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The Best May Fiction You Won’t Want to Miss

by  | May 3

As the days get longer, it seems like nature is giving us more time to get through our TBRs. From a heartwarming debut coming-of-age story to a creepy thriller set in the jungles of South America, here are some reads we think are worth bumping to the top of your reading list!

Get reading, and as always, hit us up on the social media to tell us what you’re loving: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Unhoneymooners

The Unhoneymooners

by Christina Lauren

Jess’s Pick
So, I’m a sucker for a good, beachy fun Christina Lauren read. The Unhoneymooners is FULL of sexual tension and quick one-liners. I fell in love with the two leading protagonists, Olive and Ethan, immediately upon meeting them. It’s an enthralling enemies-turn-lovers story that you definitely won’t be able to put down while lying out in the sun.

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The Obsoletes

The Obsoletes

by Simeon Mills

Cara’s Pick
The Obsoletes is everything I love about genre-bending novels right now, the perfect blend of a literary coming-of-age story with a funny and intense sci-fi twist. Darryl and Kanga, twin brothers, are robots pretending to be human, trying to take care of themselves and remain undetected. But as Kanga joins the basketball team and Darryl is left scrambling to keep both his brother and himself out of the limelight, everything becomes much more precarious. Funny, intimate, and heartwarming,The Obsoletes is one you have to add to your list!

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Ask Again, Yes

Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

Heather’s Pick #1
As the daughter of cops myself, I was immediately drawn to this touching novel about two NYPD officers, Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, whose families end up living next door to each other. As the years pass and their children grow up together, the two families’ lives become inextricably linked, for better and for worse, in ways they never could have predicted. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that this book will take you on an emotional journey you won’t soon forget. If you enjoy shows like This Is Us and Parenthood, you need Ask Again, Yes in your life.

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The Southern Side of Paradise

The Southern Side of Paradise

by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Heather’s Pick #2
Whether your next beach day is on the horizon or you simply wish it were, Kristy Woodson Harvey’s The Southern Side of Paradise will hit the spot. Set in the charming southern town of Peachtree Bluff, the novel follows a close-knit family of four—Ansley Murphy and her daughters Sloane, Caroline, and Emerson—as they navigate through what happens after the revelation of secrets that could tear them apart...or bring them even closer together. Sweet romance and juicy family drama? You can’t ask for better in a summer read!

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Into the Jungle

Into the Jungle

by Erica Ferencik

Sienna’s Pick #1
When Lily Bushwold finds a job teaching English in Bolivia, she’s excited to leave behind her old life where she was bounced around between foster care and group homes. She steals enough money for the plane ticket, but when she lands in Cochabamba she finds out the gig was a scam. She decides to stay and works at a hostel with other expats girls like her who are using travel to escape. When she meets Omar, a local man who has relocated from a remote jungle village to find city work, she falls madly in love. She’s so crazy about him that when he has to return home to take care of a family matter, she uproots her life once again to follow him to his isolated village. Lily is forced to adapt to a world so different from her own, a place where spiders are the size of puppies and snakes are 30 feet long! She also must navigate a society where poachers, missionaries, and indigenous tribes are all battling for resources. This is a great read, especially since Lily’s journey is completely opposite of what I would do. Romance with a hot local sounds amazing, but the second it involves living with him in a jungle with wild life bigger than me, the relationship would be over!

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Waisted

Waisted

by Randy Susan Meyers

Sara RM’s Pick
It's rare to see stories of plus-sized women declaring their own happiness in spite of what society wants their bodies to look like. Instead, we often get the narrative of the good fat person who finally buckles down and loses the weight to become a good and romantically desirable person. Thankfully, in fiction, we're seeing the tides turn, and Waisted is one of those. Alice and Daphne are two overweight women who decide to go to a filmed retreat in order to lose weight quickly. However, when they find out just how that footage is used—to humiliate them—they decide to take action. Ultimately, a story about learning to love yourself, imperfections included, this book is worth reading because it makes clear that not every fat woman is a sad, lonely, single person desperate to be saved from herself or to be recognized by a romantic love interest. There's always room on my bookshelf for empowering female friendships.

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The Farm

The Farm

by Joanne Ramos

Sienna’s Pick #2
The Farm’s Golden Oaks sounds like the ultimate spot for a luxury retreat. There’s the gorgeous setting in New York’s Hudson Valley, yummy organic food, personal trainers to keep you in shape, and daily massages. And it’s free! So what’s the catch? You know there has to be one! Okay, here’s the catch. Golden Oaks pays its guests to stay there for nine months in total seclusion in exchange for producing the perfect baby for rich families. Filipina immigrant Jane is seeking a better life when she signs up to be a “host” at Golden Oaks, a.k.a. the Farm. The longer she stays, the more she becomes obsessed with wanting to know how her family is doing in the outside world and embarks on a mission to get in touch with them. But she’s conflicted because she knows if she tries to leave, she will forfeit the huge sum of money she will receive once she delivers her—that is, the Farm’s—child.

 

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The Daughter's Tale

The Daughter's Tale

by Armando Lucas Correa

Loan's Pick:

Armando Lucas Correa captured our hearts with his bestselling debut novel, The German Girl. His follow-up, The Daughter’s Tale, is equally as moving and also based on a true story. When the novel opens, an elderly woman receives a letter from her mother written during World War II, which illuminates past events spanning from Germany to Cuba. What I love most about The Daughter’s Tale is how it invites us to witness one mother’s unrelenting determination to protect her two daughters in the darkest of hours – a wrenching portrayal that makes us marvel as the human spirit and the power of maternal love. Correa’s meticulous research and sensitive rendering of this family have seared this harrowing historical moment into my memory.

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