Hushed and haunted, French poet Gaëlle Josse's slim novel The Last Days of Ellis Island finds an American immigration official looking back on half a century at the New York Harbor outpost where millions of residents of the Old World endured inspection and questioning as they entered the new one. In 1954, after the facilities have mostly shuttered, Josse's narrator looks back through diary entries at Ellis Island's peak years, when doctors allowed themselves about six seconds per individual when apprising the health of the throngs streaming off steamers. The diarist's tone is awed but melancholic, touched by having helped facilitate the huddled masses' final steps toward new lives but regretful at the institutional cruelty of the process, and gutted by a pair of personal romantic tragedies. He's a ghost-like figure, wandering an island he never leaves, reliving a long-gone past of heartbreak that for him never recedes. Natasha Lehrer's translation, from the French, captures both a tragic poetry and the bureaucrat diarist's commitment to formality.

The novel's key scene involves this official, who has always strived to stamp out corruption or abuse on Ellis Island, seizing an opportunity to take advantage of a beautiful refugee. Josse's portrait is pained and unsparing but always empathetic, both to the immigrants who suffered such horrors and to the merely human officials given power over them. Her diarist is shocked by what he has done, and readers will be, too--and nudged toward a greater understanding of why, in overwhelmed systems with little apparatus for accountability, such crimes remain inevitable. --Alan Scherstuhl, freelance writer and editor

Here Is the Beehive, Irish writer Sarah Crossan's first adult novel (after YA titles including One and Toffee), introduces an estate lawyer, Ana, as she receives a call from the wife of her just-deceased lover. To execute his will, she must set off on a messy journey through her private grief. Ana's passionate affair with Connor lasted three years, and she's destroyed most of her life to sustain this relationship--and he's gone. So who is she now?

This is a novel in verse with lines that break across the page, representative of Ana's unbalanced perceptions and reality. Told in second-person point of view, Ana examines herself as she addresses Connor, recounting their past and telling him about her present: how she's been trying to befriend his wife, how she's thinking of him always, how deeply she resents him. A woman of many contradictions, Ana seems to love and hate Connor--and possibly herself as well. She paints herself as the victim in nearly every memory, but in the details, readers will see through her self-deceptions. For while she complains about Connor's unwillingness to leave his family, it's only after many pages that she mentions the other people in her own life, as though they are the background to a much more important scene--her affair. She repeats to herself, to Connor, to readers how good she is, even when her own words tell a wildly different story.

At its heart, Here Is the Beehive is a complicated character study, with a messy, damaged protagonist who might not be a heroine at all. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

The con game, coupled with blackmail, receives an intriguing update in The Lady Upstairs, as Halley Sutton skillfully melds a feminist noir approach with a contemporary femme fatale in her debut.

Deception is the default for each character beginning with Jo, who works for the Lady Upstairs' Staffing Agency, a Los Angeles front for a blackmail scheme that targets wealthy, contemptible men with reputations for sexual harassment, adultery, "men who never heard a no."

Jo recruits and trains the young women who entrap these men in compromising situations--with Jo's coworker and sometimes lover Robert Jackal photographing them. The blackmail plan of a nasty Hollywood mogul backfires when Jackal fails to show up. Jo was counting on that blackmail money to pay off her debt to the mysterious Lady. Jo learns that Lady "wants to retire" her, a euphemism for eliminating her completely, as this retirement doesn't come with a pension plan. Needing more money to disappear, Jo tries to devise a couple of side projects of her own while working on Lady's next assignment, to trap a mayoral candidate, all of which quickly backfire.

The suspenseful Lady Upstairs grows darker--and richer--by the page as betrayals mount, taking a cue from Jim Thompson's 1963 novel, The Grifters. No one can be trusted--certainly not Jackal, nor Lou (Jo's female co-worker with whom she also is sexually involved), nor the corrupt cops with fluid loyalties. Sutton boosts the con game by giving the men a last name but referencing the women only by first names, which may be aliases. No one knows who the Lady is, or if she is a woman, though Jo couldn't imagine a male "sharing that vendetta" for bad men.

Sutton's sharp prose and keen eye for noir situations elevate The Lady Upstairs. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer 

In the Scottish village of Inversgail, retired librarian Janet Marsh and her colleagues keep busy running Yon Bonnie Books and solving mysteries. They're still catching their breath from their last murder investigation (Thistles and Thieves) when Heather Kilbride, an eccentric true-crime writer, shows up, claiming she's researching the case for a book. Janet's curiosity and frustration are piqued, especially when Heather leaves a dummy dressed in her own clothes near the scene of the previous murder for any passersby to find, claiming it's "research." But when Heather herself is found dead at a nearby circle of standing stones, Janet and her daughter Tallie, plus their colleagues Christine and Summer, begin to investigate.

