DISCLAIMER: It’s a big month, ya’ll! Budget accordingly!
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The Harlot Countess
Author: Joanna Shupe
Released: April 28, 2015 by Zebra
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Series: Wicked Deceptions #2Maggie, Lady Hawkins, had a debut she’d rather forget—along with her first marriage. Today, the political cartoonist is a new woman. A thoroughly modern woman. So much so that her clamoring public believes she’s a man…
FACT: Drawing under a male pseudonym, Maggie is known as Lemarc. Her (his!) favorite object of ridicule: Simon Barrett, Earl of Winchester. He’s a rising star in Parliament—and a former confidant and love interest of Maggie’s who believed a rumor that vexes her to this day.
FICTION: Maggie is the Half-Irish Harlot who seduced her best friend’s husband on the eve of their wedding. She is to be feared and loathed, as she will lift her skirts for anything in breeches.
Still crushed by Simon’s betrayal, Maggie has no intention of letting the ton crush her as well. In fact, Lemarc’s cartoons have made Simon a laughingstock…but now it appears that Maggie may have been wrong about what happened years ago, and that Simon has been secretly yearning for her since…forever. Could it be that the heart is mightier than the pen and the sword after all?
RHG says: I got ARCs of all three books in this series, and am DEVOURING them.
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Grave Phantoms
Author: Jenn Bennett
Released: May 5, 2015 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: American, Paranormal, Romance
Series: Roaring Twenties #3Feisty flapper Astrid Magnusson is home from college and yearning for the one thing that’s always been off limits: Bo Yeung, her notorious bootlegging brother’s second-in-command. Unfortunately her dream of an easy reunion proves difficult after a violent storm sends a mysterious yacht crashing into the Magnussons’ docks. What’s worse, the boat disappeared a year ago, and the survivors are acting strangely…
Bo has worked with the Magnusson family for years, doing whatever is needed, including keeping his boss’s younger sister out of trouble—and his hands to himself. Of course, that isn’t so easy after Astrid has a haunting vision about the yacht’s disappearance, plunging them into an underground world of old money and dark magic. Danger will drive them closer together, but surviving their own forbidden feelings could be the bigger risk.
Carrie says: The twenties, in San Francisco, with a Chinsese American hero? HECK YEAH.
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Leave Your Mark
Author: Aliza Licht
Released: May 5, 2015 by Grand Central Publishing
Genre: NonfictionLEAVE YOUR MARK isn’t an advice book–it’s a mentorship in 288 pages. Aliza Licht — global fashion communications executive and Twitter phenom @DKNY PR GIRL — is here to tell her story, complete with The Devil Wears Prada-like moments and insider secrets.
Drawing invaluable lessons from her experience, Licht shares advice, inspiration, and a healthy dose of real talk in LEAVE YOUR MARK. She delivers personal and professional guidance for people just starting their careers and for people who are well on their way. With a particular emphasis on communicating and building your personal brand, something she knows a thing or two about, Aliza is your sassy, knowledgeable guide to the contemporary working world, where personal and professional lines are blurred and the most important thing you can have is a strong sense of self.
Amanda says: As someone about to graduate with her MA, this book couldn’t come at a better time. I’m not big on self-help, but I’m willing to give this a try.
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Re Jane
Author: Patricia Park
Released: May 5, 2015 by Pamela Dorman Books
Genre: Chick Lit, Literary FictionJourneying from Queens to Brooklyn to Seoul, and back, this is a fresh, contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre and a poignant Korean American debut
For Jane Re, half-Korean, half-American orphan, Flushing, Queens, is the place she’s been trying to escape from her whole life. Sardonic yet vulnerable, Jane toils, unappreciated, in her strict uncle’s grocery store and politely observes the traditional principle of nunchi (a combination of good manners, hierarchy, and obligation). Desperate for a new life, she’s thrilled to become the au pair for the Mazer-Farleys, two Brooklyn English professors and their adopted Chinese daughter. Inducted into the world of organic food co-ops, and nineteenth–century novels, Jane is the recipient of Beth Mazer’s feminist lectures and Ed Farley’s very male attention. But when a family death interrupts Jane and Ed’s blossoming affair, she flies off to Seoul, leaving New York far behind.
Reconnecting with family, and struggling to learn the ways of modern-day Korea, Jane begins to wonder if Ed Farley is really the man for her. Jane returns to Queens, where she must find a balance between two cultures and accept who she really is. Re Jane is a bright, comic story of falling in love, finding strength, and living not just out of obligation to others, but for one’s self.
Carrie says: A loose retelling of Jane Eyre with a Korean American Heroine. Love Jane Eyre, love multicultural versions of classics, fingers crossed that this will be good.
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Bruja
Author: Aileen Erin
Released: May 12, 2015 by Ink Monster
Genre: Paranormal, Young Adult
Series: Alpha Girl #4Claudia De Santos has always looked out for every witch but herself. She fought from the shadows as her coven turned dark, and with a little help from her half witch/half alpha werewolf cousin, Tessa, Claudia is doing everything she can to keep her friends and family in the light.
Now the coven has splintered into two factions: Luciana’s army of witches wielding dark magic, and Claudia’s few stragglers who fight with the wolves. War is coming, and it won’t be much of a battle if Claudia can’t find the spells to counteract Luciana’s demonic power.
The answers lie in ancient magic, and Claudia must journey to Peru to rediscover what the Inca mages knew. Fighting evil will require a pure spirit, but her quest is full of temptations, including a handsome Peruvian guide with secrets of his own.
As she struggles to gain the knowledge her friends will need in the coming battle, conflict rages in Claudia’s heart. Following through with her arranged marriage could bring hope and more allies to the side of good, but at the cost of her own happiness. Should Claudia stay on the same path of duty she’s always walked or risk it all—her life and the futures of all brujos—for a chance at something more?
Sarah says: This caught my eye because of the title – it means “witch” in Spanish. Then the cover grabbed me, too. Despite this being book 4 of a series, I am curious enough to try it out. I am really, really curious about the heroine.
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Love is Red
Author: Sophie Jaff
Released: May 12, 2015 by Harper
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Nightsong Trilogy #1This electrifying, addictive, and hypnotically beautiful debut spins suspense and literary fantasy into a stunning epic—the first volume in the Night Song Trilogy—ablaze with fear, mystery, and possibility.
Katherine Emerson was born to fulfill a dark prophecy centuries in the making, but she isn’t aware that this future awaits. However, there is one man who knows the truth: A killer stalking the women of New York, a monster the media dubs the “Sickle Man” because of the way he turns his victims into canvasses for his mesmerizing, twisted art.
Unleashed upon Manhattan after lying dormant for centuries, the Sickle Man kills to harvest the precious hues of his victims. As his palette grows, so too does his power. Every death brings him closer to the one color, and the one woman, he must possess at any cost.
While the city hunts the Sickle Man, Katherine must decide what to do about two men who have unexpectedly entered her life: handsome and personable David, and alluring yet aloof Sael. Though she’s becoming increasingly torn between them, how well does she really know them? And why is she suddenly plagued by disturbing visions?
Told from the alternating viewpoints of Katherine and the Sickle Man,Love Is Red is a riveting thriller that unfolds into an intense story of obsession and control, desire and fate. Katherine may not realize it yet, but with this haunting novel—as arrestingly original as Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, and Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls—her moment of awakening is here. And soon she will find herself fighting a battle at the edges of our world, among forces more dangerous than we can possibly imagine.
Amanda says: This book defies explanation. I’m still struggling with how to categorize it, but the description just pulls me right in. The Goodreads copy references Marisha Pessl’s Night Film, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume, and Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls, which are all books I enjoyed. I have high hopes.
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Ripped
Author: Edie Harris
Released: May 18, 2015 by Carina Press
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Romance
Series: Blood Money #2Attorney and political heavyweight Tobias Faraday is the Ice King, a man alone in the eye of a deadly storm. And in the wake of his sister’s torture, he’s out for blood.
The key to Tobias’s revenge is the disavowed British spy he’s kept imprisoned for weeks. Chandler McCallister can get him behind enemy lines in Russia, but the clever double-agent has a demand of her own before she puts her life on the line in the name of redemption.
Posing as Chandler’s boyfriend at an aristocratic wedding in the English countryside won’t kill Tobias. Not in theory.
As the threat of Moscow looms larger and the enemy reveals himself to be crueler than any human can imagine, Tobias reluctantly partners with his prisoner to derail the immediate threat—to their families, to Faraday Industries, and to their lives. What he finds in the process is a feverish, relentless need already melting the ice from his veins.
Amanda says: I absolutely loved the first book, so is it any surprise I’m looking forward to the next one?
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From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess
Author: Meg Cabot
Released: May 19, 2015 by Feiwel & Friends
Genre: Middle Grade
Series: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess #1Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison is a completely average twelve-year-old: average height, average weight, average brown hair of average length, average brown skin and average hazel eyes. The only things about her that aren’t average are her name (too long and princess themed), her ability to draw animals (useful for her future career as a wildlife illustrator), and the fact that she is a half-orphan who has never met her father and is forced to live with her aunt and uncle (who treat her almost like their own kids, so she doesn’t want to complain).
Then one completely average day, everything goes wrong: the most popular girl in school, Annabelle Jenkins, threatens to beat her up, the principal gives her a demerit, and she’s knocked down at the bus stop . . .
Until a limo containing Princess Mia Thermopolis of Genovia pulls up to invite her to New York to finally meet her father, who promptly invites her to come live with him, Mia, Grandmère and her two fabulous poodles . . . .
Maybe Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison isn’t so average after all!
Sarah says: This is a spin off of the Princess Diaries series, about a newly discovered half-sister of Princess Mia Thermopolous. Olivia Grace is bi-racial, in middle school, and not sure she can handle being a princess, but yeah, she’ll be fine. It’s told in the same style as the Princess Diaries – we’re reading Olivia’s journal – and I am super silly levels of excited to read this.
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Uprooted
Author: Naomi Novik
Released: May 19, 2015 by Del Rey
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
RHG’s pick!
Sarah says: DRAGONS DRAGONS DRAGONS THERE ARE DRAGONS GIVE IT TO ME NOW. Ahem.
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Hold Me Like a Breath
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Released: May 19, 2015 by Bloomsbury
Genre: Young Adult
Series: Once Upon a Crime Family #1In Penelope Landlow’s world, almost anything can be bought or sold. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime families controlling the black market for organ transplants. Because of an autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise easily, Penny is considered too “delicate” to handle the family business, or even to step foot outside their estate.
All Penelope has ever wanted is independence-until she’s suddenly thrust into the dangerous world all alone, forced to stay one step ahead of her family’s enemies. As she struggles to survive the power plays of rival crime families, she learns dreams come with casualties, betrayal hurts worse than bruises, and there’s nothing she won’t risk for the people she loves.
Amanda says: A Princess & the Pea retelling with organ trafficking. Yeah, you read that right.
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You Deserve a Drink
Author: Mamrie Hart
Released: May 26, 2015 by Plume
Genre: Memoir, Cookbook, NonfictionA riotously funny collection of boozy misadventures from the creator of the YouTube series, “You Deserve a Drink”
Mamrie Hart is a drinking star with a Youtube problem. As host of the bawdy cult-hit, “You Deserve a Drink,” Hart has been entertaining viewers with her signature concoction of tasty libations and raunchy puns since 2011. Finally, Hart has compiled her best drinking stories—and worst hangovers—into one hilarious volume. From the spring break where she and her girlfriends avoided tan lines by staying at an all-male gay nudist resort, to the bachelorette party where she accidentally hired a sixty year old meth head to teach the group pole dancing, to the time she lit herself on fire during a Flaming Lips concert, Hart accompanies each story with an original cocktail recipe, ensuring that You Deserve a Drinkis as useful as it is entertaining.
Amanda says: I’m a longtime fan of Mamrie’s YouTube series, You Deserve a Drink. She’s hilarious, personable, and is the queen of innuendos.
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Dearest Rogue
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Released: May 26, 2015 by Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Series: Maiden Lane #8HE CAN GUARD HER
Lady Phoebe Batten is pretty, vivacious, and yearning for a social life befitting the sister of a powerful duke. But because she is almost completely blind, her overprotective brother insists that she have an armed bodyguard by her side at all times-the very irritating Captain Trevillion.
FROM EVERY DANGER
Captain James Trevillion is proud, brooding, and cursed with a leg injury from his service in the King’s dragoons. Yet he can still shoot and ride like the devil, so watching over the distracting Lady Phoebe should be no problem at all-until she’s targeted by kidnappers.
BUT PASSION ITSELF
Caught in a deadly web of deceit, James must risk life and limb to save his charge from the lowest of cads-one who would force Lady Phoebe into a loveless marriage. But while they’re confined to close quarters for her safekeeping, Phoebe begins to see the tender man beneath the soldier’s hard exterior…and the possibility of a life-and love-she never imagined possible.
RHG’s pick!
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Under the Lights
Author: Shannon Stacey
Released: May 26, 2015 by Jove
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Boys of Fall #1They were the golden boys of fall: Stewart Mills High School’s legendary championship winning football team. Fourteen years later, they’re back to relive their glory, save the team—and find themselves again…
Chase Sanders’s life has taken a lot of crazy turns lately. But returning to his hometown to help his old coach keep his high school football team afloat might be the craziest thing to happen to him yet. That is, until he starts falling for the last person he should—Coach’s gorgeous daughter…
Kelly McDonnell learned the hard way that cocky, charming men are nothing but trouble, so she knows Chase is bad news. Still, she can’t resist his smile—or the rest of him. But when his loyalty to her father conflicts with their growing attraction, any hope for a relationship might be blocked before it can even begin…
Sarah says: This is a hard one: I like Shannon Stacey’s writing. I’m utterly turned off by football at this point. I’m going to try this one, but I’m wary. This may be a world in which I cannot suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the story.
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Since you asked:
Thea Harrison’s latest Elder Races book Midnight’s Kiss on May 5.
Beck and Call by my favorite erotic romance writer, Emma Holly on May 15.
The third of Lauren Dane’s rock star romances, Back To You on May 26.
And, while I won’t be buying it, as the copy I bought the day of it’s original publication in 1980 is still on my bookshelf, I must recommend Chance the Winds of Fortune by Laurie McBain being re-released TODAY, with a much less attractive cover, for a whole new generation. It’s a sort of sequel to Midnight Madness being about the protagonist’s daughter – but you don’t have to have read it (although, you should) to enjoy this and its sequel, Dark Before the Rising Sun, which surely cannot be far behind. Dante Leighton is still one of my favorite romance heroes. Any of you who avoid old skool romance because of the whole forced sex/good girls don’t, but must ashamedly admit that they liked it aspect we endured back then, you need to read Laurie McBain. All the crazysauce, none of the rape = lovemaking.
NOOOOOO why are there so many books out. I’m going to have to do so much overtime to buy most of these. Looking forward to Elizabeth Hoyt the most!
Michelle West’s Oracle is out May 5th. I am so excited. I am also looking forward to Thea Harrison’s Midnight’s Kiss. I really have to catch up on Naomi Novik’s series as well.
Caroline Linden’s Love in the Time of Scandal is another one I’m super excited about this month! Same day as Elizabeth Hoyt’s new book… Gonna be hermit for a week hehe
My wallet has never been less safe.
I am SO VERY excited about Grave Phantoms! Also about the Hoyt book and some of the others, but I’ve been waiting on Grave Phantoms since Grim Shadows was released!
Adventures with the Search Engine! or, Huh? What, Amazon?
DonnaMarie mentioned a new Emma Holly, so I decided to take a look. Went to the Kindle Store, typed in “Emma Holly” and clicked Sort By Publication Date. In order, these are the first five books that came up:
1. A German translation of an Emma Holly book
2. Beck and Call, which is the new book
3. Rebecca’s Choice (Amish Romance)
4. Erotic Sex
5. Scorching Sex
One of these things is not like the others! One of these things just doesn’t belong!
Oh man, so many books! Really looking forward to Grave Phantoms (love the first two in the series) and Ripped (after reading Blamed based on the review here and really liking that). Have to catch up on the last couple Maiden Lane books because I am SO EXCITED for Phoebe’s story.
The Naomi Novik and Aileen Erin books have me intrigued as well – hope they show up at the library soon after release!
@Susan Reader, or maybe Amazon knows something we don’t….
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