Karla Huebner's Blog, page 20
February 21, 2022
Divine Vintage
Divine Vintage, a 2022 Debut by Sandra L. Young, launches February 21st. This genre-melding paranormal mystery and romance takes the owner of a vintage clothing boutique into unexpected territory investigating a 1913 murder. Bonus: if you're on Instagram, you can find the author modeling clothing from her own vintage collection to go with write-ups on fellow 2022 debut novels!
February 19, 2022
Away to Stay
Away to Stay, by Mary Kuryla, launches February 18th from Regal House.
From the Regal House website:
Weary of rundown motels and long nights sleeping in her mother’s car, Olya wants nothing more than a home. It seems she might finally find one with Jack, her mother’s cousin who lives in a tumbledown ranch in Southern California’s Inland Empire. But safety is not all that it seems. Away to Stay burns with the urgency of its young narrator who bears witness to a world of desperate people flailing inside a broken system. Olya’s mother Irina is a Russian émigré and self-serving liar, obsessed with becoming a prima ballerina and stalking Mikhail Baryshnikov. Cousin Jack is haunted by demons from the Afghanistan war—and the oft-absent Irina. Jack turns his obsession onto his untrainable dog named Bird that he kidnapped from the Riverside Police Department. To Olya, Bird is Job on four legs. Away to Stay is an off-beat and probing exploration of the precarity of shelter and home in the life of an immigrant and American working family.
From the Regal House website:
Weary of rundown motels and long nights sleeping in her mother’s car, Olya wants nothing more than a home. It seems she might finally find one with Jack, her mother’s cousin who lives in a tumbledown ranch in Southern California’s Inland Empire. But safety is not all that it seems. Away to Stay burns with the urgency of its young narrator who bears witness to a world of desperate people flailing inside a broken system. Olya’s mother Irina is a Russian émigré and self-serving liar, obsessed with becoming a prima ballerina and stalking Mikhail Baryshnikov. Cousin Jack is haunted by demons from the Afghanistan war—and the oft-absent Irina. Jack turns his obsession onto his untrainable dog named Bird that he kidnapped from the Riverside Police Department. To Olya, Bird is Job on four legs. Away to Stay is an off-beat and probing exploration of the precarity of shelter and home in the life of an immigrant and American working family.
February 18, 2022
The Almond in the Apricot
Sara Goudarzi's magical realist novel The Almond in the Apricot, a 2022 debut, launched February 14. Emma, an engineer leading a happy life, suddenly finds herself having nightmares that threaten to disrupt the space-time continuum –– nightmares of hiding from bombs, in which she is someone named Lily. I'm looking forward to reading this one!
February 17, 2022
Breathless
Breathless, a 2022 debut thriller by Amy McCulloch, debuts on February 17 and features a set of deaths high on one of the world's tallest mountains, Mt. Manaslu in Nepal. Will journalist Cecily Wong, the least experienced climber in the group, figure out who is killing the climbers before the mountain defeats all of them? (By the way, in 2019 the author became the youngest Canadian woman to scale this peak!)
February 16, 2022
Chloe Cates Is Missing
Chloe Cates Is Missing, launching February 15, is a 2022 debut thriller by Mandy McHugh. The 13-year-old star of a hit YouTube series vanishes, and her dysfunctional family is desperate to get her back!
February 15, 2022
Second Star to the Left
Megan Van Dyke's Second Star to the Left is a 2022 fantasy debut that plays with characters from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in some new and surprising ways. It launches February 15.
February 12, 2022
My Novel Appears on a "Most Anticipated" List!
It's not easy publicizing a debut novel when your publisher is smaller and doesn't have the deep pockets and clout of a major house. It's true that no matter who the publisher is, these days the author tends to have to shoulder a lot of the publicity burden, but yes, there's more work to it for those of us without a big publicity department behind us. And so every little bit of support from others, whether it's individuals, groups, or media, means a lot. In fact, I was just reading a piece in the New York Times that points out that talent is never enough--even the Beatles needed specific moments of support early in their career. Without key people and key fans, they wouldn't have gotten a recording deal or risen on the charts.
And so, I'm very thankful to the good people at Film-14.com, who noticed In Search of the Magic Theater (possibly on one of the Goodreads 2022 Debut lists) and decided that it was a book they are particularly looking forward to reading. They've chosen books for a wide range of reading tastes, and included authors of quite a few different ethnicities and backgrounds, so it's an honor to find myself and some other authors of my acquaintance on their list.
And so, I'm very thankful to the good people at Film-14.com, who noticed In Search of the Magic Theater (possibly on one of the Goodreads 2022 Debut lists) and decided that it was a book they are particularly looking forward to reading. They've chosen books for a wide range of reading tastes, and included authors of quite a few different ethnicities and backgrounds, so it's an honor to find myself and some other authors of my acquaintance on their list.
February 11, 2022
Save the Village
Michele Herman's Save the Village launches February 11th from Regal House.
From the Regal House website:
Life hasn’t turned out quite the way Becca Cammeyer of Greenwich Village – once voted most likely to land on Broadway or in jail for a good cause – had planned. Her only child has moved to another continent, she’s still living in a fifth-floor walkup with her aging dog, still single, still nearly broke, still not on speaking terms with her best friend or mother, and still hearing the ghost of her long-dead father whispering in her ear. But she’s a semi-famous tour guide, and on a perfect October evening, Becca almost believes all is well with her world as she helps a group of South Carolinian tourists fall in love with her beloved Village. The tour concludes, and Becca sends the women on their way, unaware that her world is about to be upended. In the aftermath of a tragedy, Becca must come to terms with her own paralysis, her survivor’s guilt, and the messiness of her life. She embarks on wildly improbable reconciliations and new relationships. At once a love story about Greenwich Village and a reflection on a changing world, Save the Village reveals how when a community comes together, everyone wins.
From the Regal House website:
Life hasn’t turned out quite the way Becca Cammeyer of Greenwich Village – once voted most likely to land on Broadway or in jail for a good cause – had planned. Her only child has moved to another continent, she’s still living in a fifth-floor walkup with her aging dog, still single, still nearly broke, still not on speaking terms with her best friend or mother, and still hearing the ghost of her long-dead father whispering in her ear. But she’s a semi-famous tour guide, and on a perfect October evening, Becca almost believes all is well with her world as she helps a group of South Carolinian tourists fall in love with her beloved Village. The tour concludes, and Becca sends the women on their way, unaware that her world is about to be upended. In the aftermath of a tragedy, Becca must come to terms with her own paralysis, her survivor’s guilt, and the messiness of her life. She embarks on wildly improbable reconciliations and new relationships. At once a love story about Greenwich Village and a reflection on a changing world, Save the Village reveals how when a community comes together, everyone wins.
February 10, 2022
No Stone Unturned
No Stone Unturned, by M. S. Peke, is a 2022 debut mystery set in Yellowstone featuring a newly divorced RVer and her rescue dog. I'd say this will appeal to many in the growing Girl Camper community!
February 8, 2022
A Dash of Death
Michelle Hillen Klump's 2022 Debut A Dash of Death is a cozy mystery featuring a Houston reporter-turned-mixologist who becomes a murder suspect when a member of the local historical homes council is poisoned at a meeting where her bitters were served.
As a frequent mystery reader and inhabitant of a Victorian in a historic district, I'm looking forward to learning who actually spiked the drink!
As a frequent mystery reader and inhabitant of a Victorian in a historic district, I'm looking forward to learning who actually spiked the drink!
