This Month from BookEnds… May 2019!

Some of our most highly anticipated novels are publishing this month, so without any further adieu, here are some BookEnds books we hope to see on your shelves in May!

Monthly Spotlight:

Helen Hoang’s buzzed about sophomore novel, THE BRIDE TEST (5/7) Barnes & Noble

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

Publisher’s Weekly says: “The evolution of Khai’s feelings toward Esme, and the way she comes to understand and care for him, are beautifully developed, and the relationship they form feels delicate yet bursting with hope. With serious moments offset by spot-on humor, this romance has broad appeal, and it will find a special place in the hearts of autistic people and those who love them.”

Mystery:

Crepe Expectations by Sarah Fox (5/28) Barnes & Noble

When a murder case from the past heats up again, it’s up to Marley McKinney to sort through a tall stack of suspects in the latest Pancake House Mystery…

Although it’s a soggy start to spring in Wildwood Cove, the weather clears up just in time for the town to host an amateur chef competition. Marley McKinney, owner of the Flip Side pancake house, already signed up to volunteer, and chef Ivan Kaminski is one of the judges. But when Marley visits her landscaper boyfriend Brett at the site of the Victorian mansion that’s being restored as the Wildwood Inn, she discovers something else pushing up daisies: human remains.  

The skeleton on the riverbank washed out by the early-spring floodwaters belonged to eighteen-year-old Demetra Kozani, who vanished a decade earlier. While the cold case is reopened, Marley must step in when some of the cook-off contestants fall suspiciously ill. Stuck in a syrupy mess of sabotage and blackmail, it falls to Marley to stop a killer from crêping up on another victim…

Romance/Women’s Fiction:

The Key to Happily Ever After by Tif Marcelo (5/14) Barnes & Noble

One of BuzzFeed’s “Books Coming Out This Summer That You Need to Seriously Read” * One of Bustle’s “New Romance Novels to Make Your Spring Reading Even Dreamier Than You Imagined” 

A charming romantic comedy about three sisters who are struggling to keep the family wedding planning business afloat—all the while trying to write their own happily-ever-afters in the process. 

All’s fair in love and business.

The de la Rosa family and their wedding planning business have been creating happily ever afters in the Washington, DC area for years, making even the most difficult bride’s day a fairytale. But when their parents announce their retirement, the sisters—Marisol, Janelyn, and Pearl—are determined to take over the business themselves.

But the sisters quickly discover that the wedding business isn’t all rings and roses. There are brides whose moods can change at the drop of a hat; grooms who want to control every part of the process; and couples who argue until their big day. As emotions run high, the de la Rosa sisters quickly realize one thing: even when disaster strikes—whether it’s a wardrobe malfunction or a snowmageddon in the middle of a spring wedding—they’ll always have each other.

Perfect for fans of the witty and engaging novels of Amy E. Reichert and Susan Mallery, The Key to Happily Ever After is a fresh romantic comedy that celebrates the crucial and profound power of sisterhood.

A Daughter’s Truth by Laura Bradford (5/28) Barnes & Noble

Emma Lapp tries to be the perfect daughter, to earn the loving embrace of her family and her Amish community in Pennsylvania. Yet she can’t quite win her mother’s smile—or her forgiveness for a transgression Emma can’t quite place . . .

Emma knows she’s the source of her mother’s greatest sorrow, having been born on the same day Mamm lost her beloved sister. The one bright spot has been the odd trinkets anonymously left at her aunt’s grave each year on Emma’s birthday—gifts Emma secretly hides because they upset her parents. But the day she turns 22, a locket bears a surprise that sends her on an unexpected journey . . .

Searching for answers, Emma travels to the English world and finds a kinship as intriguing as it is forbidden.  But is this newfound connection enough to leave behind the future she’d expected? The answers are as mysterious, and as devastating, as the truth that divides Emma from the only family, and the only life, she’s ever known . . .

A Match Made in London (5/21) Barnes & Noble

A fiery companion and a roguish gentleman spar over matchmaking—but is there more between them than meets the eye?

Miss Rosalind Merriweather’s life has been one of hardship and servitude since her late sister’s ruination. Now a paid companion, her latest post brings her to London to watch over the daughter of a social climbing harridan. She vows to protect her charge—and her own heart—from rakes and libertines, the very type of man who destroyed her sister. This vow proves difficult when Sir Tristan Crosby, the epitome of all she despises, begins to show attention to the girl.

Tristan has spent decades perfecting his easygoing, charming persona to hide the damage done by years of abuse by his father. Finding he has a talent for matchmaking, he fills some of the emptiness inside him by helping the overlooked, shy women of London find true love. However, the latest young woman has a watchdog of a companion who seems to see beyond his careful façade to the flawed, uncertain soul he strives to hide from the world. Even worse, she affects him in ways no woman ever has.

But he will not give up his matchmaking, even for one such as her. What he does not expect is for Rosalind to be fired from her position because of it—nor that she will immediately find a position in his own household. When these two headstrong adversaries meet under one roof, will their attraction to one another lead to heartbreak, or have these two passionate souls finally met their match?

#BookEnds Grows!

We’re delighted to welcome Christine Hofbeck, Cynthia Cooke and Devon Daniels to the BookEnds ranks, all writing for adults! We can’t wait to see your success.

Coming Soon:

Debut author Anna Kaling’s NOT OK, CUPID, in which a young woman pretending to be her best friend’s fiancee falls for his father in the process, to Kate Byrne at Headline Eternal, for publication in January 2020, by Amanda Jain at BookEnds (world English).

USA Today-bestselling author Naima Simone’s book, leading the new Seven Sins continuity series, to Stacy Boyd at Harlequin Desire, in a nice deal, for publication in May 2020, by Rachel Brooks at BookEnds (world).

Mary Ellen Hughes writing as Emmie Caldwell’s A WICKED YARN, featuring a knitting enthusiast and her knitting group as they untangle murderous knots and plots, set against the backdrop of small-town Crandalsburg, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Blumenstock at Berkley, in a three-book deal, for publication in fall 2020, by James McGowan at BookEnds (world).

Associate professor at the American University of Paris, and author of WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION and THROWING SHEEP IN THE BOARDROOM Matthew Fraser’s IN TRUTH: A HISTORY OF LIES FROM ANCIENT ROME TO MODERN AMERICA, in which the author explores the concepts of truth and lies throughout history and how leaders have always manipulated these ideas to their own benefit, to Jake Bonar at Prometheus, in a nice deal, for publication in spring/summer 2020, by Amanda Jain at BookEnds (world English).