Emily Forrest runs the hottest astrology account on Instagram, @Exalted, but astrology is on the outs, and her finances are dwindling. Emily doesn't even really believe in astrology, despite her gift for deciphering the moons and signs, until she comes across a birth-chart that could potentially change her mind. Beau Rubidoux’s chart has all the planets in their right places—it is exalted. She decides that Beau could potentially be the love of her life and begins following him around Los Angeles in hopes of getting close to him and catching his eye. Meanwhile, in Riverside, CA, Dawn Webster has been dumped once again. At 48, she is forced to return to the diner where she started waiting tables at 18. With no girlfriend, no career, and her only son gone to Hollywood, the once-vivacious Dawn is aimless and alone. Persona non-grata at the local lesbian bar, she guzzles cheap champagne and peruses @Exalted to feel seen. When Dawn spots her son's estranged father one day during a work break, she decides to track him down and reshape the flailing course of her life. Told from Emily and Dawn's alternating points of view, Exalted is a deliciously dark novel that explores desire, the projection of love, and what we're really searching for when we keep scrolling. Anna Dorn's signature wit and biting social commentary takes readers across Southern California until Emily and Dawn's shocking connection is finally revealed.

Now that all the others have run out of air, it's my turn to do a little story-making. In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality—and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

Forcing myself to be just friends with the shameless flirt of a cowboy down the road wasn’t the genius life hack I hoped it’d be. I meant to protect my heart. Instead, I’m knee-deep in self-inflicted torture. Tripp is a hazard in boots, while I’m a recovering romantiholic. I could’ve stomached the side effects of friend-zoning ourselves—including a brutal mess of longing stares and simmering jealousy. But then he offered to solve a problem of mine and teach me a few things—sans clothing. Strictly platonic. Purely educational. Despite our airtight boundaries, we peeled back layers hidden from the rest of the world—uncovering a bond too powerful to ignore. Now we’re in too deep, with no gentle way out. And one kiss away from it all going up in smoke. Falling for a man more emotionally untouchable than he lets on isn’t the clean break I had in mind. I don’t have it in me to let him face the biggest shock of his life alone when someone unexpected turns up, either. There’s no room left for concealed feelings when one tragic night changes everything, and I’m left staring down the barrel of We were never just friends. Up in Smoke is the newest cowboy romance novel from Lainey Lawson featuring Friends to Lovers, Spicy Lessons, and Found Family. Catch up on Lainey's fan-favorite series, The Bunkhouse, with books one and Smoking Gun and Fire Away.

In Fiasco, Kentucky, there is one rule: never fall for a Foxx brother. Any woman who did, ended up dead—or so the rumor goes. Townies call it a curse. But I’ve lived it, and I won’t survive it again. I’m not a cop anymore, but I’ve seen enough danger to know that Laney Young, the beautiful stranger who just showed up in my small town, is running from it. She’s lying about where she came from and what she’s doing here. I don’t want her near my family or the quiet life I’ve made for myself. But my brothers have other plans. Now she’s everywhere–working at my distillery, living in our guest house, calling me ‘cowboy’ and skinny-dipping in my horse trough. But it’s the way she dishes out attitude from that pretty mouth of hers that has me wanting things I’ve sworn to myself I’d never want again. I should push her away, forget how her lips taste, and ignore how she makes me want more out of life again. When her past shows up and mingles too closely with mine, her lies begin to unravel. The rules don’t matter anymore. I mess up, dig too far, and get too close. Only two things have the power to keep her safe now: bourbon and lies.

Blaire Monroe is the only woman I’ve ever loved, and the only one I’ve let break my heart.It’s been ten years since she ran from this town, chasing a life that didn’t include the cowboy next door who blurred the line between best friend and something more.Now she’s back.Fresh off a busted engagement and hiding out on her grandmother’s crumbling strawberry farm like the past never happened.Like she doesn’t still linger in every part of me I’ve spent years trying to erase.But Blaire isn’t the kind of girl you forget.She’s reckless, untamed, and impossible to hold without getting scorched.We collide the second we’re in the same room.Too much heat. Too much history. Not nearly enough distance.The tension crackles, the pull is impossible, and before long, we’re right back where we swore we’d never be—pressed against the wall, her hands in my hair, my mouth on hers like I’ve been starving for a decade.I tell myself I can handle it.But the truth is, this cowboy was never meant for casual.Not with her. And sure as hell not again.