Anderson, M.T. Nicked. Pantheon. Jul. 2024. 240p. ISBN 9780593701607. $28. F

NBA winner and multiple-time finalist Anderson (best known for the YA novel Feed) makes his adult debut with a genre-blending story about stealing Saint Nicholas’s bones to ward off a pox sweeping through an Italian city in 1087. Featuring a cloistered monk, it is BISACed as literary, fantasy/historical, and LGBTQ+ and described as both a rompy caper and an adventure romance.

Dillsworth, Lianne. House of Shades. Harper. Jul. 2024. 256p. ISBN 9780358627920. $30. F

Dillsworth (Theatre of Marvels) returns to Victorian London in her sophomore novel, in which Hester Reeves, a Black woman doctor, is offered a life-changing payment if she can cure the ailing Gervaise Cherville. Healing Cherville requires Hester not only to leave her husband and home but also to move into a house of secrets.

Dunlay, Emily. Teddy. Harper. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780063354890. $30. F

Dunlay’s debut gets a 50K-copy first printing and is set in Rome in 1969. Teddy Huntley Carlyle is newly arrived from Texas, on the arm of her diplomat husband stationed in the American embassy. She vows to be perfect and good; then, at a Fourth of July party, everything explodes.

Kamali, Marjan. The Lion Women of Tehran. Gallery. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781668036587. $28.99. F

Best seller Kamali (The Stationery Shop) offers a story of friendship and redemption set against three decades in Tehran, beginning in the 1950s when seven-year-old Ellie meets Homa. The girls bond over their shared interests and their desire to grow up to be “lion women.” Class and opportunity divide them, but fate brings them together repeatedly, testing and forging—and breaking—bonds.

Lecoat, Jenny. Beyond Summerland. Graydon House. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781525831546. pap. $18.99. F

The second novel from Lecoat, after her best-selling debut The Girl from The Channel Islands, is set in post-WWII Jersey, one of the Channel Islands that was occupied by the Nazis during the war. Demands to punish wartime Nazi collaborators grow and accusations are on the wind as two women collide and then bond in a small-world setting full of secrets and repercussions. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. The Seventh Veil of Salome. Del Rey: Ballantine. Jul. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9780593600269. $28.99. F

The award-winning Moreno-Garcia (whose Mexican Gothic is being developed by Hulu) spins a multiple-timeline historical saga. In 1950s Hollywood, the production of the film Salome is the big story; also buzzing is newcomer Vera Larios, who has landed the lead role. In ancient Judea, the flesh-and-blood princess Salome is living her own legendary life, torn between desire and duty.

Quinn, Kate. The Briar Club. Morrow. Jul. 2024. 400p. ISBN 9780063244740. $30. F

Best seller Quinn (The Diamond Eye) sets her newest during the McCarthy era. The Briarwood House shelters the enigmatic widow Grace March, who moves into the attic and soon gathers a salon around her of fellow boarders. But all of the women have hurts, and none will escape the violence that enters the house—or the paranoia cloaking the country.

Saint, Jennifer. Hera. Flatiron. Jul. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250855602. $28.99. F

After writing Atalanta, Elektra, and Ariadne, Saint once again pens a feminist reclaiming of the mythological pantheon. Hera, sister to Zeus, helped overthrow their father so Zeus could take the crown. But Hera begins to wonder about his motivations too, and, as she was born to be a queen, has plans of her own to remake the world. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Velton, Sonia. The Nightingale’s Castle: A Novel of Erzsébet Báthory, the Blood Countess. Harper Perennial. Jul. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780063351462. pap. $18.99. F

With a film optioned for her debut, Blackberry and Wild Rose, Velton now reimagines—even reclaims—the life of Erzsébet Báthory, the 16th-century Hungarian aristocrat who inspired Dracula, a powerful woman who was called the “Blood Countess” because she was said to have bathed in the blood of the hundreds she murdered. With a 75K-copy first printing.