Tag: book preview

Book previews

Out This Week: New Annabel Monaghan

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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.

Book previews

Out Today: New Emma Straub

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UK cover of American Fantasy

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.

Authors I love, Book previews

Out This Week: New Kate Clayborn

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Kate Clayborn has consistently written some of my favourite books of any year that she has published a book, so it would be remiss of me not to mention that she has a new book out this week. It’s called The Paris Match and it’s about a woman who heads to Paris for her former sister-in-law’s wedding, where she accidentally gives the bride cold feet and ends up butting heads with the best man who wants her to fix it. I love the sound of this, and I love a book set in Paris. I had this pre-ordered in paperback (as you can maybe tell because of the photo!) and I’m planning on making this my post Easter reading treat. In the meantime, you can read my posts about The Other Side of Disappearing, Georgie, All Along, Love Lettering and the Chance of a Lifetime series.

Book previews

Out This Week: The Geomagician

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The stats are coming up tomorrow as a Good Friday treat for you all, but before we get to that given that I’m on a run of cozy fantasy books I wanted to mention this one, which came out on Tuesday and which I’m already reading (but haven’t finished yet so this isn’t a review!). This is an alternative history type historical fantasy in a world where magic is real and Mary Anning (who was a real life fossil collector and palentologist) is a struggling fossil dealer who wants to be accepted into the Geomagical Society of London but is stymied by her gender and her lack of formal higher education. But one day she is out fossil hunting after a landslide when a pterodactyl egg hatches in her hand. Ajax could be the thing that makes her career – but the emissary from the society is her former fiancé and soon she is stuck between rival factions of the society with their own agendas. This is blurbed by Heather Fawcett (as in Emily Wilde and Agnes Aubert) which is why I requested it – so far (just over a third in) it’s a bit less cozy and has more religion than I was expecting, but I’m interested to see where it goes and how it all gets resolved.

Book previews, graphic novels

Out This Week: Soulless Manga Omnibus

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I’ve written a lot about Gail Carriger’s Parasolverse before, but it’s been two whole years since I last wrote a post about it, so I think it’s only fair to do this week’s new book post about the omnibus edition of the Soulless manga, which came out on Tuesday. This is exciting because the individual editions which you can see in my picture are out of print and have been for a while (I’m very glad I splurged on them back in the day) and so it means that (hopefully) it will get a bit of a new life with the omnibus.

soulless omnibus cover

The manga covers the first three books in the story of Alexia Tarabotti, namely Soulless, Blameless and Changeless. I would tell you where that takes you to in her story, but that would be a spoiler so all I will say is that there are two more books – Heartless* and Timeless – after this, which haven’t been turned into manga (and won’t be) but it does work as a trilogy. I’m a graphic novel reader rather than a manga one, but I really did enjoy these and I’m glad to have them on my shelf. I will also be telling the comic book store to make sure they get a copy of the omnibus because I think there will be a customer or two who would like it.

*I’m still angry that my Heartless is a different size to the rest of the series, and if I ever see a copy that is the same size as the others I will be buying it so I can shelve them in order by chronology not by size because you can see from my photo what an absolute mess it is.

Book previews

Out Today: New Alan Bennett

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A bit left field for this week’s new book because Alan Bennett is a legend. This officially comes out today, but the copy I pre-ordered for my little sister arrived on Tuesday. So you may already have your copy too. Enough Said is the fourth volume of Bennett’s diaries, taking you from 2016 – 2024 when Alan turned 90. He will be 92 in May and so every new thing at this point is a blessing and a treat. A Question of Attribution was on TV over Christmas, and I’m waiting for The Choral to pop up on a streaming service so I can catch up on that too.

Book previews

Out this Week: Liza Minnelli memoir

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promo image for Liza memoir

Honestly I’m torn between excitement and fear for this one. Kids Wait Until You Hear This was one of the books I mentioned in my anticipated books post, and as I said in that her discipline in maintaining her public persona is iron clad – as you could see in the authorised documentary about her last year – that I’m dubious about whether there will be anything new here but if there is it will be fascinating. I’ve also been a little bit worried about the AI dance track that she contributed vocals to along with the uptick in content she’s been featuring in on her socials given how frail she looked on Drag Race and in her appearance at the Oscars a few years back, but hey, hopefully all of it is her choices. I have my copy pre-ordered anyway…

Book previews

Out this Week: Alexandra Vasti

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I’ve got one for the historical romance fans this week, while you wait for the second half of the latest series of Bridgerton to arrive next week! This is a paperback release of the first two books in Alexandra Vasti’s Halifax Hellions series – In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation and In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint – rather than something new-new, so serious fans may have read already. I have Vasti on my to-read-once-the-pile-goes-down list because so many people in the romance communities that I hang out in are huge fans of her books, and she’s also a really interesting interview, which is usually a good sign too. This is out in Kindle next week, but in the meantime Ladies in Hating, which came out in September is on offer on Kindle for 99p!

Happy Reading!

Book previews

Out This Week: New Chicago Stars

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The NFL season may be over and the Seahwawks have taken the Vince Lombardi trophy back to Seattle, but this week we have a new addition to Susan Elizabeth Philips’s Chicago Stars series. I’ve written about these before – the last one actually came out the week following the Super Bowl too, but they remain one of my favourite sports romance series (maybe my actual favourite?) despite the huge swaths of NFL and NHL romances that are on the shelves at the moment. The new book is called And the Crowd Went Wild, and it has a star quarterback and an actress as the duo – now I could get cynical about this (yes Taylor is a pop star and Travis is a tight end, not a QB) except that it’s Susan Elizabeth Philips and this is what she does but also I just heard Julia Quinn recommend it on last week’s Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast. I’m really looking forward to reading this when I get hold of it.

Book previews

Out Today: Misty Divine sequel

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Cover of Missing in Soho

It’s the first Thursday of February, and I wanted to mention that there is a sequel out today to one of last February Quick Review books, Murder in the Dressing Room. The sequel is called Missing in Soho and has a missing photographer and an attack on a private detective. As I wrote in that review of the first book, there is was a big hanging plot thread left in that one, so I’m intending to read this one to find out what happens next. I will try and remember to report back! It also should be noted that that first book has had a bit of a cover redesign since last year so don’t be confused if you spot the paperback in the shops and it looks a bit different to the one from last year.

New cover of Murder in the Dressing Room
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