[Manabi]

This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:

Dead Certain: A Novel by Adam Mitzner [Genre: Psychological Thriller]

Ella Broden is living a double life.

By day, Ella works as a buttoned-up attorney on some of the city’s most grueling cases. By night, she pursues her passion for singing in the darkest clubs of Manhattan.

No one knows her secret, not even Charlotte, the younger sister she practically raised. But it seems she’s not the only one in the family with something to hide. When Charlotte announces she’s sold her first novel, Ella couldn’t be more thrilled…until she gets a call that her sister’s gone missing.

Ella starts investigating with the help of Detective Gabriel Velasquez, an old flame in the NYPD, and what she finds is shocking. If art imitates life, then her sister’s novel may contain details of her real-life affairs. And any one of her lovers could be involved in her disappearance.

Desperate to bring Charlotte home, Ella works through her list of suspects, matching fictitious characters with flesh-and-blood men. But will it be too late to save the sister she only thought she knew?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

My sister and I are very close, but we have nothing on Ella and Charlotte Broden, the sisters at the heart of Dead Certain. Ella practically raised Charlotte after their mother died. They are best friends. They tell each other everything. Or do they? Perhaps even the closest of sisters have secrets.

When Charlotte announces she’s sold her first novel, Ella’s first reaction is jealousy. Then pride. Then trepidation. Charlotte has a habit of using her family as the basis for her writing, which was all well and good when the stories weren’t published for the entire world to read. Ella is not thrilled that her life—thinly veiled—will be in the hands of readers everywhere.

After Charlotte disappears without a trace, Ella turns to her manuscript for clues. And finds that she knows very little about Charlotte’s life. Was she secretly involved with three men, and could one of them be responsible for her disappearance?

Dead Certain asks how well we know the people we think we’re closest to. If you are anything like me, you may start looking at your siblings a little differently and searching for the cracks in their stories.

And I have a recommendation for my sister: Read. This. Book.

- Liz Pearsons, Editor

The First Word by Isley Robson [Genre: Romance]

To stay sane, Andie Tilly must keep her mind on her work. Her job as a pediatric occupational therapist is the perfect distraction from the unspeakable tragedy she experienced as a child. But when she meets alternative-energy magnate Rhys Griffiths and his autistic toddler, Will, she quickly realizes her heart will never be the same. Especially when her name becomes Will’s first word.

After accepting a position as a live-in therapist for Will, Andie steels herself against the appeal of the disconcertingly attractive—and attracted—Rhys. But their chemistry can no longer be denied, and their heated affair seems destined for happily ever after. A destiny Andie’s terrified to embrace.

When Andie’s guilt, Rhys’s awkwardness, and the abrupt appearance of an erratic ex threaten to dismantle their delicately blooming relationship, they must decide if love is worth the challenge. Can Andie and Rhys find their way back to each other? Or will the demons of the past simply prove too strong?

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I didn’t want to ugly cry at my desk. No one does, right? But as I read a pivotal scene in The First Word, I was overcome. Don’t get me wrong—while reading this stellar debut, I also swooned and grinned and fell in love with single dad Rhys. His attraction to his son’s occupational therapist, Andie Tilly, is no secret. But the masterful way that author Isley Robson portrays their budding romance is both heartbreaking and uplifting.

The First Word explores relationships—both familial and romantic—going inside, outside, through, and above and beyond. Andie’s past is painful, and we see clearly how her secret guilt drives so much of who she is. Rhys is both perfect and deeply flawed, making him accessible and appealing as only the best book boyfriends can be. These two damaged people come together, and if soul mates exist, they are it.

Now, I won’t say another word about this book. From the first word to those three little words, this novel speaks for itself.

- Maria Gomez, Editor

The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen Series Book 1) by Emily R. King [Genre: Fantasy]

In Emily R. King’s thrilling fantasy debut, an orphan girl blossoms into a warrior, summoning courage and confidence in her fearless quest to upend tradition, overthrow an empire, and reclaim her life as her own.

As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood in the ancient Tarachand Empire, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple.

But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.

Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death—and her growing affection for Deven—Kalinda has only one hope for escape, and it lies in an arcane, forbidden power buried within her.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I don’t fall for characters easily, but it didn’t take long for the woman at the heart of The Hundredth Queen to captivate me. At the start of the story, Kalinda is a humble orphan who suffers mysterious fevers and wants nothing more than a quiet, cloistered life of peace and safety in the mountain temple of the Sisterhood. Then a powerful monarch with ninety-nine wives arrives, seeking just one more. Surprising everyone, he chooses Kalinda.

But before they can be married, an ancient law demands that the wives and courtesans must battle in a bombastic tournament that pits them against each other in a deadly competition for power in the rajah’s sprawling court. To be chosen as a queen, it turns out, is hardly a gift, but as Kalinda rises from life as a sickly and powerless ward to topple an empire, she radiates an inspiring charm that I simply could not resist.

In fact, Kalinda is so charismatic that I would probably follow her to the grocery store, but thankfully, debut author Emily R. King’s story plays out in a richly imagined fantasy world. Cinematic in its settings, vivid in its magic, tender in its romance, and sinister in its central contest (imagine The Hunger Games for women in saris with ancient weapons), the new world in which Kalinda must fight for her life is as easy to get lost in as it is difficult to forget.

One author writes a story, but it takes a team to make a book, and it wasn’t long after we started working on this one that we all began ending our emails with “Viva Kalinda!” Join us?

- Jason Kirk, Editor

The Lioness of Morocco by Julia Drosten (Author), Christiane Galvani (Translator) [Genre: Historical Fiction]

Independent-minded Sibylla Spencer feels trapped in nineteenth-century London, where her strong will and progressive views have rendered her unmarriageable. Still single at twenty-three, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father’s house.

When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father’s trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape. As Benjamin’s rising career whisks them both away to exotic Morocco, Sibylla is at last a citizen of the world, reveling in her newfound freedom by striking her first business deals, befriending locals…and falling in love for the first time with a charismatic and handsome Frenchman.

But Benjamin’s lust for money and influence draws him into dark dealings, pulling him ever further from Sibylla and their two young sons. When he’s arrested on horrible charges, the fate of Sibylla’s family rests on her shoulders, as she must decide whether she’ll leave him to his fate or help him fight for his life.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

From the moment she plunges into the sea at the start of The Lioness of Morocco, Sibylla Spencer spoke to me—more specifically, to my inner nineteenth-century heroine, who longs to flout convention, cast off her corset, and raise her voice in defiance of what she’s told she cannot do.

Sibylla is the kind of protagonist who is easy to identify with on her journey from sheltered, somewhat spoiled English heiress to savvy Middle Eastern business magnate, who gains confidence as she smashes norms and disregards the expectations of her disapproving husband and fellow expatriates. Leaving her white-gloved Downton Abbey-esque London world of picnics and cricket matches behind to embrace the colorful, comfortable flowing garments and kohl eye makeup worn by local Moroccan women, Sibylla comes into her own, discovering that what is “foreign” may be more true to herself than what is familiar—and that what is familiar may actually be sinister.

Bestselling German author Julia Drosten makes her debut in English with this novel that transports us to an environment of minarets, dates, henna, oranges, lemons, amber, nutmeg, and couscous, where the open horizon holds endless opportunity and a considerable amount of peril.

At every step, I cheered Sibylla’s discovery of her new world, and her new self. Your inner nineteenth-century heroine may well do the same!

- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor

North Haven by Sarah Moriarty [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

Sarah Moriarty’s stunning debut is a portrait of the family scars and faults passed along the generations, brilliantly capturing life on the Maine coastline, where time seems to stand still even as the waters never stop moving.

On an island in Maine, four siblings arrive at their sprawling, old summer place for the Fourth of July. It’s the Willoughbys’ first summer without their parents, and their beloved house is falling apart. When a substantial offer is made on the estate, the two brothers and two sisters are forced to confront issues they had hoped to keep hidden.

An homage to the layers and limits of the family bond, North Haven explores the shifting allegiances between siblings as they contend with their inheritance, the truth of family lore, and even the veracity of their own memories. This lyrical and moving novel delves into the secret world that exists between parents, one their children don’t fully understand, much as they may think they do.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Perhaps it’s that I come from a large family and I love beautiful old homes, but I immediately connected with this story about four siblings who, having lost both of their parents, must decide what to do with the family’s sprawling and crumbling summerhouse on the Fox Island Thoroughfare in Maine. Between lobster dinners, blueberry picking, and rides out on the dinghy, tensions rise when it becomes clear that the adult Willoughby siblings—two brothers and two sisters—each have their own idea of what to do with the property.

Set in present day over the course of a week in the middle of a hot summer, Sarah Moriarty’s lyrical and moving novel is about much more than what to do with an inheritance; it is about making peace with inheritances of a more emotional kind. The decisions the parents made a long time ago have caused the brothers and sisters to hold back truths from each other. North Haven delves into the secret world that exists between parents, one their children don’t fully understand, much as they may think they do.

I’ve never been to Maine but after reading this novel, I felt like I could taste and smell the salty sea air. I found myself completely engrossed in a big, complicated family who reminded me that even on a picturesque island, there is always more than meets the eye.

- Carmen Johnson, Editor

The Great Passage by Shion Miura (Author), Juliet Winters Carpenter (Translator) [Genre: Literary Fiction]

A charmingly warm and hopeful story of love, friendship, and the power of human connection, award-winning Japanese author Shion Miura’s novel is a reminder that a life dedicated to passion is a life well lived.

Inspired as a boy by the multiple meanings to be found for a single word in the dictionary, Kohei Araki is devoted to the notion that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years creating them at Gembu Books, it’s time for him to retire and find his replacement.

He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime—a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics—whom he swipes from his company’s sales department.

Led by his new mentor and joined by an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the bond that connects us all: words.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

“A dictionary is a ship that crosses the sea of words” is the mission statement driving a team of editors toward their goal in this award-winning, uplifting novel. Before I read The Great Passage, I had never imagined that a dictionary could inspire a deep emotional connection, but I quickly saw my own passion reflected in the passion of these characters and hungrily turned the pages to see how dedication to this lofty vision would change their lives.

An editor facing retirement, Araki must pass on his life’s work to the next generation. The dictionary he began will one day be a ship so sturdy and well-built it can cross even the roughest seas—carrying as cargo not only the obvious meanings of a common word like “dog,” but also all the connotations and variations in usage, however surprising (why would the word for man’s best friend also be used negatively as in “a dog’s death” or “you dog”?). After hearing his new boss’s impassioned pitch for Sea of Words, promising young recruit Majime is honored to take over and humbled by the challenge. By exploring the complexity of even the most unassuming of words, Majime discovers—as he grows into a good man, falls in love, and enjoys a fulfilling career—that richness and beauty are offered by the simpler things in life.

And by the end of this magnificent book, which follows the long timeline of the dictionary’s creation, I found myself celebrating the ease of making connections. We can find one another—across a sea of language, culture, or ideology—through words, defined for all of us by a shared point of reference, like a sturdy dictionary, forged for the earnest purpose of bringing us together.

- Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor