Happy Tuesday! It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and there are some fabulous new books that release today. From romantasy to thrillers to some swoon-worthy contemporary romances, they all sound so good! Let’s take a look at today’s hot book releases!
Adversary to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
HR Update: The position of “adversary to the villain” has been filled. Evie Sage does not recall applying.
Evie has always tried to be helpful, loyal, and only mildly involved in treason. But with a dangerous prophecy threatening the very magic of Rennedawn—not to mention the race to claim its necessary artifacts before King Benedict does—things are starting to feel…less like a career path and more like a serious problem.
The prophecy won’t stop pointing in Evie’s direction. The Villain’s magic keeps choosing her. And honestly, if you’re going to be accused of evil anyway, you might as well commit.
Unfortunately, the more Evie leans into her alleged villain era, the more her boss starts acting like the hero of a completely different story. Trystan is getting closer—closer than is wise, advisable, or even remotely professional—and looking at her like she’s already chosen a side. His.
Which is deeply inconvenient, because if Evie can’t save the kingdom’s magic, she might just become its greatest threat.
The hilarious fantasy romance series doesn’t end at Adversary to the Villain! The thrilling conclusion to the series is coming soon!
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
A Bargain So Bloody by Vasilisa Drake
She’s trapped in a magical prison. To break out, she’ll make a deal with the most dangerous prisoner of them all.
Sentenced for a crime she didn’t commit, Samara is bullied by guards and tormented by the screams of her fellow prisoners. She’s resigned herself to enduring her fifteen-year term… until she learns that the freedom she’s been promised is the cruelest lie of all.
Now she’s faced with a choice: resign herself to dying in the cold walls of Castle Greymere, or do the unthinkable and escape. But no one leaves Greymere alive. So to break out of the prison? She’ll have to use one of the undead.
Raphael is the worst kind of a vampire with a thirst for blood, the mortal enemy of witches, the same breed that killed her mother. And most importantly, he’s unspeakably powerful, his supernatural strength tamed only by the enchanted cuffs forced on him.
He’s her only chance at a life outside the prison walls.
The deal is Samara unlocks his shackles, and he’ll help her escape. But although Raphael agreed to help her leave Greymere, he never promised to let her go…
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Gingerbread Bones by Lindsay Lovise
They’re being hunted…
When sixteen-year-old Georgie and her troublemaking brother are shipped off to the wilderness for their stepmother’s newest reality show, Georgie is convinced it’ll be the worst experience of her life. Two weeks. No phones. Hiking. Camping. Cameras catching every humiliating second.
Then she meets Mack Gray. Tattooed, unreadable, and—among a cast of kids already branded as trouble—he’s the one she’s sure is dangerous.
One night, the counselors are chanting affirmations around the fire. By morning, they’re gone.
But the kids are not alone.
Georgie can feel it, stalking them from the shadows—watching, waiting, picking them off one by one. Whatever it is, it isn’t just hunting.
It’s playing.
And in this game, there seems to be only one ending: no one gets out alive.
Five Survive meets Yellowjackets in this pulse-pounding YA paranormal thriller romance.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
How to Find Love in the Cereal Aisle by Alissa Derogatis
If you can’t write a good meet-cute, maybe you need to live one first…
Ainsley Green writes happily-ever-afters for a rabid fanbase of hopeless romantics. In real life? Her boyfriend just broke up with her, her editor wanted a new book yesterday and she’s starting to wonder if love actually exists beyond the pages of her favorite novels.
So when Lucas, Ainsley’s best friend and biggest cheerleader, insists the best cure for writer’s block is real-life inspiration, she’s ready to try anything. Enter: the meet-cute plan, a mission to take her head out of her heartbreak and force meet-cutes IRL to spark some new ideas. But as failed missions bumping into strangers at the airport and spilling coffee on men at the cafe result in nothing but embarrassment and stained clothing, Ainsley begins to wonder if maybe the romance she’s been chasing already has a leading man.
