A new, jaw-dropping thriller from the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boyfriend and The Housemaid!

There’s no place like home…

Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone he shares with his fiancée, he’s desperate to make ends meet.

Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She’s exactly what Blake’s looking for. Or is she?

Because something isn’t quite right. The neighbors start treating Blake differently. The smell of decay permeates his home, no matter how hard he scrubs. Strange noises jar him awake in the middle of the night. And soon Blake fears someone knows his darkest secrets…

Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes it, it’ll be far too late. The trap is already set.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden knocks at your door with a gripping story of revenge, privilege, and secrets turned sour…

And the second novel from the star of the Marvel series “Jessica Jones”…

“Multitalented Krysten Ritter is back with a sexy, breakneck thriller that immerses readers in the sometimes glamorous and sometimes deadly life of a con artist. Full of surprises and edge-of-your-seat scenes, Retreat is a wild ride.”–Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of She’s Not Sorry

“Smart, sexy, and wickedly fun: this is everything you want in a sun-drenched thriller. Ritter can really write–you’ll race through Retreat in a day, rooting for its sparky anti-heroine (just try not to drop it in the pool at the jaw-dropping twist).”–Ellery Lloyd, bestselling author of The Club and The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby

A beautiful con artist insinuates herself into a wealthy socialite’s life . . . with deadly consequences, in this serpentine thriller about identity and obsession, from actress, director and bestselling author Krysten Ritter.

 Liz Dawson weaves through a crowd with the ease of a tropical breeze, moving seamlessly through elite circles, sparking instant connections and making every new acquaintance feel like an intimate friend. She’s clever, smooth, and confident–qualities that make her a brilliant serial con artist.

Isabelle Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner of Casa Esmerelda, a fabulous villa on the Mexican coast–attributes that make her the perfect mark. When she offers Liz a job handling the installation of a piece of art in her otherwise vacant home, Liz can’t resist the allure of a beach retreat. She longs for a reset, a chance to finally shed the grip of her addiction to the conning game.

But when Liz, with her lush dark hair and intense green eyes, is mistaken for Isabelle herself, Liz can’t help effortlessly slipping into the socialite’s identity. The transition is so easeful, it almost feels like fate. But just who is Isabelle Beresford really, and why does she seem to have abandoned this stunning life of hers?

As Liz insinuates herself deeper into the dazzling–and deceptive–world of the Punta Mita resort community, she draws closer to the dangers surrounding the real Isabelle. Dangers that may have already ensnared Liz, too. This might not be the con of her life–but the con that ends it. 

Sweet Magnolias meets Fixer Upper in this delightfully refreshing debut about a woman bravely chasing her dreams, building a life on her own terms, and maybe even discovering a second chance at love.

Magnolia “Mack” Bishop is staring down the barrel at single motherhood–thanks to an unsolicited personal picture her husband texted another woman that quickly went viral among every mom group in town. But she’s determined to not let it distract her from the professional victory she’s inches away from: securing Charleston’s prestigious Historic Preservation Design Fellowship, the apple of every local designer’s eye.

But when the final house tour is undone by a host of calamities, Mack’s shot at the fellowship goes up in flames. Smelling blood in the water, Mack’s mother, the original Magnolia Bishop, breezes in with a project lead–strings attached. If there’s one thing Magnolia lives for, aside from maintaining her station atop the Southern social ladder, it’s to control Mack’s life . . . and that includes keeping the identity of the absentee father Mack never knew in the shadows.

While working for her mother is the professional equivalent of moving into one’s parent’s basement, Mack spots an opportunity to make it her own when a television network puts a call out for local designers. Pitching the home renovation TV pilot of her dreams–one with a historic preservation twist–might just be the way to finally prove herself. Still, she’ll have to do it covertly to avoid her mother’s interference.

Just when Mack finds her professional footing, at home she spots an impossibly familiar figure unloading his moving truck into the newly sold house next door. She is furious, floored, and regrettably flustered because Lincoln Kelly is the one who got away. Fifteen years earlier he was a summer romance she inadvertently fell in love with, and when he left, following his dreams to New York, Mack was broken-hearted.

Filled with characters who could step off the page and a reminder that nothing worth saving is beyond repair, this charming and delightful debut novel will resonate with readers of Southern women’s fiction by Mary Kay Andrews and Kristy Woodson Harvey.

Inspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters–the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

Told in Patti Callahan Henry’s lyrical, enchanting prose, The Story She Left Behind is a captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING

EVANGELINE PARISH LIBRARY BOARD OF CONTROL

MEETING AGENDA

MONDAY, MAY 12, 2025

4:00 pm Board of Control Meeting

916 W. Main St., Ville Platte, LA  70586

Notice: This meeting that will be live-streamed via our YouTube channel:

www.youtube.com@evangelineparishlibraryboard

(If you have a disability, please notify us ahead of time for accommodations)

1. Opening Business

1. Call to Order, Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance
2. Roll Call
3. Approval/Amendment of Agenda
4. Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting
5. Public Comments on Agenda Items

1. Old Business
2. Update on the new Basile Branch Library. Date of substantial completion April 25, 2025 with a 45 day window to make all repairs or adjustments. Shelving is expected to arrive the week of May 18, 2025
3. Update on the Legacy Tree fundraising idea. (Faye Langley)
4. Update on plans to expand the program rooms of the Turkey Creek and Pine Prairie branches in 2025.  
5. Update on replacing carpet at the Pine Prairie Branch Library. Bids for labor only: Deshotel’s Floor Covering, Celestine Construction, LeBleu Flooring. See attached.

1. New Business

1. Discuss setting a date for a Grand Opening of the new Basile Branch Library – tentative agenda will be presented
2. Discuss preparations for the 2026 Library Tax Continuation Election. We’ve been advised by the bonding attorney with Louisiana Lagniappe LLC, that the Evangeline Parish Police Jury is the governing body with the authority to call this election, so they will prepare a resolution for the Jury to approve and sign off on to begin the process.
3. Request from Sherry Bergeron, Basile Branch Manager, to purchase a storage shed for the new library location.
4. Request to purchase a used truck to be used by maintenance personal only
5. Share plans for Summer Reading around the Parish
6. 2025 training requirements for Board members: Cyber Security, Sexual Harassment Prevention & Ethics

1. Reports

1. Financial Report
2. Facilities Report
3. Outreach Report

• Next Board Meeting is July 14, 2025 @ 4 pm

• Adjournment