Books: New Novels For Spring

We are finally at the time of year you can go outside and read a book, and in this review, we will look at three new novels that will transport you to another place and are perfect to spend an afternoon with: To Cage a Wild Bird, by Brooke Fast; You Should Have Been Nicer To My Mom, by Vincent Tirado; and Like in Love with You, by Emma R. Alban. 

To Cage a Wild Bird

By Brooke Fast

Avon; hardcover, 368 pages; $32.00

Brooke Fast is a lover of dystopian, fantasy, and all things romance, who is known for writing snippets under her alter ego, @librarybrookes, while she is thumbing through the latest romantasy release or sharing book reviews.

To Cage a Wild Bird is Fast's debut novel, the first in a dystopian romance series that is set in the brutal world of Endlock, a prison where the wealthy hunt the inmates for sport. 

It is a tale of forbidden love, found family, and a fight for survival. In the city of Dividium, the law is simple. Of you commit a crime, you are handed a life sentence in Endlock. 

Raven Thorne is Dividium's most notorious bounty hunter who lives on the edge of society. When her younger brother, Jed, is sent to Endlock, she will do anything to save him, even if it means she gets arrested as well.

When she is trapped in a prison where danger is lurking, Raven must deploy all her cunning and strength to protect Jed, as well as herself to complete this perilous mission. 

There is, however, one obstacle, and that is the prison guard who stirs something deep inside her. This is a man she should hate, a man whose true motives are hard to pin down. 

This is a world where trust is a weapon and love is a liability, and within that, Raven must decide if she will risk everything to tear down a vicious system.

You Should Have Been Nicer To My Mom

By Vincent Tirado

William Morrow; hardcover, $30.00

Vincent Tirano is a nonbinary Afro-Dominican native of The Bronx. They ventured out to Pennsylvania and Ohio for their bachelor's degree in biology and master's degree in bioethics. Their debut YA novel, Burn Down, Rise Up, was the 2022 winner of the Pura Belpre Award and a finalist for the 2022 Stoker Awards and 2023 Lammy Awards. That was followed by another YA novel, We Don't Swim Here, and debut adult novel, We Came to Welcome You.

You Should Have Been Nicer To My Mom is Tirado's turn to gothic horror. When the patriarch of the wealthy Abreu family, Papi Ramon, dies, he gives the family one final message in his will - "One of you is el baca, the demon that I made a deal with. Get rid of them or you will be damned."

Xiomara, the uncontested favorite of Papi Ramon, thus the least liked in the family, watches as everyone dismisses this as the joke of a senile old man and demands the lawyer obtain the previous will that Papi wrote. While the lawyer is driving back to his office, a storm breaks out, which forces the entire family, which includes Xiomara's aunts and uncles and cousins, to remain in the house. 

The words of Papi's will hang over their heads even heavier than the rain clouds. As the night goes on, scandal after scandal is divulged to the public about the family. A tense few hours of surviving her family turns into a vicious night of recrimination, violence, accusations, and murder.

This presents Xiomara with an impossible task, to put it mildly, to uproot a demon and somehow kill it or excise the ghosts that linger within her own family. The challenge will be the psychological hook of figuring out "is there an actual demon, or just the demons we hide inside."

Like in Love with You

By Emma R. Alban

Avon; paperback, $18.99; Ebook, $11.99; Digital Audio, $27.99

Emma R. Alban is a Hudson Valley native who is a USA Today bestselling author and screenwriter whose prior books include Don't Want You Like a Best Friend and You're the Problem, It's You.

Alban's new novel, Like in Love with You, is a Regency Romance that is part Mean Girls and part Northanger Abbey. 

Catherine Pine has relocated to Bath in 1817, and she comes face-to-face with her mother's Arch nemesis and her daughter, the wildly popular Lady Rosalie. Catherine's mother suffered a horrible betrayal twenty-five years before, and she is set to pounce on this opportunity for revenge. 

That is to have Catherine win the favor of Lady Rosalie's suitor and unofficial betrothed, the most eligible man in town, Mr. Dean. The only problem is that Catherine discovers that Lady Rosalie is by far the wittiest, cleverest, most intriguing young woman she has ever met, and she is instantly smitten.

At the same time, Lady Rosalie is trapped in her relationship with Mr. Dean and in her role as Bath's mean girl. When she notices that Catherine, a newcomer to the town, is gunning for her spot as queen bee, Rosalie finally feels a spark again, and she is not seeking to extinguish it.

Mr. Dean becomes encircled by Catherine and Rosalie, whose mothers are forcing them into increasingly absurd contests of their smarts and feminine charms. As they are ostensibly battling for him, they are somehow falling for each other, scheme by scheme.

In this excerpt, Rosalie is being sold on what her life could be with the right suitor: "Are you listening to me?"

Rosalie looks up from her slouch on mother's stiff pink fainting couch, the latest copy of Debrett's crinkled in her hands. "The Duntons would like to meet the Spokes, and their son should dance at least one set with Henrietta."

Mother narrows her eyes and Rosalie stares back just as pointedly. She may not actually care about tonight's ball, but she's still her mother's daughter. Not missing a trick is practically part of their family crest.

"Good. Miss Raught could use a few more dances, and it wouldn't hurt to turn Mr. Spokes away. Wouldn't want him getting any ideas," Mother says.

Rosalie watches Mother consider her reflection in the three-pronged mirror. She has a small dais set up in the corner of her expansive, blue-wallpapered bedroom, and she spends at least an hour at it before every ball, perfecting every single part of her outfit.

Rosalie spends her fair share of that hour primping as well, but Mother is always the last one ready to leave. Well, unless Father is attending. It's equally possible he'll be running late tonight.

They're well suited, and always at least an hour late. But it saves Rosalie another hour at the Assembly Room, for which she's grateful. Every ball is the same people, the same introductions, the same dances. It's perfunctory.

Spending her whole night deterring men like Mr. Spokes, lest he, or anyone else, get the idea that Rosalie could be stolen away from the most eligible Mr. Dart, gets tired. Rosalie sometimes quietly wonders if she might like to be stolen.

Mother would have kittens. Mr. Dean is by far the best prize of Bath. Far better than Rosalie could do if they'd chosen to present her in London. Father's estate has a sizeable living and they're exceedingly comfortable here. But she knows her dowry wouldn't command nearly the same attention in London, nor would Father's young earldom command the same respect.

Other girls might pout, but Rosalie can't imagine going through all of this on a larger scale. Being a big fish in the small pond of Bath suits her, her parents, and her brother, Christopher, when he's at home. It used to be fun, even, running the ton, everyone catering to them, especially if Aunt Genevieve and Uncle Walter were in town.

But lately it just feels...hollow. Christopher's off at school and Aunt Genevieve won't arrive for another two weeks. Tonight is going to be interminable.

At least Mr. Dean doesn't fawn. He's a quiet, sturdy kind of man, of rather few words. Rosalie doesn't mind so much. She doesn't think their life together will be filled with witty conversation or sparkling attraction, but it should be a good life. She'll have a staff and the money to give her children a comfortable upbringing. 

It's what her mother has had. And mother is happy with her lot.