The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Adult Fiction

Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck

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Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck
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Daddy Issues is an Ali-Hazelwood grade (said with unabashed reverence) age-gap romance that has it all—a real, messy protagonist, a hot, dedicated single dad next door, riveting professional stakes, unexpected info about a niche subject (comics), and meaningful, believable resolution and character growth through the book—a romcom that also has steaming hot “driving lessons” in a Chili’s parking lot! What more do you want? The girls who get it NEED TO GET THIS.

Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck, (List Price: $18, Dial Press Trade Paperback, 9780593730812, November 2025)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, The Underground Bookshop LLC in Carrollton, Georgia

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Secret Nights and Northern Lights by Megan Oliver

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Secret Nights and Northern Lights by Megan Oliver
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Adorable romance set in Iceland. If you’ve been lucky enough to visit the country, you will appreciate the great descriptions of the enchanting landscape. Great for readers who love a good romance with a side of travel thrown in. The characters are likable and you will root for them.

Secret Nights and Northern Lights by Megan Oliver, (List Price: $19, Berkley, 9780593952405, November 2025)

Reviewed by Christina Tabereaux, The Snail On the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

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Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy

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Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy
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Literary fiction that combines sharp cultural commentary against an absolutely absurd backdrop, with the addition of characters that seem to be like extras from a Girls episode, this book spoke to me on levels that nothing else this year has even come close to. Anika Jade Levy is no stranger to the art, good writing, or insufferable people you meet in your 20s, and her debut novel homes in on these facts and crafts a dystopian, frolicking book I could not put down. Capturing day-to-day life in a dystopian America, Levy’s world may be fictional, but the psychological struggles her characters face in corporate America, juggling transactional female friendships, navigating a time of conspiracy politics, and modern love, all tie back to our reality with ease.

Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy, (List Price: $26, Catapult, 9781646222810, November 2025)

Reviewed by Grace Sullivan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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I, Medusa by Ayana Gray

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I, Medusa by Ayana Gray
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I’m always up for an origin story and especially like to hear a familiar tale from a different character’s perspective. I, Medusa delivers this and more. Gray explores timely themes of power, diversity, agency and humanity through a mythological lens. Even though I knew Medusa’s ultimate fate, I wanted to go on this journey with her.

I, Medusa by Ayana Gray, (List Price: $30, Random House, 9780593733769, November November 2025)

Reviewed by Ginger Young, WordsWorth Books in Little Rock, Arkansas

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The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes

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The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes
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Wow! This novel was absolutely beautiful! Quiara Alegria Hudes gives us a perfectly flawed narrator who I found myself in equal measures horrified by and empathizing with throughout the novel. April’s rage screams from the pages at times and quietly seethes at others. Abandonment is at the heart of this novel but also reclamation of the self and the hope that by leaving a mother can break the cycle of pain that has persisted for generations.

The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes, (List Price: $26, One World, 9780593732335, November 2025)

Reviewed by Kelsey Jagneaux, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida

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Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

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Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino
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Meet your new favorite anti-hero, Margot. She’s smart, she’s accomplished, she’s driven … but she’s also stressed and desperate for a forever home, which seems truly impossible in today’s cutthroat housing market in DC. Margot’s monomaniacal for all the trappings of a normal life…maybe because she’s far from normal herself. If you like stories that make you laugh and cringe in equal measure, this is the perfect appalling tale for you!

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino, (List Price: $27.99, Celadon Books, 9781250400543, November 2025)

Reviewed by Maggie Robe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

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The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
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This novel is uber-Murakami, the author back to the magical best of his earlier novels such as Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (note: this makes sense, as the author writes in an afterword that this novel was a second attempt at reworking a novella, the first attempt being Hardboiled Wonderland). You don’t read a Murakami novel; you live it, holding on for dear life until it lets you off at the end, slightly confused but highly entertained. A magical world slowly unravels through an unnamed girl, while everyday life interweaves with it, featuring all the traditional Murakami Bingo tropes (loneliness, high school, jazz, pasta recipes, The Beatles, wells, libraries, cats…all the greatest hits!) There were a few minor logical bugbears, but plot logic was never Murakami’s strong suit. The simplicity of his language has long been a feature, but lately has felt more like a bug at times, with the repetition of banal thoughts (‘it was just my conjecture, but I was sure of it’; I nodded vaguely’ etc.) – perhaps as one of my all-time favourite authors I have come to expect more, but it was still great to be back in Murakami world.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, (List Price: $19, Vintage, 9780593687840, November 2024)

Reviewed by Doron Klemer, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana

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The Devil’s Done Come Back by Ed Southern

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The Devil's Done Come Back by Ed Southern
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A collection of North Carolina folklore, freshly told by some of the state’s best writers. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and while some myths were familiar, many were brand new to me. Readers will appreciate the creativity of form and voice that make each retelling unique.

