Rosalind knows all too well what happens when patriarchs let their vanity spoil their stewardship of their families’ fortunes. Her own father’s disappearance left her nothing but a pile of bad debts. Although marrying Devon Winterbourne son of the Duke of Casselmaine would have secured her future Rosalind chose the road less traveled earning her keep by helping the genteel women of Regency London solve domestic problems large and small. Since she’s remained on good terms with Winterbourne she’s not surprised when he wants her to meet his intended Clara Kinsdale. But Winterbourne has a greater surprise: He wants Rosalind to visit Clara’s home in Bath. Having frittered away most of the Kinsdale fortune Clara’s father Sir Anthony hopes to put his family back on sound financial footing by running his thoroughbred Kinsdale’s Pride in the Somersetshire Sweepstakes with the help of Mrs. Lynn a dodgy Bath widow. The city’s racing pundits rate the mare as closer to the glue factory than the finish line so Winterbourne is counting on Rosalind’s insight and her experience with feckless fathers to figure out what’s really going on. Wilde’s feisty heroine does not disappoint. Rosalind is a delight as are her colorful companions; it’s a shame that Alice Littlefield and Amelia McGowan are consigned such small roles in this adventure. A minor note: Wilde could occasionally use some editing. “Principle officer” is an easy mistake to decode but repeatedly calling a parterre a “pied-à-terre” is confusing.

Mia’s got a brand-new diary—and a dream: joining Greenpeace “to save the baby seals.” But her mom is dating her algebra teacher her crush barely knows she exists and her dad’s just informed her that she must move to Genovia to learn to be a princess. It’s been decades since the 2000 release of The Princess Diaries and the 2001 Disney film adaptation and the story’s late 1990s setting shines through. Illustrator Crandall depicts the fashions the landline phones and the chunky desktop PCs—with no social media or celebrity gossip blogs in sight. Yet the fairy tale doesn’t feel dated—or no more so than any story wherein the protagonist discovers she’s the hereditary princess of a small European country. The full-color manga-influenced art depicts an abbreviated version of Mia’s torments as her Grandmère attempts to mold her into a stylized femme ideal of a princess. Mia’s best friend Lilly Moscovitz wholly disapproves of her new aesthetic on social and political grounds. Mia takes the opportunity to befriend classmate Tina Hakim Baba (one of the few characters who isn’t white). She also grows much closer to Lilly’s brother Michael who “knows HTML” and “looks really good without a shirt.” This graphic novel adds nothing new but still solidly communicates the charm and humor of the original.

It’s the Sunday before Tess Lowell’s second wedding but the painstaking planning for her union to practically perfect state Senate hopeful Warren Ashley didn’t prepare her for the drama that’s about to unfold over a week at her family’s Cape Cod estate. Because unbeknownst to Tess her troublemaking brother Sebastian invited her ex-husband Peter Hyun to the festivities. Peter a working-class artist doesn’t relish the thought of re-entering Tess’ WASPy world but five years after she divorced him while he was in treatment for alcoholism he can’t resist the idea of finally getting closure. Even more tempting is the thought of showing up at the wedding with Maynard “Mitch” Mitchell on his arm. When Peter meets the handsome young aspiring writer at a dinner party they hit it off right away. Mitch agrees to attend the wedding as Peter’s fake boyfriend in the hope of getting some juicy material for his next project. But when Peter and Mitch are drawn into Tess’ orbit the tension among all three of them threatens to boil over. Fans of the Hollywood classic will recognize the original in broad strokes here—the privileged daughter of a well-to-do family the handsome ex-husband she can’t quite shake the bumbling but charming writer thrown into their midst—but readers hoping for the screwball humor and crackling dialogue of the original may be disappointed. Stoddard’s decision to connect the central love triangle on all sides is inspired and Peter and Mitch’s bisexuality add welcome depth. But the text is overstuffed with characters and padded with unnecessary plot points that slow everything down.

