This week I wanted to mention that we have a new book from B K Borison this month – and it’s got Sleepless in Seattle vibes. Borison is the author of the very popular Lovelight Farms books, which I’ve read one of, but have been all over all the bookshops in the last year. First Time Caller is the first in a new series called Heartstrings. That name seems to come from the Baltimore radio show hosted by the hero of the book, Aiden who despite the fact that it’s a romance hotline is over love. Our heroine is Lucie, whose daughter calls in to Aidens show for some dating advice for her mum. I am a big Nora Ephron fan and really like Sleepless in Seattle, for all that it has some slightly stalkery vibes at times, so I’m looking forward to seeing how Borison has taken inspiration from the movie and updated it for the 2020s
January was quite a quiet month on the book release front as usual but the start of February is somewhat busier. This wee there are a few new cozy crime books out, but the one I want to mention is the latest in Lynn Cahoon’s Tourist Trap series. Vows of Murder is the seventeenth in the series about Jill Gardner, a bookstore owner in California. I’ve read five of the series – but one of the reasons that I wanted to mention the latest one today is because the other sixteen are all in Kindle Unlimited at the moment. So if you want to take a dip into the work of South Cove now might be the ideal time.
It’s the end of January, but most of the books out this week are scary thriller type books, which are really not my thing, so instead I wanted to mention a new middle grade fantasy novel that’s out this week. The Secrets of Underhill sees a young apprentice who is trying to save a grove of magical trees. It sounds like a really interesting idea with an environmental theme that’s seems like it will appeal to youngsters.
Obviously this week the big release is the new Rebecca Yarros book – which has had the big midnight opening, parties and events type release. But given that I still haven’t started that series and that everyone bookish has probably already heard about it, I wanted to mention something different – which is that there is a new Jill Shalvis out this week as well. It’s the seventh in the Sunrise Cove series which I am (still) a few books behind because I keep waiting for the ones I’m missing to be on offer and it seems to never happen! But this is a wintery entry with a heroine who needs help to find her off-grid parents who have gone missing and the only person that she can trust to help is her ex – an investigator for the Parks Service who is currently stuck at home injured. I love a second chance romance – and this sounds like a really interesting premise too so I’m looking forward to reading this when I can get my hands on it.
I try and write one of these every year, and as ever the new books are weighted towards the start of the year because those are the ones that we know about already and the later part of the year is somewhat less clear. But if you go back and read yesterday’s series post you’ll see quite a few books there in the back half of the year, so it does even out a little bit.
Let’s start with something I have mentioned before: the new Taylor Jenkins Reid – Atmosphere – which comes out in June and which I had pre ordered about 30 seconds after I found out that it existed. It’s set in the 80s and about astronauts in the space shuttle programme and I am very excited to read it.
Next up is one that came out this week and is blurbed as “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins” – Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagin. It’s about an elusive best selling author who has managed to keep her real identity a secret but is now ready to face her past. I will be reading this, probably sooner rather than later.
Also due to be read sooner rather than later (because I have a copy from NetGalley) is Murder in the Dressing Room which is a murder mystery set in Soho with a drag queen detective. It’s written by Holly Stars, who is a drag queen and writer who wrote the drag murder mystery play Death Drop which has had a couple of runs in London. It’s out in early February and I’m hoping for good things.
On the non fiction front we have Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold coming in March. This is her first book after the really successful and very very good The Five and she’s now turning her attention to Doctor Crippen – again looking at a notorious murder from the point of view of the women involved.
And then let’s finish with a couple of romance novels: Emily Henry’s next novel is Great Big Beautiful Life which is coming on April 22, and Ashley Poston has Sounds like Love coming on June 17. The Emily Henry has two writers in completion to tell the story of a famous heiress and the Poston has a songwriter whose parents are closing down the family’s music venue.
