Gertie wakes up in a grump and sets out to tell everyone about it. After making the cheerful sun, flowers and fish thoroughly miserable, she feels no better. But when a cheeky monkey teaches her that by turning upside-down her frown turns to a smile, she makes a new friend. Approx 100 words Age range: 2-6 years

2020 American Fiction Award Winner! Welcome to Tandara, where gods are fickle, nightmares are real, and trolls make excellent bakers . . . Raine Stewart is convinced she’ll die young and alone in Alabama, the victim of a chronic, mysterious illness. Until a man in a shabby cloak steps out of her mirror and demands her help to defeat a bloodthirsty wizard. Raine shrugs it off as a hallucination—just one more insult from her failing body—and orders her intruder to take a hike. But the handsome figment of her imagination won’t take no for an answer, and kidnaps her anyway, launching her into a world of utmost danger—and urgent purpose. Ruled by unpredictable gods and unstable nations, Tandara is a land of shapeshifters and weather-workers, queens and legends. Ravenous monsters and greedy bounty hunters patrol unforgiving mountains. Riverboats pulled by sea-cattle trade down broad waterways. And creatures of nightmare stalk Raine herself, vicious in the pursuit of her blood. But Raine isn’t helpless or alone. She’s part of a band as resourceful as it is odd: a mage-shy warrior, a tattered wizard, a tenderhearted giant, and a prickly troll sorceress. Her new friends swear she has powers of her own. If she can stay under their protection, she might just live long enough to find out . . .

Venus Thibodeaux had a reputation for being trouble. Some said she started at birth. When she finally left Sinful shortly after turning eighteen, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. When she blew back into town four years later, no one was happy about her return. She immediately launched into her same old scams, picking off Sinful residents with ease before disappearing again as quickly as she’d appeared. Everyone assumed she’d headed back to New Orleans. But when an accident at the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Run uncovers her body, everyone Venus took for a ride becomes a suspect. The man at the top of that list sees the writing on the wall and hires Fortune to figure out who killed Venus, before he goes to prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie start poking around into Venus’s complicated life, hoping to find the killer. And to solve their first official case.

Gertrude Sanders is completely devoted to her family and her job as the librarian of the Nowhere, Texas library. When a man starts parking his book wagon outside the library, she makes it her business to force him to leave town. It doesn’t take her long to discover that most of the people in town are happier to go to the book wagon than go to the library. Jed Thorn owns a traveling book wagon, and he’s happy to keep traveling, not settling down anywhere. The first time he sees Gertrude, he’s certain that she’s the woman who God created just for him. He loves everything about her from her prickly personality to her animosity toward him. Will Jed be able to convince Gertrude they’re meant to be together? Or will he be forced to move on…without her.

LAPD detective Milo Sturgis calls on psychologist Alex Delaware to assist in a homicide investigation to catch a brutal serial killer.

Bestselling author Melody Carlson begins an inspiring new series of adventure and romance on the Oregon Trail. Kentucky, 1854—Elizabeth Martin has mourned her husband’s death for three years, but now she feels ready to fulfill the dream they had shared—to take their two children west. The dream becomes reality when her middle-aged parents and bachelor brother surprise her with the news that they want to go as well. After converting three of their best wagons to prairie schooners and thoroughly outfitting them, the little party travels from Kentucky to Kansas City, where they join a substantial wagon train. Elizabeth soon finds herself being drawn to the group’s handsome guide, Eli Kincade. The long journey and deepening relationships challenge the travelers to their core, and Eli’s mysterious past leaves Elizabeth with more questions than answers. She knows there’s no turning back, but she wonders, What have I gotten myself into? About This Series: The Homeward on the Oregon Trail series brings to life the challenges a young widow faces as she journeys west, settles her family in the Pacific Northwest, and helps create a new community among strong-willed and diverse pioneers.

A Brief Debacle Edna and Gertie Simmons live a leisurely life, and as they have aged into their seventies, their thirst for adventure has slowly diminished. However, when Edna finds that her briefcase, containing some of her most sentimental pieces of jewelry, has vanished, she contracts Gertie to go on an unforgettable journey to locate it. A Bit of a Pickle When Edna Simmons takes a DNA test and finds out that she has a brother, her wife and her decide to go on a trip to find him, but after meeting Fredrick Tillison, Edna finds that her whole world has changed. Will this man become the missing piece to her puzzle, or is there a skeleton in his closet that he isn't telling her about?