July 2024 New Book Releases

Winter is in full swing, and all we want to do is curl up with a good book. Here are the latest new releases coming to Australia in July, perfect for chasing away the winter blues!*

ROMANCE

If she wasn't dead already, Delphie would be dying of embarrassment. She's entered the afterlife wearing the sort of pyjamas you don't want anyone to see and finds herself face-to-face with the most handsome man she's ever encountered. And he's smiling at her.

As they start to chat, everything else becomes background noise - until someone comes running out of a door, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth.

In a twist of fate, Delphie is offered a deal in which she can return to her previous life and reconnect with the mysterious man she's sure is her soulmate.

The challenge? She only has ten days to find him.

Ten days to make him fall for her.

Oh, and he has no recollection of them ever having met...

The Graves and Tinrock families live life from one con to the next. Phoebe Graves has grown up in a world where stealing and seducing are as natural as breathing.

But, when a job goes horribly wrong, she and her best friend, Hailey Tinrock, decide to leave their life of crime behind. They head to a small college town in Connecticut to start anew. But Hailey’s older brother, Rocky, catches wind of their plans and refuses to let them do this alone.

Phoebe's past with Rocky is downright messy, though – he’s everything she wants, but nothing she can have. And the longer she stays in town, the more Phoebe has to lose . . .

This time they're both playing for keeps . . .

When a very public breakup becomes a PR nightmare for Ian Chase's team, he hopes to focus on his game, but that suddenly seem less likely than a hat trick. With his career and the team's image in jeopardy, Ian is surprised to find a solution through none other than Delilah Baker, his best friend and teammate's little sister . . . who isn't so little anymore.

Delilah Baker is known as 'the darling of baking' on her local cable show, and being in the public eye is her bread and butter. But with her numbers dwindling and her producers turning up the heat, Delilah offers up the half-baked idea to collaborate with her brother's team to entice the hockey fans of Boston to tune in to her show. Delilah thinks it will be a piece of cake - until the team sends Ian Chase, her brother's best friend and the object of a decade-long crush that she's never quite gotten over.

Delilah's and Ian's teams think it's a true win-win situation - gaining higher numbers for Delilah's show and casting Ian in a more positive light. And viewers are eating them up like a cupcake, sparking the idea to play up their relationship for the goal of good press. With more than just their careers on thin ice, the line between what's real and what's for show begins to blur, but one thing's for certain: This PR stunt will either be a total game changer - or leave them both totally pucked.

Book 6 - Salacious Players Club

She can't let them in. Even if they're all she's ever wanted...

As a professional Domme, Eden St. Claire has seen men and women come and go. But no one ever sticks around, and she likes it that way. She has a secret to protect, and she can't let her guard down for anyone. So when cocky, handsome, and submissive Clay Bradley weasels his way into Eden's heart, she does the one thing she's always been good at-she pushes him away And like a good boy, he listens.

But months later, when she sees Clay again by chance, he isn't alone. He has the most stunning woman Eden has ever seen on his arm. And she has a request of her own- She wants Eden to teach her.

Eden knows she should say no. Training a woman who makes her weak in the knees is bad enough. But this particular woman is dating the man Eden can't resist. Her heart wants both of them, but her past is telling her what they have isn't real. It's a recipe for disaster made worse by the fact that they know her secret, and love her all the more for it.

Maybe it's time for Clay and Jade to show Eden that she's so much more than Madame...

I met Violet Eaton online. What happened between us, in our chats, was meant to stay anonymous and in the past. Until it didn’t.

It’s a small world, but Ruby Creek is even smaller. When I move to the tiny town, the grumpy facade I’ve created slips when Violet and I are forced to live under the same roof. Every time her eyes flare with heat, the ice I’ve encased myself in melts. She has me wanting things I can’t want – things I don’t deserve.

But my invisible wounds have the power to ruin us both. As a former soldier, I should have the discipline to walk away, but the more I open up to Violet, the more I want to keep her. I came back from the war a different man, but my scars are older and deeper than anyone knows – and I planned to keep it that way. I planned to keep my secrets hidden. Until her.

Book 2 - Big Shots Series

Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween.

Her tween charge isn’t the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to...well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed, and Tallulah does the “right” thing—breaks her own heart and walks away.

Though Burgess knows it’s for the best—he’s too jaded, with too much baggage—a chance meeting, and a new push from his daughter, forces him to put everything on the line and fight to prove he learned his lessons well and is worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah. 

Book 4 - Windy City series

Kennedy

I'm the only woman on staff for the Windy City Warriors baseball team, and have to maintain my professional reputation. But a Las Vegas run-in with the team's shortstop threatens everything, leaving me with a fuzzy memory and a ring on my left hand.

Isaiah Rhodes is reckless, impulsive, and frustratingly charming. He's also my brand-new husband. And to save my job, I have to pretend the whole thing was planned - the real deal.

They got the saying wrong. What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas... sometimes it follows you right back home.

Isaiah

I've crushed on my team's athletic trainer, Kennedy Kay, for years. So imagine my surprise when I woke up in Sin City with a ring on my finger and my favorite redhead in my bed.

We have to stay married for one baseball season, just long enough to keep her job safe, but now I'm using our time together to prove to her I'm husband material.

Kennedy might be reluctant to join in on our game, but it's one I refuse to lose. So come on, wife... play along.

Book 4 - Lovelight Series

Charlie Milford is a betting man. As the top executive at the investment firm his dad almost ran into the ground, he has to know when to play it close to the chest and when to go all in. So, when Nova Porter proposes one night – no strings – to get their inconvenient attraction out of their systems, he does what he does best. He puts it all on the line.

Nova Porter has no explanation for her attraction to buttoned-up, boat-shoe-owning Charlie Milford. Maybe it’s his charm? Or maybe it’s his determination to help her fledgling business any way he can. Either way, she’s distracted and she needs to be focused. She’s about to expand her homegrown tattoo business and she doesn’t have time for frivolous flirtations.

Too bad her one-night solution doesn’t work out as planned. If anything, their explosive night together leaves her wanting more. And, with Charlie in town temporarily overseeing Lovelight Farms for his sister Stella, there’s no way to avoid him in the tiny neighborhood of Inglewild. Add in a meddling small town, some close quarters and a mischievous duckling and all bets are off.

Joseph and Evelyn's New England beach homes have been side by side for generations. And in the summer of 1941, on the shores where they were raised, these two childhood friends fell in love.

Now, more than sixty years later, Joseph and Evelyn gather their three grown children to share the staggering news: in one year's time, they will end their lives on their own terms. She has received a tragic diagnosis and he cannot - will not - live without her.

As the couple comes to grips with their fate, they reckon with the joys and regrets, the laughter and the sorrow that brought them to this moment. And they create new memories to cherish with each of their children before they're gone.

But as their final days draw closer, they must confront the stark reality of everything they have put in motion. Will they - can they - go through with their plan?

This unforgettable debut is a joyful celebration of life and a deeply romantic love story. The Days I Loved You Most is a moving tribute to the enduring power of love in all its guises.

Winning the lottery ruined Opal Devlin's life. She may have been able to leave her dead-end job, but now she's getting endlessly bombarded with people knocking at her door for a handout . . . and she can't seem to stop saying yes.

Opal realises she has a chance to follow her own dreams, and decides to spend almost all her new money on a failing flower farm in North Carolina where she can start her painting business. But her plans for isolation soon go hopelessly awry when an angry (albeit gorgeous) Pepper Boden is waiting for her at her new farm. Pepper states that she's the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms, and she isn't moving out.

There's not much else they can do except strike up an agreement of co-habitation, but they're soon butting heads at every turn. While they each have a reason to stay, can these two opposites find a way to plant some roots? Or will their combustible arguing (and growing attraction) burn the whole place down?

Jaxon Riley is exceptional at three things: starting fights on the ice, picking up women post-game, and going home to fulfill his role as the world’s best cat dad. Relationships, unfortunately, missed the list.
 
Lennon Hayes is supposed to be on her honeymoon. Instead, she’s alone and single, vacationing next door to a surly tattooed man who ran his date off the resort. When a run-in at the bar results in a night of bickering and cocktails, she finds herself tumbling into bed with the enemy next door, then sneaking out before the sun comes up.
 
Lennon’s plan to start over in a new city is going great, until she starts her new job. The job? The Vancouver Vipers’ new photographer. And the defenseman scowling at her from across the room? The one-night stand she wasn’t supposed to see again. Good thing neither of them are looking for anything serious… Right?
 
Jaxon may not be used to falling, but if he’s going to go, he refuses to go alone. If he falls, he wants Lennon to fall with him.

FANTASY

Book 2 - Powerless Trilogy

The kingdom of Ilya is in turmoil…

After surviving the Purging Trials, Ordinary-born Paedyn Gray has killed the King, and kickstarted a Resistance throughout the land. Now she’s running from the one person she had wanted to run to.

Kai Azer is now Ilya’s Enforcer, loyal to his brother Kitt, the new King. He has vowed to find Paedyn and bring her to justice.  

Across the deadly Scorches, and deep into the hostile city of Dor, Kai pursues the one person he wishes he didn’t have to. But in a city without Elites, the balance between the hunter and hunted shifts – and the battle between duty and desire is deadly.

The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin's father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry instead - but when she discovers that her husband-to-be is violent and ill-tempered, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father's place.

In the army, Meilin's hard work brings her recognition, friendship - and a growing closeness with Sky, a prince turned training partner.

But as her kingdom barrels towards destruction, Meilin must decide who to trust: Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; a sea dragon spirit with the power to grant her impossible magic; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew - about her kingdom, her loyalty and her own heart.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.

She and her assistant, Caz, a sentient spider plant, have spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite. But a revolution is brewing and when the library goes up in flames, Kiela and Caz steal whatever books they can and flee to the faraway island where she grew up. But to her dismay, in addition to a nosy – and very handsome – neighbor, she finds the town in disarray.

The empire has slowly been draining power from the island, and now Kiela is determined to make things right. But opening up her own spellshop comes with its own risks – the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela starts to make a place for herself among the townspeople, she realizes she must break down the walls she has kept so high.

Orphaned, lonely, and lost in his photography work, Tom has no intention of falling in love. And yet, love finds him in the shape of beautiful Vanessa, who lives a dangerous double life in the heart of London's King's Cross.

Tom's pursuit of Vanessa leads him to discover an alternate world, hidden amongst the streets and rooftops of London - and inhabited by strange and colorful beings. In this mysterious realm, two ancient factions - one of night, one of day - have waged war for centuries over a forbidden love and a long-lost prince of sun and starlight.

But when Tom finds a secret market that appears only in moonlight, where charms and spells are bought with memories, he starts to wonder whether he's been here before...

Seven years ago, I lost him for good. Now he's back, but is he still the Jay Gatsby I used to know…or is he something more? Something…darker.

Daisy Finnegan is looking forward to the endless golden freedom of summer. She doesn't want to think about life after college, or the newly awakened power of her voice, which has a way of making people do frightening things. But when her cousin goes missing at an exclusive house party, Daisy confronts the mysterious host…only to discover the wealthy recluse is Jay Gatsby, her childhood sweetheart―now sinfully hot and impossible to deny.

It isn't long before Daisy becomes entangled in a web of dizzying wealth and lies and obsession darker than she could have dreamed―culminating in a shocking act of violence that shatters the summer haze and threatens to drown them all.

But it isn't until Gatsby is shot through the heart―and survives―that Daisy discovers the truth of how Gatsby clawed his way up in the world by selling the secret of immortality to the highest bidder. Now with her friends' lives at stake, her own untested power still volatile, and an unimaginable threat closing in, Daisy will have to face an impossible choice: side with the man who claimed her body and soul…or with the monsters who would see him lost to her forever.

An addictive and truly original spicy New Adult retelling of The Great Gatsby with a magical twist.

Release Date - 23rd July 2024

Once upon a time, two boys went missing in the woods. Six months later, they reappeared, with no explanation for where they'd been or how they'd survived.

Fifteen years on, Rafe is a reclusive artist with no memory of what happened during those months, despite the scars he bears. Meanwhile, Jeremy is a famed missing persons investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her long-lost sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.

Jeremy also keeps a secret: the fantastical truth about the magical realm they made home for those six months. And it's there they may find Emilie's sister.

Alongside Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they left behind - for only then can they get back everything and everyone they've lost.

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He's impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor's fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

THRILLER/HORROR

Some said it was tragic, what happened to the Van Laars.

Some said the Van Laars deserved it. That they never even thanked the searchers who stayed out for five nights in the freezing forest trying to help find their missing son.

Some said there was a reason it took the family so long to call for help. That they knew what happened to the boy.

Now, fifteen years later, the daughter the family had in their grief has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother. Some say the two disappearances aren’t connected.

Some say they are.

Meredith McCall was once a respected New York City psychiatrist. But the night of the accident she lost everything: her husband, her reputation and almost her mind.

When she crosses paths with the man whom she shares the most tragic connection, Meredith can't help but follow him. How is Gabriel Wright doing so well when her life is in shambles?

Watching Gabriel from afar becomes a compulsion she just can't shake - her newest obsession. But when he walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical bounds to treat him. Yet, Meredith can't bring herself to turn him away...

Could delving into Gabriel's mind give her the answers that she needs? Or will their relationship set off a chain of events that she can no longer control?

Ellery Wainwright is alone at the edge of the world.

She and her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their twentieth wedding anniversary together at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California. Where better to celebrate a marriage, a family, and a life together than at one of the most stunning places on earth?

But now she's traveling solo.

To add insult to injury, there's a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now, she isn't certain of anything except for her love for her kids and her growing realization that this place, though beautiful, is unsettling.

When Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool in the rain, she realizes that she is not the only one whose future is no longer guaranteed. Before the police can reach Broken Point, a mudslide takes out the road to the resort, leaving the guests trapped. When another guest dies, it's clear something horrible is brewing.

Everyone at Broken Point has a secret. And everyone has a shadow. Including Ellery.

When Nina's father dies, she inherits a gleaming dream vacation home in a balmy tropical paradise - one she had no idea existed. The house is extraordinary: state-of-the-art, all glass and marble. How did her sensible father ever have enough money for this? And why not tell her about it? Desperate to uncover why he hid such a big secret, she decides to visit.

Maria, once an ambitious medical student, is now a nanny for the super-rich. The money's better, and so are the destinations - like this new assignment in the British Virgin Islands. But when her wards never show, Maria begins to make herself at home, spending her days luxuriating by the pool. There's just one rule: Don't go in the basement. But her curiosity might just get the better of her. And soon, she'll wish her only worry was not getting paid.

As both women's timelines intertwine, dark secrets start to unravel and one thing quickly becomes clear - nothing could have prepared them for what they are about to encounter.

YOUNG ADULT

Book 2 - A Thousand Boy Kisses

After losing her beloved sister three years ago, Savanna Litchfield has been living half a life. When Savannah's therapist suggests joining a trip around the world for grieving teens she agrees to go clutching tightly to the unread journal her sister left behind.

Seventeen-year-old Cael Woods is angry. One year after losing his older brother his life has spiraled. Once the most promising hockey player in the junior league, Cael can no longer step onto the ice. When his parents sign him up for a trip abroad no part of him wants to go.

As Cael and Savannah embark on a journey they begin to find solace in each other. As they start to heal piece by broken piece, could this be the start of a love they never thought they'd feel again?

Devon Harris doesn't have much planned for the summer - until her sister, Drew, invites Devon to a very exclusive private school party.

Out of her element, Devon commits to being game at everything. Even when the private school kids ask her if there are fights at her school. Even when they ask her if her box braids are her real hair. Even when those weird ass kids pull out a Ouija board.

But this seemingly harmless bit of fun has terrible consequences. Something has been released, and only a week later it's hunting Devon, Drew and their friends. Hunting them in an eerily familiar way . . .

The real-life horror movie has begun. The blonde is up first, then the asshole - right up to the Final Girl. Unless the murderous cycle can be broken, they're all going to be next.

* Release dates based upon Amazon Australia book release dates