He needed a date for his cousin’s wedding before his family forced one on him. No strings. One night. Sawyer Duke hadn’t planned on it being her. Birdie McAllister was Lyntacky’s Little Miss Sunshine. Unnaturally happy and living her best life, or so he’d always believed. All that changed when he overheard a single conversation. Now he knows her secret, and he’s making her pay for his silence by being his plus-one. The only issue Sawyer could see with the arrangement was that she no longer just annoyed him. Now he wanted her too. Of all the people she knew to find out her secret, it had to be him. Sawyer Duke, Lyntacky’s grumpiest man. Yes, they have a monthly poll for that! Birdie was just barely keeping her head above water, working three jobs and trying to keep her family home. She didn’t need a Duke poking his nose into her business. She’d go to the wedding to ensure he kept her secret, but then she was avoiding him. But a night surrounded by loved up people loosened Sawyer’s tongue, and she realized her secrets were nothing compared to his. Clearly, there was more under that rough exterior than he wanted people to see. Lyntacky was like most small towns. It had its interfering locals and families who could trace their roots back hundreds of years. Where Lyntacky stood out from the rest was their love of Square Dancing and the Duke brothers. Both were trouble. Neither had plans for leaving.

Geneen Roth, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Women Food and God, explains how to take the journey to find one’s own best self in this “beautiful, funny, deeply relevant” (Glennon Doyle) collection of personal reflections. With an introduction by Anne Lamott, This Messy Magnificent Life is a personal and exhilarating read on freeing ourselves from daily anxiety, lack, and discontent. It’s a deep dive into what lies behind our self-criticism, whether it is about the size of our thighs, the expression of our thoughts, or the shape of our ambitions. And it’s about stopping the search to fix ourselves by realizing that on the other side of the “Me Project” is spaciousness, peace, and the capacity to reclaim one’s power and joy. This Messy Magnificent Life explores the personal beliefs, hidden traumas, and social pressures that shape not just women’s feelings about their bodies but also their confidence, choices, and relationships. After years of teaching retreats and workshops on weight, money, and other obsessions, Roth realized that there was a connection that held her students captive in their unhappiness. With laugh-out-loud humor, compassion, and dead-on insight she reveals the paradoxes in our beliefs and shows how to move beyond our past to build lives that reflect our singularity and inherent power. This Messy Magnificent Life is a brilliant, bravura meditation on who we take ourselves to be, what enough means in our gotta-get-more culture, and being at home in our minds and bodies.

A sinner’s only hope is true love in this passionate new novel in J.R. Ward’s #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Syn has kept his side hustle as a mercenary a secret from the Black Dagger Brotherhood. When he takes another hit job, he not only crosses the path of the vampire race’s new enemy, but also that of a half-breed in danger of dying during her transition. Jo Early has no idea what her true nature is, and when a mysterious man appears out of the darkness, she is torn between their erotic connection and the sense that something is very wrong. Fate anointed Butch O’Neal as the Dhestroyer, the fulfiller of the prophecy that foresees the end of the Omega. As the war with the Lessening Society comes to a head, Butch gets an unexpected ally in Syn. But can he trust the male—or is the warrior with the bad past a deadly complication? With time running out, Jo gets swept up in the fighting and must join with Syn and the Brotherhood against true evil. In the end, will love true prevail...or was the prophecy wrong all along?

DIV Beautifully written and carefully reasoned, this bold and provocative work upends the conventional wisdom about the American reaction to crisis. Margulies demonstrates that for key elements of the post-9/11 landscape—especially support for counterterror policies like torture and hostility to Islam—American identity is not only darker than it was before September 11, 2001, but substantially more repressive than it was immediately after the attacks. These repressive attitudes, Margulies shows us, have taken hold even as the terrorist threat has diminished significantly. Contrary to what is widely imagined, at the moment of greatest perceived threat, when the fear of another attack “hung over the country like a shroud,” favorable attitudes toward Muslims and Islam were at record highs, and the suggestion that America should torture was denounced in the public square. Only much later did it become socially acceptable to favor “enhanced interrogation” and exhibit clear anti-Muslim prejudice. Margulies accounts for this unexpected turn and explains what it means to the nation’s identity as it moves beyond 9/11. We express our values in the same language, but that language can hide profound differences and radical changes in what we actually believe. “National identity,” he writes, “is not fixed, it is made.” /div

