Category: Book News

Here are some books from the last release week of January 2024!

Books for Older Kids/Teens/Young Adults

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition – A special edition of the book that started it all!
Once a Queen – An American teen finds herself at an English manor with a grandmother she’s never met before – a woman who is possibly a queen from another realm.
These Deadly Prophecies – When a sorcerer is murdered, his apprentice and his youngest son team up to solve the murder. Yes, please!

Books for Adults

Canadian Boyfriend (Trade Paperback) – As a teen, Aurora used the hockey player she met once as her fake boyfriend, trusting he would never know. But when he shows up back in her life as an adult, she’s afraid the truth will come out and ruin things between them.
The City of Stardust (Hardcover) – Violet is the last of her family line, and she has been given 10 years to find her missing mother or she takes her place as the penance for a crime no one remembers – one that has taken members of her family for years. This sounds amazing!
Clover Hendry’s Day Off (Trade Paperback) – An overly accommodating woman takes the day off from everything, including her self-sacrificing ways. Yes, please!
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Hardcover) – Sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Ernie is on a crime-writing festival aboard a train when someone is murdered, and the rest of the authors turn into amateur sleuths. YES!!
The Mayor of Maxwell Street (Trade Paperback) – A Black debutante and a speakeasy owner in 1921 Chicago team up to take down  the Mayor of Maxwell Street.
Not Bad for a Girl (Trade Paperback) – An IT specialist who is demoted to remote work finds a chance to remake her image, but her new boss assumes she’s a man. The longer she waits to clear up the mistake, the messier it’s going to get. This sounds great!
A Quantum Love Story (Trade Paperback) – A grieving woman discovers she is living in a time loop when the one person who recognizes the loop brings her into that same awareness. But when his awareness starts to wain, they realize they need to break out of the loop if they hope to keep what they have found together in the looping.
The Royal Game (Trade Paperback) – An American engaged to the future king of England becomes the target of threats that feel a lot like what the prince’s mother went through – before she was killed. Yes, please!

Here are some of the new books out this week.

Books for Kids

The Racc Pack: Live Fast, Eat Trash – First in a new chapter book series about a family of raccoons and their quest for trash. This looks fun!

Books for Teens/Young Adults

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee – A teen artist finds herself trapped in a fictional world she created, taking on evil corporations and maybe falling in love.

Books for Adults

The Breakup Tour (Trade Paperback) – A singer reconnects with the muse for her hit single and he goes out with her band on tour.
The Busy Body (Hardcover) – An independent candidate for President splits the vote and angers folks on both sides with the unfortunate outcome. So the candidate retreats home, inviting her ghostwriter to join her. But when a neighbor is killed, the former candidate – and the ghostwriter – team up to solve the mystery. Yes, please!!
The (Fake) Dating Game (LGBTQ+ – Trade Paperback) – A game show contestant teams up with his hotel concierge to see if they can fake date their way to a spot on the show. Yep, need this one too.
Wild Life (Trade Paperback) – A woman looking for a cancer cure crosses paths with a man who wants to hide away from the world, and together they have the most unexpected week of their lives. This sounds quirky and different – sign me up!
Have a Beautiful Terrible Day (Hardcover) – From the author of The Lives We Actually Have comes this new devotional for the ups and downs of life.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day – It’s a great day to read some of Dr. King’s writings or books about his life!

Here are some new books releasing this week:

Books for Kids

Bear Finds Eggs – Bear and his friends help Mama Meadowlark find her missing eggs, and then they paint them so they don’t lose track of them again.

Books for Teens/Young Adults

A Drop of Venom – A new novel for teens from Rick Riordan Presents. A young priestess and a monster hunter begin to form an attachment, but she is later assaulted and tossed from her mountain home. Instead of dying, she becomes a monster herself with the power to turn people to stone. As her monster hunter comes for her, he doesn’t know that the woman he wants to marry has become the thing he hunts. This is a bit dark, and I don’t know how triggering the sexual assault might be for readers. But the story is mesmerizing. I’m torn – part of me wants to read it and see how it all comes together while the other part of me knows this is a lot darker than the things I usually read.
So Let Them Burn – First in the Divine Traitors series. The village hero  faces a new challenge when her sister forms a bond with an enemy dragon that can only be severed by her death.

Books for Adults

Finding Mr. Purrfect (Trade Paperback) – Fake dating her best friend’s boyfriend’s best friend seems like a great way to get both sets of parents off their backs, but Charity can’t tell if Will is a terrible idea or too good of one. The cat café setting for this series could be a lot of fun!
Say You’ll Be Mine (Trade paperback) – A fake engagement can help her as she plans the wedding for “the one who got away” and help him stave off his mother’s matchmaking attempts.
The Secret Book Club (UK – January 18) – A bookseller stifled by a community that won’t let her sell anything written in this century starts an underground book club. Yes, please!
Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. (Hardcover) – From the author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. An introduction to spiritual formation. I have this one on my list!

Here are some more of the books kicking off 2024!

Books for Kids

I Am Ruth Bader Ginsburg – The latest in the Ordinary People Change the World biography series.
Birtle and the Purple Turtles – In a community of turtles, an unusual friendship begins. This was DARLING! I’ll be reviewing it soon.

Books for Older Kids/Teens/Young Adults

Slugfest – A group of middle schoolers have to take PE in summer school in order to get the required credit. This sounds amazing – which is what I would expect from Gordon Korman. Can’t wait to pick this one up!
You Wish – Another artist I love has branched out into books with this first in a new graphic novel series about a kid hoping for a little magic for her life who discovers more than she bargained for.
The Atlas of Us – A teen working on a community service project to be close to her late father discovers a found family that she’s not sure she can move on from when the project is over.
Dungeons and Drama – A girl with dramatic asperations convinces a teen at her dad’s gaming shop to cover her shifts in exchange for some fake flirting to help him with his crush. But she finds his D&D campaigns more fun than she expected, and the flirting isn’t as much acting as she planned, either. This sounds adorable! I hope to review this one soon.

Books for Adults

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend (LGBTQ+ – Trade Paperback) – First in the Mischief and Matchmaking series. Two young women in “need” of husbands instead decide to try to get their widowed parents together. This sounds fantastic!
The Ladies Rewrite the Rules (Trade Paperback) – From the author of Mr. Malcolm’s List. A wealthy widow discovers she’s been named in a directory of such women for younger sons to persuade to marriage. So she gathers the other women named in the directory so they can turn the tables on the men. Yes, please!
Principles of (E)Motion (Trade Paperback) – When anxiety keeps a brilliant mathematician from sharing her discovery with the world, she shifts her focus instead to a quiet life of love, but when she decides to revisit her breakthrough, she discovers it has been stolen.  This – and the author’s first book, Johanna Porter Is Not Sorry – sounds amazing!
The Witch of Tophet County (Trade Paperback) – The premise here is just too weird to try to summarize. It involves a witch, county bureaucracy and government, and tentacled overlords. If that sounds quirky and interesting to you, be sure to check it out. I pre-ordered this one because I just have to see what it’s all about.

Happy 2024! Here are some of the books kicking off a new year of reading!

Books for Kids

Don’t Trust Cats – Part of the Life Lessons from Chip the Dog series. This time Chip tells readers why cats should not be trusted.
Spider-Man: Quantum Quest! – Mike Maihack is one of my favorite artists (He has a line of Batgirl pieces as well as comics where Batgirl and Supergirl team up which I adore!). I loved his Cleopatra in Space series, and now he has a Spider-Man series. This is book two where Spider-Man teams up with the Fantastic Four. I can’t wait to read this series!

Books for Older Kids/Teens/Young Adults

The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum – First in a new series. A group of misfits at a school for crime fighters have to stop the heist of the century. I hope to review this one soon!
Nina Under Arrest: A Birmingham Children’s Crusade Survival Story – Readers can learn how children protested during the Civil Rights movement because the adults could be arrested and lose their jobs. Sounds like a fascinating history lesson!
Teen Titans Go! To the Library – Raven tries to hide out at the peaceful library, but instead her friends find her and a villain decides to cause trouble. This looks fun!

Books for Adults

First Lie Wins (Hardcover) – An adult thriller from YA novelist Ashley Elston. A young woman puts together her false identity like she has numerous times before, but this mark, this assignment, seems different than the others. This sounds amazing!