Happy New Year!

It’s a new year, which means…NEW BOOKS!

I’ve put together a list of my most anticipated reads for this year. Please bare in mind this is the UK release date for these books.

Adult Fiction

Confrontations by Simone Atangana Bekono

Release Date: 11th January 2024

Salomé was bullied for years and no one did a single thing to help her.
One day she finally snapped.
Now at just sixteen years old, she’s being held in a secure unit for young offenders

Salomé’s counsellor, the man whose good opinion is key to her release, is best known for his racist gaffes on reality TV. Her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer and her elder sister Miriam’s main preoccupation is to get out of their small, close-minded village as soon as possible. Both at home and in the unit, things are unbearably tense.

Salomé finds it hard to keep her temper and harder still to think about the crime she is charged with committing. But as time passes, she finds new strength to delve into the reasons for her rage and arrive at her own understanding of punishment, penitence and the paradoxical demands made on her existence as a Black woman. Raw and unsentimental, Confrontations is a powerful depiction of racism and resilience from one of the Netherlands’ most exciting new literary voices.

The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

Release Date: 18th January 2024

6066: In Emperor Thracin’s brave new galaxy, humans are not citizens but indentured labourers, working to repay the debt they unwittingly incurred when they settled on Gahraan – a desert planet already owned by the emperor himself. Asha Akindele knows she’s just another voiceless cog working the assembly lines that fuel his vast imperial war machine. Her only rebellion: studying stolen aeronautics manuals in the dead of night. But then a cloaked stranger arrives to deliver an impossible message, and her life changes in an instant.

1812: Obi Amadi is done with time-travelling. Never mind the fact he doesn’t know how to cure himself of the temporal sickness he caught whilst anchoring his soul to Regency London, the one that unmakes him further with every jump. Or if the prince he loves will ever love him back. Or why his father disappeared. He is done. Until he hears about the ghost of a girl in the British Museum. A girl from another time.

When Obi’s path tangles with Asha’s and a prophecy awakens in the cold darkness of space, they must voyage through the stars, racing against time, tyranny, and the legacy of three heroes from an ancient religion who may be awakening, reincarnated in ways beyond comprehension.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Release Date: 30th January 2024

Everything comes at a price. But not everything can be paid for…

Millie wants to graduate, get a job and buy a house. She’s slowly saving up from her job on campus, but when a visiting professor offers her an unusual opportunity to make some extra money, she jumps at the chance.

Agatha is a writer, recovering from a break-up while researching attitudes towards weddings and money for her new book. She strikes gold when interviewing the girls in Millie’s dorm, but her plans take a turn when she realises that the best material is unfolding behind closed doors.

As the two women form an unlikely relationship, they soon become embroiled in a world of roommate theatrics, vengeful pranks and illicit intrigue – and are forced to question just how much of themselves they are willing to trade to get what they want.

Sharp, intimate and provocative, Come and Get It takes a lens to our money-obsessed society in a tension-filled story about desire, consumption and bad behaviour.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

Release Date: 6th February 2024

One florist. One pianist. One love story . . . One hundred years in the making.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a more exciting life awaits her.

So, when she is invited to rent the bottom floor of a Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh start. She leaves behind her wealth and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighbourhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmer.

Then one evening in February, as the heady scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York.

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Release Date: 22nd February 2024

When Obiefuna’s father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and the family’s apprentice, newly arrived from the nearby village, he banishes Obiefuna to a Christian boarding school marked by strict hierarchy and routine, devastating violence. Utterly alienated from the people he loves, Obiefuna begins a journey of self-discovery and blossoming desire, while his mother Uzoamaka grapples to hold onto her favourite son, her truest friend.

Interweaving the perspectives of Obiefuna and his mother Uzoamaka, as they reach towards a future that will hold them both, BLESSINGS is an elegant and exquisitely moving story of love and loneliness. Asking how we can live freely when politics reaches into our hearts and lives, as well as deep into our consciousness, it is a stunning, searing debut.

Ours by Phillip B. Williams

Release Date: 22nd February 2024

In the mid-1800s, Saint, an enigmatic and powerful conjure woman, always flanked by a silent companion, travels the South annihilating plantations and liberating the enslaved by means of purposeful violence and powerful magic. She founds a town for those she has freed – and for them alone. They name the town Ours. Surrounded by an impenetrable magical border raised by Saint’s powers, Ours is invisible to the outer world and sits blissfully away from prying eyes and violent hands. Saint’s mission is to kill slavery – to scourge its damage from the minds of her charges and to keep them safe forever.

Under Saint’s watchful eye and away from the terrible weight of their enslavement, the townsfolk become neighbours, friends and lovers. They build each other’s homes and care for each other’s children. They love and grieve together. Then two mysterious strangers, Frances and Joy, appear, inexplicably crossing the invisible border from the outer world. And soon, Saint’s lost past and fateful present begin to coalesce in ways that will either prove Ours’ salvation or lay it bare to a world that would destroy it.

The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters

Release Date: 29th February 2024

Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of Lagos and a glamorous group of friends. She left London and a troubled family past behind to become part of a community of expat wives.

But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her aunt Claudine flies to Nigeria to take matters into her own hands. As she digs into her niece’s life, she uncovers a hidden truth. But the more she finds out about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

Release Date: 5th March 2024

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion.
But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost. She’s too busy keeping a roof over her daughters’ heads and food on the table. And in the process of saving them all, Soledad rediscovers herself. From the ashes of a life burned to the ground, something bold and new can rise.
But then an unlikely man enters the picture – the forbidden one, the one she shouldn’t want but can’t seem to resist. She’s lost it all before and refuses to repeat her mistakes. Can she trust him? Can she trust herself?
After all she’s lost . . . and found . . . can she be brave enough to make room for what could be?

Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

Release Date: 12th March 2024

Faced with a coming apocalypse, a woman must reckon with her past to solve a series of sudden and inexplicable deaths in a searing sci-fi thriller from the Compton Crook Award-winning author of The Space Between Worlds.

Scales is the best at what she does: She is an enforcer who keeps the peace in Ashtown, a rough, climate-ravaged desert town. But that fragile peace is fractured when a woman is mangled and killed within Ash’s borders, right in front of Scales’s eyes. Even more incomprehensible is that there was seemingly no murderer.

When more mutilated bodies start to turn up, both in Ashtown and in the wealthier, walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with finding the cause–and putting an end to it. She teams up with a frustratingly by-the-books partner and a brusque-but-brilliant scientist in order to uncover the truth, delving into both worlds to track down the invisible killer. But what they find points to something bigger and more corrupt than they could’ve ever foreseen–and it could spell doom for the entire world.

The Re-Write by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Release Date: 11th April 2024

Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, meet each other’s friends.

. . . Then Wale dumps Temi to go on Love Villa.

Instead of giving in to heartbreak, Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghost-write a celebrity autobiography arises, Temi finds herself accepting.

And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…

Has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Release Date: 25th April 2024

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it… right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic – with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads – Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex… right?

Company by Shannon Saunders

Release Date: 2nd May 2024

A richly detailed, brilliantly woven debut about the life and lore of one Black American family, told in thirteen distinct snapshots of their family gatherings The children of the four Collins sisters – Cassandra, Lela, Suzette and Felice – have a complicated inheritance. It includes unbreakable rules for navigating society, contested stories about their grandparents’ early lives, capacious musical talents, and an opal necklace of uncertain origin.

In this sparkling debut, Shannon Sanders brings us into the company of this majestically complicated multigenerational family as they meet, bicker, celebrate, worry, keep and reveal secrets, build lives and careers, and endure. With deceptive ease, Sanders captures the nuanced performances of the most intimate and most estranged family relationships. From a pair of brothers reuniting to oust a deadbeat boyfriend from their mother’s home to a quartet of nieces roped into attending a party in their aunt’s honour, from unexpected visitors to ghostly presences and unwelcome memories, each gathering in this collection is filled with buoyancy and affection, with solemnity and sadness.

The family stories that comprise Company lead to a deeper, more compelling truth about the rules by which we live – those that we inherit, and those that we make for ourselves.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

Release Date: 23rd May 2024

Every second of Anuri’s life has been documented on social media. Now, it’s time to take back control.

Anuri’s stepmother, Ophelia, is the ultimate ‘mumfluencer’. Throughout Anuri’s childhood, she catalogued every minute, milestone and carefully curated family outing on social media, cultivating a devoted – and sizeable – following. Now twenty-five years old, life looks pretty perfect on the outside. Ophelia’s fans could be forgiven for wondering why Anuri spends much of her time insulting men online for money, battling the call of alcohol, running from a PhD application, and reminding herself that she is now allowed to choose her own outfits.

But when she sees her little sister being pushed down the same rocky path by Ophelia, she decides to take back control. Her stepmother, however, isn’t giving up without a fight.

Put away your phone and get ready to rethink your ‘harmless’ social media habit, in this darkly hilarious page-turner from an exciting new voice.

One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon

Release Date: 11th June 2024

The Stepford Wives meets Get Out in #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon’s first adult novel, a terrifying and thought-provoking look at what it means to be truly free in America.

When Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, they hope to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.

Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by Liberty’s outlook, a frustration that turns to dread when their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. As Jasmyn learns more about Liberty and its founders, she discovers a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined.

For Such A Time As This by Shani Akilah

Release Date: 13th June 2024

Gabby and Jonathan cross paths at a wedding. They both wonder if this could be the start of something, but fate has other ideas.

When Niah tries to call out her employer for their empty words about diversity and inclusion, she comes face to face with racism reaching right to the very top.

Sharna is holding onto her own secret when she sets out for Jamaica to visit her grandfather, on a trip that throws fresh light onto the family history she has always taken for granted.

Shani Akilah’s stunning collection brings to life the stories of Black-British Londoners as they explore friendship and romance, community and independence, and navigate their way through the relationships that make them who they are.

Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

Release Date: 18th June 2024

A thrilling new novel from the bestselling, award-winning Akwaeke Emezi, about five friends trying to outrun and outmatch a powerful, underground world.

One weekend. The elite underbelly of a Nigerian city. A breakup that starts a spiral. A party that goes awry. A tangled web of sex and lies and corruption that leaves no one unscathed. Little Rot is a whirling journey through the city’s dark side, told through the eyes of five people, each determined to run from the twisted powers out to destroy them.

Aima and Kalu are a longtime couple who have just split. When Kalu, reeling from his loss, visits a sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them all into chaos, brutally upending their lives. Ola and Souraya, two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur, intersect with the three old friends as everything goes to hell. Sucked into the city’s corrupt underworld, they’re all looking for a way out of the trouble they’ve instigated, driven by loss and fueled by a desperate need to escape the dangerous threat that looms over them. They careen madly in the face of the poison of power, sexual violence, murder, betrayals. Little Rot tests how far these five will go to save each other—or themselves—when confronted by evil, culminating in a shattering denouement.

With each novel, with each creation, Akwaeke Emezi shows their genius as a storyteller, as a visionary force who has created a thrilling tale of sex, power, and deviance in Little Rot. You won’t be able to look away.

Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi

Release Date: 2nd July 2024

Set in a wonderfully reimagined 15th century West Africa, Masquerade is a dazzling, lyrical tale exploring the true cost of one woman’s fight for freedom and self-discovery, and the lengths she’ll go to secure her future.

Òdòdó’s hometown of Timbuktu has been conquered by the warrior king of Yorùbáland. Already shunned as social pariahs, living conditions for Òdòdó and the other women in her blacksmith guild grow even worse under Yorùbá rule.

Then Òdòdó is abducted. She is whisked across the Sahara to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, where she is shocked to discover that her kidnapper is none other than the vagrant who had visited her guild just days prior. But now that he is swathed in riches rather than rags, Òdòdó realizes he is not a vagrant at all; he is the warrior king, and he has chosen her to be his wife.

In a sudden change of fortune, Òdòdó soars to the very heights of society. But after a lifetime of subjugation, the power that saturates this world of battle and political savvy becomes too enticing to resist. As tensions with rival states grow, revealing elaborate schemes and enemies hidden in plain sight, Òdòdó must defy the cruel king she has been forced to wed by re-forging the shaky loyalties of the court in her favor, or risk losing everything–including her life.

Loosely based on the myth of Persephone, O.O. Sangoyomi’s Masquerade takes you on a journey of epic power struggles and political intrigue that turn an entire region on its head.

Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow by Damilare Kuku

Release Date: 18th July 2024

From the bestselling author of Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad comes a powerful polyphonic novel about family secrets, judgmental aunties, and Brazilian butt lifts.

Freshly out of university, 20-year-old Temi has a clear plan for her future: she is going to surgically enlarge her backside like all the other Nigerian women, move from Ile-Ife to Lagos, and meet a man who will love her senseless. When she finally finds the courage to tell her mother, older sister, and aunties, at the funeral of her beloved father, her announcement causes an uproar – because in Nigerian families, none of your business is private. Not even if it’s about your bumbum.

But as each of the other women try to cure Temi of what they consider to be insanity, the long-buried secrets that bind and separate them are spilled in the process. In the end, it seems like Temi might be the sanest one sha…

In Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow, Damilare Kuku brings her signature humor, boldness, and compassion to each member of this loveable but exasperating family, whose lives reveal the ways in which a woman’s physical appearance can dictate her life and relationships and showing just how sharp the double-edged sword of beauty can be.

And So I Roar by Abi Daré

Release Date: 6th August 2024

The new novel from the author of the word-of-mouth sensation The Girl with the Louding Voice.

When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother – terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria – and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades.

Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky fourteen-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she’s finally found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. It’s always been Adunni’s dream to get an education, and she’s bursting with excitement.

Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate. . . .

It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth. And Adunni will learn that her ‘louding voice’ is more important than ever, as she must advocate to save not only herself but all the young women of her home village, Ikati.

If she succeeds, she may transform Ikati into a place where girls are allowed to claim the bright futures they deserve – and shout their stories to the world.

Second Tide’s the Charm by Chandra Blumberg

Release Date: 6th August 2024

Love puts you in uncharted waters.

At first glance, Hope Evans just landed the perfect job: spending the summer on a shark research boat. Except as every marine biologist knows, it’s what’s going on beneath the surface that counts, and Hope’s new position comes with a big catch–the boat belongs to her ex-boyfriend, Adrian Hollis-Parker. For three years Hope’s been treading water, staying away from anything that reminds her of their past. It’s time to dive back into a job that could springboard her career–and maybe offer much-needed closure.

Since their split, Adrian has risen to internet fame as a shark expert with the launch of his YouTube channel to dispel myths and educate viewers about sharks. But success rings hollow without Hope. Embracing this new career trajectory was a risk, but working in cramped quarters with the woman he never stopped loving? That has the potential to backfire in heartbreaking ways.

Side by side, weathering storms of every kind, they’ll have to navigate the murky waters of past hurts…and hope it’s not too late to chart a new course…

Young Adult Fiction

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

Release Date: 16th January 2024

Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who’s forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland – perfect for fans of The Priory of the Orange Tree and Fourth Wing.

Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbours.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon-or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.

Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Release Date: 14th March 2024

The impossibly gripping new mystery thriller from international bestselling author of Ace of Spades, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Maureen Johnson

Sade Hussein is the new girl at Alfred Nobel Academy, a prestigious mixed boarding school. She’s always been home-schooled, and has no idea what to expect when she steps through the doors of her imposing new home. But she certainly didn’t imagine her roommate, Elizabeth, going missing on her first night. Or for people to think Sade had something to do with it.

Instead of blending in, suddenly everyone is talking about Sade, including the Unholy Trinity – a group of the most popular girls at the school. Swept up in their circle, Sade still can’t shake the sense that there’s more to Elizabeth’s disappearance – especially as no one seems to care what’s happened to her.

And then a student is found dead.

With sinister secrets rising to the surface of Alfred Noble Academy, Sade and her new friends must uncover the truth surrounding Elizabeth’s disappearance and bring the culprits to justice…before Sade’s own secrets catch up to her.

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams

Release Date: 7th May 2024

A teenager on the run from his past finds the family he never knew existed and the community he never knew he needed at an HBCU for the young, Black, and magical . Enroll in this fresh fantasy debut with the emotional power of Legendborn and the redefined ancestral magic of Lovecraft Country.

Ten years ago, Malik’s life changed forever the night his mother mysteriously vanished and he discovered he had uncontrollable powers. Since then, he has kept his abilities hidden, looking out for himself and his younger foster brother, Taye. Now, at 17, Malik is finally ready to start a new life for both of them, far from the trauma of his past. However, a daring act to rescue Taye reveals an unexpected connection with his long-lost a legendary conjurer with ties to a hidden magical university that Malik’s mother attended.

At Caiman University, Malik’s eyes are opened to a future he never could have envisioned for himself— one that includes the reappearance of his first love, Alexis. His search for answers about his heritage, his powers, and what really happened to his mother exposes the cracks in their magical community as it faces a reawakened evil dating back to the Haitian Revolution. Together with Alexis, Malik discovers a lot beneath the surface at feuding covens and magical politics, forbidden knowledge and buried mysteries.

In a wholly unique saga of family, history and community, Malik must embrace his legacy to save what’s left of his old family as well as his new one. Exploring the roots and secrets that connect us in an unforgettable contemporary setting, this heart-pounding fantasy series opener is a rich tapestry of atmosphere, intrigue, and emotion.

Drown Me With Dreams by Gabi Burton

Release Date: 4th June 2024

In the second book in this dark and seductive YA fantasy duology, a siren must decide if saving her kingdom is worth betraying the boy she loves.

Saoirse Sorkova is on the run. Accused of several murders, her siren identity compromised, even the newly crowned King Hayes can’t protect her if she’s caught. The only way to save her life is to send her on a dangerous mission across the magical barrier that surrounds the kingdom.

Forced to travel with Carrick – once her best friend, now her greatest betrayer – she begins to unravel multiple plots that threaten the safety of her family, the livelihood of the entire kingdom, and her future with Hayes. And the more time she spends with Carrick, the harder it is to keep hating him . . .

Soon, Saoirse is forced to question: what if Hayes isn’t the right ruler for the kingdom? And if he’s not, is she willing to betray her king – and her heart?

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

Release Date: 25th June 2024

New allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
Zélie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.

When Zélie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.

Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. The ruler of the Skulls, Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in foreign lands.

But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.

This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings

Release Date: 6th August 2024

The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life—and death waits in the dark.

It’s 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family’s thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise’s mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.

Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.

But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can’t refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma

Release Date: 5th September 2024

Hidden in our world, a society of vampires originating in Africa, can only feed from select human bloodlines. Each bloodline represents a House more cutthroat than the next. To ensure peaceful co-existence and inherit their legacy, human children of these families must study at an elite university before choosing a vampire companion.

Lost Heiress, Kidan Adane grew up far from Uxlay University. She is obsessively protective, mildly nihilistic, and willing to do anything to save her loved ones. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her – the alluring yet dangerous Susenyos Sagad, the same vampire bound to her own House.

To stay in Uxlay, Kidan must study an arcane philosophy, work with four enigmatic students, and survive living with Susenyos – even as he does everything to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’ violence speaks to her own and tempts Kidan to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill him at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. Here, she discovers a centuries-old threat. And June could be at the very centre of it.

More Than This by Krystal Marquis

Release Date: 14th November 2024

Like the blazing Chicago sun, the drama is heating up for the Davenports and their social set. Before the summer of 1910 drops its last petal, the lives—and loves—of these four young women will change in ways they never could have imagined:

Newly engaged Ruby Tremaine is eagerly planning her wedding to the love of her life when a nasty rumor threatens her reputation and her marriage. Olivia Davenport has committed to the social justice cause and secretly hopes she’ll be reunited with dashing lawyer Washington DeWight—until her parents decide she’s to marry someone else. Amy-Rose Shepherd is making her lifelong wish of owning a salon come true, but when an incident forces her to return to Freeport Manor, she’s back in the path of John Davenport, who still holds her heart. Helen Davenport is determined to get over her own heartbreak and bring the Davenport Carriage Company into the new century, even if it means teaming up with a thrill-seeking racecar driver who just loves to get under her skin.

Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, More Than This is the second book in critically adored Davenports series, following four empowered and passionate young Black women as they navigate a rapidly changing society and discover the courage to steer their own paths in life—and love.

And that concludes my list for 2024!

My reading goal for the year is only 50 books because I have other commitments that will take priority. But I’ll be back with at least 1/2 reviews every month! Sign up for email alerts!

And I’m excited to ALSO announce that I will be starting a book club this year at some point!!

It’s really looking like an exciting year!

Happy reading!