East Texas native May Cobb is best-known for her sizzling summer reads The Hunting Wives (2021) and My Summer Darlings (2022). Her latest thriller, A Likeable Woman, which publishes July 11, features a woman determined to unravel the mystery of her mother’s death. . . . We caught up with Cobb to talk about the book’s title, what inspires her and the clash of values her novels explore.
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A LIKEABLE WOMAN – RELEASES JULY 11, 2023
Kira’s grandma is anxious to give Kira a memoir that her mother was writing before her death. Past secrets come to light in it, and potential clues to what may have ended her mother’s life become clear. Unfortunately for Kira, someone wants these truths buried with her mom. Will Kira put the pieces together before it’s too late?
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Mystery, suspense, and thriller readers: what are you going to be reading this July when you’re out by the pool, sitting at the beach, or (if this is more your vibe) chilling somewhere with the air conditioning blasting? Well, we have quite a few suggestions that are going to be absolute must-reads this month. Your summer TBR is about to be iconic with these exciting new mysteries and thrillers coming out this July.
A Likeable Woman
May Cobb
May Cobb’s summer thriller A Likeable Woman is just begging to be read by the pool this July. Years ago, Kira left behind her wealthy Texas town after the mysterious death of her mother. Now, decades have passed, and Kira returns home to attend her former friend/frenemy’s vow renewal party. Yes, there are things Kira misses about her hometown: lazy days by the pool, chilled wine, and her childhood crush Jack, for instance. But what’s really calling her home is something her grandmother has for her. Something that might be the key to what happened to her mother: a memoir Kira’s mother was writing before her death.
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Longview native May Cobb, author of “Big Woods,” “The Hunting Wives” and “My Summer Darlings,” is looking forward to the July 11 release of her latest thriller.
“A Likeable Woman,” which is set in Longview, centers around Kira, a 30-something-year-old woman who left town years earlier in the wake of her mother Sadie’s mysterious death.
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Summertiiiime and the reading is fabulous. This month brings binge-worthy rom-coms, gripping thrillers and a short story collection that will leave you aching for more. Here are nine new July releases to toss into your beach bag ASAP.
A Likeable Woman by May Cobb
After her mother's mysterious death, Kira fled her wealthy Texas town and never looked back. Decades later, she’s invited to an old frenemy's vow renewal celebration, and though she’s reluctant to go, there are things pulling her home…including Jack, her childhood crush.
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As summer approaches many of us are yearning for warmth of the outdoors, but on those relaxing days when you just want to stay in, there are plenty of stories from Black authors to explore.
One Blood by Denene Millner – 9/5
Homegoing meets The Mothers where three women are tied together by blood, love, and family secrets in this searing novel by New York Times bestseller Denene Millner.
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A Likeable Woman by May Cobb
New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica calls this read “a smart, juicy thrill-ride.” It’s been decades since Kira left her affluent hometown, ready to start a new life in the wake of her mother’s mysterious death. Now she’s back — and her grandmother has given her an unpublished memoir her mother was writing before she died. It might hold the secret to what happened to her, if Kira can get to the bottom of it before she becomes the next target…
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Who is Addison McKnight? It is the pen name of two women from West Hartford who decided to become authors.
Krista Wells and Nicole Moleti have six kids and six jobs between them, yet they found the time to write a book, and another is in the works.
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If you want beachy escapes, campfire scorchers, glorious globe-trotting, or just some backyard binge-reads, look no further than this delectable list.
A Likeable Woman, by May Cobb
Bring on the backyard chardonnay and rich, nasty housewives of East Texas for another thriller from the author of The Hunting Wives. Kira is going home for the first time since the mysterious death of her mother, Sadie—which she and her grandmother both believe was murder. But as Kira reads Sadie’s unfinished memoir, closing in on the truth about this claustrophobic town and her mother’s rebellion against it, her own life is threatened. Gossipy, glamorous, and hair-raising.
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Welcome to the home of Alexander Smalls, restaurateur, opera singer, author, and the force behind the city’s first African food hall
nAn Alexander Smalls’s dinner party at his home in Sugar Hill is about more than the food, which, if you’re lucky, is prepared by Smalls himself, or, if you’re just as lucky, it’s made by an emerging chef in Smalls’s Black chef collective, bringing mentorship and visibility to up-and-coming cooks.
A New York City icon, Smalls is in the middle of opening the city’s first African food hall, Alkebulan, which will launch in Harlem in the coming months. Alkebulan will not only highlight ten food stalls from around the continent but will also feature music and art. The NYC food hall is the second location after the first one opened in Dubai, with stalls that include Shoebox Bakery, Chicken Coop, and Sweet Ophelia’s, an Afro-Asian wok bar. The team is also working on a London location.
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45 outstanding works of fiction and nonfiction for kids by African American authors selected by the Black Caucus of ALA.
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A Likeable Woman by May Cobb (July 11)
Don’t miss the latest thriller from the acclaimed author of The Hunting Wives. Her new book follows 30-something Kira, who returns to her hometown after her mother’s mysterious death. When Kira’s grandmother shares the unpublished, unfinished memoir of her mother, juicy secrets are revealed, fueling suspicions of murder. Having grown up in Longview, May Cobb knows how to capture the pressure-cooker environment of a small Texas town engulfed in scandal.
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You and the Bowerbird by Maris Wicks, Roaring Brook Press. Publication Date: 08/15/2023. ISBN (Hardcover): 9781250849878
The stressful courtship ritual of a male bowerbird, as seen by a young observer.
Satin Bowerbirds are native to Australia, and during mating season the males build elaborate structures on the ground out of natural and found blue materials—buttons, bottle caps, pieces of glass, even socks—to attract females. It is not an easy job—not only are the females picky, but rival males will swoop in at the slightest opportunity to steal the best bits and mess up the rest. Here Gianferrari records the ups and downs of Satin, one such hopeful swain, as he carefully builds and rebuilds his bower, drives off interlopers, and dances enthusiastically when green-feathered Pea, a likely looking prospect, doubtfully lands for a lookie-loo. There’s really nothing for it but to cheer him on. Playing this arduous ritual as a romantic comedy, Wicks depicts Satin looking over his bower with a critical eye, fussing over it, expressing confusion and astonishment when he returns from various forays to find it wrecked, and climactically casting a flirtatious side-eye at Pea as she watches him flapping and high-stepping. A dark-skinned child in the illustrations, watching all of this as raptly as readers will, fills notebooks with sketches and comments and provides a satisfying sense of closure by later spotting Pea in a tree, presiding over a nest full of eggs.
Delightful, tongue in cheek, and compellingly romantic. (Informational picture book. 6-9)
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After her mother's mysterious death, Kira fled her wealthy Texas town and never looked back. Decades later, she’s invited to an old frenemy's vow renewal celebration, and though she’s reluctant to go, there are things pulling her home…including Jack, her childhood crush. There are also the urgent texts from her grandmother, who says she has something for Kira that makes her mother’s death look an awful lot like murder. With few allies left in her fancy hometown, Kira turns to Jack for help. But as she gets closer to discovering what really happened, it becomes clear that someone wants the past to stay buried.
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Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of The Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo. Tommy Nelson/Thomas Nelson. ISBN: 978-1-4002-3125-6
Yellow Dog Blues by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Chris Raschka. Eerdmans BFYR/Eerdmans. ISBN: 978-0-8028-5553-4
The Struggle for the Right to Vote by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Charly Palmer. Calkins Creek/Astra BFYR/Astra Publishing House. ISBN: 978-1-68437-979-8
Each year members of the Children’s Book Committee review thousands of titles for accuracy, literary quality, diversity, emotional impact, and social relevance and organize them according to age, topic, and genre. The Committee is composed of volunteers with an established expertise in the field of children’s literature, including librarians, authors, teachers, psychologists, and booksellers.
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“You Never Know” is the latest work from Connie Briscoe, named one the “100 Black Novelists You Should Read” by USA Today. In her first new fiction in over a decade, Briscoe centers on a hearing-impaired woman who realizes that she’s married to a man who may not be what he seems.
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Although Briscoe is a prolific author in genres like romance, historical fiction, and nonfiction, her first official work of domestic suspense, You Never Know is a sly commentary on classics like Jane Eyre and Rebecca updated for our times.
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For domestic suspense fans: Alexis Roberts is living in fear after a recent break-in and attempted assault. The police don’t have much to go on since it was in the dark, making it difficult for Alexis to see, and she didn’t have her cochlear implants in, making it difficult for her to hear. She’s alone in a giant house, her husband having disappeared when she confronted him with her discovery that his previous wife was missing and presumed dead. Was her attacker a stranger…or someone she knows?
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