Tuesday Tomorrow
The Mythmakers by Keziah Weir
Published by: S and s/ Marysue Rucci Books
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From an acclaimed senior editor at Vanity Fair comes an intoxicating debut novel about a young journalist who discovers a short story that's inexplicably about her life - leading to an entanglement with the author's widow, daughter, and former best friend.
Sal Cannon's life is in shambles. Her relationship is crumbling, and her career in journalism hits a low point after it's revealed that her profile of a playwright is full of inaccuracies. She's close to rock-bottom when she reads a short story by Martin Keller: a much older author she met at a literary event years ago. Much to her shock, the story is about her and the moment they met. When Sal learns the story is excerpted from his unpublished novel, she reaches out to the story's editor - only to learn that Martin is deceased. Desperate to leave her crumbling life behind and to read the manuscript from which the story was excerpted, Sal decides to find Martin's widow, Moira.
Moira has made it clear that she doesn't want to be contacted. But soon Sal is on a bus to Upstate New York, where she slowly but surely inserts herself into Moira's life. Or is it the other way around? As Sal sifts through Martin's papers and learns more about Moira, the question of muse and artist arises - again and again. Even more so when Martin's daughter's story emerges. Who owns a story? And who is the one left to tell it?
The Mythmakers is a nesting doll of a book that grapples with perspective and memory, as well as the battles between creative ambition and love. It's a story about the trials and tribulations of finding out who you are, at any stage in your life, and how inspiration might find you in the strangest of places."
The intriguing question for me has always been, do you have the right to tell someone else's story...
You Can Trust Me by Wendy Heard
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this "slick and stylish thriller" (Wanda M. Morris, All Her Little Secrets), two best friends grift their way through the California elite, until a scam goes awry.
Summer and Leo would do anything for each other. Inspired by the way each has had to carve her place in a hostile and unforgiving world, and united by the call of the open road, they travel around sunny California in Summer's tricked-out Land Cruiser. It's not a glamorous life, but it gives them the freedom they crave from the painful pasts they've left behind. But even free spirits have bills to pay. Luckily, Summer is a skilled pickpocket, a small-time thief, and a con artist - and Leo, determined to pay her own way, has learned a trick or two.
Eager for a big score, Leo catches in her crosshairs Michael Forrester, a self-made billionaire and philanthropist. When her charm wins him over, Leo is rewarded with an invitation to his private island off the California coastline for a night of fabulous excess. She eagerly anticipates returning with photos that can be sold to the paparazzi, jewelry that can be liquidated, and endless stories to share with Summer.
Instead, Leo disappears.
On her own for the first time in years, Summer decides to infiltrate Michael's island and find out what really happened. But when she arrives, no one has seen Leo - she's not on the island as far as they know. Plus, there was only one way on the island - and no way off - for the coming days. Trapped in a scheme she helped initiate, could Summer have met her match?"
Rule one, if you're looking to pull a fast one make sure you can actually get out on your own.
Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Seven women, inextricably linked by one man, must figure out which of them killed him in order to protect one another in this electrifying debut thriller.
New Year's Eve, 1999.
Seven women are gathered in a hotel room at midnight; a man's head sits in the center of the floor. They all had a motive to kill Jamie Spellman. They all swear they didn't. But in order to protect one another, they have to find out who did.
The ex, who drowns her darkest secret in a hip flask as the woman she loves drifts further away.
The wife, living out her fairytale marriage in a house tucked into woods so thick no one can hear a scream.
The widow, praying to a past she no longer knows whether she can trust.
The teenager, whose wide-eyed crush has trapped her in an unrecognizable future.
The mother figure, battling nature versus nurture under the weight of her own guilt.
The friend, forced to choose sides over and over, until she learns the price of choosing wrong.
And the journalist, who brought them all together - but underestimated how far one of them would go to keep believing the story they'd been told.
Against the ticking clock of a murder investigation, each woman's secret is brought to light as the connections between them converge to reveal a killer. Marking the debut of an extraordinary new talent, Speak of the Devil explores the roles into which women are cast in the lives of terrible men...and the fallout when they refuse to play pretend for one moment longer."
But why wouldn't they just agree to protect each other and NOT solve the case? That way they have legitimate deniability if ever caught by the cops.
The Gulf by Rachel Cochran
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this electrifying debut literary thriller, set on the gulf coast of Texas in the 1970s at the height of the women's liberation movement, a closeted young woman attempts to solve her surrogate mother's murder in a tight-knit, religious small town.
In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother's death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate is murdered, and no one but Lou seems to care about finding the killer.
The situation becomes complicated when Joanna, Miss Kate's long-estranged daughter and Lou's first love, arrives in Parson - not to learn more about her mother's death but for the house. Her arrival unearths sinister secrets involving the history of the town and its residents...revelations that may be the key to helping Lou discover the truth about Miss Kate's death and her killer.
A gorgeously written, gripping story of forbidden love and devastating secrets that is a surprising twist on the traditional small-town story, The Gulf is a riveting and unsettling mystery that holds up a mirror to the values - and failures - of America."
The murder is nice, but like the daughter, here for the house.
The Long Way Back by Nicole Baart
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When an Instagram-famous teenager mysteriously disappears, her mother grapples with the revelation of dark secrets in this twisty, atmospheric thriller - from the author of the "poignant, riveting" (Wendy Walker, author of Don't Look for Me) Everything We Didn't Say.
Mother and daughter Charlie and Eva never sought social media fame, but when a stunning photo of Eva went viral, fame found them. Now, after more than two years documenting life on the road in their vintage Airstream trailer, the duo has temporarily settled on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Eva is happily finishing her senior year of high school and applying to college, but Charlie longs for the adventures they left behind.
When Eva goes missing less than a week before her graduation, it's Charlie who is immediately suspected of foul play - not just by their fans, but also by the police and the FBI. As a fight about one more road trip comes to light, and the truth about their relationship is questioned, Charlie realizes the rosy facade they portrayed online hid a complicated and potentially dangerous reality. Now, to clear her name and find out what has happened to her daughter, she'll have to confront her own role in Eva's disappearance - and whether she knows her daughter at all."
I mean technically the North Shore of Lake Superior is Canada, so FBI!?! But if you count the bit in Minnesota I guess...
How to Kill Men and Get Away with It by Katy Brent
Published by: HQ Digital
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Meet Kitty Collins.
FRIEND. LOVER. KILLER.
He was following me. That guy from the nightclub who wouldn't leave me alone.
I hadn't intended to kill him of course. But I wasn't displeased when I did and, despite the mess I made, I appeared to get away with it.
That's where my addiction started...
I've got a taste for revenge and quite frankly, I'm killing it.
A deliciously dark, hilariously twisted story about friendship, love, and murder. Fans of My Sister the Serial Killer, How to Kill Your Family and Killing Eve will love this wickedly clever novel!"
Hopefully the Killing Eve books and first three seasons because if it's anything like season four it's a big hard nope.
Something Close to Magic by Emma Mills
Published by: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A baker's apprentice reluctantly embarks on an adventure full of magic, new friendships, and a prince in distress in this deliciously romantic young adult fantasy that's perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Gail Carson Levine.
It's not all sugar and spice at Basil's Bakery, where seventeen-year-old Aurelie is an overworked, underappreciated apprentice. Still, the job offers stability, which no-nonsense Aurelie values highly, so she keeps her head down and doesn't dare to dream big - until a stranger walks in and hands her a set of Seeking stones. In a country where Seeking was old-fashioned even before magic went out of style, it's a rare skill, but Aurelie has it.
The stranger, who turns out to be a remarkably bothersome bounty hunter named Iliana, asks for Aurelie's help rescuing someone from the dangerous Underwood - which sounds suspiciously like an adventure. When the someone turns out to be Prince Hapless, the charming-but-aptly-named prince, Aurelie's careful life is upended. Suddenly, she finds herself on a quest filled with magic portals, a troll older than many trees (and a few rocks), and dangerous palace intrigue.
Even more dangerous are the feelings she's starting to have for Hapless. The more time Aurelie spends with him, the less she can stand the thought of going back to her solitary but dependable life at the bakery. Must she choose between losing her apprenticeship - or her heart?"
A baker off on a big adventure? Count me in!
Parallel Hells by Leon Craig
Published by: Sceptre
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this deliciously strange debut collection, Leon Craig draws on folklore and Gothic horror in refreshingly inventive ways to explore queer identity, love, power and the complicated nature of being human.
Some say that hell is other people and some say hell is loneliness...
In the thirteen darkly audacious stories of Parallel Hells we meet a golem, made of clay, learning that its powers far exceed its Creator's expectations; a ruined mansion which grants the secret wishes of a group of revellers and a notorious murderer who discovers her Viking husband is not what he seems. Asta is an ancient being who feasts on the shame of contemporary Londoners, who now, beyond anything, wishes only to fit in with a group of friends they will long outlive. An Oxford historian, in bitter competition with the rest of her faculty members, discovers an ancient tome whose sinister contents might solve her problems. Livia orchestrates a Satanic mass to distract herself from a recently remembered trauma and two lovers must resolve their differences in order to defy a lethal curse."
I usually avoid short stories like the plague, but with this book, bring on the black death!
Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"For fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Mexican Gothic, a novel set in 18th-century Venice at a prestigious music school, about two girls drawn together by a dangerous wager.
Venice, 1717. Fifteen-year-old Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. As a student at the Ospedale della Pietà , she hopes to join the highest ranks of its illustrious girls' orchestra and become a protégé of the great Antonio Vivaldi. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena.
After a scandal threatens her noble family's reputation, Maddalena is sent to the Pietà to preserve her marriage prospects. When she meets Luisa, Maddalena feels the stirrings of a friendship unlike anything she has known. But Maddalena has a secret: she has hatched a dangerous plot to rescue her future her own way. When she invites Luisa into her plans, promising to make her dreams come true, Luisa doesn't hesitate. But every wager has its price, and as the girls are drawn into the decadent world outside the Pietà 's walls, they must decide what it is they truly want - and what they will do to pay for it.
Lush and heady, swirling with music and magic, Maddalena and the Dark is a Venetian fairy tale about the friendship between two girls and the boundless desire that will set them free, if it doesn't consume them first."
Venetian fairy tales are everything to me, especially when they go to the dark.
The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 13th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today?
Ringmaster - Rin, to those who know her best - can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.
With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe - the Circus of the Fantasticals - travel the Midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.
But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin's past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can't fully escape.
It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin's circus has something he wants, and he won't stop until it's his."
Who doesn't want to read about rival circuses?
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