Tantalizing Tales — June 2026 — Part Three

Along with many others lucky enough to do so, I took Juneteenth off last week (and wound up having to accompany my best girl while she hit on men in kilts, lol, instead of having the restful day I’d otherwise anticipated.) This week’s Tantalizing Titles column is thus a double header for this week AND the next!

Our first selection is a book I’m super looking forward to diving into soon, DeAndra Davis’ The Lovers, The Liars And Me. I adored her debut novel All The Noise At Once and can’t wait to see what she does with this coming-of-age tale set in Jamaica.

Despite being high school valedictorian, Jaliya Powell has never really done anything to make herself feel like she truly stands out. She’s never had a boyfriend or even been kissed, never mind had a real adventure. So she’s more than a little nervous when she decides to take some time off before going to college, in order to stay with her uncle and his family in Jamaica instead.

It’s not just rest and relaxation she’s looking for in the Caribbean tho. Her mom left her family years ago, and Jaliya is determined to finally track her down and get some answers. But Jamaica is not the same island Jaliya last visited when she was a tween. Her uncle’s family is weirdly different from what she remembers, while her childhood crush has only gotten hotter and even less obtainable. And then there’s beautiful, free-spirited India, who makes Jaliya feel things that she’s barely even considered before.

As Jaliya searches for her mother, she’ll have to navigate unsettling new feelings and complicated new relationships, during a summer in which she’ll have to start thinking about who she really is and who she ultimately wants to be.

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Another sapphic novel to watch out for is Laura Evans’ Little Wild. Set in Suffolk during the historic heat wave of 1937, this lyrically written novel follows our unreliable narrator Margaret, who’s grown up as a ward of the Winthers family. She’s helping them prepare Snare House, their historic estate, for a party celebrating the return of their only daughter Joanie after a summer on the Continent. It’s to be a brief visit, after which Joanie will head off to take her place at college. Only Margaret knows the truth: that instead of going to Oxford, Joanie will actually be running away with her to live in London together as lovers.

Disaster strikes when the pair is discovered kissing. Margaret is subsequently banished to a cabin in the woods to live with her neglectful father. As summer wanes and her hopes of escape fade, Margaret’s dreams turn dark and terrifying. Inexplicably, she wakes up with dirt on her feet and scratches on her back. Has she somehow tapped into the same strange powers that led to her own mother becoming ostracized and eventually dying? If so, can she learn how to harness these powers instead, and build something far closer to the life and love she’s always craved?

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Our next selection is also a hotly anticipated debut. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow’s Names Have Been Changed is the story of Ophir (which, as the title implies, is not her real name) as she tells all in a confessional podcast about her years as a fugitive on the run across the globe.

From the publicity materials:

“Ophir’s tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond.

“Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she grapples with the shock of relentless dislocation, a painful reexamination of identity, and a deep yearning for home. She tries to find comfort in new lovers and ill-gotten luxury goods, but she can’t help attracting trouble, and she soon faces an unexpected, high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever.”

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The third hotly anticipated debut in this week’s column is Thornbird by E Kennedy, the pseudonym of best-selling author Elle Kennedy, whose sizzling Off-Campus romance series has already led to a TV show on Amazon Prime. In this bold departure from the genre that launched her to fame, the author indulges her love for true crime in a twisty Young Adult mystery thriller (tho don’t worry, there’s definitely still a little romance involved.)

Ryan Shipley never asked to be the daughter of a serial killer. A decade after her infamous father Gabriel Thorn was finally apprehended, she’s back in Starling, Tennessee, trying to live her life under the radar with a new identity. Luckily for her, Starling is a town full of secrets, so she fits right in… at least at first.

Trouble is, the rest of the world refuses to leave her alone. As fresh eyes begin to examine her father’s crimes, new questions arise as to how much she actually knew… and how much she was actually involved with what he did. The remains of her father’s victims were never found. Can she somehow help the grieving find closure by choosing to confront her legacy instead of ignoring it?

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Our next author also writes under a pseudonym, as we feature the prolific Jayne Ann Krantz’ latest paranormal romance! Writing as Jayne Castle, Enter The Nightmare is her latest thrilling mystery set in Harmony, a place where psychic powers are both real and acknowledged.

Alice Radstone was once a sheltered schoolteacher at the Ballantine Academy. After the death of her mentor forced her out of academia, she attempted to reinvent herself in the big city, eventually visiting the Hotel of Dreams. To her shock, she woke up in a psychiatric ward instead of a hotel bed, having been convicted of murdering her husband while at the hotel on their honeymoon.

Alice has no recollection of a husband, but she does know one thing: after escaping from the hospital, she’s never going back. Life has a way of playing weird tricks on you tho, and soon she’s caught once more in what seems to be a recurring nightmare. Back at the Hotel of Dreams, she’s hiding in the shadows, with a dead body in the shower while two unknown assailants attempt to abduct her… again. Can she somehow stop this bizarre scenario from playing out once more?

Perhaps Owen March can help with that. Enigmatic and dangerous, he claims to be there to rescue her, but is this just another ruse to keep her imprisoned? Soon, the unlikely duo will be untangling the mystery of who keeps attempting to scapegoat her for murder and why, even as they fight the undeniable attraction between them.

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Finally, we have David Ellis’ highly anticipated return, with his new thriller Keep Them Close. I’m super excited about reading this, as his prior novel Look Closer was one of my favorite books of 2023.

Siblings Alison and Luke have already been through so much together. The duo are ride or die, and have stood up for each other — and maybe bent rules for one another — their entire lives.

But when Alison’s husband Finley is killed, their close bond is severely tested. As the murder investigation probes into both their lives, long-buried secrets resurface. What’s the connection between the murder, an illicit affair and a decades-old accident? What will the siblings do when all the lies they’ve told begin to catch up to them? And what choices will they make in order to save each other, and themselves?

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All of these books are either available or available for pre-order now, so let me know if you’re able to get to them before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books in my Bookshop storefront linked below!