July 2024 Reading List

I've got ten books on the reading list for July. Two of them were bumped from June. Plus there are a bunch of short stories I want to try out because we're bringing short stories to book club for next month. As of now, only some of those have been determined. I'm going to wait to list those in my July wrap-up.

Reading at Fantasy Buddy Reads-

 

Over three years have passed since the reappearance of the starship Phoenix, which two centuries before left an isolated colony of humans on the world of the volatile atevi. Since that time, humans have lived in exile on the island of Mospheira; but the unexpected return of the Phoenix has shattered the fragile political balance of these two nearly incompatible races. For the captains of the Phoenix offer the atevi something the Mospheiran humans never could—access to the stars.

For three breakneck years the atevi labor to build a space shuttle which will bear their representatives to the Phoenix, to strengthen connections with their new human allies and retain their bid for control of their world. But as soon as the shuttle proves spaceworthy, the captains of the Phoenix suddenly recall their planetary delegates, breaking diplomatic contact and initiating a vicious bid for political dominance.

But the powerful head of the atevi's Western Association is not to be outmaneuvered, and he sends his own diplomat, or paidhi, Bren Cameron, into space to negotiate. Thrust into a political maelstrom with almost no preparation, can Bren gain control of the station and political supremacy for the atevi without sparking a three-sided interspecies war?

The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Precursor is the 4th Foreigner novel. It is also the 1st book in the second subtrilogy. 

Reading with the mystery book club-

 

She’s a pariah with a killer past. Her bid to escape it is nothing short of terrifying in a heart-pounding novel of suspense by Washington Post and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Minka Kent.

Afton Teachout has been an outcast in her small town for twenty years—ever since she was accused of murdering her mother’s lover in a blackout fit of rage. That is, if one believes the malicious lies.

Living with her grandmother, working a hotel night shift, and relying on pills to get a day’s sleep, Afton is due a little luck. It comes in the form of an unexpected financial windfall. With her newfound wealth, Afton sets a secret plan in motion to help her only friend, Sydney, flee a toxic husband. But the best intentions soon spin out of control.

Afton is getting unsettling calls from a restricted number, and someone has been lingering outside her home. As Sydney’s troubled marriage comes into focus, so does Afton’s past. Her second chance—for herself and for Sydney—isn’t what she dreamed of at all. In fact, it’s becoming a nightmare.

 

 

If a pawn makes it across the board…it becomes a queen…

Sera has had enough of others trying to control her life. She intends to send a message so loud, no one will ever try to assert dominion over her again. There’s just a few problems to clear out of the way first…like the fact she in on the run, Lord Rowan has labelled her a dangerous traitor, he has set magical traps throughout the country, and there’s even a bounty on her capture.

Sera joins forces with her loyal comrades as they plot to overthrow the tyrant and release King George from the grip of a horrifying curse—one that harkens back to long veiled secrets, and threatens both king and country.

As the stakes escalate, Sera and her companions must navigate a treacherous path with their every move shadowed by Lord Rowan’s malevolent forces. Will they triumph over the darkness about to engulf the throne and all they love, or will they succumb to a fate worse than they could ever imagine?

This is the thrilling conclusion to the series about a young mage finding her place in a magical Georgian England.

 

 

Just when he thought he was out...

Burdened by guilt over the trauma recently inflicted on his friends and colleagues, former-Detective Chief Inspector Jack Logan has spent the past nine months living in self-imposed exile.

When a mother and her young daughter are the victims of a double murder staged to look like suicide, Logan is dragged back to help hunt down and catch a brutal, calculating killer.

But the world has moved on without him. To do what needs to be done, Logan must first find his place among old friends and new enemies before the killer strikes again, and a whole Highland community tears itself apart.

Maybe early retirement wasn't such a bad idea, after all...

The Big Man Upstairs is the seventh novel in the internationally bestselling DCI Jack Logan Scottish crime fiction series, and perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Stuart MacBride.

 

 

 

Reading with my book club-

A story of a son searching for his father . . . through quantum space–time.
 
Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory. He learns that the key may be found in a book he got from his future self. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and he’s the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could help him—in fact it may even save his life.

 

 

 

The Hercule Poirot book-

 

"The Ravenscrofts didn't seem that kind of person. They seemed well balanced and placid..." And yet, twelve years earlier, the husband had shot the wife, and then himself--or perhaps it was the other way around, since sets of both of their fingerprints were on the gun, and the gun had fallen between them. The case haunts Ariadne Oliver, who had been a friend of the couple. The famous mystery novelist desires this real-life mystery solved, and calls upon Hercule Poirot to help her do so. Poirot is now a very old man, but his mind is as nimble and as sharp as ever and can still penetrate deep into the shadows. But as Poirot and Mrs. Oliver and Superintendent Spence reopen the long-closed case, a startling discovery awaits them. And if memory serves Poirot (and it does!), crime--like history--has a tendency to repeat itself.

