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Adult Summer Reading 2026 |
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Rabbit, Fox, Tar
by P. C. Verrone
A mesmerizing, fable-like debut novel about a mysterious young Black woman whose arrival in an insular neighborhood threatens to shake its foundations When Baby appears in Original Hill, her name is on everyone's lips. A young Black woman is a rare sight in this part of town, and she sits all day on the Foxes' garden wall, swinging her bare feet and speaking to no one. That is, until the charismatic Lucius Lucky Foote comes along and touches her, sparking their romance. Arm-in-arm with Baby, who seems to exert a seemingly supernatural pull on the other residents, Lucky is confident he will secure the open city council seat away from Baby's uncle Eugene Fox, the back-from-retirement white incumbent. With protestors reopening old wounds around the Black neighborhood that was leveled by the nearby highway decades ago and Lucky threatening his position, Fox believes it's not just a city council seat at stake, but the soul of Original Hill. As Baby is woven further into the unraveling community, she begins to stray from Fox's strict rules and question everything, from where she came from to who--and what--she truly is.
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Cages
by Chantel Acevedo
Acevedo has written the impossible: an Odyssey for the Cuban 20th century.--Junot DiazA sweeping, choral portrait of a man as seen through the eyes of those who loved him, feared him, and were betrayed by him.Cages is the story of Felix--a zookeeper in Cuba during the time of the missile crisis, an exile in swinging sixties London, and finally a dying man in 1980s AIDS-era Miami. In this daring novel, Acevedo's most personal and heartfelt to date, the fragments of Felix's story are put together like pieces of a puzzle by one knew him mostly as an absence. Cuba, 1963. Felix risks everything for an illicit love affair with a co-worker. In a society where homosexuality is branded counterrevolutionary, their tenderness unfolds in the shadow of danger, treachery, and political oppression. In London, Felix and his wife Anabel navigate exile and reinvention, while an aspiring actress named Claudia finds herself drawn into their orbit, her ambitions and desires colliding with Felix's own hunger for connection. Years later, Virgilio--Anabel's devoted brother--recounts the disintegration of Felix's marriage and his decision to step in and protect the family Felix abandoned. From Anabel, long silent about her complicity in the events that forced Felix's flight from Cuba, to Rita, the daughter born out of wedlock, each vivid character gives us a different version of Felix, and the result is a dazzling mosaic of longing, deception, survival, and reconciliation. Spanning Havana, London, and Miami over a thirty-year arc, Cages explores exile, forbidden love, fractured families, the nature of truth, and the stories we tell to make sense of the people we cannot forget.
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Drayton and MacKenzie
by Alexander Starritt
A big, bustling novel about love, friendship, money, ambition and the 21st century, packed with humor and intelligent observations . . . I finished it tear-stained.--Sunday Times (UK)Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year--the first work of fiction to grace the list in fifteen years--a sweeping social novel about an unlikely friendship between two men and a plan that could change the world, unfolding over the first two decades of the 21st centuryJames and Roland's paths through life--one drawn in straight lines, the other looping and uncertain--began to cross...James Drayton has always found things too easy. Ambitious, brilliant, disciplined--he graduates with a top first from Oxford and is on track to become the youngest ever partner at leading management consultancy McKinsey. His former classmate Roland Mackenzie, on the other hand, is an impulsive dreamer: charming and restless, his boundless enthusiasm matched only by his knack for self-sabotage.When Roland takes a job at the same firm as James, the two men only vaguely remember one another. But as the financial crisis starts to unfold, a chance encounter sparks an idea, and an unlikely partnership begins to take shape. Sent to Scotland to shutter offices and lay off hundreds of workers, James and Roland begin to wonder: What if they were made for more than this? What if they could build something grand and lasting--something that might even change the world?By turns intimate and panoramic, Drayton and Mackenzie is a deeply intelligent novel about ambition, friendship, and the forces shaping the twenty-first century--the story of two men caught in, and determined to master, the tides of history.
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The Animal Room
by Lauren Acampora
From the award-winning author of The Wonder Garden comes a set of linked stories spotlighting human-animal relations--and revealing the tensions that threaten to fracture a suburban New England communityTensions simmer in small-town Connecticut. A city transplant is haunted by the deer carcass hanging in her neighbor's garage. A psychiatric patient believes she's becoming a bird. A disgraced oil executive invites his granddaughter's kindergarten class to tour his home menagerie--what could go wrong? Rumors spread and fires burn in this second short story collection from award-winning author Lauren Acampora.As in Acampora's debut The Wonder Garden, The Animal Room delves deep into the town of Old Cranbury and its eclectic mix of residents. Incisive and moving, these stories chart the interconnected lives of neighbors, relatives, coworkers, enemies, lovers, and the animals around them, turning an unflinching eye to the natural world to shed light on human nature. Through its riveting ensemble, The Animal Room paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of contemporary American life that is strikingly unique.
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Tata
by Valérie Perrin
A Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated BookVal rie Perrin's First New Novel since her breakout bestseller Fresh Water for FlowersVal rie Perrin is a prodigious storyteller.--Elle Tata is Perrin's most ambitious, most intimate, most liberating, most important book yet.--Le Parisien When Agnes hears from the local police her Aunt Colette has died, she can't believe her ears. Her father's sister Colette, her Tata, died three years ago and has been resting in peace in the cemetery of Gueugnon. Agnes is called to identify the body: there is no doubt, it's Aunt Colette. But then, who rests under the stone engraved with Colette's name? And why did she fake her own death? So begins an investigation back in time, as Agnes pieces together the multitude of stories that lie behind her aunt's second death. An intricate, compelling web of stories told with irony, delicacy and depth, Tata will keep readers glued to every page. A bewitching novel about found family and the transformative power of love.--Foreword Reviews (starred)
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Immersions
by Kyle McCarthy
A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from LitHub Black Swan meets Bluebeard in this novel of sisterly rivalry and obsessive love set in the New York City dance scene. Frances's older sister Charley was a star of the modern dance world. But just as she was ascending, she fell in love with Johnny, an enigmatic trust fund artist, and married him. A few years into their turbulent marriage, Charley mysteriously leaves her dance company and joins an enclosed convent in Provence. Much to the shock of her family, she changes her name to Sister Anne and cuts off contact with the outside world. Frances, a dancer herself, grew up in the shadow of her brilliant sister and is suddenly unmoored without her. From their first uneasy meeting, Frances has distrusted Johnny. Now, she is certain he had something to do with her sister's abrupt abandonment of her art and family. When Frances discovers that Johnny has returned to New York, she reaches out to him, looking for answers and seeking confrontation. The two plunge into an ambiguous intimacy--diving ever deeper, as each tries to unlock the other's secrets. A slender and twisted tale of sexual coming-of-age and of the deep bonds of lust and loyalty, Immersions asks how we are made--and unmade--by desire.
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Sisters of a Halved Heart
by Nayantara Roy
The electric story of two sisters and an unthinkable betrayal. Mira Guhathakurta is a poetry editor at a distinguished literary magazine in New York, a dream job that has given her nearly everything she's always wanted. And then she reconnects with Jack from college--kind, funny, intelligent Jack--and suddenly Mira feels as if she might have found her soulmate. They've woven their lives together so thoroughly; all that remains is for Jack to meet her family: her beloved father and dear sister Joy. But when Joy commits an unthinkable act of betrayal, the sisters are impossibly fractured and their father's heart is broken. As the sisters navigate their tumultuous relationship and Mira starts over, it turns out that Joy isn't the only one who has been--or continues to be--dishonest. In a propulsive story of love and passion and the ultimate pull of family, Sisters of a Halved Heart examines the lengths we will go to in order to make our own narratives of love work out, the lies we tell ourselves, and the ways in which the truth, often right in front of you, can be impossible to see.
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My Adventures With, and Without, the Knight of the Mournful Countenance, His Grace, Don Quixote, as Told by Sancho Panza, Ex-Squire: Edited and Adapte
by Curt Leviant
Award-winning author Curt Leviant delivers a joyful reimagining of the classic tale of Don Quixote through the eyes of his long-overlooked sidekick, Sancho PanzaIn a dusty old second-hand bookshop in a side street in Sevilla, an unnamed narrator discovers a 1751 edition of Don Quixote--one that is narrated, most unusually, by Sancho Panza. With Curt Leviant's signature whimsy, this audaciously titled novel reimagines Cervantes's classic tale through Sancho's eyes, as he and the Don revisit the sites of their former adventures, embark on new ones, and finally go their separate ways when Sancho sets out to write an epic tale of his own, accompanied by a playfully-out-of-place hero from Arthurian romances, Sir Gawain.Rich with literary history and yet utterly original, My Adventures With, and Without, the Knight of the Mournful Countenance, His Grace, Don Quixote, as told by Sancho Panza, Ex-Squire is a reader's romp from the first page.
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A Fortune of Sand
by Ruta Sepetys
The daughter of a powerful tycoon escapes to a glamorous artists' retreat--where dark secrets and dangerous temptations await--in this gripping Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea. Enthralling . . . While history is often molded by those in power, there are always those who can wrest control and write a new story of their own.--Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Personal Librarian and The First LadiesDetroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where glittering wealth conceals a graveyard of secrets. Marjorie Lennox is the youngest daughter of a powerful Detroit dynasty--a family rich in money and poor in charm. Creative, reckless, and never quite what they wanted, Marjorie has spent her life overlooked by her controlling father and self-absorbed siblings. But when she secretly applies to an elite arts program backed by a mysterious patron, she grabs the chance to finally step out of her family's shadow. The building is grand. The talent is extraordinary. And something is deeply wrong. The program is strict in ways that feel sinister. Doors lock at strange hours. Rumors spread about women going missing. And the handsome benefactor behind it all is as magnetic as he is unsettling. As Marjorie gets pulled deeper into his world, she must fight to discover the truth before she loses herself completely. Set in the fading splendor of 1920s Detroit and inspired by real, long-buried events, A Fortune of Sand is a glittering, gothic page-turner about power, control, and the price women pay when they demand to be seen.
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The Library After Dark
by Ande Pliego
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A bookseller must escape the infamously haunted library that holds her darkest secrets, but with a murderer in her tour group, escaping alive is not as simple as it seems, in this twisty locked-room thriller from bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited. Irresistible--bright and sharp and rife with danger, like a shard of mirror.--A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Not all fairytales were meant for children. Aria Stokes is finally feeling settled--she lives in a tiny New York apartment, works as a bookseller at a local shop, and has even taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well. As a Valentine's Day surprise, Jasper gets the two of them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library--the grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and, more notoriously, its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she'd prefer Jasper to know. Like that the last time she was here, she left a body behind. But when the automatic-door entry malfunctions and Aria, Jasper, and the five other people in their tour group become trapped in the library, they are forced to venture through the storied rooms and hidden passageways of the Daedalus in search of escape . . . and Aria quite literally has nowhere to hide from the shadows of her past. Then the group learns there's a murderer in their midst. Now, as she tries to break out of the library's intricate reading rooms, Aria has to decide who she can trust--and what secrets are best kept buried--if she wants to make it out alive.
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Death on the Lanai: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery
by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
The New York Times bestselling series that began with Murder by Cheesecake continues with an all-new Golden Girls cozy mystery! When the Girls accept a very strange invitation to a lavish party on a remote island estate, they find that murder has a way of ruining even the most glamorous of evenings. The invite delivered to 6151 Richmond Street was short on details, only promising to celebrate the greatest artist of the century and accompanied by a jewel-encrusted brooch--the whole package a brand of mysterious opulence that another Saturday night of gin rummy just can't match. Blanche Devereaux's passionate dalliances are as plentiful as hot Southern nights, and surely one can't be expected to remember all of one's suitors. But when the Girls disembark the party's ferry at a small Biscayne Bay island and meet their secretive host, the memories come flooding back: she a Radio City Rockette in her twenties, he the poor artist who could offer her nothing but his love. Fate drove them apart, but Declan, now a famous artist El Toro, professes that Blanche has always been his muse. Featured prominently in his artworks and central to El Toro's return to the apex of the art world, Blanche is thrilled to have been such an inspiring figure to this man. But looking around at a party filled with those who have made their livings off the artist's fame--his assistant, his art dealer, his greatest critic, and more--Dorothy isn't so sure they're welcome on the island after all. When a tropical storm knocks power out across the island, an optimistic Blanche proclaims that everyone looks better by candlelight anyway. But when Declan is found dead the next morning, all eyes are on her, his supposed muse of thirty-plus years. Trapped at the estate with the other guests--suspects all--the Girls must band together to find the true killer and get back to pleasant evenings of card games and cheesecake.
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Heather
by Caitlin Mullen
A small-town detective reopens an unsolved case, sending shock waves across generations of women in this gripping new mystery from the Edgar Award-winning author of Please See Us.1990. In the myth-riddled woods of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, sixteen-year-old Annabelle Riley's twin sister, Sabrina, has been having an affair with a mysterious older man, and Annabelle is determined to uncover what's going on. Then, inexplicably, both sisters disappear.In this same town years later, newly instated police chief Callie Hauser makes an arrest that unexpectedly resurrects details from a heartbreaking cold case. As she digs deeper, the past and the present collide, challenging everything Callie believes about right and wrong, who she is, and the town she's always called home.A propulsive mystery as incisive as it is forgiving, Heather bears a visceral reminder that the truth of a woman's life is often complicated and unknowable--to those on the outside, and sometimes even to herself.
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The Chowder House Murder
by Lee Hollis
The first in a brand new, multi-generational cozy mystery series introduces three generations of strong, no-nonsense women who head the Holbrook family seafood dynasty in Downeast Maine...and a murder the Holbrook matriarch and her granddaughter must solve, even as it entangles them in a web of small-town secrets, and a Hatfields and McCoys-level chowder rivalry. Ever since Halibut Cove's popular eatery, The Chowder House, started serving matriarch Maggie Holbrook's famous clam chowder it's been in high demand. Cooked up at the restaurant by Maggie's ambitious 19-year-old granddaughter, Audrey, the dish even has a regular nightly customer, retiree Chips Hogan. . . . Until one fateful Sunday night. After serving Chips his chowder, Audrey rushes off to Maggie's hilltop home for the weekly family dinner with the rest of the Holbrooks--her three uncles, and her mom, Jill. But before the meal's end, Jill, a police chief, gets an alarming call. Chips has been found in the street--dead. Jill races out to investigate . . . and is shocked to learn Chips' chowder was poisoned. When a Chowder House server recalls seeing local diner cook Waldo Duggan in the alley that same evening, he becomes a suspect. And when it's uncovered that Waldo bitterly believed the Holbrooks stole the lucrative chowder recipe from the Duggans in the 1930's, he's only further implicated . . . Despite everything, Maggie can't believe Waldo would murder anyone. For fair-minded Maggie, to keep an innocent man out of jail, and to ease Audrey's guilt over serving the chowder, there's no choice but to team-up to crime solve. Soon grandmother and granddaughter are immersed in a stew of rivalries, long held feuds, and looming threats. Because beneath the surface, even a pretty town has its ugly side . . .
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It's Hard to Be an Animal
by Robert Isaacs
For readers of Shark Heart and Hollow Kingdom, a funny, magical, and tender novel following a lonely, conflict-averse man whose sudden ability to understand animals sends him on a wild romp around NYC, and ultimately helps him discover his own voice. Strolling through Central Park on a blind date with the hilarious, irrepressible Molly Bent, Henry Parsons is feeling hopeful for the first time in years ... when a migratory warbler, the sweetest of little birds, tells him to f*** off. A gentle soul, troubled enough by the unkindness of fellow humans, Henry tries to brush the moment aside as a hallucination. But soon he's hearing voices everywhere: dogs mocking their owners, sparrows fat-shaming each other, police horses profiling attendees at a street fair -- even a pontificating, misogynistic snake. The man who never speaks up for himself is now besieged by animals who do. When (inevitably) he overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway, he lets it slip to Molly. She's keen to investigate, and Henry's desperate for a second date, so he follows her nervously into an abandoned tunnel under the West Fourth Street Station. There, sure enough, they find a body ... and the murderers find them. Cue the most terrifying week of this cautious man's life. Inspiration and courage arrive from a pair of feuding betta fish and his neighbor's yapping Pomeranian -- whose unexpected wisdom helps Henry find the courage to assert himself at last.
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Artifacts
by Natalie Lemle
For readers of The Cloisters and Counterfeit, Natalie Lemle's debut novel offers an insider's view into the world of stolen artifacts and the hidden networks that link museums to organized crime, when a woman is forced to remember the summer she spent on an archaeological dig in Italy, as everyone she knew then may now be in danger. Successful trusts and estates attorney Lena Connolly is asked by a colleague to assist on a case: the Italian government claims an artifact was looted and sold to a museum illegally and is seeking repatriation. The object in question is a cup made of dichroic glass, which would have been rare even in Ancient Rome, let alone thousands of years later. Lena has done everything she can to put the study abroad summer she spent on an archaeological dig in the Italian Alps behind her. Her dreams of being an archaeologist shattered when her mentor Cyrille disappeared and her enigmatic boyfriend Giamma went dark, but with this new case, the past comes roaring back. Told in alternating timelines, Artifacts follows young Lena as she falls in love with both archaeology and Giamma on the streets of Torino while her adult self pieces together what truly happened on the dig, now a fully restored Roman villa with World Heritage status. The dichroic cup, Lena discovers, may have been taken from the very site she helped unearth. Powerful and exuberant, Natalie Lemle's Artifacts brings readers behind the museum glass and asks questions about cultural heritage and the historical preservation of our shared sense of humanity.
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The Bookseller: A DS George Cross Mystery
by Tim Sullivan
One of the most iconic British fictional detectives of the 21st century.--Daily MailRead enough, and you'll learn how to get away with murderDetective Sergeant George Cross has a knack for dismissing red herrings: He goes by the cold hard facts, and nothing else. But with a concerning development in his personal life, Cross is hopelessly distracted. He needs to rely on those around him: an entirely foreign concept.When the body of a bookseller is discovered lying in a pool of blood in his Bristol bookshop, the police have one question: How did the man meet such a violent, murderous end in this peaceful place?Bookselling may be a quiet profession, but it's full of ambitious characters who know the value of a rare book and the importance of careful plotting. With their extensive reading, they might know enough to get away with murder. But will book learning be enough to fool the tenacious DS George Cross?
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The Children
by Melissa Albert
An extraordinary book. It's a page-turner, full of mystery, but that's the least of it. The language is dusted with magic. The Children reminded me of Ray Bradbury at his best. --Stephen KingThe haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother's beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother's world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother's readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they've made their playland. As Edith Sharpe's books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame--until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith's series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere's childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother's fantasy world?The Children is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own.
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The Unicorn Hunters
by Katherine Arden
In a desperate gamble to save her throne, a young monarch conceals a secret marriage in the shadows of an enchanted forest--and unknowingly alters the fate of her world--in this dazzling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale. This otherworldly hardcover edition includes an illustrated jacket, a foil-stamped case, and designed full-color endpapers I loved every moment I spent in this magical, dangerous, and haunted realm in the company of its clever and captivating duchess.--Naomi Novik, author of A Deadly Education Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is a young woman, sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands, and her body forever in the hands of her enemies. But Anne refuses to be the last duchess of Brittany. Her only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so Anne arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France's greatest rival. But secrets are hard to keep in a world where rival courts spy on each other with diviners. The forest of Broc liande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn and one critical quirk: This ancient forest is completely hostile to divination. While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Broc liande. A bit of pointless pageantry. A diversion so she can wed in secret. Or so she thinks. In this rich and epic novel, the author of the acclaimed Winternight trilogy turns the real history of a remarkable woman into an unforgettable tale of mystery, enchantment, and the price of power.
