strange and random happenstance

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Published by: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Virginia Feito's Mrs. March was hailed as "a brilliant debut...[by] a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes" (Sarah Ditum, Guardian) - from Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson to Patricia Highsmith. Now, Feito returns with her "silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological acumen" (Constance Grady, Vox) to unleash an entirely new antihero on us all.

Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess - she'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate's dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family - Mr. Pounds can't keep his eyes off Winifred's chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband's wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery...and creeping across the moonlit lawns....

Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath."

Virginia Feito is SO a Buffyverse fan with characters named Winifred, Drusilla, and Andrew!

Isola by Allegra Goodman
Published by: Dial Press
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this breathtaking saga, an epic story of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian - an enigmatic and volatile man - spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian's servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she'd never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival."

Damn, having a guardian is seriously the worst.

A Poisoner's Tale by Cathryn Kemp
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The legendary figure of notorious seventeenth-century Italian poisoner Giulia Tofana, thought to be the first female serial killer in history, is brought to life in this feminist retelling.

Palermo 1632: Giulia is thirteen when she learns her mother's greatest secret: Teofania makes an undetectable, slow-acting, lethal poison - Acqua Tofana - which she uses to free the broken and abused women of Palermo. Now Teofania wants to pass her recipe on to her daughter, and Giulia soon realizes that in a time when women have no voice, justice is sometimes best served in a cup of wine or broth.

Rome, 1656: Years later, within the alleys and shadows of the Eternal City, Giulia forms her own circle of female poisoners, who work together under the guise of an apothecary shop to sell poison to women in need.

But even in a time of plague, when death looms over the city, it doesn't go unnoticed that the men of Rome are starting to fall like flies. And with the newly elected pope determined to rid the city of witches and heretics, Giulia is more vulnerable than ever. How far is she willing to go to continue her mother's legacy?

Weaving together the stories of the women Giulia helped, the men she killed, and those who wanted her dead, this is a tale of magic, secrets, vengeance, and sin in the back streets of Rome - and, ultimately, a fight for power."

Just poison the pope. It would solve some problems...

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister's ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master's daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie's life, she commits a desperate act - one that rouses Minnie's spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests' coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?"

Plantations have the worst ghosts.

Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times-bestselling author Libba Bray comes an evocative and groundbreaking young adult historical mystery that examines truth, rebellion, reconciliation, and what must be sacrificed for a better world.

It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom's Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last.

In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too - but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.

In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are in the first weeks of COVID lockdown and hating Zoom school, when an unexpected package from Chloe's grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom's Oak eighty years ago."

The hook is the disappearance for me.

An Excellent Thing in a Woman by Allison Montclair
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are back, and more determined than ever to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London...so something as trivial as a murder investigation isn't going to stop them!

London, 1947. Spirited Miss Iris Sparks and ever-practical Mrs Gwendolyn Bainbridge are called to action when Gwen's beau Salvatore 'Sally' Danielli is accused of murder!

Sally has taken a job at the BBC studios at Alexandra Palace, but when the beautiful Miss JeanneMarie Duplessis - one of the Parisian performers over for a new variety show - is found dead in the old theatre, a number of inconvenient coincidences make him Suspect No:1.

Just days earlier, Miss Duplessis had arrived at The Right Sort, desperately looking for a husband - any husband - to avoid having to return to Paris. As the plot thickens, Iris is pulled back into the clandestine circles she moved in during the war and it soon becomes apparent that to clear Sally's name, she and Gwen would need to go on the hunt for a killer once more!

Those who enjoy reading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries and Dorothy Sayers will adore this warm and witty historical mystery!"

I think there's quite a gap between Phryne Fisher and Dorothy Sayers... Just saying...

The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us and The Counselors, comes a page-turning murder mystery set at a prestigious New England boarding school about the importance - and price - of telling the truth.

Secrets don't die.

It's the first week of senior year at Meadowbrook Academy. For Amy and her best friend Sarah, that means late-night parties at the boathouse, bike rides through their sleepy Connecticut town, and the crisp beginning of a New England fall.

Then tragedy strikes: Sarah and her boyfriend are brutally murdered in their dorm room. Now the week Amy has been dreaming about for years has turned into a nightmare, especially when all eyes turn to her as the culprit. She was Sarah's only roommate, the only other person there when she died - or so she told the police to cover for her own boyfriend's suspicious whereabouts. And even though they were best friends, with every passing day, Amy begins to learn that Sarah lied about a lot of things.

