New Books Publishing Week 27 of 2023

Posted July 2, 2023 by karenbaron in Upcoming Book Releases / 0 Comments

The Baroness’ Choices of New Books Publishing This Week

2023, Week 27’s New Books

My choices for this week include YA Mystery, YA Paranormal Romance, Cozy Paranormal Mystery, Cozy Animal Mysteries, Women’s Fiction, Cozy Mystery, and MG Fantasy.

Let me tell you, the difference in temperatures from Montana to Texas is crazy. I know my parents told me it would be like this, but hey, I am used to 70s and 80s for summer, so the 90+ is kicking my b*%t. My first official summer, and we had a storm last month and lost power for five days! Thank goodness we have a generator, unlike some of the people who live near us. So, I love Texas, but it takes some getting used to, for sure.

Happy Independence Day! I am looking forward to checking out some of our area’s celebrations. Do you have any traditions that you do to celebrate the fourth of July?

Here are my choices for New Books Publishing Week 27 of 2023!

Asbury High and the Writing on the Wall by Kelly Brady Channick

Asbury High YA Cozy Mystery #7

Publication Date: July 2, 2023

Genre: YA Mystery

Goodreads | Amazon

Entering their final year of high school, the gang believes they left the rough seas behind on their Senior Cruise. During the summer, while they were away, graffiti had slowly overtaken Asbury. After a talented, yet shy, young woman goes missing, Maddie, Cornelious, Carly and Pilot wonder if there could be a connection—since the graffiti seems to suddenly stop. Things take a turn for the worse when the missing woman is found a few weeks later, viciously murdered.

At first, many believe the murderer to be an outsider…but cryptic journal entries and close friends of the murdered young woman point to someone in town. Things only get messier when local bully and gang leader, JB, approaches the gang, announcing one of his Pitbulls has gone missing as well. Could his missing Pitbull simply be a murderer on the run?

The more the gang investigates, the more foggier everything seems. When Jeremiah Gibbz is arrested for murder, Cornelious is torn between trusting his father or accepting the evidence as it piles up.

Through everything, the gang tries to celebrate their senior year with friends and each other. As scholarships and college choices loom closer than ever, the foursome finds it difficult to focus on the case. In addition to Jeremiah’s impending legal troubles, his decision to begin planning a presidential campaign brings a possible running mate tow town…with his family. Among the new family, is beautiful and sly high school Senior, Chelsea Jaminucco—who (with Jeremiah’s blessing) is intent on making Cornelious her own.

As typical high school problems and slippery interferences crowd the gang’s life, can they find the truth behind Asbury’s gruesome murder? Can they stick together, or will this case be the one that pulls them apart for good?

Asbury High and the Writing on the Wall is the seventh and final book in a young adult cozy mystery series, that fans of Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and Scooby Doo will love.

After Death by Melissa de la Cruz

Blue Bloods #9

Publication Date: July 4, 2023

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

From #1 New York Times best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz, After Death is the second book in an all-new duology set within the Blue Bloods universe!

She may be down . . . but her fangs are out.

After defeating Lucifer and saving the world, Schuyler Van Allen woke up in an entirely different reality and learned she had to do it all over again. Find the villain, take him down, save the world. But after losing her only allies, Jack Force–who ran off to protect her–and Kingsley Martin–who was captured and killed by the enemy, Schuyler has to face facts. She’s going to have to do this alone . . . or is she?

When a mysterious new girl named Eoife shows up at Duchesne Academy, Schuyler at first thinks she must be yet another enemy, but she soon finds out that Eoife could be the answer Schuyler’s been looking for. A member of an ages old secret society of heroes called the Palladins, Eoife is here to help–and she has friends–lots of them. United with another unlikely ally in Max Force, the group might just have a fighting chance–if they can find and rescue Jack, get Max’s Blue Blood powers back, solve the theory of chaos magic and take down a friend turned foe. Oh, and fight off an army of Silver Bloods and otherworldly monsters led by the devil himself.

Can Schuyler finally put an end to the war between heaven and hell? Or will she have another world to save each time she opens her eyes?

Bewitched and Bothered by Amanda M. Lee

Moonstone Bay Cozy Mysteries #12

Publication Date: July 4, 2023

Genre: Cozy Paranormal Mystery

Goodreads | Amazon

Hadley Hunter is taking some downtime with her fiancé Galen Blackwood. All she wants to do is bask in their happiness and pretend nothing bad could possibly happen.

This is Moonstone Bay, however. That’s simply not reality.

When Galen gets a call that an old-timer on the island is holding a gun on the guests at a local bar, Hadley accompanies him to the scene…and watches as the unthinkable happens. The man’s death is strange enough, but when news starts to spread that their victim had been carrying on with a woman who was young enough to be his granddaughter, things take an even odder turn.

It seems there’s an unknown power on the island, and this individual is casting the sort of love spells that force unusual couples to start burning—literally—for one another.

Not only are Hadley and Galen hot on the trail of an outside player, but they’re also targets.

Hadley has learned a lot since finding out she’s a witch. This lesson, however, might be too hot to handle.

The union of earth, air, fire, and water has become symbolic on Moonstone Bay. This time the union will lead to a whole new adventure.

Nothing will ever be the same again.

Scaredy Cat by Sofie Ryan

Second Chance Cat Mysteries #10

Publication Date: July 4, 2023

Genre: Cozy Animal Mystery

Secondhand store owner Sarah Grayson and her affectionate rescue cat, Elvis, will scare up a few leads to find a killer in the newest installment of this captivating New York Times bestselling series.

After a long, cold, and snowy winter, it seems as though spring may be arriving early in Maine. Sarah Grayson is busy at her store, Second Chance, and she’s looking forward to an afternoon break from the hustle and bustle, tagging along to the North Harbor Spring House Tour with her friend Detective Michelle Andrews.

But it turns out one of the houses has a haunted history, and when a ghost hunter is found dead on the premises, Sarah knows the best way to uncover the killer/to solve the mystery is by investigating the not-so-dearly departed. With help from Elvis and Charlotte’s Angels, the crew of senior citizen private detectives who work out of the store, she’ll close the case on this creepy crime.

The Ingredients of Happiness by Lucy Burdette

Publication Date: July 4, 2023

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Is there a recipe for the perfect life?

Thirty-two-year-old ‘happiness guru’ Dr Cooper Hunziker has it all – a dream job as assistant psychology professor at Yale University, a soon-to-be published self-help book, The Happiness Connection, and the perfect man. But there’s a problem. Cooper isn’t happy.

Of course, it doesn’t help that she’s facing cut-throat competition for her tenure at Yale, an accusation of plagiarism that could cost her everything, or that her new book has irritated the department chairman, who assigns her to co-lead a happiness group at the New Haven Library.

As her friendship with the other women in the group flourishes, Cooper finds herself questioning her choices. Forced to face a life-changing betrayal and her own traumatic past, can she navigate a path to happiness with the help of a gargoyle’s wisdom?

The Portraits of Pemberley by Elizabeth Gilliland

Austen University Mysteries #2

Publication Date: July 5, 2023

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon | Book Review

After George Wickham is found tied up, naked, on the Austen University Campus Square, President de Bourgh gives student journalist Lizzy Bennet an ultimatum: Find out who committed the crime, or be expelled from the school. Lizzy must team up with some old friends (like the Austen Murder Club) and some new (like…Karoline Bingley?) to get to the bottom of the truth.

Complicating matters is the fact that the prime suspect is Fo-Hian Darcy. Darcy and Lizzy have a messy history, but even so, Lizzy just can’t accept that Darcy committed the crime. An anonymous whistleblower tips off Lizzy about a secret website called the Portraits of Pemberley that may help her get to the bottom of the mystery–but discovering the truth about who’s involved may very well challenge everything that Lizzy believes.

The Portraits of Pemberley is Book 2 of the Austen University Mysteries series but can be read as a standalone novel. It combines plot points of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with Sense and Sensibility (and characters from all of Austen’s novels) in a modern-university setting, with mysteries.

The Destiny of Minou Moonshine by Gita Ralleigh

Publication Date: July 6, 2023

Genre: MG Fantasy

Goodreads | Bookhype | BookBub | Amazon | Nook

The story of a Queendom set in an alternate India, blending Frances Hardinge with Kipling’s Kim. A debut rich in fantasy, friendship and faith, and an original adventure that sparkles with storytelling magic.

‘A land that loses its stories loses its way.’

The beautiful queendom of Moonlally has fallen under a tyrant’s rule. Their queen is dead, worship of their goddess, the Dark Lady, is forbidden, and the precious black diamond that protects the city – a rare fragment of fallen star – has gone missing.

When fierce orphan girl Minou Moonshine’s life is unexpectedly shattered, she joins the ragtag band of rebels, the Green Orchids, who are plotting to overthrow the General.

Armed with a secret and a map, Minou sets off with her friends and a mechanical elephant, through the lush jungles of Indica, in search of a queen, a goddess and her destiny.

The Incorruptible Ivy Jackson and the Café Corpse by Rosie A. Point

Incorruptible Ivy Jackson Mysteries #2

Publication Date: July 7, 2023

Genre: Cozy Crafts and Hobbies Mystery

Goodreads | Amazon

A bride on the run. A corpse in the local cafe.

The Incorruptible Ivy Jackson and her border collie, Boo, are summoned to a local cafe by the owner when a corpse is found hanging from the ceiling. The groom of a local wedding has been murdered on the morning of his nuptials. The bride is on the run.

With the police chasing down the prime suspect, Ivy and Boo are left to ponder the intricacies of the mystery. They determine that the case is far from solved, and that the real murderer is determined to claim another victim before the week is through.

Ivy must solve the mystery before the killer strikes again and Somewhere, Ohio, her hometown, becomes unlivable.