Happy Tuesday!
I wasn’t lying when I said the first week of August was bursting with new releases. We have over a dozen that we’re excited for or might be on your radar. I can’t remember the last time a week had that many selections from us!
Are any of these on your TBR pile? What books are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!
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A Dawn with the Wolf Knight
Author: Elise Kova
Released: August 1, 2024 by Silver Wing Press
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Married to Magic #5To enter the woods as a human means death… But I am no mere human. They call me, “witch.”
As one of the last surviving witches, Faelyn’s sole duty is to keep the protective barriers on the forests where the lykin roam—creatures who can shed flesh for fur—sparing nearby humans from their violent, beastly natures. When she has an unlikely encounter with the rare, primordial spirit of the moon, Faelyn finds herself not only the object of the Wolf King’s desire, but essential to his ability to keep his crown.
Taken to the magical land of Midscape, the Wolf King claims her as his bride to control the moon spirit’s magic that now resides within Faelyn. But Faelyn refuses to resign herself and the spirit Aurora to a life of servitude underneath the king’s cruel rule. Faelyn hatches a dangerous plan for them both to escape and help comes from an unlikely ally.
Evander is the king’s blisteringly handsome, loyal knight, right hand, and Faelyn’s sworn protector…on the outside. But appearances are not what they seem. He plots against the king’s brutality at every turn and helping Faelyn escape will serve these ends. But altruism for Faelyn and the trapped moon spirit isn’t his only motivation… Evander is hiding secrets, and they might change Faelyn’s life forever.
A desperate plot to escape. A brutal king. Ancient powers. And a sworn protector who can’t keep his hands off her… Will she be taken as the Wolf King’s bride? Or will she manage an escape that will free her heart and change her fate forever?
A Dawn with the Wolf Knight is a complete, *stand alone novel*. For readers who love romantasy novels with second-chance/long-lost love, life-changing female friendships, deep lore, forbidden romance, slow-burn, and a happily ever after. While it is set in the Married to Magic universe, readers can start with this book.
Elyse: I’ve loved every book in this series.
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Some Kind of Forever
Author: Layna James
Released: August 1, 2024 by Layna James
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Series: Fort Bender #1Shana’s pick!
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A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience
Author: Stephanie Burgis
Released: August 5, 2024 by Five Fathoms Press
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Historical: European, Novella, Science Fiction/FantasyMargaret Dunhaven may have been forced into marriage with the sinister vampire lord of Shadowcroft Manor to fulfill a family obligation, but she’s not about to stay trapped there for long. The beastly man doesn’t even have any decent tea leaves in his kitchen!
However, when she realizes that she’s not the only one who’s been forced into this marital union, it’s time to join forces with her unwanted new husband. If they can combine her scholarly skills with his ancient history, then, working together, they might just manage to reclaim her inheritance, break his curse, and find their freedom.
…Just so long as they don’t fall in love along the way.
A witty and sparkling gothic fantasy novella that puts a new twist on Beauty and the Beast in an alternate-history version of late 19th century England.
Aarya: Sounds adorably cozy!
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A Sorceress Comes to Call
Author: T. Kingfisher
Released: August 6, 2024 by Tor Books
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction/FantasyA dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic
Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn’t allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother’s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.
After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.
Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.
Amanda: Another autobuy! Kingfisher does romantic horror fantasy so well!
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Dark Restraint
Author: Katee Robert
Released: August 6, 2024 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Dark Olympus #7Ariadne Vitalis is in trouble. She’s betrayed her father—and his benefactor—and now she’s left to rely on the questionable mercy of Olympus to keep her safe. As with everything in this city, mercy comes with a price. For Ariadne, that means a marriage to Dionysus. She has no choice but to agree, even if there’s only one man she’s ever wanted—a man she’s feared just as much as she desires.
The Minotaur never had any illusions about Minos’s plans. He was willing to get his hands dirty as long as the old man kept his word—at the end of this, the Minotaur would be given Ariadne as a reward. Nowhere in that deal was her walking down the aisle to a different man. She’s meant for him, and he means to have her.
Ariadne knows better than to encourage the Minotaur. Her relationship with her new fiancé might be more friendship than burning passion, but she is all too aware of how much fiery passion can hurt. She and the Minotaur are no good for each other. She can never forgive him for what he’s done, and he can never change. But when his hands are on her body and his wicked words are whispered in her ear, she might just be willing to let all of Olympus burn…
The latest book in the Dark Olympus series!
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The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
Author: P. Djèlí Clark
Released: August 6, 2024 by Tor.com
Genre: Novella, Science Fiction/FantasyThe Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats.
Nor do they have tails.
But they are most assuredly dead.
Nebula and Alex Award winner P. Djèlí Clark introduces a brand-new world and a fantastical city full of gods and assassins.
Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins―resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories―have only three unbreakable vows.
First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.
Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.
The third and the once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.
Amanda: Clark is an autobuy for me since Ring Shout!
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Death at Morning House
Author: Maureen Johnson
Released: August 6, 2024 by HarperTeen
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Young AdultFrom the bestselling author of the Truly Devious books, Maureen Johnson, comes a new stand-alone YA about a teen who uncovers a mystery while working as a tour guide on an island and must solve it before history repeats itself.
The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.
With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.
Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?
Sarah: I am embarrassed to say I’ve never read a Maureen Johnson novel and I am really curious about this one. A secret house with mysteries? I’m in.
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The Friend Zone Experiment
Author: Zen Cho
Released: August 6, 2024 by Bramble
Genre: Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, RomanceFrom the outside, Renee Goh’s life looks perfect. She’s thirty and beautiful, runs a glamorous―and profitable―women’s clothing company in London, and is dating a hot Taiwanese pop star.
But Renee is lonely. Estranged from her family in Singapore, she practically lives at the office, and now she’s just been dumped by her supposed boyfriend. Who she never saw anyway, so why is she ruining her Instagram-ready makeup by crying?
Before she can curl up on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, Renee’s father calls. He’s retiring, and, thanks to the screw-ups of her wastrel brothers, he is considering her as the next CEO of the family Chahaya Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. That stamp of her father’s approval would mean everything to Renee, but can she cooperate with the brothers who drove her out of Singapore?
But fate isn’t done with her. That same night, Renee bumps into her first love, Yap Ket Siong, who broke her heart during university. They spend a wonderful night together, but Ket Siong is pursuing a dangerous vengeance for his family. In the light of day is there any hope for the two of them?
A new Bramble release!
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Love Lessons
Author: Sidney Halston
Released: August 6, 2024 by Avon
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceAbbott Elementary meets Ali Hazelwood in this spicy rivals-to-lovers rom-com starring two kindergarten teachers whose one night stand leads to an unexpected nine-month lesson in love.
Quirky, free-spirited Valerie Marquez likes to make sure her kindergarten class has fun while learning. Uptight, by-the-book Andrew Wexler is allergic to fun, and loud music gives him a migraine, which makes sharing a wall with the other kindergarten teacher who loves to blast music all day his worst nightmare.
But during the end-of the school year party, their shared tension morphs into a night of wild sex. What neither expected was the surprise consequence of that night.
A baby.
And, if sharing a wall with her nemesis was hard, sharing a classroom with him, while she’s feeling hormonal and hungry, is much harder. Turns out that co-teaching isn’t the hardest thing they’ll have to overcome. Trying not to fall in love with her baby daddy is much harder.
Dahlia: Spirited heroine + uptight hero is my absolute favorite hetero pairing. Add in a baby and I am so down for seeing how this plays out.
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Queen of Dreams
Author: Kit Rocha
Released: August 6, 2024 by Montlake
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Bound to Fire and Steel #2Three lovers with unbridled hope, uncanny dreams, and ancient powers join forces against the greatest evil in the world in a scorching fantasy by the authors of Consort of Fire.
Ash waited three thousand years for a consort who could break the Betrayer’s chains. Instead of one lover, he found Sachi and Zanya—the primordial powers that embody creation and destruction, reborn as humans. Now, his ancient enemy has returned to threaten everything he loves.
In the wake of her dazzling manifestation, Zanya seethes with magic and restless energy. Her command of the Endless Void will be a potent weapon in the coming war. To harness it, she’ll need to embrace the darkness within—but the scars of the past are holding her back.
Sachi’s unprecedented connection to the Dream deepens, leading her beyond the veil of reality…and into the heart of the Betrayer’s stronghold. Torn from her lovers, Sachi must use all her wit and cunning to survive the Betrayer’s treacherous court. Because he doesn’t simply want her. He covets the slumbering power she possesses—and plans to take it for his own.
