Save this list and find it anytime by adding it to your Library Collections.
By chance, or with intent?
What’s better than a December mystery that transports you to a luxurious lakeside villa in Italy? Katie’s instant connection with Richard during a long flight initially feels like destiny. Richard is magnetic in every sense. The issue? He’s married, though he claims it’s open. After Katie accepts his invitation to work as his son’s au pair, village whispers spread about ghosts, drownings, and missing women at his estate. As Katie uncovers what happened to the women who came before her, romance turns to dread. Chance brought her there, but the consequences will leave you questioning every coincidence.
I’ll be in the library
Imagine a place that shows you exactly who you are and who you could become. Enter author Margot Harrison’s The Library of Fates. For Eleanor, it's a world where everything makes sense. She’s spent most of her life there as an apprentice, showing other people how to find the meaning of their lives in stories. But when her mentor mysteriously dies and the precious Book of Dark Nights vanishes, she's thrust into a globe-spanning adventure with Daniel, her mentor's estranged son and her former love. The chemistry! The mystery! Narrator Caroline Hewitt's performance is sparkling yet comforting, making this magical book-about-a-book the perfect holiday-season listening escape.
Let him eat his cake!
To be told you’re no fun when you’re sober would feel like a gut punch. However, Bravo’s Summer House star Carl Radke is proving the naysayers wrong. In his new memoir, Radke gives the raw, honest backstory of his life lived away from the camera. He’s showing up and showing out to prove that his journey toward sober living will not be in vain. I really enjoyed learning more about the man, but also better understanding what I’ve seen on the show. From the impactful moments and relationships he’s experienced, often to his own detriment, to his ongoing journey of self-discovery and improvement, Carl is offering fans honesty like never before.
Oh, Mary!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Mary Bennet is among Jane Austen’s most dour characters—but all she needed was a proper storyline. She gets one in this audio adaptation of a hit regional play by Lauren Gunderson (The Half-Life of Marie Curie) and theater director Margot Melcon. We meet the pianoforte-pounding book-nerd Mary as she arrives at Pemberley to spend the holidays with Lizzie and Mr. Darcy. Glum about her dull life at Longbourn, Mary perks up after meeting the map-mad Mr. de Bourgh. Soon, a bevy of Bennet sisters, along with brothers-in-law Darcy and Bingley, conspire to give Mary her happier ending. It’s a plummy confection arriving just in time to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth on December 16.
Absolute gold
Theo of Golden has been making quiet but ever-swelling waves among readers since it was self-published two years ago. A fable of friendship with kindness at its core, this story follows an octogenarian who arrives, rather mysteriously, in a small town in Georgia and discovers a trove of drawings in a local coffee shop. As Theo reconnects pictures with their true owners, he sprinkles inspiration, revelation, and hope on the listener like gold dust. Emmy-nominated actor and narrator David Morse brings the exact right amount of gentle gravitas to the thoughtful, ever-curious Theo.
Let the backstabbing begin
For anyone who’s binged Amazing Race or Survivor, Lovell Holder has crafted a steamy behind-the-scenes drama revealing the machinations of reality competition shows that are wilder than anything “reality” has concocted so far. At its core is hunky Luke, who’s been content as a stay-at-home dad to his two children while his husband excels as a villainous gay Republican—until their lives implode and Luke returns to Endeavor to win the cash prize. The narrative is filled with dozens of characters and cuts back and forth between the show’s early years and the tense 20th anniversary season, which makes Charlie Thurston’s narration so essential to follow the twisty plot, cliffhangers, complex puzzles, and sexy trysts that kept me riveted to the jaw-dropping finale. Do I smell a spin-off following the reunion special?
Something Wicked this way comes!
Contemporary romance author Falon Ballard is not new to my library—but her venture into romantasy surely is! Her latest, Something Wicked, is part Moulin Rouge, part Macbeth, and entirely consuming. Cate and Callum’s first meeting has a spark that never fades, with chemistry that only builds as the story unfolds. But what kept me listening were the things happening around them. The political tension, the shifting loyalties, the unraveling secrets, all of it adding so much depth to their connection. The cast brings that energy to life with a performance that fits the story perfectly. Between the ending—which I’m still internally screaming about—and my chat with Falon about her leap into romantasy, I am already looking forward to the rest of the Idle Reputations series.
A year without new clothes?
I’ll admit it: I have a wardrobe issue. My clothes are everywhere—closets, drawers, under-bed storage containers, laundry baskets, piles next to the laundry baskets... I even have clothes stashed at my parents’ house. And yet, each morning, I still struggle to find something to wear. So when I first stumbled on The Wardrobe Project by founder of The Broke Generation media platform Emma Edwards, I jumped at the chance to finally get my outfits under control—and maybe even save some money, too. Framed through Edwards’s own experience of a “no-buy” year, this guide is the key to shutting down impulse buying, finding your inner strength, and rediscovering who you are without that brand-new sweater. This new year, I’ll be stopping the cycle of overconsumption in favor of wearing my confidence instead.
It happened one night in Harlem
In her new Harriet Stone Mystery series, the novelist and master of twists and turns Valerie Wilson Wesley takes us on a stroll along Striver’s Row, the storied block known for its late-19th-century stately homes originally designed for wealthy white owners. Stone and her biracial foster child, 12-year-old Lovey, have endured great loss back home in Connecticut with the Spanish flu raging. At the invitation of Stone’s cousin, Junetta Plum (don’t you love that name?), they arrive in New York where Plum’s brownstone, now a boarding house, will be their home, a safe haven. Tragedy strikes the first morning of their stay. Someone has killed Junetta. Did a boarder do it? What was Junetta’s real business? Diana Blue, not new to Wilson’s work, narrates. I can’t wait to hear how this story unfolds in those rooms on Striver’s Row.
A stirring look at Great Britain’s first king
Beautifully performed by the author himself, The Six Loves of James I is a triumph in historical biography. Through meticulous research, historian Gareth Russell paints a vivid portrait of the Jacobean era, its court dynamics, and the man who became the first king of Great Britain, uniting the crowns of England and Scotland under a single monarch. Despite the political plots, religious turmoil, and intense scheming of the time, Russell’s deeply human depiction of King James I explores how his life was ruled by passions, paranoia, and love. But it’s not a narrow view of James’s romantic and political maneuverings; it’s a well-rounded exploration of his legacy, which feels like it’s been hiding in plain sight for more than four centuries.
Small-town secrets and second chances
A workplace romance, childhood friends to (almost) lovers, enemies to lovers, and a fake marriage. Cue Julie Andrews: "These are a few of my favorite things..." What a special treat to end a fantastic year of listening with Lucy Eden's The Love Audit. When childhood friends-turned-corporate rivals Jasmine and Derek are forced to fake marry for a business project in charming Miller's Cove, the tension is electric. Eden masterfully weaves Black history and community legacy into this delightful romance, and the duet narration by Wesleigh Siobhan and Leon Nixon is perfection. The banter crackles, the chemistry sizzles, plus there's an adorable dog! If you're also looking to end your year on a high note, I can't recommend The Love Audit enough. It's smart, sexy, and oh so satisfying.
An ending for the ages
The final book of The Eye of the Goddess series is here, and I can’t believe that we are finally about to get the HEA that we (ok, ok, that I) have been waiting for with these characters that I’ve grown to love so much. A Curse of Ashes picks up right after the events in A Vow of Embers, with Lia and Xander working to figure out how they can escape the goddess’s command and navigate the VERY complicated feelings that they now have for each other. This is a romantasy, so we’re getting the happily ever after; the real journey is how we're getting there, because at the start it seemed almost impossible, and boy does Sariah Wilson deliver one last big adventure. Thérèse Plummer, who has excellently narrated the entire series, returns to perform, which is the icing on this delicious last slice of cake.
Some good in the world is worth fighting for
As a literature major in college, I recall the embarrassment of being ridiculed for my enthusiasm for many of the books I cherished in my teenage years—especially genre novels. While I’m not as rabid a fan of Middle-earth lore these days, I welcome author and scholar Michael D.C. Drout’s defense of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ability to capture our imaginations. Not only does this erudite English professor give me permission to wallow in my appreciation of hobbits, goblins, orcs, and the rest of the pantheon of mythical creatures, he’s such an engaging narrator of Old Norse and Finnish myths—as well as Elvish tongues—that he inspires neophytes and diehard Tolkienists alike.
