In Bly's Lizzie & Dante, a Shakespearean scholar heads to Italy after an ugly breakup and an end-of-the-road health diagnosis and meets a handsome chef—but is this any time to start a relationship? In debuter Christie's The Rehearsals, Megan Givens and Tom Prescott plan to call off their wedding after a calamitous rehearsal dinner but wake up the next morning in a time loop, endlessly repeating the event until maybe they get it right (100,000-copy first printing). Clancy's Shoulder Season reveals what happens when shy young church organist Sherri Taylor switches paths after her parents' death to become a Playboy bunny (100,000-copy first printing). The New York Times best-selling Guillory's While We Were Dating features Ben Stephens, Theo's brother from The Wedding Party, who's trying to stay strictly professional while working with a famous actress. In Macomber's stand-alone It's Better This Way, Julia Jones has sold her business, moved into a condominium, and put her marital breakup behind her, but she isn't looking for love—until handsome resident Heath comes along. In Island Queen, romance writer Riley goes mainstream historical to reimagine the life of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, who rose from enslavement to become a rich and powerful landowner in the colonial West Indies (100,000-copy first printing). Pretty Little Liars author Shepard's Safe in My Arms stars three out-of-the-loop moms who try to discover why the principal of the children's elite California preschool was attacked. If you've got Nine Lives, take this journey with Steel from Chicago and Paris to London and Monaco. In Hugo/Bradbury/Eisner winner Straczynski's latest, an unsuccessful young writer pulls together a crew of equally disaffected folks, buys an old bus, and proclaims Together We Will Go—straight to California, where they will then drive off a cliff (100,000-copy first printing). In debuter Yoder's one-of-a-kind Nightbitch, a woman who's convinced that she is turning into a dog ferrets out answers in A Field Guide to Magical Women and links up with a group of mothers with their own secret persuasions. Optioned for film.

DEBUT The first novel from Draft literary magazine editor Yoder centers on an unnamed woman referred to as "the mother." The mother used to be an artist and have a job that she loved, until she made the hard choice to quit and stay home with her son. Worn out by all the demands a young child presents, the mother is dismayed to discover a new patch of hair growing on the back of her neck. Soon this patch of hair is followed by sharper teeth and what looks like a tail on her lower back. While her husband laughs off her fear that she is turning into a dog, the mother is not so sure. Hoping to find out what's wrong with her, the mother ventures to the library and checks out A Field Guide to Magical Women. Within its pages are many examples of women like her, who discover their strength by ignoring society norms and embracing their animalistic side. VERDICT Sharp as a dog's teeth and twice as ferocious, Yoder's novel is a searing indictment of the way mothers are undervalued and ignored and expected to conform to one way of being. Not for the faint of heart (but then again, neither is motherhood), this debut's prose pulses with energy and wit. Highly recommended for all literary fiction collections.—Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL

Yoder's guttural and luminous debut blends absurdism, humor, and myth to lay bare the feral, violent realities underlying a new mother's existence. An unnamed stay-at-home mother lives through a monotonous routine with her two-year-old son, while her kind yet mostly uninterested husband leaves for weeklong work trips each Monday. Things begin to change when the mother notices a patch of hair growing on the back of her neck; spots her new, curiously sharp canines in the mirror; and begins to feel a tail emerging from her lower back. Bewildered by her metamorphosis, the mother searches online for explanations with terms such as "looks like I was punched hard in both eyes." Horrified by the dizzying results, she treks to the library, a zone that promises the comfort of knowledge but is colonized by other mothers ("She actively resisted making friends in a mom context and objected to the sort of clapping and cooing that went on in the library room... the happiness and positivity that would also be mandatory," Yoder writes). She checks out a book titled A Field Guide to Magical Women, which validates her experience and encourages her to embrace the freedom of her new animal nature. Bursting with fury, loneliness, and vulgarity, Yoder's narrative revels in its deconstruction of the social script women and mothers are taught to follow, painstakingly reading between the lines to expose the cruel and downright ludicrous ways in which women are denied their personhood. An electric work by an ingenious new voice, this is one to devour. Agent: Monika Woods, Triangle House. (July)