And for Dia, Jules, and Hanna, this impossible challenge - to ignore the past, in order to jumpstart the future - will only become possible if they finally make peace with the girls they once were, and the girls they are finally letting themselves be. Right?īut like the lyrics of a song you used to play on repeat, there’s no forgetting a best friend.

But that was then, and this is now - and now means a baby, a failed relationship, a stint in rehab, all kinds of off beats that have interrupted the rhythm of their friendship. It used to be the three of them, Dia, Jules, and Hanna, messing around and making music and planning for the future. And ever since Hanna left - well, there hasn’t been a band.

Because ever since Hanna’s drinking took over her life, Dia and Jules haven’t been in it. Because Dia knows that without a band, she hasn’t got a shot at winning Sun City. Who cares that’s it’s fifteen grand? Who cares about a gig opening for one of the greatest bands to ever play this town? It doesn’t matter what the prize for the Sun City Originals contest is this year. One wrong move and she could be unmasked: as a woman, as a traitor, or as a spy.īuy it: B&N * Amazon This is What it Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow (6th) But it’s getting harder and harder to keep her cover stories straight. It’s the perfect setting for her game of aliases and double-crosses. Her identity is not all she’s hiding: At the same time she’s searching for the missing opium, Alma is sending coded dispatches to the Pinkerton’s agents detailing the smuggling ring’s operations.Īs the sailors tell it, Port Townsend is just five miles from hell.

In disguise as the scrappy dockworker Jack Camp, this should be easy-once she muscles her way into the organization and wins the trust of the local boss and his boys, all while keeping them from uncovering her secrets. When product goes missing at their Washington Territory outpost, Alma is offered a promotion if she can track the thief and recover the drugs. Trained in espionage by the Pinkerton’s Detective Agency-but dismissed for bad behavior and a penchant for going undercover as a man-Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, her former lover and the seductive mastermind of a West Coast smuggling ring. The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco (6th)Īlma Rosales is on the hunt for stolen opium.

Sugar and Ice by Brooklyn Wallace