The Bourbon Kings

An Amazon Best Book of August 2015: A modern-day Southern family that’s far too rich for its own good, every year the Baldwines cement their titanic social status with a fancy Derby brunch at their estate for 700 of their closest friends. Just before this year’s event, the return of prodigal son Lane from self-inflicted exile sets off a chain of events that yanks family skeletons out of the closet and thrusts each family member out of his or her familiar orbit, spinning them toward disaster.

A Yankee transplanted to the south, J. R. Ward describes wealthy southerners and their eccentric habits with the clear-eyed affection that only an outsider brings, evoking memories of John Berendt’s spot-on details in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. With The Bourbon Kings, Ward has stepped out of her own orbit of penning bestselling paranormal romances, and readers will be glad they’ve taken this journey with her. Secret babies, shocking affairs, fiery racehorses, battling bourbon empires, a despicable family patriarch, and an unfortunately-timed suicide (or is it murder?) are just a few of the wild cards Ward throws into the mix, delivering mayhem among the moneyed crowd in this tremendously fun read. – Adrian Liang