Amelia Morris is an award-winning writer, a food blogger, and a cook who knows that those pictures in cookbooks aren’t really accurate of most people’s results. Her first novel, Bon Appetèmpt, is her coming-of-age tale that explores growing up, living creatively, and finding herself.

Growing up in a small town isn’t easy. Especially when both of your parents are doctors, you have an older brother who excels at wrestling, and you don’t have an athletic bone in your body. It’s even harder when you’re five years old and your father has a child with his mistress, causing your parents to divorce and everything in your world to turn inside out.

Despite having two sets of parents and two different families, Amelia had a hard time fitting in. When she decided she wanted to be a writer, she didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. Add in a husband who also wanted to create things, a cross-country move to L.A., and more bills than money, and Amelia’s struggle to find herself turned into an epic battle. Through it all, she turned to her love of good food—and the realities of creating it—to show that those dazzling pictures in cookbooks are truly larger—and more photogenic—than real life. But it’s the small, messy moments that make life worth living.

Bon Appètempt is not a typical cookbook. Sure, there are recipes of delicious food. But there are also the behind-the-scenes messes, mistakes, and mishaps that fill everyday life. Ms. Morris explores the good, the bad, and the ugly in her memoir of her challenging childhood and her growing into the creative life she always dreamed about.

(Galley provided by Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley).

Caitlin Sinead is a new adult author. Her debut book, Heartsick, is available now. In it, she combines romance, mystery, and thrills to keep her readers on the edge of their seats. Her next book, Red Blooded, will be available this summer.

Quinn is a senior at Poe University. She wants to enjoy her senior year: hang out with her best friend, party a little bit, flirt with the hot genius she knows, and figure out what she’s going to do after graduation. Normal senior-year stuff. She isn’t expecting to meet Luke, a handsome local guy, at her favorite bar. She also isn’t expecting people’s eyes to start turning purple.

But after a party, that is exactly what happens, one by one. And no one seems to know what’s causing it. As it sweeps through the town, theories pop up, turning the townspeople against the college students in a series of frightening clashes, until no one is safe.

Quinn is determined to find out what’s going on, but soon she becomes the target of the student religious group and their escalating attacks. She doesn’t like getting involved, but Luke’s support is the only thing that gets her through, and she turns to him, despite the secrets in his past and his dying sister—the reason he moved back to town. Soon he’s the only one she can trust. Luke and Quinn must figure out what’s going on—and who’s causing it—before the entire town goes up in flames, taking them with it.

Heartsick is an intriguing story, set in a small college town full of quirky characters. It starts off a bit slow, but soon starts zipping along, full of gripping scenes, unanswered questions, and a few scary moments. The good and bad sides of human nature are on display, and Ms. Sinead digs into these moments, showing why some people do the things they do, both good and bad.

(Galley provided by Carina Press via NetGalley.)