BP Note: Happy Spring/Fall depending on your hemisphere! I am alternating between marveling at all the things in bloom and despising all the things in bloom as my allergies are having a field day. I am also doing a belated birthday celebration this month because I had several things hanging over my head last month. All accomplished so now I get to play. Might be a good thing I get my tax return this month given this line-up of books and some impending day job related life changes. All good ones but they mean some additional outlays along the way as this adventure continues. What are you looking forward to reading? What did we miss? What should I be pre-ordering? Please share.
Happy reading!
~E
Contemporary Romance
A Rancher’s Vow (The Stones of Heart Falls #5) by Vivian Arend – 18 Apr (Arend Publishing Inc)
Ten billionaire cowboy bachelors you need to meet! #SilverStoneStud
Do what’s right, no matter what, is a lesson Charity Gruzing learned from her beloved grandma and older sister. Which means although her appreciation for her friend Dustin Stone is high, she knows he’s not for her. She’s barely making ends meet, he’s one of the Heart Falls elite. She works in the Silver Stone office, he’s one of the ranch owners. Friends is the only option.
When a click-bait article names twenty-four-year-old Dustin as one of the country’s “most eligible billionaire bachelors,” it doesn’t take long for the curious and the annoying to arrive at Silver Stone ranch. As the youngest of the Stone siblings, Dustin’s determined to be there for his family the way they’ve always been there for him.
When Dustin offers to get out of Heart Falls to allow the billionaire fever and viral online storm to die down, Charity ends up along for the ride, and friends become friends with benefits. Suddenly she’s his pretend girlfriend, and it’s everything she’s ever dreamed of—only it’s not real. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll get to the end of the deception without her heart being broken.
Except it’s not her heart that’s in danger…
Allured by Her (Mainly Books Club #5) by Chelsea Cameron – 18 Apr (KU)
I was never looking forward to coming into work at the Common Grounds coffee shop and seeing Tenley Hill sitting at her usual table with her laptop. The most popular girl from high school always seemed to be harassing me and trying to get a free latte and being more infuriatingly pretty than ever.
Then one day she comes in and she’s a total wreck. I make the massive mistake of asking her what’s wrong. Turns out her boyfriend dumped her and all wants to do is try and get him back. Tenley pours her heart out to me and for the first time, I see her as a person and not just the woman who annoys me every day. That moment of weakness causes me to agree to do something I never would have done under normal circumstances: date her. Well, pretend to date her. In public, wherever her ex will see us. She tells me it’s fine, because she doesn’t even like women so there will be no messy complications. I panic and tell her I’m straight too.
At first I hate the role of being a fake girlfriend, but soon I find myself flirting with Tenley and dreaming of her kisses. She’s nothing like how I expected and before I know it, I’m falling for my heterosexual fake girlfriend and I have absolutely no idea what the hell I’m going to do about it.
Five First Chances by Sarah Jost – 18 Apr (Sourcebooks Landmark)
What would you do if you had one more chance for the life of your dreams?
Lou feels like she is stuck on the wrong path: alone, in a city far from home, watching other people be happy. When the man she’s in love with announces his engagement to someone else, Lou is consumed by ‘what ifs’.
That’s when she finds herself slipping back in time to a night two years ago, where one small decision changed everything…
Suddenly, Lou has a chance to fix her mistakes. But as her choices lead her down roads she never could have imagined, she finds herself stuck in a time loop of her own making. And with each slip, Lou notices her life intersecting with one person again and again. A friend of a friend who once lived on the periphery, who is slowly becoming the one person who makes her feel like she might finally be on the right track.
Lou is about to realize that our greatest love stories aren’t always the ones we expected, but are the ones we choose to fight for.
Moorewood Family Rules by Helenkay Dimon – 25 Apr (Avon)
One day a con man met an heiress, wooed her, married her, had two kids…and kept on conning. Jillian Moorewood is the oldest child from that meet-cute-gone-wrong marriage. The stable one. The sensible and dependable one. The one who protects and fixes. The one who went to prison to save their sorry butts. Now, thirty-nine months later, she’s out and she’s more than a little pissed.
