Winter 2018-2019 Reads
1. Bitter Winter by Jaye L. Knight (December 14). This one's already out, actually, and I'm joining in the blog tour on Friday! But I'm looking forward to more Ilyon, even though I'm 99% certain that people are going to die again. I'm not happy about that. We've got more Jayrin, though, so that's something. And hopefully some Jace and Elinor being sibling-ly? I'd be down with that.
2. King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (January 29). This falls more in the "marginally interested" category than the "super excited" category mostly because my interest in the Grishaverse comes primarily from the Six of Crows duology. Still, it sounds pretty exciting — lots of intrigue and excitement and dramatics and all that — so I do hope to give it a try. Just, maybe not until after I find time to read the original Grisha series.
3. The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf (February 5). This definitely isn't my usual genre; it's relatively recent historical fiction, for heaven's sakes. It's practically contemporary. But it sounds like an interesting book, and it's set in Malaysia, which is a place I'm not super familiar with and should therefore try to learn more about. I also think this will be a good book to review for my college's newspaper, assuming I can get ahold of it. (And the fact that the cover is gorgeous helps too.)
4. Honor: A Quest In by Kendra E. Ardnek (February 26). Kendra
actually reminded me of this one after the post went up, 'cause it
didn't show up on my Goodreads TBR, but it's here now! I'm actually
alpha-reading Honor, and I'm enjoying it immensely. There are
relatively few authors I know of who let characters have adventures
after they're married, let alone after they have kids, but Kendra is
doing it really well. I'm very excited to read the whole book and see it
actually published.
5. Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte (February 26). In which I continue my quest for a good fantasy mystery novel now that the Knight and Rogue series is long finished and the last Mistborn Era 2 book is still in the works and who knows when it will come out. Four Dead Queens has great potential both for good (I mean, we've got a quadruple murder mystery and the same kind of noble-and-thief main character pair that makes Knight and Rogue so good) . . . but it could also easily go bad (please, every "reluctant partnership" between male and female main characters eventually "evolves into a tenuous romance;" you're going to have to work hard to make it not cliche). I look forward to seeing which it is.
6. When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry (March 12). This is another book not in my usual genre — I'm not sure if this is sci-fi or horror or both. If it's horror, I'll probably end up DNF'ing it, if my last (accidental) experience with horror is anything to go off of. But if it's sci-fi or a variation thereon, well, awesome. I need more sci-fi in my life, especially since my dystopian science fantasy novel is defininitely going to be a thing at some point in the future.
7. Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (March 17). Excuse me as I go scream in mingled excitement and sorrow. On one hand — EUGENIDES. And with a title like that, there's no way that he won't be the primary focus. (Don't get me wrong, I loved A Conspiracy of Kings and Thick as Thieves; I just think that the more Gen, the better the book.) Also, political intrigue and conspiracy and plot twists and mystery (maybe?) and all sorts of awesomeness. On the downside, this is the end, whether or not we want it. After this, there's no more "Maybe she'll surprise us with another book!" It's just "There's no more Queen's Thief and all we can do is go back to the beginning of the series and reread it." And that's just a tragedy. But I'm excited anyway, because EUGENIDES.
What books are you looking forward to this winter? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)
There are some really beautiful covers here! I especially like 'When the Sky Fell on Splendor' and 'The Weight of Our Sky'.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? The cover of "The Weight of Our Sky" is honestly one of the things that initially drew me to the book.
DeleteThese all sound so good!
ReplyDeleteI agree!
DeleteThanks for stopping by!
Ooh! Ahh! I need to catch up on the Ilyon books and the Bookania books so I can get to these! And what even, how are there still so many Queen's Thief books coming out?? Like. I can't keep track anymore since it seems like everytime I look up there's another one and I still need to read the first. XD
ReplyDeleteYes, you do need to catch up on Ilyon and Bookania. Soon. And there's only six Queen's Thief books, but one of them took an age and a half to release, so maybe it felt like multiple? IDK. But YES, READ THE FIRST.
DeleteI've heard When the Sky Fell on Splendor is very Stranger Things-esque? So it may verge more on the horror side.
ReplyDeleteAwww. That's disappointing. But maybe it'll still be better than my last attempt to read horror . . .
DeleteI'm not a big horror person, either, but I liked Emily's last book a lot, so I'm gonna try this one. But yes, I hope we both like it!
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