Tuesday Tomorrow
Ruby Spencer's Whisky Year by Rochelle Bilow
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: February 14th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When a thirty-something American food writer moves to a Scottish village for one year to fulfill her dream of writing a cookbook she finds more than inspiration - she meets a handsome Scotsman she can't resist in this charming debut romance.
Ruby Spencer is spending one year living in a small cottage in a tiny town in the Scottish Highlands for three reasons: to write a bestselling cookbook, to drink a barrelful of whisky, and to figure out what comes next. It's hard to know what to expect after an impulse decision based on a map of Scotland in her Manhattan apartment - but she knows it's high time she had an adventure.
The moment she sets foot in Thistlecross, the verdant scenery, cozy cottages, and struggling local pub steal her heart. Between designing pop-up suppers and conversing with the colorful locals, Ruby starts to see a future that stretches beyond her year of adventure. It doesn't hurt that Brochan, the ruggedly handsome local handyman, keeps coming around to repair things at her cottage. Though Ruby swore off men, she can't help fantasizing what a roll in the barley might be like with the bearded Scot.
As Ruby grows closer to Brochan and the tightly held traditions of the charming village, she discovers secret plans to turn her beloved pub into an American chain restaurant. Faced with an impossible choice, Ruby must decide between love, loyalty, and the Highlands way of life."
Can you think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day then with a HEA?
Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Koller Croft
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: February 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A perfectly wicked debut thriller about an ambitious woman who, after a lifetime of conning alongside her mother, wants to leave her dark past behind and marry the heir to one of the country's wealthiest families.
Like any enterprising woman, Bea knows what she's worth and is determined to get all she deserves - it just so happens that what she deserves is to marry rich. Filthy rich. After years of forced instruction by her mother in the art of swindling men, a now-solo Bea wants nothing more than to close and lock the door on their sordid partnership so she can disappear safely into old-money domesticity, sealing the final phase of her escape.
When Bea chooses her ultimate target in the fully loaded, thoroughly dull and blue-blooded Collin Case, she's ready to deploy all of her tricks one last time. The challenge isn't getting the ring, but rather the approval of Collin's family and everyone else in their 1 percent tax bracket, particularly his childhood best friend, Gale Wallace-Leicester.
Going toe-to-toe with Gale isn't a threat to an expert like Bea, but what begins as an amusing cat-and-mouse game quickly develops into a dangerous pursuit of the grisly truth. Finding herself at a literal life-and-death crossroads with everything on the line, Bea must finally decide who she really wants to be.
Like mother, like daughter?"
Because sometimes grifters need to look within.
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: February 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A sumptuous, Gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales - the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after - and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor's extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo's dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife's secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage...or their lives.
Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive."
You always have to ask yourself, can I keep a promise. If not, you should not take what is offered.
The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss
Published by: Mythic Delirium Books
Publication Date: February 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 436 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A wicked stepsister frets over all the ways in which she failed to receive her mother's love. A lost woman travels through an enchanted forest looking for someone who can remind her of her name. A girl must wear down seven pairs of shoes to gain help from a witch. A fox makes a life with a human, but neither can deny their true natures. A young woman returns to her childhood home and the fantastic stories she left there. A man lets himself be taken prisoner by the Snow Queen to prove that the woman who loves him would walk barefoot through the ice to save him. Medusa cuts her hair for love.
The Collected Enchantments gathers retellings of folk and fairy tales in prose and verse from World Fantasy and Locus award-winning author Theodora Goss, creator of The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series. Drawing from her Mythopoeic Award-nominated collections In the Forest of Forgetting and Songs for Ophelia and her Mythopoeic Award-winning tome Snow White Learns Witchcraft, and adding new and uncollected stories and poems, The Collected Enchantments provides a resounding demonstration of how, as Hugo and Nebula award winner Jo Walton writes, Goss provides "a vivid, authentic and important voice" that, in the words of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association Grand Master Jane Yolen, "transposes, transforms, and transcends times, eras, and old tales with ease.""
No one can spin an old tale in a new way like Theodora Goss.
Death of a Traitor by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: February 14th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Sergeant Hamish Macbeth - Scotland's most quick witted but unambitious policeman - is back to investigate the disappearance of a local woman who is more than she seems, in this new mystery in M.C. Beaton's beloved, New York Times bestselling series.
Kate Hibbert is all too eager to lend a hand to her neighbors. Although she has been a resident of the sleepy village of Lochdubh for only a year, in that time Kate has alienated one too many of its residents with her interfering - and not entirely well-intentioned - ways. When Kate's neighbor sees her lugging a heavy suitcase to the bus stop, he hopes that the prying woman is leaving for good. But two weeks later, Kate's cousin arrives in town with the news that Kate has gone missing - and she demands that the local police step in.
Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is called in to investigate the disappearance, and soon he is befuddled by a storm of lies, intrigue, and scandal...and the sneaking suspicion that Kate was someone much more sinister than she claimed. Torn between loyalty to Lochdubh and his job, Hamish begins threading his way through a maze of deceit, quickly finding himself on the trail of a ruthless, treacherous murderer. If he catches the killer, peace can return to the village. If he fails, he will lose everything: his job, his home, and the life he so loves in Lochdubh."
Just the other day I was wondering why they were continuing the Agatha Raisin books but not the Hamish Macbeth ones, well turns out they are!
When planning out theme months I rarely decide to celebrate what a month is known for. December is more likely about Daphne Du Maurier than it is about Christmas. March is more for Magic or shades of the Gothic than Saint Patrick. But for some reason this year I've decided to embrace what February is known for, Valentine's Day. I am almost questioning my sanity in celebrating a holiday that has been more about watching Chick Flicks in my own personal experience than candlelit dinners. But there are so many great romances in literature, from Darcy and Elizabeth to Rochester and Jane, Westley and Buttercup to Anne and Gilbert, everyone has their favorite couples. Therefore this February, let's raise a glass, or devour a couple boxes of chocolate we bought on discount on the fifteenth of the month to these classic couples!
