Saturdays at the Café

Saturdays at the Café is a weekly feature hosted here to talk about and discuss the books I’ve discovered during the past week, added to my shelf and am excited about reading. They may be new/scheduled releases I’ve seen on NetGalley, at the library, or from publishers or they may be older titles my friends have reviewed and shared on Goodreads or blogs.

For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, an unforgettable and exquisitely moving novel about finding beauty, hope, and meaning in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death

Travis is Death in the modern world. He wears jeans and a T-shirt and lives in a small, grey town. His job is to offer people comfort in their final hours of life. He’s stoic, gentle, and a little naive, despite everything he knows. He’s young and handsome, despite who he is. Each death he witnesses is meaningful to him; he listens, never judges, and most importantly, never tries to change anyone’s fate. He knows that every life must eventually end to maintain the balance of the universe and he respects the cycle.

Then he meets Dalia, a midwife, and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter Layla, who live across the hall. As Dalia and Layla come to embrace Travis, it becomes more difficult to maintain the detachment that’s allowed him to function for so long. Their time together teaches him what’s truly important in life—and what might be irrevocably lost in death.

Written with radiant warmth, wisdom, and compassion, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a timeless story about appreciating life, accepting its end, and finding our place in the universe—especially when it feels most impossible—that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost or worried at time’s passing.

Thanks to Stephanie @ Stephanie Likes Books for her book mail post. Scheduled for release in July, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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In the second thriller from a hit true crime podcaster turned novelist, a woman’s unsettling past creeps back into her consciousness as she returns to her hometown and begins to suspect the locals are hiding a terrible secret swirling around her mother’s recent death.

When Imogen Bly’s mother suddenly passes away, she leaves her Seattle apartment and returns to Lake Blair—the picturesque Washington town where she grew up. After Imogen and her twin sister Amelia arrive, ready to pack up their mother’s home, strange things begin to happen, reminding Imogen of her long‑held feelings of dread surrounding her hometown.

Imogen enlists the help of her first crush, next-door neighbor Rory, to uncover the truth about her mother’s death and the traumatic event she experienced as a child. But is the boy who got away really the man with something to hide? Or is the suspicious neighbor in the house across the lake behind it all? When Imogen’s own family’s tragedies lead her to question the disappearance of a local young woman the previous year, her persistent unease becomes terrifyingly real and suddenly nowhere feels safe…

I learned about this upcoming July release from a NetGalley email. It’s an audio review hopeful.

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From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an electrifying thriller about three siblings torn apart by the cover-up of a death while on a family vacation in Italy.

On vacation in Europe, Frannie makes two urgent phone calls. One to her sister, and one to her brother. The siblings come running, and they find their sister covered in blood, kneeling over an unmoving body.

There’s been an accident: Frannie has hit a man with her car, and she needs their help. They bury the body, and they make a promise. They’ll never tell anyone.

But when the police come calling, the siblings’ lies start to spiral. They begin to doubt their trust in each other. Because what really happened that night?

And who will be the first to crack?

With the incredible twists and turns and a unique look at family relationships that McAllister has become known for, That Night is the ultimate summer thriller that asks: what would you do to protect your family?

I learned of this upcoming August re-release from BookBub. It’s an audio review hopeful.

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Here comes another standalone heartwarming and humorous romance in the Doctors of Oak Bluff series by Amazon Top-5 author Miranda Liasson, who “deals with so much of what makes life hard . . . without ever losing the warmth and heart that characterize her writing.” ~ Entertainment Weekly.

Available in e-book and print. For fans of Kristan Higgins, Susan Mallery, and Lori Wilde.

A grumpy ER boss and a sunshine doctor think they’ve sworn off romance—until one tiny baby decides to play matchmaker.

When Dr. Ani Green drags herself onto the plane after her wedding-that-never-was, she’s a self-described mess who has sworn off all relationships for good. But her “honeymoon for one” has a silver lining: Adam. He’s the kind, charming stranger who takes her trip from unbearable to almost fun.

What happens in Turks and Caicos stays there.

She left the island thinking she’d never see him again—only to walk into her new ER shift and realize that her vacation fling is her new boss. And he’s not the man she remembers.

Dr. Adam Lowenstein doesn’t do “fun.” He does rules, schedules, and whatever it takes to shield his heart from any more grief. His time in Turks and Caicos was a temporary lapse in judgment. Now that he’s the Head of Emergency Medicine, he needs to be the stoic leader—not the man who fell for a whirlwind of a woman under a tropical sun. If that means denying his connection with Ani, so be it.

Until a patient surrenders a baby with a desperate plea for help.

As their professional boundaries crumble, Adam and Ani are forced to bridge the gap between who they were on the island and who they are now. Now, they must work together to protect a tiny life—and find out if the family they never thought they’d have is the one they can’t live without.

Grumpy/Sunshine
Baby-on-Doorstep
Main Characters are Doctors
Romantic! but Close-the-Door

I read the first book in the series and loved it. Thanks to a BookBub email, I was able to get this for $.99 on Amazon.

International Bestselling Author of the #1 National Sensation NORA ROBERTS LAND delivers another hilarious family-focused rom-com about the power of love and the moments when those dearest to you make you want to tear your hair out.

Grandma always said life was composed of love and other trials, with family and men being at the heart of both.

So when Ariel Holmes’ sister says she’ll only deed their grandma’s house to her if Ariel helps make her wedding the event of the year in Charleston, Ariel knows love—with a heavy side of trials—will be on the wedding menu alongside crudités and canapés.

But she doesn’t account for the best man, the charming and mouthwatering Dax Cross, showing up and trying to stop the wedding, making her job impossible at every turn. Captain Hotpants might be used to having his way in the skies as a hotshot Navy pilot, but he doesn’t have a chance on the ground.

Or does he?

This is free on Amazon for a limited time, thanks to a BookBub email.

In this heartwarming, bookish debut, a young widower of a famous children’s fantasy author teams up with a down-on-her-luck MFA dropout to write the final book in his late wife’s series…and find their own perfect ending along the way.

Whit Longacre has a monumental task and a looming deadline. After his wife, Helen, died of cancer, she left him with their grieving eight-year-old daughter and a surprise in her the small task of writing the final book in her mega-popular children’s fantasy series for her legions of waiting fans.

Whit is the author of moderately successful (but well-received!) literary mysteries. He doesn’t have the first idea of how to complete Helen’s beloved series, and his enigmatic wife seems to have left no clues behind on how the story is supposed to end. Writer’s block is one thing, but to fail in fulfilling his wife’s last wish? Whit is guilt-ridden and dodging calls in the school pick-up line from Helen’s publisher and agent as the deadline fast approaches.

Then Whit meets Merritt Pryor, who works at the local bookstore in their small New England town. Merritt has moved back home after a disastrous affair led to her dropping out of her prestigious MFA program. When Whit realizes that Merritt is a superfan of the Greenwood Castle series, they come up with a plan to tackle the book together. For the first time in years, Merritt finds herself falling back in love with writing…and perhaps with the coauthor offering her the opportunity of a lifetime.

But when Whit uncovers a buried secret about Helen’s final wishes, he questions everything about what he and Merritt have created together, endangering the tender, electrifying partnership that has transformed their lives.

Can Whit and Merritt come up with an ending that feels right…for both a beloved series and for their battered hearts?

I received a hardcover from the publisher and have requested the audiobook. It’s scheduled for release in May.

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?