Hello e-galley readers! Check out some of the exciting e-galleys that were recently added to Edelweiss for your downloading pleasure:
THE LAST MANDARIN by Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung 9781250412522 | 5/12/26
Alice Li, a first-generation Chinese-American, is an erstwhile food blogger who has lived in the shadow of her mother, Vivien Li. A Chinese dissident who escaped China after Tiananmen Square, Vivien is now a globally recognized human rights activist and passionate advocate for a free and democratic China.
When security and fire alarms go off simultaneously all around the world, setting off a panic, the signal is traced back to China. As world leaders scramble to respond, Vivien and Alice are called to the White House in hopes Madame Li can decode the Chinese intentions.
While it makes some sense that the President would turn to Vivien, since she regularly advises world leaders on the actions of today’s Chinese government, what isn’t clear is why they’d want to talk to Alice.
After looking at the evidence, Vivien says that the only thing worse than the Chinese government being behind it, is if they are not. It would mean, she explains, that some clandestine element within China is calling the shots. That the President of China has lost control. And an unstable China cannot be good for anyone. Or perhaps that’s exactly what the shrewd old politician wants everyone to think.
Caught up in the chaos, Vivien and Alice are uniquely placed to stop the next, cataclysmic attack. But there are forces deep within both the American and Chinese governments intent on stopping mother and daughter. The estranged pair, who excels at misunderstanding each other, must figure out how to work together.
The increasingly frantic search for answers takes the women from the Oval Office to an office building in Akron, Ohio, from the noodle shops of Hong Kong to the necropolis of the first emperor. Along the way they must decode an old legend, and an old language invented by women, for women.
On one fateful night in 1992, the lives of two seventeen-year-olds are changed and intertwined forever. Quinn Riley, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested after he innocently tries to break up a fight but ends up nearly killing someone. Jules Delaney, high school royalty, survives an attack by the elusive and terrifying May Day Killer—a serial predator who strikes every May 1st in midwestern small towns.
A year later, Jules is struggling with trauma and guilt, tormented by the question: Why was I spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to fresh heartbreak: the unsolved murder of his mother.
Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year—May 1st. As secrets unravel and the paths of Quinn and Jules collide, two mysteries edge closer to the truth. All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there—and the clock is racing toward another May 1st.
THE ANNIVERSARY is an utterly compelling story of the hunt for a serial killer. But it’s also a heartfelt—and heartrending—novel about fate, innocence lost, and two souls who find that sometimes being broken is the only way for the light to get in.
Jess loves volleyball—she really does. Playing in Southern California Beach Volleyball League with her best friend Tania is a blast, but their recent losing streak has destroyed her confidence. In fact, a lot of what used to bring her joy—stargazing, hanging with friends at Maggie’s bar, and cuddling with her adorable wiener dog, Fleming—just doesn’t seem like enough anymore. It doesn’t help that Vivienne, one of Jess’s rivals in the league, always seems to be around just when she’s feeling her worst. Vivienne is everything Jess isn’t: beautiful, effortlessly charming, and, most infuriatingly, winning.
When Jess is ghosted yet again, it’s the final blow to her ego. Who better to challenge her than the most confident girl she knows? And as Jess gets to know Vivienne off-court, she discovers there’s much more to her than just a pretty face (and wicked serve). But even though there’s an undeniable connection between them, they’re competing for the same spot in the pro leagues. Jess has the opportunity to build self-confidence and a better life, but she’ll have to learn to believe in herself, and the people around her, if she doesn’t want to lose everything she’s gaining. And there’s nothing Jess hates more than losing.
When Paulette arrived on English shores as a young girl, she left behind a grandmother in St. Kitts who called her “Sweet Pea,” taught her to cook, and admonished her to avoid temptation and embrace love and forgiveness, in that order. Now Paulette is twenty-nine and in love with Denton, who she hopes to start a family and have lots of children with. But then Denton is killed in a car accident, and Paulette is left to grieve, as Denton’s friend Garfield finds his way into her bed. Soon their son is born, Bird, and Paulette decides to give Bird the best of everything, even as she lets Garfield go. Then, in a twist of fate, she meets the man who was behind the wheel of the car that killed Denton, and the grandson who he is having trouble caring for, a young boy the same age as Bird. Despite her grief and anger, Paulette takes the boy under her wing, and soon she is cooking him meals, making sure his clothes are clean, and letting him call her Sweet Pea. As the years go by, Paulette begins to understand the value of forgiveness, and most of all, love, and how much allowing it to guide her life has provided the strength she needed.
Beautiful and profound, SWEET PEA is a tender and emotionally-compelling novel about the healing power of one woman’s love and care for her found family.
PARADOX by Douglas Preston and Aletheia Preston 9781250413901 | 4/21/26
One of the holiest relics in Christendom, weirdly defaced . . . A crazy old prospector, ritualistically murdered . . . A controversial exobiologist, tortured with a “Spanish Boot” and dismembered . . .
When a recluse is found dead under grisly circumstances in the Colorado wilderness, CBI Agent Frankie Cash and Eagle County Sheriff Jim Colcord team up on their most enigmatic and dangerous case yet. Their investigation uncovers a trail of bizarre killings, a fanatical secret society, baffling money transfers, and finally to a cabal of UFO researchers searching for an alien artifact they believe will change the world.
And all the while, the resurrected Neanderthals who vanished into the Colorado mountains seem to be planning something . . . spectacular.
The revolution is here . . . but in the Everlands, nothing comes easy.
In the last vampire city of First Light, the rebels know the truth about the Grays. But nothing has changed. Sam has a plan to bring the whole rotten city down: a plan of peace, not violence. But in this city, the best laid plans have a way of falling apart, and she’ll need the help of the city’s ex ruler and former enemy if she’s to avoid a bloodbath.
Meanwhile, in the Wolflands, Jacob, Sage, and Raven must seek help from the wolves. But when a murder is committed, the land threatens to descend into war, and unless the culprit is found, they might not escape with their lives. But with a long list of suspects and a long set of claws out for them, the odds don’t look good.
And then there’s Neuras Sinassion. History’s most dangerous sorcerer has decided it’s finally time to tell his secrets and the truth about the humans. But the truth will come at a price.
When the dust has settled and the bodies are counted, only one thing is certain—the Everlands will never be the same again.
In THE MESSI EFFECT, Paul Tenorio, national soccer writer for The Athletic, who has spent more than a decade breaking news and providing critical insight into the power and politics of the sport, draws on his numerous high-ranking sources inside Inter Miami, American soccer, and overseas to bring readers behind the scenes and chronicle the last act of Lionel Messi.
THE MESSI EFFECT takes you inside the locker room as Messi’s arrival turned a last-place team into a global phenomenon, and into the Major League Soccer boardroom as league owners debated how to leverage Messi’s arrival to shape the future of the league and sport in America. From his cinematic debut goal to his first trophy with Miami and across two more transformative seasons, Messi’s impact was immediate and enormous. His pink No. 10 shirt became the world’s best-selling jersey, MLS stadiums sold out in city after city, and Inter Miami’s valuation soared past $1 billion.
This is a book about one man’s legacy in a rapidly growing and changing game. It’s a story about the business of sport and how a player can be both athlete and economic engine. It’s an inside look at how the business of MLS evolved historically and in real time after the legend’s arrival. And it’s the story of how a GOAT rides off into the sunset, the choices he makes, and the aftereffects of his greatness for future generations
A lover of love and a champion for happily ever after. Those were two of many things people expected from Aphrodite’s daughter. To Adalyn Whitlock, ‘love’ paid the bills, and currently, not well. Business was dropping at Happily Ever Forever, with her latest wedding planning catastrophe ending in a negative social media storm and her sister Maxi’s matchmaking ability on the fritz. To top it off, there’s an ex-boyfriend calling her ‘the Anti-Aphrodite’ and paparazzi pics linking Addie to her new client’s older brother.
Phoenix ‘Nix’ Cross—song writer and drummer of the hot new band, The Stone Talons—was no saint, but he was far from the womanizer the band’s image rep bestowed on him. If anything, he was a romantic, hopeful to find a love like the one in which his parents shared. With the band’s star quickly rising and the record label pressuring him to deliver the band’s next hit, Nix’s writer’s block couldn’t have come at a worse time. But when he opens his door to his irate new next-door neighbor, Nix feels the brief flash of inspiration for the first time in ages. And it just so happens that his new Muse is none other than his little sister’s new wedding planner.
With Addie needing an end to the public relations nightmare and the record label breathing down Nix’s neck, the pair agree to a fauxmance. But what happens when the emotions turned on for the cameras don’t turn off?
As adults, we often fall into patterns that feel irrational or out of character—shutting down, lashing out, people-pleasing, or self-sabotaging. Beneath those reactions lies our inner child, a younger part of us still trying to get its needs met the only way it knows how.
We all carry the imprint of our earliest years. Childhood is brief, yet its impact is lifelong. Some parts of us were met with love while other parts were met with silence, criticism, or disapproval. To survive, we learned to adapt—learning to over perform, to hide, or stay small. Most of us made it through with a mix of love and lack. And many of us still protect the parts of ourselves that once felt unsafe.
While we can’t change what happened, we can change how it lives within us and impacts our lives today. REPARENTING THE INNER CHILD offers a clear, compassionate path to self-integration, combining practical exercises, somatic tools, and guided reflections to help us create the safety, love, and boundaries we’ve always needed. Through her holistic framework that models individual development, Dr. LePera explains how we can cultivate the emotional maturity and regulation to respond calmly instead of reacting, to embrace desire instead of shame, and to question the stories we’ve long believed about who we have to be.
Enlightening, empowering, and clarifying, REPARENTING THE INNER CHILD is a book that will stand the test of time as a comprehensive guide for personal development and healing, and a resource that will forever change the way we understand ourselves.
In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxatarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people’s fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max’s mind is a shadow of what it once was . . . leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara’s new, ruthless queen.
Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger. Tisaanah, Max, and Aefe are thrust into the center of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war, or ending it. But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was, or embracing who she has become. The choices they make will either reshape this world forever . . . or end it.