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THE BREAKUP ARTISTS

One of our recommended books is The Breakup Artists by Adriana Mather

August and Valentine, seventeen-year-old best friends, run a business called Summer Love, Inc. They hire themselves out to unhappy parents whose kids are in bad relationships, adopting fake identities and going undercover to break up these relationships by any means necessary.

Valentine, the brains of the operation, believes that they’re making the world a better place by steering people away from a relationship precipice so they can someday find true love. But for August, every case is personal–another chance to prove that true love doesn’t exist. He blames his sister’s manipulative boyfriend for her death, and–unlike Valentine–he doesn’t believe in soulmates.

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JOHNNY, THE SEA, AND ME

One of our recommended books is Johnny, the Sea, and Me by Melba Escobar

A 2025 Batchelder Honor Book! A heartwarming middle-grade novel from Colombia about a ten-year-old boy and the larger-than-life figure who changes him forever.

Pedro is dealing with a lot for a ten-year-old kid, both at school and at home. So he’s overjoyed when his mom surprises him with a trip to see the ocean—an experience he’s been dreaming about for a long time!

Maybe this trip will make everything better. Maybe it will make his dad come back to him and his mom. Maybe he will stop being bullied at school, once he’s seen the ocean!

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EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

One of our recommended books is Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club in this “utterly original” (Jane Harper), “not to be missed” (Karin Slaughter), fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery.

“A witty twist on classic whodunits… Stevenson not only ‘plays fair,’ he plays the mystery game very, very well.” — Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth.

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EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT

One of our recommended books isEveryone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery in the spirt of Murder on the Orient Express. With Ernest Cunningham, “Stevenson has brought a modern-day Poirot to the mystery scene”(Michelle Carpenter).

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

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THE MUSEUM DETECTIVE

One of our recommended books is The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips

Inspired by a real-life antiquities scandal in Pakistan, this gripping series debut introduces archaeologist Dr. Gul Delani, whose investigation into the discovery of a mummy gets complicated—and personal—when it collides with her years-long search for a missing family member. Perfect for fans of Sue Grafton and Elsa Hart.

When Dr. Gul Delani receives a call in the middle of the night from the Sindh police, she thinks they may have finally found her niece, Mahnaz—a precocious, politically conscious teenage girl who went missing three years prior. Gul has been racked with grief since Mahnaz’s disappearance and distracts herself through work: a talented curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi,

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PROPERTY OF THE REVOLUTION

One of our recommended books is Property of the Revolution by Ana Hebra Flaster

In this sweeping, historical, yet intimate memoir, the author details her family’s transformation from pro-Castro revolutionaries in a scrappy Havana barrio to refugees in a New Hampshire mill town—a timeless and timely tale of loss and reinvention.

Ana Hebra Flaster was six years old when her working-class family was kicked out of their Havana barrio for opposing communism. Once devoted revolutionaries themselves but disillusioned by the Castro government’s repressive tactics, they fled to the US. The permanent losses they suffered—of home, country, and loved ones, all within forty-eight hours—haunted her multigenerational family as they reclaimed their lives and freedom in 1967 New Hampshire.

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