2018 New Releases You Must Read – Part 1

This is part 1 in a two part article showcasing the top 10 books to read this year!

Finding new and amazing books is like finding a personal treasure for me. I cannot express the amount of time I’ve spent in bookstores looking through the New Releases section with dozens of new books only to be completely disappointed.

Instead of doing that, I’ve spent hours looking through upcoming new releases for the rest of this year and have narrowed it down to my favorite ten! These are top quality stories that I highly recommend you check out this year!

These TOP 10 New Releases for 2018 feature some budding new authors releasing their first novels as well as other well established authors that have proven themselves. I hope you find something in this list that catches your attention and can be added to your home library!

The Bookshop of Yesterdays

by Amy Meyerson
Debut novel – Releasing June 12, 2018

Have you ever thought about what memories and trinkets can be found in everyday books? My husband keeps holiday greeting cards that I get for him stuffed neatly between the heavy pages of books in our bedroom. When asked how she was inspired to write this story, author Amy Meyerson, commented that this concept about personal objects being stored in our favorite books is exactly what started her on the journey to writing The Bookshop of Yesterdays thanks to a 2008 New York Times article titled You Never Know What You’ll Find in a Book.

In The Bookshop of Yesterdays, a young woman, Miranda, inherits a bookstore from her uncle who passed away. The store is teetering on ruins and bankruptcy and the last time she saw her uncle was when she was 12 and he had a falling out with Miranda’s mother. As a child, Miranda used to enjoy scavenger hunts with her uncle in the bookstore and now that she’s the owner she is finding that clues were left for her within the pages of novels on the shelves. As she unravels the mystery of these messages and interacts with people from her Uncle’s life, she begins to understand the secrets behind their family’s fallout.

Filled with family secrets, mystery and intrigue, this book is sure to keep you engaged as you learn more about their family and of course, doing it through the use of books – which we all love!

The Book of M

by Peng Shepherd
Debut novel – June 5, 2018

Sometimes memories can be painful or tragic and sometimes they are the only thing holding us together.

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

– Lois Lowry, The Giver

Sharing our memories with those we love is what binds us together in our humanity and how we continue to learn from our lessons and from those around us.

The plague begins with your shadow disappearing, then you start gaining new and amazing powers, but all at the price of losing your memories. What would it feel like to suffer from a plague where all your memories fade away?

In The Book of M, Ory and Max try to survive together through this plague that strips everyone of all their memories. Ory finds himself chasing after his wife through the ensuing chaos as her shadow begins to disappear and they risk losing each other and their memories. While behind the scenes, a war is brewing between those who remember and those who worship the shadowless.

Not a story you want to miss this summer!

The Middleman

by Olen Steinhauer

August 7, 2018

A new release, from New York Times bestseller Olen Steinhauer, is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

In the summer of 2017, 400 people dissapear leaving everything behind and no clues as to where they’ve gone or why they’ve left. The movement is called the Massive Brigade and believes that America is not changing fast enough, so they want to move along the process more quickly. This novel is entangled with the politics of our time and The Middleman delves into the mind of today’s fanatics in a representation of people who choose to dissapear in order to make a statement, leaving behind everything and choosing to no longet exist.

As their movement continues to develop, the massive brigade, is being investigated and we soon find out that there are far greater threats to unravel in order to find the answers.

Treeborne

by Caleb Johnson
Debut novel – June 5, 2018

Home is more than just a place. There are generations of memories for every location. Janie Treeborne lives in Elberta, Alabama which has seen its share of dark history and as it becomes threatened again, she remembers the past to help bring about the future of her home.

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.”

– Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

Bringing together the dark past of the south with the rising tide of today’s changing population, Treeborne is a must read this summer!

The Winter of the Witch

by Katherine Arden
January 8, 2019

This book was originally planned for an August 2018 release, but Arden’s publisher recommended a winter release due to the wintry nature of the story. Therefore, I am still including this as part of the 2018 releases not to miss.

The Winter of the Witch is the third, and final, installment in the Winternight Trilogy and I have been anxiously awaiting its release for months already! Earlier this year I came across Book 1 in the series, The Bear and the Nightingale, and after reading it, I quickly went and purchased Book 2, The Girl in the Tower – I was hooked!

It was devilishly easy to fall in love with the characters and the storyline. The series takes place in old-time Russia and parallels a modern fairy tale. The main character Vasya has grown from a young child in the first book to a young woman in the second book. She is special in that she can see the hidden fairy tale creatures around her that help assist in everyday life and death.

As she grows into a young woman, she finds herself bound to the frost demon Morozco and their relationship continues to develop through her powerful magical ties and their adoration for one another.

I can’t wait to read the conclusion in this trilogy and see what happens!