qrow x summer Audiobooks

“I couldn't put down Inherit the Bones . Small town Colorado police detective Gemma Monroe is a human and fallible heroine I can't wait to meet again, and Littlejohn's prose is lyrical and gripping―the book is a sure bet for one of the finest debut novels of the year.” ―Deborah Crombie Secrets and lies can’t stay buried forever in Cedar Valley. In the summer, hikers and campers pack the small Colorado town’s meadows and fields. And in the winter, skiers and snowboarders take over the mountains. Season by season, year after year, time passes and the lies, like the aspens and evergreens that surround the town, take root and spread deep. Now, someone has uncovered the lies, and it is his murder that continues a chain of events that began almost forty years ago. Detective Gemma Monroe’s investigation takes her from the seedy grounds of a traveling circus to the powerful homes of those who would control Cedar Valley’s future. Six-months pregnant, with a partner she can’t trust and colleagues who know more than they’re saying, Gemma tracks a killer who will stop at nothing to keep those secrets buried. Beautifully written with a riveting plot and a richly drawn cast of characters, Inherit the Bones is a mesmerizing debut from Emily Littlejohn.

High summer in River Bluffs, Indiana, is always sweltering and sweet. But the heat is really on when a decidedly dead body turns up in the neighborhood. When established house flippers Jazzi Zanders and her cousin Jerod donate a week’s worth of remodeling work to Jazzi’s sister Olivia, they’re expecting nothing more than back-breaking roofing work and cold beers at the end of each long, hot day. With Jazzi’s live-in boyfriend and partner Ansel on the team, it promises to be a quick break before starting their next big project—until Leo, an elderly neighbor of Olivia’s, unexpectedly goes missing . . . When the friendly senior’s dog tugs Jazzi and the guys toward the wetlands beyond Olivia’s neighborhood, they stumble across a decomposing corpse—and a lot of questions. With Jazzi’s pal Detective Gaff along to investigate, Jazzi finds her hands full of a whole new mystery instead of the usual hammer and nails. And this time it will take some sophisticated sleuthing to track down the culprit of the deadly crime—before the killer turns on her next . . .

Summer fiction at its page-turning best for fans of Elin Hilderbrand, Holly Chamberlin, and Nancy Thayer! Colleen French, acclaimed author of The Summer I Found Myself , brings readers to Albany Beach, Delaware, where one woman must decide whether to seek out the daughter she gave up for adoption. Each year, the start of summer brings bustle and much-needed tourist dollars to the little town of Albany Beach, Delaware. For Natalie Sullivan, this season is proving more stressful than others. It’s make-or-break time for the Irish pub her husband, Conor, recently bought with his brothers. Their two children are thriving, but she’s experiencing pangs of loss at the end of her childbearing years. When sixteen-year-old McKenzie starts gushing about Bella, the new coworker at her summer job, Natalie suddenly finds her past and present in conflict. Bella, two years older than McKenzie, looks so similar that a customer remarks that they could be sisters. And when Natalie learns that Bella was adopted, she is propelled back into a heartbreaking decision. As a college student, Natalie became pregnant and put her baby up for adoption. Now, the more McKenzie talks about Bella, the more Natalie wonders: could Bella be her daughter? Conor insists it’s a mistake to pursue the matter. Natalie’s child belongs to another family now; that was the agreement in the closed adoption. Still, Natalie can’t resist spending time with Bella. As their bond deepens, McKenzie accuses her mother of caring more for a stranger than for her, and Natalie begins imagining what it would be like to have Bella as a second daughter. What will the impact be if Bella really is her biological child? And if she isn’t, can Natalie embrace the joy and potential in her own family, without always wondering about what could have been?

Riley Rhodes returns in the second delicious cozy set in a New England ice cream shop, Meri Allen's Mint Chocolate Murder! When Udderly Delightful Ice Cream shop manager Riley Rhodes is summoned to Penniman’s Moy Mull Castle, it’s the cherry on top of a successful summer season. The gothic pile built by an eccentric New England Gilded Age millionaire has been transformed into a premiere arts colony by Maud Monaco, a reclusive former supermodel. As part of Moy Mull’s Fall Arts Festival, Maud is throwing a fantasy ice cream social and hires Riley to whip up unique treats to celebrate the opening of an exhibit by Adam Blasco, a photographer as obnoxious as he is talented. As Penniman fills up with Maud’s art-world friends arriving for the festival, gossip swirls around Blasco, who has a dark history of obsession with his models. Riley’s curiosity and instincts for sleuthing – she was a CIA librarian – are piqued, and she wonders at the hold the cold-hearted photographer has over the mistress of Moy Mull. But when Adam is found dead behind the locked door of Moy Mull’s dungeon, Riley realizes there’s more than one suspect who’d wanted put the malicious photographer on ice.

The first novel from award-winning author Gianfranco Calligarich to be published in English, Last Summer in the City is a witty and despairing classic of Italian literature. Biting, tragic, and endlessly quotable, this translated edition features an introductory appreciation from longtime fan New York Times bestselling author André Aciman. In a city smothering under the summer sun and an overdose of la dolce vita, Leo Gazarra spends his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between run-down hotels and the homes of his rich and well-educated friends, without whom he would probably starve. At thirty, he’s still drifting: between jobs that mean nothing to him, between human relationships both ephemeral and frayed. Everyone he knows wants to graduate, get married, get rich―but not him. He has no ambitions whatsoever. Rather than toil and spin, isn’t it better to submit to the alienation of the Eternal City, Rome, sometimes a cruel and indifferent mistress, sometimes sweet and sublime? There can be no half measures with her, either she’s the love of your life or you have to leave her. First discovered by Natalia Ginzburg, Last Summer in the City is a forgotten classic of Italian literature, a great novel of a stature similar to that of The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye. Gianfranco Calligarich’s enduring masterpiece has drawn comparisons to such writers as Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, and Jonathan Franzen and is here made available in English for the first time.

Adina Daugherty became pregnant after being framed and gave birth to quadruplets. Her younger sister stole two of those children to tie herself to the Winters family, while Adina faced death to escape with the other two children. Five years later, Adina returned triumphantly. Since her sister loved pretending to be pure despite her rotten heart, she would torment her. As for her other two children? She would snatch them back! Duke Winters pinned her against the bed and said, “Why don’t you steal me as well?”Adina sneered. “Dream on!”But right after saying it, she puked. “So… how many children this time?” Duke asked.

ONE OF QUEER FORTY'S BEST PRIDE READS FOR SUMMER 2023! Three gay men in pre-Stonewall New York City find their fates thrown together in the police raid of a Village bar. Roger Moorhouse is a Wall Street banker and Westchester family man with a preciously guarded secret. As the shouting begins and flashlights blaze in his face, the life he’s carefully curated over the years―a fancy new office overlooking lower Broadway, a house in Beechmont Woods, his wife and children―is about to come crashing down around him. Columbia literature professor Julian Prince lives a comparatively uncloseted life when he finds his first committed relationship tested to its limits. How could he explain to Gus, a fearless young artist, that he couldn’t stay with him that weekend because the woman who was still technically Julian’s fiancée would be visiting? But when Gus is struck unconscious by a police baton, Julian comes out of hiding to protect him, even if exposure means losing everything. For Danny Duffy, an Irish kid from the Bronx with a sassy mouth and a diverse group of friends, the raid is a galvanizing, Spartacus moment. Danny doesn’t have too much left to lose; his family has just disowned him. But once his name appears in the newspaper, he’ll be fired from his job at Sloan’s Supermarket, where he’s risen to assistant manager of produce, and begin a journey that veers between political enlightenment and violent revenge. The three men find themselves in a police wagon together, their hidden lives threatened to be revealed to the world. Blackmail, a private investigator, Gus’s disappearance, and Danny’s quest for retribution propel Disorderly Men to its piercing conclusion, as each man meets the boundaries of his own fear, love, and shame. The stakes for each are different, but all of them confront a fundamental question: How much happiness is he allowed to have . . . and what share of it will he lay claim to?

Murder can be most foul… Is a sweet ending possible when a rival meets his bitter end? Marilyn Hayes, amateur sleuth and owner of SubLime Sweets, Key West’s most popular pie shop, is stunned when a nearby rival starts selling Key Lime pie. The pie mysteriously tastes all too similar to Marilyn’s, and when her rival starts giving his Key Lime pie away for free, Marilyn’s business takes a huge hit. Furious, she tries to beat him at his own game, but when she lashes out, and her rival is later found dead in his shop, her actions look more than suspicious. A special investigator comes in to tackle the case, and his gaze is laser-focused on Marilyn…as the prime suspect. With business dwindling rapidly, and a detective who is ready to close the case and throw Marilyn in jail, the stressed-out pie baker has to find the real killer before it’s too late. Will she clear her name and save her business? Find out in this delicious Cozy Culinary Mystery!

Revenge may be best served cold… But the right pie can be murder. Key Lime pie shop owner, Marilyn Hayes, moved to the sublime paradise of Key West after her divorce to make a new life for herself and her daughter. With unshakable determination, and a killer recipe for Key Lime pie, she grew her home-based business into a thriving enterprise and opened a shop across the street from the beach. Life was sunny and sweet, until murder walked into Marilyn’s quirky little shop, bringing with it a whole heap of trouble. When a man is found dead, and her daughter is implicated in the crime, Marilyn reluctantly becomes an amateur sleuth, sniffing out clues and putting herself in danger in the process. Will her determination and smarts lead her to catch a criminal? Or, will she get caught up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse? Find out in this fast-paced Culinary Cozy Mystery!

Real life can be ugly sometimes… But not as ugly as reality TV. SubLime Sweets owner and amateur sleuth, Marilyn Hayes is in quite a pickle when a reality show producer asks to visit her store, with cast and cameras in tow. She’s hesitant, but when her daughter, Tiara convinces her that the publicity would boost their business, she agrees. Marilyn gets more than she bargained for when Tiara has a showdown with one of the reality celebrities, and things really heat up when a body is found. The stressed-out baker has her hands full, and grows even more agitated when her creepy new neighbor keeps dropping in on her. Suspects abound, and unfortunately, Tiara is among them. Will Marilyn be able to get to the bottom of the case before her daughter is dragged off to jail? Find out in this delightful Cozy Culinary Mystery!