Siavahda's Blog, page 15

My Favourite SFF Backlist Reads of 2024!

It’s wonderful to highlight our favourite new releases each year – but there are amazing older books out there too! Why not spotlight them as well?

(Not that any of the ones I’ve picked this year are very old…)

Thus: the very best books I read this year (not counting rereads!) that were published pre-2024!

The Fall That Saved Us by Tamara Jerée
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black sapphic MC, F/F or F/NB
Published on: 5th September 2023
Goodreads

Cassiel has given up the family tradition of demon hunting, leaving behind her sacred angelic duty and fated sword. What she can’t leave behind are the scars. To cope, she spends her days immersed in work, pouring all her attention into New Haven Books, her small bookstore and anchor in the new world she’s carved for herself.

But the past hasn’t let go of Cassiel yet. When a succubus named Avitue arrives to claim her angel-touched soul, Cassiel’s old hunter instincts flare, forcing her to choose between old knowledge and her truth. What should be a fatal seduction becomes a bargain neither woman expects. As they grow closer, Avitue is surprised to find her own pain reflected in Cassiel, a nephilim deemed fallen by her own family’s standards.

By choosing trust, they reveal the lies that bind them. Falling for each other begins a path towards healing. But exorcising the effects of trauma is harder than naming it, and to explore the unfettered possibility Avitue represents, Cassiel must find a way to reclaim and redefine her angelic heritage.

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Everything about this book screams that it’s not for me – it’s written in first-person present-tense, it’s borderline Paranormal Romance, and the worldbuilding plays with Christian concepts of angels and Hell without leaving room for other mythologies.

AND IT’S FREAKING AMAZING. Deeply escapist, thoughtful, with simple but very cool worldbuilding (the angel lore is *chef’s kiss*!) and characters I rooted SO HARD for! It’s very much a story about recovering from trauma – specifically religious fundamentalist kind of trauma – and claiming your sexuality, your body, your physicality, and I thought both aspects were done beautifully. Plus, one of the most unique takes on a happy ending that I’ve ever seen before!

My review!

The Gilded Crown (The Raven's Trade, #1) by Marianne Gordon
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 2nd July 2024
Goodreads

The Witch’s Heart meets The Priory of the Orange Tree in this debut novel about a woman who can bring people back from the dead, and the princess — and only heir to the throne — that she must protect, no matter the cost.

The first time Hellevir visited Death, she was ten years old…

Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects.

Such a gift can rarely remain a secret. When Princess Sullivain, sole heir to the kingdom’s throne, is assassinated, the Queen summons Hellevir to demand she bring her granddaughter back to life. But once is not enough; the killers might strike again. The Princess’ death would cause a civil war, so the Queen commands that Hellevir remain by her side.

But Sullivain is no easy woman to be bound to, even as Hellevir begins to fall in love with her. With the threat of war looming, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the princess alive.

But Death will always take what he is owed.

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The impression I still have of Gilded Crown, all these months later, is delicate elegance; it’s a book that makes me think of gilt filigree, or graceful porcelain, or blown glass. Gordon’s prose is a wet fingertip on crystal, spun silk, and what looks at first like a relatively simple story (and world) gradually reveals impressive, intricate depth. The cover that went out on the final version of the book makes it look like Gilded Crown is some kind of Romantasy: it absolutely is not. It’s magical-, religious-, and political-intrigue galore, and the idiotic mis-marketing is hiding it from many of the readers who’d adore it. Give this one a chance: you will NOT be disappointed!

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Desi cast, F/F
Published on: 29th September 2023
Goodreads

Myung and Laleh are keepers of the whale of babel. They roam within its cosmic chambers, speak folktales of themselves, and pray to an enigmatic figure they know only as 'Great Wisa'. To Laleh, this is everything. For Myung, it is not enough.

When Myung flees the whale, she stumbles into a new universe where shapeshifting islands and ancient maps hold sway. There, she sets off on an adventure that is both tragic and transformative, for her and Laleh. For at the heart of her quest lies a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi.

Fables, dreams and myths come together in this masterful work of fantasy by acclaimed author Tashan Mehta, sweeping across three landscapes, and featuring a museum of collective memory and a festival of madness. At its core, it asks: In the devastating chaos of this world, where all is in flux and the truth ever-changing, what will you choose to hold on to?

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I challenge anyone – ANYONE – to describe Mad Sisters of Esi in a way that does it justice! This is genuinely unlike anything else I have ever read, the kind of book that comes so far out of left field – wielding such incredible, out-there imagination – that the only rational conclusion is that Tashan Mehta exists on a whole ‘nother level from the rest of us! Sisterhood, a universe-whale, magical museums, an island where everyone goes ‘mad’ every hundred years – I can tell you about the things that are in it, but I have no idea how to convey the vivid richness of it, the originality, the borderline-experimentalism!

You just. YOU JUST HAVE TO READ IT!

(It’s actually getting a US edition next year, so you will have ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE, if you live in the USA, not to read it!)

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe, Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Sheree Renée Thomas
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: QBIPOC MCs
Published on: 14th April 2022
Goodreads

In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, activist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.

Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.

That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.

Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in the first place—The Memory Librarian serves readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.

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Everyone who told me how amazing this collection was undersold it. I realise I’m probably the last person on the planet to read it, so you don’t need me to tell you, but seriously – WOW. Wrenching, beautiful, terrifying, hopeful – every story felt so ALIVE, and the last one made me break down in happy-sobs. A very unique world, powerful and immersive storytelling, and wonderfully vivid characters! I’m crossing my fingers we get more set in this verse eventually.

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Minor nonbinary characters
Published on: 20th July 2021
Goodreads

From one of the most imaginative writers of her generation comes an extraordinary vision of the future…

Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age—a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven's world, such material must be closely guarded so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated.

But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world—and how much he is willing to lose.

Notes from the Burning Age is the remarkable new novel from the award-winning Claire North that puts dystopian fiction in a whole new light.

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A post-apocalyptic world working hard to be an environmentally-concious utopia, where belief in the elemental beings who ended the previous age (the one the reader’s living in!) is waning, allowing the spread of a too-familiar brand of fascism. This would be a very different book without the voice of our main character; the tone is almost medative at times, showing us a way of thinking and being that’s probably pretty alien to most readers (it was to me!) It’s exquisitely beautiful and compulsively compelling: I was glued to the pages, my heart in my throat as the tension climbed higher and higher. Yet another book I’m kicking myself for not reading sooner!

Unraveller by Frances Hardinge
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Published on: 1st September 2022
Goodreads

In a world where anyone can cast a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them.

Kellen does not fully understand his unique gift, but helps those who are cursed, like his friend Nettle who was trapped in the body of a bird for years. She is now Kellen's constant companion and his closest ally.

But the Unraveller carries a curse himself and, unless he and Nettle can remove it, Kellen is a danger to everything – and everyone – around him . . .

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If you’re familiar with Hardinge, you won’t be surprised by her presence here; if you DON’T know her books, then you have much delightful discovery ahead of you! Unraveller is possibly my new favourite of hers; gently but mercilessly incisive; shining starlight on difficult, messy aspects of human nature; a story that breaks your heart and puts it back together again. Like all the best children’s writers, Hardinge never talks down to her readers, with the result that this is a deep, rich book for any grown-up, too. I’ll never get over how wildly wonderful her imagination is! Unraveller knocked my socks off, knit me new ones, and the new ones turned out to be seagull wings and flew me away.

Tasmakat (Tuyo, #7) by Rachel Neumeier
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy
Representation: Major brown character
Published on: 15th July 2023
Goodreads

It's a long way from the northern mountains back to the summer lands—and all the challenges Aras left behind are waiting. Worse, no matter how Aras handles those problems, the summer king's judgment of his actions is certain to be harsh.

