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I Tried To Keep My Mouth Shut, But I Need To Tell You About These 18 Books That I Can't Get Out Of My Mind
By Morgan Murrell,
2 days ago
Hey! My name's Morgan, and I love getting lost in books. If you're anything like me, then you probably have a neverending TBR (to be read) list and often ignore the novels on your bookshelf whenever a new one is released.
Morgan Murrell / BuzzFeed
Well, I'm here to add to your healthy reading addiction by providing some fun suggestions you might not be familiar with.
Here are a few books that should absolutely be on your radar:
1. Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Synopsis: It was prom night in Longbill Beach in 1982. What's supposed to be a happy, milestone night for Emily Vaughn turns into the last time anyone will ever see her alive. Emily has a secret, and that secret ultimately leads to her murder. Nearly 40 years later, US Marshal Andrea Oliver receives her first assignment to protect a judge who's been receiving death threats. Andrea accepts the job with an ulterior motive in mind: find out what happened to Emily Vaughn. Her murder has gone unsolved for all these years, but a familial connection pushes Andrea to find answers.
HarperCollins Publishers
2. The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Synopsis: Lily Greene is a shy, somewhat awkward woman who dreams of becoming a children's book editor. Instead, her reality finds her working in the nonfiction department without any signs of a nearing promotion. As an escape, Lily embarks on a virtual romance with her favorite fantasy author, but the only problem is that they've only spoken through emails, and one day, he decided to ghost her randomly. Months later, still crushed by the "failed relationship," Lily desperately tries to find a date for her sister's wedding. So, she enlists the help of her charming neighbor, Nick Brown. Unbeknownst to both of them, Nick Brown is actually the famed fantasy author who'd been corresponding with Lily. When the truth is finally out in the open, Lily isn't sure if she can trust the person who once broke her heart.
Berkley, Penguin Random House
3. By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Synopsis: Izzy is feeling stuck in her career . She'd always wanted to work in publishing, but after years in the business, Izzy didn't expect to still live at home at age 25, working as an editorial assistant. She also didn't think she'd be the only Black employee at her publishing house. So, when Izzy gets the opportunity to help celebrity Beau Towers complete his highly-anticipated memoir, she believes this is just what she needs to skyrocket her career. Well, Beau is anything but easy to work with. He's stubborn, guarded, and extremely sarcastic. But the more time they spend together, the more Izzy and Beau realize just how much they have in common.
Hyperion Avenue
4. Think Twice by Harlan Coben
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Synopsis: Sports agent Myron Bolitar made peace with the death of his former client and business associate, Greg Downing, after delivering the eulogy at his funeral three years ago. So, you can imagine his shock when two federal agents barge into his office demanding to know about Greg's whereabouts. They believe Greg is still alive and the main suspect in a recent double homicide. Myron decides to team up with his longtime friend and colleague Windsor "Win" Horne Lockwood III to uncover the truth. It's a tale of secrets, conspiracy theories, and family drama.
Hachette / Grand Central Publishing
5. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ
Synopsis: A reaper comes to collect Wallace Price, but before officially sending him to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a tea shop in a small village run by Hugo. Not yet ready to crossover, Hugo shows Wallace everything he missed out on while on Earth. Wallace is then given seven days to truly live life, before having to experience the afterlife. It's an emotional story about grief, empathy, and love.
Tor Books
6. First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Synopsis: Once she's given a new identity by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she does everything she can to learn about the new town she'll be living in and the people in it. This time, she'd become Evie Porter, and her target would be Ryan Sumner. Fast forward and it appears Evie is living the American dream in a house with a white picket fence, her doting boyfriend Ryan, and a close group of friends. The only problem? Evie doesn't really exist. Evie makes the mistake of falling for her target, and she must soon decide if she's ready to risk everything she's ever known for a simple life of Southern living and love.
Penguin Random House / Pamela Dorman Books
7. The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Synopsis: Successful celebrity stylist Violet Greene is thriving in her career, but her personal life could use a little work. After dealing with a very public breakup with her ex-fiancé, Violet decides to put her love life on hold and focus on elevating her career.
