Abraham Lincoln’s much maligned wife had her mental troubles but was also a smart political operator and loving helpmeet, according to this vivid debut biography. Journalist Romano explores Mary Todd Lincoln’s many issues: her volatile temperament, her extravagant shopping expeditions that generated negative press coverage during wartime, her unseemly lobbying for government appointments for cronies, and, later in life, her unhinged grief at losing three sons and a husband, which made her prey to charlatan spiritualists. But, Romano contends, Mary was a shrewd promoter of Lincoln’s ambitions—she advised him to refuse a post as Oregon’s territorial governor that would have scotched his presidential hopes—who, contrary to critics’ assertions, fully supported his opposition to slavery. Romano devotes much space to demolishing the conventional historiography that Lincoln and Mary’s relationship was an agonizing ordeal; instead, she paints them as well-matched—“he learned how to defuse her tantrums; she was adept at pulling him out of his funks.” Later chapters recap how Mary adroitly marshaled the public sympathy needed to regain her freedom after her son had her committed in 1875. Romano is sometimes too quick with pat psychotherapeutic rationales for Mary’s questionable choices. (“Shopping filled an emotional void... [it] gave her a feeling of power and control.”) Still, this revealing study dramatically recasts a proverbial ball and chain as a dynamic and constructive figure. (May)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

The suspenseful if uneven latest in Carlisle’s Secrets of Kincaid series (after Shadowed Witness) finds Kentucky-based accountant Hailey Neiman still reeling from the murder of her husband, Wesley, whose criminal activity left her a struggling single mother less than a year ago. She takes on extra work to boost her income and is surprised to discover anomalies in the files of Eukaria Investments, one of her firm’s most prestigious clients. Then she receives a slew of not so coincidental anonymous threats and enlists the help of Peter Lewis, a security guard in her building, to get to the bottom of things. The threats soon morph into physical attacks, and the pair races to puzzle out what exactly the culprit wants from Hailey while also grappling with their traumatic pasts and damaged faith. Though the pace of the central mystery plot can drag, readers will be drawn in by the intensity of the action scenes and Hailey’s enterprising, optimistic spirit as she works to remake her life in the wake of tragedy. It’s not perfect, but there’s enough here to keep Carlisle’s fans satisfied. (May)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

Voris (Say a Little Prayer) impresses with this taut heist thriller. Chloe Bly has practically bankrupted herself paying off her late mother’s medical bills and her own sizable student debt. To stay above water, she takes catering shifts at Miami’s luxury Carlyle Hotel and supplements her income by stealing from the hotel’s wealthy guests. As the story begins, she’s trying to swipe a diamond-studded watch from a billionaire attending a Senate fund-raiser for Andrew Carlyle, CEO of the Carlyle hospitality group. Chloe initially succeeds, only to be thwarted by her longtime nemesis, Harper Parisi, an already affluent thief who steals for the thrill. When Harper tries to turn Chloe in to Andrew for stealing the watch, however, both women are startled to learn that he already knows about Chloe’s thefts. He coerces her into teaming up with Harper to recover a Florida Hospitality Award that his business rival stole from him, offering a lucrative payout if the pair succeeds. They reluctantly agree, kicking off a nimble caper plot that’s supplemented by budding romantic attraction between the two frenemies. Fans of Glen Erik Hamilton’s Van Shaw series will delight in Voris’s clever and crowd-pleasing narrative. This is a blast. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

Playwright Raicek debuts with a seductive literary thriller about a writer picking up the pieces after an accident kills her fiancé. Two weeks before Liv and Graham’s wedding date, news breaks during a cocktail reception hosted by Graham’s company that he has been accused of bullying his subordinates, and he’s promptly fired. He and Liv leave the party, held on the Northern California coast, and he roughs her up, then drives drunk with her in the car. They go over a cliff on the Pacific Coast Highway and only Liv survives. After the accident, she moves back to New York and runs into a married neighbor, Damon, at a party, along with his charming friend, Isobel, who Liv suspects is Damon’s lover. The pair invite Liv into their circle, calling her their “stray.” Damon takes Liv on walks and to museums, and they start hooking up, unbeknownst to Isabel. Meanwhile, Liv is pulled back to the night of the accident in California when she receives a photo of her and Graham leaving the party from an unknown phone number, causing her to wonder if it’s from a journalist intent on digging up more of the story. The plot is propulsive, and Raicek keeps the reader guessing at the characters’ true intentions. It’s a diverting tale. Agent: Margaret Riley King, WME. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

A Palestinian exile faces the impossibility of the American dream in this melancholy novel from Murr (The Perfect Man). Hailing from Gaza, Jack and his wife, Dimra, live in a shabby condo in 2000s Chicago. Jack serves as the building’s board president, since he’s the only one capable of handling the relentless maintenance problems and the other residents’ demanding personalities, especially Vietnam prison camp survivor May, who levies fines for other residents’ petty infractions while neglecting her troubled son. Dimra, who suffers from endometriosis and sequesters herself in their apartment, wants nothing more than to have a child with Jack, despite multiple miscarriages and failed treatments the couple can ill afford. Meanwhile, Jack, who works as a flight attendant, poses as gay to fend off advances from women colleagues. As Jack deals with the strain of Dimra’s worsening condition and his neighbors’ needs, he reflects on his past in Gaza, contemplating his first sexual experiences with a male cousin, his mother’s struggle for acceptance as a disowned Coptic convert, and the perpetual threat of violence from Israel. Murr’s sharp observational skills and steady hand keep the story flowing. This humanizes the pain of displacement and the trauma of war. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