Liz, editor of the school newspaper and social outcast, is determined to uncover the truth about what happened on campus, in hopes her reporting will land a prestigious scholarship to college. As Liz dives deeper into her investigation, the secrets these murdered seniors never wanted out come to light. The deeper Liz digs, the messier the truth becomes - and with a killer still on campus, she can't afford to make any mistakes.

The Meadowbrook Murders is a gripping mystery about the inextricable way power, privilege, and secrets are linked, and how telling the truth can come at a deadly price."

There's nothing more deliciously dark academia than a murder mystery at an elite school in New England.

The Department by Jacqueline Faber
Published by: Oceanview Publishing
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 350 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Some secrets we keep even from ourselves.

Philosophy professor Neil Weber can't think of one good reason to get up in the morning. His wife has left him, his academic research has sputtered, and the prospect of tenure is more remote than ever.

Until Lucia Vanotti disappears.

A college student at Neil's Southern university, Lucia has a secret of her own - one that haunts her relationships and leads to reckless, destructive behavior. When Neil is drawn into the mystery of her disappearance, he finds new energy, purpose, and relevance. But at what cost? Each clue pulls him deeper into Lucia's dark past, but also into the hidden lives of his closest friends and colleagues.

What has driven Lucia to risk everything? And why does Neil, a professor who hardly knew her, care so deeply about finding her? From campus classrooms to sex dens to backwoods hideaways, The Department reveals the world through the dual perspectives of Lucia and Neil as they descend into obsession, delusion, and the dangerous terrain of memory - uncovering the traumas that drive them to behave in ways they never could have predicted or imagined."

Cathartic crime solving! 

Mugshots by Jordan Thomas and Chris Matthews
Published by: Mad Cave Studios
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 152 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Brighton, UK. 2008. The kidnapping of a young woman starts a chain of events that will set con artists, gangsters, killers, and corrupt police on a collision course of violence. Meet John Bannan, self-proclaimed bastard and loving uncle, in this tale of family trauma, betrayal, murder, and revenge that threatens to bring the city's whole underworld down."

Just look at the gorgeous cover! Damn. I wish I was that talented.

The Crime Brulee Bake Off by Rebecca Connolly
Published by: Shadow Mountain
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An unexpected romance. A haunting mystery. Pastries to die for.

When Claire Walker is selected to be a contestant on the immensely popular cooking show, Britain's Battle of the Bakers, she is thrilled. She can't wait to spend eight enchanting weeks baking at the picturesque estate of Blackfirth Park. She can almost smell the fresh pastries wafting through the air as she and her fellow contestants use historical equipment to bring pre-1900s recipes to life. If she can win the fifty thousand pounds, she'll be able to ditch her teaching job and launch her baking career.

The Viscount of Colburn, Jonathan Ainsley, is the custodian of Blackfirth Park and an eligible bachelor. With his family's income dwindling, he reluctantly agrees to host the entire production team, but he refuses to participate since he's had enough of single women who see him as nothing more than a potential conquest. But when a contestant is found dead soon after filming begins, Jonathan is forced to get involved. To make matters worse, the baker's death is eerily similar to the legendary death of the tenth Viscountess of Colburn two hundred and fifty years earlier, which sends rumors racing through the estate.

Even as suspicion falls on some of the bakers, a decidedly different kind of heat begins to simmer between Claire and Jonathan. If they are to have any hope of a future romance, they must first solve the mystery before the show gets canceled or someone else falls prey to the Blackfirth Park ghost."

Historical recipes AND a ghost!?! This is definitely a new twist on what I refer to as the GBBO inspired cozy mysteries subgenre. 

