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Big Little Truths
By Liane Moriarty
Crown, August 2026, 464pp.

The Short of It:

Just dishy enough to hold your interest but timely too.

The Rest of It:

*No Spoilers*

“The last time we saw the women of Big Little Lies—Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie—their children were five years old. If someone wasn’t invited to a birthday party, feelings were hurt. But ten years have passed and the kids are in high school, navigating all of the drama that accompanies teendom (goodbye playdates, hello drugs, sex, and alcohol).” ~from the publisher

The story opens with a bang. A human finger is sent to the school principal, and no one seems to know what it means. Detectives step in to investigate, and the school is all aflutter over what it could mean. The parent chat is out of control. Rumors are flying. Side-eye is being thrown left and right. These women latch onto the situation like a dog with a bone.

In the midst of all this, life continues. There is a wedding to plan, a cancer diagnosis to deal with, and the complicated relationships formed after the tragedy in Big Little Lies. These people are friends and, in some cases, family, so how do they sidestep the actual crimes that were committed? Can they? And what about this finger situation? How does it affect them directly?

Big Little Truths is a respectable follow-up to the previous book. There are journal entries to sift through, moody teens with an agenda, and grown-ups trying to do the next best thing for their loved ones and the friends they’ve come to know. Moriarty blends realistic daily life with a scandal that is casually kicked around until it is suddenly right in your face.

Recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Give Me Everything You’ve Got
By Imogen Crimp
Henry Holt & Co., July 2026, 304 pp.

The Short of It:

Mind games. Who will win?

The Rest of It:

Ruby, an up-and-coming filmmaker, finds herself in an enviable position. Ellen, her idol and mentor, invites her to her palatial country home for a bit of respite, and the opportunity to focus on the script she’s working on. It’s a beautiful, hot summer, and the idea of lounging by the pool with nothing but her writing to focus on is exactly what Ruby needs.

So she thinks.

Enter Lara, Ellen’s twenty-year-old wayward daughter, who glides around the property without a care in the world. Sent home from school and pressured by Ellen to get her life together, Lara is rebellious at best.

Ruby is instantly caught off guard. How will it work having another person in the house, someone wandering around aimlessly, drinking, smoking, and tempting Ruby to do the same?

Ruby quietly observes the interactions between Ellen and her daughter, and their tension immediately puts her on edge. But as soon as Ruby settles in, Ellen leaves on a business trip, leaving the two of them alone in the house.

What follows is a seductive story about temptation, desire, and need. Hopes and dreams? Possibly, but mostly, it’s about mind games of the push-and-pull variety. Ruby is lured in, only to be pushed away. The relationships in this story are complicated and twisted.

I found the story extremely readable, even though the dialogue is presented without punctuation and reads like a stream of consciousness.

Everyone has a motive for being in that house. It’s human nature to take what we can from a situation, but are we better off afterward? Was the experience enough to satisfy?

This story has a lot to say about art, power, friendship, and the definition of love.

Highly recommend.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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