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Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Upon a Starlit Tide (2025) is a mesmerizing historical fantasy/dark fairy tale. In 1700s coastal France the protagonist, Luce, rescues a handsome sailor from certain death in the fickle sea. Confusingly she feels drawn to both him and to her loyal friend Samuel, an English smuggler.

Tiwa and Said have despised each other for years - since Said went off to his fancy boarding school and became too good for their town and her, and least that's how Tiwa tells it. But before that, they were best friends and with their families both being part of the tight knit Muslim community in their town they had spent countless events and holidays together. This year Said is back early from boarding school because his (and Tiwa's) favorite librarian, Ms. Barnes, has passed away. This gets him in town early enough to celebrate Eid, which Tiwa's family is hosting this year.

A Monster Calls (2011) is a 13-year-old’s journey to come to grips with his mother’s terminal illness and the emotions that come with it. A monstrous yew tree appears outside his window, night after night, and tells Conor stories – fairy tales with complicated moral twists. As Conor deals with the bullying, anger and guilt overwhelming his life, the monster forces him to confront the feelings he’s avoiding.

The Mars House (2024), by Natasha Pulley, begins on a future Earth devastated by climate change. After flooding leaves London uninhabitable, ballet dancer January is forced to relocate to the only place that’s still accepting refugees—Tharsis, a colony on Mars which has developed a genderless society.

WPL's Fiction Book Group chose Nikki Erlick's debut novel, The Measure (2022), to be the first book up for discussion in 2025. In light of the pressure many feel to begin each new year with personal resolutions, the story felt particularly timely in January. That said, I think The Measure is the kind of novel that makes for great conversations in any season.

If you enjoy a story with an emotional punch to the gut ending, then Seven Days of Us (2017) by Francesca Hornak might be for you! I picked this older book up because of the Christmastime setting and the interesting premise of a family in quarantine together, in a pre-COVID world.

Imagine this, if you will, you and thirteen other contestants have been chosen to take part in a week-long game of 'Hide and Seek' in an abandoned amusement park ala Mr. Beast-style. Each day there are two participants that are taken out, the game is active from Dawn until Dusk, and every night you sleep alongside your fellow contestants forging alliances and creating rivalries. The sole winner earns $50,000, AND the game might even become televised so you have the potential to be an internet celeb just by playing. 

Set in London and Cairo from 2010-2011, These Impossible Things (2022) follows childhood friends Malak, Kees, and Jenna after a fight fractures their connection on the eve of college graduation. With alternating points of view, a moving story unfolds.

The Murderess (2024) by Laurie Notaro is a historical true crime novel based on notorious “trunk murderess” Winnie Ruth Judd. In October 1931, Judd arrives from Phoenix at the Los Angeles train station and her trunks soon attract attention from the station porters, as there appears to be blood oozing from them.

Debut novelist , Emma Knight, writes a delightful story about two Canadian girls, Pen and Alice, who travel to Edinburgh to study at university, but also to find themselves; their passions and pitfalls. Pen contacts Lord Lennox, an intriguing old friend of her father, visits for the weekend and falls in love with his family. But something always seems a little off and Pen needs to find out what secrets are being hidden from her.  

Hate Follow (2024) by Erin Quinn-Kong is a timely, behind-the-scenes family drama about an influencer mom and a teenage daughter who is tired of being featured in her mom’s social media posts. After becoming a widow at 35, Whitney Golden supports her four kids by working as a blogger and a social media influencer.