Siavahda's Blog, page 49

I Can’t Wait For…By a Silver Thread by Rachel Aaron

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 By a Silver Thread by Rachel Aaron!

By a Silver Thread (DFZ Changeling #1) by Rachel Aaron
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Published on: 2nd May 2023
Goodreads

A new DFZ series from the author of NICE DRAGONS FINISH LAST and MINIMUM WAGE MAGIC!

In the world’s most magical metropolis where spirits run noodle shops and cash-strapped dragons stage photo-ops for tourists, people still think fairies are nothing but stories, and that’s exactly how the fairies like it. It’s a lot easier to feast on humanity’s dreams when no one believes you exist. But while this arrangement works splendidly for most fair folk, Lola isn’t one of the lucky ones.

She’s a changeling, a fairy monster made just human enough to dupe unsuspecting parents while fairies steal their real child. The magic that sustains her was never meant to last past the initial theft, leaving Lola without a future. But thanks to Victor Conrath, a very powerful--and very illegal--blood mage, she was given the means to cheat death.

For a price.

Now the only changeling ever to make it to adulthood, Lola has served the blood mage faithfully, if reluctantly, for twenty years. Her unique ability to slip through wards and change her shape to look like anyone has helped make Victor a legend in the DFZ’s illegal-magic underground. It’s not a great life, but at least the work is stable… until her master vanishes without a trace.

With only a handful left of the pills that keep her human, Lola must find Victor before she turns back into the fairy monster she was always meant to be. But with a whole SWAT team of federal paladins hunting her as a blood-mage accomplice, an Urban Legend on a silent black motorcycle who won’t leave her alone, and a mysterious fairy king with the power to make the entire city dream, Lola’s chances of getting out of this alive are as slender as a silver thread.

BY A SILVER THREAD is a fast-paced Urban Fantasy featuring cunning fae, a kind heroine, and a magic so destructive that using it even once will stain your soul forever. Buckle up for a wild ride through a near-future, magical Detroit where urban legends ride the streets, fairy queens have mansions uptown, and the City is an actual deity you don't want to cross. Welcome to the DFZ!

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By a Silver Thread is set in the same world (and city!) as Aaron’s Heartstriker and DFZ series – both of which I really loved! – and I’m not sure if I missed a mention somewhere or if Aaron was keeping it quiet, but I had no idea she was planning another series in this setting!

I AM DELIGHTED BY THIS SURPRISE!

(Although for anyone who hasn’t read the earlier series, Aaron made it clear in her newsletter that this, like the others, is a standalone. You don’t need to have read the Heartstriker or DFZ books to read this one!)

What’s especially cool is that until now, there has been no mention of the Fae in this setting – I had not even the SMALLEST SUSPICION that they might exist in this world! And given the very fun things Aaron’s already done with dragons – and the galaxy-brain stuff with spirits! – in this setting, I’m extremely excited to see her take on the Fae!

Just the lore we get in the blurb is already unique – changelings turning into monsters and dying??? meep! – but what else are we going to see? There’s a mention of a fairy king – does that mean the Fae here are divided into courts, like Seelie and Unseelie? Or maybe a-lot-more-than-two-courts? And what exactly does ‘feasting on humanity’s dreams’ entail, or look like?

I guess we’ll find out in May!

The post I Can’t Wait For…By a Silver Thread by Rachel Aaron appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #128

NINE books I’m grabby-hands for this week!

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

Moths by Jane Hennigan
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Sapphic MC/PoV character
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

Where were you at the beginning?
Or at the end?
And where are we all now?

Forty years ago, the world changed. Toxic threads left behind by mutated moths infected men and boys around the globe. Some were killed quietly in their sleep, others became crazed killers, wildly dangerous and beyond help. All seemed hopeless.

But humanity adapted, healed and moved on. Now matriarchs rule, and men are kept in specially treated dust-free facilities for their safety and the good of society, never able to return to the outside.

Mary has settled into this new world and takes care of the male residents at her facility. But she still remembers how things used to be and is constantly haunted by her memories. Of her family, of her joy, of… him.

Now the world is quiet again, but only because secrets are kept safe in whispers. And the biggest secret of all? No one wants to live inside a cage…

Exploring male violence against women, homo-normativity, and gynocracy, Moths is a powerful assessment of life through the lens of a main character in her 70s. A remastered and revitalised version of the previously self-published, smash-hit dystopian thriller by the same name, Moths shows us a new, post-pandemic world.

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Originally self-published, this week is its trad-pub release from Angry Robot! Moths might not have made it onto my radar – I gave up on genderpocalypse books a while ago, Manhunt being an amazing exception (which I picked up specifically because it set out to counter the common problems of genderpocalypse stories) – but Jesse, one of my favorite Booktubers, adored it, and I was so sold!

Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Sapphic MC, brown sapphic spouse, secondary nonbinary character
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

Feed Them Silence begs the question: what does it mean to “be-in-kind” with nonhuman animals? Dr. Sean Kell-Luden uses a neurological interface to translate a subject-wolf’s perception for human consumption, but as her relationship with the subject becomes complicated, she puts her research and her marriage at risk.

When Dr. Sean Kell-Ludon’s grant is accepted, she begins her research of cooperative behaviors in one of Minnesota’s last remaining wolf packs, but she is wholly unprepared for the emotional turmoil that comes with inhabiting and translating a wolf’s consciousness. The longer she observes the subject-wolf and her pack, the more Sean drifts away from her wife. As the harsh winter months threaten the pack’s survival and Sean’s marriage spirals down the drain, Sean will have to face the consequences of her negligence or let the world of wolves and the world she’s known both slip through her fingers.

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Mandelo is/was an amazing reviewer and article writer who I followed for years before their debut novel – which knocked it out of the park. Feed Them Silence is very different from that debut, but Mandelo’s sharp, bright prose and incisive storytelling is still on full display here.

My full review!

Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Chinese MC, bisexual MC
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

In this xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy, a Chinese immortal and a French elf navigate romance, family loyalty, and workplace demands. In her debut novel, Mia Tsai has created a paranormal adventure that is full of humor, passion, and depth.

As a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine, ignored middle child Elle was destined to be a doctor. Instead, she is underemployed as a mediocre magical calligrapher at the fairy temp agency, paranoid that her murderous younger brother will find her and their elder brother.

Using her full abilities will expose Elle’s location. Nevertheless, she challenges herself by covertly outfitting Luc, her client and crush, with high-powered glyphs.

Half-elf Luc, the agency’s top security expert, has his own secret: he’s responsible for a curse laid on two children from an old assignment. To heal them, he’ll need to perform his job duties with unrelenting excellence and earn time off from his tyrannical boss.
When Elle saves Luc’s life on a mission, he brings her a gift and a request for stronger magic to ensure success on the next job—except the next job is hunting down Elle’s younger brother.

As Luc and Elle collaborate, their chemistry blooms. Happiness, for once, is an option for them both. But Elle is loyal to her family, and Luc is bound by his true name. To win freedom from duty, they must make unexpected sacrifices.

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There’s been a lot of hype – and a lot of love! – for Bitter Medicine from early readers, and if you want to dip your toes in before comitting to buying it, you can read an excerpt over on Civilian Reader!

Proud Pink Sky by Redfern Jon Barrett
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Speculative Fiction
Representation: M/M, nonbinary and trans rep, minor polyamory, background gay and lesbian
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

Berlin: a megacity of 24 million people, is the world’s first gay state. Its distant radio broadcasts are a lifeline for teenager William, so when his love affair with Gareth is discovered the two flee toward sanctuary. But is there a place for them in a city divided into districts for young twinks, trendy bears, and rich alpha gays?

Meanwhile, young mother Cissie loves Berlin’s towering highrises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district – not until she and her family are trapped in a queer riot. With her husband Howard plunging into religious paranoia, she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents.

As William and Cissie dive deeper into a bustling world of pride parades, polyamorous trysts, and even an official gay language, they discover that all is not well in the gay state – each playing their part in a looming civil war...

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I loved the worldbuilding in this, although overall the book didn’t work for me. But maybe it will for you!

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

Two destined rivals fall desperately in love—but the fate of medieval Europe hangs in the balance.

“A pair of thrones between us, and my heart clutched like a rosary within his hands ...”

Twelfth-century Europe. Newly-crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. But when his greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it can even begin, Philip is forced to make a precarious alliance with Henry’s volatile son—risking both his throne, and his heart.

Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, never thought he would be King. But when an unexpected tragedy makes him heir to England, he finally has an opportunity to overthrow the father he despises. At first, Philip is a useful tool in his quest for vengeance... until passion and politics collide, and Richard begins to question whether the crown is worth the cost.

When Philip and Richard find themselves staring down an impending war, they must choose between their desire for one another and their grand ambitions. Will their love prevail, if it calls to them from across the battlefield? Teeming with royal intrigue and betrayal, this epic romance reimagines two real-life kings ensnared by an impossible choice: Follow their hearts, or earn their place in history.

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Siegel’s debut made it onto my most-anticipated of 2023 list, and I am SO VERY EXCITED that it’s nearly here!!!

Ravensong by Cayla Fay
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

A demi-god who refuses to cohabitate with humans accidentally falls in love with one in the first book of a pulse-pounding teen duology that’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Celtic mythology.

Neve has spent lifetimes defending the mortal world against the legions of hell with her two sisters.

