On the eve of her fortieth birthday, a woman wakes up from a pickleball accident with the unexpected chance to relive her twenties in this sparkling novel from a fresh, new voice.

Sutton Layne is almost-forty and fabulous, with a happy marriage, three beautiful children, and a successful interior design business. But there’s plenty of chaos behind the scenes of early midlife. Her preteen son is going off the rails, her husband is bailing on the party he was supposed to throw her, and that thriving business? If she can’t land her next big client, it might all come crashing down. Then a surprise DM from someone in her past sends her spiraling into what-ifs. What if she settled down too young? Walked away from her big break? Never had her great adventure?

Despite her simmering mini-crisis, Sutton can’t wait for the birthday luncheon and pickleball tournament her friends have planned in her honor. But when an accident on the court knocks her out cold, she wakes up somewhere else . . . and is offered the chance to do it all over again. She can revisit her twenties—out of order and on her own terms. And this time around, anything goes: cities, careers, friendships. Even love.

From star-studded Hollywood nights to the jungles of Nicaragua, from the heat of Coachella to the snowy summit of the Matterhorn, Sutton chases the life she fears she might have missed, with unexpected results.

With a wink to the classic It’s a Wonderful Life, Twenty Something Else is a witty, wistful journey through the dreams we outgrow, the life choices that shape us, and the surprising detours that can lead us home.

The post Twenty Something Else first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

A heartfelt coming-of-age debut about a girl starting over while keeping secret she’s spent the last year in juvenile detention. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Leah Johnson.

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Cooper is back after twelve months at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, and nothing is the way it was. Her mom has remarried and now there’s a big new house, a shiny new family, and a fancy new school. Jas feels completely out of place, and things only get more complicated when her mom insists that her “fresh start” include hiding the truth of where she’s been and cutting off people from her past.

As Jas settles into her new life bonding with her seemingly perfect stepsister, making a close-knit group of besties, and maybe even falling for the cute girl in class, it starts to feel like her second chance might actually be real. But when a friend from the detention center reaches out to reconnect, Jas worries that everything she’s built could fall apart. How long can she keep her past a secret? And how many times can she spin the truth before she forgets who she really is?

The post Free Girls first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

In a complicated marriage and raising her children in Los Angeles’s toxic playground of privilege and power, Cecilia Chen is struggling to find her real self among the many labels assigned to her: wife, mother, artist, daughter.

Until the moment she crashes–literally–into the Anouk Ferrand. It’s been twenty years since she last encountered the enigmatic model on a photo shoot in Mexico.

And it’s this chance second meeting that will upend Cecilia’s life.

Seeing Anouk again forces Cecilia to revisit their brief time together and question where she truly fits in. Can the renewed intensity of her explosive physical and emotional entanglement with Anouk finally give her an answer?

In a sharply observed evolution from her blockbuster debut, The Idea of You, Robinne Lee delivers a completely new, propulsive story layered with desire, power, and identity.

The post Crash Into Me first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

The world’s main criticism of Christians: Too judgy.

Judgment. We feel it. Husbands feel judged by their wives. Parents are judged by their kids. Moms judge other moms. And maybe you’re worried that you’re the “judgy” one. Whether you’re conflicted over your son’s lifestyle, your daughter’s messy room, or social media outrage, you’re not alone.

At the same time, we live in a “Who am I to judge?” culture. And since the Bible both supports and warns against judgment . . . to judge or not to judge, that’s one touchy question.

With warmth and wisdom, Shannon invites us to step inside six stories: Noah, Rahab, Jonah, Simon the Pharisee, the Blind Man, and the cross. We’ll find biblical clarity on judgment and mercy and be moved by what matters to God. If you’re exhausted by conflict and judgment, you can trade condemnation for compassion and encounter God’s lavish mercy.

The post Kinda Judgy first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

For fans of Firekeeper’s Daughter, this is an edge-of-your-seat Indigenous YA murder mystery set in Costa Rica from Pura Belpré and Walter Dean Myers Award-winning author of Saints of the Household.

This enthralling murder mystery follows Ulá Dominguez, a Bribri-American teenager, searching for the truth behind her land-activist father’s mysterious death on their Native territory in Costa Rica. Ulá and her brother face off against illegal loggers, kidnappers, settlers, and the Costa Rican government while hunting for clues. Their only ally is a local journalist, who may be in danger himself.

Inspired by real-world missing, dead, and attacked Indigenous activists, award-winning author and poet Ari Tison writes her first novel in prose and pushes the envelope yet again by pulling together a propulsive story full of grief, environmental justice, and the fight for retribution that will resonate with teen readers.

Told in multiple points of view, the narrative also invokes the collective voice of Bribri ancestors. “Together we see” is the literal translation of the Bribri phrase for “goodbye.” Tison challenges the reader to sit with Ulá’s grief, to acknowledge the cost of greed, and to ask themselves “How far would you go to protect your land?”

The post Together We See first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

From the Hugo award-winning author Naomi Kritzer comes a tense portrait of a future we desperately hope to escape.

O Lord, deliver us.

Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she’s kidnapped.

They’re not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.

Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped.

She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it’s the last thing she does.

The post Obstetrix first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

When a blunder and an injury threaten Kenya Stewart’s career, she fakes a relationship with doctor Solomon Anruchi to restore her coveted promotion and appease his demanding parents. As attractions increase amid their ruse, secrets they’ve kept from each other begin to unravel their scheme. Will their plans crumble when the truth comes out?

A botched promotion, an awkward reunion, and a fake-dating scheme they never planned to fall for.

Kenya Stewart is so close to getting her dream position at an event agency. When a scheduling blunder risks her promotion, she hopes an upcoming pitch will allow her a second chance. Then an accident at her cousin’s wedding sends her to the emergency room in the care of another wedding guest, Solomon Anruchi, the handsome doctor who ghosted her after their first date.

Solomon’s parents are eager for him to find a business-savvy wife and make the move to New York to take over a recent acquisition by their family’s company. But he needs to buy more time to finish his residency and convince them that staying in Hope Springs is the best path for him. He realizes that Kenya is the perfect person to help, and she needs his connections to land a high-profile client and save her career. Their solution? A fake-dating relationship.

As attractions increase amid their ruse, secrets they’ve kept from each other and the weight of others’ expectations begin to unravel their scheme. Will their carefully constructed plans crumble when the truth comes out?

This charming Southern contemporary Christian romance features humorous banter, second chances, faking dating, and neurodiverse characters in small-town Alabama for fans of Toni Shiloh, Pepper Basham, and Courtney Walsh.

The post Almost By Design first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

This lyrical YA novel by the author of And Other Mistakes follows a girl who struggles to find hope with her sisters, her best friend, and a new crush, as the country navigates a pandemic & protests against police brutality—perfect for fans of Darius the Great is Not Okay.

“I just want to enjoy being alive. Can’t that be enough?”

Tia doesn’t know how much more she can take. Things have been weird with her best friend Drew, her older sister Mel is in a coma after a mental health crisis, a global pandemic has stolen her senior year, and racial tensions are high across the country following the killing of another unarmed Black man by a police officer.

So when Tia’s oldest sister Alexis invites her to stay at her place, Tia jumps at the chance to get out of the house and away from her daily life, if only for a little while. But getting to know the cute girl she meets while walking her sister’s pandemic puppy is not enough to distract her from the weight of her world. Will Mel finally wake up? Is Alexis also on the edge of breaking? Will her friendship with Drew survive the summer? Is protest and quarantine all Tia can look forward to?

With so much unrest in the world and in her life, Tia will have to figure out how to keep from losing hope and losing her mind.

The post When We Almost Came Undone first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

A laugh-out-loud, thought-provoking story about the challenges of sisterhood from international bestselling author Kathy Lette. Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes, Dawn French and Jane Fallon.

The Sisterhood Rules: Ah, so many, but the most important three?

1. Share all your secrets—trust is everything
2. Never do the dirty on her—in life, but especially in love
3. Be there for good and bad—nothing, especially a man, is worth losing her over

For twin sisters Isabel and Verity, the sisterhood rules were shattered when Verity had an affair with Isabel’s husband.

Unforgivable, right? Devastated by her sister’s betrayal, Isabel vowed never to speak to her again and for ten years has kept her promise.

But when their mother goes missing, Verity and Isabel are forced to come together again to find her.

The only question is—when the person you once loved the most is now your mortal enemy, can you ever find a way back? And if the sisterhood is to rule, then surely you have to obey all the rules?

The post The Sisterhood Rules first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

From the playground to the premier league, Leo K. Doyle brings his soccer skills to all that he does…even riding the bench. Now a New York Times bestselling series!

Leo has beaten all the odds and made the roster of a Premier League youth squad. But he is far from the star player.

In fact, he isn’t even a starter—and the U14 Lewisham Knights are the worst team in the league. They’re so bad that if they don’t improve this year, the owner will disband the team, and riding the bench will be the least of Leo’s worries.

As he juggles pressure from his team, schoolwork, and (lack of) friends, Leo cannot help but feel like he is worlds away from home and all that he knows. Will he be able to score a starting spot on the world’s biggest soccer stage or has he missed his shot entirely?

The post The Academy II: The Journey Continues first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.