Editorial Content for Summer of Love
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
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
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
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)
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
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
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.












