A Whelk's Island Valentine by Nancy Naigle

 On Whelk’s Island, love doesn’t arrive with fireworks.

It shows up quietly, exactly when it’s needed most.

As Valentine’s Day settles over the coast, Rosemary believes romance doesn’t need fuss or spectacle. She’s long past candy hearts and grand gestures. Tug, steady and thoughtful, agrees—or so she thinks.

Between a cookie-baking class gifted by a dear friend, an old Valentine discovered at just the right moment, and a rainy island evening that refuses to go according to plan, they find themselves reminded that the truest kind of love isn’t about recreating the past—it’s about noticing the present.

Tender, warm, and filled with the small moments that mean everything, A Whelk’s Island Valentine is a heart-forward Valentine’s short story featuring Tug and Rosemary, beloved characters from The Shell Collector Novels.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Sweet, clean romance
• Coastal settings and small-town charm
• Stories about second chances and steady love
• Valentine’s tales with depth and heart

Whether you’re already part of the Whelk’s Island family or discovering it for the first time, this short story is a gentle reminder that sometimes the most meaningful gifts are the ones given quietly—and found later.

Pick up your copy here...                                                                                                                                    Amazon.com: A Whelk's Island Valentine: A Shell Collector Short Story eBook : Naigle, Nancy: Kindle Store

 USA TODAY and ECPA bestselling author Nancy Naigle writes uplifting small-town women’s fiction and sweet romance filled with heart, hope, and second chances. Her feel-good stories celebrate faith, family, friendship, and close-knit communities where love grows quietly and healing begins.

Nancy’s breakout novel The Shell Collector debuted in the Top 20 on the ECPA Bestseller list and was adapted as a Fox Original Movie. Several of her books have inspired beloved made-for-television films, including Hallmark favorites known for wholesome romance, emotional depth, and small-town charm.

A former Senior Vice President at Bank of America, Nancy now writes full-time from small-town Virginia, drawing inspiration from front porches, lifelong friendships, and the simple moments that make a place feel like home. Her books are perfect for readers who love clean romance, heartfelt women’s fiction, and faith-forward stories that leave you smiling long after the last page.

If you’re looking for cozy, hope-filled reads with relatable characters and meaningful connections, welcome to Nancy Naigle’s story worlds.

Then You Happened by J. S. Wood

 After finding out his friends find his nonstop quest for love to be a little excessive. Derek has decided to put a stop to dating altogether.

Now, he's stuck in a no-go zone just in time for someone new to enter the friend group.

Elizabeth is a single mom who has been out of the dating pool for a long time, but when she meets Derek, the sweet and caring friend of a friend, she thinks things are about to change.

When things don’t go quite as she expects, she accepts his friendship and begins a journey to help him reinvent his father’s failing hardware store to keep the legacy alive.

Spending hours together working, they begin to see that their feelings are not so easily brushed aside and when push comes to shove, their friendship blossoms into a romance they’ll never forget.

But when things get hard for the hardware store, and real life starts to butt in to their relationship, they have to decide if they can weather the storm, or if things will end for good.

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Then You Happened: A Single Parent Romance (Average Gents Book 5) - Kindle edition by Wood, J.S. . Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

J.S. Wood is the author of the Average Gents series. After coining the phrase "Nice Guy Romance", she has used this to make a brand for herself to represent the underrated nice guy. Originally from Colorado, she now resides with her husband and children in Wyoming, writing anything that inspiration strikes. Her next series, The Three Rivers Trevors Ranch, is inspired by her horse training upbringing and will bring a slew of 'touch her and ---" cowboys. You can connect with her on Instagram @authorjswood, TikTok, @authorjswood, or her website www.jswoodauthor.com

What to Do When You Feel Broken by Laura Williams

 You’re not broken. Learn how your past impacts your present and develop the mindset you need to break damaging patterns.

Clinical psychologist Dr Laura Williams’ life turned upside down when her husband suddenly died at the age of 37, when they had three young children. This trauma forced her to reconsider the psychological teachings she’d used professionally to help hundreds of others and apply them to her own life.

Dr Laura uses her own personal story to illustrate key psychological concepts we can all benefit from applying to our own lives. You'll learn how to:

• Get to know yourself fully and understand what drives your behaviour and how it impacts your relationships
• Examine your early conditioning to gain new insight into destructive feelings that you may have repressed for years
• Use Dr Laura’s four-step HEAL framework to move forward consciously on a new path

The toolbox of knowledge and techniques in this book will empower you to pick up your ‘broken parts’ and put them back together to live life with resilience, wisdom and fortitude.

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What to Do When You Feel Broken: How to Let Go of Negative Patterns, Heal Your Relationships and Find Freedom: Williams, Dr Laura: 9781401979003: Amazon.com: Books

Dr Laura Williams is a clinical psychologist, author and speaker specialising in the treatment of trauma, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and obsessional compulsive disorder. After losing her husband suddenly in 2018, she began writing about loss to help others process the emotions of grief. Laura's writing has been featured in national newspapers and magazines. Laura has also contributed to Channel 4 and ITV documentaries focussed on the treatment of morbid obesity. You can tune in to her psychological knowledge and expertise on the 'Know Your Own Psychology' podcast. Living in Edinburgh, Scotland, Laura works in both the NHS and in private practice. Laura is passionate about using 'blue mind' and embodiment practices through taking people to water therapeutically.

Preorder All Booked Up by Melody Carlson

  All Booked Up by Melody Carlson is available for Preorder! Preorder your copy today from your favorite book retailer.

When preserving precious memories means welcoming unexpected changes, Riva finds that her heart has room for so much more than she imagined.

Widowed empty nester Riva Owen lives in the Victorian house that's been in her family for three generations, but finances have become a challenge she can no longer ignore. Her daughter is pushing her to move, and after considering all her options, Riva knows selling would be the smartest course. But she just can't bring herself to leave decades of memories--and her cherished library filled with hundreds of books.

When she pursues an alternative--opening her home to women like her who need a room to rent--Riva is unprepared for the mix of personalities and peculiarities of her new housemates. She is even more unprepared for Marcus, the handsome and handy older brother of one of her new tenants. The possibility of finding love again feels overwhelming, even as her tenants seem to have romantic schemes of their own.

Warm your heart with a story of found family, book lovers, and a second chance at love.

#preorder #mustread #Romance #fiction #themaryreader

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All Booked Up: A Small Town Contemporary Clean Romance with Bookish and Literary Themes: Melody Carlson: 9780800747251: Amazon.com: Books

Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books (with sales around 6.5 million) for teens, women and children. That's a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a "storyteller." Her novels range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She's won a number of awards (including Romantic Time's Career Achievement Award, the Rita and the Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog. To find out more about Melody Carlson, visit her website at http://www.melodycarlson.com/

Finding Beauty by Ann Penny

 Sometimes, the greatest love stories begin with a second chance.

Starting over in New York City is Melanie Warren’s chance to prove she doesn’t need her parents’ wealth, high-society status, or her ex-fiancé, Grayson. Determined to stand on her own, she refuses to look back, until her new job brings her face-to-face with the one man she swore never to forgive.

Scott Blackwood is no longer the reckless boy with a troubled past. Now, he’s wealthy, powerful, and everything he once dreamed of becoming. But to Melanie, he’s still the man who shattered her seventeen year old heart and never looked back.

Their chemistry is undeniable, their past impossible to forget. As old wounds resurface and the lines between them blur, Melanie is faced with a choice: hold on to her heartbreak or risk everything for a second chance at love. Because the biggest secret of all? She never stopped loving him.

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Finding Beauty (Love, Beauty, & Soul): Penny, Ann: 9781923232129: Amazon.com: Books

Ann Penny is an empathetic daydreamer who escapes reality through her written words.

She loves to immerse herself in nature and creative arts, and heal trauma through writing heartfelt stories where she can truly embrace the light and shade of life and love.

Penny navigates her beautiful chaotic world with her amazing husband and their two mischievous boys while endeavouring to harness her hyperactive mind and quirky sense of humour.

The New Neighbors by Claire Douglas

 Unassuming neighbors may not be what they seem in this twisty, spine-tingling thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Couple at Number 9 and The Girls Who Disappeared.

They seem like the perfect couple. But what are they hiding?
When Lena overhears a conversation between her next-door-neighbors she thinks she must have misheard.
The Morgans are a kind, retired couple who recently moved to their sleepy suburban street in Bristol where nothing ever happens. But to Lena it sounded very much like they were planning a crime.
Her family and friends tell her she must be mistaken. Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about that strange conversation. What if they really are about to do something terrible?
What if she can prevent it?

Especially when doing something might help ease her conscience about her own dark past . . .

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The New Neighbors: A Novel: Douglas, Claire: 9780063354432: Amazon.com: Books

Claire Douglas is the Sunday Times number one bestselling author of eight stand alone novels: The Sisters (2015), Local Girl Missing (2016), Last Seen Alive (2017), Do Not Disturb (2018), Then She Vanishes (2019) and Just Like The Other Girls (2020). Her seventh, The Couple At No 9 (2021) was an Amazon number one bestseller, a number three Sunday Times bestseller and most recently hit number one on Germany's Der Spiegel paperback bestsellers chart. The Girls Who Disappeared was a Richard and Judy book club pick for Autumn 2022 and was an instant number one Sunday Times bestseller. Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK and have been published worldwide.

Her most recent, THE WOMAN WHO LIED will be published on July 6th 2023.

You can find Claire on Twitter at @DougieClaire, Instagram as clairedouglasauthor, or visit her Facebook page clairedouglasauthor.

Crimson Refuge by Sienna Judd

 I was done wanting love. Done with trust. Done with hope.

Then Freya Johnson walked into my life—curious, relentless, too young for me, and completely off-limits. I was her mentor. Her safe place. Her friend. And a man who knew better than to touch her.
And I didn’t.
Not until she left for the LAPD.
Not until one night blew straight through every line I’d drawn.
I never meant for that night to change anything.
But it changed everything.
The line I drew is now two pink ones, and when she comes back to Echo Valley—taking a quieter desk job while we try to figure out next steps—every boundary I’ve built starts to crack.
Because being her friend, her co-parent, her roommate… none of it touches the truth of what I want when I look at her.
When she becomes the lead officer on a case no one can quite explain, something dangerous starts circling closer than she realizes. It isn’t just instinct that locks tight inside my chest.
It’s fierce protectiveness.
The and there I realize she’s already mine, whether I’ve told her or not.
Wanting her is the fastest way to lose myself again.
But if this threat reaches her first, it won’t just cost me control.
It will cost me the one thing I never planned to risk again.

Crimson Refuge is the heart-racing story of a rookie and her mentor, a friends to lovers, accidental pregnancy with a hero who is all out touch her and d!e. This book is part of the Echo Valley series of interconnected standalones, better read in order, but it can be read on its own.

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Amazon.com: Crimson Refuge: Accidental Pregnancy, Romantic Suspense (Echo Valley): 9798246792773: Judd, Sienna: Books

Sienna Judd is a small town, contemporary romance author who lives for all the spice and book boyfriends who are book husband material.

Sienna is an American girl married to her Prince Charming. She lives with her husband, three children, pony, dogs, guineas pigs and countless other animals on a small farm England. She thinks kitchens are for dancing, is everybody's hype girl and might be known for talking too loudly. Like every respectable woman she also loves drinking champagne and eating half of every chocolate in a truffles box.

Her spirit animal is a butterfly.

Hunt You Down by Elizabeth Knox

 I thought I escaped hell when I ran from the Sanctuary.

Hell found me on a Valentine's Day auction block, where men in black ties bid on virgins like livestock. Where the highest bidder owns you—body, mind, and soul.

Vaughn Sutherland paid more for me than most people see in a lifetime.

He put me in a room with silk sheets and locked doors. He touched me in ways that made me forget my own name. He made me want things I shouldn't want.

So, I ran.

I made it a few hours before he found me.

I expected punishment. Expected pain. Expected him to finally show me the monster beneath the patient facade.

Instead, he gave me pleasure.

Over and over until I broke. Until I begged. Until I couldn't remember why I ever wanted to leave.

Now I sleep in his bed, not the guest room. Now he watches my every move. Now every choice I thought I had is gone—except one.

Submit willingly to his training for the Consortium gathering, or he'll break me until I do. And the worst part? I'm starting to want to submit.

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Amazon.com: Hunt You Down (A Dark Holiday): 9798244233360: Knox, Elizabeth: Books

Elizabeth is a USA Today Bestselling author who is most popular for her romantic suspense and dark romance books.

Please make sure you click the follow author button to ensure you're signed up for all of Elizabeth's latest releases.

Without A Clue by Melissa Ferguson

 A laugh-out-loud rom-com wrapped in a whodunit, this high-seas adventure proves that sometimes the best love stories start with a little murder.

Penelope Mae Dupont has one superpower: keeping her cool. Which is essential when you're the personal assistant to renowned mystery author Hugh Griffin. But when Pip organizes a luxury book cruise featuring The Fabulous Seven--a glittering cast of seven bestselling authors known for both their brilliance and their drama--her trademark composure starts slipping. One boat. Seven egos. Hundreds of fans. What could possibly go wrong?

Well . . . murder, for starters.

On day two, Hugh is found dead--and the cruise security team proves to be utterly incompetent. Stranded in the middle of the Atlantic with no help in sight, Pip realizes if anyone's going to solve the case, it'll have to be her. And so, with her friend and ally Nash, the dreamy Western author who's just as rugged as the cowboys he writes about, she puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test.

As Pip and Nash navigate an ocean of secrets, shocking twists, and one too many red herrings, she'll have to decide whether she's meant to stay behind the scenes--or finally step into the spotlight . . . and maybe, just maybe, find love along the way.

In the world of mystery and love, sometimes you have to risk going overboard to find the truth.

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Without a Clue: A Rom-Com, Cozy Mystery Book about Books: Ferguson, Melissa: 9780840716910: Amazon.com: Books

Melissa Ferguson is the bestselling author of titles including Meet Me in the Margins, Famous for a Living, and How to Plot a Payback. She lives in Tennessee with her family in their growing farmhouse lifestyle and writes heartwarming romantic comedies.

You can find her on her socials at @ourfriendlyfarmhouse.

I liked some of the characters and then others I was not impressed with. But I really enjoyed the mystery it was well done. I love a book that keeps me guessing. I found the romance a nice secondary story.
This was a nice surprise.
Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Collectors by David Baldacci

 While a gifted con artist plots against the most ruthless businessman in the world, the Camel Club must stop a renegade CIA agent from selling American secrets to the highest bidder in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.

The assassination of the speaker of the House has rocked the nation. And the Camel Club has found a chilling connection with another death: that of the director of the Library of Congress's Rare Books and Special Collections Division.

The club's unofficial leader, a man who calls himself Oliver Stone, discovers that someone is selling America to its enemies one secret at a time. Then Annabelle Conroy, the greatest con artist of her generation, comes to town and joins forces with the Camel Club for her own reasons. And Stone will need all the help she can give, because the two murders are hurtling the Camel Club into a world of espionage that is bringing America to its knees.

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The Collectors: Baldacci, David: 9781538781401: Amazon.com: Books

David Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. (Much later, when David thanked her for being the spark that ignited his writing career, she revealed that she'd given him the notebook to keep him quiet, "because every mom needs a break now and then.")

David published his first novel, ABSOLUTE POWER, in 1996. The feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 50 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels have been translated into over 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. David has also published seven novels for younger readers.

David is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy programs across the United States.

Meant for You by Nora Everly

 A cozy, emotional small-town romance about choosing love, building family, and discovering that some people are meant for you.

Eliza Darlington is doing her best to keep her distance—from her meddling family, her messy past, and especially from the sunshine single dad who keeps showing up at her coffee hut with sweet smiles and steamy glances.

Nate Winters has his hands full running Honeybrook Hollow’s favorite diner and raising his daughter. Falling for Eliza? Not part of the plan. But the more time they spend together—cooking, flirting, and maybe falling in love—the harder it is to stay away.

When her secret ex shows up to open a rival restaurant, the town’s annual food festival turns into more than just a culinary competition. Eliza must choose between protecting the people she loves… and finally fighting for the future she wants.

Filled with cozy charm, slow-burn kisses, and one determined four-year-old, Meant for You is a feel-good romance about second chances, small-town secrets, and the kind of love that feels like home.

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Amazon.com: Meant for You (Honeybrook Hollow): 9781965207109: Everly, Nora: Books

Nora Everly is a lifelong bookworm. She started reading the good stuff once she grew tall enough to sneak the romance novels off the top of her mother’s bookshelf and it has been non-stop ever since.

Once upon a time she was a substitute teacher and an educational assistant. Now she’s a writer and stay at home mom to two small humans and one fat cat.

Nora lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and her overactive imagination.

Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.noraeverly.com/newsletter-1

Keep in touch with Nora here: https://www.noraeverly.com/

This author is so well written. Her books pull me in, and I can't put them down. This book was no exception, a fun small-town romance that I will be sharing with everyone. 

Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang

 Shanghai, 1911. Lisan Liu is elated when she is hired as secretary to wealthy American Caroline Stanton, the new mistress of Lennox Manor on the outskirts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. However, the Manor has a dark past due to a previous owner’s suicide, and soon Lisan’s childhood nightmares resurface with more intensity and meld with haunted visions of a woman in red. Adding to her unease is the young gardener, Yao, who both entices and disturbs her.

Newly married Caroline looks forward to life in China with her husband, Thomas, away from the shadows of another earlier tragedy. But an unwelcome guest, Andrew Grey, attends her party and claims to know secrets she can’t afford to have exposed. At the same party, the notorious princess Masako Kyo approaches Lisan with questions about the young woman’s family that the orphaned Lisan can’t answer.

As Caroline struggles with Grey’s extortion and Thomas’s mysterious illness, Lisan’s future is upended when she learns the truth about her past, and why her identity has been hidden all these years. All the while, strange incidents accelerate, driving Lisan to doubt her sanity as Lennox Manor seems unwilling to release her until she fulfills demands from beyond the grave.

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The Fourth Princess: A Gothic Novel of Old Shanghai: Chang, Janie: 9780063308121: Amazon.com: Books

Janie Chang's historical novels have been critically-acclaimed Canadian national bestsellers. Her novels THREE SOULS and DRAGON SPRINGS ROAD were long listed for the International Dublin Literary Award. Her third novel THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDS was a Book of the Month Club pick. Her fourth novel, THE PORCELAIN MOON, was named one of the 5 Top Historical Novels of 2023 by the Toronto Star. THE PHOENIX CROWN, a novel co-authored with Kate Quinn, released in February 2024.

Her stories often feature a family connection, drawing from a family history with 36 generations of recorded genealogy and stories about life in a small Chinese town in the years before the Second World War, including tales of ancestors who encountered dragons, ghosts, and immortals.

Born in Taiwan, Janie has lived in the Philippines, Iran, Thailand, and New Zealand. She now lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada with her husband.

Even After This by Deborah Clack

 When you're ready to live again, love often has a way of finding you.

Four years after tragedy, Meredith Harper is tired of hiding in her corner of Texas and living life like a game of dodgeball. She packs up her grief, awkward social graces, and sizable life insurance in search of a vacation and investment property in Colorado Springs. A botched dinner reservation throws her into the path of a bona fide movie star, and Meredith pushes through her comical celebrity neurosis to discover he is charming but a terrible dancer.

A viral video of a daring rescue makes Harlan Holcombe's celebrity star stronger, with millions of his fans deeming him a real-life Hercules. But a minute of heroism doesn't absolve his past mistakes.

As Harlan and Meredith spend more time together, he helps her believe there might be more for her not just in life but in love. And she might be part of the solution to restore the legacy he fears is tarnished. But what happens when the path to redeem his mistakes collides with the path to redeem her loss?

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Amazon.com: Even After This: A Clean/No-Spice Contemporary Romance of a Widow’s Second Chance at Love with a Hollywood Celebrity (Shelter and Sky): 9780800746940: Deborah Clack: Books

Award-winning author Deborah Clack is a native Texan who believes in the power of fiction, the lost art of lip synching, and that chocolate should be eaten without nuts. A high school AP history teacher for 10 years, Deborah earned a Master’s Degree in Education and was awarded Teacher of the Year for Arts in Education. Now she creates stories of her own filled with endearing characters and a hard-fought romance.

Cry Havoc by Rebecca Wait

 Fleeing Scotland after a humiliating family scandal, sixteen-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls’ boarding school situated on the remote south English coast. Her new Headmistress—an eccentric woman obsessed with the Cold War and nuclear annihilation—seems surprised that the young woman accepted her offer, but Ida feels that St. Anne’s could be a refuge—until she discovers that her roommate, the infamous Louise Adler, is a potential arsonist and hardened outcast.

Ida barely has time to make a good impression (or figure out what Louise’s deal is) when Matthew Langfield, a new teacher, arrives. While the girls are all desperately intrigued to find out everything about him – after all, who takes a job at St. Anne’s? - the school’s geography teacher, Eleanor Alston, has an uneasy feeling that he is not who he says he is. And things only get worse when a mysterious sickness starts to spread throughout the school, causing strange limb jerks and seizures among the pupils.

What is happening to the girls of St Anne's? Are some of the girls faking these fits? Could someone be poisoning them? Is Matthew Langfield a smooth-tongued liar? Will Louise set the school on fire, or push a girl out of a window. . . again? And is Ida’s past going to catch up with her, despite doing everything to keep it secret?

Pick up your copy here....                                                                                                                                    Amazon.com: Cry Havoc: A Novel: 9780063473133: Wait, Rebecca: Books

Rebecca Wait is the author of five novels, most recently Havoc.

Her fourth novel, I’m Sorry You Feel That Way, was a book of the year for The Times, Guardian, Express, Good Housekeeping and BBC Culture, and was shortlisted for the Nota Bene Prize.

Her third novel, Our Fathers, received widespread acclaim and was a Guardian book of the year and a thriller of the month for Waterstones.

Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fein

 1552, PARIS: The print­ing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas.

1952, NEW YORK: Milly Bennett is a lonely housewife struggling to find her way in her new neighborhood amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. She finds her life taking an unexpected turn when a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, pulling her into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world.
From the risky backstreets of sixteenth-century Paris to the unpredictable suburbs of mid-twentieth century New York, the stakes couldn’t be higher when, 400 years apart, Milly, Lysbette, and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.

Dramatic and affecting, and inspired by the real-life encrypted Voynich manuscript, Book of Forbidden Words is both an engrossing story about a timeless struggle that echoes through the ages and a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who dare to let their words be heard.

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Amazon.com: Book of Forbidden Words: A Novel: 9780063411432: Fein, Louise: Books

Louise writes historical fiction, focusing on unheard voices or from unusual perspectives. Her debut novel, Daughter of the Reich (entitled People Like Us in the UK edition) was published in 2020 into 13 territories and is set in 1930’s Leipzig. The book was shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021 and the RNA Historical Novel of the Year Award, 2021. Louise's second novel, The Hidden Child, was published in 2021 and is centered around the eugenics movement in 1920’s England and America. It was a Globe & Mail bestseller in Canada. Her third novel, The London Bookshop Affair, about one woman’s journey to uncover secrets of her past, set against a backdrop of espionage and looming nuclear war in 1962 London, will be published in January 2024.

Louise, previously a lawyer and banker, holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University and now writes full time. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today’s world. Louise lives in the Surrey countryside, UK, with her family, and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets.

For more information, go to https://www.louisefein.com and sign up to Louise's newsletter. She also posts regularly to her blog at

https://www.louisefein.com/blog-and-news, or follow her on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/louisefeinauthor; Twitter, https://twitter.com/FeinLouise; or Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/louisefeinauthor