From Carola Lovering, the author of Tell Me Lies, comes this emotionally nuanced psychological suspense, and an obsessive, addictive love story, for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Between Us.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
by Carola Lovering
St. Martin’s Press, March 2021 (voir catalogue)
Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips—she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family—she has also battled crippling OCD since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result. But now Burke—handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any other man she’s met before—says he wants to take care of her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he says he is. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal that he is happily married and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends. In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past—or will he find his way into her future? On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. Meanwhile, three decades in the past, Heather’s longed-for transformation finally seems within reach…yet even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.
Carola Lovering is the author of Tell Me Lies (published by Atria), which was named a Best Book of Summer 2018 by Town & Country, Parade, Refinery 29, and more. She attended Colorado College, and her work has appeared in W Magazine, National Geographic, Outside, and Yoga Journal, among other publications. In addition to writing, Carola teaches yoga. She currently lives in Connecticut.
Two queens, separated by a thousand years must face their ultimate destinies. Queen Rielle, pushed away from everything she loves, turns to Corien and his promises of glory. Meanwhile, whispers from the empirium slowly drive her mad, urging her to open the Gate. Separated from Audric and Ludivine, she embraces the role of Blood Queen and her place by Corien’s side, determined to become the monster the world believes her to be. In the future, Eliana arrives in the Empire’s capital as a broken shell of herself. Betrayed and abandoned, she fights to keep her power at bay―and away from Corien, who will stop at nothing to travel back in time to Rielle, even if that means destroying her daughter. But when the mysterious Prophet reveals themselves at last, everything changes, giving Rielle and Eliana a second chance for salvation―or the destruction their world has been dreading. An epic fantasy with female protagonist, the Empirium Trilogy has captured the hearts of many and LIGHTBRINGER concludes this beloved teen fantasy series.
Jack has always known what he wanted: to follow in his father’s footsteps to Columbia University and become a doctor. But when his father unexpectedly dies, Jack’s careful plans start to unravel. Then, on the eve of leaving for college, he discovers a letter his father wrote to his estranged brother, Alex, stamped and unsent. Jack sees an opportunity: if he goes to San Francisco and finds his brother, he might be able to heal the past and truly move forward.
When Betty and John meet in London at a rally for nuclear disarmament, both are living with secrets about what that war did to them. After fleeing from Germany with her father in 1945, Betty lives with her memories of the Russian occupation, a young Russian officer, and the mysterious disappearance of her sister. John too, is plagued by flashbacks to his time as a translator for the top-secret T-force which uncovered Nazi scientific secrets, and to a young German woman who was brutally murdered, and for whose murder he was framed unless he talked… As their relationship develops, their lives unfold, unravel and entwine. But when a man from the past surfaces, he threatens to reveal secrets. Secrets which will embroil them in the Cold War and threaten their very existence.
Faiza has it all: a handsome husband, three beautiful children, and an idyllic lifestyle in Wimbledon Village. But then – in the middle of her first botox appointment – she gets a phone call from Tom telling her he’s lost his lucrative banking job. Her world starts to crumble. Tom thinks they will be fine – after all, they have their emergency savings to fall back on. Faiza knows better: she’s spent it. Desperate to avoid telling her husband or her friends that they are now penniless, Faiza decides to keep up appearances – and earn back the money before Tom has noticed its gone. In the process of trying to put it back, can she find the Faiza she used to be, before the trappings of her life overwhelmed her? And then, as one lie spirals into another, she starts to realise that she’s not the only one whose perfect life hides something much darker…