Ask a bookseller

It's a plot that sounds like a Hallmark movie, but the narrator handles it with a knowing wink and a nod, both celebrating and challenges the tropes of romance.

Bookseller Jason Hong says "Little Rabbit" by Alyssa Songsiridej is "ultimately about sex, power, and female desire."

Jean Anne Pugh of Four Seasons Books in Shepardstown, West Virginia, just loves the title of Elena Ferrante’s novel, “The Lying Life of Adults.” Pugh calls the novel an excellent portrait of a teenager “in conflict with her culture and her family.”

Heather Gudenkauf is both a New York Times Bestselling Novelist and a local favorite at the River Lights Bookstore in Dubuque, Iowa. River Lights bookseller Angela Kircher heartily recommends Gudenkauf’s newest thriller/mystery, “The Overnight Guest.” 

Jennifer Jubenville of the Bookstore at Fitger’s in Duluth says there’s nothing like a good thriller for a summer read, and she recommends checking out Joshua Moehling’s debut, “And There He Kept Her.”

Brooklyn Lindsey of Crash Books in Lakeland, Florida calls “This is How You Lose the Time War” a time-traveling love letter.

Kautz calls the stylistically innovative novel “part family drama, part ghost story, part coming-of-age and critique of American imperialism in the Pacific.”  

Barrett Bloom is a freshman in college having a terrible day. She shows up at her Physics 101 class only to be put on the spot in front of everyone for no reason by her unbearably annoying classmate, Miles. She’s never even seen him before! Or has she?

Mika Tuzon of Scrawl Books in Reston, Virginia recommends the novel “Brown Girls” by Daphne Palasi Andreades.

Alden Graves of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., recommends "Vigil Harbor," a new novel by National Book Award winner Julia Glass.