*New & Notable Adult Fiction - August Highlights*

Published this month and new to the collection

Updated August 12, 2025
G
Greater Victoria Public Library
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Seduction Theory
Adrian, Emily
Paper Book
When two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student's searing thesis project. Simone is the star of Edwards University's creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and...
Lessons in magic and disaster
Anders, Charlie Jane
Paper Book
In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic. A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic--with very unexpected results--in this relatable, resonant novel about family,...
L.A. women
Berman, Ella
Paper Book
"A breezy retro novel with bite." --L.A. Times An electrifying novel about the complicated friendship between two ambitious writers and the ultimate artistic betrayal: one writes a book based upon the other's life, revealing everything...from the author of Reese's Book...
Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
Bowen, Rhys
Blindsided by betrayal in pre-WWII England, a woman charts a daring new course in this captivating tale of resilience, friendship, and new love by the bestselling author of The Rose Arbor and The Venice Sketchbook. Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of...
Six weeks by the sea : a novel
Byrne, Paula
Paper Book
A vivid historical novel about Jane Austen that explores a question that has fascinated Janeites for years--Austen wrote some of the greatest love stories in existence, but did she ever fall in love? When Jane Austen hears the news that her family is to leave their beloved...
Moderation
Castillo, Elaine
"A love story for those who love Severance (both Ling Ma's book and the unaffiliated Apple TV+ series). . . ambitious, challenging, and brilliant." --Elle "Castillo's flinty satire of the tech industry [transforms] into a sultry romance novel." --The Atlantic
Mrs. Christie at the mystery guild library
Chapman, Amanda
Paper Book
Tory Van Dyne is the most down-to-earth member of a decidedly eccentric old-money New York family. For one thing, as book conservator at Manhattan's Mystery Guild Library, she actually has a job. Plus, she's left up-town society behind for a quiet life downtown. So she's not thrilled when she...
Where are you really from : stories
Chou, Elaine Hsieh
Paper Book
*A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 BY LITHUB, THE OC REGISTER, THE MILLIONS AND MORE * NAMED A MUST-READ BOOK BY THE CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS * THE STRAND'S AUGUST 2025 PICK-OF-THE-MONTH * SELECTED AS AN AUGUST 2025 READ BY VULTURE * "Delicious, confessional, shocking, and poignant--it...
What Hunger
Dang, Catherine
Paper Book
A haunting coming-of-age tale following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nguyen, as she grapples with the weight of generational trauma while navigating the violent power of teenage girlhood, for fans of Jennifer's Body and Little Fires Everywhere.
Once upon a time in Dollywood
Jordan, Ashley
Paper Book
A playwright must grapple with her difficult year and writer's block while falling for the single dad living next door in this emotional debut novel from Ashley Jordan. Eve Ambroise may be a rising star playwright, but her personal life is falling part. Desperate for a fresh...
Mad sisters of Esi
Mehta, Tashan
Paper Book
Susanna Clarke's Piranesi meets Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler in this stunning meta fantasy about the power of stories, belief, and sisterhood Myung and her sister Laleh are the sole inhabitants of the whale of babel--until Myung flees, beginning an...
People like us : or The other continent, or Johnny Wordcount stumbles into a high-end croissant bar on the Sienne in search of The Kid & orders the big dream
Mott, Jason
The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller, Hell of a Book PEOPLE LIKE US is Jason Mott's electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason's life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dream-like experiences...
Automatic noodle
Newitz, Annalee
Paper Book
A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz. You don't have to eat food to know the way to a city's heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back...
The Marigold Cottages murder collective : a mystery
Nichols, Jo
Paper Book
The perfect summer read, full of charm and heart, written in the vein of The Thursday Murder Club or Only Murders in the Building but with a southern California twist. Mrs. B, the landlady of The Marigold Cottages is a stubborn idealist who only rents to people...
The locked ward : a novel
Pekkanen, Sarah
Paper Book
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...
The hounding : a novel
Purvis, Xenobe
Paper Book
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick * Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by NPR, TIME, LitHub, Paste, and PopVerse * The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a...
Indian Country
Rao, Shobha
In this fearless novel from the award-winning author of Girls Burn Brighter, a couple from India--so different from generations of white colonialists who came before them--move to Montana, only to discover how brutal and unforgiving hubris can be. Janavi and Sagar were...
When the Cranes Fly South
Ridzen, Lisa
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE SWEDISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD * A profoundly moving debut novel that follows an elderly man's attempts to mend his relationship with his son before it's too late: an emotional story of love, friendship, fatherhood, dogs, and atonement that is already an...
Ruth
Riley, Kate
"It would never work out, but I'm in love with Ruth."--Ron Charles, The Washington Post "There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley's first novel... I suspect it will become an underground classic."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Irresistibly smart...
The Magician of Tiger Castle
Sachar, Louis
Paper Book
*AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER *AN INDIE NEXT LIST PICK * A LIBRARY READS PICK * "Funny, surprising, smart and weird . . . fully lives up to the high bar you'd expect from a great like Sachar."--Associated Press "After decades of children's stories with adult...
Lucky day
Tingle, Chuck
Paper Book
"An existential masterwork that, like life, is equal parts atrocity and delights."--Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of Death Lucky Day is the latest from Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus<...
A tale of mirth & magic
Vale, Kristen
A maker of magical jewelry finds her life turned upside down when she ends up on the run with a half-giant in this spicy and cozy fantasy romance--perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and The Spellshop.  Elikki may not have a family, but she has...

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