Tuesday Tomorrow
The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the acclaimed author of the #1 international bestseller The Binding - a captivating story of Gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon, and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.
1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery - stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires.
Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man's young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness. But Henry, eager to escape a troubled past, quickly becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of Sir Edward's business: spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from bustling streets and noisy neighbors. The result is instant tranquility, as wearers experience a soothing calmness. Yet, those within earshot of the outward-facing silk are subjected to eerie murmurs that amplify with proximity. Bystanders suffer the consequences of this unnerving phenomenon, manifesting in physical and mental afflictions ranging from headaches and drowsiness to severe cases of madness.
As Henry becomes entangled in the allure of the silk and Sir Edward's charm, he glimpses a more sinister family history. The closer he ventures into the inner circle of Carthmute House, the more he unravels the horrifying underbelly of the silk business.
With Bridget Collins's signature, stunning prose, The Silence Factory is an equally enthralling and unsettling Gothic story about complicity, desire, and corruption - a novel to lose yourself in."
Oh my, silk capable of inducing insanity? How soon can I visit the looms?
Death and the Visitors by Heather Redmond
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The ties between a young Mary Shelley, her stepsister Jane "Claire" Clairmont, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the already-infamous Lord Byron grow increasingly tangled as they're drawn into a dangerous investigation in this vivid historical mystery exploring the birth of teenaged Mary's creative genius and the roots of a real-life trio who would later scandalize 19th century England even as they transformed the literary world.
1814, London Foreign diplomats are descending on London in advance of the Congress of Vienna meetings to formulate a new peace plan for Europe following Napoleon's downfall. Mary and Jane's father, political philosopher William Godwin, is hosting a gathering with an advance party of Russian royal staff. The Russians are enthusiastic followers of Mary's late mother, philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, which leads to a lively dinner discussion.
Following their visit, Jane overhears her father reassuring his pushiest creditor that the Russians have pledged diamonds to support his publishing venture, the Juvenile Library, relieving his financial burden. But when Godwin is told the man who promised the diamonds was pulled from the River Thames, his dire financial problems are further complicated by the suspicion that the family may have been involved in the murder.
Stepsisters Mary and Jane resolve to find the real killer to clear the family name. Coming to their aid is Godwin's disciple, the dashing poet Percy Shelley, who seems increasingly devoted to Mary, despite the fact that he is married. And a young woman Jane befriends turns out to be the mistress of the celebrated poet - and infamous lover - Lord Byron.
As both sisters find themselves perhaps dangerously captivated by the poets, their proximity to the truth of the Russian's murder puts them in far greater peril..."
As great a peril as falling in love and having sex on your mother's grave?
The Third Wife of Faraday House by B.R. Myers
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Two brides band together to unravel the secrets at the heart of a crumbling island manor in this delicious love letter to Gothic fiction from the award-winning author of A Dreadful Splendor.
'Til death do us part...
November 1816: Restless but naive Emeline Fitzpatrick is desperate to escape her stifling life in foggy Halifax. Her guardian is lining up repugnant suitors, but Emeline has her eyes set on a lieutenant in the British Navy. She just needs to persuade him to propose, or her one chance at happiness will be gone forever.
But when Emeline's hopes end in scandal, she finds herself with only one suitor left: the wealthy and enigmatic Captain Graves. Having already lost two wives to tragic circumstances, the widower is seeking a new companion in his cloistered seaside manor, Faraday House. Or at least that is what Emeline has been told, because when she arrives, she is horrified to discover that the second Mrs. Graves, Georgina, is still alive - though fading fast.
Emeline is only certain of two things: something ghastly is afoot at Faraday House, and no one is going to save her. She will have to rely on her own courage, her burgeoning bond with Georgina, and the aid of a handsome reverend with a mysterious past to shed light on a ghostly truth."
Can't blame a man who's lost one wife to line up the third in advance of the death of the second...
A Scandal in Mayfair by Katharine Schellman
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Sometimes danger lurks in plain sight, and in the cutthroat London Season socialite Lily Adler must race against time to catch a killer.
Fans of Bridgerton will delight in this Regency-era mystery featuring an intrepid sleuth, plenty of intrigue, and a touch of romance.
London, 1817. The London Season is beginning once more, and Lily Adler's return to her home on Half Moon Street feels different this year. No longer a recent widow, she has a life and friends waiting for her. Lily also has new responsibilities in the form of her protégée Amelia, the sister of her longtime friend Jack Hartley, who is escaping her own brush with scandal and murder.
It doesn't take long for Lily's growing reputation as a lady of quality who can discreetly find what is missing or solve what is puzzling to bring a desperate young woman to her doorstep. But helping her means unraveling a tangled web of family secrets. Soon, a missing will, a dead body and the threat of blackmail leave Lily facing danger every way she turns.
The glittering society of Mayfair conceals many secrets, and the back alleys of London hide even more. Lily Adler will need to find the connection between them quickly if she wants to stop a killer before it's too late."
Bridgerton but better because there's murder!
Miss Morton and the Deadly Inheritance by Catherine Lloyd
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Social standing is everything in Regency England - and no one knows better than Miss Caroline Morton, a lady's companion from a disgraced line. But when she has a chance to claim what's rightfully hers, the one obstacle in her way is a dangerous murder mystery...
Miss Caroline has doubts when she receives an urgent invitation from a London law firm to discuss her late father's estate. After all, the dishonored Earl of Morton died without a pound sterling to pass on to his two daughters. But while immersing herself in helping Mrs. Frogerton's capricious daughter navigate the high social season, Caroline meets with a cagey lawyer, Mr. Smith, who shares life-altering news - the earl composed a second will, leaving behind an undisclosed fortune.
Mrs. Frogerton, however, is thoroughly unimpressed with the firm's conduct and suspicious of their true motives. Her instinct proves right when the two ladies find the office ransacked, staff in turmoil, and Mr. Smith missing. The full weight of the situation doesn't sink in until Mr. Smith dies following a brutal attack on the street - discovered with an empty envelope bearing Caroline's name in his pocket.
With a connection forming between two deaths at the firm, Caroline can't imagine why anyone would kill twice over the contents of a will. Further complicating matters is the amorous Mr. DeBloom - who claims his mother goaded the earl into making bad investments and promises to link Caroline to her inheritance - and the disappearance of Susan, her younger sister. As Caroline unwittingly becomes the center of both a criminal case and a sordid love triangle, she must tread with caution while seeking the truth...because someone is waiting to reduce her to nothing more than a signature on a dotted line."
It might be Regency but it smacks of Wilkie Collins.
The Four by Ellie Keel
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"An international bestseller!
One secret could destroy them all. The brand new dark academia debut for 2024 and a gripping tale of revenge, guilt, privilege, and loyalty, perfect for fans of The Secret History and If We Were Villains.
We were always The Four. From our very first day at High Realms.
The four scholarship pupils. Outsiders in a world of power and privilege. And, according to everyone else, we were dangerous.
It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed our prefect Genevieve out of our bedroom window that day. Certainly, it would have been tragic. She would have died instantly.
But Marta didn't push her then, or - if you choose to believe me - at any other time. If she had, all of what we went through would not have happened.
I've told this story as clearly as I could - as rationally as I've been able, in the circumstances, to achieve. I don't regret what we did. And I would do it all again."
Not just the dark academia book but THE book I've been hearing buzz about all year.
Her Last Summer by Emily Freud
Published by: Quercus Publishing
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"No body. No crime?
Twenty years ago, Mari vanished while backpacking through Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke. He was accused of murder, but has always insisted he's innocent. Besides, her body was never found.
Now, he's finally ready to talk. And filmmaker Cassidy Chambers wants to be the one to uncover what really happened, back then, in the dark of the jungle.
But as she delves deeper into the past, Cassidy begins to fear what lies ahead, and the secrets buried along the way."
I love mysterious cold cases.
Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology.
The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever.
But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia's interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations.
Punctuated by scenes from Nick's adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake."
Yep, here for the total family collapse.
She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor
Published by: Daw Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Part science fiction, part fantasy, and entirely infused with West African culture and spirituality, this novella offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a teenager whose coming of age will herald a new age for her world. Set in the universe Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor first introduced in the World Fantasy Award-winning Who Fears Death, this is the first in the She Who Knows trilogy.
When there is a call, there is often a response.
Najeeba knows.
She has had The Call. But how can a 13-year-old girl have the Call? Only men and boys experience the annual call to the Salt Roads. What's just happened to Najeeba has never happened in the history of her village. But it's not a terrible thing, just strange. So when she leaves with her father and brothers to mine salt at the Dead Lake, there's neither fanfare nor protest. For Najeeba, it's a dream come true: travel by camel, open skies, and a chance to see a spectacular place she's only heard about. However, there must have been something to the rule, because Najeeba's presence on the road changes everything and her family will never be the same.
Small, intimate, up close, and deceptively quiet, this is the beginning of the Kponyungo Sorceress."
I love that acceptance leads to change.
Asunder by Kerstin Hall
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Sabriel meets Witch King in Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall's beguiling new standalone novel. A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024.
We choose our own gods here.
Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch being - three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving - who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with some very dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.
Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they must journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors, and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.
And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due."
Isn't it wonderful to sometimes just pick up a magnificent fantasy that isn't part of a series?
My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
Published by: Harperteen
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of The Princess Bride and A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, New York Times bestselling authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows are back with a fantastical, romantical, and piratical historical fantasy remix that marries the story of The Little Mermaid with the life and times of infamous lady pirate Mary Read.
Don't call this mermaid "little" - call her "captain," unless you want to walk the plank.
Mary is in love with the so-called prince of Charles Town, except he doesn't love her back. Which is inconvenient. Since she's a mermaid, being brokenhearted means she'll - poof! - turn into sea-foam.
But instead, Mary finds herself pulled out of the sea and up onto a pirate ship. To survive, she joins them. But Mary isn't willing to just sing the yo-ho-hos. She wants the pirate life, all of it, and she's ready to make a splash...by becoming captain. But when Blackbeard dies suddenly, Mary has a chance to become so much more: Pirate King...or Queen. She won't let anyone stop her - not Blackbeard's cute son, not her best friend from back under the sea who's having a bit too much fun with his new legs, and certainly not everyone who says she can't be a pirate just because she's a girl.
She may not be the best man for the job, but she'll definitely prove that she's worth her salt."
If you watched and fell in love with My Lady Jane and are desperately awaiting a season two pickup, good news, the authors who wrote that book have written tons of others, including this new one!
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Translated from the Japanese bestseller, a charming and magical novel that reminds us it's never too late to follow our stars.
In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they'll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.
This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and it seemingly appears at random.
It's also run by talking cats.
While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult their star charts, offering cryptic wisdom, and letting them know where their lives veered off course.
Every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. For a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop's feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. For there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them..."
I want to go to there.
Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe
Published by: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.
Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she'll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places...like the most handsome guy she's ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.
Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden's solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism - and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.
As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again."
Aw, cryptid love.
Rise and Divine by Lana Harper
Published by: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"To save both her town and the woman who loves her against all odds, a witch haunted by loss must reckon with her turbulent past, in the next magical romance in the Witches of Thistle Grove series by New York Times bestselling author Lana Harper.
Even in a family of chaotic necromancers, Daria "Dasha" Avramov has always been an outlier. An event planner at the Arcane Emporium occult megastore, Dasha is also a devil eater: a rare necromantic witch with an affinity for banishing demons and traversing the veil, the boundary between this realm and the next.
Still grieving the loss of both beloved parents years ago, and plagued by a dangerous obsession with the world beyond the veil, Dasha is fiery yet guarded, an expert at dodging commitment. Her worst regret is a devastating breakup with the wise, empathetic, and sensual Ivy Thorn, her event-planning counterpart at Honeycake Orchards, and probably the love of Dasha's life. Dasha has managed to break Ivy's heart not once, but twice, so things are more than a little tense between them.
When they're thrown together to plan the Cavalcade - a month-long festival celebrating Thistle Grove's ceremonial founding with dazzling spectacles held by the town's witch families - Dasha hopes that the third time might be the charm, while Ivy refuses to let herself be hurt again. As they confront the pain and passion lingering between them, Dasha and Ivy must also stand against an otherworldly threat unlike anything Thistle Grove has faced before."
Oh, what is with me falling for books with necromancers lately?
The Divide by Morgan Richter
Published by: Knopf Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A failed actress turned grifting psychic searches for her missing doppelgänger and is plunged into a web of murder and corruption among Hollywood A-listers.
When Jenny St. John was eighteen, she moved to Los Angeles from her rural midwestern hometown and scored the lead role in an independent film called The Divide. Under the intimate direction of young auteur Serge Grumet, Jenny was on her way to becoming the next indie darling. But then the movie tanked, and Jenny never caught a second break. Now, two decades later, after floundering on the fringes of the entertainment industry, she's barely keeping afloat running a low-level grift as a psychic life coach.
