Kats Book Buzz

A skillful horseman with a secret past may finally find his second chance—and a lasting love . . . When inexperienced rancher Nicole Bell starts training her troubled mare, Fernando Montoya has just the expertise she needs. But helping Nicole brings gentle, patient Fernando dangerously close to revealing the secret he’d rather keep hidden: he learned the skill in prison. While the horse draws them together, can Fernando find a way to tell her the truth . . . and keep it from pulling them apart?

Guilt stands in the way of a single mother building a happy home with a smitten cowboy in this inspirational romance. No one expected Erin McCauley to arrive in Saddlebank, Montana, with a baby . . . and no wedding ring. Especially not Dean Moore, who cared for Erin but knew the by-the-book girl would never go for a hard-living cowboy like him. While helping renovate Erin’s new home, Dean realizes he’s still in love with her—and with her beautiful daughter. As far as he’s concerned, past mistakes don’t have to define them—but guilt is holding Erin back from seeing that Dean is offering exactly what she’s longing for. Because if she lets him, he’ll give her the home—and the family—she’s always wanted.

A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist for Best Fiction and Best Debut • BookBrowse's Best Book of the Year • A Marie Claire Best Women's Fiction of the Year • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year • A PopSugar Best Book of the Year • A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March • A Newsweek Best Book of the Summer • A USA Today Best Book of the Week • A Washington Book Review Difficult-To-Put-Down Novel • A Refinery 29 Best Books of the Month • A Buzzfeed News 4 Books We Couldn't Put Down Last Month • A New Arab Best Books by Arab Authors • An Electric Lit 20 Best Debuts of the First Half of 2019 • A The Millions Most Anticipated Books of the Year “Garnering justified comparisons to Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns... Etaf Rum’s debut novel is a must-read about women mustering up the bravery to follow their inner voice.”   —Refinery 29 The New York Times bestseller and Read with Jenna TODAY SHOW Book Club pick telling the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate violence in their community. "Where I come from, we’ve learned to silence ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence will save us. Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. To tell them to the outside world is unheard of—dangerous, the ultimate shame.” Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naïve and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children—four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear. Brooklyn, 2008. Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra’s oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda’s insistence, though her only desire is to go to college. Deya can’t help but wonder if her options would have been different had her parents survived the car crash that killed them when Deya was only eight. But her grandmother is firm on the matter: the only way to secure a worthy future for Deya is through marriage to the right man. But fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family—knowledge that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her own future.

From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who place him into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. In 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, Teddy is re-assigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff. Teddy’s job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria, and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. As Hitler sweeps through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Holland, the screws tighten and law after virulent law is passed to threaten the lives, indeed the very existence of the Jewish people. When Teddy and his girlfriend Sara are introduced to an orphaned young girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. Teddy comes to realize that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred—and makes the dangerous and selfless decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape. Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson’s A Place to Hide explores the deeply-moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable novel about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”

Two inspirational romantic suspense novellas featuring women who find protection and love with lawmen. Merry Mayhem by Margaret Daley When single mom Annie Coleman unexpectedly arrives in Christmas, Oklahoma, police chief Caleb Jackson suspects she’s hiding secrets. He’ll be watching her closely. And his protection is just what Annie and her daughter need, as danger has followed them to their new home. Yule Die by Debby Giusti It’s hardly a happy holiday for medical researcher Callie Evans . . . until she discovers her ailing patient is her long-lost brother. And he’s being watched by undercover police officer Joe Petrecelli. When the trio is abducted by a cadre of bad guys, Joe and Callie will have to fight to keep her brother—and themselves—alive.

This twist on an old story, is an exploration of love—between sisters, between friends, between teacher and pupil, between men and women. Till We Have Faces is retold through the eyes of Psyche’s oldest sister, Orual. Orual was born ugly and even though she’s a princess, she struggles with the death of her mother and the friction between her sisters. There are two lights in Orual’s life. One is her tutor, the Fox, a Greek slave captured through war. The other is her much younger sister Istra, later nicknamed Psyche, born from Orual’s father’s second marriage. Istra is beautiful and sweet and good but far from being jealous of her, Orual loves her as a daughter. When the priest of Ungit says that Psyche’s great beauty is an insult to the goddess and she must be sacrificed, Orual fights to prevent this. When Orual expects to find her sister dead, she finds her well and thriving. But, why can’t Orual see what everyone else sees? Blinded by her jealous love, Orual castes blame on the duplicity of gods. What is the truth? What is real? Lewis’s novel is a brilliant examination of envy, loss, betrayal, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. Why must holy places be dark places? Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives. “Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.”

