It’s December!
We’re getting ready for our last month of 2023 releases. December starts off strong with lots of releases this week and next. It definitely quiets after that; we only have a few selections per week after that.
How do your releases this month look? Sparse? Heavy on one week? Let us know!
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Salt & Broom
Author: Sharon Lynn Fisher
Released: December 1, 2023 by 47North
Genre: Gothic, Historical: European, Science Fiction/FantasyA gifted healer unravels the mysteries of a cursed estate—and its enigmatic owner—in a witchy retelling of Jane Eyre.
Salt and broom, make this room
Safe and tight, against the night.
Trunks packed with potions and cures, Jane Aire sets out on a crisp, clear morning in October to face the greatest challenge of her sheltered girls’-school existence. A shadow lies over Thornfield Hall and its reclusive master, Edward Rochester. And he’s hired her only as a last resort.
Jane stumbles again and again as she tries to establish a rapport with her prickly new employer, but he becomes the least of her worries as a mysterious force seems to work against her. The threats mount around both Jane and Rochester—who’s becoming more intriguing and appealing to her by the day. Jane begins to fear her herb healing and protective charms may not be enough to save the man she’s growing to love from a threat darker and more dangerous than either of them imagined.
Elyse: A retelling of Jane Eyre except she’s a witch? Put that in my eyeballs.
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A River of Golden Bones
Author: A.K. Mulford
Released: December 5, 2023 by Harper Voyager
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Golden Court #1A sleeping curse. A fallen court. A secret twin.
Twins Calla and Briar have spent their entire lives hiding from the powerful sorceress who destroyed their kingdom…and from the humans who don’t know they are Wolves. Each twin has their own purpose in life: Briar’s is to marry the prince of an ally pack and save the Golden Court. Calla’s purpose is to remain a secret, her twin’s shadow . . . the backup plan.
No one knows who Calla truly is except for her childhood friend—and sister’s betrothed—the distractingly handsome Prince Grae. But when Calla and Briar journey out of hiding for Briar’s wedding, all of their well-made plans go awry. The evil sorceress is back with another sleeping curse for the last heir to the Golden Court.
Calla must step out of the shadows to save their sister, their kingdom, and their own legacy. Continuing to hide as a human and denying who she truly is, Calla embarks on a quest across the realm, discovering a whole world she never knew existed. Outside the confines of rigid Wolf society, Calla begins to wonder: who could she be if she dared to try?
Full of adventure, love, gender exploration, and self-discovery, A River of Golden Bones follows Calla’s journey through treacherous Wolf kingdoms, monster-filled realms, and the depths of their own heart in this thrilling romantic fantasy.
Aarya: Sign me up for wolf shifters and forbidden romance.
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The Curse of Penryth Hall
Author: Jess Armstrong
Released: December 5, 2023 by Minotaur Books
Genre: Gothic, Historical: European, Mystery/ThrillerAn atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.
A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.
To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.
Sarah: Ruby has to deliver books to a village she’d rather not revisit, and ends up having to work with the person the locals call a Pellar to break a curse on a house to which she is connected. I’m very curious and prepared to be creeped out.
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The Engagement Party
Author: Darby Kane
Released: December 5, 2023 by William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Mystery/ThrillerAnd Then There Were None meets I Know What You Did Last Summer in #1 international bestseller Darby Kane’s latest gripping and twisty thriller set on a private island in Maine where secrets piled upon secrets and lies upon lies are all revealed in one fateful weekend.
Emily Hunt went missing from her affluent liberal arts school on graduation weekend. Her body was found floating in a river, and a quiet loner who most people on campus really didn’t know committed suicide. A tenuous link—one text—bound the two dead students together and was enough for law enforcement to close the case. But they got it wrong and now someone is determined to set it right.
Twelve years later, college friends gather to celebrate an engagement over a long overdue getaway on a swanky private island in Maine—with only one way in and one way out. Sierra Prescott, invited as a guest and unconnected to past events, is the only person who soon senses not all is what it seems.
The tension in the air is ignited when they find a dead man in the trunk of a car with a note: time to tell the truth. And things only get worse. As a torrential storm strands them together, the group’s buried stories begin to surface and secrets are bartered. To survive this deadly party, they’ll need to stop a killer before they become prey.
Sarah: This may be too gruesome for me, but it’s pitched as a locked room mystery blending And Then There Were None and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Again, I am preparing to be creeped out.
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The Fake Mate
Author: Lana Ferguson
Released: December 5, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Paranormal, RomanceTwo wolf shifters agree to be fake mates but unexpectedly find something real in this steamy paranormal romantic comedy by Lana Ferguson.
Mackenzie Carter has had some very bad dates lately. Model train experts, mansplainers, guys weirdly obsessed with her tail—she hasn’t had a successful date in months. Only a year out of residency, her grandmother’s obsession with Mackenzie finding the perfect mate to settle down with threatens to drive Mackenzie barking mad. Out of options, it feels like a small thing to tell her grandmother that she’s met someone. That is, until she blurts out the name of the first man she sees and the last man she would ever date: Noah Taylor, the big bad wolf of Denver General.
Noah Taylor, interventional cardiologist and all around grump, has spent his entire life hiding what he is. With outdated stigmas surrounding unmated alphas that have people wondering if they still howl at the moon, Noah has been careful to keep his designation under wraps. It’s worked for years, until an anonymous tip has everything coming to light. Noah is left with two options: come clean to the board and risk his career—or find himself a mate. The chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asking him to be her fake boyfriend on the same day he’s called to meet the board has to be kismet, right?
Mackenzie will keep her grandmother off her back, and Noah will get a chance to prove he can continue to work without a real mate—a mutually beneficial business transaction, they both rationalize. But when the fake-mate act turns into a very real friends-with-benefits arrangement, lines start to blur, and they quickly realize love is a whole different kind of animal.
A fake dating romance between doctors who are also shifters!
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The Frozen River
Author: Ariel Lawhon
Released: December 5, 2023 by Doubleday
Genre: Historical: American, Mystery/ThrillerFrom the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.
Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.
Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.
Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.
Elyse: I got to read an early copy of this and it’s just a fantastic mystery with a midwife turned sleuth in colonial Maine. Trigger warning for sexual assault.
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My Darling Bride
Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills
Released: December 5, 2023 by Montlake
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceIn a sizzling romance that sparkles with wit and depth, two wounded souls meet by chance in the desert and agree to get married, and their lives will never be the same.
On a normal day, Emmaline Darling isn’t a car thief. She’s just a simple girl who runs a bookstore and adores cats. But when she’s stranded in the desert and needs to get away from her dangerous ex-boyfriend, she picks her only option: swiping the keys to a famous football player’s Lamborghini and speeding away.
Football star Graham Harlan is in chaos. First he took a hit on the field that left him with a near-death experience, and now he’s promised his brother he’ll get married to secure the family inheritance. Trouble is he isn’t even seeing anyone.
Then a mystery woman steals his car. With his usual stubbornness, he tracks her all the way to Manhattan and gives her an ultimatum: marry me or I’ll press charges.
Her choice is obvious, only neither of them expect the sparks that ignite between them.
As the end of their arrangement looms, will Graham take a chance on love or let his darling walk away forever?
Elyse: A marriage of convenience story with cat-loving, bookstore-owning heroine.
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Paladin’s Faith
Author: T. Kingfisher
Released: December 5, 2023 by Red Wombat Studio
Genre: Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Saint of Steel #4Marguerite Florian is a spy with two problems. A former employer wants her dead, and one of her new bodyguards is a far too good-looking paladin with a martyr complex.
Shane is a paladin with three problems. His god is dead, his client is much too attractive for his peace of mind, and a powerful organization is trying to have them both killed.
