Publishers Weekly – July 29, 2019

The

Renaissance

Club

RACHEL DACUS

Synopsis: While

visiting Italy, an

art history

professor is transported to the

Renaissance.

PW’s Takeaway: Dacus’s debut,

the first in a series, is a delight-

ful dance between present-day

and Renaissance Italy.

Comparable Title: Lisa

Grunwald’s Time After Time

Read the Review: publishers-

weekly.com/9780578433820

Safe Passage

RACHEL FORD

Synopsis: On the

run from an orga-

nized crime syndi-

cate, a software

engineer joins a

crew aboard the Black Flag pirate

vessel.

PW’s Takeaway: Ford launches

an adventure series with this fun

and unexpectedly tenderhearted

novel.

Comparable Title: Mike Brook’s

Dark Run

Read the Review: publishers-

weekly.com/ASINB07NQL5XX9

The Show

Must Go On

KATE KARYUS

QUINN

Synopsis: An

aspiring stage

director’s life is

derailed when her husband

awakens from a coma.

PW’s Takeaway: Readers won’t

be able to resist the protagonist’s

bittersweet and satisfying jour-

ney of the heart.

Comparable Title: Sophie

Kinsella’s I Owe You One

Read the Review: publishers-

weekly.com/ASINB07PQVY1CM

Scouting Report

In this month’s roundup of the best-reviewed BookLife

titles, we highlight a story about a reluctant princess, a

postapocalyptic novel, a space pirate adventure, and others.

★ The Nothing

Within

ANDY GIESLER

Synopsis: Several genera-

tions after the destruction

of civilization, only Amish

culture has survived.

PW’s Takeaway: This

magical, terrifying, and

whimsical debut is a genu-

inely original and immersive

take on postapocalyptic SF.

Comparable Title: Scott Hawkins’s The Library

at Mount Char

Sample Line: “My name is Root. I was seven-

teen when I first heard the voice no one else

could hear.”

Read the Review:

publishersweekly.com/9781733567640

® BOOKS TO WATCH

46 BOOKLIFE, JULY 29, 2019

★ The Ex-princess

FIONA WEST

Synopsis: Princess Abelia

Olivia Jayne Venenza Ribaldi

Porchenzii has renounced

the throne in favor of an

independent life and a

menial job. Unfortunately,

she’s still beholden to a

royal marriage contract.

PW’s Takeaway: West’s

debut is a vibrant, utterly readable adventure.

Comparable Title: Alyssa Cole’s A Princess in

Theory: Reluctant Royals

Sample Line: “The moonlight poured in through

her window onto the quilt on her bed, one of the

few vestiges of her old life.”

Read the Review:

publishersweekly.com/9781732877405