It’s Tuesday! That means a new crop of books are hitting shelves and making their way onto your e-readers.
Lots of series continuations this week, especially when it comes to sci-fi, fantasy, and mysteries. We also have some debuts and series starters.
What books are you excited for this week? Let us know in the comments!
A Power Unbound
A Power Unbound is the final entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light.
Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.
Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross.
Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.
When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall—Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner—Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.
Sarah: This series is SO NEAT.
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Bookshops & Bonedust
When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek.
Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree’s Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and secondhand books.
Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned.
Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it.
What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine.
Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
Elyse: The first book in this series, Legends and Lattes, is my go-to cozy read.
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Check & Mate
In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis , life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.
Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.
Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….
As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)
Dahlia: Hazelwood’s first foray into YA is every bit as fun as her adult, charmingly full of nerdy Queen’s Gambit vibes. Bonus points for a quirky romantic dynamic and a bisexual heroine!
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Chaos Terminal
Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, and fled to outer space to avoid it…but when one of the new human arrivals on a space shuttle is murdered, she’s back in the game.
Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her—and only she seems to be able to solve the crime. After fleeing to an alien space station in hopes that the lack of humans would stop the murders, a serial killer had the nerve to follow her to Station Eternity. (Mallory deduced who the true culprit was that time, too.)
Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory’s best friend from high school. Mallory doesn’t believe in coincidences, and so she’s not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It’s the story of her life, after all.
Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory’s deductive abilities are strained. If she can’t find out what’s going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur…
Sarah: Book two of the Midsolar Murders: Mallory has to solve another murder in space with the hive mind and all. Piece of cake.
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The Future
A Most Anticipated Book of Fall at Associated Press, Booklist, Chicago Tribune, Goodreads, Good Housekeeping, Literary Hub, Time, The Week, and W Magazine
The bestselling, award-winning author of The Power delivers a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it.
When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon—once a parable to her—are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?
Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate and—worst of all—might die without ever knowing what’s going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?
Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.
By turns thrilling, hilarious, tender, and always piercingly brilliant, The Future unfolds at a breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.
Elyse: This is a sci-fi heist story, and heist stories are my jam.
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Hunt on Dark Waters
Evelyn is a witch with a perfect storm of impulses: terrible taste in bed partners, sticky fingers, and a lust for danger. After she steals from her vampire ex and falls through a portal to another realm, she’s fished out of the waters by a band of seafarers and their telekinetic captain. She’s immediately given a choice—join their ship’s crew or die.
Bowen has no memory of his life before he became one of the Cŵn Annwn. He and his band of pirates are bound by vow to patrol through Threshold, the magical sea in between realms, keeping the portals to other worlds safe. When he rescues Evelyn, he doesn’t expect to be attracted to the unflappably brassy pickpocket. The longer he spends in her presence, the more he begins to question if his heart is the next thing she’ll steal.
But as tension heats up between Bowen and Evelyn, the danger at sea escalates as well. Because Evelyn has no intention of keeping her vows to the Cŵn Annwn, and if she betrays the crew, both she and Bowen will pay the ultimate price…
Sarah: Spoiler: I already read and edited Lara’s review and now I’m even more excited to read this.
Lara: This book is so much fun! Review incoming…
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Iron Flame
“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.
Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.
Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
The follow-up to the very popular Fourth Wing.
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Never Wager with a Wallflower
Author: Virginia Heath
Released:
November 7, 2023 by
St. Martin’s Griffin
Genre:
Historical: European, Romance
Series: The Merriwell Sisters #3
Never Wager with a Wallflower is the third and final delightful installment in Virginia Heath’s Merriwell Sisters Regency rom-com series.
Miss Venus Merriwell has been waiting for her prince to come since the tender age of fourteen. She wants a man who is a selfless academic like her, and free from all the wretched vices her gambler father enjoyed far too much before he left the Merriwell sisters practically destitute. Unfortunately, after a slew of romantic disappointments, there is still no sign of that prince at twenty-three and the only one true love of her life is the bursting-at-the-seams orphanage in Covent Garden that she works tirelessly for. An orphanage that desperately needs to expand into the empty building next door.
For Galahad Sinclair, gambling isn’t just his life, it’s in his blood. He grew up and learned the trade at his grandfather’s knee in a tavern on the far away banks of the Hudson in New York. But when fate took all that away and dragged him across the sea to London, it made sense to set up shop here. He’s spent five years making a success out of his gaming hall in the sleazy docks of the East End. Enough that he can finally afford to buy the pleasure palace of his dreams—and where better than in the capital’s sinful heart, Covent Garden? The only fly in his ointment is the perfect building he’s just bought to put it in also happens to be right next door to the orphanage run by his cousin’s wife’s youngest sister. A pious, disapproving and unsettling siren he has avoided like the plague since she flattened him five years ago.
While Venus and Galahad lock horns over practically everything, and while her malevolent orphans do their darndest to sabotage his lifelong dream, can either of them take the ultimate gamble—and learn to love thy neighbor?
The next book in Heath’s Merriwell Sisters series.
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The Rom Con
A modern battle of the sexes about a journalist who hatches an elaborate plan to take down her professional rival, in a rom-com perfect for fans of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .
After a particularly brutal breakup, Cassidy Sutton has had it with dating. So when her grandmother gives her a 1950’s dating guide entitled 125 Tips to Hook a Husband , she decides to turn the retro advice into an ironic “What not to do” article for Siren, the popular online women’s publication she writes for. And who better to secretly test the old-fashioned tips on than Jack Bradford, chauvinistic creator of rival men’s site Brawler? She’ll write an article that will entertain female readers everywhere and embarrass their sexist nemesis at the same time. Two birds, one stone .
But her perfect plan soon proves to be anything but. Those vintage courtship tips Cassidy was so quick to poke fun at? They actually seem to work , calling her most closely-held beliefs into question. Even worse? Jack isn’t falling for any of her tricks—and it’s not long before their ‘fake’ relationship starts to feel like the realest one of her life. As her cat and mouse game starts to spiral out of control, Cassidy has to decide if she’s playing to win, or if she’s willing to lose it all for love.
Amanda: I love this cover and honestly, I can totally envision it being a movie poster for a 90s rom-com movie.
Elyse: I love a good enemies to lovers story.
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Slay
Laurell K. Hamilton has captivated readers with her gritty, seductive tales of vampire hunter Anita Blake for thirty bloody fantastic years. Now, in the thirtieth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, wedding bells are ringing. But before Anita can make it to the altar, she must face an obstacle more daunting than any supernatural threat….
Necromancer Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: U.S. Marshal—Preternatural Branch. She’s faced horrifying monsters and brutal killers and come out the other side still standing.
Considering how things in her life tend to go, Anita never expected her walk down the aisle with Jean-Claude to go smoothly. They’ve already been confronted with naysayers and a power-hungry ancient evil, but now Anita has to do the one thing that actually scares her: introduce her very religious, very human relatives to her fiancé—the newly crowned vampire king of America.
As Anita tries to keep the peace between the family she left behind and the family she’s chosen, dark forces jump at the chance to take advantage of the chaos. With her happy-ever-after at risk and everyone’s immortal souls hanging in the balance, Anita grapples with a hard truth: Blood makes you related, but loyalty makes you family.
In case anyone is still on the Anita Blake bandwagon, we’re up to book thirty!
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Snacking Bakes
Author: Yossy Arefi
Released:
November 7, 2023 by
Clarkson Potter
Genre:
Cookbook
60 accessible, anytime recipes for delectable cookies, cakes, brownies, and bars that need only one bowl and easy-to-find ingredients, from the award-winning author of Snacking Cakes
“Snacking Bakes is packed with Yossy’s trademark crave-worthy sweet-and-salty, ooey-gooey excellence—all without the fussiness and dish pile-up in the sink.”—Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times bestselling author of Dinner: A Love Story
Instantly satisfy your cravings with a collection of sweet and savory bakes that are delicious and easy to make. Trusted baker Yossy Arefi promises simple recipes that require minimal effort with big rewards. Almost every treat can be made in under one hour, in one bowl, and with no fancy ingredients or equipment—leaving you with less time in the kitchen and more time for snacking! Its approachable, crowd-pleasing style makes it the perfect introduction to baking too, even for kids.
Yossy covers all the baked-good bases with recipes that feature a wide range of enticing flavors (even savory!) and are each accompanied by gorgeous photography shot by Yossy herself.
• Cookies: Magical Peanut Butter Cookies, Monster Cookies, New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, Blueberry Cornmeal Cookies, Fudgy Sesame Oat Cookies, Snack Attacks, Banana Brownie Cookies
• Bars, Brownies, and Bark: Triple Chocolate Olive Oil Blondies, Blueberry Swirl Blondies, Coconut Cookie Bark, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars, Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Ginger Cherry Oaties
• Cakes and Loaves: Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake, Spiced Applesauce Crumb Cake, Brown Sugar Peach Cake, Peanut Butter Jam Cake, Everything Bagel Biscuit Bread
An expansive companion to Snacking Cakes, Snacking Bakes will satisfy family and friends, bakers and non-bakers alike, with its creative, appealing, and simple delights.
Amanda: Arefi’s previous cookbook, Snacking Cakes, is one of my favorite baking books of all time and I’m so excited for more quick, easy, and customizable recipes.
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The Harvest Bride
After losing everything to a curse that struck the kingdom of Galoth, Sarya just wants the world to leave her alone. Yet when a demon begins hunting the people in the forest near her village, staying hidden isn’t an option. Neither is avoiding the warrior who helped saved all of Galoth. Bannin the Blowhard has never said a serious word in his life…and yet the warrior claims that he intends to marry Sarya.
Now she’s about to discover how serious Bannin can be when her happiness is at stake—and how completely devoted to her pleasure…
Please note: Although this novella’s plot and romance can stand alone, the story follows the events of The Midsummer Bride and the hero was introduced in that novel. This novella was originally written for an audiobook podcast audience in an abridged format. This ebook edition includes expanded chapters, including scenes from the hero’s point-of-view, an epilogue, and a map.
Aarya: A surprise Kati Wilde release! Love the barbarians in this world.
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