As the days are getting longer, there is the hope that you could read outside again, and we will look at five new novels that are perfect for the emergence of spring: Love and Other Paradoxes, by Catriona Silvey; The Usual Family Mayhem, by HelenKay Dimon; Play, With Knives, by Jeannette Horn; We Are Watching, by Alison Gaylin; and The Vanishing Point, by Paul Theroux.
Love and Other Paradoxes
By Catriona Silvey
William Morrow Paperbacks; paperback, 320 pages; $18.99; available today, Tuesday, March 11th
Catriona Silvey is the author of the international bestseller Meet Me in Another Life. She was born in Glasgow, and grew up in Scotland and England. She collected degrees in Cambridge, Chicago, and Edinburgh before settling in Edinburgh with her husband and children.
Love and Other Paradoxes is an uplifting romantic comedy about a struggling poet at Cambridge who runs into a time-traveler who agrees to help him find his muse, in the process derailing one of the greatest love stories.
Set in 2005 at Cambridge University, student Joe Greene scribbles verse in the margins of his notebook, as he dreams of a future where his words will echo through the ages, along with the doubt it could ever happen.
Then, suddenly, the future finds him, in the form of Esi, who's part of a time-traveling tour, a trip for people in the future to witness history's greatest moments firsthand. The star of this tour is none other than Joe Greene.
In the era Esi comes from, Joe is as celebrated as Shakespeare, and he is about to meet Diana, who will become his muse and the subject of his famous love poems.
Esi is harboring a secret, that she is not doing this out of adoration for Joe, but something is set to happen at Cambridge that will wreck Esi's life, and she is hell-bent on altering it. When Esi goes rogue from her tour, she bumps into Joe and sends his destiny into a tailspin.
In order to save both their futures, Esi becomes Joe's dating coach to help him win over Diana. However, when Joe's romantic endeavors go off-script, and starts to actually fall for Esi, they both confront the question of whether the future is set in stone, or if we can pen our own fates.
The Usual Family Mayhem
By HelenKay Dimon
Avon; paperback, $18.99; Ebook, $12.99; digital audio, $27.99; available today, Tuesday, March 11th
HelenKay Dimon is a former divorce lawyer with a dual writing personality. Her most recent release, Moorewood Family Rules, has been optioned by Paramount for television through Kevin Hart's production company, Hartbeat, with Taraji P. Henson set to star. Dimon's books have been featured in numerous venues, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Cosmopolitan. She also writes thrillers as Darby Kane and is a #1 international bestseller in that genre. Two thrillers, including her debut, Pretty Little Wife, has been optioned for television.
In this contemporary work, complete with a touch of romance and mystery, The Usual Family Mayhem follows Kasey Nottingham, a woman who needs a splashy idea at her company where they find and develop the next big thing for investors. On a whim, she pitches Mags' desserts, a beloved small-town pie business run by her grandmother, Mags, and live-in "best friend" Celia.
These are two women who overcame deadbeat husbands and financial ruin to build word-of-mouth clientele. Kasey fully expects her boss to say no, but she is sent to her home in North Carolina to land the deal, and now she has a problem.
In reality, Mags and Celia aren't interested, which is not a shock since there is something else going on in their kitchen. Locked cabinets, cryptic conversations, and unexpected notations on business records dot the landscape.
The ladies have secrets, and whatever they're hiding is big. There are reports of mysterious deaths of abusive men in the area, all in households that recently received a delivery from Mags' Desserts.
Kasey is concerned Gram and Celia are in the poison pie business. As investors, start circling, she enlists Jackson Quaid, Celia's nephew and her long-time crush, as her reluctant investigative assistant.
Jackson is practical, while Kasey has a wild imagination. Together, they dodge Kasey's boss and gather a lot of information. That's when they're not kissing, which they do a lot of, even though it's probably not the best idea to start an unexpected romance. Doing it in the midst of trying to keep two feisty ladies out of jail for knocking off bad husbands, even if they deserve it, might be impossible, but Kasey never shies away from a challenge.
Play, With Knives
By Jeanette Horn
Regal House Publishing; paperback, 246 pages, $20.95; Epub/Mobipocket, $9.95
Jeanette Horn holds an MFA from The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received a Maytag Fellowship. Her poetry has appeared in MARGIE, Poetry International, Stand, and other literary journals. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and dogs, and you can find out more about her at jeanettehorn.com.
Play, With Knives, a compelling thought-provoking novel that's surreal and poetic, as well as full of humor. It is centered on a struggling theater troupe who tours the Midwest by surreal train, where aspects of their plays come to live and wreak havoc, in this inventive literary novel.
Edgar Cosentino is a relented painter who has been hired as the set designer by the theater troupe, and with its eccentric cast, he finds happiness in his budding relationship with actress Ava Vale. She becomes aware of Edgar's revulsion for lying, which has left her accidentally trapped her with a secret, that she technically is married.
Through it all, playwright Fallon Finn-Dorset watches this drama unfold and incorporates aspects into her plays. Then, strange things start happening on the train, as the troupe is accompanied by a partly tame fox and a barman with a resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, and random elements of Fallon's writings magically come to life.
Lies become blurred with truth, and fiction populates reality in ways that have dangerous consequences for Edgar, Ava, and others. Can their stories be rewritten to save the relationship and the future of the troupe?
We Are Watching
By Alison Gaylin
William Morrow; hardcover, 336 pages; $30.00
Alison Gaylin is the USA Today and international bestselling author of thirteen books, including The Collective and If I Die Tonight, which is an Edgar Award winner; and the Brenna Spector series: And She Was, winner of the Shamus Award; Into the Dark, and Stay With Me.
One feature of Gaylin's writing is that she explores modern-day issues and in the gripping We Are Watching, she touches upon the dangers of conspiracy theories that gain traction on anonymous virtual message boards. With online hate spreading at an alarming rate, Gaylin poses the question of what would happen if a normal person, without the clout, resources, and security of a politician or celebrity, was targeted by a hate group.
Meg Russo was behind the wheel when she and her husband, Justin, were driving their daughter Lily to Ithaca College, with the family celebrating the eighteen-year-old music prodigy's future. A car then swerved beside them, and the young men inside it were behaving bizarrely, and Meg loses control of her vehicle.
The family road trip turned into tragedy, as Justin didn't survive. Four months later, Meg works through her grief and guilt by reopening her small local bookstore. Soon after she returns to work, bizarre messages and visitors begin to arrive, and strangers threaten Meg and Lily in terrifying ways.
They are obsessed with a young adult novel called The Prophecy, which was published thirty years prior. An online group of believers is convinced that it heralds the apocalypse, and social media posts link the book, and Meg's reclusive musician father, to Satanism.
These conspiracy theorists vow revenge on the author of The Prophecy - Meg. As the threats turn to violence, Meg begins to suspect that Justin's death may not have been an accident. To find answers and to save her daughter, her father, and herself, Meg must get to the root of these dangerous lies, and find a way to take on the believers before it's too late.
The Vanishing Point
By Paul Theroux
Mariner Books; hardcover, 320 pages; $30.00
Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed books, and his novels include Burma Sahib, The Bad Angel Brothers, The Lower River, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast. His travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, On the Plain of Snakes, and Dark Star Safari.
Theroux's new book is The Vanishing Point, a collection of short stories, ones that are both exotic and domestic, with settings ranging from Hawaii to Africa and New England. Many of these stories were originally published in The New Yorker, including the title story "Vanishing Point."
Each story here focuses on life's vanishing points, a moment when seemingly all lines running through one's life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications. With his characteristic insight, subtlety, and empathy, Theroux has written deep stories on memory, longing, and the passing of time, reclaiming his status as a master of the form.
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