Savanna, Associate Editor

Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Cover reveal: ‘The Accidental Joe’ by Tom Straw

Feature by Savanna, Associate Editor

Tom Straw—the writer behind the bestselling real-life versions of TV character Richard Castle’s mystery novels—is kicking off a thrilling new espionage series with The Accidental Joe. Rockstar chef Sebastian Pike’s cooking travel show is the perfect cover for a covert CIA mission, even if Sebastian himself is less than thrilled with the idea. At least he can flirt with his handler, Cammie Nova, as a bonus. As the show travels through France, the danger and romance heat up to dangerous levels.

The Accidental Joe will hit shelves on May 14, 2024 and is available for preorders now. The thriller will be published by Regalo Press, an imprint distributed by Simon & Schuster that donates proceeds from every title to a charity of the author’s choice. Fittingly, Tom Straw has selected José Ramón Andrés’ World Central Kitchen.

Read on for the official summary of the book and its striking cover!

A maverick celebrity chef reluctantly agrees to let the CIA use his hugely popular international food, culture, and travel TV series as cover for a dangerous espionage mission.

When the CIA approaches celebrity chef Sebastian Pike about using his award-winning food and culture travel show as cover for espionage, the outspoken bad-boy host says no. When they point out how roaming the globe interviewing foodies, heads of state, rock stars, journalists-in-exile, poets, subversives, supermodels—even the pope—gives him perfect cover, Pike smiles and says, “F@#! no.”

They push. Promising it’s only one mission. Vowing he won’t be in danger. Calling him the MVB: Most Valuable Bystander. They’d embed their top agent in his crew to do the spy work.

It’s still no. But when they hit him with the patriotism card, he weakens. And when romantic sparks crackle between him and the female agent, Pike’s all in, kicking off a romantic spy thriller in which the globetrotting celebrity chef uses his TV series to help sneak Putin’s accountant out of Russia before he’s exposed as a mole for US intelligence.

The high-stakes mission quickly puts Pike in harm’s way. So much for MVB. There’s danger, there’s double dealing, there’s torture, there’s shooting with real bullets. Plus, a minefield of complications from the hot romance that grows between Pike and his gutsy CIA handler-producer, Cammie Nova.

From Paris to Provence, this chef is no bystander. Beyond their attraction, Pike and Nova become an operational team, not only to survive the perils they face but to pull off an operation fraught with one twist after another, capped by a shocking, emotional climax.

The Accidental Joe by Tom Straw cover
We're honored to reveal the cover of Tom Straw's new thriller starring a bad-boy chef turned CIA asset.
Science Fiction & FantasyHorrorFantasy

The five best new haunted houses in horror

Feature by Savanna, Associate Editor
New haunted houses feature image
STARRED REVIEW

October 30, 2023

The five best new haunted houses in horror

There will always be a place for Hill House and The Overlook Hotel, but these five homes offer entirely new floor plans of frights for horror fans.

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Science Fiction & FantasyFantasy

Starling House

Review by Alice Cary

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved reading books featuring a haunted house with a creepy resident; a feisty, determined heroine; and strange goings-on that gradually turn scary. But rarely, if ever, have I read a haunted house book that features such gorgeous prose as Alix E. Harrow’s latest novel, Starling House. Early on, Harrow describes how 26-year-old narrator Opal McCoy has been dreaming of the titular house since she was a child: “I often wake up with the taste of river water and blood in my mouth, broken glass in my hair, a scream drowning in my chest. But that morning, the first one after I set foot on Starling land, there’s nothing but a deep quiet inside me, like the dead air between radio stations.” 

Opal works hard at Tractor Supply Company to try to save enough money to send her younger brother, Jasper, to a fancy boarding school. Their mother died a mysterious death, their father has never been in the picture and they live in a dingy motel room in the dying town of Eden, Kentucky. Opal is desperate to escape Eden, which offers nothing much besides two Dollar Generals and a strip-mined stretch of riverbank, thanks to the operations of nearby Gravely Power. 

The big, churning wheels of this lusciously plotted book begin to quickly turn when Opal takes a job cleaning for Starling House’s current owner, a reclusive young man named Arthur Starling. Opal finds herself increasingly intrigued by Arthur despite his odd ways and off-putting looks. But Gravely Power representative Elizabeth Baine, in hopes of obtaining the mineral rights to Arthur’s land, demands that Opal spy on Arthur and his residence, threatening Jasper’s future if she declines.

Alix E. Harrow had never written about her home state—until she left it.

