WENDY WAX a former broadcaster, is the USA Today Bestselling author of sixteen novels and two novellas including the popular Ten Beach Road series. Her novels revolve around journeys of self-discovery and the bonds of friendship that get us through the toughest times.  And while her characters deal with real life issues, Wax, like Mary Poppins, believes that a spoonful of humor helps the harsh realities go down.

A former Hollywood actress in need of a reset heads to Treasure Island, Florida. Swept up in a flourishing social life—she reunites with her spunky grandmother and acts on the sizzling chemistry between herself and Luke, a local police officer she recruits to help with the frequent break-ins at grandmothers beach house. A perfect summer read!

KRISTINA MCMORRIS is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of two novellas and eight historical novels, including the million-copy bestseller Sold on a Monday. Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Harper Muse, and Kensington Books, her novels have garnered more than two dozen prestigious awards and nominations, most notably the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, RWA's RITA® Award, and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction.

A gripping tale of family, motherhood, love, resiliency, identity, and class. Celia, 1880 Portland, is an American Chinese woman, that wakes up one morning drugged, disguised, shanghaied and desperate to find a way to return to her family.

JOY CALLAWAY is an international bestselling author of historical fiction and southern contemporary romance. She formerly served as a marketing director for a wealth management company. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Public Relations from Marshall University and an M.M.C. in Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina. She resides in Charlotte, NC.

A tale of both tragedy and triumph. World War I, Charlotte, NC. 1918. Broadway darling Calla Connolly had it all as the resident performer to cheer the troops. She inadvertently overhears a sensitive Army secret and is ordered to remain at Camp Greene for the duration of the war. Calla falls in love with the man responsible for trapping her at camp, and she's sworn to keep the secret that threatens the men she's come to care for. Calla is forced to decide what her dreams are worth-and if the future she never expected might only be possible if she lets those dreams go.

KATHERINE SCOTT CRAWFORD is an 11th generation Southerner, born and raised in South Carolina. At ten she climbed a shelf to nab her parents’ copy of Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides because its cover looked good and worn. Katherine double majored at Clemson University, moved to Charleston and earned a MA in English from the College of Charleston/The Citadel, studied in Italy, lived on Folly Beach, became an adjunct professor, and published her first historical novel, Keowee Valley in 2012. She was a columnist for Gannett with The Greenville News (SC) and the Asheville Citizen-Times(NC). She spent 13 years as a college English professor and earned an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

“My historical fiction is steeped in place: I want my readers transported. Always, it sparks from a scene I can’t get out of my head. With THE MINIATURIST’S ASSISTANT, I met an early-1800s girl in an old Charleston alley on a hot summer night, who begged me to Come back.”

In historic Charleston, art conservator Gamble Vance throws herself into her career restoring centuries-old miniature portraits. But one portrait haunts her: a woman in a fox stole, with familiar hazel eyes. When Gamble meets a girl in an alley, she’s convinced it’s the same woman—and it’s not the first time they’ve met…Gamble races to reconcile her complicated past, solve an art mystery, and save the people she loves across two different lifetimes…

CATHERINE MACK is the pseudonym for the USA Today and Globe & Mail bestselling author Catherine McKenzie. Her books are approaching two million copies sold worldwide and have been translated into multiple languages. Television rights to Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies and its sequels sold in a major auction to Fox TV for development into a series. A dual Canadian and US citizen, she splits her time between Canada and various warmer locations in the United States.

Attending your best friend’s wedding should be a piece of (wedding) cake, but not for Eleanor Dash, bestselling author of the Vacation Mysteries series, murder seems to follow her every time she goes on vacation. Emma, Eleanor’s best friend is starring in the movie adaptation of When in Rome, Eleanor’s first novel. Emma is also marrying Fred Winters, a major movie star and Emma’s co-star. Filming wraps and they invite the whole cast and crew to their wedding at nearby Catalina Island. There may be a storm headed their way—because of course there is—but nothing will stop their nuptials…that is until Emma receives a note that says “Someone is going to die at the wedding.” Eleanor will do everything she can to uncover the murderer so true love can prevail before it’s too late…

MARY ALICE MONROE is the NY Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times bestselling author of over 30 books. Nearly 8 million copies of her books have been published worldwide, and she’s earned numerous accolades and awards, including induction into the South Carolina Academy of Authors’ Hall of Fame.

The first of two epic and triumphant novels celebrating one intrepid woman's life across multiple generations in the American South.

1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era.

1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart.

In conversation partner Signe Pike, is the Bestselling Author of The Lost Queen series, and her nonfiction work, Faery Tale. She was an acquisitions editor at Random House and then Penguin. The Lost Queen series is currently in development for television by the Emmy award-winning production company Made Up Stories. Pike has researched and written about Celtic history for over a decade. Her non-fiction has been published by Salon, Charleston City Paper, Book Riot and NPR.org.

MARIE BOSTWICK is a New York Times bestselling author of nineteen uplifting works of historical and contemporary fiction. Marie’s novel, “The Second Sister” was adapted into the 2018 Hallmark Hall of Fame feature film “Christmas Everlasting”, starring Patti LaBelle. Marie’s books have been published in fourteen different languages.

If you love stories about friendships, strong women, the 60's, and the power of the written word, this is the book for you. In 1963 picture-perfect suburbia, four women discover that their seemingly perfect lives are missing something essential. Bound by a shared sense of longing and dissatisfaction, they form a book club that will challenge their assumptions, ignite their ambitions, and forge an unbreakable bond of sisterhood. A powerful tribute to friendship and self-discovery, this captivating novel celebrates the power of women to find their voices and create a better future for themselves, one page at a time.

MARY MARTHA GREENE excelled with a career in government relations and politics, including serving on the staff of Governor (and, later, US Secretary of Education), lobbying, political action, business development, and consulting. Throughout her career, Mary Martha has shared her love of cooking, baking, and entertaining to aid her in making friends and influencing people in the legislative arenas. Since the publication of her first book, The Cheese Biscuit Queen Tells All by the University of South Carolina Press, Mary Martha has been featured on Cookbooks with Virginia with Chef Virginia Willis; appeared with Chef Jacques Pépin at the Amelia Island Book Festival’s Celebrity Author Luncheon; and interviewed her treasured friend, the late Mrs. Emily Meggett, the New York Times Bestselling author of Gullah Geechee Home Cooking at the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

The Cheese Biscuit Queen returns with signature sass, spirited stories, and 80 new recipes. Mary Martha Greene is back and serving up generous portions of fabulous Southern cooking and lively storytelling in this sequel to her best-selling book “The Cheese Biscuit Queen Tells All”. 

In this new book, Queen Mary Martha exclaims, "kiss my aspic!," and invites readers into her world of Southern hospitality. She tells the kinds of stories that some might wish were kept within the family, and shares recipes just as juicy and delicious as the best gossip. Greene's real-life characters sparkle with humor and Southern charm.
  Organized by course, recipes include Shrimp Remoulade Deviled Eggs, Pride of the Pee Dee Chicken Bog, Chocolate Pound Cake with Pecan Fudge Icing, Chatham Artillery Punch and more!  Charmingly illustrated with vintage photographs, and complete with a foreword by Cassandra King, author of “Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy”.

The Cheese Biscuit Queen, Kiss My Aspic! is the perfect addition to all kitchens celebrating food, family, friends, and Southern culture.

ALKA JOSHI is the internationally bestselling author of the Jaipur Trilogy. Her debut novel, The Henna Artist, immediately became a New York Times Bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick, an LA Times Bestseller, a Toronto Star and Globe & Mail Bestseller, an Indie Bookstores Bestseller, a Cosmopolitan Best Audiobook, and a Goodreads favorite. Forbes selected Alka as one of 50 Women Over 50 who are shattering age and gender norms. Alka was born in India and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts.

A novel of identity and self-discovery takes readers from Bombay to Prague, Florence, Paris and London, to uncover the mystery behind a famous painter's death.

When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at a hospital in Bombay, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party with all of Bombay society and invites Sona along. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion. 

Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn't know she was going to die?

The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings—the first to Petra, Mira's childhood friend in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira's history, she learns that the charming facade she'd come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself?

VIOLA SHIPMAN is the pseudonym for Wade Rouse, the internationally bestselling author of several books, which have been translated into nearly 20 languages. Wade chose his grandmother’s name, Viola Shipman, as a pen name to honor the woman whose heirlooms and family stories inspire his fiction. Wade earned his B.A. from Drury University and his master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. He divides his time between Michigan, and Palm Springs, California, and is also an acclaimed writing teacher who has mentored numerous students to become published authors.

A young romance writer makes a discovery that throws her elitist family into chaos in this sharp, witty and entirely delightful family drama.

Emma Page grew up the black sheep in a bookish household. Her parents, self-proclaimed “serious” authors who run their own vanity press, The Mighty Pages, mingle in highbrow social circles that look down on anything too popular or mainstream.

Hiding her own romance manuscript from her disapproving parents, Emma finds inspiration at the family cottage among the “fluff” they despise: the juicy summer romances that belonged to her late grandmother. But a chance discovery unearthed from her Gigi’s belongings reveals a secret that has the power to ruin her parents’ business and destroy their reputation in the industry—a secret that has already fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous publishing insider with a grudge to settle. Now Emma must decide—as much as she’s dreamed of the day when her parents are forced to confront their own egos, can she really just sit back and watch The Mighty Pages be exposed and their legacy destroyed?

Whisking you from the wealthy enclaves of the Hamptons to the sparkling shores of Lake Michigan, The Page Turner is a delectable glimpse inside the world of publishing and Viola Shipman’s most glittering achievement yet!

COLLEEN OAKLEY is the USA Today bestselling author of The Invisible Husband of Frick Island, You Were There Too, Close Enough to Touch, Before I Go, and The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise. Colleen’s novels have been longlisted for the Southern Book Prize twice and Close Enough to Touch won the French Reader’s Prize. Her books have been translated into more than 21 languages, optioned for film and have received numerous accolades.

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to an upscale restaurant to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it…

RENEE ROSEN is a USA Today bestselling author. Her novels include Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl, The Social Graces, Park Avenue Summer, and several others. She is a native of Akron, Ohio, and a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. She lives in Chicago.

She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.

When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers-Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.

As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius, and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground. In the decades to come—through soaring heights, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.

PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of seventeen novels. She is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast.

Inspired by a true literary mystery, a sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both…

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book that became a national sensation. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother…

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter. When a stranger contacts her from London claiming to have discovered something that could lead to her mother’s disappearance, Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic and finds refuge in a family retreat nestled in the Lake District and it is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind…

🎉Join us to celebrate! By attending this event you will have the opportunity to be the FIRST readers of THE WANDERING SEASON. This is exclusive to our event as the book does not go on sale until April!🎉

AIMIE RUNYAN writes to celebrate history’s unsung heroines. She has been honored as a Historical Novel Society Editors’ Choice selection, as a three-time finalist for the Colorado Book Awards, and as a nominee for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year. Aimie is active as an educator and speaker in the writing community and beyond.

Unraveling the tangled roots of her family takes her places she never expected.

Veronica Stratton visits her parents in idyllic Estes Park for Christmas. She's fresh from a breakup with her longtime boyfriend, so she's eager to reconnect with her beloved family in the mountains and forget about her troubles for a few days. But with the holiday comes a DNA test from her younger sister that confirms her secret suspicions: she's adopted. Having the truth out in the open leaves her feeling unmoored in ways she didn't anticipate.

She plans to go to Europe to see four of the places listed on her DNA ancestry report. She treks to County Mayo in Ireland; the Dordogne region of France; the countryside of Lombardy in Italy, and Copenhagen, Denmark. She hopes to learn about where her family lived while also making connections for her rapidly expanding business, but she finds that each stop brings her visions of her ancestors that raise more questions than they answer. And among those pressing questions is how charming Irish castle keeper Niall Callahan will fit into her visions for the future…

CHRIS BOHJALIAN is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 25 books. He has published somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5 million words. His work has been translated into 35 languages and become three movies (MIDWIVES, SECRETS OF EDEN, and PAST THE BLEACHERS) and an Emmy-winning TV series (THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT). He has two other novels in development for TV series as well. He is also a playwright. He has won countless awards and accolades on his work. He lives in Vermont.

A Washington Post “Book to Watch for in 2025.”

In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger…

Virginia, 1864—Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield. And then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy—but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? And if she succeeds, does she try to secretly bring him across Union lines, where she might negotiate a trade for news of her own husband?

A vivid and sweeping story of two people navigating the boundaries of love and humanity in a landscape of brutal violence, The Jackal’s Mistress is a heart-stopping new novel, based on a largely unknown piece of American history, from one of our greatest storytellers.

Join us to meet not just one, but THREE bestselling authors and writing pals as they chat about their brand new books.

JOY JORDAN-LAKE is the #1 Amazon bestselling author of thirteen books and has been awarded the winner of the Christy Award for “Best First Novel”, a 2023 North Carolina Reads selection, and an Editors’ Choice recipient selection. Joy spent many a summer vacation on St. Simons Island, Georgia, a place of heartbreaking and surprising history. She holds two master’s degrees and a PhD in English and has taught literature and writing at several universities.

Echoes of Us: In the midst of World War II, a Tennessee farm boy, a Jewish Cambridge student, and a German POW forge a connection that endures―against all odds.

Everything that Will Dobbins, Dov Silverberg, and Hans Hessler fought for is at risk as their descendants clash for control of the corporation they founded together. In an attempt to remake its tattered corporate image, the firm hires event planner Hadley Jacks and her sister Kitzie to organize a reunion for the families on St. Simons Island, Georgia, the place that changed all three men’s lives forever. As Hadley and her sister delve into the friends’ past, they uncover the life of the courageous young woman who links them all together…and the old wounds that could tear everything apart.

Told in dual timelines spanning World War II and the present, Echoes of Us follows the ripple effects of war, the bonds that outlast it, and the hope that ultimately carries us forward.

CAMILLE DI MAIO is the bestselling author of Until We Meet, The First Emma, The Beautiful Strangers, The Way of Beauty, Before the Rain Falls, and The Memory of Us. She and her husband have worked in real estate for twenty-five years in both Texas and Virginia.

Come Fly with Me: Welcome to a glamorous gateway to the jet age. It’s 1962, the dawn of the jet-set era. Hope takes flight for two Pan Am stewardesses navigating an adventurous new life…

Judy Goodman and Beverly Caldwell have different reasons for putting continents and oceans between themselves and their disparate pasts, but they have the same desire―to earn a coveted position on an elite team of stewardesses for Pan American Airlines. For Judy, running away from an oppressive marriage in small-town Pennsylvania is a risk she must take. And for Beverly, leaving behind the gilded cage of New York society will allow her to pursue a future of her own making.

Judy and Beverly are bound for faraway destinations and opportunities that other women dare only to dream about. But as they build a deep friendship, encounter love and danger, and discover what’s truly important, Judy and Beverly must also confront the secrets that could change their lives all over again―and forever…

ROCHELLE B. WEINSTEIN is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of eight women’s fiction novels. A former entertainment industry executive, she splits her time between sunny South Florida and the mountains of North Carolina. Rochelle is the monthly book contributor for NBC’s South Florida Live, Miami’s AQUA Magazine, and Women Writers, Women’s Books and teaches publishing workshops at Nova Southeastern University.

