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The Starless Sea
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern is $2.99! A lot of readers found this to be a highly anticipated release, given their previous love for Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. Aarya reviewed this one and gave it a B-.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world–a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues–a bee, a key, and a sword–that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library, hidden far below the surface of the earth.
What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians–it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly-soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose–in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
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The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix is $2.99! Carrie review this one and gave it a B:
Truthfully, if I had known what I was getting into, I doubt I would have read this book. And yet I’m so glad I did, because this, among other things, is a story about reading whatever the heck we want to read and the power of women when they decide to unite, both of which are themes that are Relevant to my Interests, Oh, Yeah.
Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.
Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia’s life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they’re more likely to discuss the FBI’s recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.
But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he’s a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she–and her book club–are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.
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Boss Witch
Boss Witch by Ann Aguirre is $1.99! This is the second book in the Fix-It Witches series. This one has an opposites attract romance. Are you a fan of the series?
The second in an adorable witchy rom-com series by New York Times bestselling author Ann Aguirre, perfect for fans of:
Ride-or-die female friendships
A bisexual heroine who stubbornly refuses to accept help
A hero with an incredibly pesky moral conscience
A mouse named Benson who may or may not have all the answers to life, magic, and love (Spoiler: he does!)Clementine Waterhouse is a perfectly logical witch. She doesn’t tumble headlong into love. Rather she weighs the pros and cons and decides if a relationship is worth pursuing. At least that’s always been her modus operandi before. Clem prefers being the one in charge, always the first to walk away when the time is right. Attraction has never struck her like lightning.
Until the witch hunter comes to town.
Gavin Rhys hates being a witch hunter, but his family honor is on the line, and he needs to prove he’s nothing like his grandfather, a traitor who let everyone down. But things in St. Claire aren’t what they seem, and Gavin is distracted from the job immediately by a bewitching brunette with a sexy smile and haunting secrets in her eyes.
Can the bossiest witch in town find a happy ending with the last person she should ever love?
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Crocodile on the Sandbank
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters is $2.99! This is book one in the Amelia Peabody historical mystery series. I’ve seen this recommended in the comments a few times, especially for people who like historical mysteries or Phryne Fisher.
Set in 1884, this is the first installment in what has become a beloved bestselling series. At thirty-two, strong-willed Amelia Peabody, a self-proclaimed spinster, decides to use her ample inheritance to indulge her passion, Egyptology. On her way to Egypt, Amelia encounters a young woman named Evelyn Barton-Forbes. The two become fast friends and travel on together, encountering mysteries, missing mummies, and Radcliffe Emerson, a dashing and opinionated archaeologist who doesn’t need a woman’s help — or so he thinks.
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I’m going to be that commenter – Crocodile on the sandbank is just lovely! Tempted to get it so I don’t have to wait om the library for a comfort read 🙂
For those who love audiobooks, I recommend the Barbara Rosenblatt version of Crocodile on the Sandbank. There are two versions on Amazon; make sure to pick Barabra’s. I also second this book (in any format). I’ve only ever made it to book 6 or so in this series, but I come back to this one every so often.
I love the Amelia Peabody series, read right to the end thanks to the library and then set off on a quest to own all the books so I can read them all again. Didn’t enjoy the Vampire book club as much as I thought I would, extremely pissed when the men tried to change the books the women wanted to read. Made me want to burn down the patriarchy right then and there!
I loved Crocoodile on the Sandbank! I’m with @Nancy on Southern Book Club, I went in expecting a light romp only to find it to be grim and depressing in spots. The time period felt off, too, like the writer started to set it in the 1970s then decided at the last minute to change it to the 1990s.
My book group read The Starless Sea. One reader so loved it that she bought a copy to give to a friend. I found it a pleasant read, but it’s not a book I will be re-reading.
Oh, Crocodile on the Sandbank brings back memories! It was first published in the 1970s, I remember when my mom first brought it home. It is the first of the Amelia Peabody series, which I think actually has held up pretty well over time. Peters is a very amusing author–I seem to recall some pretty entertaining romantic comedies (romantic mysteries?) by her from that era as well.
Content warnings apply for the Grady Hendrix book for scenes depicting sexual assault (on an adult woman + sexual exploitation of minors), violence toward women (not depicted), emotional manipulation/subjugation of women, and graphic gore/violence. I agree strongly with Carrie that the first 1/3 or 1/2 were very much about women uniting and reading whatever the heck we want, but then I felt like those themes dropped away later in the book, and I felt their absence keenly.
I’m coming back to this post to comment that I checked out Crocodile on the Sandbank through Libby. I found it *really* tough to get into because of the blatant paternalistic/racist colonialist perspective of the first person narration. I realize that the book is a product of its times (written in the 1970s, set in the 1800s) and has other positive attributes, but it’s really hard to take in the audiobook because I can’t easily skip past those offensive sections. Perhaps this perspective lessens over the course of the book (or future books), but sorry it’s a DNF from me just 1/4 into the book.