Category: Book previews

Book previews

2025 preview post

veritywilde

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.

Have a great Saturday!

Book previews, series

2025 series releases

veritywilde

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…

Rivers of London books in a bookshop

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!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Book previews

Out This Week: New Kayla Olsen

veritywilde

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.

Book previews

Out this Week: Something Extraordinary

veritywilde

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…

Book previews

Out This Week: Not In My Book

veritywilde

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…

Book previews

Out this week: New Campbell and Carter

veritywilde

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.

Book previews

Out this Week: New Gail Carriger

veritywilde

This is slightly early – because the official release date for this is Sunday, but depending on how you buy this, I think you might already be able to have The Dratsie Dilemma on your device. This is the latest in Gail Carriger’s San Andreas Shifter series – which features similar sort of supernatural creatures to her Parasol Protectorate and Custard Protocol series, but in modern day California and a very different type of world. It’s been four whole years since the third instalment so I’m really excited to see what next for the found family that we’ve got to know and love.

Book previews

Out This Week: Under the Mistletoe Collection

veritywilde

This is one of those Amazon collections that are free if you’re in Kindle Unlimited and features five novellas from some of the big name romance novels at the moment. So there are stories from Ali Hazelwood, Tessa Bailey, Olivia Dade, Alexandria Bellefleur and Alexis Daria all around a Christmas or holiday theme. Olivia Dade is one of my favourites – and I’ve written about Hazelwood and Bellefleur before, so I’m looking forward to reading these – hopefully at some point in the run up to Christmas – and I’ll try to remember to report back!

Book previews

Out Today: Return to the Dallergut Dream Department store

veritywilde

I’m going to start with the fact that I have no idea why this is coming out on a Friday, when Thursday is the usual book release day in the UK and Tuesday in the US. But that’s what the bookshop websites say, so I’m going with it as it enabled me to post about the new TJR yesterday, even if I then found copies on sale in Foyles yesterday evening on my way to the theatre. And yes. I checked the release date again and it still said preorder on the book sites.

Anyway, this is the sequel to Mi-ye Lee’s The DallerGut Dream Department Store, which came out this time last year (and which has been sitting on my tbr shelf for almost that long) and has been one of the translated fiction books you’ll have seen in the bookshops this year. In the first book we meet Penny, a new employee at the store which sells dreams, in book two she is continuing to learn about the dream industry – and discovers the people who make complaints about their dreams and tries to work out why some people never come back to the shop.

Will this be the push I need to read the first book, for the sake of my TBR pile we can only hope it is…

Book previews

Out Today: New Adele Buck

veritywilde

Another Thursday, another new book to highlight. This time it’s the new Adele Buck book, The Anti-social Season, which is the second in her first responders series and came out today in the UK – and on Tuesday in the US. The first in the series was Fake Flame which I reviewed back when in May when it came out here. That was about a fake relationship between a university professor and a firefighter after her ex tried to win her back with a public proposal which she tried to set on fire. This time it is Christmas themed and has a female firefighter who is about to hang up her active duty hose and a male librarian who is tasked with teaching her about her new job as the squad’s social media manager. I love the fact that the genders are the reverse of what you normally find in a firefighter romance – or a romance involving a librarian – so I can’t wait to read it – I have it on pre-order so it should have dropped onto my Kindle by the time you read this!

If you want to buy it, it’s available now on Kindle and Kobo. And as a bonus, Fake Flame is 99p on Kindle and Kobo at the moment too.