Pub Day Picks // July 21, 2020

Happy Tuesday and Happy Pub Day to all the new books out in the world. We’re officially over the half-month mark and with the pandemic, many books have pushed their publishing date to later in the year. But I’m so excited to see that there are a few to get us through the summer months especially in a pandemic where we’re not out much anyway.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

I’m very excited about this one and just received a gifted copy of the book from Berkley! I think this is going to definitely go on my TBR for next month because it sounds right up my alley. Here’s more about it:

A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

Find The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson on Bookshop.org

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis

Ever since I read those science fiction novels for the Hugo Awards, I’ve been really intrigued by sci-fi. It’s a genre I would love to get to know better, but it is a huge genre with lots to uncover. So I’m taking it slowly and was super intrigued by this book when I heard about it. I think you might too. Here’s more about it:

Truth is a human right.

It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

Find Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis on Bookshop.org

Paris is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay

I actually shared this one recently, but wanted to bring it up again since today is pub day. I’m very excited for this book and I can’t wait to read it next month (yup, it’s already added to my tbr). Here’s more about the story:

It’s been seven years since Chelsea Martin embarked on her yearlong post-college European adventure. Since then, she’s lost her mother to cancer and watched her sister marry twice, while Chelsea’s thrown herself into work, becoming one of the most talented fundraisers for the American Cancer Coalition, and with the exception of one annoyingly competent coworker, Jason Knightley, her status as most talented fundraiser is unquestioned.

When her introverted mathematician father announces he’s getting remarried, Chelsea is forced to acknowledge that her life stopped after her mother died, and that the last time she can remember being happy, in love, or enjoying her life was on her gap year. Inspired to retrace her steps–to find Colin in Ireland, Jean Claude in France, and Marcelino in Italy–Chelsea hopes that one of these three men who stole her heart so many years ago, can help her find it again.

From the start of her journey nothing goes as planned, but as Chelsea reconnects with her old self, she also finds love in the very last place she expected.

Find Paris is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay on Bookshop.org