But when news surfaces that Serge has been murdered, Jenny's life is turned upside down. Unbeknownst to Jenny, Serge's ex-wife, painter Gena Santos, looks alarmingly similar to Jenny. So much so that when Gena goes missing, the cops think Jenny is Gena.
Jenny finds herself pulled into Gena's world and manages to leverage both her resemblance to Gena and her faux psychic abilities to infiltrate the affluent yet unstable inner circle of friends, which include a Korean pop idol-turned-social media star and an Oscar-winning actress-turned-wellness guru. Soon Jenny's search to find Gena unearths dark secrets about her own past while putting her squarely in the sights of a killer."
A Hollywood version of The Likeness!
A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor by Darci Hannah
Published by: Kensington Cozies
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the author of the charming Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries, the first in a new set at a haunted English manor and featuring chef Bunny MacBride, whose big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder...
It isn't how chef Bridget "Bunny" MacBride imagined her own cooking show unfolding. But, if preparing historic meals with a modern flair is what it takes to get her cooking on the air, she can deliver, even if her dinner guest is a ghost. That's the premise of the new reality TV show Food and Spirits, where Chef Bunny teams up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady to visit haunted locales around the world and tempt lingering spirits back to the table with a beloved meal. For their first episode, the Food and Spirits team sets off to investigate Bramsford Manor, a historic house turned famously haunted hotel, in picturesque Hampshire, England. The sprawling estate is said to be home to the Mistletoe Bride, a young woman who died in the 18th century, the victim of a tragic accident on her Christmas wedding night.
Disliking spooks but loving food, Bunny leaves the spectral search to the pros and focuses on the feast, creating a traditional English holiday wedding dinner, complete with a gorgeous prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and rustic apple tarts. It's a sumptuous meal she hopes will entice the ghostly Mistletoe Bride to take a seat and join them while the cameras roll. But Bunny's task is made more difficult when someone steals a boning knife from her custom kit. Alas, when the blade finally turns up again - in the chest of an all-too-human dinner guest - Bunny's woes only grow as she is named a lead suspect in the case! Now, with a haunted house full of living residents, staff, and crew, Bunny will need the help of Brett, Giff, and her clairvoyant Grandma Mac, to solve this murder before the manor gains another ghost!"
It's The Supersizers... meets Ghosts!
Murder at Vinland by Alyssa Maxwell
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Reporter and sleuth Emma Cross Andrews must stop a bold poisoner who is targeting the society wives of the Four Hundred in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island...
August 1901: A fundraiser for a new Rhode Island Audubon Society brings Emma to Vinland, the Viking-themed seaside home of her relative, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, where the guest of honor is Edith Roosevelt, wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Listening to the speakers and observing the ladies in attendance, Emma is struck by the contrast of the Viking warrior-inspired elements in the house and the admirable but admittedly genteel cause of bird protection. Vinland bears the name of the Vikings' first landfall in North America, but in this room today there is most assuredly no one to fear.
Emma's observation of harmless philanthropy is proven wrong the following morning when one of Mrs. Twombly's houseguests from the luncheon becomes mysteriously and dangerously ill. Accompanying police detective Jesse Whyte, Emma discovers a box of petit fours supposedly sent by Mrs. Roosevelt. They promptly rule out the Second Lady as a suspect, but someone has poisoned the cakes.
Soon another box of desserts as well as letters tainted with ink containing caustic toxins show up at other grand Newport cottages. Are the ladies from the luncheon being targeted? Emma and Jesse must sort through possible motives and means because now more than the birds need protection..."
Getting the Hallmark movie wasn't enough this year. Yeah for a new volume!
The Paris Gown by Christine Wells
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From perennially popular historical novelist Christine Wells, the delightful tale of three young women in 1950s Paris who share a single dazzling Christian Dior gown.
Paris, 1955
Three friends - Claire, Gina, and Margot - who parted as very young women with their whole lives ahead of them, reunite in Paris years later, determined to start life anew.
Parisian Claire has been working hard to become a Michelin-starred chef one day, but ever since the heady time she spent in the company of socialites Gina and Margot, her dream has been to own a Dior gown. This seemed like a far-off fantasy, until the eccentric and wealthy Madame Vaughn, who lives above Claire's family brasserie, abruptly leaves Paris, asking Claire to mind her apartment. More bafflingly, Madame Vaughn also makes Claire a very special gift: a stunning Dior gown.
