August 2025 Adult Top 10 Picks

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  1. Kiss Her Goodbye
    by Lisa Gardner
    Grand Central Publishing
    Aug 12, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Hardback
    Kiss Her Goodbye
    by Lisa Gardner
    Grand Central Publishing
    Aug 12, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Hardback
    A New York Times bestselling author returns with the latest installment in the addictive Frankie Elkin series, in which Frankie is called to Tucson, Arizona, to find a missing Afghan refugee, whose friend suspects she is in grave danger—before it is too late. “Timely and completely gripping.” (Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author)

    Recent Afghan refugee and young mother Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband seems unconcerned. At the insistence of Sabera's closest friend, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search just in time for a video of Sabera to surface—showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder.

    Frankie quickly notes there's much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. The father Isaad is a brilliant mathematician, Sabera a gifted linguist, and their little girl Zahra has an uncanny ability to remember anything she sees. Which given everything that has happened during the girl's short life, may be a terrible curse.

    When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra's life, Frankie realizes she must crack the code of this family's horrific past. Someone is coming for the Ahmadis. And violence is clearly an option.

    When everything is on the line, how far would you go to protect the ones you love? Frankie is about to find out.



    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. The Surrogate Mother
    by Freida McFadden
    Poisoned Pen Press
    Aug 19, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Psychological
    Hardback
    The Surrogate Mother
    by Freida McFadden
    Poisoned Pen Press
    Aug 19, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Psychological
    Hardback

    She was promised a miracle. She got more then she bargained for.

    Abby wants a baby more than anything.

    But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future.

    That is, until her personal assistant Monica makes a generous offer to serve as a surrogate. It's an offer that will make all of Abby's dreams come true.

    But soon, strange things start happening. And it turns out Monica isn't who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby's child has an unspeakable secret.

    And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a page turner that will redefine what it means to be in the family way…

    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. We Are All Guilty Here
    by Karin Slaughter
    William Morrow
    Aug 12, 2025
    Hardback
    We Are All Guilty Here
    by Karin Slaughter
    William Morrow
    Aug 12, 2025
    Hardback

    The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent Series.

    Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

    Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

    For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

    But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

    Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

    "Karin Slaughter's new series starts with a book that is a knock-out punch... My God. Sign me up for more." Dervla McTiernan, #1 internationally bestselling author of What Happened to Nina?

    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. Katabasis (Standard Edition)
    by R. F Kuang
    Harper Voyager
    Aug 26, 2025
    Hardback
    Katabasis (Standard Edition)
    by R. F Kuang
    Harper Voyager
    Aug 26, 2025
    Hardback

    Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

    Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

    The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

    Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

    That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

    Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

    Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

    With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

    But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. For Richer For Poorer
    by Danielle Steel
    Delacorte Press
    Aug 12, 2025
    FICTION/Women
    Hardback
    For Richer For Poorer
    by Danielle Steel
    Delacorte Press
    Aug 12, 2025
    FICTION/Women
    Hardback
    A loving mother and successful fashion designer struggles to keep her family together and her business afloat in this gripping novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel.

    After working as head designer for Oscar de la Renta, Eugenia Ward started her own company when she turned forty, fourteen years ago. She is now a major name in evening gowns and wedding gowns, ready-to-wear and haute couture. But with the fashion business in major downturn, she has recently suffered heavy losses, and Eugenia desperately needs new investors—and new ideas.

    At the same time, she is the matriarch and guiding light for her five adult children, a single mother for more than a decade, since her divorce from the spendthrift Italian prince she’d married young. As the family gathers for a summer vacation at a beach house, wedding plans for her daughter Gloria are ballooning in expense even as the loutish behavior of Gloria’s fiancé causes Eugenia to question her daughter’s judgment. Meanwhile, Gloria’s sister Daphne is due to deliver twins right around the wedding date . . . which is also very close make or break New York Fashion Week.

    The silver lining in it all may be meeting Patrick Hughes, a successful real estate developer who’s also going through a rough patch. A brilliant and creative businessman, Patrick gives her valuable advice about her business challenges. Eugenia finds friendship with Patrick sailing on his yacht and starts to imagine a new beginning, independent of her roles as mother and entrepreneur. But as the family gathers for the big wedding, tensions are running high, money may be running out, and a hurricane is looming on the horizon.

