[Manabi]

Thanks to newkindlefun for posting a short version earlier than I could! Here's the fancy one:

This month's Amazon First Reads selections are out, they are:

When Never Comes by Barbara Davis [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

Author Barbara Davis deftly explores an emotionally charged landscape of pain, loss, and despair—and the risk one woman will take in the hope of loving again.

As a teenage runaway and child of an addict, Christy-Lynn learned the hard way that no address was permanent, and no promise sacred. For a while, she found a safe haven in her marriage to bestselling crime novelist Stephen Ludlow—until his car skidded into Echo Bay. But Stephen’s wasn’t the only body pulled from the icy waters that night. When details about a mysterious violet-eyed blonde become public, a media circus ensues, and Christy-Lynn runs again.

Desperate for answers, she’s shattered to learn that Stephen and his mistress had a child—a little girl named Iris, who now lives in poverty with her ailing great-grandmother. The thought of Iris abandoned to the foster care system—as Christy-Lynn once was—is unbearable. But she’s spent her whole life running—determined never to be hurt again. Will she finally stand still long enough to open herself up to forgiveness and love?

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

What if you could save a child in need, but she would be a constant reminder of past hardship and heartache? Could you do it? Our heroine, Christy-Lynn Parker, never wanted to have kids. She had a horrible childhood—first with her drug-addled mother, next in foster care, and ultimately out on the streets. To Christy-Lynn’s relief, her husband never pushed for children. In fact, she thought he didn’t want them at all. So imagine her shock when she finds out after his death that he had a daughter named Iris with another woman—the same woman he died with in the depths of an icy bay in Maine.

Orphaned, Iris will likely end up a ward of the state. Christy-Lynn knows firsthand the perils of foster care. But Iris is not her responsibility. Moreover, she’s the product of her husband’s affair—how could anyone possibly expect Christy-Lynn to intervene? At the same time, she can’t seem to walk away. Each time she tries, she’s drawn back, asking herself whether she can face the nightmares of her childhood to save Iris.

It’s this question that had me hooked. What would I do in this situation? Could I set aside my hurt and grief? Could I open up my heart? Can Christy-Lynn? Let’s just say that in this achingly beautiful novel, author Barbara Davis deftly proves that there really is something to the old saw “Never say never.” — Jodi Warshaw, Editor

It Ends With Her by Brianna Labuskes [Genre: Thriller]

He started the game. She’ll end it.

FBI special agent Clarke Sinclair doesn’t give up easily. She’s spent years tracking serial killer Simon Cross, forced to follow his twisted clues and photographs across the country. Clarke knows that Cross selects only redheaded women and that he doesn’t target another victim until Clarke discovers the previous one.

He’s never broken pattern…until now.

A girl has already gone missing in upstate New York when a second one is kidnapped—a blonde. The killer’s MO has changed, sending Clarke back to the drawing board. The closer she gets to the truth, the deeper she’s drawn into an inescapable trap made just for Clarke. Whatever Cross’s ultimate game is, it ends with her.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

As a child, my friends and I created scavenger hunts around our houses. The thrill of the hunt was energizing and exhilarating…but there always came a point when one of us had to go search the basement. I remember walking down the stairs, feeling absolute dread as I forced myself to breathe in and out slowly, trying to stop my heart from beating out of my chest. Those few minutes of anxiety, as I raced to find my clue and get out of the basement, were more than enough for me. But those feelings are what the heroine of this story has felt for years. In Brianna Labuskes’s new novel, FBI agent Clarke Sinclair is faced with a similar scavenger hunt—only it promises a grim ending.

Clarke has been trapped in a cat-and-mouse game with a killer for so long, she doesn’t know what her life looks like without it. She’s just received the serial killer’s latest bread crumb—he’s kidnapped a new woman. My head was filled with questions as I tore through the pages. Why is the killer so fixated on Clarke? Why has he chosen these victims? When Clarke discovers the differences in the killer’s most recent target, she realizes the answers lie in the tragic story of his first victim.

Told from multiple points of view, this novel is a captivating look at not only an FBI agent in crisis, but also a serial killer and his victims. As the hunt unfolds, we see that the characters’ pasts are shrouded in mystery, and the ultimate prize at the end of the trail left me gasping.

