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New 2021 Novels To Read | July – December

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The year 2021 is already halfway through and the question is, do you know what you are going to read next?If you are looking for a new book to read, here are fourteen new novels being released later this year to add to your reading list and bring more literature into your life!

Kill All Your Darlings

By: David Bell

Release Date | July 20

Genre | Science Fiction

After his family's passing, Connor spent years struggling to write before publishing an enticing thriller about the murder of a young woman. Interesting enough but the problem is, Connor didn't write the plot. A missing student of his did and when she appears at his doorstep threatening to expose the truth, Connor finds himself thrust into a world of trouble. Trouble that only escalates when the police insist that the details in his novel implicate him in a two-year-old murder.

Soon Coon discovers the story he stole is only a small part of a bigger picture and he must make a choice. Expose himself as a liar or risk everything? And when another murder occurs, Connor must unravel the mysteries hiding in the novel to save himself.

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The Past is Red

By: Catherynne M. Valente

Release Date | July 20

Genre | Science Fiction

The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente is the story of Tetly Abednego, the most beloved girl in Garbage. Well, Tetly is the only one who knows that but she is someone who knows a lot of things most people don't. She knows Garbagetown is the best place in the world brimming with hope and the ability to love and hate simultaneously.

Earth is a terrible mess and the hope within Garbagetown is fragile and when Tetly discovers a secret, a new friend, and the anger directed towards her, she realises there is more to the world than she knows.

The People We Keep

By: Allison Larkin

Release Date | August 3

Genre | Fiction

April Sawicki lives in Little River, New York inside a motorless motor home her father won in poker. Having failed out of school, April picks up shifts at the local diner trying to find herself in a place that never felt like home. When she "borrows" a car to perform at an open mic night, April comes to the realisation that her life could be so much more than the town she lives in.

After a fight with her father, April packs her bags and leaves starting her journey to find a life of her own. A life that is just for her. As she travels she writes down the stories of her life in song format and discovers along the way that where she was born doesn't dictate her future.

This novel sounds like a coming-of-age / finding themselves novel and I hope to read about self-discovery and the power of yourself. I want something to cry a little bit about and I am feeling The People We Keep may be that novel. So if you are looking for a book about growth, this may be your next read!

Find the review | HERE | for The People We Keep

A Lesson in Vengeance

By: Victoria Lee

Release Date | August 3

Genre | Young Adult

Dalloway School was home until her girlfriend died. After a year away Felicity has returned to the ivy covered school nestled in the Catskills mountains to finish what she started and finally graduate. She even has her old room to return too in Godwin House rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of five girls, some say they were witches, that died one after another on the grounds of Dalloway Hall.

Felicity is drawn to them, their history, and the witchcraft that is woven into Dalloway but after her girlfriend's passing all she wants is to graduate and leave except Felicity is finding it hard to finish her senior thesis surrounded by the occult history and a new girl who won't story bringing it up. A new girl named Ellis Haley who is a novelist prodigy, brilliant, and a woman Felicity is drawn towards. It is why when Ellis asks her for assistance on researching the Dalloway Five that Felicity cannot bring herself to say no and when history begins to repeat, Felicity will finally have to face the darkness.

Find the review | HERE | for A Lesson in Vengeance

The Fair Botanists

By: Sara Sheridan

Release Date | August 5

Genre | Historical Fiction

Edinburgh is buzzing with rumours about King George IV's upcoming visit but for those invested in botany, their buzz is vastly different than what has gripped the city - the Agave Americana plant looks ready to flower, a bloom that occurs only once in decades.

Elizabeth, a newly widowed and determined to put her past behind her woman, has recently moved to Edinburgh to stay with her late husband's aunt, Clementia. It is here she falls in love with the Botanic garden that surrounds the house with an artist attempting to paint the rare plant's bloom.

As her interest in botany increases she meets Belle Brodie, a woman with a passion for botany and creating lucrative perfumes. She is keeping her true reason for being interested in the garden a secret from Elizabeth but secrets do not stay as such for long and when revealed lead Elizabeth and Belle to discover the consequences of such lies.

Not currently available to purchase on Amazon.

The Soul Breaker

By: Sebastian Fitzek

Release Date | August 23

Genre | Thriller

A week is enough for the victim to become a shell, alive but with nothing inside. This psychological destruction of three women is why the press have deemed him 'Soul Breaker,'; he destroys his victims without physically killing them.

Right before Christmas the Soul Breaker strikes again but this time in a high security and exclusive psychiatric clinic. The place has been cut off by a storm and the Soul Breaker still is loose in their midst and it is up to the staff and patients to protect themselves against a killer but as the night wears on they realise no one is safe from the Soul Breaker.

The Offset

By: Calder Szewczak

Release Date | September 14

Genre | Science Fiction

The day you turn eighteen you must pick a parent to die. Who do you choose? In a world slowly dying, the Offset ceremony was introduced to reduce and discourage procreation, survival requires balance and for every birth there must be a death.

Professor Jac Boltanski leads Project Salix in an attempt to save the world by planting genetically modified willow trees. Her data has discrepancies and things are not going as planned leading her to wonder, has someone sabotaged her work? Whilst Jac struggles to fix the data her daughter Miri has been dragged back home days before the Offset ceremony with the terrible choice of which parent to kill. The one she loves or the one she hates but is trying to save the world?