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We Dance Upon Demons
by Vaishnavi Patel
From the New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi, a galvanizing stand-alone contemporary fantasy following a burnt-out reproductive health care worker as she fights back against escalating attacks on her clinic and the malevolent forces in hot pursuit of her newly acquired power. As a reproductive health care worker in Chicago, Nisha is barely staying afloat in the ocean of abortion bans, screaming protestors, and her own all-consuming depression. When she escapes to the Indian art exhibit at her favorite museum for a brief respite, Nisha suddenly finds herself bleeding, disoriented, and collapsed on the ground. The last thing she remembers is the statue that beckoned her to touch it. In the days that follow, Nisha feels a strange power coursing within her, one that attracts a host of dangerous and enigmatic characters who covet it for themselves. Facing threats both otherworldly and distinctly human, Nisha must navigate uncertain alliances to piece together the centuries-old mystery of her odd and terrifying abilities. And as danger closes in on her loved ones, community, and the clinic she's determined to protect, Nisha must make a choice about the life she wants--and fight all the demons standing in her way to get it.
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The Devil and Mrs. Gooch
by Oliver Darkshire
In the storm-drenched city of Verdigris, home to indolent sorcerers and undead hotels, something is dreadfully wrong. Buildings are starting to crumble due to the kidnapping of their hobs, the many-legged house spirits that keep each home in order. In such times, one would ordinarily blame the Devil, but he has been enchanted by a new and enticing evil: The jackbooted villainy of Gwendolyn Gooch, who has taken the hobs for her latest diabolical scheme--apartments for rent. As the hobs retrofit the gaudy Gooch Towers, the fate of the city lies in the hands of the arboreal Professor Green; his rare, complete set of the Household Gramarye; and its famulus, the prim Mrs. Bobkins.A delightful new novel in a series perfectly cut to fit the Pratchett-shaped hole in my heart (C. M. Waggoner), The Devil and Mrs. Gooch is witty, imaginative, and brimming with charm.The Household Gramarye series may be read in any order you wish, as wizards care little for strict sequentiality.
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The Reimagining of Thornwood House
by Jaleigh Johnson
A witch and her young ward discover a magical, walking house and learn the true meaning of home in this cozy, enchanting novel from New York Times bestselling author Jaleigh Johnson. Evelyn Sharpe is accustomed to dealing with natural disasters as a land witch, but she longs for a life with a little less danger for her and her adopted daughter, Ruby. So when the opportunity to take over as Caretaker of Thornwood House--a sentient home that acts as the magical heart of the village of Iskendra--arises, it seems almost fated. When they arrive in sunny Iskendra, Evie and Ruby find the house is nothing like what they expected: First of all, it has walked away from the address. Thornwood House is also grumpy, guarded, and extremely hesitant to allow the two witches through its doors. Armed with gentle hearts and wild magic, Evie and Ruby begin to form tentative bonds with the house and the citizens of the small town. But there's something deeply damaged about the building seeping into the forests surrounding Iskendra, and Evie will have to use all her power to protect the roots she's started to grow.
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The Lost Book of Lancelot
by John Glynn
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, GOODREADS, AND THE MILLIONS AND A TODAY SHOW BEST BOOK OF MAY A breathtaking (Sarah Penner) reimagining of the legend of Sir Lancelot, following the famous knight as he grows up orphaned, falls in love, and attempts to fulfill his destiny at the Round Table--from the bestselling author of Out East. Richly detailed and evocative. --Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes Hidden away on the Isle of Women, a nameless orphan grows up among a powerful sisterhood, but always at a distance. He hears whispers of a prophecy that may shed light on his destiny--and his true identity: Lancelot. Determined to master the skills of knighthood, he begins training in tandem with the handsome Galehaut. As the two become inseparable, they guide one another toward their truest selves. But no matter how tightly they cling to one another, each has a role to play in the wizard Merlin's grand prophecies. When Lancelot is forced to follow Merlin to Camelot, he fights to protect his heart while seeking the fabled grail alongside King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. But when Roman legionaries encroach on their kingdom, their quest takes on new urgency, as does Lancelot's explosive secret--the truth of what he left behind on the Isle of Women. Steeped in rich medieval lore, The Lost Book of Lancelot is at once an immersive, a poignant love story and an epic, unforgettable tale of a vulnerable boy who is forced to rise to the occasion amid a battle between the old world and the new.
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Muñeca
by Cynthia Gómez
A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process. It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic. Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta's caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why? As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts-- ones she hoped would stay gone forever. Riveting and richly layered, Muñeca explores how far one will go to save the person they love--even if that means damning themselves. Cynthia Gómez fills her debut novel with moments that chill your bones and warm your heart, a razor-sharp examination of deep-rooted issues that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.
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The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance
by Chiara Bullen
A young aspiring scholar is sent to research the mysteries of an adventurer's inn--only to uncover a centuries-old secret, while finding true friendship and a new home, in this heartwarming cozy fantasy. Mount Vengeance is legendary. For most, it's an adventure or a quest to prove themselves worthy of fame and glory. For Ainsworth Gladsly, it's the perfect thesis material. Ainsworth is an ambitious research fellow and up-and-coming historian, finally ready to make his mark on the world. When his supervisor learns of the rumored Misnich Inn at the foot of Mount Vengeance, she sends Ainsworth to be the first to document the exploits of the bold adventurers who seek to face the perils of the mountain and the dragon said to inhabit it. The inn is far from the sophisticated city life he's grown to love, but even as he grudgingly warms to its rustic charm--and its lovely innkeeper, Honey--the mystery of the mountain refuses to reveal itself. Worse, Ainsworth can't find evidence that anyone has ever undertaken the climb. Even the bravest warriors who stay at the inn turn away from Mount Vengeance the next day. With Ainsworth's reputation on the line, he can't allow this mystery to remain unsolved--even if he has to push the adventurers up the mountain himself.
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Sea of Charms: A Spellshop Novel
by Sarah Beth Durst
DELUXE EDITION--a gorgeous hardcover edition featuring beautiful sprayed edges Sarah Beth Durst brings cozy fantasy romance to the high seas in Sea of Charms, the third magical adventure in the New York Times bestselling Spellshop series Marin has always belonged on the great blue sea. Betrayed by love, Marin lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew. On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway--and her friend Dax in the line of fire. What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: Marin will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home. But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile--and realizes that perhaps she isn't saving him. Maybe it's the other way around. Sea of Charms is a cozy fantasy romance about finding your crew, your family, and moreover, finding yourself. Read in whatever order your heart desires, but don't miss The Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse. I, for one, couldn't ask for more. --Sangu Mandanna on The Spellshop Expect: Standalone romanceFriends to loversMagical creaturesSwimming lessons Bramble books by Sarah Beth Durst The Spellshop seriesThe SpellshopThe Enchanted GreenhouseSea of CharmsThe Magical Cheese Emporium
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Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes: A Mystery
by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food cafâe, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area. Even as the police deem Grandy's death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself-- and her beloved cafâe--in the middle of an entire city's worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager Penny Lopâes take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy--
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The Memory Bookshop
by Song Yu-Jeong
For lovers of The Midnight Library and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, discover a spellbinding novel about a mysterious bookshop that exists outside of time and space, where the past is only a page away...
If you're lost or grieving, you'll find The Memory Bookshop, where the shelves are endless; the books, strangely familiar; and where memories are bound in pages.
Jiwon's life has been slowly disintegrating since her mother died. Until one day, caught by a sudden downpour, she stumbles into a mysterious bookstore. Inside, she is met by Manager K and offered no explanation, only a mysterious hourglass and a rare opportunity: to travel back to three chapters of her life.
But returning to the past isn't without risk. In exchange, Jiwon must give up time in her future.
As she wanders between the shelves, the bookshop humming with memories and regrets, she must ask herself: can the past truly be rewritten? Or does the real magic lie in the life she's yet to live?
Warm, wise, and full of wonder, The Memory Bookshop is a story about the journey of grief and the power of books to carry us home.
Step inside the bookshop... Available to pre-order now.
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Wildflower
by Becky Jenkinson
A magical florist journeys from the kingdom's capital to its wild woods to fulfill an unusual request, and stumbles upon friendship, conspiracy, and the buds of new love in this debut cozy fantasy. Wildflower is a lovely respite from reality, featuring a charming cast of characters, snappy dialogue, and so much heart. Prepare to be enchanted.--Brigitte Knightley, author of The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy The book contains hand-drawn floral sketches inside Cursed from birth to always tell the truth, magical florist Felicity Fliss Farrow chooses her words carefully to avoid trouble. But when she receives an anonymous request for a mysterious flower, her search leads her directly into trouble's path: to Willoh Vane. Fliss knows the outcast--yet teasingly handsome--sorcerer is rumored to have used dark magic to corrupt the northern forest five years ago. She's witnessed the resulting feud with Prince Bastion, whom her best friend, Card, is soon to marry. Despite her divided loyalty, Fliss reluctantly accepts Will's help with gathering rare flowers and finds herself increasingly drawn to him. As the royal wedding approaches, Fliss fears the flowers she's delivered are intended for a sinister purpose. But when her warnings are ignored, can she and Will save the kingdom from disaster, and ultimately discover what Fliss has sought for so long--the truth.
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A Pack for Summer
by Eliana Lee
The four of us. Under one roof. It's going to be one hot summer. Summer Pham has never been shy about going for what she wants. She's just moved into a cute apartment and fulfilled her dream of opening her very own Vietnamese bakery. Everything is perfect . . . as long as you ignore the fancy new patisserie next door and the water pipe that's just burst and flooded her building. Faced with the prospect of no home and no bakery, a town meeting offers a lifeline: an offer to work and live alongside the Beaufort pack brothers, who are only in town for the summer. Lucien, a high-powered executive and eldest alpha brother. Mercer, the grumpy beta pastry chef she now has to share a kitchen with. And Jae, her tattooed alpha childhood crush, all grown up. It's the first time the brothers have been together since the breakdown of their childhood pack. With temperatures soaring and chemistry sizzling with the omega in their home, it doesn't take much for the temporary living situation to turn into a friends-with-benefits arrangement. But hazy summer days are fleeting and when tragedy strikes, Summer may need what they cannot give her--a pack. A Pack for Summer is a standalone MFMM why choose small town romance. It is part of the Cozyverse shared universe, bringing you cozy omegaverse full of heart, heat and humor.
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Dreamers of the Full Moon Coffee Shop
by Mai Mochizuki
From the bestselling author of the Japanese sensation The Full Moon Coffee Shop, this charming and heartfelt standalone novel brings more lost souls to the enchanted caf --where they might find some help from the cats who run it.Under the energetic star of Neptune the doors to people's hearts are opening... In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they'll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a bright moon. Under one such moon in August, Neptune pays the Full Moon Coffee Shop a visit, taking the form of a beautiful human called Sala. Sala's special talent is giving people dreams and helping them to open their hearts. As the cats work with Sala, they find new ways to guide people as their customers face personal conflict. When Satsuki, returning home after she spent three years away with minimal contact, decides to introduce her new boyfriend to her mother Fujiko, she learns an unexpected truth about her family's past. Meanwhile, Fujiko is struggling to come to terms with her true feelings about her place in life and author Wataru is facing writer's block after years of success. Can Sala and the cats help Fujiko and Wataru open their hearts? Beautifully weaving together three people in a story about love in all forms, this heartwarming novel in the USA Today bestselling series highlights the importance of being true to oneself and recognizing one's innermost feelings.
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The Blue Moon Cafe & 24-Hour Occult Emporium
by Lexie Sharabianlou
A magical witness protection program, a town in need of saving, and a sorceress-in-training . . . oh, and the human woman she’s not supposed to fall for. The Blue Moon Café has a little bit of everything (except, you know, decent coffee).
In the tiny town of Pine Hollow, barista and fledging sorceress Talula Smith runs The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium, aka the worst coffee shop in town. The café’s horrible reputation hides its true purpose: providing new identities and safe passage to at-risk magical beings while keeping humans far, far away. That is, except for town local Dahlia. Dahlia’s devastating dimples, addiction to Talula’s cocoa recipe, and keen observation skills keeps the smitten barista scrambling to ensure that her magical abilities (or, lack thereof) stay a secret.
But when big game hunters start preying on magical beings, her powerful sorceress mother is called away to track them down, leaving Talula and her barely-there magic in charge of The Blue Moon. With the impending Samhain festival to organize, magical refugees to help, half of the town turning against her, and her ever-growing feelings for Dahlia, Talula’s magical destiny feels further away than ever. But as the hunters set their sights closer to home, it’ll be up to Talula to master her craft, trust her heart, and bring her magical and human communities together . . . before she loses everything she loves
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Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep
by Paul Tremblay
Paul Tremblay is on fire. . . .As entertaining and pop-culture savvy as this novel can be, it's emotionally wrenching and truly scary. --Ed Park, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed, Different Dreams and An Oral History of AtlantisPhilip K. Dick meets the Coen Brothers in this genre-bending near-future tech nightmare that is as bitingly funny as it is horrifically believable from the New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie.Meet Julia Flang, a twenty-something former semi-professional gamer, living with her retired uncle, and working two jobs she doesn't like. Out of the blue, her estranged mother, a CFO for one of the world's largest tech companies, offers her a temp job with a payday Julia can't refuse. One sham interview later, she's offered the job: to chaperone a man in a vegetative state--one with proprietary AI implanted in his head--from California to the East Coast.To sum up in Julia's own words: You want me to remote control this dead dude across the country. In a word, yes. But he's not dead dead.Meet a middle-aged man who wakes within a disorienting hellscape filled with monstrous grotesqueries. Worse than the fluid, morphing reality in which he's trapped, he has no memory of who he is. He certainly doesn't remember getting the rabbit tattoo on his arm. He only knows that he must find a certain person. Who? He can't remember.Using a cell phone modeled after a video game controller, Julia fumblingly navigates the man she calls Bernie from the company campus and onto planes and through one of the largest airports in America. All the while, the man endures an ever-changing and worsening nightmare that offers clues as to who he was--and who he must track down. And as their two lives intertwine, Julia and Bernie become unlikely allies and fugitives on a collision course with reality.Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep is a heady, horrific genre-bender from one of the most groundbreaking voices in fiction today.Creepy and unexpectedly humorous. . . .A master storyteller, Tremblay's b(l)ending of genres here truly is a perfect beach read.--NPR
