Spotlight: The Wednesday Box by Jonathan Kieran

Publication date: June 18th 2026

Genres: Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Horror

Some stories begin with “Once Upon a Time…”
This one begins with loneliness.

From the bestselling author of WistWood comes THE WEDNESDAY BOX, an illustrated supernatural horror novel for readers who love the haunting edge of stories like Coraline, The Thief of Always, The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, and The Nest.

“At its heart, it’s a brilliant coming-of-age tale that isn’t afraid to get dark, showing the world through the eyes of a young girl dealing with heavy, adult-sized burdens.”

“Beneath all the strange events, this is also a story about exhaustion, poverty, protection, and the terrible compromises people make when they’re trying to survive. That emotional foundation makes the darker turns of the story hit much harder.”

May has learned to survive in a world of shrieking subway rails, soot-stained skies, and apartment hallways where silence, caution, and never asking for too much are simply facts of life.

But when a hulking stranger in a raincoat the color of broken promises begins to haunt her steps—on the train, in the tunnels, at her own door—May realizes that keeping quiet will no longer keep her safe.

Wednesday is the only day May cannot be alone.
The only night.

And when her weary mother leaves her with a new caretaker, May discovers that the tempting contents of an ancient box hold dangers far worse than anything she has ever feared 

The greatest danger, however, is not what hunts her, but the impossible choice before her…
Tell the truth and risk losing the one person she cannot live without.
Or keep silent and face the darkness alone.

Because below the city, something is hunting.
And it knows her name. 

“You’ll feel for May, just as I did. It’s quietly devastating in all the right ways.”

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About the Author

Jonathan Kieran is an author and illustrator with a passion for world travel and ancient history—and an occasionally bewildered grasp of the present. He lives in a rustic house in the woodlands not far from Big Sur, California, where he awaits the future confidently with plenty of firewood, a new cat named Beezley, mercurial internet access, a magical footbridge (troll-infested and everything), and a reasonable supply of Cabernet Sauvignon. There also appears to be a significant Pinot Noir backup; viticultural shortages are not to be countenanced.

Jonathan’s interests are eclectic. He is as likely to regale you with an account of his latest misadventures in the Midi-Pyrénées as he is to ask if you happen to have any spare cookies about the house—and if so, whether you might part with five of them. Nothing piques his interest like a good old-fashioned discussion about cryptozoology, Tuscan cuisine, classical English literature, the perils of pop culture, or the harrowing details of great white shark attacks.

In addition to running up and down various mountainsides to burn off calories accrued from the wanton consumption of baked goods, Jonathan enjoys a good party with people unafraid to laugh, and he veritably lives for bedtime.

He is the author and illustrator of The Wednesday Box, WistWood and the  Enchanted Heritage Chronicles, with more adventures to come.

Connect:

https://jonathankieran.com/

https://www.facebook.com/JonathanKieranOfficial/

https://x.com/jkieran_author

https://www.instagram.com/authorjonathankieran/

https://amzn.to/4eKLlVV

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6861276.Jonathan_Kieran

The Wednesday Box Blitz Link: The Wednesday Box Blitz

Spotlight: Hero Next Door by Kait Nolan

Release Date: June 12

Losing everything was supposed to be the end. It might be the beginning.

I built my life on moving on—new places, new projects, new causes. Make an impact, then keep going. It worked… until a scandal I never saw coming destroyed my reputation—and a house fire took everything else.

Now I’m stranded in a small mountain town with nothing but borrowed clothes and a growing list of problems.

And a firefighter next door who refuses to let me fall apart quietly.

Colter Gibson is everything I’m not—steady, grounded, rooted. A single dad with a protective streak a mile wide and a habit of showing up when it matters most.

Letting him help is supposed to be temporary.
So is staying in Gibson Hollow.
So is the undeniable spark igniting between us.

But the longer I’m here, the more I find something I’ve never had before—a chance to see the impact of my work up close… and a place that feels like home.

