If you’re new to Hide Your Wallet, this is where we list new releases we’re pretty excited for in the coming month.
Each reviewer has a book maximum (five per person), but we’ve separated HYW into two parts. The first HYW of the month will cover books that release from the 1st to the 14th. The second HYW will cover books released from the 15th to the end of the month.
We also think this will help us feature books from smaller publishers who don’t have buy links up as quickly as the big five.
As always, if we missed any books that you’re particularly looking forward to, tell us all about them in the comments.
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The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper
Author: A.J. Fitzwater
Released: April 6, 2020 by Queen of Swords Press
Genre: LGBTQIA, Novella, Science Fiction/FantasyDapper. Lesbian. Capybara. Pirate.
Cinrak the Dapper is a keeper of secrets, a righter of wrongs, the saltiest capybara on the sea and a rider of both falling stars and a great glass whale. Join her, her beloveds, the rat Queen Orvilia and the marmot diva Loquolchi, lead soprano of the Theatre Rat-oyal, her loyal cabin kit, Benj the chinchilla, and Agnes, last of the great krakens, as they hunt for treasures of all kinds and find adventures beyond their wildest dreams. Let Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning storyteller A.J. Fitzwater take you on a glorious journey about finding yourself, discovering true love and found family, and exploring the greatest secrets of the deep. Also, dapperness.
Susan: This was pitched as “Dapper lesbian capybara pirate” and I have no idea what to expect apart from that but I am READY.
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A Stroke of Malice
Author: Anna Lee Huber
Released: April 7, 2020 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: European, Mystery/Thriller
Series: A Lady Darby Mystery #8Lady Kiera Darby and her husband Sebastian Gage are looking forward to relaxing with new friends at an exciting yearly soiree, but they soon learn that murder never takes a holiday in the latest riveting installment in this national bestselling series.
Scotland 1832. After enjoying a delightful holiday with her family, Lady Kiera Darby is looking forward to finishing her new friend, the Duchess of Bowmont’s portrait, as well as attending the duchess’s annual Twelfth Night party. Though she normally avoids such fashionable events, Kiera trusts the attention will not be focused on her, but rather her notorious hostess and her family. But upon their arrival at the opulent Scottish estate, Kiera and her husband and fellow investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, swiftly deduce that all is not merry in the duke’s household. The family appears to be under a great strain, and someone seems determined to cause mayhem among the guests with a series of forged notes.
However, matters swiftly turn from irksome to downright deadly when the merrymakers stumble upon a decomposing body in the castle’s crypt. This corpse is certainly no laughing matter, especially when it is identified as the duchess’s son-in-law, the Earl of Helmsdale, who had purportedly traveled to Paris more than a month earlier. It is evident the man met with foul play, and Kiera and Gage step in to investigate, at the duchess’s insistence. Kiera and Gage must swiftly reexamine the facts, for a ruthless murderer walks among them and may well be a member of the duchess’s own family. Kiera soon discovers just how deep the killer is willing to dig to keep their secrets from ever seeing the light of day.
Sarah: The latest Lady Darby mystery – I’m so excited to read it.
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The Age of Witches
Author: Louisa Morgan
Released: April 7, 2020 by Redhook
Genre: Historical: American, Science Fiction/FantasyIn Gilded Age New York, a centuries-long clash between two magical families ignites when a young witch must choose between love and loyalty, power and ambition, in this magical novel by Louisa Morgan.
In 1692, Bridget Bishop was hanged as a witch. Two hundred years later, her legacy lives on in the scions of two very different lines: one dedicated to using their powers to heal and help women in need; the other, determined to grasp power for themselves by whatever means necessary. This clash will play out in the fate of Annis, a young woman in Gilded Age New York who finds herself a pawn in the family struggle for supremacy. She’ll need to claim her own power to save herself-and resist succumbing to the darkness that threatens to overcome them all.
Sarah: Gilded Age witches? Hi!
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Bonds of Brass
Author: Emily Skrutskie
Released: April 7, 2020 by Del Rey
Genre: LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: The Bloodright Trilogy #1A young pilot risks everything to save his best friend–the man he trusts most and might even love–only to learn that he’s secretly the heir to a brutal galactic empire.
