Book Spotlight: If Not You by Ellen O'Clover

 

If Not You by Ellen O'Clover

Publisher: Berkley Publishing

Publication Date: September 15, 2026

Format: Paperback - 400 pages

               Audiobook - 11 Hours 22 Minutes

               Kindle - 396 pages

               Nook - 400 pages

ISBN (Paperback): 978-0593952566

ASIN (Audiobook): B0GG1DCLSH

ASIN (Kindle): B0G774VH6N

BNID (Nook): 978-0593952573

Genre: Romance

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Book Description:

Five years of history. Four weeks on the road. Two rival copywriters learning love is the hardest sell of all.

Mattie French has always known how to tell a good story. It’s why she stopped at nothing to land her dream career as a copywriter at a scrappy independent advertising agency. In fact, if it weren’t for one person, Mattie would probably be the most-talked-about rising star in town.

Campbell Porter is a senior copywriter at Chicago’s slickest agency. Absurdly talented, incredibly aware of it, and the bane of Mattie’s existence since they were interns together, Campbell is always just…there, with his golden-boy smirk and the familiar gaze that never fails to taunt her across a crowded room.

Mattie would love nothing more than to avoid Campbell forever. But when their agencies are pitted against each other to compete for a luxury resort account, it’s her chance to prove she can beat him—and earn the promotion she covets.

During the month of travel required for the pitch, Mattie and Campbell are thrown together as fierce competitors and, slowly, as unexpected witnesses to each other’s hidden wounds and softest parts. As their trip barrels toward its final pitch, Mattie is forced to confront the increasingly obvious the story she’s crafted for her and Campbell over the years might need a new ending.

About The Author

Ellen O’Clover is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of If Not You, The Heartbreak Hotel, and other stories for teens and adults. Her books have been selected for Book of the Month and appeared in outlets like NPR, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone. She lives in a little green house under a giant aspen tree near Boulder, Colorado, with her rocket scientist husband and two perfect bulldogs.

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Main Characters by Bobby Palmer (Book Review)

 

Main Characters by Bobby Palmer

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Publication Date: June 30, 2026

Format: Hardcover - 416 pages

               Paperback - 450 pages

               Audiobook - 11 Hours 29 Minutes

               Kindle - 410 pages

               Nook - 416 pages

ISBN (Hardcover): 978-0316599139

ISBN (Paperback): 978-0316607797

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FZ1HZM2W
ASIN (Kindle): B0FZ996TQP

BNID (Nook): 978-0316599153

Genre: Romance

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Disclaimer: I received an ARC of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchased a hardcover copy from my Book Of The Month (BOTM) monthly subscription.

Book Description:

For readers of David Nicholls and Sally Rooney comes a new love story that's at once tender and electrifying—told by everyone but the main characters.

When Clara and Seb first cross paths in a London square, it’s the start of something exciting. Clara, an aspiring director stuck in an entry-level job, itches to pick up a camera. Seb, having floated between music, modeling, and now acting, struggles to find purpose in his work. Yet as random chance brings the two back together, time and time again, neither could predict that their magnetic connection is set to change their lives.

But everyone else does. The spark between Clara and Seb is exactly what falling in love should look exhilarating, passionate, undeniable. The two become a whirlwind, their relationship enthralling everyone they come across. But as the years go on and tensions flair, a last-ditch attempt to save their great romance ends with a gut-wrenching betrayal.

Set over the course of two decades, Clara and Seb’s love story is bigger than just themselves. Told from the eyes of their audience—friends and flatmates, rivals and lovers, strangers and confidants—Main Characters is a sweeping portrait of all sides of Clara and Seb. Everyone has their version of events, but only the main characters can decide how it ends.

My Book Review:

In Main Characters, author Bobby Palmer weaves a wonderful love story that is told through the perspectives of people in Clara and Seb's life.

Set in London, the reader is easily drawn in as they follow the love story of Clara and Seb through the perspectives of people who have observed their relationship over the span of two decades. Through these perspectives, the reader follows the progression of Clara and Seb's love story from their first meeting through the ups and downs that somehow always kept them drawn to each other through the years.

Main Characters is a beautifully written story that easily keeps the reader engaged as they follow Clara and Seb's love story. The uniqueness of Clara and Seb's story is that it is told by people in their lives. This is an intriguing way to tell a story. I have never read a story written in this way before, through the perspectives of observers and not the main characters. I loved how the observers gave the reader a look into who Clara and Seb really were, and how the progression of their relationship showed how opposites do attract and could make it through the ups and downs in life if they are meant to be together. This is one of the best stories that I have read this year, and it easily is one of my top ten favorites!

Main Characters is a wonderful romance story that is told in a unique and intriguing way that will definitely leave the reader with a sigh and satisfied smile. 

Rating: 5 STARS 

About The Author

Bobby Palmer is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He co-hosted the much-loved literary podcast BOOK CHAT with Pandora Sykes.

His debut novel, Isaac And The Egg, sold 50,000 copies in its first year of publication, was a Prima and Woman & Home 'Best Book of 2022', was featured on BBC Radio 4's Open Book and selected as Guardian 'Audiobook of the Week'.

His third book, Main Characters, was a Book of the Month pick in advance of its simultaneous US and UK publication in July 2026. It was featured as a summer pick on NBC's Today Show and on CBS Mornings and was selected as an Editor's Pick by Amazon. 

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Book Spotlight: Main Characters by Bobby Palmer

 

Main Characters by Bobby Palmer

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Publication Date: June 30, 2026

Format: Hardcover - 416 pages

               Paperback - 450 pages

               Audiobook - 11 Hours 29 Minutes

               Kindle - 410 pages

               Nook - 416 pages

ISBN (Hardcover): 978-0316599139

ISBN (Paperback): 978-0316607797

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FZ1HZM2W
ASIN (Kindle): B0FZ996TQP

BNID (Nook): 978-0316599153

Genre: Romance

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Book Description:

For readers of David Nicholls and Sally Rooney comes a new love story that's at once tender and electrifying—told by everyone but the main characters.

When Clara and Seb first cross paths in a London square, it’s the start of something exciting. Clara, an aspiring director stuck in an entry-level job, itches to pick up a camera. Seb, having floated between music, modeling, and now acting, struggles to find purpose in his work. Yet as random chance brings the two back together, time and time again, neither could predict that their magnetic connection is set to change their lives.

But everyone else does. The spark between Clara and Seb is exactly what falling in love should look exhilarating, passionate, undeniable. The two become a whirlwind, their relationship enthralling everyone they come across. But as the years go on and tensions flair, a last-ditch attempt to save their great romance ends with a gut-wrenching betrayal.

Set over the course of two decades, Clara and Seb’s love story is bigger than just themselves. Told from the eyes of their audience—friends and flatmates, rivals and lovers, strangers and confidants—Main Characters is a sweeping portrait of all sides of Clara and Seb. Everyone has their version of events, but only the main characters can decide how it ends.

About The Author

Bobby Palmer is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He co-hosted the much-loved literary podcast BOOK CHAT with Pandora Sykes.

His debut novel, Isaac And The Egg, sold 50,000 copies in its first year of publication, was a Prima and Woman & Home 'Best Book of 2022', was featured on BBC Radio 4's Open Book and selected as Guardian 'Audiobook of the Week'.

His third book, Main Characters, was a Book of the Month pick in advance of its simultaneous US and UK publication in July 2026. It was featured as a summer pick on NBC's Today Show and on CBS Mornings and was selected as an Editor's Pick by Amazon. 

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Heart Of Glass by Jennifer Hillier (Book Review)

 

Heart Of Glass by Jennifer Hillier

Book 2: Wonderland Series

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

Format: Hardcover - 368 pages

               Audiobook - 12 Hours 57 Minutes

               Kindle - 351 pages

               Nook - 368 pages

ISBN (Hardcover):  978-1250763181

ASIN (Audiobook): B0FN8RGKRJ

ASIN (Kindle): B0FLYNQ275

BNID (Nook): 978-1250763198

Genre: Psychological Thriller

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Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchased a hardcover edition from my Book Of The Month (BOTM) monthly subscription.

Book Description:

A serial killer recants his long-ago confession regarding a small-town high school girl―and her then-best friends are forced to confront what really happened that night and what's happening now.

Seaside is a small coastal town, known originally for the local amusement park. But twenty-five years ago, a serial killer dubbed The Carnival Killer confessed to the murder of a local high school girl. Now, he's recanted that confession.

Barb, Nicolette, and Lorelei were best friends - then they met "Sam" at Wonderland, the local amusement park. After hanging out with him there, and accompanying him to the drive-in movie, where the twenty-something handsome drifter made out with Lorelei in the backseat. That night was the last time Lorelei was seen alive, her murdered body surfacing a couple of days later in a local cranberry bog.

Barb's dreams of leaving Seaside and becoming a successful writer never materialized and she is a freelancer for the local newspaper and, secretly, writes anonymously about reality tv stars for a hugely successful gossip website called Reality Bitch. Specifically, she writes savagely about a long-running show set in Canada called Trophy Wives.

Nicolette left town shortly after Lorelei's body surfaced, never to return. Ultimately, she married a very rich man, moved to Toronto and rebranded herself as Cole Lennox, one of the stars of Trophy Wives.

With the amusement park about to reopen, revitalizing the dying town of Seaside, the Carnival Killer recants his confession about killing Lorelei, the dead body of young woman washes ashore, and the truth about what happened that night twenty-five years ago - and what is happening now - threatens not only the carefully constructed lives of Barb and Nicolette, but the very fabric of Seaside itself.

My Book Review:

In Heart Of Glass, the second book in the Wonderland series, author Jennifer Hillier weaves a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader into a dark storyline that follows a twenty-five-year-old murder that resurfaces when the convicted serial killer decides to recant his confession, setting the small coastal town of Seaside, Washington in a tizzy.

Twenty-five years ago, fifteen-year-old best friends Barb, Nicolette and Lorelei meet an older drifter named Sam Figg at the Wonderland amusement park, and they all go in Sam's car to the Starlight drive-in where a tragedy occurs to Lorelei. Sam Figg confessed to Lorelei's murder, but now with terminal cancer, he decides to recant his confession in a docuseries that is being made, Criminal Confessions - The Carnival Killer. If Sam recants the murder, and the truth about what really happened that night comes out, it can threaten the lives of Barb and Nicolette. 

Heart Of Glass is a complex and multi-layered tale that is told in the third-person narrative focused on Barb, Nicolette and another reality star, Kylie Kahl. The reader is taken along for the ride when the twenty-five-year-old murder is revisited in alternating past/present timelines. Just when you think that is enough to keep you turning the pages, the author throws in an intertwining storyline where three reality stars go missing over a span of six years in the Seaside area, with Barb and Nicolette thrown into the mix of it all. 

This is a slow-building thriller that has so many riveting twists and turns that kept me guessing. With the uncovering of long-buried secrets, the intertwining connections between the past and the present mystery of the latest disappearances, this complex story kept me in suspense until the surprising conclusion!

Heart Of Glass is the second book in the Wonderland series, but it can also be a stand-alone book.

Heart Of Glass is an intense thriller that will keep you in suspense!

Rating: 4 Stars

About The Author

Jennifer Hillier imagines the worst about people and then writes about it.

She's the author of seven psychological thrillers, including the USA Today, Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail bestselling Things We Do in the Dark, winner of the ITW Thriller Award for Best Audiobook. Described as “an intoxicating thrill ride” by the New York Times and “propulsive and chilling” by People magazine, it was a Book of the Month Club selection, an Indigo Top Ten Best Book of the Year, an Amazon Editor’s Spotlight Pick, a Loan Stars pick, and her third consecutive novel to be honored as a LibraryReads pick, which places her in their Hall of Fame.

She's also published six other novels, including the USA Today bestselling Little Secrets (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Anthony Award), and Jar of Hearts (winner of the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel and shortlisted for the Anthony and Macavity Awards). She also wrote Creep, Freak, The Butcher, and Wonderland, which have been recently reissued by Gallery Books in beautiful trade paperback formats. Her books have been published in twenty-four languages so far.

Jennifer is Filipino-Canadian, born and raised in Toronto, but she spent eight amazing years living in Seattle, which is where she first became a published author. She's a Seahawks fan who married a Packers guy, and they have a son in middle school who wishes she wrote books like Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (she does too, kid, she does too).

She's afraid of the dark and can’t sleep unless she's checked the locks on the doors several times. She loves writing when it’s raining, sleeping when it’s sunny, and reading after everyone else has gone to bed. She's a cat person without a cat, which makes her sad. But she's now back in the Toronto area permanently with her family, which makes her happy.

Heart of Glass, her newest thriller, will be coming August 25, 2026 from Minotaur Books. 

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