Does a seventeen-year-old from Miami have what it takes to be the next big Latin superstar? And does she really want it?

As a talented singer-guitarist with a dream of going pro, Alegría Montero is getting fed up with the endless, boring parade of quinceañeras and other family party gigs. She’s longing for something bigger. And Oye Mi Canto — a new reality TV show that’s searching for the next Latin superstar — is definitely that. Ali figures she’ll never make the cut, but auditioning seems like a good way to get her overprotective father to take her ambitions seriously.

To Ali’s complete shock, she passes her audition. Next thing she knows, she’s dealing with wardrobe fittings, cameras, reporters, vocal coaches, and websites designed by lovestruck fanboys. She’s also dealing with jealousy, malice, and sabotage among the contestants, all of which has her wondering: Is it really time to shoot for the stars and try to win the whole competition, or is it time to say “Cut!” and become a normal teenager again?

RITA^® Award Winner

Florida Book Awards Bronze Medal

**

In 1959 Cuba, Natalia San Martín was nothing short of a princess: sheltered, pampered, and courted by her very own prince, a childhood friend turned lifelong love. All that changed on the fateful New Year’s Eve when Fidel Castro and his followers seized control of the country, with tragic consequences for not only the island, but Natalia herself.

Five years later, in 1960s New York, she’s known as Natalie Martin—living a life that’s bleak, but thankfully anonymous. However, when the enigmatic Jack Roemer offers her a job writing the memoir of a starlet on the brink of self-destruction, she sees not only opportunity, but unexpected echoes of a fairytale long forgotten.

As she knows all too well, however, the prettiest façade can hide the ugliest of truths— and peeling back the layers of someone else’s past forces Natalie to confront her own.

**

“Ferrer (Both Sides Now) has created a story that’s breathtaking in its scope, and a heroine whose strength will leave readers in awe.” 

—Publisher’s Weekly, STARRED Review

“Beautiful, precise language is plentiful throughout Ferrer’s latest. Her brilliant storytelling, with its vibrant description and dialogue, will touch the hearts of readers.”

—RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars

 **

For fans of Elizabeth Berg’s TALK BEFORE SLEEP and the novels of Jodi Picoult comes the provocative new novel from Barbara Ferrer.
In grief, they find each other. Through loss, they find love.

They meet in a hospital corridor. Libby is there for Ethan, hermentor, her best friend, her husband. He’s dying, and she’s struggling to survive. Nick is there for Katharine, his reason for living, the love of his life, his wife. She’s dying, and he holds on all the tighter as she slips away from him.

They can’t do this alone. But maybe they don’t have to.

From that chance meeting grows a fast friendship, one of gallows humor, of life in South Florida, of shared experiences in their marriages—the fights, the quirks, the love. Libby and Nick become for each other what no one else can: the person who understands, who hears with the same ears, who sees with the same eyes. In stunning prose, Barbara Ferrer maps the sacred terrain of Libby and Nick’s connection as it develops from one of necessity, to one of possibility.

Deep and powerful, this nuanced, elegiac portrait of two marriages, of sickness and survival, and of the healing power of human connection will resonate with readers for years, and showcases Ferrer in all of her brilliant insightfulness.

A Latino Books Into Movies Finalist

**

A dancer driven to succeed.

A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.

The summer they share.

And the moment it all goes wrong.

Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.         

But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad’s affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer

An International Latino Books Award Winner

**

Sporting a new name and an exotic new Latina flair, she’s ready for her college debut. But is the luscious Carolina really better than plain-Jane Caroline?

Sick and tired of her life in small-town Ohio — completely boring with a side of dull — college-bound Caroline Darcy is determined to start fresh…as a new person. And that means following in the footsteps of her late Nana Ellie — her witty and vibrant Cuban great-grandmother with a glamorous, well-traveled past. Donning a seriously caliente new wardrobe and a vivacious persona to match, she becomes Carolina, a half-Cuban aspiring actress ready for adventure.

Once at school, everything goes according to plan. Putting her primo acting skills to use, she flirts up Erik, a smooth-talking frat guy with gorgeous baby blues — who can’t get enough of her “exotic” charm. The only person who doesn’t seem impressed by her Latina facade is Peter, a quiet, sweet Cuban guy from Miami. But when “Carolina” gets in over her head and finds herself in a dangerous situation, it’s Peter who comes to her rescue — and leads her on a real adventure to discover the truth about Nana Ellie and her family. It turns out that being boring old Caroline is way more exciting than she ever could have imagined.

**

Bestselling novelists David Morrell, Alison Gaylin and Elaine Viets headline a new anthology of 22 tales exploring the unique aura of mystery of New Orleans and the surrounding bayou country.

BLOOD ON THE BAYOU is published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which is being held in New Orleans in 2016. As with the convention itself, the anthology spreads a broad canopy across a wide variety of crime writers from across the country and around the world — including both veteran writers and the brightest up-and-coming talents in the field. These stories range from the light-hearted and fun to the darker side of crime, just as New Orleans and the bayou country can show both to the unsuspecting.

All participants contributed their efforts to support our charity — the New Orleans Public Libraries — and by extension readers and writers everywhere. ALL PROFITS GO TO THE LIBRARY.

Edited by Greg Herren with an Introduction by Heather Graham. Stories by Kaye Wilkinson Barley, Eric Beetner, G. J. Brown, Sheila Connolly, O’Neil De Noux, Barbara Ferrer, John Floyd, Alison Gaylin, Greg Herren, BV Lawson, R. T. Lawton, Deborah Lacy, Edith Maxwell, Liz Milliron, Terrie Moran, David Morrell, Dino Parenti, Mike Penn, Gary Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Paula Pumphrey, and Elaine Viets.

**

Dear Teen Me includes reflections and advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves.

The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss. Who found true love at 18? And who wishes he’d had more fun in high school, instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art.

Whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you’ll find friends–and a lot of familiar faces–in the course of Dear Teen Me.

**

For the uninitiated, the quinceañera celebrates the passage of a fifteen-year-old girl into adulthood: It’s a bit bat mitzvah with a dash of debutante ball, and loaded with the same potential for hilarity and adolescent angst. In this original anthology, fifteen of the brightest and funniest Latino writers, men and women alike, share their own memories of these moving and often absurd extravaganzas—tales of that unique form of familial humiliation that is borne of the best intentions, fierce love, and the infectious joy of parents finally allowing their little girl to grow up.

**

My Only Wish  in Boyfriend Shopping

Claudia Abreu knew her family was doing more than hiding presents and heating up Cuban cider for her holiday homecoming. Just her luck—her childhood friend, who has been invited as her New Year’s Eve party date, is athletic and popular…pretty much everything she’s not. But David Levy hopes he finally has the chance to show Claudia that they really do have enough in common to make both of their dreams come true…together. 

Save the Last Dance in Prom Ever After

Peyton Chaffee’s wealthy parents won’t believe she’s serious about becoming a chef until she proves herself by working in the kitchen for a prestigious event…on prom night. They disapprove of her culinary ambitions and her boyfriend, Eddie. Is she ready to sacrifice one unforgettable night for a chance that could change her entire future?