All I Want for Christmas is Hughes by Jenny Lane (2nd)
Nick waited his whole life to feel his magic. He thought he didn’t have it. He made peace with the fact that it might never come. He was a little relieved, actually.
And then Ben Hughes sat down next to him.
Elementary teacher Nick Smith has rules to keep his Santa Magic from manifesting. Rule number one: stay away from Ben Hughes—his colleague that seems to awaken it a little more each moment they spend together. So why did he offer to give him a ride home for Christmas?
Ben Hughes hasn’t been home for the holidays since embarrassing himself at the Christmas Eve event years ago. That is—until a promotion at work is on the line. He’ll do anything to prove to his boss that he’s Weatherstone Academy material—including going home for Christmas. Even if that means accepting a ride home from his work bestie (and crush.) It’s fine…he can survive one car ride.
But when a storm hits, Nick is forced to wait it out in the small town of Harper’s Pass. And the more time Nick and Ben spend together, the more Nick’s magic grows…making him wonder if his true calling taking over the “family business” would really be so bad…or if all he wants for Christmas…is Hughes.
Buy it: Amazon
Cherry by Rose Wilding (3rd)
It starts as a love song. It ends with murder.
1999
Gifty is a woman adrift in the wake of her wife’s death. She’s living in stasis, unable to bring herself to enter the bedroom where Helen died after a long illness. Her therapist tells her to confront her grief, but instead she wanders the streets looking for someone from her past.
Fallen nineties pop star Isobel has done everything she can to reinvent herself. Gone is the girlish make-up and provocative manner. When she lands a job working for a middle-class family, she decides to embody the perfect nanny.
Ally has always prided herself on running a successful business and being a good parent to her two children. But when her husband announces that he is leaving them to work in Indonesia for six months, and hires Isobel without consulting her, she is left angry and struggling with her chronic illness.
The women soon become tangled in a dangerous web of obsession and infatuation. Someone is going to die. The question is: who?
Final Cut by Amy James (3rd)
Hollywood’s favorite actor. Nobody’s favorite Formula 1 driver. One life-changing winter break.
Quin McCarthy is Hollywood’s favorite actor. Cole Milton is nobody’s favorite Formula 1 driver. The two men have less than nothing in common, and when their paths briefly cross at the Singapore Grand Prix, it ends in mutual loathing.
Neither expects to see the other again, but when Quin moves to a remote Canadian ski town to film a thriller series, he learns that his deep-woods rental cottage has a single neighboring property, owned and occupied by none other than Cole.
Quin resolves to ignore him and spend his winter nights reading books by the fireplace. But when he stumbles upon a dead body on set—and glimpses the murderer making a run for it—his laid-back winter plans take an abrupt turn for the worse. As things grow more dangerous, he’s forced to turn to Cole for help—and in doing so, realizes Cole might not be the bad guy everyone thinks he is.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | In Bloom Bookery | Hopeless Romantic
Happily Ever After the Murders by Rae Wilde (3rd)
Ida and Jean got away with murder. Settling into their golden years in late ’90s Rockaway, New York, Ida and Jean’s biggest problems are HOA squabbles, grown kids who don’t visit enough, and staying in the closet as a lesbian couple for fear of being ostracized. But when the electrical lines in their backyard need replacing, the women know that digging up the ground will unearth their long-held secret: the bodies of their late husbands buried under the rosebushes.
After their attempts to keep the electrical company from digging take a deadly turn, the lovers go on the run, launched into a cross-country adventure—with their cat, Frankie, in tow. To escape the law, they’ll need to outwit quirky midwestern locals, mend frayed relationships with their adult children, and shake off the detective that’s hot on their trail. But if Ida and Jean can pull it off, they’ll find their freedom in the place that has always represented their best shot at coming out and finally living their authentic lives together: San Francisco, California.
There Used to Be People Here by Kennedy Cole (3rd)
In 1970s Mississippi, a Black detective and his temporary partner are assigned to a case that shifts from murder to paranormal conspiracy with life-altering repercussions.
Wenton, Mississippi: A man enters the bathroom of a local gay bar and doesn’t come back out. Instead he’s found cold, on the floor, and facing the wall. And no one seems to know how this happened.
Samuel Barkley is Wenton’s only Black detective. Assigned to the case, Samuel’s one goal is to keep his head down with eyes on moving up in the police ranks. But it’s not easy with Harvey, a new, temporary partner who Samuel can’t seem to like…or hate. Nor with the cold, questioning eyes and fake smiles from those in town. Persistent. Judging. Wrong. Samuel is reaching his breaking point.
As his investigation leads him to a curious plane crash cover-up, Samuel’s placid existence is turned on its head. Because what crashed in Wenton isn’t a plane. There are others here. They like it here. And if Samuel can’t stop them, they will find a way to stay.
This Knight Topples Empires by Ry Herman (3rd)
Jules is tired of running low-stakes errands with their five magically mismatched sisters, whose skills include killing plants, inducing sneezing, and making smaller windows … slightly larger. Blessed with a poorly controlled ability to make flowers bloom, Jules longs for a mission where they can actually prove themself. And when the siblings stumble upon a rival kingdom’s plot to overthrow their royal family, Jules sees an opportunity.
What follows is a whirlwind of botched disguises, accidental heroics, talking animals with surprisingly strong opinions, and one very inconvenient crush on the most sought-after princess in the land. And through all this, Jules learns that happy endings are indeed possible, even if you’re not quite Prince Charming. A cozy yet epic retelling of a Romanian fairy-tale, This Knight Topples Empires proves that the greatest victories of all are love and self-acceptance.
Pioneer Winter by Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova (3rd)
The second book in the Pioneer series, which catalyzed one of Russia’s largest-ever crackdowns on LGBTQ+ representation, continues the story of star-crossed gay lovers 20 years after meeting at summer camp
Yurka and Volodya first meet in 1986 during summer at Pioneer Camp—and it’s there that they grow closer and closer, despite the fear and consequences of their illegal attraction.
In this second book in the internationally bestselling series, Yurka, now a professional musician and conductor, is on tour in Kharkiv when Volodya goes to find him to reexamine their shared past. In Pioneer Summer, their story unfolds from Yurka’s perspective—and in this touching sequel, we venture into Volodya’s upbringing and manhood as he reckons with his own gay identity.
Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer (3rd)
This is the sequel to Warrior Princess Assassin
CAPTIVE. Asher has always sworn loyalty to Jory, the princess he’s loved from afar—but now the King of Incendar has claimed a place in his heart too. Someone wants them both dead, and only Asher’s blade can keep them safe. Yet his past won’t let him go, and he must decide if he can break free—or remain prisoner to his old scars.
TRAITOR. Princess Jory of Astranza agreed to marry the King of Incendar to secure peace, but betrayal runs closer than she ever imagined. With her own brother unmasked as her enemy, two kingdoms teeter on the edge. To protect her people, she must take the throne. But there are still dark secrets to unravel that will force Jory to confront where her true allegiance lies.
KING. Maddox Kyronan has discovered trust—and something more—with his reluctant bride and her deadly protector, but the fragile alliance between their nations threatens to unravel. His people are starving. His enemies are circling in. Torn between the crown and his heart, Ky risks losing it all.
As buried truths surface and tensions reach a breaking point, Jory, Asher, and Ky must confront the desires that could save their kingdoms—or shatter them forever.
Bitter Pill: Randy Shilts and the Dawn of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic by Clément Xavier and Héloïse Chochois (3rd)
Pioneering reporter Randy Shilts fights to expose the truth during the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic. With hospital beds filling up, the clock is ticking. . . . What will it take to wake up the nation?
San Francisco, 1981. Drawn from true events, this graphic novel follows Randy Shilts―biographer of Harvey Milk and one of the first openly gay journalists hired by the mainstream press―as he receives a chilling call at the Chronicle: a Los Angeles patient is being treated for a rare and aggressive cancer.
As Shilts digs deeper, a disturbing pattern emerges. The illness seems to strike only gay men, with early cases linked to a Castro-district bathhouse. A meeting with an infectious disease researcher confirms his worst fear: this so-called “gay cancer” is neither rare nor isolated―it’s the beginning of a national health crisis. With those in power slow to respond, Shilts resorts to bold tactics to force attention on the unfolding HIV/AIDS epidemic.
His relentless pursuit of the truth would help change history, exposing a catastrophe too many chose to ignore. In this dramatic graphic portrait inspired by the life and legacy of Randy Shilts, the creators bring to the page a story that feels both urgent and insightful.
Shilts’s groundbreaking reporting and books (The Mayor of Castro Street, And the Band Played On, Conduct Unbecoming) became cornerstones of journalism and LGBTQ+ history. This graphic novel offers a powerful new interpretation of the transformative moment that defined his legacy.
Featuring an afterword by Randy Shilts biographer Michael Lee, author of When the Band Played On: The Life of Randy Shilts.
Crashing Into Christmas by Mara Lovelle (4th)
“She hit me with her car. We’re taking it slow.”
After a grueling shift at the ER, all Morgan Gatlin wants is to go home—easier said than done in the worst snowstorm to hit New York City in years. One moment, she’s ignoring the Christmas nonsense the radio bombards her with, the next, she’s crashing bumper-first into unsuspecting pedestrian Elena Solorzano.