The Devil’s Done Come Back by Ed Southern, (List Price: $18.95, Blair, 9781958888650, September 2025)

Reviewed by Becca Naylor, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia

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Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia
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This book is a love letter to those who get dogged on for liking romance! The mixing of fanfiction and the contemporary romance novel was so much fun and felt super unique. You get to see two storylines that played very well into one another to aid Joonie in her growth, both personally and romantically. I really appreciated how Joonie stood up for the romance genre and explained how anyone can learn a lot about self-discovery, strength, and resilience from romance novels. Hearing about Joonie’s upbringing and how she never felt she fit in—fair, as she was forced to assimilate into a white world when so many aspects of that world promoted the downfall of her culture and confidence—was eye-opening and made me root for her even more. Joonie was a champion of building her own confidence even when everyone else was laughing. That’s the kind of female stories I want. Strength, humor, fortitude, all the while remaining soft. The side characters (including the love interest and fanfiction characters) were so fun and flowed so well with Joonie. Leaving nothing to feel forced, this writing was fun, witty, and full of big emotions that drove the story in unique and unexpected ways. With laugh-out-loud moments, feeling like you need to hug Joonie, and swooning over the typical book boyfriend, Hariri-Kia delivers a unique take on the romance genre, giving hugs to all those who constantly have to justify their love for it.

Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia, (List Price: $18.99, Cosmo Reads, 9781728270647, October 2025)

Reviewed by Tayllor Johns, M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina

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Grape Juice by Eliza Dumais

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Grape Juice by Eliza Dumais
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Such a delight of a read! I adore this imprint, and Grape Juice is another win in my opinion. Beautiful French vineyard setting, interesting main characters, absolutely delightful supporting characters, and I loved the ending (hopeful but not too neat). Keep giving us more of these 831!

Grape Juice by Eliza Dumais, (List Price: $14.99, 831 Stories, 9798893310566, November 2025)

Reviewed by Christina Tabereaux, The Snail On the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

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Boom Town by Nic Stone

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Boom Town by Nic Stone
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This book delivers on all the things I want from a mystery thriller. It’s sexy, intriguing, and keeps you guessing until the end. The vibe of this story feels so real and edgy; it pulls you into a web of secrets and shocking twists, and I enjoyed reading every minute of it.

Boom Town by Nic Stone, (List Price: $28, Simon & Schuster, 9781668056271, October 2025)

Reviewed by Jess Bryant, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

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Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
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Catalina Ituralde is a fascinating protagonist; prepare to be hooked by her twisting, turning narrative. Catalinatells the story of an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, who is currently in her senior year at Harvard and hopes to be a writer. As she struggles to find her place in the world, Catalina works through her feelings on gender, desire, relationships, belonging, and family bonds. The book’s stream-of-consciousness prose style emulates authors such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, while also reflecting the state of Catalina’s jumbled thoughts. If you’re looking for a wry narrative with cheeky dialogue and plenty of literary references, this is the book for you!

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, (List Price: $28, One World, 9780593449097, July 2024)

Reviewed by Catherine Pabalate, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong

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The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong
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I love this book so so much! It’s warm and wonderful and filled with beautifully woven sentiments about love and one’s place in the world that I now have saved in a note so I can reference them when I need to believe in magic again. I’m so glad that I live in a world with Julie Leong books in it, and will truly never hesitate to throw them at readers with all of the love in my heart!

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong, (List Price: $19, Ace, 9780593815946, October 2025)

Reviewed by Lucile Perkins-Wagel, Blinking Owl Books in Fort Myers, Florida

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The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers

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The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
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Somers’s suburban realism is sharp enough to cut glass, with more humor on a single page than most entire novels could ever hope to contain. Here, the marriage plot is replaced by the adultery plot, so innovatively executed that it results in two equally gripping storylines. Not since “Choose Your Own Adventure” has the reader been able to have it both ways! At its heart, this is a book about desire, refreshingly unmoralizing and dauntless at uncovering its sad and funny peculiarities. Smart, sexy, and ferociously readable.

The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers, (List Price: $28, Simon & Schuster, 9781668081440, October 2025)

Reviewed by Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama

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Bog Queen by Anna North

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Bog Queen by Anna North
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Anna North has written a tale with mysteries from a body found in the bog, believed to be 2,000 years old, and today’s struggle for the environment and development. Agnes is a young American forensic anthropologist who is hired to help identify a body believed to be buried in the bog from 196,1 and instead dates the remains as from the Druidic order of Celtic Europe, over 2,000 years old but preserved in the bog. Readers meet the young Druid as her mother has declared her, as she travels to Camulodunon and returns with gifts. She dies at a Solstice celebration and is buried in the bog. Readers will also know much of the life of Agnes as she spars with environmentalists and developers as she tries to save the bog. The mystery of the distant past and today’s conflict will haunt all who open these pages.

Bog Queen by Anna North, (List Price: $28.99, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781635579666, October 2025)

Reviewed by Nancy Pierce, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia

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