BP Note: Welcome to Feb! We have quite the random list of reads for you this month in multiple subgenres. Sometimes I wonder if just enjoy creating new categories but when I read the blurbs they fit. Unlike a certain newly popular “cutsey” mash-up that I refuse to acknowledge *grin*. No one has successfully managed to convince me it is any different from what fantasy romance and romantic fantasy already provide. *ahem* I digress. Let us know what we missed or what other subgenres you have recently discovered. Take care of yourselves, tell those you care about how much they mean to you, and make the time to spend with them.
Happy reading!
~E
- Contemporary Romance
- Fantasy
- Fantasy Mystery
- Fantasy Romance
- Foodie Mystery
- Historical Fantasy
- Historical Mystery
- Horror
- Literary Fiction
- Mystery
- Mystery Thriller
- Paranormal Romance
- Science Fiction Mystery
- Science Fiction Romance
- Urban Fantasy
Contemporary Romance
The Sitcom Star (Chu’s Restaurant #1) by Jackie Lau – 13 Feb (Jackie Lau Books)
Adrian Ma hasn’t seen his childhood crush in years—until she appears on his TV screen. Maddie Ng, the co-creator and star of Chu’s Restaurant, clearly has a different life from Adrian, an easygoing web developer who spends his free time hanging out with friends, babysitting his nephew, and eating fried chicken. Sure, it might not be Hollywood, but Maddie’s gorgeous face appears in ads for Canada’s hit sitcom all over Toronto. He doesn’t expect to see her in real life. He certainly doesn’t expect to spill bubble tea all over her.
Their chance encounter leads to him teaching an overworked Maddie how to relax, and to his surprise, the attraction isn’t one-sided. Yet as things heat up between them, Adrian wonders how long this can last. He wants to be the man who loves and supports her behind the scenes, but he’s not sure that’s possible. After all, she’s Maddie Ng, the sitcom star, and he’s just a regular guy.
At First Spite (Harlot’s Bay #1) by Olivia Dade – 13 Feb (Avon)
When Athena Greydon’s fiancé ends their engagement, she has no choice but to move into the Spite House she recklessly bought him as a wedding gift. This is a problem, for several reasons: The house, originally built as a brick middle finger to the neighbors, is only ten feet wide. Her ex’s home is attached to hers. And Dr. Matthew Vine the Freaking Third (aka the uptight, judgmental jerk who convinced his younger brother to leave her) is living on the other side, only a four-foot alley away.
If she has to see Matthew every time she looks out her windows, she might as well have some fun with the situation–by, say, playing erotic audiobooks at top volume with the windows open. A woman living in a Spite House is basically obligated to get petty payback however she can, right?
Unfortunately, loathing Matthew proves more difficult than anticipated. He helps her move. He listens. And he’s kind of…hot? Dammit.
Meegan (Loose Ends #3) by Rebekah Weatherspoon – 13 Feb (Self)
Autistic tech millionaire Olin Breivik has two goals in making sure his dad and his brothers are taken care of and not making the world a worse place. Between political fundraisers, community luncheons and galas, his social battery hovers around thirty-five percent on a good day. Unfortunately for him, his “hot single millionaire” status means he uses up the rest of his energy fending off wannabe matchmakers. After another ultra rude attempt at a set-up, Olin enlists his friend Xeni to help him find someone to pretend to be his girlfriend, just to take the heat off. Enter Meegan Whalen.
A little lonely and bored out of her mind, the sunny kindergarten teacher doesn’t see the harm in helping Olin out, especially when he offers to pay. Much to his surprise, Olin quickly finds himself craving more from his new date-for-hire. Meegan is charmed by him too, but there’s something Olin must know about her before things can go any further. Under her cheery exterior is a naughty girl, who is deep in the lifestyle and has no interest in doing things any other way. Before their relationship can get an upgrade to the real thing, Olin must discover if he can handle her submission well enough to win her heart.
