strange and random happenstance

Death Card by Jasmine Smith
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dark contemporary fantasy featuring witchcraft, tarot, death, and a bit of romance that's perfect for fans of Immortal Dark and Cinderella Is Dead.

On an ordinary Monday morning, eighteen-year-old Mikaela Broussard receives the shock of her life. During a customer's tarot reading at her family's occult shop, she turns over the Death card and envisions the beautiful stranger stabbing her in the heart.

In order to determine why the girl, Joelle, wants to kill her, she'll have to keep her close. But the more time Mikaela spends with her soon-to-be murderer, the more irresistible she finds her.

As if imminent death isn't worrisome enough, witches are turning up with their magic stolen. And it's clear some very dark magic is at work. Mikaela, as the next Witch Queen of her coven, is tasked with figuring out who's behind the horrific acts - a mystery that will put her and her power to the test.

Death Card is a dark, pacy, and romantic fantasy about one witch's journey to find the strength to fight for herself, her future, and her beloved community."

Maybe avoid the person you saw killing you? 

Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me by Isabel Crowley
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hazel Lewis has a serious problem. The guy who hired her to conduct a seance before he died turned out to be a serial killer with a demonic contract, and the seance itself was a trap. Hazel escaped with her life, but not as she knew it: the bite of a demon is spreading through her body, letting the supernatural bleed into the world around her, and the now-dead serial killer is waiting to take over her body if she dies.

Hoping to contain the damage, Hazel moves to a small house in a remote location. She figures she'll stay on her own until she gets a handle on her new dark reality, but she soon finds out that she's not alone. There's the reporter demanding answers, the friendly neighbor with chemistry she doesn't need and problems he can't talk about...and the mysterious face she sees beyond her window, watching her every night with glowing red eyes.

Making her hunger.

Hazel knew a little bit about the world beyond the physical. Now she's learning how much she doesn't know, including who she can trust...and who she can become if she trusts herself enough to give in to the shadows stalking her dreams."

See, this is why I like reading about seances but not participating in them, so much can go wrong.

Saint Delilah by Isabelle Spotts
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Delilah is dead. But her story is far from over. In this feminist supernatural suspense novel, she will find her peace - and give hell to the man who killed her.

Delilah's death was not swift or painless. A ghost at nineteen, business entirely unfinished, her last breath was angry. Someone killed her, but she doesn't know who.

Undead creatures stalk Delilah's spirit, eager to feed on her soul until nothing is left but a frightening poltergeist. She can't pass on until the violence of her death is balanced with a life for her life.

Her killer must be killed.

If anyone can find her murderer and keep the darkness at bay, it's Magda, the owner of the strip club where Delilah danced - and a powerful spirit medium. And when a young man comes to town seeking Magda's supernatural services, he can see Delilah. He can hear her, touch her, and make her feel alive again.

The three come together to search for Delilah's murderer. As the creatures close in, Delilah's soul weakens but her power as a poltergeist grows, allowing her to affect the living.

Delilah may be dead, but she won't waste this second chance - she'll take those who've harmed her down with her."

This is a week for mediums and I am loving it!

There Are Ghosts Here by Adrienne Tooley
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Willa has no memory of anything before arriving at Dorsey House, and when she meets two sinister girls who seem to already know her, she slowly begins to lose her grip on what is real...and what is a lie. A haunting contemporary speculative thriller for fans of Kill Creatures and We Were Liars.

Willa Childs doesn't know why she's at Dorsey House. The tragic accident that banished her to the mysterious reformatory perched at the edge of the sea is lost in the recesses of her murky memory. The Dorseys themselves offer no answers, and the only other wards, Caroline and Ivy, seem intent on keeping Willa in the dark - and on the outside of their obsessive friendship.

Yet as the days pass, it begins to feel like the sinister twosome knows Willa better than she knows herself. And as her memories gradually return to focus, the girls become even stranger, doing their best to convince Willa that she's been at Dorsey House before. Only, that's impossible.

Or is it? If they're telling the truth, Willa can no longer trust her own mind. The line between reality and nightmare begins to blur. Willa is certain Dorsey House is haunted, but by what? And if she can't remember leaving, how will she ever escape?"

Or, she's really being gaslit... 

She Haunts Me Still by De Elizabeth
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"These violent delights have violent ends.

After surviving a shadowed childhood marked by ghost stories and loss, Mallory Webb is ready to start fresh as a theater major at her mother's alma mater, a sanitarium turned liberal arts university in Rhode Island. Landing the lead role in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet feels like a dream - until the blood-soaked spirit she suspects caused her mother's death resurfaces after years of quiet. With nothing to go on but cryptic symbols in an old college notebook, Mallory hopes the reason behind her mother's haunting lies somewhere on campus, and resolves to find answers before she meets the same fate.

She's surprised to make an unexpected ally in Ezra Pierce, the magnetic fourth year directing the play, and takes solace in their undeniable chemistry. But Ezra is a master secret-keeper, and it's clear he knows more than he's letting on about Saskia Garin, Mallory's elusive understudy whose past eerily mirrors her own.

When an ancient, bloodthirsty evil calls to collect on a bargain that dates back to the New England vampire panic, Mallory, Ezra, and Saskia will have to untangle the tragic ways in which their histories are linked - and face the devastating consequences of their own star-crossed love story."

Anyone who isn't Westworld should stop using that Shakespeare quote.

Dreamland by Olivie Blake
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Olivie Blake comes a tantalizing story of power, seduction, and the omens you'll ignore when everything you've dreamed of feels just within reach.

The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA - girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season.

More pressing for Anya Morris, though, is the drudgery of living at home, working part time at the family store, and contending with her mother's disdain for the acting career Anya knows she's destined for but that feels more impossible by the day.

It's in this suffocating late summer heat that Anya receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an invitation to work for the de Witt family, one of LA's most influential film dynasties. Soon, she's spending her days and nights at their strange villa high in the Hollywood Hills, where she meets Jude, a recluse who is both the family's heir apparent and its most closely guarded secret.

There's a magnetism to Jude that Anya cannot resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. Because the villa holds generations of bloodstained history, and an occult family curse may even live within its walls - or within Jude himself.

In this city, everyone cuts a deal with the devil. When Anya comes face to face with a devil of her own, she'll learn just how far she's willing to go to get everything she's ever wanted."

It's Hollywood, she'll sign on the dotted line.

Night Songs by Alli Dyer
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this haunting family saga, a young woman must delve into her country star mother's music to break a curse that has plagued the women in her family for generations - before her time runs out.

On the morning of Rhea's eighteenth birthday, she makes a shocking discovery - her mother was the famed singer of some of country music's most iconic tunes, the legendary Lulabelle "Belle" Powers, and she's just inherited her massive estate. Eager to know more about this woman she barely remembers, Rhea travels to Nashville to retrace her mother's footsteps. But as she gets to know Belle's closest friends and learns more of her story, she can't help but think something is being kept from her.

It isn't until years later that her mother's best friend Hess reveals the truth - her mother believed all the women in her family were cursed to die at thirty-three - Belle's exact age when she passed away in a mysterious plane crash. Hess dismisses the curse as pure superstition, but Rhea feels something sinister stalking her, her own life beginning to mirror her mother's as she gets closer to her thirty-third birthday. Desperate for answers, Rhea delves deeper into her mother's music, uncovering Belle's last unpublished album Night Songs, which leads her back to her roots in ways she never could have imagined.

Alternating between Rhea's journey and Lulabelle's untold rise to country queen, Night Songs is an electric story of inheritance and resilience, love and freedom, and the power of music to connect across generations."

If Hess was her mother's best friend perhaps telling Rhea about the curse before she's about to turn thirty-three would have been nice?

Devil by Sierra Simone
Published by: Bloom Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone comes an ALL-NEW standalone romance in the Priest universe.

Birdie Cooper has nothing left.

Just one moment of weakness seven years ago - and she lost her job, her church, her only friend. Now she's working nights at a gas station to scrape together a living and a way to care for her sister, completely alone and separated even from the art that gave her life meaning.

Ryan Bell has never forgotten his first obsession.

He's been trying to find the tremblingly shy lecturer from his senior year of college after she abruptly disappeared after their first and only kiss. So when he comes upon a statue of Lucifer carved in Ryan's own likeness, two things become starkly apparent.

One: he knows how to find her now. And two: he's been haunting Birdie Cooper's memory as much as she's been haunting his.

Ryan can't offer love - or even an apology - but he can offer her a bargain, one crafted first and foremost to free him from his punishing obsession with her. If Birdie agrees to be his in every way for a single year, then he'll pay for her sister's care for as long as she's alive. And what does Birdie have left to lose anyway? The forbidden fruit is her only chance at salvation.

Unfortunately for Birdie, she might just be the only chance for his..."

I'd take this deal...

A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young
Published by: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"First the flood
Next the sickness
Last the change

Visionary Korean author Kim Bo-Young unleashes a Lovecraftian nightmare of infection, transformation, and abomination.

While waiting for a train to Haewon, an isolated Korean seaside village, bodyguard Mu-young gets a disaster alert on her phone. TVs throughout the station report breaking news of a massive earthquake on the eastern coast. Despite the danger, Mu-young boards the train with her niece: she'd rather face the earthquake than leave the girl in her mother's care. That choice haunts her for the rest of her life.

Three years later, Haewon Village is home to horrors. The earthquake unleashed an ancient plague that transforms its victims into fishy monsters, and the government's lockdown has cut off any hope for help. Mu-young's niece is dead, and all that's left for her is to hunt villagers who break isolation. When an officious bureaucrat from Seoul arrives in the village, he stirs up even deeper trouble. Will Mu-young survive? Does she even deserve to?"

Yeah, she shouldn't have got on that train...

Reliquary by Hannah Whitten
Published by: Run for It
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young woman is lured to her late fiancé's remote island estate - only to uncover eerie family secrets, a haunting past, and a monstrous hunger stirring beneath the sea in this deliciously atmospheric horror debut from New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten.

When Claire's fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, she's prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Their relationship wasn't perfect - his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean - but what relationship is?

When Elias's family reaches out - his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged - and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she's always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.

Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias's older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.

As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry..."

Final girl orphans, run from that island!

Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahon
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Children on the Hill comes a queer folk horror in which a woman must confront decades of secrecy and superstition to learn the truth about her mother's death.

Some towns stay isolated for a reason.

1919: Frankie O'Massey has always been the black sheep of isolated Boone's Ferry, Vermont. Her uncle, Dr. Thomas Endicott, has been training her in the science of medicine, something the townspeople are wary of. When a mysterious illness strikes the town, and the community suspects supernatural forces, the two desperately search for a logical explanation. Patient zero seems to be the town's knackerman - a recluse who collects dead and dying farm animals to make use of their parts.

2016: Siblings Ashley and Malcolm lost their mother two years ago. When their grandmother dies, they inherit a property in Boone's Ferry - a place they've heard of but their grandmother has always refused to talk about - and embark on a trip to their ancestral home. The idyllic town is full of autumnal décor, picturesque farmland, and small-town charm. But some of the townspeople aren't very welcoming - and they have some unsettling traditions, like leaving offerings to a vengeful spirit four times a year."

Widow's Bay meets The Wicker Man.

The Hill in the Dark Grove by Liam Higginson
Published by: Hogarth
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this gripping debut, steeped in Welsh folklore, a husband and wife living in the beautiful but isolated mountains of Snowdonia stumble upon a buried Neolithic ruin - awakening a mysterious, ancient presence with its own dark designs.

Carwyn and his wife, Rhian, have lived a quiet life as sheep farmers in the remote Welsh mountains for decades, tending to ancestral land that has been in Carwyn's family for generations. But recent years have taken their toll: local friends lost one by one to old age or rising prices; the accumulation of debts; new English tourists, more every year, disrespecting the land - littering, camping on private property, needing to be rescued when they misjudge the elements.

When Carwyn finds a strange stone head in a disused corner of the farm, he realizes the artifact is just one piece of something much larger - something unfathomably old. Despite Rhian's protests, Carwyn becomes obsessed with unearthing the structure, and soon neglects the daily work of the farm to keep digging. Meanwhile, the sheep fall sick more easily than any season before, and a tragic accident on market day threatens to leave an increasingly isolated Rhian without a way to satisfy their ever-more-insistent creditors. Through it all, Carwyn becomes convinced that uncovering the site and determining its original purpose will be the key to solving everything. But there was a reason his ancestors kept the past buried, and in disturbing the earth, he has called forth a power greater and more terrible than he could have imagined.

Enthralling and atmospheric, Liam Higginson's The Hill in the Dark Grove expertly weaves together myth, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror, heralding a sparkling new literary talent."

I mean, when your ancestors don't leave guidelines, it's their fault as much as yours...

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published by: Bramble
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a tale of love and betrayal set in a world where scandal is a razor-sharp weapon.

They're called the Beautiful Ones.

Loisail's most notable socialites: the wealthy, powerful, beloved.

This spring is Nina's last chance to join their ranks, but the Grand Season has just begun and Nina's debut has already gone disastrously awry. Neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse - the haphazard manifestations of her powers making her the subject of malicious gossip.

So when entertainer and fellow telekinetic Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled. He's traveled the world performing his talents for admiring audiences. And he sees Nina not as a witch, but as something more. With Hector's help, Nina's talent blossoms, as does her love for him.

But great romances are just for fairytales. In the glittering, gossip-laden world of Loisail, where everyone conceals secrets, can their courtship survive?"

I have something to say, I hated the original cover of this book. Hated it. To have this amazing cover from Bramble just makes my day. 

World's Okayest Oracle (Reluctantly) Seems Demon by Olivia Dade
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An oracle who can see the future teams up with the far-too-hot demon from her past to avert catastrophe, in this steamy paranormal romance from the USA Today bestselling author of Zomromcom.

Gwen Wexloff might be able to see the future, but not when it matters. Her visions invariably involve piddling issues, which means - unlike most oracles - she's spent her life predicting for everyday humans instead of international power brokers. After a clutch of brain-slurping zombies escapes from their walled-off compound, though, Gwen experiences the first genuinely world-altering vision of her life...and now she needs help.

Unfortunately, that help comes from Hugh Blacke, the same starchy (but annoyingly cute) demon who watched her bomb her oracle verification test years ago. To Gwen's dismay, the two of them will need to work together to unravel the deadly conspiracy behind the zombie breach, despite their complicated past and the secrets they're keeping.

Even with her newfound power, she couldn't have foreseen how quickly they'd both want more than a simple partnership. But the clock is ticking - and with the fate of humanity at stake, Gwen and Hugh will have to decide how much they're willing to risk for an unexpected, passionate love...and a future together that might prove very short indeed."

Deal with the zombies first.

Twice Bitten by S.E. Babin
Published by: Second Sky
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Kindle, 331 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"I was bitten by a vampire AND a werewolf. Now everyone wants a piece of me.

I never wanted to be a powerful witch. I'm happiest pulling espresso shots at the Three Beans café and keeping my magic secret.

But trouble is brewing...

When a turf war between vampires and shifters erupts outside the café, I get caught between the irresistibly charming Vampire Prime and the ruggedly handsome Shifter King. As these two apex predators blindly tear into each other, I am bitten, clawed, and left for dead.

My magic flares just in time to save my life, but there are...side effects. Suddenly, I find myself staring at customers' necks. And feeling suspiciously twitchy before the full moon.

It's impossible but...am I transforming into a vampire and a werewolf?

The Vampire Prime finds me immediately. Captivated by my scent, he tempts me with danger and luxury. The Shifter King is equally obsessed, and determined to claim me for his pack.

I am caught between them once more - but this time it's me that they're fighting over. And since my new blood brings strange new powers, it won't be long before I'm the most wanted prey in town...

Perfect for fans of Patricia Briggs and Charlaine Harris, the Fangs and Fur series is a thrilling urban fantasy adventure with a love triangle romance to die for."

An urban fantasy with humdinger of a twist. 

In What World by Bridget Morrissey
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two high school rivals begrudgingly reunite as adults to investigate the disappearance of their beloved former teacher, only to wind up traveling through a series of alternate realities together.

Total opposites, Marlowe Jenkins and Priscilla Covington-French hated each other in high school. Now in their thirties, Marlowe is barely scraping by while Priscilla is wildly successful. Their rivalry should be long dead, yet both women remain connected through their mutual mentor, drama teacher Dallas Winthrop. Their unending tension has nothing to do with the fact that they've kissed. More than once.

When Dallas goes missing, each woman believes she can figure out where he is. Except this is no ordinary disappearance. Dallas has found a way to explore alternate versions of reality. While trying to follow him, Marlowe and Priscilla find other versions of themselves instead, surprised to learn not all Marlowes and Priscillas are fueled by hate. In fact, some Marlowes and Priscillas have very different strong feelings for one another...

The more Marlowe and Priscilla are forced to rely on each other, the harder it becomes to ignore their simmering attraction. But with every alternate reality they search, they only get further from their real life and responsibilities. Do they play it safe and hide behind their rivalry, or take a chance on each other that could permanently change the world as they know it?"

Or are they being manipulated by seeing all these other options their lives could have taken?

A Witch in Notting Hill by Alexandra Paige
Published by: Avon a
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, this cozy and whimsical romance follows an accident-prone witch and a hot grumpy occult bookstore owner who doesn't believe in magic as they travel across London to undo a spell gone awry.

When rising Hollywood actress and secret witch Willow James accidentally turns her manager into a cat while trying to escape her contract, she's sure she's hit her magical low point. Determined to fix her mistake, she journeys to London in search of a rare spell hidden within the famed occult bookstore, Coven and Codex. The last thing she expects? The shop's brooding, handsome owner, Oliver Hadley, who'd rather avoid magic altogether.

Together - with a ragtag group of friends (both human and feline) - Willow and Oliver must scour every corner of the city, from museums to festivals to bustling street markets, to find the missing pieces of the spell. Along the way, Willow's unpredictable magic and Oliver's skeptical heart will face the one thing they can't escape...love.

Filled with enchanting adventures, sparkling romance, and a dash of mischief, A Witch in Notting Hill is a sweet and spirited tale of discovering magic where you least expect it."

Personally I'd keep the manager as a cat...

You'll Be the Death of Me by Holly Michelle
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cole is spending the rest of his eternity as an overworked Afterlife Clerk, processing souls for the Afterlife Administration. But when he accidentally claims the soul of the wrong Verdella Rodgers, Cole and Verdella must race to fix his cosmic blunder - and try not to catch feelings along the way. A swoony and whimsical romp, You'll Be the Death of Me is a romance to die for.

Verdella "Dell" Rodgers is at the top of her game. As the chef de cuisine at San Francisco's hottest new restaurant and on the cusp of marrying the mayor's son in the social event of the season, her life is perfect. That is until the week before her wedding when she wakes up and finds herself very much dead.

Enter Cole, a charming but bumbling entry-level clerk in the Afterlife Administration who accidentally confuses Dell for a 95-year-old woman in Kansas with the same name, claiming the wrong soul. When Cole tries to fix his mistake, their worlds collide in life-and death-changing ways.

Now walking the city as a ghost only visible to Cole, Dell is frantic to get back to her perfect life but soon learns that it wasn't what it appeared to be, particularly when it came to the man she was about to marry and his high-profile family.

Meanwhile, Cole has no memory of who he was before working for the Afterlife Administration. As they try to uncover Cole's past and remedy Dell's future, they realize the mistake that brought them together might just be a twist of fate. With time running out to bring Dell back to the land of the living, she'll have to decide if the life she left behind is truly what she wants, or if Cole's untimely appearance could lead to an unexpected change that she didn't know she needed."

A change as in, staying dead!?!

The Magic We Made by Meg Cabot
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"She doesn't believe in magic. He is magic. But when they meet, a spark is lit, and neither will ever be the same - in this charming new stand-alone in the Witches of West Harbor series from New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot.

Frankie
A trained therapist, Francesca Giovanni knows there's a scientific explanation for everything. Unfortunately, she lives in West Harbor, CT, a town that's recently exploded in popularity thanks to "witch tourism." Suddenly, witches are everywhere, offering locals their psychic services. Frankie's fine with this...until aspiring teenage witches begin to disappear, and strange things start happening in the lake house next door. Frankie suspects not all newcomers to West Harbor have the good of the community in mind - especially not her new neighbor, Ash Merit.

Ash
Ash Merit finds lost things - and people - for a living. All he wants is to help his clients, and maybe get to know the stunningly beautiful (and newly single) Dr. Frankie Giovanni a little better. But thanks to some troublesome young witches - not to mention his often faulty psychic "superpower" - everything goes wrong. If only Frankie wasn't so distractingly attractive...and so unwilling to admit there might not be a logical reason for everything, including the flames that ignite whenever the two of them kiss. Ash hopes to change that, but first he and Frankie have to find the missing girls, as well as the truth about what's happening in West Harbor…a truth that could change everything they thought they knew about themselves - and the magic of love."

People unwilling to believe in magic when the proof is right in front of them exasperate me.

A Thousand Painted Hours by Barbara O'Neal
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 543 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An epic, emotionally charged novel about love, art, and survival spanning 1900s colonial India to Blitz-era London by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

In the shadow of the London Blitz, artist Elsie Turner clings fiercely to her canvases, refusing to let war dim the colors that define her. The bombs test her nerve, but the struggle also stirs memories of her golden youth in India and of the long-lost love of her life.

The daughter of a British civil servant in the Himalayan station of Nainital, Elsie crosses cultural divides to forge an unlikely bond with Tanveer Singh, a Sikh prince with hopes, dreams, and far-reaching ideas. What begins as shared sketchbooks and stargazing becomes first love and a secret correspondence. When Elsie's father is summoned to England, Elsie is severed from the world she knows - and is determined to preserve it through both her art and a connection with Tanveer that endures through the most tumultuous years of their lives.

Across four decades and two continents, Elsie navigates a journey from lush colonial India to war-torn London, amid landscapes of beauty, protest, and peril. As past and present collide, the most impossible choices and sacrifices are yet to be made in the name of love, war, and survival."

A more artistically bend to The Jewel in the Crown.

A Betrothed's Betrayal by Deb Marlowe
Published by: Deb Marlowe
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Regency-set Cozy Mystery featuring a charming Cotswold village, an intrepid heroine, a cast of quirky characters, a handsome but reserved carpenter, an attractive but suspicious constable, and a baby goat or two.

Lady Lisette Birtwhistle is feeling bereft and very much alone after ending her betrothal, then losing her brother, the Duke of Winbury, to an unexpected illness.

The duke knew his sister well, however, and has inexplicably left her the leases on nearly the entirety of Lockstone Hollow, a village near one of the ducal estates. Perplexed, but hopeful, Lisette travels to the small Cotswold village.

Her spirits lift a little when she finds a sleepy little spot in need of someone with her abilities in managing, organizing, and décor, but she is shocked to her core when a body is discovered in the village soon after her arrival - and it is her former fiancé.

With the help of some new friends, a cast of colorful local characters, a handsome but reserved carpenter, an attractive but suspicious constable, and a baby goat or two, Lisette must uncover secrets and expose lies in order to find the killer and clear her own name."

SO HERE for the baby goats!

Murder in Blackfriars by Jennifer Ashley
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Victorian London, valiant cook and amateur sleuth Kat Holloway must help the man she loves solve the murder that will finally uncover his mysterious past, from the New York Times bestselling author of A Silence in Belgrave Square.

Kat Holloway's beau, Daniel McAdam, has always had a past shrouded in mystery. He knows nothing about his origins, only that he was rescued from the streets many years ago. So when someone claiming to know where Daniel came from turns up dead moments before meeting with him, Daniel goes on the hunt for the killer. It soon becomes clear that to see justice served, Daniel will have to figure out who he truly is. When he asks Kat for her assistance, she readily complies, knowing she'll do whatever she must to protect the man she's come to love.

The quest takes Kat and Daniel deep into the East End, where they face dangerous foes from Daniel's rugged past who will stop at nothing to keep Kat and Daniel from uncovering their secrets. As Kat begins to learn things about Daniel's history, she fears that the darkest secret - his true name and lineage - will tear apart the tender bonds they've begun to form."

Either you trust that your bonds are strong enough or you don't help him!

A Killer Plot by E.C. Nevin
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the follow-up to A Novel Murder, mystery author Jane Hepburn is back and determined to keep her sleuthing skills in the pages of her novels. That is, until she's invited to a prestigious literary party in London - where the gathering of glamorous attendees may be hiding a killer.

Jane Hepburn has almost made it. After solving the murder of her literary agent at last season's crime-book festival, Jane receives a burst of internet fame that lands her an invite to a splashy book launch in London. Visiting beloved bookstores along the winding alleyway of Cecil Court, and brushing shoulders with famous writers and the editors and agents who made them stars, Jane is looking forward to a fun, murder-free weekend and a distraction from her own writer's block. The party might not be for her novel, but still, Jane's happy to celebrate her far more successful friend with free wine and plenty of books.

However, things take a turn for the worse when the hotshot editor is nowhere to be seen. And they really go south after Jane discovers a body in the bookshop cellar.

To ensure that another event isn't overshadowed by an unsolved murder, Jane and her two friends - debut novelist and star of the party Natasha Martez and clumsy publicity assistant Daniel Thurston - must put their sleuthing skills to the test. But nothing is as it seems at a party full of attendees with secrets they'd do anything to keep."

If Midsomer Murders has taught me anything, it's that authors are all prime suspects. 

Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When Dr. Emilia McRoy stumbles upon a dead body in a haunted house, she resolves to find the killer before another body can fall.

Halloween isn't the only cause for fright in the fifth Scottish Isle mystery, perfect for fans of Paige Shelton and Connie Berry.

It's the week of Halloween - or as they say in Scotland, All Hallows' Eve - and the town of Sea Isle is full of spooky celebrations. Dr. Emilia McRoy loves being part of her new community and is eager to help out in any way she can. But the festivities are interrupted when she and her assistant, Abigail, find a dead body in a haunted house. A real one. They're too late to save the victim, but they'll do whatever it takes to find his killer.

There's just one problem: There are too many suspects.

Constable Ewan would prefer the good doctor and her friends stay out of the investigations, but that isn't how Dr. Em rolls. As she and her gang investigate, they realize the killer is searching for something - and has no problem murdering anyone who gets in the way of finding it.

Dr. Em must stay one step ahead if she's to survive this Halloween season alive - either that or she might just end up the next victim."

The title didn't need that outline. It's tacky.

Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Following her powerful debut in The Witch's Orchard, private investigator Annie Gore returns in Brimstone Hollow, bringing readers back to the mountains that author Archer Sullivan, a ninth-generation Appalachian, knows so well.

There isn't much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn't seen. Before she was an Air Force Special Investigator, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie's cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she's ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she's about to enter unknown territory.

Katie May has been estranged from her father - one of Appalachia's last infamous snake handling preachers - for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he's been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie's doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of herself: a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.

As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client - and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie's investigation to stop - by any means necessary."

The worst thing about investigating a murder by snake is that the killer might send the snake after you.

Don't Cross Mo Ellery by Birdie Horne
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A laugh-out-loud mystery following the indomitable hot mess Mo Ellery, whose job as a school crossing guard pulls her into an unhinged murder investigation.

Mo Ellery's 29th birthday is a disaster. After one small accident - the exposure of her boyfriend's genitals (well, maybe not that small) on a work video call - she manages to get fired, dumped, and kicked out of their overpriced Chicago apartment. Luckily, a sign appears to guide Mo to her new life: "Looking for flexible part-time work? Become a school crossing guard!" It's everything Mo has been looking for: health insurance. How hard can it be?

A few weeks later, Mo is adjusting to her new low-paying job, her bisexual reawakening, and her new neighborhood's wacky characters. There's Claudia, an old woman who refuses to let Mo help her cross the street, and Marlowe, a tween cell phone prodigy whose antics terrify her. But Mo's greatest nemesis is Poodle Dude, a guy with an SUV full of poodles who speeds through her intersection each morning...until the day he speeds into a sinkhole. Mo tries and fails to shield innocent eyes from his bloody corpse, but succeeds in accidentally becoming the guardian to his three poodles.

And that's not the worst of it: some of the locals are convinced that Poodle Dude was murdered. Their allegations are obviously ridiculous, but Mo, desperate for distractions - and for several hot neighbor-suspects - reluctantly agrees to help. But Mo the detective is just as chaotic as Mo the underemployed adult, and the three entitled poodles are not helping. When a second local dies under mysterious circumstances, it's going to take all of Mo's broadly applicable and transferrable skills to find the killer.

Murderers beware...DON'T CROSS MO ELLERY!"

Wait, crossing guards get health insurance!?! Looks like a Illinois thing.

Bridget and Gabe Are Not Okay by Lex Croucher
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The sequel to the unforgettable New York Times bestseller Gwen and Art Are Not In Love that invites readers on a quest chock full of wit, undeniable yearning, and second chances.

They fell in love. They fought a great battle. And they won. Now, Camelot's famous couples have fallen apart.

Newly crowned King Gabriel is having panic attacks in cupboards in-between council meetings. He can't tell Arthur just how not okay he is - so he's set him free, to find love with someone who can get through the day without breaking down.

Bridget has lost her spark for sparring, forfeiting again and again in the lists. When she's invited to join Gabriel's round table, she hopes it'll be the change she needs. But trying to navigate the post-happily-ever-after reality of a relationship with Gwen, when Bridget no longer feels like the dashing knight Gwen fell in love with, feels impossible.

With the kingdom still reeling from an attempted uprising, and rumored sightings of the holy grail, the questing beast, and the green knight happening across the country, the gang depart on a PR tour destined for disaster. Can Gabriel be the king his country deserves? Can Bridget get her jousting groove back? And will they find their way back to the courtly love that once seemed fated?

In the much anticipated follow-up to Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, Gabriel and Bridget set out on a daring quest to put love back on the table."

Because happily ever after isn't the end...

For the Love of the Quest by Alexandra Ammon Parthun
Published by: Alcove Press
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The search for King Arthur's Excalibur invites danger - and potentially love - in this sapphic historical romance, perfect for fans of Cat Sebastian and Freya Marske.

Lady Edith Darling is supposed to live a quiet life in her family's manor. She is not supposed to go unchaperoned on a quest to find Excalibur. But Edith won't let that stand in her way, especially not when she's on this mission to honor her beloved grandmother's dying wish. Determined to prove her grandmother right, Edith packs her satchel with Arthurian legends, pastries, and her grandmother's ashes and runs off to hire a mercenary.

Thomasin Shaw leads the most feared gang in London. For years, she had the constabulary safely in her pocket, until a scandal involving the chief inspector's wife was brought to light. Now he's demanding an enormous sum of money - without which Thomasin will lose the protection of the police along with her criminal empire. But when the rich Lady Edith waltzes into her life seeking an escort for a treasure hunt, Thomasin sees a willing kidnapping victim and a massive ransom.

As Edith's clues lead them to underground chambers booby-trapped with arrows, doors locked with arcane puzzles, and even Arthur's fabled round table, Thomasin finds herself swept up in the quest - and in Edith herself. Edith is also drawn to Thomasin, despite the ruthless mask she wears. But the chief inspector won't let Thomasin forget her crimes, and Edith's father is intent on bringing her home. Every legendary quest has an ending, but finding Excalibur might not be enough to make this a happy one."

There HAS to be a secret society keeping all these Indiana Jones level puzzles in action.

The Wandering Inn by pirateaba 
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 640 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Enter the Innverse: the massive epic fantasy world created by pirateaba that has become a LitRPG sensation, now for the first time in a physical edition!

"No killing Goblins."

So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours.

It's a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn't belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die.

In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn. She's an [Innkeeper].

Thus starts the first volume of The Wandering Inn, an epic fantasy series filled with heart and fear, magic, dragons, and monsters, adventurers and chess players…and humans pulled from the real world into a wondrous and deadly land where the game is to survive and these new pieces could decide who's the winner."

Your new LitRPG obsession. 

All the Queen's Curses by Alyssa Hollingsworth
Published by: Page Street YA
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kit may be a princess, but her life is no fairy tale.

Chronically ill and abused by her new stepfather, Princess Kit finds solace in her kind stepsister Catharine. Yet the sisters may not be together for long - Catharine is intended to be wed to a prince of the Northern Isles.

Kit's mother, the queen, strikes a bargain with the fae to free her daughter from the king's abuse and give Kit a happier ending; the fae swaps Kit's ailing body for Catharine's before Catharine can depart. Horrified, Kit and Catharine abandon their home and travel north to find the fae who cursed them.

Kit and Catharine soon discover the prince is under his own fae curse. He offers to help the princesses. But Kit finds herself unsure she wants to switch back if it means she can't be with the prince - and worse, must return to her own suffering body..."

When dealing with the fae there are always moral dilemmas. 

These Vile Hearts by Melody Robinette
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A delightfully wicked, fizzy debut romantasy - an enemies to lovers tale about a desperate mortal woman and a cursed fae prince.

Maddox Sinclair has run out of options. No job means no health insurance - a death sentence for a type one diabetic like herself. She flees to the forest to make a desperate deal with a dryad queen: kill the Redwood King and be cured of the illness that threatens her life.

In the redwood treetops, Prince Castor, is cursed - anyone who loves him is doomed to die. Like Maddox, he has made an equally unwise pact with his brother, the Redwood King: get a mortal to fall in love with him by solstice and be free of his curse forever.

When Maddox mistakes Castor for the king, sparks fly and troubles ensue. Each must decide what is more important - survival and freedom, or the love they (kind of, almost) feel in their traitorous, vile hearts.

Darkly funny and brimming with magic, These Vile Hearts by Melody Robinette manages to be both wicked and warm, beguiling and moving - a richly woven story of survival and fate."

I love that we have this fairy tale world yet it has the serious real life concern of diabetes. 

Season of the Serpent by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: August 11th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Award-winning author Suyi Davies Okungbowa returns in the final installment of the Nameless Republic trilogy with a tale of villains, allies, and a world on the brink of destruction, perfect for fans of Tasha Suri, Evan Winter, and James Islington.

The old world has fallen. Now is the time of serpents.

The continent is split. The islands have sunk. The empire of Bassa is no more. With the resistant Nameless Republic and the conquering Kangalaland on the brink of war, all must choose a side: ally, or fall. Oon's heroes and villains must rise from their ashes and meet a Third Great War.

Peace won't come easy. Long-lost family will fight to reach Danso before war erases him forever. Lilong has survived the island catastrophe but lost her power, and will do anything to get it back. And fate will find Esheme where it left her - will the dead queen rise again?

