Death Knell and Wedding Bells, by Eva Gates

9 Jun
Illustrated cover for Death Knells and Wedding Bells; there's a wedding cake in the foreground, with a cat's face peeking out over the edge of the table. In the background, there's a lighthouse and the beach at the very edge of the sea.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I have several ARCs for this series, including this, the latest entry in the series, which was released this week.

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The Spook in the Stacks, by Eva Gates

7 Jun
Illustrated cover for The Spook in the Stacks; the foreground shows a pumpkin patch where a cat with Siamese points is looking at an open copy of Sleepy Hollow (the Washington Irving story). In the background, there's a narrow beach and the sea, and further away, a lighthouse on a slightly elevated point of land.

Looking at my NetGalley shelf recently, hoping to tackle the embarrassingly large backlog there, I realized that I have ARCs for several titles in this series; with the tenth book releasing this week, I decided to start with the earliest installment I have.

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Single Dads Club, by Therese Beharrie

5 Jun
Illustrated cover for Single Dads Club; on a beach, a bearded Black man in a white t-shirt lays on a blue blanket, leaning on his left elbow, facing a Black woman in a with natural hair, wearing a red top, who's also laying on the blanked in a similar pose, as they look into each other's eyes.

Once more with feeling: despite having at least four other titles by this author in the TRB cordillera of doom, this ARC is my introduction to her writing.

Beware: explicit sex; backstories for both protagonists include emotional abandonment; social anxiety.

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The Wishing Game, by Megan Shaffer

2 Jun
Cover for The Wishing Game; an illustration of a bookshelf with a few hardcover books, only a few of which have titles in the spines ("The Raven", "The Clock", "A Novel"). Through the spaces between the books, one can see a night scene with whispy purple clouds, the sea, and a small island with a lighthouse and a large white mansion.

I requested an ARC for this book entirely because of the cover, and I’m very thankful the publisher “granted my wish”. However, the tags on NetGalley are very confusing: Science Fiction/Fantasy and Women’s fiction? The blurb, on the other hand, hints at mystery and romance. Who knows what this book is? (see footnote 1)

Beware: grief; death of parents; alcoholism; chronic illness; terminal illness; miscarriage; drug abuse; child sexual abuse; child drowning; narcissistic parent; emotional abuse; Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

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