Unfortunately for Neve, in this lifetime, she is the only one of the Morrigan—a triad of Irish war gods—still stuck in high school and still without her full power. She’s been counting down the days until her eighteenth birthday, when she finally gets to shed the pretenses of humanity and grow into her divine power.

But then she meets Alexandria. And Alexandria is as determined to force Neve into some semblance of teenage normalcy as she is haunted by her own demons—both figurative and literal.

As they grow closer, Neve decides that humanity—and, perhaps, love—isn’t so detestable after all. Which makes it all the more dangerous when she realizes that something in Hell wants Alexandria, and it’s be up to Neve and her sisters to save her before Alexandria’s past catches up to all of them.

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The fact that Ravensong is the monthly book for Rainbow Crate speaks very highly of it indeed – and I’m always happy to see authors writing about Irish mythology!

Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 14th March 2023
Goodreads

Perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Tamora Pierce, this standalone YA debut is a stunning cottagecore fantasy romance about a girl with powerful and violent magic, which she must learn to control—or lose everything she loves.

Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest.

The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into a mysterious and distant young man.

Xavier names a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers their bargain is only one of the heavy secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful enough to stop.

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I haven’t heard ‘cottagecore’ used to describe a book before, and I think fantasy + cottagecore is an excellent combination!

Now The Wind Scatters by J. Donai
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 15th March 2023
Goodreads

Iphigenia seems to have it all.

As the eldest daughter of the House of Atreus and princess of Mycenae, Iphigenia has had an idyllic childhood despite her family’s bloodstained history. She is the darling of the people of her city, and at her side are her endearingly annoying sister Electra and adorable baby brother Orestes. As she comes of age, however, that fragile peace is threatened by strange, burgeoning feelings for her handmaiden. Amidst this crisis of identity, another looms as an ancient goddess only Iphigenia can see simmers beneath the surface of reality. All of this falls to the back burner when war with the Trojans looms high on the horizon, and Iphigenia’s father summons her with a proposal of marriage she would go to the ends of the earth to avoid.

In a desperate attempt to circumnavigate her fate, Iphigenia discovers a dark truth: the altar her father intends for her is sacrificial rather than matrimonial. It is only by an act of divine intervention that she survives, and it is by divine retribution that she will have her revenge.

It is from the desecrated shores of Aulis that Iphigenia will embark on a journey that will take her from the furthest reaches of the ancient Mediterranean to the underworld itself. Amidst romances with goddesses and her own terrifying deification, Iphigenia plots. Despite the pleas of everyone around her, she vows that blood will soon stain the marble halls of the House of Atreus once again.

Vengeance is sweet, but as Iphigenia soon discovers, it comes at a price that could cost her everything.

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If you want to talk about ancient Greek retellings, Iphigenia has to be one of the figures who most deserves one! So it’s a good thing Donai has, apparently, rewritten her story extensively. I’m really excited for this very different take on Iphigenia!

Sleep Alone by J.A.W. McCarthy
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 18th March 2023
Goodreads

For the past six years, Ronnie has worked selling merch for a perpetually touring band. Late nights, sweaty clubs, dingy motel rooms, endless roads—as rough as it’s been, there is no other way of life for this band of hungry succubi leaving bodies in their wake.

Until she meets the enigmatic Helene.

Helene is just as restless, just as lonely, and just as full of secrets. With Helene in tow, Ronnie and the band make their way across the Pacific Northwest, trying to outrun not only their mistakes, but the mysterious disease stalking the band, a disease that devours succubi from the inside out.

The hunger is as endless as the road, but maybe Ronnie doesn’t always want to sleep alone.

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Queer succubi roadies working for a queer succubi rock band? Yes PLEASE!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #128 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Sunday Souçons #19

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 five-star mini-reviews for two very different books!

These Imperfect Reflections: Short Stories by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer cast, amputee MC, autistic MC
ISBN: B09W2YQZV4
Goodreads

What's the price of revolution backed by artificial intelligence? Can you change the past to free ghosts trapped in endless loops? Do fairy tales always end the same way?

Follow a battle poet on aer quest to save a kingdom; witness the last documentary about alien whales; and travel with the Wolf who is prophesied to eat the sun as they look for alternatives to their fate.

From living trains to space stations populated with monsters, these eleven fantasy and science fiction stories from Merc Fenn Wolfmoor will take you on otherworldly adventures that are tethered to the heart.

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An absolutely stunning collection of SFF stories – ranging from near-future sci-fi, to dystopias, to fairytales, to epic secondary-world fantasy – connected by themes of hopepunk resistance. An aroace girl with bells on her toes faces off against a monster; a nonbinary book-sorcerer and their velociraptor bestie team up to rescue a prince; victims of queerphobic dystopias take over the prisons they’re forced into; AIs say no to fascism; Fenrir of Norse mythology (here named simply Wolf) rejects prophecy to find their own dreams – these are just a handful of the gorgeous stories Wolfmoor has gathered here!

If Wolfmoor weren’t already one of my very favourite authors, this collection would cement their place on my auto-buy list. The beautiful prose and incredible imagination on display here is just breathtaking – and I’m very impressed that each story felt so satisfying; usually if I love a short story I wish it was a novel, but while I’d be delighted to see Wolfmoor revisit some of these settings, each story in this collection was the perfect length, exactly right. I don’t say that very often!

TL;DR: Imperfect Reflections? More like perfect reflections; this is flawless, brilliant, an instant new favourite. Everyone who wants to see what queer SFF can do and be needs to pick this one up immediately!

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books #1) by K.J. Charles
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Achillean MC, biracial achillean MC, M/M
PoV: Third-person, past tense, dual PoVs
ISBN: B0B2KWBRNL
Goodreads

Abandoned by his father, Gareth Inglis grew up lonely, prickly, and well-used to disappointment. Still, he longs for a connection. When he meets a charming stranger, he falls head over heels—until everything goes wrong and he's left alone again. Then Gareth's father dies, turning the shabby London clerk into Sir Gareth, with a grand house on the remote Romney Marsh and a family he doesn't know.

The Marsh is another world, a strange, empty place notorious for its ruthless gangs of smugglers. And one of them is dangerously familiar...

Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. When the new baronet—his old lover—agrees to testify against Joss's sister, Joss acts fast to stop him. Their reunion is anything but happy, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. Soon, all Joss and Gareth want is the chance to be together. But the bleak, bare Marsh holds deadly secrets. And when Gareth finds himself threatened from every side, the gentleman and the smuggler must trust one another not just with their hearts, but with their lives.

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It’s KJ Charles, so no one can possibly be surprised when I say that the start of this new series is absolutely marvelous. It has a surprisingly cosy vibe, despite the fact that there’s quite a lot going on and the stakes get extremely high towards the end of the book. I really, really enjoyed the romance, especially because Gareth and Joss deal with their disagreements and conflicts in a wonderfully mature way; there’s plenty of drama, but almost all of it comes from sources external to their relationship. Which is how I prefer it!

I thought Gareth’s discovering a fascination for naturalism – studying insects, mainly – was a really wonderful way to a) make him a character I immediately cared about (the fastest way to make me fall for a character is to give them some kind of passion or interest) and b) metaphorically showcase his growing connection to the marsh, his new home. That Joss and Gareth got to bond over this – Joss helping Gareth find all the little creatures he wants to study, and Gareth teaching Joss about the fauna he’s seen every day of his life – was utterly wonderful, and super sweet. And, imo, really clever!

I also loved the little bit of…political commentary? that we got, especially regarding the ethics of smuggling (since the Doomsdays are not smuggling endangered animals, drugs, or nonconsenting humans, I had no issues with their work to begin with, but the breakdown of how the trade bans only hurt normal everyday people was enlightening, and made me very pro-smuggler!)

Very addictive, surprisingly feel-good, and I can’t wait for the next one!

If you give either of these a try, I’d love to know your thoughts!

The post Sunday Souçons #19 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Marvellously Merciless: Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Sapphic MC, brown sapphic fat love interest, secondary nonbinary character
PoV: Third-person, past-tense
Published on: 14th March 2023
ISBN: B09XL6XQCY
Goodreads

Feed Them Silence begs the question: what does it mean to “be-in-kind” with nonhuman animals? Dr. Sean Kell-Luden uses a neurological interface to translate a subject-wolf’s perception for human consumption, but as her relationship with the subject becomes complicated, she puts her research and her marriage at risk.

When Dr. Sean Kell-Ludon’s grant is accepted, she begins her research of cooperative behaviors in one of Minnesota’s last remaining wolf packs, but she is wholly unprepared for the emotional turmoil that comes with inhabiting and translating a wolf’s consciousness. The longer she observes the subject-wolf and her pack, the more Sean drifts away from her wife. As the harsh winter months threaten the pack’s survival and Sean’s marriage spirals down the drain, Sean will have to face the consequences of her negligence or let the world of wolves and the world she’s known both slip through her fingers.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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~complete failure to Spouse (that’s a verb now)
~time to mind-link with a wolf
~have you considered, Not Doing That
~an unexpected bear
~NO ONE CARES WHAT THE NEIGHBOURS THINK, SEAN

Just in case you missed or misunderstood the description, Feed Them Silence is not another Summer Sons. Fans of the one are not at all guaranteed to be fans of the other; they are two very different books!

Although in my opinion, Feed Them Silence is just as excellent as Mandelo’s debut. Just very, very different!

Here’s the situation: glory-hound scientist Sean is about to embark on a pretty groundbreaking project; a one-way empathic bond with Kate, one of the last living wolves, facilitated by neural implants and a machine that connects one to the other in real-time. But her marriage has grown strained under the pressure of Sean’s hunt for funding, and her neglect of her wife becomes even worse once the project gets underway. It all comes to a breaking point, and honestly, it looks like Sean herself is the one who’s going to break.

This is a fascinating, addictive novella that I kind of adored, even though it’s nothing like my usual reads. Sean is an unambiguously terrible person – not in the ‘lock her up and throw away the key’ sense, but if her (amazing) wife wrote an AITA post, everyone would definitely be telling her to file for divorce, because Sean definitely doesn’t deserve her. And although Sean insists the point of her research is conservation, Rita does an excellent job tearing that argument to shreds – leaving only Sean’s hunger for fame and personal interest (not-quite-obsession) with wolves as her real motivation.

“If the fact that we’re destroying every habitat on this godforsaken planet hasn’t stuck with the corporations whose money you’re begging for by now, then you doing some brain-in-a-jar bullshit to say how a wolf feels about dying won’t matter either. This wolf can’t consent to being studied by you, which involves a nonconsensual surgical procedure. The presumption you’re making in claiming to report on its real feelings, so you can make a name for yourself, violates its sovereign dignity. It can’t correct you when you put words in its mouth. So, yes, as an ethnographer I fucking disagree with this entire premise.”

Which is probably the motivation of quite a lot of real-life scientists too, but that doesn’t make it feel any less slimy.

Maybe that – finding it slimy – is kind of unfair – what’s wrong with wanting to be famous, really, and would we judge so harshly if Sean were a man? I’m not sure. I do think that Sean’s general indifference to other people would be equally awful in a man – and in fact, as Rita points out, Sean’s overall problem is that she’s behaving like a very particular kind of White Dude. Is that a side-effect of trying to make a name for herself in a field dominated by men? Did she become like this because she was trying to be like them? I don’t know, and I don’t know if it ultimately matters- especially when it’s extremely clear that she has no real interest in putting the work in to be (and do) better.

Wasn’t it enough at their stage of life to be decently matched in their careers and able to function within one another’s orbits?

No, Sean. Wtf? Of course it isn’t. What is wrong with you?

Feed Them Silence would be terribly dull if this were just literary fiction about a failing marriage, but it’s not, and Sean’s relationship with Rita is far less interesting than her relationship with Kate. Not, though, because Kate is more interesting than Rita – it’s not about comparing wife to wolf (even if that’s definitely what Sean does), but about comparing Sean’s ability to connect with wife vs ability to connect with wolf. And let’s be super clear about this: it takes experimental surgery and full on science-fiction levels of technology to make Sean capable of empathising with Kate! This is not a case of someone who has an easier time with non-human animals than with humans; this is a case of someone who needs semi-magical mind-fuckery to care about anyone.

And once she does, she absolutely cannot handle it. Easily the most interesting part of Feed Them Silence is the way in which Sean loses herself in Kate; something which starts slowly, but almost immediately becomes an addiction for her. And having spent time in Sean’s head, it’s not hard to see why; Sean is so dead inside that experiencing the full, unfiltered emotion of Kate’s life – even in the tiny sips mandated by the machinery instead of the devouring gulps Sean would much prefer to be taking – is like moving from black-and-white silent movies to orchestral technicolour. Mandelo depicts this beautifully, not just via the story but in the actual writing itself; bit by bit, Sean goes from referring to Kate as ‘the wolf’, to ‘her wolf’, to ‘them’ (meaning Kate + Sean), to ‘herself’ (meaning Sean). It’s a neatly subtle, but powerful, way of underscoring Sean’s freefall into Kate.

The first bite of chicken-flesh and grease filled her mouth while she saw herself, or her wolf, on video: brindled coat, shaved scalp now furry again, huge ears and paws. An unexpected dislocation, far worse that hearing her own voice speaking back to her on her phone’s answering message, smacked her across the face.

(Is it good or bad that Sean comes to care more for Kate and her pack than other humans? Is it terrible that she requires such drastic measures to be able to empathise at all? Should we be horrified? Is this a horror story? WHY IS SEAN LIKE THIS?)

Ultimately, this is a weird but brilliant book that manages to be about (semi-)psychic bonds with wolves, toxic academia (is there any other kind?), gender roles in same-sex marriages, and a critique of ‘feel-good’ scientific research. There’s more than a touch of climate fiction in there too, and all of it wrapped up in prose that is sharp and deft, where each word feels powerful because each word is exactly what it should be. Another author would need 300-odd pages to tell this story; Mandelo fits it into a novella because their use of language is so precise it makes every sentence throat-grabbingly potent. Feed Them Silence is distilled down to its purest form, pure concentrate, and it’s enough to make you deliriously dizzy.

I loved it, but I do hesitate to recommend it – it’s fairly bleak, and although the ending is clearly meant to be hopeful, I wouldn’t call it happy.

This is not a book meant to comfort, but it is most certainly a book to make you think, and if you’d like a quick, gut-punch of a story that dissects a very messed-up woman’s addiction to wolf-thoughts, then this is definitely for you.

The post Marvellously Merciless: Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Sandymancer by David Edison

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 Sandymancer by David Edison!

Sandymancer by David Edison
Genres: Fantasy, Sci Fi, Science Fantasy
Published on: 19th September 2023
Goodreads

A genre-bending mashup of The Wizard of Oz and Dune

All Caralee Vinnet has ever know is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. Those who can control the few elements left rule the world. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.

And Caralee has a secret—she can draw up power from the sand even though she isn’t supposed to. But she does… and winds up summoning a monster. Who happens to be the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and is bent on finishing the task.

Or maybe saving the world. He hasn’t decided if it’s worth the trouble, though.

Sandymancer is a funhouse fantastical Dorothy in Oz story with failed gods, dust magic, and murderous gigantic steel ravens. You think you are in a fantasy tale… and then you come to realize that what you are really in is one amazing science fiction story.

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I adored Edison’s debut, The Waking Engine, for the incredible imagination that went into every aspect of it – it was, and still is, like nothing else I’ve ever read (and, you know, absolutely excellent on top of that!) – and I have been VIBRATING with anticipation for any new books from him!

(How did I know there would be more books? Because no storyteller that good writes one book and then gives up. I didn’t know if he’d self-publish or go trad-published again, but there was just no way Edison was out of stories to tell.)

Because I kept checking back, I discovered the title Sandymancer years ago, but couldn’t find any details about the story. So I waited. I waited patiently but passionately.

AND LOOK HOW THAT WAIT HAS BEEN REWARDED!!!

Sand magic and failed gods and science fiction masquerading as fantasy. The Wizard of Oz crossed with Dune. WHAT? WHAT EVEN?? OMFG??? That sounds so freaking WEIRD in the best possible way, and I am so happy that Edison has obviously decided not to try and tone down the weirdness after The Waking Engine and go mainstream instead. NEVER TONE IT DOWN, EMBRACE THE WEIRD AND THE WEIRD WILL EMBRACE YOU!

…Now I want embrace the weird and the weird will embrace you on a t-shirt.

Also: ARE THOSE FLYING WHALES ON THE COVER? ALIEN FAUNA? I DO NOT KNOW BUT I AM SO VERY EAGER TO FIND OUT!!!

And don’t think I missed the fact that the blurb mentions two characters but there are three on the cover. WHO IS THIS MYSTERIOUS THIRD PERSON AND WHY MUST I WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER TO KNOW???

So yes, I genuinely cannot wait for Sandymancer, I am rabid to pounce on a new Edison novel, SOMEONE TELL SEPTEMBER TO GETS ITS ARSE HERE ALREADY!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Sandymancer by David Edison appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #127

Officially the largest Must-Have Monday so for this year, I have FIFTEEN books for you this week!

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

A Blackened Mirror (Memoirs of the Borgia Sibyl #1) by Jo Graham
Published on: 6th March 2023
Goodreads

1489—When Giulia Farnese came to Rome to make an arranged marriage with young noble Orsino Orsini, she dreamed of learning and power in the glittering city of the Renaissance popes. However, her mother-in-law seems frightened, and her husband refuses to consummate the marriage at the direction of the head of his family, Lord Bracciano. But Giulia herself has a secret: she sees visions in mirrors and hears the whispers of spirits, the gifts of an ancient sibyl in an age when magic is heresy punishable by death. Is this ability the reason Bracciano has trapped her in this sham of a marriage?
As she struggles to unearth answers, Giulia finds herself drawn to her mother-in-law's cousin, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. Ruthless, sophisticated, and old enough to be Giulia's father, Rodrigo is a humanist, a collector of pagan art and heretical writings, and a loving father to his illegitimate children. He is a bright spot in Giulia's chilly life—but to Bracciano, he's a political rival to be removed. Bracciano's dark rites to summon demons may make Giulia the instrument of Rodrigo's destruction.
Dealing with demons is a mortal sin. Refusing Bracciano would be a fatal mistake. And Giulia’s growing attraction to Rodrigo might be her downfall—or the key to her salvation. To defy the demon's power and seize control of her life, Giulia will need to cross the line between innocence and dangerous knowledge. And once she's descended into that underworld, she is not coming back unchanged.

