Monday, May 16, 2022

Tuesday Tomorrow

The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White - a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day.

2019: Andie Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America’s most lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America’s gilded class - famous for the lavish "summer cottages" of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who still lives in the mansion, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague, will only allow the show to go forward on two conditions: One, nobody speaks to her. Two, nobody touches the mansion’s ruined boathouse.

1899: Ellen Daniels has been hired to give singing lessons to Miss Maybelle Sprague, a naive young Colorado mining heiress whose stepbrother John has poured their new money into buying a place among Newport’s elite. John is determined to see Maybelle married off to a fortune-hunting Italian prince, and Ellen is supposed to polish up the girl for her launch into society. But the deceptively demure Ellen has her own checkered past, and she’s hiding in plain sight at Sprague Hall.

1958: Lucia "Lucky" Sprague has always felt like an outsider at Sprague Hall. When she and her grandmother - the American-born Princess di Conti - fled Mussolini’s Italy, it seemed natural to go back to the imposing Newport house Nana owned but hadn’t seen since her marriage in 1899. Over the years, Lucky's lost her Italian accent and found a place for herself among the yachting set by marrying Stuyvesant Sprague, the alcoholic scion of her Sprague stepfamily. But one fateful night in the mansion’s old boathouse will uncover a devastating truth...and change everything she thought she knew about her past.

As the cameras roll on Mansion Makeover, the house begins to yield up the dark secrets the Spragues thought would stay hidden forever...."

For me this is THE BOOK I've been waiting for this spring. What's more I couldn't possibly forget it's release date because it's my brother's birthday. I hope you have your copy preordered, I know I do!

Who Killed Jane Stanford? by Richard White
Published by: W. W. Norton and Company
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A premier historian penetrates the fog of corruption and cover-up still surrounding the murder of a Stanford University founder to establish who did it, how, and why.

In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford cofounded a university to honor their recently deceased young son. After her husband’s death in 1893, Jane Stanford, a devoted spiritualist who expected the university to inculcate her values, steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade. In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner’s jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast fortune the university’s lifeline, the Stanford president and his allies quickly sought to foreclose challenges to her bequests by constructing a story of death by natural causes. The cover-up gained traction in the murky labyrinths of power, wealth, and corruption of Gilded Age San Francisco. The murderer walked.

Deftly sifting the scattered evidence and conflicting stories of suspects and witnesses, Richard White gives us the first full account of Jane Stanford’s murder and its cover-up. Against a backdrop of the city’s machine politics, rogue policing, tong wars, and heated newspaper rivalries, White’s search for the murderer draws us into Jane Stanford’s imperious household and the academic enmities of the university. Although Stanford officials claimed that no one could have wanted to murder Jane, we meet several people who had the motives and the opportunity to do so. One of these, we discover, also had the means."

The Gilded Age is going on right now and I am SO HERE for it's moment!

The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions by Kerry Greenwood
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The elegant Miss Phryne Fisher returns in this scintillating collection, featuring four new stories.

The Honourable Phryne Fisher - she of the Lulu bob, cupid's bow lips, diamante garters, and pearl-handled pistol - is the 1920s' most elegant and irrepressible sleuth.

Miss Phryne Fisher is up to her stunning green eyes in intriguing crime in each of these entertaining, fun, and compulsively readable stories. Whether sniffing out the whereabouts of a priceless pilfered book, an heirloom locket, or a missing eight-year-old girl, Miss Fisher proves herself more than equal to the task - and always fashionably attired. With the ever-loyal Dot, the ingenious Mr. Butler, and all of Phryne's friends and household, the action is as fast as Phryne's wit and logic."

Yes, I know, I'm not the biggest fan of short stories, but a counter with Miss Fisher!

Uncommon Charm by Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver
Published by: Neon Hemlock Press
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 94 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Three days after I was expelled from the Marable School for Girls, our poor Simon arrived.

In the 1920s gothic comedy Uncommon Charm, bright young socialite Julia and shy Jewish magician Simon decide they aren't beholden to their families' unhappy history. Together they confront such horrors as murdered ghosts, alive children, magic philosophy, a milieu that slides far too easily into surrealist metaphor, and, worst of all, serious adult conversation.

Part of Neon Hemlock's 2022 Novella Series."

I am in love with everything about this novella!

Razzmatazz by Christopher Moore
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Repeat New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns to the mean streets of San Francisco in this outrageous follow-up to his madcap novel Noir.

San Francisco, 1947. Bartender Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin and the rest of the Cookie's Coffee Irregulars - a ragtag bunch of working mugs last seen in Noir - are on the hustle: they're trying to open a driving school; shanghai an abusive Swedish stevedore; get Mable, the local madam, and her girls to a Christmas party at the State Hospital without alerting the overzealous head of the S.F.P.D. vice squad; all while Sammy's girlfriend, Stilton (a.k.a. the Cheese), and her "Wendy the Welder" gal pals are using their wartime shipbuilding skills on a secret project that might be attracting the attention of some government Men in Black. And, oh yeah, someone is murdering the city’s drag kings and club owner Jimmy Vasco is sure she’s next on the list and wants Sammy to find the killer.

Meanwhile, Eddie "Moo Shoes" Shu has been summoned by his Uncle Ho to help save his opium den from Squid Kid Tang, a vicious gangster who is determined to retrieve a priceless relic: an ancient statue of the powerful Rain Dragon that Ho stole from one of the fighting tongs forty years earlier. And if Eddie blows it, he just might call down the wrath of that powerful magical creature on all of Fog City.

Strap yourselves in for a bit of the old razzmatazz, ladies and gentlemen. It’s Christopher Moore time."

Christopher Moore and San Francisco, does more need to be said?

From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Opposites attract in this wickedly charming rom-com by Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author of Payback’s a Witch.

Wild child Isidora Avramov is a thrill chaser, adept demon summoner, and - despite the whole sexy-evil-sorceress vibe - also a cuddly animal lover. When she’s not designing costumes and new storylines for the Arcane Emporium’s haunted house, Issa's nursing a secret, conflicted dream of ditching her family’s witchy business to become an indie fashion designer in her own right.

But when someone starts sabotaging the celebrations leading up to this year's Beltane festival with dark, dangerous magic, a member of the rival Thorn family gets badly hurt - throwing immediate suspicion on the Avramovs. To clear the Avramov name and step up for her family when they need her the most, Issa agrees to serve as a co-investigator, helping none other than Rowan Thorn get to the bottom of things.

Rowan is the very definition of lawful good, so tragically noble and by-the-book he makes Issa’s teeth hurt. In accordance with their families’ complicated history, he and Issa have been archenemies for years and have grown to heartily loathe each other. But as the unlikely duo follow a perplexing trail of clues to a stunning conclusion, Issa and Rowan discover how little they really know each other...and stumble upon a maddening attraction that becomes harder to ignore by the day."

I am here for ALL the witchy rom-coms!

On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass
Published by: Graydon House
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The perfect neighborhood can be the perfect place to hide...

Who wouldn't want to live in Brighton Hills? This exclusive community on the Oregon coast is the perfect mix of luxury and natural beauty. Stunning houses nestle beneath mighty Douglas firs, and lush backyards roll down to the lakefront. It's the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another. Sometimes a little too closely...

Cora thinks her husband, Finn, is cheating - she just needs to catch him in the act. That's where Paige comes in. Paige lost her son to a hit-and-run last year, and she's drowning in the kind of grief that makes people do reckless things like spying on the locals, searching for proof that her son's death was no accident...and agreeing to Cora's plan to reveal what kind of man Finn really is. All the while, their reclusive new neighbor, Georgia, is acting more strangely every day. But what could such a lovely young mother possibly be hiding?

When you really start to look beyond the airy open floor plans and marble counters, Brighton Hills is filled with secrets. Some big, some little, some deadly. And one by one, they're about to be revealed..."

You KNOW you need to know the secrets of Brighton Hills!

Wild Prey by Brian Klingborg
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The search for a missing girl sends Inspector Lu Fei undercover into the wild corners of Myanmar, and the compound of the deadly and mysterious woman warlord responsible for the illegal trafficking of exotic animals and possibly more, in the next book from Brian Klingborg, Wild Prey.

Police Inspector Lu Fei has an unfortunate talent for getting himself into hot water with powerful and well-connected people. Which is why he’s been assigned to a backwater town in a rural area of Northern China and quietly warned to keep his head down. But while running a sting operation on the sale and consumption of rare and endangered animals, Lu comes across the curious case of a waitress who has gone missing. Her last known whereabouts: a restaurant frequented by local elites, owned by smooth-talking gangster, and known for its exotic - and highly illegal - delicacies.

As usual, Lu's investigation ruffles some feathers, resulting in his suspension from the police force. Lu figures he's reached a dead-end. Then he's contacted by a mysterious government official in Beijing who wants him to go undercover to track down the mastermind behind an illegal animal trafficking network - and hopefully, the answer to the fate of the missing waitress. The mission will require Lu to travel deep into the lawless wilds of Myanmar, where he will risk his life to infiltrate the hidden compound of a mysterious and ruthless female warlord in a bloody and nearly hopeless quest for justice."

Ever since I saw the movie The Freshman I've been obsessed with the illegal trafficking of exotic animals for consumption.

The Emma Project by Sonali Dev
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: May 17th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Emma gets a fresh Indian-American twist from award-winning author Sonali Dev in her heartwarmingly irresistible Jane Austen inspired rom com series.

No one can call Vansh Raje’s life anything but charmed. Handsome - Vogue has declared him California’s hottest single - and rich enough to spend all his time on missions to make the world a better place. Add to that a doting family and a contagiously sunny disposition and Vansh has made it halfway through his twenties without ever facing anything to throw him off his admittedly spectacular game.

A couple years from turning forty, Knightlina (Naina) Kohli has just gotten out of a ten-year-long fake relationship with Vansh’s brother and wants only one thing from her life…fine, two things. One, to have nothing to do with the unfairly blessed Raje family ever again. Two, to bring economic independence to millions of women in South Asia through her microfinance foundation and prove her father wrong about, well, everything.

Just when Naina’s dream is about to come to fruition, Vansh Raje shows up with his misguided Emma Project... And suddenly she’s fighting him for funding and wondering if a friends-with-benefits arrangement that’s as toe-curlingly hot as it is fun is worth risking her life’s work for."

If there's one Austen open to reinterpretations I view it is Emma. And if there's one author great at reinterpretations that is Sonali Dev.

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