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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10 Things I Hate About Pinky
Author: Sandhya Menon
Released: July 21, 2020 by Simon Pulse
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
Series: Dimple and Rishi #3The delightful follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie, which follows Ashish’s friends Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date in order to achieve their individual goals, to disastrous and hilarious results.
Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.
Samir Jha might have a few…quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.
Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions she’s made (a.k.a. boyfriends she’s had), she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy—who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy—to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer.
When Samir’s internship falls through, leaving him with an unplanned summer, he gets a text from Pinky asking if he’ll be her fake boyfriend in exchange for a new internship. He jumps at the opportunity; Pinky’s a weirdo, but he can survive a summer with her if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they’ll never forget.
Aarya: Fake relationship YA romance in the summer at Cape Cod! This is my favorite Menon cover to date (and they’ve all been fabulous).
Susan: 10 Things I Hate About Pinky has frenemies, fake dating, frenemies who are fake dating, and a character who obsessively uses lists and planners. …Yes I came here for the planner and stayed for everything else, I can’t even pretend that wasn’t what happened.
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A Touch of Stone and Snow
Author: Milla Vane
Released: July 21, 2020 by Berkley
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: A Gathering of Dragons #2Milla Vane returns to a world of kings, magic, and passion in her exhilarating A Gathering of Dragons series, as a great alliance forms to stand against an evil warlord intent on their destruction.
Danger lurks in the western realms. The Destroyer’s imminent return has sent the realms into turmoil as desperate citizens seek refuge—but there’s no safety to be found when demons and wraiths crawl out from the shadows. Even Koth, a northern island kingdom left untouched by the Destroyer a generation past, is besieged by terrors spawned from corrupt magics.
When Lizzan leads the Kothan army against these terrors, only to see her soldiers massacred and to emerge as the only survivor, she is called a coward and a deserter. Shunned from her home, Lizzan now wanders in solitude as a mercenary for hire, until she encounters a group of warriors seeking new alliances with the northern kingdoms—a group that includes Aerax, the bastard prince of Koth, and the man who sent her into exile.
Though they were childhood friends, Aerax cannot allow himself to be close to the only woman who might thwart his treacherous plan to save their island realm. But when a goddess’s demand binds them together, Lizzan and Aerax must find a way to overcome their painful pasts. Or there will be no future for the western realms…
Elyse: I devoured the first book in this series in one sitting. I cannot wait for the next one.
Ellen: The first book was A LOT but not necessarily in a bad way. Excited to see more of the world.
Sneezy: I loved the FUCK out of this book, and it instantly became one of my comfort re-reads. If you love cats, you should DEFINITELY read this, because there is a GIANT SABERTOOTH CAT that will rip your enemies apart AND SNUGGLE YOU!! Tell me, WHAT HIGHER MEANING CAN THERE BE TO LIFE?
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A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
Author: T. Kingfisher
Released: July 21, 2020 by Red Wombat Studio
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young AdultFourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…
Aarya: I love, love, love T. Kingfisher. Also, “sourdough starter as a familiar” is so fitting for quarantine times!
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Axiom’s End
Author: Lindsay Ellis
Released: July 21, 2020 by St. Martin's Press
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Noumena #1Axiom’s End is an alternate history first contact adventure set in the early 2000’s, pitched as Stranger Things meets Arrival, by video essayist Lindsay Ellis.
By the fall of 2007, one well-timed leak revealing that the U.S. government might have engaged in first contact has sent the country into turmoil, and it is all Cora Sabino can do to avoid the whole mess. The force driving this controversy is Cora’s whistleblower father, and even though she hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and redirected it to her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.To save her own life, she offers her services as an interpreter to a monster, and the monster accepts.
Learning the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to find the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. But in becoming an interpreter, she begins to realize that she has become the voice for a being she cannot ever truly know or understand, and starts to question who she’s speaking for—and what future she’s setting up for all of humanity.
Amanda: A “first contact” whistleblower! I love first contact stories.
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The Pull of the Stars
Author: Emma Donoghue
Released: July 21, 2020 by Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Literary FictionDublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. A small world of work, risk, death and unlooked-for love, by the bestselling author of The Wonder and ROOM.
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders—Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.
Shana: Is it too soon for a pandemic novel? I love this author, and I’m hoping for a happy ending with twists and turns along the way
Tara: Okay, I read the blurb because Shana had this on her list and now I want to read it too because it sounds SO good.
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Trouble the Saints
Author: Alaya Dawn Johnson
Released: July 21, 2020 by Tor Books
Genre: Historical: American, Science Fiction/Fantasy“Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story… in a word: Awesome” —N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Season.
The dangerous magic of The Night Circus meets the powerful historical exploration of The Underground Railroad in this timely and unsettling novel, set against the darkly glamorous backdrop of New York City, where an assassin falls in love and tries to fight her fate at the dawn of World War II.Amid the whir of city life, a young woman from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear among its most dangerous denizens.
Ten years later, Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything—not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams.
Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side—and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late—is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice?
Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel—a magical love story, a compelling exposure of racial fault lines—and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga.
Ellen: I have been a huge fan of Alaya Dawn Johnson since The Summer Prince. I’m very confident in her ability to execute a pretty high-concept fantasy.
Maya: I really liked Alaya Dawn Johnson’s short story, “The Rules of the Land” in A Phoenix First Must Burn and I’m really looking forward to this book!
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The Year of the Witching
Author: Alexis Henderson
Released: July 21, 2020 by Ace
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction/FantasyThe Handmaid’s Tale for a new generation . . .
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy.The daughter of a union with an outsider that cast her once-proud family into disgrace, Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol and lead a life of submission, devotion and absolute conformity, like all the women in the settlement.
But a chance mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood that surrounds Bethel – a place where the first prophet once pursued and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still walking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the diary of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.
Fascinated by secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realises the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her . . .
Amanda: This debut has been high on my list of 2020 releases to read.
Elyse: This dark fantasy debut looks amazing.
Ellen: I’m reviewing this!! Incredibly excited.
Maya: Black witches!
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The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows
Author: Olivia Waite
Released: July 28, 2020 by Avon Impulse
Genre: Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Feminine Pursuits #2When Agatha Griffin finds a colony of bees in her warehouse, it’s the not-so-perfect ending to a not-so-perfect week. Busy trying to keep her printing business afloat amidst rising taxes and the suppression of radical printers like her son, the last thing the widow wants is to be the victim of a thousand bees. But when a beautiful beekeeper arrives to take care of the pests, Agatha may be in danger of being stung by something far more dangerous…
Penelope Flood exists between two worlds in her small seaside town, the society of rich landowners and the tradesfolk. Soon, tensions boil over when the formerly exiled Queen arrives on England’s shores—and when Penelope’s long-absent husband returns to Melliton, she once again finds herself torn, between her burgeoning love for Agatha and her loyalty to the man who once gave her refuge.
As Penelope finally discovers her true place, Agatha must learn to accept the changing world in front of her. But will these longing hearts settle for a safe but stale existence or will they learn to fight for the future they most desire?
Ellen: Had me at “beautiful beekeeper.”
Susan: The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics was fantastic in its discussion of art, science, and who got to be a real participant in either, so I’m excited to come back to the series! Especially because print shops are my incredibly niche favourite thing to read about in historical romances, so The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is definitely hitting my interests!
Shana: I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book since the beginning of time and it’s FINALLY HERE! The first book in the series, the Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, was one my favorite books of 2019.
Tara: I loved the first book in this series, so I was going to be excited no matter what. But a printer and a beekeeper? I can’t even.
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Deal with the Devil
Author: Kit Rocha
Released: July 28, 2020 by Tor Books
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Mercenary Librarians #1Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers in the vein of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author duo Kit Rocha
The United States went belly up 45 years ago when our power grid was wiped out. Too few live in well-protected isolation while the rest of us scrape by on the margins. The only thing that matters is survival. By any means. At any cost.
Nina is an information broker with a mission: to bring hope to the darkest corners of Atlanta. She and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help those in need. But altruism doesn’t pay the bills—raiding vaults and collecting sensitive data is where the real money is.
Knox is a bitter, battle-weary supersoldier who leads the Silver Devils, an elite strike squad that chose to go AWOL rather than slaughter innocents. Before the Devils leave town for good, they need a biochem hacker to stabilize the experimental implants that grant their superhuman abilities.
The problem? Their hacker’s been kidnapped. And the ransom for her return is Nina. Knox has the perfect bait for a perfect trap: a lost Library of Congress server. The data could set Nina and her team up for years…
If they live that long.
Maya: YAYYYYYYYY NEW KIT ROCHA!
Sneezy: WE’RE ON THE HIIIIIGHWAY TO HELL!!!!! WE’RE ON THE HIIIIIGHWAY TO HELL!!!!! (And we’ll like every second of it!!!!)
Shana: I one-clicked at “mercenary librarians.”
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Empire of Wild
Author: Cherie Dimaline
Released: July 28, 2020 by William Morrow
Genre: Horror, Mystery/Thriller“Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive—all the while telling a story that needs to be told by a person who needs to be telling it.”—Tommy Orange, author of There There
A bold and brilliant new indigenous voice in contemporary literature makes her American debut with this kinetic, imaginative, and sensuous fable inspired by the traditional Canadian Métis legend of the Rogarou—a werewolf-like creature that haunts the roads and woods of native people’s communities.
Joan has been searching for her missing husband, Victor, for nearly a year—ever since that terrible night they’d had their first serious argument hours before he mysteriously vanished. Her Métis family has lived in their tightly knit rural community for generations, but no one keeps the old ways . . . until they have to. That moment has arrived for Joan.
One morning, grieving and severely hungover, Joan hears a shocking sound coming from inside a revival tent in a gritty Walmart parking lot. It is the unmistakable voice of Victor. Drawn inside, she sees him. He has the same face, the same eyes, the same hands, though his hair is much shorter and he’s wearing a suit. But he doesn’t seem to recognize Joan at all. He insists his name is Eugene Wolff, and that he is a reverend whose mission is to spread the word of Jesus and grow His flock. Yet Joan suspects there is something dark and terrifying within this charismatic preacher who professes to be a man of God . . . something old and very dangerous.
Joan turns to Ajean, an elderly foul-mouthed card shark who is one of the few among her community steeped in the traditions of her people and knowledgeable about their ancient enemies. With the help of the old Métis and her peculiar Johnny-Cash-loving, twelve-year-old nephew Zeus, Joan must find a way to uncover the truth and remind Reverend Wolff who he really is . . . if he really is. Her life, and those of everyone she loves, depends upon it.
Amanda: More horror books! I’ve started it and am loving it.
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Flyaway
Author: Kathleen Jennings
Released: July 28, 2020 by Tor.com
Genre: Horror, Novella, Science Fiction/FantasyIn a small Western Queensland town, a reserved young woman receives a note from one of her vanished brothers—a note that makes question her memories of their disappearance and her father’s departure.
A beguiling story that proves that gothic delights and uncanny family horror can live—and even thrive—under a burning sun, Flyaway introduces readers to Bettina Scott, whose search for the truth throws her into tales of eerie dogs, vanished schools, cursed monsters, and enchanted bottles.
In these pages Jennings assures you that gothic delights, uncanny family horror, and strange, unsettling prose can live—and even thrive—under a burning sun.
Holly Black describes as “half mystery, half fairy tale, all exquisitely rendered and full of teeth.” Flyaway enchants you with the sly, beautiful darkness of Karen Russell and a world utterly its own.
Amanda: Gothic horror with Australian folklore. Hello!
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Hairpin Curves
Author: Elia Winters
Released: July 28, 2020 by Carina Adores
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceRITA® Award—winning author Elia Winters delivers a sexy, playful frenemies-to-lovers road-trip romance.
Megan Harris had hopes of seeing the world, but at twenty-five she’s never even left Florida. Now a wedding invitation lures her to Quebec…in February. When her ex-friend Scarlett offers to be her plus-one (yeah, that’s a whole story) and suggests they turn the journey into an epic road trip, Megan reluctantly agrees to the biggest adventure of her life.
A week together in a car is a surefire way to kill a crush, and Scarlett Andrews has had a big one on Megan for years. The important thing is fixing their friendship.
As the miles roll away, what starts as harmless road-trip games and rest-stop dares escalates into something like intimacy. And when a surprise snowstorm forces Megan and Scarlett to hunker down without the open road as distraction, they’ve got a bigger challenge than making it to the church on time: facing the true nature of their feelings for each other.
Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.
Tara: Oh hello, f/f roadtrip romance. Where have you been all my life? (Seriously, I can only think of two others). Also, they’re going to Canada. I’m into it.
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I Kissed Alice
Author: Anna Birch
Released: July 28, 2020 by Imprint
Genre: Romance, Young AdultFor fans of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and FanGirl, Anna Birch’s I Kissed Alice is a romantic comedy about enemies, lovers, and everything in between.
Rhodes and Iliana couldn’t be more different, but that’s not why they hate each other.
Hyper-gifted artist Rhodes has always excelled at Alabama’s Conservatory of the Arts despite a secret bout of creator’s block, while transfer student Iliana tries to outshine everyone with her intense, competitive work ethic. Since only one of them can get the coveted Capstone scholarship, the competition between them is fierce.
They both escape the pressure on a fanfic site where they are unknowingly collaborating on a graphic novel. And despite being worst enemies in real life, their anonymous online identities I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-in-Cheshire are starting to like each other… a lot. When the truth comes out, will they destroy each other’s future?
Susan: Characters falling in love through their secret identities is a trope that can get a bit stressful for me because not knowing when the other shoe is going to drop is agony! But characters meeting through fandom and collaborating on huge creative projects is an idea that I’m invested enough in that I’ll take it!
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Paradise Cove
Author: Jenny Holiday
Released: July 28, 2020 by Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Matchmaker Bay #2From the USA Today bestselling “master of witty banter” (Entertainment Weekly) comes a hilarious and heartwarming romance about a big city girl who never expected to find the man of her dreams in the tiny town of Matchmaker Bay.
Dr. Nora Walsh has just been dumped in spectacular fashion, making it the perfect time for a major life change. She figures taking over the medical practice in tiny Matchmaker Bay for a couple of years will help her get over her broken heart, and then she can head back to the big city. But when the first man she sees looks like a superhero god, she wonders if maybe there’s something to small-town living after all.Jake Ramsey also has a broken heart — one he never expects to heal. He doesn’t need people anyway and is content hiding out in his secluded cottage on the beach. But after helping Nora with a medical emergency, he finds himself opening up to the witty, warmhearted doctor. Soon the local matchmakers are working overtime to pair them off, and Jake begins to wonder if his campaign to get Nora to stay is for the town or because he can’t bear the thought of her leaving.
Aarya: I’ve seen so much positive buzz for Paradise Cove! A friend described this as her fave Holiday book to date, so I’m definitely going to read it.
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The Pink Line
Author: Mark Gevisser
Released: July 28, 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre: LGBTQIA, NonfictionMore than five years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers is a globetrotting exploration of how the human rights frontier around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition is celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the world, and he takes readers to its frontiers.
In between sharp analytical chapters about culture wars, folklore, gender ideology, and geopolitics, Gevisser provides sensitive and sometimes startling profiles of the queer folk he’s encountered on the Pink Line’s front lines across nine countries. They include a trans Malawian refugee granted asylum in South Africa and a gay Ugandan refugee stuck in Nairobi; a lesbian couple who started a gay café in Cairo after the Arab Spring, a trans woman fighting for custody of her child in Moscow, and a community of kothis—“women’s hearts in men’s bodies” who run a temple in an Indian fishing village.
Sneezy: From the synopsis, this is supposed to be a thoroughly researched book about queer people’s experiences from across the world. Like a volatile lemur, I want PRECISELY WHAT I WAS PROMISED.
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SFSX Vol. 1: Protection
Author: Tina Horn
Released: July 22, 2020 by Image
Genre: Comic, Graphic Novel, LGBTQIA, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: SFSX #1-7From notorious kink writer TINA HORN and featuring a diverse group of artists comes SFSX (SAFE SEX), a social thriller about sex, love, and torture. It’s SEX CRIMINALS in Gilead, Hustlers with a SUNSTONE twist.
In a draconian America where sexuality is strictly bureaucratized and policed, a group of queer sex workers keep the magic alive in an underground club called the Dirty Mind. Using their unique talents for bondage and seduction, they resolve to infiltrate the mysterious government Pleasure Center, free their incarcerated friends, and fight the power!
“SFSX shoves its sparkly stiletto heel right in the face of anyone who has ever tried to keep sex workers down. TINA HORN’s work reminds us how important sexual freedom is to the American spirit.” —Stormy Daniels
Collects SFSX (SAFE SEX) #1-7
Ellen: Tina Horn has a great sex podcast so I’m imagining her sex comic will also be good. Also, love to see sex workers as heroes.
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Things Hoped For
Author: Chencia Higgins
Released: July 28, 2020 by EKOL Media
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: The Vow #4an two women who only want to be loved, find a home in each other when the world around them is moving too fast for them to settle down?
Growing up in an intolerant town, Latrisha Martin was used to shrinking the most important parts of herself. She hid her loneliness within a busy life and kept the yearning in her heart tucked away from those closest to her. Just as the façade became too heavy to maintain, Trisha received wise words from a strange woman that helped redirect her life’s journey. On a whim, she relocates to Houston, and while adjusting to a new normal, she finds that those desires she’d once hidden begin to manifest in ways she never imagined.
With her star attached to a rocket ship, Xenobia Cooper was quickly transforming from a locally known talent into a name known in households across the nation. Viewed as an overnight success to many, the only thing that the veteran of the Houston underground music scene hadn’t prepared for was living a life without someone to come home to at the end of the day. A reckless tweet sent out in the middle of the night brings an influx of women with stars in their eyes, but they all lack the key component that Xeno is looking for. A chance encounter after her largest show to date and she’s convinced that those things she’d hoped for are just within her grasp.
Aarya: Beverly Jenkins (along with many of my friends) recommended Higgins’s PNR on social media and I’ve been dying to try her ever since!
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Sweetest in the Gale
Author: Olivia Dade
Released: July 30, 2020 by Hussies & Harpies Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: There's Something About Marysburg #33 stories + 3 couples = 6 lonely hearts finding happily-ever-after at last.
“Sweetest in the Gale”: Much ado about love…
Candy Albright has always stomped confidently through the halls of Marysburg High, passionate and loud and entirely devoted to her students and her various English department initiatives. From his first day as her colleague, Griff Conover couldn’t look away, despite his best efforts.
After a summer apart, though, Candy returns to school a changed woman. Muted. Dimmed. Bowed by a grief Griff recognizes all too well, but doesn’t yet understand. And when they’re thrown together to coordinate a poetry project, he can’t resist the urge to read between her lines once and for all–even if doing so means he’ll have to confront his own loss…and his own lonely, longing heart.
“Unraveled”: The more tightly wound a man is, the faster he unravels…
Math teacher Simon Burnham–cool, calm, controlled–can’t abide problems with no good solution. Which makes his current work assignment, mentoring art teacher Poppy Wick, nothing short of torture. She’s warm but sharp. Chaotic but meticulous. Simultaneously the most frustrating and most alluring woman he’s ever known. And in her free time, she makes murder dioramas. Murder dioramas, for heaven’s sake. But the more tightly wound a man is, the faster he unravels–and despite his best efforts, he soon finds himself attempting to solve three separate mysteries: a murder in miniature, the unexplained disappearance of a colleague…and the unexpected theft of his cold, cold heart.
“Cover Me”: First comes marriage…
Elizabeth Stone has no health insurance. No savings. No one to turn to when she finds a lump on her breast…except James Magnusson, her friend of over twenty years. When he offers her a marriage of convenience for healthcare coverage, she’d be a fool to say no. But given the emotions she’s buried for so long, saying yes might lead to a broken heart.
James won’t take no for an answer. Not when marriage could save Elizabeth’s life, and not when he’s finally realized how much he needs her. Even during his doomed first marriage, James considered Elizabeth a special friend–one he had to keep at a safe distance. Now he’s free, and Elizabeth is his wife…but will they finally have the chance to be together, only to have everything torn apart?
Content guidance for “Cover Me”: This story contains discussions of breast cancer, an on-page mammogram and biopsy, and a definite happily-ever-after.
This book contains one entirely new story (“Sweetest in the Gale”) and two stories previously published in the He’s Come Undone and Rogue Acts anthologies. The latter stories have been lightly edited since their original publication, and “Unraveled” has a new epilogue.
