Skip to main content
On Tuesday, July 25th, Ann Napolitano appeared at the Ramsey Free Public Library in Ramsey, NJ to talk about her latest novel, HELLO BEAUTIFUL, a New York Times bestseller and Oprah's 100th book club pick. Nancy Sharko, a reader of ours who attended the event, reports on Napolitano’s appearance and some of the insights she shared with the audience.

Rachael Stark

Journalist Rachael Stark is an avid reader, a researcher and a former nursing school student at Trocaire College.

Leesa Cross-Smith, author of Goodbye Earl: A Revenge Novel

In 2004, Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline and Kasey are in their final days of high school and on the precipice of all the things teenagers look forward to when anything in life seems possible. In 2019, Kasey has returned to her small Southern hometown of Goldie for the first time since high school --- and she still hasn’t told even her closest friends the truth of what really happened that summer after graduation, or what made her leave so abruptly. Now reunited with her friends in Goldie for a wedding, she’s determined to focus on the simple joy of being together again. But when she notices troubling signs that one of them might be in danger, she is catapulted back to that fateful summer. This time, Kasey refuses to let the worst moments of her past define her.

Samantha Downing, author of A Twisted Love Story

Wes and Ivy are madly in love. It's the type of romance people write stories about. But what kind of story? When it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears. When it's bad, it's really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants. But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconciliations needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy --- and she's a detective. There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead. If they can stick together, they can survive anything --- even the tightening net of a police investigation. Because one more breakup just might be their last.

Chandler Baker, author of Cutting Teeth

Darby, Mary Beth and Rhea are on personal quests to reclaim aspects of their identities subsumed by motherhood --- their careers, their sex lives, their bodies. Their children, though, disrupt their plans when an unsettling medical condition begins to go around the Little Academy preschool: the kids are craving blood. Then a young teacher is found dead, and the only potential witnesses are 10 adorable four-year-olds. Soon it becomes clear that the children are not just witnesses, but also suspects...and so are their mothers. As the police begin to look more closely, the children’s ability to bleed their parents dry becomes deadly serious.

Jamie Day, author of The Block Party

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual summer block party, there has been a murder. But who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold --- discovering that the real danger lies within their own block. Nothing, and no one, is ever as it seems.

Colson Whitehead, author of Crook Manifesto

1971. Ray Carney’s days moving stolen goods are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him --- until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter and decides to hit up his old police contact Munson. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney. 1973. Pepper is Carney’s endearingly violent partner in crime who takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, celebrity drug dealers, hustlers, mobsters and hit men. 1976. Carney's wife, Elizabeth, is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A. and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney’s tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it.

Editorial Content for Ghost Eaters

Teaser

Get haunted with Clay McLeod Chapman’s terrifying Southern Gothic horror novel about a woman who takes a drug that lets her communicate with her dead friend.

Promo

Get haunted with Clay McLeod Chapman’s terrifying Southern Gothic horror novel about a woman who takes a drug that lets her communicate with her dead friend.

About the Book

One of Vulture's Best Horror Novels of 2022, this terrifying supernatural page-turner will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.

  • One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 at Vulture, Paste, Book Riot and CrimeReads
  • September 2022 LibraryReads Pick
  • October 2022 Indie Next Pick

Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab --- again --- she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin’s world falls apart.
 
Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks. Grieving and desperate for closure with Silas, Erin agrees to a pill-popping “séance.” But the drug has unfathomable side effects --- and once you take it, you can never go back.

Editorial Content for Hello Stranger

Teaser

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE BODYGUARD comes a hopelessly romantic novel about finding love, confronting a haunting past, and figuring out what --- and who --- really matters.

Promo

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE BODYGUARD comes a hopelessly romantic novel about finding love, confronting a haunting past, and figuring out what --- and who --- really matters.

About the Book

The glorious new novel from the beloved author whose bright, hopelessly romantic New York Times bestsellers have been called “[m]y perfect 10 of a book” (Emily Henry) and cheered for their “speedy pacing and sexual tension for miles” (People).

Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming. Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life --- placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition --- the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls in love --- or is it lust, or a temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life? --- with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Editorial Content for Her, Too

Book

Teaser

Defending an accused rapist, a high-powered lawyer learns firsthand the terrible truth about her client --- a discovery that propels her on a quest for justice and revenge in this addictively readable thriller from the author of THE CAGE.

Promo

Defending an accused rapist, a high-powered lawyer learns firsthand the terrible truth about her client --- a discovery that propels her on a quest for justice and revenge in this addictively readable thriller from the author of THE CAGE.

About the Book

Defending an accused rapist, a high-powered lawyer learns firsthand the terrible truth about her client --- a discovery that propels her on a quest for justice and revenge in this addictively readable thriller from the author of THE CAGE.

Kelly McCann is a fighter. She’s fought to build a successful legal career, fought for the special needs of her family, and tirelessly fought for her clients. Her specialty is defending men accused of sex crimes --- falsely accused, she always maintains. Her detractors call her a traitor to her gender, but she doesn't care. Badass and brilliant, Kelly simply loves to win, and as the story opens, she's done it again, securing an acquittal for a renowned scientist accused of sexually assaulting his female employees.  

But the thrill of her victory is short-lived. That very night, she, too, falls victim to a brutal sexual assault. And almost as horrific as the attack is the fact that she can't tell anyone it happened --- not without destroying her career in the process.

Kelly has never backed down from a fight, and she’s not about to start pulling her punches now. Joining forces with her rapist's other victims, the shrewd lawyer plans to turn the tables on him. It’s not only about justice --- these wronged women are out for revenge.

But someone, it seems, is out for them. And one by one, they find themselves facing even greater danger.