The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn OrmsbeeTitle: The Sullivan Sisters
Author: Kathryn Ormsbee
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: June 23, 2020

Summary (from Goodreads):

Time changes things.

That painful fact of life couldn't be truer for the Sullivan sisters. Once, they used to be close, sharing secrets inside homemade blanket castles. Now, life in the Sullivan house means closed doors and secrets left untold.

Fourteen-year-old Murphy, an aspiring magician, is shocked by the death of Siegfried, her pet turtle. Seventeen-year-old Claire is bound for better things than her Oregonian hometown—until she receives a crushing rejection from her dream college. And eighteen-year-old Eileen is nursing a growing addiction in the wake of life-altering news.

Then, days before Christmas, a letter arrives, informing the sisters of a dead uncle and an inheritance they knew nothing about. The news forces them to band together in the face of a sinister family mystery…and, possibly, murder.

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About Kathryn Ormsbee

Kathryn Ormsbee

Kathryn Ormsbee is the author of books for children and young adults, including Tash Hearts Tolstoy and The House in Poplar Wood. Her novels have been critically acclaimed, translated into seven languages, selected for the Indie Next List and Junior Library Guild, and made “best of” lists at Amazon, BuzzFeed, and the Chicago and New York Public Libraries. She lives in Oregon with her wife and their dog, where she writes, podcasts, and composes music.

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Last updated on March 25, 2026

Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Winterspell by Claire LegrandTitle: Winterspell
Author: Claire Legrand
Genre: , ,
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 30, 2014

Summary (from Goodreads):

Darkly romantic and entirely enchanting, this reimagining of The Nutcracker from Claire Legrand brims with magic, love, and intrigue. New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer (Cinder) says “this is not your grandmother’s Nutcracker tale.”

After her mother is brutally murdered, seventeen-year-old Clara Stole is determined to find out what happened to her. Her father, a powerful man with little integrity, is a notorious New York City gang lord in the syndicate-turned-empire called Concordia. And he isn’t much help.

But there is something even darker than Concordia’s corruption brewing under the surface of the city, something full of vengeance and magic, like the stories Clara’s godfather used to tell her when she was a little girl. Then her father is abducted and her little sister’s life is threatened, and Clara accidentally frees Nicholas from a statue that has been his prison for years. Nicholas is the rightful prince of Cane, a wintry kingdom that exists beyond the city Clara has known her whole life.

When Nicholas and Clara journey together to Cane to retrieve her father, Clara encounters Anise, the queen of the faeries, who has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara finds that this new world is not as foreign as she feared, but time is running out for her family, and there is only so much magic can do...

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About Claire Legrand

Claire Legrand

Claire Legrand is the New York Times-bestselling author of a dozen novels, including the Empirium Trilogy, A CROWN OF IVY AND GLASS, SAWKILL GIRLS, SOME KIND OF HAPPINESS, and THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. She is one of the four authors behind THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, an anthology of dark middle grade fiction.

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Last updated on May 6, 2025

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'DonnellTitle: The Death of Bees
Author: Lisa O'Donnell
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 1, 2012

Summary (from Goodreads):

Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.

Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.

As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he’s not the only one who suspects something isn’t right. Soon, the sisters’ friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene’s nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls’ family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.

Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.

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About Lisa O'Donnell

Lisa O'Donnell

Lisa O’Donnell winner of The Orange Prize for New Screenwriters with her screenplay The Wedding Gift in 2000. Lisa was also nominated for the Dennis Potter New Writers Award in the same year. She moved to Los Angeles with her family in 2006, penning her first novel The Death of Bees in 2010. Published to critical acclaim by Windmill Books in 2012 The Death of Bees will be published in the US by Harper Collins January 2013. The author is very excited!

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Last updated on May 13, 2024

The Holiday Switch by Tif Marcelo

The Holiday Switch by Tif MarceloTitle: The Holiday Switch
Author: Tif Marcelo
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: Underlined
Publication Date: October 5, 2021

Summary (from Goodreads):

Lila Santos is ready for her last winter break of high school. The snow in her small town of Holly, New York, is plentiful, the mood is as cozy as a fuzzy Christmas sweater, and she's earning extra cash working at the local inn—AKA the setting of the greatest film of all time, Holiday by the Lake—while moonlighting as an anonymous book blogger.

But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss's frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Rivera, becomes her coworker. Lila is type A; Teddy is type “Anything but Lila’s Way,” and the two of them can’t stop butting heads over tangled icicle lights and messy gift shop merch. But when they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they realize they've both been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets—and an unexpected snowstorm—bring these rivals together?

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About Tif Marcelo

Tif Marcelo

Tif Marcelo is a veteran US Army nurse and holds a BS in Nursing and a Master’s in public administration. She believes and writes about the strength of families, the endurance of friendship, heartfelt romances, and is inspired daily by her own military hero husband and four children. She hosts The Stories to Love Podcast, and is the USA Today bestselling author of In a Book Club Far Away, Once Upon a Sunset, The Key to Happily Ever After, which was a Target Diverse Book Club pick, The Holiday Switch, and the Heart Resort and Journey to the Heart series. She and her books have been feature

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Last updated on May 17, 2024

Finding My Elf by David Valdes

Finding My Elf by David ValdesTitle: Finding My Elf
Author: David Valdes
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: November 7, 2023

Summary (from Goodreads):

Single All the Way meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this festive romcom about Cam, who’s trying to find the “the one” and also trying to find himself—while spending winter break working at a hectic Santa’s Village.

Escaping to NYU for college didn’t turn out the way Cameron planned—he’s flunking his theater classes, about to lose his scholarship, and he still hasn’t found anyone he can call his “people.” When he gets home for winter break, he’s so desperate to avoid a Conversation with his dad that he takes the first acting job he can get—as a mall elf. Despite how Scroogey he feels, the plus side is that there’s a cash prize for the most festive of Santa’s helpers.

But the competition is fierce—especially from fellow elf Marco. Christmas spirit oozes out of his veins. At first Cam is determined to see him as nothing but a rival, but as they spend more time together, Cam starts to second-guess himself. What if he’s finally found his people here—in the fakest consumerist nightmare place on Earth, where he least expected it?

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About David Valdes

David Valdes

David Valdes is the author of the young adult novels Spin Me Right Round (a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens) and Brighter than the Moon as well as three nonfiction books, including Today Show "Top 10 Holiday Books" pick A Little Fruitcake. His plays have been produced coast to coast and abroad. As a columnist, he has written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, and HuffPost. He lives outside Boston with his teenage daughter.

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Last updated on May 21, 2024