Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell
Published by: Hyperion Avenue
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In her most imaginative novel yet, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell (None of This Is True) launches the Marvel Crime series of thriller books for adults with an original story starring the private detective Jessica Jones.
Meet Jessica Jones: Retired super hero, private investigator, loner. She tried her best to be a shiny spandex crimefighter, but that life only led to unspeakable trauma. Now she avoids that world altogether and works on surviving day-to-day in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
The morning a distraught mother comes into her office, Jessica would prefer to nurse her hangover and try to forget last night's poor choices. But something about Amber Randall's story strikes a chord with her. Amber is adamant that something happened to her teenage twins while they were visiting their father in the UK. The twins don't act like themselves, and they now have flawless skin, have lost their distinctive tics and habits, and keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber insists her children have been replaced by something horrible, something "perfect."
Traveling to a small village in the British countryside, Jessica meets the mysterious Belle, who lives a curiously isolated life in an old farmhouse with a strange woman who claims to be her guardian. Can this unworldly teenager really be responsible for the Randall twins' new personas? Why does the strange little village of Barton Wallop seem to harbor dark energies and mysteries in its tight-knit community?
A mother's intuition is never wrong. And Jessica knows that nothing in life is perfect - not these kids, not her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage, and certainly not Jessica herself. But even as she tries to buy into the idea that better days are ahead, Jessica Jones has seen all too clearly that behind every promise of perfection trails a dark, dangerous shadow.
Breaking the Dark, the first book in the brand-new Marvel Crime series, introduces fans to a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, and will continue with original novels featuring fan-favorite characters like Luke Cage, written by S.A. Cosby, and Daredevil, written by Alex Segura."
Oh my, Lisa Jewell and Jessica Jones together!?! It's like peanut butter and chocolate, a combination we've longed for and is now a classic.
The Moonlight Market by Joanne Harris
Published by: Pegasus Books
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Joanne Harris comes a richly imagined and captivating novel of two colliding worlds.
Deep in the heart of London, a young photographer named Tom Argent walks the streets and captures whatever catches his eye: an old man drinking coffee; a striking woman sipping champagne in St. Pancras station; a cloud of moths taking flight across the sky. He's orphaned, lonely, and lost in his work. He certainly has no intention of falling in love.
And yet, love finds him in the shape of beautiful Vanessa, who lives a dangerous double life in the heart of the city. Tom's pursuit of Vanessa leads him to discover an alternate world, hiding in plain sight among the streets and rooftops of London. A world unseen by common folk and inhabited by strange and colorful beings, in which two warring factions - one nocturnal, one in the light - wage war for the sake of a long-lost love, which can only end with one side's total annihilation.
The Moonlight Market will enchant readers with new worlds and epic romance and in this captivating modern fairytale about what could be hiding in the corner of your eye."
No one does magical realism like Joanne Harris.
First Contact by Kim Harrison
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Kindle, 168 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In the wake of the solar eclipse, a portal between our world and a paranormal realm opens - and a scientist's life will never be the same, in this thrilling serialized adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hollows.
Dr. Renee Caisson knows there are worse things than an attractive man in uniform drafting her into a secret government project - especially when Major Jackson makes it clear that he isn't bothered by her questionable past. But when her labs come back with decidedly odd results, the Major is forced to come clean over who the government is actually studying. Renee is shocked to learn her subjects are demonic-looking beings who call themselves "Neighbors" - refugees from a dying world, who arrived during the nation-wide solar eclipse.
The Neighbors' technology is unlike anything Renee's ever encountered. At first, she dismisses an injury that inexplicably heals as "just one of those things." And surely August, the most gregarious Neighbor, begins to speak English overnight because of the team linguist's skills?"
Get ready to see this serialized story featured for the next three weeks!
Gin Palace by Tracy Whitwell
Published by: Pan Publishing
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Tracy Whitwell's second novel Gin Palace picks up with the main character, Tanz, from The Accidental Medium, as she grows accustomed to her rather unusual gift...
