strange and random happenstance

Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst
Published by: Bramble
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst brings cozy fantasy romance to the high seas in Sea of Charms, the third magical adventure in the Spellshop series!

Marin has always belonged on the great blue sea.

Betrayed by love, Marin lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew.

On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway - and her friend Dax in the line of fire.

What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: Marin will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home.

But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile - and realizes that perhaps she isn't saving him. Maybe it's the other way around.

Sea of Charms is a cozy fantasy romance about finding your crew, your family, and moreover, finding yourself.

Read in whatever order your heart desires, but don't miss The Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse."

Who else has had their signed, and personalized, copy preordered for months? I know it's not just me.

Eclipse of the Crown by A.K. Caggiano
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the third installment of A.K. Caggiano's Villains and Virtues series perfect for fans of Sydney J. Shields and Kimberly Lemming, a demon lord and the baroness who's wormed her way into his heart try to find time to admit their feelings for each other. If only the world would stop ending long enough for them to do so...

Their destinies are irrevocably entangled, but will their bond finally be the realm's ultimate undoing?

Nothing about Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne's evil destiny has gone according to plan. The reason? A certain noblewoman who has somehow enmeshed herself in his softening heart.

Now back amongst his peers at Yvlcon, the preeminent congregation of the vilest and most unscrupulous villains, Damien's moral growth is threatened - and just when he was learning to be a little less evil too. Consequently, Lady Ammalie Avington, Daughter to the Baron of Faebarrow, finds her own virtue in peril when faced with so much temptation, namely in the form of a domineering blood mage she can't - or doesn't want - to say no to.

But a burgeoning romance is doused in the coldest of baths when the Grand Order of Dread commands Damien to once again face the swirling vortex of entropy that's been hunting them across the realm. The coming eclipse points to devastation and destruction, and with prophecy being, well, prophecy, annihilation seems impossible to avoid.

But there's an entire fortnight before the world is supposed to end, and surely that's enough time to find some way around it...or at the very least to confess one's devotion before it all burns down around them."

Or confess your devotion just as the flames are licking at your heels so you don't have to deal with rejection?

Tales of a Deadly Devotion by Jennifer Delaney
Published by: Diversion Books
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 496 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of the instant Sunday Times bestseller Tales of a Monstrous Heart comes the highly-anticipated sequel, with slow-burn romance and forbidden magic, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Rachel Gillig.

As Fey wage hopeless war against the oncoming storm of mortal conquest, Fairfax Manor lies in ruins. The first witches of Blackthorn forged the ancient fortress from their very souls to keep those of their bloodline safe. No one is safe now.

Katherine Woodrow might have survived persecution at the Institute of Magic and journeyed across the divided lands of Elysior to study magic with the legendary Lord Emrys Blackthorn himself, but losing her heart and almost her life wasn't on the curriculum.

All magic has a price, and in this irresistible tale of gothic allure, shadowed by sorcery and slow-burn desire, it's a price so steep that Alma would rather have died than see Kat pay. But the dark isn't finished with Kat yet. And Alma, a shapeshifter, will stop at nothing to save her, drawing on the power of the beasts that simmer beneath her skin and even facing the secrets of her own past to help her friend.

And there's no time to lose. Because more demons are escaping from the cursed texts the mortals failed to guard. The world is slipping back into darkness. And something is returning...

A tale of deadly devotion."

It's always sad whenever the Gothic ruin you call home is no longer a haven.

Spellcast by Sophie Jordan
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan is back with an epic romantasy set in the world of A Fire in the Sky, about a girl on the hunt for the witch who cursed her, unaware of her own dormant power…waiting to emerge.

For ten long years, Arden has been invisible, trapped in her village by a spell she cannot break. She listens to friends chatter, watches her family grieve, but can never touch, speak, or be seen. Living like a ghost among those who've forgotten her, she dreams of vengeance against the witch who cursed her.

Until one fateful day, her village is devoured in flame, and everything changes.

From the wreckage rises a pride of dragons that can transform into humans. Their piercing eyes slice through her curse, and for the first time in a decade, Arden can be seen.

Swept off to the Crags by the enigmatic alpha dragon, Tage, Arden is forced into a world of fire and power, where danger lurks in every shadow. Though she plots her escape at every turn, Tage's fiery intensity and undeniable magnetism spark an unwilling response in her.

But Arden's fate is bound to a secret she has yet to uncover, a magic older and more perilous than she could ever imagine. With war on the horizon, Arden must decide whether to trust the dragon she swore to defy, harness the wild magic around her, or risk losing everything.

Sometimes all it takes to break a curse...is to cast another spell."

Stick with the dragons. ALWAYS choose the dragons.

A Tangled Magic by Andrea Eames
Published by: Erewhon Books
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Rapunzel meets Six of Crows in this darkly imagined high fantasy for fans of T. Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone, The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart, Naomi Novik's Uprooted, and Disney's Tangled, as a woman with amnesia - and magical hair - searches for her lost memories while navigating a web of royal intrigue, bone magic, and secret monasteries.

All her life, Netta has only known the Tower - its musty shelves of books she cannot read, ink-splattered quills, and endless scrolls of paper. Her mother, ambitious and analytical, has spent decades perfecting her greatest masterpiece: a spellbook of unspeakable power. Netta's only companions are her long red Hair, which moves of its own accord, and a telepathic raven named Baldbeak. Her only amusement lies in crafting intricate embroidery from scraps of silk and thread.

When attackers storm the Tower, her mother and the spellbook vanish. Determined to find her, Netta ventures into a kingdom on the brink of civil war. The monarch lies dying, while pious Temple fanatics and the noble elite scheme for the throne, forging secret alliances and building hidden armies. For reasons she cannot yet fathom, all these factions seek Netta - and the dangerous, uncontrollable magic in her Hair.

But whom can she trust? The sharp-eyed pickpocket bent on revolutionizing the use of magic? The elusive black-market trader known only as the Book Man? The charming magician who slips between shadow and light? From masked carnivals to opulent ballrooms, from hidden monasteries to catacombs, Netta must untangle a web of lies and intrigue - not only to find her mother, but also to uncover the true nature of the power that has shaped her life."

I wonder if she ever uses her hair in her embroidery?

Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mother and daughter must break their family's curse through trials of war and immigration, love, loss, and redemption in this riveting multi-generational saga with a shimmer of magic, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate.

1940s Hong Kong
When Japanese soldiers invade her hometown, Ha Yut Ying makes an unlikely escape - by turning invisible. But her miraculous survival is only the beginning. After the war is over, she's sent to Hong Kong to live with her distant father and glamorous stepmother, who end her dreams of becoming a singer and turn her into the family's servant. As the years pass, Yut Ying learns the hard truths of betrayal and ambition, of forbidden love and devastating loss, and discovers that sometimes the only way to endure is to disappear.

1960s San Francisco
Marigold has always had a knack for uncovering secrets, but nothing prepares her for the day she accidentally witnesses her mother vanish before her eyes. The moment fractures their bond, leaving questions that shadow her entire childhood. But when her mother's condition suddenly deteriorates, Marigold is convinced she's the only person who can save her. To do so, she must journey into the secrets her mother never shared and uncover the tragic, fairytale-tinged history their family has fought to forget.

A story of mothers and daughters, the scars they inherit and the magic that binds them, Fishbone Cinderella is a tender and enchanting exploration of what it means, at last, to be seen."

I mean, wouldn't your first reaction to your mother disappearing before you eyes be wonder?

Eight Enchanting Elixirs by Lynn Cahoon
Published by: Kensington Cozies
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon's irresistible kitchen witch, Mia the caterer, once again works magic with a meal - and with a murder - in an Idaho town with a lot of community spirits...

Mia's grandmother is feeling stress about an ex who's returned...from the dead. Mia's boyfriend is confined to his home for six weeks in a desperate attempt to get his fluffy Maltese pup, Cerby, trained as a hellhound. And Mia herself is being hassled by the coven, which is suddenly questioning the validity of her witch credentials!

Suspected of cheating on her exam, Mia is pressured to retake it. When she not only passes but moves up a level, national coven rep Suzanne Parker is furious. Parker, a relative of a witch hanged in Salem, threatens Mia with a witch's worst nightmare. When she's found dead the very next day, the coven suspects kitchen witch's potions contained an extra, very lethal ingredient.

With all this toil and trouble, Mia has no choice but to prove that she's a good witch - in every sense of the word..."

What is a witch's worst nightmare? Because I can think of a few...

Such a Witch by Sarah Henning
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cliques clash and sparks fly in this delightfully fast-paced read that's part fluffy rom-com, part murder mystery with a (literal) witch hunt. The perfect pick for Wednesday fans.

Pretty, popular, and a total witch, Embry Woodcross is queen bee at Raven's Head School for the Magically Gifted. Entering senior year as head prefect, Embry is a celebrated fashionista and unrivaled solver of problems big, small, and unattractive. (She's quite generous with her handcrafted magical beauty products.)

When she meets Oakley Riddle, clueless transfer student and ultrarare vampire, Embry's mission is clear: take the new girl under her wing and make sure she's not thrown to the (were)wolves. Coven mate Rye Knighton may scoff at Embry's aggressive benevolence, but Raven's Head students reward her with love and appreciation...

Until one good deed too many makes Embry the lead suspect in a murder investigation.

Suddenly, the same people who begged Embry for enchanted acne potions are convinced she's a cold-blooded killer. Apparently, everyone loves a witch until something bad happens, and then it's all pitchforks and anecdotal evidence. As everything she's ever done is used against her, Embry teams up with Rye to find the real murderer, clear her name, and maybe fall in love along the way."

I mean, being a witch will always be a double-edged sword. 

Hell to Pay by Lora Beth Johnson
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ocean's Eight meets Six of Crows in this YA fantasy heist novel about a teenage con artist and her ragtag crew teaming up for their toughest job yet: stealing a soul from the Afterlife.

Elle Fields comes from a long line of thieves who specialize in breaking into the Afterlife to steal secrets - and magic - from the dead. But after her parents' disappearance and her brother's death, Elle is left adrift, without even her crew to rely on.

Until a mysterious stranger offers her a job she can't refuse: stealing a soul from the Afterlife. If Elle can get it done, it could be the key to restoring the life she lost.

The only problem is getting her crew back together. Oh, and the fact that the job's impossible - but Elle is confident that she'll be able to work it all out.

After all, how hard could it be to raise the dead?"

So it feels a bit sexist that they're comparing it to Ocean's Eight and not Ocean's Eleven. Or better yet, Ocean's Twelve, the best in the series. 

Marian Heretic Volume 1 by Tini Howard and Joe Jaro
Published by: BOOM! Studios
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A bold new vision of religious horror and rebellion!

Sister Marian is many things: a Mother Superior, a witch hunter, and a devout follower of a Goddess the Holy Father Church refuses to acknowledge.

When the Church declares her order heretical, Marian agrees to serve as its personal enforcer - delivering nightly judgment across the city of Vespers in exchange for her Sisters' survival.

But with every soul she condemns, Marian feels her own slipping further into darkness. Can she ultimately protect the faith that guides her even as the Church weaponizes her to destroy it?

From writer Tini Howard (Catwoman, Excalibur, Assassinistas) and artist Joe Jaro (Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer) comes a bold new take on nunsploitation where theology meets heavy metal.

Collects Marian Heretic #1-5."

I think you can gather from Sister Marian's habit that this is all about the nunsploitation. And not just by habit...

These Godly Lies by Rachelle Raeta
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A god stilled the hands of time for Anna in These Immortal Truths. Now, those stolen hours come due in These Godly Lies, the stunning and sweeping conclusion to the Peaches and Honey duology.

"She assumed they had forever. She knows better now."

After spending eight centuries witnessing the world's cruelty, Anna has finally found peace in the simple life she's made for herself with Khiran, the shapeshifting god who gifted her with immortality.

It is, she knows, too good to last.

When her existence - and her stolen immortality - is discovered, Anna and Khiran must abandon the home they have built together if they hope to escape the wrath of the all-powerful god they call The First. But they can't hide forever, and fighting means certain death - until they learn that they may not be the only immortals who wish to see The First fall.

With everything at stake, only one thing is certain: Fear isn't only for mortals. Fear is for them all."

The question is, does gaining immortality make you even more afraid of death?

The Whisper by Chelsea Iversen
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman and Riley Sager's Middle of the Night, comes a sweeping, atmospheric thriller following a group of friends and the power given to them by the trees...

Rule 1: When the trees whisper, listen.

Rule 2: Don't go into the woods alone.

In the small mountain town of Whisper Ridge, the girls were inseparable. Joey, Quinn, Sophie, and Elena. Together, they channeled magic in the woods, living by six simple rules. The first being: when the trees whisper, listen.

But all rules are forgotten, all bonds broken, when Quinn is found dead in the trees.

In the aftermath, the friends scattered. All except Joey, who still can't move on. Until now, over a decade later, she again hears the trees whisper.

Those woods remember some of Quinn's last words, and for the first time, Joey realizes she may learn the truth of what happened to her best friend. And so, the friends return to Whisper Ridge, to the woods that once held their magic and their secrets. But unearthing the truth about Quinn puts them all in danger, and in order to survive they'll need to channel their power for the first time in fifteen years to finally put the past to rest."