For Oon, the first season of the five states is a season of serpents. After the storms pass and winds blow, what will remain? And who will survive?"

Another epic cover by Dan Dos Santos! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alli Dyer, Alyssa Hollingsworth, Barbara O'Neal, Bridget Morrissey, E.C. Nevin, Jennifer McMahon, Lex Croucher, Meg Cabot, Melody Robinette, Olivia Dade, Olivie Blake, pirateaba, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Six of Crows: A Darker Shore by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Insight Editions
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 64 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a new Grishaverse short story: a mystery told through found documents and set after the events of Crooked Kingdom.

In the years since the violent upheaval caused by the auction of Kuwei Yul-Bo, the merchants of Ketterdam have been under attack. Secret businesses exposed. Ships sunk. Slavers hunted as they once hunted their victims. All the work of a mysterious sea captain and her ship, the Wraith.

Now, two investigators meet to uncover the truth behind the latest disaster: a massacre on an island off the shores of Ketterdam. Among the evidence collected is private correspondence between notorious crime boss Kaz Brekker and an anonymous sailor aboard the Wraith known only as "I."

Follow along with the lead investigator as he tries to piece together how such a disaster transpired, and explore the Grishaverse like never before with new illustrations by E.K. Belsher, original music composed by E. Aaron Wilson, and in-world collectible items."

Fans of the Grishaverse have been deprived for too many years! Yes, I know it's only been six years since new material and three years since the second season of the show, but that's forever right!?!

Everybody's Perfect by Jo Walton
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Piranesi meets Swordspoint in an elegant relay race through fantasy Venice from Hugo award-winning author Jo Walton.

The Serenissima is built from mist and belief, a mythical shadow sister to Venice and crossroads of the nine worlds.

When a laborer called Tiry has a dream that Serenissima will have a doge, and that they will marry the sea, he tells it to a fortune teller named Khadsha. She tells her apprentice, a gondolier called Taddeo, who tells a cop named Gom, who's heard it from five people this morning already. And by that point, it's already settled into the bones of the Serenissima, more than half-fated.

Everybody's Perfect is a gentle, shifting, structurally inventive narrative of startling beauty that will make you rethink everything you think you know about fantasy."

Whispers and shadows!

Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
Published by: Pushkin Press
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"There are some things only your mother can teach you...

In this viscerally dark, queer Victorian gothic, longing and transformation take wing through the secret selves we nurture when no one is watching.

Marguerite Périgord is locked in the attic of her family home, a towering Chelsea house overlooking the stinking Thames.

For company she has a sewing machine, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, and a carrion crow who has come to nest in the rafters. Restless, she spends her waning energies on the fascinations of her own body, memorising Mrs. Beeton's advice and longing for life outside.

Cécile Périgord has confined her daughter Marguerite for her own good.

Cécile is concerned that Marguerite's engagement to a much older, near-penniless solicitor, will drag the family name - her husband's name, that is - into disrepute. And for Cécile, who has worked hard at her own betterment, this simply won't do. Cécile's life has taught her that no matter how high a woman climbs she can just as readily fall.

Of course, both have their secrets, intentions and histories to hide. As Marguerite's patience turns into rage, the boundaries of her mind and body start to fray.

And neither woman can recognise what the other is becoming.

Strange, intense, and darkly beautiful, this haunting gothic novel from award-winning author Heather Parry is a story of mothers and daughters, and the dual capacity for both great kindness and unfathomable cruelty."

Once you have someone locked in an attic, the Gothic vibes are bound to follow!

Cursed Ever After by Andy C. Naranjo
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cursed Ever After is a dazzling romantic fantasy debut brimming with snark, humor, and banter-filled romance perfect for fans of The Princess Bride and Once Upon a Broken Heart.

Love is not for cursed girls. Risa is better off without it.

Risa Porto is a Bad Thing who was born on a Bad Day and is cursed with Bad Luck. After years of taking the blame for every calamity, mishap, and minor inconvenience that befalls the townspeople of Barrow, Risa longs to escape her village. And on her seventeenth birthday, her wish is granted.

Sort of.

Risa owes a (very annoying) witch a favor, and it comes in the form of a quest: She must escort Prince Javi - the youngest, handsomest, and least significant of the kingdom's princes - through the dark (and deadly) Bosque to his wedding. This measly errand quickly spirals into a struggle with greedy assassins, a murderous cult, a vicious tyrant, and Risa's own curse.

Most unfortunate of all...

Risa is not immune to Javi's charms. The more time she spends with the prince, the stronger - and more irritating - her urge to kiss him becomes.

Don't miss this action-packed, Latinx subverted fairytale!"

If you actually want a prince to get somewhere, perhaps his guide shouldn't be cursed? 

The Anatomy of Magic by Alexis L. Menard
Published by: Forever
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of TikTok sensation House of Bane and Blood comes an unmissable new romantasy duet packed with searing chemistry and razor-sharp banter, perfect for fans of Quicksilver, Sarah J. Maas and Rachel Gillig.

Enter a world of forbidden magic...where falling in love could be the last mistake you ever make.

Nina Veyr has a dangerous secret - illegal magical abilities she cannot explain. If the city of Valveron's enforcers found her, she would be executed...or worse. For years, Nina has stayed in the shadows, picking pockets and smuggling enchanted relics to get by. Then she steals from the wrong man.

Max Antonin is the most powerful crime boss in the city. Cold, deadly, and breathtakingly attractive, Max has his sights set on Nina, and nothing will stand in his way. But when Nina is framed for a shocking murder, Max offers to help her find the true killers. She knows she can't trust him - that deals with a devil always come at a cost. But there's no way she can survive on her own.

As they follow a trail of bodies into the city's underworld, Nina feels a dangerous attraction pulling her ever closer to him. But can she trust her life and her heart to the city's most ruthless criminal?"

I so love a good forbidden magic story.

The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk
Published by: Random House Worlds
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sparks fly when bitter exes are forced to team up for an elaborate Feywild heist, in this cozy fantasy romance by the bestselling author of the Kingston Cycle and Even Though I Knew the End.

Saeldian has sworn never to fall in love. That oath isn't just a personal promise, but rather a magical pact, granting them powerful abilities. The only catch? They must never give their heart away - a deal that Saeldian is perfectly content with. They've seen firsthand how messy love can get.

Saeldian prefers their no-strings-attached life as a con artist, pulling off heists and leaving a trail of broken hearts behind them. But when a grift goes horribly wrong, they catch the eye of a mysterious patron with a job offer they can't refuse.

The mission? Steal a gem called "The Kiss of Enduring Love" and return it to the Feywild. Simple enough, until Saeldian discovers their ex-partner, Kell - a charming bard - is part of the team.

The last time Saeldian saw Kell, things hardly ended on good terms. A kiss became a betrayal, leaving Kell hurt and confused for almost a decade. But Kell can't just walk away - not when this job might finally be his ticket back to the Feywild.

Forced to work together again, their adventure takes them from high-society parties to Feywild couple's therapy. But as Saeldian and Kell rekindle their chemistry, they realize the gem is much more than a fey bauble, and their simple heist has summoned powerful enemies...."

Not just a wonderful entry in the LitRPG genre, but a hearty welcome to C.L. Polk to its ranks!

When Dealing With Dragons by Dana Swift
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bonding with dragons gave humans magic to craft metal - now, two school rivals have to work together to protect a priceless secret, all while fighting their growing attraction to each other, from Dana Swift, author of Cast in Firelight.

Copper-crafter Farren Walsh is set on following in her father's footsteps to become a dragon veterinarian. The only thing more powerful than her love for these magnificent creatures is her hate for those who exploit them for their precious metal. That includes her classmate, an arrogant dragon racer named James Murphy, whose silver-crafting family represents the worst of human greed and dragon abuse - plus, he's the biggest competition for the college scholarship she desperately needs.

When James strongarms his way into interning at her family's dragon sanctuary for the summer, it puts everything at risk. Farren isn't just the plain copper-crafter she seems. She's hiding a secret that could not only change her life, but their society as a whole. And James, trying to find refuge from his controlling father, harbors his own secret, years-long crush on Farren. Hating James might be harder than she thought, but Farren can't risk getting too close: the fate of an endangered species is at stake.

When Dealing with Dragons is a delightful young adult dual-POV romantasy about cross-class romance, finding family, and creating a better world for creatures big and small."

I always find it interesting that I was rather ambivalent about metal work considering how lore ties it to dragons and I adore dragons.... Maybe I should give it another go.

The Sisters and the Sword by Sam Davey
Published by: Diversion Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the second in the Pendragon Prophecy series, Sam Davey plunges into the heart of the Camelot story and the fraught relationships between grown siblings Morgause, Morgan, and Arthur.

A dark and mesmerizing retelling of Camelot - where magic and destiny entwine with sibling rivalries, forbidden love, and looming rebellion.

One year after the death of Uther Pendragon, High King of Britain, a lavish tournament is held in his memory, and as an opportunity for the nobles and allies to swear another year's fealty to King Lot of Orkney and his wife Queen Morgause. At the tournament, Arthur, an unknown youth, is seeking a replacement sword for his foster brother. He succeeds in pulling a mysterious sword from a stone anvil in the courtyard at Caer Lundein and is proclaimed King of all Britain. Merlin prepares the bewildered Arthur for kingship and reveals to Morgause that Arthur's reign will end if he faces in battle a noble knight born at Beltane (May 1) in the first year of his reign.

Morgan, a powerful priestess and sister to Morgause and Arthur, becomes Lady of the Lake - and she and Morgause, who blame Arthur for their violent and traumatic childhood, plot against him. Morgan, who has concealed her identity from Arthur, seduces her brother and becomes pregnant. At a grand Tournament and celebration in Caerleon, Merlin finally tells Arthur of the prophecy of the Beltane child, and Arthur is horrified to learn that Merlin can see no solution but to kill all of the noble children born on Beltane that year. Arthur tells Lot he will not follow Merlin's advice, but when he discovers Morgan is actually his sister, he believes Lot has helped to deceive him and turns back to Merlin's guidance. Lot joins the rebels, his four sons remaining loyal to Arthur, as the Once and Future King seals his fate."

Camelot has a lot of darkness in it. I love it!

Witch Season by Julia Bianco
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Exhilarating, dangerous, and seductive, Witch Season is an action-packed and fiercely romantic contemporary fantasy from debut author and screenwriter Julia Bianco.

That is the price of magic - not just the blood, but the pain to bring it out.

Katherine Barnes is an enforcer, charged with upholding the rules of the notorious Los Angeles-based Aestas coven. It's her job to maintain order and bring unsettled witches - people who aren't aware they have magic until it explodes out of them in a catastrophic burst - into the coven's fold. As a former unsettled witch, Katherine owes her life to Sylvia Page, coven leader and silver-haired rebel who founded Aestas years ago.

When Silas Khatri, heir to Noctis, the most powerful coven in the world, arrives to take Aestas to task for some of their more unconventional practices, Katherine's dislike for him reaches blistering levels. She hates his money, his good looks, his coven's dangerous attitude towards unsettled witches. She can absolutely overlook that he sets her off in more ways than one.

But a powerful threat is about to rise. Stronger than any one coven. More insidious than the decades-long power struggle that exists in the hidden witch world. One that will pull Katherine and Silas together despite their differences. And one that will lead to an all-out war."

I just love the location!

It's About Time by Carol J. Perry
Published by: Kensington Cozies
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this delightfully spooky series spin-off of Carol J. Perry's beloved Witch City Mysteries, Lee Mondello and her detective husband have plenty of experience solving crimes in Salem, Massachusetts - and now Lee's Aunt Ibby is starting a sleuthing career of her own in the witch city...

Nothing can spoil the mood at a one-year-old's birthday celebration like the cops arriving - but it's not because the party got too rowdy. Instead, Detective Pete Mondello has a search warrant for a tenant's apartment. When Lee's aunt Ibby leads the police to Josh Alper's locked door, she's surprised to learn that her renter has redecorated...with what appear to be masterpieces stolen from a museum back in 1972.

The paintings may be found, but Alper - an artist involved with a shady, cult-like group - is officially missing. So Ibby and her pals, who hold weekly watch parties of their favorite show, Midsomer Murders, decide to jump in and do some real-life sleuthing using the skills they've learned from DCI Barnaby. Ibby, a semi-retired librarian, may be in her sixties, but her tech skills are top-notch...and with some help from her friends Betsy and Louisa, as well as O'Ryan the clairvoyant cat, that spells trouble for any criminals in Salem.

But when Alper's body is found in the Salem Woods - felled by an unusually sophisticated weapon - Ibby must buckle down with her team and prove that she's just as talented an investigator as her beloved niece..."

I mean, can I go to their weekly Midsomer Murders watch parties? I'd also totally help solve crime.

The Loom Tree by Angela Mi Young Hur
Published by: Erewhon Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ninth House meets Babel for fans of myth and folklore in this contemporary fantasy about a Korean-American college student at a magical university where fairy tales intersect with family heritage to unleash powers beyond imagining.

"You always wanted magic to be real."

Sharon and her daughter V's points of origin hold common threads - both Korean American teenagers, raised by single mothers and searching for identity in the California suburbs. But during a Finals week celebration, high schooler V, compelled by strange impulses, crawls into a hollow tree trunk. That night in a fever haze, she sees gleaming strands of illegible text hovering over her body - flowing between her and her mother, leading to a long-forgotten diary.

With the aid of a luminous quill, a fountainhead of Sharon's memories spill onto the faded pages. V witnesses her mother map out her past through drawings, diagrams, and reclaimed histories of her brief time at Alvsdahl, an exclusive East Coast college. Here, legacies and heiresses claimed descent from Bluebeard or Cinderella, grappling for control over family stories that could grant them terrifying abilities or burn them to ash. An Asian girl with an unknown inheritance was no one - until her discoveries cracked open Alvsdahl's secrets.

Sharon's rewritten narrative - of classroom rivalries, animal professors, debauchery in the woods, threatening Godmothers, and world-shattering powers - unfolds line by line as V desperately tries to help her mother, ultimately learning how to wield Sharon's story to transform them both.

Lyrical and tender, Angela Mi Young Hur's The Loom Tree is a magical campus novel centering two young women walking the thorny path toward adulthood, the fractures between parents and their children, and the global mythologies connecting us all."

Here's to the stories that form us and are universal.

These Immortal Truths by Rachelle Raeta
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Both epic and intimate, These Immortal Truths is an enchanting and romantic historical fantasy that explores not only what it means to live forever, but what it means to truly live at all.

"Did I not tell you, Anna? Death will not come for you."

Anna is used to hunger and hardship. Ever since the pale shadows on her skin were mistaken for leprosy, she has lived alone in exile, each day focused only on survival.

Then a single act of kindness towards a beautiful stranger changes her life forever.

Suddenly, neither time nor harm can touch her, and Anna strives to embrace a life with boundless potential, one that isn't only about survival. But as decades and centuries pass, she is continually forced to abandon each new life before it has the chance to feel like home.

The only constant in her eternal existence is Khiran - the shapeshifting god who gave her immortality. No matter the years or distance, he always finds her when she most needs him.

But there is more to immortality than Anna knows, and as she travels the ages, she will discover the beauty - and cost - of a life without end."

I think the cost of life without end isn't worth it. 

4 Janes by Marian Yee
Published by: Little a
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 269 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Through time, space, and the transcendence of maternal love, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is reimagined in the parallel lives of one soul searching for meaning, connection, and a place to belong.

Jane Eyre is a missionary's wife.

A bookseller in Vietnam.

A time traveler.

A hero in a modern gothic tale.

What if Jane's story didn't end with her marriage to Edward Rochester? What if she never married him at all?

In one lifetime, Jane travels to India and Burma as Mrs. St. John Rivers. In another, she's Trang, a young woman selling books in Vietnam, vying for the love of the local priest. Yet another picks up where Brontë left her, now grieving the loss of her child and crossing time and space to find him. And finally, a young Vietnamese-American man searching for himself in Boston, a tutor whose relationship with a veteran feels strangely, achingly familiar...

Each thread tells Jane's story in sweeping, heartbreaking shades of loss, vulnerability, yearning, and the fierce love of mother and child that withstands time and space. While she may long for something more out of a life she didn't get to choose, she can still decide what to make of it."

This proves that Jane Eyre's struggles are universal and that's why her story endures. 

The Abduction of Rosalind Thorne by Darcie Wilde
Published by: Kensingtons
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Brimming with intrigue, the latest novel in this charming Jane Austen-inspired mystery series finds resourceful Rosalind Thorne - a discreet sleuth for Regency London's ladies of ton - facing her most perilous, and awkward, predicament yet...

Rosalind is newly, happily engaged to ex-Bow Street officer Adam Harkness, but lunching with the new fiancée of her old love is still discomfiting. Yet, Clara Kinsdale needs her help, and Rosalind is not one to turn away a lady in distress. It seems Clara's father, Sir Anthony Kinsdale, has fallen for beautiful widow Mrs. Sylvia Lynn - who may be a fortune hunter, or worse...

Sir Anthony is a profligate baronet, who has pinned his financial hopes on two events: Clara's marriage, and his horse winning the upcoming sweepstakes at Lansdown, on which he has wagered heavily. Clara is afraid that her father is being fleeced by the charming - and cunning - Mrs. Lynn and wants Rosalind to expose her.

But Clara does not realize that her sisters, Elizabeth and Cynthia, are harboring their own secrets and Elizabeth especially will do whatever she must to obstruct plans to separate their father from Mrs. Lynn.

Rosalind and Adam travel to Bath to meet the family. But their gathering is interrupted by Admiral Walsingham, who is leasing Kinsdale House. Despite his dire finances, Sir Anthony is evicting the admiral - though his reasons appear laughable. Not laughable is that Sir Anthony is found dead soon after their argument, having apparently tumbled from his bedroom window while intoxicated.

It would be easy to assume the tragedy was an accident, except Admiral Walsingham is found dead at nearly the same time. Secrets, schemes, fraud and forbidden love all drag Rosalind and Adam into a web of high-stakes gambling, murder - and extreme danger. But can they unravel it before they become the next victims..."

Oh, so many intrigues, I can barely contain my anticipation! 

The King's Collar by Jeff Tanner
Published by: Koehler Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 316 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Boston, May 1929. Expelled from Harvard and disowned by his father, Charlie Bohannon is down to his last nickel when he stumbles across a chance at salvation: a priceless Egyptian statuette hiding in the smoky recesses of a speakeasy. Learning it was stolen from a long-ago expedition led by his college dean, he sees returning it as his only shot at redemption - but the plan shatters when the artifact is stolen and the thief is murdered.

From the corrupt halls of power where Joseph Kennedy pulls the strings to the seedy docks of the Atlantic, Charlie suddenly finds himself in the crosshairs of several dangerous men. They don't just want the statue; they want its legendary counterpart: the jewel-encrusted King's Collar. They think Charlie can find it. And they'll happily kill for it.

Aided in his quest to find the King's Collar by daring socialite Olivia and salty ex-sailor Punchy, Charlie plunges into a shadow-game where killers hide in plain sight. When his friends are kidnapped, the hunt for the Collar becomes a race against time. In the cutthroat world of the Prohibition era, Charlie must find the treasure - or pay for it with their lives."

Stolen Egyptian artifacts? Yes please!

The Secret Thread by Eve Chase
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"At a lavish summer party on an English country estate, tensions between social classes lead to deadly consequences that won't stay buried in this twisty, engrossing suspense novel by the author of The Midnight Hour.

Even the darkest secrets unravel in time....

2024: Jo O'Mara, a young writer, lands a job working for Mimi Mott, a wealthy style icon and legendary founder of a decorating empire. Newly widowed and in her seventies, Mimi is preparing to auction off her possessions, through them finally telling the story of her early life. Famously private, Mimi has kept her past shrouded in mystery. Jo doesn't dare reveal how closely it touches her own.

Tasked with collecting the untold tales behind each auction lot, Jo peels back the layers of Mimi's origin story and discovers it's far darker than anyone ever suspected.

1969: Mimi and her sister, Pamela, live in a cramped, musty staff cottage on the grounds of Rushwood, an idyllic English country estate owned by the Caswell family, their demanding new employer. Working alongside their gardener parents, the girls have been raised with their hands in the soil and know only a traditional, simple life - but spirited Mimi hungers for more.

When the Caswells' adult children, Nancy and Lawrence, arrive at Rushwood for the summer, the sisters are drawn into a privileged, intoxicating world, unsettling their own, and passions spark under the blazing sun - until a shattering death at Rushwood's high-society party tears Mimi and Pamela apart.

Now time is running out. Jo discovers both a missing auction piece and a missing sister and vows to find them no matter how dark the secret they expose - or the cost to herself."

I love that this is basically, writing auction catalog leads to mystery! It's like an episode of Lovejoy!

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Shannon Hale offers up mystery, romance, and a lot of fun in the second book in the Austenland series.

Newly updated edition with brand new content!

Preorder the third book in the series, Christmas in Austenland, coming in September 2026!

When Charlotte Kinder treats herself to a vacation at Austenland, she happily leaves behind her ex-husband and his new wife, her children, and the rest of her recently upended life in America. It's been a long time since Charlotte has felt hopeful, let alone loved. Maybe doing something as outrageous as donning a bonnet and staying at an English manor house can help re-start her damaged heart.

Yet once the parlor games begin at Pembrook Park, Charlotte finds herself more uncertain than ever. Can she trust the feelings she has for a certain actor, or is his roleplaying that quality? Is the world-famous starlet concealing more than her real name? Has the respite of the country given her too much time to question her life choices? And when Charlotte suspects murder among them, she can't help but wonder how much of their true selves everyone may be hiding...

The second book in this utterly delightful series gives readers the chance to relish all the fun of Regency romance and mystery, from the comfort of their modern lives."

I loved how this second book veered straight into Agatha Christie from Bridget Jones. I can't wait to re-read it in anticipation of the third volume!

Sweet Spot by Kemper Donovan
Published by: A John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The USA Today bestselling host of the "All About Agatha" podcast injects the spark and fizz of a Golden Age Murder Mystery into the present day, as a ghostwriter-turned-sleuth must find a devious killer who's transforming her new assignment into a real-life thriller...

Ghostwriters, just like ghosts, shouldn't exist. Knowing that the latest juicy memoir was penned by a stranger for a paycheck tends to ruin the illusion of intimacy. But not every ghostwriter is in it for the money alone.

For Belle Currer - as the ghostwriter extraordinaire prefers to be known - Genevieve Caraway's memoir is an irresistible project, a tale of tragedy overcome. At 14, Genevieve was abducted from her bedroom by a couple and held hostage for three months. She's now a happily married mother with a flourishing career, a poster child for thriving after trauma. Still, the scars haven't entirely faded.

Genevieve's lavish Utah home, "Sweet Spot," is a guarded compound impregnable to outsiders - theoretically, at least. But Belle's arrival coincides with the parole of Deirdre Gregory, one of Genevieve's kidnappers. When Deirdre shows up at Sweet Spot begging to see Genevieve, she is refused. The next day, Deirdre's dead body is found on the grounds.

How did Deirdre get in? More importantly, who killed her? Belle soon joins Detective Kay Adams, the pregnant Mormon detective assigned to the case, in sifting through the suspects. The compound is filled with family and friends - and also with secrets, including one the ghostwriter has been carrying for far too long. She knows how guilt, remorse, and love can drive people to do unthinkable things. And that no matter how much you try to keep the world at bay, the best and worst of it may find a way to get in..."

Belle Currer, LOL! For anyone NOT in the know, Charlotte Brontë wrote under the pseudonym Currer Bell. 

Winners and Liars by Aleema Omotoni
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Knives Out meets Death at Morning House in this thrilling standalone mystery layered with family secrets, the whitewashing of history, and a high-stakes literary competition for the keys to a Victorian-era English estate - from Aleema Omotoni, the NAACP Image Award-winning author of Everyone's Thinking It.

Derin's acceptance into Cambridge University is the end of an era - just not the one she expected.

When she and her ultra-competitive Uni prep group, the Kenfield Set, were first invited to Professor Darnley's summer ball, they planned on celebrating the group's success, surrounded by the riches of his historical Kenfield estate - not kicking off the festivities with the professor's will reading.

But when the Darnleys' aristocratic children are disinherited, the students are offered the opportunity of a lifetime: compete in a Victorian, literary-inspired inheritance competition to be named the new heir - winner takes all!

For Derin, it's a chance to help her working-class family. But the remaining Darnleys won't take losing their stately home and its multimillion-pound inheritance lying down. And added to the mix, a mysterious note is slipped under Derin's door alluding to a dark family secret lying in wait.

Now Derin must balance the cutthroat games; scheming relatives; and a cute Kenfield intern amid her dawning realization that the history of this inheritance might be soaked in lies...and blood."

I so want to compete in a Victorian, literary-inspired competition. I would totally lose, but I'd love playing.

Not What It Seems by Lisa Jackson
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson brings her own brand of Southern Gothic back to the Spanish moss-draped shade of Savannah and the swampy marshes of Lowcountry Georgia, as crime writer Nikki Gillette and her husband, Detective Pierce Reed, race to expose an obsessive killer with an enigmatic M.O....

The stone is small and round, easy to miss among the junk surrounding Billy Huber's body. The man was a hoarder for sure. At first, police assume he fell from a ladder, injuring his throat and smashing his head in the process. Only on closer inspection do they see the polished stone nearby, with a number on one side etched in blood, and a strange symbol on the other.

Reporter Nikki Gillette seizes on the story and visits Huber's sprawling property in Georgia's low country. She gains little except the uneasy feeling of being watched. Within days, another body is found - a wealthy, thrice-married Savannah socialite dead in her lavish home. More victims follow, each one pierced through the throat. Beside each body, a stone engraved with a different number and symbol.