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Anything Candlemark & Gleam publishes goes on my auto-buy list, and Jo Graham has an incredible track record all her own! Put the two together, and I will POUNCE!

In fact, it’s waiting for me on my e-reader right now, and the moment I finish this post I’m going to go start it!!!

The Queen's Price (Black Jewels, #12) by Anne Bishop
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown MCs, sapphic MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

Enter the dark and sensual realms of the Black Jewels in this sweeping story in the New York Times bestselling fantasy saga of three young women who must navigate life within the powerful SaDiablo family--and come to terms with Witch, the Queen who is still the heart and will of that family.

The Queen's price is to stand against what you know is wrong. To stand and fight, no matter the cost to your court or to yourself. Especially to yourself.

Zoey, a young Queen-in-training at SaDiablo Hall, is wounded...and vulnerable to taunts and criticism. When an opportunity arises to befriend a stranger seeking sanctuary at the Hall, she puts herself and others in danger by ignoring Daemonar Yaslana's warning to back off.

Meanwhile, the witch Jillian's family prepares for her Virgin Night, the rite of passage that assures a woman will retain her power and her Jewels. The trouble is Jillian secretly went through the ceremony already. Now she has to explain the omission of that detail to her powerful and lethal family. And the High Lord of Hell's daughter, Saetien, travels to Scelt to find out about Jaenelle Angelline's sister--and perhaps to discover truths about herself.

With some guidance from Witch, these three young women will learn when to yield because it is right--and when to take a stand, even if they must pay the Queen's price.

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The Black Jewels books are my slightly-guilty-pleasure series; I could write a thesis on its flaws, but it’s still one of my all-time faves, and Queen’s Price feels like a gift – I was so sure that the previous book, Queen’s Weapons, was the last Black Jewels book we’d ever get! I am DELIGHTED to have been wrong; this is hands-down one of my most anticipated releases of the year!

The Faithless (Magic of the Lost, #2) by C.L. Clark
Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: North African-coded sapphic MC, white sapphic disabled MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

In the second installment of C.L. Clark's Magic of the Lost trilogy, soldier Touraine and princess Luca must return to Balladaire to reclaim Luca's throne and to face the consequences of dismantling an empire.

The rebels have won, and the empire is withdrawing from Qazal. But undoing the tangled web that binds the two nations will not be easy, and Touraine and Luca will face their greatest challenge yet.

Luca needs to oust her uncle from the Balladairan throne once and for all and take her rightful place as Queen. But he won't let go of power so easily. When he calls for a "Trial of Competence" and Luca's allies start disappearing from her side, she will need to find a way to prove her might. And she knows someone who can help...

Touraine has found a home in the newly free country of Qazal. But she soon realizes that leading a country and leading a revolution are two very different tasks. And, even more importantly, if Luca's uncle doesn't ratify the treaty, the Qazali could end up right back where they started. 

Together, the two women will have to come overcome their enemies, their history, and their heartbreak in order to find a way to secure Luca's power and Touraine's freedom. 

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This is the sequel to 2021’s The Unbroken, and it is probably not a good idea to read this without having read that first! In fact, I may need to reread Unbroken before I dive into Faithless – I don’t want to miss any details because I’ve forgotten something from the first book!

Dead Country (Craft Wars, #1) by Max Gladstone
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she'd left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died.

As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from the raiders that haunt the area, twisted by a remnant of the God Wars, Tara changes the course of the world.

Max Gladstone's world of the Craft is a fantasy setting like no other. When Craftspeople rose up to kill the gods, they built corporate Concerns from their corpses and ushered in a world of rapacious capital. Those who work the Craft wield laws like knives and weave chains from starlight and soulstuff. Dead Country is the first book in the Craft Wars Trilogy, a tight sequence of novels that will bring the sprawling saga of the Craft to its end, and the perfect entry point for this incomparable world.

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The start of the end of the Craft! No big deal! Everything is super chill!

…It is, actually, which is why I DNF-ed it. But lots of other early readers have loved it, and it is very cool to see this world again (if you haven’t read the Craft Sequence already, I strongly recommend it, especially since it’s set before Dead Country), so I encourage you to give it a go if you’re intrigued.

Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions by Khadijah Queen, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Kenzie Allen, dg nanouk okpik, Lynn C. Pitts, George Abraham, Yohanca Delgado, Juan J. Morales, Wendy Chin-Tanner, Soham Patel, M.L.J. Sarazin, Brian K. Hudson, Ruth Ellen Kocher, Tonya Liburd, Sheree Renée Thomas, Aerik Francis, Melanie Merle, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Lucien Darjeun Meadows, Sarah Sophia Yanni, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Ra'Niqua Lee, Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint, Alton Melvar M. Dapanas, Thea Anderson, Kenji C. Liu, Pedro Íñiguez, Shakirah Peterson, Shreya Ila Anasuya, André O. Hoilette, Shalewa Mackall, Daniel José Older
Genres: Fantasy, Sci Fi
Representation: BIPOC cast
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

A gathering of innovative, speculative fictions by writers of color, both established and emerging  

The innovative fictions in Infinite Constellations showcase the voices and visions of 30 remarkable writers, both new and established, from the global majority: Native American/First Nation writers, South Asian writers, East Asian writers, Black American writers, Latinx writers, and Caribbean and Middle Eastern writers. These are visions both familiar and strange, but always rooted in the mystery of human relationships, the deep honoring of memory, and the rootedness to place and the centering of culture.

The writers in this anthology mirror, instruct, bind and unbind, myth-make and myth-invert, transform and transmute, make us belly-laugh or hum our understanding, gasp or whisper gently, and remember that sometimes we need to holler and fight as we grieve. Any dangers herein, imagined or observed in poem and story, transport us: moving from latent to extant, then unleashed.

This work does not presume; it presents and blossoms, creating a constellation of appearances, a symphony of belonging.

“In collecting this work,” note editors Khadijah Queen and K. Ibura, “we felt humbled by the love threaded throughout the voices speaking to us in stories and poems that vault beyond expectation and settle in our consciousness as an expansion of what’s possible when we tend to one another with intention. We felt lifted, held aloft in these arrangements of language. We hope that as you read each story and poem, you will find the same sense of empowerment and celebration that we know has sustained us over countless generations, and in their beauty and humor and intelligence and complexity, continue to enrich us still.”

CONTRIBUTORS George Abraham / Kenzie Allen / Shreya lla Anasuya / Thea Anderson / Wendy Chin-Tanner / Alton Melvar M. Depanas / Yohanca Delgado / Jennifer Elise Foerster / Aerik Francis / André O. Hoilette / Brian K. Hudson / K. Ibura / Pedro Iniguez / Ruth Ellen Kocher / Ra’Niqua Lee / Tonya Liburd / Kenji C. Liu / Shalewa Mackall / Lucien Darjeun Meadows / Melanie Merle / Juan J. Morales / Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint / Cindy Juyound Ok / Daniel José Older / Soham Patel / Lynn C. Pitts/ Khadijah Queen / Sheree Renée Thomas /  Sarah Sophia Yanni / dg nanouk okpik / shakirah peterson  

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Everything about this sounds SPECTACULAR, and I can’t wait to check it out! I adore SFF takes on culture – what it means now, what it might mean in the future, what it could potentially mean in a fantasy world – so this sounds like everything I could possibly want out of an anthology!

The Mimicking of Known Successes (Mossa & Pleiti, #1) by Malka Ann Older
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: F/F
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

The Mimicking of Known Successes presents a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set on Jupiter, by Malka Older, author of the critically-acclaimed Centenal Cycle.

On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.

Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together.

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The impression I’ve gotten is that this is a fairly chill/cosy sapphic mystery? In a sci-fi setting? Definitely something I can get on board with!

Gorgons Deserve Nice Things by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

“We lived in a world that did not allow women to breathe; how could we be anything but monsters?”

Tansy Rayner Roberts retells the stories of seven women from Greek mythology, giving voice to the scorned, the sidelined, and the monstrous.

A young gorgon finds acceptance at the Medusa Club. Atalanta spills the truth behind the myth of the Argonauts. Scylla suffers through a series of terrible college roommates. Handmaids in Sparta get more than they bargained for when they interfere in their queen’s correspondence with a Trojan prince. A comparative mythology graduate finds herself at a speed-dating night packed with dodgy gods. Behind a velvet rope, a queenly Minotaur presides over a roller disco. Persephone shares her story via a series of pomegranate recipes.

Deliciously mythic and delightfully funny, Gorgons Deserve Nice Things delivers new takes on ancient stories, reinvigorating them with modern perspectives and settings. Showcasing the craft and insight that made her one of Australia’s most beloved short fiction writers, this collection sees Roberts at her wry, subversive best.

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It is a gods’ damn CRIME that Roberts’ Creature Court trilogy is not better known (I s2g, someday I’ll write proper reviews for each book…!) but hey, if you’ve not read her work before Gorgons Deserve Nice Things sounds like a great place to start! Roberts has an incredible imagination and a wicked sense of humour, so I can’t wait to see what she’s done with the Greek myths!

The Meister of Decimen City by Brenna Raney
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Ace MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

No one cares that you cured cancer if you also cloned a horde of dinosaurs and let them rampage down the street.