Mount Shasta, Calif., high school senior Izumi Tanaka is a normal 18-year-old American girl: she enjoys baking, watching Real Housewives, and dressing like “Lululemon’s sloppy sister.” But Japanese American Izzy, conceived during a one-night stand in her mother Hanako’s final year at Harvard, has never known the identity of her father. So when she and her best friend find a letter in Hanako’s bedroom, the duo jump at the chance to ferret out Izzy’s dad’s true identity—only to find out he’s the Crown Prince of Japan. Desperate to know her father, Izzy agrees to spend the summer in his home country. But press surveillance, pressure to quickly learn the language and etiquette, and an unexpected romance make her time in Tokyo more fraught than she imagined. Add in a medley of cousins and an upcoming wedding, and Izzy is in for an unforgettable summer. Abrupt switches from Izzy’s perspective to lyrical descriptions of Japan may disrupt readers’ enjoyment, but a snarky voice plus interspersed text conversations and tabloid coverage keep the pages turning in Jean’s (Empress of All Seasons) fun, frothy, and often heartfelt duology starter. Ages 12–up. Agent: Erin Harris, Folio Literary Management. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Kelkar’s (Bindu’s Bindis) novel features Oceanview Academy middle schooler Sonali, whose stoicism contrasts with her love of Bollywood movies’ melodrama. Stuck in a Los Angeles home with constantly arguing parents and her sensitive nine-year-old brother Ronak, Gujarati American Sonali, 11, tries to make sense of her world through the Hindi movies she’s seen all her life. Ever since an earnest public attempt five years ago to stop her parents’ fighting led to widespread embarrassment in front of family, Sonali has resolved to hide her emotions and do her best to ignore her parents’ arguments. But her efforts prove futile when her parents decide to try the “nesting” method of separation, where they take turns living in the house with Sonali and Ronak. The contemporary narrative takes an entertaining fabulist turn as Sonali’s life begins to transform into a Bollywood movie, with everything she feels and thinks made apparent through her “Bollywooditis.” Sonali’s first-person perspective is sympathetic as she navigates friendship and family drama, and Kelkar successfully infuses a resonant narrative with “filmi magic,” offering a tale with universal appeal through an engaging cultural lens. Ages 8–12. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

When she was six, Justice Kasric watched her blue-eyed merchant father play chess with the Faerie King. Now 15, Justice believes the event was merely a dream. She spends her days yearning for adventure, watching from the sidelines while her 16-year-old sister Faith, as slender and golden-haired as Justice but not as curious, becomes the toast of Victorian London society. One night, however, their father shatters their comfortable lifestyles when he forces the family—Justice, Faith, their younger brother Henry, and their constantly medicated, distant mother—into a locked carriage that takes them to a shadowy mansion. Justice’s discovery that the Faerie have invaded the human world and are targeting her family gains further urgency when she learns that her parents are on opposite sides of the conflict. Together, the Kasric siblings—including older brothers Benedict and Joshua—must find a way to save their family. While characters lack depth at times, and insufficient historical details don’t fully evoke the Victorian setting, Klaver’s (the Supernatural Case Files of Sherlock Holmes series) rich, lyrical descriptions augment the fantastical source material in this engaging series starter. Ages 13–up. Agent: Lucienne Diver, the Knight Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Nine years before this novel begins, eight-year-old best friends Esme Randal and Kayla Price snuck out of their cabin at Camp Pine Lake in Texas. They swore never to discuss the terrible events that followed, but when the girls, now 17, return to the camp as counselors-in-training from their hometown of Lewisburg, Pa., that proves easier said than done. Someone begins sabotaging camp activities, and ominous—and increasingly public—threats appear, referencing that fateful summer. The only other person who knows Esme and Kayla’s secret is a local girl named Lillian Campbell, whom they left to fend for herself that night in the woods. They’re loath to voice their suspicions of revenge lest they get in trouble or look bad in front of hunky fellow counselors Jake and Olly, but as events escalate, they realize they may not have a choice. Narrating from Esme’s increasingly apprehensive first-person perspective, Preston (The Twin) pays homage to classic summer camp slasher films. The underdeveloped, predominantly white cast relies heavily on stereotype, and the clichéd tormenter’s motive feels unearned, but horror fans will likely appreciate this paranoia-fueled tale’s gruesome, shocking close. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jon Elek, United Agents. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Inspired by her own family’s refugee journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong, Văn’s (If You Were Night) spare picture book, powerful in its deliberate simplicity, follows a black-haired, pale-skinned child as they, their guardian, and two younger siblings join other asylum seekers for a perilous maritime voyage. In a third-person voice, Văn anthropomorphizes objects, relaying their wishes: “The dream wished it was longer,” one spread reads, as a balding, mustached guardian holds the protagonist close, and a guardian with a bun rouses the second child to dress them. “The clock wished it was slower,” the subsequent pages read, as the two children tearfully hug their mustached guardian goodbye. The narrative continues as the now family of four make their way onto the boat and beyond. A final-act switch to first-person perspective drives home the journey’s personal nature. Intricate, lissome fine-lined art by Ngai (Dazzle Ships) recalls classical Asian compositions, Japanese woodblock prints, and an evocative sensibility in a gradated, surrealistic color palette. A seamless interweaving of elegant prose and atmospheric art marks this affecting immigrant narrative. Back matter includes heartfelt author’s and illustrator’s notes. Ages 4–8. (May)

Correction: A previous version of this review misquoted the book's text.

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink