Standalones That Stand Out (1/17/24)

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If you’re looking for something to read in between your favorite series, then we’ve got you covered with this overflowing list of amazing standalones!

MAL GOES TO WAR BY EDWARD ASHTON

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by March 1st.

“Mal goes to war and learns about honor, duty, and doing the wrong thing for the right reason. Mal’s voice has all of Murderbot’s snark, along with its uncomfortable regard for humans. His escapades with the misfit gang that gathers around his charge compel the reader through his adventures even as the costs of the war grow higher. Ashton offers a technothriller with heart.”–Library Journal, starred review

DARLING GIRLS BY SALLY HEPWORTH

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by March 1st.

“As in THE SOULMATE, compelling themes of trust, betrayal, and brittle façades circle the sisters’ relationships, raising the stakes of the investigation painfully high. Hepworth’s fans will be primed for her newest unnerving thriller.”–Booklist

LISTEN FOR THE LIE BY AMY TINTERA

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by February 1st.

“Most of the novel is told from Lucy’s point of view, which allows for a natural unspooling of the layers of her life and her story. She’s strong, she’s prickly, and we gradually begin to understand just how wronged she has been. The story is a striking commentary on the insular and harmful nature of small-town prejudice and how women who don’t fit a certain mold are often considered outliers, if not straight-up villains… Smart, edgy, and entertaining as heck.”–Kirkus Reviews

EXTINCTION BY DOUGLAS PRESTON

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by March 1st.

“A billionaire’s son and his new wife are found murdered within the precincts of the Erebus Resort, a 100,000-acre expanse in the Colorado Rockies where resurrected woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths roam, and Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash joins with county sheriff James Colcord to discover the culprits.”–Library Journal Pre-Pub Alert

IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME BY ALEX FINLAY

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by April 1st.

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken. With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He thinks he’s put his past behind him.

SUMMERS AT THE SAINT BY MARY KAY ANDREWS

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by April 1st.

Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as “the Saint.” If you grew up coming here, you were “a Saint.” If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But one fateful summer she worked here and married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days.

WHEN AMONG CROWS BY VERONICA ROTH

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by April 1st.

Pain is Dymitr’s calling. To slay the monsters he’s been raised to kill, he had to split his soul in half to make a sword from his own spine. Every time he draws it, he gets blood on his hands. Pain is Ala’s inheritance. When her mother died, a family curse to witness horrors committed by the Holy Order was passed onto her. The curse will claim her life, as it did her mother’s, unless she can find a cure.

VERY BAD COMPANY BY EMMA ROSENBLUM

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by April 1st.

Every year, executives at the trendy tech startup Aurora gather the company’s top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami and this year, Caitlin Levy–Aurora’s newest hire–is joining the team as Head of Events. The benefits are outstanding: a seven-figure salary, stock shares, a discretionary bonus, limitless vacation days–what could possibly go wrong?

MIND GAMES BY NORA ROBERTS

Available for download on Edelweiss here. LibraryReads votes due by April 1st.

As they do each June, the Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother’s. Here, twelve-year-old Thea can run free and breathe in the smells of pine and fresh bread and Grammie’s handmade candles. But as her parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they’re about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb.

MAL GOES TO WAR by Edward Ashton; 9781250286314; 4/9/24
DARLING GIRLS by Sally Hepworth; 9781250284525; 4/23/24
LISTEN FOR THE LIE by Amy Tintera; 9781250880314; 3/5/24
EXTINCTION by Douglas Preston; 9780765317704; 4/23/24
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME by Alex Finlay; 9781250863799; 5/28/24
SUMMERS AT THE SAINT by Mary Kay Andrews; 9781250278388; 5/7/24
WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth; 9781250855480; 5/14/24
VERY BAD COMPANY by Emma Rosenblum; 9781250906557; 5/14/24
MIND GAMES by Nora Roberts; 9781250289698; 5/21/24