Happy Tuesday!

For those in the States, I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and prepped your TBR for today’s releases. (Or at least enjoyed the time, however you chose to spend it!) Lots of fantasy and paranormal titles this week on our radar.

What books are you excited for? Let us know in the comments!

• The Cottage Around the Corner

  

  A feisty witch and a handsome mage must put their heated business rivalry aside to save their small town from supernatural forces in this charming contemporary fantasy romcom from the author of Thief Liar Lady.

  Chanterelle Cottage is Charlie Sparrow’s whole world. The cozy spellshop where she and her moms practice their witchcraft, selling goods and services to the people of small-town Owl’s Hollow, has been in her family for generations.

  Okay, business has been a little slow and a recent burglary hit their inventory pretty hard. And the bank may not agree to restructure their loan. But Charlie is talented and savvy, and she’ll keep things afloat once her parents finally let her buy into the business as a co-owner. Still, when a competing magecraft firm opens in town, things start to look bleak. After all, everyone knows there’s room for only one magic shop in Owl’s Hollow.

  So what if Fitz, the mage who owns the new Maven Enterprises, happens to be ridiculously handsome in his ridiculously expensive suits? Who cares that, when Charlie can forget for a moment or two that Fitz is her competitor, things between them are as easy as breathing? None of that matters—because Charlie is not going to get involved with the competition. In this battle of the businesses, she’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Chanterelle Cottage is the last spellshop standing.

  But when strange supernatural events begin to plague the citizens of Owl’s Hollow, Charlie and Fitz must put their rivalry aside and their magic together to save the town. As they grow closer, it becomes harder for Charlie to keep her carefully drawn line in place—maybe Owl’s Hollow is big enough for a witch and a mage, after all.

  Amanda: This just sounds really cute!

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• Immortal Dark

  

  The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister. 

  It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

  Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the elusive society of vampires she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. She is obsessively protective, mildly nihilistic, and willing to do anything to save her loved ones. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the same vampire bound to her family bloodline, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

  To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to inherit their family fortune and select vampire companions. Kidan must study an arcane philosophy, work with four enigmatic students, and survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

  When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat. And June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

  Shana: Helloooooo sexy Black vampires!

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• Phantasma

  

  Caraval meets Throne of the Fallen in this spicy dark romantasy where a necromancer needs help from a dangerous phantom to win a deadly competition, only to find their partnership puts her at risk of breaking the game’s most vital rule: don’t fall in love.

  When Ophelia and her sister discovers their mother brutally murdered, there is no time to grieve: Ophelia has inherited both her powerful death-driven magic and enormous debt on their home. Circumstances go from dire to deadly, however, when Ophelia’s sister decides to pay off the loan by entering Phantasma—a competition where most contestants don’t make it out alive and the winner is granted a single wish.

  The only way to save her sister is to compete. But Phantasma is a cursed manor, with twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, and filled with enticing demons and fatal temptations. Ophelia will need to face nine floors of challenges to win… if her fears don’t overtake her first.

  When a charming, arrogant stranger claims he can protect and guide Ophelia, she knows she shouldn’t trust him. While Blackwell may not seem dangerous, appearances can be deceptive. But with her sister’s life on the line, Ophelia can’t afford to turn him away. She just needs to ignore the overwhelming, dark attraction drawing them closer and closer together.

  Because in Phantasma, the only thing deadlier than losing the game is losing your heart.

  Amanda: I’ve definitely felt we’ve hit romantasy oversaturation so my eyes typically glaze over when a new one comes out, but I love the “game” elements here.

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• Us in Ruins

  

  Margot is on the quest to uncover and reassemble an ancient—and cursed—vase, with the help of a boy who went missing in 1932, because it’s the only way to put back together her broken heart in this standa-lone adventure rom-com, perfect for fans of What the River Knows and The Lost City.

  The mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia hasn’t been seen since 1932, but Margot Rhodes is determined to change that.

  Drawn by the vase’s supposed magical properties, Margot embarks on her school’s archaeological trip to Pompeii. Sure, it’s her first time holding a shovel, but she’s got something no one else lost teenage explorer Van Keane’s journal.

  Poring over the poetic entries that serve as a map to the vase’s missing shards, Margot finds herself falling in love with the boy who wrote it a century ago. She’s shocked when her search leads her to a statue that looks exactly like Van, and then the statue comes to life.

  Catapulted into the present, Van is nothing like the wordsmith Margot imagined. He’s all sharp edges, intent on retrieving the relic for all the wrong reasons. But it takes two to survive Venus’s death-defying challenges, and, together, Margot and Van must excavate the treasure—and their buried pasts—before their story ends in ruins.

  With a blend of humor, magic, and love, Rachel Moore crafts another stand-alone adventure rom-com full of double- and triple-crosses, hilarious shenanigans, and frustration-fueled banter, where the best treasure is true love.

  Amanda: Look, I saw a reference to The Mummy and that’s all it takes.

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• The View From the Top

  

  When a driven businesswoman from Boston collides with a free-spirited artist on a Vermont mountainside, they share a memorable—and steamy—night, but life soon pits them against each other over the fate of a family business.

  Emily Janssen prefers to play it safe. At thirty-five, she’s still working at the inn her grandmothers own while dreaming of a day when she’s able to support herself fully with her art. And while her friends have all hiked to the summit of the mountain in their hometown of Crescent Falls, Vermont, something has always held Emily back.

  Diana Devlin has already made it to the top. Well, almost. She’s this close to securing the promotion that will put her in line to take over as CEO of her family’s hotel chain when her father retires. Everything is going to plan until an unexpected run-in with an alluring artist on a mountainside throws Diana off course, resulting in one of the hottest nights either she or Emily have ever experienced.

  Emily walks away from their rendezvous feeling inspired to channel some of Diana’s confidence and finally chase her dreams. For Diana, it’s a reminder that with the right woman, she is capable of wanting more than one night.

  But their growing passion threatens to burn them both when they learn that the hotel Diana’s in town to buy is none other than Emily’s grandmothers’ beloved inn. It’s Emily’s home, and no big city outsider—not even Diana—is going to take it away from her.

  Will the view from the top be worth the climb, or will they both have farther to fall?

  Tara: I’ve enjoyed a bunch of books from this author.

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• We’ll Prescribe You a Cat

  

  Author: Syou Ishida
  Released:
  September 3, 2024 by
  Berkley
  Genre:
  Literary Fiction
  Series: We’ll Prescribe You a Cat #1

  A cat a day keeps the doctor away…

  Discover the award-winning, bestselling Japanese novel that has become an international sensation in this utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats.

  Tucked away in an old building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can only be found by people who are struggling in their lives and genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic offers a unique treatment to those who find their way there: it prescribes cats as medication. Patients are often puzzled by this unconventional prescription, but when they “take” their cat for the recommended duration, they witness profound transformations in their lives, guided by the playful, empathetic, occasionally challenging yet endearing cats.

  Throughout the pages, the power of the human-animal bond is revealed as a disheartened businessman finds unexpected joy in physical labor, a young girl navigates the complexities of elementary school cliques, a middle-aged man struggles to stay relevant at work and home, a hardened bag designer seeks emotional balance, and a geisha finds herself unable to move on from the memory of her lost cat. As the clinic’s patients navigate their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them toward healing, self-discovery, and newfound hope.

  Amanda: I love the Before the Coffee Gets Cold books and this feels similar.

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• Where They Last Saw Her

  

  Author: Marcie Rendon
  Released:
  September 3, 2024 by
  Bantam
  Genre:
  Mystery/Thriller

  From the award-winning author of the Cash Blackbear series, a harrowing novel of a Native American woman who learns of the disappearance of one of her own and decides enough is enough…

  All they heard was her scream.

  Quill has lived on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota her whole life. She knows what happens to people who look like her. Just a girl when Jimmy Sky jumped off the railway bridge and she ran for help, Quill realizes now that she hasn’t ever stopped running. As she trains for the Boston Marathon early one morning out in the woods, she hears a scream. When she investigates, she finds tire tracks and a lone, beaded earring.

  Things are different now for Quill than when she was a lonely girl. Her friends Punk and Gaylyn are two women who don’t know what it means to quit; she has her loving husband, Crow, and two beautiful children who challenge her to be better every day. So when she realizes another woman has been stolen, she is determined to do something—and her first stop is the group of men working the pipeline construction just north of their homes.

  As Quill closes in on the truth behind the missing woman in the woods, someone else disappears. In her quest to find justice for the women of the reservation, she is confronted with the hard truths of their home and the people who purport to serve them. When will she stop losing neighbors, friends, family? As Quill puts herself, her family, and everything she’s built on the line to make a difference, the novel asks searing questions about bystander culture, the reverberations of even one act of crime, and the long-lasting trauma of being invisible.

  Elyse: I have been reading a lot of nonfiction about murdered and missing Indigenous women, so I am very interested in this Own Voices mystery.

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