This column was submitted by Evangeline Cessna, local history librarian at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library.

This week’s column features titles from our New Adult Fiction collection.

The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri is a historical novel set in Germany in 1939. Allina Strauss’s life appears to be idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookstore, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends her weekends with her friends and fiancé. Allina’s family is hiding a dangerous secret—her birth mother was Jewish, which makes her a Mischling in Chancellor Hitler’s Germany. One horrific night, Allina loses everyone she loves and is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. She becomes a witness and unwilling participant in the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s eugenics program. Women of “pure” blood stayed at these Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan race, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers neglect at the home, she becomes determined to not only save herself, but also as many children as she can.

Alafair Burke tells of a Hamptons vacation that goes horribly wrong for three friends in her latest The Note. Growing up, May Hanover was the good girl, well-behaved, top of her class, and a rule-follower. She had no room to slip up, she was raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with extremely high expectations. She was so straight-laced that her friends Lauren and Kelsey called her the Little Sheriff. Every good girl has secrets, though. The girls’ bond was forged when May was only twelve and has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak, and loss. The Hamptons vacation was supposed to be a way for the three to reconnect, but a chance encounter with a couple of strangers leads to a prank that goes horribly awry. May finds herself at the center of a police investigation and she begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her or perhaps testing the limits of her loyalty to their lifelong friendship.

Kang Han tells the story of a friendship between two women through the lens of a hidden chapter of Korean history in her novel We Do Not Part. Kyungha gets an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon was injured in an accident, and she begs her friend to go to her home on Jeju Island to save her beloved bird, Ama. A snowstorm hits just as Kyungha arrives on the island, but she is determined to reach Inseon’s house at all costs. As night begins to fall, the icy wind and squalls slow Kyungha’s progress and she wonders if she will arrive in time to save the bird or if she herself will survive the terrible cold. What she doesn’t know is that a terrible darkness awaits her at her friend’s house. This tribute to enduring friendship and argument for remembering blurs the lines between dreams and reality.

The latest from author Alice Feeney is titled Beautiful Ugly. Grady Green is an author who finds himself having the worst best day of his life. When he calls his wife to share his exciting news, he hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, and… nothing. He finds her car by a cliff’s edge with the headlights still on, the driver’s door open, and her phone still there. But there is absolutely no sign of Abby. A year later, Grady is still dealing with his grief. He can’t sleep and writing is out of the question, so he takes a trip to a tiny Scottish island to clear his head. Then he sees the impossible—a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

What the Wife Knew is a domestic thriller by Darby Kane that sees a wife wondering who tried to kill her husband twice before finally succeeding… because that was supposed to be her job. Dr. Richmond Dougherty—renowned pediatric surgeon, tragedy survivor, and national hero—is very much dead thanks to a tumble down the stairs. His neighbors angrily point fingers at his new wife, Addison. Their marriage was sudden, and he had already had two suspicious “accidents” during the ninety-seven days of wedded bliss. Addison is now a very wealthy widow and law enforcement begins to suspect the new wife. People in town are also becoming increasingly hostile towards Addison, and Kathryn—Richmond’s high school sweetheart, first wife, and mother of his children—is leading the fray. Addison is determined to unravel her late husband’s legacy, but she soon becomes a target with a note, “You will pay.” Her plan to marry Richmond then ruin him may have been derailed by his untimely death, but Addison is not done with him yet.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, four visitors are each hoping to use the cafe’s unique offerings to set things right in their lives. In a small alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for over a century. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. The journey to the past is not without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the cafe, and they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold. One wants to confront the man who left them. One wishes to receive a letter from their husband whose memory had been taken by Alzheimer’s. One wants to see their sister one more time. And one wishes to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know. What would you change if you could travel back in time? And who would you want to meet or see for one last time?