Happy Tuesday!
It’s another release week! This time, we have some sci-fi, the latest in a few ongoing series, and non-fiction. The last week in June is looking like a popular week, so get ready for that.
What new books are on your to-read pile this week? Tell us below!
A Fatal Illusion
Author: Anna Lee Huber
Released: June 20, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: European, Mystery/Thriller
Series: A Lady Darby Mystery #11New parents Lady Kiera Darby and Sebastian Gage look forward to introducing Sebastian’s father to his granddaughter, but instead find themselves investigating an attempt on his life…
Yorkshire, England. August 1832. Relations between Sebastian Gage and his father have never been easy, especially since the discovery that Lord Gage has been concealing the existence of an illegitimate son. But when Lord Gage is nearly fatally attacked on a journey to Scotland, Sebastian and Kiera race to his side. Given the tumult over the recent passage of the Reform Bill and the Anatomy Act, in which Lord Gage played a part, Sebastian wonders if the attack could be politically motivated.
But something suspicious is afoot in the sleepy village where Lord Gage is being cared for. The townspeople treat Sebastian and Kiera with hostility when it becomes clear they intend to investigate, and rumors of mysterious disappearances and highway robberies plague the area. Lord Gage’s survival is far from assured, and Sebastian and Kiera must scramble to make the pieces fit before a second attempt at murder is more successful than the first.
Sarah: The latest Lady Darby! This is such a great series.
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Author: Natalie Beach
Released: June 20, 2023 by Hanover Square Press
Genre: NonfictionFrom the writer whose New York Magazine piece “I Was Caroline Calloway” broke the internet comes a fresh, incisive, laugh-out-loud funny memoir-in-essays about the frenzied journey to adulthood.
Natalie Beach became an internet sensation when her essay on her toxic friendship with Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway went viral. Now, for the first time, and in her own indelible voice, Beach offers a revelatory glimpse into her own life alongside a broader cultural criticism of the world today. Through stories of heartbreak, odd jobs, political activism, existential crises and low-rise jeans, Natalie Beach explores the high stakes and absurdist comedy of coming of age in a world gone mad.
Effervescent, hilarious and unflinchingly self-aware, Adult Drama marks the arrival of an electrifying new literary voice.
Amanda: The debut essay collection from the woman who penned the viral essay, “I Was Caroline Calloway”. I’m expecting lots of salaciousness.
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Author: Jessie Mihalik
Released: June 20, 2023 by Harper Voyager
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Starlight's Shadow #3Acclaimed author Jessie Mihalik returns with the thrilling conclusion to her Starlight’s Shadow trilogy. An intergalactic thief must join forces with the charming teleporter who stole her last job–and may now be her only hope for saving her former crew.
As a recovery specialist, Lexi Bowen’s jobs typically require more trickery and thievery than honest work. Her former captain might not approve of her flexible morals, but stealing artifacts for rich assholes pays the bills, and Lexi’s had enough of war and death. The FHP left her to die once; she doesn’t plan to give them a chance to finish the job.
Unfortunately, her latest contract takes her to Valovia itself–and right back into the orbit of Nilo Shoren, a Valovian teleporter who already cost her one payday and nearly stole her heart.
Armored against his clever charm, Lexi plans to get in, get the job done, and get out. But when her former crew goes missing in Valovian space, Lexi will have to work with Nilo to figure out what happened–and stop it–before the galaxy’s two superpowers can use the disappearance as an excuse to return to war.
The latest sci-fi romance in the Starlight’s Shadow series!
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Author: Katy Rose Pool
Released: June 20, 2023 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: Garden of the Cursed #1In this thrilling YA fantasy/mystery duology from award-winning author Katy Pool, cursebreaker Marlow Briggs reluctantly pretends to be in love with one of the most powerful nobles in Caraza City to gain entry into an illustrious—and deadly—society that holds clues to her mother’s disappearance. Perfect for fans of Veronica Mars, These Violent Delights, and Chain of Iron.
Since fleeing the gilded halls of Evergarden for the muck-filled canals of the Marshes, Marlow Briggs has made a name for herself as the best godsdamn cursebreaker in Caraza City. But no matter how many cases she solves, she is still haunted by the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.
When Adrius Falcrest, Marlow’s old friend and scion of one of Caraza’s most affluent spell-making families, asks her to help break a life-threatening curse, Marlow wants nothing to do with the boy who spurned her a year ago. But a new lead in her mother’s case makes Marlow realize that the only way to get the answers she desperately seeks is to help Adrius and return to Evergarden society—even if it means suffering through a fake love affair with him to avoid drawing suspicion from the conniving Five Families.
As the investigation draws Marlow into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies, a shocking truth emerges: Adrius’s curse and her mother’s disappearance may just be clues to an even larger mystery, one that could unravel the very foundations of Caraza and magic itself.
Amanda: Am I motivated mainly by the cover? I sure am!
