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Are you getting ready for summer? It's time to plan your vacation book list. Here are the new releases I'm looking forward to reading. There aren't many this month.

Note: Some of the release dates may change or be different in your part of the world. Don't come for me if they're wrong. I'm trying to keep up!

🌴  June 2023 Book Releases  ⚽

Killingly by Katharine Beutner

Adult Historical Fiction

June 6, 2023

Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes.

As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha’s panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha’s family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes and Bertha’s lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha.

Where did Bertha go? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive?

Why it caught my attention: Is this dark academia? It's being compared to Donna Tartt's books, so . . . maybe? Donna Tartt is brilliant at creating unlikeable characters, so if this book is anything like hers, I'll love it. Goodreads says, "Katharine Beutner crafts a real-life unsolved mystery into an immersive, unforgettable work of literary crime fiction."

Buy it on Amazon

Nightmare Island by Shakirah Bourne

Middle Grade Fantasy / Horror

June 6, 2023

Twelve-year-old Serenity Noah has never told anyone about her recurring nightmares—the haunting images of silver butterflies who lead her to a silent, shadowy monster. Her parents already favor her "perfect" younger brother, Peace, and she doesn't want to be seen as the "problem" child.

Instead, Serenity's found a productive way to channel her fears: creating a horror movie as scary as her nightmares.

When Peace suddenly becomes afraid of the dark and refuses to sleep alone, their parents take him away for "treatment" on Duppy Island. Serenity has a very bad feeling about the mysterious island and the facility's creepy leader, Dr. Whisper. And when she sees a silver butterfly from her nightmares in the forbidden forest she realizes that something is seriously, dangerously awry.

But nothing could've prepared Serenity for the truth: the island is home to douens—faceless children with backward feet who are trapped in limbo between the world of the living and the land of the dead. And unless Serenity acts soon, her brother is going to join their ranks.

Why it caught my attention: As a horror loving tween, I would have been obsessed with the premise of this novel. The main character loves horror movies as much as I did. Then she has to go to an island full of creepy demon children. Sign me up.

Buy it on Amazon

Which June book releases are you looking forward to reading?