Guilt-stricken, Morgan rushes Elena to the hospital, and, when the storm shuts off Elena’s way to get home, Morgan offers her a place to stay.
What starts as an attempt to ease her conscience snowballs into something softer. Elena is warm, easy to talk to, and far too good at seeing what Morgan’s been running from for years. As Morgan’s guard melts, she is forced to make a choice: open her heart and risk loss again, or keep hiding in her lonely world.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Kobo
The Siren’s Kiss by Leslie Vedder (10th)
Dead Shot Rayleigh has spent the last three years bound to a cursed ship after crossing the sea god Red-Handed Roger. Her only hope for freedom is to find his long-ago stolen heart—which means taking on his sworn enemy, the Sea Witch.
But Rayleigh’s not the only one with a score to settle… Fiery mermaid Maren is also searching for the Sea Witch, determined to bargain for the soul of her lost brother.
When Rayleigh and Maren’s separate missions bring them together, sparks fly, and all their plans go up in flames. Now they’ll have to join forces to survive.
Find the Sea Witch. Steal the heart. And don’t fall for your enemy, no matter how irresistible she is. How hard can it be?
Ghosted by Talia Tucker (10th)
“Oh no . . . Did I hurt the big bad demon’s feelings?”
Keziah is very familiar with the concept of ghosts―after all, a sleep paralysis demon has been her closest companion for the last few years. She’s, unfortunately, also all-too-familiar with the concept of being ghosted. Which isn’t helping her quest to secure a date for the Homecoming dance, to get her best friend off her back and help her bid for Homecoming queen. And then she meets a guy who just transferred to the all-boys school nearby. He’s charming, cute, and―unlike with her other dates―she actually sees potential with him.
Too bad he ghosts her, too.
This time, though, she isn’t going to take it so easily. Not when Guy and his friends mess with her real true love, Mr. Kim’s food truck, and especially not when she finds out the real reason Guy transferred in the first place. If he wants to ghost, she’ll haunt him right back to where he came from.
Enacting revenge while her sleep paralysis demon keeps bugging her certainly won’t be easy but, with help from a cute girl, let the real (and well-deserved) ghosting begin!
Until the Last Light Goes Out by Courtney Gould (10th)
Flickering neon lights and hot Miami nights turn deadly in this gothic horror about a daughter investigating her best friend’s disappearance at an abandoned island resort.
You may not escape, but the truth will.
Twenty-five years ago, the Ripley Memorial High School senior class entered the luxurious Kaleidoscope Key resort deep in the remote Florida Keys. Despite international intrigue and years of investigation, no one truly knows how the 183 students died. And they never will, since the five survivors of the massacre have never spoken a word about what happened to them that night.
Paige Keller, daughter of one of the Kaleidoscope Key Massacre’s infamous survivors, has grown up determined to steer her life away from the resort and the unsolved mysteries her ex-best friend, KJ, can’t leave alone. But when she’s called home on the 25th anniversary of the massacre, she finds that KJ has gone missing.
Paige knows there’s only one place KJ could be: her obsession, the now-abandoned resort. When Paige and the remaining survivors’ kids go in after her, they’re forced to confront their—and their parents—pasts once and for all.
Kaleidoscope Key is waiting, and it’s starving. Once they find their way inside, there may not be a way out. And one way or another, the truth of the massacre will come to light.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Straight to the Source by K-Ming Chang (10th)
Taiwanese American teen and aspiring journalist Wendy Lin wants nothing more than to witness the downfall of her personal nemesis, the annoyingly perfect high achiever Helen Ouyang.
Yep, Helen Ouyang. As in, Wendy’s childhood best friend. Now most-decidedly-ex-best-friend. Perhaps, maybe, still her unrequited-crush-friend. After a falling out that may or may not have involved some simmering romantic feelings, the two haven’t spoken in years, and Wendy has had to witness Helen’s meteoric rise to high school success from the sidelines.
But not for long.
Chasing up a lead for the school paper, Wendy soon turns up a major story with Helen at its center—one involving a mysterious fire that destroyed a building and tore apart an immigrant community a decade earlier. Wendy investigates, certain she finally has the dirt she needs to bring Helen down. But when the girls reconnect, old feelings come rushing to the surface…and with them, long-buried skeletons in both girls’ family closets.
Girls Walking With Wolves by Jenna Baner (10th)
Arden Hood, blind since birth, is not afraid of witches.
Every day Arden walks alone, deep into the woods, to care for her beloved, ailing grandmother, and she’s yet to come across a single witch.
Arden believes her life may be this small forever―quiet evenings with her father and days spent at her grandmother’s bedside―until two encounters alter the course of her life. One day at the market she chances upon the Queen’s hunter, who develops an interest in her yet won’t say what he’s hunting; and that same evening, she’s rescued from a wolf attack by a mysterious young woman named Myra, the last witch still living in the woods.
