Here are few of my favorite recent reads. Library staff would be happy to help you place requests on these or any other titles. If you’d like to place your own request, visit www.newulmlibrary.org and choose Library Catalog.

Cole, recently divorced, has moved from London to a small village on the English coast, where he is a park ranger for the coastal area. One day he has a verbal altercation with two young women who are hiking throughout the country to raise awareness of violence against women. The women are walking too close to a crumbling cliff, and Cole’s persistent urging for them to be careful leads to yelling on both sides. But when the women disappear that same evening, Cole quickly becomes a person of interest in the case. There is so much more to this plot than I can describe here, and I wouldn’t want to give away the many twists and turns in “One of the Good Guys” by Araminta Hall. It’s an interesting take on current social issues, in addition to being a page turner.

Lulu is recently engaged to one of Shanghai’s most eligible bachelors. But as her mother-in-law marches her through lavish wedding plans and her fiancé showers her with gifts, Lulu realizes she doesn’t love him and this isn’t the life she dreams of. It seems too late to call off the wedding without destroying everything she holds dear, so Lulu and her two best friends come up with a scheme to steal the gift money the couple receives at the wedding. Lulu will use her share to flee the country and the cloistered life of a dutiful wife. As they plan their heist, the women learn more about themselves and one another. Each woman begins to question whether money can provide what she really needs. “Women of Good Fortune” by Sophie Wan is a fun, yet heartfelt caper that focuses on friendship.

In “Something in the Water” by Catherine Steadman, Erin and Mark are in newlywed bliss on their honeymoon in Bora Bora. While scuba-diving on their own they make a discovery that turns their whole trip upside down; one that has the potential to make or break their married life. As secrets stack up, Erin must figure out who she can trust and how to disentangle her young marriage from the mess. I didn’t completely anticipate where this thriller was going, but I enjoyed the ride.

“The Winters” by Lisa Gabrielle is a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca that completely surprised me. Our unnamed narrator meets wealthy Senator Max Winter when he vacations at the yacht club where she works. After a whirlwind romance he takes her back to his Long Island estate, Asherley, where his 15-year-old daughter Dani waits. Dani is entitled, rude, and unwilling to accept our narrator’s new place in the Winter family. A place that Dani feels should always belong to her legendary late mother, Rebecca. As the power struggle intensifies between Dani and the narrator, long-hidden secrets surface at Asherley and everything the narrator knows about the Winter family will be called into question.

If you’d like to request these or any other titles, visit www.newulmlibrary.org and choose Library Catalog, or call the library at 507-359-8331.

New Ulm Public Library is located at 17 North Broadway and open from 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. on Monday-Thursday and 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday-Saturday. The library is closed on Thursday, July 4 for Independence Day.