Most Anticipated Books: June 2019 Releases

Another month, another slew of book releases. Even better, two of them are lesbian stories. I’m always down for a good lesbian story. And just in time for Pride Month!

There are seven books I’m excited to read that drop this month and it’s time I told you about them.

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In at the Deep End by Kate Davies

Release Date: June 4

Summary: Julia hasn’t had sex in three years. Her roommate has a boyfriend— and their sex noises are audible through the walls, maybe even throughout the neighborhood. Not to mention, she’s treading water in a dead-end job, her know-it-all therapist gives her advice she doesn’t ask for, and the men she is surrounded by are, to be polite, subpar. Enough is enough.

So when Julia gets invited to a warehouse party in a part of town where “trendy people who have lots of sex might go on a Friday night”— she readily accepts. Whom she meets there, however, is surprising: a conceptual artist, also a woman.

Julia’s sexual awakening begins; her new lesbian life, as she coins it, is exhilarating. She finds her tribe at queer swing dancing classes, and guided by her new lover Sam, she soon discovers London’s gay bars and BDSM clubs, and… the complexities of polyamory. Soon it becomes clear that Sam needs to call the shots, and Julia’s newfound liberation comes to bear a suspicious resemblance to entrapment…

My Impression: Lesbianism? Complex relationships? I am all about this. It’s been compared to Bridget Jones, which I haven’t read but know is a fun rom-com. I’m curious to see how Davies will balance that with the darker subjects and themes.

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The Red Labyrinth by Meredith Tate

Release Date: June 4

Summary: The massive labyrinth was built to protect Zadie Kalver’s isolated desert town. Unfortunately, living in the maze’s shadow makes her feel anything but safe. Even without its enchanted deathtraps and illusions, a mysterious killer named Dex lurks in its corridors, terrorizing anyone in his path.

But when Zadie’s best friend vanishes into the labyrinth— and everyone mysteriously forgets he exists— completing the maze becomes her only hope of saving him. In desperation, Zadie bribes the only person who knows the safe path through— Dex— into forming a tenuous alliance.

Navigating a deadly garden, a lethal blood-filled hourglass, and other traps— with an untrustworthy murderer for her guide— Zadie’s one wrong step from certain death. But with time running out before her friend (and secret crush) is lost forever, Zadie must reach the exit and find him. If Dex and the labyrinth don’t kill her first.

My Impression: I actually got this as an ARC months ago, but keep forgetting I have it. It sounds like it has potential to be twisted and morally gray, so I’m totally down. I also like how this story is seemingly both fantasy and dystopian. I’m excited to give it a shot.

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Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, and Robin Wasserman

Release Date: June 4

Summary: The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks, and vampires. There the Downworlders buy and sell magical objects, make dark bargains, and whisper secrets they do not want the Nephilim to know. Through two centuries, however, there has been a frequent visitor to the Shadow Market from the City of Bones, the very heart of the Shadowhunters. As a Silent Brother, Brother Zachariah is sworn keeper of the laws and lore of the Nephilim. But once he was a Shadowhunter called Jem Carstairs, and his love, then and always, is the warlock Tessa Gray.

Follow Brother Zachariah and see, against the backdrop of the Shadow Market’s dark dealings and festive celebrations, Anna Lightwood’s first romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin, and Tessa Gray plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul at the Market and a young Jace Wayland’s soul finds safe harbor. In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost, and no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Brother Zachariah…

My Impression: I am ready for the final few stories. I need to meet Baby Carstairs. Give it to me, Clare!

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Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Release Date: June 4

Summary: All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery— magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught— about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

My Impression: I didn’t love An Enchantment of Ravens the way I wanted to, but I’m willing to give Rogerson another chance. Her covers are so pretty and I’m always down for dark magic and mystical libraries.

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Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi

Release Date: June 11

Summary: Sana Khan is a cheerleader and a straight A student. She’s the classic (somewhat obnoxious) overachiever determined to win.

Rachel Recht is a wannabe director who’s obsessed with movies and ready to make her own masterpiece. As she’s casting her senior film project, she knows she’s found the perfect lead— Sana.

There’s only one problem. Rachel hates Sana. Rachel was the first girl Sana ever asked out, but Rachel thought it was a cruel prank and has detested Sana ever since.

Told in alternative viewpoints and inspired by classic romantic comedies, this engaging and edgy YA novel follows two strong-willed young women falling for each other despite themselves.

My Impression: A hate-to-love lesbian rom-com? I need it in my hands now.

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The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey

Release Date: June 11

Summary: The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war’s horrifying despair. But this newfound hedonism— drugs and sex and endless parties— distracts from strange realities of everyday life: Intelligent automata taking jobs. Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war. A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day. And a new plague that even the ceaseless euphoria can’t mask.

Unlike others who live strictly for fun, Largo is an addict with ambitions. A bike messenger who grew up in the slums, he knows the city’s streets and its secrets intimately. His life seems set. He has a beautiful girlfriend, drugs, a chance at a promotion— and maybe, an opportunity for complete transformation: a contact among the elite who will set him on the course to lift himself up out of the streets.

But dreams can be a dangerous thing in a city whose mood is turning dark and inward. Others have a vision of life very different from Largo’s, and they will use any methods to secure control. And in behind it all, beyond the frivolity and chaos, the threat of new war always looms.

My Impression: This sounds like a really interesting take on a sci-fi world after the good guys win the war. We always assume it’s all peace and happiness, but I can see why it wouldn’t be. I think this could be a cool take.

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Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans

Release Date: June 11

Summary: Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the returning, unearthly horror they only just survived as teenage role-players. If Kieron’s in a rush, he describes it as “Goth Jumanji“, but that’s only the tip of this obsidian iceberg.

My Impression: Kieron Gillen is one of my favorite graphic novel writers, so I was down to read this before I read “Goth Jumanji.”

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What book releases are you looking forward to this month? Let me know in the comments!

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