Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar is a dreamy, complex, well-structured story of miracles and magic, ambition and love, set in 16th-century Madrid during the Spanish Inquisition. Equal parts fantasy, romance, and historical fiction, this book was a delight to the senses and one to truly savor.
Describing Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel The Ministry of Time is like throwing together a word salad of mixed genres, tropes, and social issues. Sci-fi time travel. Political intrigue. Romance (forced proximity, slow burn, two worlds collide – they all apply). Fish out of water. Racial identity. Climate change. War. Generational trauma. Then toss all that with a dressing of pitch-perfect wit and incredible writing, and you have what I know will be one of my favorite books of 2024.
With a unique premise and plucky, likable main character, How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is a strong start to what is sure to be a popular new cozy mystery series for many.
Lyssa Mia Smith’s debut Young Adult fantasy, Revelle, is filled with magic, mystery, and romance, and manages to infuse tender messages about families – the ones we have, and the ones we make – into the cinematic world of the book.
Sacha Lamb’s debut novel, When the Angels Left the Old Country, is a poignant, funny, adventurous story filled with Jewish folklore, dark realities of the immigrant experience, and the blossoming of unexpected love.
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