Unboxing My Latest Book Haul
Book Mail: A Roundup of the Book Mail I Received Last Week
The last week of December feels like a pause between chapters, and this week’s book mail arrived as if it knew exactly what I needed. My TBR pile has become a hopeful little tower for the new year, thanks to a cozy book haul filled with new book releases that promise fresh beginnings and late-night reading. Each package carried heartfelt book recommendations, quiet notes whispering, start here. With so many titles already staking their claim as the best books of 2025, it feels like the perfect ending to one year—and the most charming beginning to the next, all wrapped up in paper and possibility.
Where to Buy These Books:
I want to note that I do not get paid to do these posts, I just love authors and the book industry. However, they do take time and energy to create. If you want to donate a few dollars to my coffee fund, which keeps this blog going, you can do so here: https://venmo.com/AshleyHasty or here: http://paypal.me/hastybooklist.
This Week’s Book Mail Includes:
Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne – A beautifully bound 100th anniversary edition that invites you back to the Hundred Acre Wood to rediscover the timeless charm, whimsy, and gentle wisdom of Pooh and his friends.
The Bodyguard Affair by Amy Lea – When a secret romance author is forced into a fake relationship with the Prime Minister’s brooding bodyguard—and her failed one-night stand—their summer of damage control starts to look a lot like the love story she only thought she could write.
Eleven Liars by Robert Gold – After rescuing a mysterious figure from a blazing community center, journalist Ben Harper uncovers a decades-old crime that proves everyone in his sleepy town has something to hide.
The Seventh Champion by Sylvia Mercedes – A newly discovered dragon princess and a scarred assassin prince join forces to escape a deadly marriage competition, even as dangerous secrets and forbidden attraction ignite between them.
Bourbon and Lies by Victoria Wilder – In cursed Fiasco, Kentucky, a broody ex-cop fights his growing desire for the mysterious woman invading his quiet life, even as her dark past collides with his own in dangerously intoxicating ways.
Ghost Town by Dr. James R. Gregory – In a ruthless coal town on the edge of America’s industrial boom, a lonely boy and an ambitious tycoon are forced to confront the true cost of power, love, and belonging.
Friends and Liars by Kit Frick – Five years after a deadly New Year’s Eve at a Lake Como palazzo, four estranged friends return for a memorial where someone clearly knows the truth—and is determined to make them pay.
Death and Dinuguan by Mia P. Manansala – As Valentine’s Day approaches in Shady Palms, Lila Macapagal races to unmask a killer targeting women-owned businesses after a beloved chocolatier is attacked and her boss murdered.
Any Means Necessary by Lila Herron – A plus-size ER nurse seeking a fresh start in New York unexpectedly falls for the dangerous fixer whose world she stumbles into, forcing them both to decide how far they’ll go—for love and for survival.
Edge by Tracy Clark – Detective Harriet Foster hunts the source of a lethal new street drug killing Chicagoans, even as the case pushes her perilously close to her own breaking point.
Hope and Destiny by Niklas Natt Och Dag – In 1434 Sweden, as rebellion shakes the fragile northern kingdoms, one young nobleman and his scheming family are drawn into a violent power struggle that will change the course of history.
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert – Prickly, scandal-shadowed Ruth Kabbah wants to be left alone, but when charming newcomer Evan Miller insists on seeing—and loving—her exactly as she is, she must decide whether to trust him with her heart.
Ember Eternal by Chloe Neill – When a morally minded thief saves a prince from assassination, she’s pulled into a glittering world of imperial politics, forbidden magic, and a romance that may cost her the freedom she craves most.
The Shark House by Sara Ackerman – As a series of shark attacks rattles 1998 Hawai'i, a haunted marine biologist must face the ocean that shattered her life and the great white that may be the key to her healing.
The Double Standard Sporting House by Nancy Bernhard – In Gilded Age New York, a brothel nurse risks everything to fight a brutal sex trade, forging unlikely alliances as she pursues justice for exploited girls.
Confessions of a Problem Seeker by Howard Steinberg – In this vulnerable memoir, a successful entrepreneur unravels the fear-driven choices of his past and turns to psychedelics, spirituality, and truth-telling to rebuild an authentic life.
The Snowman Code by Simon Stephenson & Reggie Brown – During the longest winter ever, a lonely girl and a six-hundred-year-old snowman team up to defeat bullies, mend broken hearts, and bring back spring—according to the Snowman Code, of course.
Tell Me I Belong by David Weill – A renowned transplant doctor’s search through family secrets, Holocaust history, and faith traditions becomes a profound quest to answer one question: where, and with whom, do I truly belong?
The Meaning of Fear by Laura Hulthen Thomas – A PTSD researcher must confront her own buried trauma, a missing boy, and the dark secrets in her marriage as fear becomes both her subject and her undoing.
Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni – A death mage haunted by her sister’s murder and a poison mage bound to three magical snakes must form a dangerous alliance at a sinister magic institute to stop a killer targeting their own.
The Navigator's Letter by Jan Cress Dondi – Based on true events, this World War II saga follows two B-24 navigators from the same small town whose fates intertwine over the deadly Ploesti raid and a love that links them both.
Don't Step Into my Office by Fishkind – Years after witnessing a seaside murder, a failed writer finds echoes of that night among his wealthy in-laws in the Hamptons, forcing him to confront the violent secrets money can buy.
A Woman in the Wild by Tad Crawford – A guilt-ridden psychologist retreats to a mountain institute to heal, only to be tasked with treating a feral, enigmatic man whose presence forces her to face the limits—and possibilities—of transformation.
Caput Mundi by B.R. Kang – In a dazzling city built on shape-shifting metal, Niil Terra discovers his rare talent and a terrible truth about his mother that forces him to choose between saving hundreds and reuniting his family.
The Final Score by Don Winslow – In six gripping short novels, crime master Don Winslow delivers heists, dirty cops, doomed deals, and fatal choices that test the thin line between who we are and what we’re willing to do.
