April - Sunrise On The Reaping
Apr
15

April - Sunrise On The Reaping

Join us in April for the newest Hunger Games book!

Release date March 18, 2025.

When you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.

As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

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May - The Wedding People
May
20

May - The Wedding People

Join us in May for The Wedding People!

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan―which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

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June - Lights Out
Jun
17

June - Lights Out

Join us in June for Lights Out!

I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Josh Hammond has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his eye: Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.

Lights Out is a fast-paced dark romance with a morally gray male lead. Some themes and scenes may be disturbing to listeners. Please check the TWs at the beginning of the book.

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July - Christmas in July - Book Exchange
Jul
15

July - Christmas in July - Book Exchange

Christmas in July Book Exchange!

Let’s beat the summer heat with some festive cheer, good friends, and a fun-filled Dirty Santa Book Exchange!

What to Bring:
A Wrapped Book – Choose any genre, wrap it up, and include the genre and a favorite quote or line on the front.
A Snack to Share – Bring a tasty treat to add to the spread!

Dirty Santa Book Exchange Rules:

- Keep books wrapped until the end!
- Everyone draws a number. Person #1 picks first.
- The next person can either steal a book or pick from the pile.
- A book can only be stolen 3 times—on the third steal, it’s unwrapped and locked in!
- If your book is stolen, you can’t steal it back immediately—you’ll have to choose a new one.
- After the last person picks, Person #1 gets one final chance to steal!
- Once the last steal happens, everyone unwraps their books!

Come for the books, stay for the laughs and holiday spirit! Feel free to bring a friend—we can’t wait to see you there!

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March - Scythe & Sparrow
Mar
18

March - Scythe & Sparrow

Join us in March for Scythe & Sparrow.

Release date February 11, 2025
Circus motorcycle performer Rose meets lonely small-town doctor Fionn after a night of murderous adventure goes awry.

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February - We Used To Live Here
Feb
18

February - We Used To Live Here

Join us in February for "We Used to Live Here".

Soon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Lively—about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit.

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

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January - Unwanted
Jan
21

January - Unwanted

Join us in January to discuss Unwanted!

A new heart-pounding, suspenseful, and supremely romantic novel from New York Times bestseller Mia Sheridan, author of Archer's Voice.

When wilderness guide Harper Ward is summoned to the small town sheriff's office in Helena Springs, Montana, to provide assistance on a case, she is shocked to find that their only suspect in the double murder investigation is a man described as a savage.

But the longer she watches the man known only as Lucas on the station surveillance camera, the more intrigued she becomes. He certainly looks primitive with his unkempt appearance and animal skin attire, but she also sees intelligence in his eyes, sensitivity in his expression. Who is he? And how is it possible that he's lived alone in the forest since he was a small child?

As secrets begin to emerge, Harper is thrust into something bigger and more diabolical than she ever could have imagined. And standing right at the center of it all, is Lucas. But is he truly the wild man he appears to be? A cold blooded killer? An innocent victim? Or a perplexing mix of all three?

Harper must find out the answers to these questions because the more time she spends with him, the more she risks losing her heart.

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December - 4th Annual Christmas Party
Dec
3

December - 4th Annual Christmas Party

It’s that time of year again—our 4th Annual Books and Brews CKVL Christmas Party! Let’s celebrate the season with good friends, great books, and plenty of holiday cheer. Join us for a night of fun, food, and our much-loved Dirty Santa Book Exchange!

What to Bring:
1. A Wrapped Book: Pick a book (any genre) and wrap it for our Dirty Santa exchange. Be sure to have the genre and a quote or favorite line, on the front of wrapping.
2. A Snack to Share: Bring your favorite festive snack or dish to add to the spread!

Dirty Santa Book Exchange Rules:

- All books remain wrapped.
- Everyone draws a number, and the person with #1 starts the game.
- The person with #2 then has the option to steal #1's book or pick a different book from the pile. This continues with each subsequent person.
- A book cannot be stolen more than three times. On the third steal, the book must be opened.
- A book can only be stolen once per turn.
- If your book is stolen, you cannot steal it right back. You may either steal a different book or choose from the pile.
- Once all the books have been chosen, the person who drew #1 has the option to steal a book. If they choose not to steal and keep the book they have, the game is over. If they decide to steal, the game continues until someone decides to keep their book.
- Finally, unwrap your books!

Join us for a night of laughter, bookish fun, and holiday spirit. Feel free to invite your friends!

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November - Annie Bot
Nov
19

November - Annie Bot

Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the cute outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.

She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?

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October - The Lost Story
Oct
15

October - The Lost Story

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.

Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.

Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.

Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.

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September - TBD
Sep
17

September - TBD

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?

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August - Leather & Lark
Aug
20

August - Leather & Lark

Contract killer Lachlan Kane wants a quiet life working in his leather studio and forgetting all about his traumatic past. But when he botches a job for his boss’s biggest client, Lachlan knows he’ll never claw his way out of the underworld. At least, not until songbird Lark Montague offers him a deal: use his skills to hunt down a killer and she’ll find a way to secure his freedom. The catch? He has to marry her first. 
 
And they can’t stand each other. 
 
Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be. 

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomes impossible to discern their fake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them. 
There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep. 

And this one has come for blood.

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July - Funny Story
Jul
16

July - Funny Story

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads —Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

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June - Hemlock Queen
Jun
18

June - Hemlock Queen

In the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten’s lush romantic epic fantasy series, the glittering and dangerous world of the Sainted King’s royal court is upended when Prince Bastian seizes control and a mysterious dark force begins to take over.

The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore—a necromancer and former smuggler—to his right-hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the royal court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kirythean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore’s old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian has changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he’s become reckless, domineering, and cold.

And something has been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that’s telling her there’s more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.

With Bastian’s coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince, and her country before they all come crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed.

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May - Just for Summer
May
21

May - Just for Summer

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

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April - The Only One Left
Apr
16

April - The Only One Left

At seventeen, Lenora Hope

Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife

Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said

But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

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March - Rock Bottom Tennessee
Mar
19

March - Rock Bottom Tennessee

We are thrilled to have author, Kimberly Nixon, joining us for this event!

Life is hard for Ruby growing up in poverty on the wrong side of the mountain on her grandfather’s farm where literally the sun didn’t shine. The Appalachian setting isn’t her friend as she searches for an easy life at the “tippy-top” with contentment and security. Two different men come into her life, one virtuous and the other rebellious. Ruby makes a series of bad decisions, causing her life to tumble into an unexpected outcome. Based on a real-life tale of the author’s grandmother, the reader gets immersed in Ruby’s choices as she searches for worthiness and belonging. Was the adventure worth the risk of losing her family? Will Ruby ever find what she is looking for?

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February - Butcher & Blackbird
Feb
20

February - Butcher & Blackbird

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, they find something elusive--the friendship of two like-minded, pitch-black souls who just happen to enjoy killing other serial killers.

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January - All The Little Bird-Hearts
Jan
23

January - All The Little Bird-Hearts

Sunday lives with her sixteen year old daughter Dolly, the same house she has lived in all her life. She does things differently from other people, but mostly it works. On her "quiet days" she must eat only white foods. For social situations, she has her etiquette hand book, and for solace her beloved treasury of Sicilian folklore. But the one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - beautiful, headstrong Dolly who is on the cusp of leaving home.

Into this carefully ordered life step Vita and Rollo, a glamorous London couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their wit and charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in her etiquette manual. Soon the two families are in and out of each others houses, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's charm and wealth there is something else, something darker. And Sunday has something that Vita has always wanted for herself, a beautiful, clever daughter of her own.

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