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.
A sister story set in stunning Capri from the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of StarsWhen Cora Agnelli’s globally famous artist father summons her to his home on the glamorous Italian island of Capri, she is far from keen to go. She has been estranged from him—and her two sisters—for nearly a decade and cannot understand why he is calling a family gathering.
Her polished and acerbic elder sister Diana ran off to America, created a perfect family and career far from the mess of her childhood. Kiki, Cora’s younger sister, seems to have morphed effortlessly from the spoiled, party-loving baby of the family to a glamorous social media darling, now engaged and pregnant.
When they all converge on the spectacular white villa, covered in bougainvillea with views of the sea from every window, the sisters don’t know quite what to expect from their unpredictable, self-centered and now extremely wealthy father, who is accompanied everywhere by his young nurse, Sophia. On the first night he will make an announcement that will shock all of them—and crack open fault lines that will set sister against sister, and leave Cora unsure whom to trust. But it is Florian Agnelli who will ultimately find himself in jeopardy—and change all their lives forever.
A dazzling novel about three sisters whose reunion is by turns comic, tempestuous, heartfelt, and ultimately redemptive, this is a quintessential story about a fractured family only Jojo Moyes could have written.
Thanks to Jody @That Happy Reader for featuring this in her Weekend Post. Scheduled for release in February, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.
A taut, emotionally gripping, and surprisingly funny novel about a father and daughter stranded in an airport at the end of the world.
Ivan is a solitary man in his seventies, set in his ways and haunted by the failures of his past. His smart and cynical daughter, Nina, is in the twilight of her twenties and has long kept a distance from her sentimental father. But when Ivan proposes a trip to Europe in hopes that it will bring them closer together, Nina reluctantly agrees. They meet at LAX, where their departure is delayed. And delayed again. And again. As the hours drag on, their sharp, caustic and wide-ranging conversation reveals a lifetime of misunderstandings, unhealed wounds, and stubborn love.
Soon more flights are canceled, security tightens, airport staff grow evasive, and it becomes clear to Ivan and Nina that something is wrong. They begin to suspect that they’re being held prisoner—sequestered from the world without explanation. At last, the surreal starts to overtake the mundane, and their need to escape—and to protect each other—turns increasingly urgent.
What begins as a piercing portrait of a father and daughter becomes a novel of eerie suspense, as Nina and Ivan navigate not only their fractured bond but also a world teetering on the brink of collapse. A story of loving across gaps—between parent and child, between things said and unsaid—and about what happens when the outside world finally mirrors the chaos within, Passengers is Maksik’s most timely and accomplished novel yet.
Thanks to the wonderful review by Louis @ Book Me a Read. I accepted this for audio review.
A Forbidden Father’s Best Friend Romance. A Marriage of Convenience Under the Mistletoe.He was my father’s best friend, until my father betrayed him. Ten years later, he walks into my life as revenge with a wedding proposal wrapped in tinsel and bad timing.
Tristan Hamilton is the silver fox billionaire lawyer my father once called a partner. He’s Scrooge personified. I’m the woman who starts decorating before the leaves have finished falling, who treats every London Christmas market like sacred ground, who believes mistletoe, fairy lights, and a cup of mulled wine can fix almost anything.
He can’t stand carols, cheer, or anything wrapped in tinsel.
Yet somehow, with the advent calendar counting down and my father’s law firm, now my responsibility, drowning in debt, Tristan is the one man with enough money, and enough motive, to save it before my debtors close in, before Christmas Eve arrives.
The Christmas Clause: My hand in marriage. No prenup. No exit clause, ever.
The Payoff: His fortune to save my company and my family name before the holidays are over.It’s supposed to be simple. A transaction dressed up in snow and bad timing, somewhere between the fake proposal, outings to Winter Wonderland and the real wedding under a canopy of holly.
Except amid the mistletoe and the mulled wine, and a festive themed dinner on his yacht, I start wanting this marriage to be more than a deal.
Just two people trapped by a contract, thrown together for the entire festive season. His townhouse strung with fairy lights. His family’s Christmas Eve lunch. His bed, snow gathering on the windowsill outside.
