What are the top book recommendations for 'tense and engaging'?

Now airing as a Starz series.

In the "compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and "pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French's runaway bestseller In the Woods, Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad-until an urgent t... Read more about The Likeness

This is Lexie Madison’s story, not mine. I’d love to tell you one without getting into the other, but it doesn’t work that way. I used to think I sewed us together at the edges with my own hands, pull...

READ THE EXCERPT

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl b... Read more about The Hunger Games

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in wi...

READ THE EXCERPT

A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awake... Read more about Dark Matter

No one tells you it’s all about to change, to be taken away. There’s no proximity alert, no indication that you’re standing on the precipice. And maybe that’s what makes tragedy so tragic. Not just wh...

READ THE EXCERPT

A survival story for the 21st century and the international bestseller behind the major film from Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.

I'm stranded on Mars.

I have no way to communicate with Earth.

I'm in a habitat designed to last... Read more about The Martian

For the record…I didn’t die on Sol 6. Certainly the rest of the crew thought I did, and I can’t blame them. Maybe there’ll be a day of national mourning for me, and my Wikipedia page will say, “Mark W...

READ THE EXCERPT

At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times)

This is the way the world ends. . .f... Read more about The Fifth Season

For the past ten years you’ve lived as ordinary a life as possible. You came to Tirimo from elsewhere; the townsfolk don’t really care where or why. Since you were obviously well educated, you became ...

READ THE EXCERPT

B is for Brontë. A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzles and shocks readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom. Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures ... Read more about Jane Eyre

THERE WAS NO POSSIBILITY of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined earl...

READ THE EXCERPT

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this "propulsive" (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science-in development as a major ... Read more about Project Hail Mary

What’s going on? I want to find out, but I don’t have much to work with. I can’t see. I can’t hear anything other than the computer. I can’t even feel. No, that’s not true. I feel something. I’m lying...

READ THE EXCERPT

WINNER OF THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by ci... Read more about Wolf Hall

Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; knocked full length on the cobbles of the yard. His head turns sideways; his eyes are turned towards the gate, as if someone might arrive to help him out. One blo...

READ THE EXCERPT

*A People Top Ten Book of the Year* The beloved, mega bestselling first novel from Audrey Niffenegger, "a soaring celebration of the victory of love over time" (Chicago Tribune).

A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry D... Read more about The Time Traveler's Wife

Clare: The first time it happens Henry is away. It's the eighth week of the pregnancy. The baby is the size of a plum, has a face and hands and a beating heart. It is early evening, early summer, and ...

READ THE EXCERPT

The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign hanging upon iron gates reads:

Opens at Nightfall

Closes at Dawn

As dusk shifts to twili... Read more about The Night Circus

The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it is also t...

READ THE EXCERPT