When you’re not cheering on Team USA in Paris, check out the latest titles on the Texas literary scene. Compete in your own reading marathon with a winning selection from our August Texas Books Preview. Read on!
All’s Fair in Love and Rodeo: Grit and Grace Series
Leah Vale
Samantha Abel wants to be known for more than her looks. The new Grit and Grace Rodeo Roughstock Company, founded with her friends, is her opportunity. She just needs to secure their first rodeo contract. Nothing stops her—not an oops pregnancy, sexist demands or the arrival of her baby daddy intent on winning the same bid.
Professional bull rider Alec Neisson knows he can’t compete forever. As a favor to his grandfather, he heads to Last Stand, Texas to secure a rodeo contract, never dreaming he’ll be competing against the woman he’s tried but failed to forget. Only one can win, but when Alec discovers Sammie’s news, more than his career is at stake, but he needs to woo Sammie and gain her trust.
Nikhil Prabala
The Duchess of Kokora, Phera Ylir Mdana, has entered the marriage games of the neighboring kingdom of Ryene. But she’s not there to woo the dashing Prince Dominic.
Her true objective? To win back one of the other contestants, Lady Rocelle Virae—Phera’s true love and ex-fiancee.
From Here to There and Back: Three Short Stories and A Poem
Jesse Manciaz / Xam'le Kuiz
The three short stories and a poem in From Here to There and Back are powerful, political and poignant. As an Esto’k Gna, American Indian/Native of Texas writer, he might be Native American Indian Literature’s best kept secret. He’s a gifted and crafted wordsmith that puts you in the middle of the scene and sublimely shocks you into viscerally feeling what you are reading. You might call the general genre of Jesse’s writings in this collection (besides short story and poetry), Fictional Memoir, because Jesse draws from his own personal life experiences and recollections as a young migrant field worker, and an 18-year-old Indio Tejano Marine in Vietnam, to fuel his writings that have been fictionalized to a certain extent.
Kellie Coates Gilbert
Determined single mother, Lila Bellamy, aspires to become a large animal veterinarian while raising her teenage daughter. Her ambitions are often thwarted by her boss, Doc Tillman, a seasoned vet who underestimates her skills. When Doc Tillman faces health issues, Lila sees an opportunity to prove herself. However, her plans are disrupted by the arrival of Whit Calloway, a charismatic and enigmatic Texan hired by Doc Tillman to take over in his absence.
Sparks fly from the get-go between Lila and Whit, transforming their professional rivalry into a fiery connection that neither of them can ignore. As they navigate their competing ambitions and burgeoning feelings, they’ll learn that the heart, much like their furry patients, requires tender care and can heal in unexpected ways.
James Wade
Award-winning author James Wade blends atmospheric prose with soul-stirring themes in this thrilling adventure set against a Depression-era landscape where a whiskey war threatens to decimate a small Texas town.
A WWI veteran, Jesse Cole is grateful for his quiet life. But when his friend runs afoul of local criminals, he is forced to enter a violent underworld of corrupt lawmen, hired assassins, and a dark family secret.
Complicating matters are Texas Ranger Amon Atkins, who arrives to investigate, and the beautiful Adaline, a love Jesse thought he’d lost forever.
With resources scarce and winter falling hard on the town, a desperate Jesse must choose between the law and the lawless and find a way to survive while still protecting the people he loves.
Love in Every Bite: Lost Creek - Texas Hill Country Book Four
Alexa Aston
Army veteran Ry Blackwood returns to Lost Creek and his family’s BBQ business after a dozen years away. Former teacher Emerson Frost has inherited The Bake House and is finding her feet as a business owner. She’s determined to stay away from lady’s man Ry.
Their passion for food ignites their passion for one other, though. Love blossoms amidst the clanking of pots and pans as they take part in late-night tastes tests and heartfelt conversations about their dreams and desires. But Emerson is closed off from her emotions, not one to trust easily.
Can Ry win Emerson’s heart and teach her to open hers to love?
Lisa Compton
Raising the Dead, Book 4 of the Olivia Osborne Series finds Olivia free at last from the shackles of the FBI, and on a quest to find others like her. Empowered by the words of a dead man, Olivia is determined to find the collective of Gifted she knows are out there. She has a due date looming and being on her own is no longer an option. Olivia desperately needs the teacher she never had. At the same time, there's a new monster in town, one who seeks to pull the Gifted from the shadows, and she's willing to use the dead to do it.
The Ransom Enigma: Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles
Breakfield and Burkey
Jo and JJ Rodreguiz finished their vacation dream home in Magnolia Bluff. To celebrate their accomplishment, they invite the town residents to their housewarming.
Emails are sent. Lily provides the side dishes for the party. Chief Jager bartends. The teenagers act as servers. Guests dance outside until the wee hours. Toasts honor JJ and Jo’s dearest friends. Max the Labrador cleans up the crumbs.
After the last guest departs, JJ finds a housewarming gift addressed to Jo. She excitedly opens it and gasps with dismay. Someone left behind not a present but a blackmail letter. Jo crumbles into tears, fearing they must sell and never return. Her outraged husband swears to kill the wretched blackmailer. Unfortunately, the Chief of Police cannot unhear the threat.
Bix Barrow
Because I’m a wardrobe-challenged, heavyset geek with sarcasm issues, I’m suspicious when it starts raining hot men in my life. Hot men who want to hold my hand.
Simultaneously, my psychic visions get weird, filled with not-completely-human people dying. My quest for answers leads me to Greg, the hottest hottie of all. Who definitely does not want to hold my hand. I mean, thank goodness, right? I have to stop the killer.
Yep, no time to learn that Greg might have a warm heart under his insufferable façade. Absolutely no time to worry about how we accidentally got magic-married.
Nope, my vision says the killer’s about to strike again, but we don’t know how to fight them.
We have thirty minutes to figure it out.
The Wedding Dress Quilt: A Waxahachie, Texas Quilt Mystery
Jeffree Wyn Itrich
Family secrets, a second chance at love, and a stalker—trouble is right around the corner.
Adopted as an infant, art quilter Lisbeth James has no clue about the family waiting for her. After her maternal grandmother dies, Lisbeth inherits the family home and travels to Texas to claim her inheritance. There, she finds long-lost family, a man who makes her heart flutter, a feeling she has not known since the passing of her ex-fiancé, and a hidden treasure—a stunning wedding dress— that inspires her to make a double wedding ring quilt. Yet beneath the newfound joy, she discovers a stalker and pieces of her past.
Four Doubt: A Silas McKay Suspense
Luana Ehrlich
While Silas McKay, head of operations for Discreet Corporate Security Services in Dallas, Texas, is figuring out how to handle his feelings for Ashley Davenport, one of his colleagues at DCSS, he’s also figuring out who killed one of his clients, a cybersecurity executive. The police believe it was a gang-related shooting, and the widow believes a competitor killed her husband. As Silas chases down the leads on both, he discovers the real killer, someone who’s been hiding in plain sight, someone who plans to kill again. Only Silas stands in the way. And then, the killer comes for him.
Love You Till Tuesday: A Declan Shaw Mystery
M.E. Proctor
The death of April Easton makes no sense. Steve Robledo, Houston PD, is on the scene. He’s known for closing cases. This one has all the markings of a head scratcher. And when he learns Declan Shaw, a local PI with police connections, spent the night with the woman, it makes everything more complicated. A collaboration, uneasy at first, is in the works. Declan can’t get April out of his head, and Steve is running out of time. For the powerful men behind April’s death, their alliance means trouble. Declan is stubborn and resourceful. He worries them a lot more than the police. There’s no telling what he could dig up. The stakes are high: a trial with the death penalty in play.
Anna Daugherty
After a vagrant upbringing, free-spirited Wren Atwood has fought to beat the odds and now her lifelong dream is coming true, with a little blue house to call her own. But when a hurricane hits the Texas coast, Wren must turn to pompous businessman Daniel Hollis for help. She never expected that her frenemy might be hiding his own family secrets. As Wren struggles with toxic family members and Hollis fights to save his sister’s life, they discover their efforts will never be enough. With the storm tearing down their walls, what will they find behind the false fronts they have each put up?
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
There are so many Texas-connected books publishing this month that we couldn’t feature all of them. The following books also publish in August:
CHILDREN'S, MIDDLE GRADE, & YOUNG ADULT BOOKS
A Million Stars and Shadows by Kira G. & Kailin Gow
Ali the Great and the Bug Hunt Hazard by Saadia Faruqi
Ali the Great and the Magic Trick Fix by Saadia Faruqi
Ali the Great and the Robot Meltdown by Saadia Faruqi
Ali the Great and Too Many Cooks by Saadia Faruqi
Ali the Great Saves the Day by Saadia Faruqi
The Brujos of Borderland High by Gume Laurel II
Cowgirl Callie's Breakaway Dreams by Kacy Burke
Lola Joins the Team by Keka Novales
Lola's Perfect Pet by Keka Novales
Mindy Kim, Big Sister by Lyla Lee
Wild at Heart by Evan Griffith
World War II Stories for Kids by Todd Carlson
MYSTERY / HORROR
A Blood Red Morning by Mark Pryor
The Case of Trish The Dish and The Birthday Wish by Dakota Cassidy
Death and Blackberry Pie by Nova Walsh
El Diablo by Kathryn Dodson
Homecoming Queen by Chad Boudreaux
Master of the Art of Detection by Liese Sherwood-Fabre
Mayhem and Mandrill by Verena DeLuca
Murder at the Door Anthology by Jodi Linton, et al
Not for Sale by James Peyton
The Porcelain Promise by Jordan Reed
Power in Pursuit by Kirby Ann
The Secrets We Keep by Lisa Harris
Sunbeam, Sunflowers, and Sabotage by Leanne Leeds
Swallow the Ghost by Eugenie Montague
Texans, Tourists, and Treachery by Brittany E. Brinegar
A Weekend Escape, Another Murder by Christa Nardi
Winner's Curse by L.A. Starks
NONFICTION
50 Blogs on Writing and the Writing Life by Janis Patterson
A Centennial Perspective on Texas in the Great War by Stephen S. Cure
A Story of Stories: The Texas Border Barrio Life and Writings of Doña Ramona González by Cristina Devereaux Ramírez
American Tacos by José R. Ralat
Bringing Ben Home by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
Clouds of the Cross in Luther and Kierkegaard by Carl S. Hughes
Dallas through a Lost Lens, 1939-1954 edited by Connell R. Miller Jr.
Dallas's Radio Station WRR by Kristi Nedderman
The Devil Behind the Badge by Rick Jervis
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Color by Janie Owen-Bugh
Glimpses of Grace Volume II by Dorothy Horne
MOLDed: A Memoir of Loss and Survival by Carol Milberger, Ph.D.
The Monarch Butterfly Migration by Monika Maeckle
Navigating Rocky Terrain : Caves, Karsts, and the Soul of Unseen Spaces by Laurie Roath Frazier
Nepantla Familias edited by Sergio Troncoso
Reminiscing the Road by Betty Oglesbee
Tough Times Never Last by Rebecca Franchione
Writing an Identity Not Your Own by Alex Temblador
OTHER FICTION
AI Apocalypse: A Collection of Science Fiction Short Stories by Skyler Ramirez
The Border Between Us by Rudy Ruiz
The Broken Truth by Reavis Z. Wortham
The Consortium - APEX by B.A. Chapman
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. DJÈLÍ Clark
Dust-Covered Lies by Catherine O'Connor
The Editors by Stephen Harrison
The Forest and the City by Ram Shovlin
Freedom is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana
The Hanging Party by William W. Johnstone & J.A. Johnstone
Hollow Out the Dark by James Wade
House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
The Medieval Misfit by Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle
On the Royale Range by William W. Johnstone & J.A. Johnstone
Rescuing a Fallen by Kelly Hollingshead
Some Die Young by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
Surviving Liberty Valley by Mary Tyler
When It All Falls Down by Chinedu Achebe
POETRY
The Early Prose of Stewart Berg by Stewart Berg
ROMANCE
A Proposal for Her Cowboy by Cari Lynn Webb
The Bodyguard and the Bombshell by Lexi Blake
Breakfast in Bed by Missy Jane
Bridles and Bribery: Small Town Secrets by Jo Grafford
Bullied by the Alpha Wolf by Kayla Wolf
Carrick by Kathleen Ball
Cash by Jessica Peterson
Cloudy with a Chance of Devotion by Olivia Sands
Colt by Cala Riley
Come Home to the Doctor's by Lacey Davis
The Cowboy Who Loved Texas by Liz Isaacson
Dangerous Summer by Barb Shuler & KA Graham
A Duchess for the Mysterious Duke by Hanna Hamilton
Enchanted Enough by Kelly Elliott
Fall I Want by Lyra Parish
Foolish Love by Katrina Marie
Going All In by Jovie Grace
The Great Dating Fake-Off by Livy Hart
Heart Healing Cowboy by Debra Clopton
An Heiress for August by Kathleen Ayers
Hidden Secrets Between Them by Mindy Obenhaus
Katrina by Kimberly Smith
King for a Day by Olivia Hardin
Lone Star Target by Delores Fossen
Lost Love on 6th Street by Lolu Sinclair
Mail Order Mind by Kirsten Osbourne
Mail Order Minister by Kirsten Osbourne
My Forever Guy by Katheryn Kaleigh
My Only Mistake by Emma Lee Jayne
Nine Months to a Fortune by Elizabeth Bevarly
Noelle's Return by Carolyn L. Dean, Jenna St. James & Patti Larsen
The One You Can't Forget by Roni Loren
Our Forever Love by Katheryn Kaleigh
Possessive Mate by Mia Wolf
Protecting a Promise by Jenna Brandt
Runaway Bride and Prejudice by Emma St. Clair
Shield of the Mighty by Connilyn Cossette
Silver Flirt by Stella Banks
Soaring and Swoony by Ginny Sterling
Taunting the Billionaire by Ginny Sterling
The Truth Sets You Free by L.J. Breedlove
Unlikely Guardian by Delores Fossen
Wrangling a Texas Hometown Hero by Katie Lane
The Wrong Brother by Eve Gaddy
Want to make sure your forthcoming Texas-connected titles are included in our feature? Email us at Publicity@LoneStarLiterary.