Harrow invents a rich backstory for Starling House, making clever use of footnotes and even a fake Wikipedia page for 19th-century author Eleanor Starling, who married into the family and wrote and illustrated an unsettling children’s book, which may have been the source of Opal’s Starling House nightmares. Opal uncovers many different versions of the same stories about the house and its inhabitants, past and present, and the truth is hard to sort out. “The Gravelys are either victims or villains; Eleanor Starling is either a wicked woman or a desperate girl. Eden is either cursed, or merely getting its comeuppance,” she concludes.

Excellent social commentary unfolds in the matchup between feisty, sarcastic Opal and the greedy power company. Harrow has tons of fun along the way, noting in Eleanor Starling’s Wikipedia page, for instance, that “director Guillermo del Toro has praised E. Starling’s work, and thanked her for teaching him that ‘the purpose of fantasy is not to make the world prettier, but to lay it bare.’ ” Alix Harrow does just that in Starling House, a riveting fantasy overflowing with ideas and energy that clears away the cobwebs of corporate power and neglect.

Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House is a riveting Southern gothic fantasy with gorgeous prose and excellent social commentary.
Science Fiction & FantasyHorror

The September House

Review by Stephanie Cohen-Perez

Empty nester Margaret Hartman is thrilled when she and her husband, Hal, buy a gorgeous old Victorian home. But the house soon begins testing them with annual September “shenanigans”: blood oozing down the walls, creepy spirits of 19th-century children and a demonic boogeyman that even an experienced priest can’t exorcize. Margaret and Hal weather three cursed Septembers, but Margaret in particular is in it for the long haul. When Hal disappears on the eve of the fourth September and his and Margaret’s daughter, Katherine, arrives to search for him, family secrets are brought to light.

From the ghost of a murdered maid to swarms of giant flies, the house’s antics become routine for Margaret, and her wry, witty narration will also accustom readers to these supernatural events. Despite the house’s horrors, it still provides Margaret with a haven, a purpose and an emotional connection to an eerie spirit community. But when author Carissa Orlando reveals why Margaret is so good at putting out proverbial fires and quelling very real ghosts, The September House takes an unexpected emotional turn. Margaret knows that ugly secrets can be carried well beyond the grave, and it’s better to heal, forgive and protect when you can. Her interactions with Katherine are particularly tense and anxiety-inducing as Orlando explores an estranged parent-child relationship impacted by intergenerational trauma. 

The September House pulls inspiration from classic settings such as the Bates Motel, Rose Red, the Overlook Hotel and Hill House, but Orlando’s characterization of the old Victorian is fresh and fascinating. The house serves as an analogy for the deterioration of family and mental health, with the collapse of a person’s mind being more terrifying than any specter lurking in the shadows. Some of the body horror moments may feel familiar, but Margaret’s delightfully matter-of-fact voice puts a new spin on even the oldest of tropes, and the novel’s horrifying events unfold at a furious pace. The September House is a riveting adventure that will grab you by the ankles and drag you down into the pitch-black basement you’ve been warned to avoid.

Carissa Orlando’s darkly funny and unexpectedly emotional The September House follows an empty nester who refuses to leave her extremely haunted Victorian home.
Science Fiction & FantasyHorror

A House With Good Bones

Review by Chris Pickens

Do you ever get a little creeped out when you visit your grandparents’ house? There’s something about the stillness of unused rooms and the sweet, dusty smell that can give you a slight sense of dread. But if you were to visit the Montgomery house in T. Kingfisher’s A House With Good Bones, you’d leave with more than an uneasy feeling. In fact, you might not leave at all! (Cue thunder and lightning.) 

Sam Montgomery has to move back in with her mom. The archaeoentomologist’s latest dig (she studies insects in archeological sites) has been put on an indefinite hold, but the good news is that Sam loves her mom, Edie, who lives in Sam’s grandmother’s old house in rural North Carolina. But Edie seems tired and nervous, very unlike her normal self. Sam has strange dreams about her dead grandmother, vultures circle outside all day, ladybugs spill out of the faucets and Sam swears that bony fingers touch her hair in the middle of the night. But Sam’s a scientist. Shouldn’t there be a reasonable explanation for all of this? Determined to find out the truth, Sam starts unearthing secrets about her family that were better left undisturbed. 

Kingfisher is in her element when the tension is at its highest. She keeps a narrow focus on Sam and the handful of other major characters, amplifying the sensation that threats are imminent. Danger in horror can sometimes feel arbitrary and nonspecific, but in this house, you know what’s haunting you. As things get stranger and stranger, the writing gets choppier, like Sam’s panting breath and racing heart. And Kingfisher isn’t afraid to embrace the weird: A House With Good Bones’ climax is strange, scary and unforgettable.

That being said, don’t write off this book if you’re not a horror enthusiast—A House With Good Bones is also laugh-out-loud funny. Sam’s inner monologue is full of hilarious observations about living with her mom, not having reliable internet and simply being 32. The aforementioned vultures? They have names and belong to a neighbor. The book is balanced with knife’s-edge precision between fright and humor in a way that brings Jordan Peele’s sensational Get Out to mind. You’ll be craving the next tense moment, because it means the next joke is right around the corner too. 

A House With Good Bones shares another key trait with Get Out: Both works derive their frightening power from placing reasonable people in unreasonable circumstances and forcing them to respond. It’s nerve-wracking for a character to ask “Is this real?” when faced with something strange; it’s downright terrifying when the answer is “Yes.”

Impressively weird, nerve-wracking but still laugh-out-loud funny, A House With Good Bones is another horror hit from T. Kingfisher.
Science Fiction & FantasyHorror

How to Sell a Haunted House

Review by Noah Fram

Louise Joyner left home as soon as she could, fleeing the humidity of Charleston, South Carolina, for a career in industrial design in Silicon Valley. Her brother, Mark, stayed put, his meandering and dysfunctional lifestyle patronized to his face and savaged in his absence by his family, as is so often the case with mildly disappointing scions of good Southern families. But now, Louise and Mark must figure out what to do with the relics of their recently departed parents’ lives: their father’s idiosyncratic economics research, their mother’s vast collection of Christian puppets and their house. However, some revenants will not go quietly into that good night. There are burdens this family has politely buried for far too long, and the Joyners are about to discover that some hauntings are neither stagecraft nor hellspawn. Some hauntings are homemade.

Author Grady Hendrix is a Charleston native, and How to Sell a Haunted House completely nails its Lowcountry setting. This reviewer is also a South Carolinian and can confirm that neither the idea of a Christian puppet ministry nor the actual Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers are made up. The depiction of Carolina culture is also accurate, especially Hendrix’s portrayal of how someone who grew up in it, left and then came back would perceive it: familiar and peculiar, unsettling and comforting, prompting a reckoning with how deeply strange its version of normal truly is. Hendrix only departs from this reality in one way: In no gauzy South Carolina summer that I can recall did the knickknacks acquire a vengeful sentience and wreak havoc on the strained psyches of a family’s prodigal offspring.

How to Sell a Haunted House effectively marries tropes ripped straight from the pages of a midcentury pulp magazine to a Pat Conroy-esque chronicle of Lowcountry generational trauma. Families are warm and lovely but also stifling, just like the summers; rituals are banal but also sacred, their violation the gravest of transgressions; and there are always skeletons (or puppets) in the sewing closets. How to Sell a Haunted House may be a heightened tale of horror, but it is built on something true. And it’s a lot of fun, as well.

How to Sell a Haunted House blends pulp horror with a Pat Conroy-esque chronicle of Lowcountry generational trauma—plus haunted puppets.
Science Fiction & FantasyFantasy

The Death of Jane Lawrence

Review by Amanda Diehl

A woman in search of a husband finds one with more than his fair share of deadly secrets in the latest atmospheric, well-plotted horror novel from author Caitlin Starling.

The Death of Jane Lawrence takes place in an alternate version of Victorian-era Britain, known as Great Bretlain. The eponymous heroine is headstrong, wonderfully smart and knows that to live independently, she must wed. It seems illogical, but finding the right man would allow Jane to continue her own hobbies and pursuits, as a married woman is afforded far more freedom than an unmarried maiden.

Bachelor Augustine Lawrence, the only doctor in town, seems like a fine option for Jane. He agrees without too much fuss, under one simple condition: Jane must never visit his ancestral home. She’s to spend her nights above his medical practice, while he retires to Lindridge Hall for the evening. Eventually, of course, Jane finds herself spending the night at Lindridge Hall following a carriage accident, and where she slowly and methodically uncovers the skeletons lurking in Augustine’s closet.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: The year's best Halloween reads, ranked from slightly spooky to totally terrifying.

Anyone who has ever read a gothic novel knows exactly where this is going, but Starling does a magnificent, twisted job steering clear of the obvious plot beats. There are surprises galore in the secrets these characters keep and the lengths they’ll go to conceal them. Key to many a successful horror novel is having a main character to root for, one whom readers will want to see come out of everything not only alive but also stronger. Jane is absolutely that kind of character, a beacon of light in a dark world through her sheer tenacity alone, making her exploration of Lindridge Hall a white-knuckle reading experience.

Fans of Starling’s debut, the sci-fi horror novel The Luminous Dead, will find the same steadily growing sense of eeriness here, despite the markedly different setting. Jane isn’t exploring caves on an alien planet, but her journey still feels claustrophobic, almost asphyxiated by the estate’s mysterious walls. Are the horrors she senses of a supernatural nature? Or are they merely born of a man with too many internal demons? “Both” is also an option, and Starling keeps readers guessing until the very end.

For those who crave intense and detailed gothic horror, or those who just want more Guillermo del Toro a la Crimson Peak vibes in their life, The Death of Jane Lawrence is a must-read.

A woman in search of a husband finds one with more than his fair share of deadly secrets in the latest atmospheric, well-plotted horror novel from author Caitlin Starling.

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There will always be a place for Hill House and The Overlook Hotel, but these five homes offer entirely new floor plans of frights for horror fans.
Science Fiction & FantasyRomanceNonfictionMystery & SuspenseFictionFeatured

The 33 best 2023 books to read with your book club

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
October 16, 2023

The 33 best 2023 books to read with your book club

Ambitious, accessible and thought-provoking, these titles will make your entire reading group happy.
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Book jacket image for The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

The Villa

Fans of twisty, creepy, layered gothic thrillers will revel in their suspenseful stay at The Villa.
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Book jacket image for Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Bad Cree

Jessica Johns’ Bad Cree examines the impact of grief on a small community, mixing truly frightening moments with warm camaraderie.
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wildgirls

Wild Girls

If you, like Tiya Miles, were once a girl who found an expansive sense of wonder in wild spaces, you will love her book about ...
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Book jacket image for Flee North by Scott Shane

Flee North

Scott Shane depicts Thomas Smallwood as an abolitionist hero whose calculated daring, wit and foresight still inspire.
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Book jacket image for Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House

Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House is a riveting Southern gothic fantasy with gorgeous prose and excellent social commentary.
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Ambitious, accessible and thought-provoking, these titles will make your entire reading group happy.
RomanceParanormal Romance

The three best witchy romances of 2023

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
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STARRED REVIEW

October 9, 2023

The three best witchy romances of 2023

Serious spells for lovestruck witches: These paranormal romances tackle complex emotions, pressing social problems and family drama.

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RomanceParanormal Romance

Witch of Wild Things

Review by Amanda Diehl

Poet and young adult author Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s adult debut, Witch of Wild Things, is a story of family legacies and complicated sisterhood, told with romantic and lush magical realism. 

For the entirety of Sage Flores’ life, she’s known three things. First, the old gods have no love for Flores women and have thus cursed them. Second, she feels anything but lucky to have inherited one of her family’s many “gifts,” which in Sage’s case is the ability to identify plants and commune with their spirits. Finally, she wants no part of either her inherited abilities or retribution from meddling gods. The death of her younger sister, Sky, only solidified Sage’s decision to escape her hometown of Cranberry, Virginia, and never look back. But eight years after Sky’s death, Sage finds herself back amongst her old childhood haunts and slowly starting to accept her uncanny talents. 

Returning to her old job at the Cranberry Rose Company, Sage, accompanied by Sky’s ghost, uses her powers to discover new and rare flora in the area. One of her coworkers is a familiar face: Tennessee Reyes, the boy who left her heartbroken in high school. While Tennessee and Sage are workplace rivals at first, their competitiveness is easily quelled as they nerd out on plants and bloom as friends (and then possibly more) while out in nature.Their romance is sweet and subtle, something Gilliland unfolds carefully while Sage deals with the larger obstacles in her life, namely her family. 

Sage is the beautiful heart of Witch of Wild Things, with her herculean efforts to both protect herself but still allow for vulnerability. She’s delightfully funny and heartbreakingly flawed; rooting for her comes easily. There are magical family secrets to uncover, cultural identities to reckon with and relationships to mend, most notably with her other sister, Teal, whose ability to summon thunderstorms and lightning have stirred up plenty of trouble in town. Even when the plot momentum ebbs, Gilliland keeps readers enthralled with her luxurious prose. Sage’s work with plants gives Gilliland plenty of opportunities to create gorgeous imagery for readers to lose themselves in. And the sexy Tennessee’s knowing smirks will make readers weak in the knees right along with Sage. 

Transportive and bursting with heart, Witch of Wild Things is a tender masterpiece of magical realism.

Transportive and bursting with heart, Witch of Wild Things is a tender masterpiece of magical realism and a sexy love story to boot.
RomanceParanormal RomanceContemporary Romance

Full Moon Over Freedom

Review by Elizabeth Mazer

Recently divorced Gillian Armstead-Bancroft has returned to Freedom, Kansas, with two kids, no money, seriously dented self-respect—and a curse that’s robbed her of her magical powers. Nothing in life has turned out as this always-good girl (and secret bruja) thought it would. And when a good girl is under a curse that turns all her good intentions to ash, the obvious fix is to try out being bad. Preferably with her childhood friend, Nicky Mendoza, who is now a successful artist and still the only man who has ever satisfied her in bed. Meanwhile, things are changing in the town of Freedom. The run-down East Side is getting a boost, and Gillian’s noisy, nosy family is leading the charge. There’s a role there for Gillian, if she’s willing to take it . . . and if she can let go of the idea that success looks like the life she left behind, which was all big-city sparkle, name-brand luxury and soul-crushing emptiness.

Angelina M. Lopez’s Full Moon Over Freedom, her sequel to After Hours on Milagro Street, delivers on all expectations. It’s both powerful and sweet to see Gillian and Nicky rekindle their romance. They’ve lived separate lives for the past 13 years, but from the moment they reunite, Nicky is once again the only person Gillian lets herself be truly honest with. And when it comes to her sexuality—her needs, her desires—their compatibility is off the charts. If you’re a reader who enjoys the “healed by the magic of great sex” trope, you will absolutely love this book. Mixing in with all of the classic plot elements is actual magic, which in Lopez’s hands is tangible, present and beautifully imperfect. Refreshingly, it doesn’t solve all of Gillian and Nicky’s problems and it also results in contact with the spirit realm, moments that are alternately unsettling and enchanting—sometimes both at once.

Gillian’s Mexican American identity, which Lopez shares, radiates throughout the book. Full Moon Over Freedom unpacks the Latinx history of Kansas, showing how the struggles of women in the past trickle down into the prejudices of today through an infuriating heartbreaker of a historical story based on a real court case. This is the work of a writer who knows and celebrates her community and her culture. It’s also a love story that embraces the unusual, celebrates the unsung and makes you believe the words of another famous Kansan: There’s no place like home.

Full Moon Over Freedom celebrates the unsung Latinx history of Kansas while telling a second-chance love story that’s powerful, sexy and sweet.
RomanceParanormal Romance

In Charm’s Way

Review by Dolly R. Sickles

Lana Harper continues to enchant the hearts of readers with the fourth book in her Witches of Thistle Grove series, In Charm’s Way. These supernatural rom-coms are always enjoyable and fun, but this latest installment has some darker, broodier moments, too. 

Delilah Harlow is still reeling from the oblivion charm cast on her at the end of book three (Back in a Spell), and her healing journey takes her down a dark path. She’s lost memories and her sharp mind has been dulled, forcing her to turn to her paranormal community for help. But relying on others makes you vulnerable, which Delilah can’t abide, so she casts a dangerous blood spell to harness her power and bring forth its healing capabilities. What she didn’t account for was how the spell would make her a magnet for a hoard of dangerous monsters.

Fortunately, there’s Catriona Quinn, monster hunter. She’s half-human and half-fae, an expert in her field and a member of the Shadow Court, which helps hold the evil, violent side of the paranormal at bay. She’s like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a morally gray and beguiling core. Sassy and headstrong, confident and reckless, Catriona catches Delilah’s attention in the sexiest, most distracting way possible. Just distracting enough, in fact, to help Delilah get out of her head.

Harper creates a remarkably intimate experience for the reader by keeping them rooted in Delilah’s perspective as she works through her mental trauma. She’s angry about the things that were taken from her, and rightfully so, but her experience has shifted her personality in such a way that she’s able to lean into the rage and use it to heal herself. 

The characters are well developed, the dialogue is snappy and the plot is fast-paced and engaging in the supremely satisfying and entertaining In Charm’s Way.

Lana Harper’s latest paranormal romance, In Charm’s Way, movingly explores mental trauma (via an oblivion charm, naturally).

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Serious spells for lovestruck witches: These paranormal romances tackle complex emotions, pressing social problems and family drama.
RomanceContemporary Romance

Falling in love—on the clock

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
Workplace romances
STARRED REVIEW

February 7, 2023

Falling in love—on the clock

Is there anything more deliciously tense than crushing on a co-worker? In these books, you can practically feel the pining on the page.

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RomanceContemporary Romance

Just My Type

Review by Dolly R. Sickles

Falon Ballard’s sophomore novel, Just My Type, is a clever, upbeat rom-com that will leave a smile on readers’ faces and joy in their hearts.

Lana Parker is an expert dating and relationships columnist, but she’s also a serial monogamist who’s uninterested in (and perhaps incapable of) being single. Lana gets dumped by her latest boyfriend, rather than engaged to him, as Just My Type begins, but that’s not even the worst thing to happen to her that week. That honor belongs to the moment when Seth Carson, her high school boyfriend who is now a big-shot freelance journalist, takes an assignment from the website that publishes Lana’s column. Lana’s boss soon instructs the pair to write a dueling series of relationship articles in which Lana records her attempts to stay and enjoy being single and Seth tries to stop being a serial dater and instead become boyfriend material.

Since Seth is the one who got away, the assignment immediately proves difficult—in a delicious way—for Lana. Just My Type might have felt a bit less predictable if Ballard had flipped the gender stereotype, making Seth the one who needed to stop jumping into relationships and Lana the one who needed to learn to settle down. However, Just My Type is still a great showcase for Ballard’s talents: Her voice is fresh and flirty, her characters well developed (Lana’s unfailingly loyal, foulmouthed friend May is the kind of person we all need in our lives), and her pacing brisk and never boring. Romance readers—of all types—will be immensely entertained.

This second-chance romance between two journalists is an immensely fun showcase of author Falon Ballard’s talents.
RomanceContemporary Romance

Radiant Sin

Review by Dolly R. Sickles

Katee Robert returns with Radiant Sin, the fourth installment of her popular Dark Olympus series, which gives sexy updates to the classic love stories of Greek mythology. This time around, Robert uses the tale of Apollo and Cassandra as inspiration for a modern workplace romance.

In the original myth, Apollo was the god of prophecy (among many other things) and Cassandra was one of his priestesses whom he cursed: She would be able to predict the future, but no one would ever believe her. In Robert’s version of the story, Apollo is the spymaster of the isolated city of Olympus, as well as Cassandra’s boss. The pair go undercover as a couple to attend a weeklong house party in order to figure out what Minos, a mysterious new arrival in the city and the host of the gathering, is up to. 

A deliciously twisted plot of fake dating, sneaky intrigue and forced proximity unfolds. Cassandra and Apollo realize just how much their quirks (and kinks) complement each other, all while unpacking the class issues within their relationship that arise from their disparate backgrounds. While Radiant Sin is lighter on the love scenes than the preceding three books in the series, there’s still plenty of steam. And Robert cleverly peppers in details that anchor the myth-inspired story in the real world, such as broken elevators, traffic delays and office politics. 

While fans of Greek mythology will be tickled by Robert’s reinterpretation of Apollo and Cassandra, you need not be a classics expert to enjoy this sultry romance.

In her latest Dark Olympus romance, Katee Robert gives the myth of Apollo and Cassandra a sultry, modern spin.
RomanceContemporary Romance

The Reunion

Review by Elizabeth Mazer

We’re living in an age of reboots. Everywhere you turn, another classic show or movie is getting a fresh start or a cast reunion. So it feels very much of the moment to have a romance set during the production of a beloved TV series’ 20th anniversary special.

The Reunion, Kayla Olson’s adult debut, opens as Liv Latimer, star of the groundbreaking, wildly popular six-season smash-hit series “Girl on the Verge,” steps back into the shoes of her character, Honor St. Croix. Her return to playing Honor comes with a return to the spotlight—which she mostly shunned after the show ended, choosing to stick to smaller indie movies instead—and a return to Ransom Joel. Ransom was Liv’s co-star, best friend, on-screen love interest and longtime real-life secret crush. In the years since “Girl on the Verge,” he’s become an international action movie star. Liv’s been out of touch with Ransom for years, but it only takes minutes in his company for all the old feelings to come back twice as strong. And after all this time, it seems like her feelings might be reciprocated . . . but falling in love is hard enough when the whole world isn’t watching. 

There’s plenty of Hollywood glitz in The Reunion (with luxe descriptions of houses and events), but underneath all the glamour is the poignant aura of a high school reunion. There’s nothing like being surrounded by people who knew you as a kid to help you realize how much you’ve grown up and which opportunities you’ve let pass you by. Olson’s characters are easy to root for all the way through, to the point that I found myself caring deeply about the reboot of a show that never existed. In fact, “Girl on the Verge” sounds so great that I’m sad I can’t watch it myself. And when love finally happens for Ransom and Liv, I felt all the thrill of a dedicated fan, finally seeing my OTP come to life.

If The Reunion has a weakness, it’s how perfect Ransom and Liv are for each other. They seem so mutually smitten right from the start that I half expected this to be one of those romances in which the heroine finally gets a chance with the man of her dreams but then discovers that it’s someone else she’s meant to be with after all. But on the other hand, it’s nice to think that love can be that simple, that clean. Maybe that’s what we like about all these reboots: the idea that we can go back to what we loved before and find it right there waiting for us—just as sweet as we remember, with a payoff that’s just as satisfying as we always hoped it would be.

Kayla Olson’s sweet, satisfying romance follows two actors who uncover long-buried feelings when they reunite for the 20th anniversary of the show they starred in as teens.

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22 superhot enemies-to-lovers romances

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
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22 superhot enemies-to-lovers romances

You know that moment when two people who ostensibly hate each other get in each other’s faces and almost kiss? That’s the good stuff right there.
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I Dared the Duke

It's a battle of wills between a playboy Duke and an infamous wallflower in Anna Bennett's newest regency romance.

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Two strong-willed people find they have more in common than expected in Need You Now, the first book Nicole Helm’s new Mile High Romance series.

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You know that moment when two people who ostensibly hate each other get in each other's faces and almost kiss? That's the good stuff right there.
Mystery & SuspenseMysteryHistorical Mystery

14 marvelous Victorian mysteries

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
April 11, 2023

14 marvelous Victorian mysteries

Maybe it’s the gaslight, maybe it’s the ever-present fog, maybe it’s the shadow of Sherlock Holmes looming over it all, but there’s something so very satisfying about a mystery set in the Victorian era. Here are 14 of our favorites—including some spectacular modern takes on Holmes himself.
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Blood on the Water

Victorian London comes alive in Anne Perry’s tension-filled new mystery, Blood on the Water, the 20th novel in her best-selling William Monk series.

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The Laws of Murder

Charles Finch's refined gentleman sleuth is a man of quiet honor and determination.
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The Fifth Heart

Dan Simmons is known for big, serious books like Drood and The Terror that mix real-life history with genre fiction. And while The ...

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The Strangler Vine

As The Strangler Vine opens, William Avery is a typical young soldier in 1830’s colonial India: deep in debt, disdainful of Indian “barbarity,” stalled in ...

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A Curious Beginning

Veronica Speedwell, the Victorian sleuth in A Curious Beginning, is observant, outspoken and a bit risqué. Fans of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia series will be ...

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Maybe it's the gaslight, maybe it's the ever-present fog, maybe it's the shadow of Sherlock Holmes looming over it all, but there's something so very satisfying about a mystery set in the Victorian era. Here are 14 of our favorites—including some spectacular modern takes on Holmes himself.
RomanceWestern RomanceContemporary Romance

6 scrumptious foodie romances

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
April 18, 2023

6 scrumptious foodie romances

Love stories that are delicious in more ways than one.
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Down Home Cowboy

New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates adds another entry to her wildly popular Copper Ridge series with Down Home Cowboy.

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Accidentally Engaged

Farah Heron’s Accidentally Engaged is mouth-watering romantic comedy that layers on tropes like a buttery, flaky dough.

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Hana Khan Carries On

In Uzma Jalaluddin’s sophomore novel, Hana Khan Carries On, a Muslim woman tries to keep her family’s halal business afloat while finding comfort in creating ...

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Love & Other Disasters

The only bad thing about Love & Other Disasters is that even after you’ve gorged on the whole thing, it’ll leave you wanting more.
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proposaltheycantrefuse

A Proposal They Can’t Refuse

A Proposal They Can't Refuse is a mouthwatering delight with cooking as foreplay and two romantic leads worth rooting for every step of the way.
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Love stories that are delicious in more ways than one.
Science Fiction & Fantasy

12 great SFF books to read if you love Dungeons & Dragons

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
April 4, 2023

12 great SFF books to read if you love Dungeons & Dragons

Found families, dangerous quests and maybe a cool monster or two—these books bring the tabletop to your bookshelf.
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Embers of War

What if the Millennium Falcon could speak? If Gareth L. Powell’s ripping space opera is any guide, it would be one heck of a ride.
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Soulkeeper

Soulkeeper by David Dalglish is a delightful romp, a nearly perfect representation of a game of Dungeons & Dragons come to life.

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Chilling Effect

Captain Eva Inocente is the reliable captain of La Sirena Negra, guiding her motley but lovable crew through the galaxy.
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The Bone Ships

Simultaneously gritty and full of a sense of wonder, The Bone Ships is the perfect adventure for anyone who’s ever had dreams of the sea—or ...

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Sword of Fire

Sword of Fire is centered around a socio-political struggle against the unjust courts of the Kingdom of Deverry. While that certainly could be a backdrop ...

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Found families, dangerous quests and maybe a cool monster or two—these books bring the tabletop to your bookshelf.
Science Fiction & FantasyHistorical FantasyFantasy

Our 10 favorite historical fantasies

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
May 2, 2023

Our 10 favorite historical fantasies

The world of historical fantasy is wide and vast—but these books are the best of the best.
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The Bear and the Nightingale

Katherine Arden has created a coming-of-age story rooted in folklore, set in the Russian wilderness and surrounded by the magic of winter.
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Gods of Jade and Shadow

The trope of a doe-eyed, innocent waif wandering a spectacular wonderland is well-worn by authors of classic fantasy and science fiction, but the magic that ...

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The Harp of Kings

The Harp of Kings, the first book in a new historical fantasy series by Juliet Marillier, follows a brother and sister amidst magic, music and ...

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The Water Dancer

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut novel is grounded in a profoundly simple truth: A person’s humanity is tied to their freedom.
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The Chosen and the Beautiful

Nghi Vo perfectly balances the new and the familiar in her magical adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

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The world of historical fantasy is wide and vast—but these books are the best of the best.
Science Fiction & Fantasy

12 brilliant sci-fi & fantasy retellings

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
May 9, 2023

12 brilliant sci-fi & fantasy retellings

From Greek mythology to classic American literature, these books offer bold new takes on old stories.
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Circe

The acclaimed author of The Song of Achilles unfurls the story of the legendary witch from Homer’s Odyssey with lyric intensity.
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Upon a Burning Throne

Upon a Burning Throne is an epic fantasy filled with vivid depictions of people, places and vistas, easily living up to its inspiration, the Mahabharata.

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Lady Hotspur

Lady Hotspur, a gender-bent retelling of Henry IV, breathes fresh life into its subject matter and creates a story both familiar and wholly new.

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The Witch’s Heart

Genevieve Gornichec’s debut novel, The Witch’s Heart, is both staggering in its beauty and delicate in its execution.

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Malice

Heather Walter’s debut novel, Malice, transforms the familiar fairytale of Sleeping Beauty into a dark and compelling fantasy romance between the storybook princess and the ...

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From Greek mythology to classic American literature, these books offer bold new takes on old stories.
Mystery & Suspense

The best mysteries and thrillers of 2023 (so far)

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
May 30, 2023

The best mysteries and thrillers of 2023 (so far)

They’ve carried us through the bleak days of January and February, and you’ve probably already seen them in beach bags galore—these are the best mysteries and thrillers of the year so far.
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Book jacket image for Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper

Everybody Knows

Jordan Harper’s dazzling, pitch-black neo-noir isn’t just ripped from the headlines—it’s probably predicting them.
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Book jacket image for The Motion Picture Teller by Colin Cotterill

The Motion Picture Teller

By turns witty, warm, charming and poignant, The Motion Picture Teller is perhaps Colin Cotterill’s finest novel thus far.
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Book jacket image for The Lock-Up by John Banville

The Lock-Up

John Banville’s beautifully written The Lock-Up stretches the boundaries of the police procedural, intently focusing on the inner lives of his beloved sleuths.
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magistrate

The Magistrate

Someone is hunting down corrupt public officials in Brian Klingborg’s third Inspector Lu Fei mystery, the action-packed and suspense-filled The Magistrate.
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bodybysea

The Body by the Sea

Jean-Luc Bannalec’s latest Commissaire Dupin mystery is a feast: an intricate case, a surprising ending and a tour of gorgeous Brittany, France, along the way.
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They’ve carried us through the bleak days of January and February, and you’ve probably already seen them in beach bags galore—these are the best mysteries and thrillers of the year so far.
Romance

The best romances of 2023 (so far)

List by Savanna, Associate Editor
STARRED REVIEW
June 13, 2023

The best romances of 2023 (so far)

Historical romances ventured to new and exciting locales, rom-coms came ever so slightly down to earth and Emily Henry still reigns supreme. These are the best love stories of the year so far.
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exesandos

Exes and O’s

Exes and O’s is equal parts tender and laugh-out-loud funny, with an earnest appreciation for the romance genre singing loudly from every page.
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Book jacket image for A Love by Design by Elizabeth Everett

A Love by Design

A beautiful engineer and a nobleman have a second chance at love in Elizabeth Everett’s brainy, praiseworthy Victorian romance.
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Book jacket image for The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

The True Love Experiment

Romance blooms between a reality TV star and her producer in Christina Lauren’s sexy and heartwarming The True Love Experiment.
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Book jacket image for Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

Much Ado About Nada

Uzma Jalaluddin’s Much Ado About Nada is a heartwarming, tender and utterly winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
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mrsnashashes

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes

This grumpy-sunshine romance is an absolute treat, and a superb debut from Sarah Adler.
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Historical romances ventured to new and exciting locales, rom-coms came ever so slightly down to earth and Emily Henry still reigns supreme. These are the best love stories of the year so far.

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