Not to be a drag, but the blurb is kind of spoiling Middle of the Night's more supernatural elements...

A Penance for Crows by Shannon Morgan
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An unnerving, hypnotic, modern gothic thriller set on a remote Irish island, where an artist is caught between deadly secrets, ancient superstition, and echoing madness. For fans of Simone St. James, Eve Chase, and Jennifer McMahon.

Off the southern tip of the Beara Peninsula lies Beanna Dubh, an island of savage beauty, its jagged cliffs lashed by Atlantic winds and infested by thousands of crows. Untouched by 21st-century advances, the islanders live under the strict rule of the church, while clinging to old superstitions of the crows as harbingers of disaster. To this desolate, unforgiving place Grizela Urquhart fled, seeking sanctuary from brutal bullying in her native Glasgow.

40 years on, Grizela still remains an outsider - the eccentric painter viewed with distrust and barely tolerated. The feelings are mutual, for she has discovered there are as many secrets on Beanna Dubh as there are crows.

When she stumbles upon the body of a young priest with a diabolical symbol drawn on his chest, the crows darken the skies, and Grizela is plagued by demonic whispers only she can hear. The islanders' suspicions fall on her, but she fears the answers lie in her tortured past.

As mass hysteria grows, Grizela scrambles to protect the innocent - a quartet of young girls she has taken under her wing. When she uncovers dark truths behind the girls' mysterious midnight gatherings, her grip on reality unravels and she is faced with an impossible choice: do the unthinkable to protect the girls as the whispers urge, or come out of hiding to face the sins of her past."

Is leaving the island an option?

Black Point by Jacqueline West
Published by: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In an insular small town steeped in Norse traditions, a local teen grapples with dark secrets from the past rising to the surface in this "spine-tingling thrill ride" (School Library Journal, starred review) by New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline West.

Lucia Sorenson holds on hard to the things she loves. Her tiny hometown clings to the bluffs above the Mississippi River, threatened by weather and time. Unlike most people her age, Lucia plans to stay after graduation and help her grandfather run the Viking Museum of Black Point. Maybe then she can keep everything her ancestors built from washing away.

When the Black Point Hotel, a supposedly haunted local landmark, is bought by an outsider, the town is shaken - and for Lucia, fresh changes arrive in the form of the owner's nephew, Max. As Lucia gets to know Max, she begins to question her role in the town's rituals and to see the place, and herself, with new eyes.

But the town is flooding, and old secrets are rising to the surface. Soon Lucia will have to choose between the home she thought she knew and the hideous truths hidden underneath."

Stephen King via Midsummer. 

The Séance Garden by Juliet Blackwell
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After a cheesy ghost tour in one of California's oldest towns stumbles upon an actual haunting, a skeptical historian of the occult becomes entangled in solving a murder case.

When Professor Harper Grae loses a bet with a friend, she finds herself on a local nighttime tour of "haunted" locations in Monterey. Harper's a lifelong non-believer in the occult, though her academic career is devoted to the historical and societal significance of witchcraft, ghosts, and medicinal poisons of all sorts. But her skepticism immediately gets tested when the tour stumbles on the body of local artist Delilah Mason - who's found murdered on the grounds of a nearly two-hundred-year-old mansion, once home to the infamous Perles family.

On the night Mason's body is found, Harper catches sight of something in the house that she can't shake, something that's impossible to explain, at least not rationally. Soon the murder investigation reveals that this is the second time a woman has been found murdered beneath a sprawling cypress tree in the gardens of the Perles Mansion. And when Harper's closest friend is questioned by the police, Harper fears the authorities will fail to uncover the real killer.

As Harper asks questions around town and digs deeper into the supernatural speculation and rumors surrounding the murders - two women killed in similar circumstances, separated by nearly two centuries  - she sees evidence she can't ignore that the notorious mansion truly is haunted by the ghost of Isabel Perles.

What will it cost Harper to rethink everything she's always believed to admit that the veil between the living and the dead might actually be crossed?"

Remember to always take head that advice of Sherlock Holmes...

We Were Never Here by Sophia Hannan
Published by: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The remaining members of a ghost hunting show return to the haunted manor that may have killed their friend in this "moody, character-driven" (School Library Journal, starred review) contemporary gothic debut perfect for fans of She Is a Haunting and Delicious Monsters.

Four teens went into the manor, three came out.

In July, Georgia Perry and Jules Park - secret girlfriends, covert art thieves, and cohosts of a popular YouTube ghost hunting show - step into a haunted house to steal a priceless painting. A few short hours later, there's a knife in Jules's chest and Georgia is waking up in a pool of blood with no painting and no memory of how she got there.

Now it's October, and Georgia is underwater. She hasn't been to class in weeks, and she's avoiding her old crew - and only friends - like the plague. But when the three remaining thieves get a call from the man who paid a hefty sum to keep them out of jail, demanding that they return to finish the job, Georgia has no choice but to return to her old life.

As the estranged friends scramble to steal the painting with no cover story and no leader, they quickly realize that something is very, very wrong, and it's not just the suffocating memory of Jules or the prying eyes of their viewers. Between the strange shadows that begin to trail them and the nightmares plaguing Georgia's sleep, only one thing is certain: something followed them home from De Lys manor, and it will do anything to keep them from going back."

Anyone else think the girl on the cover looks like Billie Eilish?

Indie Darling by Lauren Nossett
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brilliant, breakout novel from ITW THRILLER AWARD-WINNING author Lauren Nossett - a mystery set in Nashville, where a Dolly Parton-loving private detective is drawn into the disappearance of an enigmatic pop star.

Nashville is a city of two faces, where the glitter often masks the grit.

Kelly Williams, a Dolly Parton-loving, sports-car-driving private investigator in Nashville, helps women. Sisters in search of lost siblings. Wives determined to uncover affairs. Daughters haunted by men lingering outside their windows. Clients trust her because she listens, she believes them, and over the years she's honed a specialized skill set.

Her latest client is Sarah Owens, better known as Seraph, the magnetic and polarizing lead singer of the indie sensation The Garden Snakes. After a series of threats turns violent, she hires Kelly to identify her assailant. With feminist anthems, cryptic lyrical easter eggs, and an electrifying stage presence, Seraph has built a fiercely loyal following - and attracted a number of critics. At that level of fame, her attacker could be anyone.

Then, in the middle of a Nashville performance, Seraph is shot on stage. The ambulance carrying her disappears. As the city reels and conspiracy theories swirl, Kelly is pulled into a dangerous web of secrets involving Seraph's bandmates, her troubled past, and the high cost of stardom.

