New Edelweiss E-galleys (3/27/23)

Hello e-galley readers! Check out some of the exciting e-galleys that were recently added to Edelweiss for your downloading pleasure:

THE HANK SHOW: HOW A HOUSE-PAINTING, DRUG-RUNNING DEA BUILT THE MACHINE THAT RULES OUR LIVES by McKenzie Funk
9781250209276 | 10/3/23

Welcome to The Hank Show. Critically-acclaimed author and journalist McKenzie Funk relates the stranger-than-fiction life and legacy of Hank Asher, a drug-running pilot and alleged CIA asset who was reborn as the pioneering computer programmer known as the father of data fusion. Readers will follow Asher and his creations through 40 years of intrigue and innovation: from Colombia to the White House, Silicon Valley to the 2016 Trump campaign, and deep into the everyday fabric of our modern lives.

TRAITOR OF REDWINTER by Ed McDonald 
9781250811745 | 10/24/23

The second in Ed McDonald’s Chronicles of Redwinter, full of shady politics, militant monks, ancient powers… and a young woman navigating a world in which no one is quite what they seem.

The power of the Sixth Gate grows stronger within Raine each day—to control it, she needs lessons no living Draoihn can teach her. Her fledgling friendships are tested to a breaking point as she tries to face what she has become, and her master Ulovar is struck by a mysterious sickness that slowly saps the vitality from his body, leaving Raine to face her growing darkness alone. There’s only one chance to turn the tide of power surging within her—to learn the secrets the Draoihn themselves purged from the world.

The book can teach her. She doesn’t know where she found it, or when exactly, but its ever changing pages whisper power that has lain untouched for centuries.

Amidst threats old and new, Raine must learn the secrets promised by the book, magic promised by a queen with a crown of feathers. A queen to whom Raine has promised more than she can afford to give…

HE WHO DROWNED THE WORLD by Shelley Parker-Chan
9781250621825 | 8/22/23

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.

But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband—and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan.

Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history—and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.

All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS by Mary Kay Andrews
9781250285812 | 9/26/23

Newly single and unemployed Kerry Tolliver needs a second chance. When she moves back home to her family’s Christmas tree farm in North Carolina, she is guilt tripped into helping her brother, Murphy, sell trees in New York City. She begrudgingly agrees, but she isn’t happy about sharing a trailer with her brother in the East Village for two months. Plus, it’s been years, since before her parents divorce, that she’s been to the city to sell Christmas trees. 

Then, Kerry meets Patrick, the annoying Mercedes owner who parked in her spot for the first two days. Patrick is recently divorced, a father to a six year old son, and lives in the neighborhood. Can Kerry’s first impressions about the recently divorced, single father, and—dare she say, handsome—neighbor be wrong? 

Surrounded by warm childhood memories, sparkling possibility, and the magic of Christmas in the City, will Kerry finally get the second chance she needs to find herself . . . and maybe even find love?

A SEASON OF MONSTROUS CONCEPTIONS by Lina Rather
9781250884015 | 10/31/23

In 17th-century London, unnatural babies are being born, with eyes made for the dark and webbed digits suited to the sea.

Sarah Davis is intimately familiar with such strangeness—having hidden her uncanny nature all her life and fled to London under suspicious circumstances, Sarah starts over as a midwife’s apprentice to a member of the illegal Worshipful Company of Midwives, hoping to carve out for herself an independent life. But with each new unnatural birth, the fear in London grows of the Devil’s work.

When the wealthy Lady Wren hires her to see her through her pregnancy, Sarah quickly becomes a favorite of her husband, the famous architect Lord Christopher Wren, whose interest in the uncanny borders on obsession. Sarah soon finds herself caught in a web of magic and intrigue created by those who want to use her power for themselves, and whose pursuits threaten to unmake the earth itself.

ACT LIKE A LADY, THINK LIKE A LORD by Celeste Connally
9781250867551 | 11/14/23

Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie meets BRINGING DOWN THE DUKE in this dazzling first entry in a terrific new Regency-era cozy series with a feminist spin.

When Lady Petra Forsyth’s fiancé and soulmate dies just weeks ahead of their wedding, she makes the shocking proclamation—in front of London’s loosest lips—that she will never remarry. A woman of independent means, Petra sees no reason to cede her wealth and freedom to any man now that the love of her life has passed, nor does she intend to become confined to her country home. Instead, she uses her title to gain access to elite spaces and enjoy the best of society without expectations. 

But when ballroom gossip suggests that a longtime friend has died of “melancholia” while in the care of a questionable physician, Petra vows to use her status to dig deeper—uncovering a private asylum where men pay to have their wives and daughters locked away, or worse. Just as Lady Petra has reason to believe her friend is not dead, but a prisoner, her own headstrong actions and thirst for independence are used to put her own freedom in jeopardy.

THE BELL IN THE FOG by Lev AC Rosen
9781250834256 | 10/10/23

San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective—but his business hasn’t exactly taken off. It turns out that word spreads fast when you have a bad reputation, and no one in the queer community trusts him enough to ask an ex-cop for help. 

When James, an old flame from the war who had mysteriously disappeared, arrives in his offices above the Ruby, Andy wants to kick him out. But the job seems to be a simple case of blackmail, and Andy’s debts are piling up. He agrees to investigate, despite everything it stirs up. 

The case will take him back to the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, and then out into the gay bars of the city, where the past rises up to meet him, like the swell of the ocean under a warship. Missing people, violent strangers, and scandalous photos that could destroy lives are a whirlpool around him, and Andy better make sense of it all before someone pulls him under for good.

YOU’VE BEEN SERVED by Kristen Alicia
9781649373946 | 6/27/23

Simone Alexander didn’t mean to end up back in school. She’s a chef, and a pretty good one at that, but when she finds herself without a job or money, she asks a Magic 8 Ball if she should go to law school. Much to her chagrin, it says yes.

When Simone cruises onto campus, she assumes she won’t have to work too hard to do well. She never has before. But law school is not what she expected: the professors are intimidating, the classes grueling, and the other students seem to have their lives all mapped out. After a few weeks, Simone isn’t sure leaving her life as a chef was the right decision. She needs help and fast.

Simone’s only option: the insufferable Silas Whitman. When Simone bumps into Silas before school, she expects him to be a temporary nuisance. He’s a little brash, a little blunt, and a total gunner but he’s Simone’s best hope of surviving. Plus, he’s pretty cute when he’s not being difficult. As they spend more time together, Silas charms Simone and quite literally sings his way into her heart.

With her life and love up in the air, Simone must decide what she wants and where her heart ultimately lies.