“You have to read this. And this one too. Here...I have copies, you can borrow them.” Readers are givers and sharers. We give books to people who may not even have asked for a book. We talk about stories unprompted in conversation. Oh, you know, that reminds me of a book I read once… We…
In the summer of 1984, the police search the Knocknaree woods after three children are reported missing. Adam Ryan is the only one found, shoes filled with blood and no recollection of what happened. Twenty years later, Adam Ryan goes by Rob Ryan and works as a detective for the Dublin Murder Squad. His past is his best kept secret. When Rob and his partner Cassie are assigned to investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl in the same Knocknaree woods, memories resurface, relationships change, and the minds plays tricks.
Poppy and Alex meet awkwardly at freshman gathering in college ten years ago. She is bright and loud; he’s practical and wears khakis. They don’t speak to each other again until a fateful car ride back to their unexpectedly shared hometown in Ohio. During the long drive back to the small town, they find out they have nothing in common, and, naturally, leave as best friends.
Dannie Kohan can’t believe her life -- the perfect Manhattan lawyer gig and a brand new diamond ring on her finger. The night her boyfriend proposes Dannie can’t think of anything else she could dream of. And then, she falls asleep. She wakes up 5 years later with a different ring and different man. She’s freaked when she wakes up but brushes it off. It’s just a dream, right? Right. Until four and a half years later the man from her dream shows up in her life.
Abby Day is a quirky photographer who is going through it. Her grades are slipping, she’s one paper away from failing her English class, and her Grandpa passed away a year ago. The only thing getting her through are her two best friends: Leo and Connie. Except things are awkward with Leo because of a Big Embarrassing Incident that both are avoiding discussing. Everything starts to change for Abby the day she accidentally learns of a big sister she never knew existed….and decides to go to summer camp to unravel her family's secrets with long lost big sis Savannah Tully.
Casey Peabody. 31, waitress, trying to make it as a writer. Her mother suddenly passed away and her heart got broken. Living in Cambridge in 1997, Casey is trying to make enough to pay rent and finish her novel while she figures out what her life is supposed to look like. Transitional periods are messy and personally harrowing, and also oddly freeing at times. This is a portrait of an artist. And it is beautiful.
An Island off the coast of Ireland, recently purchased and renovated, is the setting for an elite wedding. The guests arrive, boating across the choppy sea. A storm is in the air. This is supposed to be the happiest weekend of their lives, but it is anything but. As the weekend progresses, guests reveal more about their pasts. Everyone is connected, and no one has forgotten what's happened. The wedding is perfectly planned, not a thing could go wrong. Until someone dies, that is.
A miracle happened this April: Jacob started watching Grey’s Anatomy with me. Why is this a miracle? Because it literally just happened. After a long day and thirty minutes of scrolling through the same old Netflix suggestions, Jacob said words I never thought I’d hear: “Do you just want to watch Grey’s Anatomy?”
January Andrews and Augustus Everett are college rivals and novelists who happen to find themselves living right next to each other in beach houses on Lake Michigan. Both of their lives are falling apart. Both are suffering through that miserable ailment known as writer’s block (read with a tone of disgust). Gus writes literary fiction and January writes romance. They make a bet that they’ll trade genres for the summer and end with two complete novels. Whoever can sell their novel first is declared the winner. “Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.”
The Vacationers follows the Post family during their two-week stay in Mallorca, Spain. Surrounded by the beautiful mountains and the clear blue sea, what could possibly go wrong with a family on an island? Turns out a lot. Each family member is struggling with something: money, relationships, infidelity, adulthood, family. Straub follows each character as they navigate their feelings and problems on the island.
Kelliemarie Mash 