Featured Events in Plainville in July, 2025 (August Updated)

We're delighted to welcome bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe to An Unlikely Story to discuss her new novel, Where the Rivers Merge. The first of two epic and triumphant novels, Where the Rivers Merge celebrates one intrepid woman's life across multiple generations in the American South. Mary will discuss her book, answer audience questions, and sign copies! Ticket options for this event include: General Admission + Book: $31.88, admits one guest. Includes a copy of Where the Rivers Merge which Mary Alice will sign at the event.General Admission + Coupon: $5, admits one guest. This ticket option is redeemable for $5 off any of Mary Alice's books on the night of the event.Tickets are required for this event. We hope to see you there! ABOUT THE BOOK: “Wade into the Lowcountry of South Carolina with Mary Alice Monroe's sweeping Southern epic. —People This is book club fiction at its finest! —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author 1908: The Lowcountry of South Carolina is at the cusp of change. Mayfield, the grand estate held for generations by the Rivers family, is the treasured home of young Eliza. A free spirit, she refuses to be confined by societal norms and spends her days exploring the vast property, observing wildlife, and riding horses. But the Great War, coastal storms, and family turmoil bring unexpected challenges to Eliza, putting her on a collision course with the patriarchal traditions of a bygone era. 1988: At 88, Eliza is the scion of the Rivers/DeLancey family. She’s fought a lifetime to save her beloved Mayfield and is too independent and committed to quietly retire and leave the fate of the estate to her greedy son. She must make decisions that will assure the future of the land and her family—or watch them both be split apart. Set against the evocative landscape of the twentieth-century Lowcountry, Where the Rivers Merge is a dramatic and sweeping multigenerational family story of unyielding love, lessons learned, profound sacrifices, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to persevere in the face of change in order to protect her family legacy and the land she loves. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 books for adults and children. She has earned numerous accolades and awards including induction into the South Carolina Academy of Authors’ Hall of Fame, the Southwest Florida Author of Distinction Award, South Carolina Award for Literary Excellence, RT Lifetime Achievement Award, the International Book Award for Green Fiction, and the Southern Book Prize for Fiction. Monroe is a co-founder of Friends and Fiction and serves on the South Carolina Aquarium Board Emeritus, The Leatherback Trust, The Pat Conroy Literary Center Honorary Board, and Casting Carolinas Advisory Board. She resides in South Carolina and North Carolina with her family. Information Source: An Unlikely Story | eventbrite

Join us for a fantastic YA double feature event with two staff-favorite authors: Jennifer Dugan and Rory Power! Jennifer's newest book, Summer Girls, is a slow-burn sapphic romance about two wildly different girls from the same vacation town who must learn to get along when their parents push them together. Rory's Kill Creatures follows Nan, whose three best friends ventured into the canyons near their small town and never returned. Now one of them is back, and Nan can’t believe it…because she’s the one who killed them. Tickets to this event are $5, which can be redeemed for $5 off any of Jennifer or Rory's books on the night of the event. Tickets are required to attend. We hope to see you there! ABOUT SUMMER GIRLS: Cass has a rule about dating summer girls—just say no. Every year, her idyllic beach town is flooded with summer girls, the obnoxious daughters of the rich, who stay in their families’ summer homes, sail their yachts, and generally make things unbearable for townies like Cass. Birdie is the ultimate summer girl. She’s the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer dad and a social media influencer mom, and this summer Birdie happens to be in big trouble for accidentally crashing her boyfriend’s very expensive car. Birdie’s punishment is to spend the summer with her father at the beach—but it won’t be a vacation. He’s enlisted the help of Cass, whose dad works for him, to keep Birdie on the straight and narrow, including getting her a job at the public beach where Cass lifeguards. At first the two despise each other. Birdie doesn’t want a babysitter, and Cass doesn’t want to be one. But as the season heats up, Birdie surprises Cass time and again, and before long both girls can’t help but wonder: Are some rules made to be broken? ABOUT KILL CREATURES: From the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls comes another dark thriller about friendship, jealousy, desire, and revenge, with a twist ending that needs to be talked about. Last summer, Luce, Edie, Jane, and Nan took a boat out for one final swim in the river. It was a perfect summer night. But the only one who returned that night was Nan. Edie, Jane, and Luce disappeared, and Nan’s story has always been the same: She has no idea what happened. The girls went ahead, and it was as though they vanished into thin air. Now, one year later, all of Saltcedar has gathered at the river for a memorial. Nan even recreated the outfit she wore that fateful day last summer. And when Luce climbs out of the water, no one is more surprised than Nan. Because Nan killed her. Right before she killed Edie and Jane. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Jennifer Dugan is the author of the graphic novels Coven and Full Shift, as well as the young adult novels Playing For Keeps, The Last Girls Standing, Melt With You, Some Girls Do, Verona Comics, and Hot Dog Girl, which was called “a great, fizzy rom-com” by Entertainment Weekly and “one of the best reads of the year, hands down” by Paste magazine. Follow her online @JL_Dugan. Rory Power lives in Rhode Island. She has an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia, and is the New York Times bestselling author of works for both adult and young adult readers, including Wilder Girls and In a Garden Burning Gold. Information Source: An Unlikely Story | eventbrite

We're thrilled to welcome back #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware for The Woman in Suite 11! In this follow-up to her mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe. Tickets for this event are bundled with a copy of The Woman In Suite 11. Tickets are required for this event, and will go on sale on Thursday, June 5th at 4pm. ABOUT THE BOOK: When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago. The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy. What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ruth Ware worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language, and a press officer before settling down as a full-time writer. She now lives with her family in Sussex, on the south coast of England. She is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail (Toronto) bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood; The Woman in Cabin 10; The Lying Game; The Death of Mrs. Westaway; The Turn of the Key; One by One; The It Girl; Zero Days; One Perfect Couple; and The Woman in Suite 11. Visit her at RuthWare.com or follow her on socials @RuthWareWriter. Information Source: An Unlikely Story | eventbrite

New York Times bestselling fantasy author Hannah Whitten joins us to discuss The Nightshade God, the third in her beloved Nightshade Crown series. The crown is in the hands of a ruthless god, and Lore will stop at nothing to defeat him. Hannah will be in conversation with Jenny L. Howe. Following their discussion, Hannah will answer questions and sign books. Ticket options for this event include: Admission + Book: $31.88, admits one guest. Includes a copy of The Nightshade God which Hannah will sign at the event.Admission + Coupon: $5, admits one guest. This option may be redeemed for $5 off any of Hannah's books on the night of the event.Tickets are required for this event. ABOUT THE BOOK: Lore has failed. She couldn’t save King Bastian from the rotten god speaking voices in his mind. She couldn’t save her allies from being scattered across the continent—their own lesser gods whispering to them in their dreams. She couldn’t save her beautiful, corrupt city from the dark power beneath the catacombs. And she couldn’t save herself. Banished to the Burnt Isles, Lore must use every skill she earned on the streets of Dellaire to survive the prison colony and figure out a way to defeat the power that’s captured everything and everyone she holds dear. When a surprise ally joins her on the Burnt Isles she realizes the way forward may lie on the island itself. Somehow, her friends must help her collect the far-scattered pieces of the broken Fount—the source of all the god’s powers—and bring them back together on the Burnt Isles, returning all magic to its source and destroying, once and for all, the gods corrupting the land. But as Lore gets closer to her goal, her magic grows stronger… and to a woman who’s always had to fight for survival, that kind of power may be hard to give up. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hannah Whitten has been writing to amuse herself since she could hold a pen, and sometime in high school, she figured out that what amused her might also amuse others. When she's not writing, she's reading, making music, or attempting to bake. She lives in Tennessee with her husband and children in a house ruled by a temperamental cat. Jenny L. Howe is a literature and writing professor, amateur dog wrangler, and owner of too many Lego sets. Getting lost in love stories is her favorite form of escape, and she still can’t believe that she gets to write her own and share them with the world. Her newest adult romance novel is How to Get a Life in Ten Dates and her debut YA romance, Love at Full Tilt, releases in July Information Source: An Unlikely Story | eventbrite