Propulsive and atmospheric, Indie Darling is both a page-turning mystery and a powerful meditation on art, obsession, and the perils of being a female artist in a celebrity-obsessed world."

Fame and the deadly cost of it have always intrigued me.

You've Reached Margo by Nancy Savage
Published by: Mont House Press
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Kindle, 275 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ivy Miller talks people out of dying for a living.

This time it may cost her own life.

When Ivy answers a crisis line call from a frantic young woman named Margo, she has no idea it will change her life.

Hours after Margo tearfully announces her intention to end it all, she's found dead. The police call it suicide, but Ivy knows better. Margo didn't sound like she'd given up. She sounded scared.

Defying her employer, Ivy heads to Margo's hometown, Hickory's End, looking for answers. All she finds is silence.

No one wants to talk about Margo. In fact, no one wants to talk at all.

It soon becomes clear Margo uncovered something before her death. Something worth keeping her quiet for.

Now Ivy is in town asking the same questions.

And in Hickory's End, people who ask questions don't always make it out alive.

You've Reached Margo is a dark and unsettling psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Nicola Sanders and Natalie Barelli."

Get out before you get killed!

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the internationally bestselling author of 56 Days, a page-turning thriller about two women whose shattered lives come crashing together around a house whose secrets could bury them both.

If these walls could talk, they'd scream...

When Ellie moves to 1 Delaney Row, she hopes to find a fresh start - a place where no one knows her name, her history, or her secrets. But what she doesn't know is that her new home is already hiding someone else's secrets - and the people determined to keep them are watching her.

As Ellie starts to unravel the house's disturbing backstory, coming closer to the shocking mystery at its center, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home's history, but with her own as well.

A puzzle box of a thriller full of mind-boggling twists and turns, Buyer Beware is a chilling exploration of the dark secrets that any house can hold - and of the lengths we'll go to start over."

If the secrets in this house are so dangerous to certain people, why did they let someone else move in?

The Night Hunter by Natalie Moss
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In a remote corner of the South African bush, two sisters reunite to bury a family secret once and for all, but when they're stranded among the wild animals, they find a predator far more dangerous waiting for them in the shadows....

When their conservationist mother passes, Danielle and her estranged sister Grace must return to their isolated family house nestled within a wild-game reserve. While Grace, their mother's favorite, clings to nostalgia, only Danielle carries the knowledge of her final request: "Find the storehouse...Burn everything inside."

To ease the pain of their homecoming - and the tension between them - each sister invites two friends on the two-day journey into the bush. What starts as a safari adventure, turns into a nightmare when one of them is murdered the first morning at the campsite. In the chaos that follows, they crash their vehicle, stranding them, with no way to call for help.

Now, with dwindling supplies and only one rifle, Danielle must lead them on foot across miles of merciless savannah. They have days of walking ahead…if they survive that long. As the group navigates land where every rustle could mean death, a truth emerges: someone is sabotaging their escape.

Breathtaking and tense, The Night Hunter maps the treacherous terrain of family duty and loyalty as the two sisters confront what they’ve spent years trying to forget."

I never thought to invite friends just so that they could be picked off first.... It's a valid plan.

Death at the Village Garden Party by Debbie Young
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: eBook, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bunting. Fairground rides. Music...Murder. What more could you want from a garden party?

Alice Carroll is happily settled in the Cotswold village of Little Pride, running her beloved Curiosity Shop and cautiously planning the next chapter with her partner, Robert. So when Robert buys the neighbouring Cold Bottom estate, Alice offers to help him win over its eccentric residents by reviving the village's once-loved summer garden party.

But between grumbling fairground workers, gloomy villagers and a downpour that would dampen anyone's bunting, the day doesn't quite go to plan.

Then a guest stumbles into the marquee - and he's dead before his body hits the ground.

Can Alice untangle old rivalries and strange secrets to find the killer? Or will Cold Bottom's fresh start end in another funeral."

A very Father Brown death. I love it!

A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"November 1924. The glitzy and glamorous Endeavour sails from England to New York with 2,000 passengers - and a killer - on board.

When an elderly gentleman is found dead at the foot of a staircase, ship's officer Timothy Birch is ready to declare it a tragic accident. But James Temple, a strong-minded inspector, is certain there is more to this misfortune than meets the eye.

Birch agrees to investigate, and they form an uneasy partnership. Uncovering a web of surprising connections between the passengers aboard the Endeavor, running from the crew cabins below deck to the palatial suites of first class, their inquiries lead to the theft of a priceless painting. Its very existence is known only to its owner...and the dead man.

With just days remaining until they reach New York, the search for the culprit is fraught with danger.

And all the while, the passengers continue to roam the ship with a killer in their midst. One who is poised to strike again."

Obviously use the painting as bait!

Murder on Devil's Ridge by Irina Shapiro
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The girl lies on the ancient stone, her brown hair falling loosely onto the crude altar. Her narrow little arms are crossed just beneath the strange, angular dagger protruding from her chest.

Nurse Gemma Bell and her new husband, Inspector Sebastian Bell, are visiting his family in Suffolk when a neighbor discovers the brutal murder of a young girl, high on Devil's Ridge. Left alone to examine the body while Sebastian breaks the devastating news to the girl's father, Viscount Ravenel, Gemma finds disturbing wounds that suggest calculated ritual, not random violence. And before long, whispers from the village reach her of Pagan sacrifice and ancient blood offerings.

With no local police, the desperate viscount begs Sebastian and Gemma to investigate. And as the couple question the manor's servants and family, they uncover forbidden desires, bitter resentments, and desperate ambitions lurking behind respectable façades.

When another child vanishes from her bed, the investigation takes on terrible urgency. Racing against time to prevent another death, Gemma risks everything to uncover the truth. But in this close-knit, isolated community, could the killer's next target be the outsider nurse who knows too much?

A richly atmospheric Victorian mystery. The next thrilling read for fans of Andrea Penrose, Anna Lee Huber, and the Lady Sherlock mysteries."

Reminiscent of Tana French's In the Woods.

The Clockmaker's Murder by Emily Organ
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 278 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A murdered clockmaker. A stolen masterpiece. An observatory full of secrets.

London, 1889. When elderly clockmaker Horace Whitby is found bludgeoned to death in his workshop at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, suspicion falls on the woman who discovered his body - Charlotte Mellor, who makes her living selling the time, carrying her pocket watch from banks to shipping offices each day to keep London's clocks in step with Greenwich.

Convinced of Charlotte's innocence, Emma Langley and her friend Penny Green begin their own investigation. But Charlotte has not been entirely truthful with them - and the world of the Royal Observatory is far more secretive than it appears. Behind its gates lie bitter professional rivalries, a decades-old family feud, and whispers of a clock so valuable that powerful men have been scheming over it for years.

As Emma and Penny dig deeper, they attract dangerous attention. Someone has been watching them. And not everyone investigating Whitby's murder wants the truth to come out...

Emma Langley returns in this enthralling Victorian mystery - a tale of ambition, betrayal and murder in the shadow of the Royal Observatory."

Wait, could people really make a living selling the time? 

The Laudanum Ladies' Society by Elisabeth Hobbes
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Kindle, 353 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In a London that insists women remain quiet, dutiful, and dull, two unlikely conspirators discover a secret that awakens everything society tells them to suppress...

Jenny Rosewood - single, clever and nearly thirty, heaven forbid - has long disguised herself as a man to attend nighttime lectures and chase knowledge forbidden to her. But when an accidental alteration of her uncle's sleeping draught unleashes a dizzying rush of freedom, Jenny sees an opportunity.

Together with Gwen Walters, a pharmacist's wife hidden in her husband's shadow, they form a covert sisterhood where London's ladies gather to indulge in their secret tincture under the guise of afternoon tea.

Soon, society's most proper ladies are sipping their way toward inspiration, rebellion and risk.

Because once women taste freedom, no amount of decorum can force it back in the bottle."

They do know laudanum is bad right!?!

Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the beloved, award-winning author of the modern classics Lost Children Archive and Tell Me How It Ends comes her most powerful and page-turning novel yet: the tale of a mother and a daughter starting over, searching for a new story.

This story begins when a mother and her daughter take off on a trip. It is a summer of rapidly changing winds, volcanic rumbles, and sudden tempests. They've landed in Sicily, near the ancient ruins where the mother's grandmother worked long ago on an archaeological dig. The narrator's marriage has collapsed, her mother is losing her memory, and her daughter is on the threshold of adolescence, starting to ask difficult questions and form complex memories. How do you begin again? the narrator wonders, pondering her family line. How do you begin again if you got the beginning wrong?

While the mother tries to figure out how to reconstruct their lives as a duo - cooking meals side by side, reading out loud to each other, playing chess, bickering and making up - her daughter takes the reins of the story, and their journey soon becomes a quest for origins, not just to the familial past across continents, languages, and generations, but also farther back, to a mythical and even geological past.

Beginning Middle End evolves into a road novel of exquisite tenderness, spanning four generations of women. In their travels through Sicily, mother and daughter cross paths with the island's migrants, storekeepers, and elders, and also its volcanoes, its winds, and its waters. Weaving myths, ancient philosophy, and natural history with fleeting moments of contemporary life, the unforgettable characters in this novel take us on a journey across time, and confront some of life's primary questions: How do stories shape our children's memories and imagination? How do we situate ourselves deeply in the world while accepting our transience in it? How are a family's memories made and what happens when they disappear?

Warm, funny, and poetic, this novel is an ode to imagination and possibility in dark times."

I think everyone feels that they got the beginning wrong. 

Fossil Feud by Maggie North
Published by: Dell
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The hunt for fossils - and love - is on in this steamy, STEMinist romance about two opposing paleontologists who join forces to prevent a fraudulent dinosaur discovery, but accidentally dig up feelings for each other along the way.

Renegade paleontologist Ripley Adams is this close to digging up a fossil treasure and vindication. She's spent the last three years in academic exile after her ex-boyfriend stole her work, betrayed her trust, and broke her heart in one fell swoop. If she can unearth a complete specimen of her newest discovery - a never-before-seen missing link between dinosaurs and birds - it will put her back on the map and finally restore her ruined reputation.

But when unfairly hot Oxford professor James Smithson crashes Ripley's dig site, she realizes she's not the only one searching for redemption in the Montana dirt. James is convinced a splashy new fossil is a fraud, and he needs Ripley's help to prove it. She'd tell the buttoned-up Brit where to stick his suspicions, but the fake fossil is eerily similar to hers...and the fraudster is her ex.

The race is on to reveal a T-rex-sized discovery. Polar opposites Ripley and James will have to find common ground if they're going to take down a hoax that could ruin them both. And as they dig deeper into their unlikely attraction, Ripley's excavation boots won't be the only things getting a little dirty...."

I mean, if the lead is dressed EXACTLY like Dr. Ellie Sattler on the cover, you know this book is a must read for me!

Pride Comes Before a Fall by Virginia Heath
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: July 28th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the third installment of this witty Regency romcom series, a headstrong chaperone is torn between following her rigid principles or her heart.

Despite his many responsibilities, there is nothing Leopold Sloane, the 11th Duke of Debden, takes more seriously than the safety of those he loves. When one of his sisters is injured at a protest rally, he drags his family to Bath for the summer to keep his reckless and rebellious siblings out of harm's way. The only flaw in his plan is his overwhelming but inexplicable attraction to the new chaperone he has hired to watch out for them. An outspoken conundrum of a woman who soon causes him more trouble than both his sisters combined...but who calls to his soul regardless.

From the moment Portia Kendall read her first revolutionary pamphlet beneath her bedcovers at Miss Prentice's School for Girls, she realized that her true calling was to make the world a fairer place for the masses downtrodden by the aristocracy. A calling that led her to Equitas, a radical newspaper that champions reform. But as Portia discovers, writing doesn't pay the bills. To make a living, she must push aside her principles and serve the very people she criticizes weekly in her column. A temporary position as a chaperone in the home of a pompous duke seems like the perfect way to earn enough to follow her heart. Unfortunately, the duke who hires her seems to be more dashing and noble than pompous and soon begins to call to her heart too - as much as she tries to deny it. But dare she risk her principles for love or will her pride always come before a fall?"

Or, take down the aristocracy from the inside?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A.K. Caggiano, Chelsea Iversen, Elisabeth Hobbes, Elizabeth Lim, Emily Organ, Irina Shapiro, Juliet Blackwell, Lauren Nossett, Lynn Cahoon, Maggie North, Sarah Beth Durst, Tom Hindle, Valeria Luiselli, Virginia Heath

Glorious Rivals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Millions, hearts, and lives are on the line in this heart-stopping sequel to The Grandest Game by #1 bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Seven players arrived on Hawthorne Island, each with their own secrets and motivations to win the Grandest Game. Millions are at stake, but so are hearts - and lives. The players now must race to win the game, solve myriad mysteries, and survive the twists and turns of Glorious Rivals.

The stakes get higher, the game gets twistier, and everything heats up in this newest installment in the TikTok sensation Inheritance Games Saga."

The real question I have is how much time will this book cover? The last one was only a single night! And eventful, but sole night. I need more.

We Won't All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of I Am Still Alive comes a new nail-biter that's part survival story, part murder mystery, and all thriller - perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson!

Two years ago, Mercy Gray was hailed as a hero for saving lives during a mall shooting. She still carries souvenirs from that day: the fragment of a bullet lodged in her back, a mountain of medical debt, and guilt for ignoring her sister's warnings that the sweet boy next door was anything but.

So when billionaire turned TV host Damien Dare recruits Mercy to compete on his new survivalist reality show, she can't turn down a chance at the whopping cash prize that could send her sister to college. But when she and the other contestants arrive at the off-grid location, something isn't right. The set is empty. The gates close without warning, trapping them inside. And then one of them turns up dead. What appeared at first to be a tragic accident quickly transforms as more contestants start dropping like flies. With time and resources running low, surviving this show takes on a whole new meaning. Mercy must figure out who to trust. Before she's next."

This is why we NEVER trust billionaires. 

The Game Is Murder by Hazell Ward
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this fresh and immersive murder mystery that riffs on crime classics, the reader is put in the role of the Great Detective, reinvestigating an infamous never-before-solved case from 1970s England.

You are invited to a very special murder mystery party. The game is simple: Listen to the witnesses. Examine the evidence. Solve the case. Be careful. Trust no one. All might not be as it seems.

If you agree to play the role of the Great Detective, you must undertake to provide a complete solution to the case. A verdict is not enough. We need to know who did it, how they did it, and why. Are you ready? Can you solve the ultimate murder mystery - and catch a killer?

A word of warning: Unsolved mysteries are not permitted...."

Oh. Oh yes.

You Belong Here by Megan Miranda
Published by: S and S/Marysue Rucci Books
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Memories fade, but on this campus, legacies are never forgotten…or forgiven. A new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda.

Beckett Bowery never thought she'd return to Wyatt Valley, a picturesque college town in the Virginia mountains steeped in tradition. Her roots there were strong: Beckett's parents taught at the college, and she never even imagined studying anywhere else - until a tragedy her senior year ended with two local men dead, and her roommate on the run, never to be seen again...

For the last two decades, Beckett has done her best to keep her distance. Then her daughter, Delilah, secretly applies to Wyatt College and earns a full scholarship, and Beckett can only hope that her lingering fears are unfounded. But deep down she knows that Wyatt Valley has a long memory, and that the past isn't the only dangerous thing in town..."

Oh, collegiate danger! I love family legacies and when they turn dangerous.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sparkling debut mystery set on the south side of Chicago, featuring the quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, proprietor of a soul food café.

When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area.

Even as the police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself - and her beloved café - in the middle of an entire city's worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.

But with a slimy investor harassing her to sell her name and business, customers avoiding her sweet potato pie like the plague, and her police sergeant ex-husband suddenly back in the picture, will Savvy be able to clear the café’s name and solve Grandy's murder before it all falls apart?

After all, while Savvy always said her sweet potato pie was to die for, she never meant literally."

And now I want pie. 

The Kahuna Killer by Juanita Sheridan
Published by: Classic Mayhem
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hawaii just after the war is an unspoiled paradise. Any mystery fan can tell you that won't last.

Aloha! It's 1950, and the SS Lurline is steaming into Honolulu harbor. On board are Janice Cameron, coming to celebrate the novel she's written about Hawaii; a boatload of tourists eager to get their leis on; and a few people who are not what they seem. Watching them all - and missing nothing - is the beautiful and enigmatic Lily Wu. Like Janice, she's coming home: While they may have met in New York, they're both Hawaii girls of long standing. But while Janice may be surprised by the changes that the tourists (and their money) have brought to her beloved islands, very little surprises Lily.

Which is lucky for Janice, as those surprises get ugly very fast."

I love murder mysteries set in Hawaii. I plan Magnum, P.I.. 

Murder in the House of Ōmari by Taku Ashibe
Published by: Pushkin Vertigo
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Use your powers of logic and deduction to solve this classic honkaku puzzler - the Japanese tradition of detective fiction - in this delicious twisty murder mystery!

In Osaka, dark secrets haunt a wealthy merchant family throughout the first half of the 20th century...

In 1906, the young heir to the Omari family business climbs to the top of a Panorama and vanishes.

In 1914, a fight between two mysterious figures on a bridge tragically ends with one falling to their death.

In 1943, as war rages on, the once illustrious family has fallen. Both potential heirs have been drafted into war, and a string of strange and violent happenings has beset the house of Omari.

Combining the classic honkaku mystery and Golden Age crime writing with the trappings of historical fiction, it's easy to see why Murder in the House of Ōmari is an award-winning sensation in Japan! Set in Semba (modern-day Osaka), this gripping murder mystery twists and turns with dark secrets, red herrings, and the turbulent history of Japan in the early 20th century."

If you're a murder mystery fan and haven't broadened your horizons, this is a good place to start that isn't a British village. 

Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a mysterious figure shows up in the photograph an architect takes of the derelict Seabrink Hotel, ghostly encounters and murder are unleashed.

Aubrey Spencer loves photographing classic old buildings and abandoned places that hold old secrets. The Hotel Seabrink, perched overlooking the sea, is one such place. Currently abandoned but scheduled for a major renovation, it has a torrid history. Back in the 1920s it hosted A-list celebrity clientele, and now the locals insist it is haunted by the ghosts of two young women who died there. When Aubrey goes to photograph the site before the renovation begins, she bumps into a man named Dimitri Petroff, a minor online celebrity who shares her fascination with old buildings, the Hotel Seabrink in particular.

When he is found dead the next day at the base of a cliff, the police are quick to close the investigation. But Aubrey feels unsettled by locals who claim he was murdered and that it's not the first time someone interested in the hotel was killed. As she digs deeper into the property's dark history (and its origins as an asylum) as well as Dimitri's professional rivalries, she becomes mired in an unsolved murder case from several decades earlier, one with eerie parallels to the contemporary case. But someone is determined to keep her from discovering the truth - at any cost."

Well yeah, don't go digging for the truth, you've seen what happens to those who do!

The Needfire by M.K. Hardy
Published by: Solaris
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 380 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Scottish sapphic Gothic horror debut for fans of Rebecca and The Hacienda.

You are afraid of the border places. You are afraid of the fork in the road.

Fleeing her mistakes in Glasgow for a marriage of convenience, Norah Mackenzie's new home on an estate far in the north of Scotland is a chance for freedom, a fresh start. But in the dim, draughty corridors of Corrain House, something is very wrong. Despite their warm correspondence, her distant, melancholic husband does not seem to know her. She is plagued by ghost ships on the sea, spectres at the corner of her eye, by winding, grasping roots. Her only possible companion, the housekeeper Agnes Gunn, is by turns unnerving and alluring, and harbours uncanny secrets of her own.

