All Books Considered

Names Have Been Changed  by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow Blurb from Goodreads : After ten years on the run around the world, Ophir—not her real name—comes clean in a confessional podcast about her life as a fugitive, charming countless fans even as she risks her freedom. Ophir’s tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond. Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she ...

When You Loved Me by Beatriz Williams Blurb from Goodreads : A young widow returns to her late father’s New England estate, only to be drawn into the hunt for the rumored pirate treasure that consumed his life, in this thrilling and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers. Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers the property’s mired in debt she can't repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep. Thirteen summers ago, a teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate, and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabo...

Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan Blurb from Goodreads : After the sudden death of her husband, Ellen McKenna is doing everything she can to keep her Texas farm afloat. She and her family hope to expand their operation, but times are tough and making ends meet is more expensive than she imagined, much less trying to grow. Many of their neighbors in Cooke County have thrown in the towel and agreed to sell their farms to a local businessman, but despite similar pressure, Ellen refuses to let her dreams die. On top of the usual hardships, a series of recent storms has left the region partly flooded, and as the heavy rain begins again one morning, all the members of the McKenna family jump into action to protect their land and animals. Ellen’s oldest son discovers an injured dog—and the dog leads him to a man barely clinging to life, the apparent victim of ...

We Are Gathered Here Today by Bobby Finger Blurb from Goodreads : At 36, Finlay Hightower has attended countless incredible, cringe-worthy, and disastrous wedding celebrations with his best friends. Their secret to surviving wedding chaos? The Hour of Disrespect—a pact to reserve judgement to one hour after the couple’s Big Day, protecting the wedding glow and leaving only with the good memories. But this next wedding will test their decade-old tradition in more ways than one. Now, one of their own is getting married—Fin’s beloved cousin, Elaine—at a Wild West-themed venue in the sweltering Texas summer heat that is as meticulously itineraried as it is kitchy. Reserving opinions won’t be easy, and on top of that Fin has a secret that threatens his officiant he’s just gotten engaged to the man of his dreams, and a sense of unease has him questioning if he believes in the institution of ma...

Arrivals and Departures by Amanda Eyre Ward Blurb from Goodreads : From the New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters comes a witty and wonderful new novel about one unforgettable family and the journeys we take—across oceans and through heartbreak—to find our way back to love. The Perkins family has problems.  They’re scattered across the globe. Lee, a glamorous reality-TV star, is struggling with her mental health in the spotlight. Reagan, her younger sister, has fallen for a romance scammer and vanished overseas. Cord, their charming brother, is one drink away from losing it all. And their mother, Charlotte, still longs for the love she let slip away a decade ago, a lover who sailed off with her heart to a remote island in Greece. When Reagan disappears, Lee flies first-class to Athens to save her family—again. There, against the glitt...

The Lowe Job by Grace Alexander Blurb from Goodreads : When Lili Lowe gets caught having an affair with her married boss, an admired local politician, she finds herself at the epicenter of a scandal that could dismantle her life as she knows it. She turns, as many women would, to her mother. But Lydia Lowe is not the kind of mother to offer gentle words of consolation. Instead she devises a strategy that doesn’t just manage the fallout, it actively exploits it, and Lili goes from making coffee and booking meetings to making headlines and booking talk shows. Soon, thanks to the commodification of Lili’s scandal, the whole world knows the Lowe family. Lili’s three sisters—Stevie, Iris, and Katie—have differing reactions to being in the spotlight, but once the wheels are turning, it seems impossible to stop what’s in motion…and it doesn’t take long for the craziness surrounding the Lowes to spiral out of control. Money a...

The Lake Club by Lina Patton Blurb from Goodreads : DRAMA LOVES A DEEP END When Danika Crawley attends events at the Aldon Lakes Country Club, heads turn. Danika has it all—beauty, money, a successful husband, and two perfect children. She plans on making this summer her best season yet and has a secret weapon to secure the envy of her neighbors. Augie Elling has lost it all. Reeling from a post-grad scandal amidst her now-former life in New York, she returns to Aldon Lakes with her tail between her legs. Augie wants to keep her head down, save money, and find a way to leave her hometown for good, but someone keeps distracting her. Danika and Augie have one thing in they are both a little obsessed with Chat, the male nanny Danika hired for the summer. But, unbeknownst to either woman, Chat’s appearance in town sets off a chain reaction that threaten...

The Great Outdoors by Kayla Olson Blurb from Goodreads : Sadie Whitlock has always been praised for being the most prepared person in the room, the one who’s thought of everything—and every backup plan—for any given situation. She knows exactly what she wants, exactly what she loves, and goes to great lengths to make sure her life runs perfectly as planned. So, when her laidback boyfriend breaks up with her for being “too high-maintenance,” Sadie is eager to prove him wrong, and signs herself up for a weeks-long guided wilderness adventure in the High Sierras of camping, hiking, rappelling, and kayaking. It’s the most miserable, uncomfortable situation she can think of. Sadie’s a five-star resort girl at heart, but she has a compelling—and suspiciously attractive—tour August Thorn. Thorn lives for adventure and always keeps a professional distance from the trekkers under his care…but there’s just something about Sadie,...

Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi, Narrated by Joy Osmanski Blurb from Goodreads : Stevie Moon cannot escape her mother. Abandoning college plans to work a dead-end job, her days are a purgatorial bore. Many dream of moving to L.A. and into the spotlight, but Stevie can’t wait to move away from it, and her mother’s orbit, to start over. Delilah (not her real name) or “Moon” (as everyone calls her) is many an out-of-work actress, a former alcoholic, whatever a mistress becomes when she’s widowed, and a mother. Reeling in the aftermath of her lover and TV husband’s death, Moon struggles to process her grief. And the last thing she expects is for Stevie to leave her too. Unable to afford their home, Moon and Stevie rent it out and live in their glass pool house. But when Adam, Moon’s former TV son and Stevie’s forever crush, arrives for the funeral, the three...