Siavahda's Blog, page 9

Not Quite Swept Away: When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, New Adult, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay Boricua MC with asthma, M/M, secondary Desi character with dwarfism
PoV: 1st-person, past-tense
Published on: 29th April 2025
ISBN: 1645661571
Goodreads

In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River.

More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.

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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~blacksmithing is a superpower
~don’t mess with the Currents
~the MOST STUNNING illustrations
~history isn’t sweet
~but true love is

When the Tides Held the Moon is the wish-fulfilment fantasy white readers have had many times before, retold to centre the BIPOC immigrant experience. So while, sure, it’s a little predictable – beat-for-beat, we’ve read this story before – I think it’s still doing something important.

(Besides, white readers aren’t the only ones who deserve indulgent wish-fulfilment!)

Kelley has clearly done a lot of research into the time period – the book is set in 1911 – and specifically into the parts that don’t make it into conventional history books. The slang made me laugh; the tenement tragedies and workhouse abuses, not so much.

“Well butter my ass and call me toast,” he snorted. “I seen a ton o’ shit in sideshow work, but this takes more than the cake. This takes the whole goldang bakery!”

Quite a lot of the book is like that, a careful balancing act between the depressing racism and xenophobia Benny has to deal with, as a Boricua (Puerto Rican) immigrant, and the found-family and romance. I think When the Moon skews to the softer side – this is a romance! – but Kelley makes sure to never let us forget how rough reality is for these characters, how genuinely bad this part of history was for minority groups and the poor. It’s delicately done.

On the other hand, the clear ‘a happy ending is coming’ vibes woven throughout kept a lot of the awfulness from having much bite. That was probably inevitable, with the kind of romance Kelley was going for. I don’t know if other readers will mind.

I really do not love captor/captive romances, and I wish When the Moon had really examined the fact that, sorry, that is what Benny is, in this scenario. That’s not never mentioned, but it is kind of downplayed; instead, the motif we get is that Benny, too, is caged. By the racism and homophobia of the society he’s in.

Yeeeeeees, I see what you’re saying. I do. But Río is in a literal cage. With people torturing him, and zero privacy. And the cage (or being separated from the ocean) is killing him – again, literally. I can’t help thinking that’s a lot worse. I was pretty angry with Benny for a while; for a surprisingly long time, he’s not even trying to come up with a plan to get Río out. He loses himself in a fantasy, seems to be telling himself things aren’t as bad as they look, that he and Río can somehow continue this indefinitely – ‘this’ meaning exchanging memories, swimming lessons, writing songs together. It’s all genuinely lovely – more on that in a minute – but I’m left wondering how long it would have taken Benny to start doing something if Río hadn’t grown visibly ill.

“I don’t have a choice,” I tried to explain. “In this town, choices are for white men with money, and the rest of us do what we can to get by. When the options are getting sick or shot or thrown in jail, what choices do any of us really have?”

“Do not speak to me of choices when you have not been locked in an iron box,” he said icily. “You have choices, but you are too frightened to make them!”

Actually, it’s really worse than that, because Benny never does actually notice that Río is ill. Río has to tell him. And I’m not inherently opposed to this! I think it’s very believable that Benny would put blinders on and try to pretend everything’s fine, when he’s so happy–

falling in love with Río had changed everything for me, and I’d assumed it had changed everything for him too. At some point, I’d convinced myself he wouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave if he felt like I did. If he knew that staying in the Menagerie meant we could stay together.

Maybe he knew no such thing.

–but I wish we’d had more than this brief moment in a single scene to really delve into that. I would have preferred it become an actual conflict between Benny and Río, that we dig into how selfish love can be (and how blind it can make us to our selfishness), that we wrestle with the fact that being oppressed doesn’t mean you can’t oppress other people. (The Irish immigrants of this period were treated horrifically badly by white Americans, and it didn’t stop them from being racist af to immigrant communities of colour.) I’d have liked more of a realisation that what Benny is doing/has done is deeply wrong, actually. And we didn’t get that, certainly not in any proportionate way.

“I’m choosing us. I’m just trying to be smart about this,,” I said. “If we play our cards right, you won’t have to–“

“By the time you finish being smart, I will be dead.”

It’s a little strange to me that we get a brief mention of Filipino people being kept in cages for ‘freakshows’ like the one Benny ends up working at, but the comparison to Río’s situation isn’t drawn more explicitly. The words ‘slave’ and ‘slavery’ don’t appear anywhere in my review copy, either, which seems like a glaring omission in the historical context. Río is sapient, a person, not an animal – and he’s not ‘just’ been kidnapped and imprisoned, he also has to obey orders under threat of torture. That’s slavery. With the history of Black slavery baked into every aspect of the US, it stretches belief that no one ever brings that up. Especially since it would have been a good argument to raise when Benny is trying to convince potential allies to help him free Río.

But! Despite what you might think (quite fairly, given how much critique I’ve written) I did like When the Tides Held the Moon, and I don’t think it’s a bad book. I think it suffered from its insistence on being soft and feel-good and fairytale-perfect, but I think it is exactly what Kelley set out to write, and that takes skill that deserves acknowledgement.

And for all the power imbalance, the romance really is wonderful. This is where Kelley indisputably shines; the scenes Benny and Río have together are consistently stunning, rich with emotion conveyed through gorgeous prose. Benny’s internal thoughts are often breathlessly poetic; Río constantly says things that could so easily fall flat and cringey, but coming from him feel natural and genuine (and impossibly romantic).

Santa Maria, ayúdame, I prayed. I think I am the fish, and he is the net.

I don’t know if I was as invested in the romance as I was in getting Río out of there, but the love story is, objectively, beautifully written. A little wish-fulfilment-y? A bit too fairytale-perfect? Maybe – your mileage will vary; I suspect it will depend on each individual reader’s taste in romance. But I also think that most people who’ll be drawn to this book will be very happy with Benny and Río. And whatever else – even taking the power imbalance into consideration! – Kelley manages to absolutely convince you of what Benny and Río feel for each other. That’s really the most important part of a romance, I think; everything else is secondary to that. And so it’s actually pretty easy to let go of my nitpicking, to forgive the plot beats I can see coming from a mile away, because I 100% bought into the love story at the heart of it all.

Learning to love like learning to swim, until each night in the tank with Río felt like being consecrated by forty tons of holy water.

I’m probably the person least qualified to comment on Benny’s identity and authenticity and whatnot, but I did want to address Kelley’s use of Puerto Rican Spanish throughout. Because up until now, I have not had a good time with books that mixed the character’s native language into their internal monologue. Some of this is definitely me: I have Dumb Brain Stuff about foreign-to-me languages, they make me panic, etc. But I did not have a problem with When the Tides Held the Moon. And not because the Spanish is hardly there; there’s plenty of it, at least by my monolingual standard. But for ONCE, I actually could mostly figure out what was said or meant from context! And anything I couldn’t – there’s a glossary at the back of the book. Which there usually isn’t. And I understand the arguments against having glossaries for real languages like Spanish; I’m not arguing against them. But I am saying that I really, really appreciated how clear Benny’s meaning always was to me, and I also appreciate the glossary (even if I didn’t use it while reading; I didn’t know it was there until I finished the book). So if, fellow English-only readers, you are hesitant about picking up a book where you will be running into a fair bit of a language you don’t speak – this is the best example of that I’ve ever seen, and I don’t think you need to be nervous at all.

The sight of him ripped up everything I thought I understood about creation. One look at him and you had to wonder if the guys who wrote the Bible had been selling God short the whole time.

Another thing I want to give Kelley so many points for is their mermaids! Not just the visual design – although that is fantastic, and gorgeous, as you can see on the cover (Kelley was their own cover artist!) and in the illustrations throughout the book. But the worldbuilding of the mer, too. There’s not chapters and chapters of it, but the lore is more extensive than I was expecting, and a lot more interesting. There’s the belief in the Currents, which is somewhere between a religion and a philosophy; there’s the various magical abilities the mer have, some of which I’ve never seen before (and massively approve of!); we get insight into how mer arrange their families and social groups, their views on gender, and how completely they separate sex from romance. It’s all fascinating, and I was delighted with how much thought clearly went into every aspect of it, from mer colouration to their magic.

The ending bothered me a little – not the cinematic drama of it all, that was very in keeping with the book’s vibe, but the final-moment reveal. The groundwork was laid for it, I’d predicted it (and I’m sure most others will too), but the reveal itself ended up being confusing, kind of ambiguous. It comes down to a single sentence that contradicts what I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to have thought was happening? I thought the sentence might have been cut from the final copy (I read an arc, after all) but I checked, and no, it’s still there. Which means I’m no longer sure what the big reveal was.

MAJOR spoiler under the cut: [View post to see spoiler]

Ultimately, I was not swept away by these tides, even though I badly wanted to be. But it’s a lovely book nonetheless, and honestly, the illustrations alone are worth the price of admission – I cannot exaggerate how ridiculously stunning they are; the art for this book exceeds every hope I had! I think readers with more of a taste for fairytale-type romances will enjoy this much more than I did, but I did enjoy it, and I’m glad I read it.

Mermaid by Yuri Arcurs Photography

The post Not Quite Swept Away: When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Soulshaking SFF For My 1000th Post!

Mermaid by Yuri Arcurs Photography

How the stars have aligned! It’s the start of Wyrd & Wonder; it’s May Day, aka Beltane, one of the most magical days of the year; AND it is MY THOUSANDTH POST DAY!

It is WILD to me that I’ve written so many posts. It’s wild that I’m still HERE, blogging – EBaD wasn’t my first attempt at running a book blog, but with all my previous attempts, I never stuck with it for very long. NOW LOOK! 1000 posts in almost-six years! Including–

354 reviews.

235 Must-Have Mondays.

164 Can’t Wait Wednesdays.

6 Unmissable Lists.

This weird little blog has come so far since I started. I’m so happy that so many people get something out of what I write; EBaD is niche as hells (niche taste in books, reviews 10x longer than anything most people want to read, so much swearing) and honestly, I’m amazed ANY of you are here at all BUT HI, THERE’S SPACE IN THE NICHE FOR ALL OF US, BE WELCOME!

The Must-Have Mondays have been such a success, and between those and the Can’t Wait Wednesdays, EBaD has given me structure that helps manage my various brain issues. Putting together, and updating, the Unmissable lists is so much fun. I love love love getting to review and boost incredible books, especially the ones that aren’t so well-known!

And besides making some fantastic friends (and acquaintances; so many people I’m not super close to, but am so happy to have in my social sphere!), learning plenty about Internety Things like hosting and seo and all kinds of analytics… I’ve opened books and found my reviews quoted in the Praise For section! That is a real thing that has happened!!! More than once!!! Meep, I still tear up when I think about it, LET’S TAKE A BRIEF PAUSE.

…Now how about we get to the part of this post that might be of interest to the rest of you, instead of me just rambling on?

Soulshakers

There are lots and lots and LOTS of books that I love. I’m constantly describing things as ‘an all-time favourite’ or ‘a new favourite’. For all that I’m picky af, I find new books to love all the time.

I’ve talked once or twice before about my Crescent Classics, the SFF that I think stands above the rest, that everyone should read. But there’s another, much smaller category within my favourites. I like to call them soulshakers – the books that are perfect. The books that feel like you were born to read them. The books you’re shy to recommend because sharing them is intimate, is like putting your heart into someone’s hands.

But I wouldn’t be writing a blog if I didn’t mind oversharing.

In no particular order, these are my soulshakers. I hope you’ll love them too.

Metal from Heaven by August Clarke
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC, multiple lesbian secondary characters
Goodreads

For fans of  The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody  lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare.

He who controls ichorite controls the world.

A malleable metal more durable than steel, ichorite is a toxic natural resource fueling national growth, and ambitious industrialist Yann Chauncey helms production of this miraculous ore. Working his foundry is an underclass of destitute workers, struggling to get better wages and proper medical treatment for those exposed to ichorite’s debilitating effects since birth.

One of those luster-touched victims, the child worker Marney Honeycutt, is picketing with her family and best friend when a bloody tragedy unfolds. Chauncey’s strikebreakers open fire.

Only Marney survives.

A decade later, as Yann Chauncey searches for a suitable political marriage for his ward, Marney sees the perfect opportunity for revenge. With the help of radical bandits and their stolen wealth, she must masquerade as an aristocrat to win over the calculating Gossamer Chauncey and kill the man who slaughtered her family and friends. But she is not the only suitor after Lady Gossamer’s hand, leading her to play twisted elitist games of intrigue. And Marney’s luster-touched connection to the mysterious resource and its foundry might put her in grave danger—or save her from it.

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal from Heaven is a punk-rock murder ballad tackling labor issues and radical empowerment against the relentless grind of capitalism.

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Metal From Heaven is the opposite of a lobotomy: it’s the euphoria of a eureka moment, a galaxy-brain flash that goes on and on and on. I’m far from the only one to call it feverish, hallucinogenic, decadent, a wildly queer anarchist hymn and war cry. Marney is so completely fucked up, I want to lick the worldbuilding like frosting from the bowl, the prose is a bejewelled neon feast. It’s feral and vicious and gorgeous, a gem-studded knuckleduster, and if you can’t keep up it’ll leave you in the dust. There’s so many layers and it’s so damn vivid and it’s true like a punch to the throat. This book will radicalise you.

Every word of it is perfect.

My review!

Saint Death's Daughter (Saint Death, #1) by C.S.E. Cooney
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Brown pansexual MC, nonbinary love interest, queerplatonic-coded F/F
Goodreads

Fun, froofy and glorious: a coming-of-age story in a new trilogy from World Fantasy Award-winning author C.S.E. Cooney.

Nothing complicates life like Death.

Lanie Stones, the daughter of the Royal Assassin and Chief Executioner of Liriat, has never led a normal life. Born with a gift for necromancy and a literal allergy to violence, she was raised in isolation in the family’s crumbling mansion by her oldest friend, the ancient revenant Goody Graves.

When her parents are murdered, it falls on Lanie and her cheerfully psychotic sister Nita to settle their extensive debts or lose their ancestral home—and Goody with it. Appeals to Liriat's ruler to protect them fall on indifferent ears… until she, too, is murdered, throwing the nation's future into doubt.

Hunted by Liriat’s enemies, hounded by her family’s creditors and terrorised by the ghost of her great-grandfather, Lanie will need more than luck to get through the next few months—but when the goddess of Death is on your side, anything is possible.

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Saint Death’s Daughter is a firework, bright and glittering, rapturous, athegravegant and ornate and overjoyed. It uses necromancy as a paean to Life and Living and Love, takes on so many of the genre conventions with a necromancer who’s allergic to violence – physically, literally allergic! – and subverts everything it doesn’t remake entirely. There are so many glorious footnotes. It looks like something familiar, but instead it’s something new and fresh and sparkling; your fingertips fizz when you touch its pages. It’s an antidote to cynicism without giving up one drop of its dizzying, dazzling richness. It’s so incredibly joyful; it revels in itself, and invites you into the revel too. Every sentence is a poem, every page a dream I don’t want to wake from.

Every word is perfect.

My review!

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: Bisexual MC, minor BIPOC characters
Goodreads

Radiance is a decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood-and solar system-very different from our own, from Catherynne M. Valente, the phenomenal talent behind the New York Timesbestselling The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets. Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe.

But her latest film, which investigates the disappearance of a diving colony on a watery Venus populated by island-sized alien creatures, will be her last. Though her crew limps home to earth and her story is preserved by the colony's last survivor, Severin will never return.

Told using techniques from reality TV, classic film, gossip magazines, and meta-fictional narrative, Radiance is a solar system-spanning story of love, exploration, family, loss, quantum physics, and silent film.

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Radiance is a starship sailing into wonders unknown and unthought of, bright in opalescent black and white, with endless possibilities in its galaxy-studded silences. It is the odd one out on this list because it is the odd one out on any list, every list, because it has no interest at all in being like anybody else, not in form or genre or plot or worldbuilding. It is a shapeshifter, more multi-faceted than any jewel: fairytale and noir and gossip column, Sappho’s poetry alongside interviews and radio scripts, Gothic drama and documentary, all wrapped up in a decopunk fantasia of space travel. It is decadent with stories, overflowing with stories, and you can say that of many of Valente’s books (Orphan Tales, most obviously, but Palimpsest and Refridgerator Monologues too) but this is the one that is most unafraidly, fantastically, splendidly strange.

Every word is perfect.

Kushiel's Legacy: Kushiel's Dart / Kushiel's Chosen / Kushiel's Avatar (Phèdre's Trilogy #1-3) by Jacqueline Carey
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, secondary Roma-coded character, queernorm setting
Goodreads

The first trilogy in Jacqueline Carey's sprawling—and darkly sensual—New York Times bestselling series.

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a tale of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies.

Kushiel’s Dart — Phèdre nó Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with a very special mission...and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Kushiel’s Chosen — The hands of the gods weigh heavily upon Phèdre's brow, and they are not finished with her. While the young queen who sits upon the throne is well loved by the people, there are those who believe another should wear the crown...

Kushiel’s Avatar — Phèdre and Joscelin journey on a dangerous path that will carry them to fabled courts and splendid vistas, to distant lands where madness reigns and souls are currency, and down a fabled river to a land forgotten by most of the world. And to a power so mighty that none dare speak its name.

Kushiel's Legacy
Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Chosen
Kushiel's Avatar

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Phedre’s Trilogy – Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Chosen, Kushiel’s Avatar – is a depthless treasure casket, luxurious prose and worldbuilding forming a parure with one of the unlikeliest heroines I’ve ever come across. These books are velvet and cream, spun sugar and ice, the burning glory of the divine gilding every impossible line. The intensity is almost impossible. This is High Fantasy that spirals into Epic Fantasy – the fate of kingdoms becoming the fate of the world – where the intrigue of gods is even more complex than that of mortals playing for thrones. It’s an exploration, examination of just how merciless a law is love as thou wilt; it’s a breathtaking substantiation on love as a fifth fundamental force.

Every word is perfect.

The Mercy Makers (The Moon Heresies, #1) by Tessa Gratton
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown bisexual MC, queernorm setting
Published on: 17th June 2025
Goodreads

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

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

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

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

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The Mercy Makers is a nebula of silk and light and magic, auroric, birthing star after star after star. It is lushly hedonistic in prose and imagery and imagination – it is so sinfully indulgent in its imagining, resplendent with it, exulting in it, triumphant in its gorgeous glory. Every line says bigger, stranger, more beautiful, more: every page goes further, pouring wonders between your hands, into your mind, stealing your heart while you’re distracted with them. This is a book in love with the act of creation, silken and intricate, lips parted and teeth bared, every sentence a seduction.

Every word is perfect.

What are some of your soulshakers?

The post Soulshaking SFF For My 1000th Post! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

In Short: April

The first half of April kinda got eaten by the worst fibro flare I’ve had in years – but to make up for it, I’ve had some amazingly good days in the last couple weeks, so. I’ll take it?

ARCs Received

Four of these were from publishers I’m auto-approved for, so they didn’t involve placing requests, but that does not make them less exciting! (All the first four.) Most of this month’s authors are new to me – I’ve read Mia Tsai and Hiron Ennes’ debuts, and the first two books in Karin Lowachee’s Crowns of Ishia trilogy, but the rest are gambles. Fingers crossed all eight are awesome!

Read

20 books read this month! Exactly the same as in March, which is kind of interesting in that I can’t remember the last time I had two months with the same number of books read.

The Iron Below Remembers is an incredible alt-history packed full of brilliant footnotes, superhero drama, and archaeology mysteries. *chef’s kiss* A King’s Trust proved romantasy can be fantastic (I was starting to wonder), and Little Wolf and the Witch was low on magic but high on Adult Characters With Functioning Braincells. Much appreciated! And as is obvious (if you can make out the book covers, anyway) Cherryh’s Foreigner series took over most of the rest of my reading a little bit! I regret nothing.

So You Want To Be A Robot was technically a reread, but it’s a new edition with an additional story; regardless, I absolutely adored it, again. Same with Saint Death’s Herald; I might actually have enjoyed it more this second time around. I definitely appreciated The Black Tides of Heaven more than when I last read it years ago – think I should reread the whole Tensorate series.

Reviewed

My fibro flare messed up my review-writing big time, but I’m pretty happy with how the Herald review came out, at least. (The reviews for When the Tide Held the Moon and Brighter Than Scale will go live next month.)

DNFed

Library at Hellebore is excellent, and Disco Witches of Fire Island might be great! It’s just that I’m too much of a wimp for Hellebore, and I’m not the right reader for Disco Witches.

The others mostly sucked.

ARCs Outstanding

Being badly sick for a chunk of weeks hasn’t helped; I’ve definitely fallen behind in my reading schedule, and I suspect going forward there’s going to be more reviews that appear after a book’s release date, instead of before. I dislike this extremely, but c’est la vie.

Unmissable SFF Updates

Alas, I had to remove several books from the list whose releases have been pushed back to next year. So it goes! I’m sure they’ll be great when we get them. And of course, there were a couple of new covers revealed. But that brings us to a total of 81 Unmissables!

How did my predictions/anticipated reads for April go? I declared ten books Unmissable for this month, and–

two were five-star reads (The Raven Scholar and Saint Death’s Herald)one was a four-star read (Drop of Corruption)one was a three-and-a-half star read (When the Tides Held the Moon)six I haven’t finished yet (Unsex Me Here, Somadina, Eat the Ones You Love, and Awakened)two I haven’t started yet (Faithbreaker and Don’t Sleep With the Dead)

Of the ones I read, a great mix! But wow, that’s a lot of Unmissables to not finish, or not even GET to in release month. That’s not happened before since I started tracking them…huh.

Misc

A lot of my blogging time this month went towards preparing for Wyrd & Wonder next month (tomorrow!) And even more went into…something that I should be posting tomorrow, hopefully! It’s been a lot of fun – even if I’ve also been obsessing over both the W&W stuff and the surprise-thing way too much.

Looking Forward

May is the most crowded month on my book-releases calendar so far – there’s three or four books I’m interested in EVERY WEEK! But these eight are at the top of my must-haves: Starving Saints, which sounds deeply, excitingly weird; Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil – also weird, but in a much more light-hearted way; cosy ocean scifi Letter From the Lonesome Shore; Amplitudes, a queer SFF collection from my favourite indie; Overgrowth, about a baby alien no one believes is an alien until the invasion arrives; and Sun Blessed Prince, which I’m hoping justifies its comps to Song of Achilles. Plus, two very different takes on magic schools – Incandescent, Emily Debut’s sophomore novel about a magic school deputy-headmistress; and Grimore Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, which is from the perspective of a parent who’s kid has to suddenly go to magic school.

Wishing us all a magnificent May!

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

April DNFs

Just six DNFs this month! Mostly arcs, several that were great but just not for me, a couple that seemed genuinely Not Great.

A Palace Near the Wind (Natural Engines, #1) by Ai Jiang
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 8th April 2025
ISBN: 1803369396
Goodreads

From a rising star author, a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression and rebellion for readers of Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Neon Yang's The Black Tides of Heaven and Kritika H. Rao's The Surviving Sky

Sometimes called Wind Walkers for their ability to command the wind, unlike their human rulers, the Feng people have bark faces, carved limbs, arms of braided branches, and hair of needle threads. 

Bound by duty and tradition, Liu Lufeng, the eldest princess of the Feng royalty, is the next bride to the human king. The negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop the expansion of the humans so that the Feng can keep their lands, people, and culture intact. As the eldest, Lufeng should be the next in line to lead the people of Feng, and in the past, that made her sisters disposable. Thankful that her youngest sister, Chuiliu, is too young for a sacrificial marriage, she steps in with plans to kill the king to finally stop the marriages.

But when she starts to uncover the truth about her peoples' origins and realizes Chuiliu will never be safe from the humans, she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate.

A powerfully imaginative, compelling story of a young woman seeking to save her family and her home, as well as a devastating meditation on the destruction of the natural world for the sake of an industrial future.

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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Very confused about who that’s supposed to be on the cover, since our MC is a dryad-type creature, but okay.

I could not deal with the very awkward, overwritten prose, and I have receipts. (Some of these may be types that get fixed in the published version, but I’m pretty sure most of them are not.)

In a scattered line, the leavers walked towards the Palace.

Got to be honest, I’ve never heard ‘the people who are leaving’ described as ‘leavers’ before and I hate it.

Grandmother raised an arm over my chest, untouching.

Untouching?

Perhaps it was the ominous air he gave about him,

He gave an air? Not emanated/gave off/carried???

crafted items sat within transparent, sharp-edged encasings.

Encasings? And what do these ‘encasings’ look like, pray tell?

To think my sisters had such glorified imaginations of this place and its people.

They have imaginations of these people, not imaginings?

Similar to the guards,

‘Like the guards.’

They were finished for the day, but they knew a member would leave them.

‘Member’ here meaning ‘one of their group’.

I tugged a metal keeper used to store different items over my carvings.

I have no idea what a keeper is or what it looks like. A box? A wardrobe? A chest of drawers?

Suspicion tingled at the bottoms of my feet.

I’m sorry, your suspicion what?

The paintings of Land Wanderers lining the corridor followed my quiet steps with their seemingly moving irises,

Their ‘seemingly moving irises’???

Even if the prose had been better, this book is still swamped in issues. I spent most of my time reading it very confused: are the MC’s people and the palace right next to each other? Is it really a single palace that is swallowing up the would, or is it a city? What do the humans get out of their king marrying a dryad every few years? We’re constantly getting proper nouns that aren’t explained or described, even when characters interact with them (see the quote above about the ‘keeper’). I almost never knew what I was supposed to picture. Or how long was passing – what’s a ‘cycle’? Or a ‘phase’? I thought the former might be a season or even a year, but that didn’t sound right from context, and ‘phase’ doesn’t seem to line up with a lunar month, so???

Bonus: we kept getting statements that were contradicted just a few sentences later, like how the Feng don’t drink tea – except when they do! The moonbugs are the Feng’s companions – except the Feng eat them sometimes!

And I was really hoping for a more nuanced take than ‘progress/industrialisation = evil, nature = good’. What is it with Fantasy idealising nature? Nature isn’t intrinsically good! (It’s not bad either, it just IS.) It certainly isn’t sweet and gentle and serene. Nature is starving to death in winter, or dying of things we can cure or fix; nature is no wheels, no medicine, no plumbing, no heating, no art. Something being ‘natural’ does not at all mean it is better than the alternatives.

That is not me arguing for endless industrialization either. Absolutely not. Destroying the environment is deeply wrong (and deeply stupid). An obsession with ‘progress’ is something I think future generations will dub a mental illness. But the answer is balance, not unmaking (or demonising!) human civilization.

Aside from everything else, Nature vs Industrialisation where the latter is Super Bad is very boring at this point.

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror
Representation: Asian American MC
Published on: 22nd July 2025
Goodreads

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six who are hungry for something a little more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.
But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

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 have to DNF this, but not because it’s bad! It is, like all of Khaw’s writing, freaking phenomenal – sharp, glittering, brutal.

…it’s just too scary for me! I have been desperately trying to enjoy Khaw’s horror since I fell in love with their sci fi All-Consuming World, but I think it’s time to admit I’m just FAR too much of a wimp! Alas.

The set-up is fantastic, and the characters are all messed-up or unlikeable in interesting and entertaining ways – in just a few chapters, I fell HARD for our main character, who is ruthless and wary and full of sharp edges, and every other character was vivid and – just ALIVE. I was hungry for everyone’s backstories, and fascinated by the huge plethora of magics Khaw has come up with here – we have a literal son of Satan, but also necromancers, family lines dedicated (or maybe owned?) by things calling themselves gods, spider-girls…magnifique!

And the horror is HORRIFYING – I doubt I’m the only one who’s going to be kept awake late at night by the horrors Khaw has pyrographed into my brain. It’s not just the graphic ick, although there’s plenty of that (I specify ick rather than gore, because of course there is gore, but gore is not intrinsically nauseating or even disturbing (in fiction!) unless you’re very sensitive to it. Ick is the stuff that makes you nauseated, that makes your skin crawl, that has you whispering ‘no no no NO’ to yourself as you brace yourself to turn the page. AND THERE IS SO MUCH OF IT HERE.) There’s so much – in the backstories, the emotion, the situation – that claws at your heart. This is the kind of horror that makes you hide under a pillow and yell ‘I REFUSE THE REALITY WHERE THIS EXISTS.’ Because it’s not just terrifying, it hurts. It’s the tragedy and the broken hopefulness, the desperation to be loved, the desperation to LIVE when you’re pretty certain no one is getting out alive.

I would love to know what happens, how this ends. But I think I would need a whole new level of therapy if I continued reading. (This is a compliment.)

KUDOS, KHAW. I wish I was badass enough to read your stuff!

The Secret Market of the Dead by Giovanni De Feo
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 8th July 2025
Goodreads

An “enthralling” (Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library and Elusive) Italian-inspired gothic historical fantasy about a young woman who finds her power in the nocturnal realm that lurks beneath her town.

Just beyond the waking edges of Lucerìa, an 18th-century town in the kingdom of Naples, lies the an enigmatic fiefdom governed by seven immortals and fueled by Moira, the power to reshape one’s destiny.

On this porous border separating Day from Night, Oriana spends her time fantasizing about becoming a smith in her father’s forge and eavesdropping on whispered tales of beasts and men who roam the nocturnal realm. But in the Night, these stories come alive, as Oriana saw for herself after she inadvertently trespassed into the Secret Market of the Dead, where vendors hawk Moira to those desperate enough to accept its immeasurably steep price.

Years later, when her father chooses her twin brother to succeed him, Oriana challenges her sibling to a series of trials to determine the forge’s true heir. But as the twins’ fierce competition escalates, with the town and her own family set firmly against her, Oriana realizes that to break free from the stifling confines of Day, she must once again embrace the Night—and, as always, everything comes with a cost.

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 think this could have been absolutely amazing had it been written in the style of Tanith Lee’s Night’s Master, a series of interconnected short stories revolving around the Market. Because when Feo gets to write about the strangeness, about all things Night – those were easily the best parts of the book. There’s a folkloric feel to it all, but also a ton of unique creativity that lets loose with the otherworldly imagery, the borderline horror-fantasy elements. Feo is unafraid to be weird – there’s a moment when a cloak of eyes grows countless eyelashes and uses them to fly its wearer, and it was SUPERB! The passages that were about the Market and its denizens, that were describing the bizarre and magical things Oriana saw and experienced – that was all pretty great.

(Pretty great. Bits of it were underwhelming: I was expecting much more pizzazz from the Parliament of Cats, and I didn’t find the allure of Moira convincing for a moment. Since both of those were pretty big deals, that was disappointing.)

The problem for me was twofold: first, I found the writing rhythm just a little off. Years of trying to explain this has convinced me that most readers have no idea what I’m talking about, so this is very unlikely to bother anyone else. For me, it’s as if a piece of music is slightly out of tune – that becomes most of what I can hear, and I can’t appreciate the music itself because some part of my brain can’t let it go. Here and there the phrasing struck me as out of place, or incorrect, or jarring; the dialogue felt flat and false, and whenever we had a stretch of telling-not-showing I wanted to twitch, because the prose just…didn’t flow naturally.

Can’t explain it any better than that, but if you haven’t experienced a similar thing with other books, don’t worry about it, this is an issue most readers clearly don’t have.

The other problem, the one other readers might actually experience too, is that all of the lovely strangeness is bogged down in the very mundane real world. Oriana’s home life made my blood boil – her parents are awful and her twin is a traitor, they can all take a long walk off a short pier – but it was also incredibly boring. That Oriana is so young – eight, maybe, for the first chunk of the book? I assume there’ll be a timeskip at some point where we get to see her older, but – you can have Adult stories that have a young protagonist. It’s difficult (or maybe just rare?) but it can be done. Oriana’s perspective, unfortunately, left this book with a very Young Adult feel that I did not want or sign up for.

I think this would have worked much better as a series of linked short stories than it does as a novel; if the Day parts had been skimmed over rather than given so much pagetime. The Night is where all the appeal of this story is, and it was kind of a waste of time to show us anything else. Especially when it was so clear that Feo, also, was pretty bored with the Day parts and just felt they had to be in there.

And I just don’t feel any urge to continue. Oriana doesn’t wow or interest me as a character, and I never really engaged with her; I don’t care where her story is going. I wouldn’t mind learning more about the Market, about the Night, but with the prose rhythm making me twitch…I’m not willing to keep twitching all the way through.

Great imagination, and prose that won’t bother most other readers. The Secret Market of the Dead is…fine? But I don’t love it, and I don’t have time for books I feel this meh about.

Fatal Shadow (Champions of Fate #1) by Noel Coughlan
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Representation: Black cast
ISBN: 1910206180
Goodreads

Long ago, magic cracked apart the world and suspended great continents between two suns. But the ebb and flow of human history continues. Trade and war cross the void on dragon wings. Great empires rise and topple…

As the rightful heir to one such fallen state, Drinith has known only exile, dashed hope, and constant threat. She has so far eluded the murderous intentions of the tyrant Magian the Infinite thanks to the prophetic visions of the oracle, Quiescat, but his power is failing. All he can glimpse in the future now is his own death.

An assassin’s blade forces her into a desperate gamble. She takes her one final chance to secure the ally she so desperately needs. But at the end of her journey, she’ll find deceit, betrayal, and murder. And she’ll learn Magian isn’t the only threat to her people.

Fatal Shadow is the first of six books in the Champions of Fate series, an epic fantasy packed with fast-paced action, intriguing characters, and imaginative world-building.

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A seer has a vision of an assassination, and warns the victim, the queen. For political/cultural reasons, they’re not going to stop the assassin before he attacks, they’re going to have the queen fight him off. That’s eyebrow-raising, but okay, I’ll accept it.

Since they know from the vision how the attack will go, the warmaster person comes up with a sequence of moves to counter that attack and that attack only. Which makes no sense – you presumably know the future can be changed, why on earth would you go ahead as if the assassin won’t alter a single twitch from what was foreseen? – but then, Because Vision, the warmaster decides the queen doesn’t need to wear mail.

Because she’s perfectly safe.

Because of the vision you are making sure does not come true.

No one with any martial experience whatsoever – including childhood pillowfights! – would allow his QUEEN to NOT WEAR ARMOUR for an ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION.

No. Absolutely not. This is on PAGE TWO. If we’re getting this level of Unforgivable Dumb this early I dread to think what nonsense we’ll have later. You don’t need to make your characters dumb as rocks to have big dramatic moments! An assassination is already set up to be dramatic! What the hell!

Gods damn it, I was really hoping this would be epic.

Aurethia Rising by atlas laika
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: M/M, (trans MC?), queernorm setting
Published on: 6th May 2025
Goodreads

Two centuries ago, House Henly of Aurethia and House Volkov of Griea penned an engagement, promising a union between rival houses and their respective homeworlds.

Elio Henly has been preparing for marriage his entire life. As the Henly heir and future steward of Aurethia, he will inherit great power, including control of a lucrative trade route, and ownership of the most precious substance in the Greater Universe — Avara. The mysterious blue crystal native to Aurethia is the sole treatment for parsec sickness, an epidemic ravaging space travelers within the Greater Universe. But when he meets Cael Volkov, the charming heir of the outfitted military planet, Griea, everything he thought he knew about his homeworld, his family, and his heart is turned upside down.

Cael Volkov has been raised to conquer. Champion in the Tupinaire, commander of the Royal Reserve, and son to the mighty Legatus, Cael knows his mission is gain the Aurethian heir’s trust, learn everything he can about the forest moon, and prepare to take it by force. But the longer he spends with Elio Henly, the quiet, brilliant Aurethian prince, the more he questions everything he was taught, and begins to push back against the rhetoric seeded in him by a lust for vengeance.

Aurethia Rising is an Achillean Space Opera with a happily ever after promise. Content warnings are available inside the novel.

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Massively overwritten, to a cringe-inducing level. Occasionally the actual meaning of the sentence isn’t the one the author clearly intends (from context). I have no patience for this sort of thing, so nope, hard DNF. (I didn’t even make it to the second chapter, ffs.)

the extravagant manor punched a partial hole in the horizon

‘a partial hole’?

Today was his eighteenth birthday. He pushed the pungent taste of destiny down his throat.

…he what.

realizing his life would radically change the very moment he crossed the threshold between classified child and perceived adult.

I get what you’re trying to say, but no.

the inevitable snapped like a twig.

…I’ve spun this about in my head every which-way, but it still doesn’t make sense as a sentence. If the inevitable snaps, doesn’t that mean it breaks? As in, doesn’t happen? (In context, the author is saying ‘the inevitable happened/arrived’.)

the impossible undercurrent of what the next day might bring

What is an impossible undercurrent?

Nooooooooo thank you!

Disco Witches of Fire Island: A Novel by Blair Fell
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Gay MCs, secondary Black characters
Published on: 6th May 2025
Goodreads

In the late 1980s, a coven of queer witches on New York's Fire Island strives to protect a young man facing a devastating tragedy.

A gripping novel of magic, romance, and hope—perfect for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea, the Tales of the City series, and Red, White, and Royal Blue.

It’s 1989, and Joe Agabian and his best friend Ronnie set out to spend their first summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island Pines. Joe is desperate to let loose and finally move beyond the heartbreak of having lost his boyfriend to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The two friends are quickly taken in by a pair of quirky, older house cleaners. But something seems off, and Joe starts to suspect the two older men of being up to something otherworldly. In truth, Howie and Lenny are members of a secret disco witch coven tasked with protecting the island—and young men like Joe—from the relentless tragedies ravaging their community. The only problem is, having lost too many of their fellow witches to the epidemic, the coven’s protective powers have been seriously damaged.

Unaware of all the mystical shenanigans going on, Joe starts to fall for the super-cute bisexual ferryman who just happens to have webbed feet and an unusual ability to hold his breath underwater. But Joe’s longing to find love is tripped up by his own troublesome past as well as the lure of a mysterious hunk he keeps seeing around the island—a man Howie and Lenny warn may be a harbinger of impending doom.

The Disco Witches need to find help—fast—if they’re to save Joe and the island from the Great Darkness. But how? Fans of queer romances with a dash of fantasy will fall in love with this stunning novel of community, love, sex, magic, and hope in desperate times.

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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Nothing wrong with this one whatsoever, I’m just not the intended audience. I think the right reader will find this hysterical and poignant; for me it was the wrong flavour of silly, the prose is too simple, and I found the characters pretty one-note and uninteresting. And while it’s possible it becomes more Urban Fantasy later, what I read (the first 20%) was closer to magical realism, which doesn’t interest me at all.

Readers who already have an interest in the queer culture of the time period – and especially in Fire Island – should have much more fun than I did, especially if you appreciate the sort of tongue-in-cheek humour Fell’s going for here. (I have a vague suspicion that there’s something like satire going on – not satire, but like satire, playing around with stereotypes and such very deliberately – that I’m not smart enough to understand or appreciate.)

Did you have any DNFs this month?

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

Must-Have Monday #234

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

THIRTEEN books this week!

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

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer Boricua MC with asthma, M/M, secondary Desi character with dwarfism
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River.

More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.

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Beautifully written AND gorgeously illustrated, my early copy has been giving me all the Feels! Would also like to draw special attention to Kelley’s mer-lore, which is relatively simple but really great!

Awakened by A.E. Osworth
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans cast, BIPOC trans MCs
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

A coven of trans witches battles an evil AI in the magical coming-of-middle-age romp about love, loss, drag shows, and late capitalism. ​

On a morning much like any other, 30-something queer Brooklynite Wilder makes the miraculous discovery: suddenly, as if by magic, they can understand every language in the world. Dazed and disconnected, Wilder is found and taken in by a small coven of trans witches who have all become Awakened with mystical powers of their own. Quibble, a handsome portal traveler, Artemis, the group’s caretaker and seer, and Mary Margaret, a smart-ass teen with telekinetic powers all work to make the cagey and suspicious Wilder feel comfortable, both within their group and with the knowledge that magic is, in fact, real.  

Just as Wilder is finding their footing, a malicious AI threatens to dismantle the delicate balance of the coven and the world as they know it. Newly assembled and tenuously bound, the group scrambles to stay united as they parse the difference between difficult and dangerous, asking themselves continuously: is any consciousness—be it artificial, material, or magical—too dangerous to exist?

Awakened is an exhilarating, hilarious and thought-provoking reflection on the ways that we are responsible for creating our own realities , a story of finding community, and a meditation on what it means to have a body (and if it might be far worse never to have had one at all).

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Do you want to read a novel about trans witches figuring out magic, Adulting, and what to do about a sapient AI??? Of course you do, who wouldn’t!

US cover; UK coverThe Floating World (The Floating World, #1) by Axie Oh
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Korean-coded cast and setting
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined...

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I do not know the myth this one was inspired by, but that only makes me more excited!

One Way Witch (She Who Knows #2) by Nnedi Okorafor
Genres: Adult, Science Fantasy
Representation: West African-coded cast and setting
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

Set in the universe Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor first introduced in the World Fantasy Award-winning Who Fears Death, One Way Witch is the second in the She Who Knows trilogy

The world has forgotten Onyesonwu.

As a teen, Najeeba learned to become the beast of wind, fire and the kponyungo. When that took too much from her, including the life of her father, she let it all go, and for a time, she was happy — until only a few years later, when the small, normal life she’d built was violently destroyed. 

Now in her forties and years beyond the death of her second husband, Najeeba has just lost her beloved daughter. Onyesonwu saved the world. Najeeba knows this well, but the world does not. This is how the juju her daughter evoked works. One other person who remembers is Onyesonwu’s teacher Aro, a harsh and hard-headed sorcerer. Najeeba has decided to ask him to teach her the Mystic Points, the powerful heart of sorcery. There is something awful Najeeba needs to kill and the Mystic Points are the only way. Najeeba is truly her daughter’s mother.

When Aro agrees to help, Najeeba is at last ready to forge her future. But first, she must confront her past — for certain memories cannot lie in unmarked graves.

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This seems to be set decades after the first book, but we’re still following Najeeba! It’s going to be so interesting to see how much she’s changed.

Polynesian Myths & Legends: Tales of Heroes, Myths & Monsters by J.K. Jackson
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Polynesian cast and setting
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

The Polynesian triangle covers Easter Island, Hawaii, New Zealand and the many isles in between. The legends of the region are based on the creation of land, fish, sea, valleys and the volcanic outcrops scattered across the long stretches of the Pacific.

The beautiful myths of the ancient Polynesians are brought together in this new collection: from Hawaii the Rainbow Maiden of Manoa undulates through the valleys and rainbow mists; the creator Maui releases his fish hooks into the sea to raise the islands to the surface; and tales of Pele the Fire Goddess, who hurls fountains of molten rock into the air creating vast flows of lava. From the Maori of New Zealand come the strange fruit of darkness, the tales of Tiki and the Great Mother from whom the gods descend, then humankind. And from Polynesia, more legends of Maui creating the ancestors, and Hina the moon goddess. Such myth-making joy creates a rare unity in diversity as the ancient Polynesians strove to explain the beauty and darkness of their lush ocean worlds, now offered in this new selection of myths and legends.

Flame Tree Collector's Editions present the foundations of speculative fiction, authors, myths and tales without which the imaginative literature of the twentieth century would not exist, bringing the best, most influential and most fascinating works of myth and history into a striking and collectable library. Each book features a new introduction and a Glossary of Terms.

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Flame Tree Publishing has created a series of collections of myths they’ve called Flame Tree Collectors’ Editions – there are the more common Greek and Roman myths, but also books collecting stories from the Ancient Near East, Korea, Ancient Egypt, Africa and a bunch of others. Possibly they’ve been out in the UK a while, but now the US is getting them too! I’m most interested in this one, the Polynesian, but I strongly encourage you to check out the whole series!

(In fact, just click around on their website; this is far from their only series on world myths!)

The Sea Gives Up the Dead: Stories by Molly Olguín
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

The Sea Gives Up the Dead is a collection of stories sprinkled into the soil of fairy tale, left to take root and grow wild there.

A lovesick nanny slays a dragon. The devil tries to save her mother. A girl drowns and becomes a saint. Three kids plot to blow up their dad, a grieving mother sails the sea to find her son’s grave, a scientist brings a voice to life, and a mermaid falls into the power of a witch. Here, historical fiction, horror, and fantasy tangle together in a queer garden of love, grief, and longing.

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Fantastical, queer, and clearly weird? I’m in!

Manzakar (The Slave-Soldier Series Book 1) by R. Laham
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Pansexual (?) MC
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

The Gohari are a race of nomadic, pansexual people with inherent magic who are suffering at the hands of the Kingdom of Anzor’s angry god, Cenk. By harnessing the nomads’ skills in horsemanship and archery, Anzor has built a powerful, elite class of slave-soldiers who are above and beyond any other kingdom’s army: the Manzakars.

Sold into slavery to save his nomad family from starving, Tikran becomes a Manzakar believing that they are warriors of justice. However, as he campaigns in Gohar, the land of his birth, he realizes that not only is Anzor using the Manzakars to persecute the nomads, but it’s also exploiting the Gohari by enslaving them and stealing their magic—the Essence—to be the most powerful kingdom on the Continent. As the most celebrated Manzakar in Anzor and the king’s personal bodyguard, Tikran must decide if he’s willing to forfeit his dreams of glory—as well as his own life and the lives of those he loves—to stand up for what he

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I haven’t been able to learn much about this one, but I’m curious enough to want a look!

The Lilac People by Milo Todd
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

For readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam, a moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves

In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin’s thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond, but everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation.

In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies’ vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States.

Brimming with hope, resilience, and the enduring power of community, The Lilac People tells an extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an occluded moment of trans history.

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The reviews for this have been overflowing with praise, and I am EXTREMELY happy to see a novel showcasing a) the Institute of Sexual Science, which I think most people who are not nerds about queer history have never heard of, and b) how fucking awful the Allies were in their ‘clean-up’ of the Nazis’ prisoners.

Love at Second Sight by F.T. Lukens
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: M/M, Hispanic love interest
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

When a teen has an unexpected vision about a future murder, he must juggle newfound interest from the supernatural community with trying to prevent the murder from happening in this new romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author F.T. Lukens.

Tired of being known as the artsy oddball, fifteen-year-old Cam Reynolds hopes to fly under the radar when he changes high schools as a sophomore. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering he’s a human going to school with kids who have super-cool paranormal powers, like his best friend and witch, Al, and longtime werewolf crush, Miguel.

Then Cam has a psychic glimpse of the future in front of most of the student body, seeing a gruesomely murdered teen girl from the point of view of the killer. When Cam comes to, he knows two things: someone he goes to school with is a future murderer and his life is about to change. No longer a mere human but a clairvoyant, one of the rarest of supernatural beings, Cam finds himself at the center of attention for the first time.

As the most powerful supernatural factions in the city court Cam and his gift, he’ll have to work with his friends, both old and new, to figure out who he can trust. Because the clock is ticking, and Cam and his friends must identify the girl in the vision, find her potential killer, and prevent the murder from happening. Or the next murder Cam sees might be his own.

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I think this will be my last try at a Lukens book; if I don’t get along with Second Sight I’ll accept that this author isn’t for me!

Dreamslinger (Slinger #1) by Graci Kim
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Representation: Korean setting (Korean MC?)
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

Amari and the Night Brothers meets Pokémon in this thrilling start to Graci Kim’s brand-new fantasy series where dragons and phoenixes roam the skies of Seoul; meals magically appear based on your mood; and dreams literally come to life

Fourteen-year-old Aria Loveridge lives at the Resthaven Home for Dreamslingers, a safe haven for children born with a genetic mutation that transports them to a powerfully magical realm while they sleep. But this magic can be unpredictable—even deadly. After all, it was only ten years ago when members of the Royal League of Dreamslingers caused the Great Outburst—a tragedy that killed hundreds of people, including Aria’s mom.

Since then, Aria’s dad has become leading expert on Dreamslinger Welfare, which means Aria knows better than most what it takes to keep society safe from her, and others like her: separation, identification, and most importantly, power suppression.

So when the Kingdom of Royal Hanguk—home of the Dreamslinger League—announces the first Dreamslinger trials where teenage slingers from around the world are invited to compete for a chance to join the League and learn how to use their powers, Aria knows what she must join the trials and take down the League from the inside.

But the Trials introduce Aria to a world of wonderous magic and friendship, a world where she finally feels like she belongs. And as dark secrets from the past are revealed—ones that make Aria question her very identity—she becomes even more determined to discover the truth for herself. She just has to survive the trials first.

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Korean magic school where you GROW your beastie companion? Like a flower??? I approve!

Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold (Abeni's Song #2) by P. Djèlí Clark
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Representation: West African and African Diaspora-inspired cast and setting
Published on: 29th April 2025
Goodreads

Return to the world of Abeni's Song in Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold, the action packed sequel by P. Djèlí Clark.

“Lush and magical.” —KWAME MBALIA • “Astonishing.” —MARK OSHIRO • "Abeni's story will sweep you away." —AMANDA FOODY

The Children of the Night are free.

Abeni and her spirit friends rescued them from a terrible fate in the Witch Priest’s army of monsters. But when Abeni is asked to return home to rebuild her village, she refuses. She must carry on with her mission until all of her people are safe.

When Abeni is captured and imprisoned by the legendary Kingdom of Gold Weavers, she must win her freedom by retrieving the mystical Golden Throne—or risk becoming a living statue of gold forever! Legend says the throne is guarded by a dragon who can only be defeated by a magic sword.

But stories are not always what they seem. And the truth can change everything.

To reclaim the throne, Abeni and her spirit companions must travel to a city of light high in the mountains and a lost kingdom beneath the sands, fight frightening monsters and a golden army, all while evading the Witch Priest’s daughter, who hunts them at every turn.

Without courage and strength, even a kingdom of gold will fall to darkness. Will Abeni and her song be enough to save them all?

Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold is the second epic adventure in Abeni’s tale of magic, monsters, friendship, and courage.

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This series is HIGH on my Middle Grade tbr, and now we have a sequel that sounds freaking epic!

The Sun Blessed Prince by Lindsey Byrd
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 1st May 2025
Goodreads

On a hotly-contested battlefield, a prince whose touch creates life meets a soldier chosen by death. But can they forge a future together, from opposite sides of a great war?

A lyrical and character-driven queer fantasy for those who loved She Who Became the Sun, The Song of Achilles and Sistersong.

Prince Elician is a Giver – a closely-guarded secret. He can heal any wound and bring the dead back to life. He also can’t be killed, so is cursed to watch his country wage an endless war. Reapers can kill with a single touch. And when one attacks Prince Elician near a hotly contested battlefield, the Reaper expects a terrible punishment. Instead, Elician offers him a new life on enemy territory.

Cat, as Elician calls him, hadn’t realized he could ever find someone who would make life worth living. Yet Elician’s enemies plan to turn his kindness against him. As the pieces of a deadly plot come together, tensions escalate at court and on the battlefield. The fires of conflict burst into new flame – but can those who wield the powers of life and death find peace?

A powerful and richly-imagined tale from a bold new voice in fantasy fiction, Lindsey Byrd's The Sun Blessed Prince is a sweeping, enemies-to-lovers, found-family adventure.

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The US has to wait another week, but UK readers can grab Sun Blessed Prince this May Day! (Which is the perfect holiday for a sun title, imo!)

Little Wolf and the Witch by Wendy Palmer
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 4th May 2025

After being exiled in his youth, Feilan has earned a comfortable, complacent life in the Siftar trading post. He has very little to worry about...

...aside from a would-be emperor with covetous eyes on Siftar’s trade network, the Vaer raiders who insist on camping nearby every summer, the warrior who got him exiled all those years ago – and the jolterhead who thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to walk the new child-queen of Seven Hills into the raiders’ camp to beg for help.

Renart is young Queen Adeline’s uncle, and he’s trying to save her from a dangerous regency. They desperately need champions for a monster hunt, and Renart is not exactly grateful to Feilan for diverting them for their own safety.

He’s very grateful to Feilan for falling for the trick he tries next.

Feilan finds himself accompanying Renart home, under orders to win the monster hunt to earn Adeline a throne and Siftar a trade deal. The monster’s more than even a Vaer warrior can handle alone, so he’ll need to pull together an unlikely alliance to stay in the game.

Meanwhile, he has a marriage to fake, and he soon finds spiky, provocative, lonely Renart to be a man of secret depths and unsung courage.

But there’s more than one monster in Seven Hills, and the one who wears the human mask is far too accustomed to power to let an interfering barbarian take it away...

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If you for some strange reason did NOT nab Palmer’s newest release from her Payhip, you can buy it from all the usual places come the 4th! (Currently in the middle of reading this and enjoying myself IMMENSELY!)

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

The post Must-Have Monday #234 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…A Fix of Light by Kel Menton

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. 

You can find the releases I’m most anticipating this year over on my Unmissable list, but I use Can’t-Wait Wednesday to feature books I’m hopeful about but aren’t sure of.

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is A Fix of Light by Kel Menton!

A Fix of Light by Kel Menton
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Queer (trans?) MC, trans love interest
Published on: 6th May 2025
Goodreads

A trans love story with a dark magical twist, from an astonishing new Irish voice.

Be careful. The dark is listening.

Hanan is supposed to be dead.

The forest outside Skenashogue sent him home alive - but changed. A strange new magic makes every emotion a physical force he can't control.

Bright and gentle, fox-like Pax is everything Hanan is not. And when he touches Hanan he mutes his secret power, quiets the curse.

To survive their own darknesses they'll need to be honest with each other. But Hanan isn't sure Pax will like what he finds out...

Can their love help them find their way back to the light?

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I haven’t been reading a whole lot of YA lately, but an Irish author writing a queer fantasy set in Ireland??? Oh hells yes, I’m interested!

(I miss Ireland so bad, folx. If you ever get the chance to visit, do it!)

Allegedly Fix of Light is much darker and heavier than the cover suggests; Pax experiences emotional abuse and transphobia from his family, and Hanan is dealing with serious mental health issues, including suicidal ideation. I don’t go out of my way to read things like that, but I’ve been promised that it’s all dealt with very well, and that the ending is ‘heart-mending’. And with YA, I’ll take heavier themes over fluff, please!

It’s bizarre to me how rarely we see fantasy books set in Ireland (do you have any idea how much of the foundational stuff of the Western fantasy genre comes out of Ireland??? so much!) and it always makes me really happy to find another one. From what I’ve seen of early reviews, the fantastical elements in Fix of Light draw from Irish mythology, which is extremely cool (and has me racking my brains to try and remember any legends about forests giving people magic). Even better: I’ve seen the magic described as ‘eldritch’. HI YES PLEASE! Eldritch is the best flavour of magic, and I will not be hearing any arguments on this!

And almost every review I’ve seen has praised the whole ‘magic manifesting Hanan’s mental health’ thing, which I am now extremely eager to see!

I think it’s been out in Ireland+UK for a while, but just a couple more weeks till the rest of us can check this one out!

Until then, you can read an excerpt here!

The post I Can’t Wait For…A Fix of Light by Kel Menton appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #233

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

THIRTEEN books this week!

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

Little Wolf and the Witch by Wendy Palmer
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 21st April 2025

After being exiled in his youth, Feilan has earned a comfortable, complacent life in the Siftar trading post. He has very little to worry about...

...aside from a would-be emperor with covetous eyes on Siftar’s trade network, the Vaer raiders who insist on camping nearby every summer, the warrior who got him exiled all those years ago – and the jolterhead who thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to walk the new child-queen of Seven Hills into the raiders’ camp to beg for help.

Renart is young Queen Adeline’s uncle, and he’s trying to save her from a dangerous regency. They desperately need champions for a monster hunt, and Renart is not exactly grateful to Feilan for diverting them for their own safety.

He’s very grateful to Feilan for falling for the trick he tries next.

Feilan finds himself accompanying Renart home, under orders to win the monster hunt to earn Adeline a throne and Siftar a trade deal. The monster’s more than even a Vaer warrior can handle alone, so he’ll need to pull together an unlikely alliance to stay in the game.

Meanwhile, he has a marriage to fake, and he soon finds spiky, provocative, lonely Renart to be a man of secret depths and unsung courage.

But there’s more than one monster in Seven Hills, and the one who wears the human mask is far too accustomed to power to let an interfering barbarian take it away...

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NEW WENDY PALMER! Set in the same world as (but not a prequel/sequel to) Domesticated Magic – which I haven’t reviewed yet, because Fail, but it’s one of my all-time faves and won a spot on my Best of 2024 list!

You can buy it now at the author’s Payhip, or wait a couple weeks to get it from the usual places (link should keep updating as it appears on more retailers!) Personally, I recommend nabbing the Vaer World bundle at her Payhip, because that gets you Domesticated Magic as well, and you will NOT be sorry!

Saint Death's Herald (Saint Death #2) by C.S.E. Cooney
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Pansexual brown MC, secondary queerplatonic F/F, secondary F/M/F polyamory, queernorm world
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

Lanie Stones is the necromancer that Death has been praying for.

Heartbroken, exiled from her homeland as a traitor, Lanie Stones would rather take refuge in good books and delicate pastries than hunt a deathless abomination, but that is the duty she has chosen.

The abomination in question happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones. Grandpa Rad has escaped from his prison and stolen a body, and is heading to the icy country of Skakhmat where he died, to finish the genocide he started. Fortunately for her, Lanie has her powerful death magic, including the power to sing the restless dead to their eternal slumber; and she has her new family by her side.

Grandpa Rad may have finally met his match.

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AHHHHHH IT’S THE SEQUEL TO SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER!!! This series, folx, I cannot even. It’s perfect. Do you hear me? PERFECT. You have never read anything like Lanie’s story before, and you never will again, and if you do not read it – why would you deprive yourself like that??? THESE BOOKS ARE SELF-CARE FOR THE SOUL, KAY? KAY.

My review!

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

A twisted, tangled story about workplace love-affairs, and plants with a taste for human flesh

During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she's been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine.

An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.

This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Don’t try and tell me you don’t want an F/F novel narrated by the monster plant that wants to eat one of the women. I simply won’t believe you! Reading this now and enjoying it VERY MUCH!

Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens by Lynn Hutchinson Lee
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror
Representation: Romany MC
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

Orchid Lovell is a young Romany woman haunted by a fear of being found out. Her family has been chased out of town before. After settling in a seemingly idyllic northern mining town that she soon understands as rife with unseen cruelty, Orchid finds solace in a lush orchid fen where she doesn’t fear the town’s judgement. Amid the green beauty of the fen, Orchid meets her beloved Jack, and marries him in a secret blackfly-infested ceremony.

But the town’s waters don’t only harbor life. In the nearby creek, dead girls take revenge on the men who murdered them, luring them into murky waters. Despite the unyielding nature of the water spirits, one man evades their violence. After a devastating attack linked to the expansion of the mine, Orchid’s fate is entwined with the panni raklies’ ruthless justice.

Written in over 100 dreamy mini-chapters, this novella explores the tenuous reality of the Romany diaspora living in troubled times on troubled lands.

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This sounds strange and amazing and I can’t wait to dive into it!

Advocate (The Warden, #3) by Daniel M. Ford
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, queernorm world
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

"These books are addictive and I can’t wait to see what Aelis and the gang get up to next.”—C.L. Clark, author of The Unbroken

Wineshops on every corner.
Assassins in every alley.
It’s good to be home.

Aelis de Lenti is back on her home turf, but it's not quite as welcoming as she remembered....

Recalled from Lone Pine to investigate claims of murder by magic against her mentor—legendary Warden Bardun Jacques—Aelis takes to the streets of the grand city of Lascenise, and plumbs the deepest secrets of the Lyceum to clear his name. Certain of her success, she doesn't count on thieves, subterranean labyrinths, or the assassins that dog her steps from the moment she leaves her tower.

Behind all of it lurks a ring of unknown wizards who can seemingly reach anyone with their magic. Without knowing who she can trust, Aelis must gather what allies she can to unravel the web of intrigue, murder, smuggling, and theft originating in the halls of magic power. With an old friend from her college days, a war-haunted gnome thief-catcher, and the advice of her imprisoned advisor, Aelis races to save lives and expose a conspiracy that seeks to change the face of the world.

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This series has been so much fun! Entirely different take on necromancy from the Saint Death books; these are a bit more classic D&D. Strongly recommended!

The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile by Errick Nunnally
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Representation: Black MCs
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

A Black nerd coming-of-age novel set in 1970s Boston about a boy who struggles to learn the truth behind his mother’s claims of otherworldly origins in the smoldering aftermath of the Civil Rights era and COINTELPRO's dying breaths.

Sean’s mother, Sojourner, consistently claims otherworldly origins—Saturn, specifically. A story he’s heard his entire life and never considered that it might be true until strange men intrude on his family’s lives. Complicating matters, his father, David, and his mother, were part of a Civil Rights era Black power group that captured the attention of the FBI.

A literal bombing put an exclamation point to the end of the organization. But as soon as Sean could read on his own, he immersed himself in science fiction, fantasy, and comic books, while largely ignoring the history of his people. That ignorance morphs into a disturbing proposition and learning the truth of his parents’ pasts could prove deadly.

Sean’s exploration introduces him to music, girls, delusions of privilege, and the thrills of revolution, all while becoming an adult. The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile marries golden age sci-fi with the nostalgia of roller skates, funk, and first love.

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I haven’t been able to confirm that this is genuinely sci fi, but I think it is? I hope it is, because this would be much more fun with actual aliens!

Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Chinese cast, gay Chinese MC, nonbinary rep
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

An intense and thoughtful time-travelling dystopian fantasy where three individuals, psychically linked through time, fight enslavement, exploitation, and environmental collapse. A great read for fans of Emily St. John Mandel.

In the year 2106, climate change has altered the world, transforming borders, cities, and socioeconomic structures. Additionally, a cosmic event known as the ‘Bloom’ has awakened psionic abilities in a small percentage of the population.

One such individual is Maida Chao, who possesses the ability of psychometry, a gift that allows her to “read” the objects she touches and know its entire history. Newly employed with the Golden Gate Cultural Recovery Project in the area once known as San Francisco Bay, she must learn how to navigate the parameters of her abilities as well as the politics of the organization she works for. Until a chance encounter with a political leader’s watch reveals a plan to eliminate psionic powers, and the people who possess them. People like her.

Terrified, but left with few options, Maida continues work at the GGCRP, when she stumbles upon a teacup and is psychically plunged into the lives of two of its previous owners – Ethan Chao of 2006, a “bourgeois bohemian” working his corporate design job while longing for greater purpose; and Li Nuan of 1906, an indentured servant in a Chinatown brothel.

On discovering that these two people are distant relatives of hers, a strong psychic connection is made and Maida realizes she can use the conduit of the teacup to send a message back through time, giving her the chance to warn her ancestors of the coming climate collapse and save her own life.

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A very different book from Wong’s first, it sounds like!

Errant Wings by S. Jean
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

Wings aren't supposed to be this much trouble...

On their sixteenth birthday, foundlings grow wings—either angel wings or devil wings—and their value to the city depends on which one.

To Asher, devil wings mean the freedom to do what he pleases: using the city as a canvas for his graffiti art; being with his loving, devil-winged boyfriend; riding the dark, glittering streets without a care in the world.

But when his wings finally sprout, already three years late, they’re angel wings. Now, the city expects his obedience. His freedom. His everything.

Bowing to the system and being a proper angel wing is the last thing Asher wants, except now with every plan he’s ever made in pieces, he doesn’t know what to do or where he belongs. He’d rather burn it all to the ground, but that’s not an option…

Or is it?

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This sounds like a fanfic AU and I’m here for it.

Iron Tongue of Midnight (The Forge & Fracture Saga #3) by Brittany N. Williams
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Black bisexual MC
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

The electrifying conclusion to the “glorious” (The New York Times) award-nominated historical fantasy trilogy, The Forge & Fracture Saga.
It all ends with the Fae Queen.    Unrestrained by the fractured Pact and its fragile peace, Titanea and her forces grow stronger each day. The Fae openly terrorize London while King James hides in the countryside, protected by the children of the Orisha. Seventeen-year-old Joan Sands must banish the Fae, just as her ancestor did nearly two thousand years ago, but first she’ll have to unravel the mystery behind the original pact.     Armed with a magical sword and the power to manipulate and create metal, Joan gathers allies and enemies in unlikely places as the world she knew slips further away. But the children of the Orisha struggle to wield their magic for war, and Joan clashes with the elders who refuse to trust the fate of the world to a child, regardless of her Orisha blessings. All while her two loves, Nick and Rose, grow closer to each other, a prospect more momentous and alluring than Joan ever could have imagined.     When a spirit bent on annihilating all who worship the Orisha is unleashed, Joan discovers the unsettling truth behind the original pact. Faced with the lies of the past, the frightening power of the Fae, and a mortal king whose dangerous whims hold her community hostage, Joan must Is the old world worth saving or is it time to forge something frighteningly new?     Lauded by Locus Magazine as “vividly expressive, riotously queer, beautifully Black, and wildly creative” this thrilling story delivers an unforgettable finale—and a heroine unlike any other.    The Forge & Fracture SagaThat Self-Same Metal (#1)Saint-Seducing Gold (#2)Iron Tongue of Midnight (#3)

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The find book in the Forge & Fracture saga is HERE! Orishas, metal-magic, and fae in Shakespearean England is a combination pretty much guaranteed to impress, and if you’re not already reading this series…well, now’s the best time to start!

The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum
Genres: Horror, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: M/M
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

From acclaimed author K. Ancrum comes a queer romantic thriller in which the lives of Hollis, a boy in search of meaning, and Walt, a spirit with unfinished business, collide when Walt takes possession of Hollis's body...and maybe his heart. For fans of Adam Silvera and Aiden Thomas!

Hollis Brown is stuck. Born to a Blue-Collar American Dream, Hollis lives in a rotting small town where no one can afford to leave. Hollis's only bright spots are his two best friends, cool girls Annie and Yulia, and the thrill of fighting his classmates.

As if his circumstances couldn’t get worse, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger named Walt results in a frightening trap. After unknowingly making a deal at the crossroads, Hollis finds himself losing control of his body and mind, falling victim to possession. Walt, the ghost making a home inside him, has a deep and violent history rooted in the town Hollis grew up in and he has unfinished business to take care of.

As Walt and Hollis begin working together to put Walt’s spirit to rest, an unspeakable bond forms between them, and the boys begin falling for one another in unexpected ways. But, it’s only a matter of time before Hollis’s best friends begin to notice that something about Hollis isn’t quite…right.

With the threat of a long overdue exorcism looming before them, will Walt and Hollis be able to protect their love and undo the curse that turned their town from a garden of possibility into a place where dreams go to die?

Praise for

"The sparse prose in this unconventional, must-read of a trauma-infused borderline thriller is packed with emotional breadth." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"In this intimate poetic reimagining of the Icarus myth, Ancrum crafts a subversive triumph that is a love letter both to healing from trauma and to the importance of connection and empathy." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Beautifully written...Psychologically acute, subtle, and sophisticated." —ALA Booklist (starred review)

"In her extraordinary fifth novel, Icarus, K. Ancrum performs a confident high-wire act, balancing the weighty manifestations of connection, desire, and contradiction." —BookPage (starred review)

"Both romance and thriller fans will likely be gripped by this memorable love story, tinged with mythology, built around a mystery made up of bitter secrets between the two families." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

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I’m fascinated by stories of possession, and I’ve been looking forward to Hollis Brown for ages! Gimmmmmeeeeeee! That being said, ignore the blurb: this is not a ‘romantic thriller’, it’s horror with romantic elements. Badly mismarketed, judging from early reviews.

Tales from Beyond the Rainbow: Ten LGBTQ+ Fairy Tales Proudly Reclaimed by Pete Jordi Wood
Genres: Fantasy, MG, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer and QBIPOC MCs
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

These are the folk tales that history forgot - or concealed. Tales in which gender is fluid and where queer stories can have a happy ending. From the humble sailor who finds his handsome prince to the transgender market girl who becomes queen, from Romania to China via the oceans of the Inuit First Nations, folklore expert Pete Jordi Wood has combed through generations of history to bring together ten unforgettable stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

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This looks like a super sweet collection for younger readers (or those still young at heart) – definitely one I want to nab for my youngest sibs!

The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 24th April 2025
Goodreads

Come children, come children from far and near. Come choose your steed, you galloping knights, to enjoy the fun of the carousel . . .

Paris, 1900

Celebrated carousel-maker Gilbert works night and day to finish his masterpiece in time for the city's Exposition Universelle. But Gilbert is struggling in the wake of his wife and son's tragic deaths, and as he finalises his creation, a dangerous idea forms in his mind . . .

Chicago, 1920

Maisie Marlowe has come to America in the search of a new life. When she unearths a beautiful, neglected old carousel, she seizes the opportunity to carve a thrilling new destiny for herself. But Maisie doesn't know that beneath its glittering facade, the carousel is hiding a dark secret. Twenty years ago, it was linked to a number of people inexplicably vanishing into thin air - and now history has begun to repeat itself . . .

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I mean – I adore carousels, what can I say? Although I think this is a UK-only release; doesn’t come out in the US until next year.

Price of a Thousand Blessings Volume 1 by Ginn Hale
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 27th April 2025
Goodreads

Cymin’s final tournament representing the East Deity for Lux Temple promises to be thrilling and bittersweet. After it’s done, all his skill and power must feed a Storm Tower to protect the world from fei’lux storms. But before his conscription, he intends to put on a dazzling show and enjoy his last glorious outing.

The streets are thronged with cheering crowds, and the grand procession shimmers with spells. Film stars and government ministers claim the best seats in the stands. And most exciting of all, the legendary Wraiths of Saigrath promise to attend this Spring Exhibition after centuries of absence from the world.
Cymin can’t wait to meet them.

But when disaster strikes the celebrations, Cymin risks his own life and destroys a priceless artifact to prevent a massacre. His action not only plunge him into the battle between foreign provocateurs and his own nation’s spies, but captures the attention of the mythical Wraiths--one of whom has been searching for him in secret for hundreds of years.

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It has been a MINUTE since I read Ginn Hale, but I am Very Intrigued Indeed by that description!

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

The post Must-Have Monday #233 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Stunningly Splendiferous: Saint Death’s Herald by C. S. E. Cooney

Saint Death's Herald by C.S.E. Cooney
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Pansexual brown MC, secondary queerplatonic F/F, secondary F/M/F polyamory, queernorm world
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; multiple PoVs
Published on: 22nd April 2025
Goodreads

Lanie Stones is the necromancer that Death has been praying for.

Heartbroken, exiled from her homeland as a traitor, Lanie Stones would rather take refuge in good books and delicate pastries than hunt a deathless abomination, but that is the duty she has chosen.

The abomination in question happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones. Grandpa Rad has escaped from his prison and stolen a body, and is heading to the icy country of Skakhmat where he died, to finish the genocide he started. Fortunately for her, Lanie has her powerful death magic, including the power to sing the restless dead to their eternal slumber; and she has her new family by her side.

Grandpa Rad may have finally met his match.

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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~Stripes the flying tiger-rug!
~limestone is officially the Best Rock
~shapeshifters like you’ve never seen
~a very sparkly hivemind
~ice, ice, baby

:Read my review for book one, Saint Death’s Daughter, here!:

:minor spoilers for Saint Death’s Herald!:

Saint Death’s Herald is a very different book to its predecessor, to the point that I think some readers will be initially startled by it. But if you hang on long enough for the story to sweep you away – and it won’t take long! – then you’ll find that Cooney has penned another beautiful, brilliant, beguiling epic to enchant us.

There’s no gradual build-up this time: Herald hits the ground running (or should I say: flying?) and thereafter never slows down. The blurb covers the skeleton (pun absolutely intended) of the plot, but is a bit misleading: Lanie and Duantri are close on the heels of Lanie’s ghostly grandfather as the book opens, but although his plan is to head for Skakhmat, he gets side-tracked and ends up leading them into Leech, a nation of terrifying shapeshifters. Grandpa Rad has big, horrifying plans, and he means to use the very soul-matter of the shapeshifters to bring them to fruition.

The showdown, throwdown, is epic.

If Daughter was extravagantly sprawling, Herald is tighter, far more direct, all the glittering opulence of the first book distilled down to a blinding but laser-focused radiance. Herald is faster, more streamlined, all of Lanie’s natural exuberance – not reined in (never that!) but turned to a single purpose, from which nothing is going to sway or distract her. Where Daughter dances, Herald runs, not with a sprint, but with the unflagging determination of a persistence predator hunting a dream.

I can hear this in Lanie’s voice so easily!

I do not mean to imply for even a moment that this means Saint Death’s Herald is a more boring book than its predecessor! It is, perhaps, slightly less wiggly (I cannot say, ‘more straightforward’, because ‘straightforward’ implies a conventionality that I doubt Cooney is capable of, even were she interested in trying)(this is a most adoring compliment) – but that is not to say that Herald has been pared away to the strictly functional, that here all Daughter’s gleeful whimsy has been sanded down to dull and plodding Sense and Seriousness! That is most certainly not the case!

Saint Death’s Herald is effervescent, glittering, as fizzy and breathtaking as a shower of shooting stars. It abounds with muchness, marvellously so; it is a magic carpet to rival Stripes himself, woven out of love and wonder and rainbow-streaked wildness, and it soars.

Issue of ill-mage, heir of our arch-foe,
meet is our meeting, midst sky-road and soil!
Vengeance and vanquishment at last are upon us
Capitulate, craven–extinction ensues!

No book where one language is presented in iambic pentameter (Quadic) and another is in the alliterative verse of the freaking Norse epics (Old Skaki) is not spilling over with citrus-pink zest, okay??? This is, like its predecessor, a book that is not only endless fun to read, it was clearly also immense fun to write, and the joy and glee and delight that went into its writing radiates from the pages like sunlight. Saint Death’s Herald is so perfectly FREE: unselfconscious, uninhibited, entirely unashamed of its larger-than-life* lavishness. It glories in that lavishness, revels in itself and invites us into the revel too.

This is not a go big or go home book: it’s a go big because big is BEAUTIFUL! book.

And that is so much better.

*There’s a necromancy pun in there somewhere, I know it!

Undeath, in Stripes’ opinion, was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him. He was supremely pleased to be operating on the z-axis after a lifetime of apex predatoring on the ground.

I will never get tired of how these books about necromancy are fundamentally a celebration of life and living. That remains so impressively subversive, and creative, and inspiring – and such freaking FUN.

And since I haven’t yet said so outright: everything I loved about Saint Death’s Daughter is here in abundance. The footnotes; the dazzling prose; the vocabulary, full (but not overwhelming so) of words unfamiliar to me, each one small and precious and perfect as the surprise in a Fabergé egg – a treasure within a treasure. (I love looking up new words from this series, especially because they are always such marvellous new words; but I do think readers who do not enjoy consulting the dictionary can get by perfectly well deducing the meanings from context.) And hey, all the incredible characters we fell in love with in the first book? Prepare to love them even more! Saint Death’s Herald isn’t only from Lanie’s POV; this time, we also see through the eyes of characters like Duantri and Datu (and several others I’ll leave as surprises!) I didn’t expect that – it’s a big change from Daughter, where we only have Lanie’s perspective – but it’s a much-appreciated addition! I loved getting to know these characters even better than we already do, and discovering what Lanie looks like from where they’re standing? Wasn’t just fun; in a few cases, it was a very necessary reminder that she appears very differently to other people than she does to us.

(We know Lanie as the adorable twitling who cuddles mice skeletons and nerds out over all things Quadoni and will forget to eat if she has cool bones to play with. It’s difficult to think of her as scary. It’s only by seeing her as others see her that we realise how – how world-changing she is, or has the potential to be. Which does mean terrifying, to some.)

She is splendid, murmured the crystalskin. She is a walking terror of Athe.

Not everything is all love and glitter, though. Because Grandpa Rad is the worst kind of monster, and he is, unfortunately, what Saint Death’s Herald revolves around.

So there they were, his literal flock of siblings. Near at hand, easy to catch, fully matured. Cattle fatted for the slaughter. A massive resource, just waiting to be tapped.

And they all underestimated him.

The dream Lanie is chasing, persistence-hunter style, is of a world where a necromancer’s powers are about a love of life, are for joy and helping and healing. Her Grandpa Rad is her opposite in almost every way, something that becomes more and more obvious the longer he’s running free; they are a study in contrasts, opposing forces that cannot coexist, cannot balance, because Rad wants to own the world and Lanie wants to love it. Lanie wants to let the world be beautiful, in all its wondrous strangeness; Rad doesn’t see beauty at all, and wants to subjugate or destroy everything that is different from him, that is Not Him.

I can’t feel her anymore. Usually, with dead accident, I can feel the echo of the substance inside it. A link to Doédenna’s cloak, where the memory of life is kept stitched. That’s how I can sing the substance back, temporarily–through that link. But with this”–she gestured at the corpse–“there’s nothing to call back. It’s gone. He ate it. It’s all wrong.”

Rad is so disgustingly awful that I wish it was harder to believe someone could really be Like That. He is obviously a villain, and anyone who didn’t already despise him from the first book will definitely do so after just a few minutes of Herald. In that, he is…not boring, because he’s not predictable, and he’s depressingly clever, but as an individual, he holds no interest for me. (Even if his narcissism has, at times, the can’t-look-away factor of a train crash.) The man has one layer (which makes his disgust with the physical makeup of the shapeshifters deeply ironic), and there was never a moment I even sympathised with him, never mind sided with him. But I’m curious to see how other readers react to some of his actions, because even if he’s unremittingly evil, he…might not always be wrong?

Because the shapeshifters of Leech are extremely Other. They are so alien that they don’t even eat food – they eat souls.

Stop for a second and think about that.

They EAT.

SOULS.

Rad might be one of the novel’s driving forces, but I think the shapeshifters are its fulcrum; are, in a very real way, a kind of test case for the themes of Daughter. We were happy to embrace the messaging of the first book, which can maybe be distilled down to celebrate Life. But can we walk the walk when we’re confronted with beings who, by any human measure, are unspeakably monstrous?

Do you still think Life is always worth defending? Can you treasure strangeness that is this strange? Will you love the monsters, too? CAN you?

Lanie can. Lanie does. This is why we love her.

Lanie’s thoughts spun out in a ravelment of marvel.

But it also might be the one moment in the entire series when readers really, genuinely struggle to follow where she leads. It’s not hard for me to imagine other readers recoiling from her reaction, when she learns about the soul-eating. Certainly the other cast-members have very different opinions on it!

And this – the invention of the shapeshifters, their placement in Herald, showing us the wildly different perspectives different characters have on them – my gods, this is why I will follow anywhere Cooney leads. Because she can create beings this alien to me. Because she is so clearly delighted by the creation of them. Because she so perfectly balances horror and wonder, in making them equally and genuinely horrifying and beautiful.

No, wait, that’s not quite it. It’s not that she can create something that appals and appeals. That is impressive, but it’s not an ability completely unique to her. What I think might well be is: she shows us, teaches us, how to look at horror and see beauty. Because she does make us see through Lanie’s eyes, feel with her heart, believe with her faith. Showing me a monster, and then showing me, teaching me how to see, that it is beautiful not despite the parts of it that terrify me, but because of them? So few storytellers can do that, can pull you so deep into the story that you become it, and it becomes you, so that you carry it with you long after you turn the final page, not the person you were before, transformed – shifted – right down to the marrow. Your perceptions are forever changed; you have a sixth sense, a seventh, an eighth you never had before, senses just for strangeness. So few storytellers can teach you to see a new colour, but Cooney can, and does.

What do you call that, except magic?

Her magic, at once familiar and alien, sang in Lanie’s bones: notes like needles-of-water; chords like calvings-of-icebergs; progressions of thundersnow and sleet, of graupel and permafrost and salt-ice upon the shore. She grew dizzy with the immensity of the symphony

It shouldn’t be a surprise; wasn’t Saint Death’s Daughter a magnum opus that took the frightening and unsettling, and showed us a wildly different way of looking at it? This is a series about a necromancer, about death-magic, with regular appearances by the goddess of death – and yet this story is optimistic, jubilant, heartfelt. Cooney has been subverting our ideas of ugliness and horror from the first page of the first book!

And I love her for doing it yet again.

From within her deep senses, the pearly caress of those sleeping bones tidal-tumbled through her, cuddling closer, memory-to-memory, sharing the sweetness of their divine rest.

I can’t make myself wrap up without talking a bit about the gods here. I fell head-over-heels for them all in Daughter, and I love them still – and just as we learn more about the mortal cast in this book, we get quite a bit more insight into, not just individual gods, but also how divinity works in Athe, what gods can and cannot do, their connections to their chosen wizards, the risk that’s posed each time they create an artefact imbued with their power. All of which is massively plot-relevant, because a big chunk of Herald sees Lanie caught up in situations that are a direct result of the choices made by one god or another – or choices that a god refuses to make.

I want to mention this because I found it distressingly confusing when I first read it. I didn’t understand (and felt betrayed by Saint Death, which is ridiculous, and yet) and I have the sort of brain that can’t let go of something that makes no sense to me. This was going to ruin the entire book for me if I couldn’t figure it out. And hopefully, I can preempt that happening to any other readers. Because what I eventually realised – after going over that part of Herald much more carefully than I did the first time, given that that time I was turning pages as fast as I could because it’s probably the tensest, most action-packed part of the book – is that I’d missed, or forgotten, what should be very obvious about any death deity, and most especially this one.

To you and I, any choice between Lanie and Irradiant, aka Grandpa Rad, is no choice at all. So why is it that Lanie has to prove herself Saint Death’s best-beloved? There’s no reason for the epic, horrifying, cinematic showdown in Leech – no rational reason for Saint Death to not declare Lanie Her champion and have done – unless She still loves Irradiant too.

You can’t favor us both, she muttered, but the only answer was the sharp twinge in her wizard marks.

GALAXY-BRAIN MOMENT. We’re talking about the goddess of death. Of course She can’t stop loving someone! She’s DEATH. Death is there for EVERYONE. Possibly other gods can reject mortals, but death? Even if you disappoint Her, hurt Her terribly…by Her very nature, how can She hate anyone? And so, how can She choose?

(I have a feeling this was even stated explicitly in Daughter at one point, and I just forgot.)

Do I need to tell you that this – Lady Death being unable or unwilling to stop loving anyone – makes me incredibly happy? Not just because it makes sense of a confusion that bothered me, and not even just because it’s a wonderful worldbuilding detail. I love the theology of it. It feels deeply correct. I hope that makes sense, because I can’t figure out another way to put it.

(And I could write ANOTHER 10K word essay on how this plays into the theme of rejecting violence that was such an important part of the first book; how the situation Lady Death’s not-choice puts Lanie in showcases this so beautifully; what the results of Lanie trying to fight her grandfather mean for this theme of rejecting violence, especially as contrasted with Herald’s ultimate climax. The subversion of conventions and genre-norms!!! BUT I CAN’T WAX POETIC BECAUSE SPOILERS. Just. Take it as read that Cooney is a genius with this too, and pay attention when you read it!)

This entire deep dive into – the exploration of – divinity on Athe is one of my favourite aspects of Herald. One of the most beautiful moments in the entire book is when a character I did not expect to show up again communes with his goddess – a goddess who is, and is not, the Lady Death Lanie knows and loves. The multifacety of gods is something I always get excited about; the idea that, for example, Lucifer and Loki are different masks-and-costumes worn by the same Power is a thrilling one to explore or play with, and Cooney dances with it here, giving us such a deep, intimate look into the world she’s created, the workings of the world she’s created. It’s ridiculously cool from a worldbuilding perspective, breathtaking from a story one, and – honestly, kind of an honour, in being allowed a glimpse behind the curtain, especially when you remember that Athe is where all Cooney’s stories are set.

Which means this is not the last time we’ll visit it. Saint Death’s Herald feels like the second book in a duology, not the middle book of a trilogy, which makes perfect sense – and makes me feel very loved as a reader – when you learn that Cooney wanted to make sure we would not be left anxious or unsatisfied if for some reason Rebellion is foolish enough not to give her a contract for book three. I mean, I will riot if that happens. But if this is where this series ends, then my friends, it is a truly magnificent ending, and I will console myself with the knowledge that no matter what, we will see Athe again.

(But also, Rebellion, I will riot. RIOT.)

Truly, a more-than-worthy sequel to The Most Perfect Book to Ever Book.

The post Stunningly Splendiferous: Saint Death’s Herald by C. S. E. Cooney appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

I Can’t Wait For…Witchlore by Emma Hinds

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 Witchlore by Emma Hinds!

Witchlore by Emma Hinds
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Nonbinary (genderfluid?) MC
Published on: 14th October 2025
Goodreads

Holly Black meets Lex Croucher in this contemporary fantasy about a love story to raise the dead.

At Demdike College of Witchcraft, Orlando is an outcast. Not just for being the only shapeshifter in a college of witches. Not just for being a really bad shapeshifter, with no control over their magic or when their body switches between male and female forms. But because their girlfriend Elizabeth died - and it was Lando's fault.

Then charming new boy Bastian arrives with a proposition: he knows a spell that can raise Elizabeth from the dead. It's dangerous but Lando will try anything. But as Lando's attraction to Bastian grows, questions start to arise. Who is Bastian? What does he really want? And who will survive the resurrection spell?

For fans of V.E. Schwab and Rainbow Rowell, Emma Hinds' Witchlore is a spellbinding contemporary fantasy where the passion is as real as the magic.

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This one’s been on my radar for a while – a nonbinary MC is enough to catch my attention, but a magic college, a shapeshifter MC (I adore shapeshifters to a frankly unreasonable degree), and a Holly Black comp will certainly help you keep my attention!

There seems to be an implication that shapeshifters and witches don’t get along well, or at least don’t mix much – see, Lando being the only shapeshifter at their otherwise all-witch school. Or is it just that shapeshifters don’t have the casting spells type of magic, usually, but Lando does – albeit is very bad at it – and thus has to go to witch school? Would the general witch population be mad about that? Or freaked out? Or something else?

I thought at first that all shapeshifters could switch sex, and that Lando’s magic was a separate ability from that, but after thinking about it I’m not so sure. Usually when someone uses the word ‘shapeshifter’ in a fantasy book, they mean someone who can turn into an animal. So it’s possible that that’s what other shapeshifters do, and Lando is the only one switching sexes.

Alternatively, all shapeshifters can swap sex and therefore they’re all very casual about gender. That would be cool!

I’m now wondering if Bastian is ALSO a shapeshifter who can do witch-magic, but is living as a witch? That would be interesting!

We’ve got quite a few months before I’ll get any of my questions answered, but I’m looking forward to finding out! In the meantime, I think I’ll curl up with On the Wings of la Noche, which has a similar premise but is probably going to be pretty different!

You can read an excerpt of Witchlore here!

The post I Can’t Wait For…Witchlore by Emma Hinds appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #232

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

ELEVEN books this week!

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

The Raven Scholar (The Eternal Path, #1) by Antonia Hodgson
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Black bisexual MC, bisexual love interest, secondary F/F, queernorm world
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.

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Raven Scholar took me completely by surprise – I picked it up on a whim, expecting to be disappointed (I’m not very interested in tournament stories) but instead it CATAPAULTED onto my Best of Year list!!! Cannot rave about it enough, I need EVERYONE EVER to read it!!!

You can read the first chapter here!

My review!

A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters by Rita A. Rubin
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

Kas of Veldenier is a Slayer, a travelling monster hunter for hire.
Claudia of Trulio is half-human, half-vampyric. Half monster.

They should be nothing more than enemies. But when the long-lost remnant of the dragon Ombral turns up, and with it the possibility of unleashing the dragons to wreak havoc on Vil Tresar as they did long ago, Kas and Claudia’s paths converge. Through a shared desire to keep the dragons from returning, they embark on a quest to see the remnant destroyed. Along the way, they will encounter fearsome monsters as well as a burgeoning desire for each other. Can a monster and a monster slayer truly find love together?

Pursuing them from the shadows is Serisa, a vampyric who wishes to see the world burn. And she will need the remnant to make that wish a reality…

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I am not usually interested in vampires, but I’ve heard so many great things about this book that I simply MUST give it a try!

A Legend in the Sky (The Gemini Stones) by Faye Oliander
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Middle Eastern-inspired cast & setting
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

Odd things shadow Naila Groenhart’s life.
Her touch can bring a flower to bloom and sometimes her eyes flash with gilded flames.
For as long as she can remember, she believed this power to be a figment of her imagination.
Until they find her.
Ruthless hunters.
Their prey? Her flames.

When they lure her from Earth to an archaic world, everything she thought a lie turns out to be a dangerous truth.

Until a prince—an heir to the very people who see her power as their heritage—offers to help her find a way home. But this quest is a dangerous one, that may demand an unspeakable price.

With her hunters tailing her every move, Naila must decide what sacrifice she’s willing to make to find a way back. Especially since her presence put something long feared into motion… and ancient secrets, dormant for ages, are starting to stir.

Perfect for fans of plot-heavy, character-driven tales with a touch of romance, A Legend in the Sky launches a spellbinding New Adult epic fantasy series inspired by the ancient Middle East.

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Middle Eastern-inspired High Fantasy?! Um, yes freaking PLEASE? And there is a DRAGON on that stunning cover, people!!!

(A Legend In the Sky is not Romantasy, I triple-checked. Allegedly there’s barely any romance at all, with the focus instead on found family and fem-friendship!)

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Trans MCs
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

Notes from a Regicide is a heartbreaking story of trans self-discovery with a rich relatability and a science-fictional twist from award-winning author Isaac Fellman.

When your parents die, you find out who they really were.

Griffon Keming’s second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon’s new parents had troubles of their own – both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart.

Griffon’s best clue to his parents’ lives is in his father’s journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out.

In Notes from a Regicide, a trans family saga set in a far-off, familiar future, Isaac Fellman goes beyond the concept of found family to examine how deeply we can be healed and hurt by those we choose to love.

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Fellman has impressed me deeply with his previous books, and all the early reviews of this one have me expecting to be impressed again!

You can read an excerpt here!

The Lie That Binds Them (The Soulfire Saga, 3) by Matthew Ward
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC , queernorm world
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

The Lie That Binds Them is the thrilling conclusion to the Soulfire Saga, an epic fantasy series packed with adventure and intrigue, set in a world of ancient myth and dangerous magic.

The Eternity King, Caradan Diar, is dead. But a dread Queen rules in his place and a new age of darkness threatens to overwhelm Khalad.

Tyzanta - greatest of the free cities - has fallen to the Queen's armies. Worse, the leader of the rebellion, Bashar Vallant, is missing, presumed dead.

What hope remains rests with Katija Arvish and her allies. They alone know the truth behind the secrets that hold Khalad together. They alone can break the realm's shackles and deliver freedom to its people.

But to do so they must destroy an ancient god of unimaginable power.

In the end, the lie that binds them may be their only salvation.

'The Darkness Before Them brims with magic, monsters and intrigue, and the depth of the world is wonderfully, enthrallingly complex . . . a delight' Ben Galley

'Full of action, heart, betrayal, and set in a dark, engaging world, The Darkness Before Them continues Ward's ability to deliver doorstopper dark fantasy that you just can't put down' Grimdark Magazine

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NO IDEA HOW IT’S ALL GOING TO END AND NOT EVEN A TINY BIT READY!

a body more tolerable by jaye simpson
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

Ferocious and vulnerable poems about redefining acts of creation, destruction, deconstruction, and recreation, from a singular Indigiqueer point of view

a body more tolerable is a collection of powerful and haunting poems full of mythos, fairy tales, allusion, and magic. Divided into three parts, the book takes an intimate exploration of Indigenous grief, trans identity, and frustrated desires in ways that reject perception. Author jaye simpson conjures up dazzling multiverses throughout their mythic journey as they dance and run wild in their own manifestation of girlhood.

In these visceral poems, teeth gleam, graze skin, or sink into flesh, becoming bloodied and exposing the animalistic hunger that lies within. Pulsating with yearning and possibility, a body more tolerable is a book that resists typical notions of physicality and sex to dream of a world more divine.

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I don’t read a lot of poetry – I generally feel too dumb for it, honestly! – but I’d really like to give this collection a go.

Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Representation: West African cast & setting, queernorm setting
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

From the National Book Award finalist and author of Pet comes a novel set in a magical West African world, about a teen girl who must save her missing twin while learning to navigate her own terrifying new powers.

Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other's sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike's powers enchant, Somadina's cause fear to ripple through her town.

Always an outsider, Somadina now faces blatant--and dangerous--hostility. And things go from bad to worse when her brother—the one person she trusted—vanishes. Somadina knows that no matter the dangers, she must track him down. Even if it means entering the Sacred Forest. Even if it means grueling, otherworldly travel she may not survive. Even if it means finding the hidden places where those closest to the spirit world don't dare to go. Does Somadina have the strength --within both her body and her soul -- for the trying journey ahead?

National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi masterfully weaves a tale of family, identity, and the power of the past, in a world where the extraordinary is ordinary.

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It’s AKWAEKE EMEZI, what more needs to be said? It’s Akwaeke Emezi WRITING FANTASY AGAIN, if you don’t have this preordered already go do that now. Now!!!

You can read an excerpt here!

Chaos King (Infinity Alchemist, #2) by Kacen Callender
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Black trans bi/pansexual MC, queernorm world
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

WHEN THE WORLD BURNS, ASH WILL RISE.

The explosive sequel to instant New York Times bestselling YA debut Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender.

The hardcover edition features a beautiful jacket with silver foil, a case stamp, an in-world map and illustrated endpapers.

Ever since he rose up against his father and saved New Anglia from destruction, Ash has been struggling to adapt to his new life. He has nightmares every night, haunted by strange black orbs and his screaming dead mother. Ash is sure she’s trying to warn him that the world is still in danger, and becomes determined to find a way to speak to her again―but communicating with the dead isn’t easy, even for an alchemist as powerful as Ash.

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The sequel to Infinity Alchemist! Which was written to work as a standalone, but here we are getting more VERY QUEER ALCHEMISTS!

Afia in the Land of Wonders by Mia Araujo
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Representation: West African-inspired cast and setting
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

In her stunning literary debut, Mia Araujo presents a gorgeous reimagining of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, spinning a new story that is accompanied by arresting, ethereal illustrations about twin sisters and how one must venture outside the safety of their home, into the wilderness, in order to find herself and true happiness.

Afia has always felt like half of a whole. Her twin sister, Aya, is perfectly happy with fulfilling their family's expectations of them. But Afia dreams of exploring the world beyond her secluded cliffside home of Dafra. She dreams of adventure.

When she meets a charming shape-shifter named Bakame, who dazzles her with promises of a magical land called Ijabu, Afia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. Although it will mean leaving everything she has ever known behind, including her beloved sister, Afia follows Bakame into the forbidden forests surrounding Dafra, from which no one has ever returned.

Filled with magical sights, a charismatic Queen and her intriguing court, Ijabu is everything that Afia has ever dreamed of. But she soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and this fantasy world demands a terrible price. With the help of a mysterious trickster, Afia must evade the Queen's hunters and the lost dreamers of Ijabu, who wish to pull her deeper into their web.

Now, Afia must find the courage to survive while standing on her own--or risking losing herself completely to the wonders of Ijabu.

Debut author-illustrator Mia Araujo weaves an extraordinarily luminous and beautiful story, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, about what it takes to find your true self, even if it means facing your deepest fears.

"Nothing short of an amazing adventure into a fantastic world, Mia Araujo has crafted a beautiful narrative, made all the more incredible by stunning visuals that overflow with heart and soul." -- David F. Walker, Eisner-award winning author of Bitter Root and The Second Chance of Darius Logan

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Araujo is a writer AND an artist, and the illustrations she’s shared for her debut have had me SWOONING. I am so, so excited to finally get to read this tomorrow!

(Also let’s please encourage publishers to keep giving us illustrated novels, make that a thing!!!)

Storm Singer by Sarwat Chadda
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Representation: Desi-inspired cast and setting, disabled brown MC
Published on: 15th April 2025
Goodreads

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief meets One Thousand and One Nights in this thrilling middle grade fantasy from Rick Riordan Presents author Sarwat Chadda about a girl with the magical power to control the elements with her song.

In a land ruled by fierce winged warriors known as eagle garudas, twelve-year-old Nargis is just a poor, lowly human, a Worm who hates the garudas that killed her parents. But even though she can’t fly—and her childhood attempt left her walking with a crutch—she is far from powerless. Nargis is a spirit able to coax small bits of wind, water, fire, and earth to do her bidding through song…well, sometimes.

When Nargis loses control of her power in a high-stakes kite fight, she is exiled. Cast into the desert, she discovers Mistral, an injured boy who turns out to be an eagle garuda, the prince of her enemies! He’s on a mission to take back his throne from a terrible vulture garuda. In spite of their mutual distrust, the two have no choice but to forge an unlikely alliance if they want to escape the desert alive.

And as Nargis and Mistral battle dangerous assassins, befriend crafty sky pirates, and sneak into the mysterious sky castle of Alamut, Nargis discovers she carries a family secret, one that could bring Monsoon’s rains back to the desert, but only if she’s willing to risk her life in the bargain…

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Disability rep and song-magic? Plus garudas? SOLD!

Some Body Like Me by Lucy Lapinska
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 17th April 2025
Goodreads

As the world falls apart around them, piece by piece, Abigail Fuller spends humanity's final days looking after her husband David.

But that's not true, not really. Abigail isn't David's wife. She's not even human. She's a replacement, built in the image of the real Abigail, who died sixteen years ago.

When the law changes in three weeks, Abigail won't need to be David's wife any longer. She won't need to be a woman, or a human, if she doesn't want to be. She's going to be able to find out exactly who she is.

But if she's not Abigail Fuller, who is she?

Both tender and powerful, Some Body Like Me explores the boundaries of sexuality and the indefinable human capacity for love at the end of the world. Perfect for fans of Emily St John Mandel, Kazuo Ishiguro and Sequoia Nagamatsu.

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I suspect I will find this one’s themes too uncomfortable to read it myself, but I still wanted to include it here!

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

The post Must-Have Monday #232 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.