Here are the new books coming out for this week on New Book Tuesday. Click each book for more information and to purchase. Which are you planning to read? Do you have a favorite of all the new titles being released this week? Tell us in the comments section below.
The Bitter End by Alexa Donne
About the Book:
The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip.
Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore . . . until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message is clear: this trip is no accident.
And when a blizzard strikes, secrets are revealed, betrayals are exposed, and survival is at stake in a race to the bitter end.
About the Author:
Alexa Donne is the Edgar Award–nominated author of Pretty Dead Queens, The Ivies, and The Bitter End. By day she lives in Los Angeles and works in television marketing. The rest of the time she contemplates creative motives for murder and takes too many pictures of her cats.
Tangleroot by Kalela Williams
About the Book:
Noni Reid has grown up in the shadow of her mother, Dr. Radiance Castine, renowned scholar of Black literature, who is alarmingly perfect at just about everything.
When Dr. Castine takes a job as the president of the prestigious Stonepost College in rural Virginia, Noni is forced to leave her New England home and, most importantly, a prime internship and her friends. She and her mother move into the “big house” on Tangleroot Plantation.
Tangleroot was built by one of Noni’s ancestors, an enslaved man named Cuffee Fortune―who Dr. Castine believes was also the original founder of Stonepost College, and that the school was originally formed for Black students. Dr. Castine spends much of her time trying to piece together enough undeniable truth in order to change the name of the school in Cuffee’s honor―and to force the university to reckon with its own racist past.
Meanwhile, Noni hates everything about her new home, but finds herself morbidly fascinated by the white, slaveholding family who once lived in it. Slowly, she begins to unpeel the layers of sinister history that envelop her Virginia town, her mother’s workplace, her ancestry―and her life story as she knew it. Through it all, she must navigate the ancient prejudices of the citizens in her small town, and ultimately, she finds herself both affirming her mother’s position and her own―but also discovering a secret that changes everything.
About the Author:
Kalela Williams is a writer, an educator, and a historian. She is the Director of Writing of Mighty Writers, a Philadelphia-based organization that hosts writing workshops for young people, and she recently concluded almost a decade of public programming with the Free Library of Philadelphia, where she directed their One Book, One Philadelphia program and other literary initiatives. She is also the founder of Black History Maven, a social media and in-person gathering community. Kalela grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and currently calls Philadelphia home.
No Better Than Beasts by Z.R. Ellor
About the Book:
Nabik, a soldier, owes his loyalty to his elder brother Fydir, who lifted him and their sister, Drakne, from poverty. But when Fydir orders him to quell unrest among the city’s beastfolk, the magic Nabik had long buried begins to stir. A wintery voice urges Nabik to desert his post―and his brother’s watchful eye ―to journey north into Kolznechia, a frozen, enchanted kingdom ruled by the mercurial Rat King. His power may hold the key to breaking an ancient curse and ending the Rat King’s terrible reign.
Drakne will do whatever it takes to break free of Fydir. As Nabik follows all of their eldest brother’s commands, her best hope of escaping is to seek the protection of the Rat King. And the tyrant king has been looking for Drakne too. She has a gift that can help him find and kill the missing nutcracker prince, rightful heir to his stolen throne.
When the nutcracker prince emerges, Nabik and Drakne take opposite sides of a centuries-old conflict―him to save a kingdom, her to save herself. Then Fydir marches into the growing war, hungry to claim power of his own, and if Nabik and Drakne can’t fix their broken bond, Kolznechia may be torn apart by tooth and claw…
About the Author:
Z. R. Ellor wrote their first novel when they were twelve years old and never put down their pen. They are the author of young adult and adult novels including May the Best Man Win, Acting the Part, and Silk Fire. Their non-literary interests include running, travel, and global cuisine. No Better Than Beasts is their YA fantasy debut. Z. R. lives in Long Beach, CA.
Under the Heron’s Light by Randi Pink
About the Book:
On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher’s son―so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on their heels, the four siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, amid the biting moccasins and pitch-black waters, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp’s natural―and supernatural―protection.
Three-hundred years later, college student Atlas comes home to North Carolina for the annual Bornday cookout and hog roast: a celebration of the fact that she and her three cousins were all born on the same day nineteen years ago, sharing a birthday with their Grannylou. But this Bornday, Grannylou’s usual riddles and folktales about a marvelous paradise deep in the Great Dismal Swamp start to take on a tangible quality. Change coming.
When Dismal calls, sucking Grannylou in, it’s up to Atlas and her cousins to uncover the history that the black waters hold. Centuries of family tension, with roots all over Virginia and North Carolina, are about to be dug up. Because Babylou and Grannylou are one and the same, and the power she helped cultivate hundreds of years ago―steeped in Black resistance, familial love, and the otherworldly mysteries of the Great Dismal Swamp―is bubbling back up. But so is a bitterness that runs deep as the swamp’s waters. And some are ready to take what they feel they’re owed.
About the Author:
Randi Pinkis the author of Angel of Greenwood, praised by NPR as a story “American kids need to know”; Girls Like Us, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2019, and Into White, also published by Feiwel and Friends. She lives with her family in Birmingham, Alabama.
Sixteen Minutes by K.J. Reilly
About the Book:
Seventeen-year-old Nell knows two things for sure—she’s never going to get out of her rural, dead-end hometown of Clawson, NY and her best friend Stevie B and longtime boyfriend Cole are never going to leave her. That is until Charlotte, a new girl, arrives at their school and their lopsided friend triangle is turned on its axis. While Nell and Stevie B are certain that Charlotte isn’t who she says she is, Cole is caught fully in her thrall. There are secret calls and meetings between the two, and Nell knows Cole is keeping something big from her. Now, for the first time in their lives, Nell worries she could lose Cole.
When Nell and Stevie B finally confront Cole and Charlotte, they learn the impossible—Charlotte is actually from the future, and for life altering reasons none of them could have imagined, she wants Cole to jump to the future with her, leaving Nell behind. It’s dangerous, it’s reckless, but Charlotte convinces them that it’s the only choice they have. The trio’s future has always seemed set—but with the knowledge that time travel is real, and with a multiverse of futures before them, they now have the option to live lives they could have only dreamed about. The only questions are, who will take the leap and who will be left behind?
About the Author:
K. J. Reilly graduated from Boston University with a BA in psychology then headed to New York City to work in the marketing research departments of several of the largest advertising agencies in the world. She loves reading, writing, dogs, sailboats, cycling, children of all shapes and sizes, and growing her own food. She is the author of Words We Don’t Say and Four for the Road.
Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee
About the Book:
When Prince Xian was a boy, a white snake bit his mother and condemned her to a slow, painful death. The only known cure is an elusive spirit pearl—or an antidote created from the rare white snake itself. Desperate and determined, Xian travels to the city of Changle, where an oracle predicted he would find and capture a white snake.
Seven years ago, Zhen, a white snake in the West Lake, consumed a coveted spirit pearl, which gave him special powers—including the ability to change into human form.
In Changle, Xian encounters an enigmatic but beautiful stable boy named Zhen. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but Zhen soon realizes that he is the white snake Xian is hunting. As their feelings grow deeper, will the truth about Zhen’s identity tear them apart?
About the Author:
Sher Lee writes young adult novels with Asian characters. She lives in Singapore and has an abiding love for local street food (including an incredible weakness for xiao long bao). She has two adorable corgis, Clover and Spade. Find her on Instagram @sherleeauthor or her website at sherleeauthor.com.
The Shadow Road by K. D. Kirchmeirer
About the Book:
When the monsters came, the power went out. Towns and cities became darkened ruins, and terrified survivors fled west, trailed by the blitz, dragon-like creatures screeching down from the sky enshrouded in lightning, delivering death.
The old world is ending, but not all hope is lost.
Left behind is a timid dreamer, Thomas, and a brash and outspoken daredevil, Cassie. When their paths unexpectedly cross, they must outwit both monsters and humans alike on an epic journey across a dangerous ravaged landscape if they hope to do the impossible: Reignite hope. Defeat the blitz. Save humanity.
In this postapocalyptic fantasy perfect for fans of Rick Yancey and Neal Shusterman, readers will find high-stakes adventure and compelling characters they won’t soon forget.
About the Author:
Kurt Kirchmeier is a Saskatchewan-based author who writes strange and fantastical stories about ordinary people who get caught up in extraordinary circumstances. He is also the author of the middle grade/coming-of-age horror novel The Absence of Sparrows. When he isn’t writing stories or photographing nature, Kurt enjoys reading, hiking, and exploring quiet places.
Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno
About the Book:
Shy Prince Edmund will be a great king one day: it has been Seen again and again. With rare magic giving him dominion over the nation’s plants and weather, Edmund feels a great deal of pressure to live up to his nation’s many expectations, including making a perfect diplomatic alliance through marriage. That is, until he meets Lord Aubrey Ainsley.
Charming, romantic, and politically insignificant, Aubrey is a Seer, but not even he could have predicted catching the eye of Edmund, the Prince of Fortune—nor that the anxious prince who talks to plants more than people could feel so right for him. Aubrey’s dream-visions have been full of battle, not love, but to say that Prince Edmund has captured his fancy would be a grand understatement.
As the two become more and more intertwined, the nation of Saben falls under attack. War and dark sorcery loom on the horizon. To save their homeland, Edmund and Aubrey must resist the outside forces seeking to drive them apart and find the power within themselves to create a future for Saben—and each other—they never could have imagined.
About the Author:
Lisa Tirreno writes fantasy and speculative fiction. A recovering journalist, she lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family and a soap opera of chickens. She has a degree in English literature and history and is good at stabbing herself with embroidery needles. Prince of Fortune is her debut novel.
I Was Told There Would by Romance by Marie Arnold
About the Book:
Fifteen-year-old Fancy Augustine is a Haitian American girl with simple desires. She’d like to trade in her floppy, oversize boobs for cute, perky ones. She’d love a boyfriend. And she’s desperate for an invite to the biggest event of the school year: Imani Park’s birthday party. When Fancy learns her BFF, Tilly, has received a coveted invite and has a secret boyfriend, she is (understandably) devastated and wholeheartedly determined to do whatever it takes to get her own happily ever after.
So what if she makes a deal with the devil (Imani) that guarantees her an invite—but only if she can bring a boyfriend? And what’s so bad about letting her crush, Rahim, believe that she can create a voodoo potion for him in exchange for him posing as her boyfriend? And, yeah, maybe she’s destroying her friendship with Tilly and falling hopelessly behind in her schoolwork, but Fancy knows it’ll all be worth it in the end. Plus, it’s not like Fancy’s parents would really make good on their threats of sending her back to Haiti…right?
About the Author:
Marie Arnold was born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and came to America at the age of seven. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York alongside her extended family. She attended Columbia College in Chicago, where her main focus was creative writing. As Lola StVil, she is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling indie author. Over two million readers have downloaded her Young Adult fantasy series GUARDIANS. She currently has 3 projects under development at Disney Junior and Disney Plus, one of which is an animated show based on her middle grade novel The Year I Flew Away.
Halfway There by Christine Mari
About the Book:
Christine has always felt she is just half: Half American, half Japanese. As a biracial Japanese American who was born in Tokyo but raised in the US, she knows all too well what it’s like to be a part of two different worlds but never feeling as though you belong to either.
Now on the brink of adulthood, Christine decides it’s time to return to the place she once called home. So she sets forth on a year abroad in Tokyo, believing that this is where she truly belongs. After years of feeling like an outsider, now she will finally be complete.
Except…Tokyo isn’t the answer she thought it would be. Instead of fitting in, Christine finds herself a fish out of water, as being half of two cultures isolates her in ways she’d never imagined. All she can do is try to stay afloat for the rest of the year—still figuring out who she is, what she wants in life, and whether she’ll ever truly be more than halfway there.
Author-illustrator Christine Mari explores what it means to lose and find yourself in this moving narrative of belonging and home.
About the Author:
Christine Mari is a comic artist based in Los Angeles, California. When she was fifteen years old, she wrote her first book, Diary of a Tokyo Teen, an illustrated travelogue detailing one summer in Japan. Her artistic journey continued in her online comics, which deal with topics ranging from her multiracial identity to navigating adulthood and the joys and challenges of daily existence. She loves rainy days and grocery store birthday cake. This is her first graphic novel. Christine invites you to visit her at christinemari.com or follow her Instagram @christinemaricomics.
