It’s nearly the end of January and there’s a bit of a rush of books by authors I like coming out over the next few weeks. Today it’s Kate Clayborn and Georgie, All Along. You may remember that Kate’s previous books, Love Lettering and Love At First were Book of the Week picks here, so I’m a fan (and there’s more tomorrow on that front). This is about a personal assistant who returns to her home town from her hectic life in LA and has to put herself first for once. I’ve started it – and so far, so good! The Ali Hazelwood blurb on the cover is useful – if you like her, you may well like this although Clayborn’s heroine tend to be less tiny woman and HUGE MAN!
Georgie, All Along is out now in Kindle and Kobo in the UK, the paperback comes out here later in the year but I think in the US you can get it today.
Lets start with authors I love who have new things coming. And the first is Andrew Cartmel – I love the Vinyl Detective books and he has what appears to be a related/in the same world book coming – The Paperback Sleuth: Death in Fine Condition is out in early June and I already have it preordered. A couple of days later there is a new Rivers of London novella (which I also have preordered) – it’s called Winter’s Gifts and that’s about all we know so far. I also have the Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers preordered – I can’t remember where I heard about it at this point, but it’s set in 1946 and is about a young woman taking on Big Tobacco and sounds really intriguing.
There’s a new Max Tudor book out later this year, but before that GM Malliet has the second book in her Augusta Hawke series out – I have it on NetGalley, although I haven’t read the first in the series yet! In fact I have quite a lot of stuff on NetGalley waiting for me. I’d been doing really well at being restrained, and then suddenly a whole bunch of stuff dropped and I got a little request happy. So I have the new Tom Hindle after I enjoyed A Fatal Crossing last year and the new Emily Henry because I loved Book Lovers so much it made my end of year list. Most of the rest are cozy crimes though – for me to try out and see if I like.
And after I had pulled together most of this post, Lucy Parker announced the title of her new book. Which is very, very exciting. You may remember that I binge reread the London Celebrities series last year in the absence of a new Lucy Parker book and this is the much awaited sequel to Battle Royal – which you may remember was a book of the week back in 2021. Yes I’ve got to wait until August for Codename Charming but I will wait happier knowing that it’s coming. The blurb says it’s a fake relationship with a grumpy sunshine couple and I am *very* excited. And it gives me a good excuse to reread Battle Royal too. Bonus.
This has ended up being shorter than I expected – despite the late arriving Lucy Parker – but I’m hoping that’s because the rest of the new books I’m going to love this year haven’t been announced yet! Here’s hoping…
Genuinely very excited for this one – the fourth in Jen DeLuca’s Renaissance Fair series, which came out on Tuesday and I’m hoping will be waiting for me at home when I get there tonight, because like a fool I preordered the paperback again, not the kindle edition (it’s the preorder price guarantee that makes the difference half the time tbh). Anyway, this features Dex, one half of Duelling Kilts who we met in the Cyrano-y plot of Well Played, and Lulu who is the cousin of Mitch – the other half of Duelling Kilts who was the hero of that last book. Dex has been a playboy-y figure whenever we’ve seen him so far and I’m looking forward to seeing how DeLuca deals with that again – having done it really successfully with Mitch in Well Matched and considering that Well Played with Dex has been the one that I liked the least so far – although I didn’t dislike if if you know what I mean!
The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sancho by Paterson Joseph is out today! I’ve started this but I haven’t finished it yet but I’m really enjoying it. This is another fictionalised real person novel – and you know how I love them. This time it’s a writer and composer who lived in Regency London. I hadn’t heard of him, but he’s been on a postage stamp, on a list of Great Black Britons and was a google doodle on October 1 2020 to mark black history month. His Wikipedia page is quite something. Obviously I need to finish it, but so far I think it would make a great candidate for your Christmas book list.
Every now and again I like to do a post about stuff I’ve got preordered and the anticipated books list, so as we head towards the autumn, I thought now was a good time to have a quick look ahead to what’s going to be dropping onto my doormat or my kindle in the next few months…
You’ve seen this list before. It’s got a little bit more blue than last time, and now it goes all the way to the bottom of the page. I’ve included it again as a bit of a reminder of what we’ve had going on this year – and some of the stuff I’ve already talked about in Anticipated books part one and part two.
Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell and Lady Julia Grey series are favourites of mine, so I’m really looking forward to her new book Killers of a Certain Age, about a group of retired female assassins. It’s out in about a week, and I have the kindle version pre-ordered and the paperback one (which is out early in 2023 here) just because I can!
In early October, the new book from Mary Roach is coming out in paperback here – it’s called Animal, Vegetable, Criminal. Roach writes amazing non-fiction books about quirky subjects, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this one. And once again, I’m getting it in paperback because they’re just more portable than hardbacks. Also all my other books of hers are in paperback and you know what I’m like for matching sets…
You already know about Carrie Soto is Back, which is also just days away now, and Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie biography, which is out in the autumn. And it’s probably not a surprise that I’ve got the next of Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock mysteries pre-ordered too – although A Tempest at Sea isn’t actually out until March 2023.
It’s not a preorder, and it’s also another 2023 book, but I’ve also got the next Kate Claybourn book via Netgalley, although to be honest, I’ll probably end up buying the paperback too. And I think that’s the lot. For now at least…
Ok so I haven’t finished this yet, but I wanted to give a mention to Dr Janina Ramirez’s new book, Femina, which is out today. She’s one of my favourite historians at the moment – I’ve enjoyed her TV shows and podcasts that she’s presented and been a guest on and I’m really enjoying her examination of the Middle Ages, looking at the women history has forgotten (or ignored). The Middle Ages are not one of the areas that I studied in much depth at university (I tended to stick to post 1485) but she has a very readable style and I’m learning a lot!
As you probably guessed from the fact that I’ve already started reading it, My copy came via NetGalley, but you should be able to buy Femina from all the usual places – Kindle, Kobo etc – and I’m hoping it will be in the bookshops too, like Foyles, even if I can’t see any click and collect copies at the moment.. Oh and Janina reads the audiobook herself.
I’m actually quite excited about this – you may remember that I loved Miss Austen a couple of years ago, and now Gill Hornby has written another book with Jane Austen and her family in it. I have a copy, but I haven’t finished it yet, so I can’t write a review (yet) but I wanted to mention it here today because I haven’t seen anywhere near as many mentions of this as I did of Miss Austen when that was about to come out!
There were lots of options for this post today. I like a week like that. I’ve gone for a historical romance because it’s been a few weeks and this was a lot of fun and I needed something fun and frothy and if I hadn’t written it already, another entry for the marries the person you’re trying to save someone from post.
Kitty Talbot’s parents have died, leaving their daughters with debts and an uncertain future. Determined to secure her sisters’ future, she decides the solution is to marry well and heads to London with the last money they have to try to secure a rich husband. She’s never moved in this sort of society before, but with the help of her mother’s best friend she’s sure she can succeed. And indeed she soon attracts a suitor and is intent on reeling him in, until his older brother, Lord Radcliffe comes to town to put a stop to it. He knows she’s a fortune hunter and is determined to keep her out of his family, but somehow he finds himself helping her ingratiate herself with the ton…
As you might be able to tell from that summary – which doesn’t even cover half the book – this has got a lot of plot and a lot of twists. It rattles along so fast that you don’t have time to think about it, but when I was trying write that plot summary I realised how much had gone on beside the whole fortune hunter main idea. It pulled it off, but I do wonder whether there are any ideas left for Sophie Irwin’s next book! But I enjoyed this a lot so I’ll definitely be looking for it when it comes to see. It’s “not quite in the common way” of the historical romances I have read recently, not least because the steam level is basically smouldering glances for most of the book and never gets higher than kissing – so not so much enemies to Lovers as enemies to soon to be marrieds!
My copy came from NetGalley, but it’s coming out on Thursday in ebook and hardback and if you pre-order it today it’ll drop onto your Kindle or Kobo or your doormat on release day.
I honestly don’t know how I had missed that this was coming. Linda Holmes’ debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over, was one of my favourite new releases of 2019 and I’ve been really looking forward to whatever she wrote next.
Flying Solo is out in mid June and is set in the same town as Evvie Drake. According to the blurb, our heroine Laurie is returning to her hometown to handle the estate of her great aunt. While she’s back, she discovers a love letter to her unmarried aunt and gets caught up in “a righteous caper” to track down a mysterious wooden duck that goes missing from her aunt’s possessions. Doesn’t that sound excellent? I’m super excited anyway, and currently figuring out the best way of getting my hands on it!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 