Staff Picks: Shelby Sweet’s Favorites

If you have a dark sense of humor and a love for morally grey protagonists, then this book is for you! Claire is a part-time serial killer and sociopath with her own sense of vigilante justice. Her quirky, dry humor and casually callus observations of the niceties of society are absolutely hilarious. I highly recommend listening to this on audio. Fiona Hardingham is a fantastic narrator, and she captured Claire’s voice perfectly!

This was one of the first manuscripts I ever read at PRH, and I still haven’t stopped talking about it. Set in France during the 14th century, the story follows Eleanore (Elea), an herbalist and midwife whose knowledge of the natural world grants her the opportunity to become an apprentice to the physician of the Pope … right before the Black Plague begins ravaging all of Europe. Through DeLozier’s extensive research and drawn from her personal experience working as a nurse during the height of the COVID pandemic, Elea’s beautifully written story transcends time and space and showcases how cyclical human nature can be. After all, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.