June is known for sunshine, green grass, and books, lots and lots of books. Well, it is to me at least!
A new Riley Sager would be the highlight of any month and The House Across the Lake looks to be another winner. I’m also excited to check out The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, a locked door mystery with four strangers, one of whom is a murderer. Honestly, that premise always works for me.
Questland by Carrie Vaughn looks to be a ton of fun. It’s about a resort where magic is real. Where do I sign up? Of course, things are never quite that simple in real life or in the book. This month we also have Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty which is a fantasy mystery. Those are two genres that go great together, but we just don’t see them together enough. In the world of scares, From Below by Darcy Coates looks to be a must-read. Reading the synopsis about a dive team being hunted underwater is really the stuff that nightmares are made of.
This looks to be a good month for fans of cozy mysteries. We have new series kicking off and others returning. I’m looking forward to Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron as it is set in New Orleans. I went there a few years back and I loved it! I even ate some gator, lol! Gone but Not Furgotten looks like a solid read as well for a cat lady like me.
Another book I’m looking forward to reading this month is Help Me Remember by Corinne Michaels. The author always brings it and the amnesia love story looks like a tearjerker waiting to happen.
Here are all of the best upcoming books for June 2022.
Best Upcoming Cozy Mystery Books: June 2022
Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron: A new cozy mystery series follows a twenty-eight-year-old widow named Ricki James who decides to start a new life in New Orleans after the loss of her husband. New Orleans is where she grew up and it is a return home for her as she joins the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet, the city’s legendary restauranteur. She is starting the museum’s gift shop when she finds a box of vintaged cookbooks containing the body of a recently fired Bon Vee employee. The business is now at risk so Ricki will set out to solve the case herself.
The Tuesday Night Survivors' Club by Lynn Cahoon: Rarity Cole got through cancer treatments with her friends and her books. Now that she’s healthy she decides to devote her life to helping others. She decides to open a bookstore dedicated to healing books from Eastern medicine to meditation to diet. She also starts the Tuesday Night Survivors book club which forms a tight knit group. Things are going well until one of the members goes missing. Rarity knows that something terrible has happened and sets out to find out what.
Gone but Not Furgotten by Cate Conte: Maddie James is told about a potential animal hoarding situation by her friend Cass and decides to help her furry friends. Maddie and Cass go to Laurel’s to check out the situation, but end up finding a dead body along with all of the kittens. Maddie suspects foul play and the authorities agree by pointing the finger at Cass. It will be up to Maddie, with help from Grandpa Leo, to find out what really happened before Cass goes away for good.
A Hint of Mischief by Daryl Wood Gerber: Courtney Kelly, the owner of a fairy-gardening and tea shop in Carmel, California is hired to throw a part for an old sorority sister’s 40th birthday. More exciting is that one of the guests will be a famous actress named Farrah Lawson. Before the event, the guests all head off for a spa day which proves deadly for Farrah. The police suspect the eyebrow waxer, but Courtney thinks otherwise and will team up with her imaginative sleuth fairy to find out the truth.
Big Bad by Kirsten Weiss: Alice is an ex-bodyguard who now lives to sleep in, but she never gets the chance to thanks to her living situation. She lives above a dinner theater where actors and a theater cat are always bothering her. One day that cat leads her right to the body of the theater’s leading lady. Alice’s brother was in the play and now he’s determined to solve the crime. He is not qualified for it in any way though so Alice decides to solve it for him before he gets in too deep.
Best Upcoming Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books: June 2022
The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne: Many people know the story of Rapunzel in the tower but this is the story of the witch who put her there. Haelewise is an outsider in her village, but she finds solace and protection from her mother. When her mother passes, Haelewise is left on her own and sets out to find the tower known as Gothel that her mother once told her about. Upon arrival she meets an older woman who takes her under her wing, but she’s not the only one seeking refuge here. Rika has a secret that the church wants to keep hidden that will unlock a world that Haelewise never knew.
The Seed of Cain by Agnes Gomillion: This is the second book in the Record Keeper series and the reason I love this job. I missed the first book when it came out so I am excited to check it out and follow it up with this one. The series takes place after World War III as Earth is left in ruins. The world is held together by a fragile truce. Arika Cobane has spent ten years training to join the Kongo elite, but her ideas change when a new student asks a potentially treasonous question: What does peace matter if innocent lives are lost to maintain it? She soon realizes that the laws she has dedicated herself to uphold are the same ones making people miserable.
Questland by Carrie Vaughn: Dr. Addie Cox has a nice, sheltered life when she is met by an eccentric billionaire named Harris Lang who has an unusual job offer for her. He asks her to lead a mercenary strike team to an island off the northwest coast of the United States. She isn’t sure why he asks her until she finds out what Lang has built: a convincing, high-tech-powered fantasy-world resort, with dragons, unicorns, and magic. One of the island’s employees has gone rogue and cut off outside communication. The goal is to take back control of the island at any cost.
The City Inside by Samit Basu: Joey works as a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi as she supervises the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, a fast rising celebrity and her college ex. Her job gives her power, but she’s far too busy to take advantage of it. Rudra is estranged from his wealthy family as he lives in an impoverished neighborhood. His father’s death brings him back to his family, but he’ll accept a job from Joey in order to avoid that life. The two becomes enmeshed in multiple conspiracies and their lives begin to spin out of control. The two much decide how to do the right thing in complicated world of corporate power and surveillance capitalism.
Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty: The holy Sanctum sits above the city of Collis. Catrin is an orphan girl who watches over as she has a unique ability to spot flaws in the building’s construction before they turn deadly. She’s doing her job when she witnesses a murder escaping the scene of his crime. The investigator assigned to the case is Simon whose insights into the killer’s mind are accurate in a frightening way. Catrin finds herself caught between the killer and the detective as she tries to protect her own secret.
Best Upcoming Horror Books: June 2022
From Below by Darcy Coates: The SS Arcadia disappeared without a trace years ago. A strange message was broadcast, but no one was ever found. Now, sixty years later, the wreck is discovered three hundred miles away from where it was meant to be. Cove and her dive team are out to investigate the hull and hopefully find out why the unsinkable ship is at the bottom of the ocean. Once they are down there they find that the ship hasn’t yet had its fill of death. Something dark and hungry wants them.
We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric Larocca : The author has been making a name for himself in the world of horror and I’ll definitely be checking out his latest which is described as an apocalyptic 21st century Grimm’s fairy tale.
Bone Orchard Mythos: The Passageway by Jeff Lemire: This is a graphic novel which will be apart of a new shared horror universe. In a month without a lot of new horror I will definitely be giving this a shot. It’s about a geologist sent to a remote lighthouse to investigate a seemingly endless pit. Of course, there is something lurking within. There always is.
The Path of Thorns by A.G. Slatter: Asher Todd takes a role as governess to the mysterious Morwood family’s children. She knows little about the role, her skills in botany and herbcraft should get her by. Asher has secrets of her own and this is a house that eats secrets. Asher has revenge on her mind, but she is fond of her charges. She has a plan, but wonders if she will be able to execute it. The ghosts of her past won’t be controlled though and Asher comes to realize that she has no choice.
The Nectar of Nightmares by Craig Laurance Gidney : The horror anthology is a collection of stories, some retellings and reimaginings that offer distorted versions of tales from our youth. The stories look to have a danger lurking on every page that draw you in.
Best Upcoming Mystery/Thriller Books: June 2022
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill: The quiet of the Boston Public Library’s reading room is shattered by a woman’s scream. The security guards tell everyone to stay inside as they assess the threat. As they wait, four strangers sitting at the same table pass the time with conversations and come to know one another. What they don’t know is that one of them is a murderer.
Suspects by Danielle Steel: Theodora Morgan is fashion royalty who lost her family to tragedy after a kidnapping gone wrong. The case has gone cold despite evidence that linked the crime to Matthieu’s Russian competitors. Theo has since gone back to work and ends up on a flight with Pierre de Vaumont. She invites him to an event, but what she doesn’t know is that he has been flagged by the CIA. Mike Andrews, a CIA operative, cleared Pierre to enter the country, but after he found out that him and Theo were on the same flight he becomes worried. Mike will begin a covert mission to protect her.
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager: A recently widowed actress named Casey Fletcher is looking to escape bad press and heads to her family’s lake house in Vermont. She passes her time with a pair of binoculars watching a glamorous couple across the lake. Tom is a tech innovator and Katherine is beautiful so they make for good people watching. One day Katherine nearly drowns and Casey saves her which leads the two to strike up a friendship. The more she gets to know her (and the more she watches them), the more she realizes that their marriage isn’t perfect. When Katherine vanishes one day, Casey suspects her husband is responsible. However, there is always more to the story than meets the eye.
The Girl Who Survived by Lisa Jackson: Kara has always been the girl who survive. She was orphaned at age seven after a horrific killer spree at her family’s cabin. Her brother Judas was convicted of the murders, but now, twenty years later, he is about to be released. Now Kara is receiving cryptic messages from her big sister who she hasn’t seen since that fateful night. Kara put her in the closet that night and told her not to make a sound. People close to Kara are starting to die and she believes that she is the final target. She survived once, she’s not sure she will again.
The Omega Factor by Steve Berry: UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, works for the United Nations’ Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO) and is out to investigate why the Ghent Altarpiece has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen thirteen times now. He’s on the trail of it now which puts him in the middle of a bitter conflict between a secret order of nuns and the Vatican. Nick Lee now must deal a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a truth from humanity’s past.
Best Upcoming Romance Books: June 2022
Help Me Remember by Corinne Michaels: A woman lost her brother and her memory. In order to protect the case, the lawyers have asked that no one give her information about her life as she must remember it on her own in order to testify. The only one who can help is her brother’s best friend, an investigative reporter named Spencer Cross. The two work together to recover her memories, but she has been dreaming of a new life with him. As she starts to recover her memories, she is shocked to find an engagement ring hidden in her apartment. She has no idea who gave it to her and she’s not sure she wants to find out. She wants Spencer.
The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian: The book begins as Marian Hayes, the Duchess of Clare, shoots her husband. The man was evil and he deserved it, but she must flee if she wants to stay free. The only person who can help her now is a criminal who has been blackmailing her named Rob Brooks. The same man who she left tied up a few hours ago. The two flee, making stops to drink and pick pockets, and have more fun together than they have felt in a long time. Rob has a past though and when it catches up to them, they’ll have to decide how far they are willing to go to have a future together.
An Island Wedding by Jenny Colgan: This is the fifth book in the Mure series which refers to a small Scottish island between Scotland and Norway. It is the location where where two very different weddings are about to take place. Will everyone get their Happy Ever After?
Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score: YouTube star Maggie Nichols flips houses and is ready for her next challenge. She heads to Kinship, Idaho to restore a Victorian mansion in four months or less. She’ll need to work fast and doesn’t have time for much else, especially a sexy, laid-back landscaper named Silas Wright. He proves hard to resist though and he begins to take down the emotional walls that she’s built up over the years. However, the project still has that deadline which means that Maggie has a decision to make.
When It Falls Apart by Catherine Bybee: Brooke has a complicated relationship with her father, but but when his health fails, she drops everything in her life to help. That move ends up ending her long-term relationship and moving her to San Diego’s Little Italy. Luca D’Angelo is a single father whose mother just rented the top floor of their house to Brooke. He’s upset about it as the family doesn’t even know her, but then he meets her and his tune changes.
June is shaping up to be a busy month of reading for me. How about you? What are you reading in June? Let me know in the comments below! I’m always looking to learn about other people’s reading habits.
