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A Spring Reading List with BookSparks

Spring is in full swing and there are so many new releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on! From chilling new thrillers to oh-so-sweet YA romances, Spring is filled with exciting releases that we can’t wait to add to our TBR pile. 

One Got Away by SA Lelchuk

Private-investigator Nikki Griffin’s life code is to protect women from dangerous, abusive men, and Nikki can’t turn away from her latest case. She is enlisted by a matriarch of a wealthy San Francisco family to find the con-man who robbed them of their money. However, as she works, she discovers that she was not told the full truth and is put in danger in the process. Nikki must decide who to save, as well as how to save herself in this situation.

Game of Cones by Abby Collette

Bronwyn Crewse is currently in charge of her family’s old ice cream shop and has worked hard to restore the shop to its former glory. However, all of her hard work is being threatened by a big city developer who plans on building a mall in its place. But when Bronwyn’s closest friend soon discovers the developer’s body, she is immediately considered the top suspect in his murder. To make matters worse, Bronwyn’s aunt is in town, threatening to take ownership away from her. She must work hard to prove her friend’s innocence while defending her family’s shop. 

For All She Knows by Jamie Beck

Grace and Mimi have been friends since their children were toddlers, forming an unexpected bond. However, when tragedy strikes Grace’s teenage son after a party it creates a deep community rift. The afterparty chaos threatens both of the women in different way. Grace’s seemingly perfect marriage is falling apart, and Mimi’s business is struggling, and her custody agreement is affected. Along with this, a young cop enters Mimi’s life, which causes Grace to be jealous of the prospect of new love. Will Mimi and Grace learn how to forgive, or will they lose everything?

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney 

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets One of Us is Lying, Quinn’s life is held together by her journal – crushes, to-do’s, boys – it’s all there. But when someone snags the book and makes a scathing Instagram post in Quinn’s honor, she must race against her blackmailer, time, and her most vivid nightmares with the help of the last person to see her journal – Carter Bennett – in order to get her privacy back. Little does Quinn know that she may just find some romance along the way.

The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst

Susannah was a gifted pianist until she put her dream on hold to be a mom to her son sixteen years ago. She wanted to guarantee that her son would not go through what she did as an adopted child. When Susannah is given a second chance at returning to the stage, she is determined to get back in the spotlight. However, when she learns that she has a progressive hereditary disease that impacts her playing fingers, Susannah is sent deep back into her memories. She must face herself and truly figure out where her place is in the world. 

The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim 

If you’ve binged Gilmore Girls before, The Marvelous Mirza Girls should definitely be on your summer TBR list. Post senior-year and amid the loss of a relative, Norine decides that a gap year and a trip to New Dehli with her mom are just what she needs. What she isn’t expecting: Kabir. She finds herself quickly falling for his charm and sense of adventure, but when dark family secrets begin to unveil themselves, Norine must figure out how to stand by Kabir or set boundaries in love.

The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers

In 2005, Lara Barnes’ fiancé disappears before their wedding without a trace. As she looks for answers and clues for his whereabouts, Lara picks up her great-grandmother’s journals. The pages are filled with stories of the women in her family through the years and the curse that has been placed on them. She is immersed in the story of Cecile Cabot and her family’s magical secret circus set in Paris 80 years prior. This story is filled with mystery, deadly magic, and tragic romance and is perfect for fans of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. 

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia 

In present day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction and her mother Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, is still grappling with her displacement and trying to keep her daughter on the right path. Jeanette, desperate to learn more about her family history, decides to go to Cuba to see her grandmother but secrets from the past are sure to erupt. A Good Morning America Book Club pick, Of Women and Salt is a captivating must-read debut.

When We Were All Still Alive by Keith McWalter

Conrad is a successful attorney, father, and husband who is nearing the slower part of his life. He lost his first wife to youth and pride, and married his second wife a few years later, happiness to ensue. However, tragedy strikes when his second wife passes due to a violent and sudden accident. Conrad finds that he still has a story to tell in his already long life and has many lessons to learn from his past loves, especially from the woman he can’t live without. 

Permission to Dream by Chris Gardner

From the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir and major motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness comes a timeless and timely manifesto for turning dreams into action. Within the story, Chris and his granddaughter set off on a journey into a foreboding Chicago neighborhood to find the harmonica of her dreams. Still grappling with his girlfriend’s passing, Chris knows just how short life can be and he is determined to reclaim his permission to dream again, while also inspiring his granddaughter to manifest her dreams. 

Prohibition Wine by Marian Leah Knapp

Based on the true story, Prohibition Wine is a story about Rebecca Goldberg, a Jewish immigrant from the Russian Empire who decides to do whatever it takes to provide for her children after losing her husband. In order to care for her six children alone, Rebecca starts to sell fresh eggs to her friends and family in Boston. However, as Prohibition started to roll out in 1920, she is suggested by one of her customers to start selling alcohol along with her eggs. She spends the next couple years being a part of illegal alcohol trade until she is brought in to speak before a judge about her sales, where her charges are dropped with the help of a former customer. Prepare to be sucked into the story of a woman whose business rocked headlines and made history. 

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee 

In Emery Lee’s adorable new novel, we meet Noah, a self-proclaimed romantic expert and blogger of trans happily-ever-afters. The only problem? He’s never experienced one himself. When a troll exposes his blog “Meet Cute Diary” as fake, Noah must find a way to prove that all of these love stories are true. Enter Drew, who is willing to fake-date Noah and give him the help he needs. But when Noah’s feelings grow larger than their façade, he realizes that falling in love is a lot harder than his fantasies made it out to be.

Under the Southern Sky by Kristy Woodson Harvey

While researching for her most recent article about abandoned frozen embryos, Amelia discovers something that hits closer to home than she expected. One of the abandoned embryos that she’s investigated belongs to her childhood best friend, Parker, and his late wife, Greer. Amelia decides to reach out to her old friend to tell him about this discovery, opening up old wounds in the process. After finding out, Parker decides to find a surrogate and raise the child on his own. While staying at their childhood home, Buxton Beach, they overcome their own individual grief together and find family in each other again.

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai 

A Marie Claire Book Club Pick, The Dating Plan follows software engineer, Daisy Patel who asks her childhood crush, Liam, to play her decoy fiancé to keep her family happy. Liam, a venture capitalist, just learned his inheritance is contingent on being married…The pair go on a series of dates to legitimatize their fake relationship, but when real sparks fly they realize there is nothing convenient about their arrangement. Will Daisy be able to overlook Liam breaking her heart nine years ago?

Perfect Daughter by DJ Palmer

Grace and her husband found Penny abandoned in the park years ago and took her in as their own. As the years went on, Penny’s different “personalities” emerged, bringing forth disturbing behavior. Convinced it is severe multiple personality disorder, Grace takes Penny to psychiatrist Dr. Mitch McHugh who discovers Abigail inside of Penny. After Penny is locked in a psychiatric ward for murder, Grace is convinced that there is something more to this murder and her motivations. She and Dr. McHugh work together to prove that Abigail is the key to figuring out Penny’s past as well as the murder that was committed.

Anna K Away by Jenny Lee 

Anna K lives every Manhattan girl’s dream life. She’s never been the typical teenage girl. Until she crosses paths with Alexia “Count” Vronsky at Grand Central Station, that is. The two are polar opposites – Alexia the notorious, transatlantic playboy and Anna, prim, proper and put together. But the two have one key thing in common – neither one had ever been in love before they met the other. But when an earthshattering event rocks their relationship, Anna must question not only everything she knows about Alexia, but also everything she knows about herself.

Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertali

Best friends Kate and Garfield have always done everything together, from joining the musical to having the same crushes on different guys. To them, having a shared crush is fun and is enjoyable to discuss from afar. However, when their most recent crush, Matt Olsson, shows up at their high school, Kate and Anderson realize that they both have feelings for him. Suddenly, having a crush on the same guy is no longer fun and their friendship is threatened. Kate and Anderson must work together to save their friendship but also make it through the drama of it all.

When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown

Set in 1936 Parson, Georgia, When Stars Rain Down follows Opal Pruitt during an unsettling summer. She wants desperately to be carefree and spend time with her cousins and friends, but her whole community are shaken when the Ku Klux Klan descends on her town. Everyone is soon forced to acknowledge the unspoken codes of conduct in their town and to make matters more complicated, Opal finds herself caught between two love interests. This novel is timely, powerful, and something everyone should pick-up this Spring.

Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly

Sunflower Sisters follows Caroline Ferriday’s ancestor, Georgeanna Woosley, as she travels to join the Union work force to prove her worth in the nursing field. She eventually crosses paths with Jemma, an enslaved woman on the Peeler Plantation who takes her chance to escape while reluctantly leaving her family behind. Meanwhile, Anne-May, the mistress of the Peeler Plantation, joins a secret Southern spy unit while she is left alone while her husband joins the Union Army. The story is inspired by the true, brutal events that took place during the Civil War. 

When We Were Infinite by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Beth will do anything to keep her closest friends, those she sees as family, together for as long as they can. She is dedicated to help them in any way, especially Jason, who she has had a crush on for a while now. However, after Beth witnesses domestic abuse at Jason’s home, the friend group agrees to do whatever it will take to protect Jason from further harm. Life changing choices are considered, and Beth must decide how much she is willing to help and give up for the sake of her friends. 

Ready to escape into nature with your next favorite read? Book your Getaway today.

Features | Partnerships

A Getaway Winter Reading List with BookSparks

Nothing feels better than escaping into the worlds of our favorite books – especially this year. We reached out to our friends at BookSparks to hear about the books they’re most looking forward to reading in the coming months, so we an all find some new favorites.

Chasing North Star by Heidi McCrary 

In 1940s Germany, a young girl named Didi escaped her orphanage. In the 1970s, another young girl reads about Didi’s story through an old journal, and how her heroic escape did not turn out the way she had planned. The stories of their lives eventually collide when a grown-up Didi remembers a long-buried secret on Christmas night. 

Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira by Lou Diamond Phillips 

Being stranded on an enemy planet is not what Everson had planned. On his way to retrieve the Tinderbox and overthrow the king, he finds the king’s daughter Allegra, and a spark between the two forms. However, their forbidden love could cause the downfall and destruction of everyone on the planet. 

The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks by Julie Valerie

Holly Banks wants to appear as perfect as her put-together neighbors in Primm. This proves difficult due to family problems, and her dog digging of an old artifact that causes national media attention. All the spotlight makes it hard for her to maintain her facade of perfection, but fate will have it otherwise, and change her life and the village of Primm forever. 

The Cul De Sac War by Melissa Ferguson 

Bree Leake is about to leave her current life behind when her parents present her with a tricky proposition. If Bree can stay in one spot for a year, her parents will give her grandmother’s house; the house she’s always wanted. However, when her stubborn and attractive neighbor Chip McBride begins to drive her crazy, she stages a mission to drive him out of the neighborhood. Soon, their rivalry and prank war turn to romance.

Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe

Henri Haltiwanger is the popular kid at school with exceptional debate skills, a yearning to attend Columbia University, and a sharp tongue that can just about charm anyone. That is, except for his socially awkward classmate, Corinne Troy, who recently discovered that he operates a shady dog walking business. In exchange for keeping his secret, Corinne asks Troy to help her change her image at school. What started as a mutual agreement soon becomes more than they bargained for.

Memories in the Drift by Melissa Payne 

After a heartrending tragedy, Claire lost all that was important to her, leaving her with fractioned memories and a traumatic past. She’s able to survive each day with confidence thanks to the help of her father and friends in her small Alaskan town. Claire is forced to relive her past when the mother who abandoned her and her ex-boyfriend resurfaces. This twist of fate is a chance for Claire to learn forgiveness and to finally move on and past her memories. 

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Even in a diverse art school, sixteen-year-old artist and poet Amal Shahid is seen as unmotivated and disruptive. Things only manage to get worse when one night an altercation in a gentrified neighborhood with some white boys ends up in tragedy. Suddenly, Amal’s world is turned upside down as he is convicted and sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. Rage and desperation almost sink him, but he soon finds refuge in his art, his poetry.

Black Canary by Alexandra Monir 

In the origin story of Black Canary, Dinah Lance is in a near-future world where women are stripped of their rights, such as working, singing, and learning. When she was eight, Dinah first heard a woman sing. Now at age seventeen, she must avoid death while she uses her song to save women in Gotham. 

Malcolm and Me by Robin Farmer 

Roberta Forest is a bright and rebellious Black thirteen-year-old living in Philadelphia at the height of the Watergate scandal. After a nun at her school makes a racist remark after Roberta criticizes Jefferson for being a slaveholder, she spirals into doubt about her religion and the adults in her life. Roberta copes with life’s difficulties and her parent’s struggling marriage through her poetry, writing, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. When disappointment with her ineligibility in her school’s essay contest puts Roberta into an enraged confrontation with her mother, family secrets are revealed. 

Goodbye, Orchid by Carol Van Den Hende

Phoenix Walker is struggling to maintain a balance between his love for Orchid Paige, and his professional relationship with her. Matters only become more complicated when an accident changes his life forever. Now the benevolent hero faces the decision of leaving his true love behind and without explanation. 

Ready to curl up in nature with a new book? Book your Getaway today.

For Your Free Time

Our Book Recommendations for National Day of Unplugging

One of the best ways to spend National Day of Unplugging is to spend time reading in your favorite spot in nature. Our team pulled together a list of books about nature, mindfulness, and rest that we’ll be curling up with on March 5th to give you some inspiration to disconnect, unplug, and escape into a great read.

The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices by Casper Ter Kuile

In Casper Ter Kuile’s book, The Power of Ritual, he makes a case for taking our everyday habits and routines and doing them intentionally, with our full attention and focus, to turn them into rituals. By doing so, he argues that we can heal our relationships with ourselves and others, find community, and ultimately find spiritual meaning and fulfillment in our everyday lives.

Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith

In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith outlines the seven types of rest that she finds those she encounters in her clinical practice struggle to get – physical, mental, emotional, mental, spiritual, sensory, social, and creative. Getting inadequate rest in any of these areas can really affect your health, happiness, relationships, creativity, and more, so she uses this book to describe how to identify the rest you need and then take practical steps to recharge. If you feel you need permisson to rest, let Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith write you a permission slip.

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

After the last year we’ve all head, Wintering is a book you shouldn’t miss. Katherine May writes about a period of profound difficulty in her life when her husband fell ill, her son stopped going to school, and she dealt with her own health issues as well, and while this is a personal narrative, she draws from lessons learned from literature and the natural world to embrace this period of difficulty and identify the opportunities amidst the difficulties. While we typically view difficult times as periods to be endured and ended as soon as possible, Katherine May offers up an alternative perspective that takes a step back and recognizes the cycles in nature that can remind us of the cycles of our own lives and the truth that while there are fallow periods, abundance will always come around again.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she brings her scientific knowledge into conversation with the indigenous wisdom that plants and animals are our greatest teachers. She argues for embracing and respecting the language and lessons of the natural world around us in order to develop an ecological consciousness that will allow us to work with the natural rhythms and cycles of the earth instead of continuing to take from the environment in unsustainable ways.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

In Burnout, sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski explain why the experience of burnout is different for women. Their perspective considers all the societal pressures that women face while taking a look at the biological cycles that can get out of rhythm in today’s world. Most notably, they walk you through the reasons that rest, human connection, and working with your inner critic are all important contributing factors to the recovery process.

The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

In The Body Is Not an Apology, Sonya Renee Taylor offers radical self love as the path forward to address your relationship with yourself as it has been molded by the belief systems and institutions in which we live. She encourages us to take a look at our own body shame, and in doing so, inspire others to reflect in what really matters, who they are, and where the stories we tell ourselves about our bodies really come from.

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

How to Do Nothing is the perfect book to bring with you on your next Getaway. In this book, Jenny Odell examines the role of technology in what is now an attention economy – she sees our attention as the most precious resource we have and encourages readers to start being more intentional with the ways we give our attention. She argues that when we take back our attention and start spending it more mindfully, we can make bolder decisions with our lives, our time, and in our connections with the people and things that mean the most to us.

Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge

In Silence, Erling Kagge, a Norwegian explorer and the first person to reach the South Pole alone, offers an insightful meditation on the role of silence in our lives to provide us with enough space to find meaning and gratitude. In our always-on and busy world, Erling Kagge’s book is a beautiful examination of how to find the things that are most important to us by slowing down and being intentional with where we allow noise into our worlds.

Ready to escape with your next favorite read? Book your Getaway today.

Features | Guest Stories

Getaway Presents: BookSparks’s Winter Must-Reads

In our modern over-stimulated world, we believe it’s important to take time to disconnect from our screens and recharge. Being sucked in by a good read is a great way take a break from your phone.

Every Getaway cabin comes with a selection of books, but just in case you want to bring your own, our friends at BookSparks shared with us their list of winter must-reads. Whether  you prefer memoirs or thrillers, this list has the perfect book for you to curl up with when it’s chilly outside.

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald

The Night Olivia Fell

In this heartbreaking new thriller from Christina McDonald, a mother is forced to come to terms with her daughter’s near-death encounter, while tracking down the truth about what happened to her. Abi has been told that her daughter attempted to take her own life, but when she finds suspicious bruises on Olivia’s wrists, she refuses to accept the police’s explanation. Things get more dire when Abi finds out that her daughter is not only brain dead, but pregnant, with doctors keeping Olivia on life support to keep the baby alive. Racing against the clock to find out the truth, Abi’s finding will reveal an evil truth no mother should ever have to face.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

The perfect winter read for Game of Thrones fans, Marlon James’s new novel brings readers a masterful mashup of fantasy, history and folklore. Tracker is a hunter who has always insisted on working by himself, but when he’s armed with a rag-tag search team and given the task of finding a young boy who has been missing for three years, he’ll come to find that this job will be unlike any he’s ever embarked on before. With the appearance of deadly creatures and deep-rooted secrets, Tracker realizes that finding the boy could mean life or death for him and his entire group.

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

Night Tiger

Two young and ambitious souls find themselves on a thrilling new journey in The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo. Ji Lin will do anything to help pay back her mom’s debts and when she finds an unsettling item in the dance hall where she works, it sends her on the kind of adventure she has always craved. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Ren is doing his best to track down an item from his late master. As Ji Lin and Ren’s paths collide, they’ll learn the true devastation of love and the hope that can bloom in even the darkest of places.  

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

A mysterious and intriguing illness plagues the pages of this new release by New York Times bestselling author, Karen Thompson Walker. When a young college student finds that her roommate won’t wake up no matter how hard she tries, it becomes a case for doctors who can’t seem to get to the bottom of the mystery. As more and more people fall victim to this disturbing illness, everyone goes into survival mode, doing what they can to avoid the sickness. But as doctors monitor those who have been affected, they soon realize that their brain function is consistently increasing leaving everyone to wonder what the victims are dreaming about.

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

If you’re a memoir fan and haven’t picked up Maid by Stephanie Land yet, it’s time to add it to your Amazon cart. This touching true story follows the life and trying times of a young mother who did everything she could to get by and provide a full life for her daughter. Leaving the idea of college and becoming a full-time writer behind, she took to working as a maid and taking as many classes as she could at night to further her journalism dreams. Through heartwrenching dedication and harrowing experiences, Land learned what it really means to be part of the working class in the United States. In this new memoir, Land details the horrors of trying to get by in America—a story that not many are brave enough to tell.

Grab your favorite read, curl up, and lose time in its pages. The best place to do just that is right here at Getaway.