Jul 14

Jul 14 Books Publishing This Week

By the middle of July, summer has found its perfect rhythm. The novelty of the season has given way to familiarity, and you settle into its cadence almost without thinking. The mornings begin with warm sunlight spilling through the windows, afternoons hum with the sound of cicadas, and evenings stretch lazily toward dusk, painted in shades of peach, coral, and lavender. There is a sense of abundance everywhere you look. Gardens overflow with blooms, farmers' markets brim with peaches and sweet corn, and trees offer generous patches of shade that invite you to linger a little longer than you planned.

You decide today is the day to begin a new book.

The decision isn't dramatic. It arrives as naturally as pouring yourself a glass of iced tea or opening the windows to let the breeze move through the house. The book has been waiting nearby for several days, resting on a side table or tucked into your beach bag, quietly patient in the way books always are. Every time you've walked past it, you've imagined yourself opening the cover, but something told you to wait. Now, with summer fully settled around you, the moment feels exactly right.

You carry your book outside, along with something cold to drink. Condensation slides down the side of the glass as you settle into a comfortable chair beneath the shade of a large tree. Sunlight filters through the leaves overhead, scattering patches of gold across the pages before you've even opened them. A warm breeze brushes against your arms, carrying with it the scent of blooming flowers, freshly cut grass, and the unmistakable sweetness of midsummer. Somewhere nearby, bees drift lazily from blossom to blossom while birds continue conversations that seem to have been going on since sunrise.

For a few moments, you simply sit and take it all in. Mid-July doesn't ask you to hurry. It reminds you that some of life's greatest pleasures come from giving yourself permission to linger. You notice the gentle movement of the leaves overhead, the distant laughter of children splashing in a backyard pool, and the comforting rhythm of a ceiling fan spinning slowly on a neighboring porch. Summer has a soundtrack all its own, and today it seems to be playing just for you.

When you finally open the book, the crisp pages catch the light. There is always something quietly thrilling about the beginning of a story. The characters are still strangers. The places exist only as hints waiting to be revealed. Every page holds possibility, and you alone get to discover it for the first time.

The opening chapters unfold with the same unhurried pace as the afternoon itself. You aren't racing toward the plot twist or wondering how quickly you'll finish. Instead, you allow the story to introduce itself one page at a time. A sentence catches your attention, and you read it again simply because it is beautiful. A character says something unexpected, making you smile before you realize you have. The world around you fades just enough for the fictional one to take shape, but not so completely that you stop noticing the breeze or the warmth of the sun filtering through the trees.

Every so often, you lift your eyes from the page. A butterfly dances across the garden before disappearing into a patch of wildflowers. The sunlight has shifted slightly, becoming warmer as the afternoon moves along. Your drink is nearly empty now, the ice slowly melting, but you don't mind. There is no schedule to keep, no urgency pressing against the edges of the day. Summer has given you this rare gift of spaciousness, and the book fits perfectly within it.

As the story deepens, you begin to feel that familiar attachment growing. The characters start to feel like companions. Their worries become your worries, their triumphs your own. You find yourself wondering what will happen next, but you're equally content not knowing yet. There is pleasure in anticipation, especially during a season that seems designed for stretching things out—for one more chapter, one more hour outside, one more evening beneath a sky that refuses to grow dark too quickly.

Eventually, you close the book and slide your bookmark carefully between the pages. You rest it in your lap for a moment instead of immediately standing up. Around you, the afternoon continues exactly as it has all day, warm and generous, with the soft hum of summer carrying on in every direction. You realize that beginning a book in the middle of July feels different from starting one at any other time of year. It isn't about escaping into another world. It's about allowing one beautiful experience to accompany another.

As you gather your things and head back inside, you already know you'll return to both tomorrow. The book will be waiting exactly where you left it, and so will summer, offering another long, sunlit day and another opportunity to lose yourself, just a little, in a story that has only just begun.

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Books Publishing July 12 - 18

The Half Life by Rachel Beanland

When twenty-three-year-old Eileen O’Malley meets charismatic naval officer Paul Archer in a Charleston department store, she doesn’t expect to fall so hard, so fast. But Paul is funny and ambitious, and soon, Eileen’s got a ring on her finger and is following him to the tiny, sun-drenched Mediterranean island of La Maddalena, where Paul will be heading up Radiological Controls aboard a submarine tender.

In La Maddalena, Eileen joins a makeshift community of Navy wives, who are hell-bent on making the island feel a little more like home. But for Eileen, whose brother died in Vietnam, home is a loaded word, and as she settles into life on the island—taking Italian lessons and learning to make culurgiones—she begins to love the place for all the ways it is not like where she comes from.

Still, it doesn’t take long for Eileen to be confronted with the complexities of being an American abroad. The decision to send nuclear-powered subs into the La Maddalena Archipelago was a contentious one, and the US government is doing whatever it can to ensure that the island—not to mention all of Italy—doesn’t go communist in the next election.

When Italian activists and scientists begin to sound the alarm about possible nuclear contamination in the water, the island erupts in a series of protests, made worse by the ongoing mishaps of the US Navy. Soon, Eileen’s marriage falters and her loyalties begin to shift as she is drawn into a web of secrets—and to a local journalist who forces her to imagine a life beyond the one she’s been handed.

Atmospheric, sexy, and quietly defiant, The Half Life is a story of love, complicity, and awakening—of one woman forced to choose between loyalty to her husband and country and to the Italian locals who show her the high cost of American exceptionalism.

The Paddock Club by Madge Maril

As a professional heartbreaker, Cat Cromwell knows she’ll never fall in love—but she’ll pretend to, for a price. A former fashion model in New York City with a side hustle charming and then dumping the World’s Worst Men, Cat is offered the chance to pull off her biggest con yet: date and dump F1 driver Bernard Baudelaire…who recently left his very angry ex at the altar.

Raised on Formula 1 by a single father herself, Cat is excited to infiltrate the ivory tower that is the Paddock Club through fashion, and also to get back at another powerful, spoiled man who feels entitled to treat women like playthings, something she has undertaken for women and girls since her early modeling days and her family’s financial struggles. But Cat’s perfect plan hits the brakes when Bernard leaves the racing team—and she’s assigned to work with Faust Ferreira Sanchez instead, a moody F1 driver recovering after an apocalyptically embarrassing year in his career.

Faust is nothing like the men Cat is paid to date and loves to hate. He’s quiet. Honest. And absurdly hot in an all-black suit. Worse, Faust is convinced that Cat isn’t who she claims to be. And he’s particularly interested in why she's flirting with his ex-teammate and biggest racing rival.

As flying between fashion shows and racing circuits wears Cat’s carefully crafted mask thin, she finds herself drawn further into Faust’s steamy game of cat and mouse, and the dangerously real passion they ignite in each other. But with shadows from Cat’s checkered past looming in the pit lane, can she find a way to break her target’s heart without losing the first honest man she’s ever known? Or will staying in the Paddock Club be the first scam she can’t pull off?

Lady X by Molly Fader

The search for a notorious vigilante exposes the secrets among three generations of women in this propulsive novel of female resistance and rage, sweeping from contemporary L.A. to gritty 1970s New York.

Los Angeles, 2024. After learning that her A-list actor husband sent explicit photos to multiple girls on social media, Margot Cooper runs away from the world—and the paparazzi—by fleeing to her childhood home with her teenage daughter in tow.

But home isn’t the sanctuary Margot was hoping for. In a cardboard box in the corner of the attic, she finds damning evidence of an infamous urban legend, the mysterious vigilante “Lady X”—including a blurry newspaper photo of a woman who looks an awful lot like Margot’s mother.

New York City, 1977. In the midst of an infamous summer, Ginger Daughtry and her two beloved roommates are able to shield one another from the chaos—until one of them is assaulted. Astounded by the lack of response from police, the young women decide to engage in some light payback, signing their handiwork as “Lady X.”

Soon copycats appear, and a movement inspired by acts of vandalism against terrible men spirals out of control, with criminals running amok under the guise of the enigmatic Lady X. When a body is found fallen—or pushed—from five stories high, the hunt reaches a boiling point.

A Date With Death by Kelly Creagh

When the Grim Reaper develops feelings for the children’s librarian whose soul he is supposed to collect, he finds that with feelings comes something far worse than death—life.

Helena Hart isn’t having the best night. Her date just ditched her, her Halloween costume bombed, and her only sympathetic ear is a dead silent partygoer in a Grim Reaper get-up. But when she falls off a balcony and he catches her with a very real skeletal hand, she realizes he may not be a party guest at all. Before she can process the near-death experience, he vanishes, leaving her to wonder if she hallucinated the whole thing.

Grim isn’t supposed to save souls. He’s supposed to reap them. And while he’s not sure why he spared Helena, he does know that if his superiors find out, he’s as good as dust—which is saying something for a guy who’s mostly bones. But keeping away from Helena is proving harder than expected—especially when she isn’t the least bit afraid of his monstrous form.

Worse, to his horror, Helena makes him feel. And for a reaper, feeling is a fate far more dangerous than death.

The Cloak and Dagger Club by Jackie McMahon

Inspired by Agatha Christie's real-life Detection Club, a murder among a group of golden age mystery writers meets a second chance romance in this debut novel from author Jackie McMahon.

London, 1930. Lucy Hubbard is on the cusp of achieving her dreams. With her first mystery novel debuting with strong sales and glowing reviews, she's been invited by Horace Hazelmoor, the king of crime fiction, to join his elite group of writers—the Cloak and Dagger Club.

Thrilled at the opportunity, Lucy finds herself swept up into Horace's glamorous world at the Ritz hotel. She's even willing to put up with the inconvenient presence of her former fiancé, Frank Murray, the club's rising star who is on track to eclipse Horace as Britain's most popular crime writer.

But when Horace is found with a knife in his back, Frank is the police's prime suspect. Despite their complicated history, Lucy knows he's not capable of murder. With suspects galore and the danger rising, these two mystery writers must race to solve the crime—and fight their lingering feelings for each other—before the murderer strikes again.

Unpredictable Magic by Faith Hunter

Witches Angelina and Evan Everhart-Trueblood take a case that spirals out of control until the whole city is at risk in this exciting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter.

Angelina Everhart-Trueblood and her brother Evan run Everhart Investigations, a PI firm in Chattanooga that solves paranormal crimes committed by supernatural beings. When their new client wants help finding her friend, who supposedly disappeared during a reception at Angie’s aunt Jane’s winter residence, things get . . . complicated.

The client is not who she appears to be, and demons strike the city for the first time since the Witch War. On top of that, evidence is pointing toward the involvement of an overly ambitious vampire—who just happens to be Angie’s ex-husband.

As Angie and Evan team up with CPD, they will have to dig deep into their magical reserves—and rely on some friends in high places—to rid Chattanooga of the danger creeping into their city.

Unfinished Business by Clare Osongco

In this funny, warmly chaotic tale of love, a floundering office worker discovers her mother's ghost is trapped in the company Slack server, and must free her by resolving her own troubled love life.

A few months ago, Ruby Ocampo’s mother, Adela, died at her desk at work. Now, lost and driven by a misplaced sense of obligation, Ruby’s taken a job at the megacorporation where Adela worked for decades—and, to her horror, she discovers her mother’s ghost is trapped in the company Slack.

Ruby has never lived up to her mother’s expectations in life, but to set her free, she’ll have to resolve Adela’s unfinished business. She makes a list of all the ways she could live more like her mother would have wanted, covering everything from her stunted career to her love life (#5 on the list: date someone in a higher tax bracket!). Soon her quest to free Adela gets Ruby entangled with two men at the office who might be able to help: the estranged childhood friend her mom never approved of—who's the only one she can confide in about this supernatural crisis—and the hot but vaguely sinister junior executive who's been paying her a confusing amount of attention.

In order to give her mom a chance at the afterlife, Ruby must address her shortcomings one by one—and reevaluate her inherited ideas about love, work, and what’s truly important along the way.

Falling For You by Natasha Madison

USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Natasha Madison turns up the heat when a night of passion brings together a man who was never looking for love and a woman who thinks she doesn’t deserve it.

Theo Williams loved and lost once and isn’t interested in doing it again. He has his family and friends, and plenty of women passing through his new hometown who are happy with a no-strings-attached night of passion. Working as a partner at his cousin’s construction company, he’s perfectly content with his life—until he meets Collins Henderson, the one-night stand who will change his world forever.

Collins grew up on the wrong side of her small hometown. Thanks to her parents’ shady schemes, every local knows a Henderson cannot be trusted. She works hard as a paramedic, putting in every extra hour she can to save for a better life. But every time she starts to get ahead, her parents show up to pull her back down. Having one night of passion with a man she doesn’t know is not something she’d normally do, but there was just something about him … And two months later, she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant.

When she runs into the mysterious stranger again, she has to tell him, not because she needs or wants anything from him, just so he knows. But now he’s showing up at her house, cooking her meals, stocking her refrigerator, and doing everything he can for her. Collins has always taken care of herself. She wasn’t looking for a relationship, but she can’t deny the chemistry between them.

She knows it’s only a matter of time before he learns who she is and changes his mind. She can’t let herself fall for this guy, but every day he’s getting harder to resist…

The Sins of Summer Daughters by Lo Patrick

For fans of Dirt Creek and William Kent Kreuger comes a profound southern mystery from acclaimed author Lo Patrick. When her granddaughter is accused of murder, a woman must confront the buried secrets of a summer long past—because she can try to forget, but the Georgia land remembers.

Meg Gregory never wanted to return to Tuskin, the small Georgia town she grew up in, as barren as the fields that surround it. But after her divorce left her wounded, she knew she had to quit running. Now, years later, as Meg watches her daughter and granddaughter navigate familiar dirt roads, Meg is bent on hiding from the memories that haunt her. Because she skipped town for a reason, and that reason runs deep.

But when Meg's unassuming granddaughter Lucy is suddenly charged with the murder of her boyfriend, everything changes. Meg knows Lucy couldn't have done it. Killing a boy will break a girl like that. She should know. She's seen it happen before.

As Meg fights for Lucy's innocence, memories from the past threaten to break free, and she's left to contemplate a different murder, a different dead boy, a different summer under the hot Georgia sun. And soon enough Meg isn't quite sure what is memory and who, in all of this, is innocent.

A moving rumination on memory, legacy, trauma, and small-town tension, The Sins of Summer Daughters is a masterclass in mystery paired seamlessly with an intimate character study you won't soon forget.

The Forest Becomes Her by Julie Carrick Dalton

Set in Concord, Massachusetts—ground zero for American Transcendentalism—the novel follows three women at different stages of life: Polly, a teenager; Hazel, in her thirties; and Stella, in her mid-fifties. Each is bound to the same ancient woodland, and each must reckon with its threatened destruction. In Dalton's hands, the forest is not backdrop but protagonist — a living force that remembers, responds, and transforms the women connected to it across generations.

The Matcha Maker Café by Lily Chen

The Matcha Maker Café is a sweet, small-town slow-burn romance set in a charming matcha cafe, perfect for readers who love Laurie Gilmore, B.K. Borison and the gentle magic of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

At Matcha Moments, owner Sasha Lee is a star matchmaker, helping customers find love over a smooth cup of matcha. You’d think that as the master she’d be living her fairytale ending, but Sasha is allergic to commitment.

With a growing reputation, her successes are challenged when the ‘unmatchable’ Ben walks in - a man who believes he’s too boring for love. As Sasha tries to match him, she slowly finds herself drawn to his quiet charm.

As their daily banter becomes the highlight of her day, Sasha must confront the possibility that her own love story might be brewing. Will she embrace the unexpected romance, or let her past fears keep her from true love?

Love at First Prompt by Bridget Todd

A personal and provocative exploration of relationships between humans and AI—romantic, platonic, therapeutic and more—and how virtual companions are transforming our understanding of emotional connection, from the creator and host of the award-winning There Are No Girls On The Internet podcast.

What happens when you fall in love with someone who isn't real?

Every day, millions of people open their phones not just to scroll, but to talk to their AI companion: a boyfriend who never gets tired of listening, a best friend who's always available, a therapist who never judges. With a few prompts, you can design your perfect partner. In 2026, award-winning podcaster and tech journalist Bridget Todd began investigating this emerging phenomenon, even trying out virtual companionship for herself. While salacious headlines mock these chatbot users as lonely or delusional, the stories Bridget uncovered were far more complex, with potential benefits and consequences we’re only just beginning to understand.

Bridget introduces listeners to people who've found solace, passion, and meaning with social chatbots, and reveals what happens when those relationships end, evolve, or spiral into dependency. Can an algorithm understand you better than another human? What does consent mean when your companion is owned by a corporation? And what are we really searching for when we build a partner who can never leave?

Written with social scientist Michael S. Amato, Love at First Prompt blends deeply personal storytelling, cutting-edge research, and audio from Bridget's conversations with both humans and AI companions. This audiobook is the definitive exploration of intimacy in the age of artificial intelligence—a story about what we're willing to give up, and what we might gain, when relationships become programmable.

The Moonsingers by Robyn J. Pritzker

In a quiet glen beyond the reach of the railway lives a peculiar family who knows the best magic is the kind found in ordinary moments.

When Ismay Gebhardt is dismissed from yet another teaching post after an unfortunate accident (which everyone survived!), she accepts a last-chance job as a private tutor in sleepy Glenmaidens village. The town is brimming with natural beauty, uncanny traditions, and earnest locals, none more unusual than her three young pupils—the Underhill sisters—and their puzzling father.

Determined to make herself useful after several catastrophic lessons with the unbiddable girls, Ismay writes to the transport bureau suggesting an extension to the train line, hoping to bring Glenmaidens into modernity. As usual, Ismay's good intentions lead to chaos with the arrival of the bureau's frustratingly thorough officer, Hamish Breck, whose railway plans threaten not only the glen's tranquility, but also the ancient oak tree at its heart. Amidst a mess of her own making, Ismay unearths Glenmaidens' enchanted secret: the Underhills, like many villagers, are fairies who settled in the mortal world in search of a gentler life, and the oak is their only bridge back to the moonlit realm of the fantastic.

As summer heat rises, Ismay schemes with her magical neighbors to prevent the extension, each day finding herself more entangled with the charming, persistent bureaucrat. With her newfound family, the way between worlds, and her heart all at risk, Ismay must decide how much she would bargain to finally embrace the wonder and belonging she's always wished for.

Pretty as a Peach by Grace Helena Walz

A rising star in Southern fiction, Grace Helena Walz returns with Pretty as a Peach, another story full of charm, sass, wit, and characters you’ll want as friends.

When a new beauty company threatens everything she holds dear, Delilah must find the courage to speak up and reveal the truth.

Delilah Thomas has a stellar track record of avoiding conflict. Her life mantra? Keep the peace. Born to a family she has never fit in, Delilah learned early that no matter what it costs her, it’s best to keep quiet, nod, and agree. Now in her late thirties, she has mastered the art and employs it daily with the preschoolers she teaches.

Then Peach Pit sets up shop in her small hometown and infiltrates every female relationship, including Delilah’s lifelong best-friend group. A direct sales business, Peach Pit claims its beauty products are organic and all-natural and recruits women to become “Darlings” who host parties to sell products to friends and family. Delilah’s friend Betsy is ecstatic to join, drawn by promises of sisterhood and easy income. But something seems off to Delilah.

When customers, including her pregnant friend Eliza, start reporting rashes, Peach Pit refuses to take responsibility. Then Betsy lets an unsettling secret slip, and Delilah can’t hold her tongue any longer. With the help of her retired neighbor, Mrs. Chopra, and travel journalist Jasper–Delilah’s longtime pen pal and childhood crush, finally in town for a visit–Delilah investigates the company and uncovers the grim truth. She is faced with a choice: Stop pushing and keep the peace, or find her courage and expose Peach Pit’s shady business practices, even if it costs her the unthinkable.

