If you missed it, we’ve switched our Hide Your Wallet new release posts to weekly instead of bi-monthly! This gives us a chance to cover more books in more digestible lists.
There’s a number of thrillers and suspense titles in this one. Lots of series continuations as well!
As always, what is on your to-read and to-buy list this week?
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The Chateau
Author: Jaclyn Goldis
Released: May 23, 2023 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Genre: Mystery/ThrillerA dream girls trip to a luxurious French chateau devolves into a deadly nightmare of secrets and murder in this stylish, twisty thriller for fans of Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, and Lisa Jewell.
Welcome to picturesque Provence, where the Lady of the Chateau, Séraphine Demargelasse, has opened its elegant doors to her granddaughter Darcy and three friends. Twenty years earlier, the four girlfriends studied abroad together in France and visited the old woman on the weekends, creating the group’s deep bond. But why this sudden invitation?
Amid winery tours, market visits, and fancy dinners overlooking olive groves and lavender fields, it becomes clear that each woman has a hidden reason for accepting the invitation. Then, after a wild evening’s celebration, Séraphine is found brutally murdered.
As the women search for answers to this shocking crime, fingers begin pointing and a sinister Instagram account pops up, exposing snapshots from the friends’ intimate moments at the chateau, while threatening to reveal more.
As they race to uncover who murdered Séraphine and is now stalking them, they learn the chateau houses many secrets…several worth killing for.
Elyse: A murder in an aging French chateau? I love a creepy house book…
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The Duchess Takes a Husband
Author: Harper St. George
Released: May 23, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Series: Gilded Age Heiresses #4A scandalous arrangement between a London rogue and an American duchess leads to lavish stakes.
Despite her illustrious title, Camille, Duchess of Hereford, remains what she has always been—a pariah. Though her title means she’s technically accepted by London Society, the rebellious widow with her burgeoning interest in the suffrage movement and her American ways isn’t exactly high on every hostess’s guest list. But Camille starts to wonder if being an outcast is not without its perks when the tantalizing answer to her secret fear appears in the shape of Jacob Thorne, the illegitimate son of an earl and co-owner of London’s infamous Montague Club.
Jacob is used to making deals with his club members—he’s just not accustomed to them being beautiful women. Nor have the terms ever been so sweetly seductive as Camille’s shocking proposition. To finally buy his own club and gain the crucial backing of investors, Camille offers Jacob the respectability of a fake engagement with a duchess. In return, the tempting widow has one condition: she wants Jacob to show her if it’s possible for her to experience pleasure in bed.
The lure of such a bargain proves too delicious to resist, drawing the enterprising rogue and the wallflower duchess into a scandalous game and an even more dangerous gamble of the heart.
Elyse: I’ve really enjoyed this series.
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Identity
Author: Nora Roberts
Released: May 23, 2023 by St. Martin's Press
Genre: Romantic Suspense, RomanceThe #1 New York Times-bestselling author’s terrifying new thriller about one man’s ice-cold malice, and one woman’s fight to reclaim her life.
Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan’s job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who’d been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.
Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. “Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.
What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn’t his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan’s nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother’s home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn’t flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn’t forgotten the one who got away.
If you’re a Nora Roberts romantic suspense fan, there’s a new one out!
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Rogue Justice
Author: Stacey Abrams
Released: May 23, 2023 by Doubleday
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Series: Avery Keene #2Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid ground after unraveling a conspiracy that took down the President of the United States in While Justice Sleeps. But as the sparks of impeachment hearings and political skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she recently took her own life, and he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved. Moments later, Avery is shocked when she witnesses Davies being murdered.
After breaking the encrypted file Davies gave to her, Avery reveals a list of names–all federal judges–and, alarmingly, all judges on the FISA Court (the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), also known as America’s secret court. It is this body that grants permission to the government to wiretap American individuals or corporations suspected of terrorism. Avery knows Judge Whitner had been extorted, but as she investigates the names and cases associated with other judges on the list she begins to see a frightening pattern–and she worries that something far more sinister may be unfolding.
Book two in Abrams’ legal thriller Avery Keene series!
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That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human
Author: Kimberly Lemming
Released: May 23, 2023 by Orbit
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Mead Mishaps #3When a spirited young woman with a penchant for adventure finds herself locked away in a dragon’s tower, she realizes that fate has a peculiar sense of humor when it comes to her romantic prospects in this laugh-out-loud fantasy rom-com, perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and The Dragon’s Bride.
All children are told fairytales. Some are epic adventures with high stakes and exciting twists but others were tales of pitiful princesses trapped in boring towers pining for their prince charmings to come and rescue them. But one young woman always hated those stories. Why didn’t they get up and rescue themselves? Little did she know that her own fate would take a similarly ironic turn. Because now, here she is. Stuck. In a tower. Turns out, when a dragon holds you hostage, he doesn’t just let you get up and leave.
Who knew?
And just when she thinks she sees hope on the horizon, that hope is smashed to bits by—you guessed it—another damn dragon.
Shana: I have loved every book in this cozy fantasy series and I’m sure this will be no exception.
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A banner day that day with the release of four books I’ve been looking forward to reading:
REBEL AT HEART (May 23, postponed from April) by Zoe York is, after DIAMOND RING, my second-most anticipated book of 2023. It’s the fifth and final installment of York’s Kinkaid Brothers series and features one of my favorite (and, in my opinion, most underutilized) tropes: a couple, long divorced, discover their divorce was never finalized and “Ooops, we’re still married!” Is the spark still there? You know it!
CINDERELLA AND THE OUTBACK BILLIONAIRE (May 23) is the latest HP from the always reliable Kelly Hunter. In this story, a billionaire crashes in the Australian outback and is nursed back to health by a young woman. But when the billionaire recovers and returns to the city, he cannot find the woman who rescued him.
Another HP due May 23 is Caitlin Crews’s WHAT HER SICILIAN HUSBAND DESIRES. This is a marriage-of-convenience where the MCs have lived apart. When they reunite, sparks fly!
CLAIM (May 23) by Sienna Snow is part of the multi-author Midnight Dynasty series of dark romances about the warring Morelli and Constantine families, who love and hate each other in equal measure. I haven’t read anything by Snow before, but I’ve enjoyed many of the Midnight Dynasty books, so I’m giving this one (featuring Sophia Morelli) a try.
@DiscoDollyDeb I think it isn’t used often because it some people’s worst nightmare
I had a coworker discover her divorce wasn’t final when she was filing her retirement paperwork. Lucky for her the ex didn’t try to claim the portion of her pension he was technically entitled to and he was willing to fix things quickly. She had to delay her retirement for a few weeks (and we had already had a goodbye party for her).
I then heard a story where someone else had a similar situation, except each ex had already married someone else. That was a tangle to unravel.
Duchess Takes a Husband is fabulous!
TEAM ORDERS by RJ Scott is out today; it’s the first in a multi-author m/m Formula One racing series! I don’t know much about racing at all, but this was a fun read, and I’m looking forward to the others in the series.
@wingednike I sleep with my divorce decree under my pillow (:
It’s interesting to me that there’s a sharp divide between (relevant) Worst Nightmares that are often fodder for romance plots (unplanned pregnancy and forced marriage in particular) and Worst Nightmares that aren’t.
I love the Kimberly Lemming books. Does anyone know if this one will be out in paperback soon?