Early on in 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love by Daphne Merkin (This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression), the narrator--a writer and a married woman who's pregnant with her second child--says this from her perch in the early 2000s: "I've been meaning to write this book for years.... It's for myself, of course, that I tell it but also for all of you who have stumbled into this kind of twisted love--love indistinct from obsession--and reeled from its force."

The narrator proceeds to rehash an episode in the life of her admitted alter ego, a woman she calls Judith Stone, an editor at a Manhattan publishing house. One night at a party in the early 1990s, Judith meets Howard Rose, a criminal lawyer. Judith and Howard skip dating and go straight to sex. Howard is physically and verbally domineering in bed--"Do I own you now?" is one of his choicer lines--and he's cold and cruel to Judith out of the sack. It's not that she doesn't see the problem with "the spell he cast on her and her willingness to fulfill his every whim, concubine-like"; she keeps pursuing Howard because she likes the kind of sex they're having and entertains a hope that he will grow to love her.

Readers may consider Merkin's novel a fascinating look at human psychology, especially if they are intrigued by the notion of sadomasochism and admire Dr. Freud. As for those who find 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love's masochistic protagonist tough to take, they will nevertheless likely appreciate the book's vigorous prose and structural intricacy. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Fans of Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie mystery series know what to expect by now: wry humor, crime-solving smarts, and the occasional detour in pursuit of cats or Slim Jims by canine narrator Chet. The series' 10th installment, Of Mutts and Men, combines these familiar elements with a slightly unusual case: the murder of a hydrologist who may have had valuable information about local water sources. Chet follows the case with Bernie Little, a thoughtful private investigator, through multiple dry washes, while also exploring new territory in Bernie's personal life.

Quinn (Heart of Barkness; A Fistful of Collars) has mastered the art of giving his readers valuable information through Chet's decidedly non-human perspective. The Little Detective Agency, as Chet often notes, is in great shape "except for the finances part," due in some measure to a storage unit packed with Hawaiian-print pants. Chet also observes, though he doesn't always understand, Bernie's interactions with multiple suspects and lawyers (not mutually exclusive), a reconnection with an old flame and a rare congenial afternoon sipping wine with his ex-wife's new husband. All of these clues--plus a midnight detour to Mexico, a small vineyard perched in a strange place and Chet's always-reliable sense of smell--combine to create a twisty, highly satisfying case for Chet and Bernie. (This one might even be lucrative, for a change.) Quinn's fast-paced narration and Chet's fresh, funny take on the human and canine worlds also make Of Mutts and Men a solid entry in this entertaining series. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

"Never trust a man without secrets" is the puzzling advice Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch receives from longtime friend and mentor Charley Stevens before Mike heads to Florida for a job applicant background check. The applicant had secrets. Mike tags along on a tremendous python hunt (with Stacey, former girlfriend and Charley's daughter) before having to race home when he learns Charley has secrets, too, and has disappeared. Charley's wife, Ora, doesn't want Stacey to know, adding to Mike's already complicated emotions surrounding Stacey and his current girlfriend, Dani.

Accustomed to tracking poachers, Mike has to hunt the man who taught him everything he knows. He traces Charley to a crafts fair where he argued with a man about a Depression-era game warden badge on his sale table. Tracking the badge leads to an old case involving the murder of an undercover warden whose body was never found. Charley was heavily involved in the violent case, including the death of the alleged killer. As Mike closes in and Charley behaves more like someone he doesn't recognize, the tension between solving the case and potentially losing a hero is gut twisting.

One Last Lie, Paul Doiron's 11th Mike Bowditch mystery, is a triumph for aficionados and newcomers alike. The secrets, old and new, are compelling, and Doiron's landscape imagery is perfectly balanced (as is the literary history). The people and relationships beautifully elevate from that foundation. Trust, friendship, love, faith and how the family we choose holds powerful sway is at the heart of this impressive series entry. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review

In Kate Stayman-London's smart, snappy first novel, One to Watch, a lovable and complex heroine sets out to bring an extra dash of "real" to reality television but could lose her heart in the process. 

Thirty-year-old plus-size fashionista Bea Schumacher's style blog OMBea clocks millions of views per month, and half a million followers keep up with her on Instagram. One night, after watching the season premiere of America's favorite reality dating show The Main Squeeze, Bea writes a snarkily passionate blog post calling the show out for its " 'appalling' lack of racial diversity, its 'perplexing' erasure of queerness, and... its 'abject refusal to include any woman who wears above a size 4.' " When the post strikes a nerve and goes viral, the show's newly promoted executive producer Lauren recruits Bea as the next Main Squeeze, the sought-after love interest of 25 eligible men.

While The Main Squeeze is transparently patterned after ABC's iconic franchise The Bachelor, complete with hometown dates and fantasy suites, this rom-com is no simple work of fan fiction. Stayman-London tells her story from inside and out, through Bea's point of view combined with realistic blog and tabloid articles, tweets and online fan group conversations. Bea's journey shines a bright spotlight on the treatment of plus-size women in fashion, entertainment and social media, but the character shows beautifully that women are more than their dress sizes. Creative, intelligent and vulnerable, Bea brings depth and emotion to a story purposely set in a shallow environment. Whether readers loathe or adore reality TV, this unconventional love story deserves the final rose. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Alexis Hall's Boyfriend Material is the sort of romantic comedy that would translate well to film, but achieves a level of depth, intimacy and character development not possible within the constraints of that medium. Hall (Pansies) pairs Luc, the tabloid-fodder son of aging rock stars, with Oliver, an uptight barrister, when each needs a fake boyfriend for a few weeks. Luc needs to rehab his image for his development work for a dung beetle nonprofit, and Oliver needs a date for his parents' anniversary party. A mutual friend sets them up, despite their disastrous meeting a couple of years earlier.

So begins a series of awkward dates, joke-filled text exchanges and mini-breakdowns as Luc sorts out his trust and intimacy problems. Hall deftly balances heavier plot points such as the reappearance of Luc's absentee father and Luc's past disastrous relationship with abundant humor. This is a deeply funny book, especially for fans of situational and British humor, but it's also a love story so endearing and believable that readers will alternate among laughing, grimacing at Luc's self-sabotage and sighing happily.

Both men have complicated histories with relationships, so while they are physically intimate with each other fairly early on, it takes longer to build a foundation of trust and love. Boyfriend Material's very few sex scenes fade to black and Hall emphasizes emotional connection and vulnerability.

This novel is as funny as it is romantic, making it the perfect book for readers who need a pick-me-up. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

High adventure, intrigue and passionate romance inhabit Sarah MacLean's third and final entry in the Bareknuckle Bastards series (after Brazen and the Beast). It can be read as a stand-alone tale although readers will surely want to explore all three.

Grace and Ewan fell in love during their dangerous, violent childhood, but were torn apart by the schemes of a manipulative duke. Grace fled to London with two friends, where they built formidable reputations as the Bareknuckle Bastards, with fists and raw courage, on the rough streets of Covent Garden. Years later, the three have become the most powerful people in their corner of the world. Grace now owns an exclusive women's club and is the acknowledged Queen of the Garden. She's powerful, rich and fears nothing--except the unshakeable mix of love, anger and need for revenge she feels for Ewan.

Now known as the Mad Duke of Marwick, Ewan has never forgotten Grace, either, and has come to London to claim her. Grace doesn't trust him, for his betrayal left deep scars on her heart. He hates himself for having hurt her and will do anything necessary to stand by her side once more. But can a duke of the realm find happiness with a queen of the dark side of London?

This rousing finale to an excellent series has intense emotional drama, hot romance, fierce fight scenes--and an ending that will leave readers cheering. --Lois Faye Dyer, writer and reviewer 

Joanna Shupe (The Rogue of Fifth Avenue) wraps up the stellar Uptown Girls series with a satisfying stand-alone tale set in the late 19th century. Social do-gooder Justine Greene, daughter of a Park Avenue magnate, makes a deal with the devil when she asks a favor of Jack Mulligan, rich and sophisticated Bowery crime king. Despite the social gulf between them, Jack is intrigued by the beautiful heiress who defends and champions the poor. In his own way, Jack does the same, and the two become unlikely allies.

Stubbornly independent, Justine chafes under her family's demands that she comply with elite Knickerbocker society rules. Her sisters' and grandmother's warnings that her father will never accept Jack aren't ignored, but Justine is fascinated by the handsome, ineligible man. They repeatedly find themselves crossing paths due to her work with the tenement residents, and the heated attraction between them grows with each interaction. Secretly, Jack has plans to shift away from criminal activity to legitimate business. His world is still very dangerous, however, and Justine's involvement with him threatens her safety.

When a vengeful deadbeat husband seeks revenge against Justine, and a competitor for Jack's criminal empire attempts a takeover, the Bowery explodes with violence. Jack has controlled the dangerous streets for years, but this time, he might not live to save the woman he loves. Justine's fierce courage, however, might just save them both.

