The Cuddle Clause by Roxie Ray, 326 pages

 Maggie James is thirty-one, freshly dumped, and emotionally scorched.

Losing her relationship also cost her the apartment and the business she built with her ex. Now she’s broke, unmoored, and answering a roommate ad from a total stranger.

A stranger who turns out to be a neurodivergent werewolf with a detailed lease agreement… and a legally binding cuddle clause.

Roman Velasquez likes quiet, structure, and his Good Plate.

He’s used to living alone—until pack politics force his hand. To avoid being mated off for supernatural convenience, Roman needs to convince his Alpha that he’s already claimed. He panics, blurts out a lie, and suddenly he and Maggie are fake-mated, cuddling after full moons, and trying very hard not to catch feelings.

It’s just a roommate agreement. Just magical paperwork. Just a fake relationship to stop a supernatural power grab.

They both know the rules.
Don’t touch the plate.
Respect the schedule.
No falling in love.

Too bad they’re already breaking all of them.

For fans
→ fake dating with fangs
→ grumpy/sunshine but genderflipped
→ structured touch, cozy spice, and emotional support cuddles
→ neurodivergent romance that doesn’t center trauma
→ one (1) sacred plate

The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower, 326 pages

 On July 28, 1841, the body of Mary Rogers, a twenty-year-old cigar girl, was found floating in the Hudson-and New York's unregulated police force proved incapable of solving the crime. One year later, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case-and sent his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in "The Mystery of Marie Rog�t."

Little House in the Hollywood Hills: A Bad Girl's Guide to Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary X and Me by Charlotte Stewart & Andy Demsky, 326 pages

 Charlotte Stewart is known by millions of fans worldwide for her role as the beloved schoolteacher, Miss Beadle, on the iconic TV show, Little House on the Prairie, currently broadcast in syndication in more than 100 countries around the world. Here for the first time an adult cast member writes about the experience of making the show-the challenges, the joys, and the sometimes-turbulent behind-the-scenes relationships. Charlotte, with Andy Demsky, reveal a no-holds-barred, heart-breaking, and ultimately joyful account of fifty years in film and television offers a backstage pass to Hollywood's cocaine-fueled glory years in the 1970s, and includes Charlotte's celebrated work as Mary X in David Lynch's cult classic film, Eraserhead, as well as her later work as Betty Briggs in the highly-rated television series, Twin Peaks. Charlotte recalls working with leading men, from Jimmy Stewart, Elvis Presley, Kevin Bacon, and Kyle MacLachlan. She also details off-stage friendships with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, as well as with relationships and flings with some of TV, film, and music's biggest names, including Jon Voight, Richard Dreyfuss, Victor French, Tim Considine, Bill Murray, and Jim Morrison. Ultimately, Charlotte's story is that of a survivor. Six years after her career-making role on Little House on the Prairie, she lost everything and was living on vodka and hotdogs. Yet through the darkest periods of her life-divorce, drug-use, cancer, financial ruin, the death of a spouse, and alcoholism-she never lost her humanity or sense of humor.

Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese, 326 pages

 Opposites become allies to fool their matchmaking friends in this swoony reimagining of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.

Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn't be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.

Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash their hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.

To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder, what if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?

The Guncle by Steven Rowley, 326 pages

 From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor comes a warm and deeply funny novel about a once-famous gay sitcom star whose unexpected family tragedy leaves him with his niece and nephew for the summer.

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.

With the humor and heart we’ve come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times.

The Wicked King by Holly Black, 326 pages

 You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I by Chris Dubbs, 326 pages

 When World War I began, war reporting was a thoroughly masculine bastion of journalism. But that did not stop dozens of women reporters from stepping into the breach, defying gender norms and official restrictions to establish roles for themselves—and to write new kinds of narratives about women and war.

Chris Dubbs tells the fascinating stories of Edith Wharton, Nellie Bly, and more than thirty other American women who worked as war reporters. As Dubbs shows, stories by these journalists brought in women from the periphery of war and made them active participants—fully engaged and equally heroic, if bearing different burdens and making different sacrifices. Women journalists traveled from belligerent capitals to the front lines to report on the conflict. But their experiences also brought them into contact with social transformations, political unrest, labor conditions, campaigns for women’s rights, and the rise of revolutionary socialism.

An eye-opening look at women’s war reporting, An Unladylike Profession is a portrait of a sisterhood from the guns of August to the corridors of Versailles.

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask, 326 pages

An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity.

When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.

In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London.

Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t―and why.

Broken Bone China by Laura Childs, 326 pages

It is Sunday afternoon, and Theodosia and Drayton are catering a formal tea at a hot-air balloon rally. The view aloft is not only stunning, they are also surrounded by a dozen other colorful hot-air balloons. But as the sky turns gray and the clouds start to boil up, a strange object zooms out of nowhere. It is a drone, and it appears to be buzzing around the balloons, checking them out. 
As Theodosia and Drayton watch, the drone, hovering like some angry, mechanized insect, deliberately crashes into the balloon next to them. An enormous, fiery explosion erupts, and everyone watches in horror as the balloon plummets to the earth, killing all three of its passengers.
Sirens scream, first responders arrive, and Theodosia is interviewed by the police. During the interview she learns that one of the downed occupants was Don Kingsley, the CEO of a local software company, SyncSoft. Not only do the police suspect Kingsley as the primary target, they learn that he possessed a rare Revolutionary War Union Jack flag that several people were rabidly bidding on.
Intrigued, Theodosia begins her own investigation. Was it the CEO's soon-to-be ex-wife, who is restoring an enormous mansion at no expense? The CEO's personal assistant, who also functioned as curator of his prized collection of Americana? Two rival antiques' dealers known for dirty dealing? Or was the killer the fiancée of one of Theodosia's dear friends, who turns out to be an employee—and whistle-blower—at SyncSoft?

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco, 326 pages

Presented by James Patterson's new children's imprint, this deliciously creepy horror novel has a storyline inspired by the Ripper murders and an unexpected, blood-chilling conclusion...

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

Thief of Glory by Sigmund Brouwer, 326 pages

For ten-year-old Jeremiah Prins, the life of privilege as the son of a school headmaster in the Dutch East Indies comes crashing to a halt in 1942 after the Japanese Imperialist invasion of the Southeast Pacific. Jeremiah takes on the the responsibility of caring for his younger siblings when his father and older stepbrothers are separated from the rest of the family, and he is surprised by what life in the camp reveals about a woman he barely knows-his frail, troubled mother.
Amid starvation, brutality, sacrifice, and generosity, Jeremiah draws on all of his courage and cunning to fill in the gap for his mother. Life in the camps is made more tolerable as Jeremiah's boyhood infatuation with Laura deepens into a friendship from which they both draw strength.
When the darkest sides of humanity threaten to overwhelm Jeremiah and Laura, they reach for God's light and grace, shining through His people. Time and war will test their fortitude, and the only thing that will bring them safely to the other side is the most enduring bond of them all.

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley, 326 pages

These Flavia de Luce books keep tearing my heart out. I want to bundle her up and take her home with me, to comfort and love.

How the Post Office Created America by Winifred Gallagher, 326 pages

A really interesting look at the history of the Post Office, at its early creation and help in shaping America, up to it's struggle to change and stay flexible for the future. The author did an outstanding job of bringing this huge entity to life, and giving me a true appreciation for what the Post Office done. I won't complain about the the rising cost of stamps in the future.

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs, 326 pages

I think I've almost read too many of these to keep track of old plot details. It makes it really hard to enjoy the new ones.

Anatomy of Evil by Will Thomas, 326 pages

I loved this book, my one complaint is it felt removed from the last book and didn't answer questions raised in the last book.

The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony, 326 pages

It's been a good decade since I've read the Xanth books. This is the second one, and I'd forgotten how good they are, puns included.

Madam by Cari Lynn & Kellie Martin, 326 pages

A historical retelling of a true story based on the creation of the red light district in New Orleans.

The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright, 326 pages

I've been wanting to read this book for ages since it's such an old classic (1907) and a standard in Branson. It was definitely a reflection of it's time and is filled with a good, solid, Christian message. I can't see my children or husband reading it but it wasn't bad.