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • The classic story that has captured the hearts of millions worldwide: a tragically wounded soul, the man called to marry her, and the only love that heals all. “A literary masterpiece, reminding us that God’s love is unconditional.”—Debbie Macomber California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep.  Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside. Then she meets Michael Hosea, a man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything. Michael obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation, until despite her resistance, her frozen heart begins to thaw. But with her unexpected softening comes overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she no longer can deny: her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael does . . . the One who will never let her go.  A powerful retelling of the story of Gomer and Hosea, Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love. Includes a six-part reading group guide!

"A tender and touching tale. Tessa Afshar has given us two wonderfully charming heroines." --ANGELA HUNT, New York Times bestselling author of The Emissaries series In the heart of ancient Persia, the empire's Jewish citizens face an ominous edict that threatens their very existence. Roxannah, the daughter of an impoverished Persian lord, is devastated by the news but feels helpless to come to the aid of her Jewish friends. Desperate to support her family, Roxannah approaches the royal physician, Adin--the man whose kind eyes haunt her--and seeks his help to find employment in Queen Esther's kitchens.   In the opulent palace of Susa, Roxannah tries to survive the spiteful ploys of the other cooks as she ascends through the ranks. Her loyalty earns her the trust and friendship of Queen Esther, who is navigating dangerous politics with wisdom and grace. When Roxannah and Adin uncover a sinister plot against Amestris, the king's most powerful wife and Esther's archenemy, they find themselves tasked with the impossible job of discovering the culprit. As secrets unravel and alliances are tested, the fate of Esther's reign hangs in the balance.

Ever since she was a girl, Kate Amos wanted to be a doctor, a dream that made her leave Alaska and travel clear to Boston for medical school. The problem is, there aren't too many female doctors in 1886, and there are even fewer people who will let a female doctor treat them.   Fortunately for Kate, the only other doctor in the growing town of Juneau Alaska is drunk more than he's sober, and he doesn't know the first thing about medicine. So even though the townsfolk might not want a woman doctor to treat them, they don't have much choice.   Until Dr. Nathan Reid arrives in town.   Nathan has been tasked by the Marine Hospital Service to start a hospital in the gold rush town of Juneau, and he's excited to get started. His research on the area showed him the town was desperately in need of a competent doctor. But Nathan is only in town for a few minutes before discovering that Juneau already has a competent doctor. She just happens to be a woman.   A rather beautiful woman—who's worried he's going to take away her patients. But when trying to save a man's life leaves them in a compromising situation, Nathan finds himself standing at the front of a church while Kate walks down the aisle toward him.   From a USA Today bestselling author comes a frontier family saga filled with a female doctor, a marriage of convenience, and a love that heals wounded hearts.

In this gripping portrait of war and its aftermath from bestselling author Lynn Austin, a young woman searches for the truth her childhood friend won’t discuss after returning from World War II, revealing a story of courage, friendship, and faith. Peggy Serrano couldn’t wait for her best friend to come home from the war. But the Jimmy Barnett who returns is much different from the Jimmy who left, changed so drastically by his experience as a medic in Europe that he can barely function. When he attempts the unthinkable, his parents check him into the VA hospital. Peggy determines to help the Barnetts unravel what might have happened to send their son over the edge. She starts by contacting Jimmy’s war buddies, trying to identify the mysterious woman in the photo they find in Jimmy’s belongings. Seven years earlier, sensing the rising tide against her people, Gisela Wolff and her family flee Germany aboard the passenger ship St. Louis , bound for Havana, Cuba. Gisela meets Sam Shapiro on board and the two fall quickly in love. But the ship is denied safe harbor and sent back to Europe. Thus begins Gisela’s perilous journey of exile and survival, made possible only by the kindness and courage of a series of strangers she meets along the way, including one man who will change the course of her life. • A poignant WWII historical fiction novel from the author of All My Secrets and If I Were You • Explores themes of compassion, perseverance, healing, and the impact of war • Includes discussion questions for book clubs

Nearly 500,000 copies sold! | A Southern Living Book of the Month Selection From New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin comes the moving story of a heart surgeon who's hiding his own heart, a little girl whose heart won't last much longer, and a shared journey toward healing for both of them--for fans looks for the emotional depth of Fredrik Backman and the Southern atmosphere of Delia Owens. It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl's pretty yellow dress can't quite hide the ugly scar on her chest. Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives. Before it's over, they'll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry . . . and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners. With its beautiful, lyrical writing, engaging characters who stick with you, and a storyline that will touch your own heart, it's no wonder why so many readers adore When Crickets Cry. "If you read any book this year, this is the one." --Coffee Time Romance "Charming characters and twists that keep the pages turning." --Southern Living