Books Publishing This Week
Books Publishing This Week: March 10 - 16
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Imagine this:
As you settle into your favorite reading spot on this Saturday afternoon in March, the anticipation of cracking open a brand new book fills you with excitement. The sun streams in through the window, casting a warm glow on the pages waiting to be explored. You run your fingers over the smooth cover, taking in the fresh scent of ink and paper.
With a sense of reverence, you carefully open the book, the crisp pages rustling as you turn them. The title page greets you, its elegant font promising an adventure within its lines. You take a moment to admire the cover art, letting your imagination wander, trying to decipher what mysteries lie beneath.
As you delve into the first chapter, you feel yourself being transported to another world. The author's words weave a tapestry of imagery, painting vivid scenes in your mind's eye. You lose yourself in the characters' lives, feeling their joys and sorrows as if they were your own.
The hours slip away unnoticed as you turn page after page, completely absorbed in the story unfolding before you. The world outside fades into the background, leaving only you and the book in a timeless dance of imagination and discovery.
Occasionally, you pause to savor a particularly poignant passage or to ponder the deeper meaning behind the author's words. Each sentence is a treasure waiting to be unearthed, each page a journey into the unknown.
As the afternoon wears on, you find yourself becoming more and more engrossed in the story. You forget about the worries and stresses of everyday life, losing yourself in the magic of the written word.
Before you know it, the sun begins to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the room. Reluctantly, you tear yourself away from the book, knowing that the real world beckons outside.
But even as you set the book aside, its characters and stories linger in your mind, leaving an indelible mark on your soul. You know that you'll return to its pages again and again, finding new meaning and depth with each reading.
As you close the book and stretch, you feel a sense of contentment wash over you. The afternoon may be drawing to a close, but the memories of this day will stay with you forever. And as you gaze out at the fading light, you can't help but smile, knowing that there are countless more adventures waiting to be discovered within the pages of a brand new book.
Scroll down to find out what book you might be reading…
The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan
Drawing from the true story of the Bethnal Green Library in London—whose collection was largely moved underground into Tube stations for those taking shelter during the Blitz in WWII—Ryan tells the story of three young women who must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library.
When new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn't the bustling hub she's expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it and show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running it. Katie Upwood is thrilled to be working at the library before she heads off to university in the fall, but after the death of her beau on the front line and amid tumultuous family strife, she finds herself harboring a life-changing secret with no one to turn to for help. Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee, came to London on a domestic service visa only to be treated abominably by her employer. She escapes to the library every chance she can, finding friendship and aid in searching for her sister, who is still trying to flee occupied Europe.
After a slew of bombs destroys the library, Juliet relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city's residents shelter nightly, determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up. But tragedy after tragedy threatens to unmoor the women and sever the ties of their community. Will Juliet, Kate, and Sofie be able to overcome their own troubles to save the library? Or will the beating heart of their neighborhood be lost forever?
Between You and Us by Kendra Broekhuis
When a grieving woman unexpectedly steps into a different version of her life, she must choose between the husband she loves and the daughter she lost in this brave, gripping novel.
Two possible lives to live. One impossible choice to make.
When Leona Warlon heads across the city to meet her husband, David, for a rare dinner out, she hopes they can share a moment of relief after their year of loss. But Leona quickly realizes this is no ordinary date night. She hasn’t just stepped into an upscale ristorante; she’s stepped into a different version of her life. One in which her marriage is no longer tender, in which her days are pressured by her powerful in-laws, and in which her precious baby girl lived.
Now Leona must weigh the bitter and sweet of both trajectories, facing an unimaginable choice: Stay in a world where tragedy hasn’t struck but where the meaningful life she built with David is gone? Or return to a reality that’s filled with struggle and sorrow but also deep and enduring love?
The Woman with No Name by Audrey Blake
She'll light the fire of resistance―but she may get burned…
1942. Though she survived the bomb that destroyed her home, Yvonne Rudellat's life is over. She's estranged from her husband, her daughter is busy with war work, and Yvonne―older, diminutive, overlooked―has lost all purpose. Until she's offered a chance to remake herself entirely…
The war has taken a turn for the worse, and the men in charge are desperate. So, when Yvonne is recruited as Britain's first female sabotage agent, expectations are low. But her tenacity, ability to go unnoticed, and aptitude for explosives set her apart. Soon enough she arrives in occupied France with a new identity, ready to set the Nazi regime ablaze.