We Are Made of Stars: Secrets, lies, and second chances are served up beneath the stars at a picturesque mountain getaway

At the Vis Ta Vie inn, Reneé and Jean-Paul De La Rue face the daunting decision to close their beloved home for good. They’re not the only ones going through a season of change, though. Their guests include three couples in crisis: Hollywood celebs Leo and Penny are spending their silver anniversary together while on the cusp of divorce. Lucy, a practical-minded therapist, and Henry, an astronomer with his head in the stars, are struggling to find common ground. And former lawyer and current stay-at-home mom Sienna and charismatic sports agent Adam look perfect but are hiding rifts of their own. Thrown into the mix are self-absorbed single mother Cassidy and her sullen fifteen-year-old daughter, Rosalie.

The stage is set for a week of betrayals, regrets, and shocking truths that can rend the heart or heal it. Vis Ta Vie―live your life―captures what it means to love through the darkness, and to find the light even after the magic fades.

ETHAN JOELLA is the bestselling author of A Little Hope- A Read with Jenna Pick, A Quiet Life, and Same Bright Stars. He grew up in Pennsylvania. He teaches English and psychology at the University of Delaware and specializes in community writing workshops and online instruction. His work has appeared in River Teeth, The Cimarron Review, The MacGuffin, Delaware Beach Life, and Third Wednesday. He lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with his wife and two daughters.

From the author of A Little Hope, an uplifting and emotionally resonant novel set in a beach town about a local restaurant owner at a turning point...

Three generations of Schmidts have run their family’s namesake beachfront restaurant and Jack has been at the helm since the death of his father. Jack puts the demands of the restaurant above all else. He can't remember the last time he sat on the beach or even enjoyed a moment to himself.
Meanwhile, the DelDine group has been snapping up beloved eateries along this stretch of coast and are pursuing Jack with a very generous offer to take over Schmidt’s.
Jack craves companionship and maybe even a family. He wonders if closing the door on the restaurant might open a new window for him. But who would he be without Schmidt’s, and can he trust that DelDine will continue to employ his staff and honor his family’s legacy?

When Jack receives startling news from the past, he begins to reshape his life and forge unexpected new friendships. But will he really let go of the very things that have defined him?

PAM JENOFF is the NYT bestselling author of Code Name Sapphire, The Woman With The Blue Star, The Lost Girls of Paris, The Orphan’s Tale, The Kommandant’s Girl, The Diplomat’s Wife, The Ambassador’s Daughter, The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach, The Winter Guest, The Things We Cherished, Almost Home, and A Hidden Affair.

She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. Following her work at the Pentagon, Pam moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Pam left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She now teaches law school at Rutgers.

A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival.

London, 1953. Louise discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend during the war…

Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.

Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and the death of her friend, but nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever.

MARIE BENEDICT is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms. She found her calling unearthing the hidden historical stories of women. She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and the novella, Agent 355. With Victoria Christopher Murray, she co-wrote the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie―a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder.

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together…

Want to dine at the famous Caffe Piccolo on Valentine’s Day💖and listen to some Carolina Beach Music? We’ll make that reservation for you! Bring your gal pals, book club friends, or that special someone to hear about the stories behind the hits in Dr. Rick Simmons’ newest book, Carolina Beach Music.

From the author of “The Hidden History of the Grand Strand” comes a book reminiscing on soulful songs about the beach, parties, a special love, dancing or just relaxing in the sun- an honorable tribute to the music and artists of the classics that defined generations.

Just as the dances of beach music have their twists and turns, so, too, do the stories behind the hits. Carolina beach music has long been a mainstay of culture in the Southeast. Yet until the late 1960s, you needed an impressive collection of 45s if you wanted to hear those songs in your home or at a party. But beginning with Atlantic Records’ Beach Beat in 1967, that music slowly became available on albums from Bell, Warner Bros., Ripete and other labels. Through interviews and firsthand accounts, author Rick Simmons examines the stories behind those classic albums, the people who created them and the artists and songs that contributed to the phenomenon known as Carolina beach music.

DR. RICK SIMMONS was previously the George K. Anding endowed professor and director of honors at Louisiana Tech University. He is the author of more than 130 published works, including 8 books, his previous works for Arcadia Publishing, The History Press include Carolina Beach Music: The Classic Years and Carolina Beach Music from the ’60s to the ’80s: The New Wave, as well as Defending South Carolina’s Coast: The Civil War from Georgetown to Little River and Hidden History of the Grand Strand. He currently lives in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and teaches at the Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences.