Meanwhile Gina, a cool American blue blood, lands on Claire's doorstep nursing a broken heart and a broken engagement after her father lost all of the family money in a risky business venture. A journalist aspiring to be a novelist, Gina has returned to Paris in the hopes of pursuing her dream. But when her father begs her to attend the United States Embassy ball in the hopes of persuading Hal Sanders, her former fiancé, to invest in her father's new business venture, she is torn. She wants to help her father, but seeing Hal again will be exquisitely painful. And what on earth is she going to wear?
Warm-hearted Claire insists Gina wear the Dior gown to the ball, and after some hesitation, Gina accepts. At Dior for Gina's fitting, who should assist them but Margot, the friend they thought had gone back to Australia to be married. But Margot is living in Paris and working at Dior under an assumed name, and clearly, she is not happy to have been found.
Is their close friendship at an end? Or will the wonder and delight of the Dior gown bring these young women back together?
Gorgeous, perfectly fitted, lustrous and luxurious, the Dior gown has the power to change lives - as these three remarkable women are about to discover..."
The only version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants I'm interested in!
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an "inspiring" (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart - one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare's plays - who are both forced to hide behind another name.
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn't level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.
In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage - by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on...no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten."
We're back to the Shakespeare was a woman. And yes, it changes every few years, but this is a nice twist with the modern timeline.
The Last Witch in Edinburgh by Marielle Thompson
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"For fans of Sarah Penner's The Lost Apothecary and Alix E. Harrow's The Once and Future Witches, this lush, atmospheric novel from the author of Where Ivy Dares to Grow blends witchcraft, queer love, a vibrant Edinburgh setting, and Scottish folklore for a propulsive and emotional story exploring what it means to resist the patriarchy and find your voice.
In an alternate Edinburgh of 1824, every woman lives in fear that she will be the next one hanged for witchcraft. All it takes is invoking the anger, or the desire, of the wrong person. Nellie Duncan, beautiful and unwed, keeps to herself until she encounters the Rae Women's Apothecary. There, fiery Jean Rae and the other women provide cures and teach others that they too can aid the winter deity, the Cailleach, embracing her characteristic independence, agency, and craft, in turn becoming witches themselves.
Nellie finds a place and a purpose at the shop, and a blossoming romance with Jean, as she learns about nature-based craft and a witch's ability to return to life after death. But the Cailleach has an ancient enemy intent on stripping the power of the deity and all her witches, leaving a wake of patriarchal violence and destruction. When heart-breaking disaster strikes, Nellie flees and spends the next two centuries hiding from the world - until love gives her the courage and the motivation to come back.
Nellie's past is waiting for her there, and hanging witches is no longer the only means of oppression. But this time, Nellie refuses to run - either from her foes, or from her resolve to awaken others to the unimaginable power that can come with fighting the patriarchy in its many forms - and finding one's own magical inner-strength."
I'd like to hide away for a century or two...
The Royal Palaces: Secrets and Scandals by Kate Williams and James Oses
Published by: Frances Lincoln
Publication Date: August 20th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Royal expert and TV historian Kate Williams opens the doors to 30 palaces, castles and houses that have been connected with the British royals over the centuries.
Well known for her expert insights in the media and on countless royal documentaries, Kate takes you on a tour of the UK's most fascinating palaces, past and present, to unveil the scandalous and little-known stories hidden between their walls.
Included in the book are such famous royal residences as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but also lesser-known locations such as Falkland Palace and Beaumaris Castle. Covering the breadth of British history, there are tales from the medieval era to the present.
Among the palaces included are:
- St James's Palace, wedding venue for the disastrous union of Caroline of Brunswick and the debauched Prince of Wales, George IV, who turned up drunk and already secretly married.
- Holyroodhouse, where staff once ran a flourishing side hustle, charging visitors money to see the bloodstains from the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots' secretary in the queen's chamber.
- Whitehall Palace and Banqueting Hall, home to Charles II's secret laboratory, where he tried to create an elixir of youth using human skulls.
- Tower of London, the site of the unsolved mystery of the 'Princes in the Tower' - the disappearance of the two young sons of Edward IV.
- Glamis Castle, the inspiration for Shakespeare's Macbeth.
- Greenwich Palace, where Elizabeth I survived an assassination attempt when poison was placed in her saddle.
- Windsor Castle, where princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were evacuated to during the Second World War, with a secret biscuit tin full of the Crown Jewels.
- Marlborough House, home of Sarah Churchill, the passionate confidante of Queen Anne, before her cousin Abigail usurped her as the new favourite.
For the Anglophile in all of us.
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