Brianna’s debut psychological thriller has it all: high stakes, revelations, and characters you won’t soon forget. As a reader, I love when a book gives me the chills, and It Ends With Her did just that. — Megha Parekh, Editor

Bandwidth by Eliot Peper [Genre: Science Fiction]

A rising star at a preeminent political lobbying firm, Dag Calhoun represents the world’s most powerful technology and energy executives. But when a close brush with death reveals that the influence he wields makes him a target, impossible cracks appear in his perfect, richly appointed life.

Like everyone else, Dag relies on his digital feed for everything—a feed that is as personal as it is pervasive, and may not be as private as it seems. As he struggles to make sense of the dark forces closing in on him, he discovers that activists are hijacking the feed to manipulate markets and governments. Going public would destroy everything he’s worked so hard to build, but it’s not just Dag’s life on the line—a shadow war is coming, one that will secure humanity’s future or doom the planet to climate catastrophe. Ultimately, Dag must decide the price he’s willing to pay to change the world.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Reading excellent near-future science fiction is knowing that one day you could wake up and the book will be shelved in the nonfiction section. From the politically motivated shootout in the very first pages of Eliot Peper’s Bandwidth to the pervasive cloud-based tech and the accelerating threat of severe climate change, this novel is a chilling look at a teetering world just around the corner from ours. If you blink, you could be living there.

This is the reality that master manipulator Dag Calhoun deals with. As a suave lobbyist, Dag reshapes politics on an international scale, where everyone is jockeying for power in a world ravaged by rising sea waters and energy shortages. The people in this future-that-might-be rely on “the feed,” a technology that permeates every part of their lives, from social media and commerce to the global information network. The feed is the internet on steroids, and it is accessible to everyone like a sixth sense. Dag soon finds out firsthand what happens when that type of control is given to the wrong people.

After a client is gunned down before his eyes, Dag struggles to unplug from his highest-bidder-takes-all worldview in order to confront the sins of his past. As the feed manipulates the geopolitical landscape, the world—and Dag’s very identity—hang in the balance. The things he has taken for granted are put into focus—his influence, his privilege, his power. And he’s not sure he likes what he sees, in himself or others. Presented with a universe that is so close to our own, how can we not wonder who we really are too? What would I do? Where are my priorities? And maybe those are just the right questions for us to ask these days. Before it’s too late. — Adrienne Procaccini, Editor

An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl (Author), Michele Hutchison (Translator) [Genre: Biography]

The true story of a girl from the wilderness settlements of a burgeoning new America who became one of the most privileged figures of the Gilded Age.

Born to a pioneering family in Upstate New York in the late 1800s, Allene Tew was beautiful, impetuous, and frustrated by the confines of her small hometown. At eighteen, she met Tod Hostetter at a local dance, having no idea that the mercurial charmer she would impulsively wed was heir to one of the wealthiest families in America. But when he died twelve years later, Allene packed her bags for New York City. Never once did she look back.

From the vantage point of the American upper class, Allene embodied the tumultuous Gilded Age. Over the course of four more marriages, she weathered personal tragedies during World War I and the catastrophic financial reversals of the crash of 1929. From the castles and châteaus of Europe, she witnessed the Russian Revolution and became a princess. And from the hopes of a young girl from Jamestown, New York, Allene Tew would become the epitome of both a pursuer and survivor of the American Dream.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

From a young age, we Americans are instilled with the dream that we can achieve anything, if only we work hard enough. You could be an entrepreneur, an astronaut…you could even grow up to marry a prince. After all, it happened to Allene Tew, a rural all-American girl who, in the late 1900s, reinvented herself first as a high society New York doyenne and then as European royalty.

Allene is the real-life heroine of the biography An American Princess, an incredible rags-to-riches story that takes us around the world—through world wars, the soaring and crashing of financial markets, and the great flu pandemic. Neither her wealth nor connections sheltered Allene from death, divorce, or the economic turmoil that was endemic at the turn of the twentieth century.

Through it all, however, Allene made the most of her opportunities and refused to succumb to depression or despair. Allene’s letters frequently proclaimed that we must have “courage all the time,” a motto that still rings out to me when I need it most, even long after I’ve closed the book.

