Welcome back, all! We’re quickly approaching three dozen of these. Any time I go to compile Get Rec’d, I wonder if I’ve run out of good recs, but the answer is always nope.
This time, I have a couple mysteries, some historical fiction, and a nature-focused picture book.
How about you all? Get any good book recommendations lately? Have a title you want to shout about?
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Little Witch Hazel
I’m such a sucker for Phoebe Wahl’s art style. This picture book actually features four stories about the seasonal changes in the forest.
An earthy and beautiful collection of four stories that celebrate the seasons, nature, and life, from award-winning author-illustrator Phoebe Wahl.
Little Witch Hazel is a tiny witch who lives in the forest, helping creatures big and small. She’s a midwife, an intrepid explorer, a hard worker and a kind friend.
In this four-season volume, Little Witch Hazel rescues an orphaned egg, goes sailing on a raft, solves the mystery of a haunted stump and makes house calls to fellow forest dwellers. But when Little Witch Hazel needs help herself, will she get it in time?
Little Witch Hazel is a beautiful ode to nature, friendship, wild things and the seasons that only Phoebe Wahl could create: an instant classic and a book that readers will pore over time and time again.
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The Lost Queen
Calling all my Arthurian Legend fans! This one is steeped in detail of historic Scotland and imagines if Merlin had a twin sister.
The Mists of Avalon meets the world of Philippa Gregory in the thrilling first novel of a debut trilogy that reveals the untold story of Languoreth—a forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland—twin sister of the man who inspired the legend of Merlin.
I write because I have seen the darkness that will come. Already there are those who seek to tell a new history…
In a land of mountains and mist, tradition and superstition, Languoreth and her brother Lailoken are raised in the Old Way of their ancestors. But in Scotland, a new religion is rising, one that brings disruption, bloodshed, and riot. And even as her family faces the burgeoning forces of Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons, bent on colonization, are encroaching from the east. When conflict brings the hero Emrys Pendragon to her father’s door, Languoreth finds love with one of his warriors. Her deep connection to Maelgwn is forged by enchantment, but she is promised in marriage to Rhydderch, son of a Christian king. As Languoreth is catapulted into a world of violence and political intrigue, she must learn to adapt. Together with her brother—a warrior and druid known to history as Myrddin—Languoreth must assume her duty to fight for the preservation of the Old Way and the survival of her kingdom, or risk the loss of them both forever.
Based on new scholarship, this tale of bravery and conflicted love brings a lost queen back to life—rescuing her from obscurity, and reaffirming her place at the center of one of the most enduring legends of all time.
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The Missing American
If you want a new police procedural series outside of the usual locales, check this one out! (Note: this one was on sale when I put this post together. Fingers crossed it still is!)
Accra private investigator Emma Djan’s first missing persons case will lead her to the darkest depths of the email scams and fetish priests in Ghana, the world’s Internet capital.
When her dreams of rising through the police ranks like her late father crash around her, 26-year-old Emma Djan is unsure what will become of her life in Accra. Through a sympathetic former colleague, Emma gets an interview with a private detective agency tracking down missing persons, thefts, and marital infidelities. It’s not the future she imagined, but it’s her best option.
Meanwhile, Gordon Tilson, a middle-aged widower in Washington, DC, has found solace in an online community after his wife’s passing. Through the support group, he’s even met a young Ghanaian widow he really cares about, and when her sister gets into a car accident, he sends her thousands of dollars to cover the hospital bill—to the horror of his only son, Derek. When Gordon runs off to Ghana to surprise his new love and disappears, Derek chases after him, fearing for his father’s life.
The case of the missing American man will drag both Emma and Derek into a world of sakawa scams, fetish priests, and those willing to keep things secret through death.
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Who is Maud Dixon?
For anyone who likes a twisty, more psychological mystery, this one features a woman assuming the identity of a famous, anonymous author.
Florence Darrow is a small-town striver who believes that she’s destined to become a celebrated writer. When she stumbles into the opportunity to become the assistant to “Maud Dixon,” a celebrated-but anonymous-novelist (think: Elena Ferrante), she believes that the universe is finally providing her big chance. The arrangement feels idyllic; Helen can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom on both writing and living. She even invites Florence along on a research trip to Morocco, where her new novel is set. Florence has never been out of the country before; maybe, she imagines, she’ll finally have something exciting to write about herself.
But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car crash, and Helen is dead, she begins to imagine what it might be like to ‘upgrade’ into not only Helen’s life, but also that of Helen’s bestselling pseudonym, Maud Dixon.
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
The Missing American sounds great. Definitely picking that up at some point! Thank you!
I am happily surprised at how many of Kwei Quartey’s books my library has in the catalog. I just put The Missing American on hold, thank you for the recommendation!
THE MISSING AMERICAN is currently $2.99 in the Kindle Store. I grabbed a copy immediately!
I read the Lost Queen an number of years ago and while I liked it I also have to say that it was written based on a “pseudohistory” book. The author of that book did some really bad analysis of his sources. I don’t remember the specifics anymore but they were things on the equivalent of “since pyramids were everywhere it must be aliens” kinds of things. However, I do remember how annoyed I was.
I listened to the audiobook of “Who is Maud Dixon?” and it was so freaking fun. Highly recommend.