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Shopgirls : a novel / by Blau, Jessica Anya,author.;
"Nineteen-year-old Zippy can hardly believe it: she's the newest and youngest salesgirl at I. Magnin, "San Francisco's Finest Department Store." Every week, she rotates her three spruced-up Salvation Army outfits and Vaseline-shined pumps; still, she's thrilled to walk those pumps through the employee entrance five days a week as she saves to buy something new. For a girl who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment above a liquor store with her mother and her mother's madcap boyfriend, Howard; a girl who wanted to go to college but had no help in figuring out how; I. Magnin represents a real chance for a better and more elegant life. Or, at the very least, a more interesting one. Zippy may not be in school, but she's about to get an education that will stick with her for decades. Her fellow salesgirls (lifetime professionals) run the gamut from mean and indifferent to caring and helpful. The cosmetics ladies on the first floor share both samples and advice ("only date a man with a Rolex"); and her new roommate, Raquel, an ambitious lawyer, tells Zippy she can lose ten pounds easy if she joins Raquel in eating only every other day. Just when Zippy thinks she's getting a handle on how to be an adult woman in1985, two surprises threaten both her sense of self and her coveted position at I. Magnin. Set in the Day-Glo colors of 1980s San Francisco, Shopgirls is an intoxicating novel of self-discovery, outrageous fashion, and family both biological and found."--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Department stores; Interpersonal relations; Nineteen eighties; Roommates; Self-realization in women; Women sales personnel;

The Djinn waits a hundred years / by Khan, Shubnum,author.;
"An ... atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion by the sea, and a young girl who unearths the true story of the tragedy that happened there a hundred years ago ... Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Now, nearly a century since it was built, it stands in ruins-a boardinghouse for misfits, where people come to forget or be forgotten. Seeking a new home after a painful tragedy, Sana and her effusive father are Akbar Manzil's newest residents. There they find a community of eccentrics, each suffering their own losses and likewise searching for something-escape, solace, absolution. As Sana becomes increasingly entwined in their stories, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion itself: to the overgrown garden and its strange assortment of bones; to the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects; and to a dusty old bedroom, unopened for decades, where she finds faded photographs of Akbar Manzil's first residents and a worn diary with entries she cannot translate. As she explores the mansion's whispering corners, she dredges up its longest resident: a djinn, the only remnant of Akbar Manzil's dark past. With its help, she discovers the story of a young woman named Meena from a hundred years prior, the original owner's second wife, who lived in the East Wing at the height of Akbar Manzil's glory, whose tragic fate is the house's ultimate secret-and whose story is the answer that Sana had been searching for all along."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Gothic fiction.; Novels.; Boardinghouses; Eccentrics and eccentricities; Family secrets; Fathers and daughters; Haunted houses; Jinn; Mansions; Secrecy; Tragedy;

Take a hint, Dani Brown : a novel / by Hibbert, Talia,author.;
Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits--someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom. When big, brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it's an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and former rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact to him, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Suddenly, half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae--and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on Earth would refuse? Dani's plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf is secretly a hopeless romantic--and he's determined to corrupt Dani's stone-cold realism. Before long, he's tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his ... um, thighs. Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is now more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Chick lit.; Sexual attraction; Dating (Social customs); Women doctoral students; Police, Private; Man-woman relationships;

Wild Reverence A Novel [electronic resource] : by Ross, Rebecca.aut; CloudLibrary;
Set in the world of the gods first introduced in Divine Rivals, #1 New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Ross delivers a sweeping, beautiful adult novel filled with tension, romance, and dark secrets. True love is more divine, than any ruthless god. Born in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters . . . there is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world. Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life—begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him. As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.General adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Romantic; Epic;
© 2025., St. Martin's Publishing Group,

Happy place / by Henry, Emily,author.;
"A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry. Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college--they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now--for reasons they're still not discussing--they don't. They broke up six months ago. And still haven't told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group's yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most. Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they'll all have together in this place. They can't stand to break their friends' hearts, and so they'll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It's a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week ... in front of those who know you best?"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Deception; Friendship; Man-woman relationships; Vacation homes; Vacations;

Maid for each other / by Painter, Lynn,author.;
"A millionaire and a housecleaner are a match maid in heaven in this dazzling new romantic comedy by Lynn Painter, New York Times bestselling author of Happily Never After. As a professional cleaner, Abi Mariano never thought her apartment would have any sort of infestation, but because of a floor-wide outbreak (thanks, Apartment 2B), she now needs somewhere to stay for a week. As a part-time student with two jobs, she doesn't have many options. Then the solution presents itself: the owner of the penthouse she cleans is out of town for the week. She normally wouldn't consider it, but he's literally never around (she's never even met him). It goes great ... until she comes out of the bedroom one morning to find two strangers in the kitchen. They're the parents of the penthouse owner and they seem to think they've heard all about Abi-not as their son's maid, but as his girlfriend. Declan Powell has always put his career first, working his way up to executive vice president at Hathaway Holdings, but he still has his eyes set on the next level. When his parents mention they met his girlfriend Abi, he all but chokes on his escargot. As great as it sounds that she was just darling, he doesn't actually have a girlfriend-he made her up to get everyone off his back. When Dex finds out who Abi really is, he makes her a proposition: pretend to date him, and he'll provide everything she needs during their little arrangement. What harm would it do? It's purely business, no pleasure ... right?"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Novels.; Cleaning personnel; Deception; Man-woman relationships; Millionaires; Women cleaning personnel;

