strange and random happenstance

A Dark and Wild Wood by Sarah Nicole Lemon
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by the tale of Bluebeard, A Dark and Wild Wood is the lush and atmospheric story of a maiden with dark magic who becomes the apprentice to Lord Death - for a price.

Ever since she was a child, Salomé has been plagued by visions of spirits and dangerous powers she can't control. After watching her foster mother burn as a witch, she and her beloved sister Rochelle are raised together in a convent, a grim and dreary existence. Until one day, Rochelle vanishes.

Determined to find a way to save her, Salomé runs: first to a brothel, and then, after a terrible accident, away from the village and into the woods. Deep amongst the trees of the wild Black Forest, she comes face-to-face with Lord Death.

Rather than taking her life, he brings her to his home at the heart of the woods, a strange manor full of locked rooms and mysterious corridors, crumbling one moment, magnificent the next. He promises to make her his apprentice and teach her how to harness her mind and magic. His words are as seductive as his presence - but should one trust Death?

A swirling mirage of gothic fairy tale and historical fantasy, A Dark and Wild Wood is a novel best devoured all at once. But proceed with caution, as everything is not what it seems..."

I am lately all about the Bluebeard adaptations. 

The Blackthorn Women by Jess Lourey
Published by: Thomas and Mercer
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 315 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A terrible family curse threatens four generations of women in a spellbinding novel of haunting secrets, magic, and healing by the Edgar Award-nominated author of The Taken Ones.

After her husband's infidelity, devastated Katrine Blackthorn reluctantly returns to Faith Falls, Minnesota, to her family's Queen Anne mansion on the hill and the magic that binds them all.

Her grandmother Velda charms everyone she meets. Her mother, Ursula, is a brewer of potions who sees a threat around every corner. And there's her estranged sister, Jasmine, broken by something no one will name. With Katrine's return, all that the Blackthorns have feared seems to be manifesting. The snakes amassing with the spring thaw and the stranger who's rolled into town are just the first omens threatening the fragile peace the family is rebuilding.

Now Katrine must face the darkest secret of her lineage and rediscover her own magic if the Blackthorn women are to survive."

Love the Practical Magic of it all.

Half Wylde by Sabrina Blackburry
Published by: W by Wattpad Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 424 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Readers who love romantasy about hidden heritage and fae mythology like Margaret Rogerson, Sarah J. Maas, and Holly Black.

Fans of paranormal romance television shows where the heroine discovers their true abilities like The Courting of Bristol Keats, Shadow and Bone, Carnival Row or Mayfair Witches.

Wren has spent her life hiding - hiding the truth about herself: She's half-fae. The local villagers are afraid of her and only her adoptive father, Bryn, and her teacher, a witch named Mila, care whether she lives or dies. When their village is attacked, and Bryn is killed, Mila urges Wren to flee into the woods.

There she encounters the mysterious but frightening Thain who offers to take her to the Wyldes, the land of the fae creatures. In the Wyldes, she can finally find a home and learn to embrace the side of herself that she's always kept hidden.

Raised among humans, Wren was shunned for her non-human half and taught to fear the fae. Now that she's living among them, she has to face her fears and accept her own heritage to find peace in her new home. But when the burning seal that Mila placed on her back to control her powers begins to burst, and the mystery of her parentage begins to unravel, Wren might find herself in more danger than she could have ever imagined."

Um, The Courting of Bristol Keats isn't a TV show, and it's probably not good to mention Shadow and Bone and Carnival Row to fans still raw from their cancellations. At least Carnival Row softened the blow by having a horrible second season. Some might say the same for Shadow and Bone. 

Fairies: A History by Francis Young
Published by: Polity Press
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Many people think they know what fairies are, what a fairy looks like, and how a fairy is expected to behave. Francis Young's new history of fairies demonstrates that the truth about belief in fairies is far stranger than clichéd images of tiny figures with wings and wands.

Before the rise of the 'small winged fairy' in the nineteenth century, the category of fairies included a vast range of supernatural human-like creatures, from the elves of Scandinavia and the aos sí of Ireland to the vilas of the Balkans and the fadas of Iberia. Young traces the ancient origins of belief in such creatures and how it adapted to the rise of Christianity and then flourished in medieval Europe, before being transformed - but not destroyed - by the upheavals of the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and even European colonial expansion, which made fairies a global phenomenon. He concludes this uniquely wide-ranging history by reflecting on the surprising ways in which fairy belief endures in our apparently disenchanted contemporary world.

No one who reads this brilliant tour through the enchanted pathways of fairyland will ever look at the winged creatures of contemporary popular culture - or the woods at the bottom of their garden - in the same way again."

I'm all here for the truth about fairies. They are scary and you don't want to mess with them.

Curses, Keys, and Secret Societies by Breanne Randall
Published by: Dell
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A witch hiding a dangerous secret is thrust into an elite magical academy, where survival means risking her life and her heart - in the standalone follow-up to Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things.

Dark secrets. Deadly choices. A destiny that can't be outrun. Welcome to Shadowcraft Academy.

Eléa Deniz dreads going home to the French countryside after leaving four years ago. Upon her return, she finds the estate has become host to the Shadowcraft Academy, an elite graduate school where a world of mysteries and power plays await. What’s worse, her father is the enigmatic and ruthless headmaster with an agenda of his own. And then she discovers a prophecy about her magic that could change everything.

As her power is tested, Eléa becomes torn between Alex, her stoic first love whose loyalties are as murky as his past, and the brash, irreverent Logan, who challenges her to see herself in new ways. Faced with family secrets, a secret society, and the weight of her own magic, Eléa must reclaim her power and forge her own path. Destiny is calling...and it demands a price.

The Sisters of Light and Shadow duology begins in Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things!"

Is it the beginning of a duology though if this is a technically a follow-up to Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things?

The Black Cat Detectives by Kit Gray
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A charming cozy mystery with a delightful twist: The detectives are three kittens with magical powers, determined to solve a most purr-plexing case.

Precocious kittens Bippity, Boppity, and Boop are exceedingly loyal to their human, the twenty-eight-year-old up-and-coming magician Mila. She saved them from starving to death in a dingy Corvin's Crossing alleyway and has been nothing but loving ever since, even though her own life is in shambles.

So when Mila's sketchy boyfriend and business manager turns up dead at the end of her big magic show - she's the prime suspect. With evidence mounting, there's nothing stopping the sheriff from hauling away Mila to the human pound. Unless the kittens can solve the crime and clear her name.

The kittens will have to use their dubious control over the laws of physics and every whisker of know-how they've got to catch the real killer if they want to save their happy home with Mila. This is one meow-stery more tangled than any ball of yarn they've encountered yet."

Now I want three kittens to name Bippity, Boppity, and Boop. Though hopefully they won't have to clear my name of a murder charge and they'd be helping me dig the graves for my enemies.

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two teen con-artists must execute an almost impossible scam at an exclusive mansion in this thriller that's White Lotus meets Mexican Gothic - for teens.

Lola and I grew up hearing that we could become anything, but our parents hadn't meant it the way gringo parents did. They meant it as a warning.

Lola and Lisandro are actors during Hollywood's Golden Age, but you won't see them on any silver screen. Instead, these siblings use their talents to scam the rich and famous out of their ill-begotten cash. They have their act down to a science: Lola plays the tragic ghost who haunts the mansions of the wealthy, and Lisandro plays the brave spiritualist who will help her soul find peace. For a small fee, of course.