A story about enduring friendship, Pretty as a Peach paints a vivid portrait of choosing bravery in the midst of uncertainty and reminds us that the sweetest things in life are worth fighting for. Perfect for fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Lauren K. Denton, and Joy Callaway.

Discussion questions are included, so it’s perfect for book clubs!

Icefall by Michael Newman and Jon Land

An alien ship crashed into Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier 150,000 years ago and froze within the ice…until glacial melting thawed out its deadly inhabitants in the present day.

Kai and Jules Bevins, both professors of astrobiology at Caltech, are roused from their home and whisked away to the site where a special division of the army has taken charge. But not before something escaped through a breach in the hull.

Meanwhile, a pair of Alaska state troopers locate a missing Amazon driver fifteen miles away on the Juneau Icefield and trace his movements to a nearby village with a population of less than fifty. Arriving in town, they are greeted by the bodies of villagers who were killed in an impossible, horrific way.

Thousands of miles away, under a remote archaeological find in Pakistan, the Nine—a team of superbeings placed on Earth a million years ago by intergalactic colonizers that seeded our planet to create human life—are lifted from their long slumber. The kind of threat they’ve been waiting for has finally come.

The Nine find unexpected allies culled from the ancient history of their home world in the form of a teenage boy and godlike entity. All this leads to a confrontation on a volcanic island that will determine the fate of civilization, even as the Nine uncover the shattering truth behind their own tragic paths and learn of a much greater battle to come.

Will they be enough to stem the apocalyptic menace threatening all of mankind?

White Rabbit by Abigail Rose-Marie

A haunting novel in which a girl grapples with her father’s sudden departure and her new companion—the ghost of Sylvia Plath—in a crumbling seaside house that holds more secrets than memories.

In a yellow house perched on the crumbling edge of Massachusetts Bay, eleven-year-old Penelope Willows is living in the shadow of loss. Her father is gone, leaving behind only whispers and shadows, while her mother drifts further away each day, lost in her own grief. Left alone in a home that seems frozen in time, Penelope clings to her routines, counting everything she can—logs by the stove, soup cans in the pantry—hoping to hold the world together.

But this is no ordinary house. It once belonged to the poet Sylvia Plath, and her presence lingers in every corner, her ghost becoming an unexpected companion to Penelope. As the days stretch on, Penelope begins to hear the echoes of Plath’s poetry in the wind, feel her sadness seep into the walls, and see her ghost in the mirrors and empty rooms.

When Penelope’s mother begins to withdraw further into her own world, leaving Penelope more isolated than ever, the girl’s grip on reality starts to fray. Haunted by the absence of her father and the presence of a ghost, Penelope must navigate the treacherous waters of memory, madness, and the fear that she, too, will be lost to the abyss.

Unicornia: Camping in the Clouds by Ana Punset; illustrated by Diana Vicedo

Camping, clouds, and . . . unicorns! This seventh sparkling adventure in an upbeat series will captivate chapter book readers.

What could be more magical than a camping trip in the sky? Claudia and Pippa can hardly wait… but something is troubling Sara. Can she overcome her fears in time to help her friends solve a sky-high mystery? Find out in this star-studded, cloud-camping adventure!

Cora’s Beach Adventure by Sally M. Walker; illustrated by Julie Kwon

Keep kids curious with this exciting first adventure in the STEAM Street Kids early-reader series, following Cora on a day of fun, science-based adventures at the beach.

Pack your beach bag and join Cora and Gran for some discoveries by the shore! Test sand to figure out what kind makes the best castle. Find out how sea animals survive low tide. Investigate sea stars in a tide pool—and rescue them from drying out. And what tops off a day at the beach better than a big ice cream sundae? The welcoming text by nonfiction author extraordinaire Sally M. Walker, ideal for early readers moving into chapter books, is followed by back matter expounding on the three STEAM concepts introduced and inviting kids to experiment with their own sandcastle-building activity.

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