Shelby Montgomery, from an extremely influential white family in Memphis, loves summertime, when the Montgomerys travel to their country estate in Tupelo, Mississippi. Rare for the time, the teen’s best friend is an African American girl named Liberty Chestnut, who brings Shelby down to the local pond for swimming on hot summer days. On one of these days, Shelby spies River Martin, a handsome, brooding, local boy she doesn’t know much about, and when their eyes meet, she’s thoroughly smitten. Liberty tells Shelby that River, who’s white, is a blues musician, and she knows just how to sneak in to his upcoming gig. As Shelby and River connect, Shelby also learns the disturbing news that her own father is much despised by many locals because he’s been scheming to purchase their land to make way for a new highway. When a tragic accident befalls another member of the town, Shelby must decide how far she’s willing to go to prevent the wrong person from taking the blame. As she attempts to navigate her relationships and simultaneously save the town from her father’s “improvement” plans, it seems it might just be too much for one young woman. Told in a close third person, the book primarily follows Shelby. Tupelo provides the perfect backdrop for this coming-of-age story; both the socioeconomic battles and Shelby’s increasingly rebellious behavior contrast well with the charming southern town. While the setting details are rich, with descriptions of blackberry pies, fireflies, and lakeside bluffs in abundance, physical descriptions of most characters are sparse, making it difficult to keep identities straight. Similarly, the plot-heavy story is full of action and drama, but the characters’ emotions often feel underdeveloped. Even so, the author does an admirable job of exposing issues related to loss of innocence and artificial social boundaries.

Atlanta singletons Sameera Malik and Tom Cooke are navigating professional turbulence while nursing wounds from relationship rifts. When their paths cross at Sameera’s firm’s holiday party, chemistry sparks—but it’s professional synergy that prompts their connection. Layoffs are coming at the boutique law firm where Sameera works as an associate, putting her job and independence in jeopardy. Tom is a chef who uses YouTube to drum up catering business while dreaming of hosting his own TV cooking show. A decline in his online engagement jeopardizes both sides of his livelihood. So after some motherly intervention places Tom in Sameera’s path a second time—sensing the barest whiff of a secret romance, Tahsin Malik hires him to cater her party for Eid—Tom captures the spunky attorney in a video, and it’s a hit. Recognizing that he got “more attention from that candid video…than any others in the past six months,” he and Sameera negotiate a deal. She’ll fake date him for two months and record six videos, and Tom will smooth the way for his wealthy best friend Andy Shaikh to become Sameera’s prospective client. Precarity also stokes Sameera’s insecurity, since she’s already feeling like the black sheep of her successful Muslim Desi family—with a sister pursuing a Ph.D. at Oxford and a father retired as head of neurosurgery at Emory, “if she wasn’t an associate at the [law firm], who was she? Nobody.” Just when you might worry that the book is so realistic as to lack the fun and froth of a great holiday rom-com, Jalaluddin ups the family shenanigans to 11 as Sameera’s mother and Tom’s stepmom hijack the proceedings like matchmaking mamas from the Regency era. Soon, the entire Malik family embarks on a meet-the-parents holiday jaunt at Tom’s fabulous family estate in Alaska, where they’re practically royalty, and hijinks and culture clashes and shady side deals ensue.

Dr. Mark Moore makes the Sam Heard Clinic his first stop as soon as he arrives in the town of Crescent Hill. After being forced to leave his previous position due to a patient dying after undergoing his new dementia treatment, Mark is eager to take any position that will allow him to continue his research. Even though Mark’s machine shows great promise in treating dementia, and the clinic needs the money an accompanying research grant could bring in, Dr. Susan Pace isn’t eager to have Mark join the operation. As a psychiatrist, she prefers a holistic approach using talk therapy, not a supposedly miraculous machine that messes with patients’ brains (“I’ve never believed in machines to do what human contact can do”). But after being warned that the clinic will close if they don’t get the grant, Susan has to accept Mark’s presence and learn to work with him. When they test the machine on Susan’s star patient, Gertie, she regains a memory about her husband’s unexplained death in a fire several years earlier. Mark and Susan find themselves embroiled in a town mystery as they strive to save their livelihoods and navigate their growing feelings for each other—they could really use a Christmas miracle. In this romantic mystery novel, Stolin gives readers a fast-tracked love story—with so much going on in the brief narrative, much of the action feels rushed. Susan and Mark are fully fleshed-out characters, and their patients also show dimension. Unfortunately, the villain (and their motivations) leaves much to be desired, and the mystery element feels underdeveloped due to a lack of exposition and space to build. The premise has promise, and the romance is sweet, but overall, the story is a tad underwhelming.

We’re 15 years into the end of the world and the whole deal sucks for Dr. Jonathan Greenway. The mild-mannered professor was fortunate to be teaching a class for the U.S. Army when the dead began rising from their graves. Now he’s a second-class citizen at a fortified base somewhere in the American Rust Belt, splitting his time teaching “New History” to thankless child soldiers and literally shoveling shit at the biomass factory. As he yearns for a stable life with his girlfriend, Jon’s temper runs afoul of the fascist tinpot dictator that runs the joint, and he’s quickly banished to a rapidly dwindling reconnaissance squad. Not that the “Chum Bums,” as they’re known, are crack soldiers—their commanding officer is still haunted from having to icepick his infant daughter, while the rest are expendable conscripts at best. When surveillance reveals a remote church with the power to instantly kill zombies dead (again), the Bums set out on the treacherous journey to investigate. Beset by the dead as well as the Calaveras, a masked death cult from Mexico, Greenway and his comrades finally manage to reach their goal. At the titular refuge, they find that mad chemist James Warnocky has warped theology, science, and alchemy into an infernal combination, though one that holds promise to perform exactly as promised. It’s a good old-fashioned bone-and-gristle cruncher right up George A. Romero’s alley, but there’s more to it. The writing is crisp, punctuated with military patois and medieval violence while Greenway struggles not just to make sense of the horror, but his own place in it. Much like the experiences found in The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later, what’s wrong in this world is human, not some dark force waiting to ambush a hero with a heart of gold. It’s just us.

Every aspiring actor understands that, to succeed in Hollywood, one needs talent, tenacity, and a bit of luck. What they may not realize, however, is that there are additional expectations regarding how an actor should behave, many of which are not immediately apparent to outsiders. “Because the entertainment industry is so competitive, there are many secrets and bits of advice people will be reluctant to share with you,” writes the author in his introduction to this insider’s guide. “Many actors in Hollywood don’t know what they’re up against until it’s too late—and has already negatively impacted their careers.” Did you know, for instance, that certain agents will take on an actor with the intention of “shelving” him—sabotaging him on behalf of a similar actor whom that agent already represents? Or that there exists a “one-strike rule” that means the mere perception that you have wasted someone’s time, even accidentally, can get you blacklisted with that person forever? Or that posing for stock photos—photos taken and made available to advertisers as part of a massive library—can come back to haunt an actor when they unexpectedly resurface years later? Drawing on his decades of experience as an actor on stage and screen, Kimmel lays out often harsh realities while detailing how actors can inadvertently undermine their careers. In 50 brief chapters, each only a few pages in length, the author guides would-be actors through lessons on dealing with managers, agents, and other performers, as well as the labyrinthine workings of the entertainment industry in general. The text includes practical advice (don’t sign with a single umbrella agency for television, film, and voice-over work), psychological tips (don’t succumb to envying other actors), and counsel specific to the peculiar traditions of Hollywood (never accept the offer of coffee at a business meeting).

Kimmel dispenses wisdom with the directness and economy of a weary veteran. “There are a lot of actors out there—far too many—who simply cannot get out of their own way,” the author writes with typical candor. “They can never meet an industry person without saying or doing something completely inappropriate—and thereby obliterating that new connection.” The author has a proudly old-fashioned sensibility; he advises actors against cursing and performing nude scenes, while encouraging them to always practice good table manners (he comes out against handshaking, though; there are many germaphobes in Hollywood). Some of his advice is common sense—find a flexible part-time job to pay the bills, don’t buy a fancy car you can’t afford, prepare thoroughly for your auditions—while other suggestions are less expected (the best way to learn how to act against another person? Take a stage combat class.) While some of Kimmel’s insider stories may feel slightly dated (the text includes references to thespians such as Al Lewis of The Munsters and Jean Carol of Guiding Light), for the most part, his wisdom remains evergreen. Readers will enjoy this demystification of the acting business, and some may save themselves from unnecessary Hollywood heartache.