Supergenius and quasi-villain Rex normally can’t go a week without accidentally endangering Decimen City with her science shenanigans. It’s been two weeks since her genetically engineered dinosaurs rampaged through town—a good streak for her—but the peace is broken when actual villain Last Dance sets his sights on Decimen. And he wants Rex’s help. Before Rex can say “I didn’t do it,” superheroes who’ve dragged her to jail on her worst days are crowding her lab to conscript her into quasi-herodom.

Rex would rather stay out of it and deal with the dinosaurs that keep calling her Mom, but she can’t ignore that she was somewhat responsible for Last Dance’s villainy. She’d kept a very disorganized lab. And he was such a nosy brother. She failed to help him back then, but maybe if she stops him now—and keeps the heroes fooled—she can finally set things right.

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I love stories about supervillains (or accidental-supervillains, in this case!) and the early reviews make it clear that this is a proper makes-you-laugh-out-loud story! ALSO, I have been informed that Rex’s dinosaurs have feathers. This is very important to me!

The Curator by Owen King
Genres: Speculative Fiction
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

From New York Times bestselling author Owen King comes a Dickensian fantasy of illusion and charm where cats are revered as religious figures, thieves are noble, scholars are revolutionaries, and conjurers are the most wonderful criminals you can imagine.

It begins in an unnamed city nicknamed “the Fairest”, it is distinguished by many things from the river fair to the mountains that split the municipality in half; its theaters and many museums; the Morgue Ship; and, like all cities, but maybe especially so, by its essential unmappability.

Dora, a former domestic servant at the university has a secret desire—to find where her brother went after he died, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research, where he worked when Dora was a child. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, where citizens like Robert Barnes, her lover and a student radical, are now in positions of authority, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched. Robert offers her one of these, The National Museum of the Worker. However, neither this museum, nor the street it is hidden away on, nor Dora herself, are what they at first appear to be. Set against the backdrop of a nation on the verge of collapse, Dora’s search for the truth behind the mystery she’s long concealed will unravel a monstrous conspiracy and bring her to the edge of worlds.

Praise for The Curator
“Sprawling, densely populated, intricately plotted... with vivid prose, excellent minor characters, and a scrappy, every-which-way inventiveness. Dickens novel meets Hieronymus Bosch painting—dark, chaotic fun.” —Kirkus, *starred review*

“A fantastical panorama of twists and turns… King’s latest is a masterpiece of storytelling.”—Library Journal

"The Curator feels a little like Owen King somehow brought a curiosity cabinet to life. There are terrors here, but also marvels and delights, and a set of the most interesting characters I’ve met in some time. Put The Curator on the same shelf as other classics of the uncanny and uncategorizable, like Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi and Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast. I loved it."—Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble

"Half fairy tale and half historical account of a revolution that never was, Owen King’s The Curator is full of sly humor, sensuality, and strangeness."—Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book of Night

“Owen King's The Curator is a rich read. Language, characters, and a fascinating world combine to create an intensely satisfying experience.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Easy Death, and the Sookie Stackhouse series

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I have no idea what to make of that description, but as a sucker for worldbuilding I honestly just want to see what a world that worships cats looks like!

Exit Ghost by Jennifer R. Donohue
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

After her father is murdered and an attempt is made on her life, New Jersey heiress and witch Juliet Duncan is supposed to be concentrating on getting better and moving forward. Instead, Jules summons her father's ghost using her blood and tears and his old rotary phone to answer the question: who did it? He reveals it was Hector, her dad's best friend and her mom's new fiancé.

Certain her life is still in danger, Jules flees the family estate to the Asbury Park apartment she shares with her best friend and fellow witch, Ashes. When another friend joins them, all three women get caught up with a secret boyfriend who's also big into magic, but in all the wrong ways, all while Jules wrestles with whether her father's ghost was telling the truth. But what Jules does know is that power has its cost, and she is more than willing to pay the price in order to get her revenge.

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So this was pitched to me as ‘witchy gender-bent Hamlet’, which already sounds awesome, and the reviews have been STELLAR – it especially caught my attention that so many early readers praised Donohue’s take on magic and witchcraft! That is, as they say, Kinda My Thing. I’m doing grabby-hands!!!

The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

A baroque work of intimate myth exploring one woman's interdimensional search for beauty and embodiment, through kaleidoscopic renderings of hospital corridors, brutal breakups, and passionate romance.

The Fifth Wound is a phantasmagorical roman à clef about passion as a way of life. In one dimension, this is a love story--Aurora & Ezekiel--a separation and a reunion. In another, we witness a tale of multiple traumatic encounters with transphobic violence. And on yet another plane, a story of ecstatic visionary experience swirls, shatters, and sparkles. Featuring time travel, medieval nuns, knifings, and t4t romance, The Fifth Wound indulges the blur between fantasy and reality. Its winding sentences open like portals, inviting the reader into the intimacy of embodiment--both its pain and its pleasures.

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Do I understand exactly what this book is? No, but even so it sounds amazing and I still want to read it.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1) by K.J. Charles
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Achilleam MC, biracial achillean MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

Bridgerton meets Poldark in this sweeping LGBTQIA+ Regency romance from award-winning author KJ Charles

Abandoned by his father as a small child, Sir Gareth Inglis has grown up prickly, cold, and well-used to disappointment. Even so, he longs for a connection, falling headfirst into a passionate anonymous affair that's over almost as quickly as it began. Bitter at the sudden rejection, Gareth has little time to lick his wounds: his father has died, leaving him the family title, a rambling manor on the remote Romney Marsh...and the den of cutthroats and thieves that make its intricate waterways their home.

Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. His family is his life...which is why when the all-too-familiar new baronet testifies against Joss's sister for a hanging offense, Joss acts fast, blackmailing Gareth with the secret of their relationship to force him to recant. Their reunion is anything but happy and the path forward everything but smooth, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. It's a long road from there—full of danger and mysteries to be solved—yet somehow, along the way, this well-mannered gentleman may at last find true love with the least likely of scoundrels.

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Is anyone in the queer fiction community not looking forward to this book??? Only if they haven’t heard of it, perhaps. And that’s what Must-Have Mondays are for!

For real, it’s KJ Charles with a feel-good queer regency romance. I mean. WHAT PART OF THAT DOESN’T SOUND WONDERFUL??? No part, that’s what. TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY.

Confidence by Rafael Frumkin
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MCs
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

Two lifelong friends, occasional lovers, and constant conmen find themselves on top of the world after founding a company that promises instant enlightenment to its users in this thrilling, brainy caper about scams, schemes, and the absurdity of the American Dream.

At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going for him. He is shorter than average, gap-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He’s also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie.

Ezra's summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like, with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet--NuLife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss--things start to spin wildly out of control. Searing and charming, Confidence is a story for anyone who knows that the American Dream is just another pyramid scheme.

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Speaking of take my money… This sounds nothing like my usual reads, but it also sounds like it could be very funny and fun? And I’ve heard only good things, which, you know, generally a good sign!

Tina, Mafia Soldier by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, Robin Pickering-Iazzi
Representation: Genderqueer MC
Published on: 14th February 2023
Goodreads

A classic of Italian feminist mafia literature about a dangerous, enigmatic young gangster pushing the boundaries of gender and propriety, in English for the first time

In the 1980s, a teenage girl terrorizes the Sicilian town of Gela. Tina's father was in Cosa Nostra and was brutally shot dead in front of her when she was just eight; after that, she made it her mission in life to join the mafia, although women are traditionally not allowed in. Nicknamed 'a masculidda, or "the tomboy," Tina is notorious through Gela for her recklessness, cruelty, and complete disregard for societal expectations.

When a news article is published about Tina's latest crimes, an unnamed teacher living in Rome feels compelled to write a novel about her--even though it means returning to her home island of Sicily to gather material. She and Tina circle around each other in a hypnotic, dangerous dance of obsession and violence until their first, and last, explosive meeting.

In this ruminative, literary exploration of what it means to live in the mafia's dark shadow, the narrator's observations and interactions are counterposed against recollections of Tina's life as she grows up from a child into a soldier of the mafia, shedding gender constraints along the way.

Based closely on Maria Rosa Cutrufelli's experiences as a Sicilian and on the true case of a teenage girl who became a mafia soldier, Song to the Desert is a powerful work of autofiction whose original Italian publication was a watershed moment for Italian crime fiction, as it shed a light on a corner of mafia literature that had previously gone unexplored: the role of women in the mafia, and the impact that the mafia has on women and girls.

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Tina, Mafia Soldier is…quite possibly not-my-thing-at-all, but I’m kinda intrigued and want to give it a try anyway. Historical examples of what we’d now call genderqueerness or nonbinary(-ness?) are fascinating to me, even if crime family stories aren’t. So I guess we’ll see how it goes!

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
Published on: 7th March 2023
Goodreads

A killer is on the loose when someone turns up dead on the set of a hit TV baking competition in this darkly beguiling debut mystery that is perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Nita Prose, and Anthony Horowitz. Soon to be a limited series on Hulu.

Production for the tenth season of Bake Week is ready to begin at the gothic estate of host and celebrity chef Betsy Martin, and everything seems perfect. The tent is up, the top-tier ingredients are aligned, and the crew has their cameras at the ready.

The six contestants work to prove their culinary talents over the course of five days, while Betsy is less than thrilled to share the spotlight with a new cohost—the brash and unpredictable Archie Morris. But as the baking competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it’s merely sabotage—sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high—but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect.

A deliciously suspenseful thriller for murder mystery buffs and avid bakers alike, The Golden Spoon will keep you guessing until the very last page.

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Somewhere along the way I got a taste for foodie novels – pun fully intended – and this one sounds like fun! Take note, everyone: how to make Sia care about a murder-mystery? Answer: make it baking-related!

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #127 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

In Short: February

My health continues to be terrible, but c’est la vie! Thank the gods for great books and great friends.

ARCs Received

I couldn’t BELIEVE I got approved for these, when they’re all such hyped releases! I continue to be amazed and delighted that publishers keep giving the thumb’s-up to my weird little blog.

Read

Even less read this month than in January – just 16 books – but my health being what it’s been, that doesn’t surprise me, and I’m not stressing about it.

I did a lot of mood reading this month, and I think it shows – Saint Death’s Daughter, Artifact Space, and House of Shadows are all dear comforting favourites, and I indulged in the very-indulgent-indeed Four Kings, which I utterly adored.

Focusing on new-to-me reads, The Archive Undying and To Shape a Dragon’s Breath are two arcs that are going straight on my Best of the Year list (although they are nothing alike!); The Saint of Bright Doors will almost certainly be joining them. I also finally came back to Foundryside, which I read a chunk of way back when but then set aside. I can’t remember what nudged me into picking it up again, but I’m really glad I did – the last 20% or so of the book was epic, and I’m very interested in checking out the rest of the trilogy.

To the best of my knowledge, 26% of this month’s authors were BIPOC. Way better than January!

Reviewed

I’m damn proud to have gotten FIVE reviews done this month, because my hands have been awful, and the physical effort of typing has been immense! And I think these reviews all came out okay.

DNF-ed

I was majorly disappointed by Dragonfall and Dead Country, which were some of my most anticipated books of 2023. As was Furious Heaven, but unlike the other two, I think Furious Heaven is a pretty great book – I just wasn’t enjoying the direction the story was going in.

ARCs Outstanding

I’ve now finished three of these, and am going to have a LOT of fun explaining how epic they are in reviews!

Misc

I was able to add quite a few new entries to my Unmissable SFF of 2023 list, thanks to spending far more time than is really sensible on Edelweiss! I was SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED to find unexpected sequels from some of my favourite authors, and new books from authors I adore but haven’t heard of in a while. (No shade – I’m amazed anyone’s gotten anything creative done the last few years, never mind writing full-on novels!)

Looking Forward

Most years March is packed full of books I’m excited for, but 2023 is clearly going for quality over quantity! The sequel to the amazing Blackheart Knights; a new book in the Black Jewels universe; a beautiful-sounding queer historical fiction from debut author Natasha Siegel; and the latest novel from my favourite indie press Candlemark and Gleam! I HAVE SUCH GRABBY-HANDS!

It’s my birthday tomorrow – I’m turning 30! – and I’m looking forward to the month ahead. I’m excited for new releases, and for the red velvet birthday cake from my favourite bakery! I’m determined this month’s going to be a good one.

May it be so for all of us!

The post In Short: February appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

February DNFs

A number of my most anticipated reads of 2023 ended up DNF-ed, alas!

Dragonfall (The Dragon Scales Trilogy, #1) by L.R. Lam
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC, pansexual MC, NB/M
Published on: 2nd May 2023
ISBN: B0B5L2H8H1
Goodreads

The first in an epic fantasy trilogy from Sunday Times bestselling author Laura Lam.

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the 'gods' remember, and they do not forgive.

Thief Arcady scrapes a living on the streets of Vatra. Desperate, Arcady steals a powerful artifact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history. Only Arcady knows the artifact's magic holds the key to a new life among the nobles at court and a chance for revenge.

The spell connects to Everen, the last male dragon foretold to save his kind, dragging him through the Veil. Disguised as a human, Everen soon learns that to regain his true power and form and fulfil his destiny, he only needs to convince one little thief to trust him enough to bond completely–body, mind, and soul–and then kill them.

Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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I made it to 37% before I just had to call it quits.

I’m so disappointed – this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, from an author whose work I’ve enjoyed before. And every other review I’ve seen for Dragonfall is glowing with love and praise!

But I was so bored, and unimpressed, and the writing style was awful: blunt, arrhythmic, and sentences often seemed to be missing words (although hopefully that’s just an issue with the arc, and will be fixed in the final version). Everything was telling-telling-telling (which sometimes contradicted itself), the worldbuilding was incredibly simplistic, despite a few attempts to add interesting details, and then it started to turn into a freaking heist story!

I was hoping for – expecting – lush prose and detailed, interesting worldbuilding; and to be honest, I was also expecting Dragonfall to be written in third-person, not first. The voices of the main characters didn’t appeal to me, and although Arcady and Everen both have what should be interesting backstories, as characters I found both of them predictable and dull. I was genuinely annoyed that the culture of the dragons was so minimal; it felt very lazy and hand-waved, and nothing about the dragons themselves felt non-human. The only thing that differentiated Everen from any of the human characters was that he hated humans. That was it. Nothing about him felt alien, he didn’t have a unique perspective on anything, he didn’t think like someone who had never been human. He could have been a human character from a distant island, as he claimed, and it would have made almost no difference to the reading experience.

I guess a big part of the problem is that I was expecting Dragonfall to be something it isn’t. But what it is doesn’t interest me at all.

Furious Heaven (The Sun Chronicles, #2) by Kate Elliott
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: East Asian-coded cast, sapphic MC, F/F, secondary nonbinary character, queernorm world
Published on: 18th April 2023
ISBN: B0B3VK25DG
Goodreads

Non-stop action, space battles and intrigue abound in the second in a galactic-scale, gender-swapped space opera trilogy inspired by the life of Alexander The Great.

The Republic of Chaonia fleets under the joint command of Princess Sun and her formidable mother, Queen-Marshal Eirene, have defeated and driven out an invading fleet of the Phene Empire, although not without heavy losses. But the Empire remains strong and undeterred. While Chaonia scrambles to rebuild its military, the Empire's rulers are determined to squash Chaonia once and for all by any means necessary.

On the eve of Eirene's bold attack on the rich and populous Karnos System, an unexpected tragedy strikes the republic. Sun must take charge or lose the throne. Will Sun be content with the pragmatic path laid out by her mother for Chaonia's future? Or will she forge her own legend despite all the forces arrayed against her?

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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My relationship with Furious Heaven is slightly complicated for a DNF, in that I don’t actually think it’s a bad book. It’s simply one that I am choosing not to continue.

I think it’s very deliberate on Elliott’s part, but I just couldn’t stomach Sun, the main character, anymore. In book one, she craved power; in this book, she gets it, and what she does with it isn’t surprising – she doesn’t suddenly become someone different, all that she does is completely in-character. But…how do I put this?

In book one, the skirmishes/battles that Sun leads are all defensive or reactionary. But here she goes on the offensive, hard, and I just couldn’t get behind that. I kept asking myself why she was doing this, and I know why – for glory – but it didn’t make sense to me. Not because Elliott has failed to set up Sun’s motivations or convey them, but because I felt a…naive distress, I guess. It’s not about protecting her people! It’s not about vital resources! It’s not even about territory. By any reasonable metric, it’s completely pointless violence and death on a massive scale.

And it turns out – shocker, I know – that I really hate that.

But! And this is important – but, I think I’m supposed to. I don’t think Elliott is trying to make us buy into the whole for the glory! thing. I don’t think we’re supposed to approve of what Sun is doing. It was an undercurrent in Unconquerable Sun, but I don’t think I’m imagining that Furious Heaven is even more overt in its critique of Chaonia – I think it’s very intentional. I think Elliott knows what she’s doing, and is in complete control. This isn’t an issue of the story being poorly written.

It’s just that Sun is no longer anyone I want to follow.

That being said, issues with choppy, over-explanatory dialogue and occasional awkward info-dumps persist. I’m baffled, because I’ve read dozens of Elliott’s books and haven’t seen these problems in her work before this trilogy. (Well, that’s not quite true – the dialogue issue was there in Black Wolves. But considering how many books she’s written, Unconquerable Sun + Furious Heaven + Black Wolves is really not a lot.) It makes for a very choppy reading experience – I was constantly getting jolted out of the narrative by lines that broke the writing rhythm, or almost read as first-person, or dialogue that was horribly clunky.

I do kind of want to know how this trilogy ends – mostly because I now want Sun to crash-and-burn, and for Chaonia to be completely restructured. But I don’t want to know badly enough to make myself read through what Sun’s doing – although I’m not swearing I won’t come back to Furious Heaven and try it again at some point.

Dead Country (Craft Wars, #1) by Max Gladstone
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 7th March 2023
ISBN: 0765395908
Goodreads

Discover the destiny of the Craft in Dead Country, the standalone entry point to Max Gladstone's beloved fantasy epic.

BOOK ONE OF THE CRAFT WARS SERIES

Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she'd left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died.

As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from raiders twisted by the God Wars, Tara changes the course of the world.

Dead Country is the first book in the Craft Wars Series, a tight sequence of novels that will bring the sprawling saga of the Craft to its end, and the perfect entry point to this incomparable world.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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I made it all the way to 81% with this one. 81%! At that point, I really could have finished it. It would have taken me an hour or two, tops. I might as well have.

But I didn’t want to. Don’t want to.

I reread Three Parts Dead before starting this, and the difference between the two is like whiplash. Dead Country is slow and introspective in a way that deadens the mind, makes me feel heavy and tired, and I’m inclined to think that Gladstone deliberately shifted tone for this book, wanted it to be small-scale and intimate and thoughtful. (I think so because he wrote in his newsletter recently about the theme of coming home after the adventure is over, which in a lot of ways describes Dead Country to a t.) And it is those things, so he succeeded, if that was the goal.

But the result is so boring, mind-numbing, in the same way that Last Exit was (which I also DNF-ed, for the record). There’s no sense of urgency or passion, and no amount of banal detail could make me care about the small town – village, really – where Tara was born. There’s no electricity, no thrill, no wonder, and what’s especially frustrating is that we have this suggestion of a Big Bad coming, a potential apocalypse – but that’s a Bigger Picture problem that’s apparently going to wait until Tara heads back to the big city! It’s mentioned here and there in passing, only to be set aside because the right-now issue is the town.

That makes me care about all the small-town stuff even less! It feels like such a tease, like this entire book is pointless because the ‘real’ plot won’t start until the sequel.

Or possibly the last 20% of this book, but I am so Done that I don’t care even about the Big Picture plot any more, and am not going to force my way to the finish line just in the hopes of being thrown some scraps of actual story.

(On the other hand, I would absolutely read a prequel about Tara’s mom, who is amazing. Just saying!)

Fingers crossed for fewer disappointments next month!

The post February DNFs appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #126

TEN exciting SFF releases this week!

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

The Eidolon (Magnus Academy #1) by K.D. Edwards
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Asexual MC, achillean MC, Native American MC, queernorm culture, background M/M
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

In the epic conclusion to K.D. Edwards' first blockbuster trilogy in The Tarot Sequence series, readers followed Rune on a race against time as an age-old threat rose to threaten the city of New Atlantis. Now, for the first time, The Eidolon tells what really happened to Max, Quinn, and Anna as prisoners in the Hourglass Throne's base of operation.

The Eidolon is the first in a brand-new collection of novels and novellas in the Magnus Academy Series. These stories will be told through the various points of view of Rune's found family, ultimately leading to a planned arc of novels set at the new Magnus Academy. The book was printed in partnership with Rainbow Crate, the world's largest queer subscription box service, which produced a limited-edition hardcover. There will also be an Audible version, along with a self-published eBook.

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There was a limited print-run of The Eidolon, which has been making its way to readers for a while now (mine is waiting at the post office!) but the 28th is the release date for the ebook and audio edition that ought to be available to everyone! And personally, I think everyone should read it. (Although not before reading the first three Tarot Sequence books!)

You can read my full review here!

The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

A young woman rises from the streets to battle a sinister evil in this magical fantasy adventure by the bestselling author of the Darwath series.

Something is amiss with the world's magic. Spells don't work the way they used to--when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands.

They need a hero.

At the same time, ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these insanely destructive monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power.

Clea's only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her, either to the great merchant houses or to the all-entangling web of the Crystal Mages. But that wizard--Ithrazel the Cursed, destroyer of a city and magically imprisoned to suffer undying, unremitting torment--wants nothing to do with saving the world, helping a hero, or unraveling the terrible secret at the heart of the Crystal Mages' plans.

From the slums and tunnels of the slave-city of Morne, to the watery wilderness of the Twilight lands, to the halls of her father's palace and the spell-soaked mysteries of the Crystal Mages' House of Glass, Clea works to untwist the deadly riddles of magic and monsters--to free her mother's disenfranchised people from slavery under her father's conquering forces. To save her mageborn brother from the Crystal Mages' power; to control a sorcerer legendary for his deed of evil; to keep her own small band of friends one step ahead of her father's troops and the Crystal Order's spells.

She is the Iron Princess, and she knows she must prevail or die.

But at what cost to herself?

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Barbara Hambly is one of my favourite authors – so much so that when I’d read all her SFF, I read her historical fiction! That’s how much I adore her writing! But this week sees the release of her first fantasy novel IN OVER A DECADE, so it should go without saying that I am EXTREMELY EXCITED!!! Absolutely planning to stay up past midnight until my pre-order is ready to download!

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1) by S.A. Chakraborty
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Brown Muslim MC, BIPOC cast
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.

Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

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The reviews for Adventures have been a little mixed, and I wasn’t planning to put it on my tbr – but I fell HARD for the excerpts that have been posted (like this one over on Tor.com) so yes, I will in fact be giving this a go. Cautiously excited!

Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Black cast
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

Generations of Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, Willow—have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them.

But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the other women have been withholding a secret from Nickie that will end her relationship before it’s even begun: the decades-old family curse that any person they fall in love with dies.

For each member of the household, revealing this truth to Nickie also means reckoning with their own past choices and mistakes. And as new questions about long-held family beliefs emerge, the women are set on a collision course dating back to a voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter—where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love…

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Seeing as this allegedly relies heavily on the miscommunication trope, which I hate, I probably won’t be reading this, but I still wanted to include it for anyone who enjoys (or just doesn’t mind!) that trope.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. This is why farmers have daughters.”

A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mother, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries for sale. For six years, it’s been just the three of them—her mother has brought home guests before, but none have ever stayed.

Yet when her mother brings home a six-foot tall crane with an unnerving, menacing air, she lets him into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, she abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands.

All mothers leave the farm, eventually. In this stunning contemporary retelling of “The Crane Wife” by the author of the Newbery Award-winning novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon, a fiercely pragmatic teen forced to grow up faster than was fair will do whatever it takes to protect her family—and change the story.

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Barnhill knocked it out of the park with last year’s When Women Were Dragons (my review), and The Crane Husband sounds very different, but still extremely interesting – and this is another case of me being won over by the excerpt. (Seriously, publishers; you should all do this! It makes it so much easier to know whether I should be preordering a book or not!!!)

A Novel Arrangement (Flos Magicae) by Arden Powell
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs, F/M/M polyamory
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

A dressmaker who secretly publishes thrilling romances. Her handsome war-veteran fiancé. And his best friend, a charming artist of ill-repute determined to ruin their relationship.

There are two things standing between Elizabeth Turtledove and her happily-ever-after: her fiancé’s best friend, who despises her, and the blackmailer scheming to steal her savings.

Arthur and Coxley have been inseparable since their schooldays, and Coxley will stop at nothing to keep Arthur for himself. Although he’s all bite and bad manners, Elizabeth can tell there’s a better man hiding beneath that prickly exterior. As she gets to know Coxley and the depth of his friendship with Arthur, she finds another thing in the way of her happy ending. She’s taken their case of mutual pining and inadvertently turned it into a love triangle.

She has a plan to deal with her ridiculous blackmailer by summer’s end. Unfortunately, as much as she’d like to handle this love triangle with equal efficiency, matters of the heart are rarely so simple.

A Novel Arrangement is a full-length FMM novel in the Flos Magicae series, set in an alternate 1920s universe with magic. All the books are standalones and can be read in any order.

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Well, this sounds like a truly ridiculous amount of fun! And I definitely need more SFF polyamory in my life. Sign me up!

Liar City (Sugar & Vice, #1) by Allie Therin
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: M/M
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

A murder has Seattle on edge, and it falls to a pacifist empath—and a notorious empath hunter—to find the killer before it's too late

It’s the middle of the night when part-time police consultant and full-time empath Reece gets an anonymous call warning him that his detective sister needs his help. At an out-of-the-way Seattle marina, he discovers that three people have been butchered—including the author of the country’s strictest anti-empathy bill, which is just days from being passed into law.

Soon, Reece’s caller arrives: a shadowy government agent known as The Dead Man, who is rumored to deal exclusively in cases involving empathy. He immediately takes over the investigation, locking out both local PD and the FBI, but, strangely, keeps Reece by his side. 

As the two track an ever-growing trail of violence and destruction across Seattle, Reece must navigate a scared and angry city, an irritating attraction to his mysterious agent companion, and a rising fear that perhaps empaths like him aren’t all flight and no fight after all…

"Readers will be yearning for more the minute they finish the final page." —Library Journal, starred review, on Starcrossed
Sugar & Vice

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I haven’t been able to find out much about Liar City, but I’m cautiously interested? I especially want to see Therin’s take on empathy – it’s a superpower/magical ability that has so many possible permutations and applications, and I’m hopeful Therin might do something with it that I haven’t seen before!

Nightbirds (Nightbirds, #1) by Kate J. Armstrong
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

The Nightbirds are Simta’s best-kept secret: Girls with a unique and powerful magic they can gift with just a kiss. Some would kill to possess them; the church would kill them outright. But protected by the Great Houses, the Nightbirds are well-guarded treasures.

As this Season’s Nightbirds, Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer will spend their nights bestowing their gifts to well-paying clients. Once their season is through, they’re each expected to marry a Great House lord and become mothers to the next generation of Nightbirds before their powers fade away. But as they find themselves at the heart of a political scheme that threatens not only their secrets, but their very lives, their future suddenly becomes uncertain.

When they discover that there are other girls like them and that their magic is far more than they were told, they see the Nightbird system for what it is: a gilded cage. Now they must make a choice—to remain kept birds or take control, remaking the city that dared to clip their wings.

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I’ve been reading less and less YA SFF – I’m getting even pickier in my old age, I guess! – so I wasn’t initially interested in Nightbirds. But…you know where this is going: there was an excerpt, and I was SOLD. I officially don’t care about the premise or even the plot; I’m here for the gorgeous prose. GIMME!

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Latine transmasculine nonbinary MC, NB/M
Published on: 28th February 2023
Goodreads

El Diablo is in the details in this Latinx pirate fantasy starring a transmasculine nonbinary teen with a mission of revenge, redemption, and revolution.

On Mar León de la Rosa's sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn't enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father, and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar's father and the entire crew of their ship.

When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up their soul to save their father by the harvest moon, or never see him again. The task is impossible--Mar refuses to make a bargain, and there's no way their magic is a match for el Diablo. Then Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate--and the captain's son; and Dami, a gender-fluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption--or it could mean certain death.

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This has been much-hyped, and there’s no denying the premise sounds pretty awesome. I’ll definitely be picking it up!

Furious Heaven (The Sun Chronicles, #2) by Kate Elliott
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: East Asian-coded cast, sapphic MC, F/F, secondary nonbinary character, queernorm world
Published on: 2nd March 2023
Goodreads

Non-stop action, space battles and intrigue abound in the second in a galactic-scale, gender-swapped space opera trilogy inspired by the life of Alexander The Great.

The Republic of Chaonia fleets under the joint command of Princess Sun and her formidable mother, Queen-Marshal Eirene, have defeated and driven out an invading fleet of the Phene Empire, although not without heavy losses. But the Empire remains strong and undeterred. While Chaonia scrambles to rebuild its military, the Empire's rulers are determined to squash Chaonia once and for all by any means necessary.

On the eve of Eirene's bold attack on the rich and populous Karnos System, an unexpected tragedy strikes the republic. Sun must take charge or lose the throne. Will Sun be content with the pragmatic path laid out by her mother for Chaonia's future? Or will she forge her own legend despite all the forces arrayed against her?

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This is the UK release – Furious Heaven won’t be published in the US until April, I think – and although I did DNF it, it wasn’t because I thought it’s a bad book. I don’t! Because it isn’t! So if you enjoyed book one, Unconquerable Sun, I do recommend this – it just went in a direction that I, personally, did not enjoy.

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #126 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Gonna Be Legends, Already Legendary: The Eidolon by K.D. Edwards

The Eidolon (Magnus Academy #1) by K.D. Edwards
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Asexual MC, achillean MC, Native American MC, queernorm culture, background M/M
PoV: Third-person, past-tense, multiple PoVs
Published on: 28th February 2023
ISBN: B0BRNGFFYY
Goodreads

In the epic conclusion to K.D. Edwards' first blockbuster trilogy in The Tarot Sequence series, readers followed Rune on a race against time as an age-old threat rose to threaten the city of New Atlantis. Now, for the first time, The Eidolon tells what really happened to Max, Quinn, and Anna as prisoners in the Hourglass Throne's base of operation.

The Eidolon is the first in a brand-new collection of novels and novellas in the Magnus Academy Series. These stories will be told through the various points of view of Rune's found family, ultimately leading to a planned arc of novels set at the new Magnus Academy. The book was printed in partnership with Rainbow Crate, the world's largest queer subscription box service, which produced a limited-edition hardcover. There will also be an Audible version, along with a self-published eBook.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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~disappearing soap
~all the found-family feels
~it’s not enough to not be bad
~the kids are all right
~only the very foolish fuck with fools

*spoilers for The Hourglass Throne!*

My review of The Hourglass Throne

I highly doubt I was the only Tarot Sequence fan who was distressed to hear that Edwards had to cut a ton of plot related to our favorite kids from Hourglass Throne. But it all turned out for the best, because that cut content grew into what became The Eidolon, which means that instead of being just one thread of a novel focused on the adult characters, Quinn, Max and Anna ended up getting their very own book!

Which is the start of its own spin-off series. THEY GOT THEIR OWN SERIES, FOLX! THE SQUEE IS REAL!

And – while I have absolutely zero objection to indulgent, wish-fulfillment fanservice! – I am here to assure you that The Eidolon is not, in fact, simply indulgent, wish-fulfilment fanservice. While it’s definitely not necessary for any Tarot Sequence fan to read The Eidolon – as promised, Edwards has very carefully made sure both series work as standalones from each other – it adds a wealth of nuance, detail and depth to the events of The Hourglass Throne, and lays the foundations for an enormous amount of forthcoming adventures, trials, and general bombshells in future books (of both series).

To say nothing of the bombshells dropped in this book.

I SCREAMED.

AND SHRIEKED.

AND HAD MANY GOOSEBUMPS.

K.D. EDWARDS SIR, HOW DARE YOU!

Ahem.

In brief: The Eidolon covers the time Quinn and Max, and then Anna, spent as captives of Lady Time in The Hourglass Throne, and it is every bit as epic as we could have wished for. Calling them ‘fan favorites’ implies there is any member of the cast who is not a fave, and I’m pretty sure the fandom will back me when I say that’s not the case, but it is true that Max, Quinn and Anna are especially beloved, and The Eidolon serves as an excellent Exhibit A in the case for THIS IS WHY. These kids are amazing, and it’s impossible not to feel so damn PROUD of them as we see how they handle themselves without adult protection, in a very dangerous situation. Yes, they’ve been well-trained by Rune, Brand, Addam, and Corrinne, but they’re also intrinsically good, smart, brave kids who love and protect each other unhesitatingly and unflinchingly. Getting to spend more time with them is a JOY.

“I just made my first bad choice!”

“Not even this hour, Quinn,” Max said.

The deep-dive in to each of their heads – in third-person, not first-, which I think was the right call here – is both genuinely fun, and proof that they are not ‘just’ secondary characters in someone else’s story; they’re fully developed and more than capable of carrying their own novel. They exist as separate people constructs from Rune, and that independence from the main character and main storyline is not something a lot of authors can pull off.

Don’t Arcana ever just try therapy?”

And more than anything we’ve seen yet, The Eidolon makes it clear that Quinn, Max and Anna are only going to become more and more important to the overarching story Edwards is telling. We’ve seen them growing into themselves, sure – but this book will give you chills as you get glimpses of what exactly they’re all growing up to be. What they will be, when they finish growing.

These three will be mythic.

“That’s good,” Max said. “Because if you were doing more than talking to him, I’d name every bone in your body as I broke it.

If spending more time with Quinn and Max and Anna wasn’t incentive enough for you, The Eidolon provides important insight into the workings of New Atlantis, expanding on the brief looks we’ve had in the Sequence. Rune, Brand and Addam have always been passing through when they encounter the misfits of their society, but Quinn, Max and Anna spend a good chunk of time in this book among people Scions would normally never even see, never mind interact with. It’s both worldbuilding and foreshadowing, as well as helping to explain how Lady Time managed to gather the support she did in Hourglass.

Speaking of Lady Time, she feels so much more developed in The Eidolon than she did in Hourglass – we see so much more of her that that’s not really a surprise, but I was surprised at how much my feelings about her changed after this book. I went from thinking of her as terrifying to feeling…wary contempt, is the best way I can think of to put it. Is she dangerous? Yes. But there’s a huge difference between an enemy who is more intelligent than you are…and one who isn’t smart enough to see how their arrogance blinds them.

Which is interesting, but what made the bottom drop out of my stomach was realising what reframing her like this meant, in terms of the greater story. We know from the Sequence that Rune and his family have other, longer-term enemies to eventually deal with, but Hourglass portrayed Lady Time as a great and terrifying threat. And she is! But if you’re paying attention (and seriously, are any of us fans not going over every line with a magnifying glass, at this point??? You should see my conspiracy theory board) Eidolon kind of…zooms out a little (by zooming in, and yes, I know that sounds contradictory, read it and you’ll see what I mean!) to show us just how small Lady Time actually is. In terms of the bigger picture, she is pathetic. She is nothing.

…Hi, that is utterly terrifying. If she is small, what in the RIVER’S NAME does that say about the behind-the-scenes enemies we haven’t seen unmasked yet?!

And I know I’ve said this already, but dear GODS, the number (and nature!) of the bombshells we get in this book!!! About the worldbuilding, about the Arcana, about our favourite kids, about things I cannot mention because SPOILERS…!!! I have yet to speak to anyone who didn’t completely lose it over Eidolon‘s two epilogues!

BECAUSE. YOU KNOW. ONE HEART ATTACK WAS NOT ENOUGH, OBVIOUSLY!

*shakes fist at KD*

“I haven’t forgotten you, you stupid first-act gun,” Max murmured to [REDACTED].

In conclusion? I don’t consider The Eidolon missable for any Tarot Sequence fan. You absolutely should not start here, but The Eidolon fits together with The Hourglass Throne like yin with yang; they’re both excellent by themselves, but together they interlock to form something impossibly great. We are all so much richer for it!

“I love you all. I have lived lifetimes with you in my head. They were good lives.”

One meaning of ‘eidolon’ is ‘an idealised person or thing’, and I am here to tell you that The Eidolon is perfectly named; it is ideal in every possible way. It made me laugh and gasp and shriek, it had me taking SO MANY NOTES for my theory board, it gave me TWO SEPARATE HEART ATTACKS, and it made me feel incredibly loved (especially the inclusion of one particular Easter egg <3). It made me RABID for the next book, and I adored every word of it!

These kids are going to be legends, and this is their story.

The Eidolon is available as an ebook and audiobook this coming Tuesday. Don’t miss it!

The post Gonna Be Legends, Already Legendary: The Eidolon by K.D. Edwards appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.