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Hello there! This week, we’re digging into a matrimonial twist on the trope that’s trending in romance and a trio of mid-century thrillers that will please historical fiction and mystery fans alike. Plus, a favorite YA author hits the adult bestseller this with a long-awaited sequel.
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 | The Bookends |
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| Love Gets a Second Chance |
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| In The Bookends, we pick an exciting new release and pair it with an older title readers will also love. This week: Married couples whose romance is fizzling try to reconnect in these second-chance love stories. |
 | | Do I Know You? | | Given the state of their marriage, neither Eliza or Graham is looking forward to the trip they’ve planned to celebrate their five-year anniversary. But when a bartender mistakes them for strangers and introduces them, they re-discover a spark they thought was lost forever. | |
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 | | The Bromance Book Club | | Desperate to save his marriage after his wife kicks him out, professional baseball player Gavin joins a secret book club with three teammates who’ve figured out how to understand what women want: by reading romance novels. | |
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 | Trending Now on Likewise |
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| Click here for the top 10 books on Likewise for the week of January 26. Which ones have you read and loved? |
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Together with  |
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| As The Goal and Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake hilariously prove, a surprise pregnancy can be the ultimate plot twist. If you’re looking for a birth control option that’s more in tune with your body’s natural rhythms without the use of hormones, try Natural Cycles - the first FDA-cleared birth control app. Give it a try and feel more in control of your reproductive health. |
 | Ask a Librarian |
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| Looking for something set in the ‘50s, ‘60s or ‘70s, maybe a mystery or thriller. Do you have any ideas? - Emily |
There’s no better genre mash-up than historical fiction and mystery. A rich and interesting historical plus the unputdownable plot of a thriller—what more could a reader want?
Between the Lines
The political and social upheaval of the post-WWII decades makes them an especially ripe setting for mysteries and thrillers. Case in point: Wanda M. Morris’ excellent and gripping Anywhere You Run, a thriller about two Black sisters on the run after a murder in the summer of 1964. The Civil Rights movements and its consequences, both intentional and accidental, provide the frame for a riveting story about two women fighting for survival. Here are three more thrillers set in the middle of the last century: |
 | | Case Study | | Set in London in the 1960s, this twisty mystery follows a young woman investigating the death of her sister Veronica, which the narrator blames on Veronica’s famous therapist. | |
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 | | Picture in the Sand | | Told as a series of emails from an elderly man to his grandson, this Egypt-set thriller follows a young man working on the set of Cecil B. DeMille’s epic movie The Ten Commandments, which is targeted by Muslim extremists. | |
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 | | The Lost Girls of Willowbrook | | In 1971, 16-year-old Sage discovers a shocking truth: The sister she thought was dead has actually been living in a mental institution for the last six years. Determined to reunite with her, Sage sneaks into Willowbrook under an assumed identity. Based on a true story. | |
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| Meet the Librarian
Emily Calkins has worked at public libraries across the US. Tell her what you’re looking for! | | |
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 | Guess The Writer |
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- Five of this author’s 28 novels have been made into movies.
- She co-wrote two young adult books with her daughter, Samantha Van Leer.
- Although she’s best known for family sagas that touch on timely issues, she also wrote a run of Wonder Woman comics in 2007.
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| Answer in footer |
 | Bookmarks |
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Critical Love
Critics are unanimous about the power of Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Harding’s “beautiful, brooding” (The Washington Post) new novel. NPR calls it “stunning,” and the New York Times says the characters are “so real it could make you weep.” |
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 | | This Other Eden | | Inspired by the true story of one of the first racially integrated towns in New England, Harding’s novel traces the fate of Maine’s Malaga Island and its inhabitants. | |
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The Bestseller
YA superstar author Leigh Bardugo’s first adult novel, Ninth House, came out four years ago and ended with a gigantic cliffhanger. Fans desperate to find out what happens next sent the sequel to the top of the New York Times’ best sellers this week. |
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 | | Hell Bent | | Despite strict instructions not to, Yale scholarship student Alex Stern is determined to open a portal to the underworld to save her friend and mentor. | |
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| PS: Products you purchase through our links may earn Likewise a commission. |
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