Jameson truly was.
The truth scared me more than I can explain.
So I ran.

If  Jameson tells Elton what I did, I’ll lose everything. Will he destroy  my new, perfect life? Is he still a danger to the innocent patients all  around us? And how far will I have to go to stop him?  

 “I am your maid. I know so much about you. But when it comes down to it: what is it that you know about me?” 

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social  skills and often misreads people’s intentions. But no matter—she still  she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid at the  five-star Regency Grand Hotel. She delights in donning her crisp uniform  each morning and returning guest rooms to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended when she enters the  suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find Mr. Black  dead—very dead—in his bed. Perplexed by Molly’s unusual  behavior, the police immediately suspect her of murder. She’s soon  caught in a web of deception with no idea how to untangle herself.

Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had join  her in a search for clues about what really happened to Mr. Black—but  will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

Ten years ago outside Browning, Montana,  four Blackfeet shot some elk, and then went on with their lives. It  happens every year, it’s been happening forever, it’s the way it’s  always been. But this time it’s different.

Ten years after that fateful hunt, these men are being stalked, are being hunted themselves. 

By who? By . . . what? And why?

Some hunting expeditions, they’re never really over.

This one’s just beginning. 

 In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.

For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler’s legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person’s paradise can be another’s prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.

After the Cuban Revolution of 1933 leaves Mirta Perez’s family in a precarious position, she agrees to an arranged marriage with a notorious American. Following her wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can’t deny the growing attraction to her new husband, his illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life. 

Elizabeth Preston's trip to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles after the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.

Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women’s paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.

Something hasn’t been right at the  roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to  find out why.

Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she  takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York.  But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.

Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv,  who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She  decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns  that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared  in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.

Family. Secrets. Murder.

When Ellice Littlejohn discovers her boss dead in his office, she calmly walks away instead of calling the authorities.

Why?

Because  she has been keeping a cache of dark secrets including a small-town  past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law.

A  rapid promotion to the executive suite lands Ellice right in the middle  of a shady deal inside the company. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present  lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the  brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more  sinister than she could have ever imagined.

Paloma thought her perfect life  would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about  to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…

Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had  the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she  fears she’ll never live up to them.

Now at thirty years old and  recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the  second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who  recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping  someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma’s  darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this  country.

Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down  in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police  arrive, there’s no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in  the first place.
 

Paloma is terrified this is all somehow  tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many  years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater  danger than ever before?

A backpacking trip has deadly consequences.  

Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in  the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual  reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the  last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and  broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought  back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him  in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar  to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t  believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice?

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving  headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But  when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront  their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more  Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on  their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest  friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will  they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life? 

Orphan Black meets Margaret Atwood. 

 Josephine Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine Miracle Babies conceived  without male DNA on an experimental commune known as the Homestead. The  Girls were raised in the shadow of controversy—plagued by zealots  calling them aberrations and their mothers demons—until a devastating  fire at the Homestead claimed the lives of three people, leaving the  survivors to scatter across the United States.

Years later, upon  learning that her mother has gone missing, Josie sets off on a desperate  road trip, tracking down the only people who might help: her estranged  sisters. Tracing clues her mother left behind, Josie joins forces with  two of the Girls, and they journey back through their past, uncovering  secrets about their origins and unlocking devastating abilities they  never knew they had. 

 ONE DEAD BODY. TWELVE SUSPECTS. TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR DARKNESS.

In the most inhospitable environment on earth – cut off from the rest of the world – there’s a killer on the loose.

A&E doctor Kate North has been knocked out of her orbit by a  personal tragedy. So when she’s offered the opportunity to be an  emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she  jumps at the chance. The previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic  accident while out on the ice.

The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her  past; no one is checking up on her. But as total darkness descends for  the winter, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc’s death wasn’t  accidental at all.

And the more questions she asks, the more dangerous it becomes . . .

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for  someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High  Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what  she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a  stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   
 

Noemí is  also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic  gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than  amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable  will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is  both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who  seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself,  which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
 

Her  only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy  and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding  dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind  the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded  mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she  unearths stories of violence and madness. 
 

And Noemí, mesmerized  by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it  impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. 

A weekend retreat at a cozy  mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the  storm hits, no one is getting away.

It’s winter in the  Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect  setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts  spacious old rooms with huge wood-burning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine  cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or  just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather  takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and  all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make  the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic. 

Within  the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests  one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope  they can survive the storm–and one another.

In 1960s Florida, a young Cuban exile will risk her life--and heart--to take back her country.

Beautiful. Daring. Deadly. 

The  Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez--her  family, her people, her country. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate  Fidel Castro's inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of  espionage, Beatriz is consumed by her quest for revenge and her desire  to reclaim the life she lost. 

As the Cold War swells like a  hurricane over the shores of the Florida Strait, Beatriz is caught  between the clash of Cuban American politics and the perils of a  forbidden affair with a powerful man driven by ambitions of his own.  When the ever-changing tides of history threaten everything she has  fought for, she must make a choice between her past and future--but the  wrong move could cost Beatriz everything--not just the island she loves,  but also the man who has stolen her heart... 

A luxury chalet. An opportunity of a lifetime. Until guests start to disappear...

Getting  snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the  worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking  vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when  that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?

When  an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and  collaboration goes utterly wrong and an avalanche hits, the corporate  food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come  Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?