Monthly Picks....The Books We Are Looking Forward To Getting Our Hands on In July

 Can You believe it will be July tomorrow? That Christmas is just 5 months away? Ugh...well other than we get Christmas reads!!!! Ro and I have been busy discussing the books we really are wanting to stack our shelves with this month, along with planning our read-along and Bookmas in July (have you joined a team yet? Details are a few posts back if you want to have some fun with us.)

So let's dive into them...

FALSE WITNESS BY KARIN SLAUGHTER

Both of us are always on for a good thriller/mystery read and False Witness seems to be a good one...

Leigh Coulton has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defense attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilized - her life is just as unremarkable as she'd always hoped it would be.

But Leigh's ordinary life masks a childhood that was far from average... a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn apart by a devastating act of violence.

Then a case lands on her desk - defending a wealthy man accused of rape. It's the highest-profile case she's ever been given - a case that could transform her career if she wins. But when she meets the accused, she realizes that it's no coincidence that he's chosen her as his attorney. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he knows what happened twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades running.

If she can't get him acquitted, she'll lose much more than the case. The only person who can help her is her younger, estranged sister Calli, the last person Leigh would ever want to ask for help. But suddenly she has no choice...

Expected publication: July 20th, 2021 by William Morrow

 THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP BY GRADY HENDRIX

I absolutely love Grady Hendrix's quirky sense of writing and his bizarre storytelling so The Final Girl Support Group is high on my list...

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back defeated the killer and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. For more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette's worst fears are realized--someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up

Expected publication: July 13th, 2021 by Berkley Books

SIX CRIMSON CRANES BY ELIZABETH LIM

Six Crimson Cranes is the first book from a new YA Fantasy series

Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.
Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and, on her journey, uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne—a conspiracy more twisted and deceitful, more cunning and complex, than even Raikama's betrayal. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she's been taught all her life to contain—no matter what it costs her

Expected publication: July 6th, 2021 by Knopf

SURVIVE THE NIGHT BY RILEY SAGER

Another great horror story from Riley Sager

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to getaway. For Charlie, it's guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it's to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine, she's named after, Charlie has her doubts. From the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn't seem to want Charlie to see inside the car's trunk, there's something suspicious about Josh. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she's sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie's suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a payphone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. To win, Charlie must do one thing--survive the night.

Expected publication: June 29th, 2021 by Dutton Books

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN BY SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN

The first in a new series titled The Radiant Emperor which melds Fantasy and Historical History together

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness

Expected publication: July 20th,2021 by Tor Books

SHOULDER SEASON BY CHRISTINA CLANCY

Another summer stunner and perfect beach read

The small town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is an unlikely location for a Playboy Resort, and nineteen-year-old Sherri Taylor is an unlikely bunny. Growing up in neighboring East Troy, Sherri plays the organ at the local church and has never felt comfortable in her own skin. But when her parents die in quick succession, she leaves the only home she’s ever known for the chance to be part of a glamorous slice of history. In the winter of 1981, in a costume two sizes too small, her toes pinched by towering stilettos, Sherri joins the daughters of dairy farmers and factory workers for the defining experience of her life.
Living in the “bunny hutch”—Playboy’s version of a college dorm, surrounded by a twelve-foot high barbed-wire fence (to keep the men out, and the girls in)—Sherri gets her education in the joys of sisterhood, the thrill of financial independence, the magic of first love, and the heady effects of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But as spring gives way to summer, Sherri finds herself caught up in a romantic triangle––and the tragedy that ensues will haunt her for the next forty years of her life.
Shoulder Season follows Sherri from her fledgling days as a bunny, when she tries to reinvent herself before she even knows who she is, to the woman she becomes years later. From the Midwestern prairie to the California desert, from Wisconsin lakes to the Pacific Ocean, this is a story of what happens when small-town life is sprinkled with stardust, and what we lose—and gain—when we leave home. It’s about the brief but intoxicating experiences of our youth, and how they have the power to shape the rest of our lives. With a heroine to root for and a narrative to get lost in, Shoulder Season is a sexy, evocative tale, drenched in longing and desire, that captures a fleeting moment in American history with nostalgia and heart.

Expected publication: July 6th 2021 by St. Martin's Press

FALLING BY TJ NEWMAN

This new thriller promises to take you on a wild ride. Falling is also our Read-Along for this month..so if you would like to read along with us, we would love to have you along on the ride with us! ( More info on the read-along soon )

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

Are any of these books on your radar for July? Or do you have something you might think we would like....let us know in the comments...

Happy Reading!