Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

With its ominous wood setting and perfect lingering dread, this debut gothic horror comes just in time for dark autumn nights. The drama and plot are excellent. There were many surprises, and the ending shocked me. The protagonist, Zora, is among my favorite heroines of the year!

I’ll Make a Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker, (List Price: $19.99, Run For It, 9780316575249, November 2025)

Reviewed by Sandra Pinkney, The Underground Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

Sarah T. Dubb’s sophomore novel, Honey Bee Mine is a contemporary romance between a small-town beekeeper and a reformed bad boy who returns home after his grandfather’s death. Thirty-four-year-old Penny Becker has been obsessed with bees since childhood. After her father abandoned her mother, Ruth, upon learning she was pregnant, Penny became determined never to be a burden or an obligation. When her boyfriend, Henry, convinces her to leverage Becker Farms for a capital-gains venture that ultimately fails, Penny is left with just two months to earn enough money to cover her debts, or risk the bank seizing her thirty-eight-acre farm.Thirty-five-year-old Zander Bouras has loathed Sullivan’s Glen ever since his addict mother dropped him there every summer so she could get high, leaving him in his grandfather’s care. Known as the town’s bad boy, Zander rejected his grandfather’s guidance, constantly testing the limits of both the school and the community before fleeing town with his pregnant girlfriend, Mallory. Now a successful restaurateur, Zander returns following his grandfather’s death with his ex-wife, Mallory, her girlfriend Quinn, who also happens to be Zander’s best friend, and their eleven-year-old son, Winter. His plan is simple: renovate the house, sell it, and return to Boston once the summer ends.Everything changes when Zander encounters “Perfect Penny,” the girl next door his grandfather idolized and held up as an example of everything Zander was not. She seemed to have the perfect family and the town’s unwavering affection. But when Winter asks for a bee tour of Penny’s farm and Zander learns that Penny also grew up without a father, he realizes how flawed his assumptions about her truly were.Determined to save her farm for another year, Penny plans to revive Sullivan’s Glen’s annual Honey Festival. Thanks to her RJ and Winter, Zander volunteers to help. As the two work together, they must learn to trust each other and dismantle years of misconceptions, not only to ensure the festival’s success, but also while knowing that any relationship between them has an expiration date, as Zander intends to return to Boston once the summer ends. Dubb’s sophomore novel is a classic contemporary romance that notably avoids both miscommunication tropes and a third-act breakup. She grounds the story in realistic conflicts and enriches it with a diverse supporting cast, including a trans and ace side character, a sapphic relationship, and a mixed-race couple. Penny’s ex never appears as a traditional villain, which is a refreshing deviation from genre expectations. However, the antagonism between Penny and Zander dissipates quickly, shifting most of the tension toward saving the farm and Penny’s reluctance to share the extent of her financial troubles. Honey Bee Mine is sweet, much like its title, though Dubb’s debut novel ultimately remains the stronger work.

Honey Bee Mine by Sarah T. Dubb, (List Price: $19, Gallery Books, 9781668037874, February 2026)

Reviewed by Nichole, Bodacious Bookstore and Cafe in Pensacola, Florida

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

Vigil is a book that, with astounding brevity, delves into one of the main issues of modern life, our reliance on oil and the impact the oil industry has had on the world as well as the complexities of how it damages the environment while also being essential to maintaining society as it currently functions. This book gravitates around a dying man, K.J. Boone, who is largely responsible for the oil industry’s success and impact. But Vigil is not a portrait of one man with a wide-angle lens. It is a portrait of humanity, and the camera zooms in and shifts focus, and zooms in even more. At points, it focuses the lens directly on its reader at close range, like a mirror, and suggests they take an honest look. And just when you think you have seen the whole picture and formed your opinion, Saunders challenges that opinion and re-frames the image. This book is full of keen, searing insights and big ideas woven into a compelling story full of a vivid cast of characters so well realized you will hate them, cry for them, want to shake them and yell at them and hug them and mourn for them. But most of all, Saunders presents these characters from a place of open-minded understanding and humanity. He sees them and writes them in full color, no character is all good or all evil; not CEOs in the oil industry, not our narrator who, when confronted with the more than questionable morality of her charge, longs to escape to her old life, and not the reader who may find that they relate to some of the shortcomings of these characters. Vigil explores and exposes the morally grey in all of us, the hungers and fears that drive our actions and inactions, and juxtaposes all of the tiny wonderful things in life with the ways in which we threaten the possibility of those very things by avoiding direct eye contact with this out of control monster we have all had a hand in creating and refer to as society.

Vigil by George Saunders, (List Price: $28, Random House, 9780525509622, January 2026)

Reviewed by Savannah Laughlin, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

An introspective and entertaining story of an unusual bond between a woman and a hare – and you learn a lot about hares! I enjoyed the author’s sens of wonder and curiosity and how her thoughts about nature and life changed through this experience. Quietly transformative, a joy to read!

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, (List Price: $27, Pantheon, 9780593701843, March 2025)

Reviewed by Cathy, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

This book checks so many boxes for different reader interests. There is a true crime story in the vein of Devil in the White City, alongside a fascinating look at life in Paris in the run-up to World War II. We also get a portrait of pioneering journalist Janet Flanner, who gradually shifted from gossipy columns about expats in Paris to meatier pieces about the Nazis’ growing influence in Europe in her role as New York columnist. History and true crime readers will both appreciate this one.

The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude, (List Price: $32.50, Grand Central Publishing, 9781538767115, January 2026)

Reviewed by Amanda, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Buy from your local indie.

I love to sip morning coffee and page through a cookbook looking for dinner inspiration, so when it’s as much fun to READ a cookbook as it is to cook and eat from it, I’m in heaven. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Linger offers up not just healthy recipes for salads (think both hearty and delicate) and desserts (think healthy and easy) but her tips on making food ahead, entertaining and creating community with food- in a warm and engaging style that will have you trying new things even on weeknights. Bonus! Her daughter has short essays about music and food with accompanying playlists (via QR code).

Linger by Hetty Lui McKinnon, (List Price: $40, Knopf, 9780593804193, October 2025)

Reviewed by Jamie, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Buy from your local indie.

This is one of those books that will not only make you smile but might even make you believe in a little magic. Yulu’s Linen is a fun and beautiful story about a father whose dream of being an artist was unable to be fulfilled, so he makes that dream a reality for his daughter. When they go to purchase a canvas, they face a hilarious and frustrating problem: they can’t figure out if it’s the canvas or the art that just won’t cooperate! The vibrant illustrations and colors of this illustrator bring the story to life. The father teaches his daughter to never give up, and in the end, everything works out. This book is a true testament to the idea that perseverance and creativity always succeed. It’s a perfect read for any child with a big dream.

Yulu’s Linen by Cao Wenxuan, (List Price: $19.99, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 9781665931199, February 2026)

Reviewed by Kimberly, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

This is one of the most creative classic-book retellings I’ve read in a long time! It proves that these characters stand the test of time, because Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy adapt perfectly to a contemporary setting that highlights the ups and downs of social media and sibling rivalries. A story within the story of Little Women, Beth’s death leads her sisters and the local police on a hunt for the person responsible. The case’s twists and turns kept me turning the pages and prevented me from predicting the end. But the real interest of this novel, and the topic I’m still thinking about, is the idea of storytelling, and who gets to tell a family’s story. How do the sisters maintain their agency, their identities, and their love for each other when their dad turns their private family story into a bestselling novel, one that kills off his daughter?

Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet, (List Price: $19.99, Sarah Barley Books, Simon & Schuster Books for Yo, 9781665988698, January 2026)

Reviewed by Lady, The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

This title was a page turner for sure! I found myself rooting for “Nate,” despite the obvious moral reasons that I shouldn’t, and was terribly attached by the end of the book. With such an unexpectedly bittersweet ending, I highly recommend this title for any YA horror lovers!

Better the Devil by Erik J. Brown, (List Price: $19.99, Storytide, 9780063338326, January 2026)

Reviewed by Eden, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana