Books to Look Out For in 2024 Q3

Here are a few of the books that I’m particularly looking forward to in the coming weeks and months (with links to my posts for Q1 and Q2). As ever, there are lots of wonderful books to look forward to, and these are just a few of the ones that I’m particularly excited about. Publication dates are correct at time of writing.

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The Moonlight Market by Joanne Harris
(Gollancz, 2 July)

Orphaned, lonely, and lost in his photography work, Tom has no intention of falling in love. And yet, love finds him in the shape of beautiful Vanessa, who lives a dangerous double life in the heart of London’s King’s Cross.

Tom’s pursuit of Vanessa leads him to discover an alternate world, hidden amongst the streets and rooftops of London – and inhabited by strange and colourful beings. In this mysterious realm, two ancient factions – one of night, one of day – have waged war for centuries over a forbidden love and a long-lost prince of sun and starlight.

But when Tom finds a secret market that appears only in moonlight, where charms and spells are bought with memories, he starts to wonder whether he’s been here before…

Romeo and Juliet meets Neil Gaiman in this spellbinding modern fairytale of fae courts, forbidden love, magical wars, lost princes, and secret worlds hidden just out of sight in the cavernous shadows of contemporary London – perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab and Samantha Shannon.

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Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox
(Doubleday, 11 July)

Lynch, a burned out con-artist, arrives, broke, in London, trying not to dwell on the mistakes that got him there. When he bumps into Bobbie, a rehab-bound heiress – and when she briefly mistakes him for her missing brother – Lynch senses the opportunity, as well as the danger…

Bobbie’s brother, Heydon, was a troubled young man. Five years ago, he walked out of the family home and never went back. His car was found parked on a bridge overlooking the Thames, in the early hours of the same morning. Unsettled by Bobbie’s story, and suffering from a rare attack of conscience, Lynch tries to back off.

But when Bobbie leaves for rehab the following day, he finds himself drawn to her luxurious family home, and into a meeting with her mother, the formidable Miranda. Seeing the same resemblance that her daughter did, Miranda proposes she hire Lynch to assume her son’s identity, in a last-ditch effort to try and flush out his killer.

As Lynch begins to impersonate him, dark forces are lured out of the shadows, and he realises too late that Heydon wasn’t paranoid at all. Someone was watching his every move, and they’ll kill to keep it a secret.

For the first time, Lynch is in a life or death situation he can’t lie his way out of.

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Queen B by Juno Dawson
A prequel novella to the HMRC trilogy
(Harper Voyager, 18 July)

BOW DOWN WITCHES

It’s 1536 and the Queen has been beheaded.

Lady Grace Fairfax, witch, knows that something foul is at play – that someone had betrayed Anne Boleyn and her coven.

Wild with the loss of their leader – and her lover, a secret that if spilled could spell Grace’s own end – she will do anything in her power to track down the traitor.

But there’s more at stake than revenge: it was one of their own, a witch, that betrayed them, and Grace isn’t the only one looking for her. King Henry VIII has sent witchfinders after them, and they’re organized like they’ve never been before under his new advisor, the impassioned Sir Ambrose Fulke, a cold man blinded by his faith. His cruel reign could mean the end of witchkind itself.

If Grace wants to find her revenge and live, she will have to do more than disappear.

She will have to be reborn.

In this gripping, propulsive, sultry novella, Juno Dawson takes us back to the bloody beginnings of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven to show us the strength, steel and sacrifice it takes to make a sisterhood. With beautiful illustrations from Emma Vieceli throughout.

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Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
(Del Rey, 13 August)

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of A STUDY IN DROWNING comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: that her eyes induce madness in men.

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of survival, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armour. She does not know that her magic is greater, and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.

She does not know this yet. But she will.

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The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
(Canongate Books, 29 August)

What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet . . .

When retired Maths teacher Grace is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her.

She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the Balearics, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended.

What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

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These are just a few of the wonderful books coming out in the next few months that I’m really excited about. Anything here take your fancy? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!