July 21, 2023
Welcome to Beach Town by Susan Wiggs – In Idyllic Alara Cove, a California beach town known for its sunny charm and chill surfer vibe, it’s graduation day at the elite Thornton Academy. The class valedictorian is Nikki Graziola, a surfer’s daughter who is there on scholarship. To the shock of everyone in the audience, Nikki’s commencement address reveals a secret that breaks open the whole community. As her truth explodes into light, Alara Cove will face a reckoning. Her new notoriety sends Nikki into exile for years, where she finds fame – but not fortune – overseas as a competitive surfer…until a personal tragedy compels her to return to Alara Cove. As Nikki struggles to rebuild her future, she finds that the people of the town have not forgotten her. But time has changed Alara Cove, and she’s drawn back into the life of the beach town she’s never quite forgotten, and where joy and redemption may be possible after all.
The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman – It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a student and the distinguished creative writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the terrible storm that caused the double tragedy. Now the college is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims. On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a winter storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears. When an alumni dies in a way shockingly familiar to the story she wrote and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?
The Summer Skies by Jenny Colgan – Morag MacIntyre is a third-generation pilot, running a tiny plane service with her grandfather. Scotland’s northernmost islands – dots of windswept land that reach almost to Norway – rely on their prop plane to deliver mail, tourists, medicine, and the occasional sheep. Morag is used to landing on pale golden beaches and tiny grass airstrips, during great storms or on bright endless summer nights. Up in the blue sky, she feels at one with the elements. Down on the ground is a different matter. Her grandfather needs to retire, and her pilot boyfriend, Hayden, wants Morag to move to Dubai with him, where they’ll fly A380s and say goodbye to Scottish winters. Morag is on the verge of making a huge life change when a storm finds her marooned on Inchborn island. Inchborn is totally off-grid, home only to an ancient, ruined abbey, a bird-watching station, and a population of one: Gregor, a visiting ornithologist from Glasgow who might have just the right perspective to help Morag pilot her course.
The Woman Inside by M.T. Edvardsson – Bill Olsson, recently widowed, is desperate to provide for his daughter, Sally. Struggling to pay rent, he welcomes a lodger into their home: Karla, a law student and aspiring judge who works as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Her clients are the Rytters, an incredibly wealthy couple who hide behind closed doors. The wife is ill and hasn’t left the house in months. The husband is controlling and obsessive. Is he just a worried husband, concerned for his wife’s health? Or is there something more sinister at play? As Bill’s situation becomes more dire, Karla is forced to make a difficult choice. And when the Rytters wind up dead and Karla is pulled in for questioning, she’s made to defend some parts of her past she’d rather not revisit.