Tanz can talk to ghosts, although she'd prefer it if she couldn't. Struggling to make ends meet as an actress and wholly unsuited to supply teaching, Tanz is only one bad day away from a meltdown. And the babbling ghosts aren't helping.
So when Tanz is offered a paid acting gig in her hometown, things start to look up. But Newcastle's dead won't stay quiet for long, and soon Tanz becomes haunted with visions of a mysterious Gin Palace guarded by a sinister figure. As Tanz starts to piece together a terrible tragedy, it becomes clear there's no limit to what the poltergeist will do to keep his secrets his own.
Unfortunately, he's never met anyone quite like Tanz before..."
Hometown ghosts are the worst.
The Shadow on the Glass by Jonathan L. Howard
Published by: Aconyte
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When two spiritist swindlers accidentally summon something horrific from beyond the stars, they must thwart a sinister time-spanning plot, in this first Victorian-era gaslight fantasy set in the world of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu.
London, 1891. Elizabeth Whittle and William Grant enjoy scalping London's bourgeoisie, taking on the personas of grand spiritist Cerulia Trent and her agent to connect the living and the dead. When a detective arrives, sniffing out fraud with a scientifically minded spiritualist society, the duo decides to take one last job before escaping to the continent. However, their final séance ends horrifically...and soon Lizzie isn't Lizzie anymore. William, desperate to banish whatever monster they summoned, is soon embroiled in an electrifying eldritch mystery where he makes a deal with the devil to save his friend and stop an even greater evil from transforming the known world."
Spiritualists are my catnip, combining it with Cthulhu is a genius trap to lure me in.
Herald of Ruin by Tim Pratt
Published by: Aconyte
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The enigmatic Carl Sanford is the master of all things occult in Arkham, until a charismatic newcomer threatens to take everything away from him in this dark mystery set in the world of Arkham Horror.
Carl Sanford's mastery of the Silver Twilight Lodge gives him unbridled power and influence, but unforeseen turmoil is coming to Arkham... A new occult curiosity shop in the city, opened by newcomer Randall Tillinghast, draws Sanford's ire, challenging his formerly unrivalled authority. Sanford expects to crush the newcomer like an ant and take what he wants from the wreckage, but Randall Tillinghast isn't quite as humble and harmless as he seems. In possession of an array of magical artifacts, Tillinghast begins to subvert Sanford's reputation in more ways than one, forcing Carl Sanford to call all the monsters and magic at his disposal to stop him. Will it be enough?"
Oh my, occult curiosity shop? Yes please!
The Mummy of Mayfair by Jeri Westerson
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Private investigators Timothy Badger and Benjamin Watson take on another unusual and baffling case in Victorian London when a mummy unwrapping party takes a chilling turn.
London, 1895. Although their last high-profile case was a huge success, private detectives Tim Badger and Benjamin Watson know they can't afford to turn down any work, despite financial assistance from their mentor, Sherlock Holmes.
So when the eminent Doctor Enoch Sawyer of St. Bart's Hospital asks Badger if the duo will provide security for a mummy unwrapping party he is hosting, Badger doesn't hesitate to take the job. After all, how hard can guarding the doctor's bizarre Egyptian artifacts be? But with Doctor Sawyer running late for his own party, the 'genuine' ancient sarcophagus of Runihura Saa is unravelled to reveal the remains of...Doctor Sawyer! Suddenly, the pair are drawn into a case that's stranger and twistier than they could ever have imagined."
Wait, isn't this the setup used for an episode of Murder Rooms? OK, it was a corpse but not the host's own corpse. Which I thought would always be a great twist. So read this!
Murder in Punch Lane by Jane Sullivan
Published by: Echo
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Kindle, 326 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Melbourne, 1868. When dazzling theatre star Marie St. Denis dies in the arms of her best friend, fellow actress Lola Sanchez, everyone believes it was suicide by laudanum overdose. Everyone except Lola. On the brink of stardom herself, she risks everything by embarking on a quest to find Marie's killer.
When journalist Magnus Scott, writing as 'the Walking Gentleman', publishes a compassionate obituary about her friend, Lola decides to seek his help. A fraught attraction develops between these two amateur detectives from opposite sides of society, and their volatile relationship soon begins to compromise their investigation.
Lola keeps a secret from Magnus. She traverses the corrupt underbelly of the brash young metropolis just as he does, but disguised as a boy, entering dangerous, forbidden spaces where the lives of the rich and privileged intersect with the city's underclass and outsiders: bohemians, theatre folk, prostitutes, down-and-outs and opium addicts.
Neither are prepared for the truths they will uncover about the powers that rule Melbourne - or the consequences for their own lives. And now they must race to find the murderer before the city destroys them both."
I have become obsessed with Australia lately, especially anything set in Melbourne.
A Darker Mischief by Derek Milman
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The Honeys meets The Secret History in a work of dark academia like no other - a boarding school thriller about a queer teen from Mississippi who finds himself swept into a world of old money, privilege, and the secret society at the heart of it all.
When Cal Ware wins a scholarship to an elite New England boarding school, he's thrilled to leave his past behind. Back home in Mississippi, he was the poor, queer kid who never fit in. But at Essex Academy, he'll be able to reinvent himself. Or so he hopes...
But at Essex, Cal's classmates only see his cheap clothes and old iPhone. They mock his accent, and can't believe he's never left the country, or heard of The Hamptons. Cal, at his breaking point, is about to give up and return to Mississippi when he learns about a secret society on campus - the key to becoming Essex royalty.
Cal knows he's not exactly secret society material, but to his surprise, he finds an unlikely champion in the handsome, charismatic, and slightly dangerous Luke Kim. As they get swept up in the mystery and glamour of the Rush process, Cal finds himself falling in love for the first time.
But as the initiation rituals grow riskier - and increasingly nefarious - Cal must decide how far he's willing to go, and how much of himself he's willing to sacrifice, to save everything and everyone he cherishes most. Because nothing at Essex - not even Cal's first love - is quite what it seems."
Wait, because until recently I had a janky old iPhone 6 would that mean I'd be looked down on? Team Cal!
Illustrated Girl by Josephine Angelini
Published by: Sungrazer Publishing
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 264 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From bestselling author Josephine Angelini comes a whimsical cozy fantasy read with loads of adventure and none of the triggers. Perfect for fans of Olivia Atwater and Travis Baldree.
Ever wish you could travel inside your favorite book and become the main character? Of course you have. Everyone has. But if you ever manage to pull it off, here's a tip. Timing is everything...
Take Holly for example, who after saying a spell is transported inside a fairytale called The Chronicles of Lucitopia, a magical world infested with grifter grandmas, halitosis-riddled bandits, and devoid of any functioning toilets.
Holly becomes Princess Pleasant exactly as she wished, but she gets there too late, right after an evil sorcerer turns Lucitopia into a tetanus-ridden hellhole. And now, it's up to Holly to make things right.
With the help of a freakishly handsome, yet frustratingly virtuous knight, Holly sets out to fix her story, but she only has fifteen days left to do so or she risks being stuck in Lucitopia for the rest of her life, which may prove to be a short one considering she's overdue for her shots."
Hey I just got my tetanus, I'll take her place, I'm good for ten years!
The Women of Wynton's by Donna Mumma
Published by: Barbour Fiction
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Mid-Century Glam Meets Murder Mayhem.
Get swept away to the glamor of a 1950's department store where four women's loyalties, vanity, friendship, and detective skills are put to the test.
Audrey Penault once led a glamorous life as a model but now works as devoted secretary to Mr. Wynton. To her fellow employees, she is too vain and uppity.
Mary Jo Johnson, a wife and mother, longs to find her worth in the cosmetics department, but it may take a while for the shy housewife to discover her voice.
Vivian Sheffield owns and runs the bridal salon within Wynton's. She is proud of her accomplishments and won't let anyone take them away.
Gigi Woodard dislikes her job as waitress in the store's lunchroom, but she is determined not to let her secret shortcomings cause her to lose the position.
These four women have much to dislike about each other, but they unanimously agree that Mr. Wynton is the best of employers and must be protected at all costs from someone who seems determined to see him gone for good. When other employee deaths occur, can the women band together to solve the murders, or will they discover it is one of their own bent on destroying Wynton's from within?"
Anyone else love vintage murders set in period department stores? I know I can't be the only one loving very specific episodes of Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries and Endeavour!
More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Published by: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Paperback, 176 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this charming and emotionally resonant follow up to the internationally bestselling Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa paints a poignant and thoughtful portrait of life, love, and how much books and bookstores mean to the people who love them.
Set again in the beloved Japanese bookshop and nearby coffee shop in the Jimbochi neighborhood of Toyko, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop deepens the relationship between Takako, her uncle Satoru, and the people in their lives. A new cast of heartwarming regulars have appeared in the shop, including an old man who wears the same ragged mouse-colored sweater and another who collects books solely for the official stamps with the author's personal seal.
Satoshi Yagisawa illuminates the everyday relationships between people that are forged and grown through a shared love of books. Characters leave and return, fall in and out of love, and some eventually die. As time passes, Satoru, with Takako's help, must choose whether to keep the bookshop open or shutter its doors forever. Making the decision will take uncle and niece on an emotional journey back to their family's roots and remind them again what a bookstore can mean to an individual, a neighborhood, and a whole culture."
Damn, I love bookstores.
Meet Me at the Starlight by Rachel Hauck
Published by: Bethany House Publishers
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Eighties supermodel Harlow Hayes seeks solace in a quaint Florida beach town to hide and heal from a heartbreak that shattered her entire world. To her surprise, she encounters Matt Knight - a Hollywood A-lister with a bad-boy reputation - who has returned to his hometown to help his plucky grandmother, Tuesday, save her century-old skating rink, the Starlight.
The Starlight holds a special place in the hearts of the community, once acting as a refuge for Depression-era families and bringing the town together with gatherings and celebrations. Tuesday's determination and resilience even protected her beloved rink from her husband's shady business dealings. Yet when the Starlight is threatened with demolition, Tuesday may not be able to stop it.
As Matt and Harlow plot with Tuesday to save the Starlight, they find themselves on a journey of surprises, self-discovery, and the kind of healing that leads to love.
New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck weaves a heartfelt tale of romance, perseverance, and the enduring power of community."
Damn, I miss skating rinks.
My Lady's Secrets by Katy Moran
Published by: Aria
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2024
Format: Kindle, 282 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Regency England.
When rebellious aristocrat Cressida and Lord Greville parted ways, they swore never to meet again. Their short marriage had already descended into bitter estrangement, destroyed by scandal and betrayal.
Years later, Greville is a soldier in the Peninsular War and Cressida is following the drum as another man's lover. Scorned by society, she has learned to survive as a spy - until the day she is caught behind enemy lines, by none other than Greville himself.
Threatened with paying the ultimate price, Cressida is offered a deal: she must entrap and betray the most famous man in England. And Greville, unforgiving, angry and still shockingly attractive, must ensure she complies.
Catapulted to the heights of fame, Lord Byron is just as chaotic, charming and ruthless as he was when he, Greville and Cressida were teenagers. As the three old friends gather for a summer house party in the Scottish Highlands, Cressida is forced to confront her past and ask herself a terrifying question: is it too late for she and Greville to fight for one another at last?"
A Regency house party with Lord Byron!?! Hell yes!
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