Jo pulled together the victims’ pictures, laying them out on her desk to study the pattern she couldn’t quite articulate. In all cases their arms were askew in a way that looked like—what? It was like they were freeze-framed in the middle of some action, captured mid-movement. It was like they were dancing. When loving wife Jeanine is found dead in a small leafy town in Massachusetts where violent crime is supposed to be rare, newly promoted Detective Jo Fournier is shocked to her core by the brutality and strange ritualistic elements. Why leave her body posed like a ballerina in an unnatural position? Why steal her wedding band and nothing else when more valuable items were left untouched? 💍

Hungry for answers and determined to prove herself in her first major case as lead detective, Jo questions Jeanine’s husband, but the heartbreaking pain written on his face threatens to tear open Jo’s old wounds from her past in New Orleans. It’s the same pain she felt when her boyfriend was cruelly shot dead by a gang in their hometown, a trauma that drove her to leave Louisiana and rebuild her life in Massachusetts law enforcement. She couldn’t get justice for him despite trying everything within her power, but she’s determined to get justice for Jeanine’s devastated family who deserve answers about why their wife and mother was taken from them. 💔

But before Jo can get answers by following the few leads she has, another woman is found with her wedding ring stolen and body posed in the same ritualistic way—the identical positioning suggesting a signature the killer can’t resist. Digging through old files in the basement archives, Jo makes a terrifying link to a series of cold cases from years ago with the same MO that were never solved. She knows a serial killer is on the loose hunting married women, but nobody will listen to the truth—not her bosses who dismiss her pattern recognition, nor the FBI who think she’s overreaching. Still, Jo won’t let her superiors keep her from stopping the murderer in his tracks even if it means the end of her career that she’s worked so hard to build. Just as she is beginning to lose hope and political pressure mounts to close the case, she finds messages on the victims’ computers that feel like the crucial missing link connecting everything. Knowing the killer is moments away from selecting his next target based on his established timeline, will Jo be able to take him down before another innocent life is lost? M.M. Chouinard launches Detective Jo Fournier with police procedural about pattern recognition and trauma. 🕵️

What makes this essential: A police procedural launching Detective Jo Fournier where newly promoted Jo finds loving wife Jeanine dead in Massachusetts, body posed like a ballerina with wedding band stolen—questioning Jeanine’s devastated husband tears open Jo’s old wounds from her boyfriend’s gang murder in New Orleans, but before getting answers another woman is found with identical ritualistic posing, forcing Jo to dig through cold cases and defy superiors who won’t listen as she races to stop the serial killer before he selects his next target.

My twin sister disappeared twelve years ago on a day that changed everything. Jess went missing on our way home from school when we were sixteen, violating Dad’s golden rule that we Never walk home alone because the world is dangerous and twins should protect each other. But I was in a hurry to get home for something I can’t even remember now, and she was flirting with boys outside the school building, doing what Jess always did—living in the moment without worrying about consequences. She just vanished without a trace. No word. No sightings. Nothing. My family destroyed by grief and unanswered questions. 👯

I blame myself for leaving her alone that day, and I won’t ever give up looking for her no matter how many years pass or how many dead ends I encounter. Each year on the anniversary of Jess’s disappearance, a bunch of flowers is delivered to our home along with a note that’s become the only ritual connecting us to what happened. Two words written in the same handwriting every time: I’m sorry. It’s the only clue we’ve ever had as to what happened to my sister, suggesting someone knows the truth but won’t reveal it. Until the day I get a text from an unknown number that makes my heart stop: I found her. 📱

And in my desperation to know the truth after twelve years of searching and hoping and blaming myself, I’m walking into a carefully-laid trap that someone has been planning for years. The truth about what happened to my twin is even worse than I could ever have imagined, involving secrets that have been hidden under the stairs all this time. Steena Holmes delivers domestic thriller examining how far someone will go for answers about a missing sister, and whether some truths are too terrible to uncover when the trap has been set specifically for you. 😱

What makes this essential: A domestic thriller where twin sister Jess disappeared twelve years ago at sixteen on their way home from school—violating Dad’s Never walk home alone rule because narrator was in a hurry and Jess was flirting with boys—destroying the family as narrator blames herself and refuses to give up, receiving annual flowers with “I’m sorry” notes until a text saying “I found her” sends her into a carefully-laid trap revealing the truth hidden under the stairs is worse than she ever imagined.