The siblings have their sights set on their next target: The Coterie, the opulent estate of newspaper tycoon Bixby Fairfax and his famous mistress Blythe Bell. A score this big will allow them to move...well, anywhere but here. But this job requires them to do something they've never done before: switch roles. And as strange things keep happening at The Coterie...things that even Lola and Lisandro can't explain.

As they are drawn deeper into The Coterie's gleaming façade and tensions rise between brother and sister, one question looms over them. Will they be able to pull off their act? Or will this be their last performance?"

Or are they messing with powers beyond their control?

The Lemon Twist by Élan Les Vies
Published by: Keylight Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""My name...is Sam Sailor. Like the others...I am trapped here. And will die here."

In 1984, Iris Sailor's brutal fall on the ice unravels everything - her memory, doping secret, and figure skating career. Dumped by her coach/boyfriend and banned from competing, Iris finds herself utterly alone, wishing there was some way she could reconnect with her estranged sister, Sam.

When she returns home after her fall from grace, she finds an old postcard tucked alongside the rest of her mail. Strangely, the card advertising Nova Bay is postmarked September 14, 1981 - the same day Sam disappeared. As she's about to chuck it in the trash, Iris realizes there's only one word scribbled on the back: HELP.

Tracing clues to a briny Northern California cove, Iris discovers a series of cassette tapes left behind by Sam, who narrates the story of her disappearance three years before. To uncover Sam's fate - and reclaim her own - Iris must piece together fractured memories and let go of the past before her sister and future are lost forever. But will she sink or swim under waves of crippling fear and dark family secrets?"

Handy to get physical media to help you recover your just lost memories...

The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams
Published by: MCD
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A reclusive graduate student is forced into a friendship that destabilizes her life in this surreal, allegorical romance.

In a famed but crumbling university city overrun by nature, where power is held in a fragile balance between academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners, the reclusive narrator of The Vivisectors spends her days propping up the career of her needy and fraudulent professor boss. Then a controversy ruptures her careful routine: Adam, a contrarian student and an obsession of the boss, comes into heated conflict with a young professor, with both men claiming discrimination. The crisis subsumes the university, though the narrator is unmoved - not even the attempted suicide of her estranged mother has been enough to dispel her lack of engagement with the world. But when her boss commands her to befriend Adam, the narrator finds herself both caught up in the events threatening to tear the city apart and increasingly drawn to the alluring student at the heart of it all.

Coursing with icy suspense and told with violent precision, The Vivisectors is a new kind of love story for an age of deteriorated communication. With the unsparing style and intellectual ambition that made her award-winning debut The Doloriad a celebrated provocation, Missouri Williams holds a mirror up to humanity's most intimate contradictions and reflects them back through a novel of profound, spiky spiritual reckoning."

Always here for any dark academia. 

Night Objects by Eli Raphael
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This suspenseful novel transports readers to the windswept coast of Washington State and a boarding school steeped in privilege and deadly secrets - a remarkable story of grief, power, and the dangerous price of belonging.

It is true that I wished him dead dozens of times. Hundreds, even. But I, Lenny Winter, did not kill that boy.

Lenny Winter is fifteen years-old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest's elite, where wealth and tradition rule.

Blanchard is dazzling, insular - and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school's greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide.

As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lenny's choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoning - and a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming.

Sweeping, thrilling, and deeply moving, Night Objects is both a gripping mystery and a profound coming-of-age story - asking what we risk, what we become, and who we hold dear when the need to belong eclipses everything else."

I am so happy I never went to a boarding school. 

Beneath a Broken Sky by Joshua Moehling
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From USA Today bestselling author Joshua Moehling comes a tense, atmospheric thriller about one detective's search for a mysterious killer in the chaos following a deadly storm...

A killer hides in the wreckage of a broken town...

It's a hot, miserable summer in the small town of Sandy Lake. Detective Ben Packard has finally settled into life here - just in time for a tornado to sweep through the county, causing irreparable damage. Trees are felled, homes are destroyed, and people are desperate.

Hiding among the debris is someone with a secret.

When a mother who made enemies defending her bullied son is killed, the suspect list stretches across the entire town. For Packard, the case hits uncomfortably close to home. The deeper he digs, the more Sandy Lake hums with a tension that refuses to break.

As thick smoke from nearby wildfires chokes the air, someone from Packard's past shows up on his doorstep without warning, forcing him to confront the reality of navigating life as a gay man in a small town bent on tradition, no matter the cost.

The heat suffocates. The violence simmers. Before the summer is out, someone else will die."

You know, natural disasters are a very good way to cover up a murder.

House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Published by: Erewhon Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Serial the podcast meets The Other Black Girl in a haunted house, as young African author disappears after being invited to an exclusive writing residency, and her sister is left only with a true crime podcast to help her uncover the truth about what really happened...

Anaya Sebeya is missing.

Before her disappearance, Anaya was a brilliant writer: a rising star. Invited to a prestigious writing residency at Günter Huis, an eerie colonial mansion on the slopes of Devil's Peak, Anaya was supposed to craft the next great African literary masterpiece - and so were four other young, emerging writers, all competing for the grand prize. But Anaya never made it home.

When a sensationalized true crime podcast about Anaya emerges, claiming to reveal everything that happened at Günter Huis, her sister Ranewa is both skeptical and furious. But with each surreal episode, Ranewa begins to piece together a truth worse than she ever could have imagined...

At Günter Huis, Anaya's nightmares consume her. Time slips away from her. Günter Huis inflicts distorted visions and terrible supernatural visitations, pushing Anaya to tell a story no one dares. But exorcising the house's endless cycle of evil requires a sacrifice that neither Anaya nor her fellows are ready to make.

In House of Margins, award-winning Motswana author Tlotlo Tsamaase delivers a mesmerizing story of a young generation facing colonialism's cultural legacy in Africa."

Evil house, yes yes.

Dungeons and Danger by Elizabeth Penney
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The second in Elizabeth Penney's Ravensea Castle cozy mystery series, set in a haunted castle-turned-B and B in Yorkshire, UK.

As Halloween approaches, Ravensea Castle is bustling with excitement as Nora Asquith welcomes the fall season guests to her family's newly converted bed and breakfast. A historian studying the movements of the Vikings has traced their exploits to Ravensea. A certain Viking woman, known as the Red Maiden, landed here and the historian believes she buried a treasure hoard before the castle was built. He is hopeful he can find the hoard now. Nora can't help but wonder if the enigmatic castle ghost she's always referred to as the woman in red could be this very Viking?

Meanwhile, a team of four ghost hunters is coming to stay at Ravensea for the filming of Britain's Got Ghosts. Former students of the historian, the group arrives with their own rivalries and baggage. They try to see who can make the most paranormal contacts and end up getting more than they bargained for.

When the historian is murdered during a Viking festival on castle grounds and his notes go missing, Nora can't help but wonder if the treasure was why he was killed...and could it be connected to the visiting ghost hunters? Additional "accidents" befalling the hunters raise the stakes as Nora races to find the killer - and the treasure - before another death occurs."

Yeah, I'd be more worried about finding that treasure too...

The Boleyn Secret by Alison Weir
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 560 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the dramatic, mysterious life of Katherine Carey, niece of Anne Boleyn, in this surprising novel that delves into one of the deepest secrets of Henry VIII's court.

At twelve years old, Katherine Carey attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Horrified by what she witnesses, Katherine is convinced that King Henry VIII is a murderer and has sent an innocent woman to a terrible death.

Although the Boleyn family, once so influential at court, has now fallen from favor, Katherine still manages to secure a coveted role as companion to her now-motherless cousin, the young Lady Elizabeth. Bound by Boleyn blood, the two girls grow as close as sisters, though Katherine has trouble ignoring the sly looks thrown her way and continual whispers behind her back. Only when her mother lies dying does Katherine learn the life-shattering truth that the Boleyns have been hiding for years.

It is a secret that follows Katherine throughout her life, as she flees religious persecution with her husband and lives abroad in fear, returning home only when Elizabeth becomes queen. But the bond between the Boleyn cousins will never be the same again.

With her usual entertaining and authoritative style beloved by readers, renowned historian Alison Weir exposes a dramatic, little-known Tudor mystery in this fascinating, revelatory novel."

One thing I've learned about Tudor England is that you don't want to be a Boleyn at all. Not even connected to them.

The Friend of the Family by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Published by: Pushkin Press Classics
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A blustering interloper and a meek aristocrat struggle for control of a country estate, in this comic novel by the author of Crime and Punishment.

Full of pace, effervescence and grotesque comedy, this short novel by the renowned author of Crime and Punishment represents an antic mode insufficiently known to English readers, and presented here in the first translation since Constance Garnett's version of the 1920s.

Set on a remote country estate, the story concerns a household completely under the sway of the despotic charlatan and humbug Foma Fomich Opiskin, one of the most notorious creations in Russian literature. The owner of the estate, Colonel Rostanev, a meek, soft-hearted giant of a man, is cruelly dominated by Opiskin. With deftly controlled suspense amid a teeming variety of wildly eccentric minor characters, the novel builds up to a confrontation between these two. Will Rostanev give way to Opiskin's cruelty and sacrifice the love of his life? Or will his sense of honor finally push him to resist the tyrant’s demands?

Written in the year of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's return to St. Petersburg after his exile, it is perhaps his most important early work. It is the link between Gogol and Chekhov; it is almost Dickensian in its comic proliferation of imaginative characters. In the chaos which spreads out from the roiling center of the dominant Opiskin, Dostoevsky draws a picture of a Russia on the verge of upheaval and transformation."

The way Russian authors have of dark humor with commentary always fascinates me. I also love the Mitfordesque cover.

Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Published by: Hanover Square Press
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The sixth book in the multi-million-copy bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series about a cozy Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time.

In a special seat in a fabled Tokyo cafe, you're offered something irresistible - not just a warm, comforting coffee, but the chance to go back in time to revisit the ones you love...

In Before I Knew I Loved You, Toshikazu Kawaguchi takes us back to the warm heart of the mysterious Funiculi Funicula Cafe, with another four guests whose luminous stories of love, lost and won again, will reaffirm your belief in its eternal potential. In this book, we meet:
-The girl who couldn't call her mother, and yearns to reconnect with her
-The man who waited for a reply from his girlfriend, and never heard from her
-The woman anxious to travel ahead to know what her future holds
-The student who travels back to meet his father again, who passed away many years before.

Yet the same rules always apply - you must return before the coffee gets cold. And while it does, memories are revisited, people are changed for ever, and the enduring power of love transcends the boundaries of time.

The sixth book in the phenomenal, bestselling series, translated from Japanese, Before I Knew I Loved You asks the irresistible question: what would you do if you were offered the chance to go back in time?"

I mean, how hot is the coffee? Because if it's like McDonald's lawsuit hot then that's a nice chunk of time to spend with your dearly departed.

I Hear a New World by Alan Moore
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Alan Moore, the second book in the Long London Series, a daringly inventive fantasy novel about murder, mayhem, and magic.

It's 1958 and Dennis Knuckleyard has decided to leave his adventures in the Great When in the past where they belong. For nine years, he's avoided so much as thinking about the magical version of London, until he rediscovers an unpleasant reminder of his last adventure - a key that he'd secretly brought into his own world from the other for safekeeping.

But while Dennis may believe he's done with the Great When, it's far from done with him. When Dennis gives the key to a friend, its magical properties reawaken, bringing creatures from the other world into Dennis's and sparking riots in Notting Hill. Even worse, Dennis's old crush Grace Shilling has been forced into the Great When to investigate strange happenings in both cities.

Desperate to keep Grace safe, Dennis follows her into Long London. But once inside the other city, it will not let him go away again so easily, and Dennis and Grace must fight to set things right in the Great When and their own world, or forever lose their lives - and each other.

Full of Moore's characteristically stunning world building and rollicking prose, I Hear a New World is the extraordinary second adventure in the Long London series."

The Great When let's you know when it's done with you.

The Mayor of Noob Town by Ryan Rimmel
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"LitRPG fans: there's a new player in town. In the first book in Ryan Rimmel's fantastical Noobtown series, a young man dies only to find himself the hero in a strange new world.

It could be worse. You could be stuck with a literal shoulder demon.

For Jim, it's very much worse. Because after dying and being reborn into a world that's built like a video game, Jim has found himself stuck in an antiquated new player zone for low level adventurers - stuck with a demon shrunk to the size of a plush animal, who only will help keep Jim alive so that it can kill him later and get back to its demon realm.

But in order to survive, Jim must level up. Except the zone he's in fell out of use centuries ago and so this isn't the typical "grind through the forest" part of the game anymore. On top of that, no one told the monsters that remain they were supposed to take it easy on the Noobs.

And even worse, the only new player around is Jim.

Yet Jim has been given an opportunity, and he'll do his best to take advantage of it. Death caught him by surprise once.

He isn't going to let it happen again."

Is it weird that I can instantly put myself in Jim's shoes?

The Tuxedo Society by Paul Rudnick
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"If Guy Ritchie directed a James Bond caper starring a queer 007, it might look something like this hilarious and action-packed spy thriller by Paul Rudnick, acclaimed screenwriter and author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, that blends espionage and social commentary, with an elite, gay secret society.

They are fierce patriots. They are licensed to kill. And they are really, really gay. Welcome to democracy's secret weapon, the Tuxedo Society.

When Andrew Birnbaum, a struggling actor making ends meet by working in a candle shop, gets invited to have dinner with the exclusive Tuxedo Society by his best friend, Brock, his life takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a group of wealthy socialites gathering for gossip and cocktails quickly spirals into a world of espionage, danger, and hilarity.

Andrew soon meets Reggie O'Malley, a Navy SEAL with a penchant for black tie, who recruits Andrew to join the society's covert mission to protect national security. Armed with gadgets like an inflatable life raft backpack, a yoga mat that doubles as an assault rifle, and, of course, an AMEX Black Card, Andrew quickly finds himself tackling spies, thwarting assassinations, and facing a host of unexpected threats in settings from the White House to the Vatican to the Summer Olympic Games.

The stakes escalate when Andrew and his comrades are sent on a jet-setting mission to uncover the truth about an ancient artifact. Along the way, they clash with oligarchs, crooked senators, and a smarmy televangelist with sinister plans for world domination.

Packed with Paul Rudnick's signature wit, The Tuxedo Society is a wild ride through decadence, danger, and unexpected heroism, as Andrew discovers that saving the world might just be the role he's been waiting for."

More importantly, Paul Rudnick is the writer of Addams Family Values. That is ALL you need to know to buy this book.

Bromantasy by Máire Roche
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two heroes. One brain cell.

Bromantasy is a cozy, queer fantasy about the mortifying ordeal of being known by your totally platonic best friend and the epic quest that might force you to confront the truth.

