The new book from Ashley Poston is out this week, and as I’m trying to take it as a sign that I should catch up with her last couple of books as I have two of them on the tbr pile. I’ve loved some of her previous books – like The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics so I’m not quite sure how I’ve let this happen. Anyway: The Someday Garden is about Sophie, the new head gardener at Lilymoor House in Maine and who gets more than she bargained for when she discovers a secret garden with a mysterious man trapped inside. Magic and/or time travel is a feature of Poston’s books so when I say secret garden and trapped man, I mean it’s got an entrance that never appears in the same place twice. The house itself also has an uncertain future, so I’m optimistic that this may be a “lets save the house” book as well as a romance. I have a mixed record with magic (and ghosts, and the supernatural in general) in books but Poston is usually on the side of the things that I like so I’m looking forward to reading this, even if I really shouldn’t be buying it until I’ve cleared at least one of her other books of the (virtual) tbr shelf.
After a glut of books that I had already read that came out last week, this week is one of those were there are a lot less new releases that I’m interested in. But never fear, there is (almost) always something that I would read, if only the pile wasn’t so huge. And this week my choice would be the new Eva Gates book Whose Body in the Lighthouse, which is the thirteenth in her Library Lovers and is doing something different which I find really quite interesting. For the first twelve books in the series, the lead character has been Lucy, a librarian in the Outer Banks. When I read book ten in the series three years ago, that book was covering Lucy’s wedding. Now two books on she’s had twins. I’ve written before about the difficulties of keeping a cozy series going and not progressing the characters personal lives but also the challenges presented by a heroine with young baby (or at least I think I have!) and Gates is dealing with this by… introducing a new librarian to get caught up in a murder. Or at least that’s what I think she’s doing – the start of the blurb is:
A new librarian’s first day goes terribly wrong when she finds a dead body on the front steps of the library.
In the thirteenth instalment of the beloved Lighthouse Library mysteries, a new character takes the reins.
And I’m not going to lie – I’m sort of fascinated by that. I can’t think of any cozy series I’ve read where the main character has been switched, much less successfully. If you can, please do drop them in the comments because I would love to read some. Agatha Christie moved the narrator around in her series, but the detective character was always the same – it was a Poirot mystery whether the narration was coming from Captain Hastings or Roger Ackroyd or whoever. So this has gone onto my list of things to watch out for because it’s an interesting and unusual way to tackle the problem.
June is Pride month and so its fitting that the first new release I’m featuring this month is the new book in Alexis Hall’s London Calling series – aka the third in the series that started with Boyfriend Material. It’s called Father Material and I have to say I am trepidatious. I loved Boyfriend Material and I liked Husband Material, just not as much (but still enough for it to be a BotW). I liked that Husband Material didn’t use the break-them-up-to-create-conflict trope that you see so much in sequels to romance novels – but the ending of Husband Material was not quite what a lot of readers wanted and left some people feeling like they’d fallen for a bait and switch. I did not feel like that I should say – I thought it was a perfectly consistent way to wrap up the conflict that was going on in the book. But there is definitely potential for another similar situation in this book, and that’s where my trepidation comes from – because if it does, then there’s been no character growth in anyone, at all, since the first book. And I’m not here for that. And of course it could go in a totally different direction to all of that – and I have a mixed record with some of Alexis Hall’s plots. I really liked Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake, but I couldn’t finish the next in that series Paris Daillencourt is about to crumble and I had very strong feelings about Val deserving better than he got in Something Fabulous, to the point where I still haven’t read the sequel because I’m worried I will hate it.
All of which is to say – there is a second sequel to a beloved first book that came out this week and you should be able to find it in stores as well as on Kindle and Kobo. Best of luck everyone…
Happy Thursday everyone and this week’s new book to mention is the new Annabel Monaghan, Dolly All The Time which came out on Tuesday. According to the blurb, this is about self sufficient, problem solving, single mum Dolly who moves back to her seaside home town and finds herself in a fake relationship with the wealthy, workaholic son of one of the town’s major families. I loved, loved, loved Nora Goes Off Script back in 2023, and I have enjoyed the three books of hers I’ve read since, although none of them have quite hit the same buttons for me as Nora did. But that’s a very high bar. I had this pre-ordered, so I already have my copy waiting for me but if you weren’t planning that far ahead, it’s out now in paperback, Kindle and Kobo.
Jess Kidd’s first book about ex-nun Nora Breen was a BotW back in March, and as I mentioned at the time I managed to get the second via NetGalley and read it straight away. And so to mark the release, I’ve got a bonus review for you today.
We re-join ex-nun Nora in Gore-on-Sea where a famous medium has arrived in town. Doreen Chimes’s séance are invite only and Inspector Rideout has been invited to one. But when the guests are assembled and the séance begins the medium dies and other guests are soon dead too. Nora starts to investigate – even though Rideout tells her not to – to try and catch a serial killer before Rideout becomes the next victim.
I mentioned in my review of the previous book that I really enjoyed watching Nora discover who she is now she’s not in the convent and that process of self discovery continues in this. The mystery is good, but the characters are almost better – with Nora and Rideout bickering, as well as the regulars at the boarding house and Hosmer. The post-World War II setting also works really well, with the seediness and shabbiness of a seaside town conjuring a distinct atmosphere. I really really loved it, and I can’t wait for the next one. My only regret is that I read it in March ahead of a May release – and so I’ve got even longer to wait for book three. There were some characters from book one who didn’t make a reappearance in book two, which I hope means they will pop up again in a future book, because there are certainly some unanswered questions left at the end of this.
I got my copy from NetGalley as I said at the top, but it’s out today in hardback and actually came out on Tuesday in Kindle and Kobo. It should be fairly easy to get hold of because I’ve seen the first one all over the place.
This one has been out in the US for about a month now, but the new novel from Emma Straub is out in the UK today. American Fantasy is set on a cruise for fans of a 90s boyband, where thousands their now grown up fans are on a ship with all five band members. One of the cruisers is Annie who’s really only there to keep her sister happy, but reconnects with a part of herself that she’s forgotten and (per the blurb) “By the time she meets one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend—she has accessed a new sense of possibility.” If this is going where I think it might be going, it’s joining a number of books along the same lines in the last few years – but this being Emma Straub I could be completely off base with where this ends up. So I’m looking forward to reading it, and expecting to see it in the shops quite a lot.
The third Theatreland mystery featuring stage manager Hattie comes out today and the fact that I’ve picked this to highlight this week should probably not be a surprise to you as the first book was a BotW back in February and the second one was one of my favourite new books of last year. According to the blurb, Hattie Breaks A Leg sees Hattie struggling to find work because of all the enemies she’s made. And that’s why she finds herself working on a one night only vanity project. But when a friend comes looking for help to escape serious trouble, she finds herself sucked into a cat and mouse game with some shady types. I really enjoyed the first two books and I’m really looking forward to reading this when my preorder arrives (hopefully today). And because I think it’s a bit under the radar I’m happy to keep banging on about these because I think they deserve it
Hattie Breaks a Leg is out today in paperback, on Kobo and in Kindle Unlimited. I’m hoping that it will relatively easy to find in bookshops too – I’ll be keeping an eye out and reporting back!
A slightly rule-breaking choice this week on an author repitition point, but I have a valid reason for this apart from the fact that this one comes out this week and so is timely. Read on and all will become clear. I promise.
Sierra and Benji were meant to be together – until the stillbirth of their baby ripped them apart. After their devastating loss, they struggled to carry on working together at Sierra’s family’s ranch and so Benji got a new job as a wrangler across the border in Utah. But when circumstances mean Benji is needed back at the ranch, the two of them have to find a way of working together – and may be that will also see them finding their way back to each other.
Now the baby loss isn’t mentioned in the blurb for this – it’s just called “a devastating twist of fate” but given that this has a big warning from the author before the book about the book being something you might want to avoid for people who are struggling with starting a family that I feel like it’s only fair to mention it. Also Blue Devil Woman is the second book in Sloane Fletcher’s Hunt Ranch series and it is mentioned in the first book because Sierra and Benji are the main secondary side characters in that. And that is one of the reasons that I wanted to write about it is because when I previewed that first book, Night Rider, and then reviewed it in Quick Reviews my main point was that the cover didn’t reflect the content – ie that it was very much a romantic suspense novel. So I wanted to read this second book both because I wanted to see how Sierra and Benji worked it out but also whether the working out of it was going to be a romantic suspense as well.
And the answer is that it’s much more of a straight romance novel. The tension in it doesn’t come from an external threat as it does in Night Rider, it comes from the loss that Sierra and Benji have suffered and the different ways that they are dealing (or not dealing) with it. And so the warning at the start about who this might be suitable for is very apt. I do think that for people in some circumstances this is going to be too much grief and loss. But with that said, I though that it needes something else within the plot to help propel it along – I felt like there was a lot of time spent covering the same ground over and over rather than moving the narrative on (*slight spoilers at the bottom) and then when we got to the resolution it was over a little quickly and felt a bit rushed.
Now I get that this isn’t an entirely positive review – and usually Book of the Week is my favourite thing I read in a week, and this doesn’t quite fit that. However it is the book that I read last week that I had the most to say about and so I feel justified in my choice!
My copy came from NetGalley, but it’s out on Thursday in the UK in Kindle and in paperback, although strangely not until October on Kobo.
Happy Reading!
*after a certain amount of time I didn’t any more demonstrations that Sierra was dealing with her loss by ignoring it and keeping busy so that she couldn’t/didn’t think about it, and the way that she kept pushing Benji away started to get almost irritating because it felt like she was stuck in a moment she wasn’t willing to try and get out of. Now that may be a very accurate representation of baby loss, but when it’s the driving element in a romance plot and happening over and over, it started to feel like there wasn’t enough to the plot and the book either needed to be shorter or needed another element to it.
It’s Thursday and I’ve got another book for you that is out today (in the UK). Murder at the Hotel Orient is set in modern day Vienna at an (in)famous hotel where cameras are forbidden, guests use aliases and lovers can enjoy a night of debauchery. But when two people are found dead after a party, concierge Sterling Lockwood has to work out who the killer is in order to clear her name. This one is on my virtual to read pile and yes, I know I said I was getting a bit ahead on some of the NetGalley reads, but no, this wasn’t one of them. I don’t know why, it just wasn’t. But I will get to it…
A mini bonus review for you this week as A Death in the Dark, the second book in the Novel Detectives series came out and I have read it already! This sees Annie and Fletcher investigating after the high school’s track coach comes into their offices covered in blood and claiming not to remember the previous evening. When the body of his assistant coach is found, it becomes a murder investigation and Annie and Fletcher find themselves digging into a tangled web of secrets among the staff at the high school to try and work out who the killer is. I had the murderer pegged pretty early on, but there were enough twists and turns going on to keep me guessing about whether I really was right! I like the set up and the characters, although because the series has a running story going on in the background I find that the actual murder-of-the-week is perhaps less complex than other series. However, I do want to find the answer to the long running backstory so I will definitely keep reading them!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 