Fiction: Mystery, Romance Tropes in Different Genres

Published March 10, 2026; Dutton

Genre: romance, rom com

My NG review: Publishing editor, Sam Avery, is sent by his company to encourage Clara Sheridan, a young writer, to finish the last book in her recently deceased father's well known series. She is the only person her father wanted to write the final book, but she has developed writer's block. Hence Sam's presence over the months it may take for her to finish.

Of course, a romance begins to develop when the two put their heads together to come up with a perfect last novel.
When the book calls for a few erotic scenes, the two try to act out the scenes for a more realistic approach.

The plot is a bit obvious but the ways in which the two develop feelings for each other is somewhat unique.

 

Other Books on NG

Precious Friends

Murder in Sag Harbor

by Frank Spinelli

Pub Date Jun 02 2026 | Archive Date Jun 16 2026

Level Best Books | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles

LGBTQIAP+ | Mystery & Thrillers

JB Pulaski, a tenured sociology professor, thought surviving cancer was his greatest battle. Now, desperate to save his crumbling marriage, he retreats to his Sag Harbor summer home with his philandering husband Mike and teenage son Emilio.

Instead, he finds humiliation.

Ship Happens

A Novel

by Mason Deaver

Pub Date Aug 18 2026 | Archive Date Oct 13 2026

Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon

General Fiction (Adult) | LGBTQIAP+ | Romance

 Their friends spring a surprise six-day, seven-night cruise up the West Coast to Alaska as a bonding trip for the group. How is Owen supposed to keep it together around the man who broke his heart, all while pretending he’s fine?  

An emotional second-chance romance set on a breathtaking cruise, where two former flames must decide whether to let go or risk it all for a love that refuses to sink.

Tropes

• Forced proximity
• Exes
• Second chance
• Cruises
• Dating in secret
• Meddling friends

Current reads

Who can resist a cover like this? 

Aug. 25, 2026; Harlequin Romance, NetGalley

Genre: romance, mystery

I'm enjoying the various breeds of dogs in the book, their quirks and habits and interactions with each other in the dog park.

Published March 10, 2026, Sibylline Press, NetGalley

Genre: women's fiction, adult fiction

I knew someone whose entire job was to write obits for the local newspaper. I don't know anyone addicted to reading them, though, and this book focuses on a woman's habit of reading them all. She turns her obsession into a course at the community college and seems to learn something about life from her experience.

Mailbox Monday - these books arrived recently, sent by the publishers/publicist for possible review/feature.

Holy F*uck by Joseph Incardona, May 1, 2026, Bitter Lemon Press.

Genre: noir, adult fiction, satire

Stella works miracles. Literally. She heals the sick and the paralysed, just like in the Bible. The Vatican is overjoyed—imagine, a real saint in the 21st century, and in Georgia, the heart of the American South.
The only hitch? Her method: she heals the people she sleeps with in her motorhome. (publisher)

An Enigma by the Sea  published Jan. 15, 2026, Bitter Lemon Press

Genre: literary mystery, set in Italy

On the wintry Tuscan coast, the wealthy elite retreat to their lavish holiday homes. But the season turns sinister when a couple vanishes from a locked villa, and the body of a dubious count washes ashore. 

A sly meditation on class, illusion, and desire, this literary mystery is both sharply observant and darkly entertaining.

What are you reading this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday  

ARCs Downloaded...Just Because...:Sunday Salon

ARC Downloads, just because I liked the covers and/or titles

 

What are you reading this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Chefs in Cape Cod and in Japan: Mystery/Thrillers

 NetGalley ARCs are delivering quite a few books with unusual plots. Familiar tropes are being used in new ways!

Publication: July 7, 2026; Little, Brown & Company, NetGalley

Genre: mystery, thriller, adult fiction 

An aspiring chef finds she has bitten off more than she can chew when her gig as a private cook to a bestselling author turns deadly 

My NG review: 

Brett Novak, a gutsy young chef, takes a job as a live in cook for a famous author and his wife in Cape Cod. She not only has to deal with the strained relationship between the couple, but also with a pair of gigantic pitbulls who have the run of the house and the grounds.

I liked how Brett manages to survive the demands of both husband and wife while they play their dangerous games with each other. A lot happens in less than two weeks, including a murder, getting away with murder, and an escape from an old life.

The plot is fantastical, but made entertaining reading. , The well drawn characters are intriguing personalities, including those of the two huge dogs, who add a certain drama to the suspenseful novel.

Published Feb. 3, 2026; Ballantine, NetGalley

Genre: mystery, thriller, adult fiction

Greedy is a "suspenseful poison-pen note to classism and an ode to Japanese cuisine, a horror-tinged thriller unsuitable for vegetarians."

I'm still reading this one. After seeing them crunching on the roasted bodies and bones of little sparrows on a stick, I'm a little wary of just where the characters' appetites might take them further in the novel.

And now to an unusual Paris romance

Publication April 7, 2026; Berkley; NetGalley

My NG review:

The book is a love story between a physician Layla and a physically disfigured man Griffin, whose serious burns came from a fire that killed one other person. Layla and Griffin first meet at the wedding of mutual friends in Paris. As this is Paris, the reader is reminded of gargoyles on top of buildings, and even of the  Hunchback of Notre Dame when Griffin's incredible burns are described as disfiguring to the left side of his face and other areas of his body. Yet, Layla is immediately struck with the look of this very "handsome" man.

It was interesting that the love interest grew around their pact to ensure the successful wedding of their friends, Emily and Michael, in spite of last minute doubts by the bride, Emily.

I was surprised that the book description did not mention the very erotic love scenes in the book, or the graphic descriptions of Griffin's physical pain that lingers from his burn scars,

This seemed an unlikely but intriguing romantic development between two very different people. I took it with a grain of salt but enjoyed it nevertheless.

What are you reading this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen: Immigration Reading Challenge

 

2026 Immigration Reading Challenge is hosted by introvertedreader.com. Do visit her site to sign up or to read the book reviews of those participating! 

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen, showing two covers.  Jan. 7, 2025, G.P. Putnam Sons

Goodreads Choice Award

Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2025)

Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction

I enjoyed learning about the international city of Shanghai during the 1930s and after, with its European concessions in the city, the subsequent Japanese occupation, the flight of the city inhabitants, and the events in Shanghai and China after Japan's surrender at the end of WWII.

So much of history is covered during the telling of this story. I found the book to be a perfect vehicle to reveal the events in China around that time.

The main characters, Suchi and Haiwen, grow up together in the International Settlement in Shanghai. After the Japanese leave, China is still war torn, with the Nationalists fighting against the Communists for control of the country. The Nationalists eventually flee with their leader, Chiang Kai Shek, to the island of Taiwan. Haiwen has to leave Suchi and his family after joining the Nationalist army and departing for Taiwan.

Suchi spends uncertain years in Hong Kong before emigrating to the U.S., where she meets Haiwen again by chance, after sixty or more years apart. Suchi is a grandmother by then, and Haiwen a widower. They find each other in Los Angeles and make an effort to revisit Shanghai and their ailing mothers, bringing the circle of their lives to a close.

A very moving story, and an important one for another perspective and view of Shanghai and China during the war, and about two people finding a home in the U.S. after a long and harrowing life of war and displacement.

Posted for the 2026 Immigration Reading Challenge, 

And now for a Rom Com

Currently reading The Unwilling Plus One: A Dark RomCom, by Effie Campbell. Published Feb. 1, 2026; BooksGoSocial, NetGalley

The older daughter in a family of hired assassins finds herself unable to take part in their crimes. She will, however, kidnap a handsome neighbor in order to make him her Plus One at a family dinner and to prevent her father from announcing her engagement to one of his murderous cohorts. 

I wonder how she will persuade her unwilling Plus One to become a real romantic partner! 

What are you reading this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Bookstores and Bookshops in Rom Coms and Other Books

 

Not yet published publication Aug. 18, 2026; Avon and Harper Voyager; NetGalley

Literary agent meets dashing novelist, both hiding out in a town in Devon, England in Cornwall, escaping their own pasts.

My Netgalley review: I like this friends to lovers rom com set in Devon, England in Cornwall by the sea. Petra has escaped a horrendous mistake in her job as a literary agent in London, and Ross has found refuge in Devon after fleeing a controlling editor who fed on his fame and claimed his success as her own. 

Ross's good looks immediately draws Petra's attention and their involvement in writing, reading and the publishing world pulls them closer together. The book's insight into the world of publishing is fascinating, from the point of view of the two characters.

Romance is fueled by Petra's desire to get Ross writing again, helping him with his new book based on Shakespeare's characters in The Tempest. And Petra, once fed up with reading, began her slow interest in books again.

I loved how the two characters fit into the smaller world of the town in Devon and became fast friends with the booksellers and the townspeople there. The setting in Cornwall, the cliffs, the ocean, the hills, add a certain mysterious Daphne du Maurier quality to the novel that I definitely liked. 

An enjoyable rom com especially for lovers of Shakespeare.

Publication: June 3, 2025; Berkley, NetGalley

Two bookstore managers in stores right next to each other compete for the same promotion. Rivalry mixes with romance. 

Published Sept. 6, 2022; Berkley, NetGalley

A Filipina baker likes the looks of the bookstore owner next door, but they clash when there is a planned  renovation to the building they share. Of course, romance intervenes.

Not yet published Publication: Sept. 15, 2026. NetGalley

The true story of a book lover in  Tokyo who connects with strangers online, meets with them in person, and finds her purpose in life in recommending books to them that change their lives. 

Publication: March 24, 2026; Harper 360, NetGalley

Dreams and wishes come true at this  magical bookshop which only appears when cherry blossoms are in bloom

 

Published July 2017; Berkley, NetGalley

Three women in their 50s return to a small South Carolina town, trying to find answers to the disappearance of one of their mothers years ago. Women's fiction. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

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