Fantasy
Sun of Blood and Ruin (Sun of Blood and Ruin #1) by Mariely Lares – 20 FEb (Harper Voyager)
A new legend begins…
In sixteenth-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule.
To all who know her, Leonora de Las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs.
No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person. Leonora’s charade is tragically good, and with magic running through her veins, she is nearly invincible. Nearly. Despite her mastery, she is destined to die young in battle, as predicted by a seer.
When an ancient prophecy of destruction threatens to come true, Leonora–and therefore Pantera–is forced to decide: surrender the mask or fight to the end. Knowing she is doomed to a short life, she is tempted to take the former option. But the legendary Pantera is destined for more than an early grave, and once she discovers the truth of her origins, not even death will stop her.
Fathomfolk (Drowned World #1) by Eliza Chan – 24 Feb (Orbit)
Welcome to Tiankawi – shining pearl of human civilization and a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest. Or at least, that’s how it first appears.
But in the semi-flooded city, humans are, quite literally, on peering down from skyscrapers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk — sirens, seawitches, kelpies and kappas—who live in the polluted waters below.
For half-siren Mira, promotion to captain of the border guard means an opportunity to reform. At last, she has the ear of the city council and a chance to lift the repressive laws that restrict fathomfolk at every turn. But if earning the trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn’t hard enough, everything Mira has worked towards is put in jeopardy when a water dragon is exiled to the city.
New arrival Nami is an aristocratic water dragon with an opinion on everything. Frustrated by the lack of progress from Mira’s softly-softly approach in gaining equality, Nami throws her lot in with an anti-human extremist group, leaving Mira to find the headstrong youth before she makes everything worse.
And pulling strings behind everything is Cordelia, a second-generation sea-witch determined to do what she must to survive and see her family flourish, even if it means climbing over the bodies of her competitors. Her political game-playing and underground connections could disrupt everything Nami and Mira are fighting for.
When the extremists sabotage the annual boat race, violence erupts, as does the clampdown on fathomfolk rights. Even Nami realises her new friends are not what they seem. Both she and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth it, or if Tiankawi should be left to drown.
The Lady in Glass and Other Stories by Anne Bishop – 27 Feb (Ace)
Here, together for the first time, the shorter works of New York Times bestselling fantasy author Anne Bishop are included in one dazzling volume.
A master of bringing fantasy worlds to life, this collection showcases Bishop’s impressive range, from rarities of her earliest writing to the Realms of the Blood, from darker fairytale retellings to the Landscapes of Ephemera, and from standalone stories of space exploration and fantastical creatures to the contemporary fantasy terrain of the World of the Others.
Includes previously published and unpublished tales, as well as two brand-new stories, written especially for this “Friends and Corpses,” a murder mystery in which the corpse has some decidedly unusual qualities, and “Home for the Howlidays,” a heartwarming return to the Blood Prophet Meg Corbyn and the shapeshifting Simon Wolfgard from The Others.
The Book of Ile-Rien: The Element of Fire & The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells – 27 Feb (Tordotcom)
Both novels included in this volume have been revised and updated. These are the author’s preferred texts.
The Element of Fire
The kingdom of Ile-Rien lies in peril, menaced by sorcerous threats and devious intrigue, when Kade, bastard sister of King Roland, appears unexpectedly at court. The illegitimate daughter of the old king and the Queen of Air and Darkness herself, Kade’s true desires are cloaked in mystery.
It falls to Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen’s Guard, to keep the kingdom from harm. But is one man’s steel enough to counter all the magic of fayre?
The Death of the Necromancer
Nicholas Valiarde is a passionate, embittered nobleman and the greatest thief in all of Ile-Rien. On the gaslight streets of the city, Nicholas assumes the guise of a master criminal, stealing jewels from wealthy nobles to finance his quest for a long-pursued vengeance.