Fellas, is it gay to kiss your bff while on a quest through the forest you're unqualified for?

Juniper O'Reilly is good at only two things: demolishing a pint of mead and finding the perfect skincare routine. Everything else - taking care of the farm, bartering for goods, any sort of manual labor - falls to Juniper's best friend, the absurdly capable, endlessly patient Mo Elmthorn.

But when Juniper accidentally volunteers them both for a quest to kill a fearsome monster, he knows he's finally gotten in over his head. Juniper hates camping, he hates the dark, and there's no way all these foraged mushrooms are going to sit well in his stomach. One thing he doesn't hate? How good Mo's thighs look in his questing pants - he doesn't have time to think about that, though, with a monster to hunt and their futures on the line.

But monsters come in all shapes and sizes. When Juniper and Mo realize that the terrifying beast they've sworn to kill is just a scared little girl torn from her family, they're off to find not only the true villain of the story, but maybe even a happy ending."

I love that they have questing pants. Hot questing pants.

Fortune by Kristin Cast
Published by: Bloom Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the House of Night series Kristin Cast comes the next spicy and spellbinding light romantasy in the Towerfall series.

They matched on a dating app. Then the universe dropped them into a magickal fire kingdom.

Amanda Ward has a five-step manifestation routine, a ritual kit in every purse, and a dating profile designed to reflect the version of herself she wishes she could be: grounded, glowing, and in total alignment. In reality, she's overwhelmed, under-satisfied, and one passive-aggressive email away from a full-blown meltdown.

When a sext thread with her in-app temptation, Declan Thorne, leads to an invitation she can't resist, Amanda finds herself face-to-face with the man behind the messages - a devastatingly hot, emotionally constipated venture capitalist. And the moment she tries bringing a bit of magick into their night, a tarot-triggered portal yanks them both into another realm entirely.

Now stranded in the Kingdom of Wands with an aggravating, broody CEO-turned-reluctant-bodyguard and zero clue how to get home, Amanda's facing nightly on-stage performances, suspicious queens, and magick that refuses to cooperate.

What's worse is that her biggest issue might not be the kingdom - it might be catching real feelings for the one man who makes her want to drop the act.

To survive and find their way back home, she'll have to ditch the affirmations and the carefully controlled persona she's been clinging to and learn how to wield something way more powerful - her truth.

Even if it burns everything down."

But then you emerge phoenix like from the flames! Your true self! 

The Summer of Lost Things by Jenn Bennett
Published by: Avon a
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sexy new adult romance meets swashbuckling adventure when ex childhood friends Paige and Seb reconnect to finally track down the treasure that has been a legend in their small Michigan beach town for decades. Perfect for fans of The Goonies and Netflix's Outer Banks who are craving more romance!

Star pupil Paige Malone just finished her first year at Harvard. Dropout Seb Jansen spent that time pumping gas for wealthy yacht owners at a Lake Michigan marina. They haven't seen each other since high school. A shame, considering that they were once inseparable childhood friends who combed their coastal hometown's sun-kissed beaches along with a couple of other middle-school pals - hunting the Golden Venus, a legendary local treasure that's distantly connected to Paige's family.

A treasure rumored to be worth millions of dollars. If it even exists.

These days, however, the former BFFs have traded adventure for reality. Paige is home for the summer and is spiraling after losing her college financial aid. While across town, Seb fell in with a bad crowd and now regrets his life choices, big time. Both feel colossally stuck. And alone.

But when Paige stumbles upon a hidden secret in her grandmother's beach cottage, she must get their old treasure-hunting gang back together to finally unravel the mystery that has eluded her family for generations. Who knows: the thrill of the hunt might help Paige and Seb find a path back to their lost friendship…or something more.

The Summer of Lost Things brings the summer heat with its combination of a high stakes treasure hunt and a swoony love story."

Goonies for grownups! Because obviously adults need treasure to pay their college tuition... 

By the Bootstraps by Alexa Martin
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A cowboy romance enthusiast discovers that everything's bigger in Texas - even love - in this swoony novel from beloved author Alexa Martin.

Fueled by a love of romance novels, Luna Starr was destined for a life with her head in the clouds. Her delusional tendencies serve her well...or at least they used to. When life throws her a curveball, she decides it's time to turn her cowboy fantasies into reality and purchases a tiny farm in Celestial, Texas. After all, don't all heroines try to outrun grief?

Tate Jacobs hates cowboys, which is a small problem, considering his family happens to own the largest ranch in Celestial. Life might not have gone the way he wanted, but as head coach at his old high school and the town's best (and only) handyman, he's figured out how to stay busy and keep his head down - until the new girl in town shows up. Luna's new property is a bad accident waiting to happen unless someone helps her with her DIY home renovations.

As Tate and Luna spend more time together fixing up her house, unexpected feelings and undeniable chemistry bubble to the surface. Luna might've moved to Celestial to make her cowboy dreams come true, but somewhere beneath the vast Texas skies, she discovers that love in the real world can be far better than she imagined."

I didn't know you could just like, manifest your HEA by acting like a character in a book... Hmm...

Marilyn and Her Books by Gail Crowther
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Timed to the hundredth birthday of Marilyn Monroe, and with the full cooperation of the Monroe estate, comes an investigation into the literary life of the Hollywood icon and actress, from the author of Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz and Dorothy Parker in Hollywood.

Far from the spotlights of the Hollywood film sets and the flashbulbs of the press, Marilyn Monroe was a great reader and lover of books. Her association with writers did not stop at reading their words on the page. She was, of course, briefly married to one of America's best-known playwrights, Arthur Miller, and met a number of other writers who moved in his literary world. But she also met authors independently of Miller, many of whom were fans of her films and keen to meet her.

Through her deep research, Gail Crowther delves into Marilyn's personal book collection and recounts some of these meetings, like when she shared an apartment with Shelley Winters in West Hollywood, where they entertained Dylan Thomas and Christopher Isherwood for drinks (probably several drinks), after which Monroe arranged for Thomas to meet his childhood hero, Charlie Chaplin. Or when Life magazine arranged for Monroe to be interviewed by Dame Edith Sitwell at the Sunset Tower Hotel, and Sitwell was both charmed and blown away by Monroe's intelligence.

Marilyn And Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe charts the intellectual life of a screen legend, revealing how Monroe, who left high school before graduation, embarked on an impressive and progressive program of self-education, hungry for knowledge and devouring books as an active and engaged reader. Her personal library reflects this inquiring mind.

In 2026, for her centenary, this book showcases Marilyn Monroe the reader. Because, at the end of her life, it was not her jewels or her furs, shoes, or dresses that she cared about. It was her books."

Long live the legacy of book lovers!

Roddy McDowall by Samuel Garza Bernstein
Published by: Citadel
Publication Date: May 26th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sincerity, erudition, charisma...Roddy McDowall.

Here is the comprehensive, first-ever biography of the award-winning child star, Planet of the Apes movie icon, beloved film legend, and Hollywood renaissance man whose career spanned 60 years.

As one of the very few naturally gifted child actors who graduated into adult roles with relative ease, Roddy McDowall exuded charm throughout a glorious Hollywood run that included film, television, and Broadway. John Ford's 1941 classic How Green Was My Valley put Roddy on the map at 12-years-old. It won Best Picture over Citizen Kane and is Clint Eastwood's favorite film of all time. But Roddy's biggest claim to fame was yet to come.

