Think about supporting Bards Alley and some of your favorite local and non-local authors through our pre-order campaigns! We work directly with authors or publishers to offer signed editions, freebies, or other swag for pre-orders taken directly through Bards Alley.
Check out our ongoing campaigns below -- books can be ordered online through bardsalley.square.site and you will be contacted via phone when your order is ready for pick-up on the book's release date. Most of our campaigns are pick-up only unless otherwise stated.
Check out our ongoing campaigns below -- books can be ordered online through bardsalley.square.site and you will be contacted via phone when your order is ready for pick-up on the book's release date. Most of our campaigns are pick-up only unless otherwise stated.
adult fiction // short stories // available 2/24/26 // limited stock available
This is a pre-order for the indie exclusive edition of Lauren Groff's upcoming short story collection Brawler, available February 24, 2025. This order is for pick-up only at Bards Alley Bookshop.
The indie exclusive edition is a signed first edition of the book with special colored endpapers to match the book's dust jacket. Limited copies are available, so when it sells out, it sells out!
A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time
Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.
“In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.
Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive.
The indie exclusive edition is a signed first edition of the book with special colored endpapers to match the book's dust jacket. Limited copies are available, so when it sells out, it sells out!
A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time
Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.
“In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.
Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive.
This is a pre-order for Elle Cosimano's upcoming title Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line, available March 17, 2026. This order is in coordination with Elle Cosimano's appearance at Bull Run Library for their Blind Date with a Book event on February 14, 2026.
Elle will be signing bookplates only for all pre-orders of this title (no personalization is available). Books available for pick-up or shipping.
From New York Times bestseller Elle Cosimano comes Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line—the highly anticipated next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series.
Life hasn’t been easy for Finlay Donovan lately, but it just got a whole lot harder. Her nanny and partner-in-crime, Vero, has been extradited from Virginia to Maryland, where she’s facing criminal charges for a theft she swears she didn’t commit. A prisoner to an ankle bracelet as she awaits her trial, Vero is forced to live with her overbearing mother and nosy aunt. Threatening messages keep arriving on her mother’s door, demanding Vero “turn over the money . . . or else.” And if she doesn’t figure out who really stole her former sorority’s treasury funds, her next home might be a prison cell.
But proving her innocence might be an impossible feat. Vero was the treasurer of her sorority when the money went missing—one of the only people who had access to the cash. And her alibi is a date who ghosted her. With her court date quickly approaching, and her mysterious stalker on her tail, Vero needs to clear her name fast.
Finlay decides a trip to Maryland is in order. After all, Vero stood by her through her darkest moments, and Finlay will be damned if she lets her best friend and children’s nanny be convicted for something she didn’t do. She sets off on a mission to sus out the real thief and bring Vero home.
Elle will be signing bookplates only for all pre-orders of this title (no personalization is available). Books available for pick-up or shipping.
From New York Times bestseller Elle Cosimano comes Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line—the highly anticipated next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series.
Life hasn’t been easy for Finlay Donovan lately, but it just got a whole lot harder. Her nanny and partner-in-crime, Vero, has been extradited from Virginia to Maryland, where she’s facing criminal charges for a theft she swears she didn’t commit. A prisoner to an ankle bracelet as she awaits her trial, Vero is forced to live with her overbearing mother and nosy aunt. Threatening messages keep arriving on her mother’s door, demanding Vero “turn over the money . . . or else.” And if she doesn’t figure out who really stole her former sorority’s treasury funds, her next home might be a prison cell.
But proving her innocence might be an impossible feat. Vero was the treasurer of her sorority when the money went missing—one of the only people who had access to the cash. And her alibi is a date who ghosted her. With her court date quickly approaching, and her mysterious stalker on her tail, Vero needs to clear her name fast.
Finlay decides a trip to Maryland is in order. After all, Vero stood by her through her darkest moments, and Finlay will be damned if she lets her best friend and children’s nanny be convicted for something she didn’t do. She sets off on a mission to sus out the real thief and bring Vero home.
adult fiction // thriller // available 4/14/26
This is a pre-order for David Baldacci's upcoming Hope Rises for pick-up or shipping, the thrilling sequel to Nash Falls continuing Walter Nash's journey. All pre-orders will come with an adhesive signed bookplate from the author. Hope Rises releases on April 14th, 2026 and all orders will be shipped with estimated delivery date of its release day in mind. No personalization available.
Walter Nash began a journey down a dark path of seemingly no return, and now he finds himself questioning everything that got him there in this thrilling sequel to Nash Falls from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.
Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. He has nothing left to lose and with long, rigorous training under his belt the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into something he never thought he’d be: a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers.
In order to succeed, he’s going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But Steers is shrewd and only brings those she trusts completely into her inner circle. Nash must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills in order to prove himself an ally to Steers if he’s ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire.
Yet, despite hating the woman for destroying his life, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could’ve imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing Nash to do something truly unfathomable.
So, will the truth set Nash free?
Or end him?
Walter Nash began a journey down a dark path of seemingly no return, and now he finds himself questioning everything that got him there in this thrilling sequel to Nash Falls from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.
Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. He has nothing left to lose and with long, rigorous training under his belt the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into something he never thought he’d be: a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers.
In order to succeed, he’s going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But Steers is shrewd and only brings those she trusts completely into her inner circle. Nash must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills in order to prove himself an ally to Steers if he’s ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire.
Yet, despite hating the woman for destroying his life, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could’ve imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing Nash to do something truly unfathomable.
So, will the truth set Nash free?
Or end him?