The Baroness’ Choices of New Books Publishing This Week
2023, Week 28’s New Books
My choices for this week include Cozy Mysteries, YA Romantic Comedy, Romance, and Women’s Fiction.
The long weekend is over…did you get any reading in? I did it during the heat of the day. I don’t have any of these books on this month’s reading list, but I know that I want to read a few of them. They all sound wonderful, and look at those beautiful covers.
Here are my choices for New Books Publishing Week 28 of 2023!
A Cryptic Clue by Victoria Gilbert
Hunter and Clewe Mystery #1
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Nook | BAM
A retired librarian gets back to the books—and into a devilish murder case—in acclaimed author Victoria Gilbert’s new series, the perfect literary adventure for fans of Kate Carlisle and Jenn McKinlay.
Sixty-year-old Jane Hunter, forced into early retirement from her job as a university librarian, is seeking a new challenge to keep her spirits up and supplement her meager pension. But as she’s about to discover, a retiree’s life can bring new thrills—and new dangers.
Cameron “Cam” Clewe, an eccentric 33-year-old collector, is also seeking something—an archivist to inventory his ever-expanding compendium of rare books and artifacts. Jane’s thrilled to be hired on by Cam and to uncover the secrets of his latest acquisition, a trove of items related to the classic mystery and detective authors. But Jane’s delight is upended when a body is discovered in Cam’s library. The victim, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, was the last in line of Cam’s failed romances—and now he’s suspect number one.
Cam vows to use his intelligence and deductive skills to clear his name—but with a slight case of agoraphobia, rampant anxiety, and limited social skills, he’ll need some help. It comes down to Jane to exonerate her new boss—but is he truly innocent?
Death in the Woods by Maria Mankin and Maren C. Tirabessi
Rev and Rye Mysteries #2
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Mystery
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Misty fall weather should make for an idyllic walk in the New England woods and a needed respite from Reverend Wanda Duff’s duties. She’ll just take a stroll with her dog, breathe in the cool air, and remember that she loves her job and doesn’t really long for a life of solitude, even when the quiet red-and-gold patch of forest tempts her with it.
But she should’ve known she couldn’t really catch a break.
She only saw his hand-cold, palm up. In the twilight, everything else was indistinct. And even as Wanda said a prayer for the dead man and called for help, she couldn’t shake the feeling of another presence, one that would compel her to follow a path out of these woods to find a killer.
But ever since Wanda and her friend Rye solved a murder together, no one has wanted the reverend to take on anything more dangerous than choir practice. She has no choice, really, but to carry the news of her discovery directly to no-nonsense Assistant Principal Rye, who understands because her own life was upended by last summer’s investigation. Rye’s own life is upended, period.
Unfortunately, solving the murder of drama teacher Jonathan Thorne isn’t an undertaking Wanda and Rye can accomplish without involving their ever-widening circle of family and friends, which means that in addition to investigating, they have to resolve a few personal problems of their own. The truth is, nothing happens in a quaint New England town without everyone noticing. Without everyone speculating. Without everyone talking.
Without everyone knowing a killer is among them.
Wry humor, twisty sleuthing, and what Jane Willan (author of the Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mysteries) calls “punchy writing” and “fall-in-love-with-me characters” in “the enjoyable setting of a newsy small town” come together to make Death in the Woods a perfect one-sitting read.
Innocent or Guilty by Kathi Daley
Resort at Castaway Bay #8
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Culinary Mystery
A forensic psychologist moves to Shipwreck Island and renews her relationship with Ezra Reinhold, a reclusive billionaire who enjoys poking around in cold cases and has the means to hire the best people to find the answers no one else has been able to.
In book 8 in the series, a man is found floating in a raft is rescued by has no memory of who he is or how he ended up drifting at sea. Sydney is asked to work with the man in the hope of helping him remember. Syd begins to have some luck and is feeling downright hopeful, when the body of another man washes ashore. Might their circumstance be related? Might the man who was found in the raft either be the victim of, or killer of, the man who washed up on the beach?
Macarons Can be Murder by Rose Betancourt
Paris Kentucky Bakery Mystery #1
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Nook | BAM
Perfect for fans of Ellie Alexander and Lucy Burdette, Rose Betancourt’s series debut is a culinary treat sure to charm.
