June 18 2021

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren – Single mom Jessica Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world.  Raised by her grandparents-who now help raise her sever year old daughter, Juno – Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in.  After all, her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before Juno was even born.  Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.  But then jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever.  Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands.  At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: one of GeneticAlly’s founders, Dr. River Pena.  This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Pena.  The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate.  But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you.  Jess-who is barely making ends meet – is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River.  As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond Match” that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist – and the science behind a soulmate- than she thought.

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone – Cat lives in Los Angeles, far away from 36 Westeryk road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, grew up.  As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark imaginary place under the pantry stairs, full of pirates, witches, and clowns.  These days, Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home or the fact that El now lives there with her husband, Ross.  But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westryk Road, which has scarcely changed in twenty years.  The grand old house is still full of shadowy hidden corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past.  Because someone – El?-has left Cat clues in almost every room: a treasure hunt that leads right back to Mirrorland, where she knows the truth lies crouched and waiting…

The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman – Elizabeth, Veronica, Rachel and Emily met at Camp Birchwood as girls in 1985, where over four summers they were the Clover Girls – inseparable for those magical few weeks of freedom – until the last summer that pulled them apart.  Now approaching middle age, the women are facing challenges they never imagined as teens – struggles with their marriages, their children, their careers, and wondering who it is they see when they look in the mirror.  Then Liz, V and Rachel each receive a letter from Emily with devastating news.  She implores the girls who were once her best friends to reunite at Camp Birchwood one last time, to spend a week together revisiting the dreams they’d put aside and repair the relationships they’d allowed to sour.  But the women are no longer the same idealistic, confident girls who once ruled Camp Birchwood, and perhaps some friendships aren’t meant to last forever…

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer – In the Spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home.  She has no fondness for the Germans who patrol her streets and impose their curfews, but has never given much thought to what goes on behind the walls that contain her Jewish neighbours.  She knows all too well about German brutality – and that it’s the reason she must conceal her real identity.  But in befriending Sara, a nurse who shares her apartment floor, Elzbieta makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism.  Using Sara’s credentials to smuggle children out of the ghetto beings Elzbieta face to face with the reality of the war behinds its walls and to the plight of the Gorka family, who much make the impossible decision to give up their newborn daughter or watch her starve.  For Roman Gorka, this final injustice stirs him to rebellion with a zeal not even his newfound love for Elzbieta can suppress.  But his recklessness brings unwanted attention to Sara’s cause, unwittingly putting Elzbieta and her family in harm’s way until one violent act threatens to destroy their chance at freedom forever.