Finally home she finds the scheming clan in full family fleecing mode. They all claim they didn’t really agree to Jillian’s previous go-legit-or-else ultimatum before she went away. They viewed it as a “suggestion” then ignored it. So, business as usual. But Jillian is done with the lies and fakery. She demands the whole messed-up crew clean up its act, and this time she’s not kidding—she has the leverage to make it happen.
Problem is, her life is in shambles, but with the help of a great aunt (crooked but loveable), a bodyguard (who is a nice surprise after three years in prison), and a few allies (all working undercover), Jillian starts to put her life back together. She kicks out a few mooching relatives living under her roof, sets limits on everyone’s access to the money, ducks from their various attacks, and sees if that bodyguard is maybe interested in sticking around for a while. For the first time, she’s Jillian Moorewood, her own woman, and she’s ready to figure out who she is.
Fantasy
The Winter Knight by Jes Battis – 4 Apr (ECW Press)
The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it’s clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer — and maybe figure her life out while she’s at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn’t made for him. After finding himself at the scene of the crime, Wayne is pulled deeper into his medieval family history while trying to navigate a new relationship with the dean’s charming assistant, Burt — who also happens to be a prime murder suspect. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown. And a hungry beast that stalks Wayne’s dreams.
The Warden (The Warden #1) by Daniel M. Ford – 18 Apr (Tor Books)
There was a plan.
She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was simple: become one of the only female necromancers, earn as many degrees as possible, get a post in one of the grand cities, then prove she’s capable of greatness. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control.
Now Aelis de Lenti, a daughter of a noble house and recent graduate of the esteemed Magisters’ Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences, matching wits with goats, and serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a Warden of her talents than she previously thought.
Old magics are restless, and an insignificant village on the farthest border of the kingdom might hold secrets far beyond what anyone expected. Aelis might be the only person standing between one of the greatest evils ever known and the rest of the world.
Fantasy Romance
Wings Once Cursed and Bound (Mythwoven #1) by Piper J. Drake – 11 Apr (Sourcebooks Casablance)
My wings unbound, I am the Thai bird princess
The kinnaree
And no matter the cost,
I will be free.Bennet Andrews represents a secret organization of supernatural beings dedicated to locating and acquiring mythical objects, tucking them safely away where they cannot harm the human race. When he meets Peeraphan Rahttana, it’s too late—she has already stepped into The Red Shoes, trapped by their curse to dance to her death.
But Bennet isn’t the only supernatural looking for deadly artifacts. And when the shoes don’t seem to harm Peeraphan, he realizes that he’ll have to save her from the likes of creatures she never knew existed. Bennett sweeps Peeraphan into a world of myth and power far beyond anything she ever imagined. There, she finds that magic exists in places she never dreamed—including deep within herself.
The Vampire of Montana (Agents of the Royal States #1) by Susan Copperfield – 28 Apr (Pen & Page Publishing)
As a member of the RPS, Daphne Niell, also known as the Vampire of Montana, lives to serve.
On a good day, she hunts terrorists and eliminates them before they can strike.
On a bad one, His Royal Majesty of Montana, also known as her twerp of a cousin, sends her overseas to play nice with foreign monarchs.
Upon landing in Spain, the Vampire of Montana learns she’s been played, and her first job involves securing the life and liberty of everyone in a busy airport. To do her job, she needs more than just an excuse: she needs a partner.
Selecting a tall, dark, and handsome stranger from the ticketing line to become an unwitting accomplice in her plans isn’t her style, but desperate times call for drastic measures.
What she doesn’t know might kill them both and forever change the course of the Royal States and the world.
Historical Romance
The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels #3) by India Holton – 18 Apr (Berkley Books)
Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.
But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life— pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.
Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.
A Rogue’s Rules for Seduction (Last Chance Scoundrels #3) by Eva Leigh – 25 Apr (Avon)
After Dominic Kilburn left Lady Willa Ransom at the altar, she vowed never to reveal how badly she was hurt. Following a year abroad, Willa wants to move on with her life, so she accepts an invitation to a house party. She’s determined to leave her humiliation behind, as well as the scorching attraction she still feels for the man who jilted her.
When dark secrets from his past surfaced right before his wedding, Dom knew he didn’t deserve Willa. So, he bolted. But he still burns for the only woman who ever claimed his heart. To escape the memories of all he lost, Dom heads to a friend’s estate on an isolated Scottish isle. Yet one of the other guests is the very woman who haunts his every thought and makes him wish for the impossible.
Thrown together by well-meaning family and friends, Willa and Dom try to resist the fiery pull between them. Soon the line between love and loathing begins to blur, and their attraction explodes. But Dom’s past lurks on the edge of their rekindled passion and Willa fears she’ll be devastated all over again. Can these star-crossed lovers find their happily ever after, or will everything detonate a second time?
Science Fiction
House of Gold by C.T. Rwizi – 1 Apr (47North)
A corporate aristocracy descended from Africa rules a colony on a distant planet.
Life here is easy—for the rarified and privileged few. The aristocrats enjoy a powerful cybernetic technology that extends their life spans and ensures their prosperity. Those who serve them suffer under a heavy hand.
But within this ruthless society are agents of hope and change. In a secret underwater laboratory, a separatist cult has created a threat to the aristocracy. The Primes are highly intelligent, manipulative products of genetic engineering, designed to lead a rebellion. Enabling their mission are the Proxies, the Primes’ bodyguards and lifelong companions bound to their service.
When the cult’s hideout is attacked, Proxies Nandipa and Hondo rush to the rescue. As they emerge with their Primes onto the surface, however, everything they’d been led to believe about their world is shattered.
Nandipa and Hondo will risk it all to honor their oath of absolute loyalty. But when the very people they’re tasked to protect turn on each other, the Proxies must decide between those they were built to serve and the freedom to carve out their own destinies. And the fate of their planet may rest in their choice.
T
he Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown – 4 Apr (Tor Nightfire)
As acting captain of the starship Calypso, Jacklyn Albright is responsible for keeping the last of humanity alive as they limp back to Earth from their forebears’ failed colony on a distant planet.
Faced with constant threats of starvation and destruction in the treacherous minefield of interstellar space, Jacklyn’s crew has reached their breaking point. As unrest begins to spread throughout the ship’s Wards, a new threat emerges, picking off crew members in grim, bloody fashion.
Jacklyn and her team must hunt down the ship’s unknown intruder if they have any hope of making it back to their solar system alive.
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh – 11 Apr (Tordotcom)
While we live, the enemy shall fear us.
All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity.
They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.
Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, she escapes from everything she’s ever known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.
Urban Fantasy
Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1) by Ilona Andrews – 11 Apr (Graphic Audio)
Ilona Andrews invites you to experience the first dramatized audiobook in the #1 New York Times bestselling series featuring the intriguing fantasy world of mercenary Kate Daniels.
When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.
Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.
The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
This edition also includes A Questionable Client and Curran POV!
Both Feet in the Grave (Night Huntress #10) by Jeaniene Frost – 18 Apr (NYLA)
If you thought you learned more about the dangerous and sexy alpha vampire, Bones, in the USA Today bestselling scorcher, THE OTHER HALF OF THE GRAVE, you haven’t seen anything yet. This is Bones, in his own words…
Two hundred years of bounty hunting made Bones the best at what he does, yet it’s still taken him four long years to find Cat, the half vampire now known as the “Red Reaper.” There’s a price on Cat’s head, and not even her job as a secret government agent can save her. Only Bones can. But has time hardened Bones too much to love again? Or will his passion for Cat burn through every obstacle—alive, undead, or otherwise—between them?
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Night Huntress series comes a fresh, new perspective on the origin saga of Cat and Bones, in Bones’ own words…
The monthly Must Have list is a compilation of the upcoming release titles that we, The Book Pushers, just can’t wait to get our hands on. Don’t see a title you’re excited about listed here? Add it to the comments section below. Let us know what you’re looking forward to!