Under the Whispering Door

By: TJ Klune

Release Date | September 21

Genre | Fantasy

On the outskirts of a small village and nestled between two mountains lays a teashop run by Hugo. Hugo is the owner and ferryman for souls that need to cross over and is where Wallace Price has just been lead by a reaper.

Wallace isn't ready to go, he has barely lived and with Hugo's help discovers all the things he has missed. When the teashop manager arrives stating Wallace has one week to cross over, Wallace is determined to use that seven days to live a lifetime.

EEEKKK! I am stoked. After reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, I am ready for another heartwarming story by TJ Klune.

Find the full review | HERE | for Under the Whispering Door

As Good as Dead

By: Holly Jackson

Release Date | September 28

Genre | Mystery

Out of all the new novel releases on this list, the one I am most excited for is As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson! It is the third instalment in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Series and I cannot wait to explore the world again. After the last release of Good Girl, Bad Blood I was left with too many questions which I cannot wait to be answered in As Good as Dead. In this third installment I am hoping for more character growth in Pip and some unexpected intensity plot-wise.

In As Good as Dead, the victim this time is someone Pip knows well - herself. She is used to online harassment but when the question "who will look for you when you're the one who disappears?" continuously appears online and then where she lives, Pip discovers she has a stalker and the police refuse to help.

As detective Pip does, she takes the matter into her own hands discovering a connection between her stalker and a serial killer who has been behind bars for six years. Pip suspects the wrong man has been convicted and it is up to her to find the answers. If she doesn't... she may just disappear.

Find the review | HERE | for As Good as Dead

You'd Be Home Now

By: Kathleen Glasgow

Release Date | September 28

Genre | Young Adult

Emory's life has been dictated by who others think she is. She is the rich girl. She is the younger sister. She is the good one. She is her stoner brother's babysitter. A life of being told who she is turned upside down the night her brother, Joey, kills Candy MontClaire in a car accident.

Four months later Joey returns home from rehab and everyone is still telling Emory who she is but how could she be that person after the accident and was she really ever that person? It might be time for Emory to decide for herself who she is and write her own story.

Reprieve

By: James Han Mattson

Release Date | October 5

Genre | Horror

The year is 1997, the month April, the day the 27th, the location a full-contact escape room. Four players enter, only three make it out alive. The escape room is inside Quigley House, a home filled with horrors and monstrosities that if you can "escape" without calling for safety results in a significant amount of cash.

Before the challenge can even begin, the room is broken into leaving Kendra Brown, Leonard Grandson, and Jade Charoensuk alive to tell the tale. A tale that as it begins to be told exposes the horrifying reality of how their beliefs and actions led to that devastating night.

The Death of Jane Lawrence

By: Caitlin Starling

Release Date | October 19

Genre | Horror

Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations and decided the most secure path for her forward is to marry. It is a marriage of convenience that will provide her the ability to remain independent but occupied. Her choice - Augustine Lawrence. Augustine is a reclusive doctor who agrees to the proposal under one condition, that she never visits his family manor.

Jane agrees until an accident on their wedding night strands her outside Lindridge Hall only to find Augustine inside, different. Gone is the bold surgeon she married replaced by a paranoid man who cannot tell his nightmares from reality, terrified Jane is one of them.

By morning, Augustine has transformed back into the man Jane knew but she's convinced something is wrong with the Hall and the man she tied herself too.

All of Us Villains

By: Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

Release Date | November 9

Genre | Fantasy

The villainous Lowes have won nearly every tournament in the Ilvernath since the beginning and with the newly published tell-all book exposing salacious secrets of the remote town, their champion is even more determined to win. But, so are the other competitors. With the influx of visitors to their town winning the competition means more than gaining control over the city's magick supply but now also a chance to rewrite their story. A story that must be written in blood.

Find the full review | HERE | for All of Us Villains 

A History of Wild Places

By: Shea Ernshaw

Release Date | December 7

Genre | Suspense

Travis Wren is unusually talented at finding missing people. Requiring only an object to find the missing, he is hired by families as a last resort to find them. Hired to find Maggie St. James, the authour of a sinister children's series, Travis is drawn to a place many believe to be of fantasy. Founded in the 1970s, Pastoral is a repulsive town filled with like-minded people searching for a simpler life and when Travis enters, he disappears just like Maggie St. James.

Years later a member of Pastoral named Theo finds an abandoned truck close to the border of the community, a truck belonging to Travis. The discovery leads Theo to the mystery of how the disappearance occurred revealing along the way secrets his wife, the town, and his friends are keeping proving the perfect world he lives in is anything but safe.

I am so stoked again for As Good as Dead, Reprieve, and The People We Keep. Fourteen books to read this year and there are so many more good books to choose from! Are there any books I need to keep my eye out for? And what are you interested in reading from this list?
The pinterest image for New 2021 novels to read, July - December edition. It is that title on top, a line separating that and astersbookhour.com website name, and then six book covers below - three on top and three on bottom. The three on top are Under the Whispering Door, All Of Us Villains, and The Past is Red. The row below is A History of Wild Places, The People We Keep, and You'd Be Home By Now.

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