Then a freak snowstorm strands us overnight with nowhere to sleep but one room, one bed, one flickering fire, and a decade of tension neither of us can outrun anymore.
He thinks he can marry me under the mistletoe, ruin my father through me, and never once fall for the woman he married to do it. He’s wrong.
And this Christmas, with the whole city glowing gold and the countdown to midnight running out, I intend to make him admit it.
This is Tristan Hamilton & Opal’s story. There is no cheating, and a very satisfying festive-season HEA.
Tropes
⚉ Father’s Best Friend
⚉ Forbidden Romance
⚉ Marriage of Convenience
⚉ Fake Marriage
⚉ Revenge Romance
⚉ Grumpy x Sunshine
⚉ One Bed
⚉ Snowed In
⚉ Holiday Romance
⚉ Older Man Younger Woman
⚉ OTT Possessive Hero
⚉ Strong Curvy FMC
⚉ British Romance
⚉ Guaranteed HEA
⚉ No Cliffhanger
I accepted this second book in The Hamiltons series for audio review.
An absolutely nail-biting crime and mystery thriller with heart-racing suspense
A breath of warm air lifts the canvas opening of the tent to reveal a carpet of crimson petals within. Two bodies lie side by side. Mother and daughter are achingly beautiful in the glow of the twinkling fairy lights above, but their cold blue lips have whispered their last “I love you…”
As a heatwave chokes the small town of Denton, Maxine and Haven Barnes are discovered dead at a local festival, blood-red camellias pressed into their once-clammy skin. Detective Josie Quinn races through the crowds to attend the scene, horrified that something so disturbing could happen at a family event. Maxine was known to the police for issues with her abusive husband, but the trail ends there.
Hours later, a call rocks Josie to her another mother and teenage daughter are missing, with the same rare flowers left on their doorstep. And just when the stakes couldn’t get any higher, the missing women are linked to the most challenging member of Josie’s team, Detective Kyle Turner. He had a secret family he’s kept hidden from them all, and now their lives are in danger…
Clock ticking, it will take everything Josie has to break down the walls Turner put up to protect himself and the people he loves. But when tracing the flowers back to their origins has the killer within her grasp, a truth much closer to home reveals itself. And with it, more danger than anyone could have imagined. Can Josie bring this monster to justice before any more precious lives are taken?
An absolutely heart-stopping and totally binge-worthy crime thriller from an Amazon, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. You will be up all night biting your nails and listening! Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.
I got the ebook for $.99 and then got the audiobook from Audible for less than $5.
Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of The Paradise Problem and Love and Other Words, returns with a sweeping romance about first love, second chances, and the one summer that changes everything about both.Frankie Flowers and Bobby Falco have spent most of their lives trying to outdo each other.
As neighbors turned academic rivals, they grew up competing over everything. Somewhere along the way, rivalry became friendship, friendship became love, and then, at eighteen, everything between them fell apart.
Eleven years later, Frankie has built the exact life she once dreamed of—far away from her tiny hometown. She’s successful, independent, and has perfected the art of not looking back. But when she finally returns to Lake Himmel for the summer, she discovers that some things haven’t changed nearly as much as she’d like.
The lake is still there. The house next door is still there. And so is Bobby Falco.
Bobby is no longer the boy Frankie remembers, but being around him still feels dangerously the competition, the banter, the uncanny way he sees straight through her. And as old feelings resurface, Frankie begins to wonder if the one thing more dangerous than their old rivalry is discovering what really ended it.
I learned about this from the author’s newsletter. Scheduled for release in May, it’s an audio review hopeful.
From the USA Today bestselling author of the book-to-TV stories Coming Home for Christmas and Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses–with over one million copies sold–comes a moving holiday read perfect for fans of Sheila Roberts, Debbie Macomber, and Jill Shalvis.
A year after losing her husband, Toby, Heather Hart’s favorite season feels like a ghost town–until a mysterious red-and-white envelope arrives.
Inside is a message asking her to visit a nearby location… and it appears to be from Toby himself.
The note contains details only he could know.
At the destination, another envelope awaits–with a new clue, and a new place to go.