Witty dialogue, compelling characters and a plot layered with honorable goals, nefarious plans, danger and hot romance combine to create an excellent novel. --Lois Faye Dyer, writer and reviewer 

What essayist and short fiction writer Rose Andersen knows about her sister Sarah's death is this: "She died of an overdose in her bathroom. She was dead for four days before her body was found. Her dog spent those four days trying to claw and bite his way through the bathroom door.... The police thought she had accidentally OD'd." What Andersen believes began surfacing through rumors shortly after Sarah's death: the overdose wasn't accidental; Sarah was a "loose end" that required tying up.

In her poignant and distressing memoir, The Heart and Other Monsters, Andersen recounts her Herculean efforts to "resurrect" her sister via diaries, e-mail hacking, newspaper clippings, record reviews and raw reflection on a shared family history replete with suicide, betrayal, addiction and abuse. Their father was, among other detrimental things, emotionally abusive (calling Sarah "Piggy" and both girls "fat and lazy"), helping drive each to self-harm only Rose would overcome. Sarah "wanted a father, even if that father was a drunk or mean.... She wanted to be loved."

As Andersen relays their excruciating paths, parallel yet divergent, she begins to merge facts about violent men, murders and dismemberment in "Small Town," ultimately tangentially connecting them to her sister. Written as though there is blood and heroin in her pen, Andersen blames herself for not saving her sister from the "great shadowy monsters." The Heart and Other Monsters is a biography, cautionary tale and murder mystery, masterfully blended with a memoir burdened by grief and guilt for crimes committed by others. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review

Kate Messner (Chirp; The Brilliant Deep) has an intuitive understanding of how to present materials to children in a way that is entertaining, edifying and always aimed directly at them. Messner brings her talent, her respect for the child reader and thorough research to the History Smashers series. Combined with the illustrations and comic panels of Dylan Meconis (Queen of the Sea), The Mayflower is as funny and silly as it is educational and fascinating.

"Imagine a high school basketball court cut in half the long way. Now imagine living in that space for a little over two months with 101 people... all of your stuff, and also some cats, dogs, pigs, chickens, and goats. Welcome to the Mayflower." Extensive backmatter shows Messner's sources for this fluid retelling of the Separatists' path--from England to Holland and eventually across the Atlantic--to becoming the Pilgrims of Plymouth. (Though they were supposed to land in Virginia.) Special attention is given to the Wampanoag people, who had lived in the area for "more than twelve thousand years" when the Separatists showed up. Messner holds no punches in explaining the history of colonialism and the falsehood that has come to be known as "the first Thanksgiving." Meconis's black-and-white illustrations and comic panels are full of action, her loose black line and figures effectively finding a balance between comic art and accurate historical representation. Her illustrations make Messner's text all the more dynamic, creating a history book for middle-graders that should be on everyone's (child and adult) to-read list. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

A fairy-tale legacy receives a creative dystopian twist in the YA fantasy Cinderella Is Dead, Kalynn Bayron's debut novel.

It has been 200 years since Cinderella attended that fateful ball, and her story can be found in every household in the kingdom. But the result is not fairy-tale charm: instead, the kingdom is a harsh oligarchy that imposes laws restricting women's rights in honor of "dutiful, faithful" Cinderella. Sixteen-year-old Sophia is outspoken and opinionated and seeks to make her own way in the world. Plus, she would "much rather find a princess than a prince." But freedom is elusive in a land where "the founding tenet of our laws is that women... are at the mercy of the fickle whims of men." At King Manford's mandatory annual ball (where suitors bid on young women for marriage), Sophia escapes into the forest, where she discovers Constance, a trained freedom fighter and a descendant of Cinderella's not-so-evil stepsisters. As Sophia's awe of Constance kindles into something stronger, they plot to take down the patriarchy, uncovering sinister secrets and shattering any preconceived notions of Cinderella's supposed happily ever after.

Cinderella Is Dead is a queer dystopian fantasy that questions written history and societal expectations. Through her idealism, Sophia understands the complexity of their situation, though not all of Bayron's inclusive cast of characters have the tenacity of her protagonist; some, fearing for their lives, deny their own identity in the hope of survival. Overarching themes of acceptance and equality give additional weight to a plot filled with dark magic and revolution as Sophia and Constance strive to write their own story in a world that tells them their very existence is wrong. --Jennifer Oleinik, freelance writer and editor