As the foundations crumble beneath her feet, Norah must uncover the truth about Corrain House, her husband, Agnes, and herself, if she is to find the freedom she has been chasing."

Oooh, yes yes, Gothic indeed!

The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey by Kathleen Kaufman
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As spiritualism reaches its fevered pitch at the dawn of the 20th century, a Scottish girl crosses the veil to unlock a powerful connection within an infamous asylum in this thrillingly atmospheric, exquisitely evocative exploration of feminine rage and agency for readers of Sarah Penner, Alice Hoffman, and Hester Fox.

Leaving behind a quiet life of simple comforts, Nairna Liath traverses the Scottish countryside with her charlatan father, Tavish. From remote cottages to rural fairs, the duo scrapes by on paltry coins as Tavish orchestrates "encounters" with the departed, while Nairna interprets tarot cards for those willing to pay for what they wish to hear.

But beyond her father's trickery, Nairna possesses a genuine gift for communicating with the spirit world, one that could get an impoverished country girl branded a witch. A talent inherited from her grandmother, Lottie Liath, widow of a Welsh coalminer, whose story of imprisonment and exploitation in a notorious asylum is calling out to Nairna from four decades past - a warning to break free from the manipulations, greed, and betrayals of others.

What do the cards hold for Nairna's future?

Rescued from homelessness by a well-connected stranger, Nairna is whisked into a new life among Edinburgh's elite Spiritualist circle, including visiting American star Dorothy Kellings. Researchers, doctors, psychics, and thrill-seekers clamor for the rising young medium. But after a séance with blood-chilling results, a shocking scandal ensues, and Nairna flees to a secluded community near Boston, where she assumes a new identity: Nora Grey.

But Nora can't stay hidden when Dorothy Kellings offers her the chance to face all comers and silence skeptics at a spectacular séance at Boston's Old South Meeting Hall, where Nora will come face to face at last with her spiritual guide: the courageous Lottie Liath, whose heart-wrenching story and profound messages are indelibly tied to Nora's destiny."

Yes, I'm more than a little obsessed with Spiritualism... 

Bright Dead Star by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 439 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From tales of bizarre violence and murder, haunted photographs and films, through reflections on the flexible borders of sanity and the perverse, to alien horrors from deep time, deep space, and the deep sea, Bright Dead Star is a veritable supernova of the weird and uncanny as only master fantasist Caitlín R. Kiernan can deliver. Among the collection's twenty-five tales are a dying woman's communion with the dying sea ("Strandling"), childhood recollections of a sky filled with rattlesnakes ("Crotalus"), to a loathsome couple with a far more loathsome secret ("L'homme et la femme terribles"), these are stories that pull no punches and demand that your preconceptions of genre should be checked before the book's covers are even cracked. In short, this is Kiernan doing what Kiernan does best."

And the contents are worthy of that simple stunning cover!

Beasts of Carnaval by Rosália Rodrigo
Published by: Mira Books
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of The Night Circus, this sweeping historical fantasy set in a lush, Puerto Rico-inspired world, uses magical realism to combine Caribbean carnaval culture and the mythology of the Taíno - the Indigenous people of the region - in a gripping exploration of community, reclamation, and healing in defiance of a violent past.

When night descends, el Carnaval de Bestias rises.

Within the shores of Isla Bestia, guests from around the world discover a utopia of ever-changing performances, sumptuous feasts and beautiful monsters. Many enter, but few ever leave - the wine is simply too sweet, the music too fine and the revelry endless.

Sofía, a freedwoman from a nearby colonized island, cares little for this revelry. Born an enslaved mestiza on a tobacco plantation, she has neither wealth nor title, only a scholarly pragmatism and a hunger for answers. She travels to el Carnaval de Bestias in search of her twin brother, who disappeared five years ago.

There's a world of wonder waiting for her on the shores of this legendary island, one wherein conquerors profit from Sofia's ancestral lands and her people's labor. But surrounded by her former enslavers, she finds something familiar in the performances - whispers of the island's native tongue, music and stories from her Taike'ri ancestors...a culture long hidden in the shadows, thrust into the light.

As the nights pass, her mind begins unraveling, drowning in the unnatural, almost sentient thrall of Carnaval. And the sense that someone is watching her grows. To find her brother and break free, Sofia must peel back the glamorous curtain and face those behind Carnaval, before she too loses herself to the island..."

It's like the Fae of Northern Europe. They intoxicate and delight and are oh so deadly.

Blood Slaves by Markus Redmond
Published by: Dafina
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For readers of Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, this ingenious reimagining of the vampire origin story set during the early days of American slavery blends alternate history with supernatural horror, as the last surviving member of an ancient African vampire tribe meets a slave desperate for freedom, and together, they lead an army of enslaved people in a cinematically blood-soaked battle for freedom and revenge.

What if nobody ever freed the slaves...because they freed themselves - 150 years before the Civil War?

In the Province of Carolina, 1710, freedom seems unattainable for Willie, for his beloved Gertie, and for their unborn child. They live, suffer, and toil under their brutal master, James "Big Jim" Barrow, whose grand plantation was built by the blood, sweat, and tears of the enslaved. To flee this hell on earth is be hunted and killed. Until one strange night Willie is offered a dark hope by Rafazi, an enigmatic slave with an irresistible and blood-chilling path to liberation.

Hailing from the Kingdom of Ghana, Rafazi is the lone survivor of the Ramanga, an African vampire tribe rendered nearly extinct by plague. Rafazi has roamed the world for centuries with an undying desire to replenish the power that once defined his heritage. In Willie, Rafazi has found his first biddable subject to be turned and to help in a hungry revolt. And Willie desires nothing more than to free his people from malicious bondage. Whatever it takes.

One by one, as an army of blood slaves thirsting for revenge is gathered, the headstrong Gertie fears that no good can come from the vampiric legacy that courses through Rafazi's veins. Willie knows that only evil can fight evil. And when the woman he loves stands between the reemergence of the Ramanga and the justified slaughter of the oppressors, Willie must make an irreversible decision. Only one thing is certain: on the Barrow plantation, and beyond, blood will spill.

Part historical drama, part supernatural horror, and part alternate history, Blood Slaves is an ingenuous and defiant new creation myth of the vampire, one rooted in both justice and the sometimes - violent means necessary to achieve it."

That cover illustration so perfectly captures the essence of this book. You know what you're about to read.

Silvercloak by L.K. Steven
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Our Infinite Fates comes an addictive new fantasy series where magic is fueled by pleasure and pain and an obsessive detective must infiltrate a brutal gang of dark mages - knowing that one wrong move will get her killed....

Two decades ago, the Bloodmoons ruthlessly murdered Saffron Killoran's parents, destroying her idyllic childhood. Hell-bent on revenge, she lies her way into Silvercloak Academy - the training ground for her city's elite order of detectives - with a single goal: to bring the Bloodmoons to justice.

But when Saff's deception is exposed, rather than being cast out, she's given a rare opportunity: to go undercover and tear the Bloodmoons down from the inside.

Descending into a world where pleasure and pain are the most powerful currencies, Saff must commit some truly heinous deeds to keep her cover - and her life. Not only are there rival gangs and sinister smuggling rings to contend with, but there's also her growing feelings for the kingpin's tortured son, with his vicious pet fallowwolf, his dark past, and the curious prophecy foretelling his death at Saffron's hand.

With each day testing her loyalties further, Saff finds her web of lies becoming harder to spin. And when one false step could destroy everything and everyone she's ever loved...the detective who's dedicated her life to vengeance just might die for it."

You always have to decide if what you have is worth more than what you have to lose.

A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Return to the immersive, lush, and dreamlike world of the instantly bestselling dark academia fantasy A Study in Drowning as the aftermath of their first discovery pulls Effy and Preston on a final adventure and brings their haunting love story to its end in this stunning sequel and final book in the duology.

All stories come to an end.

Effy learned that when she defeated the Fairy King. Even though she may never know exactly what happened at Hiraeth, she is free of her nightmares and is able to pen a thesis with Preston on the beloved national fairytale Angharad. She has finally earned a spot at the literature college, making her the first woman in history to enroll.

But some dreams are dangerous, especially when they come true. The entire university - and soon the entire nation - is waiting for her to fail. With the Fairy King defeated and Myrddin's legacy exposed, Effy can no longer escape into fantasy. Who is she without her stories?

With Effy under threat, Preston is surprised to discover a rage simmering inside him, ringing in his ears like bells. He begins to dream of a palace under the sea, a world where he is king - visions that start to follow him even in waking.

As the war between Llyr and Argant explodes, Effy and Preston find themselves caught in the crossfire: Effy losing her dreams and Preston losing himself in his.

Are dreams ever truly just dreams?"

If I couldn't escape into fantasy I don't know what I would do.

Beautiful Things by Emily Rath
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Crashing a country house party in Regency England, an intrepid young woman is drawn into the orbit of three delicious gentlemen in this slow burn, very sexy, definitely-not-your-mother's historical romance from internationally bestselling author Emily Rath.

At twenty-two, Rosalie Harrow is unmarried and near destitute. She has two choices: snag a wealthy gentleman, or take work as a governess. Neither option appeals to headstrong Rosalie, who sees both futures as a kind of cage.

When Rosalie receives an invitation to Alcott Hall, she believes she's there to meet the Dowager Duchess of Norland, the mysterious childhood friend of her late mother. Instead, Rosalie is thrust in the middle of a house party of eligible high society ladies all desperate to win the hand of the new, conveniently single duke. Hilarity ensues as Rosalie dodges the attentions of the officious duke, and weathers the censure of the other guests, all while trying to unravel the mystery of her invitation.

And then there's the gentlemen...

The more Rosalie tries to avoid the high society husband hunt, the more she finds herself charmed by three very different men. There's Lord James, the duke's younger brother, who is the secret duke in all but name. Lieutenant Renley, recently returned from the West Indies, and begrudgingly looking for a wife of his own. And the tempestuous Mr. Burke, who irks Rosalie to no end.

The clock ticks down the days to the Michaelmas ball, when the duke is set to announce his bride. Marriage is a trap and Rosalie will not be easily snared...but that doesn't mean she can’t enjoy the chase while it lasts."

Well... Rosalie could always set up as a high class courtesan if marriage isn't to her liking. 

Under the Stars by Beatriz Williams
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a daughter and her famous mother return to Winthrop Island to confront their complicated past, they discover a secret trove of paintings that connect them to a mysterious woman who vanished on a luxury steamship two centuries earlier.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands and Lovers comes an epic tale of family legacy, love, and truths that echo down generations.

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher's glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop's past and its many secrets…attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America's greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law...or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity - the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape...before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations."

It never feels like it's summer until there's a new Beatriz Williams book to read on the beach. 

The Book of Kindness by Stephanie Butland
Published by: Headline
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The unforgettable and poignant new novel from the author of Found in a Bookshop and Lost for Words.

September was adopted when she was fifteen months old. She knows nothing about her early life, but she grew up safe and loved. Now, though, it's just September and her feckless boyfriend Shaun. And she's at her wits' end. There's never enough money, and she has nothing to look forward to.

Then a letter comes. September has inherited a house - and Shaun can see endless opportunities if she sells it. But, almost as soon as she sets foot in the garden, September knows she cannot let this home go. And she longs to find out more about the mysterious Lucia who left it to her.

When the members of Lucia's book club arrive, for the first time September hears stories of her mother, of the aunt who adored her, and of the secrets that broke the family apart. And she begins to make new friends.

September feels safe here. But money alone can't bring contentment. September is at the start of a journey full of surprises, shocks - and opportunities, if she's brave enough..."

And here's hoping September ditches Shaun! 

The Winds from Further West by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by: Pantheon
Publication Date: July 29th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the beloved author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes a dazzling and uplifting novel of new beginnings and endless possibilities, in which a slew of personal and professional disasters cause a young researcher to upend his seemingly stable life in Edinburgh and move to a remote island off the Scottish coast.

Dr. Neil Anderson has just started a new position at the University of Edinburgh when he meets Chrissie, an intelligent and ambitious colleague at the institute. Before long, the two move into a gorgeous flat on the south side of the city. Things seem to be going well for Neil, until an accusation of insensitive comments lands him in hot water with the university and he discovers a troubling secret about his relationship. Suddenly feeling as though his life is unraveling, he leaves everything behind for the remote and secluded beauty of the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland.

Not long after his arrival, a ship comes in to the harbor whose cargo - two wolf cubs - will drastically change the course of his life yet again. These cubs spark controversy on the island, leading Neil to Katie, the island's resident veterinarian, and bring with them the possibility of new beginnings and a budding romance."

Yeah, I feel for Neil. I too want to move to a remote island lately.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexander McCall Smith, Ava Reid, Beatriz Williams, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Hazell Ward, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Juliet Blackwell, Kate Alice Marshall, M.K. Hardy, Megan Miranda, Rosália Rodrigo, Sandra Jackson-Opoku