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December 20, 2025

My book group had our last meeting of the year on Monday night. It’s become a tradition that our final get-together of the year is an appetizers and dessert evening. We barely talk about who is bringing what in advance, so there is no rhyme or reason to the menu, except that we were discussing LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY by Brisa Carleton. Since the book is set at the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel, cocktails were in order. 

Heather Gudenkauf, author of The Perfect Hosts

Madeline and Wes Drake have invited 200 of their closest friends and family to their sprawling horse ranch for the most anticipated event of the year: a “pistols and pearls” gender reveal party so sensational it is sure to make headlines. But the party descends into chaos when the celebratory explosive misfires, leaving one woman dead and a trail of secrets. As the aftershocks of the bloody party ripple across the small town, Agent Jamie Saldano is brought on the scene to investigate. Battling his own demons from the past, Saldano unearths a web of deceit spun around the Drakes. The appearance of some unexpected houseguests only deepens the mystery. And as tensions mount, it becomes clear that the explosion wasn’t just an unlucky accident. But who was the target, and why? 

Janet Rich Edwards, author of Canticle

Aleys is 16 years old and prone to religious visions. She and her only friend, Finn, have been learning Latin together in secret. But just as she thinks their connection might become something more, everything unravels. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she doesn’t love, she runs away from home, finding shelter among the beguines, a fiercely independent community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church. Among these hardworking and strong-willed women, Aleys glimpses for the first time the joys of belonging. But forces both mystical and political are at work. Illegal translations of scripture, the women’s independence, and a sudden rash of miracles all draw the attention of an ambitious bishop --- and bring Aleys and those around her into ever-increasing danger.

Andrew Miller, author of The Land in Winter

December 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village, while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them. On the farm nearby lives witty but troubled Rita Simmons, who is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer’s wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget. When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. When the ordinary cold of December gives way --- ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory --- so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.

Marisa Kashino, author of Best Offer Wins

Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband, Ian, Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend. A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged. But just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing.

Rebecca Armitage, author of The Heir Apparent

It’s New Year’s Day in Australia, and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely. She’s in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends, Finn and Jack, and she’s about to finally become more than friendly with Jack --- when a helicopter abruptly lands. Out steps her grandmother’s right-hand man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi’s grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne --- a role she has publicly disavowed. Returning to London as the heir apparent Princess Alexandrina, Lexi is greeted by a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection, a grieving sister-in-law harboring an explosive secret, and a scheming uncle determined to claim the throne himself.

Editorial Content for Cursed Daughters

Teaser

A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry and superstition.

Promo

A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry and superstition.

About the Book

A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry and superstition from the author of the smash hit MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER.

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin, Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.

There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof.

When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?

CURSED DAUGHTERS is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. With its unforgettable cast of characters, it asks us what it means to be given a second chance and how to live both wisely and well with what we’ve been given.

Editorial Content for Last Call at the Savoy

Teaser

Set amongst the glittering backdrop of London's iconic Savoy hotel, a young woman is forced to confront her troubled past as she uncovers the story of the hotel’s first female bartender who has been erased from the history books.

Promo

Set amongst the glittering backdrop of London's iconic Savoy hotel, a young woman is forced to confront her troubled past as she uncovers the story of the hotel’s first female bartender who has been erased from the history books.

About the Book

Set amongst the glittering backdrop of London's iconic Savoy hotel, a young woman is forced to confront her troubled past as she uncovers the story of the hotel’s first female bartender who has been erased from the history books --- "an exhilarating, tender read that will leave you smiling" (Fiona Davis, bestselling author).
 
Six years ago, Cinnamon Scott was a young writer on the rise in New York City. But since the sudden loss of her parents, she's been stuck in place, retreating to a life of endless partying --- made possible by the massive fortune she's inherited. Despite their tragic loss, she and her older sister, Rosemary, have always had each other to lean on. But now, with Rosie living in London and about to give birth to twins, Cinnamon feels more lost than ever.

When Rosie is put on bedrest, Cinnamon flies to her sister's side, where she's temporarily living at The Savoy. Immediately swept away by the beauty and history of the legendary hotel and its famed American Bar, Cinnamon finds ample opportunity to distract herself. When the late-shift bartender tells her the story of Ada Coleman, the woman who crafted the cocktail recipes The Savoy popularized in its famous handbook a century ago, Cinnamon is inspired by the bartender's vivid stories of Ada's fearlessness and can't understand why Ada's name is nowhere to be found.

After meeting a handsome historian researching the hotel and realizing that Ada is likely to be once again overlooked, Cinnamon must decide if she can overcome her demons and stand up for Ada's story. And, along the way, she just might save her own story too.

Editorial Content for Like Family

Teaser

After a near-stranger dies in their small town, a tight-knit group of friends can no longer ignore their long-dormant desires and unfulfilled dreams in this moving debut about the complicated joys of chosen family.

Promo

After a near-stranger dies in their small town, a tight-knit group of friends can no longer ignore their long-dormant desires and unfulfilled dreams in this moving debut about the complicated joys of chosen family.

About the Book

After a near-stranger dies in their small town, a tight-knit group of friends can no longer ignore their long-dormant desires and unfulfilled dreams --- a moving debut about the complicated joys of chosen family.

It was too much to ask. But sometimes too much is what we ask of the people we love most.

Radclyffe, New York, is an idyllic upstate town, nestled in the hills and complete with artisanal bakeries, pottery studios and hidden swimming holes. Ruth and her wife, Wyn, are living the dream (or Wyn’s dream, at least) with their four children on their small farm, which is also the bucolic gathering place for their circle of friends. It’s a sweet life, but there’s a secret at its center, one that not even Ruth’s best friend, Caroline, knows.

What Caroline does know is that she loves and depends on Ruth, and on the bond between their families. More than anything, she wants her tenderhearted son not to grow up lonely the way she did. Unfortunately, no one can assure her of that, especially not her husband. He just wants things to be easy, drama-free --- which is impossible, as he has donated his sperm to his cousin, Tobi, and her wife so that they could have kids of their own. Now those children are asking unanswerable questions.

After an unexpected death in their community, all three couples are forced to confront the tensions that have long been buried beneath the surfaces of their lives. Richly textured and big-hearted, this exhilarating debut is an unforgettable story of the alchemy of love and loyalty that makes friends LIKE FAMILY.