Then the life I lost comes calling—with a chance to take it all back.

And I have to decide…

Do I go back to who I was—
or risk my heart on the one man—and the one town—that make me want to stay?

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Meet Kait Nolan

Kait Nolan is a USA Today best selling, RITA® Award-winning Mississippi author who calls everyone sugar, honey, or darlin', and can wield a 'Bless your heart' like a Snuggie or a saber, depending on requirements. She believes in love, laughter, and that tacos are the world's most perfect food. When she's not writing, reading, or wrangling family (both the two-legged and the four-), you can find her obsessively watching The Great British Bake Off. 

Keep up with Kait Nolan and subscribe to her newsletter: https://kaitnolan.com/newsletter/

For more on Kait Nolan & her books, visit here!

Connect with Kait Nolan:https://kaitnolan.com/contact/

Spotlight: The Nightingale Detective Agency by Denise Devine

Genre: 1920’s Historical Cozy Mystery 

St. Paul, 1926—where ambition comes at a cost, especially for a woman.

Charlotte Van Elsberg is determined to become the city’s first female private investigator and help women in need. She’s already landed her first case: a grieving mother who wants answers about her daughter, Eleanor Kimball, a debutante killed in a suspicious car crash. Was it truly an accident or something more sinister? Char intends to find out. There’s just one hitch—Char’s husband.

Will Van Elsberg, a seasoned investigator, knows the job too well. It’s no profession for a petite young lady, and he’s not about to let his wife charge headfirst into danger. Char has other ideas. She agrees to hire bodyguards to satisfy his objections.

However, despite the addition of her “new team,” she soon learns that this job is a lot harder than it appears. Doors slam in her face, alibis don’t add up, and everyone appears to be hiding something. Does she have the grit and determination it takes to solve this case?

The more she digs into Eleanor’s carefully polished life, the more she uncovers the young woman’s secrets. Hidden truths that someone is desperate to keep buried. Evidence worth killing for. Now that Char is asking questions, who is determined to stop her from revealing the missing pieces?

If you love Prohibition-era intrigue and twisty whodunits, dive into this 1920s cozy mystery filled with clever clues, hidden secrets, and a bold female sleuth. Grab your copy today and start sleuthing!

Excerpt

“Last night went well,” Will said, commenting on my new bodyguards the next morning as we lingered over strong black coffee in the breakfast room. Golden sunlight filtered through the tall windows from the sun streaming between the mature oaks on the edge of our property. “Sean and Alice seemed to get along fine. What do you think?”

Sean’s manners had come across as overly polite compared to his outburst in the den and I suspected that he was playing to an audience of one. The real test would come when Alice was alone with him. Would he be respectful or try to boss her around? I had my doubts about the former.

“I think I need to let them two sort it out and get going on my investigation,” I replied staring into my glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice. “The truth is, I don’t know where to start.” 

“Get to know your victim,” Will offered. “Learn everything you can about her—where she lived, her friends and relatives, the places she liked to frequent. The information will provide valuable clues about her life and possibly reveal why she was killed.”

Will set down his cup and leaned back as Gerard approached the table and placed a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast in front of him. Will looked at me curiously. “You said she was engaged?” He paused to grab a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Gerard wincing at the idea of smothering one’s eggs with that vile concoction. I agreed but kept my opinion to myself. Will loved ketchup, especially this brand, and poured it on his breakfast nearly every morning.

“Take a good look at her fiancé,” Will said seriously. He shook the bottle, poring ketchup all over his eggs and filling the air with a pungent tomato aroma. “In my experience, when you’re investigating the murder of a woman, the guilty party is quite often someone close to the victim. That doesn’t make the fiancé automatically guilty, but it does make him a primary suspect until your investigation proves otherwise.”

“Okay,” I said, jotting down his instructions in my journal as Gerard set a plate of poached eggs and toast in front of me. Interviewing everyone who knew the deceased would be a huge undertaking. Was I up to the task? More importantly, would I gain anything useful from it? The thought exhausted me, and I hadn’t started yet.

“Go back to the scene of the crime,” Will continued and scooped up a forkful of eggs. “Study it, leaving no stone unturned. No detail is too small. Sometimes I find evidence that the police missed.”

I picked up a slice of toast and concentrated on smothering it with Welch’s Grape Jelly to avoid watching Will eat his red eggs. “Is there anything else I should know?”

“Read the autopsy report,” he added as he picked up a crisp piece of bacon with his fingers. “The family might have requested their private physician to look it over and interpret it for them but unless they knew medical terms they wouldn’t have a copy of it themselves. You need to grease a palm or two at the coroner’s office to obtain a look at it.”

Oh sure, I’ll just drive to downtown Minneapolis and find someone in the coroner’s office to give me a look-see at that report.

I let out a sigh and took a bite of my toast, pondering how I would actually go about getting someone in the coroner’s office to give me access to the report, much less interpret it for me. I had no idea. “Do I need to read the autopsy report? Is it imperative to my case?”

“It’s another piece of the puzzle, darling,” Will said, his voice softening at my frustration. “If the police ruled her death an accident, the family would want to know if she’d suffered a medical issue at the time, causing her to lose control of the car. If there is a report, you should find out what’s in it.”

Folding my arms, I sat back and stared at him as discouragement began to seep into my mood. Had I made a mistake wanting to become an investigator? The job was clearly more than I’d bargained for.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Denise Devine is a USA Today bestselling author who has had a passion for books since the second grade when she discovered Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She wrote her first book, a mystery, at age thirteen and has been writing ever since. She loves all animals, especially dogs, cats, and horses, and they often find their way into her books.

She has written twenty-two books, including books in the Beach Brides series, Moonshine Madness series, and West Loon Bay series. Her books have hit the Top 100 Bestseller list on Amazon and she has been listed on Amazon’s Top 100 Authors.

Website * Facebook * Instagram * Bluesky * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

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Spotlight: Rising Waters by Aleatha Romig

Release Date June 15

AVAILABLE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

A dark atmospheric psychological thriller packed with small-town secrets, buried trauma, and shocking twists.
She escaped her past—and the man she never forgot.

Now with two girls gone missing, she's pulled back into a deadly game she may not survive.

Jillian Thorne built her career making the unreal feel real.
On Hollywood soundstages, she stages murder, kidnapping, and violent crime with chilling authenticity—turning fiction into gripping entertainment.

But nothing she’s created compares to the truth waiting in Blue Gil.

Nearly six years after escaping her small hometown, Jillian is drawn back by the suspicious death of the town’s beloved high school football coach. What first appears to be a tragic loss quickly unravels into something far more sinister—a dark mystery no one is willing to confront.

Because in Blue Gil, secrets aren’t just buried… they’re protected.

As disturbing clues surface and a brutal tragedy strikes dangerously close to home, Jillian finds herself trapped inside a real-life psychological thriller. The instincts that made her successful in Hollywood may be the key to solving the crime—or the very thing clouding her judgment.

Everyone in this small town is hiding something.
Including Jillian.

To uncover the truth, she must break through an unspoken code of silence, deception, and loyalty—and face the past she thought she left behind. Because some secrets refuse to stay buried.

And in this twisted game of suspense, trusting the wrong person could be deadly.

Have you been Aleatha’d?

*Perfect for fans of Sharp Objects, All Good People Here, and The Last House Guest, Rising Waters is a dark and addictive psychological thriller filled with buried secrets, small-town corruption, twisted family loyalties, and devastating betrayals.

This is a complete 80K stand-alone psychological thriller with a STEM FMC who needs to learn secrets before it’s too late. The only connection to Aleatha’s FEAR OF FLAMES is that our favorite podcasters from Crime Daily Podcast are back, showing the readers another perspective.

*You do not need to read Crime Daily Podcast book one, FEAR OF FLAMES before RISING WATERS.

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Meet Aleatha Romig

Aleatha Romig is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author who lives in Indiana. She grew up in Mishawaka, graduated from Indiana University, and is currently living south of Indianapolis. Together with her high-school sweetheart and husband of over thirty years, they've raised three children. Before she became a full-time author, she worked days as a dental hygienist and spent her nights writing. Now, when she’s not imagining mind-blowing twists and turns or her new lighter side, she likes to spend her time with her family and friends. Her pastimes include reading and creating heroes/anti-heroes who haunt your dreams!

Keep up with Aleatha Romig and subscribe to her newsletter: https://www.aleatharomig.com/contact

To learn more about Aleatha Romig & her books, visit here!

Connect with Aleatha Romig: https://www.aleatharomig.com/contact

Spotlight: The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom by Talya Jankovits

In the insulated Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, tradition and cultural norms are as sacred as religion. Childhood friendships are cultivated to climb social ladders, matchmakers dictate futures, and young girls are primed for marriage and motherhood. So, when Etty Greenberger, a headstrong redhead and the only child of Holocaust survivors, commits one ugly and thoughtless act, she believes she has sabotaged her opportunity to secure a desirable match. Reluctantly, she agrees to marry Benji Bloom, a fishmonger’s son far below her marital aspirations, becoming Mrs. Etty Bloom. With each passing year, Etty grows further from the life she had hoped for, filled with disappointment and delusions of grandeur. As she grapples with loss, grief, and the challenges of motherhood, she also discovers friendship, love, and joy in the most unexpected places. It may take a lifetime, but Etty Bloom finally learns that an unremarkable life can be remarkable after all.

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About the Author

Talya Jankovits is the author of the poetry collection, girl woman wife mother. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in many publications. She currently resides in Chicago with her husband and their four daughters. The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom is her debut novel.

Spotlight: The Girl on the Beach by Carol Snow

A missing child tears a family apart in this switchback roller coaster of a psychological thriller that builds to a final, jaw-dropping twist, perfect for fans of Jennifer Hillier and Lisa Lutz.

On the surface, Sonia and Graham Starr were a glamorous couple: She, the sleek entrepreneur; he, the boyishly handsome painter with an irrepressible zest for life. They had everything money can buy and the one thing it can’t—a precious, precocious four-year-old named Roxie. But when Roxie disappears into the Pacific Ocean on a perfect August afternoon, their world crumbles around them.

Months later, Roxie’s twenty-one-year-old former nanny, plagued by guilt and confusion, returns to the Starrs’ beach house on the “American Riviera,” the rarefied stretch of land around Santa Barbara where the mountains meet the sea. Her first night back, she gazes out at the sand, only to see a child who bears a striking resemblance to Roxie. When she calls out, the child runs away.

Colleen never believed that Roxie, who was afraid of the surf, would run into the ocean on her own. Now, she is determined to get to the truth, even if it means facing her greatest fears.

The Girl on the Beach asks us who we trust when we can’t trust ourselves.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Audible | Hardcover | Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Carol Snow is an American author of ten novels, most recently THE GIRL ON THE BEACH, a psychological thriller slated for June 2026 publication. Called “an author to watch” by Booklist, recognition for Snow’s previous titles includes: Target Bookmarked Breakout Selection, Amazon Editors’ Pick: Best Books of the Month, and Readers’ Crown Award Finalist. 

Foreign rights to Snow’s books have been sold to publishers in Germany, Norway, Poland, Indonesia, and Hungary. A former contributor to Salon’s “Mother’s Who Think” column, her writing has also appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books and Park City Magazine. 

Carol Snow holds a BA in psychology from Brown University and an MA in teaching English from Boston College. A native of New Jersey, she has lived all over the US, as well as in Strasbourg, France, and London, England. Married with two adult children, she now splits her time between Cape Cod and Southern California. 

To learn more about Carol Snow and her books, please visit www.carolsnow.com.