1. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

Publish Date: 17 October, 2023

A woman risks everything to end her family’s centuries-old curse, solve her mother’s disappearance, and find love in this mesmerizing novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Spells for Forgetting.

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’sdecades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.

Why I’m excited for it: As a community, we have been thankfully pushing for better representation from our authors and the stories they tell. Nothing makes me happier than seeing Historical Fiction author, Kate Quinn (The Alice Network, The Rose Code) team up with another Historical Fiction author, Janie Chang (The Porcelain Moon,) in order to ensure that Chinese American perspectives in 1900s San Francisco are being told with authenticity. Based on both of these women’s individual creations, I am sure this will be one you cannot put down.

2. The Leftover Woman – Jean Kwok

Publish Date: 10 October, 2023

An evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women–from the New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation.

Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth–another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly desperate decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter.

Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name and the wealth that comes with it, a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. She’s even hired a Chinese nanny to help her balance the demands of being a working wife and mother. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.

The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Twisting and suspenseful and surprisingly poignant, it’s a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. It is a story of two women in a divided city–separated by severe economic and cultural differences yet bound by a deep emotional connection to a child.

Why I’m excited for it: “And historians will call them: Close friends, besties, roommates, colleagues. Anything but lovers. ” but this time Donoghue is calling them just that, lovers. I cannot wait to read this piece of fiction that was inspired after Donoghue read Anne Lister’s secret journal. Donoghue in their own write is a fabulous author and I can see her giving this story the respect it deserves.

3. Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward

Publish Date: 03 October, 2023

rom Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.

“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” — Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.

Why I’m excited for it: Flor reminds me of the women in “The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin. Being able to know when someone you love will past seems like a blessing. It gives you the time to begin preparing so it doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks. But constantly living with a time-clock can be a curse. I am interested in seeing how Acevedo tackles this gift in this Magical Realism novel.

4. Midnight is the Darkest Hour – Ashley Winstead

Publish Date: 03 October, 2023

From the critically acclaimed author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Last Housewife comes a gothic Southern thriller about a killer haunting a small Louisiana town, where two outcasts—the preacher’s daughter and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks—hold the key to uncovering the truth.

For fans of Verity and A Flicker in the Dark, this is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all…even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist.

Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners’ bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar—and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town’s secret underbelly in search of true evil.

A dark and powerful novel like fans have come to expect from Ashley Winstead, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is an examination of the ways we’ve come to expect love, religion, and stories to save us, the lengths we have to go to in order to take back power, and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world.

Why I’m excited for it: Jennifer Weiner is an excellent Chick Lit writer. No summer TBR list would be perfect without one Chick Lit, and this is the one I am most excited about in August. I recently purchased a bike last summer and am starting to pick up the whole “biking” thing. I would love to do a long distance bike trip at some point in my life. Until then, may as well read about it.

NetGalley Selections Coming Out This Month!

What the River Knows – Isabel Ibañez

Publish Date: 31 October, 2023

Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.

When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and an ancient golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.

With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.

The Mummy meets Death on the Nile in this lush, immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race.

The Sun Sets in Singapore – Kehinde Fadipe

Publish Date: 31 October, 2023

Basking in Singapore’s nonstop sunshine, low tax rate, and luxury goods market, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian are living the glamorous expat dream—until their carefully constructed lives are upended by a handsome and mysterious new arrival.

Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, is on the brink of partnership at her firm. Estranged from her mother, and perpetually uncomfortable around her hypercompetitive colleagues, her insecurities intensify exponentially when Lani, a new hire from Geneva (and a fellow British Nigerian), is assigned to work on what should have been her career-making case. Pitted against each other by their boss, Dara can’t help but see Lani as a threat: a privileged man poised to take her place.

Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, is in the midst of a painful family dispute. Thousands of miles away from home, she’s doing her best to distract herself with a flirtatious workplace romance—and hiding a spiraling shopping addiction that’s endangering not only her finances but her very sense of self. An instant attraction to Lani jeopardizes the last shred of stability she has.

Lillian, a pianist turned “trailing spouse” from the US, is desperately trying to stay in Singapore after her marriage comes to a messy end. Rather than sell her beloved piano, the last precious reminder she has of her parents, she takes a low-paying job at a language school. A chance encounter with Lani—a man who is inexplicably, impossibly, the spitting image of her late father—triggers a grief she’s spent a lifetime suppressing, leading to an obsession that imperils everything—and everyone—around her.

Forced to confront the ghosts of their pasts, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian soon learn that unfinished history can follow you anywhere, no matter how far you run from home.