Back again with my five most
anticipated releases coming out this month. That’s not to say that I’m
not excited about all the books that are being released this month – and there are so many books coming out this month! – but
these are just the ones that really stand out in my mind for some reason
– either because I have loved the author’s previous books or it’s a
debut novel and sounds amazing. As I’ve done before, I’ve already read the book, I will link my review. And if I plan to listen to the book, I will indicate the audio publisher.
So here without further ado are the five books I am most excited about that will be published in March:
WHO IS MAUD DIXON by Alexandra Andrews
Pub Date: March 2nd, Little Brown and Company / Hachette Audio
Summary:
Florence Darrow is a
small-town striver who believes that she’s destined to become a
celebrated writer. When she stumbles into the opportunity to become the
assistant to “Maud Dixon,” a celebrated-but anonymous-novelist (think:
Elena Ferrante), she believes that the universe is finally providing her
big chance. The arrangement feels idyllic; Helen can be prickly, but
she is full of pointed wisdom on both writing and living. She even
invites Florence along on a research trip to Morocco, where her new
novel is set. Florence has never been out of the country before; maybe,
she imagines, she’ll finally have something exciting to write about
herself.
But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a
terrible car crash, and Helen is dead, she begins to imagine what it
might be like to ‘upgrade’ into not only Helen’s life, but also that of
Helen’s bestselling pseudonym, Maud Dixon…
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WE BEGIN AT THE END by Chris Whitaker
Pub Date: March 2nd, Henry Holt & Co. / Macmillan Audio
Summary:
There are two kinds of families: the ones we are born into and the ones we create.
Walk
has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may
have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old
wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent
King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is
being released.
Duchess is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed
outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in
overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on
sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but
recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her
mother but her five-year-old brother. At school the other kids make fun
of Duchess―her clothes are torn, her hair a mess. But let them throw
their sticks, because she’ll throw stones. Rules are for other people.
She’s just trying to survive and keep her family together.
A
fortysomething-year-old sheriff and a thirteen-year-old girl may not
seem to have a lot in common. But they both have come to expect that
people will disappoint you, loved ones will leave you, and if you open
your heart it will be broken. So when trouble arrives with Vincent King,
Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it
in, arms wide closed.
Chris Whitaker has written an extraordinary
novel about people who deserve so much more than life serves them. At
times devastating, with flashes of humor and hope throughout, it is
ultimately an inspiring tale of how the human spirit prevails and how,
in the end, love―in all its different guises―wins.
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THE ROSE CODE by Kate Quinn
Pub Date: March 9th, William Morrow Paperbacks
Summary:
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns
with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code
breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war
is over.
1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis,
three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate
Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German
military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has
everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece
sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society
girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy
secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty,
works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and
looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick
to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness
conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her
wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and
the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.
1947. As
the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war
Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a
mysterious encrypted letter–the key to which lies buried in the
long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them
confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows
of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must
resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each
petal they remove from the rose code brings danger–and their true
enemy–closer…
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HER DARK LIES by J.T. Ellison
Pub Date: March 9th, MIRA
Summary:
At the wedding of the year, a killer needs no invitation
Jutting
from sparkling turquoise waters off the Italian coast, Isle Isola is an
idyllic setting for a wedding. In the majestic cliff-top villa owned by
the wealthy Compton family, up-and-coming artist Claire Hunter will
marry handsome, charming Jack Compton, surrounded by close family,
intimate friends…and a host of dark secrets.
From the moment
Claire sets foot on the island, something seems amiss. Skeletal remains
have just been found. There are other, newer disturbances, too. Menacing
texts. A ruined wedding dress. And one troubling shadow hanging over
Claire’s otherwise blissful relationship—the strange mystery surrounding
Jack’s first wife.
Then a raging storm descends, the power goes out—and the real terror begins…
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SUNFLOWER SISTERS by Martha Hall Kelly
Pub Date: March 30th, Ballantine Books
Summary:
Martha Hall Kelly’s million-copy bestseller Lilac Girls introduced readers to Caroline Ferriday. Now, in Sunflower Sisters,
Kelly tells the story of Ferriday’s ancestor Georgeanna Woolsey, a
Union nurse during the Civil War whose calling leads her to cross paths
with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into
the army, and Anne-May Wilson, a Southern plantation mistress whose
husband enlists.
“An exquisite tapestry of women determined to defy the molds the world has for them.”–Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours
Georgeanna
“Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and the
demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the
nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when
doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them
wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington,
D.C., to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as
they become involved in the war effort.
In the South, Jemma is
enslaved on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, where she lives with her
mother and father. Her sister, Patience, is enslaved on the plantation
next door, and both live in fear of LeBaron, an abusive overseer who
tracks their every move. When Jemma is sold by the cruel plantation
mistress Anne-May at the same time the Union army comes through, she
sees a chance to finally escape–but only by abandoning the family she
loves.
Anne-May is left behind to run Peeler Plantation when her
husband joins the Union army and her cherished brother enlists with the
Confederates. In charge of the household, she uses the opportunity to
follow her own ambitions and is drawn into a secret Southern network of
spies, finally exposing herself to the fate she deserves.
Inspired by true accounts, Sunflower Sisters
provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience, from the
barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City, to the
horrors of the battlefield. It’s a sweeping story of women caught in a
country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with
nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty, a story still so relevant
today.
Do any of these sound good? Let me know!