Add in a brilliant artificer with a device that may change the world, a glittering and dangerous court, and a demon-led cult, and Shane and Marguerite will be lucky to escape with their souls intact, never mind their hearts…
Aarya: My favorite Kingfisher series!
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Raiders of the Lost Heart
Author: Jo Segura
Released: December 5, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceRival archaeologists must team up on a secret Aztec expedition, or it could leave their careers—and hearts—in ruins.
Archaeologist Dr. Socorro “Corrie” Mejía has a bone to pick. Literally.
It’s been Corrie’s life goal to lead an expedition deep into the Mexican jungle in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But when she is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig to do just that, Corrie is sure it’s too good to be true…and she’s right.
As the world-renowned expert on Chimalli, by rights Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. But Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new ways to best her since they were in grad school. Ford certainly isn’t thrilled either—with his life in shambles, the last thing he needs is a reminder of their rocky past.
But as the dig begins, it becomes clear they’ll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries—and lingering attraction—under wraps. With money-hungry artifact smugglers, the Mexican authorities, and the lies between them closing in, there’s only one way this all ends—explosively.
Amanda: I have a weakness for adventure romance and anything remotely resembling Romancing the Stone.
Lara: I have an ARC of this and I’m so excited about it that I can’t bring myself to start it. I really should just dive in!
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Technically Yours
Author: Denise Williams
Released: December 5, 2023 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceSeven years ago, he fell in love with a stranger he couldn’t have—today, she’s back in his life and the sparks between them threaten to set her career on fire.
Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. When she is appointed acting director of OurCode, a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code, she has a chance to make lasting change for the organization, but a scandal has put their reputation at risk. Further complicating matters, Pearl didn’t expect the one man she hasn’t stopped thinking about in seven years to be the newest member of her board of directors.
Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator seven years ago. She’s just his type: smart, capable, and makes him laugh, but when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn’t for him. After five years with no contact, their connection is immediate despite the many roadblocks in their way and Cord must consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl’s career and the progress she’s made at OurCode.
Pearl and Cord both are hesitant to trust their feelings and take a risk as they grow closer, but it becomes impossible to keep ignoring the electricity between them. Cord is a skilled programmer, but a workplace romance might spell disaster for both of them, and love isn’t easily debugged.
Elyse: I enjoy second chance stories, especially ones where they had a chance encounter.
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Two Wings to Hide My Face
Author: Penny Mickelbury
Released: December 5, 2023 by Bywater Books
Genre: Historical: American, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: The Two Wings Saga #2Award-winning author and journalist Penny Mickelbury returns to pre-Civil War Philadelphia to continue the powerful saga of Genie Oliver and Abigail Read.
In 1857 the US Supreme Court ruled that Blacks were not—and could never be citizens. Black lives were already in peril from the hooligans who would capture and sell them South under the protection of the Runaway Slave Act, even if they weren’t runaway slaves. By 1861 Southern states spoke openly of seceding from the Union to form the Confederate States and protect what they believed was their right to own slaves. If the South were to win, slavery would become the law of the land. So for many Blacks, leaving was the only option.
Genie Oliver, who frequently dresses as a man to move about the city, is no longer safe in her disguise. White people find themselves just as imperiled for providing any assistance to Blacks—which means that the former Pinkerton’s agent Ezra MacKaye, his fiancé Ada Lawrence, and heiress Abigail Read, are in as much danger as Genie and her friends, the Juniper family.
Not knowing what to expect, Ezra, Ada, and the Juniper family join Genie and Abigail as they pack up their lives and head to Canada. Their goal is to stay at least one step ahead of the brutalities of the uncivil war, but can they outpace the dangers that cross their paths every step of the way?
Tara: I found the first book utterly gripping, so I’m thrilled that a sequel is coming out. I doubt this will be a romance, although it should have a romantic element like the first book.
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I read A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a biography of Martha Ballard. A mystery based on her should be interesting!
She was married and her husband was a surveyor. They both worked until late in life.
