Trouble with the Cursed by Kim Harrison
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Rachel Morgan must keep her friends close - and her enemies closer - in the next Hollows novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison.
Rachel Morgan, witch-born demon, has one unspoken rule: take chances, but pay for them yourself. With it, she has turned enemies into allies, found her place with her demon kin, and stepped up as the subrosa of Cincinnati - responsible for keeping the paranormal community at peace and in line.
Life is...good? Even better, her best friend, Ivy Tamwood, is returning home. Nothing’s simple, though, and Ivy’s not coming alone. The vampires’ ruling council insists she escort one of the long undead, hell-bent on proving that Rachel killed Cincy’s master vampire to take over the city. Which, of course, Rachel totally did not do. She only transformed her a little.
With Rachel’s friends distracted by their own lives and problems, she reaches out to a new ally for help - the demon Hodin. But this trickster has his own agenda. In the end, the only way for Rachel to save herself and the city may be to forge a new understanding with her estranged demon teacher, Al. There’s just one problem: Al would sell his own soul to be rid of her...."
Why don't they have like book holidays from work? Like if a book you've been waiting for forever is coming out you can take the day off and just read. I think it would catch on. Really I do.
Go Hunt Me by Kelly Devos
Published by: Razorbill
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"For Dracula lovers and fans of Diana Urban’s All Your Twisted Secrets, this spine-tingling thriller follows seven horror buffs as their dream trip to a remote Romanian castle turns into a nightmare when they begin to be killed one by one.
Alex Rush is ready for the trip of a lifetime.
She and her friends have made some creepily awesome films together throughout high school, so with only a few months left before they go their separate ways for college, they’re determined to make the best one yet: an epic short film that reimagines the story of Dracula, filmed on location at a remote castle in Romania.
But when they get there, it’s not quite the majestic setting they planned for. Menacing weapons line the walls, the twisted halls are easy to get lost in, and with no connection to the outside world, the group is unexpectedly off the grid. After just a few hours spent under its roof, Alex and her friends have no trouble imagining how this dark, terrifying castle inspired one of the most enduring horror novels of all time.
Only soon they no longer have to use their imaginations to understand the location’s terrifying history - just as they get the film's first shot rolling, one of Alex’s friends disappears, and she’s nearly certain she saw a cloaked stranger lurking in the shadows. As more members of the group begin to meet an untimely demise, Alex is desperate to stop the bloodshed, even if it means facing a monster she never thought would be let loose."
Romanian murder mystery with a bite? Yes please!
Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino
Published by: Page Street Kids
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"They’ll lure you in with fruit and gems and liquor and dancing, merriment to remember for the rest of your life. But that’s an illusion. The market is death itself.
Beneath the streets of York, the goblin market calls to the Wickett women - the family of witches that tends to its victims. For generations, they have defended the old cobblestone streets with their magic. Knowing the dangers, they never entered the market - until May Wickett fell for a goblin girl, accepted her invitation, and became inextricably tied to the world her family tried to protect her from. The market learned her name, and even when she and her sister left York for Boston to escape it, the goblins remembered.
Seventeen years later, Lou, May’s niece, knows nothing of her magical lineage or the twisted streets, sweet fruits, and incredible jewels of the goblin market. But just like her aunt, the market calls to her, an echo of a curse that won’t release its hold on her family. And when her youngest aunt, Neela, is kidnapped by goblins, Lou discovers just how real and dangerous the market is.
To save her, both May and Lou will have to confront their family’s past and what happened all those years ago. But everything - from the food and wares, to the goblins themselves - is a haunting temptation for any human who manages to find their way in. And if Lou isn’t careful, she could end up losing herself to the market, too."
A goblin market tale? Oh yes.
The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell
Published by: Mantle
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A haunting and moving debut, The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell is perfect for fans of The Familiars and The Binding.
1830. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked and near death, on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour and how to expertly dress a wound, and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her, a penniless single woman, she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other women around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life...
In London, Dr Borthwick lives a solitary life working as an accoucheur dealing with mothers and babies in the elegant homes of high society together with his midwife, Mrs Bates, and volunteering in the slums of the Devil’s Acre alongside a young widow, Eleanor Johnson. His professional reputation is spotless and he keeps his private life just as clean, isolating himself from any new acquaintances. But he is harbouring a dark secret from his past - one that threatens to spill over everything."
Dark secrets and a dark past mean I will be reading this long past dark.
Alchemy and Rose by Sarah Maine
Published by: Hodder
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A beautiful and sweeping historical novel that takes the reader from the west coast of New Zealand, to Scotland and Melbourne in the 1870s.
