2026 Reading

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Title: Between Two Fires
Author: Christopher Buehlman
Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins / 432 pp

Published: May 2023
Genre: historical horror, medieval quests, dark fantasy
Book Group:  no

Finished: 1/3
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This book is not my usual fare.  I don't recall where the recommendation originated.  Historical horror, medieval quests, dark fantasy, I'm trying to think what other genres I would use.  The description was compelling, the writing is amazingly good, the story is gruesomely detailed, and I could not put it down!  But what the hell?  Or what the heaven?  (If you read it, you'll understand.)

Set during the Black Death in 14th-century France, where disgraced, excommunicated knight, Thomas, lives as a brigand, escorts a mysterious young girl, Delphine, across a plague-ridden landscape to Avignon as fallen angels wage a second war against Heaven. Along their journey, they are joined by Father Matthieu, a guilt-ridden, alcoholic priest who finds a renewed sense of purpose in protecting the girl.  The story blends medieval fiction with supernatural horror, following the travelers as they encounter demons, the undead, and other horrors, with the girl claiming divine guidance and the knight and priest seeking redemption. 

I may have a new favorite narrator: Steve West is amazing!

From the publisher:

The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm—that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.

Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.

As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.

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Title: Dead of Winter
Author: Darcy Coates
Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins / 352 pp

Published: July 2023
Genre: horror, mystery, thriller, suspense
Book Group:  no

Finished: 1/4
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a buddy read with my niece.  She chose it.  I went into it blindly, not realizing it's a mystery horror thriller. Winter is a character in this story.  The isolation, frigid winds, abundant snow, white-outs, all of what makes winter winter are a character.  As the characters are thrown together due to a storm, they slowly get to know each other.  The slow reveal of personalities and budding camaraderie set the pace for the first half of the story.  After the major plot reveal, which I will not spoil, the tension builds!  It was well-crafted and paced second half of the story.

This book heightened my dislike of winter. 

From the publisher:

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing...only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport...and they're far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.

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Title: The Big Sleep
Author: Raymond Chandler
Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins / 231 pp

Published: February 1939
Genre: classic, mystery, noir, detective
Book Group: School

Finished: 1/7
My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

A classic noir mystery that didn't age well: disparaging descriptions of every single woman and minority were tedious after a while.  However, the grit and lone wolf aspect of Private Detective Philip Marlowe were classic.  

The plot was hard to follow because of the narrative thread, with lots of minute details about things that weren't relevant to the story--I got bogged down. I've seen the 1980s television series with Powers Boothe and adored Marlowe and the genre.  But reading it just wasn't the same.

From the publisher:

When old man Sternwood, a dying millionaire, hires Philip Marlowe to expose the blackmailer of one of his troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than simple extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, and seduction are just a few of the complications standing in the way of completing the task at hand. And just as Marlowe feels he’s getting ahold of the situation, he discovers the first body.

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Title: A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer
Author: Maxie Dara
Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins / 352 pp

Published: October 2024
Genre: coay mystery, fantasy, paranormal
Book Group: no

Finished: 1/10
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a delightful debut novel and first in a series; I will read more!  I'm not sure how to classify it--it's a blend of cozy paranormal mystery with found family.  And amusing, I even chuckled a couple of times. I hope future installments touch on main character Kathy Valence's backstory, but this introduction was plenty fun.  Kathy's depicted as down-on-her-luck at forty-two, in the process of divorce, yet surprisingly pregnant with her soon-to-be ex-husband's baby.  The secondary characters are charming and quirky.  The audio is very well done.

From the publisher:

Sometimes it takes working with the dead to start living.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex's baby. She's also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that's the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client's soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why.

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy's soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.

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Title: Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
Author: Scott Ellsworth
Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins / 336 pp

Published: July 2025
Genre: military history, non-fiction, Civil War
Book Group:  no

Finished: 1/13
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A compelling non-fiction that kept me engaged.  Lots of fresh information about the final year of the Civil War.  Each chapter begins with an interesting anecdote or phrase as a hook.  It's a good thing I have a substantial background in Civil War battles, especially since they are mentioned in broad strokes.  But more than that, the book got me thinking about the rebirth of our nation.  Such a thoughtful read.

From the publisher:

Told with a page-turning pace, New York Times bestselling author and historian Scott Ellsworth has written the most compelling new book about the Civil War in years. Focusing on the last, desperate months of the war, when the outcome was far from certain, Midnight on the Potomac is a story of titanic battles, political upheaval, and the long-forgotten Confederate terror war against the loyal citizens of the North. Taking us behind the scenes in the White House, along the battlefronts in Virginia, and into the conspiracies of spies and secret agents, Lincoln walks these pages, as do Grant and Sherman. But so do common soldiers, runaway slaves, and an unknown but intrepid female war correspondent named Lois Adams. Rarely, if ever, has a book about the Civil War featured such a rich and diverse cast of characters.

Midnight on the Potomac will also shatter some long-held myths. For more than a century and a half, the Lincoln assassination has been portrayed as the sole brainchild of a disgruntled, pro-South actor. But based on both obscure contemporary accounts and decades of long-ignored scholarship, Ellsworth reveals that for nearly one year before the tragic events at Ford’s Theatre, John Wilkes Booth had been working closely with agents of the Confederate Secret Service. And the real Booth is far from the one we’ve long been presented with.

Deeply researched yet captivatingly written, Midnight on the Potomac is a new kind of book about the Civil War. In it you will read about the Confederate attempt to burn down New York City, how Lincoln almost lost the presidency, about the Rebel general who nearly captured Washington, and how thousands of enslaved African Americans freed themselves—and helped secure their nation’s survival. In an age of deep political division such as our own, Scott Ellsworth’s book is an eloquent and gripping testament to the courage, grit, and greatness of the American people.

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Title: Wild Dark Shore
Author: Charlotte McConaghy
Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins / 298 pp

Published: March 2025
Genre: climate fiction, mystery, thriller
Book Group: no

Finished: 1/15
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is perhaps the most atmospheric book I've ever read.  The isolation, the relentless winds, the driving rain, and the frigid sea were all characters that shaped relationships between the people and the physical world around them.  The main female character, Rowan, dramatically washes up on the remote island, unleashing secrets, suspicion, and intrigue.  There were many times I wanted to shake Rowan as she became entwined in the family's drama. The keepers of the island, the male main character Dominic Salt and his three children, have forged relationships with the animals of the island, and the youngest, Orly, is consumed by the seed vault. I loved the dynamics between the Salt children.

I'm relatively new to the Climate Fiction genre--this was a powerful study of precious resources.  The audio narration was very well done.

From the publisher:

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.

But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.

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Title: The Sentence Is Death
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins / 384 pp

Published: November 2018
Genre: mystery, meta-narrative
Book Group: no

Finished: 1/17
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I like this quirky series.  The author is a character alongside private detective Daniel Hawthorne, who is prickly and secretive.  I liked that Anthony Horowitz pokes fun at himself and is bumbling in his attempt to solve the murder before Hawthorne.  I enjoyed the first of the series--this installment is even better.  And the audio narration is great!

From the publisher:

"You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late…"

These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer. Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine – a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, to be precise.

Odd, considering he didn’t drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man’s many, many enemies did the deed?

Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, the author Anthony, who’s really getting rather good at this murder investigation business.

But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. As our reluctant narrator becomes ever more embroiled in the case, he realises that these secrets must be exposed – even at the risk of death…

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Title: We Are All Guilty Here
Author: Karin Slaughter
Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins / 439 pp

Published: August 2025
Genre: mystery, thriller, dual timelines
Book Group: no

Finished: 1/19
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

While this book felt a bit overlong, it was an impressive start to a new series. The novel’s greatest strength lies in its characters; even the secondary figures are so well-developed they feel like three-dimensional people. The mystery revolves around the gritty, disturbing disappearances of teenage girls across dual timelines—one in the present and another twelve years ago. I especially appreciated that it functions as both a police procedural and a deep dive into the psychology behind the crimes.

From the publisher:

Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

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Title: Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction
Author: Elizabeth Vargas
Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins / 257 pp

Published: September 2016
Genre: memoir, addiction, mental health
Book Group: School

Finished: 1/19
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I don't think I ever would have picked this up--I don't watch TV, so I didn't know who Elizabeth Vargas is, and I'm not an addict, so I didn't connect with those passages, and I'm not wealthy, so I am not able to solve my problems with as much support as Elizabeth Vargas had.  Having said all that, her personal story of sliding to rock bottom and regaining her footing in sobriety was authentic and not overly dramatic.  She accepts responsibility and explains without blaming.  I'm sure this will be an interesting book group discussion.

From the publisher:

From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in BETWEEN BREATHS, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety-which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam-and how she dealt with this anxiety as she came of age, to her eventually turning to alcohol for relief. She tells of how she found herself living in denial, about the extent of her addiction and keeping her dependency a secret for so long. She addresses her time in rehab, her first year of sobriety, and the guilt she felt as a working mother who had never found the right balance.

Honest and hopeful, BETWEEN BREATHS is an inspiring read.

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Title: Dungeon Crawler Carl
Author: Matt Dinniman
Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins / 450 pp

Published: September 2020
Genre: fantasy, dystopia, adventure, LitRPG
Book Group:  no

Finished: 1/24
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I was not prepared for this book.  It is absolutely bonkers and bananas.  I am not a gamer, so I was not familiar with some of the lingo.  This is basically a dystopian role-playing game.  I got it because I have read so much praise for the audio narration — which was well-deserved, indeed. So, Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, are forced to team up to survive a deadly intergalactic reality game show after aliens destroy Earth and turn it into a multi-level dungeon.  The book is the experience of Carl and Donut as they navigate the levels, figure out who to trust, who to get advice from, and work with other contestants.  It's brutal, violent, and very funny.  I laughed out loud several times.  I have yet to decide if I'm up for more of the series (although part of me is curious as to the fate of Carl and Donut).

From the publisher:

The apocalypse will be televised!

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe. Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over.

In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style. You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big. You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game - with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy. They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.

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Title: The Irish Goodbye
Author: Heather Aimee O'Neill
Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins / 275 pp

Published: September 2025
Genre: literary fiction, contemporary, family drama
Book Group: no

Finished: 1/28
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This character-driven family drama reverberates with the guilt, grief, and resentment stemming from beloved brother and son, Topher's, death. The narrative thread varies between the three sisters:  Cait, Alice, and Maggie--and the sister dynamics resonated with me.  The relationships among the sisters, the touch of sibling rivalry, and the deep devotion were authentic.  And the parental relationships rang true, too.  Especially how the sisters almost underestimate their aging parents' ability to relate to each modern conundrum. Knowing that an "Irish Goodbye" is slang for leaving a social gathering surreptitiously without saying farewell to anyone helped the title click.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel.  Although there were a few slow sections, the pace held my interest.  The audio narration is very good.  

From the publisher:

Three adult sisters grapple with a shared tragedy over a Thanksgiving weekend spent in their childhood home, navigating complex relationships and old tensions.

It’s been years since the three Ryan sisters were all home together at their family’s beloved house on the eastern shore of Long Island. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by an accident on their brother Topher’s a friend’s brother was killed, the lawsuit nearly bankrupted their parents, and Topher spiraled into a depression, eventually taking his life. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carrying a heavy secret. The eldest, Cait, still holding guilt for the role no one knows she played in the boat accident, rekindles a flame with her high school crush, Topher’s best friend and the brother of the boy who died. Middle sister Alice’s been thrown a curveball threatening the career she’s restarting and faces a difficult decision that may doom her marriage. And the youngest, Maggie, is finally taking the risk to bring the woman she loves home to her devoutly Catholic mother. Infusing everything is the grief for Topher that none of the Ryans have figured out how to carry together.