The messages continue throughout the holiday season, sending Heather on a journey down Memory Lane as she searches for answers.
Determined to uncover the truth behind the anonymous cards, Heather embarks on a magical excursion filled with love, loss, and hope.
Along the way, she meets the charismatic Nicholas Monroe, who seems to appear at just the right moments–like a Christmas miracle.
But is he part of the mystery… or hiding secrets of his own?
Thanks to Jodie @ That Happy Reader for her outstanding review. I accepted this for audio review after having first given it a pass.
Say “I do” to this collection of short stories and escape to a wonderland of winter weddings. From grand mountain lodges to a snowbound Irish pub, love is in the frosty air. Swoon along as old friends, smitten strangers, and even new enemies get their chance to ring in the holidays with a happy-ever-after.Just Say I Do by Catherine Walsh
She’s meant to be getting married tomorrow, not stranded in a snowdrift tonight. In this irresistible short story, Amazon Charts bestselling author Catherine Walsh serves up a Christmas Eve that changes everything.Just for the Camera by Sarah Adams
When a cautiously grumpy girl is thrust into the arms of a pop star, keeping her cool isn’t an option in a funny and wildly romantic short story by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Adams.White Water Wedding by Elizabeth Stephens
Nightmare nuptials in the Pacific Northwest. A December wedding planner on the edge. And a football star making a playful connection in a swoony grumpy-meets-sunshine short story by Elizabeth Stephens.Write Christmas by Lorraine Brown
Mistaken identities, secrets, and holiday romance collide at a Scottish Highlands wedding in this bittersweet and sharply witty enemies-to-lovers short story by Lorraine Brown.The Plus-One Pact by Lana Ferguson
A weekend fauxmance at a destination ski-resort wedding becomes a swoony challenge to keep the ruse going in a spicy-sweet short story by USA Today bestselling author Lana Ferguson.
I pounced on this as soon as it was offered for review.
An Audible Original written by global bestselling sensation Lisa Jewell (‘None of This is True’), with a hint of sound design and original music, performed by an all-star cast of Matthew Rhys (‘Widow’s Bay’), Ruth Wilson (‘The Affair’), Phoebe Dynevor (‘Bridgerton) and Harriet Walter (‘Succession.)
A simmering, deliciously dark story of obsession, ambition and the dangerous space between truth and fiction from global bestselling sensation Lisa Jewell.
Fiddy and Louise Stone had the perfect marriage—until Louise became a bestselling author and their world was turned upside down. Now Louise has the money, the fame and all the power. Fiddy has his resentments and he also has Kate—his younger “office wife” who makes him feel seen, understood and appreciated in ways Louise no longer does.
The thing Kate has been watching them both for years. She knows their secrets, their weaknesses, their breaking points. She’s been weaving herself into their lives, one Christmas at a time.
Then Louise falls mysteriously ill. A disturbing manuscript arrives at her publisher’s office. And the truth becomes impossible to untangle.
Everyone has a story to tell. The challenge is separating truth from fiction.
Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.
Thanks to Jodie @ That Happy Reader for featuring this in her November & December 2026 Releases post. Scheduled for release in November, it’s free with my Audible membership.
She’s spent her life taking care of everyone else. He’s determined to be the one to take care of her.Elizabeth is sick of always having to be the reliable one―for her dad, for her disabled sister, for her best friend. Just once, she’d love to be able to lean on someone else, to do something for herself instead of worrying about everyone else.
Mike Maddox has a lot of amends to make. His past has cost him his best friend, and now his job could be on the line. His coworker Elizabeth can’t stand him, and he doesn’t even blame her. But Mike has always had a thing for Elizabeth. And if he can convince her he’s changed, maybe there’s hope. Showing up for her is easy. Doing things for her sister, remembering the special occasions everyone around her forgets. Gaining Elizabeth’s trust heals something in him he didn’t think could be fixed.
Bit by bit, day by day, Elizabeth begins to realize that maybe there’s more to Mike than she thought possible. Falling for him is the easy part, but trusting herself when everyone else says she’s wrong might be the hardest thing she’s ever done.