Myra is nothing like the witches in the villagers’ stories―she is good and kind and soon she becomes the best friend Arden has ever had. The girls hide their friendship, but they cannot hide forever. The hunter was sent to these woods for a reason, and he won’t leave until he’s captured a witch…
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Lavender & Hemlock by Lili Wilkinson (10th)
Step into the Oubliette and forget your troubles….
Housemaid Tansy’s days are all the same. Her only duties are to tend to her charge, old Lady Aster, and take care of their quaint cottage home. The seaside house is charming, peaceful, and above all, isolated. Tansy can’t remember the last time she left…or when she arrived.
Merit is a Carrion Knight. A servant of the dark entity the Unmaker, she has been raised to be a monster. But when she’s wounded during a routine raid, she stumbles through a mysterious door… and finds herself tumbling into the Oubliette.
When the two meet, an instant connection forms, and a crack appears in Oubliette’s perfect façade. As the bond between Merit and Tansy grows and powerful feelings rise to the surface, Tansy must question not only what she wants, but who she is. Because the origins of this charming world are darker than she could imagine—and the key to uncovering them might lie with Tansy herself.
Luck of the Draw by Christine Suggs (10th)
From the creator of ¡Ay, Mija!, a budding cartoonist attends an elite pre-college art program, where the only limit to their potential is their…budget. Luck of the Draw raises the question: how do you paint your future with bargain store brushes?
It’s the summer before senior year, and Mar Ortega is holding a ticket out of town: an acceptance letter to a prestigious pre-college program at an elite art school in Baltimore. Suddenly, Mar’s deepest desires are within reach: studying illustration, making a real friend group…and maybe even using new pronouns?
At the Baltimore Institute of Art, everything feels perfect. Mar is thrilled by the artsy community and incredible, engaging instructors, but when the time comes to buy painting supplies, the hefty price tags feel like a slap in the face. In fact, everything about this college is expensive, and there aren’t many students that look like Mar. As the days go by, Mar begins to wonder if they truly belong at art school…but it’s also the only place they’ve ever felt truly at home.
Inspired by creator Christine Suggs’s own experience attending a pre-college art program, Luck of the Draw illustrates what can happen when reality becomes part of your dream.
An Embodiment of Souls by Julia Laurel (10th)
As the daughter of a foreign ambassador, Rissa hoped living abroad would protect her from home’s puritanical customs where women are forbidden to walk at night or use magic except to support a necromancer’s dual identity.
Alek, the youngest prince of the Memric Isle, hasn’t yet taken his Second body. Fearing he’ll be accused of sin and his body claimed as a Second himself, Alek lives piously while studying abroad, even though he’s distracted by magic—and his handsome roommate, Gable.
When Alek meets Rissa by chance, his quiet life is thrown into chaos. One of Rissa’s fathers has been abducted, and Alek and Gable are witnesses. Alek and Rissa form a secret alliance to find her father and uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, risking life and freedom as they follow clues straight to the heart of the Memric Isle’s government.
And If I Die Before I Wake by George M. Johnson (10th)
George M. Johnson is no stranger to death. In this debut adult memoir, readers are invited to witness untrodden ground as George navigates an HIV diagnosis, alcoholism, tremendous loss, and nationwide book bans over the span of 15 years. Through the highs and lows of life in the spotlight, they have clung to family and community like never before — finding their most authentic self along the way.
Drawing inspiration from Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, And If I Die Before I Wake explores grief, trauma, sexuality, and the Black family through the lens of transformation, healing, and hope. Poetic, grounded, and bursting with signature humor, this is New York Times-bestselling author George M. Johnson more bold, more brave, and more daring than ever — ready to share a new part of their journey with the world.
As If We Were Staying by Spencer R. Scott (10th)
Inspired by his experience starting Solar Punk Farms and studying the resilience of living systems, biologist Spencer R. Scott helps us envision our collective future in a more hopeful way.
In an age of ecological emergency and social breakdown, how do we find the hope and determination to live on this planet as if we were staying?
Inspired by the solarpunk movement’s insistence that our vision of the future must be galvanizing, biologist and environmentalist Spencer R. Scott chronicles his journey from biotech research to the co-founding of the queer regenerative community and education hub, Solar Punk Farms. Weaving memoir and scientific inquiry, Scott reframes capitalism as an environment we’ve unconsciously adapted to in order to survive and documents the internal and external process of re-adapting to the realities of our ecological world. Only through community and collective action, he finds, can we make survival—and joy—beyond capitalism possible.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon
‘Tis the Damn Season by Rachel Lacey (10th)
It’s the most terrible time of the year…
Whitney Rayne hates absolutely everything about Christmas…except the sizzling kiss she shared with a captivating stranger at a holiday party last year. The memory of that kiss has gotten her through a lot of cold, lonely nights. Mostly, though, Whitney’s been focused on growing her business as a real estate photographer, so she’s thrilled to get a last-minute job photographing a luxurious Vermont vacation home. But there’s a catch: the listing agent is Liza Snow, the woman Whitney hasn’t stopped thinking about since she kissed her.