Detective Pierce Reed, Nikki's husband, cautions her against getting in too deep. She's a mother now and can't keep putting herself in danger. Nikki knows he's right, but her instincts are in overdrive. This is what she's good at - finding answers and driving toward justice at any cost. Yet she knows, too, that the most terrifying killers don't look like monsters at all. And by the time you realize how close they really are, it may already be too late to save yourself."

Is it wrong that I really want to know if the killer polishes and tumbles their own rocks or buys them in bulk from Michaels? 

Until Midnight by Luanne Rice
Published by: Thomas and Mercer
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 379 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When lies and betrayals are exposed, the perfect wedding becomes a nightmare in a gripping novel of psychological suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of Last Night and The Shadow Box.

Rhode Island's picturesque Ocean House is the perfect setting for Kate Woodward and Conor Reid's fairy-tale wedding weekend. But there may not be a happily ever after.

When an old friend of Conor's disrupts the rehearsal dinner and reveals a blindsiding secret - a claim that she and Conor share a child - Kate calls off the wedding, thinking things can't get any worse. Until the next morning, when that same woman is found with her throat slashed.

As investigators close in and suspicions mount, the evidence points to a mystery deeper than anyone imagined. The soundproof boat with telltale signs of something sinister. The mansion on the hill that lures in young girls and doesn't let them go. A secret society whose members might be more familiar than not. And the truth of the dead woman's past that draws Kate and Conor into a nightmare."

Wait, isn't this world of secret and lies par for the course if you can afford to have your wedding at a luxury hotel?

Beware the Abbot Boys by Chelsea Ichaso
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Three brothers. Two deaths. One girl, caught in the middle.

The Abbott boys, fraternal triplets Henry, Bram, and Adam, live in a mansion on the outskirts of Silver Creek. For decades, their family's been at odds with the town, long before Mariana Flores died in a fiery accident on the Abbott property last year. The police ruled out foul play, but ask anyone in Silver Creek about it and they'll say one of the Abbott boys killed her. They just don't know which one.

But Hayden, the girl who lives next door to the Abbotts, swears they're innocent. After all, Henry's her best friend - maybe he could be more. She's been worried about Adam ever since he was injured in the accident that killed Mariana. As for Bram, he's a little complicated, but he and Mariana had been in love.

When the new school year brings a new victim - a popular girl, found dead in the woods - the hunt for a monster begins anew. The security camera footage doesn't show the face of the boy she was last seen with, but from his hoodie he could be any one of the Abbott brothers.

To clear their names, Hayden starts investigating the new death, but the deeper she digs, the more uncertain she becomes. Is one of the Abbott brothers a killer? Or could they all be monsters? And what will the boys do to protect themselves and the truth?"

I vote that they're all probably monsters, some are just better at hiding it.

What Happened to Those Girls by Carlyn Greenwald
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Pretty Little Liars meets The Blair Witch Project in this harrowing thriller from the author of Murder Land, brimming with betrayal, unsettling town secrets, and a killer lurking in the woods.

Emma knows her friends all lie to her. And everyone knows Emma is the outcast of their group. She's usually fine with that, until her friends go on a camping trip that she planned...without her. The next morning, she wakes up to the news that all three of them died at the campsite.

When Emma starts receiving unnerving videos of the girls the night they died from an anonymous source, it becomes clear their deaths weren't an accident. And if this becomes a murder case, Emma will be suspect number one. Because while everyone knows she had been excluded from the plans, what they don't know is that she went to the campsite that night after all, and someone has proof.

Emma teams up with Beck, one of the victims' sisters, to return to the woods and figure out what really happened the night her friends died, uncover who is behind the mysterious videos she is receiving, and make sure that nobody can pin their murders on her. But stranded in an eerie town that doesn't welcome outsiders with a murderer on their heels, Emma and Beck just might be next..."

If you were going to murder a whole bunch of "friends" in the woods, you wouldn't go to the trouble of planning the trip and then not providing yourself an alibi... 

Songbird in the Gallows by Alta Hensley
Published by: Avon a
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of He Sees You When You're Sleeping comes a dark romance about a murder-sober retired serial killer and his murder-curious protégé. Perfect for fans of Brynne Weaver, this twisted romance inspired by the Bluebeard folktale is filled with dark humor, sizzling chemistry, and spice.

Murder is their love language...

Five years ago, Saylor Mitchell's father was brutally murdered in front of her, shattering her world. Now his killers have tracked her down to finish the job. She is unexpectedly saved by her father's closest friend, the enigmatic Blue. Saylor's savior - and captor - is a reformed, murder-sober assassin struggling to escape the clutches of his own violent history.

Blue's gothic mansion, perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking a stormy sea in the town of Grimlock, is a labyrinth of secrets. And so is Grimlock, a small town whose residents all seem to have a penchant for murder that they've managed - mostly - to overcome.

Saylor soon realizes that Blue holds the key to avenging her father's murder at the hands of the Crow, a gang of amoral contract killers. Only problem? Saylor has never killed before. Good thing those who can't kill...teach.

Blue finds Saylor an apt pupil and the attraction between them morphs into a dangerous obsession. Can their love conquer Blue's final, darkest secret?"

I'm loving this resurgence in Bluebeard.

Teach the Torches to Burn by Christina Dodd
Published by: A John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Romeo and Juliet (yes, that Romeo and Juliet) invite you to join them in celebrating the union of their spinster daughter, Rosie (she's 20!) to Escalus the younger, prince of Verona, where murder is the unexpected guest at the wedding.

My Lady Jane meets Knives Out in Fair Verona, as New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd brings you the wedding of the season star-crossed with poison most discreet.

Joining us will be the royal and decorous kin of the groom, the Leonardis, as well as the famously rival families, the upstart Montagues and the snooty Capulets. All will be armed with swords and knives; at least one is skilled with poison. At this joyous event, who could foresee what direful occurrences might befall?

If I, the aforesaid Rosie, blushing bride, noted cynic and sleuth, were asked to identify when the pre-wedding events spiraled out of control, I'd point to that moment when elderly Princess Ursula observed the display of gleaming swords and bared teeth and announced that she would hold a public séance to determine the future of the marriage...

With the aid of Yorick's skull and her own considerable dramatic nature, Princess Ursula prophesied three things: the marriage would be joyous and fertile (the guests yawn,) a long-lost treasure would be found...and foul and most unnatural murder would disrupt the fragile peace of Verona.

Before the day was done, two prophesies had been fulfilled. Hint: not the fun fertility one. As one death follows another and it's clear a skilled poisoner lurks among us, coming ever closer to striking down those I love, I use all my wit and skill to discern the reason for the vendetta and uncover the killer's identity...for I would have the holy church bells that now ring a sad lament peel instead for the wedding ceremony and the joyous and fertile future foretold..."

I never say no to a séance!

Midsummer Nights by Lara Stokes
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 287 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Life imitates art when a down-on-her-luck TV star returns to her hometown stage and redefines her dreams in a funny and heartwarming spin on Shakespeare's most magical romantic comedy.

Miranda Belmont is a regular on a popular TV series, but her acting career is not exactly moving forward. After she's publicly humbled, her next steps are definitely backward: playing Helena in a community theater production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in her stifling hometown, directed by her parents, and sharing the stage with her high school boyfriend.

Backstage, it's borderline Shakespearean drama. Between her ex, an intriguing costar making sweet overtures, and an unwelcome blast from the past, Miranda is caught in a real-life, nearly magical tangle of romantic confusion that threatens the production at every turn.

Opening night will bring them all down to earth - especially Miranda, who's navigating her way, onstage and off, through all the chaos these mere mortals create. As she reconnects to her roots, the creative spark she's been missing awakens Miranda to who she truly is."

But a return to home and where you started, while humbling, can also be a launchpad. 

The Princess Diaries: The Graphic Novel by Meg Cabot and Bethany Crandall
Published by: HarperAlley
Publication Date: June 30th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot's hilarious classic The Princess Diaries is back and better than ever in an all-new, full-color graphic novel adaptation!

Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there's nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine frizzy-haired freshman, who also happens to be flunking algebra.

Is she ever in for a surprise.

First, her mom announces that she's dating Mia's algebra teacher. But her dad's announcement is even worse: he is the crown prince of Genovia, and guess what that makes Mia?

A frizzy-haired freshman who is flunking algebra, and also happens to be a PRINCESS.

Mia might not be ready for the throne, but one thing totally rules: #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot has adapted her classic The Princess Diaries into a royally hilarious graphic novel with art by Bethany Crandall!"

I love the movie, and while I tried, I could not get into the books, so this will be an interesting liminal test....

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alta Hensley, C.L. Polk, Carlyn Greenwald, Carol J. Perry, Chelsea Ichaso, Christina Dodd, Dana Swift, Darcie Wilde, Eve Chase, Kemper Donovan, Lara Stokes, Leigh Bardugo, Lisa Jackson, Luanne Rice, Meg Cabot, Shannon Hale