Author Annejet van der Zijl—dubbed “Queen of Literary Nonfiction” in her native Netherlands—is a masterful storyteller who both gives us the historical context of the era and makes the personalities come to life. An American Princess has thrilled over two hundred thousand readers in the original Dutch. It’s a genuine pleasure to bring this author to an English-speaking audience and reintroduce her subject, Allene Tew, to her countrymen and women. — Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor

The Air Raid Killer (Max Heller, Dresden Detective) by Frank Goldammer (Author), Steve Anderson (Translator) [Genre: Historical Mystery]

As the Third Reich ends, a killer’s game begins.

In the final days of the Third Reich, with the historic city of Dresden on the brink of destruction, terrifying rumors spread about the Fright Man, a demonic killer who exploited the cover of a nighttime air raid siren to mutilate and kill a young nurse. Just as seasoned detective Max Heller begins investigating, the Fright Man kills again…

The investigation seems hopeless. Desperate refugees flood the streets, all of Heller’s resources are depleted, and his new boss is a ruthless SS officer. And like so many others, Heller and his wife, Karin, survive on meager rations while fearing for the lives of their sons at the front. But as tensions mount and enemy firebombs decimate the city, dangerous new clues come to light—and the determined Heller pursues a violent and twisting path to unmask a monster.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

In the war-torn ruins of Dresden, detective Max Heller’s moral code is the one thing that hasn’t crumbled. As World War II rages on, Heller is unmoved by politics and remains dedicated to honest police work, committed to serve and protect, even as bombs are falling overhead. His mission is to stop the Fright Man, a brutal killer lurking around the wreckage, before he can inflict further damage.

Resources are constrained and local officials want police efforts focused on the war, but Heller refuses to be reassigned to trench digging when his city needs him. Determining his motive is as compelling as determining the killer’s: Why would Heller insist on investigating a few murder cases when soldiers and civilians are dying in vast numbers? In this gripping page-turner, Heller does not align himself with vague notions of good and evil—his definition of right and wrong was clearly established in the police academy, where he learned to detect evidence and prove a hypothesis before acting on it. This type of reason is generally lost in the ruckus of battle and the zealotry of nationalism, but Heller is uncompromising in his commitment to his neighbors and his belief in justice.

Reading The Air Raid Killer may keep you up more nights than most mysteries, breathless from the explosions and in awe of Heller’s conviction. — Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor

Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes [Genre: Memoir]

Told with a lyrical, almost-dreamlike voice as intoxicating as the moonflowers and orchids that inhabit this world, Monsoon Mansion is a harrowing yet triumphant coming-of-age memoir exploring the dark, troubled waters of a family’s rise and fall from grace in the Philippines. It would take a young warrior to survive it.

Cinelle Barnes was barely three years old when her family moved into Mansion Royale, a stately ten-bedroom home in the Philippines. Filled with her mother’s opulent social aspirations and the gloriously excessive evidence of her father’s self-made success, it was a girl’s storybook playland. But when a monsoon hits, her father leaves, and her mother’s terrible lover takes the reins, Cinelle’s fantastical childhood turns toward tyranny she could never have imagined. Formerly a home worthy of magazines and lavish parties, Mansion Royale becomes a dangerous shell of the splendid palace it had once been.

In this remarkable ode to survival, Cinelle creates something magical out of her truth—underscored by her complicated relationship with her mother. Through a tangle of tragedy and betrayal emerges a revelatory journey of perseverance and strength, of grit and beauty, and of coming to terms with the price of family—and what it takes to grow up.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

How do you define your relationship with your mother? Was it tender and full of love? Or perhaps it was distant and confusing? The role of a mother can be complicated, and author Cinelle Barnes masterfully and tenderly depicts her mother in every facet, from small, gentle moments to the more frighteningly violent and spiteful flare-ups.

Monsoon Mansion is a memoir of Cinelle’s childhood growing up in a fairy tale of a mansion in the Philippines that becomes a nightmare when her mother remarries a politically motivated tyrant who transforms and takes over the house and their lives.

When I first heard Cinelle’s story of survival in person, I was floored. How was I sitting across from someone so brave, so resilient, so positive after all she had been through? Told with heart and grace and lyrical childlike wonder, this story takes us through intoxicating orchid gardens, dusty cock-fighting rings, the lushness of the Philippines, a bloody political coup in the jungles and mountains, and the slow decay of a mansion abandoned. Through it all, Cinelle is a young warrior who has to learn to lean on herself when her mother refuses to be that pillar for her. The story is an ode to perseverance and ingenuity, one that will make you gasp and cheer Cinelle along her journey. — Vivian Lee, Editor