Whalefall centers around a solo man, left to fend for himself under seemingly insurmountable survival odds — deep in the sea and in the belly of a whale. As you may expect, Whalefall is atmospheric and tense. What you may not expect is that along with this pervasive sense of adventure comes a good deal of quiet reflection. Readers are taken deep both into the ocean and into the protagonist's emotional growth.

In Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry leans away from her traditional rom-com voice and introduces deeper themes that bleed into contemporary and women’s fiction as well.

By slowly revealing the truth of famous heiress Margaret’s complex past, Henry adds a layer of mystery and intrigue that goes well beyond the romantic tension between professional writers Alice and Hayden. While there's unquestionably a romantic thread to the book, the bulk of the plot is much more about a personal legacy and the convoluted ways that family histories are woven together.

Meet Lalla, a pretentious (and sociopathic) wife, stops at nothing to build the future she imagines. As she strives to ensure her husband gets a promotion and their daughter gains entry into a prestigious boarding school, a comedy of errors — and criminal happenings — quickly follow in her wake.

Evelyn in Transit is a slow and meandering search for a young woman’s budding identity. Main character Evelyn grows up restless in small-town Indiana, never quite able to live on her own terms. At eighteen, she hits the road, hitchhiking across the American West, taking odd jobs, and gravitating toward Buddhism.

The Encore will land well with readers who like family dramas with strong character development, messy-but-likable people, rise-to-riches stories, coming-of-age novels, happy-ever-after romances, and a light touch on darker emotional themes.