Happy Tuesday!
We’re closing out September with a handful of new books. How are we all feeling about the releases this month? I’m personally ready for some spooky, atmospheric coziness next month.
What new releases are on your TBR pile today? Let us know in the comments!
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A Jingle Bell Mingle
Author: Julie Murphy
Released: September 24, 2024 by Avon
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Christmas Notch #3The latest in the Christmas Notch series!
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The Finest Print
Author: Erin Langston
Released: September 24, 2024
Genre: Historical: European, RomanceOne sensational love story.
American journalist Ethan Fletcher traversed the globe to claim his late uncle’s Fleet Street print shop, only to find his unexpected inheritance is shackled by ruinous debt. To save his business and finally direct his own course, he needs to raise capital, and quickly. Good fortune comes in the form of Belinda Sinclair, the eccentric daughter of a respected London judge—and she just so happens to be a beautiful failure of a novelist.
Bruised by scandal, Belle has spent years writing a gruesome courtroom mystery no respectable publisher will touch. Until she meets Ethan—barely respectable, barely a publisher, but with two broad hands that can work a press and an enterprising spirit that breathes new life into her pages. Emboldened by the prospect of seeing her story in print, Belle agrees to Ethan’s plan: she will transform her grisly manuscript into a serialized penny dreadful, and he will sell it as a means to settle his accounts.
In the close confines of the print shop, Ethan and Belle discover their partnership is conducive to far more than fiction. Helpless to deny their deepening devotion, they dare to compose a future free of his financial burdens and her social constraints. But when a series of punishing obstacles jeopardizes the story they’ve been writing off the page, they must confront how much they are willing to lose… and what it will take to save everything.
Aarya: Always here for non-aristocratic MCs in historicals!
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Love and Sportsball
Author: Meka James
Released: September 24, 2024 by Afterglow Books by Harlequin
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Atlanta Cannons #1In this steamy and sweet sapphic romance, an uptight athletic trainer has one taboo night with a hot basketball player, but are they ready to play for what they really want?
Scoring was the easy …
Hard work has Khadijah Upton starting her dream job as an athletic trainer for the Atlanta Cannons. Then an evening of celebratory letting loose turns into a one-night stand with a beautiful stranger. It’s a reckless, wildly sexy encounter that Khadijah intends to forget…until her first day on the job lands her face-to-face with basketball star Shae Harris again.
Shae is a major player in every sense of the word, and Khadijah doesn’t plan to be the latest in a long line of “Harris Honeys.” Personal and professional just don’t mix. But Shae, who’s all about living life to the fullest, keeps tempting Khadijah to blur the boundaries. And the more Shae reveals about herself, the harder it is for Khadijah to resist her.
In the bedroom, their tension sizzles. On the court, it’s a liability. But unless Khadijah’s willing to really let Shae in, it won’t be just the team championship on the line, but a body-and-soul connection that rewrites all the rules.
Tara: I haven’t read a one-night-to-forever romance in a sports setting before.
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The Lovers
Author: Rebekah Faubion
Released: September 24, 2024 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceA second chance at love is in the cards for two women working a stylish California wedding in this charming debut romance.
If Kit Larson believes one thing, it’s that the cards never lie. She’s seen it proven time and time again as a tarot reader and mystic influencer. But unfortunately the cards didn’t warn her about her most recent breakup or her parents’ divorce, so when Kit is offered a gig at another influencer’s boho-chic Joshua Tree wedding she accepts for the distraction. And distract it does when she finds out her high school crush, Julia, is the wedding planner.
Julia Kelley is her agency’s most sought-after wedding planner, and for a good reason—she’s a perfectionist. Control means never showing others the vulnerable, blobby mess she really is deep down inside. Having an ex-girlfriend in the bridal party is a problem, sure, but reconnecting with the beautiful tarot reader who broke her heart as a teenager is so much worse.
Kit’s cards once told her that she and Julia were Twin Flames, two halves of the same soul. With wedding events pushing them together, their spark reignites . . . and so does a chance at being lovers.
Tara: I’m curious to see how much tarot informs the story.
Dahlia: I cannot rave about this one enough, as I don’t think I’ve seen a bi adult romance handle compulsory heterosexuality this way before and it’s just really lovely and eminently relatable.
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Second Chance Christmas
Author: Jahquel J.
Released: September 24, 2024 by Black Odyssey Media
Genre: Contemporary Romance, RomanceOld flames are reunited with the burden of their past and a love that still lingers in this heartfelt holiday romance by Jahquel J.
Being known as the daughter of the Sageport’s town drunk always left Faith Stone defending her mother and herself. Her only solace was her boyfriend, Rome. Even as a teenager, Faith knew she wanted forever with Rome Atkins. Their small town, her mother’s struggles, and everyone’s opinions of their relationship couldn’t hold them back forever. After graduation, they would put Sageport behind them and start life anew together . . . but prom night changed everything.
Fifteen years later, Faith, now a divorced, single parent, finds herself back in Sageport for the holidays. The memories and pain are still fresh, as if everything happened yesterday, especially when she runs into Rome, who never left Sageport. Also fresh are the unexpected lingering feelings they still harbor for each other. Do old wounds run too deep, or can the joy of Christmas provide enough healing power for a second chance love reunion?
Shana: I have a soft spot for progressive small town romances.
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The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society
Author: C.M. Waggoner
Released: September 24, 2024 by Ace
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/FantasyA librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.
Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she’s concerned by just how many killers she’s had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count…but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town’s new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the “Demon-Hunting Society,” Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.
Never mess with a librarian.
Amanda: A cozy mystery just in time for spooky season!
Sarah: This looks SO CUTE.
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The Dating Countdown
Author: N.G. Peltier
Released: September 26, 2024
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Island Bites #3Remi Daniels knows what she wants. Maxine King. She screwed up when they were teenagers allowing them to part on bad terms, but now that Maxine is divorced and back on the island their chemistry can’t be denied. And Remi is ready to pick up right where they left off.
Maxine King has only ever fooled around with one woman, Remi Daniels and being back in each other’s orbits they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. Maxine has enough to deal with in her daily life: her daughter and trying to prove herself at work. She can’t add lusting after Remi to that list. To prove that their relationship can be more than just sex, Maxine suggests they keep things casual and go on 10 friend dates. After all if they can do that it would mean they’re serious about each other right?
But their dates keep getting reset as they keep breaking their pact. Remi’s getting restless because not making it to the 10 days by their imposed deadline means failure which sucks because each date just shows her how much more she wants Maxine. As the two women try to navigate this budding relationship the both have to combat their fears: Maxi’s of falling for a woman and Remi’s of worrying that Maxi will reject her at the end of their deal.
Shana: Excited for this one!
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Jenny Bayliss’s “Kiss Me at Christmas” is out today, and it’s being billed as “White Christmas meets Nora Ephron,” so I’m excited for it. And “The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year” by Ally Carter also comes out today. I liked yesterday’s review so I’ve requested it at my library.
Major kudos to the designer of the cover for THE LOVERS. My brain went “oh hey that cover kinda looks like a tarot card” before reading the text.
The Finest Print looks interesting. I’m always intrigued by historicals set in the publishing industry. Not loving the cover, though, which suggests it’s more explicit than I want at the moment.
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (VLDHS?) also sounds good, though I hope it turns out ok for the cat. I prefer the UK cover for that one, complete with Gothic mansion.
It’s?all about the historical mysteries for me this month. There’s a new Wrexford and Sloan, MURDER AT KING’S CROSSING from Andrea Penrose. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Weasels are adapting to country life with the newlyweds.
Then there’s THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY which takes intrepid sleuth Verity Kent and husband to Northern Ireland in the 20’s. I’m sure Ana Lee Tuber will come through with lots of well researched historical details.
Just realized you can not longer write “the 20s” and assume people will understand you mean the 1920s.
I really loved Erin Langston’s first book, Forever Your Rogue. I end up forgetting the plots of 99% of what I read, even the ones I really like, but I found this memorable. I’m not always psyched about children being used as vehicles for the hero to grow up, but this felt like it was about him growing into himself, the kids felt like actual people, and the heroine had a lot of her own work to do so it all felt balanced. I am excited for this new one.
I’ve enjoyed several of Elizabeth Camden’s historical romances (which generally have a slight Christian component). I see that her first contemporary romance is releasing today ~ Summerlin Groves.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9KY5K89/?tag=ficvic19-20
Reporting back that I read The Finest Print in one sitting and really enjoyed it. Great details about the nineteenth-century print industry, and just the right amount of suspense about the outcome. Belle’s urge to write Gothic fiction, and the extracts from it, were lovely.