If you wish for peace, prepare for war. —Royal Navy Motto. Seventy years ago, the interstellar supercarrier Ark Royal was the pride of the Royal Navy, representing Britain’s power projection across the stars during humanity’s expansion into space. But now after decades of service, her weapons are outdated compared to modern plasma cannons and missile systems, and her solid-state armour—once revolutionary—is nothing more than a burden on her colossal hull that makes her slow and cumbersome. She floats in permanent orbit near Earth serving as little more than a museum piece, a dumping ground for the officers and crew the Royal Navy wishes to keep out of the public eye: the drunks, the disciplinary problems, the politically inconvenient, the reservists who never expected to be called up. 🚀

But when a deadly alien threat appears from beyond known space with technology humanity has never encountered, the modern starships built by humanity—sleek, fast, equipped with the latest weapons systems—are no match for the powerful alien weapons that cut through their shields like paper. Ark Royal and her mismatched crew of misfits and failures must go on the offensive in the only ship with armor thick enough to withstand alien fire, buying time with their lives as humanity scrambles to understand this new enemy and develop countermeasures. And yet, with a drunkard for a Captain who’s spent years pickling himself in whiskey, an over-ambitious first officer who sees this crisis as his ticket to glory, and a crew composed of reservists called up from civilian life and the dregs of the service who couldn’t get posted anywhere else, do they have even the faintest hope of surviving combat against a technologically superior enemy? 🛸

And returning to an Earth which may no longer be there if they fail in their mission to slow the alien advance? Christopher G. Nuttall delivers galactic empire science fiction examining whether obsolete technology and disgraced personnel can save humanity when modern solutions fail, and whether the Royal Navy’s forgotten supercarrier will become humanity’s last hope or its final embarrassment. The aliens are counting on humanity’s arrogance; Ark Royal’s crew just needs to prove they’re too stubborn to die. ⚔️

What makes this essential: Galactic empire science fiction where seventy-year-old interstellar supercarrier Ark Royal—once the Royal Navy’s pride but now with outdated weapons and solid-state armor serving as dumping ground for disgraced officers and crew—must go offensive when deadly aliens appear and modern starships can’t match their powerful weapons, forcing a drunkard Captain, over-ambitious first officer, and crew of reservists and dregs to buy time with their lives, hoping to survive and return to an Earth that may no longer exist.

Surviving the end of the world is only the beginning of the nightmare. When a solar superstorm slams into Earth with unprecedented force, it ignites the sky in aurora displays visible at the equator—and wipes out modern civilization in an instant. Power grids fail across continents. Satellites fry in orbit, cutting off GPS and communications. Cell towers go dark. The internet collapses. Everything humanity depends on to function stops working simultaneously, plunging billions into darkness without warning or preparation. ☀️

In Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula where winter is already brutal without electricity, Shiloh Easton wakes covered in blood she doesn’t remember spilling. Her grandfather is dead in circumstances she can’t explain. Her brother is missing from the property where he should have been safe. And she remembers nothing about what happened during the hours when the sky lit up and the world ended. With no way to call for help and no authorities coming to investigate in a world without functioning law enforcement, Shiloh vanishes into the forest to find her brother before the killer finds her, trusting her survival skills against both the wilderness and whoever murdered her grandfather. 🌲

Eight years ago, Eli Pope was convicted of a murder that shattered the small town’s sense of safety and trust. Now he’s out, freed on a technicality that nobody believes means he’s innocent. Hardened by prison where he learned to survive through violence and paranoia, he returns to the Upper Peninsula for vengeance against those who put him away. But Sheriff Jackson Cross—the man who investigated him, arrested him, testified against him, and put him away—needs Eli’s tracking skills and wilderness knowledge to find the missing kids before they freeze to death in the brutal Michigan winter. Trusting the ex-con who wants him dead may cost Jackson everything including his life. Sixteen hundred miles away in Tampa, first responder Lena Easton learns her father is dead, her niece and nephew are missing, and the man who once destroyed her life is free. With her search-and-rescue dog Bear at her side, she heads north in a desperate attempt to survive a world gone dark and find her family before it’s too late. Kyla Stone launches Lost Light with post-apocalyptic survival thriller where solar storm creates convergence of personal vendettas and family searches. ⚡

What makes this essential: A post-apocalyptic survival thriller launching Lost Light where solar superstorm slams Earth, igniting the sky and wiping out modern civilization—in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula, Shiloh Easton wakes covered in blood with her grandfather dead and brother missing, vanishing into forest before the killer finds her, while Sheriff Jackson Cross must trust ex-con Eli Pope (freed on technicality after eight years for murder, hardened by prison, seeking vengeance) to find missing kids, as first responder Lena Easton heads north from Tampa with search-and-rescue dog Bear discovering her father’s dead and the man who destroyed her life is free.

She never imagined a single letter would bring billionaire Dylan Talbot to her doorstep and change her entire understanding of who she is. Callie Taylor’s life is turned upside down when she learns the truth about her birth following the death of her mother, a secret her mother kept for twenty-five years to protect everyone involved. Not only is her father alive—contradicting everything she’d been told about being the result of a brief college romance—but he’s none other than presidential candidate Senator Warren Sherbrooke, a man whose face is on television constantly and whose political career could be destroyed by the revelation of a secret daughter. 💼

Billionaire and confirmed bachelor Dylan Talbot is devoted to his family, especially his stepfather Warren Sherbrooke whose political ambitions Dylan has supported financially and strategically for years. When Warren receives a letter from a past love telling him they have a daughter together—a daughter who’s now an adult and wants to meet him—Dylan is instantly suspicious that this is a con, a shakedown, or a political hit job timed to damage Warren’s presidential campaign. In order to keep the media vultures away and protect Warren’s political aspirations from scandal, Dylan convinces Warren to let him handle the situation by investigating this alleged daughter before Warren gets emotionally invested in someone who might be lying. 🔍

As Callie and Dylan spend time together while he “investigates” her background and motivations, they can’t resist the feelings that blossom between them despite the suspicious circumstances of their meeting. However, when Callie learns the real reason Dylan has been spending time with her—that he was tasked with determining if she’s a fraud rather than genuinely wanting to know her—their fledgling romance is put in jeopardy by the betrayal of trust. Only complete honesty about his investigation and his growing feelings can save their relationship and prove that what started as suspicion has become something real. Christina Tetreault launches The Sherbrookes of Newport with contemporary romance about family secrets and billionaire protectors. 💕

What makes this essential: A contemporary romance launching The Sherbrookes of Newport where teacher Callie Taylor’s life is turned upside down learning her father is alive—presidential candidate Senator Warren Sherbrooke—as billionaire Dylan Talbot, devoted to his stepfather Warren’s political ambitions, becomes instantly suspicious of her letter claiming to be Warren’s daughter, investigating her to protect against scandal while they can’t resist feelings blossoming between them until Callie learns Dylan’s real reason for spending time with her, putting their fledgling romance in jeopardy until complete honesty can save it.

I fell in love with Gavin Dunn when I was twelve during one game of spin the bottle that changed everything. All it took was one kiss, and three seconds of his lips on mine, and no matter how many boys I kissed afterward—and I kissed plenty trying to recreate that feeling—they didn’t make me feel like he did. That moment ruined me for everyone else before I even understood what being ruined meant. 💋

The problem? He belonged to my best friend. I kissed him first during that game, but she kissed him last and kept kissing him for years. He once chose me in that basement, and I chose her by stepping back and pretending my heart didn’t break every time I saw them together. When everything in my life goes wrong—career implosion, family crisis, romantic disasters that prove I still can’t find what I felt in three seconds at age twelve—somehow he’s always there to make it right with his steady presence and understanding that nobody else offers. 💔

And as my best friend pulls away from both of us for reasons she won’t explain, he finds ways to get closer to me in ways that feel inevitable and terrifying. I know that we are just waiting for three seconds before everything changes again, before the kiss that’s been delayed for years finally happens and destroys the careful distance I’ve maintained. C. Lymari delivers second chance romance examining whether first love can become real love when you’re finally both available, and whether three seconds of perfection at twelve can translate into forever at twenty-five. ⏰

What makes this essential: A second chance romance where falling in love with Gavin Dunn at twelve during spin the bottle—one kiss, three seconds that ruined her for everyone else—created the problem that he belonged to her best friend who she chose over her own heart, until everything goes wrong and he’s always there making it right, both waiting for three seconds before everything changes again and the delayed kiss finally happens.

When Pixie McGee, a lovelorn former stripper turned real estate empress who’s built an empire through sheer determination and business savvy, retreats to her private island in Maine after her fiancé’s sudden betrayal at the worst possible moment, the last thing she expects is to be swept into a wild adventure that makes her romantic woes seem like small potatoes. But when a lonely lobsterman named Caleb Gray finds himself in the crosshairs of the law for crimes he didn’t commit but can’t disprove, their worlds collide in ways neither could predict despite coming from completely different social strata. 🦞

As Pixie helps Caleb to clear his name using her resources and connections, they uncover a plot more bizarre than anything on reality TV: Utami, a shadowy cellular seafood bioengineering firm with unlimited funding and questionable ethics, is hell-bent on destroying Maine’s commercial lobster industry to corner the market. Utami’s plan? A nefarious cocktail of genetically modified “Franken-lobsters” that threaten the ecosystem, backroom deals with a scheming senator who’s selling out his constituents, and the dubious talents of a washed-up actor hired for publicity campaigns that obscure the science with celebrity endorsement. 🎬

With her wit as sharp as her designer heels and a mouth that says exactly what she’s thinking, Pixie teams up with Caleb to take on Utami in a David-versus-Goliath battle. But as the stakes rise beyond just saving Maine’s lobster industry to protecting an entire way of life, they’ll have to navigate more than a corrupt corporation—they’ll also face their own tangled hearts as a former stripper and a lobsterman discover they have more in common than their differences suggest. C.W. Wells delivers dark humor packed with campy comedy, twists, corporate villainy, and a splash of romance in this rollicking novel. 💕

What makes this essential: Dark humor where lovelorn former stripper turned real estate empress Pixie McGee retreats to her Maine island after fiancé’s betrayal, swept into wild adventure helping lonely lobsterman Caleb Gray clear his name—uncovering shadowy bioengineering firm Utami’s plot using genetically modified Franken-lobsters, scheming senators, and washed-up actors to destroy Maine’s commercial lobster industry while navigating their tangled hearts.

When love grows quietly between them, it will take a storm of misunderstandings—and one determined matchmaker operating from the most unexpected quarter—to bring Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet together. Mr. Darcy is falling for Elizabeth Bennet despite his every intention not to develop feelings for someone so beneath his social station, her wit, warmth, and those fine eyes unsettling his carefully maintained sense of duty and propriety in ways he finds both alarming and intoxicating. Elizabeth, in turn, finds herself drawn to the reserved and honorable man behind the proud exterior she initially dismissed. 💕

Yet both are resolved to guard their hearts, convinced nothing could come of an attachment between a wealthy gentleman and a country nobody with no fortune or connections, until unexpected visitors, uninvited suitors pressing their own matrimonial claims, and secret affections bubbling beneath polite society’s surface threaten to tip everything into chaos. Enter Caroline Bingley, who upon overhearing Darcy declare he will never marry her (a devastating blow to her ambitions), hatches a new plan that shocks everyone who knows her reputation for scheming: if she cannot be mistress of Pemberley herself, she will become the next best thing—friend and confidante to the woman who will be. 👑

Seeing the effect Elizabeth has on Darcy and recognizing that fighting this inevitable match will only alienate her from her brother’s best friend, Caroline sets her sights on securing the match between Darcy and Elizabeth for her own convenience and social positioning, of course. Jayne Bamber delivers Pride & Prejudice variation where the most unlikely matchmaker becomes the catalyst for bringing together two people too proud and prejudiced to admit what everyone else can see, proving that kindly meant interference—even from unexpected sources—can overcome the misunderstandings that keep soulmates apart. 📖

What makes this essential: A Pride & Prejudice variation where love grows quietly between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet despite their intentions not to fall, both guarding their hearts until unexpected visitors and secret affections create chaos—forcing Caroline Bingley, upon overhearing Darcy will never marry her, to hatch a new plan becoming matchmaker to secure the Darcy-Elizabeth match for her own convenience, proving kindly meant interference overcomes misunderstandings.

One moment Ruby Grace is an ordinary girl enjoying a ski trip in the Adirondack Mountains with friends, and the next she’s running through the woods as a wolf with no memory of how the transformation happened or what triggered it. When she’s herself again—naked, freezing, and terrified in unfamiliar territory—she seeks refuge in the house of Connor Ward, the mysterious and devastatingly gorgeous guy whose party she attended the night before. She tells him what happened during her blackout, and he drops the biggest bombshell of her life: she’s a wolf shifter, part of a hidden supernatural world she never knew existed. 🐺

Except when Ruby tries to use shifter magic the way Connor demonstrates, nothing happens—no transformation, no supernatural abilities, no connection to the wolf inside her. Which relegates her to the bottom tier of shifter society where she’s basically lower than dirt, a defective shifter who can’t control her own abilities and poses a danger to the secrecy that protects their kind. But adapting to her new life and learning to shift on command is the least of Ruby’s concerns, because strange things are happening in Pine Valley beyond her own transformation. Humans in town are going missing without explanation. Ruby’s eyes change color overnight from brown to an eerie amber. And a new, dangerous type of magic emerges that even the oldest shifters don’t recognize. 🌙

The biggest challenge, however, comes when the mate bond ignites between Ruby and Connor with an intensity that threatens to consume them both. Because he’s promised to someone else through an arranged match his family made years ago. And he intends on standing by that promise even if it means fighting every instinct and doing something that might shatter his soul in the process: rejecting his fated mate to honor a commitment made before he knew what destiny had planned. Michelle Madow launches Star Touched: Wolf Born with coming-of-age fantasy about accepting who you are when you can’t be what everyone expects. ✨

What makes this essential: A coming-of-age fantasy launching Star Touched: Wolf Born where ordinary Ruby Grace running through Adirondack woods as a wolf seeks refuge with mysterious Connor Ward who reveals she’s a shifter—except her magic doesn’t work, relegating her to bottom-tier society while humans go missing, her eyes change color overnight, dangerous new magic emerges, and the mate bond ignites with Connor who’s promised to someone else and intends to reject his fated mate.

In *The Eagle Has Landed*, the inspiration for the film starring Donald Sutherland, an audacious Nazi plan to kidnap Winston Churchill threatens to tip the scales of World War II. In November 1943, an elite team of Nazi paratroopers descends on British soil with a diabolical goal conceived in desperation: Abduct Winston Churchill and cripple the Allied war effort by removing the one leader holding the coalition together. The mission, ordered by Hitler himself in a last-ditch attempt to change the war’s trajectory and planned by Heinrich Himmler with characteristic ruthlessness, is led by ace agent Kurt Steiner and aided on the ground by IRA gunman Liam Devlin whose motivations are more complicated than simple Nazi sympathy. 🎖️

As the deadly duo executes Hitler’s harrowing plot with precision and daring, only the quiet town of Studley Constable stands in their way—an unlikely final defense. Its residents, including a beautiful widow who catches Devlin’s eye and complicates his mission, are the lone souls aware of the impending Nazi plan after stumbling onto clues the conspirators left behind, and they must become the most unlikely of heroes as the fate of the war hangs in the balance and Churchill’s life depends on ordinary people doing extraordinary things. ⚔️

In *Touch the Devil*, in the shadow of the Cold War where loyalties shift like sand, two rugged IRA veterans must crush a ruthless mercenary before his deadly scheme can bring Europe to its knees. Terrorist-for-hire Frank Barry has been wreaking havoc in Germany and France with backing from the KGB who see him as a useful destabilizing force. But his next mission might be his deadliest and most profitable: Barry plans to steal a state-of-the-art missile and sell it to the highest bidder, creating an international crisis that could ignite World War III. Jack Higgins delivers military thrillers featuring Liam Devlin in two novels examining how war makes strange bedfellows and whether terrorists can ever truly be heroes. 🚀

What makes this essential: Jack Higgins military thrillers where *The Eagle Has Landed* (inspiring the Donald Sutherland film) follows elite Nazi paratroopers and IRA gunman Liam Devlin executing Hitler’s audacious 1943 plan to kidnap Winston Churchill, with only quiet Studley Constable residents standing in their way, while *Touch the Devil* pits rugged IRA veterans against terrorist-for-hire Frank Barry stealing state-of-the-art missiles with KGB backing to sell to the highest bidder.