The Baroness’ Choices of New Books Publishing This Week
2026, Week 21’s New Books
My choices for this week include Middle Grade Fantasy, Private Investigator Mystery, Traditional Mystery, Romantic Mystery, and Sweet Romance.
The weather down here in Texas has been crazy for only being spring. How’s the weather where you are? Some days are perfect reading weather down here, though. We never know if we need an umbrella or shorts.
I got another short list for you to take a look at this week.
Here are my choices for New Books Publishing Week 21 of 2026!
Bashir Boutros and the Forgotten Realm by George Jreije
Bashir Boutros #2
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | StoryGraph | Amazon
From George Jreije, author of the acclaimed Shad Hadid and the Alchemists of Alexandria series, comes the exhilarating conclusion to the Bashir Boutros duology in which Bashir and his friends find themselves and the fate of the realms threatened by an unexpected force: a vengeful jinn more powerful and ancient than Yani himself.
With Ali Adin defeated and the realms at peace once again, Bashir Boutros is hoping for a normal school year. Well, as normal as things can get when you have a powerful jinn for a friend and you’re a member of the secret Council of Magi.
But when a girl wearing a mysterious pendant attacks the Magi’s hideout, Bashir and his friends quickly find themselves threatened by a jinn more powerful and ancient than his own. Worse, the girl and her jinn are hungry for revenge. Facing a final battle for the realms, Bashir will have to weigh whether or not staying true to himself will cost him the world that he loves. . .
Mist and Malice by Rachel Howzell Hall
Haven Thrillers #1
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Genre: Private Investigator Mystery
Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | StoryGraph | Amazon
A small-town PI is drawn into a killer conspiracy in a breathtaking novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of the Anthony Award–nominated These Toxic Things.
Private investigator Sonny Rush, the newest resident of Haven, California, knows that this fogbound coastal hamlet is every bit as dangerous as her hometown of Los Angeles. And when teenager and repeat runaway Honor Butler shows up at Sonny’s door with terror in her eyes, Sonny is immediately pulled into a new case that lands close to home.
Desperate, hungry, and in need of someone she can trust, Honor tells Sonny a horrifying story about where she’s been―and what she’s been forced to do. Then, hours later, the forest near Sonny’s cottage yields the remains of a missing day laborer, a man whose wife has been searching for answers for months. Soon, coincidence sharpens into conspiracy.
As Sonny digs deeper, the threads of these cases twist together into something horrifying: a ruthless network preying on the vulnerable, protected by the very people meant to uphold the law. With every step closer to revealing Haven’s corruption, Sonny risks pulling the lives of her loved ones into the cross fire―and exposing the shadows of her own past. Because in this town, loyalty can be fatal, and survival means deciding who you’re willing to betray.
Rachel West and the Fallen Starlet by Emma Mills
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | StoryGraph | Amazon
Celebrity gossip can cut to the quick, but when it turns deadly it’s up to an aspiring reporter and her quirky neighbors to close the case in the first of a witty and nostalgic new mystery series.
Baby doll top, gladiator sandals, and fully loaded iPod at the ready: it’s 2008 in Los Angeles, and Rachel West is a little less starry-eyed than your average ingenue. Copyediting a celeb gossip rag isn’t the glossy entertainment journalism Rachel thought she would be doing but hey, it pays the bills. Some of them, anyway.
Rachel’s life changes overnight after meeting Molly Byrne, a former child star and current tabloid fave for her drunken escapades and rotating cast of boyfriends, and what begins as a chance encounter in a nightclub bathroom quickly grows into a genuine friendship.
When Molly is found dead, Hollywood accepts her death as an overdose. But Rachel knows for a fact her friend was clean—and she’s not alone in her suspicions that Molly was murdered.
With the help of a ragtag group of residents from her apartment building, a friendly paparazzo, and a handsome detective, Rachel must solve the mystery of Molly’s death before she’s written off for good.
Safari Murder Party by Rachel Moore
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Genre: Romantic Mystery
Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | StoryGraph | Amazon | Karen’s or Jen’s Book Review
In this darkly funny, slightly unhinged, heart-pounding thriller, two office rivals must team up to escape wild animals and even wilder coworkers on a corporate retreat gone wrong.
Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.
After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat—a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great…until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company.
So now she’s stuck on her billionaire boss’s safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who’ve swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles.
To Fletcher’s dismay, her only ally might be her boss’s insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won’t try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and…marketing executives? Oh my.
While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it’s never been more true.
Where Colors take Flight by Wendy Meadows
Hearts of Maplewood Grove #1
Publication Date: May 21, 2026
Genre: Sweet Romance
Cate Foster had spent a decade racing. Every minute counted. Every decision mattered. Every moment not climbing was a moment falling behind.
The partnership was in sight, close enough to taste, and the cost was only everything she had left to give.
When her colleagues suggested she needed a break before burning out completely, Cate fought them. Stepping away felt like surrender. But her aunt Ellie’s voice on the phone was patient, knowing, and within days, Cate found herself driving away from Nashville toward the one place she thought she’d left behind forever: Maplewood Grove.
The small town hadn’t changed. Golden light still bathed the rolling hills. The shops still lined Main Street like a painting frozen in time. And when she met Mike Reynolds—a painter with kind eyes and paint-stained hands at the art fair, something inside her began to shift.
He didn’t ask her to perform or prove herself. He simply invited her to paint. With each brush stroke, Cate felt something she’d forgotten: freedom.
In Maplewood Grove, she would learn that the life she’d been chasing wasn’t worth the life it was costing her. And the real transformation wasn’t choosing love. It was choosing herself.
A heartfelt exploration of burnout, ambition, and the courage it takes to choose a different path. Wendy Meadows delivers a small-town romance that reminds readers what really matters.
Well, that’s it for the New Books Releasing Week 21 of 2026
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!
Baroness’ Book Trove is an Amazon affiliate, meaning that if you click the link and purchase something, this blog gets a tiny percentage back. Mainly, this helps with the cost of the website and a few giveaways.
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