Living in Paris, Kentucky, and having a sidekick cat named Pepe le Pew gives Marci Beaucoup’s life a certain je ne sais quoi. Combining her love of baking and France, Marci opened La Belle Patisserie to bring her small Southern hometown a bit of French flair and lots of croissants. Everything is sunshine and macaronsat the bakery until her landlord calls to tell her she’s selling the property. Marci’s relieved to hear that if the top bidder, an enchanting Frenchman named Antoine Dubois, gets the property, he’ll renew her bakery’s lease. Charmed by Antoine, Marci figures this development isn’t half bad and sees a handsome new landlord in her future—but then Antoine’s estranged ex-girlfriend Kelly turns up dead in front of her bakery. Sacrebleu!
Everyone calls Marci’s pastries “to die for,” but nobody’s actually died at La Belle Patisserie before. Antoine quickly becomes the main suspect to everyone in Paris—including to womanizing detective Maverick Malone. Who else would have killed Kelly but the ex-boyfriend she was just seen fighting with on the day of her death?
Marci finds out from her landlord that if Antoine is arrested, his purchase of her building will fall through—and her landlord will sell to developers instead, who plan to demolish the building and construct a strip mall in its place. Enamored with Antoine and with her patisserie dreams hanging in the balance, Marci is determined to prove Maverick and the rest of Paris wrong and find the true killer before Antoine winds up in jail—and she has to say au revoir to her bakery.
Now Marci finds herself mixed up in the murder investigation, and she must find the killer before her half-baked theories result in her untimely death.
Sliced, Diced and Dead by J.C. Eaton
Charcuterie Shop Mysteries #2
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Charcuterie chef Katie Aubrey is overjoyed when asked to create charcuterie boards for the summer fashion show at the prestigious Hidden Boulders Community in Cave Creek. However, the challenge for Katie isn’t designing the complex cured meat and cheese platters but rather, how to deal with Edith Ellory, the annoying food critic ghost who pesters her while she works. Lamentably, that becomes the least of her worries when the fashion show coordinator is found dead in the food pavilion clutching a handful of Katie’s pancetta rosettes.
Toxicology reports indicate food poisoning, and Katie’s charcuterie shop immediately falls under suspicion, even though none of the other meats showed any hint of foul play.
To make matters worse, the victim had a long and unpleasant history with one of Katie’s employees. To save the shop’s reputation and vindicate her employee, Katie needs to ditch her white apron and don some decent walking shoes before she becomes the next victim.
The Prince and The Apocalypse by Kara McDowell
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: YA Romantic Comedy
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An American teen stranded in London is forced to team up with the British crown prince if she wants to make it back home before the end of the world in this delightfully rompy high-stakes rom-com.
Wren Wheeler has flown five thousand miles across the ocean to discover she’s the worst kind of traveler: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but by the last day, Wren’s perfectly-planned itinerary is in tatters. There’s only one item left to check off: breakfast at The World’s End restaurant. The one thing she can still get right.The restaurant is closed for renovations―of course―but there’s a boy there, too. A very cute boy with a posh British accent who looks remarkably like the errant Prince Theo, on the run from the palace and his controlling mother. When Wren helps him escape a pack of tourists, the Prince scribbles down his number and offers her one favor in return. She doesn’t plan to take him up on it―until she gets to the airport and sees cancelled flights and chaos. A comet is approaching Earth, and the world is ending in eight days. Suddenly, that favor could be her only chance to get home to her family before the end of the world.
Wren strikes a bargain with the runaway prince: if she’ll be his bodyguard from London to his family’s compound in Santorini, he can charter her a private jet home in time to say goodbye. Traveling through Europe by boat, train, and accidentally stolen automobile, Wren finds herself drawn to the dryly sarcastic, surprisingly vulnerable Theo. But the Prince has his own agenda, one that could derail both their plans. When life as they know it will be over in days, is it possible to find a happy ending?
The Sleepover Clause by Barbara Barrett
Matchmaking Motor Coach #1
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Romance
Aubrey Carpenter has been running away from problems all her life, fearful of her mother’s opinions. When her latest home reno project blows up in her face, she escapes LA and hides out in a small Iowa town where the motor coach for her sister’s concert tour is being customized.
That doesn’t stop her from attempting to fix the dysfunctional lives of the three McKenna brothers who own the motor coach spa, particularly Mitch McKenna, the younger, hunky brother who has put his legal career on hold to help his brothers recoup their late father’s financial losses. The more involved she gets, the more attracted she is to the man. Though irritated by her interference, Mitch finds it increasingly more difficult to resist her.
When Aubrey’s former client sues, Mitch can’t allow her to face the music on her own. But to defend her, he must reveal his dream of returning to the law to his brothers. Their growing relationship is put to the test when she must decide whether to stay and ask her judgmental mother for help or hit the road again, leaving Mitch behind.