Katharine Parr, the sixth wife : a novel / by Weir, Alison,1951-author.;
"Bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir brings her Tudor Queens series to a close with the remarkable story of Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, who manages to survive him and remarry, only to be thrown into a romantic intrigue that threatens the very throne of England. Having sent his much-beloved but deceitful young wife Katheryn Howard to her beheading, King Henry fixes his lonely eyes on a more mature woman, thirty-year-old, twice-widowed Katharine Parr. She, however, is in love with Sir Thomas Seymour, brother to the late Queen Jane. Aware of his rival, Henry sends him abroad, leaving Katharine no choice but to become Henry's sixth queen in 1543. The king is no longer in any condition to father a child, but Katharine is content to mother his three children, Mary, Elizabeth, and the longed-for male heir, Edward. Four years into the marriage, Henry dies, leaving England's throne to nine-year-old Edward--a puppet in the hands of ruthlessly ambitious royal courtiers--and Katharine's life takes a more complicated turn. Thrilled at this renewed opportunity to wed her first love, Katharine doesn't realize that Sir Thomas now sees her as a mere stepping stone to the throne, his eye actually set on bedding and wedding fourteen-year-old Elizabeth. The princess is innocently flattered by his attentions, allowing him into her bedroom, to the shock of her household. The result is a tangled tale of love and a struggle for power, bringing to a close the dramatic and violent reign of Henry VIII"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Catharine Parr, Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of England, 1512-1548; Queens;

The unsettled / by Mathis, Ayana,author.;
"From the best-selling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multi-generational novel -- set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama -- about a mother fighting for her sanity and survival. From the moment Ida Carson and her eleven-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at Philadelphia's Glenn Avenue Family shelter in 1985, Ida is already plotting a way out. She detests their roach infested bedroom and the shifty night security guard who is on constant watch, and she is determined to give her son the safe, stable childhood that she never had. Estranged from her own mother, Dutchess, whose intractability and implacable depression brought Ida to the outer reaches of neglect and hunger, she resolves to make a better life for her son. But when Toussaint's father reappears, Ida is swept off course by his charisma and by the intoxicating power of his vision for a radical new group devoted to redressing the imbalance of racial injustice. Meanwhile, in Bonaparte, Dutchess struggles to keep the tiny Alabama town in the hands of its remaining black residents -- families whose lives have been entangled and powerfully rooted in this untouched stretch of land for generations -- and away from steadily encroaching white developers. Sensing the danger simmering all around him-his well-intentioned but erratic mother; his intense but volatile father who has newly appeared in his life and is building a community that looks increasingly radicalized and violent -- Toussaint begins to dream of his grandmother, Dutchess, and of home. A brilliant, explosive, vitally important new work from one of our most fiercely talented storytellers."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Mother and child; Race relations; Racism;

Happy place [sound recording] / by Henry, Emily,author.; Whelan, Julia,1984-narrator.; Penguin Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Julia Whelan."A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry. Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college--they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now--for reasons they're still not discussing--they don't. They broke up six months ago. And still haven't told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group's yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most. Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they'll all have together in this place. They can't stand to break their friends' hearts, and so they'll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It's a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week ... in front of those who know you best?"--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Novels.; Romance fiction.; Deception; Friendship; Man-woman relationships; Vacation homes; Vacations;

Mother may I : a novel / by Jackson, Joshilyn,author.;
"Revenge doesn't wait for permission. Growing up poor in rural Georgia, Bree Cabbat was warned that the world was a dark and scary place. Bree rejected that fearful outlook, and life has proved her right. Having married into a family with wealth, power, and connections, Bree now has all a woman could ever dream of. Until the day she awakens and sees someone peering into her bedroom window-an old gray-haired woman dressed all in black who vanishes as quickly as she appears. It must be a play of the early morning light or the remnant of a waking dream, Bree tells herself, shaking off the bad feeling that overcomes her. Later that day though, she spies the old woman again, in the parking lot of her daughters' private school ... just minutes before Bree's infant son, asleep in his car seat only a few feet away, vanishes. It happened so quickly-Bree looked away only for a second. There is a note left in his place, warning her that she is being is being watched; if she wants her baby back, she must not call the police or deviate in any way from the instructions that will follow. The mysterious woman makes contact, and Bree learns she, too, is a mother. Why would another mother do this? What does she want? And why has she targeted Bree? Of course Bree will pay anything, do anything. It's her child. To get her baby back, Bree must complete one small-but critical-task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price. Bree will do whatever it takes to protect her family-but what if the cost tears their world apart?"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Mother and child; Rich people; Kidnapping;