 

 

 

Pick it for me book-

 

This tender and heartwarming novel explores the trials of losing what matters most—and how there’s always more than we can imagine left to find.
 
Dear Libby, It occurs to me that you and your two children have been living with your mother for—Dear Lord!—two whole years, and I’m writing to see if you'd like to be rescued.
 
The letter comes out of the blue, and just in time for Libby Moran, who—after the sudden death of her husband, Danny—went to stay with her hypercritical mother. Now her crazy Aunt Jean has offered Libby an escape: a job and a place to live on her farm in the Texas Hill Country. Before she can talk herself out of it, Libby is packing the minivan, grabbing the kids, and hitting the road.
 
Life on Aunt Jean’s goat farm is both more wonderful and more mysterious than Libby could have imagined. Beyond the animals and the strenuous work, there is quiet—deep, country quiet. But there is also a shaggy, gruff (though purportedly handsome, under all that hair) farm manager with a tragic home life, a formerly famous feed-store clerk who claims she can contact Danny “on the other side,” and the eccentric aunt Libby never really knew but who turns out to be exactly what she’s been looking for. And despite everything she’s lost, Libby soon realizes how much more she’s found. She hasn’t just traded one kind of crazy for another: She may actually have found the place to bring her little family—and herself—back to life.

 

 

ARC from the author-

 

When life has taught you to hide, can you ever spread your wings in the light?

Writing songs has always been the way that Beatrice Cipriani processes the world around her, but as a painful introvert, none of those songs are ever performed. She excels at being invisible—she’s the best server in a fancy restaurant. Sometimes, though, it feels like she’s dying a little more with every passing day.

Easton Moorland has finally made it big, but with a public company comes a board that has demands. As the chairman of a luxury brand, all eyes are on him, and they want him to look the part. That means he needs a girlfriend, or better yet, a wife. Only, Easton’s never had time to date, much less to develop any kind of relationship.

When the board insists that Easton sign up with an exclusive dating agency, he takes his first match to the nicest place in town. Only, he can’t remember his date’s name—he’s too enthralled by their server. It’s a woman he’d met before—it’s his sister Elizabeth’s new sister-in-law, in fact.

But can a dating newbie like Easton coax a painful introvert into the limelight at his side? Or will old fears destroy their chance at a happily ever after before it can even begin?

Bumped from June-

Midwife Sarah Malloy and her private detective husband Frank discover that the cure is worse than the disease when they investigate the death of a promising young woman in this atmospheric, riveting mystery from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Murder on Bedford Street.
 
Sarah Malloy has just helped with the delivery of a bouncing baby girl at her women’s clinic, when she receives a visit from an engaging and determined young woman writing an article for New Century Magazine. Louisa Rodgers explains that she is researching the dangers of patent remedies. Sarah is only too happy to tell Louisa exactly what she thinks of the so-called medicines whose ingredients include heavy doses of alcohol and other addictive drugs, and hurt much more than they help.

A few days later, Sarah receives a visit from a bereft Bernard Rodgers, who explains that his daughter, Louisa, has been found strangled in the lobby of the building where New Century has its offices. The police have decided it was a random attack and have made no attempt to investigate, hinting that Louisa got what she deserved for sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. Sarah wants justice for the bright young woman but as she and Frank delve deeper into Louisa’s life, they find that nothing is quite as it seemed and Louisa is not who she claimed to be. The Malloys must first solve the mystery of Louisa’s life before they can figure out who wanted to see her dead…

 

 

  

As heroes and villains seek to secure the seven godblades, the greatest evil to threaten Kingfall draws ever closer.

Six of the seven godblades have been revealed, but is Kingfall any safer than it was before these ancient weapons were returned to the light? This and myriad other questions must be answered before the world can know true peace.

In the east, Sampson Gaard and his unexpected band of traveling companions must navigate the dangers of the Spine as they seek the source of the strange force drawing them ever onward. Meanwhile, Roman Leary, burned and scarred beyond recognition, searches for a purpose even he cannot hope to understand.

In the west, Peony faces a newer, darker version of her bondmate, Dane, as well as a looming threat of war from her own brother, the newly crowned King of Odin. Dane, on the other hand, fights to restore his bond to the only creature in all of Kingfall who truly understands him, his dragon Daneus.

In the north, Rose grapples with the political pressures inherent in her role as queen, while simultaneously staving off the demons of her past. At the same time, Drake searches for answers to explain the resurrection of his dragonbond, Draconus.

In the south, Aisling, Amari and Prudence seek safe passage to Avadon, only to find themselves facing an enemy worse than any they've encountered thus far in the form of Pentockian slavers.

Be bright but do not burn. Embrace the shadows but do not live in the darkness.