Liza has her own reasons for disliking the holidays, reasons that led her to Vermont two days before Christmas to oversee the listing for her boss’s vacation home. She’s intensely uncomfortable once she realizes she’s accidentally hired the woman she shared a rare moment of abandon with at a party last year, especially since the chemistry between them still burns as bright as the festive decorations covering every inch of the vacation home.
When a tree falls across the driveway, stranding them in Vermont with a snowstorm on the way, things quickly heat up inside the house, even as the weather worsens outside. By the time the roads are cleared, they might learn to love the holiday—and each other.
’Tis the damn season, after all.
Buy it: Amazon
The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker (10th)
Two princes, born to a world at war.
Heir to a kingdom built on lies and stolen magic, Prince Reverie has one goal: avoid the crown. Raised by a cruel and violent king, Reverie’s real life begins after curfew―bottle service, masked revelries, and anonymous rooftop liaisons. But when his king plots to seize dwindling majikal resources from the Drakon King, Reverie hits his limit―he casts aside his royal obligations and gets the hell outta town.
Heir to a kingdom banished into the sky, Prince Xandreth has one goal: find a missing friend. His brother, the Drakon King, stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that their people keep going missing, so Xandreth takes it upon himself to hunt down answers.
A meeting that will change them both.
Having abandoned their kingdoms, both princes end up stranded in the dangerous and bewitching Wraithwood, and out of desperation, agree to help each other and then go their separate ways.
A love that will save their world.
But when a myth as old as the world―a bird on fire in the belly of a massive volcano―is whispered from Human lips to Drakon ears, Reverie and Xandreth are suddenly at the heart of a crisis so much bigger than a missing friend or even freedom.
If they can’t come together, the world itself may go up in flames.
Dead New World by Lin Darrow (10th)
Technology has raised the dead, but their new lease on life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, in the first book of this cozy cyber-noir duology.
Hildy Doval is dead—and still unemployed . . .
Humanity wasn’t quite ready for immortality, even in 3025. Ever since the Flicker/Helix company “cured” death with technologically advanced holographic hardware, flicker ghosts have been secondary citizens, lacking purpose and agency.
Spending her afterlife in a boarding house in Hypatia City, Hildy is the least-requested flicker-ghost at Carlotta Sun’s Purgatory House for Spectral Services. At Carlotta Sun’s, Hildy competes daily for ghost gigs against her more marketable housemates: the flighty musician Eyvind, desperate to compose the masterpiece he never got to in life, and Anjali, an imperious silent-film extra whose single surviving motion picture shot her to post-mortem stardom despite it being based on a lie.
Meanwhile, a shadowy, headless ghost called the Graverobber has been spotted emerging from holographic billboards, snatching the resurrected from their so-called lives and sowing chaos throughout the city. When one of their fellow boarders goes missing, Hildy and her friends find themselves at the center of a highly publicized mystery. With only two months to go before a crucial election that’ll decide the future of all specters, they must determine who the Graverobber is―and, more importantly, where they belong in this dead new world.
The Thorns We Wear Inside by Amy Avery (10th)
Raye is cursed. Living things crumble at her touch, drained by the demon who clings to her like a shadow. No wonder the townsfolk want her dead. Tormented and pursued, she seeks shelter in a mysterious castle.
The castle is an eerie place. Its residents lie trapped in time like flies in amber, all save one. Mir has a demon of her own, one that forces her to seek blood. When the two women begin to unravel their curses with the castle’s trove of magic, their demons unite, refusing to let their hosts escape. Perhaps even more dangerously, Mir can bear Raye’s poisonous touch: the first caress either of them has felt in years.
As monster hunters close in on the castle, Raye and Mir will have to break the binds of their twisted quadrangle before the past catches up with them.
Seductive and cinematic, this dark fantasy has teeth. Step into the castle. If you dare.
Song for Medusa by Grace Desmarais (10th)
Song for Medusa is a sapphic exploration of the petrifying gorgon, Medusa, as she falls in love with a blind princess, who isn’t affected by her curse.
