I don’t know about you, but I am glad March is over. It was a tough couple of weeks, as I discussed in my latest Substack. However, we’re now getting into the warmer months, well, barely. We still have a long way to go before we enjoy that springtime air, and with uplifting news, we are at the budding beginnings of spring releases! That means fascinating book releases are heading our way this month. We have riveting new books from our favorite authors, but it is also a chance for you to try something new and encounter a new author with much-talked-about book debuts. It may not look like it outside, but spring is budding with these exciting new releases!
Featured Book of the Month
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Lights. Camera. Lies.
Eighteen-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.
But the case is dredged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.
Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And–could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . . (Credit: Delacorte Press)
The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie
Crack the codes. Find the treasure. Escape the house.
From the acclaimed author of Scritch Scratch and What Lives in the Woods comes a action-packed adventure novel about three friends who team up to find a hidden treasure in an abandoned 1950’s funhouse.
Twelve-year-old Sarah Greene wants nothing more from her seventh-grade year than to beat the hardest escape room left in her town with her best friends, West, and Hannah. But when a foreclosure notice shows up on Sarah’s front door, everything changes. Since her father became ill two years ago, things have been bad, but not lose your house bad…until now.
Sarah feels helpless until the day Hannah mentions a treasure rumored to be hidden in the walls of an abandoned funhouse. According to legend, Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein were orphaned at eight years old and lived with different families until they were able to reunite as adults. Their dream was to build the most epic funhouse in existence. They wanted their experience to be more than mirror mazes and optical illusions, so they not only created elaborate riddles and secret passages, but they also claimed to have hidden a treasure inside the funhouse.
Once in, Sarah, West, and Hannah realize the house is unlike any escape room they’ve attempted. There are challenges, yes, but they feel personal. Like the triplets knew who would get in. It seems impossible, but so does everything about the house. As soon as they’re in she immediately worries that attempting the funhouse is a bad idea but Sarah has no choice but to continue, since her future is at stake. (Credit: Sourcebooks Young Readers)
The Black Girl Survives in This One: Horror Stories edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell
Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.
The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika & Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. The foreword is by Tananarive Due. (Credit: Flatiron Books)
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem–she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.
As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living? (Credit: Doubleday Books)
What Magic Is This? by Holly Bourne
When the magic circle is set, I close my eyes and summon the power that I know is in me. I chant the words to this blessing spell like I’ve known them my whole life. “Spirits of Mother Nature,” I say. “I call on you. I ask that you bless us all and bless our friendship that makes us stronger. Grant us strength in our together and strength in our apart.”
Best friends Sophia, Mia, and Alexis are clinging on to a spark of hope that maybe-just maybe-magic truly does exist. Could they really be witches with the power to cast life-changing spells? When the three friends gather to cheer up heartbroken Sophia, they’re ready to put their theory to the test. But then long-held secrets are revealed, and hard truths start to hit home. Suddenly, their night of bewitching fun takes an unexpected turn. (Credit: Union Square & Co.)
Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Spies, Murder, and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming
The search for justice for this one man’s death–his body found in broad daylight, with tape over his eyes, an undisguised hit–would deliver more than the truth. It exposed his status as an informant and led to protests, campaigns, far-reaching changes to British law, a historic ruling from a senior judicial body, a ground-breaking police investigation, and bitter condemnation from a US Congressional commission. And there have been persistent rumors that one of the country’s most senior politicians, the Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness, might have been personally involved in this particular murder.
Relying on archival research, interviews, and the findings of a new complete police investigation, Four Shots in the Night tells a riveting story not just of this murder but of his role in the decades-long conflict that defined him–the Troubles. And the questions it tackles are even larger: how did the Troubles really come to an end? Was it a feat of diplomatic negotiation, as we’ve been told–or did spies play the decisive role? And how far can, or should, a spy go, for the good of his country? Four Shots in the Night is a page-turner that will make you think. (Credit: PublicAffairs)
One by One by Frieda McFadden
One by one, they will get what they deserve…
Claire Matchett needs this trip. It will be a break from work and raising children. A chance to repair her damaged marriage. A week of hiking and hot tubbing with friends at a luxurious hotel in the woods, disconnected from the pressures of real life.
Then, on a lonely dirt road, Claire’s minivan breaks down. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to walk the rest of the way to their remote accommodation. But the forest is dark and difficult to navigate and, hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost.
As they venture deeper into the woods, the members of their party are struck down mysteriously, one by one. Are they being hunted? And by what–or who? As Claire’s dream vacation descends into a nightmare, something becomes clear: only one of them will return home alive. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)
The Book of Thorns by Hester Fox
Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and lacking options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon’s Grande Armée. As a naturalist, her near-magical ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers…and suspicion. For behind Cornelia’s vast knowledge of the natural world is a secret she keeps hidden–the flowers speak to her through a mysterious connection she has felt since childhood. One that her mother taught her to heed, before she disappeared.
Then, as Napoleon’s army descends on Waterloo, the flowers sing to her of a startling revelation: a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Cornelia. A girl she almost remembers–her sister, lost long ago, who seems to share the same gifts. Determined to reunite with Lijsbeth despite being on opposite sides of the war, Cornelia is drawn into a whirlwind of betrayal, secrets, and lies. Brought together by fate and magic at the peak of the war, the sisters try to uncover the key to the source of the power that connects them as accusations of witchcraft swirl and threaten to destroy the very lives they’ve fought for. (Credit: Graydon House)
The Whole Truth by Cara Hunter
Expected Publication Date: April 9
When DI Adam Fawley is assigned a sexual assault case filed by an Oxford student against a tenured professor, he expects the facts to match up with the far too many previous reports he’s investigated time and again. But neither he nor anyone on his team imagined the victim would turn out to be a male rugby player accusing one of the university’s most respected female professors.
As the detectives try to unravel the truth behind the he said/she said crime, another threat arises–someone with a personal grudge against Fawley. . .(Credit: William Morrow & Company)
Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
Expected Publication Date: April 9
In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope had gone, the tale came with a warning.
Every wish demands a price.
Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.
Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time-hope.
But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself. (Credit: Clarion Books)
The Last Love Song by Kalie Holford
Expected Publication Date: April 9
After high school graduation, Mia Peters faces a summer full of painful goodbyes. Songwriting is her only solace. Everyone she knows is moving on, including Britt, her biggest supporter … and kind-of-sort-of girlfriend. Britt keeps pushing Mia to go bigger and do better than their small town, but Mia can’t imagine a life beyond Sunset Cove. Besides, she refuses to follow in the footsteps of her late mother–country music star Tori Rose–who abandoned her family to pursue her dream, leaving Mia and her two grandmothers alone.
Desperate for a sign of what might lie ahead, Mia finds the opposite–a mysterious letter from the past, addressed to her in her mother’s handwriting. It turns out to be the first of many. One by one, they lead Mia on a wild scavenger hunt through a Sunset Cove she never knew, buried under the memorializing that has frozen her mother in time. Each new discovery brings Mia closer to the real Tori Rose, but with the clock ticking on Britt’s departure, Mia knows she is running out of time.
With the summer winding down, Mia must decide if she is ready to face the present, confront her feelings, and forge the destiny she truly wants. A dazzlingly soulful debut, The Last Love Song is perfect for anyone who’s ever tried to decode the clues in the lead-up to a new Taylor Swift album. (Credit: Blackstone Publishing)
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr
Expected Publication Date: April 9
Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.
When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton’s life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. So begins Clay’s quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, secrets that will change Clay–and the Fellowship–forever. (Credit: Doubleday Books)
The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams
Expected Publication Date: April 9
In a small pocket of London, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 Eastbourne Road, lies a neglected community garden. It was a beautiful thing once, a little oasis in a bustling city for neighbors by day and the local foxes at twilight. Now it’s overgrown and neglected, an empty patch of greenery lost to time.
Once a sanctuary, the garden’s gate is now firmly closed. And that’s exactly how Winston at No.79 likes it – anything to avoid Bernice, who has moved in next door with her young son. Their houses may share the garden, but they’re not exactly neighborly.
But then a mysterious parcel drops on Winston’s doormat. It contains no note, only a bundle of photographs of the garden in bloom many years ago–vibrant with flowers, filled with people from every corner of the community. Is someone trying to tell them something? The seed of an idea is planted…
Somewhere out there, a secret gardener made a decades-old promise to keep the community’s spirit alive. Now it’s time for The Twilight Garden to come out of hibernation. (Credit: William Morrow & Company)
King of Dead Things by Nevin Holness
Expected Publication Date: April 16
Raising the dead is easy. Living is harder.
Eli doesn’t know who he is or who he came from. Three years ago, he was found by his now-best friends, Sunny and Max, who gave him a home in a magical sanctuary doubling as a Caribbean restaurant. What Eli does know is that he can heal a wound with just a touch and pluck magic from a soul like a petal from a flower–and there is nothing he wouldn’t do to survive and keep his new family together.
Malcolm would do anything to forget where he comes from. Desperate to escape his estranged father’s shadow and plagued with an inherited death magic he doesn’t fully understand, Malcolm has just one priority: save his mother, no matter the cost.
Malcolm and Eli’s paths collide when Eli and his friends are sent to track down the fang of the leopard god Osebo, a deadly weapon that can eat magic. In a job filled with enigmatic nine nights and Caribbean legends, the teens must face their own demons as they race through the magical underbelly of London to retrieve the fang…before an ancient and malevolent power comes back to life. (Credit: Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
The Corpse In The Closet: A Riley Thorn Novel by Lucy Score
Expected Publication Date: April 16
Summer is heating up for reluctant psychic Riley Thorn and her handsome private investigator boyfriend, Nick Santiago.
First, her disapproving grandmother arrives determined to make Riley take her powers seriously or face the wrath of “the Guild.” Then there’s the homicide detective who needs her help figuring out who murdered the well-dressed corpse in the walk-in closet.
Nick’s got his own hands full with a tricky missing person case and his parents who want to know why he didn’t tell them about his live-in girlfriend. Then there’s the fact that he’s still the tiniest bit stressed about Riley almost getting murdered earlier that summer. The last thing he wants is her getting involved in another investigation.
Things go from bad to worse when the body count starts stacking up, the meet-the-parents dinner goes horribly wrong, and their elderly roommate is up to no good…dressed like a mime.
To top it off, Riley is forced to return to Channel 50 on official police business to question her spray-tanned news anchor ex-husband and his new weather girl fiancée.
The trouble comes to a head when Riley receives a warning from the killer: Back off or she’s next. Someone has to solve these murders before she becomes the next corpse. (Credit: Bloom Books)
One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
Expected Publication Date: April 16
Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity.
Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers–including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect.
Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island–and their own past–or they risk losing not only their future, but their life. (Credit: William Morrow & Company)
A Murder Most French by Colleen Cambridge
Expected Publication Date: April 23
Set in midcentury Paris and starring Julia Child’s fictional best friend, this magnifique reimagining of the iconic chef’s years at Le Cordon Bleu blends a delicious murder mystery with a unique culinary twist.
The graceful domes of Sacré Coeur, the imposing cathedral of Notre Dame, the breathtaking Tour Eiffel . . . Paris is overflowing with stunning architecture. Yet for Tabitha Knight, the humble building that houses the Cordon Bleu cooking school, where her friend Julia studies, is just as notable. Tabitha is always happy to sample Julia’s latest creation and try to recreate dishes for her Grand-père and Oncle Rafe.
The legendary school also holds open demonstrations, where the public can see its master chefs at work. It’s a treat for any aspiring cook–until one of the chefs pours himself a glass of wine from a rare vintage bottle–and promptly drops dead in front of Julia, Tabitha, and other assembled guests. It’s the first in a frightening string of poisonings that turns grimly personal when cyanide-laced wine is sent to someone very close to Tabitha.
What kind of killer chooses such a means of murder, and why? Tabitha and Julia hope to find answers in order to save innocent lives–not to mention a few exquisite vintages–even as their investigation takes them through some of the darkest corners of France’s wartime past . . .(Credit: Kensington Publishing Corporation)
A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh
Expected Publication Date: April 23
They say the camera never lies. But on this show, you can’t trust anything you see.
Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they’ve signed up for.
Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won’t just be eliminated – they’ll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they’d ever imagined, and they’re trapped.
The disappearance of a contestant wasn’t supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she’s watched on screen, and find out who these people really are – knowing she can’t trust any of them.
And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi . . . and a secret worth killing for. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)
The Door Is Open: Stories of Celebration and Community by 11 Desi Voices edited by Hena Khan
Expected Publication Date: April 23
Discover stories of fear, triumph, and spectacular celebration in the fictional town of Maple Grove, New Jersey, where the local kids gather at the community center to discover new crushes, fight against ignorance, and even save a life. Cheer for Chaya as she wins chess tournaments (unlike Andrew, she knows stupid sugary soda won’t make you better at chess), and follow as Jeevan learns how to cook traditional food (it turns out he can cook sabji– he just can’t eat it).
These stories, edited by bestselling and award-winning Pakistani-American author Hena Khan, are filled with humor, warmth, and possibility. They showcase a diverse array of talented authors with heritage from the Indian subcontinent, including beloved favorites and rising stars, who each highlight the beauty and necessity of a community center that everyone calls home. (Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Blood Justice by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Expected Publication Date: April 23
Cristina and Clement Trudeau have conjured the impossible: justice.
