THE REDWOOD BARGAIN de Markelle Grabo

In this gothic fairy tale, a maid poses as her lord’s stepdaughter to fulfill his bargain with the murderous lord of the woods.

THE REDWOOD BARGAIN
by Markelle Grabo
Page Street/St. Martin’s, March 2026

To free her cousin from an indentured contract, Katrien agrees to fulfill their lord’s bargain with the fabled “Redwood Man.” Three maids before her have posed as his stepdaughter, Lady Zaviera, and met this lord of the forest as promised. But Katrien means to be the first to fool him—and live. Impersonating a lady is no easy feat, especially one as beautiful and aloof as Zaviera. With one month before she’s sent off, Katrien is put through endless lessons, even as the Redwood Man’s suffocating vines overtake the manor and threaten its staff. Zaviera takes a special interest in her training, and their shared interests grow into shared affections. But the Redwood Man awaits his prize. Caught between duty and desire, her future and her past, Katrien must navigate a tricky bargain—or risk failing those she holds dearest.

Markelle Grabo retells the fairy tales that frustrate her, which, based on that guideline, could include nearly all of them. She earned her master’s degree in creative writing for children and young adults from Hamline University and lives in Illinois with her partner and their two cats, Matcha and Kava. She is the author of Call Forth a Fox.

SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE de Jenny Elder Moke

A steamy rom-com/murder mystery about a bestselling author who’s stuck at a wedding weekend gone horribly awry, perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey’s My Killer Vacation, and Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Dial A for Aunties.

SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE
by Jenny Elder Moke
Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press, January 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.

Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift.

When the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.

As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.

Jenny Elder Moke is the author of award-winning children’s and adult literature. She enjoys fast-paced adventures with plenty of mysteries, surprising turns, and laughs along the way. When she’s not writing, you can find her knitting, puzzling, or fighting imaginary crime as a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE is her adult debut.

WHERE ONLY STORMS GROW d’Alyssa Colman

For Fans of the I Survived series and The War That Saved My Life, this gripping middle-grade novel is set during one of the most dangerous storms in American history.

WHERE ONLY STORMS GROW
by Alyssa Colman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR, August 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

It’s been four years since rain fell on the Oklahoma panhandle and the closeness between the Stanton twins has dried up as much as the land. Howe Stanton has been practicing running away and longs for the family to quit this land of dust where only troubles grow. Despite the scoliosis that causes Joanna Stanton near-constant pain, she isn’t ready to give up like her brother. But when Daddy leaves the family behind to find work in California, saving the farm from ruin falls on Howe’s unwilling and Joanna’s uneven shoulders.

To pay the mortgage, Joanna takes a job at the local hospital and discovers purpose in helping others. Howe finds unexpected joy in caring for his father’s horse and escapes in a borrowed book.

But then a tragedy in town reveals the dust’s deadly dangers. With the worst storm of the Dust Bowl bearing down on their home, Howe and Joanna must put aside their differences and work together, or everyone and everything they love will be lost to the dust.

Alyssa Colman is the author of The Gilded Girl, which won the 2021 Northern Lights Book Award for middle-grade fantasy. Publishers Weekly called the story “a thoughtful and imaginative exploration of friendship, internal change, and perseverance” in a starred review. Alyssa lives in northern Virginia with her family.

EDIE TELLS A LIE d’Ingrid Laguna

A heartfelt story about friendship and family, loneliness, and the consequences of making a mistake.

EDIE TELLS A LIE
by Ingrid Laguna
Text Publishing (Australia), July 2025

Edie lives with her mum—it’s just the two of them. Her best friend, Bowie, lives right next door, until Bowie moves to the country.

Edie feels alone and forgotten, but she soon meets Aleki, and she’s happy to have a new friend. Aleki has a big family with lots going on all the time. Edie wishes she had a big, interesting family too.

So she invents a story—a lie.

It’s only a small story, but it soon grows, and it lands her in trouble. Suddenly Edie is lonelier than ever.

But then she finds a mysterious letter in an old book. It’s written in Polish, the language of her dad’s family, and Edie discovers she has a famous great aunt who lived a remarkable life with wild animals in a forest in Poland. Edie is proud of her Polish heritage, and she wants to tell her classmates about her amazing auntie.

But, after her lie, will anyone believe her?

Ingrid Laguna is an award-winning author and educator. Her books include Songbird, Sunflower, Serenade for a Small Family, Bailey Finch Takes a Stand, which was awarded best chapter book and overall primary resource winner in the 2022 Educational Publishing Awards, and Kit and Arlo Find a Way, which won the same awards in 2023. Her writing has featured in various publications, including the Monthly, the Age and AEU Magazine. She regularly presents to teachers and students at schools, libraries, festivals and conferences.

THE MYSTERIOUS MAGIC OF LIGHTHOUSE LANE d’Erin Stewart

A tender and heartfelt new middle-grade fantasy from the author of The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner.

THE MYSTERIOUS MAGIC OF LIGHTHOUSE LANE
by Erin Stewart
Simon & Schuster, February 2026
(via Writers House)

People are seriously overrated. At least that’s how Lucy sees it. People come with feelings, and Lucy feels them all too strongly.

Lucy doesn’t like that she can feel the anger when her parents fight, or that a lonely octopus at the aquarium filled her with so much sadness that she sobbed in front of her whole sixth-grade class. So when her parents suggest that she spend the summer with her grandfather at his isolated cabin on Prince Edward Island, she jumps at the chance to get away from people, feelings—all of it.

Lucy arrives at her grandfather’s with the only thing she really needs: her camera. From behind the lens, she can watch the world without having to feel any of it. Then Lucy finds her grandmother’s old camera and darkroom. When she starts taking pictures of the people in town and developing photos, she sees things in a new light—a new, magical light. In the pictures, she can see everything: her subjects’ deepest fears and hidden desires.

As Lucy tries to get to the bottom of the photographic magic, she realizes she’s been given a special gift by her grandmother. Between the camera’s magic and her own ability to feel everything, maybe Lucy’s big emotions could actually do something good for once.

But figuring out the mystery means giving up on her summer of being alone. Is Lucy ready to open her heart to new friends—and new feelings—in order to help the people in her summertime home?