Medusa has lived in her temple prison for years, turning the men who seek glory and her head to stone. Her only comfort is the mysterious songs that come from the villa palace above. Who is the mysterious woman behind Medusa’s only joy? After a chance encounter with Princess Cyrene, whose blindness spares her from turning into stone, the two women find kindred spirits in their loneliness and soon, fall in love. With a cast of characters both from the heavens and humanity, this story will take readers to a world both familiar and fantastical.
The Last Star in the Void by Melissa Caruso (10th)
This is the final book in the Echo Archives trilogy
Kembral Thorne is back on the job. Everything is going great—she hasn’t been in mortal peril for months, her daughter is learning to crawl, and she’s thinking about getting serious with her girlfriend, cat burglar Rika Nonesuch. But then a simple mission goes wrong, and a mysterious Echo hires her for her most dangerous case yet.
This time, the murder Kembral must solve is her own.
Her first warning: Watch out above you. It won’t be her last. The cryptic messages give Kem an edge against her would-be murderer—but there’s more at stake than her own survival.
Rips in the very fabric of reality are spreading through the Echoes, and Kem’s blood is the only thing that can close them. A traitor among her allies is willing to kill to stop her. To save all the worlds, Kem must figure out who she can trust—and Rika must decide how much of her humanity she’ll sacrifice for the power to protect the woman she loves.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Tonight, I Blaze by Katharine J. Adams (10th)
This is the final book in the Witches of Halstett trilogy
Three lives. One fate.
Penny Albright lit the match that sparked a war. Now, she holds the one that will end it.
In defeating the Warden, she and her friends released a deadlier foe—and the Sorcerer will stop at nothing to reclaim magic and destroy witchkind. But Penny will do anything to protect the people she loves, even if it means joining forces with Malin’s morally questionable brother, Dante.
With Alice held captive in the Sorcerer’s city, forced to spin the evil aimed at Halstett’s heart, and Malin inside Halstett, rebuilding the army to protect their walls, Penny’s only hope is to play the Sorcerer’s games—and she needs Dante to win. As the veil unravels, Penny, Malin, and Alice each fight their own demons to face the end together, side-by-side.
In this searing series conclusion, Penny must claim her fate as the witch she was always destined to be—and the only way to defeat a god might be to become one.
Splinter & Ash 3: The Lost Crown by Marieke Nijkamp (17th)
The third and final book in New York Times bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp’s immersive middle grade fantasy series! Through all the secrets and subterfuge, Splinter and Ash have always fought for what is right. But is it enough to save their kingdom—and each other—once and for all?
Devastating news has reached the palace: Sir Anders and Crown Prince Lucen, who were on a secret mission to infiltrate the traitorous Larks, are missing. Lucen is presumed dead, and Anders is rumored to have been working with the enemy Ferisian empire. Tensions are high, and the war between Calinor and the empire is escalating. Which is just what the Larks need to seize control of Calinor’s throne.
But Splinter and Ash know there must be more to the story. Intent as always to unveil the truth and champion justice, they set off on a dangerous quest. To find their brothers, defeat the Larks, and bring peace to their kingdom, Splinter and Ash will need bravery, integrity, and all the help they can get.
Selkies and Skeptics by Elias Cold (17th)
THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN A LIE?
THE TRUTH WITH TEETH.
Sixteen-year-old Luella is trapped in an isolated lighthouse with only her cruel father for company―he turns off the beacon for every twenty-fifth ship that passes, then makes her dive for riches in the resulting wreckage.
Luella desperately longs for friends and freedom, so when she spots a newspaper ad for The Society for the Protection of Faeries, she grasps for the opportunity to escape. She writes in, claiming selkies live on the island to entice the group to come . . . and to her surprise, they do.
To back the lie, Luella fakes faerie magic, convincing the Society that the seals on her island are actually selkies, and they induct her as a member. She takes quickly to a world of traveling in carriages, garden parties, and friends her own age, but Luella can never come clean about her deception if she wants to keep her new life. Soon she realizes she is not the only liar. There’s an imposter among them, someone who possesses real magic and sabotages her friends’ discoveries―and without evidence, they will soon run out of funding. The imposter knows Luella’s lying too, and if she dares to unmask them, they’ll ruin her new life with the Society for good.
Two Can Play That Game by Zakiya N. Jamal (17th)
Chelsea has never cared about sports. But when she’s invited to sit courtside at a New York Rebels game, she welcomes the break from her usual routine. What she doesn’t expect is a basketball nearly colliding with her face—or the six-foot-four hottie who jogs over, flashing a heart-stopping grin, to retrieve it.
Adrienne “AD” Daniels is a player on and off the court, notorious for their inability to stay in a relationship. Still, something about Chelsea sticks with them—even though their instant connection can’t bring AD to offer more than one night.
