The best new books out today 📚
 Hello, book lovers! Each week, dozens of new releases hit the shelves. Here are our favorites. ❤️📚 –The BuzzFeed Books team
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 Credit: Minotaur Books, Custom House A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver (Minotaur Books)
Born into a family of professional thieves, Electra McDonnell knows that her life isn't exactly normal, but it does pay the bills while her cousins are off fighting the Nazis. But when she and her uncle are set up and caught red-handed at a crime scene, they're offered a choice by government official Major Ramsey: Break into a safe and retrieve blueprints critical to the British war effort or be turned over to the police. Ever the patriot, Electra agrees, only to discover the blueprints already stolen and a dead German spy on the ground. Suddenly, Electra and Ramsey must join forces to figure out who betrayed them and their country. —Kirby Beaton
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang (Custom House)
I loved Kathy Wang's 2019 debut, Family Trust, about a dying patriarch being coy with his wealth. (It was the inaugural BuzzFeed Book Club pick.) Her excellent sophomore release, Impostor Syndrome, is a far cry from a domestic drama: It's an intricate and suspenseful piece of corporate espionage, following Julia Lerner, a Russian spy playing the long game as a COO in Silicon Valley, and Alice Lu, the employee whose accidental discovery might threaten everything. Amid the excitement, Wang deftly explores some of the broader cultural issues she broached in Family Trust as well — how women and BIPOC are treated in corporate America, and who has access to the American dream. —Arianna Rebolini
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
 Credit: Flatiron Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by Samantha Silva (Flatiron Books)
On a hot day in August 1797, midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop arrives at Mary Wollstonecraft's home to assist in the birth of her daughter — the baby who would grow to write Frankenstein and upend the literary world. The birth is complicated, though, and over the course of eleven days spent fighting for both her and her baby's lives, Wollstonecraft reflects on her life as a woman in the 18th century who dared to live outside the norms of her oppressive, patriarchal society. It's a thought-provoking, beautifully written story of mothers and daughters. —Kirby Beaton
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
 Credit: Berkley Books, Avon Books Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick (Berkley Books)
Event planner Carter Ogden is nursing his wounds after a bad breakup, so when he happens to meet Edgar — the openly gay English prince — at a work event and feels a spark, he's not sure if it's all in his head. But one thing leads to another, and soon Carter and Edgar are full steam ahead. But between the Queen's disapproval and the media spotlight, Carter and his prince have to fight for their happily ever after. —Shyla Watson
Get it from Bookshop or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole (Avon Books)
In this Anastasia retelling, Makeda Hicks is minding her own business, trying to recuperate from losing her job and her girlfriend — all while hearing her grandmother once again retell the story of her summer fling with a runaway prince — when royal investigator Beznaria Chetchevaliere pops into her life with wild theories about Makeda being a long-lost royal heir. When her grandmother's livelihood is threatened, Makeda finds herself on a journey filled with adventure, high jinks, and even love on the high seas. —Shyla Watson
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
Heart & Seoul by Jen Frederick (Berkley Books)
Twenty-five-year-old Hara Wilson knows that she looks different from her white adoptive parents, including her loving mother, Ellen, and her less-lovable dad, Pat...not to mention Pat's new wife and biological son. It's never bothered her before, but when her dad dies suddenly and she overhears a comment about her being Korean at his funeral, she spirals into an identity crisis. Soon she finds herself flying off to Seoul to discover her roots and gets so much more than she expected, including spontaneous adventures, mysterious strangers, family connections, and forbidden love. —Shyla Watson
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur (Avon Books)
Brendon Lowell is the ultimate romantic, even creating a dating app to help people find The One. When his sister's best friend shows up for a visit, he thinks maybe it's finally his chance to find love. After all, he's crushed on her since they were kids. But Annie isn't looking for love, especially not with her best friend's younger brother...or so she keeps telling herself. Determined to fight for his happy ending, Brendon takes a page out of every rom-com screenplay, planning elaborate dates and wooing Annie in a way that would make Nora Ephron proud.
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
 Credit: Balzer + Bray, Salaam Reads, Swoon Reads Pumpkin by Julie Murphy (Balzer + Bray)
Murphy's third Dumplin'-universe novel is like entering a party with all your best friends (and some cool news ones). It's fun and heartwarming and features a hilarious and vibrant main character. Waylon Russell Brewer is fat, openly gay, and stuck in the small West Texas town of Clover City. But he has a plan: escape to Austin with his twin sister and live his dream life after graduation. When those plans derail, Waylon decides to send an audition tape to his favorite TV drag show Fiercest of Them All. But when Waylon's tape is leaked, he's nominated for prom king as a joke alongside Clem's girlfriend, Hannah Perez. Instead of giving his bullies power, Waylon decides to lean into the nomination, preparing to leave high school with a bang. —Farrah Penn
Get it from Bookshop or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
Misfit in Love by S.K. Ali (Salaam Reads)
Contemporary lovers will certainly be enticed by the sequel to Saints and Misfits, which follows Janna Yusuf, a teenager whose heart is torn in two directions over the course of one summer when the dreamy Haytham and brooding Layth upend her entire life. Not only that, but her brother Muhammad's getting married, her dad is acting strange, and her mom is acting distant. And Nuah is back. Yeah, the Nuah whose feelings she wasn't ready to reciprocate. But has that changed? —Farrah Penn
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
Kiss and Repeat by Heather Truett (Swoon Reads)
This is a sweet, fast read that follows Stephen, a teenager with tics caused by Tourette's Syndrome, who isn't experienced with girls. But when Stephen has the opportunity to kiss someone, he discovers his tics quiet. Which leads him to his experiment: kissing more girls to try and understand why his tics react the way they do. But Stephen juggles being mindful of these girls' feelings, especially with two interested in him, and begins to question the risks and benefits of the entire thing. —Farrah Penn
Get it from Bookshop, Target, or Amazon, or find it at your local library.
Now in paperback: Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan: "In this book, based on E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan returns with the story of Lucie Churchill, a Chinese American woman caught in a love triangle between her WASP fiancé and a man she loathed upon meeting but whom she hasn't been able to stop thinking about even years later. The book takes place in Capri, New York, and the Hamptons and is the perfect escape into the world of wealth, power, and glamour." —Shyla Watson (from 5 Comfort Books We Love)
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix: "Yes, this book is as fun (and as creepy) as the title suggests. To escape their dull lives, a group of women decide to form a book club where they read true crime books about grisly murders. When a mysterious man becomes their new neighbor, one of the women in the book club suspects he might actually be a vampire. Are the women just being paranoid due to their macabre literary interests, or are the strange things happening around the usually quiet Charleston neighborhood truly the work of a blood-sucking nightcrawler? This novel will definitely whet your appetite if you're looking for something a bit eccentric and spooky." —Ciera Velarde (from 20 Thrillers That Will Keep You Guessing Until The Last Chapter)
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi: "Emezi's debut Freshwater was a stunningly original story about alienation and depression told from the perspective of ogbanje — Igbo gods. Emezi's second adult novel is compelling in a different way. The novel starts with a stark announcement: "They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died." From there, we learn more about Vivek Oji's origins; his father Chika and mother Kavita, his aunt Mary and uncle Ekene, and his cousin Osita. As Vivek and Osita grow into adolescence, they form an unorthodox and rebelliously queer community with a group of schoolmates, and the story behind how Vivek died is slowly revealed. While there are some plot points that never fully cohere for me, I read this book hungrily — a testament to Emezi's skill as a writer." —Tomi Obaro (from 29 Summer 2020 Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)
All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad: When 27-year-old Maggie Krause's mother dies, she returns home to find, alongside her mother's will, five sealed envelopes addressed to men she's never heard of. Maggie — whose queerness her mother openly disdained — decides to personally deliver these mysterious messages, and, in doing so, discovers she might not have known her mother, or her seemingly perfect marriage to her father, at all. It's an exciting fiction debut from a discerning and insightful book critic.
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