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Anna Quindlen presents a “swift and compelling paean to the joys of books” (Booklist). “Like the columns she used to write for the New York Times, [How Reading Changed My Life] is tart, smart, full of quirky insights, lapidary, and a pleasure to read.”—Publishers Weekly “Reading has always been my home, my sustenance, my great invincible companion. . . . Yet of all the many things in which we recognize universal comfort—God, sex, food, family, friends—reading seems to be the one in which the comfort is most undersung, at least publicly, although it was really all I thought of, or felt, when I was eating up book after book, running away from home while sitting in a chair, traveling around the world and yet never leaving the room. . . . I read because I loved it more than any activity on earth.”—from How Reading Changed My Life

‘I absolutely loved this book, it was a beautiful story about love, loss and family. The characters were so well drawn I felt I knew them, and I didn't want to finish the book because that would mean saying goodbye to these wonderful characters.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ When you lose the love of your life, how do you find yourself again? For Tabitha, the day that changed everything started like any other. She woke up, slid her feet into fluffy slippers, wrapped herself in a dressing gown and tiptoed out of her bedroom, leaving her husband Andy sleeping. Downstairs, she boiled the kettle and enjoyed a cup of tea as the sun rose. Upstairs, Andy’s alarm sounded, and Tabitha took him a freshly brewed coffee, like every other morning. Except today, the incessant beeping rang out and her husband hadn’t stirred. She called his name, she nudged his shoulder. But Andy wouldn’t wake up. Three years later Tabitha is trying her hardest to get by in the shadow of her grief. She may have lost the love of her life but she won’t give up on the family they dreamed of. Fostering troublesome teenage girls and a newborn baby is a chance to piece together her broken heart. But being a mother isn’t easy, and neither is healing the heartache she carries around. After losing everything, could saving these three children help Tabitha save herself too? This stunning tale will make you laugh and cry in equal measure, hold your loved ones close and see the beauty in the little things in life. Fans of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult and Diane Chamberlain will love this moving and uplifting story. Readers absolutely love The Day that Changed Everything: ‘Beautiful… I couldn’t stop crying... Never has a book had such a dramatic effect on me… I sniffed and smiled, I cried and laughed out loud. The writing got to me, the emotions overwhelmed me, the hope and joy… was indescribable.’ Book Reviews by Shalini, 5 stars ‘An emotional read!... I do warn you to have some tissues available!... An emotional rollercoaster. It’s a heart-warming, endearing and inspirational story of love, loss and family. Would definitely recommend!’ Stardust Book Reviews ‘I devoured it in one sitting… I was floored by this novel.’ Robin Loves Reading, 5 stars ‘I absolutely loved this book, it was a beautiful story about love, loss and family. The characters were so well drawn I felt I knew them, and I didn't want to finish the book because that would mean saying goodbye to these wonderful characters.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘This was a very uplifting read that I could not put down! This story touched my heart. This will pull at your heart strings… This is a must read!!’ Crossroad Reviews, 5 stars ‘An incredibly heartfelt and moving novel. So well written, with great characters. You definitely need the tissues when reading though!’ NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars ‘Had me hooked from the start and I read it in two sittings... A wonderful story that offers its reader hope and by the end I was bursting with so many emotions as these characters had worked their way into my heart..’ By the Letter Book Reviews, 5 stars ‘What an inspiring and uplifting novel…Beautifully written… Warm, emotional and hugely satisfying.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘A beautiful story… I recommend to every reader, be prepared to cry.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘An emotional read. A beautifully written book that moved me.’ Goodreads Reviewer 'I sat down and just devoured this novel… You won't regret this read.’ Shelley’s Book Nook, 5 stars 'Will stay with you long after reading it! A pure delight.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars