It’s Tuesday, June 13th and that means new releases! How are you all feeling about the weekly posts? Does it make it easier for you?
Some big names on this week’s release list like Ilona Andrews and Ali Hazelwood. There are also some KU offerings and Gothic fiction. Let’s go!
Craving in His Blood
Author: Zoey Draven
Released: June 13, 2023
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Brides of Kylorr #2She’s the fated mate he never wanted…and the human that will bring him to his knees.
As the daughter of a traveling chef, I grew up flitting around different galaxies, immersing myself in fascinating cultures, and rubbing noses with socialites. Coming to Krynn was a new chapter, a permanent place to finally call home.
But when tragedy strikes and I’m suddenly alone, broke, and desperate, I take work at a dyaan. An establishment where the Kylorr—blood-drinking, winged, fearsome aliens with berserker-like rages—come to feed on willing necks to satisfy their fierce hunger.
That’s where I meet him. Kythel of House Kaalium, the ruler of Erzos, with his mesmerizing eyes like fractured ice and a sinful voice that captivates me.
We’re polar opposites. I’m a hopeful optimist who always looks for silver linings. He’s guarded and mistrustful, a wealthy heir to a powerful legacy, who thrives on rigid, unbending control. Yet he craves my blood with a frenzy that maddens him, and he’ll stop at nothing to claim me.
But when the forbidden desire between us becomes too tempting to resist, I fear it will destroy us both…especially when an impossible choice threatens to be our ruin: Duty or love?
Aarya: With caveats, I did devour the first book in the series. Will probably read this on publication day.
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Author: Ali Hazelwood
Released: June 13, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceThe many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
The latest in contemporary romance bestseller Ali Hazelwood!
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Maddalena and the Dark
Author: Julia Fine
Released: June 13, 2023 by Flatiron Books
Genre: Gothic, Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Literary FictionA novel set in 18th-century Venice at a prestigious music school, about two girls drawn together by a dangerous wager
Venice, 1717. Fifteen-year-old Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. As a student at the Ospedale della Pietà, she hopes to join the highest ranks of its illustrious girls’ orchestra and become a protégé of the great Antonio Vivaldi. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena.
After a scandal threatens her noble family’s reputation, Maddalena is sent to the Pietà to preserve her marriage prospects. When she meets Luisa, Maddalena feels the stirrings of a friendship unlike anything she has known. But Maddalena has a secret: she has hatched a dangerous plot to rescue her future her own way. When she invites Luisa into her plans, promising to make her dreams come true, Luisa doesn’t hesitate. But every wager has its price, and as the girls are drawn into the decadent world outside the Pietà’s walls, they must decide what it is they truly want—and what they will do to pay for it.
Lush and heady, swirling with music and magic, Maddalena and the Dark is a Venetian fairytale about the friendship between two girls and the boundless desire that will set them free, if it doesn’t consume them first.
Amanda: It’s been a while since I’ve had a dark academia fix!
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Author: Ilona Andrews
Released: June 13, 2023 by NYLA
Genre: Novella, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Series: Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years #2A new town, new friends, new challenges…. And a new heart-stopping adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author, Ilona Andrews. Kate, Curran, and Conlan may have left Atlanta for Wilmington, but the usual magic mayhem has also hitched a ride!
Kate and Curran have just settled into their new home and their ‘low prolife,’ when a local businessman approaches them with an offer they can’t refuse. A mysterious evil has spawned in the nearby forest and is holding a defenseless town hostage. The ‘due date’ is rapidly approaching.
It’s exactly the kind of fight the Lennarts can’t resist, not for the prize the town offers, but for the people who will surely die if they ignore it. If they succeed, they’ll be rescuing an entire community and can build a strong new base for their family and the Wilmington Pack. If they fail…well, fail is a four-letter word.
Nothing comes without a price. Now Kate must decide if she has what it takes to pay it.