Heather and Homicide, MacRae's fourth Highland Bookshop mystery, mixes a sometimes confusing murder case with plenty of scones, local gossip and an interesting subplot involving miniature books. Familiar village characters, including Christine's elderly parents and kindhearted shop owner Basant, make appearances. An attack on the local priest and the presence of several "mystery men," including Heather's fiancé, provide further confusion and complications. Janet and her compatriots do their best to pursue clues in between selling books and brewing tea, though their sleuthing sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Meanwhile, the bookshop plays host to a new writers' group, and the women do a bit of digging into local history for an upcoming bookshop event. Full of atmosphere, wry humor and red herrings, Heather and Homicide is a cozy companion for a dreich evening. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Working chronologically through an evening marked by middle-of-the-night screams and a woman kneeling over a bloodied body, Claire Douglas's Do Not Disturb is a twisting tale of secrets that threaten to implode a family's fresh start. Kirsty and Adrian Whitehouse leave London with their young daughters for her native Wales to escape a rough 18 months. Adrian's problems are hinted at, but Kirsty is also fulfilling a dream by purchasing a guesthouse with the help of her emotionally distant mother.

Beginning two months before the night of violence, Douglas (Local Girl Missing) deftly introduces family members and history that has affected their lives. As the inn opens, Kirsty is furious that her cousin Selena is coming to stay. The two were once like sisters, but Kirsty cut off Selena years ago because of her lying ways. Selena is escaping what she claims is a bad marriage, hiding out with her medically incapacitated daughter, but soon her hoodlum childhood boyfriend shows up. Then Kirsty's brother Nathan and his wife arrive, increasing the tension with their apparent personal troubles and Nathan's long-held torch for Selena.

When a body ends up at the foot of the stairs, everyone is wound so tightly the suspects are hard to narrow down. Spooky goings-on and rumors of past violence at the inn add to the unease. The subplots are numerous, and some are left hanging. Douglas's ambitious narrative makes those fairly easy to forgive as hidden truths come to light, leading to partial resolution and a stunning furtherance of deceit. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review

Professor Naya Turner's friends challenge her to break out of a rut in How to Fail at Flirting, Denise Williams's comedic, sexy debut romance. Naya has spent the past three years avoiding romantic entanglements, instead focusing on her career and trying to heal from an abusive relationship. One night, fueled by alcohol and the right amount of peer pressure, Naya takes a chance with Jake, a stranger in town for a wedding. Except it turns out that Jake isn't in town only for a wedding and what was supposed to be a one-night stand turns into two nights, just a few days--and maybe forever?

How to Fail at Flirting is full of cheesy puns, situational humor, chemistry and sweetness, but it also tackles the lasting, often invisible scars of abuse. Williams delivers on the comedy readers will expect from the take-a-risk checklist premise, but deftly balances it with heavier subjects. Told from Naya's point of view, the story digs deep into her insecurities and challenges as a woman of color in academia, and the difficulties of balancing career and personal goals. Though the story focuses mostly on the central romantic relationship, Naya's best friends provide levity and support, giving readers an outside look at how Naya's self-image is limited by her past experiences. Williams gives readers characters and a relationship to root for, even if they're not perfect, and an antagonist whose downfall they'll eagerly anticipate. Sweet but not saccharine, How to Fail at Flirting is escapism grounded in reality. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

After Brynn McDowell, a registered dietician, traveled to France, Italy and Greece, she came home inspired. She launched The Domestic Dietician, a blog that shares her expertise, recipes and a realistic approach to the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, a plan that's been proven to benefit heart health and the management of diabetes and weight control.

McDowell's cookbook, her first, offers clearly presented principles and benefits of the Mediterranean diet. It contains more than 70 easy, customizable recipes that rely on whole ingredients found in grocery stores and home pantries. McDowell's Make-Ahead Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata is filling without being heavy. A lunch of Crispy, Baked Falafel--a flavorful blend of fried chickpeas--and Broccoli Crunch Salad--which marries broccoli, carrots, onions and raisins, dressed with lemon juice and tangy yogurt--are perfect for on-the-go eating. Dishes like Mango and Black Bean Tacos with Avocado Yogurt and Juicy Lamb and Mushroom Burgers put a creative new spin on traditional favorites. Sides, such as Quick and Simple Tortellini Bites--skewered tomatoes, olives and tortellini, dressed in balsamic glaze--transform a few modest ingredients into a nutritious snack. The collection is capped off with delicious desserts such as Peanut Butter and Chocolate Walnut Bites and a Lemony Olive Oil Cake, inspired by McDowell's "Oma," that skillfully replaces butter and sugar with olive oil and unsweetened applesauce.

