Siavahda's Blog, page 92
February 8, 2021
Must-Have Monday #23!
Okay, the publishing industry is definitely hitting its stride now – we have TEN amazing books releasing this week!

Representation: Cast of colour, oppressed minorities, polyamory, secondary asexual character, secondary F/F, queernorm world
on 9th February 2021
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Urban Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads
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From the author of the Maradaine saga comes a new steampunk fantasy novel that explores a chaotic city on the verge of revolution.
Ziaparr: a city being rebuilt after years of mechanized and magical warfare, the capital of a ravaged nation on the verge of renewal and self-rule. But unrest foments as undercaste cycle gangs raid supply trucks, agitate the populace and vandalize the city. A revolution is brewing in the slums and shantytowns against the occupying government, led by a voice on the radio, connected through forbidden magic.
Wenthi Tungét, a talented cycle rider and a loyal officer in the city patrol, is assigned to infiltrate the cycle gangs. For his mission against the insurgents, Wenthi must use their magic, connecting his mind to Nália, a recently captured rebel, using her knowledge to find his way into the heart of the rebellion.
Wenthi's skill on a cycle makes him valuable to the resistance cell he joins, but he discovers that the magic enhances with speed. Every ride intensifies his connection, drawing him closer to the gang he must betray, and strengthens Nália's presence as she haunts his mind.
Wenthi is torn between justice and duty, and the wrong choice will light a spark in a city on the verge of combustion.
This is without question one of the best books of the year, full of heart and punk as hell. It has queerness, found-family, magic worked with motorcycles, and, of course, revolution. What more could you possibly want? If you need more convincing, my review is over here!

Representation: Queernorm world, nonbinary characters
on 9th February 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads
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Return to the world of inklings, tattoo magic, and evil deities as Celia uncovers the secrets of the ink in order to stop Diavala once and for all. This eagerly anticipated sequel to Ink in the Blood is perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Wicked Saints.
Celia Sand faced Diavala and won, using ink magic to destroy the corrupt religion of Profeta that tormented her for a decade. But winning came with a cost. Now Celia is plagued with guilt over her role in the death of her best friend. When she discovers that Diavala is still very much alive and threatening Griffin, the now-infamous plague doctor, Celia is desperate not to lose another person she loves to the deity’s wrath.
The key to destroying Diavala may lie with Halycon Ronnea, the only other person to have faced Diavala and survived. But Halcyon is dangerous and has secrets of his own, ones that involve the ink that Celia has come to hate. Forced to choose between the ink and Diavala, Celia will do whatever it takes to save Griffin—even if it means making a deal with the devil himself.
This is the sequel to last year’s Ink in the Blood, which introduced us to an incredible world full of ink magic and auras denoting gender – but left some pretty major questions unanswered! I think we can be pretty confident they’re going to get answered in Curse, though.

Representation: Gay MC, M/M
on 9th February 2021
Goodreads
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Christopher Marlowe, a brilliant aspiring playwright, is pulled into the duplicitous world of international espionage on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I. A many-layered historical thriller combining state secrets, intrigue, and romance.
England, 1585. In Kit Marlowe's last year at Cambridge, he receives an unexpected visitor: Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, who has come with an unorthodox career opportunity. Her Majesty's spies are in need of new recruits, and Kit's flexible moral compass has drawn their attention. Kit, a scholarship student without money or prospects, accepts the offer, and after his training the game is on. Kit is dispatched to the chilly manor where Mary, Queen of Scots is under house arrest, to act as a servant in her household and keep his ear to the ground for a Catholic plot to put Mary on the throne.
While observing Mary, Kit learns more than he bargained for. The ripple effects of his service to the Crown are far-reaching and leave Kit a changed man. But there are benefits as well. The salary he earns through his spywork allows him to mount his first play, and over the following years, he becomes the toast of London's raucous theatre scene. But when Kit finds himself reluctantly drawn back into the uncertain world of espionage, conspiracy, and high treason, he realizes everything he's worked so hard to attain--including the trust of the man he loves--could vanish before his very eyes.
Pairing modern language with period detail, Allison Epstein brings Elizabeth's privy council, Marlowe's lovable theatre troupe, and the squalor of sixteenth-century London to vivid, teeming life as Kit wends his way behind the scenes of some of Tudor history's most memorable moments. At the center of the action is Kit himself--an irrepressible, irreverent force of nature. Thrillingly written, full of poetry and danger, A Tip for the Hangman brings an unforgettable protagonist to new life, and makes a centuries-old story feel utterly contemporary.
As far as I’m aware, this isn’t historical fantasy, just straight-up historical fiction – but it’s Christopher Marlowe!!! He’s one of my favourite historical figures and I’ve heard good things about Epstein, so I’m definitely going to be picking this one up.

Representation: Cast of colour, F/F
on 9th February 2021
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Fantasy
Goodreads
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Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with a powerful romantic fantasy that reads like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl’s Moving Castle in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-esque world.
Fire burns bright and has a long memory….
Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.
Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.
Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate—and her own?
It seems like the entire internet has been shrieking about how incredible this book is, so yes, I’ll definitely be snapping up a copy tomorrow!

Representation: Cast of colour
on 9th February 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads
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Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.
But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity--and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.
Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki--near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire's greatest threat.
Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she's ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be--not even Deka herself.
There’s been mega hype for this book! The premise alone is hugely promising – I’m looking forward to finally getting to check it out!

on 9th February 2021
Goodreads
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Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, “A Spell for Foolish Hearts” to the terrifying tension of the urban legend “Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez.”
I’ll be honest, I have no idea where I heard about this one; nor can I remember exactly what I heard. But I remember that it had me intensely interested, so I’m intrigued on multiple levels to finally get to read it!

on 9th February 2021
Goodreads
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A policeman, Jacob Berger, questions her about a cold case. Then there are questions about a fire in the library at her grandparents' house and an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter, as well as threatening phone calls and a mysterious illness. Finally a shadowy young man named Shift appears, forcing Taryn and Jacob toward a reckoning felt in more than one world.
The Absolute Book is epic, action-packed fantasy in which hidden treasures are recovered, wicked things resurface, birds can talk, and dead sisters are a living force. It is a book of journeys and returns, from contemporary England to Auckland, New Zealand; from a magical fairyland to Purgatory. Above all, it is a declaration of love for stories and the ways in which they shape our worlds and create gods out of morals.
The Absolute Book is finally being released in the US! I’m ridiculously excited; I’ve heard nothing but unstinting praise for this book from every corner, and I’ve loved Knox since the days of Vintner’s Luck. Take it as read that I’ll be diving into this one on Tuesday!

Representation: Gay MC of colour, M/M
on 9th February 2021
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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As the Allied forces battle to defeat the Nazis, a shadow war rages between angels and daimons fighting for the soul of humanity in this thrilling conclusion to the critically acclaimed Los Nefilim historical fantasy series.
The year is 1944, and the daimons are rising.
With the Inner Guard thrown into disarray by the German blitzkrieg, the daimon-born nefilim of the Scorpion Court gather in Paris, scheming to restore their rule over the mortal realm. Working as a double-agent, Diago Alvarez infiltrates his family’s daimonic court, but soon finds himself overwhelmed by his kin’s multiple deceits.
Meanwhile, Ysabel Ramírez hunts a Psalm that will assist Operation Overlord, the Allies’ invasion of Normandy. Her objective takes her to Paris—into the heart of territories controlled by Die Nephilim and her power-hungry uncle, Jordi Abelló, who seeks the same Psalm in his quest to wrest control of Los Nefilim from her father. When their paths cross, he abducts her and leaves her to the mercy of his Nazi followers.
But Ysabel is as cunning and bold as Jordi. She knows only one of them can survive to one day rule Los Nefilim, and she’s determined to be the one to succeed her father as queen.
Trapped in her uncle’s château hidden deep within the Fontainebleau forest, Ysabel discovers the truth behind her uncle’s lust for dominance: those that wear the signet of the Thrones are not blessed . . . they are cursed. And it may take a miracle to end this war once and for all.
I think this is the third full novel in the Los Nefilim series. I’m a few books behind, so I haven’t let myself read the blurb properly for fear of spoilers, but I love this series, and anyone with any interest in angels, demons, or nephilim should definitely give it a try!

Representation: Bisexual MC, F/F
on 9th February 2021
Goodreads
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When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.
Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.
Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.
With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she's foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.
This was one I DNF-ed, but that was based purely on personal preference; it’s a wonderful book and a lot of people are going to love it!

Representation: Chronic illness, sapphic MC
on 9th February 2021
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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Karen Osborne continues her science fiction action and adventure series the Memory War with Engines of Oblivion, the sequel to Architects of Memory—the corporations running the galaxy are about to learn not everyone can be bought.
Natalie Chan gained her corporate citizenship, but barely survived the battle for Tribulation.
Now corporate has big plans for Natalie. Horrible plans.
Locked away in Natalie's missing memory is salvation for the last of an alien civilization and the humans they tried to exterminate. The corporation wants total control of both—or their deletion.
This is the second book in the Memory Wars series, and will hopefully be the kick up the arse I need to read book one! I did start it, and I remember that I adored what I read, but I got distracted… Now I’ll have to read it properly so I can jump into this sequel!
Those are all the books I know about! Did I miss any? Which of the week’s releases are you most excited for?
The post Must-Have Monday #23! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
February 7, 2021
Powerful, Punk, Poignant: The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca

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.
The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan MarescaRepresentation: Cast of colour, oppressed minorities, bi/pansexual cast, secondary asexual character, secondary F/F relationship, polyamory
Published by DAW Books on 9th February 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

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From the author of the Maradaine saga comes a new steampunk fantasy novel that explores a chaotic city on the verge of revolution.
Ziaparr: a city being rebuilt after years of mechanized and magical warfare, the capital of a ravaged nation on the verge of renewal and self-rule. But unrest foments as undercaste cycle gangs raid supply trucks, agitate the populace and vandalize the city. A revolution is brewing in the slums and shantytowns against the occupying government, led by a voice on the radio, connected through forbidden magic.
Wenthi Tungét, a talented cycle rider and a loyal officer in the city patrol, is assigned to infiltrate the cycle gangs. For his mission against the insurgents, Wenthi must use their magic, connecting his mind to Nália, a recently captured rebel, using her knowledge to find his way into the heart of the rebellion.
Wenthi's skill on a cycle makes him valuable to the resistance cell he joins, but he discovers that the magic enhances with speed. Every ride intensifies his connection, drawing him closer to the gang he must betray, and strengthens Nália's presence as she haunts his mind.
Wenthi is torn between justice and duty, and the wrong choice will light a spark in a city on the verge of combustion.
~everyone uses motorcycles and it is always sexy
~monogamy??? never heard of it
~the mushroom goddess is in the radios
~all the radios
~the most mouthwatering tacos ever
~magic drugs
~when the system breaks you down, break the system
This is, without question, one of the best books of the year.
To start with, this is dieselpunk fantasy, which I don’t run into too often – the magic in Velocity is intimately and powerfully tied to speed, the kind of speed which can only be achieved with the help of an engine, and so everything from motorcycles to trains have their own magical (and arguably spiritual, within the context of the story) significance. And that’s a brilliantly interesting concept all on its own, when so many storytellers choose to pit magic against technology, casting fantasy and science as some kind of enemies; instead, here, they’re intertwined, each a vital half of the whole.
(And for the record? Where ‘steampunk’ is most often used as a descriptor for a specific aesthetic, and as a term has kind of lost any connotations of rebellion-against-the-system, when Velocity calls itself dieselpunk, it means punk. The clue’s in the title: this is a book that is all about questioning and fighting against the system, up to and including tearing it all down to start over. It’s punk as hell.)
The book’s blurb does a pretty good job of summing up the basic story: Wenthi is a police officer, one of the first people with native blood to make the cut. This is probably in large part because his mother is a very important woman, but also helped by the fact that Wenthi completely buys into the status quo, which has his country beggared as all its resources are sent abroad to their ‘allies’, and the population is divided up into a caste system which can be summed up as: the more native blood you have, the lower down you are on the ladder of ‘people who matter’. Wenthi has absolutely drunk the kool-aid, to the point of being freakishly calm and accepting even when he’s mistreated or abused because of his ethnicity. Whoever’s running the propaganda, they’re clearly very good at it.
When his superiors realise that, for whatever reason, Wenthi can slip through the magical warning system used by the rebels – one which means they can always feel the cops coming, and thus always slip through their fingers – he’s sent undercover. With one invaluable resource: a mind-link to an imprisoned rebel that will make his true identity impossible for the rebels to detect.
But honestly, that doesn’t capture even a fraction of the awesomeness that is this story.
Let’s start with the worldbuilding. The book opens with a quick definition of the different castes, and although the words sounded strange to me (as someone who only really has a grip on British English), the terms are normalised so quickly by the narrative that I didn’t have to go back to check the definitions even once. Usually I can’t keep fantasy words straight at all, so kudos to Maresca on that! The system’s pretty simple; as I said above, basically, the more native blood you have, the lower your caste – and the worse your treatment by everyone from law enforcement to the rations office. The country, originally named Ziaparr (also the name of the capital city) was renamed Pinogoz after several rounds of war and colonisation, and the native Zapisians are somewhat Latinx-coded, both in appearance and culturally. Pinogoz is run by the llipe (the highest caste, people who have none or almost no Zapisian blood) and the zoika, who are ‘respected foreigners’ – tourists, and the people who make up the ‘occupational oversight government’. Your caste determines which parts of the city you can access (and how much hassle or outright abuse you can expect at the check-points), the amounts your ration cards are worth…it determines way, way too much, is what I’m saying.
This all sounds reasonably complicated, but honestly, Velocity is so immersive that after the first chapter I had it all down. What’s interesting is that we get three perspectives of the state of the country through the three POV characters; Wenthi, Nália, and Ajiñe, Nália being the rebel who was captured and is now mind-linked to Wenthi, and Ajiñe being another rebel whose cell Wenthi infiltrates. And it’s just…absolutely mind-blowing how all three of them can look at the exact same thing – the city they all live in, people they all interact with, the system that governs it all – and see such different things. I don’t think Velocity would work nearly so well if the reader only got Wenthi’s view, and I don’t think the…the absolute injustice of it all would hit so hard without us getting Nália and Ajiñe’s perspectives. Although Wenthi does, over the course of the book, start to unlearn his brainwashing and internalised racism, getting big chunks of the story through Nália and Ajiñe is invaluable in making the book as great as it is.
Still on the worldbuilding: the biggest thing you need to know about Zapisian culture? Is that they do not have the same view of sex (or romance) that the industrialised West does. Zapisians are hugely sex-positive and often engage in group sex and what we would consider group marriages, and it would be easy to say that they have a very casual approach to sex, but I think that’s misleading. They engage in sex often and easily, but it’s not casual.
“I mean, how can you even think about sex with all of them when you’ll just as soon arrest them? Ezodi.”
“It’s not like that,” he said, bristling at the invective she just used. Bristling because it wasn’t a lie: he was fucking without any spirit. Hollow.
It’s a contemptuous insult, describing someone as a person who ‘fucks without spirit’, and that’s really telling. We can infer, then, that the norm is fucking with spirit, which I think it makes it pretty clear that Zapisians don’t engage in casual, meaningless sex. They have sex a lot, and with people they may not know super well, but it’s never meant to be meaningless. It’s a beautiful and fascinating bit of worldbuilding.
(Also? One of the main secondary characters is asexual, which is something that’s recognised and respected in Zapisian culture. I cannot tell you how ridiculously emotional I got at finally seeing an idealised sexually free culture with space for asexuality!)
But maybe the aspect of the worldbuilding I was most impressed with was everything the main characters didn’t know. As a colonised people, a lot of their history and culture has been taken from them, suppressed or destroyed, and so there’s this quiet thread running through Velocity which is the characters learning about pre-colonisation Ziaparr. In another book, this would be clunky and clumsy, and I’d dismiss it as too much telling-not-showing – but here, Wenthi and the rest of them have to be told. Because they don’t know. And the effect this creates is the feeling that the reader is on this journey with Wenthi and the rest, because they are learning these things just as the reader is learning them. It’s incredibly clever and very intimate; you almost feel like you’re intruding, in some scenes, as though you should slip out quietly and leave the characters to these intensely private, powerful discoveries.
Maresca is one hell of an amazing writer, is what I’m saying.
And gods, this book – Velocity is not your typical revolution fantasy, okay? There’s not just one bad guy who can be killed and then everything will be magically perfect; the story doesn’t skim over or handwave the practical difficulties inherent in overthrowing a system. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a book tackle the topic this way; fantasy loves idealism, but nothing about the situation Velocity‘s characters are in is idealised, and they know it.
“Let’s say for the sake of argument, the revolution is successful. We reclaim this country. What does that look like? What is justice in that country? What is the law there? Who decides what it looks like and how do we make it fair?”
The deeper Ajiñe’s cell is brought into the rebellion’s ‘inner circle’, the more doubts they have – not about what they’re doing, but about what the end result is supposed to be, supposed to look like. It’s a brutal realism that most ‘fight the system!’ stories don’t go near – because they’re hard, difficult questions, and there’s no magic wand to summon up an easy answer. But Velocity goes there.
And none of that tells you how incredibly compelling this book is; how quickly the writing flows, how impossible it is to put the book down once you start reading. Maresca’s story carries you along like Nália’s treasured motorcycle, and just as the speed makes magic in Nália’s world, Maresca’s writing works its own magic on the reader. It’s all so damn powerful, a river that runs fast but deep. The skill with which Maresca handles Wenthi’s arc is just… I’m in awe. It’s careful and delicate and gradual, and it’s a gods-damn masterpiece.
“Are you afraid they’ll find out what you are?” She came up close to him. “Or are you afraid you’ll find out what you are?”
This is a book with found-family and polyamory, with queerness so casual there aren’t even words for it, with goddesses in the radios and mushrooms that tie minds, hearts, even bodies together. This is a story about colonialism and unlearning internalised racism; about what it means to be cut off from your cultural history and identity, and how to get those things back. It’s about figuring out what a revolution, and its aftermath, would even look like, about the difference between idealism and practice and how to get from one to the other. It’s about magic and empathy and finding something to believe in, and what you’ll do to make it happen.
It’s fucking awesome.
And it’s out on Tuesday. Go preorder your copy immediately.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and read everything Maresca has ever written ever.
TL;DR: BUY THIS BOOK!
P.S. When you start reading, make sure you have snacks ready. The descriptions of the food will give you cravings. So many cravings.