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The Hill in the Dark Grove
by Liam Higginson
In this gripping debut, steeped in Welsh folklore, a husband and wife living in the beautiful but isolated mountains of Snowdonia stumble upon a buried Neolithic ruin--awakening a mysterious, ancient presence with its own dark designs. A sumptuously written, chilling folk horror novel. --Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts Carwyn and his wife, Rhian, have lived a quiet life as sheep farmers in the remote Welsh mountains for decades, tending to ancestral land that has been in Carwyn's family for generations. But recent years have taken their toll: local friends lost one by one to old age or rising prices; the accumulation of debts; new English tourists, more every year, disrespecting the land--littering, camping on private property, needing to be rescued when they misjudge the elements. When Carwyn finds a strange stone head in a disused corner of the farm, he realizes the artifact is just one piece of something much larger--something unfathomably old. Despite Rhian's protests, Carwyn becomes obsessed with unearthing the structure, and soon neglects the daily work of the farm to keep digging. Meanwhile, the sheep fall sick more easily than any season before, and a tragic accident on market day threatens to leave an increasingly isolated Rhian without a way to satisfy their ever-more-insistent creditors. Through it all, Carwyn becomes convinced that uncovering the site and determining its original purpose will be the key to solving everything. But there was a reason his ancestors kept the past buried, and in disturbing the earth, he has called forth a power greater and more terrible than he could have imagined. Enthralling and atmospheric, Liam Higginson's The Hill in the Dark Grove expertly weaves together myth, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror, heralding a sparkling new literary talent.
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Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II
by Book Author
The bestselling Indigenous dark fiction anthology returns with a new selection of even more daring and sinister stories. From monsters to mutilation, Never Whistle at Night is back for revenge. Featuring stories by: Jessica Doe - P.C. Verrone - Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. - Jim Terry - Jessica Johns - A.J. Eversole - Sonia Marie Barry - Shane Hawk - Stephen Graham Jones - Alicia Elliott - Mat RudeWalker - Shaawan Francis Keahna - Billy-Ray Belcourt - Jake Arrowtop - Alina Pete - Debra Magpie Earling - Joshua Whitehead - Tommy Orange - Ramona Emerson - Erica Tremblay - Kimberly Blaeser They're baaaaaaaaaack As any savvy horror fan knows: the monster never truly dies. The team that brought you the bestselling dark fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night has risen, hungry, from the grave to summon more dark delicacies for your delectation. In these twenty-one brand-new, groundbreaking, gruesome stories--authored by both established and newly unearthed Indigenous talent and illustrated by renowned Cheyenne and Arapaho painter Brent Learned--the contributors are fully embracing horror: both supernatural horrors and the everyday horror of living under colonialist rule. Featuring stories of unspeakable yet satisfying terror, from twisted psychological tales to gore-filled monster hunts, this new selection of sinister stories will sate your darkest appetites and leave you slavering for more. Never Whistle at Night, Part II: Back for Blood is a further celebration of Indigenous survival and the enduring tradition of transforming adversity into art.
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The Sixth Nik
by Daniel Kraus
Perfectly aligned for readers of Ian M. Banks's The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy spanning adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall and Angel Down. Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as niks, has boarded to investigate the enigma of F m--a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue. The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and--most lethal of all--a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of F m is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.
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Tillinghast
by Clare Cavenagh
A vampire (don't say that word) novel like no other. --Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts Wonderfully mysterious and gorgeously written...a boldly original take on what it means to be a monster. --Monika Kim, Sunday Times Bestselling Author of The Eyes Are the Best Part A dark and utterly original literary horror debut, following a priest whose bloodthirsty life has extended far longer than any mere human's--and is upended when a stranger comes to town Stutley Tillinghast lives a solitary life, ostensibly as the minister of a remote rural parish in Rhode Island. For many decades now, what little human contact he's allowed himself has been brief, frenzied and bloody, and has always ended in a shallow grave in his cellar. There's a name for what he is, but he prefers not to use it: it is simple enough that he has his needs, and that when they become unbearable, he fulfils them. In his long and lonely life, he has met only one other like him--the woman he still yearns for, the one who made him what he is. Then a girl arrives, searching for him. She has his last name, and bears an uncanny resemblance to that woman, awakening memories Tillinghast had long suppressed; the connection he feels for her is immediate and overwhelming. She's also sick, very sick, with symptoms Tillinghast recognizes all too well...and only he knows how to cure her. Inspired by the real events of the New England vampire panic of the nineteenth century, TILLINGHAST is a novel to sink your teeth into: at once a gripping, atmospheric horror that turns the classic monster narrative on its head; a literary work of exceptional prose about giving into--or resisting--our impulses; and a remarkably moving father-daughter story that will leave you unexpectedly hopeful--and rooting, despite your every instinct, for the killers.
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