Clara Cowan and Seb Bonami meet in London when they’re both at the beginning of their adult lives. Clara dreams of being a director and is already hard at work making films with her obnoxious actor boyfriend. Seb has tried music modeling and acting but none of them feel like a calling to him. It takes the two of them some time to end up together but when they do their love affair is big and passionate. But as time goes by their often-dramatic partnership begins to show cracks. Although Clara has always known that she’s meant to work in film Seb is not quite sure what his purpose is. Clara pushes him to keep going but he can’t help but feel that none of it matters to him—in fact he’d much rather quit and start a family if only Clara would agree. When Clara casts him in her biggest film yet their clashing personalities and desires lead to a breakup so explosive that there’s no chance of reconciliation…except that because of their shared friends they keep running into each other. Palmer creates an expansive love story that spans years and holds lots of surprises. The unique structure is a standout—each chapter is told by a different person in Clara and Seb’s life whether a friend a parent a barista or a random passenger on the bus. Palmer doesn’t flinch putting Clara and Seb through the wringer as they endure losses and betrayals that make it hard to believe they’ll ever find their way back to each other. For readers who like romances with plenty of angst and torment this is a satisfying read.

Seventeen-year-old Aria Lendell has always been a hopeless romantic and inveterate daydreamer. But ever since something terrible happened to her identical twin Cady her imagination has lost its spark. Aria suddenly starts having lucid dreams at midnight; the fantastical settings offer a reprieve from reality. She shares the dreamworld with Strat Madigan who attends St. Swithun’s a boys’ prep school in nearby Sacramento. The white-presenting pair’s encounters at midnight in daydreams and in real life lead to the return of memories complicating things even more. Aria and Strat realize they must have gotten memory erasures from Aracen Exradere. While this elective surgery is common for adults it’s permitted for minors only in exceptional circumstances. Why and how did Aria and Strat erase each other—especially when their memories are the stuff of fairy tales? And why is the normally surefire ArEx procedure failing? As they piece together the puzzle they confront the old and present versions of themselves. Using vividly descriptive prose Bourne explores relationships particularly the gaps between expectation and reality. Both leads have frequently capitulated to what others needed them to be at the expense of their real selves. Now that they have a second chance at love they learn to embrace truth in all its messiness and manage relationships new and old romantic and familial. The plot unravels slowly with allusions and teases but the story maintains a fast pace.

In the year 3989 Sook Joo begins her teen years living at an orphanage with her grandfather Ryu a village surgeon and master practitioner of Orikido an ancient form of martial arts that uses traditional techniques and locally fabricated steel weapons. When the gentle peace of the orphanage is broken by a group of “Slängers”—a notorious gang of enforcers for the underworld boss Quan—Ryu is killed defending his home. Sook Joo is separated from her pseudo-sibling Futotta and sent to live with her Uncle Hai himself a degenerate who allows Sook Joo to be raped to pay off a debt. She’s then kidnapped by a human trafficking ring and selected by the mysterious Cho who will deliver her to her ultimate fate: to be interred aboard a nightmare ship where passenger-slaves are made to fight each other often to the death. Though she did nothing to deserve such a punishment Sook Joo is well equipped to survive it given her experience in Orikido and as she fights to stay alive she plots her revenge against the powerful sinister forces led by Quan. Cooke and Ryan’s gripping novel takes place in a world not entirely different from our own despite being set nearly 2000 years in the future. The setting is an intriguing reality in which 21st-century technology (and its imagined advances) mingles effectively with the old-world ways of life concerning loyalty honor and martial arts. The combat scenes are well drawn especially when the opponents are mismatched: “Sook Joo kicked her in the groin threw a sharp punch to her nose and again cast her to the ground. Tòa half-blinded with blood and tears leapt up and took a series of wild swings. She’d clearly had no training. She was a farm girl or street orphan nothing more.” While Cooke and Ryan may not be breaking new ground they’ve delivered an entertaining action-packed revenge tale.

Ashlyn Banner would prefer to be left alone but newcomer Aiden Clark pesters her relentlessly. They’re stuck doing a semesterlong project together and Aiden also pressures Ashlyn to join an optional field trip to Savannah Georgia where they along with a few classmates tour a house that’s rumored to be haunted. Ashlyn at first tells herself she’s having visual and auditory hallucinations but she discovers that the others perceive the same inexplicable phenomena she does. The teens realize that far from being a prank for a reaction video the terrors they experience show up in the real world. Ashlyn’s sensitive hearing—she wears earplugs to muffle sounds—allows her to sense the presence of phantoms before the others. Eager to restore balance to their waking lives the teens who largely present white (other than twins who are cued Latine) gather data and make plans. This print edition of entries from a WEBTOON comic features anime-inspired art with bold lines and movement but the characters are rendered with seemingly random inconsistencies and ambiguities and some backgrounds feel unfinished. The character development is light and Aiden’s borderline stalker-ish behavior is never addressed. The creepy phantoms and high action offer horror fans a fast-paced adventure. Future installments may flesh out some of the scattered plot elements.

Wayne author of six previous novels returns with an ingenious dissection of marriage masculinity and privilege propelled by a gimlet-eyed wit. The opening scene—a Manhattan fundraiser where tuxedoed men “like inflatable penguins” mingle over wagyu sliders with their “spectral hollow-cheeked wives”—establishes both the novel’s milieu and the lopsided dynamic between Steven a 45-year-old writer living off a long-ago bestseller and his high-powered wife Lucy who bankrolls their life. His mortification is complete when he accidentally streams a phone notification to his writing class in which his wife confirms she’s paid his monthly stipend. Wayne excels at these micro-humiliations exposing the psychic toll of dependency and artistic drift. But he also has fun sending up contemporary pieties such as a school production of Hansel and Gretel retooled into a “generative dialogue” about loneliness. Instead of pushing the witch into the oven Gretel asks her why she is “not practicing kindness.” After the sudden death of the family’s nanny the novel’s tempo shifts into something more sinister and unnerving. Steven persuades his wife to recruit a young Norwegian au pair Astrid who exerts a Mary Poppins–like charm on the children sidelining Lucy’s position in the household. Meanwhile Steven’s creative paralysis gives way to an erotic fixation that Astrid reciprocates despite their 21-year age gap. Wayne is alert to cliche but complicates it by making Astrid less fantasy than catalyst drawing out a buried childhood narrative that revives Steven’s writing even as it scrambles his judgment. The novel’s back half pivots into a thriller culminating in a death and a trial that transforms private disgrace into public spectacle. If the resolution seems fanciful it also sharpens Wayne’s point: In a culture hungry for confession even failure can be repackaged as art.

It begins when Mike newly demoted from investigator sees flames half a mile away and rushes into a burning house where he’s too late to rescue Jenna Malloy or her husband gym owner Brian. The only survivor is a baby girl Mike finds in the arms of a neighbor Karen Kershaw. Waldo County Sheriff’s Deputy Chet Bessel’s reaction to the tragedy tells Mike the deaths won’t be widely mourned. They’re not the only ones that won’t. Soon afterward the discovery of Axl Deming’s body on the railroad tracks suggests that whoever killed the presumed rapist and murderer of teenager Emily Crockett is bent on vigilante justice. Since the victims are “two of the most hated people in Maine—three if you count Jenna Malloy” suspects would seem to be everywhere. Mike repeatedly warned off the case because he’s no longer an investigator can’t resist focusing on Karen Kershaw who fled the scene while he was questioning her and Edward Gudgeon a scallop diver who frequented the same bar as Axl and his ex-con brother Shayn. Mike’s on the right track but his quest will take a twisty route through many more ambushes confrontations brushes with fellow law officers who end up suspending him and threats to his wife EMT Stacey Stevens and their newborn son Charles. Doiron tightens this web with an insistent mastery that will keep most readers from noticing just how far-reaching it is until they’ve gained the end and can take some deep cleansing breaths.

Inviting along readers who are willing to plunge (in imagination) over six miles into crushing ocean depths to “perhaps encounter species no human has ever seen” Sullivan recalls her 2019 dive aboard the privately owned two-person submersible Limiting Factor into the Challenger Deep the deepest point on Earth located in the Mariana Trench. Along the way she draws comparisons to her three space shuttle missions. Though the plunge had the ostensible purpose of refining depth measurements at the Deep’s bottom what comes through most clearly is not what she actually did or saw but her heady excitement to be going where (she notes) only seven others had gone before. Co-author and illustrator Rosen’s cartoon images and schematics combine with a selection of expedition and stock photographs of sea life and scuba divers plus depth charts to fill in most of the gaps. Along with a personal career summary from Sullivan (who narrates) and acute comments about design differences between shuttles and submersibles in terms of the environments in which each is designed to work the authors add background introductions to the submersible its attendant ship and undersea exploration in general. Better yet they enticingly point out to the budding explorers in the audience how much of the ocean and what’s in it even now remains to be discovered. So: “Dive in!”

Marie Jones may have recently solved a murder case on the reality show Sex Island as her “sexy alter ego” Luella van Horn but now she’s back in New York City. Broke alone and stuck in midtown Manhattan in the August heat she’s moving out of an apartment she can’t afford and desperate for a break. But then she gets a case—a man named Mark Fontaine wants Luella to prove that his wife Caitlin is having an affair. And so Marie transforms into Luella again complete with a blonde wig (no fake teeth needed this time since she got veneers with the money she earned from her last case) and travels to Murder Island a private island off the coast of New York City. Owned by a few ultrarich families the island is mostly isolated with just one ferry a day. Luella poses as Mark’s cousin and tries to befriend Caitlin in hopes she’ll let something slip—but then the man Luella suspects of being Caitlin’s secret lover is found dead. Luella doesn’t know who she can trust on an island full of eccentric billionaires. She finds herself drawn into their dysfunction and discovers a secret (and very weird) underground sex cult way too much smooth jazz and people who may not be what they seem. Firestone creates a wild wacky world for Luella that’s somehow even funnier than the one in her first book Murder on Sex Island (2025). Although Luella is delightfully strange on her own the story gets even more enjoyable when she joins up with a ragtag group of new crime-solving friends including a raunchy ferry captain and a determined librarian. The world of the wealthy island elite creates a perfectly over-the-top backdrop upon which Luella can unleash her unique brand of detective work. Let’s hope there’s a third Luella adventure coming soon.

Who knew that as an omniscient narrator puts it “the world’s first roller coaster was invented almost entirely by mistake”? We learn that it was the work of a bear who wanted “a quick and easy way to get from the stillness of home…to the calm of his beehives.” The Honey Runner as Bear dubs his creation—a wooden cart on an elevated track—is faster and steeper than he’d like it to be but it attracts the attention of an assortment of animals who clamor to ride it. The Honey Runner becomes a sensation and Bear has no choice but to add more carts to satisfy the curious. The humor in this “different strokes” story stems from Bear’s cluelessness regarding his invention’s appeal. “Why would anyone want to be jostled around like that?” he wonders. He has a brainstorm: Surely if he builds a steeper slope riders will be turned off? Bentley gives the bulbous-snouted inventor a hilariously skeptical expression throughout the book’s digital art created with a sun-kissed woodsy palette. The best gag is saved for last: In search of a peaceful life Bear leaves the Honey Runner behind for a spot beside a waterfall which readers won’t fail to observe would make a fantastic waterslide. (It does.)

Following the death of the grandmother who raised her following her mother’s murder and her father’s incarceration 10 years ago Gabrielle Thorn leaves Allentown Pennsylvania. She’s back in Starling living with her maternal aunt’s family which includes twin teen cousins she’s never met. Aunt Maggie urges her to hide her true identity so she’s now going by Ryan Shipley to distance herself from her notorious father Gabriel Thorn known as the Starling Slayer. Gabrielle also invents a backstory about having been in Switzerland at boarding school. The townspeople are vengeful and still deeply scarred by what happened; one of her classmates even hosts a popular podcast and runs an online forum about the case. Despite Gabrielle’s careful lies living among people traumatized by her father’s crimes inevitably gets complicated. While the story’s premise never feels completely believable readers will appreciate the banter-filled romantic tug of war Gabrielle has with two boys at her new school. The nightmarish details of her memories of her strange father a talented artist with an avid interest in birds are meted out in a gradual reveal that ratchets up the tension and although it’s obvious there will be a twist it’s effectively executed. Major characters read white.

