You may have noticed that the For Your Leisure blog is back with a new name and a great one at that, Hot Off the Shelf (or HOTS for short). This new name really exemplifies this blog’s commitment to providing VPL customers with relevant and entertaining information about our titles.
That said, I thought it would be fun to discuss the new releases that are coming to VPL this year that I am adding to my never ending 2021 to-be-read pile! The titles below are sorted by author last name.
As usual, all links and images of book covers will take you to VPL’s catalogue where you can request these items!
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Contemporary romance is one of my favourite genres and I am obsessed with Talia Hibbert’s Brown Sisters series. This is the last book in the series, which stars the youngest and flightiest Brown sister, Eve Brown. The love interest in this one is the owner of a Bed & Breakfast and I don’t even need to know more than that to know that I will utterly adore it. I always recommend Hibbert’s novels to romance fans but I think even non-romance readers will adore the characters for their depth. This book releases March 9th and I am eagerly counting down the days!
Late Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
I’ve been a huge fan of Malinda Lo’s books and I am so excited to read her latest book, coming out mid-January! This novel takes place in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954 and is described as Lo’s “most personal and ambitious novel yet”. The novel’s title references the Telegraph Club, the lesbian bar where characters Lily Hu and Kathleen Miller meet, and the focus of their love story. I’m always on the lookout for diverse and intersectional historical fiction and with an adorable romance thrown in, I am sold on this premise.
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Cry
stal Maldonado
I always love to discover new authors and I was intrigued when I heard about the premise behind this debut novel. This novel stars self-described fat Puerto Rican teen, Charlie Vega, and a time in which she starts to finally experience relationships, if she can overcome her insecurities. I am a total softie for coming of age stories and I think that fellow fans of Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy (or the wonderful Netflix adaptation of the novel) will also adore this title. It comes out in the first week of February so the wait to fall in love with a new author’s writing won’t be long!
What’s Not to Love by Austin Siegmund-Broka and Emily Wibberley
I admit that it was the cover that drew me into this book at first (look at those bookshelves!) but the blurb is definitely what sold it to me. I am so intrigued by the pitch of this book, “real romance from a real couple”, as I don’t think I’ve read many books where the co-authors are in a relationship. The other part of the blurb that appealed to me was the fact that this book has a classic enemies-to-lovers trope and features the intriguing competitive dynamic between two students who are at the top of their class. Sadly it looks as if I’ll have to wait until April to put these great tropes to the test, as the novel is slated for an April 20, 2021 release.
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
While this is a children’s title, I had to include it on my list because the premise sounds utterly amazing and I can already tell I will be recommending this title to everyone, children and adults alike. This anthology, releasing at the beginning of February, is edited by award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith and includes stories by both experienced and new Native writers. The book is described as showing “hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride” and is a partnership with one of my favourite organizations, We Need Diverse Books. I love anthologies because they give me a chance to discover new writers and I’m confident that readers will walk away from this book feeling eager to read more.
One of the best characters of Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give was Starr’s father, Maverick, so I was so excited when I found out that this novel features Maverick’s story and acts as a prequel to the best-selling novel & accompanying movie. Angie Thomas is a great writer and I always enjoy it when authors go back and explore some of the hidden depths of beloved characters, so I have no doubt that this book will be both compelling and thought-provoking. If you are likewise intrigued by this novel, you will be happy to know that it released yesterday (January 12th)!
What books are you looking forward to reading this year? Please feel free to let me know in the comments below and let me know if any of these titles are as exciting to you as they are to me!
Oooh! I just finished the first two of the Brown Sisters series over the past few months – I can’t wait to finish off the series once I get my hands on Eve’s story!
The past couple weeks I’ve gotten a sudden hankering for historical fiction set in ancient China or feudal era Japan, so I’m looking forward to getting through the Legend of the Condor Heroes series by Jin Yong, though I’m finding the translation a bit grating a few pages in already (mainly to do with the naming conventions, which are best described as inconsistent). Not super new, but relatively so (2019 translation)? I’d also be interested in Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa (author of Musashi, which I loved – the newspaper fiction nature and format of it, the translation, the story) and a translation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Any suggestions on this front will be much appreciated, considering we don’t own either of those two!
Also the title Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel, which recently came up in my feeds! I haven’t actually read the synopsis, but an article on Lithub by the author talked about how it was borne of Loedel’s researching into his half-sister, who was disappeared by the Argentine government.
Ahh I’m so happy to hear there’s a fellow Brown Sisters fan! I hope that book three will meet our expectations. On the historical fiction front, I also had a hard time finding translations for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms! I tried to look into it to better answer your question but alas, I don’t think I can be much help their either. I’ll have to look into Hades, Argentina– the concept sounds so interesting!