#BookBingoNW2022: The Romance of the Bookshop

Anyone who spends time in bookstores knows that they are special places where all kinds of magic can happen, including romance. If you want to get your romance reading in while also checking off that ‘books about books’ category in this year’s Book Bingo, here are some charming (and a few steamy) options.

In How to Find Love In a Bookshop by Veronica Henry, a young woman still grieving the recent death of her father tries to keep his legacy alive even as the bookshop she inherits flounders. Will the help of the residents of their quaint English village (and a certain handsome man) be enough to save the store and her father’s legacy, or will she be forced to sell and say goodbye to her home?

In the steamy romance Met Cute Club by Jack Harbon, bookstore owner and paranormal romance enthusiast Jordan Collins needs to do something to save his romance book club. Enter new and annoying(ly handsome) employee Rex Bailey, who asks to join the book club. Desperate to save it, Jordan and Rex team-up and discover their own Happily Ever After (HEA) along the way.

When introverted and anxious Nina Hill discovers she has a large and annoyingly nearby extended family after the death of her absentee father, in The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, her life is thrown into chaos. As her anxiety takes over, she becomes so overwhelmed that she can’t believe in the possibility of her own HEA with her hot new trivia team member who is definitely into her. A cute novel about discovering new family and new possibilities in life full of fun trivia and witty banter.

New Fiction Roundup – July 2022

Summer reading continues with these great new releases:

7/5: Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore
After magician Violet Volk disappeared mid-act, her sister Sasha picked up the pieces and moved on. Coming up on the ten year anniversary, with both a podcast host and her niece digging up old memories, Sasha resolves to discover the truth about Violet. (general fiction) A Peak Pick!

7/5: Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola
College radio host Kiki Banjo takes it as her mission to warn the women of the African-Caribbean Society against the players and cads who would break their hearts. But when she’s caught kissing Malakai Korede, who she just called out, she decides to save face by entering into a fake relationship with Malakai. Will they catch feelings? (romance) A Peak Pick!

New Fiction Roundup – May 2022

Get ready for summer reading with May new releases! It’s a (perhaps surprisingly) good month for new horror releases, as well as new titles from literary favorites, some great romance, and much more.

5/3: Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Cutthroat literary agent Nora takes a girls trip to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina but continually finds herself thrown together with Charlie, a brooding editor that she knows from home. Will they write their own love story? (romance) A Peak Pick!

5/3: Book of Night by Holly Black
Thief Charlie Hall is trying to get out of the business, but she works for some dangerous people: gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to eavesdrop and sometimes kill. With a desperate sister and a boyfriend hiding secrets, Charlie enters the hunt for a book that could unleash a terrifying power. (fantasy)

5/3: Companion Piece by Ali Smith
Pandemics, isolation, companionship, medieval clocks, poetry, and wordplay are rich ground for the author of the Seasonal Quartet. (general fiction)

5/3: The Hacienda by Isabel Canas
In 1820s Mexico, Beatriz accepts a marriage proposal and finds herself at a haunted estate, where she’ll rely on the help of a local priest to save herself and the others who live at the hacienda. (horror)

5/3: The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
17-year-old Athena recounts the story of her father, King Rao, who overcame being born into the lowest caste in India to become a tech billionaire. Thanks to one of King Rao’s inventions, The Harmonica, Athena has access to all his memories and must use them to absolve herself of his suspicious death. (general fiction)

New Fiction Roundup – March 2022

March delivers a Dolly Parton/James Patterson collaboration, a deep dive into the family behind John Wilkes Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, a standalone by science fiction master John Scalzi, and much more.

3/1: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay
In 1999, four teen girls working at a Blockbuster Video are attacked and only one survives; 15 years later, a similar attack happens at an ice cream parlor. FBI agent Sarah Keller investigates, pulling original survivor Ella back into the fray to help her. (thriller)

3/1: One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Left reeling by her mother Carol’s death, Katy travels solo to the Italian town where Carol spent the summer right before meeting Katy’s father. Then Carol reappears, 30 years old, and Katy has a magical chance to start healing from grief while understanding her mom’s past decisions. (general fiction) A Peak Pick!

3/7: Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
Young singer-songwriter AnnieLee Keyes follows her dreams to Nashville even as she tries to avoid darkness from her past, with help from a country music great and a hunky session musician. (thriller)

3/8: Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
An epic novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history, John Wilkes Booth, amid the context of a pre-Civil War America riven by moral and political divides. From the author of the 2016 Seattle Reads selection We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. (historical fiction)

New Fiction Roundup – February 2022

What will you read this month?

2/1: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Estranged siblings must come together when their mother dies and leaves them an unexpected inheritance: the recipe for a traditional Caribbean black cake, a family recipe with a long, tangled history, and an exhortation to “share the black cake when the time is right.” (general fiction) A Peak Pick!

2/1: The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
Messianic figure Jacob Frank blazes a path cross 18^th century Europe, gathering acolytes through force of personality and constant self-revision. (historical fiction)

2/1: The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
Revisiting Agatha Christie’s mysterious and still-unexplained 11-disappearnce in December 1926, with the story told by Nan O’Dea, who was having an affair with Christie’s husband. (historical fiction) A Peak Pick!

2/1: Don’t Cry for Me by Daniel Black
On his deathbed, Jacob writes letters to his estranged gay son Isaac, in which Jacob tries to explain his life, the unspoken truths of his heart, and Isaac’s inheritance of the ancestral trauma that extends back to the days of slavery in Arkansas. (general fiction)