Books You May Have Missed 2022: Combined

Publisher Annotation: Nationally best-selling author Julissa Arce interweaves her own experiences with cultural commentary in a powerful polemic against the myth that assimilation leads to happiness and belonging for immigrants in America. Instead, she calls for a celebration of our uniqueness, our origins, our heritage, and the beauty of the differences that actually make us Americans. 208pp., 75K

"In the fifth installment of USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long’s charming Palace of Rogues series, a rakish spy finds more than he bargained for in his pursuit of an earl’s enchanting runaway fiancée. The mission: Find the Earl of Brundage’s runaway fiancée in exchange for a fortune. Child’s play for legendary British former spymaster, Christian Hawkes. The catch? Hawkes knows in his bones that Brundage is the traitor to England...

Seventeen-year-olds Kat Finn and Taylor Sanger, two queer bloodsuckers at an elite vampire-only boarding school, must go up against all of Vampirdom when they uncover a frightening conspiracy on campus.

Accidentally activated in a future world where only the savage survive, a life-size toy named Fred is programmed to be a friend and spread kindness and good will wherever he goes, but in this world that is going to be difficult--so Fred decides that his first task is to get Lord Bonkers and Papa Mayhem, two warlords, to make peace and become friends.

"The timeless and timely intersect in poems about our unique historical moment, from the prizewinning poet. In Zoom Rooms, Mary Jo Salter considers the strangeness of our recent existence, together with the enduring constants in our lives. The title poem, a series of sonnet-sized Zoom meetings-a classroom, a memorial service, an encounter with a new baby in the family-finds humor and pathos in our age of social distancing and technology-induced proximity....