    Danielle Steel’s glamorous and gripping novel offers an inspiring portrait of a strong and determined woman who rises to meet life’s challenges with fortitude, creativity, and love.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. Jenny Cooper Has a Secret
    by Joy Fielding Canada
    Doubleday Canada
    Aug 26, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Paperback / softback
    Jenny Cooper Has a Secret
    by Joy Fielding Canada
    Doubleday Canada
    Aug 26, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Paperback / softback
    In this gripping psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Housekeeper, a dementia patient reveals a deadly secret—and one woman must decide whether to believe her.

    Reeling from her husband’s death and best friend’s dementia diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old Linda Davidson is feeling lost and alone. Her beloved daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick move into her house to keep her company, but the constant bickering quickly turns their presence into yet another worry on Linda’s long list.

    Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory-care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people.

    Linda dismisses the so-called “secret” as the confusion of an ailing mind, but Jenny seems strangely lucid over the course of their visits as she tells Linda about her many victims—mostly men who hurt her. Then, a fellow patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees the natural death of an old, sick man, but Linda can’t help but wonder: is there any chance Jenny’s telling the truth?
    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. Emma on Fire
    by James Patterson
    Little, Brown and Company
    Aug 19, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/General
    Hardback
    Emma on Fire
    by James Patterson
    Little, Brown and Company
    Aug 19, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/General
    Hardback

    An urgent, emotional thriller: "Dramatic...explores the power of grief...that through loss there can be hope for the future" (Library Journal).

    Everyone at Ridgemont Academy knows what to expect from Emma Caroline Blake.
    Perfect grades. Perfect record. Perfect life.
    Then she stands up in class and commits an act so shocking her reputation will never recover.
    And that’s exactly what Emma wants.
    In a world where the path forward is uncertain, expectation is the enemy. Emma on Fire is the unforgettable story of one brave young woman—and her decision to live life as if everyone’s future depends on it.
    Because it does.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. The Locked Ward
    by Sarah Pekkanen
    St. Martin's Press
    Aug 05, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Domestic
    Hardback
    The Locked Ward
    by Sarah Pekkanen
    St. Martin's Press
    Aug 05, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Domestic
    Hardback

    New from Sarah Pekkanen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of House of Glass and co-author of The Wife Between Us.

    A shocking psychological thriller about the complex bonds of sisterhood―and what happens when they are stretched to the breaking point, The Locked Ward “will leave you guessing until the very end” (Jeneva Rose, bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage).

    Some doors should never be opened.

    Was it bitter, all-consuming jealousy? Pathological sibling rivalry? Pure insanity?

    Whatever the cause―and everyone has a theory―it's the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family.

    Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister Amanda visits are, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.”

    Amanda doesn't trust Georgia, but she can't abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that's so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?

    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. The Break-In
    by Katherine Faulkner
    Simon & Schuster
    Aug 26, 2025
    FICTION/Women
    Paperback / softback
    The Break-In
    by Katherine Faulkner
    Simon & Schuster
    Aug 26, 2025
    FICTION/Women
    Paperback / softback
    After killing an intruder in self-defense, a wealthy London mother must unravel a terrifying mystery filled with twists and turns, from the author of the “deliciously twisted thriller” (People) The Other Mothers.

    Alice, a professional mother of one, is hosting a playdate with friends at her upscale London home when a disturbed man breaks in. With her child in the next room, Alice panics and kills him—an act later ruled to have been in self-defense.

    Everyone tries to encourage Alice to move on with her life—but with strange comments appearing online, a mysterious phone call telling her all is not as it seems, and her husband, nanny, and friends behaving strangely, Alice finds herself drawn to the mystery of who her intruder really was. As she digs deeper, she discovers a trail of dark secrets that spiral closer to home than she ever could have imagined.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. Forget Me Not
    by Stacy Willingham
    Minotaur Books
    Aug 26, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Crime
    Hardback
    Forget Me Not
    by Stacy Willingham
    Minotaur Books
    Aug 26, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Crime
    Hardback

    A pulse-pounding new Southern thriller from the author of the runaway bestseller A Flicker in the Dark.

    Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.

    With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

    Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.

    View this title on BNC CataList

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