Released from every vow he ever swore to Aras, Ryo could remain among his own people. But he can't abandon Aras to confront his king alone—especially as the struggle they endured in the land of the shades still haunts them both.

But, as they journey south, Ryo realizes that Aras may be losing control of his sorcery. Even if Ryo can persuade the summer king to judge Aras kindly, that may only be the beginning of the challenges they face. If Aras' strength of will fails, even Ugaro stubbornness may not be enough to prevent disaster…

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Tasmakat is the finale of the first/main (first-main?) arc of Neumeier’s Tuyo series – which, for the record, started off brilliant and seems to get better with every book! It’s difficult to discuss it without spoilers for the earlier books, but this completely blew me away, while a) showing us TWO whole new realms of this setting to fall in love with (and I absolutely fell in love with them) and b) continuing to elevate the friendship of these two men, Aras and Ryo, in a way we so rarely get to see in fiction. And you can bet I’ll be sticking around for anything else Neumeier writes in this world!

The Uses of Illicit Art by Wendy Palmer
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M, secondary bi/pansexual trans character, secondary sapphic character, F/F
Published on: 2nd October 2021
Goodreads

'Your ridiculous Art. It’s as twisty as you are, and that’s saying something.'

It’s twenty years into the reign of Queen Victoria. The Agency for the Benefit of Registered Artisans has been established to help and protect magic-users and regulate their Artworks. The use of illicit Art is heavily punished.

The coldly self-possessed Kit Whitely is an Artisan whose specialty is opening doors and locks. That makes him very popular with a certain type of criminal, so he’s hiding out in a remote Somerset village hoping for uninteresting times. He’s starting to feel safe for the first time in his life.

Cheerful bounty hunter Alexander Locke has other ideas. He’s obliviously barging into Kit's peaceful new life to arrest him for the use of illicit Art and drag him back to London. But he's a man of divided loyalties and so he's also intending to use Kit for illicit purposes of his own.

How much trouble could one pissant little thief give him, really?

An enjoyable alt-history m/m fantasy fiction romance.
T/W: References to past abuse.

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WHERE DID WENDY PALMER COME FROM AND WHY DID NONE OF YOU TELL ME SHE EXISTED??? I haven’t gotten through all her backlist yet, but GODS DAMN. Illicit Art sounded like it wouldn’t be for me at all, but I was MAGNETISED to the pages, to this wonderfully twisty story about a wonderfully twisty man with wonderfully twisty magic! Palmer’s prose is brilliantly addictive, and I am heart-eyes for her take on magic in this setting – the way it’s explored and stretched and experimented with in this story–! *swoons* Illicit Art swings from hilarious to action-y to heartbreaking and back again, with lots of food for thought and amazing escapes in-between what becomes something of a quest for vengeance. MAGNIFIQUE!

Empire of Exiles (Books of the Usurper, #1) by Erin M. Evans
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy
Representation: Bi/pan PoV character, minor M/M
Published on: 8th November 2022
Goodreads

Magic, mystery, and revolution collide in this fantasy epic where an unlikely team of mages, scribes, and archivists must band together to unearth a conspiracy that might topple their empire.

"What makes this book special, even by Erin’s lofty goalposts, is the world she weaves around the characters. Detailed and mysterious, a place to explore and relish. Empire of Exiles is highly recommended!” – R.A. Salvatore, author or “The Legend of Drizzt” and the DemonWars novels

“The beginning of a truly epic tale. Deft worldbuilding and wonderful verbal fencing that is a delight to read. In these pages, you are in the hands of a master.” - Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms and internationally bestselling author

Twenty-seven years ago, a Duke with a grudge led a ruthless coup against the empire of Semilla, killing thousands. He failed. The Duke was executed, a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer was imprisoned, and an unwilling princess disappeared. 

The empire moved on. 

Now, when Quill, an apprentice scribe, arrives in the capital city, he believes he's on a simple errand for another pompous noble: fetch ancient artifacts from the magical Imperial Archives. He's always found his apprenticeship to a lawman to be dull work. But these aren't just any artifacts — these are the instruments of revolution, the banners under which the Duke lead his coup. 

Just as the artifacts are unearthed, the city is shaken by a brutal murder that seems to have been caused by a weapon not seen since the days of rebellion. With Quill being the main witness to the murder, and no one in power believing his story, he must join the Archivists — a young mage, a seasoned archivist, and a disillusioned detective — to solve the truth of the attack. And what they uncover will be the key to saving the empire – or destroying it again.

“Empire of Exiles has it all: characters I love, intertwined compelling mysteries in the past and present, plot twists that keep coming, and a unique and fascinating world and magic system!" – Melissa Caruso, author of The Obsidian Tower

“Beautifully wrought and equally ensnaring, this book lived up to and then surpassed all my expectations.” – Cat Rambo, author of You Sexy Thing

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I did actually read this the year it was released (2022) but I didn’t enjoy it at the time for some reason??? Well, PAST!SIA WAS WRONG, Empire of Exiles is exceedingly excellent – one might even say extravagantly excellent! – with truly delicious, detailed worldbuilding, a murder-mystery I ended up caring about Very Much (and I never care about murder mysteries!) and multiple levels of intrigue! Most of the cast work in what’s effectively a museum for the treasures of MULTIPLE species, the magic system is inspired by clinical anxiety, and several people who are supposed to be dead are almost certainly not. I got to read the sequel this year (EVEN BETTER) and I am pining for book three! Pining, I tell you!!! I have no idea how this one is flying so far under the radar.

(Also yes, I guess technically this was a reread, but the first time around didn’t count, damn it! I was clearly not in my right mind at the time!)

Sonata Form by Carole Cummings
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M, minor M/F/M polyamory
Goodreads

Award-winning author Carole Cummings really brings it with her newest gay romantic fantasy. Wartime, magic, and dragons!

Old Forge is known for its dragons— savage little things, more singe than snarl—and Milo Priddy is known for his way with them. But as rumblings of conflict appear on the horizon, the dragons start to disappear. As dragonkin, Milo knows what he must do. But it is an uneasy choice, one he dares not reveal even to his lover, Ellis.

As the leader of neighbouring Wellech, Ellis has his own hard choices. His skills are crucial to a secure homeland. And, more and more, the life he and Milo once hoped to share is under threat—not only from outside but within.For their own people are sowing mistrust of the magic users, seeding the betrayal of not only the dragons, but their kin.

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What if the UK was three separate islands and Welsh was the dominant culture? And dragons existed??? That’s kind of the premise of Sonata Form, except the worldbuilding is much richer and more intricate than that. There’s a budding World War only barely in the background, serving all kinds of political and magical intrigue; the romance is deep and heart-felt, though I wouldn’t call it anything like Romantasy; the dragons are extremely plot-relevant and also utterly amazing (I love them so much!) This is an utter gem, a book that never talks down to its readers (just don’t be intimidated by all the Welsh words!) but snatches your heart right out of your chest while you’re not paying attention. Unexpected in almost every way – the best way!

My (woefully inadequate) review!

What were your favourite backlist reads this year?

The post My Favourite SFF Backlist Reads of 2024! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #217

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

Just TWO books this week! Honestly, I’m amazed there are any this close to the end of the year…

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Lesbian MC
Published on: 24th December 2024
Goodreads

The acclaimed author of the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and Lefty Award-nominated Devil’s Chew Toy delights with the first in a new historical mystery series set in turn-of-the-19th-century Chicago, as America is entering its Progressive Era and Harriet Morrow, a bike-riding, trousers-wearing lesbian, has just begun her new job as the first female detective at the Windy City's Prescott Agency...

