Fantasy
Faebound (Faebound #1) by Saara El-Arifi
Published Jan 18 by Del Rey
Synopsis: Yeeran is a warrior in the elven army and has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future.
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven lands, they are both forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the impossible: the fae court.
The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world – torn between their loyalty to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts. . .
Will I Read It?
I do plan on reading this once a few more reviews come out from people that I have similar taste as. I might wait until after I read El-Arifi's other series, The Ending Fire, since all three books will be out this year. This does sound quite interesting and it's been a while since I read a really great book about elves.
Pillar of Ash (The Four Pillars #4) by H.M. Long
Published Jan 16 by Titan Books
Synopsis: Yske, daughter of the legendary warrior priestess Hessa, has dedicated her life to medicine and pacifism in service to Aita, the Great Healer. When her twin brother Berin, hungry for glory, gathers a party to investigate rumours of strange sightings in the Unmade - shadows in the darkness at the end of the world - Yske joins the mission, to keep him safe.
Their journey east takes them through primal forests, walking paths last trod when gods were at war and ancient, powerful beasts were defeated and bound. And the closer they get to the Unmade, the more strange and terrible things haunt them from the shadows, corruptions in nature and monstrous creatures of moss and bone.
Earning the respect of Berin and his warriors, Yske must forge a place for mercy and healing in a world of violence and sacrifice. She must survive murderous ambushes and brutal sieges and take her place at the centre of the oldest war of all.
Thrust into a desperate conflict of survival, Yske and Berin will wage the final war with the gods - in the shadow of a vast and ancient tree, the fate of creation is about to be decided.
Will I Read It?
Absolutely! I read the first book when it was published, and I do remember enjoying it. I do forget a lot of about what I read when I can't immediately continue the series, which is why I tend not to start new series unless it is by an author I LOVE. I do plan on starting this series from the very beginning sometime soon.
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
Published January 9 by Viking
Synopsis: Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Now, nearly a century since it was built, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for misfits, seeking to forget their pasts and disappear into the mansions dark corridors.
Until Sana. She and her father are the latest of Akbar Manzil’s long list of tenants, seeking a new home after suffering painful loss. Unlike the others, who choose not to look too closely at the mansion’s unsettling qualities—the strange assortment of bones in the overgrown garden, the mysterious figure seen to move sometimes at night—she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion. To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the locked door at its end, unopened for decades.
Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time, with faded photographs of a couple in love and a worn diary that whispers of a dark past: the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, the original owner’s second wife, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the room’s shadows is a grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who once loved Meena and has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Obsessed with Meena’s story, and unaware of the creature that follows her, Sana digs into the past like fingers into a wound, awakening the memories of the house itself—and dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil.
Will I Read It?
I'm not sure yet if I'll pick this book up. While it does sound intriguing, I feel like the synopsis promises a lot and gave away a lot of the plot already. It does have some very promising reviews already, so I may pick this up later on this year. I absolutely love the cover and I do enjoy books with djinn as antagonists. I think I'll wait a bit on this.
Sci-Fi
A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
Published Jan 30 by MIRA
Synopsis: The only thing harder than finding someone in a time loop is losing them.
Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda’s ready to give up everything to start anew. Even her career— after one last week consulting at a top secret particle accelerator.
Except the strangest thing a man stops her…and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning, why she's there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he’s saying.
Because time is about to loop.
In a flash of energy, it’s Monday morning. Again. Together, Mariana and Carter enter an inevitable life, four days at a time, over and over, without permanence except for what they share. With everything resetting—even bank accounts—joy comes in the little a delicious (and expensive) meal, a tennis match, giving a dog his favorite treat.
In some ways, those are all that matter.
But just as they figure out this new life, everything changes. Because Carter's memories of the time loop are slowly disappearing. And their only chance at happiness is breaking out of the loop—forever.
Did I Like This?
★★☆☆☆
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I have really enjoyed every previous book by Mike Chen. Looking back, they have all either received a 4 or 5 star rating from me. One thing that he really does wonderfully well is to take an interesting sci-fi concept (time travel, post-apocalypse, vampires, etc.) and creates realistic characters that live within these worlds. This book fell short in my opinion in one of those aspects.
While the concept of a time loop is something I immensely enjoy, I do think the concept can become stale quickly. To keep things from getting too repetitive (which is difficult in a time loop), the characters have to be compelling. Neither of the leads in this book, unfortunately, were very compelling. Carter didn't really do much but take notes and eat, and Mariana kept reminiscing about her dead friend. Nothing really stood out about either of them, and I thought it was strange how Carter basically forced her into the time loop with him. The romantic aspect between the two didn't ever click with me either. It felt more like a relationship built out of convenience than compatibility.
I'll definitely give Mike Chen another chance as this was the first out of six books that I haven't liked.
Tusks of Extinction by Ray Naylor
Published Jan 16 by Tordotcom
Synopsis: When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.
Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.
The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.
Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?
And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?
A tense eco-thriller from a new master of the genre.
Will I Read It?
This sounds like a mixture between Jurassic Park and Okja. I'm not quite sure if I've ever read an eco-thriller before so I don't really know what to expect from this. It has some amazing reviews so far so more likely than not I will pick this up when it is released.
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Published Jan 23 by Erewhon Books
Synopsis: Nelah seems to have it all: wealth, fame, a husband, and a child on the way. But in a body her husband controls via microchip and the tailspin of a loveless marriage, her hopes and dreams come to a devastating halt. A drug-fueled night of celebration ends in a hit-and-run. To dodge a sentencing in a society that favors men, Nelah and her side-piece, Janith Koshal, finish the victim off and bury the body.
But the secret claws its way into Nelah's life from the grave. As her victim's vengeful ghost begins exacting a bloody revenge on everyone Nelah holds dear, she'll have to unravel her society's terrible secrets to stop those in power, and become a monster unlike any other to quench the ghost's violent thirst.
Did I Like It?
★★☆☆☆
I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I originally requested this as the synopsis reminded me a bit of Altered Carbon, with the fact that consciousnesses can body jump. That is where the similarities seemed to end. Rather than pushing the plot forward, the first 40% or so of the book felt like one massive info dump. It felt a bit repetitive, with the same things being mentioned over and over. For example, I understood that Nelah's main goal was to have a child pretty much from page 1, however, that seemed to be her sole focus. We only get narrative from her, and she isn't really that interesting outside of being in a borrowed body.
The really interesting ideas there explored, like body jumping, memory wipes and how Nelah is subjected to violations of her memories, but rather than really digging deep, they were only ever mentioned on the surface level.
There was a fairly good twist that came near the end, and the pacing did pickup about halfway through, but it did feel a bit late. If I wasn't' reading this for a review, I most likely would have DNF'd before things actually became interesting.
Horror
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
Published Jan 30 by St. Martin's Press
Synopsis: Across Italy, there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives.
It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought.
There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside.
While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina…something stirs.
Will I Read It?
100%! I already have this book on hold at the library. This sounds so good! I love a good haunted house book and this seems like it's going to be very creepy. Throw in churches and I'm sold on reading this. When horror books bring in religion, it just adds something classic to them. I can't wait to read this.
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer
Published Jan 16 by Quirk Books
Synopsis: Four ambitious climbers hike into the Kentucky wilderness. Seven months later, three mangled bodies are discovered. Were their deaths simple accidents or the result of something more sinister?
This nail-biting, bone-chilling survival horror novel is inspired by the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident, and is perfect for fans of Alma Katsu and Showtime's Yellowjackets.
This is going to be Dylan's big break. Her friend Clay, a geology student, has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan's boyfriend Luke, she is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing.
Seven months later, three bodies are discovered in the trees just off the highway. All are in various states of decay: one body a stark, white skeleton; the second emptied of its organs; and the third a mutilated corpse with the tongue, eyes, ears, and fingers removed.
But Dylan is still missing. Followers of her Instagram account report seeing disturbing livestreams, and some even claim to have caught glimpses of her vanishing into the thick woods, but no trace of her—dead or alive—has been discovered.
Were the climbers murdered? Did they succumb to cannibalism? Or are their impossible bodies the work of an even more sinister force? Is Dylan still alive, and does she hold the answers?
Will I Read It?
Mysterious bodies? Remote location? Inspired by a true story? Check, check, check. This sounds right up my alley. I've put this on hold at the library as well and it sounds mysterious and exciting.
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