Happy Tuesday! That means it’s new release day for most books that will soon be arriving onto your ereaders, mailboxes, or on the shelves of your local independent bookstore (if you haven’t been blessed by the book gods and received them early).
There’s a great mix of retellings, romance, and fantasy!
What’s coming out this week that you’re excited for? Let us know!
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The Bright Spot
Author: Jill Shalvis
Released: January 16, 2024 by Avon
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Sunrise Cove #5Luna Wright is a lot of things, but sweet and trusting isn’t on the list. However, she’s a sucker for the underdog and a hard-luck story. Adopted at birth, with scant knowledge of her biological family, she’s created her own inner circle, a motley crew which includes her bestie Willow, to help her run the struggling but charming Apple Ridge Farm.
With a farm-to-table café as well as a menagerie of rescued animals (complete with a baby goat who keeps escaping to the pantry to eat the secret stash of decidedly not organic potato chips), it’s the best home she’s ever known. But when the owner Silas, who they secretly call The Grinch, passes away, Luna discovers the farm is now under control of his investment manager, the enigmatic Jameson Hayes….and her. And that Silas had many, many secrets.
Now Luna’s carefully controlled corner of the world is threatened and she—along with some help from her friends—has to dig deep to find true strength and the real meaning of love and family.
Sarah: Found family and rescue animals ahoy!
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Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands
Author: Heather Fawcett
Released: January 16, 2024 by Del Rey
Genre: Historical: European, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Emily Wilde #2When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage. Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.
And she also has a new project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
Amanda: I can’t wait to return to this series!
Sarah: I listened to the first one and it was delightful. I cannot wait to read this one.
Aarya: Fantastic sequel; I seriously doubt any other 2024 fantasy will top this.
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Escaping Mr. Rochester
Author: L.L. McKinney
Released: January 16, 2024 by HarperTeen
Genre: Gothic, Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Romance, Young AdultIn this fresh reimagining of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel by acclaimed author L. L. McKinney, Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason must save each other from the horrifying machinations of Mr. Rochester in this intrigue-filled, empowering young adult romance.
Jane Eyre has no interest in a husband. Eager to make her own way in the world, she accepts the governess position at Thornfield Hall.
Though her new employer, Edward Rochester, has a charming air—not to mention a handsome face—Jane discovers that his smile can sharpen in an instant. Plagued by Edward’s mercurial mood and the strange wails that echo through the corridors, Jane grows suspicious of the secrets hidden within Thornfield Hall—unaware of the true horrors lurking above her very head.
On the topmost floor, Bertha Mason is trapped in more ways than one. After her whirlwind marriage to Edward turned into a nightmare, he locked her away as revenge for withholding her inheritance. Now his patience grows thin in the face of Bertha’s resilience and Jane’s persistent questions, and both young women are in more danger than they realize.
When their only chance at safety—and perhaps something more—is in each other’s arms, can they find and keep one another safe before Edward’s dark machinations close in around them?
Shana: I’m here for all the queer Jane Eyres.
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The Lily of Ludgate Hill
Author: Mimi Matthews
Released: January 16, 2024 by Berkley
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
Series: Belles of London #3Fortune favors the bold—but is a confirmed spinster daring enough to loosen the reins and accept a favor from the wicked gentleman who haunts her dreams?
Lady Anne Deveril doesn’t spook easily. A woman of lofty social standing known for her glacial beauty and starchy opinions, she’s the unofficial leader of her small group of equestriennes. Since her mother’s devastating plunge into mourning six years ago, Anne voluntarily renounced any fanciful notions of love and marriage. And yet, when fate puts Anne back into the entirely too enticing path of Mr. Felix Hartford, she’s tempted to run…right into his arms.
No one understands why Lady Anne withdrew into the shadows of society, Hart least of all. The youthful torch he once held for her has long since cooled. Or so he keeps telling himself. But now Anne needs a favor to help a friend. Hart will play along with her little ruse—on the condition that Anne attend a holiday house party at his grandfather’s country estate. No more mourning clothes. No more barriers. Only the two of them, unrequited feelings at last laid bare.
Finally free to gallop out on her own, Anne makes the tantalizing discovery that beneath the roguish exterior of her not-so-white knight is a man with hidden depths, scorching passions—and a tender heart.
Sarah: Mimi Matthews writes really lovely, thoughtful historicals and this one has a LOT of pining. I love pining.
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Midnight Ruin
Author: Katee Robert
Released: January 16, 2024 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Dark Olympus #6Eurydice Dimitriou has always been the innocent sister, but she’s finally ready to step out of the long shadow cast by her powerful family…and the ex who shattered her heart. Perhaps rough hands on soft skin are exactly what she needs to forget her heartbreak once and for all?
Charon Ariti has been Hades’s right-hand man for years. He’s given everything to the lower city, but now he’s ready to take something for himself. He’s only too happy to give Eurydice a special kind of education…but is her heart really free enough to be claimed?
Orpheus Makos will do whatever it takes to make things right. Once the golden boy of the upper city, he’s now a shadow of his former self. He’ll do anything to get Eurydice back…even if it means she’s not coming into his arms alone. Three hearts. Three futures. Countless ways to get it wrong.
But with enemies slipping through Olympus’s faltering barrier to lay siege on the lower city, a trio of broken hearts will be the least of these would-be lovers’ worries…
For those on the Dark Olympus train, the next book in the series is out!
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Most Ardently
Author: Gabe Cole Novoa
Released: January 16, 2024 by Feiwel & Friends
Genre: Historical: European, LGBTQIA, Romance, Young Adult
Series: Remixed Classics #9In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. This bittersweet Pride & Prejudice remix follows a trans boy yearning for the freedom to live openly, centering queerness in a well-known story of longing and subverting society’s patriarchal and cisheteronormative expectations.
London, 1812 . Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he’s forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society’s expectations. The world—and the vast majority of his family and friends—think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone’s wife.
But Oliver can’t bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family’s home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It’s during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to “Elizabeth” at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart. And not to mention incredibly attractive.
As Oliver is able to spend more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares begin to hope that his dream of love and life as a man to be possible. But suitors are growing bolder—and even threatening—and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: Settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he’s not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly, honestly his own.
Shana: I have been longing for this book to arrive for AGES.
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Valley Verified
Author: Kyla Zhao
Released: January 16, 2024 by Berkley
Genre: Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Literary Fiction, RomanceWhen a fashion writer dives headfirst into the cutthroat Silicon Valley tech world, her future threatens to unravel in this addictive novel by Kyla Zhao, author of The Fraud Squad.
On paper, Zoe Zeng has made it in New York’s fashion world. After a string of unpaid internships, she’s now a fashion columnist at Chic, lives in a quaint apartment in Manhattan, and gets invited to exclusive industry events.
But life in New York City isn’t as chic as Zoe imagined. Her editor wants her to censor her opinions to please the big brands; she shares her “quaint” ( small) apartment with two roommates who never let her store kimchi in the fridge; and how is she supposed to afford the designer clothes expected for those parties on her meager salary?
Then one day, Zoe receives a job offer at FitPick, an app startup based in Silicon Valley. The tech salary and office perks are sweet, but moving across the country and switching to a totally new industry? Not so much. However, with her current career at a dead end, Zoe accepts the offer and swaps high fashion for high tech, haute couture for HTML. But she soon realizes that in an industry claiming to change the world for the better, not everyone’s intentions are pure. With an eight-figure investment on the line, Zoe must find a way to revamp FitPick’s image despite Silicon Valley’s elitism and her icy colleagues. Or the company’s future will go up in smoke—and hers with it.
Amanda: Am I solely motivated by the cover? Yes!
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I only have one book on my tbr this week: Julia Connors’s CENTER ICE (January 19), an m/f romance featuring a professional hockey player, traded to a new team, who reconnects with the woman who used to tutor him in college. When he sees the woman’s young son, he realizes…well, you get the idea. I’m generally not a huge fan of the “secret baby/child” trope, but I read and enjoyed Connors’s earlier ON THE LINE, so I’m going to give this one a try.
I’m very excited for THE LILY OF LUDGATE HILL! Also coming out today is the latest installment of Mary Balogh’s Ravenswood series, ALWAYS REMEMBER. I didn’t actually love either of the two previous books in the series, but it’s Balogh so I keep trying!
@KitBee those were the ones I bought this morning! Two of my favorite authors.
The Dark Olympus series has been a bit of a mixed bag for me, but overall positive. However, I think I’m going to have to dip out at this book. One of the other characters (I’m not sure which, I think it might have been Cassandra in the second-to-last book or the terrifying Demetriou sister Callisto) referred to Orpheus as a f**kboi and I just can’t unsee that. I’m also not terribly interested in the redemption of f**kbois right now.
But I hadn’t heard of ESCAPING MR ROCHESTER and that looks very fun. Also somehow it’s already the middle of January (even though it was only New Years Day yesterday) and it’s already time for new Emily Wilde!
@DiscoDollyDeb, I agree that Julia Connors’ writing has been very readable. I am with you in that I’m not typically a fan of secret baby. That said, I enjoyed CENTER ICE very much, as well as a bonus story (THE TRADE UP) in that new series.
I’m a week late but there is a new penric and desdemona book out by Lois McMaster bujold as of Jan 9. Anything by LMB is an auto buy for me!