Ettian Nassun’s life was shattered when the merciless Umber Empire invaded. He’s spent seven years putting himself back together under its rule, joining an Umber military academy and becoming the best pilot in his class. Even better, he’s met Gal Veres–his exasperating and infuriatingly enticing roommate who’s made the Academy feel like a new home.
But when dozens of classmates spring an assassination plot on Gal, a devastating secret comes to light: Gal is the heir to the Umber Empire. Ettian barely manages to save his best friend and flee the compromised Academy unscathed, rattled both that Gal stands to inherit the empire that broke him and that there are still people willing to fight back against Umber rule. As they piece together a way to deliver Gal safely to his throne, Ettian finds himself torn in half by an impossible choice. Does he save the man who’s won his heart and trust that Gal’s goodness could transform the empire? Or does he throw his lot in with the brewing rebellion and fight to take back what’s rightfully theirs?
Ellen: Very good, super swoony space-opera romance. I am so excited for everyone else to be able to read it! Seems like it is maybe being not marketed as YA but having read it, it’s definitely YA…
Susan: The latest Star Wars trilogy has left a Finn/Poe hole in my life, and I really want Bonds of Brass to be thing that fills it!
Elyse: This is the Poe/Finn fan fic I have been waiting for.
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Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Scones
Author: Ngozi Ukazu
Released: April 7, 2020 by First Second
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Graphic Novel, LGBTQIA, RomanceBitty is heading to junior year of college and though he has overcome his fear of getting ‘checked’ on the ice, he and Jack now face new challanges. They must nagivate their new relationship while being apart and aslo decide how they want to reveal their relationship to those around them. Not only that, but Jack and the Falconers are now a big part of the NHL–and Bitty’s life! It’s a hockey season filled with victories and losses.
A collection of the second half of the mega-popular webcomic series of the same name, Check, Please!: Sticks and Scones is the last in a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.
Susan: Check Please! started life as a coming-of-age webcomic about Eric Bittle, baker and newest member of his college’s hockey team, and now it’s wrapping up in hardcopy form! …I’m not ready for it to be over, I have too many feelings about these kids doing their best and also falling in love.
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Chosen Ones
Author: Veronica Roth
Released: April 7, 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Chosen Ones #1The first novel written for an adult audience by the mega-selling author of the Divergent franchise: five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons—and reconsider what it means to be a hero . . . by destiny or by choice.
A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.
Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.
Amanda: Admittedly, I’m not a fan of the Divergent series, but I am totally here for what happens when the teen chosen ones become adults.
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The Glass Magician
Author: Caroline Stevermer
Released: April 7, 2020 by Tor Books
Genre: Historical: American, Science Fiction/FantasyA gilded menagerie rules a Gilded Age: Bears and Bulls are not only real, but dominate humanity in The Glass Magician, an amazing historical fantasy by Caroline Stevermer
What if you could turn into the animal of your heart anytime you want?
With such power, you’d enter the cream of New York society, guaranteed a rich life among the Vanderbilts and Astors, movers and shakers who all have the magical talent and own the nation on the cusp of a new century.
You could. If you were a Trader.
Pity you’re not.
Thalia is a Solitaire, one of the masses who don’t have the animalistic magic. But that is not to say that she doesn’t have talent of another kind—she is a rising stage magician who uses her very human skills to dazzle audiences with amazing feats of prestidigitation. Until one night when a trick goes horribly awry…and Thalia makes a discovery that changes her entire world. And sets her on a path that could bring her riches.
Or kill her.
Aarya: I’ve been enjoying a ton of Gilded Age novels lately and this is right up my alley.
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Godshot
Author: Chelsea Bieker
Released: April 7, 2020 by Catapult
Genre: Literary FictionDrought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret “assignments,” to bring the rain everybody is praying for.
Lacey has no reason to doubt the pastor. But then her life explodes in a single unimaginable act of abandonment: her mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves Lacey and runs off with a man she barely knows. Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mice collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules, and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother, no matter what it takes. With her only guidance coming from the romance novels she reads and the unlikely companionship of the women who knew her mother, she must find her own way through unthinkable circumstances.
Possessed of an unstoppable plot and a brilliantly soulful voice, Godshot is a book of grit and humor and heart, a debut novel about female friendship and resilience, mother-loss and motherhood, and seeking salvation in unexpected places. It introduces a writer who gives Flannery O’Connor’s Gothic parables a Californian twist and who emerges with a miracle that is all her own.
Amanda: I will read anything with cults.
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Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
Author: Samira Ahmed
Released: April 7, 2020 by Soho Teen
Genre: Contemporary/Other, Historical: Other, Young AdultTold in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Samira Ahmed traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of familial burdens and cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.
It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads. This holiday with her professor parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is probably ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and now all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life instead of brooding in the City of Light.
Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted” her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron.
Echoing across centuries, Leila and Khayyam’s lives intertwine, and as one woman’s long-forgotten life is uncovered, another’s is transformed.
Aarya: I’m a sucker for alternating timelines and this looks AMAZING.
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The Perfect Escape
Author: Suzanne Park
Released: April 7, 2020 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
Series: The Perfect Escape #1Love is a battlefield in this hysterical rom-com debut, perfect for fans of Jenny Han.
Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?
Kate Anderson wants a fresh start, away from her controlling father. She fantasizes about escaping to New York, where she can pursue her dreams. But how can Kate get there when she can’t even buy dinner without his approval?
Worlds collide when Nate and Kate meet at the zombie-themed escape room where they both work. As sparks fly, fate steps in: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize that could solve all their problems. The real challenge? Making it through the weekend with their hearts intact…
Amanda: This sounds adorable.
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Prince Freya, Vol. 1
Author: Keiko Ishihara
Released: April 7, 2020 by VIZ Media: Shojo Beat
Genre: Manga, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Prince Freya #1Love is a battlefield in this hysterical rom-com debut, perfect for fans of Jenny Han.
Nate Jae-Woo Kim wants to be rich. When one of his classmates offers Nate a ridiculous amount of money to commit grade fraud, he knows that taking the windfall would help support his prideful Korean family, but is compromising his integrity worth it?
Kate Anderson wants a fresh start, away from her controlling father. She fantasizes about escaping to New York, where she can pursue her dreams. But how can Kate get there when she can’t even buy dinner without his approval?
Worlds collide when Nate and Kate meet at the zombie-themed escape room where they both work. As sparks fly, fate steps in: a local tech company is hosting a weekend-long survivalist competition with a huge cash prize that could solve all their problems. The real challenge? Making it through the weekend with their hearts intact…
Ellen: New shoujo series where a girl has to pose as the dead prince of her country and lead its knights!? So many amazing new manga series lately, I cannot HANDLE it.
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Sin Eater
Author: Megan Campisi
Released: April 7, 2020 by Atria Books
Genre: Historical: Other, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/FantasyThe Handmaid’s Tale meets Alice in Wonderland in this gripping and imaginative historical novel about a shunned orphan girl in 16th-century England who is ensnared in a deadly royal plot and must turn her subjugation into her power.
The Sin Eater walks among us, unseen, unheard
Sins of our flesh become sins of Hers
Following Her to the grave, unseen, unheard
The Sin Eater Walks Among Us.For the crime of stealing bread, fourteen-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eater—a shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven.
Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured, and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why.
“A keenly researched feminist arc of unexpected abundance, reckoning, intellect, and ferocious survival” (Maria Dahvana Headley, author of The Mere Wife) Sin Eater is “a dark, rich story replete with humor, unforgettable characters, and arcane mysteries. It casts a spell on your heart and mind until the final page” (Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters).
Lara: I am FASCINATED by the idea of a sin eater and I’m powerless to resist any historical fiction, so this book has me begging for its release into the world.
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To Have and to Hoax
Author: Martha Waters
Released: April 7, 2020 by Atria Books
Genre: Historical: European, RomanceIn this fresh and hilarious historical rom-com, an estranged husband and wife in Regency England feign accidents and illness in an attempt to gain attention—and maybe just win each other back in the process.
Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since.
Their once-passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached politeness. But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side—only to discover him alive and well at a tavern, and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.
Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses—and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought. Will the two be able to overcome four years of hurt or will they continue to deny the spark between them?
With charm, wit, and heart in spades, To Have and to Hoax is a fresh and eminently entertaining romantic comedy—perfect for fans of Jasmine Guillory and Julia Quinn.
Aarya: This is the second April 7 release that features MCs in a romantic relationship pulling pranks on each other. I like coincidences! Also, the title is genius.
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You Deserve Each Other
Author: Sarah Hogle
Released: April 7, 2020 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceWhen your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.
Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that’s three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.
Naomi wants out, but there’s a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.
But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they’re finally being themselves–and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.
Aarya: Normally the premise would worry me about mean-spirited pranks, but a trusted friend read an ARC and raved about it. That’s enough for me to try it!
Catherine: This looks hilarious and very silly – two halves of an engaged couple each trying to get the other to break the engagement. I’m there for it.
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The Book of Koli
Author: M.R. Carey
Released: April 14, 2020 by Orbit
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Rampart Trilogy #1Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.
Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls.
What he doesn’t know is – what happens when you aren’t given a choice?
The first in a gripping new trilogy, The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world. Perfect for readers of Station Eleven and Annihilation.
Carrie: An unnamed event has caused survivors to live a somewhat medieval life with hints of futuristic technology. Meanwhile, watch out for predatory plants! As the protagonist moves beyond the fence around his village the world begins to take more shape. Character driven and imaginative. Will never regard a tree in the same way again.
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Flavor of the Month
Author: Georgia Beers
Released: April 14, 2020 by Bold Strokes Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceCharlie Stetko had a life to envy. A penthouse in Manhattan, a beautiful girlfriend, and a circle of perfect friends. Or so she thought. When her girlfriend sends her packing, Charlie ends up unemployed. Without a place to live or money of her own, she’s forced to do the one thing she vowed she never would: go back to Shaker Falls, Vermont. Back to her parents, back to the bakery where she worked as a teen, back to the small town life―and the people―she left behind.
Emma Grier thought Charlie was the love of her life until that uppity Manhattan entrepreneur swept Charlie off her feet and made her a trophy wife. Charlie left everything in Shaker Falls behind, including Emma’s shattered heart. But Emma picked herself back up and now owns a popular restaurant in Shaker Falls. As for her love life? She doesn’t need one. Something else she doesn’t need? Charlie waltzing into her restaurant to sell her the bakery’s pie.
What happens when Charlie and Emma realize their differing paths have led them right back to each other?
Tara: This is a smalltown, second chance romance where one of the characters made it big in New York and then has to come home. The circumstances driving her home seem weird to me (why couldn’t a marketer work from anywhere in this digital age?), but Georgia Beers is one of my go-to lesfic authors so I still want to go on this ride with her. Also, one of them works in a bakery and the other owns a restaurant, so there’s going to be SO MUCH food in this book and I am here for that.
Shana: This blurb makes me hungry and there’s a mixed race heroine. Yes, please.
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The Happy Ever After Playlist
Author: Abby Jimenez
Released: April 14, 2020 by Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceCharlie Stetko had a life to envy. A penthouse in Manhattan, a beautiful girlfriend, and a circle of perfect friends. Or so she thought. When her girlfriend sends her packing, Charlie ends up unemployed. Without a place to live or money of her own, she’s forced to do the one thing she vowed she never would: go back to Shaker Falls, Vermont. Back to her parents, back to the bakery where she worked as a teen, back to the small town life―and the people―she left behind.
Emma Grier thought Charlie was the love of her life until that uppity Manhattan entrepreneur swept Charlie off her feet and made her a trophy wife. Charlie left everything in Shaker Falls behind, including Emma’s shattered heart. But Emma picked herself back up and now owns a popular restaurant in Shaker Falls. As for her love life? She doesn’t need one. Something else she doesn’t need? Charlie waltzing into her restaurant to sell her the bakery’s pie.
What happens when Charlie and Emma realize their differing paths have led them right back to each other?
Sneezy: Two people fighting over a dog and end up falling in love. Need I say more?
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The Last Place You Look
Author: Aurora Rey
Released: April 14, 2020 by Bold Strokes Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceJulia Pierce can think of nothing more humiliating than her wife of eight years leaving her for her personal trainer. Oh, wait. She can. Without a career or a place to go when that exact thing happens, she’s forced to move home and take a job at her family’s winery.
Taylor Winslow has been in love with Julia since tenth grade. Not the desperate, pining sort, but the kind that never really went away. When Julia reappears, Taylor has a chance to finally win her heart. The only problem? Julia’s hell-bent on making up for lost time by dating every eligible lesbian in town.
Signing on as Julia’s wingman may land Taylor in the friend zone for good, but it’s a gamble she’s willing to take. With Taylor in her corner, will Julia find love, and herself, where she least expects it?
Tara: Like the Georgia Beers book I’ve listed this month, this is another f/f romance about returning to your hometown, but this one is in a winery! I don’t know why, but I love romances that revolve around wineries. And where there is wine, there is always also good food. God bless Bold Strokes Books for releasing two books that will fill my foodie romance soul.
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Not That Kind of Guy
Author: Andie Christopher
Released: April 14, 2020 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceAn office attraction becomes something more when they’re off the clock in this delightful romantic comedy by the USA Today bestselling author of Not the Girl You Marry.
State attorney Bridget Nolan is successful in all aspects of her life—except romance. After breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, she’s been slow to reenter the dating scene. To be honest, she has more important things to do like putting bad guys behind bars. But with her brother’s wedding right around the corner, she suddenly needs a date and fast. Lucky for Bridget, the legal intern is almost done with his program.
Matt Kido is dumbstruck by Bridget—total love at first sight—but there’s one problem. She’s totally off-limits while she’s his boss. But the moment he no longer reports to her, Matt decides to take a chance. An impulsive decision takes them to Las Vegas where, as the saying goes, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Unless you put a ring on it.
Aarya: Large power differentials in a workplace usually squick me out, but I appreciate how the blurb mentions that the hero doesn’t make a move until the conflict-of-interest is over.
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Witchlight
Author: Jessi Zabarsky
Released: April 14, 2020 by Random House Graphic
Genre: Graphic Novel, LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young AdultLove — loss — witches — this YA fantasy graphic novel has it all! This thoughtful, emotional story will entrance you with its moving story and organic artwork.
Lelek is a witch.
That’s all Sanja knows when she meets Lelek in the marketplace. But Lelek is hiding something — and as her life begins to intersect with Sanja’s, all that she’s kept to herself starts to come to light.
Secrets, friendship, and magic all come together as Lelek gets closer and closer to uncovering the truth about her past. . . .
Witchlight is a wonderful adventure filled with friendship, family, falling in love, and dealing with the hardest bits of your past all along the way.
Ellen: I read this back when it was first published by a small press, and now it’s getting republished in full color and I am SO excited. It’s one of my favorite graphic novels of all time.
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I don’t have much on my April list, but, as usual, the first of the month brings new books from my favorite Harlequin Presents and Dare authors:
Jackie Ashenden’s SEXY BEAST, her latest from Dare, is part of the same series as her earlier DIRTY DEVIL. Much as I love Ashenden, nothing about DIRTY DEVIL grabbed me (I had to look it up to even remember the basic plot), so I’m hoping SEXY BEAST is more in line with what I enjoy about Ashenden’s work.
Clare Connelly’s BURN MY HART is the next in her Notorious Harts series with heroes who are brothers with the last name—you guessed it—Hart. I love Connelly’s angsty style and enjoyed the first book in the series, CROSS MY HART, and hoping for something similar with the new book.
Caitlin Crews’s latest HP is THE ITALIAN’S PREGNANT CINDERELLA. When it comes to HPs, readers either love them or hate them, there’s very little middle ground. I’m in the “love them” camp and can’t wait for another of Crews’s signature angsty emotional roller-coaster rides, this one obviously involving an unplanned pregnancy.
Outside of the HP/Dare universe, I’m looking forward to a couple of new books from my favorite “dark romance” writers: Skye Warren’s WHO WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL? drops on April 14 and appears to be four interconnected stories involving a woman who is a pathological liar. Also in the “very dark” category, Natasha Knight & A. Zavarelli conclude their Ties That Bind duet with HIS on April 21. I just read MINE, the first book in the duet, it’s an “unplanned pregnancy/secret baby/Russian bratva/on the run from some really bad guys“ romance with ties to Zavarelli’s Boston Underworld series. I expect more of the same in HIS. As with HPs, dark/crime/mafia/mob romance is generally a love it or hate it proposition—and both Knight and Zavarelli can get very dark, so you have been warned.
Bench Player by Julianna Keyes automatically appeared on my kindle and I’m so excited! Connor, best friend and teammate of Tyler from Team Player, has just gotten out of jail for stock fraud. I haven’t started it but can’t wait.
@Vivi12: I didn’t mention BENCH PLAYER above because it was a March release (March 30, but nonetheless, March), but I started it yesterday and it’s soooo good. Grumpy-gruff hero and ultra-competent heroine and what appears to be an element of enforced proximity. Plus baseball…so what’s not to like? Especially when, in a non-covid19 alternate universe, the regular baseball season would have started this week.
The taxidermy mice mentioned in the God Shot blurb reminded me of the time the taxidermy toilet mice were mentioned on the site by Elyse? Amanda?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/736063124/taxidermy-toilet-mouse-books?source=aw&utm_source=affiliate_window&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=us_location_buyer&utm_term=3657&awc=6220_1574309662_feb51323492cf8cf3657800aaa01f3dd&utm_content=303691
A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones: I didn’t care for her ‘Last Grave’ series, but I’ll read the sample for this.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.
Who Speaks for the Damned by C. S. Harris
You’re killing me with all the coming soon books. I want them now!
Kiera & Gage! Keira & Gage! Any month that starts with a new Anna Lee Huber can’t be all bad. Wait! Yes, it can. I’m at half hours which means half pay, so no book budget, and the GBPL is on lock down, so no library copy even though it’s right there on my reserve list. How is the library not a necessary government service? Mine has a drive through, just like McDonalds & Dunkin Donuts.
Yes, I’m whining about that again. You’re going to hear it a lot.
If you’re into “crossdressing as a national leader in defense of your people” as a shoujo premise, can I recommend the 90s series Basara? The premise is that a young girl is raised in the shadow of her twin brother, the prophesied chosen one who will lead a successful rebellion against the empire who controls them. Except that he doesn’t survive his first battle, and to keep the rebellion alive she impersonates him.
I LOVE the Lady Darby Series. I like them even better as audio books–the reader is about perfect imo. I can’t wait to read this one.
[…] releases: Tor.com (genre-benders, scifi, fantasy, YA SFF), Smart Bitches (romance), Gizmodo (SFF), AAR […]
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING!!!! Her newest in the Clare Fergusson series — Hid From Our Eyes — comes out April 7th. This is a wonderful series and it was mentioned recently in the Rec Club. It has a great slow burn romance along with meaty mysteries. Great side characters and although the heroine Clare is an Episcopal priest, it is not a proselytizing or in-your-face-about-religion book. Also the hero and heroine are somewhat older than the typical leads. The release date was pushed back because of some terrible events in the author’s life including the death of her husband.
I adored Sarah Hogle’s You Deserve Each Other. It’s been a week since finishing it and I’m still thinking about it.
To Have and To Hoax is up next for me and I’m happy to see many positive reviews.
Otherwise, Sandra Antonelli’s third book in her wonderful spy/romance series, True to Your Service is what I’m currently reading and can highly recommend. Looking forward also to the 15th book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series, Who Speaks for the Damned. Have my eye too on Abby Jimenez’s The Happy Ever After Playlist.
Can I recommend a YA friends-to-lovers romance..? I just read Cameron Lund’s ‘The Best Laid Plans’ (because anything too difficult and angsty is impossible for me right now), and just really liked all the side characters. The mean girls weren’t just mean, and the female friendships were realistically complex.