When Cait invites a guest to Thanksgiving dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface, nearly overpowering the flickering light of their family bond. Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive themselves—and one another.

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Title: The Rachel Incident
Author: Caroline O'Donoghue
Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins / 304 pp

Published: June 2023
Genre: literary fiction, coming-of-age, Ireland
Book Group: no

Finished: 1/31
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I’ll preface this with a proclamation: I love all things Ireland. To find a novel set in my beloved Cork is delightful. Narrated by Rachel in the 2020s, married to James Carey, pregnant, and a noted writer, the story is both a funny and poignant look back at the pivotal years of 2009 and 2010.   

Rachel grows from a sheltered, middle-class girl into a "bohemian-wannabe" navigating an intense college year where the job market is impossible, and the world feels bleak. However, the real engine of the story is her all-consuming friendship with James Devlin, her gay best friend and bookstore colleague. Their lives become so intertwined as they share a run-down house on Shandon Street that Rachel’s own identity often feels completely bent around his path.   

The drama truly ignites when their lives collide with Dr. Fred Byrne, Rachel’s married professor. What begins as a student’s crush on Fred spirals into a chaotic web of secrets and romantic entanglements that force Rachel to determine her future career and her sense of self.

From the publisher:

A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.

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Title: Heart The Lover
Author: Lily King
Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins / 256 pp

Published: September 2025
Genre: literary fiction, coming-of-age, romance
Book Group: no

Finished: 2/1
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I fell in love with this book as I binge-listened to it.  The surety of the trio of characters in their collegiate intellectual promise as they quoted obscure passages to each other drew me in.  The love story between Jordan and Yash was full of yearning and tenderness, until it wasn't.  As the characters emerge into adulthood, they have taken different paths.  It's difficult to describe the story without spoiling it, so I'll say there's a poignant reconnection and unsatisfying resolution to the relationships.  I want to learn to play Sir Hincomb Funnibuster.

I didn't realize it's a companion book to Writers & Lovers.  I haven't read that, although I picked it up and it wasn't the right book at the right time for me.  Maybe I'll try it again.

From the publisher:

You knew I’d write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and their free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off-campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. Youthful passion is unpredictable though, and she soon finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, Jordan is living the life she dreamed of, and the vulnerable days of her youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, Jordan returns to a world she left behind and is forced to confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship, and the transformative nature of forgiveness. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

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Title: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1
Author: Beth Brower
Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins / 127 pp

Published: November 2019
Genre: historical fiction, humor
Book Group: library

Finished: 2/2
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Losing myself in Victorian English journals is just the quirky read I needed.  Our heroine, Emma M. Lion is recently returning to London only to find that her impending inheritance has been squandered by an ill-intentioned Cousin Archibald.  Emma's travails as she settles back into city life.  There are other eccentric relatives, flustered house staff, and odd neighbors making appearances in the journals.  And I'm excited to get my hands on more!

From the publisher:

“I’ve arrived in London without incident. There are few triumphs in my recent life, but I count this as one. My existence of the last three years has been nothing but incident.”

The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighbourhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s. Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.

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Title: Amelia Unabridged
Author: Ashley Schumacher
Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins / 304 pp

Published: February 2021
Genre: young adult, contemporary fiction, books about books, grief
Book Group: no

Finished: 2/7
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

It's been a while since I've read YA lit.  This was a story about books and grief.  It got a little repetitive and melodramatic for me, but it was poignant.  And it did make me wonder why no one gets grief counseling.  What I most enjoyed were the sections about books.  The fictional world the author creates within the real world made me want to read the Orman Chronicles.

From the publisher:

Sparks fly between two teens as they grapple with grief, love, and the future.

Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.

In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.

When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.