Aarya: I never expected IA to return to Kate. This year is the gift that keeps giving.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Much Ado About Nada
Author: Uzma Jalaluddin
Released: June 13, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceA sparkling second-chance romance inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion…
Nada Syed is stuck. On the cusp of thirty, she’s still living at home with her brothers and parents in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood of Toronto, resolutely ignoring her mother’s unsubtle pleas to get married already. While Nada has a good job as an engineer, it’s a far cry from realizing her start-up dreams for her tech baby, Ask Apa, the app that launched with a whimper instead of a bang because of a double-crossing business partner. Nothing in her life has turned out the way it was supposed to, and Nada feels like a failure. Something needs to change, but the past is holding on too tightly to let her move forward.
Nada’s best friend Haleema is determined to pry her from her shell…and what better place than at the giant annual Muslim conference held downtown, where Nada can finally meet Haleema’s fiancé, Zayn. And did Haleema mention Zayn’s brother Baz will be there?
What Haleema doesn’t know is that Nada and Baz have a past–some of it good, some of it bad and all of it secret. At the conference, that past all comes hurtling at Nada, bringing new complications and a moment of reckoning. Can Nada truly say goodbye to once was or should she hold tight to her dreams and find their new beginnings?
Amanda: I love Jalaluddin’s retellings!
Shana: Excited about this one!
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Something Close to Magic
Author: Emma Mills
Released: June 13, 2023 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young AdultA baker’s apprentice reluctantly embarks on an adventure full of magic, new friendships, and a prince in distress in this deliciously romantic young adult fantasy that’s perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Gail Carson Levine.
It’s not all sugar and spice at Basil’s Bakery, where seventeen-year-old Aurelie is an overworked, underappreciated apprentice. Still, the job offers stability, which no-nonsense Aurelie values highly, so she keeps her head down and doesn’t dare to dream big—until a stranger walks in and hands her a set of Seeking stones. In a country where Seeking was old-fashioned even before magic went out of style, it’s a rare skill, but Aurelie has it.
The stranger, who turns out to be a remarkably bothersome bounty hunter named Iliana, asks for Aurelie’s help rescuing someone from the dangerous Underwood—which sounds suspiciously like an adventure. When the someone turns out to be Prince Hapless, the charming-but-aptly-named prince, Aurelie’s careful life is upended. Suddenly, she finds herself on a quest filled with magic portals, a troll older than many trees (and a few rocks), and dangerous palace intrigue.
Even more dangerous are the feelings she’s starting to have for Hapless. The more time Aurelie spends with him, the less she can stand the thought of going back to her solitary but dependable life at the bakery. Must she choose between losing her apprenticeship—or her heart?
Aarya: I love Mills’s contemporary YA so I’m intrigued by her fantasy debut. Sounds cozy and romantic!
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Anyone else getting tired of dual 1st pov in novels? Particularly in sci fi and paranormal. I just think it’s overdone now and longing for some 3rd person!
I grabbed J. Kenner’s romantic-suspense novella, TANGLED WITH YOU, this morning. It’s part of her Stark Security series and is being published through the ongoing multi-author 1001 Dark Nights franchise. TANGLED WITH YOU features MCs who have been supporting characters in previous Stark Security books and is, I believe, Kenner’s first foray into M/M romance.
I’m really looking forward to Much Ado About Nada. Hopefully, my pre-ordered copy will arrive today.
@Amanda: I love these weekly posts. More Good Book Noise more often will never get old. Thank you for all of this.
Are you tweeting less @SmartBitches? I missed a few posts (all caught up now) because I didn’t get the usual prompt/link from yourselves. I only see my Following feed, I don’t venture into the nonsense that is For You which is why I ask.
A definite vote YES for these weekly release posts. So much comes out that it’s good to have critical picks.
Absolutely loving the weekly hide your wallet posts, while simultaneously dreading them. Dreading isn’t the right word … is there a word for being disappointed with your own lack of willpower while being excited and making desperate grabby noises?
All of these are on my TBR pile!
Skye Kilean’s monthly round up of new LGBTQ+ releases, with an emphasis on less well known / less buzzy books and LGBTQ+ authors is out.
https://skyewritesromance.com/new-queer-romances-june-2023/