But Nicholas’s murderous mission is being interrupted by a series of eerie, unexplainable, and fatal events. A dark magic opposes him, and traces of a necromantic power that hasn’t been used for centuries abound. Nicholas and his compatriots find themselves battling an ancient evil.
And if they lose? Death would be preferable to the fate that awaits them….
Fantasy Mystery
The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett – 6 Feb (Del Rey)
n Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.
Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.
At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears–quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.
Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.
As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.
Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.
Fantasy Romance
That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf (Mead Mishaps #2) by Kimberly Lemming – 6 Feb (Orbit)
Anyone else ever thrown a drink at someone’s head, only to miss entirely and hit a stranger behind them? Then have that stranger fall madly in love with you because it turned out that drink you threw was a love potion? No, just me? Well damn.
Dealing with a pirate ship full of demons that just moved into town was hard enough. Now on top of it, I have to convince a werewolf that I’m not his fated mate, he’s just drugged. Easier said than done.
Though I have to say, having a gorgeous man show up and do all of your chores while telling you you’re beautiful isn’t the worst thing to happen to a girl.
Trickster King (Royal States #10) by Susan Copperfield – 13 Feb (Pen & Page Publishing)
Patrick Laycal loves his family above all else, but he needs time off work from ruling over stubborn Texans. Rather than rest and relax, Pat does what he does best, sowing the seeds of chaos and progress wherever he goes.
His trip to purchase land and cattle for his projects blooms into an opportunity to forever change the Royal States, if he can somehow cultivate the child best suited to become next King of Texas—and save his stubborn daughter from the consequences of her choices.
Chronologically, this novel takes place after Taken, but due to the nature of the story, it is best read after Runaway and before the Prince of New York and New Waters.
Remedial Magic (A Course in Magic #1) by Melissa Marr – 24 Feb (Bramble)
Ellie loves working in her local library in the small town of Ligonier. She loves baking scones and investigating the mysterious and captivating in her spare time. And there is nothing more mysterious and captivating than the intriguingly beautiful, too properly dressed woman sipping tea in her library who has appeared as if out of nowhere. The pull between them is undeniable, and Ellie is not sure that she wants to resist.
Prospero, a powerful witch from the magical land of Crenshaw, is often accused of being… ruthless in her goals and ambitions. But she is driven to save her dying homeland, and a prophecy tells her that Ellie is the key. Unbeknownst to Ellie, her powers have not yet awakened. But all of that is about to change.
Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana – 27 Feb (Harper Voyager)
A library with a deadly enchantment.
A Fae lord who wants in.
A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.
In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu’s village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile—her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalog/organize an enchanted library that hasn’t been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors.
She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.
As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she’s forced to rely on two Fae males to survive. Two very different, very dangerous, very attractive Fae males. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she’s not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust.
Foodie Mystery
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai – 13 Feb (Putnam)
The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.
What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that’s not the main reason customers stop by . . .
The father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.
A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.
Historical Fantasy
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo – 13 feb (Henry Holt)
Manchuria, 1908.
A young woman is found frozen in the snow. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes involved, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and men. Bao, a detective with a reputation for sniffing out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now.
Meanwhile, a family that owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments, but not the curse that afflicts them―their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. Now the only grandson of the family is twenty-three. When a mysterious woman enters their household, their luck seems to change. Or does it? Is their new servant a simple young woman from the north or a fox spirit bent on her own revenge?
Historical Mystery
The Lantern’s Dance (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #18) by Laurie R. King – 13 Feb (Bantam)
After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Russell and Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes’ son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian’s house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat.
Holmes rushes after Damian while Russell, slowed down by a recent injury, stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian’s studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes’ grand-uncle, the artist Horace Vernet. It’s an odd mix of treasures and clutter, including a tarnished silver lamp with a rotating an antique yet sophisticated form of zoetrope, fitted with strips of paper whose images dance with the lantern’s spin.
In the same crate is an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph, slowly realizing that each entry is built around an image—the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view.
Russell is troubled, then entranced, but each entry she decodes brings more questions. Who is the young woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets—or the threat hovering over the house?
The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. And it seems increasingly urgent that Russell figure out how the journal and lantern are related to Damian—and possibly to Sherlock Holmes himself.
Could there be things about his own history that even the master detective does not perceive?
Horror
What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher – 13 Feb (Tor Nightfire)
Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure.
After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.
In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.
Literary Fiction
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum – 24 Feb (Bloomsbury)
The Korean smash hit available for the first time in English, a slice-of-life novel for readers of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of AJ Fikry.
Yeongju is burned out. With her high–flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
For the first few months, all Yeongju does is cry, deterring visitors. But the long hours in the shop give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store, and as she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she begins to ease into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start again.
Mystery
A Pie to Die For (Lucky Pie Mystery #1) by Gretchen Rue – 6 Feb (Crooked Lane Books)
For fans of Sofie Kelly and Joanne Fluke, it’s the end of the tourist season in Split Pine– but a murder at the Lucky Pie Diner stirs up trouble for the sleepy town in this series debut.
Este March runs the family-owned Lucky Pie Diner on Split Pine Island in Northern Michigan. The pies at Lucky Pie aren’t just good, they’re magical, with a family recipe that grants certain customers their greatest hopes and dreams when they eat the pie. The remote island is closed to outsiders over the winter months, but on the last day of the season, the unpopular new produce vendor, Jeff, turns up dead on his boat, and Split Pine Island’s peace goes up in smoke.
Tom Cunningham, the local sheriff, casts suspicion onto Este, who may have been the last person to see Jeff alive. Not to mention several people witnessed her getting into an argument with the rude vendor in some of his final hours. Este decides to clear her name and her diner’s reputation by launching her own investigation, which means she must turn suspicion on her friends and neighbors, because only a local could have murdered the victim.
As Este investigates, she uncovers a deeper web of secrets, finding that many of the locals had reason to either frame her, or kill the victim. The clock is ticking to figure out the killer, and the clues in the case are flakier than an apple pie. Este will have to uncover the killer before her future crumbles.
Mystery Thriller
Village in the Dark (Cara Kennedy #2) by Iris Yamashita – 13 Feb (Berkley)
Detective Cara Kennedy thought she’d lost her husband and son in an accident, but harrowing evidence has emerged that points to murder–and she will stop at nothing to find the truth in this riveting mystery from the author of City Under One Roof.
On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances.
Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet.
Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.
Paranormal Romance
Perfect Accord (Mysterious Arts #3) by Celia Lake – 9 Feb (Self)
Nothing too horrible can happen in a fortnight. Charlotte is worried. Her friend Victor – the man everyone expects she’ll marry – has fallen in with a new circle. Growing up in the family she has, Charlotte knows there’s something odd going on. The new friends are older, united in a passion for ancient legends, and there’s something just a bit too intense about all of them. When Charlotte and Victor are invited for a fortnight at a remote country house with the rest of the group, she goes along to keep him out of trouble.
It’s hard to get by as a working alchemist. Lewis hopes his arrangement with Morgen will let Lewis keep his brother in a much-needed potion and begin to build up his own business as an alchemical perfumer. He doesn’t mind being stuck in an isolated cottage on a rural estate while he does it. But when Charlotte appears in his kitchen – an impossible idea – they have to figure out what’s going on at the main house and how to stop it without causing more problems. All they have to work with are the skills they already have and whatever is stocked in the alchemy lab. Perfect Accord takes place in the magical community of Great Britain in 1923, as Charlotte is preparing for her older brother Gabe’s wedding.
Third in the Mysterious Arts series, it can be read in any order. Join Charlotte and Lewis for a short tour through mangled Arthuriana, a long stint of forced proximity, and a sensual romance full of perfume, cooking, and time in bed.
