New Books Releasing WE 08.09.24
New Books Publishing Week of
02 September 2024
Welcome to this week's new book releases. The first week of the month starts off strong with one that I enjoyed so much as well as some new series to try.
The Gods Below
by Andrea Stewart
A divine war shattered the world leaving humanity in ruins. Desperate for hope, they struck a deal with the devious god Kluehnn: He would restore the world to its former glory, but at a price so steep it would keep the mortals indebted to him for eternity. And, as each land was transformed, so too were its people changed into strange new forms - if they survived at all.
Hakara is not willing to pay such a price. Desperate to protect herself, and her sister Rasha, she flees her homeland for the safety of a neighboring kingdom. But when tragedy separates them, Hakara is forced to abandon her beloved sister to an unknown fate.
Alone and desperate for answers on the wrong sid of the world, Hakara discovers she can channel the magic from the mysterious gems they are forced to mine for Kluehnn. With that discovery comes another: her sister is alive, and only the rebels plotting to destroy the God Pact can help rescue her.
But only if Hakara goes to war against a god.
The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen
The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…
I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.
Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won't notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus' patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.
The worst god. Hades.
For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.
So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?
I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?
Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
A Dawn of Gods & Fury by K.A. Tucker
"Prophecy always finds a way."
The will of the fates has come to pass. Monsters swarm from the depths, while dragons soar overhead. And the throne of Islor lies vacant... but not for long.
Fleeing the merciless sirens, Tyree and Annika find themselves stranded on a distant shore. Forced together to survive, they find old magics and terrifying new enemies. For Romeria and Zander, the long-held secrets of the casters' magic reveal a chance to finally master the power that has held all their lives in the balance for too long.
But with power comes betrayal. And sacrifices must be made.
The Cursed by Harper L. Woods
Betrayal.
He was the deception waiting in the night; the truth I never saw coming. After a lifetime of manipulation, I finally learned the truth. I was his puppet—even if I never saw my strings.
Even knowing how deep his betrayal runs, I can’t shake the undeniable connection between Gray and I—the way a single glance from him sets my soul on fire. We are not the same. We're enemies, poised to battle for the future of the very thing I’d wanted to destroy.
With the Covenant gone, the revenge I thought I wanted is no longer my priority. The witches that remain played no role in my aunt’s death, and the only person standing in the way of righting those wrongs is the very man determined to keep me in his bed.
But the remaining members of the Coven will never forgive me for the role I played in their demise and subjugation, and the worst part of all is that I can’t even blame them for it. I’d been naive, believing my own delusions of grandeur when destiny clearly had other plans for me. Plans that had been set in motion centuries before my birth.
But even that had been a lie, and now it is my duty to do everything in my power to undo it.
To protect my Coven from my husband’s hatred—no matter what the cost.
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.
Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.
To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.
When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.
Repeat After Me by Jessica Warman
She’s about to have a serious temporal tantrum.
In retrospect, I probably should have passed on the ceviche.
It was already a weird Friday. My class is stuck on an eerily remote island for our senior trip, I’m pretty sure Mr. D (“call me Max”) is hiding something from us, my ex–best friend turned nemesis keeps stealing my candy, and tonight’s plan for my boyfriend and me to finally lose our virginity to each other is going hellishly.
I mean, ceviche is delicious, don’t get me wrong. But a dish made from a supposedly immortal octopus should really come with a warning label.
Caution: consuming a telepathic sea creature of unknown origin may result in immortality, no consequences to any actions, and getting stuck in a time loop for all of eternity.
Now every morning I wake up, and it’s the same Friday all over again. Same annoying classmates. Same island suspended in time by an evil oyster farmer with a God complex. Same outrageous candy theft. The only person I can count on to keep me from losing my grip on this new reality is Louis, my best friend who knows me better than anyone else in this world.
This should be a cephalopod-induced nightmare but somehow—in some ridiculous way—I feel like I’m experiencing the extraordinary, the gift of endless opportunities to get things right. But when I wake up every morning and it’s Friday again, sometimes it feels more like a never-ending prison sentence.
They say some things are worse than death…guess I’m about to find out.
On the Hunt by Iris Johansen
Kira Drake has come to Paris with her highly trained Golden Retriever, Mack, to investigate the horrific bombing of a museum in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. What she doesn’t know is that one powerful man has a special reason to find the person responsible.
Jack Harlan has all the money in the world, but it can’t bring his brother back. His sibling was murdered during the theft of a scientific discovery that could have made the world a better place. Now, after a four-year search, Harlan learns that this bombing was the work of the same twisted man.
Kira and her dog are in demand from law enforcement agencies all over the world, but Harlan convinces her to continue the investigation for his own purposes, wherever it may lead. So against her better judgment, Kira finds herself on the hunt, placing her trust in Harlan. For what she hopes is justice. When what he may be seeking is vengeance.
The Many Lies of Veronica Hawkins by Kristina Pérez
When Martina Torres arrives in the glamorous and vibrant metropolis of Hong Kong, newly married to her high school sweetheart, the world seems to be her oyster. But looks can be deceiving. Adrift in a foreign city, with no job and no friends, Martina chafes in her new role as Expat Wife.
But her luck changes when she meets Veronica Hawkins. Beautiful, sophisticated, and very, very rich, Veronica is the epitome of Old Hong Kong—the last surviving member of a British mercantile dynasty that built the city during its colonial heyday. Martina can hardly believe her fortune when she's taken under Veronica's wing and into her confidence, with Veronica helping her to find a new apartment, a new career, and most importantly, a new self.
Veronica transforms Martina's life and then, shockingly, she dies. She disappears over the side of a yacht during a party attended by Hong Kong's most influential people—yet somehow there are no witnesses.
Was it murder? Suicide? A terrible accident? What really happened to Veronica Hawkins?
Somebody knows but nobody's telling.
Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker
Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation.
But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we race between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her?
The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
Still reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living, but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book—a heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird containing a memento she can’t be without—to a local little community library, she’s devastated. But then the book turns up a week later, back in the library with fresh notes in the margins, along with an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations to meet her newfound pen pal.
A life-changing conversation, written only in the margins of beloved classic books, begins between Erin and her Mystery Man. Following each other through the pages of their favorite novels as the book exchange continues, they both begin to open up, falling into a friendship…and maybe something more.
But Erin and her pen pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past—and the one person she swore never to forgive—Erin finds herself at a crossroads. One that could change her life forever.
5 More Sleeps 'til Halloween by Jimmy Fallon
Rich Deas (Illustrator)
In this exciting countdown to Halloween picture book.
It’s 5 more sleeps ‘til Halloween!
That spooky time of year.
Where all of the ghosts are wide awake
As nighttime’s drawing near.
The excitement leading up to spooky season has been enjoyed by so many for so long. Filled with costumes, candy, and big scares! But why not make the last few days before Halloween even more exciting by counting how many sleeps until trick-or-treat night?
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