September is just around the corner. Seriously just a few more days! That means my kids return* to school. I think I'm prepared for that and I know three of my four kids are ready. Hopefully the transition back to school goes well for everyone.
That being said, a new month also means new books being released!
What books have my attention? Keep reading!
There are a lot of books scheduled for release this September. I am choosing to focus on those that I have been eagerly anticipating. Are you ready to hear about the six books I am anticipating this month? Let's get started.
Releasing September 1st
Rules for Dating Your Ex by Piper Rayne
This is the 9th book in their Bailey series, and it is the last of the full length novels. Or so I've heard. After all, with this book all 9 of the Bailey "kids" have been discussed. Excuse me while I go cry in the corner.
Rules for Dating Your Ex brings us to the story we've been waiting for. Especially since we've been receiving snippets of Sedona's story here and there. Plus I think the majority of us readers are wanting to knock some sense into Jameson. I mean, come on now. Anyway, here is the blurb about the book:
If your ex arrives in your hometown eighteen months after you walked out on him while you were eight months pregnant, follow this short list of rules before you give him a second chance.
Rule #1 – Don’t stand in the way of your brothers who want to rough him up.
Rule #2 – Don’t meet him for coffee and agree to allow him to meet your daughter.
Rule #3 – Don’t drool when your daughter falls asleep on his chest for the first time. It’s just your ovaries talking.
Rule #4 – Don’t let him hold your hand. While we’re at it, no hugs, no kisses on the cheek… just no physical contact in general. That only leads to remembering better times.
The last one is the most important…
Rule #5 – When you find yourself needing someone’s help and you’re tired of always asking your family, don’t let him be the one who’s there for you.
Because all those good qualities of his will suck you right back in and you’ll have no chance of fighting your feelings, especially now that he’s ready to be a father to your daughter.
Only One Kiss by Natasha Madison
Let's play hockey! Months ago, in her Facebook group, Natasha Madison mentioned she was working on a new hockey series. I was all in immediately. I LOVE a good NHL hockey romance. LOVE! So naturally I pre-ordered, and am eagerly awaiting September 1st.
Only One Kiss is the first book in Madison's new series, and we are headed to Dallas. Here we will meet Candace, who is a social media manager for over 50 professional athletes. So to say her schedule is busy would be an understatement. Then here comes Ralph, and he's just been traded to Dallas. I don't know too much more than that, with the exception of what the teaser tells me, which is:
Only One Kiss is the first book in Madison's new series, and we are headed to Dallas. Here we will meet Candace, who is a social media manager for over 50 professional athletes. So to say her schedule is busy would be an understatement. Then here comes Ralph, and he's just been traded to Dallas. I don't know too much more than that, with the exception of what the teaser tells me, which is:
Ralph
Being traded to Dallas was a dream come true. I had everything I wanted, my game had never been better, and my wife was due to have our baby any day now.
What could go wrong?
Everything.
I was now raising our baby on my own. After hockey practice and games, I didn't have time to sleep, let alone make sure my social media was up to par.
I never thought I'd get a second chance at love.
Candace
When my hotshot brother was drafted in the NHL, he didn't have time to do his social media, so I took over for him. Little did I know it would become my career.
My plate was full with over fifty NHL players, and I wasn't taking on any new clients.
Yet when he showed up on my doorstep with the cutest little girl in the whole world, I couldn't say no.
I was just helping, but it turned into more than that. He's the man I've been waiting for.
All it takes is one touch, one night, one chance, and only one kiss.
Oh my heart. Bring it on Natasha, bring it on. I know you will make me fall in love with these characters, only to have one or both try to mess things up, and my heart will break. Only to have the pieces put back together.
Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin
I already know what you're thinking. Trust me I do. Yes, I know that Blood & Honey falls more into the fantasy genre than the romance genre. But there is still a romance happening in this book. Or at least there was in Serpent & Dove. So I'm hopeful that we pick up right where we left off.
Now if you've read Serpent & Dove, you know how that book ended! If you haven't read Serpent & Dove, do so before picking this new release as it is sounding like Blood & Honey is returning us to that moment. (or rather shortly there after)
Now if you've read Serpent & Dove, you know how that book ended! If you haven't read Serpent & Dove, do so before picking this new release as it is sounding like Blood & Honey is returning us to that moment. (or rather shortly there after)
After narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Dames Blanches, Lou, Reid, Coco, and Ansel are on the run from coven, kingdom, and church—fugitives with nowhere to hide.
To elude the scores of witches and throngs of chasseurs at their heels, Lou and Reid need allies. Strong ones. But protection comes at a price, and the group is forced to embark on separate quests to build their forces. As Lou and Reid try to close the widening rift between them, the dastardly Morgane baits them in a lethal game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy something worth more than any coven.
I'm not ready. I AM NOT READY!
Releasing September 22
Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey
Tools of Engagement is the third installment in the Hot and Hammered series. If you read Love Her or Lose Her (book 2), then you may rememeber Wes. Well it is time folks. It is time. Bethany and Wes are getting their story. I am here for it.
Hair, makeup, clothing, decor... everything in Bethany Castle's world is organized, planned, and styled to perfection. Which is why the homes she designs for her family's real estate business are the most coveted in town. The only thing not perfect? Her track record with men. She's on a dating hiatus and after helping her friends achieve their dreams, Bethany finally has time to focus on her own: flip a house, from framework to furnishings, all by herself. Except her older brother runs the company and refuses to take her seriously.
When a television producer gets wind of the Castle sibling rivalry, they’re invited on Flip Off, a competition to see who can do the best renovation. Bethany wants bragging rights, but she needs a crew and the only member of her brother's construction team willing to jump ship is Wes Daniels, the new guy in town. His Texas drawl and handsome face got under Bethany's skin on day one, but the last thing she needs is some cocky young cowboy in her way.
As the race to renovate heats up, Wes and Bethany are forced into close quarters, trading barbs and biting banter as they remodel the ugliest house on the block. It's a labor of love, hate, and everything in between, and soon sparks are flying. But Bethany's perfectly structured life is one kiss away from going up in smoke and she knows falling for a guy like Wes would be a flipping disaster.
Well Played by Jen DeLuca
Let's go to the Renaissance Festival! It is that time of year after all. (Okay fine, except in real life. We all know that large events have been canceled, so we have to experience them through other means. Thanks pandemic.) If you read Well Met, you know the setting for this story. You also know that the community puts together an elaborate Faire each year. You also already know Stacy. What you don't know is that someone is secretly sending her love notes. Who could it be? I have my hunch, but I'm wavering on if I'm correct.
Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it's been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she'll even find The One.
When Stacey imagined "The One," it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she's not sure what to make of it.
Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey's shock, it isn't Dex—she's been falling in love with a man she barely knows.
Who do you think this mystery man is? Is it a new character, or someone we met in the first book?
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Oh Jodi Picoult. Your books captured my attention years ago, and I keep coming back for more. You'd think my heart couldn't take the roller coaster that your books send me through, but clearly I can handle it.
The Book of Two Ways introduces us to Dawn. She is currently on an airplane, and just heard the flight attendant say the words no passenger wants to hear. They are about to crash. As you would imagine, Dawn's mind begins to go wild. She thinks of the man she loves. Only she realizes the man that comes to immediate thought isn't her husband, but a man she knew years before.
The Book of Two Ways introduces us to Dawn. She is currently on an airplane, and just heard the flight attendant say the words no passenger wants to hear. They are about to crash. As you would imagine, Dawn's mind begins to go wild. She thinks of the man she loves. Only she realizes the man that comes to immediate thought isn't her husband, but a man she knew years before.
Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.
Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, in which she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients.
But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.
After the crash landing, the airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path: return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways—the first known map of the afterlife.
As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them. Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What does a life well lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices . . . or do our choices make us? And who would you be if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?
Have the tissues on hand. I'm pretty sure our emotions are going to go through the wringer.
I cannot wait to dive in to these books! I have two of them pre-ordered, and am trying to figure out which to read first. The others will more than likely come from my local library. I am also hoping that Samantha Whiskey releases another book from her Raleigh Raptors football series. I would absolutely love that, and devour the book immediately. Well unless it comes out on September 1st. Sorry but I'm busy that day.
What books are on your radar for September? Did any of them make my list? Let me know!
Happy Reading,
*and by return I mean a combination of hybrid and in-person. for now. I see it switching to all distance.