My favorite iteration of the “fake relationship” trope is when one of the people in it (almost always the heroine) is in love with someone else but can’t let that person know, so Winter Renshaw’s FAKE-ISH (December 5) seems like it will totally be my jam: it features a woman in a fake relationship with the brother of the man she has true feelings for. I expect plenty of angst in this one.
TMI (December 7) is an m/m/m holiday story that is part of the ILYBSM (I Love You Both So Much) series by Leslie McAdam, J.E. Birk, and Rachel Ember. According to the blurb, this book features a clueless mayor, his grouchy best friend, and an investigative journalist.
Marley Valentine”s UNLOVED (December 8) is another m/m/m romance—this one featuring three characters who grew up together in foster care. I expect this one will be far more angsty than the above-referenced TMI.
I am so excited to have a new Paladin book! I’ll probably have to re-read the series, at least the first book where Marguerite is such a key character. With both Martha Wells and T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon dealing with breast cancer diagnoses and treatments this year, it’s wonderful but amazing to have new books from both. And there is a promise of three more Paladin books to look forward to.
In the meantime, I am adding to my TBR list from this list, starting with the Penny Mickelbury. Clearly I need to read the first one.
Saw the new Paladin and made an immediate detour to purchase it. I absolutely adore Kingfisher’s books (and am sorry to hear she’s been ill!) and the Paladin series in particular.
I’d pre-ordered the new Paladin book, it downloaded at 12:33am and I started it ASAP. While there are serious issues, I found myself laughing early on. For fans of Bishop Beartongue and the White Rat staff, it’s charming.
Evie Dunmore’s THE GENTLEMAN’S GAMBIT is out today. I’ve liked her League of Extraordinary Women series, with caveats, so I’ve got this one on hold at the library.
I somehow missed that Eve Dangerfield had a new book releasing today: BACK INTO IT, book four in her Playing for Love series. It’s being billed as a “spicy friends-to-lovers romance”. When it comes to Dangerfield’s books, I think the “spice” is a given. Off to the Kindle Store to add yet another book to Mount TBR.
Does anyone else notice the beauty and creativity of the not-romance covers? Publishers of romance novels need to step up with cover art which better supports their authors.
The description of THE FROZEN RIVER reminds me very much of Margaret Lawrence’s HEART AND BONE (1996) about a midwife/healer ten years after the American Revolution. I loved this book and — you historians will know this — was stunned to learn that half the country was not happy about breaking with England. Ten years later! So many things I was taught were called into serious question, especially during that still-dangerous time. We weren’t all happy revolutionaries. #TrustNoOne
Eliot Grayson has a new book out on 12/7. It’s the first in a new series that seems to be fantasy romance.
Raiders of the Lost Heart is so much fun! The rest are on my TBR.
@ Darlynne: I read Margaret Lawrence’s HEART AND BONE on the recommendation of a friend and liked it very much. However, the sequels became too dark for me – I kept hoping for a bit more joy to warm the frozen Maine landscape but found very little of it either in Nature or the human relationships. Lawrence was very good, however, at incorporating the history in ways that felt organic to the characters and the stories she was telling.
December’s releases kick off with “Salt & Broom,” a witchy retelling of Jane Eyre! Jane Aire faces a cursed estate and an enigmatic master, Edward Rochester. Will her herb healing and charms be enough? Get ready for a suspenseful and intriguing read! #DecemberReads #GothicRomance
I don’t think I have anything on my “to-buy” list for December, which is good, because I’ve bought way too many books the last few months and I really need to spend some time actually reading what I’ve bought. I’m contemplating a book buying freeze for the first half of next year (except for a handful of titles that I’m already aware of and just awaiting the release date, such as Cat Sebastian’s next, “You Should Be So Lucky”, which now has a cover and plot summary on Fantastic Fiction and I’m thrilled) because I have financial goals that book buying sprees just aren’t conducive to achieving.
@Susan/DC: I completely agree and stopped reading after the second book. I will never forget the wonder of learning new-to-me history and how Lawrence pushed me to look deeper. The more you know.