July Books of the Month
This summer, OddFellows and Penguin Random House are teaming up to launch The Brain Freeze Book Club, an ice cream and book collection so sweet you’ll want to devour it...maybe too fast! We’ve got a pairing for everyone: Smoky Bourbon Vanilla Twist for Mystery mavens; Journey to Outer Spice for SciFi stans; Passionberry Love Potion for Romance fanatics; and Bubblegum Pop for all of us trying to relive our teenage fantasies. So visit OddFellows online or your local OddFellows scoop shop, and dig in! Check out all of our featured books of the month here!
Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love--with all its complications--by debut author Ashley Herring Blake.
Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls--nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood where she was little more than a burden to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it's a different woman every night, but that's just fine with her.
When Delilah's estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid's stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there's some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls, after all.
Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise...at first. Though they've known each other for years, they don't really know each other--so Claire is unsettled when Delilah figures out exactly what buttons to push. When they're forced together during a gauntlet of wedding preparations--including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé--Claire isn't sure she has the strength to resist Delilah's charms. Even worse, she's starting to think she doesn't want to...
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Be careful what you watch for . . .
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family's lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing--a tech innovator, Tom is powerful; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other--and the longer Casey watches--it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom's marriage isn't as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn't realize is that there's more to the story than meets the eye--and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch
"You are the next step in human evolution."
At first, Logan Ramsay isn't sure if anything's different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can't deny it: Something's happening to his brain. To his body. He's starting to see the world, and those around him--even those he loves most--in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan's genome has been hacked. And there's a reason he's been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what's happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large--at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan's the one person in the world capable of stopping what's been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he'll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he's fighting, he can't help wondering: what if humanity's only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Zyla & Kai by Kristina Forest
A fresh love story about the will they, won't they--and why can't they--of first love.
While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn't surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn't have been more different.
Zyla was a cynic about love. She'd witnessed the dissolution of her parents' marriage early in life, and it left an indelible impression. Her only aim was graduating and going to fashion school abroad. Until she met Kai.
Kai was a serial dater and a hopeless romantic. He'd put a temporary pause on his dating life before senior year to focus on school and getting into his dream HBCU. Until he met Zyla.
Alternating between the past and present, we see the love story unfold from Zyla's and Kai's perspectives: how they first became the unlikeliest of friends over the summer, how they fell in love during the school year, and why they ultimately broke up... Or did they?
Check out all of our featured books of the month here!
Click here to order the OddFellows x Penguin Random House ice cream collection!