They took back their family’s stolen throne to lead New Orleans’ magical community into the brighter future they all deserve.
But when Cris and Clem restored their family power, Valentina Savant lost everything. Her beloved grandparents are gone and her sovereignty has been revoked–she will never be Queen. Unless, of course, someone dethrones the Trudeaus again. And lucky for her, she’s not the only one trying to take them down.
Cris and Clem have enemies coming at them from all directions: Hateful anti-magic protesters sabotage their reign at every turn. A ruthless detective with a personal vendetta against magical crime is hot on their tail just as Cris has discovered her thirst for revenge. And a brutal god, hunting from the shadows, is summoned by the very power Clem needs to protect the boy he loves.
Cris’s hunger for vengeance and Clem’s desire for love could prove to be their family’s downfall, all while new murders, shocking disappearances, and impossible alliances are changing the game forever.
Welcome back to New Orleans, where gods walk among us and justice isn’t served, it’s taken. (Credit: Tor Teen)
The Last Word by Elly Griffiths
Expected Publication Date: April 23
Natalka and Edwin are perfect if improbable partners in a detective agency. At eighty-four, Edwin regularly claims that he’s the oldest detective in England. He is a master at surveillance, deploying his age as a cloak of invisibility. Natalka, Ukrainian-born and more than fifty years his junior, is a math whizz, who takes any cases concerning fraud or deception. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated. She loves a murder, as she’s fond of saying, and none have come the agency’s way. That is until local writer Melody Chambers dies.
Melody’s daughters are convinced that their mother was murdered. Edwin thinks that Melody’s death is linked to that of an obituary writer who predeceased many of his subjects. Edwin and Benedict go undercover to investigate and are on a creative writing weekend at isolated Battle House when another murder occurs. Are the cases linked and what is the role of a distinctly sinister book group attended by many of writers involved? By the time Edwin has infiltrated the group, he is in serious danger…
Seeking professional help, the investigators turn to their friend, detective Harbinder Kaur, and find that they have stumbled on a plot that is stranger than fiction. (Credit: Mariner Books)
The Good Ones Are Taken by Taj McCoy
Expected Publication Date: April 23
After a bad breakup, Maggie wants to find her Prince Charming, but all she’s finding are frogs. When her best friends, Savvy and Joan, apply pressure and demand she find a date worthy of attending their respective weddings, she agrees to take her own advice and try online dating. Since she’s the maid of honor for both weddings, her bridal party duties are massive, but both brides insist that Maggie prioritize finding a date. After an onslaught of maybes, noes and hell noes, she’s close to giving up, when she meets a handsome doctor at the gym who just might be the one.
Meanwhile, her college bestie, Garrett, throws salt in everyone’s game. At every turn, he points out the red flags and tells Maggie to keep looking. Things come to a head when Maggie demands that Garrett be happy for her, and he finally admits that he can’t. Not when he’s not with her. When he blurts out his feelings, Maggie’s world is turned upside down. Now she must choose between the perfect guy and a friendship that is the foundation for everything she’s ever wanted. (Credit: Mira Books)
Kicked Out by A.M. Dassu
Expected Publication Date: April 23
After their friend Mark’s mum wins the lottery and gets a giant house with an indoor pool, Ali and Sami have been having the time of their lives hanging at Mark’s house. Even their friend Aadam gets a job there, which means he can make more money for his legal battle for UK residency. But when some money goes missing, Aadam is accused of stealing it–and all three boys are unceremoniously kicked out of Mark’s house in suspicion.
On top of that, Ali’s dad, who abandoned the family when Ali was little, is suddenly turning up everywhere in town, and a half-brother Ali never knew has shown up at Ali’s school. Ali feels miserable and resentful about it, making it hard to be a good friend.
The boys know Aadam is innocent, and if he doesn’t raise thousands of pounds right away, he could get deported back to Syria amidst its civil war. At least Ali has a plan: they’ll host a charity football penalty match to raise money for Aadam so he can stay in the UK.
But can Ali pull together the match–even if he feels his whole life at home is falling apart? (Credit: Tu Books)
Funny Story by Emily Henry
Expected Publication Date: April 23
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic–with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads –Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right? (Credit: Berkley Books)
The Brainiac’s Book of the Body and Brain by Rosie Cooper and illustrated by Harriet Russell
This latest installment in the Brainiac’s series is an accessible, fun, and inclusive introduction to the human body. Full of funky facts and astounding activities, readers will discover all there is to know about the body and the brilliant brain that makes it all work.
Aimed at curious children who want to know how their body works and how their brain keeps it running every day, The Brainiac’s Book of the Body and Brain answers both need-to-know and quirky questions about the bodies we live in.
This book is an exciting introduction to the often complex, sometimes gross, and completely fascinating functions of the human body. Featuring practical activities and easy self-experiments, including keeping a poop diary and optical illusions, the book explores what happens to the food we eat, how medicines can fool us into making us feel better, as well as how and why we dream.
Written with a zany sense of humor, and packed with facts and hands-on activities, the Brainiac’s series is the perfect introduction to creative and accessible STEM topics. (Credit: Thames & Hudson)
Made in Asian America: A History for Young People by Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat
Expected Publication Date: April 30
Asian American history is not made up of one single story. It’s many. And it’s a story that too often goes untold.
It begins centuries before America even exists as a nation. It is connected to the histories of Western conquest and colonialism. It’s a story of migration; of people and families crossing the Pacific Ocean in search of escape, opportunity, and new beginnings.
It is also the story of race and racism. Of being labeled an immigrant invasion, unfit to become citizens, and being banned, deported, and incarcerated. Of being blamed for bringing diseases into the country.
It is also a story of bravery and hope. It is the story of heroes who fought for equality in the courts, on the streets, and in the schools, and who continue to fight in solidarity with others doing the same.
This book is a stirring account of the ordinary people and extraordinary acts that made Asian America and the young people who are remaking America today. (Credit: Quill Tree Books)
Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose
Expected Publication Date: April 30
After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.
While going through their parents’ belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.
Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave. (Credit: Blackstone Publishing)
Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson
Expected Publication Date: April 30
Open the door to a spellbinding world where the wilderness is alive and a deep magic rises from the earth itself . . .Eleven-year-old Daisy Thistledown is on the run. Her mother has been keeping big, glittering secrets, and now she has vanished. Daisy knows it’s up to her to find Ma–but someone is hunting her across London. Someone determined to stop her from discovering the truth.
So when Daisy flees to safety through a mysterious hidden doorway, she can barely believe her eyes–she has stepped out of the city and into another world.
This is the Greenwild. Bursting with magic and full of amazing natural wonders, it seems too astonishing to be true. But not only is this land of green magic real, it holds the key to finding Daisy’s mother.
And someone wants to destroy it.Daisy must band together with a botanical genius, a boy who can talk with animals, and a spunky cat to uncover the truth about who she really is. Only then can she channel the power that will change her whole world . . . and save the Greenwild itself. (Credit: Square Fish)
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack
Expected Publication Date: April 30
All that bestselling author Eleanor Dash wants is to get through her book tour in Italy and kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next in her Vacation Mysteries series–is that too much to ask?
Clearly, because when an attempt is made on the real Connor’s life–the handsome but infuriating con man she got mixed up with ten years ago and now can’t get out of her life–Eleanor’s enlisted to help solve the case.
Contending with literary competitors, rabid fans, a stalker–and even her ex, Oliver, who turns up unexpectedly–theories are bandied about, and rivalries, rifts, and broken hearts are revealed. But who’s really trying to get away with murder? (Credit: Minotaur Books)
Black & Irish: Legends, Trailblazers & Everyday Heroes by Leon Diop and Briana Fitzsimons and illustrated by Jessica Louis
Expected Publication Date: April 30
A landmark publication in Irish history; this is a celebration of Black Irish identity. Published in collaboration with the organisation of the same name, Black & Irish, who were founded in June 2020 coinciding with the Black Lives Matter movement. Actors. Athletes. Activists. Style icons. Scientists. Influencers. Entrepreneurs. Black Irish people are blazing trails in every sphere of modern life. In the first ever book about Black Irish people, we take a look at the inspirational careers, dreams and achievements of legends, trailblazers and everyday heroes, including actor Ruth Negga, soccer player Gavin Bazunu, reality tv star Dami Hope, author Emma Dabiri, record-breaking sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke and musician Phil Lynott. Within these pages, you will find both famous and unsung Black Irish people. Black and Mixed-Race people have lived in Ireland for hundreds of years, but even now the concept of being Black and Irish is still being discovered and discussed. We hope the stories of the legends, trailblazers and everyday heroes in this book will inspire young Black Irish people, and provide insight into the Black Irish experience to people from all walks of life. With stunning colour illustrations by Jessica Louis. (Credit: Little Island Books)
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