Welcome to Beach Town

January 1, 2023

In this follow-up to Audrain's New York Times best-selling debut, The Push, a child loudly berated by his mother at a suburban barbeque later slips from his window and ends up in a coma, prompting Whispers in the neighborhood about what really happened. After debuting with the all-star A Proposal They Can't Refuse, Ca�a cooks up A Dish Best Served Hot, featuring a single dad who falls for his daughter's teacher but jeopardizes their relationship with actions (undertaken for familial duty) of which she disapproves (50,000-copy first printing). In mega-popular Carr's The Friendship Table, four women working together on a highly rated cooking show join forces when they discover that their youngest member has an abusive boyfriend (200,000-copy first printing). When her mother, badly injured in an accident, asks Cornelia Brown to bring her the Northern Lights, a puzzled but obliging Cornelia sorts through her mother's secret past to figure out what she means in Watch Us Shine; from New York Times best-selling de los Santos (75,000-copy first printing). In Trinity author Hall's Reproduction, a novelist abandons a book about Mary Shelley that touches on her challenging pregnancies when she confronts her own painful pregnancy and childbirth and instead turns to writing a modern Frankenstein (75,000-copy first printing). The young man who walks into the Cape Cod bookstore where unassuming Harlow Smith works isn't exactly A Little Ray of Sunshine--he's the child she secretly birthed and gave up for adoption 17 years previously; from the New York Times best-selling Higgins. With the death of her husband, popular food blogger Hollis Shaw decides to heal by engaging in something called The Five-Star Weekend, which entails inviting a best friend from each stage of her life to a special gathering--in this case, on mega-best-selling author Hilderbrand's beloved Nantucket (750,000-copy first printing). Moderately contented Heather is surprised to find herself gobsmacked when a former flame finds new love, and friends Daphne and Tori have their own troubles, but in Mallery's latest, will The Happiness Plan of each woman work? In Monaghan's Same Time Next Summer, following the LibraryReads pick Nora Goes Off Script, Sam is hunting for a wedding venue near her family's Long Island beach house when she encounters Wyatt, the love of her life until he broke her heart at age 17. Following the LJ-starred The Messy Lives of Book People, also a LibraryReads pick, Patrick's The Little Italian Hotel features relationship expert Ginny Splinter, who's sideswiped when husband Adrian asks for a divorce and recovers by taking four strangers to Italy on the vacation she had originally planned with Aidan in the (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). In Pride and Piazza's You Were Always Mine, a Black woman named Cinnamon is grateful to be leading a secure, quiet life when she causes an uproar by keeping a white baby she finds abandoned in the park by teenage Daisy, whose grandparents threaten to take custody. In this latest from the beloved Shipman, daring Mary Jackson is Famous in a Small Town in Michigan for her 65-year-old record in the annual cherry pit-spitting contest until modest schoolteacher Becky, determined to shatter her shell, lands in town and breaks the record (100,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). When her parents die in an accident when she is 23, Cosima Saverio inherits their fabulous Palazzo and haute couture Italian leather brand, but she's all work until...

May 15, 2023
Nikki Graziola is a scholarship student at elite private school Thornton Academy. Raised partially in foster care and partially by her widowered, single father, she is determined to prove that she belongs at Thornton. Like many teens, Nikki can't wait to graduate and leave the small beach town of Alara Cove in her rearview mirror. When her best friend, Mark, dies suspiciously at a party, Nikki blows up her own future to shed light on the cover-up surrounding his death. Fleeing town, Nikki joins the professional-surfer circuit. Fifteen years later, another devastating loss sends Nikki back to Alara Cove and forces her to grapple with the loss and grief she left behind. Full of surf, rediscovered love, and second chances, this perfect beach read will be enjoyed by Wiggs' many fans. A significant part of the book is spent during Nikki's teen years, and some readers may wish for more details about her years on the surfer circuit. All readers will cheer for Nikki as she navigates great personal tragedies and finds home, peace, and a new chance at love.

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Starred review from June 1, 2023

Wiggs's (Sugar and Salt) timely, unputdownable coming-of-age novel is set in fictional Alara Cove, CA, "Surfer City, U.S.A." Former self-described trailer-park kid Nikki Graziola, scholarship student and valedictorian at the prestigious Thornton Academy, had a bright future in store until she went off-script during her commencement speech and revealed the school's cover-up of a hazing incident that killed her best friend. Her whistleblowing implodes her life, so when she's offered a chance to compete in the Global Surfing League in Australia, she jumps at it. Fifteen years, minor fame, and little fortune later, Nikki faces another life-changing tragic event that leaves her no choice but to return home. Readers will be awed by this novel's flawless narrative. Wiggs spins a poignant and convincing yarn while epitomizing her very believable cast of eclectic characters, including Nikki; she is a heady mix of vulnerability and tenacity, a woman who is not afraid of new challenges or of learning and growing from her past. VERDICT Fans of the prolific Wiggs and of strong women protagonists will stay up all night to finish this speeding bullet to the best-seller list.--Debbie Haupt

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