But there are adversaries on all sides. As Yvonne becomes infamous as the nameless, unstoppable woman who burns the enemy at every turn, she realizes she may lose herself to the urgent needs of the cause…
Based on a true story, The Woman With No Name is a gripping story of secrets, spies, and the women behind the Resistance, from USA Today bestselling author Audrey Blake.
Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray
Author Interview with Stephanie Dray.
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins.
Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.
When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.
But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.
Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.
Pride and Joy By Louisa Onomé
Black Cake meets Death at a Funeral in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family grappling with their matriarch’s sudden passing while their auntie insists that her sister is coming back—from an author with a “razor-sharp, smart, and tender” (Nafiza Azad, author of The Wild Ones) voice.
Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. Recently divorced, a life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing, and ever the dutiful Nigerian daughter, Joy has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own.
As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids go to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition that Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
Desperate to believe that they’re about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community, effectively spreading the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.
Filled with humor and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page, Pride and Joy will draw you in as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven’t actually lost Mama Mary for good, and grappling with what losing her truly means for each of them.
The Romanov Brides by Clare McHugh
Author Interview with Clare McHugh.
From the author of A Most English Princess comes a rich novel about young Princess Alix of Hesse—the future Alexandra, last Empress of Imperial Russia—and her sister, Princess Ella. Their decision to marry into the Romanov royal family changed history.
They were granddaughters of Queen Victoria and two of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. Princesses Alix and Ella were destined to wed well and wisely. But while their grandmother wants to join them to the English and German royal families, the sisters fall in love with Russia—and the Romanovs.
Defying the Queen’s dire warnings, Ella weds the tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Serge. Cultivated, aloof, and proud, Serge places his young wife on a pedestal for all to admire. Behind palace gates, Ella struggles to secure private happiness.
Alix, whisked away to Russia for Ella’s wedding, meets and captivates Nicky—heir apparent to the Russian throne. While loving him deeply, Alix hears a call of conscience, urging her to walk away.
Their fateful decisions to marry will lead to tragic consequences for not only themselves and their families, but for millions in Russia and around the globe.
The Romanov Brides is a moving and fascinating portrait of two bold and spirited royal sisters, and brings to vivid life imperial Russia—a dazzling, decadent world on the brink of disappearing forever.
A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn
Author Interview with Deanna Raybourn.
Veronica and Stoker discover that not all fairy tales have happy endings, and some end in murder, in this latest historical mystery from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.
Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why?
Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain—a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?
Happily Never After by Lynn Painter
Their name? The objectors.
Their job? To break off weddings as hired.
Their dilemma? They might just be in love with each other.
When Sophie Steinbeck finds out just before her wedding that her fiancé has cheated yet again, she desperately wants to call it off. But because her future father-in-law is her dad’s cutthroat boss, she doesn’t want to be the one to do it. Her savior comes in the form of a professional objector, whose purpose is to show up at weddings and proclaim the words no couple (usually) wants to hear at their wedding: “I object!”
During anti-wedding festivities that night, Sophie learns more about Max the Objector’s job. It makes perfect sense to her: he saves people from wasting their lives, from hurting each other. He’s a modern-day hero. And Sophie wants in.
Max and Sophie start working together, the two love cynics going from wedding to wedding, and she’s having more fun than she’s had in ages. Sophie looks forward to every nerve-racking ceremony, where she gets to save the lovesick souls of the betrothed masses. As they spend more time together, however, they realize their physical chemistry is off the charts, leading them to dabble in a little hookup session or two—but it’s totally fine because they definitely do not have feelings for each other. Love doesn’t exist, after all.
And then everything changes. A groom-to-be hires Sophie to object, but his fiancée is the woman who broke Max’s heart. As Max wrestles with whether he can be a party to her getting hurt, Sophie grapples with the sudden realization that she may have fallen hard for her partner in crime.
The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel
It is 1666, one year after plague has devastated England. Young widow Cecilia Thorowgood is a prisoner, trapped and isolated within her older sister’s cavernous London townhouse. At the mercy of a legion of doctors trying to cure her grief with their impatient scalpels, Cecilia shows no sign of improvement. Soon, her sister makes a decision born of desperation: She hires a new physician, someone known for more unusual methods. But he is a foreigner. A Jew. And despite his attempts to save Cecilia, he knows he cannot quell the storm of sorrow that rages inside her. There is no easy cure for melancholy.
David Mendes fled Portugal to seek a new life in London, where he could practice his faith openly and leave the past behind. Still reeling from the loss of his beloved friend and struggling with his religion and his past, David is free and safe in this foreign land but incapable of happiness. The security he has found in London threatens to disappear when he meets Cecilia, and he finds himself torn between his duty to medicine and the beating of his own heart. He is the only one who can see her pain; the glimmers of light she emits, even in her gloom, are enough to make him believe once more in love.
Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, David and Cecilia must endure prejudice, heartbreak, and calamity before they can be together. The Great Fire is coming—and with the city in flames around them, love has never felt so impossible.
One Moment by Becky Hunter
This heart-wrenching, page-turning read about friendship, love, and loss will appeal to fans of Rebecca Serle and Josie Silver.
One moment in time can change everything…
The day Scarlett dies, her hopes and dreams for the future die with her…or so she thinks. Because she’s still here—wherever here is—watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most. She’d do anything to go back and join the living, especially Evie, her best friend who needs her now more than ever.
Scarlett and Evie have been inseparable since they were ten years old. Now Evie can’t imagine life without Scarlett, and she certainly doesn’t want to forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend's death, simply because she needs to hold someone accountable. Yet Nate keeps showing up in her life—so charming and outgoing, just like Scarlett—when all Evie wants is to retreat from the world.
But Evie’s not alone. Scarlett is still by her side, even as she wrestles with the choices that led to that fateful day. Knowing what she knows now, and seeing Evie bravely embrace a future without her, would Scarlett go back and alter the events that changed their lives forever?
Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari
Best friendship blossoms into something more in this gorgeously written queer literary romance.
Over the past five years, Mitra Esfahani has known two constants: her best friend Bea Ortega and The Book—a dogeared moleskin she and Bea have been filling with the stanzas of an epic, never-ending poem since they were 13.
For introverted Mitra, The Book is one of the few places she can open herself completely and where she gets to see all sides of brilliant and ebullient Bea. There, they can share everything—Mitra’s complicated feelings about her absent mother, Bea’s heartache over her most recent breakup—nothing too messy or complicated for The Book.
Nothing except the one thing with the power to change their entire friendship: the fact that Mitra is helplessly in love with Bea.
Told in lyrical, confessional prose and snippets of poetry Just Another Epic Love Poem takes readers on a journey that is equal parts joyful, heartbreaking, and funny as Mitra and Bea navigate the changing nature of I love you.
It Could Be Worse by Dara Levan
Podcaster and storyteller Dara Levan makes her fiction debut with the inspiring story of a young mother’s awakening to the truth about her parents in It Could Be Worse (Regalo Press; March 12, 2024). Driven by a complex, relatable protagonist and written with empathy, the novel affirms the author’s faith in the human capacity for resilience, observations of how radiance emerges from our breaking points, and belief in the power of genuine friendship and unconditional love.
Mired in self-doubt and blind loyalty, Allegra Gil suspects her charmed life may be a gilded cage. In her thirties, she has a devoted husband, Benito, two loving children, a thriving practice as a mindfulness therapist, and lifelong friends. But when a surprising discovery in a piano bench reveals a shocking family secret, Allegra questions everything she thought she knew about the two people who raised her. Was it true? Did her father, Dr. Curt, a respected pediatric neurosurgeon with exacting standards, harm instead of heal? And Allegra’s mother, Roberta—how much did she know?
As the past threatens the present, Allegra plays the song of what was, what is, and what may never be in this “powerful and poignant story about letting go” (Jean Meltzer, international bestselling author of The Matzah Ball.)
Composed with the cadence of a waltz—up, up, down—through flashbacks to childhood memories in Miami and a music camp in Michigan, It Could Be Worse is a heartwarming, at times heart-wrenching, multigenerational story of a woman supported and embraced by many while shaken to the core by a few. “The gorgeous prose and raw, unflinching narrative both heal and inspire. A stunning debut.” (Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of Woman on the Edge.
“Visceral and moving” (Andra Watkins, New York Times bestselling author), It Could Be Worse is a tale of acceptance and awakening—but not necessarily forgiveness—that reminds us we can choose how our stories end.
Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird
Three women investigate the untimely death of a high-profile local. They’ll uncover the cultish power that her ‘personal development’ company seemed to possess over the small southern town, bringing to light dangerous old secrets.
Pierce by Patrick B. Simpson
Nothing much happens in the world of janitor and jazz enthusiast Truman Pierce, until a popular instructor at the college he cleans surprises him by asking him out. The day after their first date, Pierce finds Professor Danielle Hutchins murdered in her classroom. With only a little information to go off of, and a pair of small town detectives he doesn’t quite trust, Pierce sets off to find Danielle’s killer. As Pierce peels back the layers of his quiet town, a dark underbelly is revealed: Pierce’s investigation turns deadly when his life is threatened by Danielle’s vengeful brother and the dangerous criminals desperate to keep the truth about Danielle’s murder a secret.
With the help of two college students and an instructor, Pierce will do what it takes to uncover what happened to Danielle. But will the search for the truth be the end for Pierce?
One Of Our Own by Lucinda Berry
Felicia, a single mother and lawyer by day, volunteers at a local crisis center to give back to her tightknit community in a small Wisconsin town. One night, a phone call turns her life upside down: through tears, a frantic teenage girl tells her that she was a victim of sexual assault at a local house party.
Felicia is shocked, and breaking protocol, she begins communicating with the girl on her own, determined to keep her safe and hold her assailants accountable. But she can’t shake the potential connections being drawn to her son, Hunter, who she knows attended the same party. Felicia and her only child, Hunter—a straight-A student and star athlete—are incredibly close. He couldn’t possibly be involved in such a violent crime.
As Felicia earns the girl’s trust and more details emerge about the incident, she faces a gut-wrenching battle between the maternal instincts to protect her child and the moral responsibility to do what’s right. This taut thriller is the perfect listen for fans of The Push, Wrong Place Wrong Time, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Love, Unscripted by Denise Hunter
Frustrated with the sad state of her dating life, restaurateur Chloe Culpepper penned a single romance novel featuring the man of her dreams. Upon the book’s publication, the hero resonated with thousands of women, catapulting the book to the top of the bestsellers list and earning the novel a movie option.
Chloe is thrilled a production company wants to bring her movie to the big screen and film it right in her hometown, Stillwater Bay, South Carolina. But when the producer casts Liam Hamilton—a notorious Hollywood playboy—for the part of her beloved Ledger, she’s appalled. He’s just like her unfaithful ex-boyfriend—and her duplicitous father. How can Liam possibly understand, much less portray, the wonderful character who captured her heart and made her readers swoon?
An embarrassing and contentious first meeting does little to allay Chloe’s fears about Liam. The man hasn’t even read her book! But one thing she knows: she must win him over if she’s to influence his role and save the integrity of her movie.
Due to the deceitful tabloids and, okay, some minor commitment issues, Liam Hamilton’s reputation—and career—is in jeopardy. On the advice of his manager and best friend, he offers a bargain with the wholesome author of his upcoming movie: if she will appear in public as his steady girlfriend during the making of the movie, he will take her direction on the role of Ledger.
Could a little quid pro quo offer a solution to both of their problems? Or will the bargain cause more trouble than either of them could’ve possibly imagined?
It's Murder, You Betcha! by Jeanne Cooney
Move over Stephanie Plum, Betty Crocker, and the residents of Lake Wobegon. Retired farmer Doris Day Anderson Connor and her quirky friends and relatives are solving crime in the Scandinavian-Lutheran farming community of Hallock, in the northwest corner of Minnesota. This book, the second installment in the It’ s Murder series, has Doris and her sister, Grace KellyAnderson, the owner of the local café , taking ninety-year-old Rose O’ Brien ice fishing. The day ends, however, with nothing to show for their efforts except a dead body. With Rose distressed over the crime, Doris feels compelled to make inquiries in an effort to move the murder investigation along, much to the chagrin of the sheriff, an old boyfriend and a current puzzle. While in the café , at a funeral, and during a gender-reveal-party blizzard, she uncovers answers, but she also learns secrets and lies that lead her to wonder if she truly knows the residents of her hometown. After all, at least one of them is a killer.
Lady Codebreaker by K.D. Alden
Fans of Kate Quinn and Kristina McMorris will love this gripping historical novel based on the true story of the woman who used her codebreaking skills to bring down Prohibition gangsters and WWII Nazis, and who ultimately helped found the present-day CIA.
Grace Smith has never been one to conform to society’s expectations. She flees small-town Indiana to seek adventure—and finds more than she bargained for when she’s hired by an eccentric millionaire to learn codebreaking. Soon she’s using those skills to help head the government’s fledgling cryptanalysis unit.
During Prohibition, Grace takes up the fight against rumrunners—not to mention Al Capone himself. And as the country careens from one Great War to another, it’s Grace who must crack the secrets of foreign governments, catch spies, and derail saboteurs . . . before it’s too late.
With wry wit and sheer grit, she forges her own path as a codebreaker, wife, mother. She’s spent a lifetime going up against powerful men and winning. But as war rages and the stakes grow impossibly high, Grace faces a truly impossible choice: her family or her country?