JENNIFER COBURN is the author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about the strength of women's friendship and the connections that can be forged during even the most harrowing of times. She has also published a mother-daughter travel memoir, We'll Always Have Paris, as well as six contemporary women's novels. Additionally, Jennifer has contributed to five literary anthologies. Jennifer lives in San Diego.

From the author of Cradles of the Reich comes a poignant and inspiring tale for fans of The Forest of Vanishing Stars and The German Wife about resistance, friendship, and the dangers of propaganda, based on the real story of the Nazi "show camp" Theresienstadt.

Childhood friends meet again as adults during the making of the Nazi propaganda film Hitler Gives a City to the Jews. Hannah is a Jewish prisoner, and her former friend Hilde is now working for the German Ministry of Propaganda. When the two face off, they discover who they truly are - and who they are meant to become.

JENNIFER MOORMAN is the bestselling author of the Mystic Water Series, The Baker’s Man, and The Magic All Around. Born and raised in southern Georgia, she is a foodie, a self-taught baker, and has a travel bag ready for her next adventure. She can always be won over with chocolate, unicorns, or rainbows. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Josephine Reynolds buys her family’s ancestral home, a Craftsman bungalow in disrepair and foreclosure. Josephine can’t believe her luck when she finds the home’s original door in a salvage yard- but when she installs the door and steps through it, Josephine is transported into 1927, where she meets her great-grandmother immersed in the vibrant Jazz Age. Her grandmother’s life was tragically cut short in a speakeasy raid just a week after their fateful meeting.

Josephine has a chilling revelation—her own existence is vanishing—and she must race against time to rewrite history. Josephine is desperate to not only save her grandmother, but to save her own future too…

JENNI L. WALSH is a USA Today bestselling author of over twelve books. Her passion lies in transporting readers to another world, be it in historical or contemporary settings. She is a proud member of the Tall Poppy writers, a graduate of Villanova University, and lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. Jenni has written historical novels Becoming Bonnie, Side by Side, A Betting Woman, The Call of the Wrens, Unsinkable, and the forthcoming Ace, Marvel, Spy. She also writes books for children.

Trailblazer, superstar, activist, and spy: Alice Marble is an American icon. For fans of The Boys in the Boat and Fast Girls- comes a page-turning historical novel.

"A smashing success!” — Billie Jean King

At seventeen, Alice Marble has no formal tennis skills and no coach. With steadfast determination and one sacrifice after another, Alice plays her heart out on the courts of the rich and famous, at national tournaments, and—the greatest of them all—at Wimbledon, rising to be one of the top-ranked players in the world.

But then her world falls apart. With the outbreak of war with Germany, Alice’s tennis career and life comes to a screeching halt. Alice is given the chance to fight back when the US Army sends her a request: Under the guise of playing in tennis exhibition games in Switzerland, she would be a spy for them. Alice aches for nothing more than to avenge what the war has taken from her and prove herself against this new opponent. But what awaits her might be her greatest challenge yet…

FIONA DAVIS is the New York Times bestselling author of seven historical fiction novels set in iconic New York City buildings, including The Spectacular, The Magnolia Palace, The Address, and The Lions of Fifth Avenue, which was a Good Morning America book club pick. Her articles have appeared in publications like The Wall Street Journal and the Oprah magazine. She first came to New York as an actress, but fell in love with writing after getting a master's degree at Columbia Journalism School. She currently lives in Manhattan.

An utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same...

New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

SIGNE PIKE was born in Ithaca, NY, and graduated from Cornell University. She worked as an acquisitions editor at Random House and then Penguin before leaving to write her first book, a travel memoir entitled Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World. In 2018 she published her debut novel, The Lost Queen, which became a bestselling series, and is currently in development for television by an Emmy award-winning production company. Pike has researched and written about Celtic history for over a decade. Her non-fiction has been published by Salon, Charleston City Paper, Book Riot and NPR.org.

For fans of Philippa Gregory, Ken Follett, and Outlander comes a legend-steeped story of the real King Arthur and his contemporaries. A saga that transports the reader to a vivid world of meticulously researched early medieval Scottish history. Even the Loch Ness monster makes an appearance in this kaleidoscopic epic with deep roots in both history and myth.

This sweeping historical fiction saga breathes new life into the story of Camelot, it is truly Philippa Gregory meets Game of Thrones. A Litchfield Books staff favorite author for years, Signe Pike writes a fantastic book. Full of adventure, forbidden romance, and incredibly well researched, The Lost Queen series is worth sitting down and devouring in one sitting. You will be completely captivated by the ancient Scottish landscape, Pike brings life to a forgotten time.

Signe’s novels tell the story of the tragically forgotten historical queen of 6th-century Scotland, —twin sister of the man who inspired the legendary character of Merlin. Pike continues her chronicle of the swirling intrigue and bloody confrontations among the kingdoms of the Arthurian period. It is 580 C.E.; Languoreth, Queen of Strathclyde, has just been reunited with the daughter she’s believed dead for years. Once the truth of the events surrounding her daughter’s disappearance emerges, long-awaited justice will be served. Languoreth’s husband insists she stay at home to monitor the troublesome Christian monk. To top it off, she has renounced her affair with the warrior Maelgwn Pendragon: “I am a woman of the Old Way, married to a Christian. Adultery is not tolerated. Should we be discovered, our people would lose an irreplicable advocate.” Meanwhile, Artúr mac Aedan (Arthur) must answer a call from his father to assume his destiny among the Scots. (Kirkus Reviews)

Those who have read The Lost Queen (2018) and The Forgotten Kingdom (2020) will be right at home.

A deeply researched, sweeping, and utterly compelling tale of magic, betrayal, battle, and destiny, The Shadowed Land is this winter's can't-miss historical epic."
—New York Times bestselling author Kristin Harmel

Ladies, get out your pearls for this exciting event- “Pearls are always appropriate.”- Jackie Kennedy.

DAWN TRIPP is the bestselling author of the biographical novels Jackie and Georgia, finalist for the New England Book Award and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is also the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poetry and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She is a graduate of Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her family.

LITCHFIELD BOOKS 2024 STAFF PICK⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In this mesmerizing novel about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, acclaimed author Dawn Tripp has crafted an intimate story of love and power, family and tragedy, loss and reinvention.

The world has divided my life into three:
Life with Jack
Life with Onassis
Life as a woman who goes to work because she wants to.
My life is all of these things, and it is none of these things.
They continue to miss what’s right in front of them. I love books.
I love the sea. I love horses. Children. Art. Ideas. History.
Beauty. Because beauty blows us open to wonder.
Even the beauty that breaks your heart.

Jackie is the story of a woman who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it—a deeply private person with a nuanced, formidable intellect. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence. This spare, exquisite novel is a window into the world of a woman who led many different lives.

NOELLE SALAZAR was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where she's been a Navy recruit, a medical assistant, an NFL cheerleader, and always a storyteller. As a novelist, she has done extensive research into the Women Airforce Service Pilots, interviewing vets and visiting the training facility. Noelle lives in Bothell, Washington with her family. Her debut, The Flight Girls, was a USA Today and international bestseller. It was followed by the critically acclaimed Angels of the Resistance and The Roaring Days of Zora Lily.

For fans of Kate Quinn and Beatriz Williams, this sweeping story follows a fearless nurse who must leave love behind when duty calls her back to the front...

Somewhere in the Pacific, 1943. Kate is a nurse who bravely flies back and forth from the front to rescue wounded soldiers, amid long days, harsh conditions and often dangerous weather, but an injury results in her reassignment to the comfort of the English countryside. Love has never been part of her plan, but despite herself, she falls for an officer with three bullet wounds, startling blue eyes and a wicked sense of humor. For the first time, Kate sees a future far from the horrors of war and hate. But before she can pursue it, a secret from her past calls her to duty, and she'll have to travel back into danger one more time to rescue a part of herself she'd left behind. But will she make it back? And will that future still be waiting for her if she does?

