This column was submitted by Evangeline Cessna, Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library Local History Librarian. This week’s column features ebook fiction from our hoopla app. Remember, a library card is needed to access this app. Go to the library’s homepage at https://wcvpl.biblionix.com and scroll down until you see “hoopla” on the left side of the page. Click on it and follow the instructions for setting up your hoopla account.

Beauty by Christina Chiu follows the struggles of up-and-coming fashion designer Amy Wong. Amy is young, beautiful, and seems to have it all, but she finds herself at odds with rival designers in the New York fashion industry that is known for its chauvinism and prejudice. She also starts struggling in her personal life as the subjects of marriage and family arise. According to her family, her romantic choices fall way short of their traditional expectations. Although she feels derailed again and again, Amy decides to confront her own limitations in order to become the designer and the woman she wants to be.

Once Chosen is the seventeenth Riley Paige thriller from Blake Pierce.  A serial killer strikes every Halloween. It is years before the bodies of the victims resurface. With Halloween only days away, it is up to FBI Special Agent Riley Paige to stop the killer before he strikes again. How has this killer gone undetected for so long? How many victims have there really been? And who will he target next? Riley must fend off her own demons and her dysfunctional family life as she races against time to enter the mind of a diabolical killer days away from striking again-one who may even be more brilliant than her. Can she stop him in time?

Molly Tanzer delivers a historical fantasy novel with Creatures of Charm and Hunger. Two young witches, once inseparable, are set against one another by secrets and wildly dangerous magic. In the waning days of World War II, with Allied victory all but certain, desperate Nazi diabolists search for a demonic superweapon to turn the tide. In a secluded castle somewhere in the south of Germany, a laboratory is set up for experiments conducted upon human prisoners, experiments as vile as they are deadly. The Allies have their own secret diabolists in the Library run by the Société des Éclairées. There, best friends Jane Blackwood and Miriam Cantor prepare to undergo the Test that will determine their future as diabolists. When Miriam learns her missing parents are suspected of betraying the Société to the Nazis, she embarks on a quest to clear their names, a quest that will require her to use some dark diabolic practices which will test the limits of her training. Meanwhile Jane embraces a forbidden use of an ancient forgotten diabolic art that could put everyone she loves in danger. As their friendship buckles under the stress of too many secrets, Jane and Miriam confront unexpected truths that change everything they know about the war, the world, and most of all themselves. After all, some choices cannot be unmade–and a sacrifice made with the most noble intention might end up creating a monster.

Author Elena Taylor introduces Sheriff Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers in her novel All We Buried. Bet is only the interim sheriff; trying to fill the shoes of her late father and predecessor. She has had a recurring nightmare for as long as she can remember. A shadowy figure is throwing something into the lake near her hometown of Collier, Washington. Mostly, Bet has chalked this up to an overactive childhood imagination, but then a report comes across her desk—a body has been found floating in the lake right in her jurisdiction. There is no one to identify the Jane Doe, but surely someone knows she is missing so why haven’t they come forward? The more she learns, the more Bet realizes that she doesn’t know the people of her hometown quite as well as she thought, and nothing could prepare her for what she is about to uncover.

Suzanne Woods Fisher continues her Three Sisters Island Series with On a Coastal Breeze. Madison Grayson is finally feeling like her life is good. She can’t wait to start her practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist, and she hasn’t had a panic attack in a whole year. Dating on Three Sisters Island isn’t the greatest—they’re either too young, too old, or just plain weird—but Maddie still feels she has found her sweet spot. Enter Ricky O’Shea, her arch nemesis from kindergarten through her senior dance, parachutes right onto Boon Dock and back into Maddie’s life as Pastor Rick. Cue the panic.

Island Affair is a sweet love story from Priscilla Oliveras. Sought-after social media influencer Sara Vance, in recovery from an eating disorder, is coming into her own, with a potential career expansion on the horizon. Despite the good news, her successful siblings (and their perfect spouses) have a way of making her feel like the odd one out. So, when her unreliable boyfriend is a no-show for a Florida family vacation, Sara recruits Luis Navarro-a firefighter paramedic and dive captain willing to play the part of her smitten fiancé. Luis’s big Cuban familia has been in Key West for generations, and his quiet strength feeds off the island’s laidback style. Though guarded after a deep betrayal, he’ll always help someone in need-especially a spunky beauty with a surprising knowledge of Spanish curse words. Soon, he and Sara have memorized their “how we met” story and are immersed in family dinners, bike tours, private snorkeling trips, sharing secrets, and slow, melting kisses. But when it’s time for Sara to return home, will their fake relationship fade like the stunning sunset or blossom into something beautiful?