In this homespun debut, set in 1960s Minnesota, DeWerd serves up a hefty portion of comfort food and witchcraft. Eighteen-year-old Elisabeth Watry-Ridder longs to escape from her dysfunctional family, the insular immigrant community she’s grown up in, and the boy she dated through high school, but a spell cast by her grandmother Magda has locked half her heart in the family’s mysterious cedar chest. Magda has been tutoring her protégé in the dark arts since childhood and demands Elisabeth continue the family tradition of witchcraft, insisting that neither Elisabeth’s younger sister, Mary, nor her mother are gifted enough to do the job. Elisabeth starts to question this when she learns about a falling out between Magda and her mother that happened when Elisabeth was still a baby and witnesses Mary magically shield her paternal grandparents from a road mishap. Will Elisabeth be able to break away from her family—and if she does, will she be able to live without their magic? Though the plot slows to a snail’s pace as Elisabeth dithers over what to do with her life and how to free herself from Magda’s spell, there’s enough summer sausage, seances, and ’60s scene-setting to charm even the least nostalgic of readers. DeWerd should certainly win some fans. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Madison (the Flea Market Magic Mystery series) chronicles a professor’s efforts to break her family’s curse in this ambitious time travel narrative. In 1968, Black history professor Cecily Bridge-Davis inherits 65 acres of land in Virginia from her father’s family. She plans to sell, but while searching the property, she stumbles upon a family Bible, within which are the records of a long-held secret: in each generation of the Bridge family, one member mysteriously vanishes, transported to the past. Driven to uncover the truth and understand the implications of this curse, Cecily launches an investigation that brings her into contact with her own ancestors. Among them is Luke, the first Bridge to fall through time. From him, Cecily learns that a single change in the past could impact the future. Armed with this knowledge, Cecily meets Luke’s mother and tries to convince her to make different decisions and so alter their futures, breaking the curse. An abrupt ending and some wonky pacing disappoint, but Madison expertly navigates the time jumps, weaving together a robust shared history for the Bridge family. Fans of complex historical speculative fiction will be pleased. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

A gangster questions his reality in this gritty cyberpunk thriller from Napper (36 Streets). In 2101 Macau, Australian expat Endel “Endgame” Ebbinghaus works as an assassin for drug lord and corporate spy Mister Long, who manipulates Endgame’s memories through his cochlear-glyph implant. At first Endgame accepts the memory blocks so he can commit horrific violence without ethical consequences. But visions of his wife, Jian, and daughter, Kylie, haunt him. After consulting an Omissioner, or memory expert, he learns that he can get his memories, and hopefully his family, back. First he has to get Long’s goons off Jian’s trail, and then he has to destroy Long’s empire from the ground up. As Endgame travels through Southern China, Shanghai, and Vietnam, the violence intensifies and the body count rises. Then Endgame gets information that leads him to suspect the line between true and false memory is very thin. Napper concocts a visceral toxic future set in an unforgiving world of rain, grime, and gangland turmoil. The stakes are high and the tech is fascinating. Cyberpunk fans are sure to get a kick out of this polished and exciting adventure. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Rosson’s stellar sequel to 2023’s Fever House maintains that book’s artful combination of chilling postapocalyptic worldbuilding and fully developed characters. Five years ago, “most of the world suddenly started devouring each other” after hearing “The Message,” a communication that American president Preston Yardley had intended to target only the populations of enemy countries. The aural weapon transformed those who heard it into bloodthirsty zombie-like beings dubbed the fevered. To get the outbreak under control, Yardley allies the federal government with Terradyne Industries, launching a harsh initiative to restore order. Hopes for a reversal of the apocalypse may lie with Naomi Laurent, a French woman rumored to somehow have gained the ability to reverse the effects of The Message and make the fevered human again. The search for Laurent is interwoven with the narratives of several other characters, including John Bonner, a security officer for Terradyne, and Katherine Moriarty, who tends to her son even after he becomes one of the fevered. Rosson’s sophisticated plotting manages to toggle between these perspectives without ever slackening the tension. This is literary horror at its finest. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Gorier and perhaps even bleaker than Ordinary Monsters, Miro’s daunting second dark historical fantasy in the Talents trilogy complicates the already-intricate mythology established in the first volume. While Marlowe remains trapped in the land of the dead, his friends spread out across Europe trying to learn how to bring him back. Both portals to the other side have been sealed, and unsealing them raises the possibility of letting through something even worse than the otherworldly monster aiding the previous tale’s villain. The line between good and evil thins as the Talents wrestle with whether saving their friend is worth risking the fate of the world. : What is an acceptable sacrifice in the name of doing the right thing, particularly when no one agrees on what the right thing to do is? This is a grim universe in which no one is safe. But Miro handles pacing and the details of his intricate worldbuilding with admirable dexterity, and the charming characters grow in richness and depth the more time readers spend with them. Fans of the first book will not be disappointed. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Shaffer (The Wishing Game) plays on portal fantasy nostalgia in this brilliant riff on the Chronicles of Narnia. Emilie Wendell is mourning the loss of her adoptive mother when she discovers she has a half-sister who was kidnapped 20 years ago. She begs the help of famous missing-persons investigator Jeremy Cox. Jeremy and his high school best friend, Rafe Howell, were lost as teenagers in West Virginia’s Red Crow State Park and emerged six months later completely changed. Rafe, now an artist, can’t remember what happened, and ever since the incident his drawings have returned to a fantastical world he can’t explain. Jeremy knows the truth—that they went through a portal into that other realm—but he’s bound by a promise not to reveal the truth to Rafe. When Rafe joins in the search for Emilia’s long-lost sister, the investigation takes both men back to the wondrous but deadly world they once loved. Shaffer manages to capture the joys and magic of childhood innocence alongside the wisdom that comes with age and the heartache and scars that make it difficult to go home again. The taut mystery keeps the pages of this love letter to the fantasy genre flying. Readers will be transfixed. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

Inspired by the true histories of the aristocratic Sheremetev and Golitsyn families in early 20th-century Russia, the tedious sophomore novel from Gilmore (The Witch and the Tsar) follows Countess Irina Goliteva and her younger sister Countess Lili Goliteva as they struggle to survive after their family has been impoverished by WWI and declared enemies of the people following the Russian Revolution. When the Soviet government requisitions their house, forcing the family into the attic, the remaining Golitevas grow desperate. Irina and Lili sell off the family treasures and risk the attention of the secret police by taking jobs with the American Relief Administration, which has come to help with the famine of August 1921. Meanwhile, their aunt Marie, the Goldteva matriarch and Irina and Lili’s adoptive mother, decides to use the family treasures to hold elaborate dinners and grand balls—not just for Irina, Lili, and the few other surviving family members but all the dead ones who have come back as ghosts. The fantastical Russian setting may appeal to Gilmore’s die-hard fans, but the plot moves at a glacial pace with little intrigue and fewer genuine scares to sustain it. This disappoints. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this cozy romantic fantasy, Asher, the collective pen name for Bridget Morrissey (That Summer Feeling) and the married team of Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (The Breakup Tour), both pays homage to and subverts epic fantasy sagas. Ten years ago, a quartet of champions saved the land of Mythria from a terrible evil. In the decade since, the three survivors have gone their separate ways, each dealing with their time as heroes in their own way: Beatrice uses her magic gift to dwell upon her memories of the quest; her former flame, ex-bandit Sir Clare, leans into celebrity; and emotion-sensing Elowen has spent years as a recluse. They reluctantly reunite for Queen Thessia’s wedding, reopening old wounds, especially when ex-assassin Vandra Ravenfall, Elowen’s ex-lover, reenters the picture. After the queen’s betrothed is kidnapped, this new foursome sets out to rescue him. The authors focus more on interpersonal dynamics than derring-do as their heroes struggle to overcome years of trauma and hurt. Throughout, fantastical takes on contemporary concepts such as soap operas, gossip magazines, and rideshares add a cheeky, anachronistic feel to the sweet story. The result is a fun romp perfect for fans of Veronica Roth’s Chosen Ones. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

James (An Unexpected Turn) brings the heat in this steamy if disjointed Black sapphic romance. Chronically anxious Khadijah “Dijah” Upton’s new job as athletic trainer for the WNBA’s Atlanta Cannons starts with a shock when she discovers the sexy woman she recently hooked up with at the club is actually Shae Harris, the team’s star player. Though Dijah feels strongly about separating relationships from the workplace, Shae has no such scruples, and their chemistry is undeniable. James’s intense eroticism pulls readers in right at the start, and the sex scenes continue to be the strongest part of the novel. Sweet subplots about Dijah’s relationship with her family and Shae’s with her teammates add appealingly comfortable, upbeat dynamics. Unfortunately, Dijah’s qualms, the main driver of the plot, become tedious and there’s no tension or actual risk involved in pursuing the connection. Even by the end, readers may be unconvinced that Dijah’s all-in on the relationship. Meanwhile, women’s basketball fans will find too little on-the-court excitement to parallel the bedroom heat. This doesn’t quite come together. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink

An eerie encounter at the start of an ordinary suburban family’s summer road trip sets the stage for spooky shenanigans in this uneven supernatural comedy from Kilmer (Hex Education). Narrator Leigh Somerset is a 42-year-old mother of three embarking with her family on a drive from their Wisconsin home to the Magic Land amusement park in Florida when car trouble diverts them from the highway to the ruins of a burned-down house in rural Indiana. Leigh’s oldest daughter discovers that the house is referenced online in urban legends of hauntings and her son confesses that he took a locket buried on its grounds, both of which help to explain weird events that occur at the family’s every stop thereafter, including spirit manifestations, inexplicable earthquakes, and clocks mysteriously resetting themselves to 11:15. Kilmer’s account of the exasperating parental headaches Leigh and her husband endure trying to rein in their rambunctious kids is sure to elicit smiles, but the explanation for why their family has been targeted by this particular haunt is a long time coming, revealed in an ending that stretches credibility even as it tugs on the heartstrings. This is strictly for committed fans of supernatural lite. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/26/2024 | Details & Permalink