Happy Hour: A Novel By Marlowe Granados (Verso Fiction) Happy Hour, the debut novel by Marlowe Granados, follows Isa and Gala, two best friends in their early 20s, as they survive a sweltering summer in N.Y.C. through their feminine wiles and too many hot dogs. Isa is hot off a stint in London and has found herself in the Big Apple running a clothing stall with Gala. Like The Last Days of Disco for the millennial age, both girls have definitive (and occasionally misguided) opinions about the way...

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark By Cassandra Peterson  (Hachette Books) Elvira is one of those celebs who seems to have sprung from the ground fully formed—sky-high wig, wild eye makeup, and full vampire queen regalia. But in Yours Cruelly, Elvira, the woman behind the boobs, Cassandra Peterson, reveals how she became the Mistress of the Dark, and her tale is far more complex than one might expect. Her memoir covers everything from her difficult Kansas childhood to her days as a...

  Julie Murphy’s adult romance debut—the first in her new series of fairy tale retellings—is billed as an all-grown-up take on Cinderella. But even though this novel has glamour, secrets, and shoes, If The Shoe Fits is really its own story, with a goal-oriented heroine, stepsisters who aren’t actually evil, and a reality TV twist. Cindy is fresh out of college and eager to enter the world of fashion when she learns that her stepmother, a producer, needs contestants for a Bachelor-style dating show. Cindy signs...

Warhol Superstar Nico has always been an enigmatic figure in Pop culture. Now there is a new biography about her, You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone. The Biography of Nico, (Hachette Publishing) written by Dr. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike which chronicles in great detail her fascinating life. Nico’s (who’s birth name was Christa Paffgen) childhood was spent in war torn, Nazi Germany. By the time she was a teen she grew into a great beauty which proved to be Christa’s ticket out. In the mid 1950s,...

A story of possession and consumption, of loneliness and rootlessness, of anger and revenge. In her debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith manages to do so much and to do it all so well.  Winnie is a young American woman, aimless and living abroad, when she suddenly disappears without a trace in Vietnam. As the reader uncovers what’s happened to Winnie, they’re taken on a whirlwind, hair-raising adventure through time and place. A large cast of characters that includes angry women, vengeful...

Shiori Ito’s Black Box is known today for helping launch the #MeToo movement in Japan, and the author was recognized by Time Magazine as a 2020 person of the year. This memoir, in a quick, exhilarating narrative, spans the events between 2015 and 2017, when the author was raped by well-known reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi. They had met up under the pretense that he would have helpful information for a job he was “coordinating” for her. She regained consciousness in his hotel bed, while he was...

There are few worlds as sexy, warm, and feel-good as the Jasmine Guillory rom-com universe, and While We Were Dating is a lovely addition to Guillory’s Wedding Date canon. Ad executive Ben Stephens (whose brother, Theo, is a previous Guillory hero) really isn’t looking for a relationship. But when renowned actor Anna Gardiner enters his orbit, he struggles to deny their chemistry. As Anna and Ben grow closer, they find themselves jumping headfirst into a spontaneous fling-turned-publicity stunt that could become the real thing. Although...

Kristen Radtke is a narrator as unflinching and bold as readers should be before approaching this graphic novel. Seek You demonstrates how loneliness is an experience that’s both universal and achingly unique—which is why it shouldn’t scare or embarrass us. The artwork is both dramatic and sparse, allowing readers to float along without getting lost in the big picture. This is a story about “we,” not “me.” For lovers of creative nonfiction, this title has the rare ability to interweave facts with personal anecdotes in such...

Island Queen: A NovelBy Vanessa Riley(William Morrow) “Tu ikiwa uko huru.” Dorothy “Doll” Kirwin Thomas’ mantra in Vanessa Riley’s historical novel, Island Queen, means, “Only if you’re free, then you can be.” Born into slavery in the colonial West Indies, the real Thomas fought for freedom at a time when she was barely seen as human. “I’m luckier, I guess. My black is beautiful,” Doll says, in response to the suggestion that she—a dark-skinned Creole woman with an Irish father—should feel cheated that she can’t pass...

The Mother of Dragons, a.k.a. Game of Thrones actor Emilia Clarke, is set to release the first issue of her three-part comic book series, M.O.M.: Mother of Madness, on July 21st. Far from simply starring as the quintessential male fantasy in the most successful fantasy series of all time, the move to writing is perhaps a natural one for Clarke, who told Variety about her love of the genre from a young age: “I read a lot of fantasy novels full of rich worlds as a child,...