The best new books out this week 📚

A STEM-my romance, a vampiric fantasy, a historical crime, and more!

Hello, book lovers! Each week, dozens of new releases hit the shelves. Here are our favorites. ❤️📚 –The BuzzFeed Books team Forwarded this newsletter? Hi! BuzzFeed Books celebrates all things books for every kind of reader, and the newsletter is the best way to keep up with curated posts, exclusive reviews, virtual events, and author features. We'll pop into your inbox every Tuesday and Sunday, with the occasional offer from a sponsor. Maybe we're biased, but we think you'll really enjoy it. Hit the button below to join us! Subscribe Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks, Berkley Books A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria   Michelle Amato may have a thriving career as a freelance graphic designer, but she's still the black sheep in her Puerto Rican-Italian family for being single. Gabriel Aguilar left the Bronx over a decade ago to escape his parent's expectations, leaving behind his best friend and secret crush, Michelle. When the now-Los Angeleno gets a chance to open one of his celebrity gyms in New York he's on the fence...until he learns Michelle will be leading the marketing campaign. It doesn't take long for their reunion to take a sexy turn, but with their families and careers entangled, it's even harder to figure out if they have a future or if they should say goodbye. —Shyla Watson   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.   The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood   Ph.D. candidate Olive Smith doesn't believe in love...but her best friend does and won't get off her back about seeing someone. Olive tries to convince Anh that she's dating, but they're not buying it so Olive does the only thing she can think of — kisses the first man she sees. Unfortuantely, that man turns out to be Adam Carlsen, a cocky professor who she's not the biggest fan of. So, she's shocked when Adam agrees to play her fake boyfriend, all in the name of science, of course. But the "data" she collects while spending time with Adam is proving her love hypothesis wrong. —Shyla Watson   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here. Credit: Grove Press, W. W. Norton Company Things I Have Withheld: Essays by Kei Miller   The Jamaican poet Kei Miller turns to nonfiction in this excellent essay collection exploring the strategic and harmful silences that occur in the family and in the world. The essays take various forms — some are letters, including ones written to James Baldwin and the Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, while others are written in the second person, or in the third. Each essay unpacks common assumptions — how racism impacts predominantly Black countries, the self-righteousness of white liberals, the class divides among Black immigrants. There's no didacticism or sermons here, merely curiosity and sometimes anger and a deep commitment to speaking the uncomfortable truths we'd rather not hear. A bold and daring collection. —Tomi Obaro   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.   Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach   Science writer Roach is known for her hit book on cadavers Stiff (2003), sex treatise Bonk (2008), and a string of other monosyllabic deep dives. Her newest tackles how wildlife and humankind collide in illegal, unethical, and sometimes murderous ways. "The wildlife in these pages are simply animals doing what animals do: feeding, shitting, setting up a home, defending themselves or their young. They just happen to be doing these things to, or on, a human, or that human's home or crops," she writes. Roach cites a 1659 case in Italy, where caterpillars were charged with trespassing, summoned to court, and given legal representation. Fuzz is about how absurd it is to apply the human-designed legal system toward acts of nature, but, zooming out, it's also about the hubristic idea that we could ever tame the chaos of wildlife. The book is full of kernels of fascinating information; in the "Breaking and Entering and Eating" chapter, she delves into the ethics of translocating bears far from home, the effect of climate change on their hibernation, and which doorknobs they can easily manipulate. Her approach is informative and unpretentious, and she's always armed with a dry sense of humor. Roach will change the way you think about the great outdoors. What more could you ask for? —Emerson Malone   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here. Credit: Berkley Publishing, Katherine Tegen Books My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa   Jayatissa's pulse-pounding debut is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you on your toes. Brash, foul-mouthed Paloma was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage years ago. Now, at thirty, and recently cut off from her wealthy white parents, Paloma's subleased the second bedroom of her San Francisco apartment to Arun, a man who recently moved to the US from India. But when Arun uncovers Paloma's deepest secret — one that could jeopardize her status here — things take a sharp turn. Arun's disappearance leads authorities to believe he didn't exist in the first place. —Farrah Penn   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.   White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson   Marigold's newly blended family has just moved to the Midwestern city of Cedarville for her mom's new job — a job that comes complete with a free, renovated house. But there are secrets in their home: things have been vanishing, doors open on their own, and there are voices in the walls. Plus, her 10-year-old stepsister Piper keeps talking about her friend that wants Mari gone... —Rachel Strolle   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here. Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Page Street Kids, HMH Books for Young Readers The Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski   This highly anticipated conclusion to Rutkoski's YA sapphic fantasy duology that began with The Midnight Lie does not disappoint. It picks up right where book one left off and switches between Nirrim and Sid's perspectives, as well as that of an unknown god. Unbeknownst to Sid, Nirrim is now Queen of Herrath after offering her heart to the God of Thieves, and she will do anything to restore the Half Kith's memories and free them from their subjugation. Meanwhile, Sid has returned to Herran to discover that her mother is indeed dying and that she's been poisoned. She needs to find the assassin and, in so doing, perhaps try to repair her relationship with her parents. In Herran, Sid hears of an evil queen using magic to control her people, but she has no idea it's her former lover, Nirrim, whom she still has feelings for. The conclusion to this heart-stopping duology is just perfection. —Margaret Kingsbury   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.   The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl   Holly Liddell was promised eternal love by Elton Irving, all the way back in 1987. But 34 years later, Holly is still a 16-year-old (albeit a vampiric, single one). But things change when she meets Rose and Ida, both also turned into vampires by Elton and then cast away in 1954 and 1921 respectively. And they plan to kill Elton and want Holly's help. Though initially reluctant, when she meets and begins to fall for a girl named Parker, who Elton has his sights set on, she begins to reconsider. —Rachel Strolle   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here.   A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Hollowell   In this stunning and atmospheric debut fantasy, Derry and her eight siblings are separated from the rest of the world, isolated in a house by the lake near a menacing forest, as the world is not safe for those with magic. Until the night her eldest sister disappears. Jane and Derry swore to each other that they'd never go into the forest, not after their last trip ended in blood, but Derry is sure she saw Jane walk into the trees. When another sibling goes missing and Frank's true colors start to show, feeling safe is no longer an option. Derry will risk anything to protect the family she has left. Even if that means returning to the forest that has started calling to Derry in her missing siblings' voices. —Rachel Strolle   Get it from Bookshop or from your local indie at Indiebound here. Credit: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, Doubleday, Beacon Press The Corpse Queen by Heather Herrman   After her best friend dies, teenage orphan Molly is suddenly sent to live with her "aunt." Molly assumes she's been sold by the orphanage — such a thing isn't unheard of in 1850s Philadelphia — but when she arrives she discovers her aunt is very much real and very, very rich. But Ava's wealth is based on secrets: she robs graves and sells the bodies to local medical students. Molly is horrified...but also intrigued, especially as she sits in on the anatomy lessons being taught on the property. Molly wants to join this male-only group of students, but with robbing graves and a loose murderer on her mind, Molly's life becomes intimately entangled with death. This historical thriller is dark, twisty, and perfect for a spooky fall read. —Kirby Beaton   Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead   In 1960s Harlem, we meet Ray Carney, a furniture salesman without a lot to his name besides a loving pregnant wife and a happy life. Few people know about his past, but as money gets tighter, the cracks in Ray's façade begin to widen. When he gets pulled into a heist that naturally goes wrong, Ray will suddenly have to navigate his past and present — can he avoid getting killed, collect his share of the loot, and keep his clean-shaven reputation? —Kirby Beaton   Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here.   Palmares by Gayl Jones   Jones returns to novel writing after a 21-year hiatus with this sweeping chronicle of the life of an enslaved woman named Almeyda. The novel opens with 8-year-old Almeyda learning to read from the white priest Father Tollinare. She and her mother and grandmother are enslaved on a Brazilian plantation, and she spends her days learning to read basic religious texts and listening to her grandmother's stories. Some call her grandmother a witch or insane, but Almeyda enjoys her grandmother's nonsense stories and slowly begins to see some truth in them. As Almeyda travels from plantation to plantation, her reading, writing, and language skills grow. She meets a large cast of characters, from English writers to free Black folk and sorcerors. She marries a Muslim man named Martim Anninho, and the two find freedom and a home in Palmares, a secret settlement where the enslaved can live free. When Portuguese soldiers raze the settlement and Almeyda is separator from Martim, she embarks on a journey across Brazil to find him. Jones entwines magical realism with rich historical details and compelling characters to create a stunning epic of 17th century colonial Brazil. —Margaret Kingsbury   Get it from Bookshop or through your local indie through Indiebound here. Find these titles and other BuzzFeed Books favorites on our Bookshop page. BuzzFeed, Inc. 111 E. 18th St. New York, NY 10003 We hope you love the products we recommend! Just so you know, BuzzFeed may collect a small share of sales from the links in this email. View our privacy notice and cookie policy Unsubscribe