homecoming

"Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant Caz--a magically sentient spider plant--have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire's most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city's elite. Then a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames. She and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she'd see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy--and very handsome--neighbor who can't take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she's fed and help fix up her new home. In need of income and reluctantly inspired by the beauty and people of the island who have welcomed her into their hearts, Kiela discovers something that even the bakery in town doesn't have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries that become the town's, and her handsome neighbor's, new favorite confection. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela decides to open the island's first-ever and much-needed secret spellshop. Her plan comes with risks--the empire condemns the use of unsanctioned magic, and the consequence of sharing spells with commoners is death. But Kiela has only just found a place that feels like home and people who feel like family, and she'll risk anything for a chance at happiness."--.

Lily Armitage is summoned to her family's grand manor for Christmas by her estranged aunt who wants her to take part in a family tradition to play the Christmas game, promising that whoever wins will secure the deed to the home. As Lily gathers with her cousins to play the game, she realizes that each of them have their own agenda and they're not about to play fair. But Lily isn't interested in the home, she wants to learn who killed her mother there twenty-one years ago. When a snowstorm strands them however, she realizes someone is hiding a secret and the game takes a deadly turn.

"Growing up in Slater, Isadora Chang never felt at ease in the repressive small town, even before she realized she was bisexual--but after the deaths of two childhood friends, Slater went from feeling claustrophobic to suffocating. So, Isa took off before the town could swallow her, too. Even though it meant leaving everything she knew behind, including her last surviving friend, Mason. When Isa's abusive father dies, however, she agrees to come back from art school just long enough to collect the inheritance. But then Mason turns up at the cemetery with a revelation and a plea: their friends were murdered by an evil that haunts the town, and he needs Isa to help stop it--before it takes anyone else. When Isa begins to hear strange songs on the wind, and eerie artwork fills her sketchbook that she can't recall drawing, she's forced to stop running and confront her past. Because something is waiting in the shadows of Slater's valleys, something that feeds on the pain and heartbreak of its children. Whatever it is, it knows Isa's back... and it won't let her escape again"--Provided by publisher.

"Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, unexpected, and explosive. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ's not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said--and left unsaid--to save each other?"--Provided by publisher.

Frank Ryder is a star pitcher with undeniable talent, but he's haunted by guilt over a tragic accident in his past that he just can't let go. To go forward in life and in his career, Frank is forced to confront his past and return to his hometown to visit all those affected by the tragedy in order to find peace.

"A . . . debut novel, set over one emotionally charged weekend at an animal sanctuary in western Kansas, where maternal, romantic, and community bonds are tested in the wake of an estranged daughter's homecoming"--Provided by publisher.

Released from prison, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter, but with everyone against her, she turns to local bar owner Ledger Ward who, risking everything, secretly helps her make amends.

"The Montoyas know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won't ever leave their home in Four Rivers, even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. When Orqu?dea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead Orqu?dea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers. Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Marimar, Rey, and Tatinelly's daughter, Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings. But a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orqu?dea's line. The four descendants travel to Ecuador--to the place where Orqu?dea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back"--OCLC.

Three brothers return home to their small town of Little Wing, Wisconsin, for a wedding and to reunite with another brother who stayed to farm their land, and, while there, they learn about the true meaning of adult friendship and love.

"In this . . . thriller from . . . Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father's bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound- and dangerous-secrets hidden within its walls?"--Provided by publisher.