The phenomenally popular Planet of the Apes film series, which ran from 1968-1973, introduced him to a whole new generation of fans. In a career spanning 60 years, Roddy was also a professional photographer, producer and director, starstruck movie lover himself, and film preservationist. Among his treasured friends: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Angela Lansbury, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, and Rock Hudson. Openly gay among his peers, if not the public, Roddy was a trusted keeper of secrets as well. Loyal and authentic to the end, everyone in Hollywood loved Roddy McDowall.

Exhaustively researched and featuring exclusive interviews with those who knew him best, this first-ever biography from author Samuel Garza Bernstein charts the extraordinary trajectory of the London-born, award-winning actor - from a childhood in front of the cameras, to a break from the studio and his controlling stage mother, an awkward adolescence and growing awareness of his sexuality, to eventually shaping the life and career that Roddy wanted for himself. Professionally and personally, he was a success. This intimate and fascinating journey of resilience, transformation, and reinvention is a long-awaited and illuminating tribute to a true Hollywood legend."

BUY THIS BOOK! Says the girl who has an action figure of Cornelius from Planet of the Apes on her desk as she types this.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Moore, Alexa Martin, Alison Weir, Anna-Marie McLemore, Elizabeth Penney, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Jenn Bennett, Kit Gray, Kristin Cast, Máire Roche, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Rudnick, Roddy McDowall, Ryan Rimmel, Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Wives and Daughters is the most nearly perfect miniseries that exists that I can not watch. Based on Elizabeth Gaskell's unfinished novel of the same name it is a perfect compromise between fans of Austen and the Brontës. Because the world sucks and feels the need to always pit women against each other, for the longest time you had to identify as either an Austen fan or a Brontës fan, you just couldn't be both. Which is bullshit and where Gaskell enters the frame. She's like Austen with politics or the Brontës with more balls. She revels in a happy ending and social satire, much like Austen, but unlike Austen she deals with weightier subjects and, like her friend Charlotte Brontë, is willing to go a bit broody and bleak when the story requires it. In simpler terms, she's totally willing to kill characters that you love and have no regrets about it. Which is why I have such a problem watching this miniseries almost to the point I just can not watch it. Which pains me because I love it so very much. The thing is, I am perfectly comfortable watching Tom Hollander die over and over again. I even once had to watch Tom Hiddleston do the dirty deed. What I can't handle is Michael Gambon's reaction to Tom Hollander's death. Hollander is after all playing Gambon's eldest son. It is, to me, the most accurate portrayal of grief I have ever seen and it just rips open my very soul. Just even thinking about it makes my heart hurt. And this annoys me all the more because I didn't much care for Hollander's character, but he was so beautifully acted and pathetic and poignant. But where there is love, there is pain. And Wives and Daughters is probably the closest Gaskell ever got to writing a straight-up love story. Sure, she does go on about the inter-dynamics of mixing a family, but in the end, it's the love of two characters, Roger and Molly, that makes this perhaps the best miniseries I have ever seen. Even more than Andrew Davies's other beloved adaptation, Pride and Prejudice, this broke and mended my heart a hundred times over and left me nearly satisfied. For some reason Davies decided to focus on the fact that Roger's first love with Molly's stepsister, Cynthia, was more about attraction, whereas the love between Roger and Molly was more a meeting of the minds and companionship and mutual respect. I feel that they are soul mates, and in need of a good snog, thank you very much. True love wins the day, so let the curtain close on a kiss. And right there is why this is only nearly perfect. Because Roger and Molly never kiss. They have their HEA, the times, they are a changing, and yet, there is no true satisfaction. I don't know if this is because Andrew Davies had to create the ending himself. Usually left to his own devices he brings something to a miniseries that otherwise would be lacking, I'm thinking in particular of the songs in Tipping the Velvet, which also starred Keeley Hawes. Here he's so close. The proposal, the rain, the admission of love, and then the lack of a kiss. It just doesn't work. Which is why it's best I don't watch this miniseries. It angers and destroys me in equal measure.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Andrew Davies, Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Jane Austen, Keeley Hawes, Michael Gambon, Pride and Prejudice, Tipping the Velvet, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hollander, Wives and Daughters

If you've ever watched anything written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff you know that he's not really big on plots or logic, he's in it for the vibes. Which, as a viewer, can be quite frustrating. Sometimes you'd like more than to be emotionally manipulated. You at least want a reason why. Well, if you're looking for a reason why you will not find out here. You have to suspend your disbelief and embrace the illogic of Stephen Polikoff or you will go mad. Being so close to the edge already I chose to embrace the madness. Because as the granddaughter of a photographer a miniseries about photography is obviously within my wheelhouse of knowledge so the sheer incorrectness of, well, everything, just drove me mad. But you already know that. What you don't know is that I was yelling at the television and screaming THIS IS NOT HOW YOU ARCHIVE MATERIALS every other scene. So, now you know that as well. Our tale starring Timothy Spall, Lindsay Duncan, and Liam Cunningham is about the Fallon Photo Library. The library is housed in a large Victorian building where instead of everything being kept in acid free boxes out of the light pictures are strung up across aisles and placed willy-nilly. Ah Stephen Poliakoff, going for the aesthetics over the actual. Though I will say that if this was a photographer's actual studio and not an archive this would be accurate. Eerily accurate. The building that houses the collection has been sold and the collection was to be disposed of. The head librarian Oswald, played by Spall, has, FOR MONTHS, kept this a secret from his boss Marilyn, played by Duncan, and the other members of staff. When Liam Cunningham arrives he expects an empty building not a presentation by the staff as to why the collection needs to be preserved. You see, Oswald is "special." And yes, this could, in this instance, mean many things both positive and negative, but here his specialty is that he knows this collection like no one else and can find any picture of anyone. He performs his "trick" by finding a picture of Liam Cunningham's grandmother within the archive. While it's a neat party trick it doesn't sooth the rest of the staff who are hustling to try to find a home for the archive days before Christmas, even debasing themselves to an advertising firm run by Andy Serkis. The real kicker is that Oswald attempts suicide and becomes an invalid. No longer the man he was. So my question is, while the collection is saved to an extent over these three episodes, when the one man whose brain was needed to preserve the collection's legacy basically destroys it what is this series trying to say? He literally wiped the hard drive. It just so happened it was more organic. Turning this character who is infuriating yet full of life as he runs around the collection to a lump on a bench makes no sense. Does he view this as his punishment? To be forever cut off from the collection? Did he view his life as the price to pay to save the collection? Shooting the Past just baffled and annoyed me and made me really want to organize. Not their collection, I do think that was a lost cause. I need to organize my own shit. So I'll go off and do that and you can do whatever you like. I hope, for your sake, it's not watching this miniseries.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Advertising, Andy Serkis, Archive, Fallon Photo Library, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Liam Cunningham, Lindsay Duncan, Photography, Shooting the Past, Stephen Poliakoff, Suicide, Suspension of Disbelief, Timothy Spall

An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Victorian Scotland in the latest in the genre-blending Rip Through Time series.

Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after travelling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. She's built a new life for herself. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. And with Gray in particular, perhaps, someday, something more.

Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray's undertaking business, and they assume there's been a death in the household. But instead, they arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Although Gray and Mallory are skeptical, they agree to look into the matter, whether she's dead or alive. But unsure if there's been a murder or not, unable to call out the medium as a fraud, and concerned for the fate of the young maid, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling - and more dangerous - than it first seems."

A seance!?! Oh, be still my heart! 

Piccadilly Reckoning by Tracy Grant
Published by: NYLA
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: eBook, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An explosion that rips through the elegant bustle of Mayfair. Three victims who seemingly have no connection to each other. A dangerous weapon. The glamour of Regency London explodes when a carriage carrying a former diplomat is attacked in front of a Piccadilly pub, exposing a deadly web of murder and international intrigue.

Summoned by Bow Street, former spies Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch rush to the scene to find the wreckage still smoldering. Sir Stephen Strangeways, who is in line for a strategic cabinet post, died in the explosion. Baron Hauke, an Austrian diplomat, and Julien Mallinson, a fellow former agent - and one of Mélanie and Malcolm's closest friends - are seriously wounded. Their lives hang in the balance while questions hang in the air.

No one knows how the three men might be connected or who wants them dead. The search for answers sends the Rannochs deep into their past, from the scandalous history of exiled Queen Hortense Bonaparte to the dangerous intrigues of foreign revolutionaries. Julien's secrets are deeper and more deadly than even his friends know. Mélanie shares some of those secrets. Now she must reveal long buried truths that she's concealed from even her own husband. As the Rannochs race to solve the mystery and prevent a dangerous weapon from falling into the wrong hands, the safety of their country, the lives of their friends, and the future of their marriage hang in the balance..."

Tracy Grant and Regency London are my jam.

A Wasp in the Beehive by Mary Logue
Published by: University of Minnesota Press
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 200 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Salt Lake City, 1881: Brigid Reardon is again on the case when her new employer - a leader in the Church of Latter-day Saints - is murdered in his home.

Still reeling from the violence she encountered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Brigid Reardon presses on alone to Salt Lake City, where she decides to settle down in what she hopes is a safe community. Things look promising when she's hired to work at the Deseret Bookstore and offered a room in the home of her employer, Mr. Cutter, a high-ranking member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and his five wives.

Despite Brigid's conflicting feelings about polygamy, she finds the Cutter wives warm and welcoming, and she thinks she may finally be happy here. As she settles in, Brigid learns that Mr. Cutter wants yet another wife, and he is set on Amelia, the daughter of one of his wives from a previous marriage. When Mr. Cutter is found apparently murdered in the women's sewing room, each of the wives (plus Amelia and Mr. Cutter's son) is a suspect, and Brigid knows it's up to her to figure out just who did it. As she continues to work in the bookstore and live with the grieving family, Brigid teams up with the local coroner to investigate - and with her undeniable knack for detection, it's not long before she discovers a telltale clue.

A Wasp in the Beehive continues Brigid's trek west in the United States after immigrating from Ireland with her brother, following her time in Deadwood, South Dakota, in The Streel and in Cheyenne in The Big Sugar. But with everything that has happened, will she stay in Salt Lake City, or will she move on again?"

I think she's moving on after she figures out all the wives were in on it Agatha Christie style.

The Book Club Murders by Maggie Allswell
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Kindle, 319 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"What Judy's book club doesn't know about murder mysteries isn't worth writing about. Nothing beats cracking a fictional case over some wine and salt and vinegar crisps. But can they put their puzzle-solving skills to the test when the local librarian dies in a real-life murder?

For widower Judy, her murder book club is the highlight of the month: she gets to hear all the local gossip and even discuss a good fictitious poisoning or two. But when local librarian Wendy disappears, Judy follows in the footsteps of her fictional detective heroes only to find her dead in her home, clasping a copy of Romeo and Juliet...

The police rule it a tragic accident, but Judy knows that her friend hated Shakespeare, and suspects foul play. Gathering her fellow book lovers together, soon they discover that several townspeople had motive to want Wendy dead. Was it Nigel from the tavern, who may have been Wendy's secret boyfriend? Or could it be Bryan, the local bookshop owner, tangled in a bitter rivalry with the library?

The plot thickens at a charity murder mystery night held at Nigel's tavern. Suddenly more murders come to light, both real and very badly staged. And when Nigel makes an astonishing revelation, the book club agree it's a plot twist no-one saw coming. Can Judy and her book club solve the mystery before they too fall victim to a killer plot?

An utterly addictive and hilarious new cozy mystery series, perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood and Faith Martin."

I've been trying to convince my book club for years that we could branch out and solve crimes, but they just want to do a podcast or supernatural investigations. 

Safari Murder Party by Rachel Moore
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this darkly funny, slightly unhinged, heart-pounding thriller, two office rivals must team up to escape wild animals and even wilder coworkers on a corporate retreat gone wrong.

Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.

After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media's annual corporate retreat - a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights' private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great...until her boss's dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company.

So now she's stuck on her billionaire boss's safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who've swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles.

To Fletcher's dismay, her only ally might be her boss's insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won't try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and...marketing executives? Oh my.

While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it's never been more true."

Send Help meets Westworld. 

The One Day You Were My Husband by Rosie Walsh
Published by: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times-bestselling author of Ghosted and The Love of My Life comes an unmissable emotional thriller: an up-all-night, page-turning love story with a very dark secret at its heart.

Carrie and Johan marry on a beach in Thailand only months into their whirlwind romance. Carrie, a British surgical intern, is too happy to care that she's being impulsive. But as the wedding festivities stretch into the night, a group of armed men suddenly swarm the beach, taking Johan away. She never sees him again.

Twelve years later, Carrie is living in the English countryside with her husband, Robin, and their six-year-old twins, running a holiday cottage rental business on the side. One night, she stumbles across an online post in which she discovers that Johan escaped from Thailand years ago, and has been living in Stockholm ever since. As the memories of their passionate relationship flood her, she becomes obsessed with discovering what happened on their wedding day all those years ago.

But just when Carrie thinks she knows what she must do, a shocking twist tears apart everything Carrie thought she knew. The One Day You Were My Husband asks readers what - and whom - they would give up to return to a first love and to the people they once were."

If he wanted her to know she was alive, he would have reached out.

Startup Hell by Caitlin Rozakis
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A hilarious contemporary fantasy about a junior sales witch stuck in corporate hell, who has to evade devilish pacts and her kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying mum to save a (surprisingly hot) demon, and work out how to hit her quarterly target.

Morgan Blackwater's mother is a kickass, world-saving, demon-slaying Shadow Council wizard. As for Morgan? Morgan's a junior salesperson at a tech startup that can't even decide what its product is. But with magic dyslexia and a disinclination to kick ass, Morgan is doing her best carving out a niche for herself in the mundane world.

Leaving work late one night, she discovers her boss dead from the effort of summoning a demon to trade his soul in order to make his quarterly target. The disturbingly-attractive demon, Lucareoth (Luke for short), is trapped here until he finds someone to sell their soul. While trying to sneak Luke out of the building, Morgan runs into her infamous mother. Apparently, someone has been summoning demons and she's here to get to the bottom of it.

Trying to protect Luke from her mother, Morgan gets sucked into the Infernal Plane and discovers hell really is a corporate nightmare. She only gets back home with a promise to deliver a human soul of her own. While her coworkers are really annoying, she's not willing to sacrifice their souls. The company's tech bro CEO, though, is another story.

With Caitlin Rozakis's signature wit, Startup Hell is a contemporary fantasy that exposes the demonic nature of the corporate world."

But does a tech bro even have a soul?

The Arcane Arts by S.D. Coverly
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this thrilling and sensuous dark academia fantasy, an ambitious graduate student and her advisor dive into studying a taboo branch of magic, igniting a dangerous passion between them.

Tucked within an idyllic corner of New England, Newlyn University stands as a bastion for the academic elites. Inside its hallowed halls, students can pursue degrees in medicine, history, technology...or the Arcane Arts - the esoteric study of powerful magical forces. Enter Ellsbeth Storer: long determined to pursue a graduate degree in arcane mechanicals at Newlyn. Headstrong and driven, she convinces Thaddeus Rawlins, one of the field's most celebrated professors, to take her on as a student. Against his better judgment, Rawlins allows her to pursue a thesis on writ magic, the long-forbidden power to control and compel others.

While student and teacher both profess academic interest in the topic, each wants it for their own secret purpose. But they soon discover that Newlyn itself may be hiding the darkest secret of all....

As Rawlins and Ellsbeth undertake their clandestine research, their flirtation crosses into uncontrollable desire, which threatens to bloom into something even more troubling: love. But when their project begins to spin out of control, entangling them in a destructive web of lust and power, the question remains: can two people who are masters of manipulation ever trust each other?"

No, master manipulators can never trust each other. Especially once magic enters the picture.

Calling Me Home by Laurin Becker Macios
Published by: Holiday House
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A beautifully crafted YA novel in verse that follows a 17-year-old girl's backpacking trip across Europe - filled with awe, danger, friendships, and something like love.

Jenny Campbell, recent high school graduate, has spent her unrooted childhood planning for a future she can control: NYU, marketing major, big-city life. But first, a carefully mapped solo backpacking trip through Europe.

Only, the trip doesn't stay on the map. As she travels between countries and memories, Jenny begins to loosen her grip on the life she's scripted. She works at a bookshop in Greece, treks through the Balkans on overnight trains, falls in something-like-love in Rome.

At summer's end, Jenny returns to the States ready to launch her New York City future. And then, she learns she's pregnant. Choosing to end her pregnancy, Jenny tries to keep her plans - but finds she may no longer be the person meant to live them.

Calling Me Home is part classic travel bildungsroman (you can almost taste the ouzo in Greece and feel the wind of Ireland) and part meditation on how abortion is just one piece of a person's story."

The point of backpacking through Europe before college is to make sure you're on the right track.

Glyph by Ali Smith
Published by: Pantheon
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From a literary master, a novel of ghosts and history and family legacy, of the unexpected acts of care that shine light into our dark.

Ghosts don't exist.
They don't. End of.
Story, however.
It is haunting.
Everything tells it.

It all starts when Petra and her little sister Patch hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost.

Is it imaginary? Is it real?

Then it all starts again thirty years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom.

What to do? She phones her sister.

In a chiarascuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, Glyph asks if we're attending to the history that's made us and to the history we're making.

A funny, warm and clear-eyed take on where we are now, Glyph is about what our imaginations are for and how, in a broken, brutal and divided time, we rekindle care, solidarity, resistance and openness. This anti-war novel, Ali Smith's most soulful, playful and vital yet, is a work of lightness that goes deep to counter the forces currently flattening the modern world."

Ali Smith is a writer who once you read you will never forget.

A Perfect Hand by Ayelet Waldman
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A richly drawn, captivating, and endlessly amusing novel of love and subterfuge between a lady's maid and her clandestine lover, set in the country estates of nineteenth-century England.

Miss Alice Lockey, daughter of a tenant farmer, has by dint of hard work, innate intelligence, and a cunning ability to predict the moods of her betters, raised herself to the lofty status of lady's maid at Alderwick Park. Though her mother has advised Alice to work only until marriage, Alice has thus far resisted the temptations of matrimony among the neighboring widowers and pig farmers, more content to enjoy the fruits of her labor - or at least the portion of it her father will share after it is paid to him. Alice spends her days arranging Lady Jemima Alderwick's blond hair into the latest French styles, chignons and plaits, laundering her lady's surprisingly malodorous petticoats and drawers, and carefully sewing all manner of fripperies, ribbons, lace, and silk flowers, to her lady's bonnets and gowns.

But when a visiting servant, a valet named Charlie Wells, catches her eye, Alice begins to understand the constraints of her position. In a ploy to spend time with the object of her affection, Alice attempts to arrange a romance between Lady Jemima Alderwick and Charlie's employer, one Baronet Sir Nigel Wynstowe. If only they would fall in love - then Alice and Charlie might live together as man and wife! Challenged by Lady Jemima's love for another and Sir Wynstowe's eccentric personality, Alice must use all of her cunning to bring about this unlikely romantic union. Will this low-born servant successfully manipulate the hearts of these lords and ladies? Will Charlie and Alice ever improve their stations? Or, as the beginning of women's suffrage begins to percolate in the drawing rooms and salons of London, will Alice discover a different sort of path for herself?

A deliciously funny, gorgeously detailed, utter enthralling novel, A Perfect Hand is a glorious novel of class, gender, and England on the cusp of enormous change."

With that cover they missed out calling this book A Perfect Hat.

The Hope Keeper by Heather Webb
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"1919, Washington D.C. Elisabeth Beaumont comes from a renowned jeweler family, but after the untimely death of her twin brother, she's left on her own to run the failing family business. Desperate for work, she approaches the affluent crowd her brother Julien once courted to expand Beaumont Jewelers. Their ringleader is wealthy socialite Evalyn McLean, owner of the world's most infamous gemstone, rumored to curse all who travel within its orbit.

The Hope Diamond.

As Elisabeth is swept into Evalyn's toxic world of dark opulence, the lines defining who she is and where she belongs begin to blur, leading Elisabeth to question all she once believed. She's no longer certain she wants to take over the family business and be beholden to the wealthy elite of D.C. But she can't fathom leaving her father in the lurch. There's also Evalyn to consider, and the Hope Diamond, which beckons Elisabeth to admire it, touch it, care for it, despite every warning she's been told.

When tragedy strikes one night, not only is Elisabeth's fragile friendship with Evalyn put to the test, but her carefully constructed glamorous new life comes crashing down. Now Elisabeth must face the truth about her brother's death and decide what matters most."

On the whole, jewels don't interest me. Cursed jewels on the other hand? Oh yeah.

Salomé by Leslie Baird
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A gothic-tinged fever dream that reimagines the young American in France, Salomé follows an adrift journalist who accepts an alluring stranger's invitation to stay at her home in a small French town, only to uncover a dangerous family history that could bend the course of humanity.

Don't open your eyes...

Courtney notices Salomé the moment she steps onto the plane. She's magnetic, quicksilver, and, best of all for incurable Francophile Courtney, French. So when Salomé invites Courtney to her mother's town in northwestern France, Courtney doesn't even have to think about it.

But things are, almost immediately, surreal. Despite feeling right at home with Salomé, Courtney is confronted by a house outfitted with cameras and the dark, watchful presence of Salomé's mother. Courtney senses she should leave, but with Salomé she feels as if she's rediscovered the "French Courtney," an alternate version of herself who made a life in France.

That is, until she starts to experience paralyzing nightmares in which strange voices intone Don't open your eyes...and encounters Salomé's charismatic stepfather, Marco, whose pyramid-scheme vitamin company offers a tempting segue into an even more insidious group obsessed with eternal life. Or is it an actual cult? And how much does Salomé really know? As a conspiracy unfurls, Courtney is torn between her loyalty to Salomé and what might be the story of a lifetime, the kind that could make a journalist's career - if it doesn't kill her first.

A modern reclamation of the original femme fatale whose story, until now, has been almost exclusively told by men, Salomé is a tantalizing, feminist tale exploring power, loyalty, connection, and the measures we'll take to harness our deepest desires."

I like the hints of Bluebeard as well.

The Temptation of Charlotte North by Camilla Bruce
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a sinister spirit invades an isolated community, three lives will be forever altered, in this dark gothic fantasy from the acclaimed author of At the Bottom of the Garden.

A rebellious young woman desperate to escape her predetermined life.

The handsome but married priest who has caught her eye.

And the resolute schoolteacher who values science above all.

In 1910, on a small, remote island that boasts more sheep than people, the fates of Charlotte North, Jasper Hill, and Ruth Russel are perched on the edge of a cliff, and a strange wind is blowing....

When an ancient tower - rumored to have once imprisoned a witch - crumbles, it releases something powerful: a restless spirit that knocks inside the walls and sends household objects flying. A spirit that seems to be drawn to Charlotte, who sees in it a potential for power and change.

But first she must overcome Jasper's piety and Ruth's fierce determination to banish the terrifying entity. Only then will she gain the power to claim the life that she desires."

Windswept and Gothic, two things I crave.

The Lustrous Dark by Loretta Chefchaouni
Published by: Peachtree Teen
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Sabaa Tahir and Guillermo del Toro comes The Lustrous Dark, a sweeping YA fantasy, in which a young midwife's apprentice rises up to take back the power that's been stolen from women.

Orphaned as a baby, Shay has spent her life training as the midwife's apprentice. Her role grants her stability, yet Shay has always yearned for more. Namely, motherly affection and answers regarding her mysterious birth - neither of which the midwife deems practical to provide.

After Shay discovers her birth mother, Hind, is still alive and addicted to a magical drug called Snow, she determines to get the woman clean. But when Hind betrays Shay to get her hands on more Snow, Shay's abandoned within a deadly forest and forced to rely on a band of monstrous ghouls for safety.

Shay's realm has long stood on the brink of war between the men who control magic and the revolutionaries who want to eliminate it. But in the forest, Shay hears the pleading call of ancient spirits who claim that not only has magic been stolen, but Shay has the power to return it. With the help of a spitfire revolutionary and the boy who's winning over her heart, Shay discovers the horrific truth of who produces Snow and will have to decide for herself whether to heed the spirits' charge or fade into obscurity.

This emotionally raw and gorgeously rendered fairy tale combines the lush worldbuilding of This Woven Kingdom with the mother trauma of Snow White and a dash of Tim Burton. Steeped in mysticism and mythology, The Lustrous Dark confronts injustices against women with a righteous scream that'll inspire readers to rally against the patriarchy and oppressive regimes worldwide.

Perfect for readers who love Political Revolutions, Fighting the Patriarchy, Toxic Mothers, Reawakening the Gods, Ancient Magic, Bone-Chilling Monsters, Haunted Forests, Female Friendships, Fairy Tale Retellings, and Cinnamon Roll Love Interests."

Yes, I love all that. Now can we start a revolution with some ancient Gods?

A Star Cursed Heart by Annie Mare
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two women are cursed to be mortal enemies, despite their love for each other, in this queer, fantastical novel by Annie Mare.

In the lead-up to the Salem witch trials, a desperate man made a deal with the devil - a deal that would drag two families down with him. Now, over 400 years later, the Steadfasts and the Prynnes remain caught in a curse that sentences both families to an existence of rigid rules, torturous consequences, and half-lives.

Lucy Prynne and Ashes Steadfast are the latest to take on the mantle of this centuries-old deal: Lucy, born to try to reap the souls of the hopeful; and Ashes, born to stop Lucy, no matter the cost. But before they inherited their respective curses, it sure felt like Ash's purpose was Lucy. Her best friend, her closest confidant, her true love.

Ash knows the rules. She keeps her head down, her emotions in check, and she fights Lucy, no matter the personal cost. They are doomed to an incessant battle between good and bad, self-righteous and carnal.

Or so Ash thinks. But when she resists her instincts to fight Lucy and finally starts to fight the curse instead, she realizes there might just be a way to end this once and for all. If not in this timeline, then the next. As generational secrets begin to unravel, Ashes and Lucy join forces against the true threat that has haunted their families for centuries, even if it costs them their lives - and their love."

You need to read the fine print when making a deal with the devil and think about your family. Unless you're too self-centered to think of them then you're already damned. 

And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An intergalactic art heist by a ragtag group of underqualified misfits. What could go wrong?

For three hundred years, humanity's greatest works of art have been on loan at the Greenwood Museum. It was finally time for them to come home...but the alien curators were disinclined to return them.

Force was out of the question. Earth's government was clear: They were not going to press the issue. So, all we had was guile and hubris to fuel our little intergalactic art heist.

My old friend Tarquin was our leader, but not the captain. That was Tchik-tchik, though whether Tchik-tchik was our insectoid pilot's name or species is still unclear to me. Misora, with her extremely illegal biotech mods, was our muscle.

Jack was there to hack the security systems of the biggest museum in the galaxy. He was a sensynth, a sentient synthetic being, and the most powerful machine intelligence on Earth uncorrupted by alien technology.

My name is Fennel Tycho. I'd like to tell you I was there because of my expertise in Art History. Truth is, I was there because without me, Jack would not have agreed to go. He was notorious for being difficult to work with - but it was a mistake to think I could make things any easier.

A meditation on the nature of love, life, and the "culture of the copy," And Side by Side They Wander asks the question: In a future where there are clones, androids, and a sentient mycelium that creates fungal simulacra, who is real and what is fake?"

I love art and art history and taking the discussion of the genuine to outer space and the future is just fascinating. 

Pollock's Last Lover by Stephen P. Kiernan
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 19th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Set in New York City in alternating time periods - the 1950s and the early 2000s - Pollock's Last Lover is the engrossing tale of two women whose lives collide as they contend with the art and legacy of the brilliant, tragic painter Jackson Pollock.

In 2006, Sotheby's sells a painting by Jackson Pollock for $140 million - the highest sum ever paid for a work of art. Two weeks later, an older woman named Ruth Kligman, in high heels and a dusty fascinator, contacts a smaller, less prominent auction house to announce that she was Pollock's lover, and that he gave her his last painting. She declares that it was selfish to keep it in her apartment for fifty years, and that people should see this masterpiece in galleries and museums the world over. The bidding will start at $50 million.

Gwen, an up-and-coming associate at the firm, is assigned the task of verifying the painting's authenticity. For Gwen, an ambitious woman in a field often dominated by men, it is her biggest project yet. And the company must have absolute certainty. Yet each step of the investigation raises larger questions - about Ruth's cunning climb in the art world, and even about what caused Pollock's sudden and violent death.

What follows, in alternating chapters and time periods, is a multigenerational portrait of women's ambition set against the life and work of Jackson Pollock. From smoky Greenwich Village dive bars to glitzy art auctions, from the empty studio of a man once known for his artistic stamina to the fine museums where his works hang, Ruth's controversial painting provides a window into two eras - and the ongoing struggle of women to develop power and freedom on their own terms."

Please don't be like one of my art history professors who was convinced Pollock's death in a car crash was a suicide. In other news, I hated that art history professor with a passion. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ali Smith, Annie Mare, Ayelet Waldman, Caitlin Rozakis, Camilla Bruce, Heather Webb, Jackson Pollock, Kelley Armstrong, Laurin Becker Macios, Leslie Baird, Loretta Chefchaouni, Mary Logue, Molly Tanzer, S.D. Coverly, Tracy Grant