Aarya: I’m a big fan of Olivia Dade and this anthology collection is excellent. My favorite novella is Unraveled, AKA murder diorama book!
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FYI–I tried numerous Amazon links, but all were broken. Could be an issue on my end, but someone might want to do a spot check. Thx!
For me also, the Amazon links go to a “Not Found” page on Smart Bitches.
@Shana: I’m not sure “happy ending” and “Emma Donaghue novel” go hand-in-hand. I expect THE PULL OF THE STARS will be a very well-written and well-researched book, I don’t think we’re in for a warm fuzzy read.
Unfortunately, two books I was really anticipating in the second half of July—Ainsley Booth’s FILTHY LIAR and CD Reiss’s CROWNE RULES—have both been postponed until later in the year (August and September, respectively). However, I still have Sybil Bartel’s SHAMELESS, the next in her Alpha Bodyguards series, Clare Connelly’s IT STARTED WITH A LIE, the next in her Montebellos series, and Jackie Ashenden’s COME HOME TO DEEP RIVER, the start of a new Alaska-based series, on my late July schedule.
The Unidentified by Colin Dickey. His Ghostland was very interesting.
The Grove of the Caesars by Lindsey Davis. Latest Flavia Albia mystery!
Oops – we’re fixing it now. Sorry about that. Please stand by!
Is it too soon for a pandemic novel?
I mean, Shana, if you gotta ask… #YIKES.
OTOH, I do understand that some folks do find a measure of comfort/solace in topics that others (like myself) would avoid. It could be I’m feeling a bit of dissonance between the lightheartedness of the comment and our current reality. YMMV.
Moving on.
Other than Olivia Wilde’s book (which I’ve actually pre-ordered–a rarity for me), I’m keeping an eye on Hairpin Curves, Deal with the Devil, The Pink Line, and SFSX. Had also totally forgotten than Lindsay Ellis’ book was dropping this month. I’
Giant Sabertooth cat!! Yes please… giant cats that cuddle you are one of the reason I read Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword over and over…
Ok for sure ordering some books today!
@araidna and everyone else: There’s a new book out today that proves even during a pandemic, love can triumph. LOVE GONE VIRAL is an anthology of five short Covid-linked romances with all proceeds going to Feeding America and World Central Kitchen. For sale everywhere you buy digital books.
@Meg Ihni why you tagged me when I made it v. clear in my comment that anything related to the current global pandemic is something I’m entirely disinterested when it comes to media for entertainment. At best, there’s a disconnect (intentional or no). At worst, it’s tacky marketing.
Whatever your intention was in tagging me was, the only thing I can reply is Bless Your Heart.
I’m very pumped for 10 Things I Hate About Pinky. This couple got teased in the last book in the series, but then Sandhya Menon came out with the start of a different series and there wasn’t even a hint of these 2 on the horizon for a long time. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever(!)
I even pre-ordered it, which I never do.
@ariadna: I certainly meant no offense. Yes, it was marketing. Tacky? Maybe, but the authors are trying to do something tangible to help. We can’t all be first responders. And whether we’re “interested” or not, the pandemic’s sadly not going away anytime soon. Probably a full decade out of this century, if not more, will be irreparably affected.
I’ve been having trouble reading for longer stretches lately, but I tore through my ARC of Paradise Cove yesterday. I loved it even more than the first book in the series. Plus, lots of competence pron demonstrated by the heroine, an ER doc who takes over a small town family medicine practice.
The Kit Rocha book intrigues me. Other than this series, which other book(s) do you recommend by this duo?
[…] releases: Smart Bitches (romance) and Tor.com (“speculative short fiction“, horror/genre […]
The July books I was most anticipating were published in the first half of the month: Mariana Zapata’s Hands Down and Mia Vincy’s A Dangerous Kind of Lady.
I am intrigued though by the Jenny Holiday’s Paradise Cove novel. She’s not an author I’ve yet read but I’ve heard good things.
I’m with Ariadna on not wanting pandemic themes in romances right now. It’s inevitable that it will happen, especially the longer this drags on, but for now, it’s too much of our daily reality. I’m already feeling a disconnect while reading contemporary novels and cringing when characters are out at bars or restaurants in groups.