Happy Friday everyone, today I wanted to mention some of the series that I’ve written about that have new books coming this year. And there are quite a few, this list is by no means exhaustive and are also in no particular order…
Lets start with one I haven’t mentioned yet – book ten in the Rivers of London series, which is coming in July. It’s called Stone and Sky and it sees Peter Grant on holiday in Scotland. Side note: I can’t believe this was announced in November and I missed it! I have mentioned the new Susan Ryeland mystery from Anthony Horowitz though, The Marble Hall Murder which is out in April. Also already mentioned is the eighth and final Thursday Next book is due in November, and I am unreasonably excited about it. It’s called Dark Reading Matter and it’s been a long wait. Also in November is the fifth Her Majesty The Queen Investigates book, The Queen Who Came in from the Cold.
The fifth book in the Three Dahlias series, is coming in July and is called A Deadly Night at the Theatre – which makes it the first not to have Lively in the title. Katy Watson has said that she’s already working on the sixth book – which is currently titled Bon Voyage, Dahlia and which is the last book on her current contract for the series, but she doesn’t know if it’s the final book yet (despite as she says the ominous working title) but will by the end of this year.
In the autumn we also have the return of the Thursday Murder Club. Richard Osman hasn’t revealed the title of Book five in the series yet let alone anything about the plot, but it’s out in September. Donna Andrews has her usual (!) two books in the Meg Langslow series coming – firstly book 37 which is called For Duck’s Sake on August 5th, and then the Christmas one which this time is called Five Golden Wings in early October.
Lady Hardcastle number 12, The Beast of Littleton Woods is out in May and Simon Brett has a new Fetherings book coming in April – but sadly no news on whether there is a new Charles Paris also in the works. I’m getting very behind on the series, but Tasha Alexander has an 18th Lady Emily coming in September. Amazon also thinks there’s a new Kate Shackleton coming in March – but it has no title and no blurb yet, so that may just be pie in the sky!
And finally, dateless, but very exciting: Kerry Greenwood has a new Phryne Fisher in editing. She said in October that Murder in the Cathedral will be out in 2025 some time, and I am more than happy to wait for it – just knowing it’s written and coming is almost enough!
After including The Reunion as one of my favourite Not New books of 2024, it would be remiss of me not to mention that her next novel is out on Kindle today. The Lodge is about a writer who snags the job of ghosting the memoir of a former boyband member. The blurb says that she moves to a penthouse in Vermont to get the job done, but while she’s combing through her clients voicemails and documents to try and work out what happened to one of his bandmates who went missing, she starts taking skiing lessons with a handsome instructor called Tyler. As I said in the best of the year post, The Reunion was bang in the current trend for books about former teen stars – and there also seems to be a trend starting for books about ghost writers. It’s described as a cozy rom-com so I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens.
It’s the end of the year and there aren’t a lot of books being published at the moment, but Alexis Hall has a new one out this week so here we are. Something Extraordinary is the third in Hall’s Something Fabulous series and I have somewhat mixed views here. I really like a lot of Hall’s modern set books like Boyfriend Material but I really disliked the first in this series to the point where I nearly didn’t finish it. And o didn’t finish the follow up to Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake. But these are now in KU and this one has a marriage of convenience (which is a trope I like) and Highwaymen (which I can also quite like) so I may give the series a second chance…
I was trying to get this finished in time for today, but I totally failed because: theatre and reading challenge completion attempts. But if you’re in the US, you can get your hands on this now. It’s comped as The Hating Game meets Beach Read, one of which I loved – the other triggered some of my issues with people behaving unprofessionally. So far this is skirting on the edge of them being too awful to each other for redemption, but I’m only a third of the way through. I will report back…
I finally got myself up to date with Ann Granger‘s Campbell and Carter books earlier this year – and now we have an eight in the series. Death on the Prowl is out in hardback today and despite the December release date, doesn’t look like it’s set at Christmas – or at least if it is it’s not mentioned in the blurb! It sees Jess and Ian investigating the murder of an unpopular man who inherited a cottage in a Cotswold village after his aunt’s tragic death and who is still seen as an outsider by the locals. I’m looking forward to reading it – although I’ll probably wait until the paperback in May on account of my matching set issue – and I am very glad that Granger has added to this series (and Mitchell and Markby the other year) as well as continuing to write her historical murder mysteries.
Here’s the link to the Kindle and Kobo editions – and I’m hoping the physical copies will show up in shops, they certainly usually do at the bigger stores like Waterstones Gower Street and Piccadilly or Foyles on Charing Cross Road.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 