A story of two families navigating scandal
It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.
Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.
I’ve been a fan of Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s novels since her debut, The Nest, and she has been a Must Read author ever since. In the author’s excellent third novel, we get another engaging and moving portrait of a complicated family. Absolutely met my high expectations. I really enjoyed this. Continue reading
Earlier today, Del Rey
As a long-time fan of Mike Lawson‘s novels, I’m always on the look-out for his next book. I’ve already been lucky enough to read and
Great news: Icarus 17, the fourth novel in Charles Cumming‘s Box 88 series, is due out this summer! Also, unlike many of the author’s other novels, it’ll be getting a simultaneous release in the UK and North America.
A threat to the lives of his wife and daughter in London forces elite intelligence agent Lachlan Kite to move his family to safety. Meanwhile Kite’s former girlfriend, Martha Raine, comes to him with a plea for help. Her twenty-year-old son, Max, has vanished without trace in Greece. Can Kite help to find him?
Interesting premise, but ultimately a strangely familiar story
The covers for Exit Party, the highly-anticipated next novel by Emily St. John Mandel, were unveiled today by
As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.
Lucas Davenport hunts a Russian hit squad
I have unfortunately fallen quite far behind on Mark Lawrence‘s novels — so many books, so little time! Nevertheless, this should not be taken as disinterest; every one of the author’s books that I’ve read has been very enjoyable, and I’m always eager to read more of his work. The first novel in Lawrence’s new Kindness Academy series, Daughter of Crows, will arrive on shelves in March 2026. In addition to sharing the synopsis (which piqued my interest), I also wanted to take this opportunity to share that fantastic cover by