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.

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A woman serving on a high-profile jury finds that doubt casts a long shadow in this suspenseful short story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me.

Recently unemployed, struggling in a marriage rocked by infertility, Cora is desperately clinging to her desire to see the best in people. Then she receives a jury summons for the murder trial of Dr. Preston Becker.

The powerful pharmaceutical executive stands accused of running down two young girls on a rainy night in a busy New York intersection. At first, the case seems straightforward. The victims’ father was investigating Becker’s company, and their mother’s devastating testimony leaves little doubt that lives were shattered.

But as the trial advances, easy answers recede. Competing accounts carry conflicting truths. Was the crash a calculated act or a terrible accident? And why does every witness reveal new shades of gray?

Sequestered with eleven strangers, eleven different views of the elusive facts, Cora reaches the limits of certainty. She must confront the unsettling realization that all the evidence in the world is not enough to truly understand another person.

I learned of this short story from Fantastic Fiction. Scheduled for release in December, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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In this high-octane ride into the depths of high society, a TV news reporter prepares to make her mark in the cutthroat media scene—and unwittingly drags her own family’s secrets into the spotlight.

Sydney Price may have the means, but she has no intention of pulling her stepfamily’s powerful strings to fulfill her ambitions. Determined to make it as a reporter on her own merit, she refuses to take the seat waiting for her at New York’s Glenmont Media.

But even as she settles into her new job at a rival network, she can’t shake her legacy.

When a colleague dies, suddenly and suspiciously, Sydney follows her instinct to dig. But a massive storm is bearing down on Manhattan, and she’s on deck to cover it. Further complicating matters are her ex-boyfriend’s name—it keeps surfacing where it shouldn’t—and her family’s connection to incidents that threaten to unravel everything they’ve built.

As the conspiracy deepens and the newsroom closes in, Sydney finds herself up against the clock. Caught up in a web of lies and family secrets, she races to discover the truth…before she becomes the next victim.

Thanks to Drew @ He’s a Man Reader for featuring this in his book mail post. It’s the beginning of a new series scheduled for release in January. It’s an audio review hopeful.

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SOON TO BE A STREAMING ORIGINAL MOVIE!

All she wants for Christmas is a rejection.

Chloe Hollis is done being a people-pleaser. After one too many bad decisions–including a job that asked her to cross a line she couldn’t–she’s determined to change. Her plan? Collect ten nos before Christmas by asking strangers for the most ridiculous favors she can think of.

It should be easy.

But then? Then she meets James.

Instead of shutting her down, the charming out-of-towner keeps saying yes–to Christmas karaoke, to small-town holiday traditions, to every spontaneous, hilarious, totally chaotic idea she throws his way. And the more he says yes, the harder it becomes for Chloe to stick to her plan . . . or protect her heart.

Because James has a reason for saying yes to everything, too–and it might cost them both more than they bargained for.

As their opposite missions collide in a swirl of festive mishaps, unexpected courage, and undeniable chemistry, Chloe starts to wonder if the biggest risk isn’t rejection after all . . . but saying yes to something real.

I accepted this for audio review after reading the wonderful review by Jodie @ That Happy Reader.

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A father and daughter find themselves on opposites sides of a murder investigation within the Hmong community of Minneapolis in this gripping novel by the author of The Quiet Librarian .

Niki Vang has always known her father was keeping secrets—he has been a troubled man ever since he survived the war in Laos in the 1970s. Lucky enough to find his way to the United States, he has never told anyone what happened to him before he escaped. But when one of his friends is found murdered in the streets of Minneapolis, it’s clear that the secrets of the past have come calling.

Niki has always been driven to find the truth—and uphold justice—as a detective for the police department, but when she lies about her father’s connection to the victim in order to work the case, she finds herself increasingly entangled in a deadly game that someone has been waiting fifty years to play.

Exploring family, fate, and the long reach of history, Allen Eskens delivers another sharp mystery as well as a sweeping portrait of love and the power of the human spirit during impossible times.

Thanks to Nikki @ Nikki Lee Thrill Seeker for giving me the heads up about this new book. Scheduled for release in February, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Push, a bold, unputdownable story of motherhood, desire, betrayal, and loss told by a mother after her own death.

“All those moments in life that mark a before, and an after. Before the death of me, and after. Before they knew the truth of what happened, and after.”

Fiona stares up at the faces of her husband, Adam, and their children. They’ve found her on the hallway floor. The double doors slam on the ambulance, and Fiona watches it take her body away—but how can that be, if she’s still here in her home, with her family? That’s when she realizes her worst fear has come Fiona is dead.

In the days that follow, Fiona moves quietly among them, as they become increasingly suspicious about her death. Everyone seems to be hiding something—her depressive husband, her devoted best friend, her estranged younger sister, her precocious six-year-old son, and most of all, Fiona herself. That is, until her teenage daughter discovers Fiona’s diary—and the stunning betrayal she had been hiding.

Exploring the performative identities of womanhood, the cost of being good, and what we owe ourselves and each other in the face of desire, Ashley Audrain’s daring, thought-provoking novel will you find who you really are, before you die?

Thanks to Jodie @ That Happy Reader for featuring this in her Can’t Wait Wednesday post. Scheduled for release in January, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

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A sharp and deeply felt debut about the connections that both inspire and undo us.

Parker Navarro’s debut novel was meant to define his career – until critic Selina Chan’s blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can’t refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins – one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity, and each other.

Both incisive and tender, Bad Words lays bare the costs of creation – the pull between ambition and integrity, the vulnerability of being seen, and the unexpected closeness that can grow in the space between critique and care.

After seeing so many glowing reviews from friends, I grabbed the audiobook when it showed up at my library.

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Featuring six new recordings of classic works by Frédéric Chopin, Maurice Ravel, Edvard Grieg, Erik Satie, and Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded by Han Chen.

The story of a brief, passionate, life-changing love affair, wrapped up in what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty.

Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she’s kept at bay for a lifetime.

Shifting between past and present, Livia’s decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the experiences of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.

With razor-sharp acuity and deep affection, Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver’s unforgettable new novel reflects on class barriers, the risks of ambition, and the timeless, life-changing power of art.

This is the October selection by the Read With Jenna book club. I grabbed the audiobook when it showed up at my library.

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A second-chance romance following a young woman who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the past six years, only to find that she apparently married the one man she can’t stand—her arrogant and infuriating former boarding school rival.

Molly Graham’s day can’t possibly get any worse after she wakes up in a hospital bed with a head injury and amnesia. But then Aster Bishop—the Aster Bishop who made her life hell at boarding school—storms into her room calling her his wife.

To Molly’s shock, in the six years she no longer recalls, she somehow fell in love with a man she once despised. Persuaded by her lifelong friends to give her new reality a chance, she reluctantly returns to the home she and Aster share to try and piece together her life.

So much has changed, not least the considerate and devastatingly handsome man who spends every night sleeping on the sofa to avoid making her uncomfortable. This Aster is nothing like the entitled boy she once knew. Their chemistry is undeniable, but he’s distant with her, infuriatingly so. It’s clear he has secrets, and Molly can’t stand it. Especially knowing that she might never regain her memories.

That she fell in love with Aster Bishop once is hard enough to believe. But to fall in love again? To promise a future, always, when she can’t remember her past? It feels impossible when faced with a man she hardly knows and isn’t sure she can trust.

And yet…

Tropes

Rivals to lovers
Forced proximity
Slow burn
Yearning (so much yearning)
Found family
Second-chance romance
Memory loss
There’s only one bed and he takes the sofa like a boring, sensible man

I accepted this for audio review.

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What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?