Contemporary Fiction

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood Genres: Chick Lit, Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Romance, Young Adult Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on November 7, 2023 Format: eBook Pages: 362 In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis , life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.  Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.  Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….  As she rockets up the …

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston Genres: Adult, Chick Lit, Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Magical Realism, Romance Published by Berkley on June 25, 2024 Format: eBook Pages: 378 A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.  Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.  But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…  Because it is.  This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.  Elsy is sure that’s why she …

What You’re Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama Genres: Adult, Contemporary Fiction, Japanese Literature Published by Hanover Square Press on September 5, 2023 Format: Hardcover Pages: 304 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader’s life.  What are you looking for?  This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.  Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine editor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.  With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking …

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Genres: Adult, Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group on July 5, 2022 Format: eBook Pages: 418 In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends–often in love, but never lovers–come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.  On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.  Spanning thirty years, from …

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Genres: Adult, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystery Published by Ecco on May 3, 2022 Format: eBook Pages: 361 For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.   After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.   Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.   Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.   Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard …