Collection: Shop Woman

Wickedly dark with a mystical edge, this story of an Italian love affair gone bad captures the irresistible pull of toxic relationships--from the acclaimed author of Carnality.

A woman arrives in Florence, overwhelmed by the strange, warm city so different from her home. Amidst the Renaissance architecture and amorous couples, she finds an unexpected love of her own. With his dark, ugly looks, people might stop and stare, wondering what someone like her was doing with someone like him. But he's the Mickey to her Minnie, and she can fix him--they can fix each other. She feels bound to him, body and soul.

It's not long before the lying starts. Other women have begun to notice him, and she spirals into paranoia. Soon they're both cheating and lashing out, and she becomes more and more convinced he's not merely a violent man: there's a demon inside him, and inside her too. Their grip on each other is so strong, it might be impossible to break, even after she puts an ocean between them, following another man to New Orleans.

Heady, unsettling, and shockingly funny with its dead-on descriptions of codependent and abusive relationships, The Devil's Grip takes us on a breathless journey with the shadow selves we can't escape.

From the acclaimed author of A Good Family comes a timely spin on Sense and Sensibility, a twenty-first-century family drama featuring two half-Korean sisters, their ex-hippie mother, multiple messy love affairs and one explosive secret that could ruin everything.

Amelia Bae-Wood's life is falling apart. Unemployed, newly single and completely broke--for reasons she hasn't told anyone yet--she finds herself hitchhiking across California to deal with the fallout of her mother's eviction from the family estate. Amelia needs somewhere to live and time to figure out what to do with the rest of her life, so moving with her mother and sister to Arcadia, the cancer retreat center where her sister volunteers, seems like as good an idea as any.

Amelia's sister, Eleanor, has too much on her plate, including being caught up in a court battle with a man who claims to be their half brother from Seoul and their late father's only son--a secret love child from his Korean youth--who's fighting for a piece of everything that belongs to the Bae-Wood women. And when Amelia adds herself to Eleanor's list of problems, Eleanor must figure out what to hold on to--and when to let go--before things starts to unravel.

A witty, wry and enormously entertaining retelling, the sisters' journey of self-discovery as they reshape their lives gives this classic tale a modern, feminist twist, as it touches on themes of blended families, race, class and wealth.

National Treasure meets A Discovery of Witches . . .

Introducing the Secret Society mystery series, and kick-ass red-headed heroine Sidney, a Black historian poised on the brink of discovering her true past . . . and her hidden witchy powers!

Thirty-year-old Black woman Sidney Taylor is a talented early American history professor, working in fast-paced Washington DC, with her eyes on promotion. She's also currently persona non grata. Who knew that making an inconvenient historical discovery would see her stuck at her desk, shuffling paper?

So when she receives an anonymous and very cryptic invitation to visit historic small-town Robbinsville, North Carolina and hunt for a missing archaeological treasure - with a million-dollar pay out at stake - it's one she can't refuse. Besides, her beloved grandmother lives in Robbinsville, and it's been too long since she's paid her a visit.

Soon, Sidney's on an exciting treasure hunt, following two-hundred-year-old clues that lead her ever closer to the artefact she's searching for. But what is the artefact? And why is Sidney starting to feel like she's at the heart of a terrifying conspiracy she doesn't understand?

The answer blows Sidney's world apart, plunging her into a dark, glittering world of secret societies, ancient bloodlines, witches and magic, linked to an ages-old conspiracy that could destroy the very principles upon which America was founded.

In pursuit of happiness, a young woman's dreams extend beyond money and marriage in this aspirational historical novel by the international bestselling author of The Light After the War.

It's 1927, and Helen Montgomery is coming of age on Philadelphia's Main Line, where privileged young women are set for life. But Helen has desires of her own. Debutante balls, eligible bachelors, and marriage aren't among them...until her father is embroiled in a devastating scandal that jeopardizes the family's financial future and social standing, that is. Then it becomes up to Helen to repair both by marrying a man of wealth and connection.

Edgar Scott is as independent as Helen. The black-sheep scion of a railroad magnate, Edgar's aspirations of becoming an author go against the grain of his own family's expectations. For a time, Helen and Edgar's marriage grows from attraction and convenience to genuine loyalty and respect. But as Edgar's frustrations and rejections mount and Helen's personal dreams recede, the cracks in the perfect life Helen wants are beginning to show.

So begins Helen's journey of forgiveness, redefining the meaning of perfection--for herself and in others--and accepting with all her heart the mistakes humans make in the name of love.

Explore one of the most powerful and highest-ranking female figures in American history with this biography of Vice President Kamala Harris in this Level 2 reader.

On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris made history. That day, she became the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected as Vice President of the United States. Young readers will learn about Harris's childhood, her early career, and her journey that led to winning the vice presidency. This early reader also explores how Harris devoted her life to helping others, from serving as the Attorney General of California, to being elected as a U.S. Senator, to working alongside President Joe Biden on the campaign trail and in the White House.

The level 2 text provides accessible, yet wide-ranging information for independent readers. Explore Harris's life, achievements, and the challenges she faced along the way to becoming a barrier-breaking leader and an inspiration to young people everywhere.

Key features include:

• Expert-vetted text appropriate for ages 5 to 8
• Engaging and brilliant historical images sourced by National Geographic
• Fun approach to high-interest biographies

About the series: This high-interest, educationally-vetted readers series features magnificent National Geographic images accompanied by text written by experienced, skilled children's book authors. Each reader includes a glossary and interactive features in which kids get to use what they've learned in the book. Level 1 readers reinforce the content of the book with a kinesthetic learning activity. Level 2 readers feature slightly higher-level text and additional vocabulary words. Level 3 readers have more layers of information to challenge more proficient readers. For emerging readers, the Pre-reader level introduces vocabulary and concepts, and the Co-reader level provides a collaborative reading experience.

Praise for National Geographic Readers:

"Reliable in format and solid in execution, this series works well to introduce children of varying
levels of reading comfort to nonfiction and research formats."
--Maggie Reagan, Booklist

Complete your collection with these popular National Geographic Biography Readers:

• National Geographic Readers: Stacey Abrams (Level 2)
• National Geographic Readers: Harriet Tubman (Level 2)
• National Geographic Readers: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Level 3)
• National Geographic Readers: Barack Obama (Level 2)

The answer to the biggest question of her life lies in someone else's past.

Shea Anderson's beloved Nonna had endless rules for a happy, healthy life: avoid owls, never put a hat on a bed, and never, ever accept a marriage proposal that comes with an heirloom ring. Happily ever after is hard enough without bad karma in the mix.

Naturally, panic sets in when Shea's boyfriend, John, proposes with an heirloom ring. Yes is her answer, but Nonna's warning sets Shea on a mission to ensure the ring contains forever energy: She will find its previous owners wherever they may be. With the help of her long-suffering big sister and a nosy journalist eager for a big story, Shea embarks on a journey that takes her from Los Angeles and New York to Italy and Portugal.

Sophisticated, cinematic, and full of lively observations, The Heirloom is a diamond-sharp read for everyone who's ever tried to make their own good luck.

What happens when what was once considered dystopia is now reality?

This darkly brilliant debut novel explores how women shape themselves beneath the gaze of love, friendship, and the algorithm--by a thrilling feminist voice for the age of AI.

Mitty can't quite make out the expression on Lena's face, but she doesn't look distressed. She looks like nothing at all. She looks like the beginning, before thoughts, a white hallway with no doors,
a room so long your voice disappears before it can echo.

On the Santa Cruz, California, waterfront, every house is a flawless glass monolith. Except for one. In a dilapidated bungalow, Mitty and her elderly roommate, Bethel, are the oddball pair who represent the last vestiges of a free-spirited town taken over by the tech elite. But their lives are about to be forever changed when a new couple, Sebastian and Lena, move in next door.

Sebastian is a renowned tech founder and Lena is his spellbindingly perfect girlfriend. But Lena has secrets; she feels uneasy about her oddly spotty memory and is growing increasingly wary of the way Sebastian controls their relationship. Mitty is also hiding something, and the way Lena appears to float through her luxurious life draws Mitty inexorably into her orbit. As the two women begin to form a close friendship, they are finally forced to face their pasts--and the urgent truths that could change everything.

Showcasing Olivia Gatwood's talent as an essential author for our hyper-digital age, Whoever You Are, Honey is a gripping, seductive, and prescient novel that dissects relationships between women and examines how striving for perfection and desirability plays out in spaces where technology and power intersect.

The Fairy Tale Cupcakes crew helps two professional football players in knead when the athletes are suspected of murder and their dream of opening a bakery is crushed, from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay.

Professional football players Keogh Graham and Tyler Matthews want to open a Fairy Tale Cupcakes franchise. They're spending the off-season in Scottsdale working in Mel's bakery, learning about the business and how to bake show-stopping cupcakes. The popular athletes bring a boom of customers to the store as football fans flock to see the friends mixing batter and piping icing.

Everyone's excited the athletes are pursuing their dream of owning a bakery--except for those who fear the players will ditch football for fondant and retire early from professional sports. The angry naysayers include their team owner and Keogh's sports agent, along with some very vocal fans.

When the owner of their team, the Arizona Scorpions, is found dead on the floor of their new bakery following an argument with Keogh, the pros become prime suspects. As the investigation heats up, Mel and the rest of the cupcake bakery crew must step up and prove their franchise owners are innocent before it's game-over for the new bakers.

HBO's Hacks meets Carley Fortune's Every Summer After in this hilarious and sweeping love story about a comedian forced to return to her Jersey Shore hometown and confront everything she left behind ten summers before--including the man who broke her heart.

"A wonderfully witty love letter to stand-up comedy, true love, and there being no place like home." --Georgia Clark, author of It Had to Be You

Then. Delfina Silva-Miller wants one thing: to leave behind Evergreen, New Jersey and never look back. Despite her adoring grandmother's best efforts, Del can't bear to live another moment at the whims of her deadbeat dad (so cliché) and her ever-temperamental crush, Eddie Rodriguez (humiliating).

Now. If there's one thing Del knows how to do, it's spin her bad luck into a killer joke. After years of hard work, she's finally landed a coveted spot at a huge comedy festival, molding the often tragic raw material of her life into comedic gold. But when Del loses her job, boyfriend, and apartment in the span of a few hours, she's forced to pack her bags and return to the home she swore off at eighteen.

Del is determined not to let her history with Evergreen distract her. She has 45 days to perfect a new comedy set and march into her new life. Instead, she marches right into Eddie Rodriguez. But he's nothing like the boy she left behind ten years ago.

As the festival draws closer, Del is faced with the terrifying possibility that everything she's ever wanted isn't as far away as it once seemed.

Vividly evoking the boardwalks and beaches of the Jersey Shore, Summertime Punchline is a hilarious, vulnerable, and sweeping love story celebrating the complicated relationships--romantic and not--that impact our lives, for better or worse.

"I laughed, I swooned, I dabbed my eyes. Corrello is a voice to watch." - Rachel Runya Katz, author of Thank You for Sharing

"Vivid, fresh, and wholly singular. Please welcome to the stage... Betty Corrello!" - Julia Whelan, author of Thank You For Listening

The scandalous women of the USA Today bestselling author Scarlett Peckham's Society of Sirens are back with the final stage in their fight for female rights--and this time the battle is to be waged in bed...

She's the most infamous harlot in London...and she's up for auction.

Thaïs Magadalene is a legend. The nation's most notorious courtesan, she sells herself once a week, for one night only, and never to the same patron twice. Until now. To raise money for the cause of women's rights, she has auctioned herself off for one month as mistress to the highest bidder.

But the winner is not who he seems.

Lord Alastair Eden is an earl, a radical politician, and a perfectionist in all things--except one. His confidence belies an unexpected secret: he doesn't know how to please a woman in bed. He's determined to change that before he marries. And who could be better than the most skilled lover in the country to teach him?

And love is never for sale.

Thaïs dreams of finding a man who will love her unconditionally, never mind her past and reputation. Eden dreams of finding a perfectly bred young lady to be his wife and helpmeet. But when a steamy month in the countryside breeds a connection both in and out of the bedchamber, the two of them must decide how much can be sacrificed for love--one's dreams, or one's reputation.

**Pre-order Profile K now - the new thriller from Helen Fields, publishing April 2024**

'Deliciously dark and utterly compelling - I couldn't put it down.' - CLARE MACKINTOSH

They're locked up for your safety. Now, you're locked in with them.

Dr Connie Woolwine has five days to catch a killer.

On a locked ward in the world's highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night. The next morning, a nurse's body is found and her daughter has been taken. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking.

Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now, she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth and use her unique skills to find the baby - before it's too late.

But as the walls close in around her, can Connie get the killer before The Institution gets her?

A claustrophobic, haunting crime thriller that will keep you up at night, perfect for those who couldn't put down The Sanatorium and Shutter Island.

"Brilliant! The Institution will grab you from the first page and not let go until the final paragraph." Jeffery Deaver

"Quite simply, wow! One of the best high concept thrillers I've read in forever." Lisa Gardner

"A wonderful, compulsively gripping rollercoaster of a read." Liz Nugent

LA NOVELA DE LA QUE TODO EL MUNDO HABLA.
LA NUEVA SENSACIÓN VIRAL EN TIK TOK

Una extraordinaria novela debut. La inolvidable historia de una mujer joven que lucha por encontrar fuerzas después de sufrir una agresión.

Eden siempre fue buena siendo buena. Empezar la escuela secundaria no la cambió. Pero la noche en que el mejor amigo de su hermano la viola, el mundo de Eden da un vuelco.

Lo que antes era simple, ahora es complejo. Lo que Eden una vez amó, ahora lo odia. Lo que ella creía que era verdad, ahora es mentira. Ya nada tiene sentido. Sabe que debe contarle a alguien lo sucedido, pero no puede. Así que decide enterrar la forma en la que solía ser. Nunca más volverá a ser tal como era.

Este conmovedor debut revela los profundos entresijos del trauma. Pero también demuestra la fortaleza de una mujer joven que navega a través de la decepción y de los insoportables dolores de la adolescencia, el primer amor y el primer desamor, las amistades rotas y reconstruidas, mientras aprende a abrazar un poder de supervivencia que nunca imaginó tener escondido dentro de su corazón.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

New York Times bestseller! In the tradition of Speak, Amber Smith's extraordinary debut novel "is a heart-twisting, but ultimately hopeful, exploration of how pain can lead to strength" (The Boston Globe).

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn't change who she was. But the night her brother's best friend rapes her, Eden's world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved--who she once loved--she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she's supposed to tell someone what happened, but she can't. So, she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts--freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year--this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman's strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken and rebuilt, all while learning to embrace the power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.

While investigating police brutality and corruption in 1970s Detroit, journalist Elena Abbott uncovers supernatural forces being controlled by a secret society of the city's elite.

In the uncertain social and political climate of 1972 Detroit, hard-nosed, chain-smoking tabloid reporter Elena Abbott investigates a series of grisly crimes that the police have ignored. Crimes she knows to be the work of dark occult forces. Forces that took her husband from her. Forces she has sworn to destroy.

Hugo Award-nominated novelist Saladin Ahmed (Star Wars: Canto Bight, Black Bolt) and artist Sami Kivelä (Beautiful Canvas) present one woman's search for the truth that destroyed her family amidst an exploration of the systemic societal constructs that haunt our country to this day.

Eleanor Davis's bike tour from Tucson, Arizona to Athens, Georgia is a quest of epic proportions -- not just geographically, which it surely is, but inwardly as well. While facing off formidable headwinds, drivers with reckless abandon, and screaming knee pain, the author confronts an even greater challenge -- her own mind. Life on two wheels teaches her many lessons, and she narrates them with keen observation and self-deprecating candor through a series of funny, touching vignettes. Companionship from fellow travelers and the generosity of colorful strangers propel Davis along the open road. A tale of serendipitous encounters, surprising friendship, perseverance, and tenderness, Eleanor Davis's You and a Bike and a Road reveals the power, and truth, of the most efficient mode of human transportation -- a bicycle.

A gorgeously illustrated, sparingly written story about the often complicated feelings brought on by anxiousness, perfect for helping young readers identify this complex emotion.

The little girl in this picture book would love to dance, sing, and play with her friends, but she is struggling with anxious feelings that get in the way. Sometimes she feels scared and sometimes she feels shy. Sometimes the world seems too loud, too fast, and everything is so overwhelming she could just scream. There is no easy fix for feeling anxious, but by the end of this story she learns to ask for help and finds small ways to feel better.

Written from a child's perspective, Anxious pairs evocative art with simple text to illustrate some of the ways anxiousness can be experienced, providing an empathetic and compassionate framework for helping readers understand this feeling.

A note to readers adds context and explains in more detail what anxiousness can look like, provides suggestions for coping skills, and resources for professional help.

"If you've ever felt like you're the only one struggling with motherhood, this book is for you." --Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play

From a maternal mental health specialist comes an empowering guide to help reshape your internalized expectations and beliefs around motherhood.

Every mom wants to be a good parent--but if you've found yourself burned out and overwhelmed trying to be "the perfect mom," you're not alone. "We get handed a rulebook of motherhood without realizing it," says Erica Djossa. "That rulebook comes with an invisible load--a world of mental and physical tasks that keeps us pushing toward perfection while barely being able to breathe." With Releasing the Mother Load, this renowned parenting specialist shares a guide to help you break free from the crushing burden of unrealistic expectations and reclaim the joy of motherhood while staying true to your own values.

As a therapist and the founder of the Momwell community, Erica has learned how many mothers from all backgrounds and walks of life feel trapped by modern motherhood. Here she dispels the falsehoods our culture has built around what it means to be a mom and shares practical, proven guidance for a more empowered approach to parenting, including:

- What is the Mother Load? Where our expectations come from and why they don't serve us or our children
- Making the Mother Load visible--the true emotional and physical cost of the many jobs, habits, and beliefs we carry
- Sharing the load--tools to establish strong boundaries, express your needs, and build a support system
- Practical techniques and scripts to help you create a healthy, balanced, and enriching approach to motherhood

"You can chart your own journey in a way that is freeing, feels right to you, and reignites passions and dreams that you thought had died when you began to put everyone else's needs first," says Erica Djossa. Here is a life-changing guide for developing a new vision of motherhood that lets you parent more freely and with greater fulfillment--so you can finally release the Mother Load.