While on a birthday trip to Vegas, Xavier Wright had an unexpected run-in with his high school sweetheart, Violet — the same woman he had hopes of marrying. After the initial shock wore off, the two celebrate together and ultimately wake up with wedding rings on their fingers. When they realize both of their careers would benefit from their marriage, they decide to keep up with appearances, until they're forced to reevaluate their past if they want any chance at a real future together.
Berkley, Penguin Random House
8. I Want You More by Swan Huntley
Genres: Thriller, LGBTQ
Synopsis: Zara Pines accepts a gig to be a ghostwriter for celebrity chef Jane Bailey, star of the popular cooking show 30 Bucks Top . Jane invites Zara to stay with her at her East Hampton estate in the summer so she can have a closer look at her life as they work together. As Zara begins to fall for Jane, Jane slowly allows her Hollywood persona to fall by the wayside and let her true personality shine. Sinister details are revealed, and dark information about Jane's past comes to light. Zara must decide if she should stay and finish the job with the woman she's grown so close to or if it's safer to leave it all behind.
Zibby Books
9. The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter
Genres: Fiction, Thriller
Synopsis: Set in Brooklyn 2020, Theo Harper and his pregnant wife, Darla, set out upstate to wait out the COVID lockdown. Things take a turn when their neighbor, Xavier, divulges a long-held secret that turns their lives upside down. After Darla winds up missing, Xavier quickly becomes the prime suspect. As Theo and Darla's family, along with Darla's best friend , Ruby, and her partner, Katsumi, join together to search for her, their past and present lives begin to collide.
Hogarth / Penguin Random House
10. Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin
Genres: YA, LGBTQ Romance
Synopsis: Get ready, folks; it's time for a fun sapphic spin on the enemies-to-lovers trope. Juliette and Priya don't get along, but they don't hate each other in that stereotypical rom-com way. Their small-town lives have forced them to be around each other more than they'd like, but they never get into fights, they manage to work on class projects without biting each other's head off, and they rarely gossip about each other to their mutual friends. Summer is around the corner, and Juliette is ready to go to the one place that feels like home: Fogridge Sleepaway Camp. But her hopes for a few Priya-free weeks come crashing down when Priya shows up on move-in day as her cabinmate. Will they make the most of it or continue to carry own their rivalry?
Viking Books / Penguin Random House
11. Under the Surface by Diana Urban
Genres: YA, Thriller
Synopsis: While on their class trip to Paris , Ruby's best friend sneaks away to meet a mysterious French boy. Nervous about the meet-up, Ruby goes after her with two of her classmates but takes a detour to the mystery boy's party in the Paris catacombs — the tunnels beneath the city, which happens to be home to six million dead Parisians. Unfortunately, Ruby and the others never reach the party. Something or someone sinister soon begins to chase them as they navigate their way through the sea of bones in the tunnel. As they try to escape, they unravel secrets about the catacombs and each other.
Penguin Random House / Putnam
12. A Better World by Sarah Langan
Genres: Fiction, Thriller
Synopsis: Linda, her husband, and their teen twins move to Plymouth Valley — an upper-class town filled with privileged people and their unprovoked judgments. As soon as Linda and her family finally begin to gain acceptance in their new community, she meets Gal Parker — a disheveled woman whose wife abandoned her and whose kids are sick. Then, one unfortunate night, Gal commits an unthinkable act. The residents of Plymouth Valley quickly turn on her, but Linda's curiosity about what would cause a woman to do something so awful is keeping her attached to Gal. But the more she learns, the more frightened she becomes.
Atria / Simon & Schuster
13. Better Left Unsent b Lia Louis
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Synopsis: A very public breakup left 30-year-old receptionist Millie Chandler heartbroken and distraught. Two years later, she's still trying to pick up the pieces, but this time, she has her guard up higher than ever in an effort to never get hurt like that again. To get her true feelings and frustrations out without actually speaking to people, Millie starts crafting draft emails that she has no intention of sending — some to her rude boss, some filled with hard truths to her friends, and then there's the 1,000-word love letter to her ex (who's already engaged to someone else).
