After what felt like the longest, coldest winter on record, we’re ready to welcome longer days and warmer weather. If you’re a reader, you’re counting down the days until you can enjoy a book outside. What better way to usher in the new season than with books that offer that springtime feel? This season, there are a few titles that feel especially vernal: about new beginnings, fresh starts, big changes. Looking to enjoy Spring with a good book, here are a few of the new releases to start with.
Untamed Heart by Gemma Morr
Synopsis: Lottie has spent her whole life chasing success – or at least what it’s supposed to look like. The perfect corporate job, the perfect banker boyfriend, the perfect life in London. But when she’s suddenly fired and catches her boyfriend cheating, she does what any totally rational person would do . . . and gets on a plane to her family’s ranch in Wyoming.
Cole Miller is a rugged ex-rodeo star and absolutely not interested in a city girl playing cowgirl on the Diamond Back ranch – even if they did end up in a steamy tangle on her arrival in Jackson Hole. But as Lottie trades designer suits for cowboy boots, she starts to realize she might be a little more country than she thought. And when a rival ranch threatens everything, she’s not about to let them win, especially when it means proving to Cole – and herself – that she’s got what it takes to earn her place.
Thistlemarsh by Moorea Corrigan
Synopsis: In the wake of The Great War, the world is a decidedly unmagical place for Mouse Dunne. She once dreamed of becoming a Faerie anthropologist, but with one telegram, her world shattered. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin’s body disappeared into the mud, and her brother was left with debilitating shell shock. It was time, she knew, to put aside childish dreams.
When Mouse receives news that her uncle has left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother’s side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch in her uncle’s offer. If Mouse does not rehabilitate the crumbling house in one month’s time, she will forfeit her inheritance and any hope of caring for her brother.
It quickly becomes clear it’s impossible to repair the manor in the allotted time, until a mysterious Faerie appears with a proposition. He offers to restore Thistlemarsh…for a price. Mouse knows better than to trust a Faerie—especially one so insufferably handsome and arrogant—but she is out of options. There are dark and magical forces at work in the house, and Mouse must confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets of her heart or lose Thistlemarsh, and herself, in the process.
How To Lose A Goblin In Ten Days by Jessie Sylva
This is one of the cutest new releases this season. How To Lose A Goblin In Ten Days is cottagecore in book form. It’s gentle, low-stakes, and cozy. Jessie Sylva’s novel follows Pansy, a goblin, and Ren, a halfling, as they must try and share the forest home they each inherited. I can think of no better book to turn to during Spring.
Synopsis: When a halfling, Pansy, and a goblin, Ren, each think they’ve inherited the same cottage, they make a bargain: they’ll live in the house together and whoever is driven out first forfeits their ownership. Amidst forced proximity and cultural misunderstandings, the two begin to fall in love.
But when the cottage–and their communities–are threatened by a common enemy, the duo must learn to trust each other, and convince goblins and halflings to band together to oust a tall intruder.
Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris
A book set on a flower farm is the perfect novel to read during Spring. After a tragedy that claims her remaining family and her freedom, Leigh finds a narrow path to escape. After her transport prison bus crashes, she’s the only survivor. Forewarning: this book is one of the heavier new releases on the list. That said, Leigh’s journey of healing and redemption also speaks to this season of growth and renewal.
Synopsis: Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die. Grief never truly fades, and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what’s in her nature. She survives.
While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn’t expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm’s owner, who sees through Leigh’s defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, and encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she’s not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal.
But the past isn’t so easily buried.
No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she’s come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.
On Sale now via Sourcebooks Landmark. Order here.
Magic and Mischief at the Wayside Hotel by Elizabeth Everett
Synopsis: Manager of the Number Five Wayside Inn and World Travel Hub, Pax Nomen has one of the easiest jobs in all the known universes, unless you count the occasional plumbing disaster. When Number Five Wayside gets stranded on a non-magical world, even Pax’s trusty Wayside Handbook can’t help him. How is he going to “reboot” the hotel and keep it on its magical journey?
Josie LaChusia is a single mom experiencing debt, having parenting doubts, and tipping dangerously toward depression when an ad pops up on her phone that an apartment is available in a building she’s never seen before.
Pax needs a new guest to restart his hotel, and Josie needs a nudge to restart her life. In a building occupied by faeries, gargoyles, and a gnome with a bad attitude, two souls from very different places come together to create a home like no other.
Brianna Robinson is a book publicist and Sarah Lawrence College alum. She lives in New York with too many books and two enthusiastic dachshunds. You can find her on twitter @blrobins2.
