The Revolution of Marina M. by Janet Fitch
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 816 Pages
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The official patter:
"From the mega-bestselling author of White Oleander and Paint It Black, a sweeping historical saga of the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of one young woman.
St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear, before being betrayed in turn.
As her country goes through almost unimaginable upheaval, Marina's own coming-of-age unfolds, marked by deep passion and devastating loss, and the private heroism of an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times. This is the epic, mesmerizing story of one indomitable woman's journey through some of the most dramatic events of the last century."
With winter setting in who doesn't want to read a doorstop of a book about Russia?
Lord Edward's Mysterious Treasure by Lilian Marek
Published by: JOS
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Kindle, 323 Pages
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The official patter:
"Lord Edward Tremaine comes to the fog-shrouded Chateau Morvan on the coast of Brittany. In this ancient building, all the inhabitants have secrets. The old vicomte demands that his descendants find a lost treasure, but he offers only hints to help the three cousins in their search.
The charming Delphine seems to be a creature of gaiety and sunshine, but every now and then glimpses of something darker appear. Marguerite, the beautiful and brilliant pianist, is obviously afraid. What is it that threatens her? Antoine, who considers himself a modern man, ignores the swirling emotions, concentrating only on the money needed for him to build a steel factory.
Lord Edward wants to help his friend Antoine--and more and more he wants to help Marguerite and protect her--but can he do so before tragedy strikes?"
Subtitled as "Victorian Adventures" that dress doesn't look very Victorian to me...
Dark Asylum by E.S. Thomson
Published by: Pegasus Books
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Set in a crumbling Victorian asylum where a gruesome murder is committed, this sequel to Beloved Poison explores the early science of brain study while giving chilling insight into an asylum's workings.
1851, Angel Meadow Asylum. Dr. Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead, his head bashed in, his ears cut off, his lips and eyes stitched closed. The police direct their attention towards Angel Meadow's inmates, but to Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain the crime is an act of calculated retribution, rather than of madness.
To discover the truth Jem and Will must pursue the story through the darkest corners of the city―from the depths of a notorious rookery, to the sordid rooms of London's brothels, the gallows, the graveyard, the convict fleet and then back to the asylum. In a world where guilt and innocence, crime and atonement, madness and reason, are bounded by hypocrisy, ambition and betrayal, Jem and Will soon find themselves caught up in a web of dark secrets and hidden identities."
Fog outside, a good Gothic read about an asylum? Yes please!
Unholy City by Carrie Smith
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 287 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Despite their rocky history, Detective Claire Codella and Precinct Detective Brian Haggerty come together when senior churchwarden Philip Graves’s bloody body is found lying in the herb garden of historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just two days before Good Friday. Upon first glance, it looks like a random act of big city violence, but it soon becomes clear churchwarden Philip’s death was the result of a meticulously calculated ploy by someone who knew him.
There are five vestry members and a choir director in addition to the ten homeless men asleep in the church basement. Any one of them could have done it, but what did Philip Graves do to warrant such a merciless death? Struggling to share the case and salvage their personal relationship, Claire, Brian and trusted Detective Eduardo Muñoz work around the clock to uncloak the desires, secrets, and resentments that find home through the iron gates and into the hidden beauty of one historic Romanesque church in Unholy City, the haunting third installment in Carrie Smith’s Claire Codella mysteries."
A church, a murder, a certain time of year... yeah, it's must read.
Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
Published by: Crown Archetype
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Can you ever outrun your past?
From actress, producer, and writer, Krysten Ritter, a psychological suspense novel about a woman forced to confront her past in the wake of small-town corruption.
It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.
But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town's most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’ biggest scandal from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.
Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret—a ritual called “The Game,” it will threaten the reputations, and lives, of the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.
With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of just five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of what happens when your past and present collide."
Yeah, I like Krysten Ritter as an actress, so I'll give her a shot as an author...
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 576 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer, comes a high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal.
Secret Identities.
Extraordinary Powers.
She wants vengeance. He wants justice.
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies―humans with extraordinary abilities―who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone...except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice―and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to the villains who have the power to end them both."
Where Marissa Meyer leads I follow.
Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander
Published by: Angry Robot
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Cyberpunk fallen angel Riko is back, in KC Alexander's outrageous sequel to the savage Necrotech.
Being a mercenary isn't all it's cracked up to be. Especially when Riko's hard-won reputation has taken a hard dive into fucked. Now she's fair game for every Tom, Dick and Blow looking to score some cred.
In this city, credibility means everything -- there's no room for excuses. She still doesn't know what she did to screw up so badly, and chasing every gone-cold lead is only making it worse. Without help and losing ground fast, Riko has a choice: break every rule of the street on her search for answers... or die trying."
No matter what name she's writing under, I'll follow her!
Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In his hilarious new sci-fi series, Jim C. Hines introduces the unlikely heroes that may just save the galaxy: a crew of space janitors.
The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. However, they happened to arrive after a mutated plague wiped out half the planet, turned the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroyed human civilization. You know—your standard apocalypse.
The Krakau’s first impulse was to turn around and go home. (After all, it’s hard to have diplomatic relations with mindless savages who eat your diplomats.) Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they’re no longer trying to eat everyone. Mostly.
Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos is surprisingly bright (for a human). As a Lieutenant on the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish, she’s in charge of the Shipboard Hygiene and Sanitation team. When a bioweapon attack wipes out the Krakau command crew and reverts the rest of the humans to their feral state, only Mops and her team are left with their minds intact.