Even if it ends their world.
Kit Rocha continues their poly fantasy romance! We also featured this cover on a previous Cover Awe.
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This Ravenous Fate
Author: Hayley Dennings
Released: August 6, 2024 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Historical: American, LGBTQIA, Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: This Ravenous Fate #1The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life—and death waits in the dark.
It’s 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family’s thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise’s mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.
Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can’t refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.
Elyse: A jazz age, Harlem-set vampire novel? Yes please.
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The Seventh Veil of Salome
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Released: August 6, 2024 by Del Rey
Genre: Historical: American, Mystery/ThrillerA young woman wins the role of a lifetime in a film about a legendary heroine—but the real drama is behind the scenes in this sumptuous historical epic from the author of Mexican Gothic.
1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.
So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.
Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.
But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.
Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.
An Old Hollywood mystery!
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The Truth According to Ember
Author: Danica Nava
Released: August 6, 2024 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceA Chickasaw woman who can’t catch a break serves up a little white lie that snowballs into much more in this witty and irresistible rom-com by debut author Danica Nava.
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative” listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).
Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they’re caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything.
Shana: I’m a sucker for a gorgeous cover and an OwnVoices Indigenous romance.
Dahlia: So looking forward to an Indigenous rom-com!
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I love Cho enough that I don’t even care it’s contemporary, and I have an extremely low tolerance for contemporary romance at this point, especially m/f. Very excited to learn about this one!
I’m desperately looking forward to the new Kingfisher, of course, but so is everyone else. I imagine it’ll take so long for my hold to come I am trying to think of this as like, an October release.
I have a hold on the latest Crusie that I should get soon, and that only came out a couple weeks ago. I have been pretty disappointed in her books since the team up with what’s his fuck, so I am trying to manage my expectations there. I have a fear it’s flying through holds as people nope out of it, but maybe readers are just tearing through it in delight?
Loved The Truth According to Ember and T. Kingfisher’s latest!
…The idea of Ariadne/Minotaur has me headtilting for multiple reasons, even though I know in Roberts’ world the pairing means something entirely different.
@kkw – I had a very similar reaction to the Cho. Didn’t know it was coming out, would ignore that title and cover from any other author, but it’s Zen Cho, so of course I just added it to my Want to Read list and my library hold list.
Also read a really good GR review by KJ Charles that reset my expectations and made me more interested in it.
“The first half of the book is pretty dark and quite stressful…With all that, it’s something of a triumph that the author shifts gears to make this really work as a contemporary romance. The plot pivots impressively and takes the mood with it, opening out into people reaching for joy and self-respect in a way that doesn’t deny the pain of the first half. This isn’t a book that pretends everything’s OK globally, or that the millionaire fantasy is other than horrifically problematic, but it is a book that says you can fight to make things better for at least some other people, and that doing so is worth more than scrabbling for the next million for yourself. It is in fact a super-rich person romance that doesn’t shy away from the reality of what super-rich means, with a level of honesty we rarely get, and I’m absolutely here for it.
Kai Butler has a book coming out on 8/8 called Smoke and Mirrors. It’s part of a very loosely connected fantasy series where a bunch of author write books about someone finding a magic coin.
The Burgis book sounds fun, and it’s only 2.99 at Amazon! SOLD!
I don’t know if it’s okay to post here, but my second near-future romance released on 8/1.
Midnight’s Captive
He’s a hotshot hacker in too deep with a powerful corporation. She’s a bar owner with a dangerous reputation. They both have secrets they’d die to protect. When a threat from his past endangers the only family he has left, can they trust each other enough to save the people they love?
Available at Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo and Barnes & Noble
https://heathergreye.com/books/midnights-captive/
If you’re into cozy mysteries, the latest Donna Andrews, Between a Flock and a Hard Place, is out today. She’s my favorite of active cozy writers.
Adding the latest in the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews, Between a Flock and a Hard Place, which came out yesterday.
Apologies for repetition – think my comment must have got stuck in the queue, as Anna’s wasn’t visible to me when I posted it.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an auto-buy for me, so I’m really looking forward to Salome. She’s broken me out of reading slumps before so fingers crossed she breaks me out of the one I’m in now!