More about BTB...
BTB is published quarterly.
Free printed copies of BTB are available
at Middletown Thrall Library.
Check out our Booklovers Web Guide
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might like to read next.
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topics you might find interesting.
Click here to view current bestseller lists
and other award-winning books.
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Previous Issues
Click below for previous BTBs and more reading recommendations:
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Beyond the Bestsellers highlights new and notable authors
not often found on bestseller lists.
Discover new books and writers you might enjoy!
To learn more about a book and check on its availablity within the library system, please click or tap on its cover or title.
You can also click / tap an author's name to locate any additional titles by that writer in the library catalog.
General Fiction
 Good Luck with That - Kristan Higgins - Friends learn to love themselves as they are and find true happiness.
Three girls met as teens at a "fat camp" and became friends. Together they put together a bucket list of "things we'll do when we're skinny" that they were afraid or ashamed to try. When one of the girls dies, she challenges the others to complete the list. In doing so they begin to regain the happiness and self-worth that their unhealthy obsession with weight has taken away.
Try it if you like: Uplifting stories of friendship and support to be comfortable in one's own skin. The Stylist - Rosie Nixon - A boutique employee finds herself a fish-out-of-water in the glitz and glam world of Hollywood award season.
A mistake involving mismatched shoes brings Amber Green to the attention of celebrity stylist Mona Armstrong. With her reality TV show going to the US for the award season, Mona hires Amber as an assistant. In Hollywood, Amber gets things hilariously wrong, yet Mona burdens her with more responsibilities as she neglects her clients. Amber must use her wits to navigate the cutthroat backstage world of high-maintenance celebrities, keep Mona's business afloat, and pursue her own relationship prospects.
Try it if you like: The Devil Wears Prada or Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Other titles to consider:
Historical Fiction
 Thief of Corinth - Tessa Afshar - A lush, lyrical tale of finding redemption in 1st century Greece.
Fleeing from her oppressive mother's home, Ariadne makes her way to Corinth to live with her father. She discovers that he is secretly the famed Honorable Thief, who only steals from the most wealthy and corrupt citizens. Bent on vengeance, Ariadne joins him in his work at the risk to her innocence, reputation and even life. Their lives are changed forever when her brother introduces them to a new teacher and his ways.
Try it if you like: Francine Rivers or Bodie and Brock Thoene.
Other titles to consider:
Mysteries
 The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton - Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day and Quantum Leap in this fiendishly clever debut.
Aiden Bishop wakes up in the woods near Blackheath House with no memory of who or where he is. At the manor the Hardcastles are hosting a masquerade and everyone believes he is one of the invited guests. A 'Plague Doctor' tells Aiden that he has eight days to solve the 11pm murder of Evelyn Hardcastle. Each morning he will wake up as a different guest and relive the day of the party. The only way out is to solve the case. If he fails, his memories will be wiped and he will start all over, never to return to his true identity as Aiden Bishop.
Try it if you like: Classic country house mysteries with action-packed twists. The Frangipani Tree Mystery - Ovidia Yu - A charming amateur detective hunts down a killer in 1936 Crown Colony of Singapore.
Ambitious Chen SuLin wants to be a newspaper reporter, but her guardians hope to arrange a marriage for her. She finds escape when her mentor from mission school gets her a job in Chief Inspector Thomas LeFroy's household. Her assignment changes after the nanny for the acting governor's disabled daughter dies in suspicious circumstances. As LeFroy investigates, SuLin is sent to be the new nanny. Caught between the two worlds of the local household staff and the English governor's family, SuLin can learn more about what really happened in that house than any police investigator.
Try it if you like: Rhys Bowen.
Other titles to consider:
Romance
 Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating - Christina Lauren - Mishaps conspire to throw two friends together.
Hazel is eccentric, quirky, tactless and wants love, but will not settle for someone who cannot accept her quirks and all. Josh is mellow, smart, successful and a workaholic in a long-distance relationship. They are also friends who first met in college, reconnecting years later through Josh's sister. After Josh's relationship fails, the two decide to help each other's dating lives by setting up double blind dates. Each date ends in disaster, but allows the two to spend time together, and even flirt a bit, all while insisting that they are not a couple.
Try it if you like: Upbeat romantic comedies where opposites attract.
Other titles to consider:
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
 Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett - In a city-state dominated by four powerful merchant houses, a thief with unique abilities holds the key to change the face of magic and balance of power in this action-packed fantasy heist.
Tevanne is a city of industrialized magic, where scrivers can make objects that disobey reality or gain some degree of sentience. Sancia Grado, thief with scars both physical and psychological, is hired to steal a scrived artifact from a dock warehouse. This puts her in the path of Gregor Dandolo, police captain and scion of one of the merchant houses. But when someone wants Sancia dead to claim the artifact's power, she must join Gregor and other unlikely allies to stop the threat of world domination.
Try it if you like: Mistborn (series) or The Lies of Locke Lamora. Heartbreaker - Claudia Dey - An atmospheric story of secrets and the search for home.
A remote town populated by the remnants of a cult lives in a perpetual 1985. Billie Jean Fontaine was the first outsider to join, and when she takes off may be the first to leave the community. Her daughter joins a dog that keeps the town's secrets and the local boy she has a crush on to search for her mother. As she hunts for her mother, Pony must reexamine her life with its rituals and isolation to find herself.
Try it if you like: Stranger Things or Twin Peaks.
Other titles to consider:
Thrillers
 Sweet Little Lies - Caz Frear - Loyalties are tested and secrets come back from the past in this intense, page-turner of a debut.
Detective Constable Cat Kinsella was a child on holiday when a young woman went missing. She is sure her father had something to do with it, but never found any proof. The festering suspicions forming a rift between her and her family. When a woman is found murdered not far from the pub her father runs, and the investigation discovers a link between the two victims, Cat worries that her father is involved. Torn between loyalties to family and her career, Cat uncovers secrets and lies as she tries to keep her personal history from coming into the case.
Try it if you like: Dervla McTiernan or Tana French. Jane Doe - Victoria Helen Stone - A self-described sociopath takes on a new life to seek revenge.
When Jane's best (and only) friend commits suicide, she blames Meg's emotionally abusive boyfriend for pushing her over the edge. Jane packs up her life and relocates to Minneapolis where she takes a job in the company he works for. She insinuates herself into his life, taking on the role of the meek and needy type of woman he wants, all to get close enough to him that she can ruin his life the way he ruined hers.
Try it if you like: Complex characters whose actions come with no regrets, shame, or cares about what others think.
Other titles to consider:
Beyond the Bestsellers
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