But AD’s agent makes a pitch: Chelsea should pretend to be AD’s girlfriend. It’s a strategic move. AD, hoping to retire after this season, needs to lock down some brand deals—but their identity as a Black, nonbinary lesbian with a messy dating history makes sponsors wary. Chelsea, a sex-positive influencer, is ready to take her platform to a new level, and this feels like the perfect next step. With Chelsea’s network and AD’s star power, they could both strengthen their public images. Once the season ends, they’ll go their separate ways.
As the ruse starts to work and their connection deepens, Chelsea finds herself on unsteady ground. Falling for AD wasn’t part of the plan, and if she follows through, she just might lose her heart and the future she’s finally starting to build.
Nanny Nanny by K Chiucarello (17th)
After years of caring full-time for the children of the rich and the famous, our narrator has been struck, finally, with baby fever. Over a drink with sympathetic friends, she lists all the reasons why she wants to have a baby, beginning with a story about the intoxicating, abusive relationship with an ex-wife that she barely survived. She ponders how to fill the gaping void left in the wake of such horrific domestic violence. What’s the next most violent thing a woman can do to herself? she asks. Have a baby.
Soon, her story opens other doors to the past—the seemingly idyllic childhood she spent under her father’s roof; the mentorship, and judgment, of female writers whose children she has reared; and the man, her first love, who now seems to be offering her a second chance. Each unraveling thread reveals the complex tangle of thrill and pain, tradition and progress that has led her to this moment, this calling. Is it time for her to become a mother?
A World Apart by Meghan Nesmith (17th)
Star-crossed lovers bound by magic. But will their devotion set them free-or doom them forever?
London, 1866.
All Kit Finchley wants is to master the magic that keeps eluding him – and to live a life not dictated by title or expectation. Duty presses in from every quarter, but the one thing that quickens his pulse is the promise of real power.
When a miscast spell tears open a doorway into the Veil – a liminal realm where Wilfrith and his family have been trapped since a fateful bargain with the Faerie Queen 800 years ago – Kit stumbles into a love he never imagined. Their connection is immediate, impossible, and undeniable. Determined to free Wil, Kit hunts for the spell that could bridge two worlds.
By night, Kit risks everything to reach the boy between worlds, desperate to bind the realms without breaking them. But by day, Kit finds himself intrigued by a young bohemian woman of a very wealthy, aristocratic family. She’s unlike any woman he’s ever met: rebellious, clever, and best of all, she believes in magic.
Torn between first love, magic and duty, Kit will be forced to make a decision that will change all three of their lives forever.
Murmuration by T.J. Klune (17th)
A bookseller, a waiter, and the best little town there is!
On a temperate morning in 1954, Mike wakes up in the idyllic town of Amorea.
Amorea is perfect.
Mike works his dream job at the local bookstore, where he leads lively discussions of literature with the local women’s club. At the diner, the walls are plastered with beaming photos of the residents, and all the staff know his order―especially Sean, the waiter who has a special smile just for Mike and, after years of anticipation, is ready to take the next step in their burgeoning romance.
Everything is perfect.
But the edges of the town are beginning to fray. Odd things catch Mike’s attention, things no one else seems to notice or care about. There are no children or parents in Amorea and no one who’s left town for the far mountains has ever come back. There are subjects in the diner photos that only a few people can remember.
One night, Mike wakes up to a stormcloud of uncanny starlings blackening the sky. And soon enough, he begins to question whether his name is even Mike.
As violent memories of another life interfere with everything good about Amorea and Mike loses hold on his identity, he will do whatever he can to keep Sean from the darkness that is coming.
Nothing here is perfect, but there is someone worth saving.
Clang & Circumstance by M.A. Wardell (17th)
Some attractions are impossible to ignore. This one’s audible.
HUNTER
I know a crisis when I see one. And Clang may qualify.
He’s the quiet, ridiculously attractive CFO who keeps to himself, makes the most fascinating metallic noises, and looks at me like I’m a problem he hasn’t figured out how to solve. Naturally, I want to figure him out. The more time we spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore the lingering looks, accidental touches, and chemistry that’s about as subtle as a five-alarm fire.
There’s just one problem. Clang doesn’t seem to think he’s someone worth wanting. Lucky for him, I’m very good at convincing.
CLANG
I have rules. Keep quiet. Remain composed. Do not draw attention. Most importantly, do not allow anyone close enough to notice the things that make me different.
Then Hunter Floyd arrives. He is loud. Chaotic. Inexplicably charming. And completely incapable of respecting the boundaries I have spent my entire life constructing. Suddenly, my carefully ordered existence is a mess of lingering looks, accidental touches, and reactions I can no longer seem to control.