When a server outage accidentally sends all of those sacred emails out, Millie is forced to confront her words head-on and fix all the chaos she created with the people in her life.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books / Simon & Schuster
14. Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Synopsis: Emily Hung is a young writer and barista looking to escape any and every opportunity her parents take to set her up with an eligible bachelor. Her mother is determined to hook Emily up with golden boy Mark Chan, the son of her mom's friends. The only problem is that Emily and Mark aren't the biggest fans of each other. To get both of their parents off their backs, the two decide to fake a relationship. When family friends begin popping up on their fake dates after growing suspicious about the "couple," Emily and Mark realize they will have to spend more time together than they'd like. But the more they're around each other, the more Emily feels there might be more to Mark than meets the eye.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books / Simon & Schuster
15. The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski
Genres: Fantasy, Mystery
Synopsis: After the untimely death of their parents, the lives of triplets Anne, Beatrix, and Violet Quigley begin to take a turn. The Quigley sisters own a magic tea shop where they read tea leaves for the elite women in town, detailing their future and fortunes. When the Council of Witches reveals that the city Diviner has lost her powers, the Quigley sisters' fate is tested, pulling them in different directions. Oldest sister Anne, and resident fortune teller, hopes to keep the tea shop thriving as her magic begins to develop beyond that of her sisters'; bookworm Beatrix attracts the eye of a publisher with her writing; while adventure-seeker Violet is looking to make a change completely after falling for a mischievous trapeze artist. Will they allow their personal desires get in the way or will they come together to preserve the family name?
Atria Books / Simon & Schuster
16. Four Squares by Bobby Finger
Genres: Literary Fiction, LGBTQ
Synopsis: Back in 1992, on his 30th birthday, writer Artie Anderson met the man who would ultimately change his life forever — Abe, an uptight lawyer who's Artie's opposite in almost every way. Thirty years later, Artie still lives comfortably in NYC — in the West Village, to be exact, but lots has changed for him. His beloved Abe died, and now Halle and Vanessa, Abe’s daughter and ex-wife, announced they're moving across the country. Artie begins to realize he's lonelier than he realized. To top it off, a surprising injury lands Artie in GALS, the local center down the street for LGBTQ seniors.
Told through alternating timelines, this story explores what it means to find community at any age.
G.P Putnman's Sons / Penguin Random House
17. The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Genres: Fantasy, Mystery
Synopsis: When they were kids, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a West Virginia forest. Miraculously, six months later, the two mysteriously reappeared without any recollection of where they'd gone, how long they'd been there, or how they survived it. Fifteen years after the puzzling journey into the unknown, Rafe lives his adult life in isolation as an artist, still haunted by by the phenomenon despite having no memory of those months. Jeremy, on the other hand, remembers every detail about their disappearance and now works as a missing persons investigator. Jeremy chose to leave Rafe in the dark about it all for personal reasons, but all of those secrets come to light when Jeremy helps vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Ballantine Books / Penguin Random House
18. Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris
Genres: Historical fiction, Thriller
Synopsis: Racism and discrimination are at an all-time high in 1964 Jackson, Mississippi. After 21-year-old Violet Richards kills the man who violently attacked her, she finds herself in more trouble than she's ever been. Despite the facts of the traumatic incident, she knew justice wouldn't be served due to the color of her skin. So, before anyone can accuse her of anything, she decides to flee the state. Meanwhile, Violet's older sister, Marigold, is in a different kind of trouble. Marigold always followed the rules, but she's found herself unmarried and pregnant. After police end up on her doorstep asking for Violet's whereabouts, Marigold also seeks refuge up north, with hopes of giving her baby a better life in a place where segregation is more common. One sister's running from the law, while the other tries to escape becoming a social pariah, but what they don't know is that there's a man hot on their trail, and he's willing to track them down whether they're dead or alive.
HarperCollins Publishers
Have you read any of these books? Or are you excited to add any to your TBR list? Tell me about it in the comments below!
And if you have any recommendations for me, I'm all ears!
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