Fiction Five: Eclectic & engaging new novels

This month’s Fiction Five stars an eclectic mix of new novels. Featuring tales from the past, the present, and the future, these five stories celebrate the joy of reading. Whether you’re looking for a captivating presidential drama, an intriguing locked-door mystery, or a post-apocalyptic journey of a robot and its cyborg dog, you’re bound to find a delightful tale here.

The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego

Aria Stokes lives in a tiny New York apartment and works as a bookseller at a local shop. She has taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well.

As a Valentine’s Day surprise Jasper gets them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library. It's a grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she’d prefer Jasper to know. For example the last time she was there she left a body behind.

When the automatic-door entry malfunctions Aria, Jasper and the five other people in their tour group become trapped. They are forced to venture through the storied rooms of the Daedalus in search of escape aware there is a killer in their midst.

As she tries to break out of the library’s intricate reading rooms Aria must decide who she can trust and what secrets are best kept buried if she wants to make it out alive.

“Irresistible—bright and sharp and rife with danger, like a shard of mirror. And what a splendid library Ande Pliego has constructed here! A bibliophile's haunted house, crawling with secrets: in the shadows beneath the shelves, in the darkness behind the doors . . . and, of course, in the heart of our heroine.” — A. J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

Burnout Summer by Jenna Ramirez

Four years after graduation life isn’t going the way Camille "Cam" Luna expected. Her corporate career is soul-sucking, she's in debt from student loans, and her breakup with her ex has created a serious rift between her college best friends. When her spiraling lands her in jail for the night,it's Danny Brennan, the lovable burnout from their college clique, who bails her out. He also offers the perfect solution to her quarter-life crisis: a summer by the beach.

Cam is whisked away to Elswick, Rhode Island, where former slacker Danny has taken over his uncle’s restaurant and turned it into a seaside hot spot. While Danny has grown into a devoted boss and dog dad, his carpe diem life philosophy is still as fiery as ever. The hazy summer days start to blur between shifts at the restaurant, dips in the ocean and a reignited passion for writing, all alongside Danny who makes her laugh like nobody else. Cam can't help but wonder if it's the salty waves that have her feeling so renewed or the carefree friend she always overlooked. 

As September approaches Cam must decide her next steps. Will she snuff out the flames with Danny to keep her beloved friend group together and return to the corporate grind? Or will she fall into his forbidden arms and set her old life ablaze.

"Ramirez's satisfying debut matches up a pair of opposites to delightful effect... It's impossible not to root for these charming leads." — Publisher’s Weekly

Treat Them as Buffalo by Blair Palmer Yoxall

In 1885 Nikosis “Niko” Eriksen spends his days playing buffalo hunter, even though it’s been many years since a member of his tribe has seen one of the once-ubiquitous animals. When beloved Cousin and other boys go missing, things start to fall apart. With law enforcement failing and refusing to investigate the disappearance, community members take matters into their own hands. They rally around the leadership of a sawn-off shotgun-slinging rancher named Kate McCannon.

A women-led coalition of freedom fighters strikes back against the Mounted Police as they investigate the boys' disappearance and take their futures into their own hands. Violence continues to haunt Niko and boys continue to disappear. As he leaves his boyhood behind and draws closer to finding Cousin, Niko’s investigation points to a harrowing revelation about his own heritage.

“Blair Palmer Yoxall's debut novel is a fierce and beautiful work, a page-turning adventure that is impossible to put down. Yoxall brings to life a world filled with revolution, brutality and madness. It is narrated by Niko, a young Métis child who is coming to understand the violence of his history and also the depth of his own bravery and sensitivity. He is a boy raised by a family of women. And the women are wild with resilience and pride, and are glorious monsters, who terrorize those who try to steal the legacy of their children.” ―Heather O’Neill, author of The Capital of Dreams

The Yankee Sphinx by Mark Frost

In 1934 Will Hassett is working as a journalist when he gets a call from an old friend who now works at the White House asking him to visit. Will arrives expecting to catch up on old times but is instead brought right into the Oval Office to meet with Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR needs help on his speeches. Will takes the job on the spot. For the next 12 years Will is at FDR’s side through the worst of the Depression, three reelection campaigns and World War II.

The Yankee Sphinx, inspired by Will Hassett’s real diaries, focuses on the last few years of FDR’s life. The war is raging in Europe and FDR’s good friend, Winston Churchill, begs for America’s help. But Roosevelt knows he can’t bring the country in until it’s ready, an opportunity that won’t arise until the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941.

From Will’s empathetic perspective we witness FDR managing the Allied military campaign abroad and parrying shots from isolationist politicians at home. FDR does this all while reckoning with his rapidly deteriorating health. Will and Anna, Roosevelt's daughter, plot an intervention to get him a doctor more up to speed on a new discipline called “cardiology” so the president can maintain his strength and end the war.

“Fascinating…Complex…This is closer to nonfiction wrapped in skilled storytelling…Readers won’t be able to distinguish the diarist’s remembrance from the author’s fiction, save the dialogue. A compassionate story about one of the most consequential Americans of the 20th century.” ― Kirkus (starred review)

Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer

Thirty years ago, the world nearly ended.

Be is an old robot who was there and doesn’t want to think about what happened, or what role they played in that conflict. They have settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned ruins of an old mill in the former New York Botanical Gardens. Be is disinterested in what has happened in the outside world since they stepped away from the war. Someone out there has not forgotten about them. When Be is attacked, their person vandalized and one of their leg's stolen, they set out to find the thief with the help of a smart-ass cyborg dog and a human mechanic.

Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle the old conflict and finish what was started. To stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past, who they have become, and how everything and everyone else they knew has changed in their absence. Being left alone is no longer an option and peace may be impossible.

"Full of wit, charm, and electrifying post-apocalyptic adventures. If you're a fan of Murderbot or Fallout (or if you've ever really wanted to know what your four-legged best pal was thinking), hop on the bus with Be and their ragtag band of bots, 'borgs, and biologicals—its a heck of a ride!"—L. M. Sagas, author of Cascade Failure and Gravity Lost