McDowell's passion and enthusiasm for healthy, wholesome eating infuse each recipe. The addition of fresh, seasonal ingredients shows how any versatile, ordinary dish can be successfully elevated by adding a distinctly Mediterranean spin. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Simon Garfield (Just My Type) takes readers on a charming cultural and scientific journey that examines how the interdependent bond between humans and canines has evolved, and how it has transformed millions of lives--two-legged and four-legged--over centuries.

Garfield's beloved black Labrador retriever, Ludo, serves as the main inspiration for his study of how dogs progressed from scavenging wild wolves into domesticated companions, sharing homes with humans who provide them with posh creature comforts.

The dog as an extension of human life drives the narrative as Garfield, the quintessential journalist, dips briefly into science on topics such as dog DNA, genomes and shared human-dog diseases. The bulk of the research presented, however, focuses on accessible, more entertaining tidbits: ways dogs are acquired and named; anthropomorphism; the roles of dogs in art, film, literature and sports; and dogs as notable companions to the likes of Einstein, Houdini, Queen Elizabeth II and a host of others. He also examines the symbolic power of dogs in propaganda for leaders like Hitler, with his purebred German shepherds, and Churchill, with his stout British bulldog. Dogs have served as a "global repository of love" and that is evidenced in sections devoted to Snoopy, "stupid pet tricks" on The Late Show with David Letterman, William Wegman's clever portraits of his Weimaraners and the modern-day dog stars of Instagram.

Garfield's affection for his dog, coupled with his appreciation and admiration for the long, fascinating, shared history of loyal, devoted human-canine companionship, is evident on every page. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

This real-life role-playing-game YA novel addresses being true to oneself in a funny, heartfelt way.

Right before 17-year-old Korean American Sunny Dae is about to show his uber-cool crush, Cirrus Soh, his bedroom filled with "swords and shields and nerdy stuff," he thinks, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." With this in mind, when Cirrus mistakenly thinks his older brother's room--with its guitars and rock concert flyers--is his, Sunny doesn't correct her. To save face, Sunny convinces his two just-as-nerdy best friends to form a band. But with Gray, his former rock star brother, nursing a failed music career at home and a lurking bully collecting "nerd tax," it can't be long before Cirrus discovers Sunny's real identity.

In Super Fake Love Song, David Yoon (Frankly in Love) examines identity and shame through a self-proclaimed nerd faking his way through being cool, a bully jock hiding his real interests, and a failed musician coming to terms with his personal truth. Yoon shows that whether it's to impress a girl or appease one's parents, this "melodramatic playacting" is no different than Sunny's beloved role-playing games--and is proof that "all human life seemed driven by... the fear of being an incorrect self." These harsh revelations about humanity are softened by Sunny's loving, healthy relationships with male friends and delightful "fifteen going on fifty" disposition (including "high-density memory foam slippers" and cautionary asides). Yoon's colorful language and careful plotting enhance an effective, meaningful story about self-acceptance. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader

When Milo's mom is too busy to read him a book, he reluctantly heads outside to create his own story in Liza Woodruff's sublime picture book Once Upon a Winter Day.

Milo creates his narrative by deciphering the clues left in the woods surrounding his home: the footsteps and traces left by animals through the snowy landscape. Alongside Milo's investigation, a sweet parallel narrative takes place with the mouse whose footprints begin Milo's story: "A mouse was here," Milo says. "Did the mouse have a story to tell?" From this question come dual tales featured on alternating double-page spreads. While Milo imagines what must have happened based on the "smooth rut" he finds sliding down a bank or the tiny tracks he finds brushed away, the page turn reveals the animal behavior that left the traces: playful river otters and the wing beats of a red-tailed hawk. Using watercolor, pen and ink and colored pencil, Woodruff's soft, detailed illustrations move between Milo's sunlit morning and the snowy evening when the mouse makes its trip. Only readers are privy to both stories--and their delightfully satisfying endings.

Woodruff (A Quieter Story) invites readers to play an important role in their own experience of the story, as each animal's illustrated behavior requires interpretation to connect the dots between Milo's wondering and the outcome. Observant readers will appreciate the endpapers, which highlight the animals referenced throughout the book, and subsequent readings are sure to reveal even more clever connections. --Kieran Slattery, freelance reviewer, teacher, and co-creator, Gender Inclusive Classrooms