There are quite a few new and exciting books on the horizon, friends! These are the ones that I am most excited about. Check them out, and get excited with me!
Enter The Aardvark
Only one thing stands between Alexander Paine Wilson and his destiny… and it has long ears, spoon-like claws and a tubular snout.
Republican congressman Alexander Paine Wilson is determined that nothing will stop him in his campaign for re-election. Not the fact that he is a bachelor, not the fact that his main adversary Nancy Beavers – married, with children – is rising in the polls. Nothing. That is, until one hot day in August, he receives a large parcel via FedEx. Inside is a gigantic taxidermied aardvark.
This aardvark has a surprising history – from the Victorian naturalist who discovered it to the taxidermist who deemed it his finest creation. But for Wilson, the entrance of the aardvark sets off a chain of events that threaten to ruin his entire career.
Constantly surprising, brilliantly comic and piquantly provocative, Enter the Aardvark is a tale for our times, a biting satire with a tender underbelly.
Political satire, a taxidermy, and mystery? what more could you ask for? This synopsis reeled me right in, and I can not wait to devour this comical morsel! Enter the Aardvark will be published March 24, 2020, and you can pre-order it here-
The Familiar Dark
A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground.
Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes it’s better not to know.
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother’s cruel brand of strength if she’s going to face the reality about her daughter’s death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother’s trailer for a final lesson.
The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family–women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances–as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.
If you know me, you know I am ALL IN when it comes to a good atmospheric thriller! I am digging the creepy feel of this book, and I have to admit, it is one of my worst nightmares as a mom to think about things like this! On of the things I am loving about this book is the strong female protagonist. I have been looking for a book with a strong female character, and this is the one I am most excited about! The familiar dark will be published on March 3, 2020, and is available for pre-order here-
Chosen Ones
The first novel written for an adult audience by the mega-selling author of the Divergent franchise: five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons—and reconsider what it means to be a hero . . . by destiny or by choice.
A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.
Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.
Veronica Roth’s first adult fantasy novel…..FIRST OF ALL, YES, and SECOND, pick me up off the floor, I’m so excited about this. The trend of YA authors branching out into the adult genre is everything. I love everything about the premise of this book, and YET AGAIN, a strong female protagonist. BRING IT TO ME! Chosen ones will be published on April 7, 2020 and is available for pre-order here-
The Boys’ Club
weetbitter meets The Firm in this buzzy, page-turning debut novel—already optioned to Netflix—about sex and power in the halls of corporate America.
Alex Vogel has always been a high achiever who lived her life by the book—star student and athlete in high school, prelaw whiz in college, Harvard Law School degree. Accepting a dream offer at the prestigious Manhattan law firm of Klasko & Fitch, she promises her sweet and supportive longtime boyfriend that the job won’t change her. Yet Alex is seduced by the firm’s money and energy . . . and by her cocksure male colleagues, who quickly take notice of the new girl. She’s never felt so confident and powerful—even the innuendo-laced banter with clients feels fun. In the firm’s most profitable and competitive division, Mergers and Acquisitions, Alex works around the clock, racking up billable hours and entertaining clients late into the evening. While the job is punishing, it has its perks, like a weekend trip to Miami, a ride in a client’s private jet, and more expense-account meals than she can count.
But as her clients’ expectations and demands on her increase, and Alex finds herself magnetically drawn to a handsome coworker despite her loving relationship at home, she begins to question everything—including herself. She knows the corporate world isn’t black and white, and that to reach the top means playing by different rules. But who made those rules? And what if the system rigged so that women can’t win, anyway?
When something happens that reveals the dark reality of the firm, Alex comes to understand the ways women like her are told—explicitly and implicitly—how they need to behave to succeed in the workplace. Now, she can no longer stand by silently—even if doing what’s right means putting everything on the line to expose the shocking truth.
Gather round children, have a seat, and lets talk about YET ANOTHER strong female character. I am starting to see a trend here, and I LOVE IT! The Boys’ Club is Erica Katz’ debut novel, and if the amazing, smart, synopsis doesnt make you want to RUN out and pre-order this book, I am positive this will…..Drumroll please……Netflix has aquired the screen rights to this book! SOOOO now you can not only binge the book, but the Movie too! YAAASSSSSS! The Boys’ Club will be published on August 4, 2020 and is available for pre-order here-
Valentine
Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s.
Mercy is hard in a place like this . . .
It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.
In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, one of the town’s women decides to take matters into her own hands, setting the stage for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.
Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader’s heart, this fierce, unflinching, darkly funny, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women’s strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.
This is probably one of the books I am MOST excited about. The town of Odessa, Texas is close to my heart, and it is always exciting to read a book that is set somewhere familiar. The oilfield can be a crazy, scary, exciting place! The premise of this story is heartbreaking and raw, and I am excited to meet yet again, another strong, smart female protagonist. Valentine will be published on April 7, 2020, and is available for pre-order here-
Many thanks to Netgalley and Buzzbooks 2020 for sharing these wonderful books, and giving me the opportunity to preview them, and share them with all of you! Let me know if you read them, and what you think about them!
Happy reading, friends!
The Literary Wife 
I have most of these on my TBR, but I hadn’t heard about Enter the Aardvark. It sounds really different.😊
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It does doesn’t it? I have never read political satire but I need to read this. I’m really curious about the life story of the aardvark, and why this is a thing!😂
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Politics, Victorian times, and an aardvark! It’s quite the mix!🤣 I just filled out a request to purchase for my library.😊
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Yayyyyyyy!!!!! 🤗 Let me know what you think if you read it!
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I definitely will!
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