Chicago, 1898. Rough-around-the-edges Harriet Morrow has long been drawn to the idea of whizzing around the city on her bicycle as a professional detective, solving crimes for a living without having to take a husband. Just twenty-one with a younger brother to support, she seizes the chance when the prestigious Prescott Agency hires her as its first woman operative. The move sparks controversy—with skeptical male colleagues, a high-strung office secretary, and her boss, Mr. Theodore Prescott, all waiting for her to unravel under the pressure . . .

Only an hour into the job, Harriet has an assignment: Discover the whereabouts of a missing maid from one of the most extravagant mansions on Prairie Avenue. Owner Pearl Bartlett has a reputation for sending operatives on wild goose chases around her grand estate, but Harriet believes the stunningly beautiful Agnes Wozniak has indeed vanished under mysterious circumstances—possibly a victim of kidnapping, possibly a victim of something worse . . .

With Mr. Prescott pushing a hard deadline, Harriet’s burgeoning career depends on working through a labyrinth of eccentric characters and murky motives in a race to discover who made Agnes disappear. When her search leads to Chicago’s Polish community and a new friendship in Agnes’s charming older sister, Barbara, clues scattered across the city slowly reveal just how much depends on Harriet’s inexperienced investigation for answers . . . and the deep danger that awaits once she learns the truth.

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Potentially interesting! Very willing to entertain this kind of historical novel.

Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao
Genres: Sci Fi, YA
Representation: Chinese-coded cast and setting, M/F/M
Published on: 24th December 2024
Goodreads

After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself at the seat of power in Huaxia. But she has also learned that her world is not as it seems, and revelations about an enemy more daunting than Zetian imagined forces her to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite having vastly different ideas about how they must deconstruct the corrupt and misogynist system that plagues their country, Zetian must join this man in a dance of truth and lies and perform their roles to perfection in order to take down their common enemy, who seeks to control them as puppets while dangling one of Zetian’s loved ones as a hostage.

With political unrest and perilous forces aiming to undermine Zetian at every turn, can she enact positive changes as a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance?

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I didn’t enjoy book one, but there was no way I wasn’t going to feature the sequel anyway!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #217 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Feathered Dragons, Demon Dogs, and Local Politics: Heatstroke Heartbeat by Matt Weber

Heatstroke Heartbeat (Streets of Flame Quartet Book 3) by Matt Weber
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown bi/pan sapphic MC, secondary brown trans character, minor brown nonbinary characters
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
ISBN: 1960189042
Goodreads

Zaya Shearwater has found a dragon, a partner, and a cause.

Her dragon is Bandit’s Breath, stolen from her former employers in a moment of desperation, now her inseparable ally. Her partner in racing Bandit is her daughter, Vanako, as fierce and proud as ever but now committed to the family. And her cause is the legalization of yliaster, the substance that will protect her son — and tens of thousands of others like him, who are being slowly hunted by voracious entities that can’t be killed.

But the fight isn’t going well. Captains of industry want to see yliaster regulated for their own profit; everyday people are afraid of some of the things it can do. The police are dead set against it, and even Zaya’s political allies are inconstant. And as she’s throwing all her cash and time at a better world for the hunted tomorrow, every today could be her son’s last.

That’s where Zaya begins. But, as the election draws near, where will she go?

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~a most important mural
~fuck the police
~dragons > demons
~local politics are INTENSE
~family is what you make it

My review of book one, Brimstone Slipstream
My review of book two, Windburn Whiplash

:this review contains some spoilers for the previous books in the series!:

I AM NOT FREAKING OKAY.

*piteous wailing*

Heatstroke Heartbeat is fairly different from the previous book, Windburn Whiplash, in that this one, alas, has significantly less dragon-racing in it. I can imagine some readers being disappointed.

I WAS NOT. And not because I don’t love the dragon-racing – I do!!! Extremely much!!! But I am here for a lot more than the dragon-racing, at this point: I’m here for Zaya and her incredible family, for Jaliki and the treatment he needs to survive his ker, for the amazing worldbuilding and the massively addictive prose. I am in love with the city of Yemareir, with its colour-coded districts and its dragon broodspires, and I am happy to read any story set in it – even if some, perhaps, might have less dragon-racing.

I AM GOOD WITH THAT!

And after Zaya discovered what yliaster is and what it can do at the end of the previous book, it’s not at all strange that she immediately dedicates her every waking moment to getting it legalised so it can save, not just her son Jaliki, but the tens of thousands of other people with kers. Heatstroke Heartbeat, then, is a book about Yemareir’s politics, about campaigning to get supporters of legalisation elected and convincing more candidates to be those supporters, using Zaya’s fame/notoriety to get eyes and ears on the issue.

Not one single second of it is boring. The stakes are too damned high for it to be dull; and besides the politics meaning we’re digging even further into the setting (which as previously mentioned I adore utterly and will read anything at all about) this is such a character-rich book. Maybe even more so than Windburn Whiplash was. House Shearwater is as vividly real as ever, and the growing secondary and tertiary casts leap off the page as well, every last one of them. Weber just has a gift for crafting characters you forget are fictional – characters you can’t not care about. Even if you think community campaigning sounds like a yawnfest, I don’t know how anyone could fail to be invested, when the force of how much Zaya cares emanates from the pages like light from the sun. How are you supposed to avoid getting swept up in that? Especially since we’re walking in after having read the previous books; walking in already loving this cast.

It makes me think that even readers who are here for the dragon-racing will find themselves turning pages as fast as they can.

And then frantically trying to slow down, because damn it the ending is coming too fast I DON’T WANT THIS TO END!

(Also, to be clear, there IS still dragon-racing! And it is very important and plot-relevant! But we do see fewer races than we did in the last book.)

In half a dozen different ways, this is a book about community – the poverty-locked Kayalim rallying behind Zaya because she’s Kayalim too; the lower classes who don’t own property and therefore, in Yemareir, have no vote; the ‘streamers, aka dragon-racers; those hunted by ker, plus those who’ve lost loved ones to ker; the cops, very much their own fucked-up demographic; and smaller, closer communities like House Shearwater itself, its allies, and its potential allies. And obviously, all of those groups overlap and intersect in a bunch of different ways! Which is fascinating and nerve-wracking, and sometimes painful – especially when some people have very different ideas about community than others; who belongs with who, what the rules and requirements of belonging are, who is Us and who is Them. In that way, Heatstroke Heartbeat feels like a very natural evolution from Windburn Whiplash: that was very much focused on the found/forged-family that is House Shearwater, but in this book, that concept of family sort of…expands, flowing into the idea of wider community. We get to see more of the community around House Shearwater, and the ways in which Shearwater interacts with and influences that community; that’s very literally what they’re doing by making Zaya the poster woman of the legalise-yliaster movement. It’s like, if Windburn Whiplash was a zoomed-in story, then Heatstroke Heartbeat is zoomed out a fair bit more, showing us more of the bigger picture, letting us see how these elements we very much care about fit into it all. It’s wonderful to experience, and very cool, and I feel like a lot of storytellers should be taking notes on how Weber does it.

This one hurts, though. It hurts because it’s too fucking believable; because the need-need-please of all these characters we love is so strong, makes you hope so hard…and at every turn, there are the rich or the cops or both (mostly both) who are stamping on everyone else. And we have a lot of that in our world! I can understand not everyone is going to want to read fiction about this when the news is full of the same!

I can only say that I was so sucked in that it was functionally escapist. I wasn’t reminded of real-life stuff at all; all my attention was on Zaya and her family. I very much forgot the real world existed. And it’s not all bleak! I loved getting to see the House Shearwater teens working together in this book; I loved their friendship, and they made me laugh plenty. It’s just…there is a lot of injustice, a lot of rich assholery, a lot of cops who really need to take a long walk into the ocean. We did get that in Windburn Whiplash too, but the dial is turned up to 11 here. And being so invested meant that I felt a whole lot of fury and outrage alongside Zaya and the others.

I felt a lot, really. Weber is very good at making me feel things.

Which is probably a big part of why I love this book, and this series. It’s just so VIVID. Realer-than-real, larger-than-life, bright technicolour when the real world is all grey. Heatstroke Heartbeat is never boring; I never didn’t-care; I was never able to put it down. I am ride-or-die for House Shearwater; I am in this till the end.

EVEN AFTER THAT ENDING.

WEBER, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

I loved it. It hurt me, so bad, and I still love it. I am going to reread these books over and over and over; I fully intend to have them memorised by the time we get the next instalment.

WHO’S WITH ME?

The post Feathered Dragons, Demon Dogs, and Local Politics: Heatstroke Heartbeat by Matt Weber appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

2024 Unmissable Stats!

As is now gleeful tradition, I posted my Unmissable SFF of 2024 list at the start of the year – the SFF books I was most anticipating. But this year, I kept track of which ‘unmissables’ were in fact awesome, and which were disappointments. So let’s have a look at that!

Overview

By the end of 2024, I had, at once point or another, declared 110 books Unmissable. At least a handful of these were added to the list after I’d read them; so, books I didn’t know to anticipate, but thought everyone ought to know about once I discovered how great they were. That skews things (it doesn’t count as accurate predicting if I only added them after I read them) but I didn’t keep track of what I added when, so we’ll just have to roll with it.

(For those interested: September and October had the highest number of books-declared-unmissable, with 12 each.)

Out of that 110, I…

read 56.
dnfed 30.
soft dnfed 7.
never started 13.
am still reading 5.
reviewed 71.

So out of 110, I got to 98 (read, dnf/soft dnf, am still reading), aka 89.09%, of the books on the list. (I finished 56, or 50.91%.) That seems pretty good to me!

Fails

This was the first year that, instead of removing books from the list when it turned out I hated them, I just struck them out instead, allowing me to keep track of the let-downs. Out of the 93 I read or attempted (read, dnf/soft dnf), 29 (31.18%) were strike-outs. You might think they were all DNFs, but nope: I didn’t strike out every DNF, only the ones I thought were objectively bad, and of the books I did strike out, 6 were books I read to the end.

Speaking of DNFs, I ended up DNFing 33.64% of this year’s Unmissables. A whole third of the list!

Wins

Of the 56 Unmissables I read to the end…

8 were perfectly fine.
8 were great.
34 were new faves.

That seems pretty great to me – counting Greats and Faves, that’s 42 of 54 that were successes!

Or…

On the other hand, if we take it as 42 of 110 – 38.18% – that doesn’t seem very impressive. It means that only about a third of the books I thought were Unmissable actually turned out to be worth reading (for me). Meaning my ability to predict what I’m going to like isn’t that accurate!

(Although in fairness, a big part of that is probably because there’s so much we don’t know about a book when we’ve only got the blurb, and lots of those things we don’t know will directly affect my enjoyment. When you’re as picky as I am, the blurb is, apparently, only a good judge of awesomeness about a third of the time.)

Here’s another way to look at it: 24 Unmissables ended up on my Best of 2024 list. That’s just 21.82%. So only about a fifth of the books I thought would be the best of the year actually were.

TL;DR

Of the books on the list, I…

got to 89.09%.
enjoyed 38.18%.
dnfed* 33.64%.
hated 31.18%.
reviewed** 64.55%.
found 21.82% to be actually Unmissable.

I’m pleased I got to so many; I wish I’d reviewed more (although I hope I can get reviews written for more of them eventually!) I enjoyed more books than I hated, but I DNFed almost as many as I enjoyed.

I think this is pretty clear proof that I can’t predict Unmissables with any great accuracy at this time!

Is that going to stop me making an Unmissable list for 2025??? Of course not! It’s way too much fun. You can expect it to go live in the next couple of weeks, as usual!

Did you enjoy most of the books you read this year?

*including soft DNFs
**as of right now: I’ll come back and edit if I manage to review more Unmissables before the New Year!

The post 2024 Unmissable Stats! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Sunday Soupçons #35

soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor

Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!

Two very different, and differently-magnificent, recent reads!

Sonata Form by Carole Cummings
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M, minor polyamory
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
ISBN: 1951293177
Goodreads

Award-winning author Carole Cummings really brings it with her newest gay romantic fantasy. Wartime, magic, and dragons!

Old Forge is known for its dragons— savage little things, more singe than snarl—and Milo Priddy is known for his way with them. But as rumblings of conflict appear on the horizon, the dragons start to disappear. As dragonkin, Milo knows what he must do. But it is an uneasy choice, one he dares not reveal even to his lover, Ellis.

As the leader of neighbouring Wellech, Ellis has his own hard choices. His skills are crucial to a secure homeland. And, more and more, the life he and Milo once hoped to share is under threat—not only from outside but within.For their own people are sowing mistrust of the magic users, seeding the betrayal of not only the dragons, but their kin.

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I bounced off this book a couple of times, but between my book-bestie (who loves it) and this review, I was convinced to try it again.

AND I’M SO GLAD I DID! Because I adore it. New favourite, the biggest book-hangover, I am in awe, this is MAGNIFICENT!

It also doesn’t fit perfectly neatly into any easy trope or genre boxes (which I very much approve of): there’s a romantic element that’s incredibly important, but the two characters only see each other once a month; there are dragons, but this is definitely not any kind of dragon-rider story; there’s a lot of political conflict threatening to break out into war, but a lot of the local political conflict is tied up with awful family drama.

It’s a lot, is what I’m saying, and I love it for that.

(To be extra clear: calling this a romantic fantasy is pretty misleading. It’s definitely not Romantasy. Milo and Ellis’ relationship is foundational to the book, but I think ‘romantic fantasy’ gives the impression that a story is going to be relatively low-stakes, and that any other plotlines will be subservient to the romantic one, and neither is the case in Sonata Form.)

The setting is…a little bit like what you might get in a pre-WW2 Britain if Wales had conquered the rest of the UK. If the UK was made up of three islands. What that most immediately means is that there is a lot of Welsh; Welsh people-names, place-names, nouns, terminology, endearments, titles, and all the rest of it. If you’ve never encountered Welsh before…well, Welsh looks pretty intimidating, written down. The spelling (and phonetics) make almost no sense to an English-speaker. I can imagine some readers being put off by it, just like when an author has too many made-up fantasy terms in their book that it becomes impenetrable. But I implore you to stick with it, if the Welsh looks scary! It is so very worth it!

And the worldbuilding is fabulous, superficially simple but wonderfully detailed; there are three-person marriages and contracts for courting, the dragonkin, agricultural economics, and a religious/government body that can deny approval for marriages involving wealth, political influence, and/or magic. Trying to untangle the political hierarchies was honestly fun, because there are a bunch of positions that aren’t in the same chain-of-command (so to speak) but do interact or intersect, and some of the problems/issues that arise from that were extremely plot-relevant. And the magic! I LOVED that there were multiple magical practices, with their own histories and cultures and reputation; I loved that Milo could immediately tell what kind of practitioner someone was when he saw them cast. The main source of the it’s-going-to-be-war conflict was the growing persecution of one kind of magic-user, and it was fascinating to see this one kind of magic singled out for hatred. Awful, but fascinating, because – why not the other kinds too? Why not all magic? And it’s messy and terrible and tied up with a number of different prejudices (and some people are against all magic, at that, which is again Extremely Plot Relevant) and it was all…painfully believable.

I don’t even want to talk about the romance, really – I’m terrible at talking about romance: I’ll just say that it was beautiful and wonderful and left me emotionally devastated and leave it at that. But what most impressed was how…how freaking excellent a depiction this is of a country – mostly one region of a country – just…losing itself to hate. The slow, grinding descent into bigotry and stupidity and violence. And what happens when that happens. What it costs, what it takes to fix things (as much as they can be fixed). How some people can be redeemed, and some can’t. (Or won’t.) What kind of person is required to fight back against hate.

Which all makes Sonata Form sound very grim, and I didn’t find it grim. Heavy, at times, sure. Heartbreaking in parts. But I’d call it rich, rather than grim. Complex, deep, delicious. Unbelievably impressive! Cummings plays the reader’s heart the way Milo plays the violin; this is very much a book that makes you feel All The Things, from glittery delight to terror and back again. It was so easy to sink into this story, to lose myself in it; everything felt so immediate, so real, so realistic, even with the magic and the dragons. I wasn’t reading it; I was living it. I don’t know how to put it better than that.

This deserves a much longer, more in-depth, more elegant and polished and poetic review, but I am not up to it and I am sorry for that. (The book-hangover I have from this one, folx, I cannot EVEN.) I really hope I’ve convinced you to pick this one up, though. I can’t believe it’s so under the radar, when it’s such a freaking MASTERPIECE. Five stars, six stars, ALL THE STARS! I am officially declaring it a Crescent Classic.

(And just in case it needs saying: the dragons are amazing and I love them. Of course they are. Of course I did. No one is surprised!)

Powder and Feathers by Johannes T. Evans
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary trans MC, MLM MC, secondary BIPOC characters
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
Goodreads

Aimé Deverell, a depressed and lonely artist finishing up his degree in Dublin, watches the world go by, and paints it as it goes. Life is short, he thinks - and thank God!

He’s tired of living it.

That philosophy shatters like glass when his life is threatened by the beautiful Jean-Pierre, a Fallen angel.

---

Powder and Feathers is a dark romance featuring a complex relationship between an immortal several centuries the senior of his new boyfriend. Note warnings for manipulation, non-consensual body modification, twisted power dynamics, gaslighting, infidelity, consent issues, and BDSM vibes somewhat removed from the realms of SSC. There are multiple explicit sex scenes, many of them kinky.

The MC of this story is not explicitly labelled as such within the narrative, but I normally label him as in line with borderline personality he experiences delusions, severe mood swings, emotional dysregulation, and other painful episodes.

There are other potentially triggering topics throughout. Please use your best judgement and remember to take a step back from the work, temporarily or permanently, if you find any themes are too much for you to read about at this time.

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Powder and Feathers is one of those books for which self-publishing exists – no trad-publisher would be willing to print a book so long (the paperback edition had to be split into two volumes because it’s over 1000 pages), nor be willing to engage with a book that doesn’t have a conventional plot.

So I’m very, very glad self-publishing is an option, because missing out on this book would have sucked.

Powder and Feathers is a little reminiscent of a certain kind of fanfiction, in that it’s long, sprawling, and more slice-of-life-y than plot-driven. I LOVE this kind of thing and would happily read another thousand pages of these deeply messed-up characters just living their best lives; but this is definitely not for everyone, both because of the low-stakes (well, relatively low, for the Fantasy genre) and the, um, let’s call them challenging themes.

In the most superficial terms, this book is about a fallen angel named Jean-Pierre picking out a depressed artist to manipulate into falling in love with him – and said artist, Aimé, gaining a pretty epic found-family in the process, growing into a much happier, healthier person.

It’s complicated.

Look, another reason it’s great that self-publishing exists is because there’s much more leeway to push boundaries in self-pub. In fact, there are no boundaries at all, which allows storytellers to dive into and explore messed-up stuff trad-pub would flinch at. (Cowards.) Evans is one of those authors, and I think he does a fucking fantastic job of it; Powder and Feathers is packed full of characters you’d cross the street to avoid, manipulative and amoral, toxic and co-dependent, vicious and, by a lot of standards, villainous. Jean-Pierre, one of the two main PoVs, works as a kind of assassin when he’s not being a doctor, has an explosive temper, and plays everyone but his family like toys – at one point, he spells his boyfriend to be violently ill whenever he smokes in an effort to get said boyfriend to quit smoking. Because he hates the smell of cigarette smoke, and that trumps bodily autonomy and consent, obviously. He’s coded as having borderline personality disorder, and there is so much gaslighting, so much not-safe-sane-consensual sex-and-violence, so much that is just. Objectively awful about him!

But he’s also the one to tailor and enchant a bunch of clothes so a disabled friend can wear normal clothes that look good on him, instead of the ugly, self-conscious-making stuff that can accommodate his disability. (And yes, that scene will make you cry ugly tears.)

One of the things I loved about Powder and Feathers was that Evans doesn’t moralise at the reader for a minute. He’s not trying to convince you that Jean-Pierre is good underneath it all, actually; nor does he make a big deal of not condoning Jean-Pierre’s (or anyone else’s) behaviour. This is a book that trusts the reader to Get It, to not need spoon-feeding, to be able to wrap our minds around the idea that things can be fucked-up and complicated in fiction and we’re allowed to just enjoy that. Or be morbidly fascinated by it, whichever’s your wheelhouse, you do you. If you don’t like it, put the book down and walk away, no harm no foul, we’re all grown-ups here. Yes?

I hope I’m making some kind of sense here.

Alongside the Actually Dark romance (no, I don’t have a pet peeve about the kind of crap trad-pub labels as dark romance, why would you think that???) this book also acts as a thoughtful exploration of Evans’ worldbuilding. I think quite a lot of his works are set in the same world – which is ours plus magic – but we often don’t see a whole lot of it. Here we learn a fair bit more about it, especially the community/society of fallen angels and how they interact with the rest of the world. Said fallen angels have a loosely Judaic explanation/backstory, though none of them can remember the realm they came from, opening up a lot of very interesting potential in how they respond to human religion; Jean-Pierre and his brother Colm are very Catholic, but their third brother Asmodeus refuses even to sing Christmas carols because of the religion in them. Outside of the angels, we also have Greek gods running around, with fae and vampires and various other magicals further in the background, and even a sort of King Arthur and Merlin. (Fuck Merlin.) In the hands of a lesser writer it might feel like ‘everything but the kitchen sink’, but I really enjoyed it, and wanted even more of it!

This is a book about trauma and kink and found-family, about people with broken edges fitting together like puzzle pieces. It is not for everyone; I dare say it’s not for most people. But I loved it, and I hope we get more novels about these characters (although the author already has a few short stories and things set before and after the events of Powder and Feathers).

The post Sunday Soupçons #35 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

A to Z Bookish Survey

Survey created by Jamie at Perpetual Page Turner, but I nabbed it from Jenna at Falling Letters! I spent way too much time on this – I’m sure you’re not supposed to obsess over your answers this much! – but whatever. Enjoy!

Author You’ve Read the Most Books From

I’m willing to bet VERY good money that Seanan McGuire holds this trophy for me! I have read: 9 of her Wayward Children books; 16 of the Toby Daye series; 5 from InCryptid; 2 Indexing; 3 Velveteen vs; 3 Ghost Roads; 4 Newsflesh; 2 Rolling in the Deep; 1 Alchemical Journeys; 1 Parasitology…and that’s all without going NEAR the dozens and dozens of short stories and novellas! Maybe hundreds, at this point.

(I own MANY more of her books than that, but I’ve been more scatterbrained the last few years and haven’t actually read all of them yet. I will though!)

Did I mention she has THREE names she writes under? That I know of???

Seriously, if you enjoy her writing you will NEVER run out of things to read!

Best Sequel Ever

I just…have no idea how to determine a best sequel. If it’s, what sequel levelled up the most from book one?, I’m inclined to pick Gifting Fire. The first book, Stealing Thunder, was wonderful: Gifting Fire blew me away! The scope and stakes were expanded so much, and the villains were actually smart!!! Which made the story so much better BUT HI, GAVE ME SO MUCH ANXIETY!

I need more people to read this duology so Boyden writes more books and publishers publish them, okay???

My review! (spoilers for Gifting Fire!)

Currently Reading

I read a lot of books simultaneously, okay? Don’t look at my goodreads Currently Reading shelf if you value your sanity.

You see why the ADHD diagnosis made so much sense!

Drink of Choice While Reading

Hot chocolate if it’s cold, dragonfruit or pear juice if it’s hot.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Eventually Dated in High School

…Have you SEEN what I read?! The characters I like are either happily involved with someone else, and/or are their own kind of fucked up. As I was, in high school!

Glad You Gave This Book a Chance

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a book I almost didn’t pick up – I hadn’t heard about it before I spotted it on Netgalley, it was by a debut author (so no way to know if my unreasonably picky self would like the author’s prose, the most common reason I DNF), and something about it gave me Too Contemporary vibes.

But I decided to try it, and I am SO HAPPY I DID! It ended up being one of my faves of last year!

Hidden Gem Book

How is everyone sleeping on this series?! Evans isn’t just a master worldbuilder (ALTHOUGH SHE VERY MUCH IS THAT), but she is amazing at getting me deeply invested in her characters and all the intrigue they end up involved in. Intrigue which is delicious, by the way. And did I mention the magic system based on/inspired by clinical anxiety?!

Important Moment in Your Reading Life

When I was a TINY!Sia, my kindergarten teacher read to us every day from a book of short stories and poems. I loved it so much that the teacher suggested my parents buy me a copy, which they did.

I lost it years later, and I don’t remember it well enough to track down another copy. But I can remember a lot of the inner pages, the absolutely beautiful illustrations.

I think that was when it became obvious I was a book-person. It might even have been what MADE me a book-person, or at least, it definitely contributed.

Just Finished

Finished these two a few hours apart – VERY different approaches to sci fi! Hades Calculus casts the Greek gods as the guardians of a domed city on a monster-ravaged planet, and there is not a single cis man anywhere in the cast; Space Oddity is Eurovision in space, take #2, and is determinedly hopepunk. But both books are extremely…extravagant, I think is the word I want. Albeit in very different ways!

Kinds of Books You Won’t Read

Well, most anything that isn’t SFF, for starters (with the very rare exception made for the occasional romance). Literary fiction of any kind is banned utterly from my reads, I find it an unspeakably dreary, pretentious, masturbatory genre. No thank you!

Longest Book You’ve Read

Lord of the Rings, if we’re counting it as one book the way Tolkien intended.

The other ‘longest books’ from the lists I found I’ve mostly DNFed (The Stand, Mary Gentle’s Ash), although I do adore long books and would like more of them, please!

Major Book Hangover Because Of

I’ve tried to read this a few times and bounced off it, but I gave it another go after discovering this review – and I’m so glad I did, because hi, meet my new fave!!! I had to go lie down after I finished it, and just stare at the ceiling for a while. It’s so good that I don’t know how anything else could compare. I WANT TO READ IT AGAIN ALREADY.

Number of Bookcases You Own

Five, but two are mostly my husband’s! Of the remaining three, two are half-full of not-books; unicorn paraphernalia, pokemon figures, my collection of mini snowglobes (I bring one home any time I travel), and my tarot decks, of which there are MANY.

Still leaves plenty of space for books, though!

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times

I have read this book four times this year: I read my arc three times, and then I devoured the finished published version.

I REGRET NOTHING.

My review!

Preferred Place to Read

It’s a family joke that I can read anywhere: upside-down, in a car, train, plane, walking…and in a submarine! (Just the once.)

Which is to say: I don’t have a preferred space. I’ll read anywhere! (Including spaces I really shouldn’t!)

Quote that Inspires You/Gives You All the Feels from a Book You’ve Read

Wreak havoc, said Nature. Raise hell.

—Scapegracers by H. A. Clarke

Reading Regret

Not sure this counts perfectly, but: when I was 18, I dropped almost everything and ran away to Finland. And I left most of my book collection behind – if I had a digital copy of it, I didn’t bring my paper copy/copies. I had so little room in my suitcases! But I do regret leaving them, and wish I’d been able to bring them with!

Series You Started and Need to Finish

I already mentioned that I’m behind on Seanan McGuire’s books, right? I really need to catch up on her October Daye series especially!!!

Three of Your All-Time Favourite Books

I thought it would be more fun to pick books not already mentioned in this post, so – ta da! Have three amazing self-pubbed books you should absolutely read. I have not yet managed to review Domesticated Magic, but I have reviews for the other two, so you can read all about why I love them!

My review of The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming: Book One!
My review of Rituals!

Unapologetic Fangirl For

In no particular order: CSE Cooney, Catherynne Valente, and KD Edwards. Those three I will ALWAYS go nuts for!

Very Excited for This Release More Than All the Others

Gotta be Saint Death’s Herald by CSE Cooney! Saint Death’s Daughter is MY book, the book of all the dreams you don’t remember in the morning, because perfection is too painful to remember. I don’t think there’s ANY book I’m longing for as much as this bright yellow sequel!

Worst Bookish Habit

Either my inability to start reading books I’m excited about, OR, my requesting more books on Netgalley than could ever be considered sensible. One (or both) of those for sure!

X Marks the Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th bookUS cover; UK cover

See, this is very fun to do with my kindle, because the order of the books isn’t static on a kindle, they move around!

…Looks like, right now, that spot belongs to an arc: The Gentleman and His Vowsmith! I got significantly less excited for this one when I discovered, by complete fluke, that Rebecca Ide is a penname for the same author who wrote Between Dragons and Their Wrath, which I despise utterly. But Vowsmith is a different genre, so there’s hope!

Your Latest Book Purchase

Alyson Greave’s Dorley Hall stunned and impressed me, but I probably wouldn’t have picked up Kimmy if I wasn’t seeing it all over the Best of Year lists (among those who read trans indie/self-pubbed fiction, anyway). This one’s about someone who puts on a gutted android as a costume, then can’t get out, only 500% more fucked up than you could imagine.

ZZZ-Snatcher Book (last book that kept you up WAY late)

Stayed up late rereading Goblin Emperor, surprising absolutely no one!

Let me know if you decide to do this survey too!

The post A to Z Bookish Survey appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton!

The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Epic Fantasy
Representation: Queer MC (and maybe polyamory?)
Published on: 17th June 2025
Goodreads

A talented heretic must decide between the pursuit of forbidden magic, or the ecstasy of forbidden love—either way, her choice will upend the world, in the start of a sweeping, romantic epic fantasy trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Tessa Gratton.

Can an empire trip and fall on a mere strand of silk?

Iriset is a prodigy and an outlaw. The daughter of a powerful criminal, she dons her alter ego Silk to create magical disguises for those in her father’s organization, but she longs to do more with her talent: to enhance what it means to be human by giving people wings, night-sight, and other abilities; to unlock the possibilities of gender and parenthood; to cure disease and even to end mortality itself.

Everything changes when her father is captured and sentenced to death. To save him, Iriset must infiltrate the palace and the empire’s fanatical ruling family. There, she realizes she has a chance—and an obligation—to bring down the entire corrupt system. She'll have to entangle herself in the lives of the emperor and his sister, getting them to trust and even to love her. But love is a two-way street, and Iriset’s own heart holds the most mysterious and impenetrable magic of all.

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Lately I’ve been trying to use Can’t Wait Wednesdays to feature books that are soon-to-be-published – that are just a couple of weeks or months away.

BUT WE GOT THIS COVER YESTERDAY AND I COULD NOT RESIST!

Listen: it’s by Tessa Gratton. If you think I will not pounce on ANYTHING Gratton writes, you are simply Wrong.

The press release for the book deal mentioned ‘the magic of human architecture’, a deeply forbidden practice that can be used ‘to enhance what it means to be human by giving people wings, night-sight, and other abilities; to unlock the possibilities of gender and parenthood; to cure disease and even to end mortality itself.‘

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LOUD I SHRIEKED WHEN I FIRST READ THAT.

And especially, specifically, because it’s coming from Gratton. They have been playing with gender and what-counts-as-human for a while, in several of their books, but this makes it sound as though everything that’s come before has been building to Mercy Makers.

THAT IS EXTREMELY EXCITING!!!

The blurb from the press release does kind of hint that we might be getting poly – I hope so! Gratton has written it before, so it’s more likely than it could be. But I’m much more interested in what Gratton shared in her newsletter when they talked about the cover yesterday. Iriset being full of (the smug kind of) pride? Cathedrals? Sword-in-chalice vibes? All on top of the ‘human architecture’?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

THIS IS GONNA BE SO FREAKING EPIC!

And you’d better believe I’m ordering a signed copy! (Link in the newsletter link!)

WHY IS IT NOT JUNE YET?!

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Books That Might Still Make My Best of 2024

There are three weeks, give or take, left in the month, and I have a number of books I want to finish before the year changes, just in case they deserve to be on my Best of 2024 list and I don’t know it yet!

The Ragpicker by Joel Dane
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Gay MC
Published on: 23rd July 2024
Goodreads

The Ragpicker wanders the lush, deserted Earth, haunted by failing avatars and fragmented texts. He’ s searching for traces of his long-dead husband but his journey is interrupted by a girl, Ysmeny, fleeing her remote village. Together they cross the flourishing, treacherous landscape towards sanctuary. Yet the signals and static of the previous age echo in the Ragpicker’ s mind and whisper in the girl’ s dreams, drawing them toward the gap between map and territory— while offering precious hope.

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I am VERY LATE to Ragpicker, but you can’t not pay attention when Kerstin Hall declares something the best thing she’s read all year! And the opening chapters hooked me pretty much instantly, so I think she may be on to something!

Heatstroke Heartbeat (Streets of Flame Quartet Book 3) by Matt Weber
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual brown MC
Published on: 14th November 2024
Goodreads

Zaya Shearwater has found a dragon, a partner, and a cause.

Her dragon is Bandit’s Breath, stolen from her former employers in a moment of desperation, now her inseparable ally. Her partner in racing Bandit is her daughter, Vanako, as fierce and proud as ever but now committed to the family. And her cause is the legalization of yliaster, the substance that will protect her son — and tens of thousands of others like him, who are being slowly hunted by voracious entities that can’t be killed.

But the fight isn’t going well. Captains of industry want to see yliaster regulated for their own profit; everyday people are afraid of some of the things it can do. The police are dead set against it, and even Zaya’s political allies are inconstant. And as she’s throwing all her cash and time at a better world for the hunted tomorrow, every today could be her son’s last.

That’s where Zaya begins. But, as the election draws near, where will she go?

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I mean, this one’s a pretty sure thing – I will be VERY surprised if this doesn’t score a place on my Best Of list! I’ve adored the previous installments, and I’m really enjoying reading this one so far!

My review of book 0.5
My review of book 1

The Moonstone Covenant by Jill Hammer
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F/F/F
Published on: 12th November 2024
Goodreads

The story of four women who set out to uncover the secret origins of an intricate, magical city—and to change its fate.

Istehar Sha'an, whose unique powers allow her to communicate with trees and books, has led her community of refugee forest people to a remarkable place. In the archipelago-city of Moonstone, the Sha'an people find themselves in an extraordinary, multicultural metropolis that houses the the world's all-encompassing repository of wisdom. But in their search for a new home, the refugees soon garner the suspicion of Moonstone's locals, who forbid their magical practices. And when a hostile prince makes a bid to inherit the city's rule from his father, Istehar and her people realize they may be faced with exile—or worse.

Meanwhile, Istehar has married three wives of Moonstone—a brave warrior librarian, a subtle-minded former concubine, and a tenacious apothecary who has spent years trying to solve her parents' murder. Driven by magical intuition and guided by a mysterious book, Istehar and her wives embark on a journey that will transform not only their lives, but the city of Moonstone itself.

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One of my most aniticipated releases of the year – not the only book of this post to make my Unmissable list – and I am so ready to be wowed by it!

Space Oddity (Space Opera, #2) by Catherynne M. Valente
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Pansexual brown nonbinary MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads

These are the voyages of the Starship Glam. The further adventures of Dess and Mira and Oort, and introducing Marvin the half-human, half-Esca ingenue on drums. Earth is safe, for the moment, and taking its first steps into the greater galactic community—you know that won’t go well. Another Grand Prix is always right around the corner. And of course, other possibly-sentient species can emerge at any time…

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I am very confused as to why I haven’t finished this yet, and kind of – guilty? ashamed? Ridiculous thing to feel about taking a while with a book, but there you go. Valente is my joint-favourite author of all time, and I’m a bit upset that I’m struggling with Space Oddity. I want to love it so much, but I don’t, quite. Hopefully the final act will hook me properly.

Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Black sapphic MC
Published on: 4th June 2024
Goodreads

Ruth Johnson and her sister Jules have been small-time hustlers on the interstellar cruise lines for years. But then Jules fell in love with one of their targets, Esteban Mendez-Yuki, sole heir to the family insurance fortune. Esteban seemed to love her too, until she told him who she really was, at which point he fled without a word.

Now Ruth is set on disguised as provincial debutante Evelyn Ojukwu and set for the swanky satellite New Monte, she’s going to make Esteban fall in love with her, then break his heart and take half his fortune. At least, that's the plan. But Ruth hadn't accounted for his younger sister, Sol, a brilliant mind in a dashing suit... and much harder to fool.

Sol is hot on Ruth's tail, and as the two women learn each other’s tricks, Ruth must decide between going after the money and going after her heart.

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This is not my usual kind of read – I don’t especially care about cons and the like – but it’s gotten so much love from so many sources I trust that I wanted to see if I might fall in love with it too!

The Hades Calculus (Gunmetal Olympus, #1) by Maria Ying
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Pansexual sapphic MCs, major nonbinary characters
Published on: 2nd July 2024
Goodreads

Decadent cyberpunk cities. Greek mythology and giant mechs. Hades and Persephone as never seen before.

For centuries, colossi have besieged the gates of Elysium. Each day, the city’s fall looms closer.

As one of Elysium’s rulers, Hades has long sought to break this stalemate. In Persephone, a cyborg tailor-made to kill, she finds the key to victory and the perfect pilot for her war machine. She will acquire Persephone at any cost.

Born to wield violence and with the bloodthirst to match, Persephone chafes under her mother’s control. At the first opportunity, she brutally breaks free and seeks sanctuary with the unlikeliest of the Lord of the Machine Dead, the Master of the Underworld.

All Hades and Persephone have to do to realize their goals is to navigate the city’s treacherous politics—and survive the coming war.

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I’ll be honest: I am not enjoying Ying’s sci fi as much as I did their fantasy. The decadence I love in Ying’s prose doesn’t seem as prevalent, and I’m just not as interested in gods and mecha pilots as I am warlocks and shapeshifters. So I’ve been kind of forcing my way through this one, hoping I’ll trip and fall in love with it sooner or later…

Red Side Story (Shades of Grey #2) by Jasper Fforde
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Published on: 6th February 2024
Goodreads

Imagine a world where your position in society depended on what bit of the colour spectrum you could see. This is the world inhabited by Eddie Russett (red, middle-level) and Jane Grey (monochromatic, lowest in society). Eddie and Jane must negotiate the delicate Chromatic politics of society to find out what the 'Something that Happened' actually was, how society got to be this way, and crucially, is there Somewhere Else beyond their borders - and if there is, could there be Someone Else, too, someone whose unseen hand has been guiding the fortunes and misfortunes of the nation for the past 500 years?
It's a tale of a young couple's thirst for justice and answers in an implacably rigid society, where the prisoners are also the guards, and cages of convention bind the citizens to only one way of thinking - or suffer the consequences. . ..

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This has been out since FREAKING FEBRUARY. Which is when I started reading it! And I am still not done! GAH. I loved the first book, but so many answers were pretty much handed to us in this one, and it made me lose interest hard. But it could redeem itself! It could happen! And maybe I was just in a funk when I was last reading it…

Freakslaw by Jane Flett
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Various queer characters, minor fat/plus-sized character
Published on: 20th June 2024
Goodreads

It’s the summer of ’97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change. Enter the Freakslaw – a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem. It doesn’t take long for the Freakslaw folk to infiltrate Pitlaw’s grey world, where the town’s teenagers – none more so than Ruth and Derek – are seduced by neon charms and the possibility of escape. But beneath it all, these newcomers are harbouring a darker revenge. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that’s been simmering for centuries is about to be unleashed…

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All right, this one probably isn’t going to make it onto my Best Of – it’s exactly as gritty and crude as everyone warned it was, which is keeping me from loving it as much as I might. I do massively appreciate what Flett is doing here, though, and maybe I’ll love it if I just read a little more?

Have you read any of these? Do you have books to finish before the end of the year? Let me know!

The post Books That Might Still Make My Best of 2024 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #216

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

THREE books this week!

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

The Blessed by Anne Shade
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black sapphic MC, F/F
Published on: 10th December 2024
Goodreads

Suri Daniels, a beautiful and troubled woman, is the descendant of a family of supernaturally gifted women, known as the Blessed, and literally holds keys to gateways between the earthly plane and seven powerful gods. A series of tragic losses and a stipulation in her grandmother’s will has her returning to the family’s home in New Orleans, unaware that she will need to step into the role of Orisha priestess and escape the attention of a powerful demon. To top it all off, she must accept the help of a Cambion—Lyla Jefferies, a dark supernatural being she has spent her life avoiding. What’s worse? She can’t help being drawn to Layla in ways she doesn’t understand.

Being the child of a top-tier demon and a human isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For the past two hundred years, Layla Jefferies has lived a life of quietude. When an unknown force draws her out of seclusion, the pull is too strong to ignore. Layla is tasked to assist with protecting the gateways and saving Suri from becoming a vengeful demon’s avatar. Falling in love with her is definitely not part of the plan.

Layla and Suri are brought together by fate to defeat the darkness threatening to tear their world apart. What they don’t expect to discover is a love that might set them free.

Content advisory: Opening chapter includes a depiction of sexual violence and rape.

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Welp, that sounds like one hell of a homecoming! But yay for a cambion gf???

We Are the Beasts by Gigi Griffis
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: F/F
Published on: 10th December 2024
Goodreads

Deaths and disappearances pile up as a mysterious beast stalks the French countryside and two girls seize an unlikely opportunity that just might save them all—or serve them up on a platter.

Step into this chilling, historical horror inspired by the unsolved mystery of the Beast of Gévaudan.

When a series of brutal, mysterious deaths start plaguing the countryside and whispers of a beast in the mountains reach the quiet French hamlet of Mende, most people believe it’s a curse—God’s punishment for their sins. 

But to sixteen-year-old Joséphine and her best friend, Clara, the beast isn’t a curse. It’s an opportunity. 

For years, the girls of Mende have been living in a nightmare—fathers who drink, brothers who punch, homes that feel like prisons—and this is a chance to get them out.

Using the creature’s attacks as cover, Joséphine and Clara set out to fake their friends’ deaths and hide them away until it’s safe to run. But escape is harder than they thought. If they can’t brave a harsh winter with little food… If the villagers discover what they’re doing… If the beast finds them first... 

Those fake deaths might just become real ones.

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Beast of Gévaudan ftw! Although from the early reviews, it looks like it’s the human men in the main characters’ lives who are the real horror.

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary Hawaiian lesbian MC, lesbian cast
Published on: 12th December 2024
Goodreads

HAMMAJANG | adjective. Definition: In a disorderly or chaotic state; messed up. Chiefly in predicative use, esp. in all hammajang. Etymology: A borrowing from Hawaiian Pidgin. Source: Oxford English Dictionary.

Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person - costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most.

And it's all Angel's fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station - of home - to spend the best part of a decade alone.

But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting - and she has an offer.

One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time. There's just one thing Edie needs to do - trust Angel again - which also happens to be the last thing Edie wants to do. What could possibly go all hammajang about this plan?

Ocean's 8 meets Blade Runner in this trail-blazing debut science fiction novel and swashbuckling love letter to Hawai'i about being forced to find a new home and striving to build a better one - unmissable for fans of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

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The US has to wait until next month, but the UK gets Hammajang Luck this week! I’m not a fan of heist stories generally, but I still wanted to feature it here. It sounds amazing for those of you who like heists, so if you DO, check it out!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #216 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…The Baby Dragon Café by A.T. Qureshi

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Baby Dragon Café by A.T. Qureshi!

The Baby Dragon Café (The Baby Dragon, #1) by Aamna Qureshi
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Published on: 16th January 2025
Goodreads

The perfect read for fans of Pumpkin Spice Café and Legends and Lattes!

When Saphira opened up her café for baby dragons and their humans, she wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult to keep the fires burning. It turns out, young dragons are not the best magical animals to keep in a café, and replacing all that burnt furniture is costing Saphira more than she can afford from selling dragon-roasted coffee.

Aiden is a local gardener, and local heart-throb, more interested in his plants than actually spending time with his disobedient baby dragon. When Aiden walks into Saphira’s café, he has a genius idea – he'll ask Saphira to train his baby dragon, and he'll pay her enough to keep the café afloat.

Saphira’s happy-go-lucky attitude doesn’t seem to do anything but irritate the grumpy-but-gorgeous Aiden, except that everywhere she goes, she finds him there. But can this dragon café owner turn her fortunes around, and maybe find love along the way?

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Okay, the cover’s not to my taste, but who can resist that premise?! A little bit ridiculous – customers are going to need welding gear to be safe around the dragons, surely! – and hugely whimsical and sweet; I am HERE for it!

Plus, dragon-roasted coffee? That is a most excellent gimmick, I like how Saphira thinks! (I wonder if it affects the taste at all?)

I’m hoping this is romantasy in the vein of Phoenix Keeper, where the romance was the secondary plot, not the primary one…that might be a bit much to hope for? I shall hope for it anyway. Even if the romance is very front-and-centre, I won’t actually mind if this stays as fun as it promises. (Also I believe they’ll have to pretend to be married at some point???) I have a major soft spot for grumpy gardeners, as long as, you know, they’re only grumpy, not actually mean!

Very much looking forward to curling up with a lovely read full of baby dragons, basically!

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Baby Dragon Café by A.T. Qureshi appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.