Because the truth about falling in love? It never goes according to plan.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Immortal Game by Allison Saft
Six years ago, Shea Fury’s sister was whisked away by the High King of the Otherworld, the ruler of the treacherous land of fae. Although Shea has spent the years since dreaming of rescuing her sister from captivity, the Iron Veil that separates the human world from that of the fae has made it only a wish. That is, until an invitation to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime chess tournament in the Otherworld arrives on Shea’s doorstep. The winner of the tournament may ask the High King to grant one wish, and Shea is finally within reach of hers.
But entering the tournament and winning it are two different matters. Dark magic lurks around every corner in the Otherworld, and Shea’s cutthroat opponents are willing to bend the rules to make their own wishes come true. To make it to the end—and to find her sister—she is forced to strike an alliance with her longtime rival, the sharply beautiful fae princess, Ciara of Bri Leith. One wrong move, though, and Shea could lose more than just the competition: She’d lose her sister, her dignity, and maybe even her life.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
The Killing Rules by Bree Despain
Seventeen-year-old Harper Westbrook isn’t afraid of monsters…she is one.
For the past three years, she’s been one of the Blood Bound—girls and women cursed with a bloodlust only satisfied by killing terrible men. Once every three months, she trades in her pom-poms for a lethal throwing axe. Her life is led by a strict set of rules to keep her dark secret as hidden as the bodies she buries.
And her number one rule? Stay away from Grayson Jones.
The boy she was totally falling for until the night her curse manifested, everything went horribly wrong, and she killed his father. It was self-defense. Or at least that’s what she keeps telling herself.
Grayson is an investigative reporter for their school paper, and he’ll stop at nothing to find the truth behind his father’s gruesome death.
As he follows new clues down darker and darker paths—to an unbelievable world of mythical beasts and the men who hunt them—Grayson doesn’t realize he’s on a collision course with Harper’s biggest secrets. Now, she must stop him before he exposes her family to the Hunters, even if it means risking her life and heart.
Because who could ever love a monster like her?
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
Killing Sadie by Rachel Peterson
Here’s what we do know: there was another infamous barn party at the McClain family farm last night, and things went horribly wrong. By the end of the night, there were two dead bodies in the old barn: seventeen-year-old Sadie Cooper and her killer, Mason Vreeland. The murder was heartbreakingly witnessed by Sadie’s twin sister, Jayne, and Sadie died in her arms. Mason was killed by Sadie’s boyfriend, Ben, in an attempt to save Sadie.
Aside from figuring out Mason’s motive, it should be an open and shut case.
But it’s not.
The story unfolds just after the murders, and Jayne, Ben, and Sadie’s best friend, Liz, are telling the cops what transpired at the party and the events leading up to it. But little details don’t match. And those little details start to add up to big discrepancies. But who’s lying, and why?
The shocking truth is revealed in the third act, when the POV shifts to victim Sadie herself, in the days leading up to the party. Witness exactly what happened—and see if you can piece it all together. Because poor Sadie totally missed what was right in front of her.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
Steelborn by Taylor J. LaRue
Never run. Never bow. Never die.
Reya Connery became the Crimson Dagger, the most notorious thief in Rhiterra, by following a strict set of rules. There is no honor among thieves. A good blade is key to any negotiation. Only the dead keep secrets. And Reya has a secret that must be kept at all costs. But when a heist goes wrong on the eve of paying off her debt to a ruthless crime lord, Reya may need a new set of rules. And a lot of coin. Fast.
Enter Caelan Halcyon, an immortal warrior whose magic makes him a valuable target – if the curse inching closer to his heart doesn’t kill him first. There’s just one person who might be desperate enough to try and get their hands on the fabled cure in time to save his life, someone whose legend claims they can steal the Crimson Dagger. A male of honor, Caelan loathes everything the beautiful, cocky thief represents, yet knows that Reya is his last hope for survival.
Their search takes them to the edge of the known world, where Reya discovers that there is far more at stake than her and Caelan’s own lives. Now, Reya must confront deadly foes, her growing attraction to the immortal who is as lethal as his jawline is perfect, and the rage she’s spent a lifetime trying to bury. This time, her daggers aren’t going to cut it, and the fate of all magic-born hangs in the balance.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Sunsplitter by S.A. Maclean
Fi has toppled immortal beasts. Antal welcomes being conquered.
After helping the Lord Daeyari reclaim his territory, semi-reformed smuggler Fi dons a daunting new role: rebuilding a city alongside her monstrous partner, a haven free from bloody sacrifice. So when Antal’s father unexpectedly summons him home, Fi’s first instinct is to ready her claws.
Only, claws won’t be enough for this adversary.
Antal faces his first homecoming in five decades, dreading two truths. From his father’s seat on the governing council, he could undo everything Antal has built. And their last argument ended with Antal’s lover dead on the floor.
But a greater danger lurks: the appearance of a creature that even the daeyari fear, burning its way through the Planes. With Antal’s father leading the hunt, he and Fi must ally with a team of immortals who could turn fangs on them at any moment.
Or worse, strain their still-fresh love until it snaps.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
Survival Show by Juno Dawson
American Idol meets The Hunger Games in this campy, dystopian satire about a teen betting her life that her singing talent can make her a star from the celebrated author of This Book Is Gay, Juno Dawson.
The world just seems to take and take from Taryn Beck, but there’s one thing it’ll never have: her voice. Only when she’s singing does Taryn feel like she can escape her reality—free from the aftermath of the War, free from the Scottish refugee camps where she and her family now live, and free from the responsibility of making ends meet for the sake of her sick brother.
Taryn’s voice is her one ticket out, and that’s why she enters to be a contestant on the world’s most watched television program: Starmaker, where kids from the New Peace Global Alliance compete for the chance to join an all-singing, all-dancing pop group. Rise to the top, and a life of luxury, stardom, and money awaits.
There’s only one small catch. The lowest ranking face a televised public execution. Starmaker thanks their participants for their noble sacrifice to Project Population.
Taryn’s about to sing for her life.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub | Bookshop.org
Vow of Eternal Night by Lily Crozier
Clara Wagner has always known that monsters are real, and the worst of them is Prince Raleigh of Rostenburg. But when he decides it’s time to marry, Clara inadvertently finds herself at the center of his attention.
Forced to accept Raleigh’s proposal, Clara would do anything to escape her fate. So when the prince provides an ultimatum―lift his vampiric curse before the end of the year, or become his bride for eternity―Clara knows what she must do.
Heal the prince. Stay alive. Try not to fall in love.
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Other Books Releasing This Week:
August 1: How to Ruin a Wedding by Elba Luz
When a professional wedding crasher storms the wrong party, an irresistibly charming man enlists her services for a job that’s about to give her outlook on love a run for its money.
Lucy Delgado knows all about things that don’t work out. Between two failed marriages and losing her job, “meant to be” doesn’t seem to mean much anymore. And watching her sister’s marriage deteriorate isn’t convincing Lucy otherwise.
Desperate for money and disillusioned by love, she turns her nothing-left-to-lose attitude into action as a professional wedding saboteur. Lucy knows how to play any part—old lover, nosy relative, wise stranger—to save brides and grooms from making the same mistakes she did.
Until she crashes the wrong ceremony.
For Anders Kennedy, Lucy’s timing couldn’t be better. She’s exactly what he needs to derail his own sister’s upcoming nuptials by posing as Anders’s new girlfriend so she can slip into the family circle and sabotage from within. And Anders has the kind of money Lucy can’t afford to turn down.
As they fake-date their way through family celebrations, high jinks, and secrets, Lucy and Anders are forced to confront their cynicism about marriage. Their schemes were meant for the greater good, but what if love really does conquer all?
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Which of these book releases are you looking forward to? Comment below!
Ooo there’s one in here I forgot to put in my own list, and then I didn’t realize there’s a new book out by Saft. That one looks good! Her books always have great cover art, too.
I’m looking forward to Riley Sager’s new release….I think. I was not a fan of his last book.