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Author: Claudia Cravens
Released: June 20, 2023 by The Dial Press
Genre: Historical: American, LGBTQIA, Literary Fiction, Western“A subversive take on Western fiction: a deftly told, absorbing coming-of-age story about a young woman’s life in a Dodge City brothel, and one of the most heartfelt and thrilling books I’ve read in ages.” –Lauren Wilkinson, author of American Spy
A vibrant and cinematic feminist debut set in the American West about a scrappy, stubborn orphan seeking a better life, who finds friendship and security working in a brothel, before realizing her true calling as a revenge-seeking gunslinger.
It’s the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned. She’s exhausted from caring for her ne’er-do-well alcoholic father, but when he’s killed by a snakebite as they cross the Kansas prairie, she knows she has only her wits to keep her alive. She arrives penniless in Dodge City, and, thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, is soon recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow “sporting women.
Then Spartan Lee, the most legendary (and only) female gunfighter in the region, rides into town, and Bridget falls in love. Hard. Before long, though, a series of shocking double-crosses shatter the Buffalo Queen’s tenuous peace and safety. Crushed by the devastating consequences of her actions and desperate for vengeance and autonomy, Bridget resolves to claim her own destiny.
A thoroughly modern reimagining of the Western genre, Lucky Red is a masterfully crafted, propulsive tale of adventure, loyalty, desire, and love.
Amanda: An orphan who becomes a “revenge-seeking gunslinger” is my bag. Also several of my bookish friends have enjoyed this one already.
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Author: Julia Heaberlin
Released: June 20, 2023 by Flatiron Books
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery/ThrillerA scientist with a special gift riles a wasp’s nest of conspiracy theories while investigating a cold case in this riveting novel from the acclaimed and bestselling author of Black-Eyed Susans and We Are All the Same in the Dark.
When she was ten, Vivvy Bouchet saved a boy’s life by making an impossible prediction. Ever since, she has been in a life-long battle between the urgent voices in her head and the science she loves. Now a brilliant young astrophysicist, she wants nothing more than to be left alone with the stars in the Big Bend country of Texas.
But the boy she saved, now a Fort Worth cop, has always believed she is psychic—even though she won’t say that word out loud. He is begging her to help solve the high-profile cold case of a little girl who disappeared in broad daylight from the kitchen of her old Victorian house. A body was never found, and her mother sits in prison still loudly proclaiming her innocence. Vivvy reluctantly agrees to try.
When a popular Texas conspiracy theorist podcaster named Bubba Guns finds out about her involvement, he spews conspiracy theories about the case and muddled truths about Vivvy’s murky past. As his listeners spin dangerously out of control, and with her career and the people she loves on the line, Vivvy decides to fight back.
This sharply observed psychological thriller from the acclaimed, bestselling author Julia Heaberlin explores the insidious nature of conspiracy theories and our urge to believe them—especially when it comes to sensationalized cases.
Amanda: This seems all sorts of weird, wild, and intense!
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I had one book on my tbr this week—Amelia Wilde’s dark romance, CROSS YOUR HEART, about a woman who guards her family’s secrets and the journalist intent on uncovering them—scheduled for release today. However, the book appears to have been pulled from Amazon. I’m really not surprised: Wilde is currently one book in on at least three different series, so missing scheduled release dates must be an occupational hazard. I hope Wilde is not pushing herself too hard—Skye Warren (Wilde’s frequent writing partner) had to take a mental health break recently when the number of books she’d committed to completing became overwhelming. Trying to finish so many books at once must take a toll.
Whelp, I need to immediately add Lucky Red to my TBR pile!
Celia Lake’s UPON A SUMMER’S DAY releases on the solstice. [insert all the squee and warm fuzzies]
Mary Balogh’s REMEMBER ME, the second book in the Ravenswood series, is out today. I didn’t love the first book, REMEMBER LOVE — way too much setup and too many character introductions — but now that that’s all (presumably) out of the way, I hope subsequent books will be better.
Mary Balogh’s latest (Remember Me) is out today (14.99!) and I can’t afford to buy it (at least right now) and my library is getting a copy but it’s not in circulation yet even though I’m one of the first 2 in line and I’m dyingggg!!! Just kill me
Oh haha I’m not the first – but I agree that the first one had SO MUCH set up I struggled to get through that – it moved much faster once the shit hit the fan!
BREWBIES, Townsend Harbor book 2, by Kerrigan Byrne and Cynthia St. Aubin is out today. There was a discussion in the comments a while back about the first book, NEVERMORE BOOKSTORE.
Night Will Find You was excellent. I loved the audiobook.
So excited for CAPTURE THE SUN by Jessie Mihalik. I love her books! I preordered it months ago, and it was on my kindle, waiting for me this morning like magic!
Another one – C.S. Poe’s Broadway Butchery (Memento Mori Book 3)