Hunter wants all of me. Even the parts I have spent my entire life trying to hide. And I am beginning to suspect I want to give him everything.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon
Navigating With You, vol. 2 by Jeremy Whitley and Felia Hanakata (24th)
Can the love that blossomed in their junior year survive a senior year that’s pulling them in different directions?
A month ago, Gabby Graciana and her family left Durham, North Carolina to return back to their lives in Miami, Florida. For Gabby, that meant leaving behind her girlfriend Neesha Sparks. But they swore to keep up the tradition that brought them together—their manga book club.
But not every manga can be the right one at the right time, and they find themselves flailing for a next book. They discover that their favorite mangaka is working with a studio to produce an anime of one of her other stories, so book club chats become anime watch parties. But that’s not the only thing in their lives that is changing.
An ex from Gabby’s past returns to her life in an unexpected way as Neesha, finally comfortable in her North Carolina town, rediscovers her passion for activism—and a new group of activist friends that she might have more in common with than her now long-distance girlfriend.
How to Court a Countess by Emma-Claire Sunday (24th)
Former pickpocket Amelia is trapped in a life of servitude to the man who caught her. He offers a deal: Help him win the hand—and fortune—of Countess Beatrice by posing as a governess. In return for information that will help his courtship, he’ll grant Amelia her freedom.
Complications arise when Amelia meets the jaw-droppingly lovely Beatrice. Amelia feels startlingly at home in the Countess’s household, and their clandestine meetings in the music room quickly become a nightly habit… Amelia can’t deny their connection—but when her liberty depends on Beatrice’s marriage to another, can she risk following her heart?
The Education of Imryn Dyre, Wizard’s Apprentice by Artemis Whelan (24th)
A luckless healer who begrudgingly accepts a magical apprenticeship must race to find a cure for his charming mentor’s fatal affliction―before it’s too late.
Half-goblin Imryn “Imi” Dyre hasn’t had an easy life. Born into a poor family and now a student on scholarship, he’s marked as an outcast amongst the wealthy magical families. So despite studying and honing his craft for years, it’s no surprise when he’s rejected from joining the ranks of healers. Just like that, his dream of opening a clinic in his impoverished neighborhood dies.
Out of options, Imi has no choice but to accept an apprenticeship under the master wizard Elim Greenwood. Wise beyond his years and, to Imi’s dismay, indisputably handsome, Elim seeks a cure for a spell that’s slowly killing him. And though many before have failed, Imi’s magic might actually be the one solution to his mentor’s fatal affliction.
There’s no time to waste, but Imi’s troubles continue as Elim’s cousin, Freddie, approaches them with a new problem. Her husband has been cursed to feed on souls, and his ravenous need to attack others is growing. Now, Imi must grapple with the search for two separate remedies―all the while contending with his forbidden feelings for Elim.
Happily ever after has never felt more out of reach, but if Imi can save the man―and the family―he’s come to love, he might finally find the place where he belongs . . .
For the Love of K-Dramas by Lyla Lee (24th)
(This is a bi4bi romance.)
You Had Me at Hola meets The Hating Game in this spicy enemies-to-lovers romance about two movie stars who are forced to work together after a viral celebrity beef debacle.
Clara Kim is full of spite. Spite is what fueled her to become a Hollywood actress when no one in her immigrant family believed in her. And it’s what drove her to become one of the first Asian American women to win a Golden Globe. But when a heated exchange between Clara and a popular K-drama actor goes viral, it leads to the two being paired up on the movie of her dreams. Even spite may not be enough to get her through this role.
Shin Min-joon is the man Clara loves to hate, but the success of the movie requires them to make out and make nice. Despite the animosity between them, Min-joon’s good looks certainly make Clara’s job a bit more tolerable. But as things get steamier both on and off-screen, will Clara and Min-joon be able to separate fiction from real life?
Bloom Town: Genesis by Ally North (24th)
This is the trad pub rerelease.
June 1852. When Abby Proctor is kidnapped from a train in the middle of the desert halfway to her new life in California, she makes a promise to herself—she will escape. Abby is leaving Iowa and all its oppressions behind for a reason, and she refuses to be someone’s prisoner again. Especially when that someone is the infamous female outlaw Joey “JT London” Taylor—Abby’s brash, brooding, and inconveniently beautiful captor.
As Abby plots her escape, she stumbles upon a larger conspiracy behind her kidnapping—a complicated revelation considering her growing feelings for Joey, who might not be the ruthless criminal everyone believes her to be. Suddenly Abby doesn’t want to go back to the confines of her religious father or her suffocating husband.
Then Abby realizes it’s all connected—her kidnapping, the secrets she left behind in Iowa, even her plans in California—and she must decide between returning to a life of obedience and unhappiness or trusting an enigmatic outlaw bound for the gallows.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | PRH