The post Powerful, Punk, Poignant: The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
February 3, 2021
WWW Wednesday: 3rd Feb
I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
Goodreads
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Mulan meets The Song of Achilles; an accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China.
“I refuse to be nothing…”
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.
A lush, fresh literary voice merges with commercial appeal in this accomplished debut. Powerful and poetic, beautiful and brutal, She Who Became the Sun is a bold reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
I’ve got to admit, I’m not loving this, but it’s not the book’s fault. I’m coming to the realisation that I might just not enjoy Epic Fantasy anymore. Probably doesn’t help that at least so far, this reads more like Historical Fiction than anything else – there’s been no magic, so it’s all just…monasteries and then soldiers and I don’t really care???
I don’t want to DNF this one, but I will if magic doesn’t show up soon.
WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
Goodreads
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No one can talk to the dead . . . can they? Free man of color Benjamin January gets caught up in a strange, spiritual world that might lead to his own demise, as he hunts for a missing teenager in this gripping, atmospheric historical mystery.
New Orleans, 1840. Freshly home from a dangerous journey, that last thing Benjamin January wants to do is leave his wife and young sons again. But when old friends Henri and Chloe Viellard ask for his help tracking down a missing girl in distant New York, he can't say no.
Three weeks ago, seventeen-year-old Eve Russell boarded a steam-boat - and never got off it. Mrs Russell is adamant Eve's been kidnapped, but how could someone remove a teenager from a crowded deck in broad daylight? And why would anyone target Eve?
The answer lies in New York, a hotbed of new religions and beliefs, of human circuses and freak shows . . . and of blackbirders, who'll use any opportunity to kidnap a free man of color and sell him into slavery. January's determined to uncover the truth, but will he ever be able to return to New Orleans to share it?
Barbara Hambly’s writing is so beautiful, and since I’ve read all her fantasy books, I’m willing to read her historical fiction as well. I’ve got to admit that I didn’t enjoy House of the Patriarch that much, though; definitely a weaker installment in her Benjamin January series. (Which is, on the whole, excellent; this is a weird outlier).
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?
Representation: Queer cast
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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The rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard—NeoG—a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard.
For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback—until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place.
Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own—away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option—and would only prove her parents right.
But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them.
Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG.
I was approved for an arc of the sequel, I didn’t manage to write a review the first time I read Pale Light, and I’ve been feeling kind of down and want to read something feel-good, which Pale Light is (albeit not the same kind of feel-good as the Wayfarer series! Quite different kinds of sci fi, but related. Cousins to each other, maybe).
I’m crossing my fingers that I can take a lot of notes and write a worthy review this time!
Here endeth the weekly check-in! What are you reading this week?
The post WWW Wednesday: 3rd Feb appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
February 2, 2021
10 Favourites Older Than I Am!

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!
I skip weeks where the prompts don’t excite me, but this week the theme is Books Written Before I Was Born. So here are ten of my favourite books older than I am – and I thought it would be fun to show their original covers on the left, and their most recent covers on the right! Just to see how times have changed!


on 1985
Goodreads
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I always pitch this series to people as ‘Watership Down, but unicorns’. It’s surprisingly mature in its themes (DESPITE THAT APPALLING ORIGINAL COVER THAT WAS PROBABLY DRAWN BY A 5-YEAR-OLD, OH MY GODS) with impressive societal worldbuilding re the unicorns, while at the same time tapping into some classic tropes – like a chosen one born to reclaim his people’s ancestral homeland.
…I don’t actually need to say anything about how much greater the modern cover is, right? Right.

on 1987
Goodreads
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I couldn’t find a ‘modern’ cover for this, because…they never reissued the omnibus, and even the individual books all have the same covers now that they did back when they were first published. ??? This is a strange, gorgeous trilogy, that has the dreamy style of fairytales while sounding like no fairytale you’ve ever heard. I love these books dearly, and I really wish someone would publish them as ebooks so I could carry them around on my e-reader forever!


on 12th November 1988
Goodreads
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At the turn of the twentieth century, a former spy is called into service to hunt down a vampire killer...
Once a spy for Queen Victoria, James Asher has fought for Britain on every continent, using his quick wits to protect the Empire at all costs. After years of grueling service, he marries and retires to a simple academic’s life at Oxford. But his peace is shattered one night with the arrival of a Spanish vampire named Don Simon. Don Simon can disappear into fog, move faster than the eye can see, and immobilize Asher—and his young bride—with a wave of his hand. Asher is at his mercy, and has no choice but to give his help.
Because someone is killing the vampires of London, and James Asher must find out who—before he becomes a victim himself.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
This one probably has the least-terrible original cover, although the modern cover is completely useless at telling you anything about the book at all. Basically, it’s historical fiction plus vampires, but what I love about this series (besides Hambly’s exquisite writing) is that the vampires here actually feel like not-human, alien monsters – not just prettified bad-boys with particular dietary needs. I reread these books almost every year, and if you have the slightest interest in vampires I encourage you to give them a go!


on January 1st 1979
Goodreads
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Herewiss is the only man in centuries to possess the Power of the blue Flame, but he can't use or control it -- not even to help his dearest friend, Freelorn, exiled prince of Arlen. Herewiss does have a talent for more mundane sorcery, and (aided by the unearthly creature Sunspark) he uses it to rout the armies besieging Freelorn. But now Herewiss faces a devastating choice.
His time to master the blue Fire is running out. Should he join Freelorn in his fight to regain his kingdom? Or should he seek out the ancient keep in the Waste where doors lead into other worlds -- perhaps even the door whose use will teach him to control the Power that he must master or die?...
…Honestly, I’m gonna say it: both these covers are freaking awful. Which is a shame, because this is the first book in a series that pretends (for about 3 seconds) to be Very Traditional Fantasy…except it’s in a queernorm-world where polyamorous relationships and group marriages are totally normal, and also, this series has what is probably the coolest take on dragons ever.
But wow, there is no getting around the fact that both those covers are terrible. In different ways. But. Wow.


on 1st July 1987
Goodreads
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Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk-and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.
War for the Oaks is a brilliantly entertaining fantasy novel that's as much about this world as about the imagined one.
The book that invented Urban Fantasy!!! Ahhhhhhh, this is so good! The Seelie and Unseelie Courts go to war, but to ‘make it count’ they need a mortal, and the one they choose is a singer-songwriter who kicks ass. There’s a shapeshifting puca who is the most lovable sweetheart, really gorgeous writing, and a blending of the fantastical with the urban that I’m not sure any other Urban Fantasy has ever matched (except, of course, Kate Griffin’s Matthew Swift series).
I mean, I hate both of these covers, but the book is jawdroppingly amazing, and if you haven’t read it, you really must. As in, it’s mandatory, go and get yourself a copy right this minute.


on 15th August 1988
Goodreads
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Unquenchable Fire is SO WEIRD. SO. WEIRD. It’s modern North America if miracles and a very brain-twisty magic were commonplace, and what happens when a perfectly normal woman is Chosen to carry and give birth to the messiah? It’s pretty great at showing how awful that would be, actually – just being Chosen, not getting a say in the matter at all – and the worldbuilding is just. Completely bonkers, honestly, but in this really fascinating way??? It’s not coded for Christianity or anything like that, by the way; it’s not religious fantasy, except in the sense that the world of the story has its own religion that this all ties into…
And no question, I VASTLY prefer the newer cover. Don’t even ask me what’s going on in the original. A Virgin Mary cat-lady on the phone, I guess???


on 1st September 1992
Goodreads
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At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, looking for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not. Ann, longing for love, and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.
Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds - Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah, whose eyes are as green as limes are on their own lost journey, slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.
They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself...
Vampires again! Honestly, Poppy Brite’s horror is just about the only horror I can handle, which is hilarious because Brite is gory as hell. But the writing is so beautiful I get sucked in anyway??? Even more hilariously, I guess they really didn’t feel like changing the cover up that much. (From what I can tell, there were several different intervening covers, but the most recent? Is the same as the very first. With some extra text on the front. All right then.)


on 24th February 1987
Goodreads
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In the highly stratified world of Kushner's nameless old city, the aristocrats living in fine mansions on the Hill settle their differences by sending to the thieves' den of Riverside for swordsmen who will fight to the death for a point of someone else's honor.
Young Lord Michael Godwin is so taken by these romantic figures that he studies the art himself until challenged by the best of them.
Master of the Sword, Richard St. Vier is picky in his contracts and precise in his killing but he nevertheless becomes embroiled in the nobility's political, social and sexual intrigues. When his lover Alec is kidnapped by Lord Horn, St. Vier must take drastic action.
Urgh, I hate both of these covers; the first one is just, what, but the modern one is that particular flavour of Generic Fantasy But Maybe Historical Fiction Who Knows??? that I despise. At least the first one has some kind of individuality.
But if you’re not familiar with Swordspoint, it’s the first of the Riverside books, which are queer fantasy without the magic. I think it’s called fantasy-of-manners. Kushner’s writing is poetic and lovely and the series is a must-read for baby queers.


on 1968
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-02T19:50:14+00:00", "description": "Books Written Before I Was Born! With the original covers facing off against the covers of the latest editions.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-favourites-older-than-i-am\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Silver Crown", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robert C. O'Brien", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}Ellen awakens one morning with a mysterious silver crown on the pillow beside her. What magic powers it possesses she has not yet discovered, but the sudden changes in her life are unmistakable: her house is burned down, her family has disappeared, and a man in a dark uniform is stalking her. Can Ellen ever find her family? Can she use the power of the silver crown to thwart the powers of darkness? What diabolical force hides inside the mysterious castle in the woods?
The Silver Crown has a special place in my heart because of the circumstances surrounding how I got my copy…which does not have the right-hand cover, although I think that’s quite pretty! (I like the cover of my version better though). The original cover…why so green??? What???


on 1942
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2021-02-02T19:50:14+00:00", "description": "Books Written Before I Was Born! With the original covers facing off against the covers of the latest editions.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/10-favourites-older-than-i-am\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "The Little Grey Men", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "B.B.", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Siavahda", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}
The last four gnomes in Britain live by a Warwickshire brook. When one of them decides to go and explore and doesn't return, it's up to the remaining three to build a boat and set out to find him. This is the story of the gnome's epic journey in search of Cloudberry and is set against the background of the English countryside, beginning in spring, continuing through summer, and concluding in autumn, when the first frosts are starting to arrive.
First published in 1942 by Denys Watkins-Pitchford under his penname "B.B.," readers young and old alike still cherish Watkins-Pitchford's classic.
Like The Silver Crown, this is a children’s book, about three little gnomes who might just be the last gnomes anywhere in England! It’s a really sweet little adventure story of them going on a journey together to try and find one of their old companions. I’m not in love with either of these covers, but if I had to choose one I’d probably go with the original one on the left. The one on the right is that kind of scribbly etching-style that I’m not fond of. But I very much recommend the book if you’re looking for some really sweet, whimsical little adventure story.
Aaand, that’s a wrap! I really enjoyed comparing the covers of all these – I don’t know WHAT cover artists were smoking way back when, but I’m glad they’re off it now…!
The post 10 Favourites Older Than I Am! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
February 1, 2021
Must-Have Monday #22!
We have NINE spec-fic releases of interest this week!

Representation: Bisexual MC, polyamory, M/F/F/M, all-bisexual cast
on 31st January 2021
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.
With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.
I should have included this in last week’s Must-Have post, but some people count weeks as Sunday to Sunday, right? So I can totally include it! Besides, this is ridiculously amazing and if you haven’t nabbed it yet, you need to! You can check out my review here, but basically? Queer poly vampires being delicious throughout history. *chef’s kiss*

on 2nd February 2021
Goodreads
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Catagna has been shaken to its core.
The philosophists insist that a disastrous earthquake has been caused by an ancient monster imprisoned below the earth, who can only be freed with magic. In every street and market, the people of Catagna are railing against magic-users with a greater ferocity than ever before, and magic hunters are everywhere.
Meanwhile, Romy has been dreaming.
Every night, her dreams are increasingly vivid and disturbing. Every day, she struggles to understand the purpose of the Chimera's most recent assignment from the Shadow Lord.
As Romy and the others attempt to carry out their mission, they find themselves plunged into a mystery of corruption and murder, myth and magic, and a terrifying truth: the philosophists may have been right all along.
I have loved this trilogy from the start, and I’m going to be so sad to see it end – but also so excited for the finale!

on 2nd February 2021
Goodreads
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Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a scfi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.
Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all costs.
Take them to the stars.
Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race.
But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history: an even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.
A darkly satirical first contact thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them...
This sounds like such an interesting premise??? I’m fascinated by the idea of aliens secretly helping humans reach space.

Representation: Black gay MC, M/M
on 2nd February 2021
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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A romantic, heart-felt, and whimsical novel about letting go of the past, figuring out what you want in your future, and staying in the moment before it passes you by.
Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant.
He's ready for his life to finally begin, until one night, when he passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected...in 1969, where he connects with a magnetic boy named Michael.
And then, just as suddenly as he arrived, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect—the ability to time travel. And they've tasked their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift.
Andre splits his time bouncing between the past and future. Between Michael and Blake. Michael is everything Andre wishes he could be, and Blake, still reeling from the death of his brother, Andre's donor, keeps him at arm's length despite their obvious attraction to each other.
Torn between two boys, one in the past and one in the present, Andre has to figure out where he belongs—and more importantly who he wants to be—before the consequences of jumping in time catch up to him and change his future for good.
A very different history story – time-travel! This sounds like it could be very sweet while also heart-wrenching? I guess we’ll see!

Representation: Asexual MC
on 2nd February 2021
Goodreads
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Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.
In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.
Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.
I got pretty excited when I heard that this was going to have an asexual main character, and it sounds like the stories of Jewish golems crossed with the Terracotta Army, which??? Could be seriously fun.

Representation: Middle Eastern MCs
on 2nd February 2021
Goodreads
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Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin fairy tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia.
As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found.
When they arrive in Australia, what seemed like a stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way.
I’m a little uncertain as to exactly how fantasy-ish this one is, but the reviews for it have been glowing from every corner, so I’m very willing to give it a go!

on 2nd February 2021
Goodreads
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Rose Szabo's thrilling debut What Big Teeth is a dark, gothic fantasy YA novel about a teen girl who returns home to her strange, wild family after years of estrangement, perfect for fans of Wilder Girls...
Eleanor Zarrin has been distanceed from her wild family for years. When she returns home after a violent incident at boarding school, trying to fit back into the space she left is harder than she thought. Eleanor is left to fend for herself within her family of monsters. But when a mysterious figure arrives at their family estate, she must find a way to overcome the monster invading her home or risk becoming a monster herself.
Exquisitely terrifying, beautiful, and savage, What Big Teeth is a genre-defying story from an exciting new literary voice.
I just adore this premise so much??? MONSTER FAMILY. YES PLEASE.

on 2nd February 2021
Goodreads
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American Royals meets The Winner’s Curse in the first book of bestselling author Brittany Cavallaro’s new duology, set in an alternate history American monarchy where a girl grapples for control of her own life in the middle of a looming war.
The year is 1893, and war is brewing in the First American Kingdom. But Claire Emerson has a bigger problem. While her father prepares to reveal the mighty weapon he’s created to showcase the might of their province, St. Cloud, in the World’s Fair, Claire is crafting a plan to escape.
Claire’s father is a sought-after inventor, but he believes his genius is a gift, granted to him by his daughter’s touch. He’s kept Claire under his control for years. As St. Cloud prepares for war, Claire plans to claim her life for herself, even as her best friend, Beatrix, tries to convince her to stay and help with the growing resistance movement that wants to see a woman on the throne. At any cost.
When her father’s weapon fails to fire on the fair’s opening day, Claire is taken captive by Governor Remy Duchamp, St. Cloud’s young, untried ruler. Remy believes that Claire’s touch bestows graces he’s never had, and with his governing power weakening and many political rivals planning his demise, Claire might be his only and best ally. But the last thing that Claire has ever wanted is to be someone else’s muse. Still, affections can change as quickly as the winds of war. And Claire has a choice to make: Will she quietly remake her world from the shadows—or bring it down in flames?
I’ve heard almost nothing about this, but the concept sounds intriguing and I adore the cover. Anyone else going to be checking this one out?

Representation: Black MC
on 4th February 2021
Pages: 336
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Sixth Sense meets Stranger Things in T. L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead, a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.
When a child goes missing in Edinburgh's darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She'll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
When ghosts talk, she will listen...
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.
She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.
This one releases on the 4th in the UK. I’m not usually super into ghost stories, but this one sounds more than worth a try!
Have I missed any? Which releases are you excited about this week?
The post Must-Have Monday #22! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
January 31, 2021
In Short: January
I thought it might be interesting to try and do a summary of my reading habits at the end of each month, just to see how the numbers go up and down. So let’s see how I did in January!
Books Read













This month I managed to read 14 books, which Goodreads tells me is Not On Track for reading 200 books this year, but I think is pretty okay, personally.
Books Reviewed





And I wrote reviews for six of them! That does not strike me as totally terrible, especially considering that a few of them were quite long reviews. I’d like to do better in February, though.
Books DNF-ed







In fairness, most of these are not books I’d call bad; they’re just books that didn’t fit me very well.
Click on the titles for links to Goodreads!
The Stone Knife – this was just an issue of me being a wimp. The story, worldbuilding, characters, and prose are all amazing! It’s just that I’m not very good with grimdark-style gore, and while I’m not sure I’d classify Stone Knife as full-on grimdark, it is bloody in parts. This goes on the ‘try again later’ pile; I think I could handle it if I was in a steadier headspace, and it really is very good.
Lava Red Feather Blue – premise was nice, but the actual writing was pretty bad, so, nope.
The Witch’s Heart – a good book, just not for me. The style used to tell the story is one I dislike, but lots of other people will love this book a lot. Justifiably!
Wings of Ebony – clunky, info-dump-heavy writing with simplistic worldbuilding. I wanted to love this so much, but I hated it pretty passionately instead.
Free Chocolate – this is the second time I’ve tried to read this – the premise is ridiculously fun and interesting! – but I really struggle with the Spanglish. I’m not sure why; I’ve read books with multilingual narrators before and been okay, but this feels really clunky somehow.
Victories Greater than Death – most readers are going to love this, and they will be right to; it’s a very good book, but first-person narration usually doesn’t work for me, and this was not one of the exceptions, unfortunately. I also wasn’t expecting how much Anders was going to shift in tone from her Adult works to her first YA, which is on me, honestly.
The Unbroken – I just couldn’t stand how blunt and bare the prose was. Again, this is a personal preference issue; it’s not a bad book, it’s just not for me. Which makes me pretty miserable, because I was so excited for it. ALAS!
Rise of the Red Hand – I don’t know how else to say it: this is a mess of really bad writing. I thought at first it might be a deliberate effort to convey the feel of this future world to the reader, but I checked Chadha’s other novel and no, this is just how she writes. Broken rhythm to the prose, info-dumping, clunky sentence structure, missing words and continuity errors – this should have gone through at least two more rounds of editing. At least. Vehemently anti-recommended!
Arcs Received










…I have no idea what I’ve done to deserve all these amazing arcs – I’ve been very upfront about being a baby blogger!!! – but I wish I could send thank-you letters to all the publishers! (Are we allowed to send thank-you letters???)
The Witch’s Heart was a DNF, and I read and reviewed The Queen’s Weapons. That leaves seven more to finish reading and review! So far I’m head-over-heels in love with all but those two DNFs. Based on what I’ve read so far, they’re all going to be getting 4 stars or higher from me!
Arcs Outstanding





These are the arcs I received before January and still haven’t reviewed yet. I’m in the middle of reading A Summoning of Demons, Hall of Smoke and A Desolation Called Peace, but I haven’t even started Catch Lili Too or Route of Ice & Salt. Or The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, but that’s because I’m rereading the rest of the Wayfarer books firstI think I won’t be requesting any more arcs for a while, not until I’ve gotten through most of the ones I’ve already got!
Looking Forward





Including the books I already have arcs of (which I also have preordered – do other book reviewers still buy books they’ve had arcs of, if they liked them? I do and will continue to do so regardless, but I’m curious) these are the releases I’m most looking forward to in February!
All in all, a pretty good month. Here’s to February being even better for all of us!
The post In Short: January appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
January 30, 2021
Bloodied and Bejewelled: Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

I received this book for free from Nyx Publishing; this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. GibsonRepresentation: Bi/pansexual MC, polyamory, M/F/F/M, queer cast
on 31st January 2021
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

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A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.
With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.
~not even a little bit Stoker’s Dracula
~vampires being hella queer
~Venetian Carnivale with your sister-wife
~pretty boys are for rescuing
~let’s be honest, we all like a little blood-play
Ornate. Delicious. Hedonistic. Bloodied and bejewelled. This isn’t a book; this is a feast.
Take a moment to savour the title. Just the title. Dowry of Blood. Doesn’t it conjure to mind rich velvets and ancient secrets, gowns and jewels and intoxicating danger? Doesn’t it make you think of lips parted as if for a kiss, or a snarl? Power, yearning, darkly delicious sensuality. Bloodstained loving and loving bloodshed.
I’m here to assure you that Dowry has all those things and more.
And yet, from the start this book subverts your expectations. To start with, Gibson has taken characters who had no voice at all – Dracula’s wives – and decided to tell their story, to give them the stage for once. So even the premise of the book flips the narrative around, bares sharp, bloody teeth at the establishment that thinks this is a man’s story.
And then, we have this–
I never dreamed it would end like this, my lord: your blood splashing hot flecks onto my nightgown and pouring in rivulets onto our bedchamber floor.
This is the first line of the book. That lord, whose name is inextricably tied to the idea of vampire, who defined the modern mythology of the monster? The great and powerful vampire prince who struck terror into generations of those who learned his story?
Oh, he’s dead.
Constanta, our narrator – her story begins where the stories of so many women have ended throughout history; beaten down in the dirt, her loved ones dead, her village afire. And when offered the choice, she chooses what women, what good girls are not supposed to choose: to become a monster rather than die quietly. She wreaks her vengeance on the men who destroyed her human life with a fiercely joyful savagery, as if she has become the avatar of female rage, acting for all the women who have ever been unable to fight back.
I wanted to break them, even more slowly and painfully than they had broken me, leave them bleeding out and begging for mercy.
It’s a powerful moment.
But Constanta doesn’t quite hold on to her power. Once her almost-murderers are dead she surrenders, happily, to the man who made her a vampire.
In that moment, my life was not my own any longer. I felt it slipping away from me the way girlhoods must slip from women who are given proper church marriages and cups of communion wine, not bruising kisses and battlefields full of blood.
And maybe that would give the book a very different feel – if we didn’t already know that she is writing this story after having murdered him.
But we do know.
So.
In this world, you are what I say you are, and I say you are a ghost, a long night’s fever dream that I have finally woken up from. I say you are the smoke-wisp memory of a flame, thawing ice suffering under an early spring sun, a chalk ledger of debts being wiped clean.
I say you do not have a name.
The story Constanta tells us paints her as someone to be pitied; a young woman who was swept up into a toxic relationship, too naive to know better. A victim. And she is a victim – or was – but reading about how her lord manipulates her, gaslights her, emotionally abuses her – all along, we know how it ends. We know she doesn’t stay this way. We know the tables are going to turn.
My lord. My liege. Beloved. King. My darling. My defender.
I had so many names for you in those days, my cup of devotion overflowing with titles worthy of your station.
But those days are over, and the reader knows it.
That knowing colours the ‘main’ story; the recounting, the record of what has passed. We can feel immense sympathy for Constanta; we can despise what her husband does to her; but we cannot see her as weak. And really, we shouldn’t need to know that she overcomes him to believe in her strength; in a perfect world, we wouldn’t attach any kind of stigma to victimhood. We would understand that surviving is strength, too. And I think that’s what Gibson manages to get across, manages to teach us without ever once putting it into words; we read Constanta’s story knowing that she will pay back everything done to her, and therefore we see her strength even during her victimhood, her abuse. On a quiet, unconscious level, we absorb the fact that being a victim does not make you weak. Because we know she survived – and survived to turn the tables.
I hope I’m putting this into words well.
This makes Dowry of Blood sound terribly depressing and grim, which misrepresents it terribly. It’s not depressing. It’s the opposite of depressing; it’s full of the hunger for life, for experiences, for living. It is jewel-tones, it is velvet, it is opera music and gloried-in sexuality and stringing the cities of the world on a string like pearls. It’s monstrous. It’s glorious.
You taught us to never feel guilty, to revel when the world demands mourning.
Dowry of Blood is not a polite, conventional vampire story. This isn’t a book where a dewy-eyed virgin makes a man out of a monster, taming and gentling him as she might a heraldic unicorn. It is not a human fantasy, the oft-repeated, slightly illicit daydream of being adored so wholly that a monster will give up monstrousness for you.
This is a fantasy for those who want to be the monster. It’s a dream for those who hunger. Every page is imbued in a rich, dark sensuality that hearkens back to an older generation of the vampire mythos – and celebrates something fanged and fierce and primal within ourselves.
“Water your mother’s flowers with their blood.”
I nodded, my breath coming shallow and hot. “Yes, my lord.”
Better essayists than I have written at length about how the myth of the vampire is all tangled up with human sexuality, and sexual freedom is definitely one of the many ways in which Gibson’s vampires are free – no longer human, no longer bound by human laws, so does Constanta’s lord encourage her to also cast off human convention. Constanta blithely tells the reader of the human lovers – at least some of whom likely didn’t survive the experience – she and her husband share over the centuries, and there’s no drama about the fact that plenty of them are women. Constanta’s queerness is treated so blithely by her own narrative that a reader who only skims could be forgiven for missing it – at least until Constanta’s husband takes another wife, one who immediately becomes wife and lover to Constanta too.
A lesser writer could easily have made a sordid mess out of all of this, or at least left the reader with the impression that the polyamory is a manifestation of the vampires’ monstrousness, not something good and decent people should ever seriously consider. But Gibson is better than that; even as other aspects of their lives break down or are made questionable, the love at the heart of the novel shines darkly and perfect. Constanta’s husband is controlling and emotionally abusive, but the love is still very real, as is the love Constanta and her sister-wife feel for each other. If the marriage breaks down, it’s not because there’s something intrinsically flawed in the idea of a polyamorous relationship; it’s because one member of it is intrinsically flawed as a person. Gibson never leaves the reader in any doubt about that.
I craved you like maidens crave the grave, the way Death burns for human touch: inconsolably, unrelentingly, aching for the annihilation in your kiss.
And as must be clear from all the quotes I’ve included in this review, Gibson’s prose is simply breathtaking. The passion and exhilaration emanates from every page like physical heat, and the joys and sorrows alike make the reader’s heart ache. I can’t imagine anyone else doing this tale justice; nor have I ever seen the complex and yet primally simple motivations and emotions and story of it all executed so well. Gibson wields her pen like a sword and runs you through with it – but oh, you’ll thank her for it.
Constanta’s story is not one of redemption, because she doesn’t need it. Instead, Dowry of Blood is a story about claiming, embracing, and celebrating your own power, your own strength. It’s about the beauty that can be found everywhere, even when things get very dark indeed. It’s about how small we can make ourselves before we break. It’s about choosing to be monstrous rather than be made less, and in that, it’s a story for so many of us.
Dowry of Blood is unique in being a story no one else would think to tell – or tell so well – but it’s also unique in who it’s being told to. This is a book for those of us who have monsters inside us; for those of us who need or want to let those monsters out… And it’s a book that is a celebration of those parts of us.
If you embrace those shadows inside you, this is the book for you. And if you are searching for a way to step out of a different kind of shadow and into your own strength, Dowry of Blood is for you too.
Or if you’re just looking for an exquisitely beautiful story about queer vampires. That’s more than reason enough to pick up this book.
Dowry of Blood releases tomorrow. Preorder your copy, drink deep, and enjoy.

The post Bloodied and Bejewelled: Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
January 29, 2021
Coming Full Circle: The Queen’s Weapons by Anne Bishop
When baby!Sia was eight years old, she stumbled across a beautiful book. It had a dragon on the cover, and it was three books in one, and the description sounded like a promise.

It was years and years before baby!Sia got her hands on a copy. But it lived up to the promise it made all those years before, and this series has been a huge and important part of my life ever since.
So it goes without saying that I was beyond excited when, after a ten-year break, Bishop returned to the world of the Jewels with The Queen’s Bargain – and this year, she presents us with the gift that is The Queen’s Weapons.
That said, neither Queen’s Weapons nor even Queen’s Bargain are a good place for those new to the series to start. So I’m going to write this review for those who are already familiar with the series. That means there will be spoilers for the earlier books in this review! You have been warned.
The ‘main’ story of the series wrapped up with Twilight’s Dawn, with as picture-perfect a happy ending as Bishop could write from the corner she’d backed herself into – inevitably, if your romance is between someone from a species that lives 3000 years, and someone else whose race only lives for maybe 100 (like us humans) – well, that’s going to end in heartbreak for one part of your couple and your readers, eventually. Despite that, Bishop did the best she could to make the closing of the series not completely tragic, and it did manage to end on a hopeful, if slightly odd, note.
In writing Queen’s Bargain and Queen’s Weapons, it feels very much like Bishop came back to the Black Jewels world to close the book on it properly.
And I have to say, I think she’s done it. I have no idea if she intends to write any more Black Jewels books, but as a reader, I don’t need any more. This is the ending we didn’t quite get with Twilight’s Dawn; not the forced cliche of a white-picket-fence happy ending, but a happy ending that actually fits the strange, unconventional, wonderful family of characters we’ve known and loved for so long. This is the perfect place to stop. This is every question answered, every loose thread tied up, every Jewel set and left in its proper, perfect place.
A standing ovation for Ms Bishop, please!
Now, let me do my best to describe the actual book to you without spoilers!

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.
The Queen's Weapons (The Black Jewels #11) by Anne BishopRepresentation: Sapphic PoV characters, F/F
on 9th March 2021
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

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Enter the dark and sensual realms of the Black Jewels, a world where power always has a price, in this sweeping story in the New York Times bestselling fantasy saga.
They are Warlord Princes, men born to serve and protect. They are the Queen's Weapons, men born to destroy the Queen's enemies--no matter what face that enemy wears.
Daemonar Yaslana knows how to be bossy yet supportive--traits he shares with his father, the Demon Prince, and his uncle, the High Lord of Hell. Within his generation of the family, he assumes the role of protector, supporting his sister Titian’s artistic efforts and curbing his cousin Jaenelle Saetien’s more adventurous ideas. But when a young Eyrien Queen, someone Titian thought was a friend, inflicts an emotional wound, Daemonar's counterattack brings him under the tutelage of Witch, the Queen whose continued existence is known only to a select few.
As Daemonar is confronted by troubling changes within and around the family, he sees warnings that a taint in the Blood might be reappearing. Daemonar, along with his father and uncle, must uncover the source of a familiar evil--and Daemon Sadi, the High Lord of Hell, may be forced into making a terrible choice.
As the first book in the series, Daughter of the Blood, begins with a prologue from Tersa – the only point in any book in the series where Bishop uses first-person instead of third- – it is achingly poignant and appropriate that this, which is most likely the last Black Jewels book, starts with a prologue about Tersa as well. Both Daughter of the Blood and Queen’s Weapons begin with Tersa seeing Witch, but now we’ve come full circle from where we began, now, in Weapons, Witch is there to answer.
There’s just something…so beautiful, about that. The contrast between Tersa being the one to foretell Witch’s coming, thousands of years ago – and now, where Tersa speaks to Witch directly, witch to Witch, as maybe no one else can.
And that’s just the prologue.
I have so many thoughts about this book – thoughts that are difficult to write about without giving away too much of the story. But ultimately, this really is a book about coming full circle from where the Black Jewels series began. We started with Dorothea and Hekatah, and saw them brought down – and now the story cycles ’round again to find another twisted witch, rising but still hidden, spreading an old, familiar poison.
In choosing this particular plotline – in choosing to tell this story specifically – Bishop also manages to justify some aspects of her worldbuilding that always struck me as…not the best. The ridiculously long lives of her long-lived races are finally justified, as we see how important it is that there are those still living who have seen this kind of evil before – who are watchful for it. History repeats itself all too easily when you live maybe 100 years; it only takes a century or two for old travesties to be forgotten, or softened, or even idealised. And that’s where the long-lived races of the Blood step in, if they’re taking their responsibilities seriously, because it takes more than a few centuries for them to forget. So in this way, we see how the two kinds of peoples – long-lived and short- – balance each other; innovation and change comes faster from people who don’t live as long, while the long memories of those who live millennia keep the horrors of history from repeating themselves.
As a long-time fan, and someone who’s spent many hours analysing and debating the tiniest details of these books, I also feel like the things which affect or come out of the characters’ personal lives all reach a pretty logical conclusion. Probably the most important plotline of Queen’s Bargain was the breakdown of Daemon and Surreal’s marriage, which: yeah, saw that coming, honestly. I was never comfortable with the two of them being paired together; it felt so forced and out of character for them both. In Queen’s Weapons, their relationship changes into something far healthier, and which feels much more natural for them both. Equally, a major aspect of Queen’s Weapons is Jaenelle Saetian, Daemon and Surreal’s daughter, and the ways in which she moves from bratty child to genuinely toxic adolescent. At first I took this to just be the direction Bishop chose to take the story – but sitting down and thinking about it, it feels like a foregone conclusion to me that Daemon and Surreal wouldn’t be the best parents. What does either one of them know about children? And after the nightmares the two of them lived through, it’s extremely believable to me that they might go too far in the opposite direction and leave Jaenelle Saetian too sheltered to appreciate what she has. It’s not that they’re bad parents as such, so much as, in trying to give their daughter the perfect childhood – in protecting her from the truth of their own pasts – they accidentally give her a blind-spot when it comes to awful people.
And a pretty huge sense of entitlement.
I do struggle with this a bit, because it is hard to accept that an adolescence that lasts centuries is enough to justify bratty attitudes. It’s emphasised again and again that the long-lived races have short bursts of development and then long plateaus where they don’t grow physically or emotionally…but does that mean any kind of critique bounces off someone within one of those plateaus? Is Jaenelle Saetian biologically incapable of internalising the criticisms of her behaviour – critiques that have been coming for centuries – because she’s in one of those plateaus? Is personal growth impossible during the developmental plateaus? If that’s the case, surely the method of raising children would be drastically different than anything we human readers would recognise?
And I mean, change is clearly not impossible, because Jaenelle Saetian does change – it’s just that she changes for the worst. So…I have a bit of trouble with this.
I think it’s just one of those things you have to accept in a story, and move on. Especially when it would have been so easy, and so expected, to idealise Daemon and Surreal’s daughter – to have made her perfect – there is something to be said about Bishop choosing to go the other way with the character. It’s disappointing in the sense that I want all the characters to be happy forever, but it’s also more realistic.
Another thing that really has to be discussed is Bishop’s choice to put a F/F relationship front and center. I’m not going to talk about which characters turn out to be queer; you’ll have to wait and read the book yourself for that. But one of the things that has made me most unhappy about the Black Jewels series as a queer reader – besides the very, very rigid gender binary – is the fact that, until now, every openly queer character has ended up physically disabled. Have been, in fact, the only characters to come out of the various series of events with life-changing physical damage. (If they weren’t the only ones, it wouldn’t be an issue – bad things happen in wars, people get hurt, etc. But when it only happens to your queer characters? Hmm.) I doubt that Bishop is or was deliberately homophobic, but it’s hard not to read about Karla and Rainer and see unconscious, internalised homophobia. It’s a variety of the Bury Your Gays trope, for sure.
And I think that either Bishop realised that, or someone told her and she listened, because…she finally gives us openly, on-page queer characters who are not only happily in love, but make it through the final pages (physically) undamaged. I really wish the not-physical damage could have been aimed at another character, but at least it’s made clear that the character in question is going to be okay. And it’s just as clear that the characters we love and care about? Don’t give a damn whether someone is queer or not. (Which could be heavily inferred from Karla and Rainier, but we never saw either of them with a partner, and yes, knowing someone’s queer and seeing them in a queer relationship are two different things. Lucivar could have been okay with Karla, but still been weirded out if she dated another woman. But Bishop makes it very clear that no, Lucivar and Daemon and everyone else have no problem with queerness in any form.)
That’s a big deal. It is. Knowing that this world I’ve loved so much for so long has space in it for queer people? Getting a Black Jewels story where the narrative doesn’t punish someone for being gay? It is a big deal.
I had to put the book down and cry for a while. Happy tears! But still. It matters.
Family – its importance, it’s preciousness, all the various forms it can take – has always been a major theme of this series. And I have already seen, in a couple of other early reviews, critique about the way in which a particular family bond breaks in this book. I can only assume those reviewers came from wonderfully happy families; as for me, I’m grateful to Bishop for the case study in how family bonds can be shattered. It’s a relief to finally see someone say, when something is wrong, it is your responsibility to draw the line – even if there are people you love on the other side of it. I can’t be the only one to be sick and tired of seeing family relations idealised and gilded. Folx, sometimes they’re just not. We saw that books and books ago with Jaenelle’s blood-relatives, and as much as I love the SaDiablo family, I’m glad that they can still draw the line even when one of their own is on the other side. It was easy to hate Jaenelle’s relatives; naming them the enemy didn’t require a lot of soul-searching. Drawing the line against people you love, though? That’s harder. Sometimes it’s impossible.
But sometimes it’s necessary. And as someone who’s had to do that, as someone who loves plenty of other people who’ve had to do that… As painful as it is, I’m still happy to see it in one of my favourite series. I’m happy for the message that doing right is more important than who shares your blood – that it’s more important than love.
This isn’t the first time Bishop’s chosen to write that message – we saw it in Shalador’s Lady, in the decision Theran finally had to make about Kermilla: sometimes love and what’s right aren’t the same, aren’t in sync, and when that happens? You have to choose what’s right. Not love. And that’s not a message I can recall seeing in any other books, in any films or tv shows. More usually, love is what helps people to do the right thing; the ‘power of love’ is what gives them the strength to do what’s right but also hard. We’re very rarely shown instances where love and rightness are in conflict. And as I said, I can’t think of any other example where someone has to choose doing right over who they love; not in quite this way.
Painful as it is, I’m happy to see it. I want more people to think about it, and think hard. Because when push comes to shove, you do need to choose right over love.
…I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, but it’s not a bad little mantra, is it?
Perhaps just as importantly, even if it’s just as bittersweet, is the arc in Queen’s Weapons that explores the limits of familial love; the way in which parents are people too, who can be hurt like anyone else. I’m a very fierce proponent of parental responsibilities, but there’s a pretty significant difference between abandoning your child, and continuing to care and provide for them while no longer loving them the way you used to. Words wound, and hearts can break over familial love just as easily as they can be broken by romantic love – but I would argue that familial heartbreak is much harder to heal. It’s something I never see discussed, so again, I’m glad to see it showcased in this book, even if my heart broke for the characters involved.
All of this is wrapped up in a story that, typically of Bishop’s stories, hooks you in and keeps you. I didn’t put Queen’s Weapons down for two days, because Bishop’s signature addictive prose? Is here on full display. I’ve never been able to dissect and analyse her writing style, what it is about it that strikes just the right tone to completely hypnotise the reader – but she’s still got that X factor. There were moments that had me rolling around on the bed giggling, and others that made me tear up; scenes that gave me chills and lines that made me want to punch the air with triumph. One scene (and you’ll know it when you get to it) had me hugging my kitten very tightly indeed. Regardless, at no point could I tear my eyes away from the pages.
Not that I ever actually wanted to.
The Queen’s Weapons is not the book I expected it to be, but that’s because my expectations were set too low. Bishop surpasses herself in crafting, at last, the perfect happy ending: not some forced attempt at a white-picket-fence, but the strange, unconventional, heartwarming ending that fits these strange, unconventional, heartwarming characters. The Addams family wouldn’t know what to do with a white picket fence, and neither would the SaDiablos. They don’t need or want one, and Bishop doesn’t give it to them. This time, she gives them something perfect. Bittersweet, yes, but perfect.
This is not the book I expected. It’s definitely the one I didn’t know I wanted. But it is very much the book I, and these characters, needed.

The post Coming Full Circle: The Queen’s Weapons by Anne Bishop appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
January 27, 2021
WWW Wednesday: 27th Jan
I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads
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A Conjuring of Assassins is Cate Glass's second adventure with the Chimera team, a ragtag crew who use their forbidden magic for the good of the kingdom.
Romy and her three partners in crime—a sword master, a silversmith, and her thieving brother—have embraced their roles as the Shadow Lord's agents, using their forbidden magic to accomplish tasks his other spies cannot.
Now, the Shadow Lord needs them to infiltrate the home of the Mercediaran Ambassador and prevent him from obtaining information that would lead to all-out war with Cantagna's most dangerous enemy.
To succeed, they will have to resurrect long-buried secrets, partner with old enemies, and once again rely on the very magics that could get them sentenced to death.
This is a reread in preparation for the next book in the series being released next week!!! It’s an absolute joy to return to these characters, though, and I’m hoping that this time around I’ll actually manage to review each book!
WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC, polyamory, M/F/F/M
on 31st January 2021
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads
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A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.
With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.
Oh my gods, I loved this book so much. I can’t wait to sit down and review it! But I can tell you now that it’s out on the 31st and you REALLY need to preorder it. It’s even better than it sounds!!!
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?
on 20th July 2021
Goodreads
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Mulan meets The Song of Achilles; an accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China.
“I refuse to be nothing…”
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.
A lush, fresh literary voice merges with commercial appeal in this accomplished debut. Powerful and poetic, beautiful and brutal, She Who Became the Sun is a bold reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
I can’t believe I got an arc of this??? The hell??? I am a baby blogger and this is one of the biggest fantasy releases of the year??? I am not worthy???
Needless to say, I am very excited.
Here ends the weekly check-in! What are you reading this week?
The post WWW Wednesday: 27th Jan appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
January 25, 2021
Must-Have Monday #21!
It’s been some time since I did one of these, but 2021 is starting to come into its own now (even though we’ve already had some great releases this year!) so it’s time to start it up again.
This week, there’s five new releases that have caught my eye!

on 26th January 2021
Goodreads
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In this riveting, keenly emotional debut fantasy, a Black teen from Houston has her world upended when she learns about her godly ancestry--and with evil sinking its claws into humans and gods alike, she'll have to unearth the magic of her true identity to save both her worlds.
Perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Tomi Adeyemi, and The Hunger Games.
“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue's taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders.
Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.
Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghizon—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.
Wings of Ebony is a book I’ve been waiting YEARS for, and I can’t believe I’m just a day away from getting to read it at last! As you might have gathered, I’m ridiculously excited for this one!

on 26th January 2021
Goodreads
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Katharyn Blair crafts a fiercely feminist fantasy with a horrifying curse, swoon-worthy sea captains, and the power of one girl to choose her own fate in this contemporary standalone adventure that's perfect for fans of The Fifth Wave and Seafire, and for anyone who has ever felt unchosen.
For Charlotte Holloway, the world ended twice.
The first was when her childhood crush, Dean, fell in love—with her older sister.
The second was when the Crimson, a curse spread through eye contact, turned the majority of humanity into flesh-eating monsters.
Neither end of the world changed Charlotte. She’s still in the shadows of her siblings. Her popular older sister, Harlow, now commands forces of survivors. And her talented younger sister, Vanessa, is the Chosen One—who, legend has it, can end the curse.
When their settlement is raided by those seeking the Chosen One, Charlotte makes a reckless decision to save Vanessa: she takes her place as prisoner.
The word spreads across the seven seas—the Chosen One has been found.
But when Dean’s life is threatened and a resistance looms on the horizon, the lie keeping Charlotte alive begins to unravel. She’ll have to break free, forge new bonds, and choose her own destiny if she has any hope of saving her sisters, her love, and maybe even the world.
Because sometimes the end is just a new beginning.
It’s been a while since I went near a chosen one story, but this one sounds potentially interesting and subversive? Guess we’ll see! Got to admit that that cover’s gorgeous.

on 6th January 2021
Goodreads
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An extraordinary and emotional adventure about unlikely friends and the power of choosing who you want to be.
Jamie woke up in an empty apartment with no memory and only a few clues to his identity, but with the ability to read and erase other people’s memories—a power he uses to hold up banks to buy coffee, cat food and books.
Zoe is also searching for her past, and using her abilities of speed and strength…to deliver fast food. And she’ll occasionally put on a cool suit and beat up bad guys, if she feels like it.
When the archrivals meet in a memory-loss support group, they realize the only way to reveal their hidden pasts might be through each other. As they uncover an ongoing threat, suddenly much more is at stake than their fragile friendship. With countless people at risk, Zoe and Jamie will have to recognize that sometimes being a hero starts with trusting someone else—and yourself.
After last year’s incredible Hench (you can read my review over here) I’ve been on the look out for other unconventional superhero stories. We Could Be Heroes might just sate that craving – I love the idea of using super-speed to deliver take-away!

on 26th January 2021
Goodreads
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From one of the most exciting new voices in dark epic fantasy comes an intensely brutal and brilliantly cinematic novel: the story of a soldier torn between loyalty to her family and her quest to preserve a kingdom's future.
She was their hope, their martyr, their brother . . .
Driwna Marghoster, a soldier for the powerful merchant guild known as The Post, is defending her trade caravan from a vicious bandit attack when she discovers a dead body hidden in one of her wagons. Born of the elusive Oskoro people, the body is a rare and priceless find, the center of a tragic tale and the key to a larger mystery.But as Driwna investigates who the body was meant for, she finds herself on a trail of deceit and corruption . . . a trail that will lead her to an evil more powerful than she can possibly imagine.
Supposedly this book features a culture which grows seeds inside themselves to bring them closer to the natural world, and also grant them special features and abilities? That sounds fascinating enough for me to be willing to give this a go, even though the blurb on its own makes it sound a bit outside my comfort zone.

on 26th January 2021
Goodreads
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“An impressive debut.”–Publishers Weekly
They said you can’t take your money with you when you die.
What if they were wrong?
Srinath Adiga’s timely satire explores the pitfalls of modern capitalism and the dangerous power of myth.
Hong Kong, 2002. A stock market trader desperate to pay off a gangster debt invents a scam: Afterlife Dollars. A product inspired by an ancient Chinese custom that allows people to buy their way into heaven.
It’s the beginning of a dizzying chain reaction that ripples in Mumbai, where one man does the unthinkable to secure his afterlife—while thousands of miles away in Amsterdam, another man races against time to stop an apocalypse. As a cast of larger-than-life characters grapple with unprecedented moral dilemmas, their choices will affect the rest of humanity.
Profound, exhilarating and full of unexpected twists,
Dead Money
balances intelligence and dark humour with compassion, empathy and hope. Its cleverness lies in its ability to convince us that the impossible can happen—a compelling, thought-provoking read at a time when the world stares at an uncertain future.
“A memorable premise lifts Adiga’s impressive debut. Adiga makes the central conceit work as he effectively sends up the tendency of people to believe anything.”–Publishers Weekly
“Exhilarating pace, intriguing proposition, and plenty of dark laughs: Dead Money’s the thriller I’ll be burning through in the afterlife.”–Kate Veitch, author of Without a Backward Glance and Trust
“A unique and highly original story. If you’ve ever wondered about the rise of BitCoin or how money really works, you’ll enjoy this book.”–Sion Scott-Wilson, author of The Sleepwalker’s Introduction to Flight
This sounds like an incredibly interesting premise, and I’m genuinely excited by the promise of a ‘chain reaction’ – it sounds like Adiga might have really thought through what kind of change this would make to the world, and that kind of worldbuilding is my jam! Definitely going to be giving this one a try.
What books are you looking forward to this week?
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