1866. Will Stewart is one of many who have left their old lives behind to seek their fortunes in New Zealand's last great gold rush. The conditions are hostile and the outlook bleak, but he must push on in his uncertain search for the elusive buried treasure.
Rose is about to arrive on the shores of South Island when a storm hits and her ship is wrecked. Just when all seems lost she is snatched from the jaws of death by Will, who risks his life to save her. Drawn together by circumstance, they stay together by choice and for a while it seems that their stars have finally aligned.
But after a terrible misunderstanding they are cruelly separated, and their new-found happiness is shattered. As Will chases Rose across oceans and continents, he must come to terms with the possibility that he might never see her again. And if he does, he will have to face the man who took her..."
Ever since reading The Luminaries I might be New Zealand gold rush obsessed.
Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"For readers of The Light Between Oceans and The Island of Sea Women, a feminist adventure story set against the backdrop of the dangerous pearl diving industry in 19th-century Western Australia, about a young English woman who sets off to uncover the truth about the disappearance of her eccentric father.
Western Australia, 1886. After months at sea, a slow boat makes its passage from London to the shores of Bannin Bay. From the deck, young Eliza Brightwell and her family eye their strange, new home. Here is an unforgiving land where fortune sits patiently at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be claimed by those brave enough to venture into its depths. An ocean where pearl shells bloom to the size of soup plates, where men are coaxed into unthinkable places and unspeakable acts by the promise of unimaginable riches.
Ten years later, the pearl-diving boat captained by Eliza’s eccentric father returns after months at sea - without Eliza’s father on it. Whispers from townsfolk point to mutiny or murder. Headstrong Eliza knows it’s up to her to discover who, or what, is really responsible.
As she searches for the truth, Eliza discovers that beneath the glamorous veneer of the pearling industry, lies a dark underbelly of sweltering, stinking decay. The sun-scorched streets of Bannin Bay, a place she once thought she knew so well, are teeming with corruption, prejudice, and blackmail. Just how far is Eliza willing to push herself in order to solve the mystery of her missing father? And what family secrets will come to haunt her along the way?
A transporting feminist adventure story based on Lizzie Pook’s deep research into the pearling industry and the era of British colonial rule in Australia, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is ultimately about the lengths one woman will travel to save her family."
And since I'm already in New Zealand, how about I stop off in Australia too?
The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 14th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison returns to the world of The Goblin Emperor with a direct sequel to The Witness for the Dead...
As a Witness for the Dead, Thara Celehar can speak to the recently departed: see the last thing they saw, know the last thought they had, experience the last thing they felt. It is his duty to use that ability to ascertain the intent of the dead and to find the killers of the murdered. Celehar’s time in the city of Amalo has brought him both friends and enemies - and no little notoriety. Now, when solving the murder of a marquise raises more questions than it answers, he finds himself exploring Amalo’s dark underside.
His investigations lead him to the Cemchelarna School for Foundling Girls, where all is not as it seems. Discovering the truth about its headmistress will lead Celehar deep into the city’s history - and into the shattering depths of the loss he fears the most."
A DIRECT sequel you didn't have to wait years and years for!
There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh
Saevus Corax Captures the Castle by K.J. Parker
The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes
Hotel Portofino by J.P. O'Connell
Murder at the National Gallery by Jim Eldridge
The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon
Disappearance of a Scribe by Dana Stabenow
Servant Mage by Kate Elliott
Now I do understand that changes are necessary for an adaptation to be successful. But that comes with the caveat that you have to maintain the spirit of the book. Just look to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and it's adaptation! A perfect pair without being carbon copies. The reason I mention Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is because that is a book I am fanatically devoted to, much as I am to Eleanor Catton's 
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
Here is "Books" in lecture mode, disgruntled lecture mode, hence the tie being loose, when he has had one too many problems with Eliza. Once again trying to explain the taxonomy of the filing and how work starts not near lunch or in the afternoon but in the morning.
Yet, he can totally bring the "dapper" for a night out at the opera to enjoy some Macbeth or to infiltrate a Country House Party that has nefarious undertones.
For Eliza, I wanted someone young and plucky, who looks like they are a little cherubic, until they pull a gun on you. While she is The Doctor's next companion, it was Jenna Louise Coleman's performance in the Titanic miniseries by Julian Fellowes that shows she has Eliza's competence, quick wit and sharp tongue. 
Also, she can bring the glam, but that reinforced corset might need some adjustments...
