New Adult Fiction: Tuesday, June 17

Happy Tuesday! If you’ve got some spare time tonight after the day’s activities are done, consider picking up a good book. Stop by when you can (we’re open til 8 pm). If you’d like to place a title on hold online, go to https://owwl.org and sign in to your account using your library card number. Pick up your book from the shelves near the circulation desk when you have time.

Here are a few of the new fiction books that have arrived at the library recently. We invite you to check them out.

Skin and Bones

Skin and Bones features a collection of eight gripping original short stories in the bestselling Mike Bowditch series—including one brand new, never-before-published story—from Edgar-award nominated author Paul Doiron. In “The Bear Trap,” legendary Maine woodsman and bush pilot Charley Stevens tries to convince young Mike of the dangers awaiting rookie game wardens. “Rabid” draws Mike into the story of a gruesome case involving a bat with rabies from Charley Steven’s past (2019 Edgar award nominee for Best Short Story). When a visiting hunter goes missing in the middle of a snowstorm, a young Charley Stevens sets off to rescue him—but begins to suspect the man may not want to be found in “Backtrack.”

Anji Kills a King

Anji works as a castle servant, cleaning laundry for a king she hates. So when a rare opportunity presents itself, she seizes the chance to cut his throat. In her wake, the kingdom is thrown into disarray, while a bounty bigger than anyone could imagine lands on her head. On her heels are the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie, whose animal-shaped masks are magical relics rumored to give them superhuman powers. It’s the Hawk who finds Anji first: a surly, aging swordswoman who has her own reasons for keeping Anji alive and out of the hands of her fellow bounty hunters, if only long enough to collect the reward herself. With the rest of the Menagerie on their trail, so begins an alliance as tenuous as it is temporary—and a race against death that will decide Anji’s fate.

After Happily Ever

Princesses Neve, Della, and Bry are sisters-in-law, having married into the royal Charming family, and for the last thirty-plus years, they’ve been living a coveted happily-ever-after life. But royal life isn’t what it seems. Bry’s people-pleasing is exhausting her, Della’s exquisite and renowned beauty is fading with time, and Neve dreads the prospect of becoming queen, because power makes one a target, and she doesn’t want to be killed…again. Then the king’s sudden death thrusts each princess into a personal quest that shows her the truth behind the kingdom’s “perfection” and challenges her sense of purpose. Will each of the royal women take her rightful place, build her new legend, and create her own new happily-ever-after, in midlife? And with all these drastic changes happening at once, will the kingdom of Foreverness survive it?