5 Fiction Titles to Look for in June

Okay, here we go: another month new releases. I won't hold you up with more reading in this intro--you've got great books to get to!

The Search Angel (M)
by Tish Cohen (June 4)

Canadian author Cohen returns with a novel that will be sure to tug at the heartstrings of parents and prospective parents. "As the owner of the upscale children's boutique Pretty Baby, Eleanor Sweet is surrounded by gleaming strollers, organic cotton onesies and roundbellied expectant mothers. It's a serene atmosphere of new beginnings — but for the graffiti-splattered record shop next door and Eleanor's fierce desire for a baby of her own. Her wish is finally granted in the form of Sylvie, an orphaned baby en route from earthquake-stricken Baja California. But when Eleanor's husband unexpectedly gets cold feet and backs out, her dream of adopting Sylvie is at risk." Cohen is also the author of The Truth About Delilah Blue and Inside Out Girl.

All I Want Is You (M)
by Elizabeth Anthony (June 4)

The popularity of erotic romance doesn't seem to be waning: this spicy romance was already released as an ebook in April, but it's getting its first print run this month. The publisher tells us "set in a country house in the 1920s, this tale of forbidden love between a kitchen maid and her aristocratic master is perfect for fans of Downton Abbey and E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey": that's everyone right?

Transatlantic (M)
by Column McCann (June 4)

You know, I've only read one book by Colum McCann, his 2009 novel Let the Great World Spin, but I really loved it so much, that I get excited whenever I hear of new material from him.

"In his remarkable new novel, Colum McCann masterfully reaches across the centuries to braid together three unforgettable stories. In 1845, Frederick Douglass, a black American slave, lands in Ireland to champion ideas of democracy and freedom, only to find a famine unfurling around him. In 1919, two brave young airmen emerge from the carnage of World War I to pilot the first transatlantic flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to the west of Ireland. And in 1998 an American senator criss-crosses the ocean in search of a lasting peace in Ireland. Taking these stories as his point of departure, Colum McCann weaves together the lives of Douglass, Alcock and Brown and Senator George Mitchell in a tapestry that is both ambitious and unforgettable." If you want to know more about McCann's writing we've written about him several times on the blog, including in 2008 when Let the Great World Spin won the IMPAC Dublin Literary award.

Trains and Lovers (M)
by Alexander McCall Smith (June 11)

For me, summertime reading is often about comfort, and what is more comfortable that sinking yourself into a book by a much beloved author? Alexander McCall Smith steps outside his very popular series titles with a standalone book of interconnected stories about love and train travel.

"The rocking of the train car, the sound of its wheels on the rails...there's something special about this form of travel that makes for easy conversation. Which is just what happens to the 4 strangers who meet in Trains and Lovers. As they travel by rail from Edinburgh to London, they entertain one another with tales of how trains have changed their lives. A young, keen-eyed Scotsman recounts how he turned a friendship with a young woman co-worker into a romance by spotting an anachronistic train in an 18th-century painting. An Australian woman shares how her parents fell in love and spent their life together running a railroad siding in the remote Australian Outback. A middle-aged American arts patron sees 2 young men saying goodbye in the station and recalls his youthful crush on another man. And a young Englishman describes how exiting his train at the wrong station allowed him to meet an intriguing woman whom he impulsively invited to dinner--and into his life."

The Heist (M)
by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (June 18)

Speaking of popular series, here's your chance to get in early on one that seems like a certain summer hit. You likely know Evanovich from her megapopular Stephanie Plum series (which started with One for the Money), her co-writer Goldberg is a screenwriter for the TV series Monk and related novelizations. You should be able to count on some laughs in this "new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase."