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Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and today I have for you a couple new releases for the week, and a couple of releases that you might just want to smash the pre-order button on because they are exciting.
I’m also going to take this opportunity to wheeze about a book I just finished reading: A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur. Historical detective fiction in Korea with a bonus enemies-to-lovers romance? Sign me the heck up. So of course I’ve grabbed her other books, and so far, I can also report that The Red Palace is dang good as well. Definitely check them out if historical fiction with a hint of romance is your thing—or maybe even if it’s not. (I thought the first book was going to be fantasy-ish, and it… really wasn’t. And I don’t even care.)
Bookish Goods
Free Edmond Dantès Button by MemoraDelia
We’ve got a Count of Monte Cristo retelling on the horizon (see below!), so of course I’m going to find you a button that points to the original. Definitely a ‘wear it and see who’s cool enough to get the reference’ item. $2.25.
New Releases
The Lost Souls of Benzaiten by Kelly Murashige
Machi has simply given up on being human after her best friends ghosted her. After therapy, a different online school, and just not talking any more, she prays to the Japanese goddess Benzaiten to make her into a robot vacuum cleaner since that seems a much better alternative. She’s not expecting the goddess to actually be listening or to decide that she and Machi will go on an adventure together. At first, it’s hard to stand next to a goddess that all of humanity cannot help but love, but when she begins to speak with the souls of the dead who follow Benzaiten around, she finally begins to understand her place in the living world.
Grand Theft AI by James Cox
In San Francisco, about 30 years from now, the city is a maze of holograms, quantum accelerators, and androids. In that maze dwells Baz Covane, a small-time thief who gets caught up in the wake of Ria Rose, a fixer who’s got a much bigger score: one that will either get them and their team killed or one that will set them up for life far away where there’s no extradition. All it’ll take is to get through the vault security of a psychotic criminal kingpin and before the federal warrants on them all touch down.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
We’re over halfway through the year now, and it’s already been one heck of a six and a half months for new releases. But looking forward across the next couple of months, here are two I’m extremely hyped about that you might want to pre-order!
Countess by Suzan Palumbo (September 10)
Virika has worked hard to make her place in the colonized space that labors under the Ærobot Empire, rising through the ranks of the merchant marine to become a lieutenant. All of her hard work is summarily destroyed when her captain dies under suspicious circumstances and she’s accused of treason against the empire. Her imprisonment gives her time to think and plan, and when she finally steps outside her prison walls, she sets in motion her vengeance against the empire that betrayed her.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon (October 1)
The Maxwell siblings grew up in a gated community outside of Dallas as part of the only Black family in the area. While all the neighbors were outwardly nice, it wasn’t long until strange, scary things started happening in their house. But their iron-willed mother kept the family in place, unwilling to be chased from her home. It’s no wonder the three kids left the nest and got as far away as they could as soon as they were old enough. When they’re told that both their parents have died, they have no choice but to return home and try to find out what happened to their parents.
Whatever it was, it was decidedly unnatural.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.
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