Recommendations based on "Across the Way"

After an sudden "accident" leaves her with half a face, no ability to speak, and no self-esteem, a fashion model is approached by Brandy Alexander--who's one operation away from becoming a "real woman"--who teaches her that reinventing oneself means erasing the past and making up something better.

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK  "The Change is like a guttural rage scream (and somehow a soft, tearful hug) of a book, and I couldn't have loved it any more." --Emily Henry Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.  "A roar of rage, a pacy page-turner, I loved it with all my broken heart. Read it. You’ll love it."--New York Times bestselling author Marian Keyes "Miller triumphs...THE CHANGE is that rare treat: a suspenseful story with great pacing, memorable characters, and an engaging voice. Fantastic in every way, this fierce anthem against misogyny is a smash."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A pointed, punchy, and potent thriller...wry and clever, serious and exacting, and masterfully suspenseful."--Booklist (starred review) In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment… After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities. On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis. Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw—until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power. Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl’s murder leads to more bodies, and to the town’s most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don’t apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands…

Malibu 1983. Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of one night, each of their lives will be changed forever in this propulsive novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six .Malibu is buzzing with anticipation for Nina Riva's annual party. Everyone wants to be in the company of the famous Rivas: Nina, the surfer and model; her brothers, Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other his renowned photographer; and Kit, the adored baby of the family. As if that picture-perfect family isn't enough, their father is Mick Riva, the legendary singer.By morning, the Riva mansion will have burned to the ground. And no one will know how the fire started. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play and the loves and secret yearnings that shaped this family across generations will all come bubbling to the surface to make for a night no one will ever forget.This is a story about family: about what you choose to keep from the people who made you, and what you must leave behind.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Alta * Bustle * LitHub An exuberant, brutally hilarious novel about a young woman’s insatiable quest to carve her own path—even if she needs to step over a few dead bodies along the way It’s 1974 and San Francisco is full of mystery and menace. Nineteen-year-old Celia Dent keeps telling herself how lucky she is to be working at the phone company and to be married to her Drew, a man who says he loves her. Celia’s contentment with her little life is shattered, though, when a woman she knows from work is murdered in a love tryst gone awry. What would that be like, Celia wonders, to die for love—or to kill for love? What would it be like to live each moment passionately and with full awareness that each breath is bringing her closer to her last? Before Celia knows it, her musings about love-and-death happenings are bleeding into daily life. Suddenly she’s playing hooky from work and searching for a love tryst of her very own. She’s practicing her marksmanship at a local gun range and thinking about how good it would feel to bury something sharp inside her domineering husband’s ear. It’s all pretend, though, until the night comes when Celia finally goes too far, and she and Drew are set on a deadly collision course. Exhilarating, surreal, and bitingly clever, Evil Genius is a comic noir exploring obsession and desire—and what happens when a sweetly seditious young woman dares to imagine a better life.

Nancy Clancy learns about starting a business in the seventh chapter book in the Nancy Clancy chapter book series by New York Times bestselling team Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser! At first, Nancy Clancy thinks how great it would be to be wealthy—that’s elegant for rich. With the help of her best friend, Bree, she sets out to make a fortune one way or another. But when things don’t go as planned, Nancy learns something even more valuable—some of the best things in life are free.

* An instant New York Times bestseller * An empowering and big-hearted sequel to the bestselling and critically acclaimed From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks! Two years ago, Zoe Washington helped clear Marcus' name for a crime he didn't commit. Now her birth father has finally been released from prison and to an outpouring of community support, so everything should be perfect. When Marcus reveals his dream of opening his own restaurant, Zoe becomes determined to help him achieve it--with her as his pastry chef of course. However, starting a new place is much more difficult than it looks, and Marcus is having a harder time re-entering society than anyone expected. Set on finding a solution, Zoe starts a podcast to bring light to the exonerees' experiences and fundraise for their restaurant. After all, Zoe knows full well the power of using her voice. But with waning public interest in their story, will anyone still be listening?

Pride and Prejudice for the modern age: a fresh and stylish debut following a family of women who are thrust into the spotlight in the wake of a scandal and expertly exploit their newfound fame, perfect for readers of Blue Sisters and Good Material. When Lili Lowe gets caught having an affair with her married boss, an admired local politician, she finds herself at the epicenter of a scandal that could dismantle her life as she knows it. She turns, as many women would, to her mother. But Lydia Lowe is not the kind of mother to offer gentle words of consolation. Instead she devises a strategy that doesn't just manage the fallout, it actively exploits it, and Lili goes from making coffee and booking meetings to making headlines and booking talk shows. Soon, thanks to the commodification of Lili's scandal, the whole world knows the Lowe family. Lili's three sisters--Stevie, Iris, and Katie--have differing reactions to being in the spotlight, but once the wheels are turning, it seems impossible to stop what's in motion...and it doesn't take long for the craziness surrounding the Lowes to spiral out of control. Money and celebrity, the Lowes discover, come at a price--sometimes, the louder one's voice (especially a woman's), the more others will seek to silence it. With a potent blend of spectacular style, compulsive voice, sharp social commentary, and ferocious heart, The Lowe Job is escapism with teeth: a contemporary book club novel for the modern reader looking for fresh fiction that is at once funny, sexy, incisive, and heartfelt.

A magnetic, provocative debut novel chronicling a young woman’s downward spiral following the end of an affairElsa Fisher is headed for rock bottom. At least, that’s her plan. She has just been fired from MoMA on the heels of an affair with her married boss, and she retreats to Los Angeles to blow her severance package on whatever it takes to numb the pain. Her abandoned crew of college friends (childhood friend Charlotte and her wayward husband, Jared; and Elsa’s ex-husband, Robby) receive her with open arms, and, thinking she’s on vacation, a plan to celebrate their reunion on a booze-soaked sailing trip to Catalina Island.But Elsa doesn’t want to celebrate. She is lost, lonely, and full of rage, and only wants to sink as low as the drugs and alcohol will take her. On Catalina, her determined unraveling and recklessness expose painful memories and dark desires, putting everyone in the group at risk.With the creeping menace of Patricia Highsmith and the bender-chic of Bret Easton Ellis, Liska Jacobs brings you inside the mind of an angry, reckless young woman hell-bent on destruction—every page taut with the knowledge that Elsa’s path does not lead to a happy place. Catalina is a compulsive, deliciously dark exploration of beauty, love, and friendship, and the sometimes toxic desires that drive us.

'A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE' NITA PROSE 'SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS' CLARE MACKINTOSH 'THE STEPFORD WIVES MEETS THE HANDMAID'S TALE' HANNAH DEITCH 'HIGHLY ORIGINAL AND UTTERLY ADDICTIVE' LOUISE O'NEILL 'My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.' Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle - and has the social media accounts to prove it. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What Natalie's followers don't know won't hurt them. Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children--they're all familiar, but something's off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? One thing Natalie does know is that it'll make one hell of an Instagram post...

In this deliciously hilarious follow-up to A Teeny Bit of Trouble, Michael Lee West proves why she's quickly becoming a must-read, favorite author "I'd just put a praline cheesecake into the oven when my long-lost mama showed up on my doorstep with a bottle of merlot, a sack of whole wheat flour, and a dead hooker named Sugar." The night before Teeny's wedding, her mother, Ruby, shows up in Charleston, South Carolina with a body in the trunk of her car—a hooker named Sugar. Teeny hasn't seen her mother in decades, and she refuses when her mother asks her to help her dispose of the body. Ruby, not taking no for an answer, decides to kidnap Teeny and force her to bury Sugar . . . only Sugar isn't quite dead. And it's no wonder Ruby wants her gone: she knows a lot of dirt. Ruby was mixed up in the death of a South Carolina Senator and is accused of stealing an antique diamond necklace. Now the Senator's son wants vengeance--and the family jewels. Sugar's the only one who knows the truth.