Welcome back to Hide Your Wallet!
It’s our last release week this August. We have a highly anticipated horror novel, manga, historical mysteries, and more.
How is the end of August looking for you? A little quiet while you gear up for fall? Or does the deluge of new releases never end for you?
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Guardian: Zhen Hen, Vol. 1
Author: Priest
Released: August 29, 2023 by Seven Seas Entertainment
Genre: LGBTQIA, Manga, Romance, Science Fiction/FantasyInvestigations in the Dark
Zhao Yunlan heads up a covert division of the Ministry of Public Security that deals with the strange and unusual, blurring the line between the mortal realm and the Netherworld. His cocky, casual attitude conceals both a sharp mind and an arsenal of mystical tools and arcane knowledge. While investigating a gruesome death at a local university, Zhao Yunlan crosses paths with the reserved Professor Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan is immediately intrigued by Shen Wei’s good looks and intense gaze, and the attraction between them is immediate and powerful, even as Shen Wei tries to keep his distance. Shen Wei and his secrets are a puzzle Zhao Yunlan feels compelled to solve as mysterious circumstances throw them together, and their connection becomes impossible to deny.
Susan: Listen, there was a lot (…a lot) to criticise about the Guardian tv series, but I unironically love it. The relationships were the highlight of the show, so I am absolutely here for the original novels!
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Harlem After Midnight
Author: Louise Hare
Released: August 29, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: American, Mystery/Thriller
Series: Canary Club Mystery #2A body falls from a town house window in Harlem, and it looks just like the newest singer at the Apollo…in this evocative, twisting new novel from the author of Miss Aldridge Regrets.
Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she’d be there with her father. But now he’s dead, and she’s newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman—the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England—offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining.
Will’s friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town.
Sarah: Second in the Canary Club series, set in the 30s in New York this time, with a biracial jazz singer amateur sleuth.
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The Referral Program
Author: Shamara Ray
Released: August 29, 2023 by Strebor Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Literary Fiction, Romance, Women's FictionFrom the bestselling author of Recipe for Love and You Might Just Get Burned comes an engaging novel about a group of single women who come up with a plan to try and meet Mr. Right.
Dylan and her best friends are in their mid-thirties and have never been married. Back in college, they could not have imagined being single with no prospects for husbands at this stage in their lives.
At a monthly gathering, the ladies discuss the possibilities of being alone for the rest of their lives. While the friends talk about their futures and the fears that come along with it, they hatch a plan. They resolve to start a program where each woman has to refer a good man for a friend to date.
As the friends embark upon the Referral Program, they discover things about themselves and each other they weren’t aware existed. Relationships are put to the test as Dylan and her girls come to terms with their current realities and futures that may or may not include friends or husbands.
Shana: I love an arranged dating sitch, and I love messy drama, so this plot is basically my dream. But also, who wouldn’t want their friends to vet dates for them?
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The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharpe
Author: Leonie Swann
Released: August 29, 2023 by Soho Crime
Genre: Mystery/ThrillerA quirky group of seniors attempts to solve one murder while covering up another—with the help of an enterprising tortoise—in this twisty, darkly funny mystery from the author of Three Bags Full.
It has been an eventful morning for Agnes Sharp and the other inhabitants of Sunset Hall, a house share for the old and unruly in the sleepy English countryside. Although they have had some issues (misplaced reading glasses, conflicting culinary tastes, decreasing mobility, and unruly grandsons), nothing prepares them for an unexpected visit from a police officer with some shocking news. A body has been discovered next door. Everyone puts on a long face for show, but they are secretly relieved the body in question is not the one they’re currently hiding in the shed (sorry, Lillith).
It seems the answer to their little problem with Lillith may have fallen right into their lap. All they have to do is find out who murdered their neighbor, so they can pin Lillith’s death on them, thus killing two (old) birds with one stone (cold killer).
With their plan sorted, Agnes and her geriatric gang spring into action. After all, everybody likes a good mystery. Besides, the more suspicion they can cast about, surely the less will land on them. To investigate, they will step out of their comfort zone, into the not-so-idyllic village of Duck End and tangle with sinister bakers, broken stairlifts, inept criminals, the local authorities, and their own dark secrets.
If you need another “senior sleuth” title to add to your reading list!
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Vampires of El Norte
Author: Isabel Cañas
Released: August 15, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Gothic, Historical: American, HorrorVampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.
As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead.
Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago.
Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind.
When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion—and Nena’s rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago—is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh.
And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.
Amanda: One of my most anticipated spooky releases this year!
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An excellent pub day! I’ve had these preordered for months-
NEVER A HERO by Vanessa Len and KISSING KOSHER by Jean Meltzer, both out today. I loved the first book in Len’s series and I’ve been waiting for the sequel, and Meltzer is an autobuy author for me.
Sunset Years looks like a read I need RIGHT NOW. Just picked it up!
Leonie Swann also wrote THREE BAGS FULL which is a delightful mystery in which the sheep discover who murdered their shepherd. Entirely told from the ovine perspective.
All of these are on my TBR!
The SMOLDER happening on the cover of Guardian is just fantastic. Does anyone read manga/comics in ebook form and can comment about ease of reading? I always thought of manga as a very tactile experience, so I’m not sure if I can adjust to an e-reader.
Also HELLO YES PLEASE to Vampires of El Norte! My early exposure to romance novels was Shirlee Busbee, so anything set in that era is just catnip.
Jeannie Lin recently released the novella “Love, Death, and Lanterns”. It’s the latest book in her Lotus Palace Mysteries series.