Science Fiction Mystery
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (Mossa & Pleiti #2) by Malka Older – 13 Feb (Tordotcom)
Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to the fan-favorite cozy space opera detective mystery The Mimicking of Known Successes that Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders called “an utter triumph.”
Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight.
Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University—yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case could be found in the outer reaches of the Jovian system—Mossa’s home—and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements. But Pleiti’s faith in her life’s work as scholar of the past has grown precarious, and this new case threatens to further destabilize her dreams for humanity’s future, as well as her own.
The Bezzle (Martin Hench #2) by Cory Doctorow – 20 Feb (Tor Books)
The year is 2006. Martin Hench is at the top of his game as a self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerrilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He spends his downtime on Catalina Island, where scenic, imported bison wander the bluffs and frozen, reheated fast food burgers cost 25$. Wait, what? When Marty disrupts a seemingly innocuous scheme during a vacation on Catalina Island, he has no idea he’s kicked off a chain of events that will overtake the next decade of his life.
Martin has made his most dangerous mistake trespassed into the playgrounds of the ultra-wealthy and spoiled their fun. To them, money is a tool, a game, and a way to keep score, and they’ve found their newest mark―California’s Department of Corrections. Secure in the knowledge that they’re living behind far too many firewalls of shell companies and investors ever to be identified, they are interested not in the lives they ruin, but only in how much money they can extract from the government and the hundreds of thousands of prisoners they have at their mercy.
Science Fiction Romance
Only Hard Problems (Galactic Bonds #2.5) by Jennifer Estep – 20 Feb (Jennifer Estep)
PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS EVERYWHERE . . .
My name is Zane Zimmer. To most folks, I live a seemingly charmed life as a Regal lord and the heir apparent to the powerful, wealthy House Zimmer, and the gossipcasts breathlessly follow my every swaggering move across the Archipelago Galaxy. I’m also a powerful psion capable of telekinesis, telepathy, and telempathy, and my deadly skills and prowess with my stormsword have made me the golden boy of the Arrows, the Imperium’s elite fighting force.
But even golden boys have bad days, and the truth is I have more hard problems than I can solve.
The Techwave is building weapons to use against the Arrows in hopes of toppling the Imperium and taking over the galaxy. But even more worrisome is the fact that my old rival Kyrion Caldaren has a powerful new ally in Vesper Quill. Together, the two of them just might destroy everything I’ve sworn to protect.
I’m supposed to be relaxing with the other Regals during the Summer Solstice celebration, but when an enemy threatens the festivities, I’m forced to leap into action. As an Arrow, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my family and the other Regals, even though my actions will cause only more problems—and just might end up being the death of me . . .
Note: Only Hard Problems is a 46,000-word novella from the point of view of Zane Zimmer. It takes place after Only Good Enemies , book 2 in the Galactic Bonds science-fiction fantasy series.
Urban Fantasy
Gideon Bean (Auras & Embers #1) by Gwen DeMarco – 23 Feb (Self)
All Gideon Bean wants is to be left alone to burn corpses in peace. Is that too much to ask?
Nothing exciting happens at Peterson Cremation Services – exactly how Gideon prefers it. All his life, he has seen things – scary and bizarre visions that weren’t really there. Working the night shift at the crematorium and days at Simon’s Shell Shack lets him keep his head down and ignore the strange world around him. The last time Gideon reacted to one of his hallucinations, he ended up in a psychiatric hold. He can’t let anything like that happen again – it would break his mother’s heart.
Then suddenly, a woman with flaming wings and fiery eyes crawls out of a crematorium oven one night.
Dacey Menet is a Mythical who is reborn in fire. She’s investigating a series of local murders and disappearances, and she is enraged to have been one of the victims. Now Dacey needs Gideon’s help to catch her murderer.
Because it turns out his ‘hallucinations’ are real – Gideon Bean can see magic.
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!