SARAH LOUDIN THOMAS grew up on a 100-acre farm in French Creek, WV, the seventh generation to live there. Sarah is the director of Jan Karon’s Mitford Museum in Hudson, NC. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Coastal Carolina University and is the author of the acclaimed novels The Right Kind of Fool–winner of the 2021 Selah Book of the Year–and Miracle in a Dry Season–winner of the 2015 Inspy Award. Sarah has also been a finalist for the Christy Award, ACFW Carol Award and the Christian Book of the Year Award. She and her husband live in western North Carolina.

Seven years ago, a hidden betrayal scattered three young friends living in the shadow of Biltmore Estate. Now, when Biltmore Industries master weaver Lorna Blankenship is commissioned to create an original design for Cornelia Vanderbilt's 1924 wedding, she panics knowing she doesn't have the creativity needed. But there's an elusive artisan in the Blue Ridge Mountains who could save her--if only she can find her. To track the mysterious weaver down, Lorna sees no other way but to seek out the relationships she abandoned in shame. As she pulls at each tangled thread from her old life, Lorna is forced to confront the wounds and regrets of long ago. She'll have to risk the job that shapes her identity as well as the hope of friendship-and love-restored.

Team W Special Murder Mystery Event🥳

KAREN WHITE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 34 books, including the Tradd Street series, The Last Night in London, Dreams of Falling, The Night the Lights Went Out, Flight Patterns, The Sound of Glass, and A Long Time Gone. She is the coauthor of The Lost Summers of Newport, All the Ways We Said Goodbye, The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room with New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband near Atlanta, Georgia.

BEATRIZ WILLIAMS is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of Our Woman in Moscow, The Summer Wives, Her Last Flight, The Golden Hour, The Secret Life of Violet Grant, A Hundred Summers, and several other works of historical fiction, including four novels in collaboration with fellow bestselling authors Karen White and Lauren Willig. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University. Beatriz’s books have won numerous awards, have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and appear regularly in bestseller lists around the world. Born in Seattle, Washington, Beatriz now lives near the Connecticut shore with her husband and four children,

LAUREN WILLIG is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty works of historical fiction, including Band of Sisters, The Summer Country, The English Wife, the RITA Award-winning Pink Carnation series, and four novels co-written with Beatriz Williams and Karen White. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, and two young children.

An over the top, funny, cozy mystery with a wee bit of romance- where three female mystery writers try to solve a murder in a scottish castle...BUT each woman has a reason to hate the murder victim...

Brett Saffron Presley, literary superstar, who‘s always after a bit of a skirt, is found dead somewhere in the vastness of the castle the night of the big celebration. It may appear that a castle guest has done him in, but chief inspector Euan McIntosh is suspicious of our lady novelists- Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six who pens cozy mysteries, Kat deNoir, a sexy erotica author and Emma Endicott, a blue blood from New England whose specialty is historical fiction- based on some bizarre circumstances in the locked room castle study. The Nancy Drew squad refused to leave the inspector a trail of breadcrumbs as they were quite scared to have an opinion. He wouldn’t have far to look to grasp the reasons why the chambers’s glittering torches that illuminated the bare body donning an erotic piece of women’s clothing was face down in a puddle of blood and would prove no chance of natural death.

🎉INSTANT 2024 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, From the author of We Begin at the End

Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today

“[I] may never have loved a book as much.”–Jenna Bush Hager on All the Colors of the Dark

The Boston Globe's #1 Thriller/Mystery of 2024 So Far

One of The Washington Post's Best Books of Summer

"Kept me frantically turning the pages and somehow made me cry at the end . . . Brava!"-Kristin Hannah, author of The Women

CHRIS WHITAKER is the award-winning author of Tall Oaks, All the Wicked Girls, and the New York Times bestseller We Begin at the End. Chris lives in the UK.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the smalltown of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges--Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope.