Can't-Wait Wednesday: Whiteout by R.S. Burnett, The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton, & Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

 

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

Whiteout by R.S. Burnett
Publication: February 25th, 2025
Crooked Lane Books
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A researcher stranded in Antarctica receives a radio message that a nuclear war has broken out in this claustrophobic survival thriller, perfect for fans of The Martian, The Last Murder at the End of the World and Breathless.

It’s been four months since glaciologist Rachael Beckett left her husband and daughter to join an urgent research trip to a remote field station deep in the Antarctic. But after losing all communication with her crew at base camp, she’s trapped and alone – and running out of supplies. The only information she has about what’s gone so catastrophically wrong is an emergency radio broadcast playing on a a nuclear war has broken out, and Rachael might be the last survivor on Earth.

Abandoned and starving, all she has left is a fierce determination to stay alive in the extreme cold and perpetual darkness of the polar winter. The research she’s gathered about catastrophic climate damage means she holds the fate of the continent and the world in her grasp…if there’s even a world left to save.

Struggling with loneliness and grief over the unknown fate of her family back home, Rachael knows both her life and her sanity balance on a knife edge. As she battles to stay alive in unimaginable conditions, she soon discovers she’s not completely alone in the dark and cold–but she might wish she was…"

A survival story set in Antarctica–need I say more? Of course I'm going to read this! But in all honesty, I read so much nonfiction about survival in cold climates that I'm really intrigued by this entire premise and have high hopes for it. 

The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
Publication: February 25th, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.

That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.

Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.

When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.

Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?"

I've been wanting to add more sci-fi to my reading and this one sounds so interesting! I read Ashton's Mal Goes to War and found it to have a really interesting premise and I've been meaning to read more from him, so this seems like a great option to do so. 

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
Publication: February 4th, 2025
Random House
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. So she's a little hungover sometimes on her shifts, and she has to bring her daughter Emaleen to work while she waits tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but it's a tough town to be a single mother, and Emaleen never goes hungry.

Arthur Neilsen is a soft-spoken recluse, with scars across his face, who brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods one day. He speaks with a strange cadence, appears in town only at the change of seasons, and is avoided by most people. But to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. He lives in a cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River and tells Birdie about the caribou, marmots and wild sheep that share his untamed world. She falls in love with him and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about her, Birdie moves to his isolated cabin.

She and her daughter are alone with Arthur in a vast wilderness, hundreds of miles from roads, telephones, electricity, or outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. She can start a fire and cook on a wood stove. She has her rifle and fishing rod. But soon Birdie realizes she is not prepared for what lies ahead."

Eowyn Ivey's prose is always so gorgeous that I'll pretty much read anything from her no matter what the premise is, so I'm looking forward to checking this one out. 

Review: Lightfall by Ed Crocker

Lightfall by Ed Crocker

St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: January 14th, 2024

Hardcover. 384 pages.

About Lightfall:

"An epic fantasy of vampires, werewolves and sorcerers, Lightfall is the debut novel of Ed Crocker, for fans of Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire and Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings.

No humans here. Just immortals: their politics, their feuds—and their long buried secrets.

For centuries, vampires freely roamed the land until the Grays came out of nowhere, wiping out half the population in a night. The survivors fled to the last vampire city of First Light, where the rules are simple. If you’re poor, you drink weak blood. If you’re nobility, you get the good stuff. And you can never, ever leave.

Palace maid Sam has had enough of these rules, and she’s definitely had enough of cleaning the bedpans of the lords who enforce them. When the son of the city’s ruler is murdered and she finds the only clue to his death, she seizes the chance to blackmail her way into a better class and better blood. She falls in with the Leeches, a group of rebel maids who rein in the worst of the Lords. Soon she’s in league with a sorcerer whose deductive skills make up for his lack of magic, a deadly werewolf assassin and a countess who knows a city’s worth of secrets.

There’s just one problem. What began as a murder investigation has uncovered a vast conspiracy by the ruling elite, and now Sam must find the truth before she becomes another victim. If she can avoid getting murdered, she might just live forever."

Let’s start by saying that I’m not typically a huge vampire fan. However, I am someone who likes to keep an open mind for something fresh and that brings something new and exciting to any particular trope or genre--for instance, Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire series has been a surprising delight, as it offers unique twists on traditional vampire lore. Therefore, when Ed Crocker’s Lightfall was pitched to me and it sounded like something with vampires that I’d never read before, as well as had an incredibly intriguing synopsis, I couldn’t resist diving in. I’m happy to report that Lightfall does indeed deliver a fresh take on the vampire novel and weaves together an imaginative world with vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers, and plenty of lore to make for a fascinating story.

What I liked: The world-building in Lightfall is phenomenal! The intricate background of this world is one of Lightfall’s most riveting aspects, as it provided a multi-layered and immersive setting that I could really sink my teeth into (pun intended). We follow a fairly diverse cast of characters, and I appreciated how these characters’ journeys allowed us to delve deeper into the world’s structure, including a look at societal roles and hierarchies among both different beings and within each group’s own social dynamics. I was also particularly compelled by the absence of humans in this world, which completely shifts dynamics from what readers usually expect in a vampire novel. Instead, we get to explore a world inhabited by vampires, sorcerers, and werewolves, which fostered some intriguing interactions and relationships. I was especially fascinated by the lore surrounding the enigmatic ‘Greys’ and the lingering question of whether mortal existed, and, if so, what happened. There’s really so much depth to this world and this entire story, and I’m eager for additional books in this series which I’m sure will explore even more.

What I didn't like: The only real complaint I have with this book is that the dialogue at times felt a bit stilted and awkward. For me, it did disrupt the flow of the story at times, which pulled me out of the otherwise immersive experience. That being said, I did read a fairly early ARC of Lightfall, so it’s possible that some of these issues have been refined and/or resolved in the final version. The dialogue’s stiffness does give the book a slight debut feel, but to me it also hints at the author’s potential for growth and leaves me optimistic about Ed Crocker’s future work and books in this series.

If you’re looking for a fresh new take on vampires and intricately crafted fantasy with rich world-building and a plethora of interesting characters to follow, then I’d encourage you to give Lightfall a read!

*I received a copy of Lightfall in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #34

                         

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #34

 I was actually going to post a review today, but some things came up and changed those plans, so instead we've done a last minute pivot to a Friday Face-Off, because why not? It's been a while since I've done one, and it's always nice to take some time to appreciate cover art.  I actually decided to re-read How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu this week, and it's been just as heartbreaking and wonderful as I remember. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I do these things to myself considering how sad  some of the stories in this collection are. But regardless, there are some lovely editions of this book out in the world, so let's have a look at some of them. 

2022 US Hardcover | 2024 Catalan/Valencian | 2024 Arabic

2022 UK Hardcover | 2023 UK Paperback | 2023 Italian

2023 Chinese | 2023 Bulgarian | 2024 Korean

My favorite(s):

These are all so gorgeous! I am finding myself particularly drawn to the Chinese and US Hardcover editions. I just love the simplicity of most of these, and I wish I could own a copy of the Chinese one (I already own the US edition) because it's so beautiful and I think it really captures the sort of melancholy/hopeful/sad feelings this collection evokes. 

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim, Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods, & The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein

 

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim
Publication: February 4th, 2025
MIRA
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside. Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he’s sure he won’t be able to hide for long.

The orb soon begins consuming every person caught in its path, and no one knows how to stop it. Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting. Jeong-su must rely on his wits as he makes the arduous journey in search of his elderly parents. But the strangest phases of this ever-expanding disaster are yet to come and Jeong-su will be forced to question everything he has taken for granted.

Dryly funny, propulsive and absurd, The Black Orb is terrifyingly prescient about the fragility of human civilization."

This sounds so weird and I'm totally here for it.

Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Publication: February 18th, 2025
Tor 
Hardcover. 432 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

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."

I enjoyed Woods' After the Forest and I'm really intrigued by the general setup of this one, so I'm looking forward to checking it out.

The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein
Publication: February 11th, 2025
William Morrow
Paperback. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew The Giant in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

These are their stories.

In “My Name Is Ellie” a young girl uncovers disturbing secrets hiding in the walls of her beloved grandmother’s home. An unassuming box, built with reclaimed wood, connects a grieving widower with his late wife’s lingering spirit in “Hector Brim.” In “Detour” a father, desperate to return home, finds himself trapped in a dizzying maze, haunted by stories of lurking monsters that live off the remains of weary travelers.

Playing with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief, Sam Rebelein returns upstate to unravel the mysteries of Renfield. But regardless of what started the trouble, there’s one thing of which we can be for those living here, the nightmare is far from over."

I haven't read anything from this author yet so I'm unfamiliar with the setting of this book, but I'm hoping that's okay because this sounds so good! 

Review: The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks

The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks

Angry Robot

Publication Date: January 14th, 2024

Paperback. 400 pages.

About The Way Up is Death:

"When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.

As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone… is up.

And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move."

This was my first encounter with Dan Hanks' writing, and I’m already keen to explore more of his work, especially when I’m craving something intense and gripping. The Way Up Is Death is a dark, stress-inducing mystery wrapped up in a high-stakes horror/thriller. It’s also supremely high stakes, and those high stakes only grow as the story progresses and our characters ascend in this mysterious structure. There are new horror awaiting the characters around every corner, and it is truly relentless with an atmosphere drenched in dread and anticipation.

The Way Up is Death kicks off with the sudden appearance of a strange, floating structure in the sky. Initially, there's panic and speculation as people try to understand its purpose, but when nothing significant happens after a while, society gradually returns to normal. That is, until one day when thirteen individuals are seemingly plucked out of thin air from their lives and find themselves inside this enigmatic tower. Once there, a countdown begins with only word shown: ascend. All they can do now is try to figure out a way to go up, though none of them know what awaits them at the top, and most importantly, they must survive the trip.

The cast of characters is diverse and compelling. There's a mix of personalities, from the harmless to those you root for to the mildly annoying, and to the downright egotistical and dangerous. While such a wide array of characters can sometimes feel a bit exaggerated, I felt it served a good purpose here in offering a glimpse into how different types of people might react under extreme stress and chaos. This also applies to a sense of predictability that sometimes comes into play with some stereotypes and how you might expect things to turn out, but I think it all work out well together. It was also initially a little tricky keeping track of everyone, but as the story progressed it became easier to note each character’s distinct traits, and I found watching how they evolved–or didn’t–a really engaging aspect.

One of my favorite parts of The Way Up is Death is the sheer creativity involved in the design of the tower’s “levels” (or, perhaps, the sadistic creativity, one might say?). Each new level presents a unique and often harrowing challenge, and I thought some of the later stages were particularly intriguing. The puzzles and obstacles are intricate and imaginative and provided a great foundation to learn more about characters and their perspectives, as well as how they interact with one another.

The pacing is relentless from start to finish, with action-packed sequences there to keep driving the narrative forward. As much as this can sometimes be welcome in books to make for a gripping narrative, I was slightly disappointed by just how quickly this moved at times and how much it really seemed to just be one action event after another. We got a little down time here and there to get to know our characters, but I wouldn't have minded a few more moments of meaningful discussion from them. That said, we do still get some great conversations between our characters around the tower’s purpose, humanity’s role, the earth, and a few topics that added a lot of depth to the story.

I found that hope seemed to be a recurring theme in this story as well, with some of our characters offering reflections on their own lives and what the future may hold for both themselves and others. These moments of introspection and thoughtfulness provided a nice counterbalance to the terror and fear that permeates the rest of the story.

The ending is fittingly intense and momentous, though it left me wanting more–more background, more about the tower–but I also understand that some mysteries are meant to remain unsolved, and this book handled that idea really well. It’s both resolved and a little bit open-ended, and it struck that balance well.

Overall, The Way Up is Death is a compelling blend of SFF, horror, and thriller. If you’re looking for something fast-paced, high-stakes, and thought-provoking, then this may be a good option for your next read.

*I received a copy of The Way Up is Death in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my rating.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

2024 Reading Stats!

The time has come to go through my 2024 reading stats! This is the last of my 'end of year' posts (you can find part one and part two of my best books of 2024 lists here and here, respectively!) and it's usually one of my favorite s to make because it's really fun to just get a broad look at what my reading year was like as a whole and be able to pinpoint certain trends and even better understand my reading. To obtain these stats, I take a few graphics from the Goodreads year in review, and the rest are from my personal Excel spreadsheet where I keep track of the books I read throughout the year and some additional information about them like page counts, format, publisher, etc. I do this every year, and last year's post can be found here.

Before I get into the stats, just a quick note to say I apologize for not getting this up last week as I had planned! I live in the Los Angeles area and the recent fires definitely impacted my ability to focus and get some things done. I fortunately live a little outside of the evacuation zones and am safe here with my husband and dog, but it's been really heartbreaking to see all of the devastation occurring around us. I'm hoping this post can be a little bit of a reprieve where I can just focus on books and reading and you can also just focus on books and reading, so let's get into it!

Yearly Totals:

The funniest part is that I think I read less pages than last year, yet more books! I think this is because for some reason, there were a lot more novellas and just slightly shorter books that were published this year and I happened to read a lot of them, I guess. Has anyone else noticed that the average page count of new releases seems a bit shorter than they used to be, or is it just me?

The average page length was 377 last year, so definitely lower this year and my reading hasn't changed too much.

This almost always ends up being my average rating because it's usually a little inflated since I typically round up my ratings on Goodreads (for instance, I do a lot of .25, .5, and .75 star ratings).

Unsurprising top book (not the best, but I'm committed to the series at this point), but ya'll, go read Baby Bird for all your body horror needs and give it some love!


So this is the book that came up in the my end of year review, but I went to my shelf on Goodreads to verify and there were actually two books with a 4.57 average rating at the time so I'm taking that as a tie and I'm including both books! Both of these make sense for having really high ratings because one, of course they are great reads, but two, they are later books in different series and typically people who have made it that far in a series are already enjoying and are likely to keep enjoying it. That being said, both of these reviews are a blast and I recommend both. 

I just wanted to include this because I loved this book so much. I don't think I did a full length review for it, though, only shared my thoughts here on Goodreads. 

Stats:
Alright, now it's time to get to the nitty-gritty details of what I read this year. In this section, I'll take a look at genres, page count, format, etc. I tend to compare it to my previous year's post to see how things change year to year. So, let's have a look:

Genre

Some of these numbers are ridiculously similar to last year, so I guess I can be fairly consistent. This year, my fantasy slice (38.3%) is just about the same as last year (38.6%), and my historical fiction is also about the same as last year (6%). I did mean to read more historical fiction this year because I really do love it, but I guess that didn't really happen, haha. I thought my horror slice (22.8%) would be bigger this year because I felt like I read a lot of horror, but it was actually slightly lower than last year (25%), and I am wondering if I included any thrillers in the horror section last year. This year I have a general 'fiction' category (9.4%) that includes general fiction and literary fiction, and that is relatively the same. My science fiction slice (8.7%) declined a bit, but my nonfiction is probably what increased the most–from 2.3% last year to 11.4% this year! I really did read a decent bit of nonfiction this year, and that's something I'd love to keep up this year. 

Target Audience

This, as usual, is no surprise. I mainly read books in the adult category (94.2%), and very seldom pick up young adult books (3.9%) these days. I am a bit surprised my middle grade category (1.9%) is so low, though, as I really do love some good middle grade, so I'll have to pay more attention to that one this year!

Format

These are surprisingly stable, as well. The biggest change is hardcover, which was 6.7% last year and is up to 14.9% this year. I chose not to separate out finished copies sent from publishers from library/owned copies, so that could account for it a bit this year as well.  Physical ARCs also decreased slightly to 20%, though I feel like I got more finished copies than ARCs this year for some reason from publishers. Audiobooks only went up one percent (37%) from last year, and eARCs went down to 15.6%. It's still wild to me sometimes that audiobooks make up such a big part of my reading considering how much I struggled with them in the past, but now I really enjoy them. 

Book Source

There are definitely some changes on this one! One change I made this year was I combined gifts that I have purchased and books that I've received as gifts into one 'owned' category. Still, I read more in the owned slice (25.3%) than last year's gifted and purchased combined (2.3%+11.5%), so it's always good to see I'm reading books off my shelves, haha. NetGalley is down a little this year at 17.5% (23.8% last year), but I do think I made it through ebooks a bit more slowly this year for some reason. My library usage (31.2%) apparently doubled this year, so hooray for that! I love my library, and I also love being able to use the Libby app to more easily access audiobooks. Publisher (24.7%) also decreased slightly, but I think that's because I tried to focus on some of the books I already owned as well last year. I also included author (1.3%) as a source, since I do still occasionally review books from authors who directly request a review! I used to do a lot more of these, but it's tapered off a bit in recent years. 

Page Count

Most of my page counts are similar to last year, with the only noticeable increases being in the 1-200 page range, which tracks with what I mentioned earlier about somehow ending up reading a lot of shorter books that were published this year. I have a feeling this year might get me back into higher amounts of chunkier books due to some fantasy reading plans, among other, but time will tell!

Tell me about your year in books! Do you keep track of information for stats like this? If you do and you made a post that I haven't seen–or any type end of year post–leave me a link below because I love checking them out!

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Garden by Nick Newman, Grave Empire by Richard Swan, Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters, & Boy by Nicole Galland

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! 

February is absolutely packed with new releases, so today I'm sharing not two, not three, but four upcoming releases. Next week I'll return to my more usual amount of three. :)

The Garden by Nick Newman
Publication: February 18th, 2025
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Hardcover. 320 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"An eerie, hypnotic, darkly beautiful novel about two elderly sisters living alone at the edge of the world and how their lives unravel when their sanctum is breached, for fans of Piranesi and The Testaments.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.

So when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they’ve known it."

I was already sold by the Piranesi comp, but this sounds so intriguing and mysterious and I absolutely cannot wait to see what's going on with this one. I have an ARC that I'm hoping to get started on soon!

Grave Empire by Richard Swan
Publication: February 4th, 2025
Orbit
Paperback. 384 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Blood once turned the wheels of empire. Now it is money.

A new age of exploration and innovation has dawned, and the Empire of the Wolf stands to take its place as the foremost power in the known world. Glory and riches await.

But dark days are coming. A mysterious plague has broken out in the pagan kingdoms to the north, while in the south, the Empire's proxy war in the lands of the wolfmen is weeks away from total collapse.

Worse still is the message brought to the Empress by two heretic monks, who claim to have lost contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The monks believe this is the start of an ancient prophecy heralding the end of days-the Great Silence.

It falls to Renata Rainer, a low-ranking ambassador to an enigmatic and vicious race of mermen, to seek answers from those who still practice the arcane arts. But with the road south beset by war and the Empire on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, soon there may not be a world left to save . . ."

I really enjoyed Richard Swan's Empire of the Wolf trilogy and I have been anxiously awaiting his new release!

Waiting for the Long Night Moon: Stories by Amanda Peters
Publication: February 11th, 2025
Harper Perennial
Paperback. 256 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place—from contact with the first European settlers to the forced removal of Indigenous children, to the present-day fight for the right to clean water.

In this intimate collection, Peters melds traditional storytelling with beautiful, spare prose to describe the dignity of the traditional way of life, the humiliations of systemic racism, and the resilient power to endure. A young man returns from residential school only to realize he can no longer communicate with his parents. As a water protector, a young woman finds purpose and healing on the front lines. An old man remembers his life as he patiently waits for death. And a young girl nervously dances in her first Mawi'omi. The collection also includes the story “The Berry Pickers," which inspired Peters' critically acclaimed novel of the same name, as well as the Indigenous Voices Award–nominated story “Pejipug (Winter Arrives)."

At times sad, sometimes disturbing but always redemptive, the stories in Waiting for the Long Night Moon will remind you that where there is grief there is also joy, where there is trauma there is resilience and, most importantly, there is power."

This sounds like a really powerful and thoughtful collection of stories, I'm hoping to have a chance to check it  out soon. 

Boy by Nicole Galland
Publication: February 25th, 2025
William Morrow
Hardcover. 352 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"From critically acclaimed author Nicole Galland, a vibrant and thought-provoking historical tale of love, political intrigue, and gender-swapping set in the theatre world of Elizabethan London.

Alexander “Sander” Cooke is the most celebrated “boy player” in the Chamberlain’s Men, William Shakespeare’s theatre company. Indeed, Sander’s androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London, and his companionship is sought by noblewomen and -men alike. And yet, now at the height of his fame, he teeters on the cusp of adulthood, his future uncertain. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever.

Joan Buckler, Sander’s best friend, also has a dream. Though unschooled, she is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she’s been exposed. And while she senses that Sander’s admiration for her is more than mere friendship, Joan’s true passion is knowledge, something that is nearly impossible for her to attain. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day; only in disguise can she learn to her heart’s content.

Joan’s covert intellectual endeavors, coupled with Sander’s theatrical triumphs, attract the attention of none other than Francis Bacon: natural philosopher and trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth. It is through their connection with Bacon—one of the greatest minds of their time—that their lives will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very survival.

Brimming with heart, curiosity, and rich historical detail, Boy offers an intimate glimpse of the moral complexities of a singular artistic era, and the roles we all choose to play on the world’s stage."

I am so intrigued by this story, and I believe it's based on a real person from history, Alexander Cooke, so I'm really eager to check this one out.