Bodies of Art, Bodies of Labour by Kate Beaton
Published by: University of Alberta Press
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 68 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bodies of Art, Bodies of Labour by Kate Beaton, award-winning author of Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands and Hark! A Vagrant, explores connections between class, literature, and art from Cape Breton Island. In this thought-provoking book, Beaton addresses the often overlooked impact of class on the Canadian arts scene. The book highlights the reality that people from poor or working-class backgrounds face significant barriers to becoming artists, limiting their ability to share their stories and contribute to the collective culture. This lack of representation in art, music, and literature can empower or stereotype, edify or diminish, or worse, erase entire communities. Beaton emphasizes that if working-class and poor people do not write themselves into stories, others will, often with damaging results. Drawing on examples from work published about Cape Breton, Beaton sheds light on the portrayal of working-class lives. She juxtaposes this with her personal experiences, her family's stories, and the inspiring work of other Cape Bretoners. Despite economic hardships, her community has long valued and created art: art for no money, for each other, for themselves, for memory, for joy. Bodies of Art, Bodies of Labour thoughtfully examines personal and working class legacies, celebrating the authenticity and power of truly seeing ourselves and each other in the art that we create."

I will read anything that Kate Beaton does, but this is something more special, bring to the forefront the story of those marginalized. 

A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera
Published by: Canary Street Press
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"He's not like other dukes...

Paris, 1889

Physician Aurora Montalban Wright takes risks in her career, but never with her heart. Running an underground women's clinic exposes her to certain dangers, but help arrives in the unexpected form of the infuriating Duke of Annan. Begrudgingly, Aurora accepts his protection, then promptly finds herself in his bed.

New to his role as a duke, Apollo César Sinclair Robles struggles to embrace his position. With half of society waiting for him to misstep and the other half looking to discredit him, Apollo never imagined that his enthralling bedmate would become his most trusted adviser. Soon, he realizes the rebellious doctor could be the perfect duchess for him. But Aurora won't give up her independence, and her secrets make her unsuitable for the aristocracy.

When dangerous figures from their pasts return to threaten them, Apollo whisks Aurora away to the French Riviera. Far from the reproachful eye of Parisian society, can Apollo convince Aurora that their bond is stronger than the forces keeping them apart?"

I always find it interesting that the woman is the one who must give up everything for the man... Time to flip the script?

The Stormborne Vine by Tilly Wallace
Published by: Ribbonwood Press
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Kindle, 273 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Determined spinster vs carnivorous wallflower...

In a corner of rural England, Fern Oakby makes a living through her knowledge of botany. An unusual case erupts during a storm when a Boston ivy turns monstrous and...carnivorous.

However, the solution is not as simple as hacking down the exceedingly rare and hungry plant. The storm also gave life to an origami dragon and bound it to the vine. When a lonely woman pleads with Fern to save the tiny dragon, she is forced to confront a profound question - what defines the value of a life?

In a world where ancient magic lingers, every life - no matter how small or strange - holds immeasurable worth. As Fern races against time to unravel dark secrets at the estate, the vine continues to grow. She must find a way to destroy it before it spreads or snatches more lives. Nor, as she discovers, is the little dragon the only life in need of saving...

Start a brand new cozy fantasy series from the author of Manners and Monsters. Set in Regency England, explore a world that celebrates friendship and where magic and nature intertwine."

Regency Magic! Muppet arm flail! 

The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Vying for the hand of one brother.

Falling in love with the other.

A new Victorian-inspired romantasy, perfect for fans of Bridgerton, The Selection, and The Cruel Prince.

London, 1848 - For four hundred years, England has been under the control of an immortal fae queen who tricked her way onto the throne. To maintain an illusion of benevolence, Queen Mor grants each of her subjects one opportunity to bargain for their deepest desire.

As Ivy Benton prepares to make her debut, she knows that not even a deal with the queen could fix what has gone wrong: Her family's social standing is in shambles, her sister is a shadow of her former self, and Ivy's marriage prospects are nonexistent. So when the queen announces a competition for Prince Bram's hand, Ivy is the first to sign her name in blood. What a bargain can't fix, a crown certainly could.

Ivy soon finds herself a surprising front-runner - with the help of an unexpected ally: Prince Bram's brother, the rakish Prince Emmett, who promises to help Ivy win his brother's heart...for a price. But as the season sweeps Ivy away, with glittering balls veiling the queen's increasingly vicious trials, Ivy realizes there's more at stake than just a wedding. Because all faerie bargains come with a cost, and Ivy may have discovered hers too late.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Haven comes a tale that will leave readers eager to bargain for a sequel."

Oh, no, I'm smart enough not toe bargain for a sequel. No faerie bargains for me.

The Curios Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Your table awaits at the Chibineko Kitchen, where a soul-nourishing meal in the company of the resident kitten will transport you back in time to reunite with departed loved ones - for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and The Midnight Library.

In a remote seaside town outside of Tokyo, Kotoko makes her way along a seashell path, lured by whispers of an enigmatic restaurant whose kagezen, or traditional meals offered in remembrance of loved ones, promise a reunion with the departed. When a gust of wind lifts off her hat, she sees running after it a young man who looks like her recently deceased brother. But it's not her brother; it's Kai, the restaurant's young chef, who returns her hat and brings her to the tiny establishment, where he introduces her to Chibi, the resident kitten, and serves her steaming bowls of simmered fish, rice, and miso soup - the exact meal her brother used to cook for her. As she takes her first delicious bite, the gulls outside fall silent, the air grows hazy, and Kotoko begins a magical journey of last chances and new beginnings."

But what if the departed loved one you want to reunite with is also a cat?

The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: February 4th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A spine-tingling standalone novel by bestselling author T.J. Klune - a supernatural road-trip thriller featuring an extraordinary young girl and her two unlikely protectors on the run from cultists and the government.

There's nothing more human than a broken heart.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his only brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC.

With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon, to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not.

Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary ten-year-old girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her."

I mean, obviously she's special, she's named after Darth Vader! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Allegra Goodman, Allison Montclair, Cathryn Kemp, Erin Crosby Eckstine, Jacqueline Faber, Jessica Goodman, Kate Beaton, Libba Bray, Rebecca Connolly, Sasha Peyton Smith, T.J. Klune, Virginia Feito, Yuta Takahashi

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
Published by: Liveright
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A twenty-first-century Highsmith, Virginia Feito conjures the unforgettable Mrs. March, an Upper East Side housewife whose life is shattered by her husband’s latest novel.

In this astonishing debut, the venerable but gossipy New York literary scene is twisted into a claustrophobic fun house of paranoia, horror, and wickedly dark humor. George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one is prouder than Mrs. March, his doting wife. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that his protagonist is based on Mrs. March herself: "But... - isn't she...' Mrs. March leaned in and in almost a whisper said, 'a whore?" Clutching her ostrich-leather pocketbook, she flees, that one casual remark destroying her belief that she knew everything about her husband - as well as herself. Suddenly, Mrs. March is hurled into a harrowing journey that builds to near psychosis, one that begins merely within the pages of a book but may uncover both a killer and the long-buried secrets of her past."

The comparison to Patricia Highsmith is too much to pass up. That and literary New York!

The Steal by C.W. Gortner and M.J. Rose
Published by: Blue Box Press
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 135 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend - until they’re stolen. Ania Throne is devoted to her jewelry company. The daughter of one of the world’s most famous jewelers, she arrives in Cannes with a stunning new collection. But a shocking theft by the notorious thief known as the Leopard throws her into upheaval - and plunges her on an unexpected hunt that challenges everything she believes.Jerome Curtis thinks he’s seen it all, especially when it comes to crime. Until he’s hired to investigate the loss of Ania Thorne’s collection, his every skill put to the test as he chases after a mysterious master-mind responsible for some of the costliest heists in history - and finds himself in a tangled web with a woman he really shouldn’t fall in love with.From the fabled Carlton Hotel to the elegant boulevards of Paris, Ania and Jerome must race against time to catch a thief before the thief catches them. With everything on the line, can they solve the steal or will the steal take more than diamonds from them? Set in the late 1950s, The Steal is a romantic caper by bestselling authors C.W. Gortner and M.J. Rose."

August always needs a good Hitchcock To Catch a Thief vibe!

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mother’s secret past and her daughter’s present collide in this richly atmospheric novel from the acclaimed author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor.

In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings - and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks.

Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?

Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman."

I was all in at "obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings" because I honestly think this is a phase all girls go through!

The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore
Published by: Catapult
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Wolf Hall meets The Favourite in this beguiling debut novel that brilliantly brings to life the residents of a small English town in the grip of the seventeenth-century witch trials and the young woman tasked with saving them all from themselves.

England, 1643. Puritanical fervor has gripped the nation. And in Manningtree, a town depleted of men since the wars began, the hot terror of damnation burns in the hearts of women left to their own devices.

Rebecca West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only occasionally by her infatuation with the handsome young clerk John Edes. But then a newcomer, who identifies himself as the Witchfinder General, arrives. A mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, Matthew Hopkins takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about what the women on the margins of this diminished community are up to. Dangerous rumors of covens, pacts, and bodily wants have begun to hang over women like Rebecca - and the future is as frightening as it is thrilling.

Brimming with contemporary energy and resonance, The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust, and betrayal run amok as a nation's arrogant male institutions start to realize that the very people they've suppressed for so long may be about to rise up and claim their freedom."

I always like a modern sensibility on another time period so long as it's done right.

Death and Sensibility by Elizabeth Blake
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bookstore owner Erin Coleridge seeks the scoundrel who silenced a conference's keynote speaker in Elizabeth Blake's second charming Jane Austen Society mystery.

When the quaint English town of York hosts a Jane Austen Society conference, bookseller Erin Coleridge is glad to get out of Kirkbymoorside for a while - until featured speaker Barry Wolf suddenly perishes from what appears to be a heart attack.

Erin is suspicious, since Barry had no history of heart disease. But who did him in? Was it the decedent's assistant, Stephen, who was observed chatting to Barry's young wife Luca earlier that night? Might it have been Barry's ex-wife Judith, who was seen arguing with her erstwhile betrothed at the bar? Meanwhile, conference co-chairs Hetty and Prudence have been at one another's throat since the conference. Is one of them the culprit?

Matters of the heart are putting Erin off her guard. Both Detective Inspector Peter Hemming and schoolteacher Jonathan Alder have made gestures of romantic interest, but Erin isn't sure who is her Willoughby and who is her Colonel Brandon. DI Hemming tries to persuade Erin that her entanglement in the murder investigation is far from sensible, but his entreaties come to naught. Dauntlessly, Erin joins forces with Kirkbymoorside's cat lady, Farnsworth, to ferret out the guilty party."

Did you know there's a Jane Austen themed episode of Midsomer Murders? Well there is and this series makes me relive the love!

At Summer's End by Courtney Ellis
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When an ambitious female artist accepts an unexpected commission at a powerful earl's country estate in 1920s England, she finds his war-torn family crumbling under the weight of long-kept secrets. From debut author Courtney Ellis comes a captivating novel about finding the courage to heal after the ravages of war.

Alberta Preston accepts the commission of a lifetime when she receives an invitation from the Earl of Wakeford to spend a summer painting at His Lordship's country home, Castle Braemore. Bertie imagines her residence at the prodigious estate will finally enable her to embark on a professional career and prove her worth as an artist, regardless of her gender.

Upon her arrival, however, Bertie finds the opulent Braemore and its inhabitants diminished by the Great War. The earl has been living in isolation since returning from the trenches, locked away in his rooms and hiding battle scars behind a prosthetic mask. While his younger siblings eagerly welcome Bertie into their world, she soon sees chips in that world's gilded facade. As she and the earl develop an unexpected bond, Bertie becomes deeply entangled in the pain and secrets she discovers hidden within Castle Braemore and the hearts of its residents.

Threaded with hope, love, and loss, At Summer's End delivers a portrait of a noble family - and a world - changed forever by the war to end all wars."

I'm an artist, why doesn't anyone invite me to country estates? All I have is living vicariously through books

Chasing Manhattan by John Gray
Published by: Paraclete Press
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of Manchester Christmas comes a new adventure full of love, generosity, and heart-pounding intrigue.

Following the runaway success of her first novel, Chase Harrington is hiding in Manhattan. Assuming the visions from her past are behind her, Chase takes an assignment that lands her in the center of a new mystery surrounding a mansion known as Briarcliff Manor and deceased millionaire Sebastian Winthrop.

A letter, left by Sebastian, reveals three secrets surrounding the mansion where Chase is now living. Silent messages begin to appear, urging her to help those closest to her who are now in peril, including a deaf child shut away from the world and a war veteran still haunted by his past.

With her handsome boyfriend Gavin and faithful dog Scooter at her side, Chase must unlock the secrets of Briarcliff, help those she has come to love and face the surprise ending not even she saw coming.

This latest Chase Harrington adventure is so full of romance, kindness, mystery, and astounding twists and turns, it will leave you wanting to grab a flashlight and best friend, to go searching for clues in the dark."

Here for Briarcliff Manor!!!

The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two lives. The one you wanted. The one that wanted you.

Her birthday should be like any other night.

One minute Kelly's a free-spirited artist in Chicago going to her best friend's art show. The next, she opens a door and mysteriously emerges in her Michigan hometown. Suddenly her life is unrecognizable: She's got twelve years of the wrong memories in her head and she's married to Eric, a man she barely knew in high school.

Racing to get back to her old life, Kelly's search leads only to more questions. In this life, she loves Eric and wants to trust him, but everything she discovers about him - including a connection to a mysterious tech startup - tells her she shouldn't. And strange things keep happening. The tattoos she had when she was an artist briefly reappear on her skin, she remembers fights with Eric that he says never happened, and her relationships with loved ones both new and familiar seem to change without warning.

But the closer Kelly gets to putting the pieces together, the more her reality seems to shift. And if she can't figure out what happened on her birthday, the next change could cost her everything..."

I love Sliding Doors like stories!

Paper and Blood by Kevin Hearne
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"There's only one Al MacBharrais: Though other Scotsmen may have dramatic mustaches and a taste for fancy cocktails, Al also has a unique talent. He's a master of ink and sigil magic. In his gifted hands, paper and pen can work wondrous spells.

But Al isn't quite alone: He is part of a global network of sigil agents who use their powers to protect the world from mischievous gods and strange monsters. So when a fellow agent disappears under sinister circumstances in Australia, Al leaves behind the cozy pubs and cafes of Glasgow and travels to the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria to solve the mystery.

The trail to his colleague begins to pile up with bodies at alarming speed, so Al is grateful his friends have come to help - especially Nadia, his accountant who moonlights as a pit fighter. Together with a whisky-loving hobgoblin known as Buck Foi and the ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan, along with his dogs, Oberon and Starbuck, Al and Nadia will face down the wildest wonders Australia - and the supernatural world - can throw at them, and confront a legendary monster not seen in centuries."

Australia bound!

The Big Hurt by Erika Schickel
Published by: Liveright
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This complex memoir shows what it was like growing up in the shadow of a literary father and a neglectful mother, getting thrown out of boarding school after being seduced by a teacher, and all of the later-life consequences that ensue.

In 1982, Erika Schickel was expelled from her East Coast prep school for sleeping with a teacher. She was that girl - rebellious, precocious, and macking for love. Seduced, caught, and then whisked away in the night to avoid scandal, Schickel's provocative, searing, and darkly funny memoir, The Big Hurt, explores the question, How did that girl turn out?

Schickel came of age in the 1970s, the progeny of two writers: Richard Schickel, the prominent film critic for TIME magazine, and Julia Whedon, a melancholy mid-list novelist. In the wake of her parents' ugly divorce, Erika was packed off to a bohemian boarding school in the Berkshires.

The Big Hurt tells two coming-of-age stories: one of a lost girl in a predatory world, and the other of that girl grown up, who in reckoning with her past ends up recreating it with a notorious LA crime novelist, blowing up her marriage and casting herself into the second exile of her life.

The Big Hurt looks at a legacy of shame handed down through a maternal bloodline and the cost of epigenetic trauma. It shines a light on the haute culture of 1970s Manhattan that made girls grow up too fast. It looks at the long shadow cast by great, monstrously self-absorbed literary lives and the ways in which women pin themselves like beautiful butterflies to the spreading board of male ego."

It's James Ellroy if you got to that section and were wondering who it was like me!

Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor
Published by: Charlesbridge
Publication Date: August 10th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 32 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Halloween is time to pick pumpkins and carve them into pumpkin heads - jack-o'-lanterns of every shape and size!

Award-winning author and artist Wendell Minor uses simple language and striking autumn settings to celebrate jack-o'-lanterns in this reissue of a Halloween classic. The perfect holiday read aloud, Pumpkin Heads takes readers and trick-or-treaters from the pumpkin patch for picking, all the way home for carving, and gets everyone in the Halloween spirit."

The universal rule in my house is, if Wendell Minor had anything to do with the book it belongs on our bookshelves.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A.K. Blakemore, C.W. Gortner, Courtney Ellis, Elizabeth Blake, Erika Schickel, James Ellroy, Jane Austen, Jane Healey, John Gray, Kevin Hearne, M.J. Rose, Sarah Zachrich Jeng, Virginia Feito, Wendell Minor