New Edelweiss E-galleys (3/4/2024)

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

A PLACE TO HIDE by Ronald H. Balson
9781250282484 | 9/17/24

From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award comes a novel of heroism and resistance during World War II.

Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family, settled into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. Then in 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, he is assigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam.

Teddy’s job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria, and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. As Hitler sweeps through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Holland, the screws tighten and law after virulent law is passed to threaten the lives of Jews. When Teddy and his girlfriend Sara are introduced to an orphaned girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. But Teddy realizes that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred—and makes the dangerous decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape.

Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ron Balson’s A PLACE TO HIDE explores the deeply-moral actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference.

THE MERRIEST MISTERS by Timothy Janovsky 
9781250338938| 10/1/24

THE SANTA CLAUSE meets HUSBAND MATERIAL in this delightful, queer holiday novel!

Patrick Hargrave and Quinn Muller have been married for less than a year, but their passionate, sex-filled romance is cracking under the pressures of domestic life and a cumbersome mortgage. That’s until Christmas Eve when Patrick wakes Quinn up with: “I think I’ve killed a man.”

Quinn realizes the “burglar” he knocked out was none other than Mr. Claus himself. Instructed by the groggy elf to don the red suit and take the reins of the reindeer-guided sleigh up on the roof (“We just got that re-shingled!”), Quinn and Patrick work together to save Christmas.

But as the sun rises on Christmas morning, the sleigh brings them back to the North Pole instead of New Jersey, and they’re in for a massive shock. The couple must assume the roles of Santa Claus and the first ever Merriest Mister (Mrs. Claus) or Christmas will be canceled . . . permanently.

With Christmas–and their marriage–on the line, Patrick and Quinn agree to stay together for one year. But can running a toy shop together save their relationship, or will Patrick and Quinn be stuffing coal in each other’s stockings come next Christmas?

DEADLY ANIMALS by Marie Tierney
9781250357595| 11/12/24

Fifteen-year-old Ava Bonney is unlike other children. She has an obsessive interest in the rate at which dead animals decompose. The motorway she lives by regularly offers up roadkill, and in the dead of night, Ava likes nothing more than to pull her latest discovery into her roadside den and record her findings.

One night, she stumbles across the body of her classmate Mickey Grant, and fearing that her secret ritual could be revealed, she makes an anonymous call to the police. When Detective Seth Delahaye is given the case, Ava won’t step back–not when teenagers in her sleepy South Birmingham town are going missing.

How hard can it be to track a killer?

Marie Tierney’s debut, DEADLY ANIMALS, is a beautiful novel about a small community’s descent into devastation and desperation–and the bravery of youth in the face of darkness.

THE STARS ARE DYING by Chloe C. Peñaranda
9781250355669| 10/8/24

Astraea is a prisoner of her own mind, the past sliding from her grasp like water. But she knows she must escape the tyrannical king who holds her captive and find her clouded memories once again. This quest leads her to the Libertatem, a succession of trials hosted by the king in which five human lands compete for a cycle of safety from the vampires seeking blood, claiming souls, and savaging after dark.

But even winning the Libertatum will not keep Astraea safe from vampires. She’s made a bargain with Nyte, the beautiful, deadly vampire who stalks her dreams and haunts her waking hours. He promises to keep her safe, but she knows she cannot trust him, cannot trust his lies, even as she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into his seductive embrace.

Caught between Nyte and her own mysteries, Astraea must decide if winning the Libertatem for her kingdom is worth her life, or if protection—and the answers to her past—really are her strongest desires.

THE DARK WIVES by Ann Cleeves
9781250836847| 8/27/24

As New York Times bestseller Ann Cleeves’s beloved Vera series thrives in print and on TV, this stunning eleventh book explores the secrets a community can keep, as DI Vera Stanhope investigates.

The man’s body is found in the early morning light by a local dog walker in the park outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens on the outskirts of Newcastle. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up.

DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death, with her only clue being the disappearance of one of the home’s residents, fourteen year old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.

Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Mills are soon embroiled in the case, and when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever believed possible.

SELLING SEXY: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon by Lauren Sherman & Chantal Fernandez
9781250850966| 10/8/24

Victoria’s Secret is one of the most influential, and polarizing, brands to ever infiltrate the psyche of the American consumer. The company’s catalog made national headlines in the ’70s for its glamorization of lingerie, which was, in the post-bra burning era, sold either by puritanical department stores or tawdry, red-light district shops. By 1984, the owners were forced to sell to Columbus retail magnate Les Wexner, who was swiftly building an empire that would shape retail as we knew it for the next 40 years.

Just a decade later, Victoria’s Secret was a billion-dollar brand, selling the majority of bras bought in the US. However, its ubiquity in underwear drawers couldn’t compare to the influence it had on the greater culture, helping to define what it meant to look like a happy, successful—and most importantly, sexy—modern woman to a whole generation of consumers across the globe through its airbrushed advertisements, pink velvet-lined stores, and annual televised fashion show, which drew in millions of viewers each year.

But as culture changed, Victoria’s Secret did not change with it. Not only did the company miss out on big expansion opportunities it also refused to change its marketing as the world became less obsessed with thinness and perfection, and more keenly focused on body acceptance.

Meanwhile, Wexner, the mastermind, became increasingly known for his complicated relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose lifestyle he funded for many years. In March 2021, with his legacy in peril, Wexner and his wife Abigail stepped down from the Victoria’s Secret board as he faced investigation by the FBI.

Today, Victoria’s Secret is trying to rebuild its reputation—and maintain the still-significant grip it has on the consumer. SELLING SEXY expertly draws from sources within the company and across the fashion industry to examine: What happens now to a brand with such a heavy history?

DEVILS KILL DEVILS by Johnny Compton
9781250841681| 9/24/24

Sarita has been watched over by a guardian angel her entire life. She calls him Angelo, and keeps him a secret. But secrets can’t stay buried forever.

When Angelo murders someone she loves, Sarita begins to see what’s really been lurking in the shadows surrounding her. And she will have to embrace the evil within if she hopes to make it out alive.

Johnny Compton, critically acclaimed author of THE SPITE HOUSE and master of dread, takes you on a terrifying race of one woman against the hordes of hell.

I DREAMED OF FALLING by Julia Dahl
9781250865977| 9/17/24

Roman Grady is the sole reporter for the local newspaper in a tiny Hudson Valley town—a town so small that every store opening and DUI is considered newsworthy. But when Roman’s longtime girlfriend, Ashley, the mother of his four-year-old son, is found dead, he realizes he had no idea what was really going on in her life.

And when he starts asking questions, he’s not prepared for the answers.

What was Ashley doing at the cliffside home of her troubled ex-girlfriend? How did no one in a house full of people see what happened to her? And why does it seem like everyone in town suddenly has something to hide? As Roman and his mother dig into Ashley’s last few months, the truths they uncover threaten to expose painful secrets. The kind of secrets that can get you killed.

A gripping thriller and a moving portrait of a family struggling through tragedy, I DREAMED OF FALLING showcases Julia Dahl’s talent for using crime fiction to tell an immersive and unforgettable story. Dahl’s unflinching novel asks hard questions about love, regret, inequality, and the possibilities and the perils of forgiveness.

THE CRISTMAS INN by Pamela M. Kelley
9781250861634| 9/24/24

Riley Sanders didn’t plan on losing her job as a content marketing manager right before Christmas. When she calls her sister Amy to vent, she learns that their mother has broken her leg and could really use some help at the inn. Riley decides to head home to the inn, nestled along the shores of Cape Cod, in time for the Christmas rush. She is happy to help and needs something to distract her as mistletoe is hung and snowflakes begin to fall.

When she gets there, she not only finds delicious cookies and a crackling fire to lift her spirits, but also the sense of family she’s been missing all along. There’s Franny, a woman who has just lost her sister and has four unopened letters from her that she plans to use to open her up to new experiences on the Cape. And there’s Aidan, her high school sweetheart, now a widower, who is staying at the inn with his nine year-old son, Luke. What begins as a quick stay over the holidays to help her mom turns into something that means much more—a second chance at romance, a deeper sense of found family, and all the joy and wonder that comes with Christmastime on Cape Cod.

A feel-good novel as delightful and comforting as a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night, THE CHRISTMAS INN is Pamela Kelley’s most heartwarming and magical book yet.

A MASK OF FLIES by Matthew Lyons 
9781250889812| 8/6/24

A crime horror novel which blends It Follows and The Outsider, with a pinch of The Evil Dead, in which a criminal and the cop she’s taken hostage must find their way to safety—pursued by threats both human and supernatural—after a failed bank robbery.

In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family’s cabin—a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death.

Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne’s badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she’s taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother’s past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin.

Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door. 

Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend’s face. Something hungry . . . 

A MASK OF FLIES is a gritty, heartfelt meditation on death, family, and the ever-changing, monstrous nature of grief.