Escaping the attacking aliens—not to mention her shambling crewmates—is only the beginning. Sure, Mops and her team of space janitors and plumbers can clean the ship as well as anyone, but flying the damn thing is another matter.
As they struggle to keep the Pufferfish functioning and find a cure for their crew, they stumble onto a conspiracy that could threaten the entire alliance… a conspiracy born from the truth of what happened on Earth all those years ago.
Jim C. Hines has proven himself a master of humorous fantasy with his Jig the Goblin novels, and has turned the usual fantasy tropes sideways and upside down with his Princess and his Magic Ex Libris series. With Terminal Alliance, the debut novel in his humorous military science fiction series, Jim takes us into a brand-new universe of entertainment certain to appeal to fans of both Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett."
This sounds like Galaxy Quest meets Red Dwarf. I'm sold.
A Spoonful of Magic by Irene Radford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A delightful new urban fantasy about a kitchen witch and her magical family.
Daphne "Daffy" Rose Wallace Deschants has an ideal suburban life—three wonderful and talented children; a coffee shop and bakery, owned and run with her best friend; a nearly perfect husband, Gabriel, or "G" to his friends and family. Life could hardly be better.
But G's perfection hides dangerous secrets. When Daffy uncovers evidence of his infidelity, her perfect life seems to be in ruins. On their wedding anniversary, Daffy prepares to confront him, only to be stopped in her tracks when he foils a mugging attempt using wizard-level magic.
Suddenly, Daphne is part of a world she never imagined--where her husband is not a traveling troubleshooter for a software company, but the sheriff of the International Guild of Wizards, and her brilliant children are also budding magicians. Even she herself is not just a great baker and barista—she's actually a kitchen witch. And her discovery of her powers is only just beginning.
But even the midst of her chaotic new life, another problem is brewing. G's ex-wife, a dangerous witch, has escaped from her magical prison. Revenge-bent and blind, she needs the eyes of her son to restore her sight—the son Daffy has raised as her own since he was a year old. Now Daphne must find a way to harness her new powers and protect her family—or risk losing everything she holds dear."
Sounds like fun urban fantasy that is like Practical Magic!
That Olde White Magick by Sharon Pape
Published by: Lyrical Underground
Publication Date: November 7th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
" It's time to work her crime-solving magic again...
Kailyn Wilde enjoys running her shop, Abracadabra, in the quaint New York hamlet of New Camel, where she lives with her six cats. Her family's been here for centuries, and she'd like to keep up the tradition. But the place may never be the same if a big hotel gets built, so she does her civic duty and attends a town meeting along with her aunt Tilly . . . and Merlin. Yes, that Merlin-though he gets introduced to folks as her "distant English cousin." The wizard is pretty grumpy about being transported here, but there are things about the modern world he doesn't mind-like pizza.
Kailyn was prepared for a heated debate about the hotel, but she wasn't expecting murder. When Tilly finds the body of a board member outside the schoolhouse, Kailyn doesn't want any suspicion cast on the wrong person. She plans to crack this case, even if she has to talk to every living soul in town-plus a few departed ones..."
Just look at that kitty on the cover! Look at it!!!
I have always loved witches. Aside from a terrifying incident in second grade when my teacher read Roald Dahl's The Witches to us and then dressed as a witch for Halloween, thus convincing me that she, and the other primary teachers, were the witches from said book. AKA bad witches. Otherwise I was raised by a plethora of good witches, Mildred Hubble, Samantha Stephens, Louise Miller, Sabrina Spellman, Willow Rosenberg, and the Halliwell sisters. This primed me for the arrival of the Owens sisters in 1998. No one can deny the cultural impact of Practical Magic. Who amongst us hasn't daydreamed about living in the Owens house? And who amongst us hasn't dreamed of a sequel? After all, over twenty years after she wrote Practical Magic Alice Hoffman came out with a prequel, The Rules of Magic. Followed by two more books in the series in the following years. She knew we needed more Owenses in our lives and finally we are getting more Owenses on the big screen. That's right people. If you've been living under a rock and don't know it, we're finally getting Practical Magic 2, based on the four book in Alice Hoffman's series. There will be midnight margaritas aplenty on September 10th. I couldn't let this milestone go unacknowledged and therefore a threw together my own little party, lots of Owenses and lots of other witches, Mayfairs, Bishops, Goodwins, fictional heroines descended from Salem. And no, not the cat. So here's to the Season of the Witch! Cue the Donovan song! It's a time for spooky reading, and a time for old favorites, and new, because it just so happens Alice Hoffman is dropping a witchy new book two days before the movie, Elizabeth Kostova is returning to Dracula, and Lauren Willig has finally fully embraced the Gothic with What Happens at Nightfall! So many reasons to celebrate! I hope you'll join me in celebrating, the season of the witch.
The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny
Unholy Murder by Lynda La Plante
The Back to Front Murder by Tim Major
Edie in Between by Laura Sibson
Bombshell by Sarah MacLean
The Last Debutantes by Georgie Blalock
One by One by Ruth Ware
The Darkest Tide by Ann Cleeves
Sanctuary by V.V. James
Nobody Knows But You by Anica Mrose Rissi
Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill
The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
A Deception at Thornecrest by Ashley Weaver
The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea
