The Baroness’ Choices of New Books Publishing This Week
2024, Week 20’s New Books
My choices for this week include MG, Romantic Comedy, Police Procedural Mystery, Cozy Animal Mystery, Sweet Royal Romance, MG Horror, MG Fantasies, and Cozy Mystery.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers of the world! Yes, I’m including pet owners as well since your furbabies count as babies. Trust me, I count my two dogs as my furbabies. Anyway, today, I will be reading and doing whatever my mom wants so that she doesn’t have to do anything beyond reading or whatever else she wants to do. What are your plans for Mother’s Day?
None of these wonderful books are on my or Jen’s TBR list, but they all look and sound wonderful, so that may end up changing for some of them.
Here are my choices for New Books Publishing Week 20 of 2024!
Keep It Like a Secret by John David Anderson
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Middle Grade
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A heartfelt and unexpected novel about an inseparable brother and sister, from the beloved author of Posted.
From the first moment Morgan can remember, Claire has always been there. Big sister and little brother. Cat and Mouse. They’ve always understood each other, saved each other, seen each other. And they stuck to their own personal code, unwritten but understood, that siblings were inseparable, that they had each other’s backs, no matter what.
At least, they used to.
Somewhere along the line, things between them shifted. Claire started fighting more with Mom, storming out of the house, spending more and more time away, and Morgan felt his sister and best friend slipping away. Now he spends nearly every night sitting awake in his room, waiting for the sound of her key in the lock.
It’s a sound he hasn’t heard in nearly a week, ever since her and Mom’s worst fight ever. So when Claire finally calls and tells Morgan she wants to spend the day together, just the two of them, he knows this might be his only chance—not just to convince her to come home but to remind her how good things used to be, and could be again.
But Claire has her own plan for the day. One that will mean that, no matter what happens, things between them are going to change forever.
Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Romantic Comedy
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When a librarian moves to a quaint Irish village where her favorite novelist lives, the last thing she expects is to fall for the author’s prickly son… until their story becomes one for the books, from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading.
Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha’s Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan’s novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.
Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series—after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer’s block—is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn’t have to deal with Siobhan’s son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan’s bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn’t want Em around.
Emily persists, and spending her days bantering with the annoyingly handsome mercurial Irishman only makes her fall more deeply in love with the new life she’s built – and for the man who seems to soften toward her with every quip she throws at him. But when she discovers the reason for Kieran’s initial resistance, Em finds herself torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her now undeniable feelings for Kier. As Siobhan’s novel progresses, Emily will have to decide if she’s truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter.
On Her Watch by Melinda Leigh
Bree Taggert #8
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Police Procedural Mystery
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Sheriff Bree Taggert becomes a target when she follows the twisting trail of a serial killer in a bone-chilling novel of suspense by #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh.
A pair of hikers find a tarp-wrapped body in a clearing in the woods. When a search in the surrounding area yields two more, Sheriff Bree Taggert knows they’ve stumbled onto a serial killer’s dumping ground.
With the help of investigator Matt Flynn, Bree works the case. They go to interview Jana, the best friend of one of the victims. But when they arrive at her apartment, it’s been ransacked and set on fire. And Jana is missing.
It’s clear the killer is escalating. To make matters worse, he threatens Bree’s family and a young mother vanishes. Will Bree and Matt uncover the link between the victims before more women die?
Purrfectly Framed by Ruth J. Hartman
Mobile Cat Groomer Mystery #2
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Cozy Animal Mystery
When mobile cat groomer, Molly Stewart, asks her friend Evan to photograph her new feline clients, they both get more than they bargained for when the body of Evan’s old art teacher is found bludgeoned to death in his photography studio darkroom. After one of Evan’s photos catches suspicious activity in the background, Molly is ready to call the authorities with the newest piece of information. However, an anonymous phone call which threatens not only her, but Evan and their pets, convinces Molly to clam up and find the murderer herself. Will the tenuous situation end up being picture perfect or a photo bomb?
Royal Retelling by Holly Kerr
Love in Laandia #2
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Sweet Royal Romance
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What if Prince Charming fell for the wicked step-sister?
The youngest son of the king of Laandia, Gunnar lives a charmed life, travelling the world without a thought of what’s going on in the kingdom. But when he’s called home for the royal wedding, Gunnar finds he has a big problem:
Prince Gunnar doesn’t have a date for the wedding.
And while this shouldn’t be a problem for the Playboy Prince, Gunnar has requirements: whoever he takes can’t take the attention away from the bride and groom, which would definitely happen with his jet-setting friends; and whoever he brings needs to know this is a one-time thing.
So when the town’s Sea Queen agrees to go with him, Gunnar is relieved—but her oh-so wicked stepsister, Stella, decrees it a very bad idea.
Once childhood friends, Stella now considers him more like a sworn enemy. Gunnar prefers to not think of her, because this Stella, who curses rather than curtsies, has a never-ending arsenal of insults that is a sure way to ruin his day.
But as the wedding approaches, and Gunnar spends more time with Stella, he starts to wonder that, in this fairy tale retelling, he’s picked the wrong sister.
Royal Retelling is the second in the Love in Laandia series, an enemies-to lovers, sweet royal romcom, with sharp banter and sweet blushes, of brotherly love and royal duties and saving all the dogs in Laandia.
The Boo Hag Flex by Justina Ireland
Tales from Cabin 23 #1
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Middle Grade Horror
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Few campers at Camp Apple Hill Farm have found the mysterious cabin rumored to be hidden deep in the woods—but those who have whisper of a mysterious woman who tells tales of horrors beyond imagination. Are you brave enough to visit Cabin 23?
The last thing Tasha Washington wants is to move from her home in Savannah to a trailer park in Middle-of-Nowhere, Georgia. But when her mother dies and Tasha is taken in by her father—a man she’s never met, who abandoned her mom when Tasha was just a baby—she doesn’t have much of a choice. At least, she thinks, she won’t have to spend much time with him—something that becomes clear when he dumps Tasha with her grandmother and disappears to be with his new girlfriend.
The Shady Pines trailer park seems like a miserable place to spend a summer, even before an elderly neighbor suddenly passes away. But then Tasha meets a girl named Ellie who says she knows what really killed old Mr. Harold: a terrifying creature that stalks the trailer park at night, sucking the life from its victims. Tasha doesn’t believe it, but when she discovers a book of hoodoo legends in her grandmother’s trailer, and more people around Shady Pines start to appear unwell, she begins to fear the stories are true—and that danger is much closer than she thinks.
And don’t miss the second book in the Tales from Cabin 23 series: Night of the Living Head!
The Last Rhee Witch by Jenna Lee-Yun
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
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For fans of The Last Fallen Star, Witchlings, and Ghost Squad, a heartfelt middle grade debut where Korean folklore is all too real and summer camp includes a gwishin haunting.
You couldn’t hold onto everything and everyone. You had to choose. And Ronnie only had two hands.
Since her mother died when she was five years old, it’s always just been Ronnie Miller and her dad. Two Korean Americans who, thanks to Ronnie’s dad’s adoption by white parents, have never felt all that Korean. But Ronnie is okay with that—as long as she has her dad and her best friend Jack, Ronnie is 99% certain she can get through anything.
But as much as she wants everything to stay the same, the world—and her dad—has other plans. Now, Ronnie and Jack are headed away to sleepaway camp for the first time ever. Camp Foster promises all of the outdoorsy activities that Ronnie has so far managed to avoid: ropes courses, scavenger hunts, kayaking on the lake. Ugh. But she can do this. As long as she has Jack.
As it turns out, an old manor in the woods is the kind of place that’s crawling with secrets. Secrets like a mysterious gwishin haunting the grounds, a blood-red scarf wrapped too tightly around her ghostly neck. And a witch-hunting dokkaebi intent on finding and silencing the last Rhee witch. And the strange habit all the counselors have of rhyming when they speak . . . just like Ronnie has begun to do lately.
For a girl who wants everything to stay the same, nothing is scarier than all the changes Camp Foster brings. New friends. New foes. Souls with unfinished business. And, possibly worst of all, revelations that disprove everything Ronnie knew to be true.
Jenna Lee-Yun combines magic, mystery, suspense, and humor into a ghostly action-packed contemporary fantasy.
The Many Faces of Ista Flit by Clare Harlow
Tidemagic #1
Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
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Magic, mystery, and monsters abound in this series opener about a girl with the rare magical ability to look like anyone she’s ever seen.
In misty Shelwich, magic rises and falls with the tides, everyone is born with a magical gift, and people have started to . . . disappear.
Rumor has it they are snatched by monsters, but Ista Flit doesn’t want to believe it. Not when her own father is missing. As she scours the city, searching for clues, a notorious thief finds her. Ista has a rare talent: she’s a face-changer, able to take on the appearance of anyone she’s seen, and Alexo could use a girl with her skill. Ista could use Alexo’s help in her search–if only she could trust him.
As more people disappear from the city, Ista finds unexpected allies in Nat and Ruby, each searching for their own missing loved ones. These three determined kids will need to use all the Tidemagic they can summon, infiltrate the city’s highest elite circles, and dive into its lowest caverns, in order to find how thieves, monsters, and the missing are all connected.
Stiletto to the Pedal by Karen C. Whalen
Tow Truck Murder Mysteries #5
Publication Date: May 15, 2024
Genre: Cozy Mystery
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When the IRS claims Delaney Morran, the high-heeled tow truck driver and amateur sleuth, owes back taxes, she hires an accountant to fight Uncle Sam. Before Delaney can resolve the issue, a tax collector shows up in Spruce Ridge, Colorado demanding an amount Delaney can’t afford. It gets worse when Delaney’s accountant becomes the town’s next murder victim and Delaney’s tax records are locked inside the crime scene. The quickest way to get the Internal Revenue off her case is to catch the killer and get her files back, so she speeds around town questioning suspects while keeping one step ahead of the tax man. Will Delaney be able to solve yet another murder and secure her records before the IRS shuts her down?
Well, that’s it for the New Books Releasing Week 20 of 2024
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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