Welcome back to Hide Your Wallet, where we discuss this week’s new releases!
It’s a light week with only three books to mention. However, it’s an assortment with chefs, historical romance, and fantasy. Next week is also shaping up to be pretty slim pickings for us, but that just means it’s the calm before the storm on 2024 releases.
What books are you excited for this week? Let us know in the comments!
Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love
Author: Katrina Kwan
Released: December 19, 2023 by Lake Country Press & Review
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceMeet Alexander Chen, one of the most talented chefs to ever grace the culinary world. Now meet Eden Monroe, his newly hired sous chef who may or may not have (definitely) embellished a lot on her resumé to land herself the job.
Alexander rules his kitchen with an iron fist and fiery temper. Mistakes simply won’t be tolerated. It’s no secret that if you can’t handle the heat, he’ll gladly toss you out with the trash. As one of the very first Chinese-American chefs to claw his way to the top of the world of French haute cuisine, he has a lot to prove and a massive chip on his shoulder.
But he wasn’t always like this. Eden knew him back when he still went by his real name, Shang. He used to be sweet and helpful and definitely not the second coming of the devil himself.
Eden won’t say anything, though, no matter how hot her curiosity burns. Especially not if it could cost her this job. She needs to save as much as she can if she wants any hope of hiring a private detective to find something she lost long ago.
All she needs to do is fly under the radar. It’s just a shame that she and her new boss butt heads more often than they fulfill orders. What will happen when things finally boil over, and they discover that things between them are spicier than they first ordered?
Amanda: I love a foodie romance, especially when there’s tension!
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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!Two Dances and a Duke
Author: Eloisa James
Released: December 19, 2023
Genre: Historical: European, Novella, Romance
Series: The Seduction #1Shamed for her curves and plagued by a Mean Girl, Bea is miserable—until she triumphs over social disaster and wins the hand and heart of a duke. One of Eloisa James’s most exuberant and emotional novellas.
Miss Beatrice Valentine is having a horrible first Season, shamed for her curves by Lady Regina Haywood.
Despite Regina’s attempts to make Bea a wallflower, Bea finds herself torn between Regina’s fiancé, the rakish, quick-tempered Lord Peregrine, and Regina’s brother, the war-hero, the Duke of Lennox.
Bea is determined to marry a kindly man, and certainly no one close to Regina. But both of these gentlemen are determined to seduce her…and one will succeed.
A new Eloisa James novella!
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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!Court of the Undead
Author: F.M. Aden
Released: December 20, 2023 by Northern Light Press
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Trueborn #1A stunningly dark fantasy novel set during the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Perfect for fans of Netflix’s Castlevania and From Blood and Ash.
A kidnapped girl. Two evil twin brothers. A fight between humans and vampires.
From a young age, Yara and her sister Aylin grew up on tales of the vampir whispered to them in the dark by their superstitious nursemaid. It isn’t until the fateful day Yara is kidnapped and brought to the fortress of the Undying King, that she realizes that she is far from the safety of the Ottoman court. Tucked into the high mountains of Wallachia, the court of the undead is home to the trueborn vampir, their sired vampir flock, and their miserable hoard of blood slaves.
While Aylin joins a group of trained hunters to bring her sister back home. Yara finds herself trapped between a set of beautiful and manipulative twin brothers who intend to use her for their own amusement and deceptions. Caught between the free-spirited and obsessive Volkan and the power-hungry and villainous Eldar, Yara must betray them both if she ever hopes to make it back home alive.
As tension builds at the vampir court and the hunters start their march, Yara must decide who to trust with her loyalty. And with her heart.
Elyse: A hardcover, dark fantasy inspired by the Ottoman Empire with vampires? Yes please!
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
Is the Eloisa James novella the same one that she released as a Kindle Vella serial?
@C
Yes
@C: According to Eloisa James’s website, the “Two Dances and a Duke” novella is one of the three novellas that were serialized on Kindle-Vella. The other two are “Two Vows and a Viscount” and “Two Masquerades and a Major”. She says that the “books have been lightly edited, but the stories remain the same.” She is working on a fourth novella in the series.
FYI Unraveling by Peggy Ohrenstein is $1.99 on Kindle rn….it’s gotten lots of great reviews
TWO DANCES AND A DUKE, along with the other two novellas in the series, are currently sitting in my TBR pile, but so is HEARTSTOPPER VOLUME 5. What shall I read first!?!?
I had nothing on my tbr for this week—which must be a record!—but then I saw that Juliana Stone is releasing a new book tomorrow: COVER ME UP is the start of a new series, The Bridgestones of Montana, and features a second-chance romance between two people who were once high school sweethearts. In my opinion, Stone is a lot like Melanie Harlow: a writer who produces consistently good work but just never gets the visibility she deserves.
After reading about KNIVES, SEASONING, AND A DASH OF LOVE above, I thought immediately that it had to be at least Reylo-adjacent. Checked, and sure enough was Reylo fan fiction before taking this form. I’ve made a hobby of reading Reylo fics that have been made into trad published books (one author thanks Ali Hazelwood as “the rising tide that lifts all boats.” Anyway, bought KNIVES, SEASONING, AND A DASH OF LOVE to read next. Through this site of course!
@Laura George: As a fellow Reylo fan, how did I not know?! Thanks for that little tidbit.
Here’s Skye Kilean’s list of new queer releases for Dec (focus on indie and small presses and marginalized authors and stories that can get overlooked)
https://skyewritesromance.com/new-queer-romances-dec-2023/