The audacity of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World—the 1963 feature film featuring an all-star cast of comic actors—has been obscured by time. The initial idea conceived by husband-and-wife screenwriters William and Tania Rose and producer-director Stanley Kramer was a comedy on a grand scale: a four-hour two-intermission epic featuring every significant comedy figure then alive. As Curtis writes in his prologue the film was meant to be “the comedy to end all comedies…the Ben-Hur of slapstick the Gone With the Wind of frantic chase adventures.” Though shrunk down somewhat from its initial design the movie succeeded in its aim marking the apotheosis of the slapstick genre just before cinematic comedy turned toward the new ironic mode exemplified by Dr. Strangelove (released the next year). With this definitive history the author tells the unlikely story of how such a monumental project came to be. Readers will meet Kramer an unlikely choice to helm such a movie given his reputation for the dramatic “message picture” as well as the remarkable Tania Rose who served in Britain’s Ministry of Information during the Second World War and was the perfect writing partner for her depression-prone husband Bill. Their quest to juggle the greatest comedy cast of all time proved as madcap and messy as anything that made it on screen. “All together I find them a little indigestible” quipped cast member Terry-Thomas of his co-stars. “One at a time they’re delicious.” In addition to the production of the film Curtis covers among other topics the film’s controversial editing—United Artists cut the movie down against Kramer’s wishes—and its premiere at Hollywood’s brand-new Cinerama Dome on the same day as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Rich in detail and behind-the-scenes color the book offers a look at the making of a singular movie and a film industry caught in the midst of a generational transition.

Knopf editor Jackson’s sophomore novel—after the bestselling Pineapple Street (2023)—begins with a high-flying multiphase meet-cute. Caroline Lash 28 is traveling to the fictional town of Greenhead Massachusetts where she’s been awarded an 18-month-long writer’s residency in a beach cottage hopefully recognizing her own merits and not just the fact that she’s the daughter of Gwendolyn Lash one of the country’s top-selling authors. Making her way to her seat on the train she steps on a jelly doughnut which squirts red goo straight into her crotch. Offered a napkin by a cute guy with "the vibe of someone who knew his way around a kayak" she’s embarrassed that he disappears before she can clarify the non-menstrual origins of her sanguine blotch. When she runs into him a few weeks later at the bank and has a chance to explain she feels she’s only made things worse until she goes out and finds a jelly doughnut on the roof of her car. Then he turns up again in her group on a historic home tour. After some flirty banter they take matters into their own hands. Soon Caroline is quite madly in love with Van Whittaker who comes with a close-knit lifelong friend group a set of 30-somethings with small children. Not long after they move in together Van’s on-again off-again girlfriend from this group turns up pregnant the result of a pre-Caroline encounter. She wants to keep the baby and Van is welcome to be involved or not. Jackson rotates the point of view around the set of friends deftly depicting the practices and pressures of modern parents where some have schedules to decide who can take shrooms and who must remain sober enough to drive where some have fraying connections money troubles and/or long kept secrets where the best advice may come from the gay teenage babysitter. Updike fans will scent an update of that writer’s fraught suburban scandals even before the author’s note acknowledging the inspiration.

Hayden has been friends with the Abbott triplets—Bram Henry and Adam—her entire life having grown up near their mansion on a hill. The family’s auto shop is also located on the property and the boys work there part-time. Last year Bram’s girlfriend Mariana Sanchez died when her car caught on fire right after the brothers had worked on it. Although her death was ruled an accident everyone in Silver Creek Vermont was suspicious that the Abbotts were to blame. So when Kennedy Russo another local girl is found dead all eyes turn to the triplets. But Hayden feels conflicted—she’s best friends with gentle Henry attracted to brooding Bram and concerned about volatile Adam. Surely none of them has anything to do with the death of her popular classmate Kennedy? The boys have already been convicted in locals’ minds and the police have leads that implicate one of the brothers; Hayden believes it’s up to her to get to the truth. Told in alternating timelines and voices Ichaso’s latest is filled with abundant twists and turns. However the undeniably engaging story includes a few too many red herrings and far-fetched motives that detract from an otherwise propulsive reading experience. Hayden and the Abbott brothers present white.

Risa Porto has spent her whole life being shunned by superstitious townspeople who believe she’s a Bad Thing born on a Bad Day who brings bad luck. Risa owes the witch Brunhilda a favor in exchange for midwifery assistance with her birth and on her 17th birthday Brunhilda comes to collect. She commands Risa to accompany Prince Javier the king of Kheadon’s seventh son (affectionately known as el principito) to his politically arranged marriage to the daughter of a general in the mysterious kingdom of Madros. Prince Javi is an “unrelenting flirt” who easily falls in love with people regardless of gender. Though seemingly opposites in every way Risa whose hair is “the color of a cloudless midnight” and brown-skinned Javi quickly develop a delightfully witty rapport discovering they have more in common than they realized. Their journey takes them through brushes with numerous hazards from ruthless mercenaries and bloodthirsty cult members to outlaws. The more Risa endures the stronger she becomes—and the closer she gets to Javi who’s betrothed to another woman complicating matters. A meaningful element of Risa’s story that will stay with readers long after they turn the final page is her healing revelations about the power of forgiveness and self-love to break through all kinds of curses. Naranjo seamlessly weaves Spanish words and phrases into her Latine-inspired debut.

This romance is set in a modern fantasy United Kingdom amid the world of carriwitchet—a bloody rugbylike sport played on winged creatures. Taissa Cho was a force to be reckoned with until her rival Kion Locke exposed her illegal Luck glyph in the middle of a game and she was expelled from the league. Two years later Kion’s team is in desperate need of revival and while Taissa might be the last person he wants help from he knows her return to the sport could finally earn them a win. Taissa doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to come back to carriwitchet but Kion’s terms aren’t so simple. The positive publicity he needs involves a fake relationship between them because a headline touting former rivals turned lovers and teammates would certainly fill the stadium seats. On top of that a mysterious illness has been infecting the league’s animals endangering players and calling the sport’s future into question. The contemporary setting is a smart move creating a familiar environment against which Kim can sprinkle in some magical worldbuilding—it’s an easy immersion. This is a true enemies-to-lovers romance: Taissa has every reason to dislike Kion but she refuses to let him stand in the way of her passion for carriwitchet. She doesn’t see his offer as an olive branch; it’s a step toward finally getting revenge on the man who ousted her from the sport. With its playful mashup of romance fantasy and mystery the book rarely has a dull moment. As secondary characters and additional teams are introduced it’s clear that there’s plenty of potential for Kim to explore more romances on the carriwitchet pitch.

It’s been four decades since 74-year-old Frances Deluca’s New York–based girl gang broke up following a betrayal by one of their own that almost got the other three arrested. Now the widowed Frances who is bored living in Houston and keeping a secret wants “the ultimate swan song of one last heist.” Faster than readers can say “Golden Girls” the four geographically scattered women reunite. Readers who begin the novel skeptical that they will warm to a group of criminals can be assured that there is and has always been a method to the madness: As Frances tells someone at one point “We always did it to right a wrong. Well except for that one time in the convenience store but mostly to right wrongs.” Sure enough one of the women has the perfect target for the gang’s final job: a con man who scammed her granddaughter. The cause brings the foursome to Las Vegas where the impediments of age (memory slippage technological inexperience physical mobility limitations increased need for bathroom breaks) are offset by the fact that as Frances puts it “No one believes we are capable of anything but a bit of gardening and knitting sweaters for the family. We’re practically invisible.” London a stalwart author of romance novels demonstrates a fine talent for the comeuppance comedy although her story also has meat on its bones: It’s about mending fences the devaluation of older women and confronting mortality. While the novel is a bit long-winded as it wends its way to Vegas by book’s end readers can expect to wish they had more time with the old girls.

Dragonfly and Ladybug are trying to get home when a storm hits; they end up overturned in a stream from which they can’t extract themselves. “My wings are stuck!” laments Dragonfly. “Today we’ll surely be eaten!” frets Ladybug. But forced to look up at the sky (both are on their backs) they find tranquility. After the current pulls them downstream they’re spotted by a frog and a fish who suggests that they devour the bugs but curiosity about what Dragonfly and Ladybug are doing wins out. Frog and Fish try lying on their backs in the stream; before long other animals want in and “together they all basked in the glow of the sunset.” The plot of this picture-book debut from Barillaro who won an Oscar for his animated short Piper feels less like a story than like stop-and-smell-the-roses advocacy which isn’t a knock; the idea that unexpected setbacks can yield rewards for those paying attention is a worthy one. Washy digitally tweaked pencil-and-watercolor art splendidly captures the book’s outdoor settings and weather conditions. This offering should speak to readers who don’t demand dramatic turns of event and aren’t scared off by the book’s not-so-kid-friendly title.