Weeding Out Lies by Jackie Layton
Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery #1
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Crafts and Hobbies Mystery
Flower farmer Emma Justice’s life is firmly rooted in Lutz, Texas where she has recently begun her new business. One morning while delivering flowers, she stumbles upon a prominent citizen. Dead. When a friend is accused of murder, Emma launches her own investigation. She’s used to separating weeds from flowers. Emma will dig for clues, weed out red herrings and cultivate a plan to find the killer.
Wrong Poison by Nikki Knight
Grace “The Hit Mom” Mystery #1
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Goodreads | Bookhype | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Nook
She’s a nice suburban mom and a sacred assassin…and Grace Adair’s secret life has just become a problem.
In “WRONG POISON,” Grace knows she’s in trouble when a death at the Library Book Fair turns out to be murder – by a poison used only by her ancient sisterhood. Now, she’ll need all her skills as a PTA mom and former prosecutor to find the killer and protect her friends…and their secrets. Hopefully without using her other skills.
About those other skills: Grace and her sweet older pal Madge are members of a 700-year-old order of assassins, sacred to the Archangel Gabriel and sworn to remove evil men who elude man’s justice. Think #MeToo with a poison solution.
With the unwitting help of her diverse and colorful parent pals, Scotchie the Giant Dog, and her clueless defense lawyer husband, Grace tracks the killer and unearths all kinds of secrets in suburbia…finally cornering the killer in a wild confrontation at the PTA Ice Cream Social.
Can she protect her friends and her sisterhood? Or is it the end of centuries of quietly meting out justice – and Grace herself?
Call it a cozy with a twist. You’ve never met anyone like Grace…and you’ll never forget her.
The Lifeboat Sisters by Tilly Tennant
Lifeboat Sisters #1
Publication Date: July 14, 2023
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Escape to candy-coloured Seaspray Cottage on the Cornish coast, with its stunning views of honeycomb sand beaches and aquamarine seas, where Ava is about to make a brave new start…
When Ava Morrow’s beloved father Jack is killed on his lifeboat at sea, the Cornish village of Port Promise unites in grief. Jack’s twinkling eyes and warm smile are remembered by the whole village, and Ava is determined that he will never be forgotten.
Inspired to follow in her father’s footsteps, Ava quits her job and begins to train as a lifeboat volunteer, alongside her best friend Harry, who was with Ava’s father the night he died. As they work side by side every day, Ava begins to see Harry, with his sea-green eyes and his sandy blonde hair, in a different light. Ava’s mother and sisters are worried about Ava’s safety and want her to stop, and Harry is the only person who really understands what she needs to do. Still, she pushes her feelings to one side, afraid to risk their friendship.
But when, one summer’s evening, Harry reveals a tragic secret about the night that Jack died, Ava’s world is turned upside down once more. Will his secret drive her away from him and the new life she loves?
If you love golden sands and crystal waters, picture-perfect Cornish villages and books by Jessica Redland, Jo Bartlett and Nicola May, you will fall in love with this romantic, heartbreaking read.
Second Chances for the Lifeboat Sisters by Tilly Tennant
Lifeboat Sisters #2
Publication Date: July 14, 2023
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
In the tiny village of Port Promise, where the wind tangles your hair and the cobbled streets twist down to the honeycomb beaches, Clara Morrow is planning her wedding.
After a whirlwind romance, Clara is excitedly planning her wedding to her handsome fiancé Logan in the picture-perfect Cornish village of Port Promise, with her mother and three sisters at her side.
She will never forget the day when she first caught sight of artist Logan, the sea-mist curling the ends of his dark hair, as he strode across the gorse-covered cliffs near the village. She feels so lucky that Logan seems happy to make her home his own, painting on the windswept Cornish beaches and calling in for lunch at the fish shack where she works with her best friend.
But when Logan inherits a beautiful house in London and reveals that he wants them to build a life there, it’s a huge shock for Clara. She knows it could be an amazing new start, but when she thinks about leaving her family behind, her heart aches.
Suddenly it seems like she and Logan have very different dreams. Can they find a way back to their happy ever after or will the mismatched lives they want threaten everything they have built together?
A beautiful heartbreaking read about love, life and starting again, Second Chances for the Lifeboat Sisters will whisk you away to a place where you can watch the sun set and feel the sand beneath your toes. Perfect for fans of Jessica Redland, Jo Bartlett and Nicola May.
Well, that’s it for the New Books Releasing Week 28 of 2023
Drop a comment if you like one of the books above or if you have one to recommend.
Thank you for stopping by,
Happy Reading!
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