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Editorial Content for Summer of Love

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Kerri Maher, the bestselling author of THE PARIS BOOKSELLER, invites readers to sun-drenched, love-filled 1967 San Francisco in SUMMER OF LOVE. Read More

Teaser

It’s the summer of 1967, and the counterculture revolution is in full swing in San Francisco. Winnie Hartley is determined to use poetry to capture the ever-shifting world around her. Meanwhile, Winnie’s sister, Miranda, throws herself into running the family business, Hartley Vineyard. But change is in the air, and each sister will make choices that set their lives hurtling down paths neither would have imagined. Fifty years later, Dawn Hartley stays as far as possible from her family’s famous vineyard, until a work assignment requires her to research the bestselling Vineland novels penned by a famously anonymous author. Determined to discover the identity of this mysterious writer, Dawn embarks on a soul-searching journey to uncover her family’s secrets, even as she’s keeping a big one of her own.

Promo

It’s the summer of 1967, and the counterculture revolution is in full swing in San Francisco. Winnie Hartley is determined to use poetry to capture the ever-shifting world around her. Meanwhile, Winnie’s sister, Miranda, throws herself into running the family business, Hartley Vineyard. But change is in the air, and each sister will make choices that set their lives hurtling down paths neither would have imagined. Fifty years later, Dawn Hartley stays as far as possible from her family’s famous vineyard, until a work assignment requires her to research the bestselling Vineland novels penned by a famously anonymous author. Determined to discover the identity of this mysterious writer, Dawn embarks on a soul-searching journey to uncover her family’s secrets, even as she’s keeping a big one of her own.

About the Book

In this moving novel about the transformative power of storytelling, three women make life-changing decisions set in motion by the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco, from the USA Today bestselling author of THE PARIS BOOKSELLER.

It’s the summer of 1967, and the counterculture revolution is in full swing in San Francisco. Every street is alive with the music of Jim Morrison and Dionne Warwick, and in view of the Golden Gate Bridge, young people come together, waving anti-war signs and shouting for equal rights. No one is more into the messages of love and peace than Winnie Hartley, who has just graduated from UC Berkeley determined to use poetry to capture the ever-shifting world around her. When she reconnects with her high school boyfriend, an aspiring musician, their creative bond further fuels her work, and it feels like her life is finally taking off.

Meanwhile, miles up the winding coast, her sister Miranda stays close to home, throwing herself into running the family business, Hartley Vineyard. She’s determined to make California wine that rivals French. But change is in the air this wild and heady summer, and each sister will make choices that set their lives hurtling down paths neither would have imagined.

Fifty years later, Dawn Hartley stays as far as possible from her family’s famous vineyard, until a work assignment requires her to research the bestselling Vineland novels penned by a famously anonymous author. Determined to discover the identity of this mysterious writer --- who seems to know things no one should about her family --- Dawn embarks on a soul-searching journey along the windswept coast of California to uncover her family’s secrets even as she’s keeping a big one of her own.

Audiobook available, read by Lauryn Allman 

Editorial Content for Paradise Pawn

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sam Johnson

Meg Richardson’s debut novel, PARADISE PAWN, revolves around two inseparable teenage best friends growing up inside a Florida pawn shop. This unique setting offers a constant tap of unpredictable people and pawned items that thrust them into the adult world of beauty norms and class dynamics as they navigate relatable woes of puberty and adolescent insecurity. Read More

Teaser

Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend. With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.

Promo

Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend. With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.

About the Book

A dazzling debut novel about best friends, adolescent longing, and the Florida pawn shop that promises to make their dreams come true --- if it doesn’t break them apart first.

Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend.

With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.

With incredible heart and wit, and based on Meg Richardson’s own experience working behind the counter of a pawn shop, PARADISE PAWN navigates current-day themes of trust, familial love, female friendship and class differences, and asks us how far we would go to protect the ones we love most.

Audiobook available, read by Lillie Ricciardi

Editorial Content for Absence

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jack Kramer

When I first looked at the cover of Andrew Dana Hudson’s ABSENCE, several possible topics regarding the one-word title came to mind. I wondered what kind of absence he was talking about. Maybe it's about a messed-up kid who skips school, or someone who manages never to be there when scary or difficult situations arise. But I could have taken a hundred guesses, and none would be anywhere near Hudson's perspective on or exploration of the subject.  Read More

Teaser

People are “popping.” Disappearing, one by one, into thin air. In a world where prospects for survival are increasingly grim, hopelessness prevails, political rifts widen, and doomsday predictions flourish. Harvey Ellis works the night shift for the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs, an ad hoc federal agency meant to contain and catalog the crisis. His job is to investigate claims of Absence, and, if validated, issue a standard government stipend to boost morale. Still recovering from losses of his own, Harvey is content in his routine --- until his life is shaken by an unexpected assignment from the central office. A woman long thought Absent has reappeared in her hometown of Dawnville, Kansas, claiming she’s been to the other side and back. But is her wild and irresistible account true?

Promo

People are “popping.” Disappearing, one by one, into thin air. In a world where prospects for survival are increasingly grim, hopelessness prevails, political rifts widen, and doomsday predictions flourish. Harvey Ellis works the night shift for the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs, an ad hoc federal agency meant to contain and catalog the crisis. His job is to investigate claims of Absence, and, if validated, issue a standard government stipend to boost morale. Still recovering from losses of his own, Harvey is content in his routine --- until his life is shaken by an unexpected assignment from the central office. A woman long thought Absent has reappeared in her hometown of Dawnville, Kansas, claiming she’s been to the other side and back. But is her wild and irresistible account true?

About the Book

In this gripping, moving and genre-blending speculative debut, the world is unraveling from an epidemic of human vanishing. Two rookie agents from the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs are dispatched to small-town Kansas to investigate a woman who claims to have returned from Spontaneous Human Absence, offering answers that could change everything.

People are “popping.” Disappearing, one by one, into thin air. A global cataclysm known as Spontaneous Human Absence. In a world where prospects for survival are increasingly grim, hopelessness prevails, political rifts widen, and doomsday predictions flourish.

Harvey Ellis works the night shift for the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs, an ad hoc federal agency meant to contain and catalog the crisis. Harvey’s job is to investigate claims of Absence, and, if validated, issue a standard government stipend to boost morale. Still recovering from losses of his own, Harvey is content in his routine --- until his life is shaken by an unexpected assignment from the central office.

A woman long thought Absent has reappeared in her hometown of Dawnville, Kansas, claiming she’s been to the other side and back. But is her wild and irresistible account true, or is she just the latest false prophet, offering hope to a world desperate for it? Together with his no-BS partner, Shonda Erins, Harvey travels to Dawnville to find out.

A resonant portrait of a world beset by confusion and dismay, Andrew Dana Hudson’s debut is a vividly imagined novel of cosmic proportions, examining life in a time of exception and the stories we tell to get by.

Audiobook available, read by Dan John Miller 

Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves

July 2026

Ben Reeves’ debut novel, EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, revolves around a subject that we typically shy away from: death.

Yes, if you want a topic that no one wants to think about, death is high on the list. But here we have a book so packed with thoughts about life (as well as death), and it is written so beautifully, that you will not want to miss it. I see why it is July’s #1 Indie Next pick.

Throughout the novel, death moves into various people's lives at the final moments in a stealthy way but brings a peace with it. The dying have a moment to assess who they are and what they have done --- and, in at least one case, mourn what will be missed. These little vignettes stand alone but will touch you in various ways. What do they all have in common? What is different about them?

Little Wonder by Sophie Chen Keller

July 2026

There are books that steal a part of your heart. LITTLE WONDER by Sophie Chen Keller is one of them. In it, Song gives birth to a boy who she names River. Because of the availability of work, she is apart from her husband, Blue, who has headed hours away where he can find a job in construction. They eagerly plan to see one another each year at the Spring Festival and mark the time until they will be together again. But they continue to be separated. Sadly, Song gets a cryptic call one day that Blue has been killed in a construction accident, and a settlement will be made.

When this money arrives, Song buys a piano that her son, who clearly has an interest in music, can play. For years, River is trained locally, but Song realizes that his talent needs a bigger stage. So they head to Beijing where he has a chance to practice and perform. But in the very crowded Beijing Railway Station, Song and River are separated, and panic ensues. Song has all of their possessions on her back, except for the piano they needed to leave behind. Their search to find each other is futile.

Single Girls by John Searles

July 2026

SINGLE GIRLS by John Searles is a wonderful ode to Helen Gurley Brown --- and the “girls” who worked with her --- wrapped up in a brilliantly fun novel. John worked with Helen (in later days, he became comfortable calling her Helen instead of Mrs. Brown) when he started in the Books department at Cosmopolitan. Since I have known John, he has been fascinated by the mission of the magazine and its history.

This is a departure from the thrillers that we have come to expect from John, and his storytelling is spot-on. He nails the gumption and pluckiness that Helen harnessed. She wrote a book called SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL, which encouraged women to become financially independent and experience sexual relationships before or without marriage. After its publication in 1962, she was inundated with letters from young women seeking her advice.

We have listed 13 of Carol’s previous Bookreporter.com Bets On picks that are now or soon to be in paperback. Which of these books have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.

July 24, 2026, 643 voters

July 24, 2026 - August 7, 2026

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of July 24 - August 7.

July 24, 2026

Last weekend was brilliant when it came to books. I read CITY OF WIDOWS for much of the day on Saturday (taking some time out to watch that crazy England vs. France soccer match, which was such fun). Nadia Hashimi once again brought me into Afghanistan with a story of two women and a young girl whose lives hang in the balance during America's last days there in August 2021.

The novel, which releases on Tuesday and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection, introduces readers to Marjan, who fought beside the Americans. She is desperate to escape the country that saw her given in marriage to a much older man when she was just 13. Years ago, she ran from him when she found out she was pregnant for a second time. She has worked hard to keep her daughter a secret.

July 21, 2026

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 20th and July 27th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to ReadingGroupGuides.com's BIG contest celebrating the release of Lisa Scottoline's latest psychological thriller, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING, which will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. 

One book group will win up to 10 copies of the book, and they will get to talk to Lisa in October or November. In addition, we are awarding 10 readers a single copy of the book, with a promise that they will read it and give us their feedback on it. They also will tell their book group members about the book and recommend that they discuss it this fall.

But even if you are not chosen to receive copies of the book, you and your group can still win a virtual chat with Lisa. We have four of these discussions to give away.

Be sure to enter the contest by Wednesday, August 19th at noon ET.