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TBR

Most Anticipated Book Releases of 2025, Part 1

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I always have my eye on new books coming out in any given year, even as I attempt to read my ever-growing backlist TBR. This year, there are so many books I’m interested in, so please enjoy this very non-exhaustive list (I’m starting to work on part 2 as well, but I always wait until books have covers and release dates), in chronological order, of the books at the top of my list for 2025.

 

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (anticipated release 1/14/25) – this sounds so interesting and unique, from an author I haven’t picked up in a few years but enjoyed when I have.

From Goodreads: Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.

When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey-one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.

 

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (anticipated release 1/21/25) – This is such a fun series, and I’ll definitely be picking up this newest installment as soon as it comes out.

From Goodreads: Get ready to fly or die in the breathtaking follow-up to Fourth Wing and Iron Flame from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.

 

We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin (anticipated release 1/28/25) – I discovered this author in 2024 and am intrigued by this new release.

From Goodreads: Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.

But Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta’s friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

 

Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Chloe Liese (anticipated release 1/28/25) – I love the concept behind this contemporary romance series where every book is a loose Shakespeare retelling.

From Goodreads: Since heartbreak entered the scene, Juliet Wilmot, once a hopeless romantic, has sworn off love. But when she’s presented with the chance to revisit romance-purely for practice-with the gorgeous, off-limits guy she keeps serendipitously running into, it feels like a sign from the universe.

Quiet, shy Will Orsino knows happily-ever-after isn’t on his horizon. Problem is, for the sake of the family business, marriage is. Resigned to the inevitable, but with no confidence he can woo a wife, he can hardly say no when fate hands him the alluring, unattainable woman he keeps crossing paths with, offering to help him learn the ropes of romance.

Neither of them looking for love, Jules and Will agree they’re the perfect pair to practice romance. Except that practicing to perfection leads to an irresistible attraction. Their once smitten hearts, though still twice shy, might have happily-ever-after written in the stars for them, after all.

 

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood (anticipated release 2/4/25) – anything Ali Hazelwood immediately goes on the TBR; this sounds very fun.

From Goodreads: Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

 

Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey (anticipated release 2/4/25) – Tessa Bailey was one of my most-read authors of 2024, and we got hints of this featured couple in The Au Pair Affair.

From Goodreads: When professional hockey player Sig Gauthier’s car breaks down and his phone dies, he treks into a posh private country club to call a tow truck, where he encounters the alluring Chloe Clifford, the manic pixie dream girl who captivates him immediately with her sense of adventure and penchant for stealing champagne.

Sparks fly during a moonlight kiss and the enamored pair can’t wait to see each other again, but when Sig finally arrives to meet his dad’s new girlfriend over dinner, Chloe is confusingly also there. Turns out the girlfriend is Chloe’s mother. Oh, and they’re engaged.

Sig’s dream girl is his future stepsister.

Though the pair is now wary of being involved romantically, Chloe, a sheltered harp prodigy, yearns to escape her controlling mother. Sig promises to teach her the ins and outs of independence in Boston—but not inside his bedroom. They both know there can never be more than friendship between a famous hockey player and his high-society, soon-to-be stepsister. But keeping their relationship platonic grows harder amid the developing family drama, especially knowing they were meant for so much more…

 

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett (anticipated release 2/11/25) – book 2 made me crave the third installment of this gorgeous historical fantasy series with lovable characters.

From Goodreads: Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

 

A Rebel Without Claws by Juliette Cross (anticipated release 2/11/25) – I really enjoyed this author’s witchy series set in New Orleans, and now she’s moving on to the second generation of these characters.

From Goodreads: After yet another bar fight and arrest, bad boy Ronan Reed leaves Texas to live with his Uncle Shane, alpha of the Blood Moon pack. Since werewolf cage fighting isn’t illegal in Louisiana, Ronan makes big plans to lead his own team in the ring. But when he sets eyes on sweet Celine Cruz, his whole world stops and she becomes a tantalizing distraction he doesn’t need.

As an Aura witch, Celine always wants to help heal the broken. She knows all too well what it’s like to battle anxiety, and so she’s dedicated her life to helping those in need. But the second she meets Ronan, she knows she’s in trouble. He’s everything her close knit family would a werewolf with a hot temper and a sinful grin to match, who runs with a dangerous crowd. So why can’t she stay away?

Ronan thinks she’s a good girl. Little does he know, all Celine wants is to do wicked things with the bad boy werewolf, who revels in breaking all her rules. But as their forbidden romance becomes too tempting to resist, Ronan notices that the wolves are circling…and they’re coming after his mate.

 

Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods (anticipated release 2/18/25) – the cover of this historical fantasy alone would add it to my TBR.

From Goodreads: Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758.
For Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of one of Saint-Malo’s wealthiest ship-owners, the high walls of the city are more hindrance than haven. While her sisters are interested in securing advantageous marriages, Luce dreams of escaping her elegant but stifling home and joining a ship’s crew. Only Samuel—Luce’s best friend and an English smuggler—understands her longing for the sea, secretly teaching her to sail whenever she can sneak away. For Luce, the stolen time on the water with Samuel is precious.

One stormy morning, Luce’s plans are blown off course when she rescues Morgan de Chatelaine, the youngest son of the most powerful ship-owner in Saint-Malo, from the sea. Immediately drawn to his charm and sense of adventure, she longs to attend the glittering ball held in honor of his safe return and begins to contemplate a different kind of future for herself.

But it is not only Luce’s hopes at stake—the local fae are leaving Brittany and taking their magic with them, while the long-standing war with the English means Saint-Malo is always at risk of attack. As Luce is plunged into a world of magic, brutality, and seduction, secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface. The truth of her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.

Or the scales of a sea-maid’s tail.

 

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (anticipated release 3/5/25) – this fae-related fantasy sounds very much up my alley.

From Goodreads: In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

 

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (anticipated release 3/4/25) – After reading and loving the short story collection Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird this year, I’m on board for anything this author comes out with.

From Goodreads: From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (anticipated release 3/18/25) – I did a re-read of the first 2 books in the Hunger Games trilogy in 2024, which made me very excited for Haymitch’s story.

From Goodreads: As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.

As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

 

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake (anticipated release 4/1/25) – this sounds like the fantasy version of Succession, and I might abandon the Olivie Blake backlist TBR to start this ASAP.

From Goodreads: Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she’d been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?

 

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (anticipated release 4/22/25) – this is a really intriguing new fabulism release.

From Goodreads: During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she’s been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine.

An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.

 

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (anticipated release 4/22/25) – I haven’t loved Emily Henry’s last two releases, but I will continue to pick up her new books.

From Goodreads: Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

 

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (anticipated release 5/13/25) – dark academia fantasy, very yes.

From Goodreads: Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school’s boundaries from demonic incursions.

Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.

Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake (anticipated release 5/13/25) – I always tend to enjoy this author’s F/F contemporary romance, and this looks quite cute.

From Goodreads: Once upon a time, Ramona Riley was a student at a prestigious art school, with dreams of landing in Hollywood as a costume designer to the stars. But after her father’s car accident, she had to quit and return to her small New Hampshire town, Clover Lake, to help take care of her younger sister. Twelve years later, Ramona is still working at the town’s café, all but given up on her dream. But when a big-budget romantic comedy comes to Clover Lake to film, she wonders if this could be her chance. There’s only one problem—Dylan Monroe, her first kiss and Hollywood’s favorite wild child—is the star.

Dylan Monroe has always lived an unconventional life, having famous rock icons for parents. But she wants to prove that she’s not some chaotic, talentless nepo baby, that she has actual skills, that she’s just a normal person. To do that, Dylan takes on a project at a charming lake town—she even works at the town’s café (very quaint), shadowing a local waitress there (very cute), and asks her to take Dylan around to do Normal People Things.

But Dylan soon realizes it’s not just some small-town waitress she’s getting to know—Ramona Riley is someone she’s met before, someone who remembers her even more vividly. Before long, however, reality hits them, and both women must decide if the spark between them can fan the flames of their individual dreams, or if it will extinguish their light.

 

 

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig (anticipated release 5/20/25) – I have yet to read the One Dark Window duology, but I have enough faith that I’ll love it that I can’t wait for this one.

From Goodreads: Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis (anticipated release 5/27/25) – I really enjoyed the irreverently funny Dreadful in 2024, and this new silly fantasy release sounds equally entertaining.

From Goodreads: Two parents and their recently-bitten-werewolf daughter try to fit into a privileged New England society of magic aristocracy. But deadly terrors await them – ancient prophecies, remorseless magical trials, hidden conspiracies and the PTA bake sale.

When Vivian’s kindergartner, Aria, gets bitten by a werewolf, she is rapidly inducted into the hidden community of magical schools. Reeling from their sudden move, Vivian finds herself having to pick the right sacrificial dagger for Aria, keep stocked up on chew toys and play PTA politics with sirens and chthonic nymphs and people who literally can set her hair on fire.

As Vivian careens from hellhounds in the school corridors and demons at the talent show, she races to keep up with all the arcane secrets of her new society – shops only accessible by magic portal, the brutal Trials to enter high school, and the eternal inferno that is the parents’ WhatsApp group.

And looming over everything is a prophecy of doom that sounds suspiciously like it’s about Aria. Vivian might be facing the end of days, just as soon as she can get her daughter dressed and out of the door…

 

Amelia, If Only by Becky Albertalli (anticipated release 6/10/25) – I’m looking forward to this release from the author of one of my favorite 2023 reads, Imogen, Obviously.

From Goodreads: Amelia Applebaum isn’t in love with Walter Holland. He just happens to be her favorite moderately famous, chaotically bisexual YouTuber. Who she just happened to invite to prom. (But it’s fine. No, for real. If you delete the post, it didn’t happen.)

Okay, maybe her friends are right: She’s slightly parasocially infatuated. But Amelia just knows sparks would fly—if only she could connect with Walter for real.

If only he would host a meet and greet.

If only it were just a short road trip away.

And if only Amelia could talk her best friends into making it the perfect last hurrah before graduation—even her newly single, always-cynical, guitar-toting best friend Natalie.

One thing’s for sure: All roads lead to butterflies.

But what if Amelia’s butterflies aren’t for Walter at all?

 

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto (anticipated release 7/3/25) – Dramione is the new Reylo in terms of fanfiction-turned-traditionally published novel trends, and I’m on board for all of it.

From Goodreads: Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she knows it is changed forever. The dark forces of Bomard have won and her people, the Eversuns, face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. Her brother, fated to be heir twice over and unite the warring kingdoms, is dead.

Stripped of her Mind Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly auctioned off to the highest bidders in an auction – and as the heir-apparent’s sister, she fetches the highest price.

After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven a high ranking Bomardsun – and her long-time and ill-fated infatuation. Scion of a family known for their cruel control of Heart Magic, the Hearsts are ruthlessly ambitious, and Briony knows they will use her however they can to further their own interests.

Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help – and hope – may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…

 

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (anticipated release 7/8/25) – another Dramione re-release that I’m really looking forward to.

From Goodreads: Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, is in dire need of healing. Naturally – such is the grim comedy of fate – the only healer who can help is Aurienne Fairhrim, preeminent scientist, bastion of moral good, and member of an enemy Order.

Aurienne is desperate for funding to heal the sick – so desperate that, when Osric bribes her to help him, she accepts, even if she detests him and everything he stands for.

A forced collaboration ensues: the brilliant Woman in STEM is coerced into working with the PhD in Murders, much to Aurienne’s disgust. As Osric and Aurienne work together to heal his illness and investigate the mysterious reoccurrence of a deadly pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction, which only fuels the heat between them.

 

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw (anticipated release 7/22/25) – I’m on board for any dark academia fantasy.

From Goodreads: The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

TBR

Most Anticipated Books of 2022, Part 4

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Because I don’t already have enough 2022 releases on my TBR, I’m here with Part 4 of my most anticipated releases of the year!

If you’ve missed any of my previous posts, here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

As always, I’m listing them in order of planned release date, and am linking to their Goodreads pages so that you can easily add them to your TBR as well if they sound interesting.

Since we’ve already done this 3 times this year alone, let’s just get into it!

 

The Stardust Thief

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (release date 5/17/22) – This book actually came onto my radar through Book of the Month, and I ended up picking it as my choice for June because it sounded like a great new start to a fantasy series.

From Goodreads: Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

 

A Lady for a Duke

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (release date 5/24/22) – I can tell it’s been a long time since I started making this list when I’m already reading the books on it, which is the case currently for A Lady for a Duke. It’s SO GOOD so far, with little funny moments but an overall undercurrent of very strong emotion.

From Goodreads: When Viola Caroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood.

Only when their families reconnect, years after the war, does Viola learn how deep that loss truly was. Shattered without her, Gracewood has retreated so far into grief that Viola barely recognises her old friend in the lonely, brooding man he has become.

As Viola strives to bring Gracewood back to himself, fresh desires give new names to old feelings. Feelings that would have been impossible once and may be impossible still, but which Viola cannot deny. Even if they cost her everything, all over again.

 

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows (anticipated release 7/26/22) – I continue to generally be interested in a lot of releases from Tor, and this fantasy romance sounds really intriguing.

From Goodreads: Velasin vin Aaron ever planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different solution: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.

Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.

With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love—as both will learn—is quite another.

Byzantine politics, lush sexual energy, and a queer love story that is by turns sweet and sultry. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an exploration of gender, identity, and self-worth. It is a book that will live in your heart long after you turn the last page.

 

Booked on a Feeling: A Novel

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee (anticipated release 7/26/22) – I keep searching for more new-to-me contemporary romance authors, and realized I have yet to pick up anything from Jayci Lee. Her newest release appeals to me the most, and I can’t wait to pick it up.

From Goodreads: Lizzy “Overachiever” Chung, Esq. has her life mapped out neatly:
* Become a lawyer. Check.
* Join a prestigious law firm. Check.
* Make partner. In progress.

If all goes to plan, she will check off that last box in a couple years, make her parents proud, and live a successful, fulfilled life in L.A. What was not in her plans was passing out from a panic attack during a pivotal moment in her career. A few deep breaths and a four hour drive later, Lizzy is in Weldon for three weeks to shed the burnout and figure out what went wrong. And what better place to recharge than the small California town where she spent her childhood summers with her best friend, Jack Park.

Jack Park didn’t expect to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but now he’s got three weeks to spend with the girl of his dreams. Except she doesn’t know of his decades-long crush on her–and he intends to keep it that way. She’s a high-powered attorney who lives in L.A. and he’s a bookkeeper at his family’s brewery who never left his hometown. He can’t risk their friendship on a long shot. Can he? When Lizzy decides that the local bookstore needs a little revamp, of course, Jack is going to help her bring it back to life. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore there might be more than just friendship among the dusty shelves and books…

 

The Monsters We Defy

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope (anticipated release 8/9/22) – an historical fantasy heist? Yes please!

From Goodreads: Clara Johnson talks to spirits, a gift that saved her during her darkest moments in a Washington D. C. jail. Now a curse that’s left her indebted to the cunning spirit world. So, when the Empress, the powerful spirit who holds her debt, offers her an opportunity to gain her freedom, a desperate Clara seizes the chance. The task: steal a magical ring from the wealthiest woman in the District.

Clara can’t pull off this daring heist alone. She’ll need help from an unlikely team, from a jazz musician capable of hypnotizing with a melody to an aging vaudeville actor who can change his face, to pull off the impossible. But as they encounter increasingly difficult obstacles, a dangerous spirit interferes at every turn. Conflict in the spirit world is leaking into the human one and along D.C’.s legendary Black Broadway, a mystery unfolds—one that not only has repercussions for Clara but all of the city’s residents.

 

Heartbreaker (Hell's Belles #2)

Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean (anticipated release 8/23/22) – I read Bombshell, the first book in the Hell’s Belles series, earlier this year and really enjoyed the writing style and romance, so I’m really excited to see the stories of the other members of the friend group play out.

From Goodreads: Raised among London’s most notorious criminals, a twist of fate landed Adelaide Frampton in the bright ballrooms of Mayfair, where she masquerades as a quiet wallflower—so plain and unassuming that no one realizes she’s the Matchbreaker…using her superior skills as a thief to help brides avoid the altar.

Henry, Duke of Clayborn, has spent a lifetime living in perfection. He has no time for the salacious gossip that arises every time the Matchbreaker ends another groom. His own reputation is impeccable—and the last thing he needs is a frustrating, fascinating woman discovering the truth of his past, or the secrets he holds close.

When the two find themselves on a breakneck journey across Britain to stop a wedding, it’s impossible for Clayborn to resist this woman who both frustrates and fascinates him. But late-night carriage rides make for delicious danger…and soon Adelaide is uncovering Clayborn’s truths, throwing his well-laid plans into chaos…and threatening to steal his heavily guarded heart.

 

All of Our Demise (All of Us Villains, #2)

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman (anticipated release 8/30/22) – All of Us Villains was a surprise YA fantasy hit for me earlier this year, and it ended on a surprising note; I honestly have no idea where the plot will go in its sequel.

From Goodreads: For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good… no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process.

As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a choice: dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended.

Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after.

 

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match

Angelika Frankenstin Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne (anticipated release 9/6/22) – I really did not expect Sally Thorne to dive into genre fiction, but I can’t say I’m mad about it now that it’s happening.

From Goodreads: For generations, every Frankenstein has found their true love and equal, unlocking lifetimes of blissful wedded adventure. Clever, pretty (and odd) Angelika Frankenstein has run out of suitors and fears she may become the exception to this family rule. When assisting in her brother Victor’s ground-breaking experiment to bring a reassembled man back to life, she realizes that having an agreeable gentleman convalescing in the guest suite might be a chance to let a man get to know the real her. For the first time, Angelika embarks upon a project that is all her own.

When her handsome scientific miracle sits up on the lab table, her hopes for an instant romantic connection are thrown into disarray. Her resurrected beau (named Will for the moment) has total amnesia and is solely focused on uncovering his true identity. Trying to ignore their heart-pounding chemistry, Angelika reluctantly joins the investigation into his past, hoping it will bring them closer. But when a second suitor emerges to aid their quest, Angelika wonders if she was too hasty inventing a solution. Perhaps fate is not something that can be influenced in a laboratory? Or is Will (or whatever his name is!) her dream man, tailored for her in every way? And can he survive what was done to him in the name of science, and love?

 

Thistlefoot

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (anticipated release 9/13/22)

From Goodreads: The Yaga siblings–Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist–have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive a mysterious inheritance, the siblings are reunited–only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home in Russia–but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide–erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is an immersive modern fantasy saga by a bold new talent.

 

House of Hunger

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson (anticipated release 9/27/22) – I love books featuring vampires, and have been hearing great buzz about this author.

From Goodreads: Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation is all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a peculiar listing in the newspaper, seeking a bloodmaid.

Though she knows little about the far north—where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service—Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself the newest bloodmaid at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery—and at the center of it all is her.

Countess Lisavet, who presides over this hedonistic court, is loved and feared in equal measure. She takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when her fellow bloodmaids begin to go missing in the night, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She’ll need to learn the rules of her new home—and fast—or its halls will soon become her grave.

 

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble (Winner Bakes All, #2)

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall (anticipated release 10/15/22) – I can’t wait for this follow-up to Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake! I have so many Alexis Hall books on my most anticipated reads lists, but this one might just be the one I’m looking forward to the most.

From Goodreads: Paris Daillencourt is a recipe for disaster. Despite his passion for baking, his cat, and his classics degree, constant self-doubt and second-guessing have left him a curdled, directionless mess. So when his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations, the nation’s favourite baking show, Paris is sure he’ll be the first one sent home.

But not only does he win week one’s challenge—he meets fellow contestant Tariq Hassan. Sure, he’s the competition, but he’s also cute and kind, with more confidence than Paris could ever hope to have. Still, neither his growing romance with Tariq nor his own impressive bakes can keep Paris’s fear of failure from spoiling his happiness. And when the show’s vicious fanbase confirms his worst anxieties, Paris’s confidence is torn apart quicker than tear-and-share bread.

But if Paris can find the strength to face his past, his future, and the chorus of hecklers that live in his brain, he’ll realize it’s the sweet things in life that he really deserves.

 

The Atlas Paradox (The Atlas, #2)

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake (anticipated release 10/25/22) – I needed the sequel the instant I finished The Atlas Six; I can’t wait to return to these characters.

From Goodreads: The Atlas Paradox is the long-awaited sequel to dark academic sensation The Atlas Six—guaranteed to have even more yearning, backstabbing, betrayal, and chaos.

Six magicians. Two rivalries. One researcher. And a man who can walk through dreams. All must pick a side: do they wish to preserve the world—or destroy it? In this electric sequel to the viral sensation, The Atlas Six, the society of Alexandrians is revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way. But the cost of knowledge is steep, and as the price of power demands each character choose a side, which alliances will hold and which will see their enmity deepen?

 

The World We Make (Great Cities #2)

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin (anticipated release 11/1/22) – Although I love Jemisin’s writing, I didn’t love The City We Became as much her other books, but I’m still really looking forward to its sequel.

From Goodreads: Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city’s heart and wields its magic. New York? She’s got six.

But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading–and destroying the entire universe in the process–the mysterious capital “E” Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and “law and order” may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.

 

Ocean's Echo

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell (anticipated release 11/1/22) – Winter’s Orbit was a surprise favorite for me in 2021; science fiction romance in general isn’t a genre I gravitate towards, but I now implicitly trust Everina Maxwell.

From Goodreads: Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all neuromodified “readers,” is a security threat on his own. But when controlled, readers are a rare asset. Not only can they read minds, but they can navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe.

Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader, and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,” he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.

Surit accepted a suspicious promotion-track request out of desperation, but he refuses to go through with his illegal orders to sync and control an unconsenting Tennal. So they lie: They fake a sync bond and plan Tennal’s escape.

Their best chance arrives with a salvage-retrieval mission into chaotic space—to the very neuromodifcation lab that Surit’s traitor mother destroyed twenty years ago. And among the rubble is a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful, one that upends a decades-old power struggle, and begins a war.

Tennal and Surit can no longer abandon their unit or their world. The only way to avoid life under full military control is to complete the very sync they’ve been faking.

Can two unwilling weapons of war bring about peace?

 

Even Though I Knew the End

Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk (anticipated release 11/8/22) – I always keep an eye on upcoming Tor.com novellas, and this queer historical fantasy has really caught my attention.

From Goodreads: A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago’s divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above.

An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother’s life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can’t resist―the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves.

To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago’s most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await.

 

Ship Wrecked (Spoiler Alert, #3)

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade (anticipated release 11/15/22) – After enjoying both Spoiler Alert and All the Feels, I have high hopes for the third romance in Dade’s geeky contemporary romance series.

From Goodreads: Maria’s one-night-stand—the thick-thighed, sexy Viking of a man she left without a word or a note—just reappeared. Apparently, Peter’s her surly Gods of the Gates co-star, and they’re about to spend the next six years filming on a desolate Irish island together. She still wants him…but he now wants nothing to do with her.

Peter knows this role could finally transform him from a forgettable character actor into a leading man. He also knows a failed relationship with Maria could poison the set, and he won’t sabotage his career for a woman who’s already walked away from him once. Given time, maybe they can be cooperative colleagues or friends—possibly even best friends—but not lovers again. No matter how much he aches for her.

For years, they don’t touch off-camera. But on their last night of filming, their mutual restraint finally shatters, and all their pent-up desire explodes into renewed passion. Too bad they still don’t have a future together, since Peter’s going back to Hollywood, while Maria’s returning to her native Sweden. She thinks she needs more than he can give her, but he’s determined to change her mind, and he’s spent the last six years waiting. Watching. Wanting.

His shipwrecked Swede doesn’t stand a chance.

 

Two Wrongs Make a Right

Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese (anticipated release 11/22/22) – I think I’ve now read 2 of Chloe Liese’s contemporary romances, which I liked but didn’t love, and the Shakespeare inspiration behind her newest release makes me think that this could become my favorite of hers.

From Goodreads: Opposites become allies to fool their matchmaking friends in this swoony reimagining of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.

Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.

Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash their hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.

To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder, what if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?

 

The Two Doctors Górski

The Two Doctors Gorski by Isaac Fellman (anticipated release 11/29/22) –

From Goodreads: Annae, a brilliant graduate student in psychiatric magic and survivor of academic abuse, can’t stop reading people’s minds. This is how she protects herself, by using her abilities to give her colleagues what they each want out of their relationship with her.

When Annae moves to the UK to rebuild her life and finds herself studying under the infamous, misanthropic magician Marec Górski, she sees inside his head a dangerous path to her redemption. Annae now faces two choices—follow in Dr. Górski’s lead, or break free of a lifetime of conditioning to follow her own path.

 

Alone With You in the Ether

Alone With You in the Ether: A Love Story by Olivie Blake (anticipated re-release 12/6/22) – The Atlas Six introduced me to the lovely, emotional writing of Olivie Blake, and now I want to read everything she writes. Luckily, Tor is re-releasing one of her earlier indie releases, which sounds like it will be gorgeous.

From Goodreads:

CHICAGO, SOMETIME —
Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy.
After their meeting, those things do not change. Everything else, however, is slightly different.
Both obsessive, eccentric personalities, Aldo Damiani and Charlotte Regan struggle to be without each other from the moment they meet. The truth—that he is a clinically depressed, anti-social theoretician and she is a manipulative liar with a history of self-sabotage—means the deeper they fall in love, the more troubling their reliance on each other becomes.
An intimate study of time and space, ALONE WITH YOU IN THE ETHER is a fantasy writer’s magicless glimpse into the nature of love, what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you’re not broken

 

Never Ever Getting Back Together

Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales (anticipated release 12/6/22) – I discovered this book somewhat accidentally when it was available to download from NetGalley, and then wondered how I hadn’t already heard about it. It’s set on a reality TV show, which is somewhat of a trend in contemporary romance, and features an F/F romance. I feel like I’m likely to read this one long before its December release date because it sounds very fun (and is named after a Tswift song, which I can’t be mad about).

From Goodreads: It’s been two years since Maya dumped her cheating ex-boyfriend Jordy, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country, and in the lead up to the wedding he captured hearts globally as the eligible younger brother. So, when Maya receives an invitation to be a contestant on Second Chance Romance, a new reality show in which the now-famous Jordy will re-date his ex-girlfriends in an effort to find “the one that got away,” she isn’t interested…that is, until she realizes she can use this opportunity to exact her revenge. If she can make it to the finale, she can reject Jordy and publicly break his heart. As far as Maya’s concerned, it’s payback with interest: just what a guy like Jordy deserves.

But when she gets to the set, she’s confronted with the one person she hasn’t accounted for: Skye, the beautiful, charismatic girl Jordy cheated on Maya with. How is she supposed to live with this girl for six weeks? Sharing bunkbeds, for crying out loud?

Except, of course, there’s more to Skye than she lets most people see. Skye has her own reasons for being careful with her heart, and might be more willing to take Maya’s side than it initially seems. If they can sustain their reluctant alliance—and keep their unexpected chemistry from interfering—they might just have a chance to take Jordy down.

 

Witcha Gonna Do

Witcha Gonna Do? by Avery Flynn (anticipated release 12/6/22) – I can’t help but be intrigued by any cute-sounding witchy romance, and I find the cover really appealing.

From Goodreads: Could it possibly get any worse than having absolutely no magical abilities when you’re a member of the most powerful family of witches ever? It used to be that I’d say no, but then I keep getting set up on dates with Gil Connolly whose hotness is only matched by his ego. Seriously. I can’t stand him. Even if I also can’t stop thinking about him (specifically kissing him) but we’re going to pretend I never told you that part.

So yeah, my life isn’t the greatest right now, but then it goes straight to the absolute worst hell when I accidentally make my sister’s spell glitch and curse my whole family. And the only person who can help non-magical me break the spell? You guessed it. Gil the super hot jerk.

Now we have to work together to save my family and outmaneuver some evil-minded nefarious forces bent on world domination. Oh yeah, and we have to do all that while fighting against the attraction building between us because I may not be magical, but what’s happening between Gil and I sure feels like it.

TBR

Most Anticipated Books of 2022, Part 3

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Because parts 1 and 2 apparently weren’t enough, please enjoy Part 3 of my most anticipated new releases of 2022!

A few reminders: I’m only including books here that have both a cover and a release date, but those release dates are of course subject to change.

 

Clean Air

Clean Air by Sarah Blake (release date 2/8/22) – I’ve only recently become able to consume books about the apocalypse again, which is good timing for Clean Air. It’s set in the far future and also involves a mystery surrounding a serial killer.

From Goodreads: The climate apocalypse has come and gone, and in the end it wasn’t the temperature climbing or the waters rising. It was the trees. The world became overgrown, creating enough pollen to render the air unbreathable.

In the decade since the event known as the Turning, humanity has rebuilt, and Izabel has gotten used to the airtight domes that now contain her life. She raises her young daughter, Cami, and attempts to make peace with her mother’s death. She tries hard to be satisfied with this safe, prosperous new world, but instead she just feels stuck.

And then the peace of her town is shattered. Someone starts slashing through the domes at night, exposing people to the deadly pollen—a serial killer. Almost simultaneously, Cami begins sleep-talking, having whole conversations about the murders that she doesn’t remember after she wakes. Izabel becomes fixated on the killer, on both tracking him down and understanding him. What could compel someone to take so many lives after years dedicated to sheer survival, with humanity finally flourishing again?

 

Jawbone

Jawbone by Monica Ojeda (release date 2/8/22) – I love the cover and the fabulist-sounding description of this book, and have been hearing good buzz so far.

From Goodreads: Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise?

When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality.

Interweaving pop culture references and horror concepts drawn from from Herman Melville, H. P. Lovecraft, and anonymous “creepypastas,” Jawbone is an ominous, multivocal novel that explores the terror inherent in the pure potentiality of adolescence and the fine line between desire and fear.

 

Only a Monster

Only a Monster by Vanessa Len (anticipated release 2/22/22) – YA fantasy is very hit-or-miss for me, but morally gray characters and questions about who the real monsters are make me very interested in this one.

From Goodreads: It should have been the perfect summer. Sent to stay with her late mother’s eccentric family in London, sixteen-year-old Joan is determined to enjoy herself. She loves her nerdy job at the historic Holland House, and when her super cute co-worker Nick asks her on a date, it feels like everything is falling into place.

But she soon learns the truth. Her family aren’t just eccentric: they’re monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers. And Nick isn’t just a cute boy: he’s a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to bring them down.

As she battles Nick, Joan is forced to work with the beautiful and ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family that hates her own. She’ll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story . . .

. . . she is not the hero.

 

Our Wives Under the Sea

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (anticipated release 3/3/22) – I liked but didn’t love Armfield’s short story collection Salt Slow, but definitely found myself intrigued by her concepts and premises. This novel sounds mysterious and haunting.

From Goodreads: Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah is not the same. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has brought part of it back with her, onto dry land and into their home.

Moving through something that only resembles normal life, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had before might be gone. Though Leah is still there, Miri can feel the woman she loves slipping from her grasp.

 

Girls Can Kiss Now: Essays

Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz (anticipated release 3/8/22) – I tend to really enjoy listening to essay collections on audiobook, since I sometimes find it easier to pay attention to audiobooks in bite-size chunks. This also sounds like the mixture of memoir and pop culture commentary that I love in a collection.

From Goodreads: Jill Gutowitz’s life—for better and worse—has always been on a collision course with pop culture. There’s the time the FBI showed up at her door because of something she tweeted about Game of Thrones. The pop songs that have been the soundtrack to the worst moments of her life. And of course, the pivotal day when Orange Is the New Black hit the airwaves and broke down the door to Jill’s own sexuality. In these honest examinations of identity, desire, and self-worth, Jill explores perhaps the most monumental cultural shift of our lifetimes: the mainstreaming of lesbian culture. Dusting off her own personal traumas and artifacts of her not-so-distant youth she examines how pop culture acts as a fun house mirror reflecting and refracting our values—always teaching, distracting, disappointing, and revealing us.

Girls Can Kiss Now is a fresh and intoxicating blend of personal stories, sharp observations, and laugh-out-loud humor. This timely collection of essays helps us make sense of our collective pop-culture past even as it points the way toward a joyous, uproarious, near—and very queer—future.

 

In a Garden Burning Gold (Argyrosi, #1)

In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power (anticipated release 4/5/22) – I read Rory Power’s Wilder Girls as an eARC a few years ago, and really liked her writing style and the character dynamics she created in a creepy setting. Her newest release sounds very different: it’s high fantasy, which I don’t always gravitate towards, but it sounds like a unique take on the genre.

From Goodreads: Twins imbued with incredible magic and near-immortality will do anything to keep their family safe—even if it tears the siblings apart—in the first book of a mythic epic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls.

Rhea and her twin brother, Lexos, have spent an eternity helping their father rule their small, unstable country, using their control over the seasons, tides, and stars to keep the people in line. For a hundred years, they’ve been each other’s only ally, defending each other and their younger siblings against their father’s increasingly unpredictable anger.

Now, with an independence movement gaining ground and their father’s rule weakening, the twins must take matters into their own hands to keep their family—and their entire world—from crashing down around them. But other nations are jockeying for power, ready to cross and double cross, and if Rhea and Lexos aren’t careful, they’ll end up facing each other across the battlefield.

 

When Women Were Dragons

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (anticipated release 5/7/22) – I’ve had Kelly Barnhill’s short story collection Dreadful Young Ladies & Other Stories on my TBR for years, which is embarassing, but I’m still going to add this unique-sounding alternate-history fantasy to my TBR as well.

From Goodreads: Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950’s America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of dragons: a mother more protective than ever; a father growing increasingly distant; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and a new “sister” obsessed with dragons far beyond propriety. Through loss, rage, and self-discovery, this story follows Alex’s journey as she deals with the events leading up to and beyond the Mass Dragoning, and her connection with the phenomenon itself.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the limitations of girlhood. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small–their lives and their prospects–and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.

 

How to Be Eaten

How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann (anticipated release 5/31/22) – not only does this debut novel involve fairytale retellings, but it’s being compared to 2 of my favorite authors (Kelly Link and Carmen Maria Machado). It’s at the top of the list for me.

From Goodreads: In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina’s love story will shock them all.

Though the women start out wary of one another, judging each other’s stories, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed…What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other?

Dark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Arnett, and Kelly Link takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women.

 

Always Practice Safe Hex (Stay a Spell, #4)

Always Practice Safe Hex by Juliette Cross (anticipated release 6/6/22) – I love Juliette Cross’s New Orleans-set paranormal romance Stay a Spell series, and this newest installment will finally have a love interest that’s one of the mysterious Grims that we’ve been hearing so much about.

From Goodreads: Livvy Savoie is a people person. Not only does she have the magical gift of persuasion, but her natural charisma charms everyone she meets. She hasn’t met a person she didn’t like. Until her annoyingly brilliant competitor walks through the door. No matter how hard she denies it, loathing isn’t the only emotion she feels for him.

Grim reaper Gareth Blackwater is rarely, if ever, moved beyond his broody, stoic state. But the witch he’s partnered with in the public relations contest is destroying his peace of mind. He’s convinced that the flesh-melting attraction he feels for her is merely her witchy magic at work.

But forced proximity proves there is more than magic sparking between them. Livvy learns this enigmatic grim’s abilities are beyond any supernatural she has ever known. And when Livvy becomes the obsessive target of a dangerous wizard, Gareth proves just how powerful he truly is. Because no one is going to hurt his Lavinia.

 

The Romance Recipe

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett (anticipated release 6/28/22) – I’m always looking for new contemporary romance authors to try, particularly authors writing F/F romance, and my love for all things Top Chef and Food Network-related is just one more reason to pick this up.

From Goodreads: A fiery restaurant owner falls for her enigmatic head chef in this charming, emotional romance

Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak.

Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane…

Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.

Sophie just wants to cook. She doesn’t want to constantly post on social media for her dead-in-the-water reality TV career, she doesn’t want to deal with Amy’s take-charge personality and she doesn’t want to think about what her attraction to her boss might mean…

Then, an opportunity: a new foodie TV show might provide the exposure they need. An uneasy truce is fine for starters, but making their dreams come true means making some personal and painful sacrifices and soon, there’s more than just the restaurant at stake.

 

Thrust

Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch (anticipated release 6/28/22) – I’ve never read from this author before, but I’m a sucker for a unique premise.

From Goodreads: Lidia Yuknavitch has an unmatched gift for capturing stories of people on the margins–vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Now, Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisve, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator’s daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisve must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives–and their shared dream of freedom.

 

The Dead Romantics

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston (anticipated release 7/5/22) – I’m really liking the current publishing trend of contemporary paranormal romance books, and this sounds like a unique play on the term “ghostwriter.”

From Goodreads: Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

 

Ruby Fever (Hidden Legacy, #6)

Ruby Fever by Ilona Andrews (anticipated release 8/23/22) – Ilona Andrews is one of my favorite authors, and I absolutely can’t wait for the third book in her second trilogy set in the Hidden Legacy world. These books are really well done paranormal romance and I enjoy the heck out of them.

From Goodreads: An escaped spider, the unexpected arrival of an Imperial Russian Prince, the senseless assassination of a powerful figure, a shocking attack on the supposedly invincible Warden of Texas, Catalina’s boss… And it’s only Monday.

Within hours, the fate of Houston—not to mention the House of Baylor—now rests on Catalina, who will have to harness her powers as never before. But even with her fellow Prime and fiancé Alessandro Sagredo by her side, she may not be able to expose who’s responsible before all hell really breaks loose.

 

Love on the Brain

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (anticipated release 8/23/22) – Since The Love Hypothesis was my favorite romance of 2021, I’m really excited about Ali Hazelwood’s second nerdy contemporary romance novel coming out this summer.

From Goodreads: Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project—a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia—Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school—archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

 

Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (anticipated release 9/13/22) – This is the third book in Muir’s Locked Tomb series; I absolutely loved the first book but had some serious issues with its sequel. The bonkers-sounding premise of this third installment makes me hopeful that I’ll get back on board with the series this fall.

From Goodreads: Her city is under siege.

The zombies are coming back.

And all Nona wants is a birthday party.

In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona’s not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger’s body, and she’s afraid she might have to give it back.

The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever.

And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face…

 

The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance #3)

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik (anticipated release 9/27/22) – I really can’t wait for the third book in Novik’s Scholomance series; books 1 and 2 were both 5-star reads for me. I honestly don’t know how she’s going to resolve the cliffhanger from the previous book and bring the trilogy to a conclusion, but I’ll be picking this one up the second it comes out.

From Goodreads: Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.

Almost singlehandedly–although backed by an increasingly large cadre of genuine friends–El has changed the nature of the Scholomance forever. But now that she is back in the real world, how will the lessons she learned inside the school apply? Will her grandmother’s prophecy come true? Will she really spell the doom of all the enclaves forever?

As the quest to save her one true love ramps up, however, El is about to learn the most significant lesson of all–the dire truth on which the enclaves and the whole stability of the magical world are founded. And being El, she is not likely to let it lie….

 

Tread of Angels

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse (anticipated release 11/15/22) – A novella from one of my favorite fantasy authors was an unexpected piece of great news; the premise sounds intricate and fascinating.

From Goodreads: High in the remote mountains, the town of Goetia is booming as prospectors from near and far come to mine the powerful new element Divinity. Divinity is the remains of the body of the rebel Abaddon, who fell to earth during Heaven’s War, and it powers the world’s most inventive and innovative technologies, ushering in a new age of progress. However, only the descendants of those that rebelled, called Fallen, possess the ability to see the rich lodes of the precious element. That makes them a necessary evil among the good and righteous people called the Elect, and Goetia a town segregated by ancestry and class.

Celeste and Mariel are two Fallen sisters, bound by blood but raised in separate worlds. Celeste grew up with her father, passing in privileged Elect society, while Mariel stayed with their mother in the Fallen slums of Goetia. Upon her father’s death, Celeste returns to Goetia and reunites with Mariel. Mariel is a great beauty with an angelic voice, and Celeste, wracked by guilt for leaving her sister behind, becomes her fiercest protector.

When Mariel is accused of murdering a Virtue, the powerful Order of the Archangels that rule Goetia, Celeste must take on the role of Advocatus Diaboli (Devil’s Advocate) and defend her sister in the secretive courts of the Virtue. Celeste, aided by her ex-lover, Abraxas, who was once one of the rebels great generals, sets out to prove Mariel innocent. But powerful forces among the Virtues and the Elect mining barons don’t want Celeste prying into their business, and Mariel has secrets of her own. As Celeste is drawn deeper into the dark side of Goetia, she unravel a layer of lies and manipulation that may doom Mariel and puts her own immortal soul at risk, in this dark fantasy noir from the bestselling mastermind Rebecca Roanhorse.

 

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail (Bright Falls, #2)

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (anticipated release 11/22/22) – I haven’t yet read Blake’s first F/F romance of 2022, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, but that’s not going to stop me from including her second on this list, because both sound great.

From Goodreads: For Astrid Parker, failure is unacceptable. Ever since she broke up with her fiancé a year ago, she’s been focused on her career—her friends might say she’s obsessed, but she’s just driven. When Pru Everwood asks her to be the designer for the Everwood Inn’s renovation that will be broadcasted on a popular home improvement show, Innside America, Astrid knows this is the answer to everything that is wrong with her life. It’ll be the perfect distraction from her failed love life, and her perpetually displeased mother might finally give her nod of approval.

However, Astrid never planned on Jordan Everwood, Pru’s granddaughter and lead carpenter for the inn’s renovation, who despises every modern design decision Astrid makes. Jordan is determined to preserve the history of her family’s inn, particularly as the rest of her life is in shambles. When that determination turns into a little light sabotage, ruffling Astrid’s perfect little feathers, the showrunners ask them to play up the tension. But somewhere along the way, their dislike for each other turns into something quite different, and Astrid must decide what success truly means. Is she going to pursue the life that she’s expected to lead, or the one she wants?

TBR

Most Anticipated 2019 Book Releases

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Here’s the thing about one year ending and the new year beginning: I tend to get caught up in all of the year-end bookishness (lists of favorites, yearly wrap-ups, etc) that sometimes the next year’s releases fall by the wayside and I miss hearing about some of the wonderful new books that will be coming out. But not this year! I’m trying to stay more on top of new releases so that I can focus on picking up books I’m really excited about in 2019 (while still prioritizing reading my physical TBR and backlist a good percentage of the time). Also, the fact is that 2019 is shaping up to be an AWESOME year in terms of books, and I am very, very excited. So many of my favorite authors are coming out with new books this year, and I’m sure I’ll soon be overwhelmed with all of the amazing new-to-me authors coming out with books as well.

I will say that this list probably has a lot of limitations: obviously it’s skewed towards my personal reading tastes, and a lot of the books on here are sequels, because those are the releases I tend to hear about first. It also out of necessity focuses on new releases for the first half of 2019; I think I might post a follow-up preview for the second half of the year (maybe after BookCon! I just bought my ticket). But I hope that you can all find some intriguing books on here as well, or maybe check out some of these authors’ backlists too.

So here, with no further ado, are my most anticipated book releases for the first half of 2019! They’re listed in order of release date.

 

In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4)

In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #4) (Release date 1/8/19) – I’ve been loving this YA novella series about children who enter fairytale worlds and then find themselves back in reality since the first book was released, and it’s really not a series that can get old, considering the number of different worlds that McGuire has already laid down the foundations for. Apparently, this one is set in a goblin market. I pre-ordered this one, so it’s probably going to be one of the first books I pick up in 2019.

The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2)

The Wicked King by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air #2) (Release date 1/8/19) – I enjoyed The Cruel Prince much more than I thought I would (I gave it 3.5 stars), and I’m definitely interested to see how things play out in the fairy world in the sequel. I haven’t pre-orderd this one, though, and I may wait awhile before picking it up, since it’s not necessarily one of the new releases on this list that I feel like I have to get to RIGHT AWAY.

Mouthful of Birds: Stories

Mouthful of Birds: Stories by Samanta Schweblin (Release date 1/8/19) – I’m a huge fan of weird short story collections, and I absolutely loved Schweblin’s Fever Dream, which was a short, intensely strange novel that was one of my favorite reads in 2017. Also, the cover of this book is ridiculously gorgeous and colorful.

99 Percent Mine

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne (Release date 1/19/19) – 2018 ended up being the year I discovered contemporary romance, and one of my favorites that was responsible for this reading trend was Thorne’s The Hating Game. Because of that, I’m super excited to read more from her, and I’ve already pre-ordered this one. I believe it’s about a woman who’s in love with her twin brother’s off-limits best friend, who she has to flip a house with. Sounds fun! The book, not the house-flipping.

The Dreamers

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (Release date 1/15/19) – I’m going to go with the Goodreads blurb for this one, by the author of The Age of Miracles, which was a sort of beautiful and slow-moving pre-apocalypse type of novel I read last year: The Dreamers is “a mesmerizing novel about a college town transformed by a strange illness that locks victims in a perpetual sleep and triggers life-altering dreams…for fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.” Since the two books it’s compared to are two of my favorites and I found The Age of Miracles very promising if not awesome, I’m pretty interested in this one.

The City in the Middle of the Night

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders (Release date 2/12/19) – I first heard of Charlie Jane Anders when she was the editor of io9, which used to be one of my favorite sources of SFF news and book recommendations; I’ve seen her speak on panels at BookCon, where she wowed me with her brilliance, and I now religiously listen to her podcast with Annalee Newitz, which is called Our Opinions Are Correct. I liked but didn’t love her first novel, All the Birds in the Sky, and I really like the sound of this new one. Again, we’re going to turn to Goodreads for some help on this one since I don’t know too much about it:

“Set on a planet that has fully definitive, never-changing zones of day and night, with ensuing extreme climates of endless, frigid darkness and blinding, relentless light, humankind has somehow continued apace — though the perils outside the built cities are rife with danger as much as the streets below. But in a world where time means only what the ruling government proclaims, and the levels of light available are artificially imposed to great consequence, lost souls and disappeared bodies are shadow-bound and savage, and as common as grains of sand. And one such pariah, sacrificed to the night, but borne up by time and a mysterious bond with an enigmatic beast, will rise to take on the entire planet–before it can crumble beneath the weight of human existence.”

Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World, #2)

Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse (The Sixth World #2) (Release date 4/23/19) – I was lucky enough to get a free copy of Roanhorse’s debut, Trail of Lightning, at BookCon, and fell in love with her post-apocalyptic world and strong female protagonist. I can’t wait to hear more about where things are going in this unique, creative series set after climate change has decimated what was once the United States and strange powers and monsters out of Navajo mythology have awakened..

The Bride Test (The Kiss Quotient, #2)

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (The Kiss Quotient #2) (Release date 5/7/19) – Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient was probably my favorite contemporary romance of 2018 due to its sweet, sexy romance and smart writing. I’m really looking forward to picking up more from Helen Hoang; The Bride Test follows Khai, a character we met in The Kiss Quotient who is autistic, and the potential bride his mother brings back for him from Vietnam who falls for him.

Middlegame

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire (Release date 5/7/19) – I’ve loved Seanan McGuire for a long time; I’ve enjoyed her October Daye, Indexing, and Wayward Children series, and am intrigued by this new, stellar-sounding standalone about twins with strange powers aspiring to become new gods. From Goodreads:

“Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own. Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.”

 

Kingsbane (Empirium, #2)

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand (Empirium #2) (Release date 5/21/19) – I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Legrand’s Furyborn, which ended up being one of my favorite YA reads of the year, and am very excited to see where she takes the series. The Empirium series follows two young women, the Sun Queen and the Blood Queen, living a thousand years apart in a land torn apart by magic and angels, and Kingsbane is hopefully going to give us some intriguing answers into how the world came to be this way.

Rage (Stormheart, #2)

Rage by Cora Carmack (Stormheart #2) (Release date 6/11/19) – I picked up Roar, Carmack’s first book in the stormheart trilogy, my first time at BookCon, because I love when books involve weather magic. I ended up really enjoying the YA fantasy world that Carmack created, and I’m looking forward to seeing Roar, a princess on the run, hopefully come into her own in the second book.

 

Other 2019 books that I’m excited about but that don’t have firm release dates yet, and/or covers, and/or are happening too far in the future to go into detail yet: Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews (Book 3.5 in her science fiction Innkeeper Chronicles series, focused on the main character’s formerly missing sister and a space vampire, unknown release date); Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews (book 1 in a new trilogy following Catalina, the younger sister of Nevada from the Hidden Legacy series, release date 8/27/19); Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (book 1 in a new series focused on Yale secret societies, release date 10/1/19); the second book in Ilona Andrews’s Iron Covenant trilogy (no release date yet); Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell (Simon Snow #2, no release date yet). Again, I’ll go into these more in probably May/June with another Most Anticipated Reads List for the second half of 2019.

 

Are any of these books on your most anticipated lists as well? What books are you excited for that I missed? Let me know in the comments!