March 1, 2021
In Adams's debut, teenage library worker Aleisha shares The Reading List she's found (all scrunched up) with a widower trying to relate to his book-obsessed granddaughter (75,000-copy first printing). Alderson's Sisters in Arms tells the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-Black battalion of the Women's Army Corps during World War II (150,000-copy first printing). Buxton's Feral Creatures reintroduces us to S.T., the fabulously cheeky crow who starred in the multi-best-booked Hollow Kingdom. Ferguson, the Duchess of York, tells the Victorian-era story of Lady Margaret Montagu Scott in Her Heart for a Compass (150,000-copy first printing). Second in a spin-off from Hearne's New York Times best-selling "Iron Druid Chronicles" series, Paper & Blood features wily Scottish detective Al MacBharrais. In Jio's latest, Seattle-based librarian Valentina Baker receives news sent With Love from London that she's inherited an apartment and bookshop from the mother who abandoned her. Wealthy newcomers wreak havoc to the point of horror in a lakeside rural town in Bram Stoker Award winner Jones's My Heart Is a Chainsaw (100,000-copy first printing). New York Times best-selling Kadrey wraps up his iconic "Sandman Slim" series with the Shoggot gang, led by King Bullet, overrunning a virus-undone Los Angeles (75,000-copy first printing). Debuter Lange's We Are the Brennans features almost-30 Sunday Brennan returning from Los Angeles to New York to explain to both family and ex-fianc� why she left them five years ago (100,000-copy first printing). Author of the LJ best-booked Mexican Gothic, Moreno-Garcia returns with Velvet Was the Night, featuring a romance magazine-reading secretary in 1970s Mexico City obsessed with the disappearance of her beautiful next-door neighbor. Switching from big-hit dystopias, Mott sends his Black protagonist on one Hell of a Book tour in which he confronts police violence. In Pearce's Yours Cheerfully, first in a new series, advice columnist Emmeline Lake helps keep World War II London safe A(150,000-copy first printing). "Bridgerton" series author Quinn joins forces with her illustrator sister to create a graphic novel telling the story of Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron, first hinted at in the seventh book in the series (50,000-copy first printing). After a four-year renovation, Paris's glamorous Hotel Louis XVI reopens, with Steel allowing Complications to erupt.
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July 5, 2021
In the enjoyable second installment to The Emmy Lake Chronicles (following Dear Mrs. Bird), journalist Emmy and her “hundred-mile-a-minute mind” tackle trouble on the English home front during WWII. While Emmy juggles her new position an advice column, volunteer shifts with the Fire Watch, and her fiancé’s paltry leave from his new station outside of London, she lands a recurring magazine feature on women working for the war effort. But as she starts peeling back the chipper veneer of the government’s gung-ho recruitment messaging, Emmy realizes her fellow gals are facing difficult working conditions at the new factories supporting the war effort in ways the public doesn’t realize. Of course, the stern disapproval of factory directors and under-secretaries isn’t enough to keep Emmy from giving it her best, even if taking a stand puts her professional reputation, her friends, and even her wedding day at risk. Pearce packs in lighthearted banter and depictions of the good-spirited citizens of London working together to survive the war, returning readers to the delightful milieu of the previous book. With big stakes and formidable opponents, this exciting saga is a fruitful exploration of the solidarity among women in times of grief, love, and hardship.
July 1, 2021
In this sequel to Dear Mrs. Bird (2018), readers rejoin Emmeline Lake, the plucky young woman determined to make a difference as a WWII journalist, back at the offices of the ladies' magazine Woman's Friend. Now officially hired, Emmy continues to respond to readers' questions without having to hide her answers from the magazine's prudish and proper editor, Henrietta Bird. Emmy and her best friend, Bunty, strive to keep their optimism while war continues to devastate London. On a train ride to the country, they meet young widowed mother Anne, traveling to her new job at a munitions plant. Emmy and Anne become friends, and, after visiting the factory, Emmy discovers the challenges women endure working to support the war effort and their own families. In true Emmy fashion, she rallies everyone to help the cause, making friends and a few enemies along the way. Pearce captures the spirit and hopefulness of those left at home during war, and readers will delight in this second chance to ride along with Emmy.
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