Siavahda's Blog, page 97

A To-Do List: Books I Loved…But Have Totally Failed to Review

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!

Sometimes it’s executive dysfunction…and sometimes it’s just that I have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said by other reviewers, but there are many books I read, love – and don’t review.

This is even more the case with ‘backlist’ books – books I read in 2019 or earlier, that I want to review so more people hear about them…but that I somehow never sit down to write.

So: here’s 10 books that I adored beyond reason, but have never gotten a proper review from me!

Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1) by Jacqueline Carey
Representation: Bisexual MC, normalised queerness, sex positive, sex work
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

A nation born of angels, vast and intricate and surrounded by danger... a woman born to servitude, unknowingly given access to the secrets of the realm...

Born with a scarlet mote in her left eye, Phédre nó Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is trained in history, theology, politics, foreign languages, the arts of pleasure. And above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Exquisite courtesan, talented spy... and unlikely heroine. But when Phédre stumbles upon a plot that threatens her homeland, Terre d'Ange, she has no choice.

Betrayed into captivity in the barbarous northland of Skaldia and accompanied only by a disdainful young warrior-priest, Phédre makes a harrowing escape and an even more harrowing journey to return to her people and deliver a warning of the impending invasion. And that proves only the first step in a quest that will take her to the edge of despair and beyond.

Phédre nó Delaunay is the woman who holds the keys to her realm's deadly secrets, and whose courage will decide the very future of her world.

Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a new. It is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. A world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, deposed rulers and a besieged Queen, a warrior-priest, the Prince of Travelers, barbarian warlords, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess... all seen through the unflinching eyes of an unforgettable heroine.

Kushiel’s Dart is, as I’ve repeatedly stated, one of my favourite books in all the world; it was formative for me both as a reader of fantasy, and as a queer girl-shaped person. Carey’s writing is some of the most exquisite around, and her worldbuilding is probably what inspired my worldbuilding obsession, so.

Maybe I need a few more years of reviewing practice before I’m up to the challenge of doing Kushiel’s Dart justice…

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1) by Catherynne M. Valente, Ana Juan
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

 

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

The same is absolutely true of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making; I love it more than my current skill with words can express. I don’t care that it’s listed as MG; this is a book that belongs on absolutely everyone’s shelf.

An Illusion of Thieves (Chimera, #1) by Cate Glass
Representation: Bisexual MC (?), sex work
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

In Cantagna, being a sorcerer is a death sentence.

Romy escapes her hardscrabble upbringing when she becomes courtesan to the Shadow Lord, a revolutionary noble who brings laws and comforts once reserved for the wealthy to all. When her brother, Neri, is caught thieving with the aid of magic, Romy's aristocratic influence is the only thing that can spare his life—and the price is her banishment.

Now back in Beggar’s Ring, she has just her wits and her own long-hidden sorcery to help her and Neri survive. But when a plot to overthrow the Shadow Lord and incite civil war is uncovered, only Romy knows how to stop it. To do so, she’ll have to rely on newfound allies—a swordmaster, a silversmith, and her own thieving brother. And they'll need the very thing that could condemn them all: magic.

Illusion of Thieves is the first book in the Chimera trilogy and…I adore it. I know Glass under her other writing name, and loved her books for her incredible attention to worldbuilding detail. That shines in this series, but the Chimera books are also intricately fun, with characters I unabashedly adore.

Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner
Representation: Nonbinary gender, gender non-conforming
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

A “brilliant and terrifically fun”* debut novel brings an enchanting new voice to fantasy.

Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.

Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls, before their homeland is torn apart…

*Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

…Okay, I’m starting to see a pattern here: Unnatural Magic is another of my favourite books, the ‘trolls not gender roles’ book that is just pure delight from start to finish. It’s one of those books that makes me hug my ereader and roll around making ridiculous squeaky noises with a great big grin on my face. I urge everyone to pick it up!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Representation: MC of Colour
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

In the early 1900s, a young woman searches for her place in the world after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

If you somehow haven’t heard of this one, or read it yet, I’m envious, because it’s breathtakingly wonderful. Which is probably why I haven’t dared try to actually review it.

Hm. Possibly a booktuber video that’s just happy!screaming and flailing might get my points across???

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
Representation: Cast of Colour, matriarchy, polyamory, F/F
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Escaping Exodus is a story of a young woman named Seske Kaleigh, heir to the command of a biological, city-size starship carved up from the insides of a spacefaring beast. Her clan has just now culled their latest ship and the workers are busy stripping down the bonework for building materials, rerouting the circulatory system for mass transit, and preparing the cavernous creature for the onslaught of the general populous still in stasis. It’s all a part of the cycle her clan had instituted centuries ago—excavate the new beast, expand into its barely-living carcass, extinguish its resources over the course of a decade, then escape in a highly coordinated exodus back into stasis until they cull the next beast from the diminishing herd.

And of course there wouldn’t be much of a story if things didn’t go terribly, terribly wrong.

Escaping Exodus is completely out there in the best of ways – but it’s not wacky or comedic; it’s deep and beautiful and queer to the core. A polyamorous matriarchy living inside living space-beasts??? And it’s even better than it sounds!

The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library #1) by A.J. Hackwith
Representation: Pansexual MC, F/F
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.

Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing-- a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell....and Earth.

I think every writer, and would-be-writer, sat up and paid attention when we heard this one pitched. A library of unfinished books??? I was so worried this wouldn’t live up to its premise, and I guess it didn’t – it OUTdid it!

Stray (Touchstone, #1) by Andrea K. Höst
Genres: Science Fantasy
Goodreads

On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing; alone, she will be lucky to survive.

The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist which drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she's being watched?

Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first was primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people's skulls, and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities, Cass finds herself processed as a 'stray', a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.

Can Cass ever find her way home? And after the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?

Andrea K. Host is one of my auto-buy authors, but as a self-published author not nearly enough people have heard of her. Her Touchstone trilogy is my joint-fave of all her works – especially because it uses so many tropes I usually hate (like being written in diary-format) and makes me love them!

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
Representation: Bisexual, Lesbian, Asexual, F/F
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep.

He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.

Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.

Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.

Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.

Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.

Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.

I’m sorry: on-page asexual rep, in a book where magically-gifted girls have to fight demons – and the patriarchy? I don’t have words for how much I freaking love this book, okay??? It’s also a perfect standalone, for any one who’s not up to starting a new series right now!

The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek
Representation: Gay, M/M or mlm, Indigenous MC
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Imprisoned for 'inflammatory writings' by the totalitarian Theocracy, shy intellectual Ashleigh Trine figures his story's over. But when he meets Kieran Trevarde, a hard-hearted gunslinger with a dark magic lurking in his blood, Ash finds that necessity makes strange heroes... and love can change the world.

God Eaters, God Eaters, how I do love thee. *happy sigh* That blurb is totally useless, but I don’t blame it, because I don’t know how to describe it either. I want to say something powerful about Hajicek’s use of language, and the incredible take on gods and mythology, magic and colonialism and queerness. Just.

That’s my 10! Any books you need to review, and haven’t yet?

The post A To-Do List: Books I Loved…But Have Totally Failed to Review appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #14!

This week we only have three noteworthy releases (that I’m aware of, at least), but they’re heavy-hitters!

[image error]



Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
Representation: Desi lead, cast
on 11th August 2020
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

This gorgeously imagined YA debut blends shades of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and a breathtaking landscape of Hindu mythology into a radiant contemporary fantasy.

The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. Pretending to be "normal." But when an accidental flare of her starfire puts her human father in the hospital, Sheetal needs a full star's help to heal him. A star like her mother, who returned to the sky long ago.

Sheetal's quest to save her father will take her to a celestial court of shining wonders and dark shadows, where she must take the stage as her family's champion in a competition to decide the next ruling house of the heavens--and win, or risk never returning to Earth at all.

Brimming with celestial intrigue, this sparkling YA debut is perfect for fans of Roshani Chokshi and Laini Taylor.

The unquestionable star of the week is Shveta Thakrar’s Star Daughter! Like many people, I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long, long time, and I’m so excited it’s finally here!!!

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #3) by Seth Dickinson
Representation: Lesbian MC of Color, Characters of Color
on 11th August 2020
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

Seth Dickinson's epic fantasy series which began with The Traitor Baru Cormorant, returns with the third book, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant.

The hunt is over. After fifteen years of lies and sacrifice, Baru Cormorant has the power to destroy the Imperial Republic of Falcrest that she pretends to serve. The secret society called the Cancrioth is real, and Baru is among them.

But the Cancrioth's weapon cannot distinguish the guilty from the innocent. If it escapes quarantine, the ancient hemorrhagic plague called the Kettling will kill hundreds of millions...not just in Falcrest, but all across the world. History will end in a black bloodstain.

Is that justice? Is this really what Tain Hu hoped for when she sacrificed herself?

Baru's enemies close in from all sides. Baru's own mind teeters on the edge of madness or shattering revelation. Now she must choose between genocidal revenge and a far more difficult path—a conspiracy of judges, kings, spies and immortals, puppeteering the world's riches and two great wars in a gambit for the ultimate prize.

If Baru had absolute power over the Imperial Republic, she could force Falcrest to abandon its colonies and make right its crimes.

The third, penultimate book of the Masquerade series, Tyrant is a book I’m both looking forward to and pretty terrified of. Which is probably the best way to go into it, honestly.

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Representation: MC of Colour
on August 11th 2020
Genres: Sci Fi
Goodreads

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets Roswell by way of Laurie Halse Anderson in this astonishing, genre-bending novel about a Mexican American teen who discovers profound connections between immigration, folklore, and alien life.

It’s been three years since ICE raids and phone calls from Mexico and an ill-fated walk across the Sonoran. Three years since Sia Martinez’s mom disappeared. Sia wants to move on, but it’s hard in her tiny Arizona town where people refer to her mom’s deportation as “an unfortunate incident.”

Sia knows that her mom must be dead, but every new moon Sia drives into the desert and lights San Anthony and la Guadalupe candles to guide her mom home.

Then one night, under a million stars, Sia’s life and the world as we know it cracks wide open. Because a blue-lit spacecraft crashes in front of Sia’s car…and it’s carrying her mom, who’s very much alive.

As Sia races to save her mom from armed-quite-possibly-alien soldiers, she uncovers secrets as profound as they are dangerous in this stunning and inventive exploration of first love, family, immigration, and our vast, limitless universe.

Aliens are not usually my thing unless we’re talking huge, epic worldbuilding of alien cultures, but hey – the MC here and I share a name! I’m also here for any book that tackles immigration and ICE, and mixing that up with literal out-of-this-world aliens is both clever and potentially really awesome!

That’s it! Did I miss any? Will you be reading any of these? Let me know in the comments!

The post Must-Have Monday #14! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Pure Perfection: The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska

The Dark Tide (The Dark Tide, #1) by Alicia Jasinska
Representation: F/F, Bi or Pansexual, possible demisexual, very minor nonbinary character
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

A fast-paced, well-plotted fantasy retelling of an ancient Scottish fairy tale ballad, this exciting debut will appeal to fans of Stephanie Garber's CARAVAL, Shea Ernshaw's THE WICKED DEEP, and Kendare Blake's THREE DARK CROWNS.

Every year on Walpurgis Night, Caldella's Witch Queen lures a young boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking.

Convinced her handsome brother is going to be taken, sixteen-year-old Lina Kirk enlists the help of the mysterious Tomas Lin, her secret crush, and the only boy to ever escape from the palace. Working together they protect her brother, but draw the Queen's attention. When the Queen spirits Tomas away instead, Lina blames herself and determines to go after him.

Caught breaking into the palace, the Queen offers Lina a deal: she will let Tomas go, if, of course, Lina agrees to take his place. Lina accepts, with a month before the full moon, surely she can find some way to escape. But the Queen is nothing like she envisioned, and Lina is not at all what the Queen expected. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other. As water floods Caldella's streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice, they must choose who to save: themselves, each other, or the island city relying on them both.

The Dark Tide is perfect in every way.

That’s it. That’s my review.

*

…No? You need to hear a little more than that? You need to be convinced?

Darlings. The magic is right there, waiting for you. All you have to do is reach out and touch it.

And hold on.

*

The Dark Tide is well named, because this is a book that sweeps you away, pulls you under like a riptide into a world that is so beautiful, so wondrous, so enchanting that it leaves you breathless.

Can you call it drowning when you never want to surface?

This is a book woven of red string and witches’ hair, pulled into a cat’s-cradle that will ensnare you between dancing fingers. This is a book born as witches are born; after dark, out of dreams, magic made manifest. This is a book with your heart’s delight waiting between the pages.

The Witch Queen comes on wings of night.
The Witch Queen has your heart’s delight.
Hold him, hold him, hold on tight.
Hide him, hide him, out of sight.

The blurb describes The Dark Tide as a retelling of an old legend, and those who know the myth will know which it is from the blurb alone. But it’s not a fair comparison, or description. The Dark Tide isn’t a retelling, or a reconstruction, or even a recreation. It is completely itself. It stands on its own two feet – and walks in silver slippers upon a storming sea, in a direction, to a destination, no other story has. No one but Alicia Jasinska could have cast the spell that is this book.

I’ve heard and used the term ‘wordsmith’ before, but it simply isn’t enough to encompass Jasinska’s skill: she’s not a wordsmith, but a wordwitch. If a smith takes up metals and turns them into beautiful and elegant things, then Jasinska’s wordmagic is like the magic of Caldella’s witches: drawn from within, spun out of the very self, a power of blood and breath and hair braided and cut away. Intrinsic, the raw materials mined from inside, the words not hammered and beaten into shape but cast, spun, danced into being.

I’m sure…well, almost sure…that Jasinska has spent years honing her craft; I don’t want to lessen or dismiss the work and practice that goes into becoming this skilled a storyteller.

But honestly? It feels as if she really is a Witch Queen of Caldella; appearing full-formed from the midnight shadows, magic incarnate, with a spell on her fingertips to make you see your heart’s desire when you open the book in her hands.

That’s how it feels.

What can I tell you? The plot? The blurb does that just fine; any more would be spoilers. The characters? You need to meet them for yourself, not hear my take on them. The writing? Have I not made it clear that Jasinska spins language like her witches spin their strings and ribbons and hair, into magic that can calm a storm, summon a sea serpent – save a city?

And the rest? How can I tell you what it feels like to step into Caldella, and find it a city where queerness is so normalised, they don’t even seem to have a word for it? How do I describe what it’s like to be girl-shaped, and find an island where that doesn’t matter; where girls can be soft and hard, fiery and cold, loving and vicious? How do I put into words what it’s like for a narrative to acknowledge and value every kind of love, even the loves you outgrow, or that change?

How am I meant to convey to you that this is a magical book, and a book about magic, and a book of magic?

The magic in this story actually feels like magic. It is magical magic, not scientific/mathematical/’hard’ magic – which always feels like magic with the wonder sucked out of it. Jasinska’s magic, the magic of Caldella, is nothing but wonder – raw and beautiful, otherworldly and strange, the kind that snatches at your heart and doesn’t let go. And as this is a story that is fundamentally about magic, that wonder has seeped into every aspect of the book, enchanting every single word.

Every single word. Gods. Every word of The Dark Tide is a jewel, exactingly placed. Every sentence is the Platonic ideal of itself. What’s the term for something greater than a masterpiece? A gamechanger? A paragon of modern fantasy? Maybe we need a new word.

In Greek myth, when a mortal created something better than a god could, it tended to earn them divine wrath. And that’s the closest I think I can come to telling you about The Dark Tide; it’s a book, a story, a spell, that feels like no mere mortal could have written it.

Only, rather than being overcome by wrathful jealousy? If the gods saw this, read this? They’d fall under its magic too. They’d make it a constellation, like they did with all their greatest loves.

(And like I said: I’m not convinced Jasinska isn’t secretly a Witch Queen, and not a mortal at all.)

This is one of the best books of 2020, without question. And if I’m still blogging in nine years, it will have a spot on my next Best of the Decade list ready and waiting for it.

The post Pure Perfection: The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Books With Colours in the Title!

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!

Today’s TTT theme is – you guessed it – books with colours in their titles! I decided Klune’s Cerulean Sea would be too easy, what with it getting all the love this year, but I still found ten to share!

Silver (Silver #1) by Rhiannon Held
Representation: Mental illness, Bisexual MCs (not revealed until much later in the series)
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

Urban fantasy takes a walk on the wild side with Rhiannon Held's remarkable debut.

Andrew Dare is a werewolf. He's the enforcer for the Roanoke pack, and responsible for capturing or killing any Were intruders in Roanoke's territory. But the lone Were he's tracking doesn't smell or act like anyone he's ever encountered. And when he catches her, it doesn't get any better. She's beautiful, she's crazy, and someone has tortured her by injecting silver into her veins. She says her name is Silver, and that she's lost her wild self and can't shift any more.

The packs in North America have a live-and-let-live attitude and try not to overlap with each other. But Silver represents a terrible threat to every Were on the continent.

Andrew and Silver will join forces to track down this menace while discovering their own power…and passion for each other.

I’m not usually that interested in werewolves, but I remember getting excited for Silver because the book announcement emphasised that Held is an anthropologist – and an author interview before the release date talked about how she brought that to her worldbuilding! And she absolutely does – I love this series so much.

The Halcyon Fairy Book by T. Kingfisher
on 19th January 2017
Goodreads

The Halcyon Fairy Book is a delightful collection of wry and insightful comments on traditional fairy tales, originally presented in her blog, along with her first collection of fairy-tale inspired original work, Toad Words.

The Halcyon Fairy Book is really two books in one – a bunch of Grimm Brothers’ fairytales, annotated by T. Kingfisher, plus Kingfisher’s own collection of short stories, Toad Words. Both are absolutely wonderful, and I was muffling giggles into my pillow at 2am while reading the annotations! A lovely book to curl up with if you want something lighthearted with the first half, and some damn good stories in the second.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown
Goodreads

A gripping adventure, a seaborne romance, and a twist on the tale of Scheherazade—with the best food ever served aboard a pirate’s ship.

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.

To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he’s making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.

But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot’s madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a swashbuckling epicure’s adventure simmered over a surprisingly touching love story—with a dash of the strangest, most delightful cookbook never written. Eli Brown has crafted a uniquely entertaining novel full of adventure: the Scheherazade story turned on its head, at sea, with food.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is historical fiction, not fantasy, but it’s pirates and good food! What’s not to love? I went into this book because of the whimsical premise, but ended up falling head over heels in love with it.

When the Sea Is Rising Red (Hobverse #1) by Cat Hellisen
Representation: Bisexual Secondary Characters
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend, Ilven, kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it.  

When the Sea is Rising Red is the first book of what’s alternatively known as either the Hobverse or the Books of Oreyn. Whatever you call it, it’s an excellent secondary-world fantasy series that’s not quite like anything else I’ve ever read. It’s darkly beautiful and Hellisen is an incredible wordsmith who deserves far more acclaim!

The Rose Society (The Young Elites, #2) by Marie Lu
Representation: Secondary Queer Characters
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Goodreads

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good when her very existence depends on darkness?

Bestselling author Marie Lu delivers another heart-pounding adventure in this exhilarating sequel to The Young Elites.

I still haven’t gotten to sit down and read this! How??? Sigh. I really want to know how this trilogy plays out – somehow I’ve managed to avoid all spoilers, so I have no idea if Adelina eventually comes back to The Light or…doesn’t.

I need a time-turner to get to everything on my tbr pile, okay? It’s a problem.

The Whitefire Crossing (Shattered Sigil, #1) by Courtney Schafer
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Dev is a smuggler with the perfect cover. He's in high demand as a guide for the caravans that carry legitimate goods from the city of Ninavel into the country of Alathia. The route through the Whitefire Mountains is treacherous, and Dev is one of the few climbers who knows how to cross them safely. With his skill and connections, it's easy enough to slip contraband charms from Ninavel - where any magic is fair game, no matter how dark - into Alathia, where most magic is outlawed.

But smuggling a few charms is one thing; smuggling a person through the warded Alathian border is near suicidal. Having made a promise to a dying friend, Dev is forced to take on a singularly dangerous cargo: Kiran. A young apprentice on the run from one of the most powerful mages in Ninavel, Kiran is desperate enough to pay a fortune to sneak into a country where discovery means certain execution - and he'll do whatever it takes to prevent Dev from finding out the terrible truth behind his getaway.

Yet Kiran isn't the only one harboring a deadly secret. Caught up in a web of subterfuge and dark magic, Dev and Kiran must find a way to trust each other - or face not only their own destruction, but that of the entire city of Ninavel.

The Shattered Sigil trilogy is one of my all-time faves – the worldbuilding is amazing and the characters are to die for. It’s also the first series I ever read that doesn’t queerbait – the queerness is very real and gets followed through on in the best way!

The Future Is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente
Goodreads

Subterranean Press is thrilled to present a major new collection from one of the most dazzling, distinctive voices in the literary world. Catherynne M. Valente, the New York Times bestselling and multiple-award-winning author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and other acclaimed novels, now brings readers fifteen stories unlike any others.

In the title story, Theodore Sturgeon Award-winning novelette “The Future Is Blue,” an outcast girl named Tetley lives on floating Garbagetown, in a world that dreams of the long lost land. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos is explored and reinvented in style in “Down and Out in R’lyeh.” In the novelette “The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, or, the Luminescence of Debauchery,” Perpetua masquerades as a man in order to continue her father’s business as a glassblower and must fashion a special eye for a queen. And in “The Beasts Who Fought for Fairyland Until the Very End and Further Still,” the wyvern A-Through-L, the warrior Green Wind and his giant cat the Leopard of Little Breezes cope with their broken-hearted disappointment over politicks as the evil Marquess ascends to rule. 

Of her previous collection, The Bread We Eat in Dreams, the New York Times said, “Valente’s writing DNA is full of fable, fairy tale and myth drawn from deep wells worldwide.” With The Future Is Blue she continues to build and invent unforgettable worlds and characters with lyrical abandon, creating stories that feel old and new at once.

The Future Is Blue also includes three never-before-printed stories, for almost 30,000 words of work exclusive to this collection: “Major Tom,” “Two and Two Is Seven,” and the long novelette “Flame, Pearl, Mother, Autumn, Virgin, Sword, Kiss, Blood, Heart, and Grave.”

‘Stories like no others’ sums up The Future is Blue pretty perfectly, honestly.

It’s Valente, she defies description. If you’re not reading everything she’s ever written, you’re not living your best life.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Representation: Biracial MC, M/M or mlm, Characters of Colour, queer secondary characters
on 14th May 2019
Goodreads

A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends...



First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.

The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

I couldn’t resist, okay? It’s three colours in one title!!! Besides, this is one of my favourite books in the world, and it deserves all the love.

A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz
Representation: Queer cast
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Beckan and her friends are the only fairies brave enough to stay in Ferrum when war breaks out. Now there is tension between the immortal fairies, the subterranean gnomes, and the mysterious tightropers who arrived to liberate the fairies.

But when Beckan's clan is forced to venture into the gnome underworld to survive, they find themselves tentatively forming unlikely friendships and making sacrifices they couldn't have imagined. As danger mounts, Beckan finds herself caught between her loyalty to her friends, her desire for peace, and a love she never expected.

This stunning, lyrical fantasy is a powerful exploration of what makes a family, what justifies a war, and what it means to truly love.

Listen, there was a distinct period of time when baby!Sia answered the question ‘What is your favourite colour?’ with, simply, ‘Glitter.’ I didn’t justify it then and I’m not going to justify it now, but A History of Glitter and Blood is a strange, beautiful book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it.

The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness (The Black Jewels, #1-3) by Anne Bishop
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Goodreads

Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions.

Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence--and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men--sworn enemies--know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love--and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining...

Yes, I know none of the books in this series have black in their titles – but this here is an omnibus, and an actual book you can hold in your hands, and it has black in the title. Okay? Okay! Totally counts.

The Black Jewels series is set in a world made up of three just-barely-connected dimensions, each ruled by the Blood – members of their respective races who wield magic through the mysterious Jewels. The Blood have their own, matriarchal society, with strict protocols that govern their violent instincts; and they honour the Darkness – though not in the way you’re probably thinking.

The first book in particular is very, very dark – trigger warnings for slavery, woman-on-man rape, child abuse, and child molestation/rape, among other things – although most of it is kept non-graphic/off the page. And the series as a whole is very rigidly heteronormative, with no room for genderqueerness whatsoever. But I can’t help it; I love these books, and have since I was far too young to have read them. With careful caveats, I recommend the hell out of them.

That’s my list! What’s your favourite book with a colour in the title?

The post Books With Colours in the Title! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #13

August is FULL of amazing releases this year! I’m so excited for so many books. This week we have twelve ELEVEN releases you definitely need to know about!

The Immortal City (The Sacred Dark #2) by May Peterson
Representation: M/M or mlm
on 3rd August 2020
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Sometimes you just have to jump.

The second book in The Sacred Dark series, a lush fantasy romance by acclaimed author May Peterson.

I don’t remember you…

Reborn as an immortal with miraculous healing powers, Ari remembers nothing of his past life. His entire world now consists of the cold mountainside city of Serenity. Ruled with an iron fist. Violent.

Lonely.

I may never remember you…

Regaining the memories of who he once was seems an impossible dream, until Ari encounters Hei, a mortal come to Serenity for his own mysterious purposes. From the moment Hei literally falls into his arms, Ari is drawn to him in ways he cannot understand. Every word, every look, every touch pulls them closer together.

But I’m with you now…

As their bond deepens, so does the need to learn the truth of their past. Together they journey to find an ancient immortal who can give them what they both want: a history more entwined than Ari could have ever imagined, but which Hei has always known.

It’s the reason they will risk the world as they know it to reclaim who they used to be—and what they could be once again.

Immortal City is set in the same world as last year’s Lord of the Last Heartbeat, but both books are standalones. Apparently Peterson unleashes the full scope of the worldbuilding in City, so I’m extra excited to get to reading it!

The Dark Tide (The Dark Tide, #1) by Alicia Jasinska
Representation: F/F or wlw
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

A fast-paced, well-plotted fantasy retelling of an ancient Scottish fairy tale ballad, this exciting debut will appeal to fans of Stephanie Garber's CARAVAL, Shea Ernshaw's THE WICKED DEEP, and Kendare Blake's THREE DARK CROWNS.

Every year on Walpurgis Night, Caldella's Witch Queen lures a young boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking.

Convinced her handsome brother is going to be taken, sixteen-year-old Lina Kirk enlists the help of the mysterious Tomas Lin, her secret crush, and the only boy to ever escape from the palace. Working together they protect her brother, but draw the Queen's attention. When the Queen spirits Tomas away instead, Lina blames herself and determines to go after him.

Caught breaking into the palace, the Queen offers Lina a deal: she will let Tomas go, if, of course, Lina agrees to take his place. Lina accepts, with a month before the full moon, surely she can find some way to escape. But the Queen is nothing like she envisioned, and Lina is not at all what the Queen expected. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other. As water floods Caldella's streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice, they must choose who to save: themselves, each other, or the island city relying on them both.

What’s that? The Dark Tide has already been released? In Australia, maybe, and in e-format in the rest of the world, but the fourth is its full global hardcover release date!!!

I only just finished reading The Dark Tide this weekend – I was drawing it out to make it last – and without question, it’s one of my favourite books of 2020. I’d bet hard cash it’ll be on my next Best of the Decade list, too, in nine years!

Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2) by Tamsyn Muir
Representation: Sapphic MC
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Science Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to the sensational, USA today best-selling novel Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor's haunted space station.



She answered the Emperor's call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath — but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

Harrow doesn’t need any introduction at this point, right? Right.

Lobizona (Wolves of No World, #1) by Romina Garber
Representation: Characters of Colour
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

Some people ARE illegal.

Lobizonas do NOT exist.

Both of these statements are false.

Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.

Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.

Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past--a mysterious "Z" emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.

As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S. residency that's illegal. . . .it's her entire existence.

I’ve been so excited for Lobizona for so long!!! I can’t believe it’s really almost here!

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis
Representation: F/F, F/NB, Nonbinary, Oppressed minority
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

First Sister has no name and no voice. As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars—the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed when she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain—Saito Ren—whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is so much harder to do when you’re falling in love.

Lito val Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But when he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.

I reviewed this one over here, but the tl;dr version is that I loved it and can’t wait for everybody to be reading it. I feel like this one is going to start a lot of really interesting discussions, and I really hope it makes a big splash.

Court of Lions (Mirage, #2) by Somaiya Daud
Representation: Characters of Colour, Oppressed minority, F/F
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Sci Fi
Goodreads

Two identical girls, one a princess, the other a rebel. Who will rule the empire?

After being swept up into the brutal Vathek court, Amani, the ordinary girl forced to serve as the half-Vathek princess's body double, has been forced into complete isolation. The cruel but complex princess, Maram, with whom Amani had cultivated a tenuous friendship, discovered Amani's connection to the rebellion and has forced her into silence, and if Amani crosses Maram once more, her identity - and her betrayal - will be revealed to everyone in the court.

Amani is desperate to continue helping the rebellion, to fight for her people's freedom. But she must make a devastating decision: will she step aside, and watch her people suffer, or continue to aid them, and put herself and her family in mortal danger? And whatever she chooses, can she bear to remain separated, forever, from Maram's fiancé, Idris?

I adored book one of this duology, Mirage, and can’t wait to find out how the story ends!

Seven Devils (Seven Devils, #1) by Laura Lam, Elizabeth May
Representation: Lesbian, Bi, Trans, Ace
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

This first book in a feminist space opera duology follows seven resistance fighters who will free the galaxy from the ruthless Tholosian Empire -- or die trying.

When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy's most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire's voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.

Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.

When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire's inner workings.

Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can't, millions may die.

I am so in love with this gorgeous cover! *happy sigh* For real though, I’ve loved Lam’s previous books and I’m hugely excited for this one! I don’t have any experience with May, but I’m very hopeful.

Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley
on 4th August 2020
Goodreads

A magical novel of intrigue, mystery and family drama from the award-winning author of Aramaya and Fire Angels! 

Shine’s life is usually dull: an orphan without magic in a family of powerful mages, she’s left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and telepathic cat for company.

But when the family descend on the house for the annual Fertility Festival, Shine is plunged into intrigue; stolen letters, a fugitive spy and family drama mix with an unexpected murder, and Shine is forced to decide both her loyalties and future...

This seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it book, based on early reviews. I for one want to give it a go, so fingers crossed!

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Representation: Bi/Pan MCs, MCs of Colour
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Sci Fi, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now she has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.

This sounds like a really interesting premise, and supposedly we have PoC and queer characters starring, which only makes me perk up more!

The Good for Nothings by Danielle Banas
on 4th August 2020
Genres: Sci Fi
Goodreads

They're only good at being bad.Cora Saros is just trying her best to join the family business of theft and intergalactic smuggling. Unfortunately, she's a total disaster.

After landing herself in prison following an attempted heist gone very wrong, she strikes a bargain with the prison warden: He'll expunge her record if she brings back a long-lost treasure rumored to grant immortality.

Cora is skeptical, but with no other way out of prison (and back in her family's good graces), she has no choice but to assemble a crew from her collection of misfit cellmates—a disgraced warrior from an alien planet; a cocky pirate who claims to have the largest ship in the galaxy; and a glitch-prone robot with a penchant for baking—and take off after the fabled prize.

But the ragtag group soon discovers that not only is the too-good-to-be-true treasure very real, but they're also not the only crew on the hunt for it. And it's definitely a prize worth killing for.

Whip-smart and utterly charming, this irreverent sci-fi adventure is perfect for fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lunar Chronicles, and Firefly.

I can pretty much guarantee I won’t be reading this – I’ve given up on heist-type stories and I’ve no interest in something that sounds so reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy – but hopefully it catches the attention of one of my readers!

Grey Dawn by Nyri A. Bakkalian
Representation: F/F, Trans
on 7th August 2020
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

I had a moment’s indecision—a stab of worry.

“Trust me,” she said.

And so, I did.

The year is 1862. Driven by a leading from the Spirit, Chloë Parker Stanton leaves the woman she loves to enlist in the Union Army and fight for abolition in war as she has in the streets of Philadelphia. At home, her lover, Leigh Hunter, eagerly awaits Chloë’s letters, anxious to hear of her survival without discovery, for women are not allowed to wear the Union blue.

Three days after Gettysburg comes the news: the Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry has survived, but Chloë Stanton is missing, presumed dead.

The year is 2020. Sergeant First Class Leigh Hunter came of age during her seventeen-year stint in uniform. Since childhood, she’d been drawn to the Army in search of something, all the while fighting her inner truth as a trans woman. After her final combat tour, Leigh left the military a decorated combat veteran and finally transitioned. She was quickly recruited by the Joint Temporal Integrity Commission: a new, secretive government agency tasked with intercepting temporal refugees and integrating them into present-day society.

Two years after joining the JTIC, Leigh is entrusted with a special assignment: personal custody of a Pennsylvania cavalry soldier from three days after Gettysburg.

Her name: Chloë Parker Stanton.

Grey Dawn is a tale of war, abolition, union, and women who forge ties that carry them from one life into the next. When the grey dawn breaks on a new era and a new cause, who can you trust to fight beside you?

I have zero interest in the Civil War period, but this sounds like it has the potential to be seriously awesome. I’m here for it!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any of this week’s releases? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #13 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Tarot BLM Book Bingo – Progress Report #1

It’s been a week since I announced my reading list for the TarotBLMBookBingo, and normally today would be a Top Ten Tuesday. But since today’s TTT prompt was ‘freebie’, I’m skipping it to let you know how my BLM reading challenge is going!

To be honest…it’s not going great.

What Have I Read?

Year of the Witching was a book I really hyped myself up for, but I ended up DNF-ing it. I don’t think this is really the book’s fault, though – it was more of an issue of me going in with the wrong expectations. I didn’t realise exactly how much of a horror story this was going to be, and my tolerance for horror is very low and very narrow in scope. Year of the Witching didn’t fit into that scope, which is not its fault.

There were some really cool tidbits of worldbuilding here and there that had me dying to know more – the ram has four horns! – but ultimately I couldn’t get past the horror-movie vibe, and had to let it go.

I also seem to be the only person on the planet disappointed with A Song Below Water and A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. I finished both, but Below Water seemed too simplistic, with the magical elements more decorative than integral to the story; and Wraiths and Ruin had me right up until the last quarter of the book, which just…felt like a huge let-down. I’ve heard that a few people were complaining it was too complicated, which baffles me, because my issue was that it was too uncomplicated.

The worldbuilding was incredible, though, and I’ll probably pick up the sequel when it comes out.

(Also: what’s with all the hate for ‘Noun of x and y’ titles??? They always sound so beautifully poetic and epic!)

How’s the Bingo Card?

I decided that I wasn’t going to count a DNF as a completed square, so that means just two squares down – MAGICIAN (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin) and JUSTICE (A Song Below Water)!

What Am I Reading Now?

These aren’t all the books I’m reading right now, but they’re the ones that are relevant to this reading challenge!

Since my DEATH square (a book published in the second half of 2020) was left unfulfilled by my DNF-ing Year of the Witching, I have two possible alternates: Master of Poisons and Midnight Bargain. I was lucky enough to get arcs of both, and I’m loving both of them so far! Whichever one I finish first I’ll tuck into my DEATH square.

I’m also in the middle of Changeling and Given (my WORLD and STRENGTH squares, respectively!)

Who else is taking part, and how is your reading going?

The post Tarot BLM Book Bingo – Progress Report #1 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Must-Have Monday #12!

It’s a slightly quieter week this week, possibly because so many publishers are gearing up for a whole AVALANCHE of releases in August! But that doesn’t mean there’s no books to look forward to this week!

The Worst of All Possible Worlds (The Salvagers Book 3) by Alex White
Representation: Characters of Colour, F/F, Disability
on 28th July 2020
Genres: Science Fantasy

The greatest dangers hide the brightest treasures in this bold, planet-hopping science fiction adventure series.

The crew of the legendary Capricious may have gone legitimate, but they're still on the run.

With devastatingly powerful enemies in pursuit and family and friends under attack planetside, Nilah and Boots struggle to piece together rumors of an ancient technology that could lead to victory.

Ensnared by the legend of Origin, humanity's birthplace, and a long-dead form of magic, the Capricious takes off on a journey to find the first colony ship...and magic that could bring down gods.

AT LAST – THE CONCLUDING BOOK OF THE SALVAGERS TRILOGY!!! I’ve been waiting for this for so long – Alex White’s amazing fantasy-scifi series is a brilliant mix-up of the best of both genres, with a diverse cast and saving-the-universe stakes. I wouldn’t jump in without having read the previous two books, but if you haven’t read them yet, now’s the time!

Deal with the Devil (Mercenary Librarians, #1) by Kit Rocha
on 28th July 2020

Deal with the Devil is Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author duo Kit Rocha.

Nina is an information broker with a mission--she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America.

Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he's fighting to survive.

They're on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process...

Or they could do the impossible: team up.

This is the first book in a near-future science fiction series with elements of romance.

Mercenary librarians!!! I mean. Do you really need to hear anything else? Because that’s all I need to know to be sold.

Afterland by Lauren Beukes
on 28th July 2020
Genres: Sci Fi

Children of Men meets The Handmaid's Tale in this "bowstring-taut, visceral, and incredibly timely" thriller about how far a mother will go to protect her son from a hostile world transformed by the absence of men.

Most of the men are dead. Three years after the pandemic known as The Manfall, governments still hold and life continues -- but a world run by women isn't always a better place.

Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence-and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie -- all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home.

To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that's all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step . . . even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.

A sharply feminist, high-stakes thriller from award-winning author Lauren Beukes, Afterland brilliantly blends psychological suspense, American noir, and science fiction into an adventure all its own -- and perfect for our times.

I’ve always been interested in spec-fic that turns the patriarchy upside-down, so Afterland has been on my radar for a while. I’m especially interested because of that ‘but a world run by women isn’t always a better place.‘ part of the blurb. One of my favourite books, The Power by Naomi Alderman, was pretty much the embodiment of that concept – and Afterland sounds like a very different set-up, but I’m still excited for it!

A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens
on 28th July 2020
Genres: Urban Fantasy

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The Craft when modern witches must save teens stolen by an ancient demon in this YA fantasy-thriller debut.

Dan and Liss are witches. The Black Book granted them that power. Harnessing that power feels good, especially when everything in their lives makes them feel powerless.

During a spell gone wrong, Liss's boyfriend is snatched away by an evil entity and presumed dead. Dan and Liss's friendship dies that night, too. How can they practice magic after the darkness that they conjured?

Months later, Liss discovers that her boyfriend is alive, trapped underground in the grips of an ancient force. She must save him, and she needs Dan and the power of The Black Book to do so. Dan is quickly sucked back into Liss's orbit and pushes away her best friend, Alexa. But Alexa has some big secrets she's hiding and her own unique magical disaster to deal with.

When another teenager disappears, the girls know it's no coincidence. What greedy magic have they awakened? And what does it want with these teens it has stolen?

Set in the atmospheric wilds of California's northern coast, Sasha Laurens's thrilling debut novel is about the complications of friendship, how to take back power, and how to embrace the darkness that lives within us all.

Don’t you just love that cover??? I love that cover. I’m not 100% sure I’ll be reading this, but it’s definitely on by tbr.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (Feminine Pursuits, #2) by Olivia Waite
Representation: F/F
on 28th July 2020

When Agatha Griffin finds a colony of bees in her warehouse, it’s the not-so-perfect ending to a not-so-perfect week. Busy trying to keep her printing business afloat amidst rising taxes and the suppression of radical printers like her son, the last thing the widow wants is to be the victim of a thousand bees. But when a beautiful beekeeper arrives to take care of the pests, Agatha may be in danger of being stung by something far more dangerous…

Penelope Flood exists between two worlds in her small seaside town, the society of rich landowners and the tradesfolk. Soon, tensions boil over when the formerly exiled Queen arrives on England’s shores—and when Penelope’s long-absent husband returns to Melliton, she once again finds herself torn, between her burgeoning love for Agatha and her loyalty to the man who once gave her refuge.

As Penelope finally discovers her true place, Agatha must learn to accept the changing world in front of her. But will these longing hearts settle for a safe but stale existence or will they learn to fight for the future they most desire?

Not spec-fic??? Say it isn’t so! But it IS so – this is the second book of the F/F historical fiction series Feminine Pursuits, standalone stories of lovely ladies loving each other in the 18th century. (I think??? It might be early 1900s, I’m always mixing those two up). This series needs a lot more attention, so it definitely warrants a spot on this list! You can bet I’ll be curling up with it right after I finish devouring Worst of All Possible Worlds!

Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection by Ben Aaronovitch
Representation: Biracial MC
on 31st July 2020
Genres: Urban Fantasy

Return to the world of Rivers of London in this first short story collection from bestselling author, Ben Aaronovitch. Tales from the Folly is a carefully curated collection that gathers together previously published stories and brand new tales in the same place for the first time.

Each tale features a new introduction from the author, filled with insight and anecdote offering the reader a deeper exploration into this absorbing fictional world. This is a must read for any Rivers of London fan.

Join Peter, Nightingale, Abigail, Agent Reynolds and Tobias Winter for a series of perfectly portioned tales. Discover what’s haunting a lonely motorway service station, who still wanders the shelves of a popular London bookshop, and what exactly happened to the River Lugg…

With an introduction from internationally bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, Charlaine Harris.

This collection includes:

The Home Crowd Advantage

The Domestic

The Cockpit

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny

King of The Rats

A Rare Book of Cunning Device

A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Favourite Uncle

Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List

Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby

Moments One-Three

The Rivers of London series is one of my very favourites – I reread the whole thing every year! And now they’re finally collecting the short stories – which have been scattered all over the place – into one volume for easy perusal! This is another one I can promise I’ll be reading – I’m really happy to be able to revist this universe while waiting for the next installment in the series!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any of this week’s releases? Let me know!

The post Must-Have Monday #12! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Rewrite the world with magic: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
Representation: Characters of Colour
Genres: Historical Fantasy
Goodreads

It is the Age of Enlightenment -- of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France to the weather mage Toussaint L'Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic among commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas.

But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to darkness and chaos.

I’ve seen this book getting a lot of comparisons to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I think is a little unfair; JS&MR has a kind of intrinsic light-heartedness to it, even when things get very serious indeed, and a sly wryness that invites the reader in on a joke the characters themselves are not in on. It’s big and fun and warm.

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (say that ten times fast) is a thoroughly brilliant masterpiece of historical fantasy, and it shouldn’t be getting compared to anything. It stands squarely on its own, rich and complex and utterly delicious – but tackling head-on the indescribable horrors of slavery, the poisoned ideals of the French Revolution, and the disgusting hypocrisy of those in power – including those who consider themselves good men.

How to describe it in a way that does it justice?

I can’t speak to its historical accuracy – this isn’t a period of history I’m familiar with – but Parry has used several important historical personages as characters, including William Pitt, William Wilberforce, and Maximilien Robespierre – the Prime Minister of ‘Great’ Britain, a famous abolitionist, and one of the guiding powers of the French Revolution, respectively. Although there is one other POV character, these three form the holy trinity of the novel, for the most part.

Like I said, I knew next to nothing about these people or this time period going into A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians. But Parry very much brought both the personages and time to life for me in these pages.

In this reimagined history, magic is very real, a gift passed through bloodlines. However, in Europe at least, society is divided into Aristocrats and Commoners – and Commoners are forbidden from using any magic they might have. Although everyone is tested for magic at birth, some people’s gifts don’t manifest until later, and being an unregistered magician gets you even more time in the Tower of London than performing illegal magic. The laws are enforced by the enchanted bracelets all Commoners must wear, which burn if the wearer uses any kind of magic, and alert the Knights Templar, which are still around as a kind of magic police, although their power and influence is very much waned from what it once was.

Pretty much instantly the pointlessness of this system is driven home to the reader, for as we’re introduced to a young Pitt, we learn that his family were only raised to Aristocrats one generation prior, when his father joined the House of Commoners (for those of you not raised in the UK, that’s a slight tweak to the real-world House of Commons, one half of the British parliament – the other being the House of Lords, which has the same name in Parry’s world) and thereby became a Lord. (Don’t even try to make sense of the nonsense that is having Lords in the House of Commons/Commoners, okay?) It’s clear, then, that there is no actual difference between Aristocrats and Commoners, not when it’s so easy to cross the line that divides them. It’s an arbitrary divide that’s about nothing but power, oppression, and classism.

The book traces the rises to power of Pitt, who goes from lawyer to Prime Minister, and Robespierre – also a lawyer, but one overcome with a vision of what France could be, if only *gestures vaguely* were gotten rid of. Wilberforce goes from Pitt’s post-university friend to a political power in his own right, though his friendship with Pitt remains central to the story. And then there’s Fina, who is on the peripheral in a way that seems pointed and deliberate: she’s a slave, taken from Africa at such a young age she doesn’t remember her birthname, and put to work on a plantation in British-owned Jamaica.

It seems necessary to mention that Parry has found a way to make slavery even more horrific than it was/is already: in this version of the 18th century, slaves are force-fed potions that leave them unable to control their own bodies at all. This is driven home almost right away when Fina, right after being taken off the ship, is branded; apparently the branding serves to test whether anyone is resistant to the potions, since those who are completely under its sway can’t even scream when the slavers use the hot irons.

Yeah. Not only have they had their freedom stripped away, but even their physical autonomy is stolen from them. Let that sink in for a minute.

Parry has framed the issue of slavery in what I think is a really clever way; Fina is the POV character with the fewest chapters, sidelining her in the way that 18th century Britain sidelines slavery – out of sight, out of mind. But Fina’s story runs beneath all the others in the book, just as slavery is the foundation – or at least part of the foundation – of Europe at this point; a mostly-invisible but incredibly powerful undercurrent, a rotten leg of the pedestal Britain in particular has built for itself. And that pedestal is going to come down.

Not least because there are abolitionists in England campaigning as hard as they can to have the slave trade brought to an end. Wilberforce, in time, becomes one of the driving forces of the movement, bringing the issue to parliament again and again and again over the course of the book. However, just as in real-world history, these attempts fail every time, and I think it’s worth placing those two storylines side-by-side: the abolitionist movement in England/Britain, and Fina’s story, entwined as it is with slave uprisings and resistance. On the one side, we have well-meaning white people taking the slow, peaceful, legal route to try and overturn this evil; and on the other, we have real human suffering, and the violence that runs rampant when the oppressed are finally able to fight back. Especially set in the context of, you know, the world right now, it feels like a pointed comparison.

Although Parry doesn’t seem to be praising one method over the other – merely presenting both to the reader in what felt like a very unbiased way – there’s definitely some things to be said about those who think they’re ‘good men’. And what really impressed me was that, although the narrative praises these men as capital g Good for holding to their higher principles, it still comes through loud and clear that they are Perhaps Not So Great.

There’s one particular example that stands out, and I’ll try and describe it for you with as few spoilers as possible: at one point, it comes out that one member of the House of Commoners could, using mesmerism (a form of mind-control magic), sway the votes needed to pass the bill that would abolish slavery. And he doesn’t do it, because That Would Be Wrong. Free will is sacred, isn’t it?

Bull. Shit. It’s the rankest hypocrisy: hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of slaves don’t have their freedom or their bodily autonomy – what about their free will? How can you seriously stand there, and stand proud, and say that mind-controlling a handful of people for a few minutes is an unacceptable cost to set those slaves free? How can you seriously compare those two situations, and say they’re equally unethical? They’re not. They’re not even close. And it’s the worst kind of White People Liberalism TM to say that they are.

And what’s brilliant is that Parry doesn’t come out and say that straight to your face. The condemnation isn’t at all heavy-handed; it’s scattered in little seeds throughout the book, seeds that can’t help but sprout in your mind as you read.

And like – I’ve spent hours pondering the authorial choices that made Parry give that particular magic to that particular character, and how subtle and clever and deliberate those choices were. How Parry uses that to frame this character in this specific way. Parry didn’t have to do that; could have given that magic to another character, or not brought it into play at all. So placing it into the story as exactly as it was done…

That, I think, is maybe what impresses me most of all: although the fantasy aspect of the novel at first looks kind of simplistic, Parry wields every bit of it like a surgeon’s scalpel, or a sculptor’s hammer. Despite the book’s length, nothing feels bloated or padded-out; every word is blazingly potent, every detail a vital tile in the mosaic that makes up the whole story. It’s an absolute masterpiece of the writer’s craft, and the more I linger over it, the more in awe I am.

This isn’t a quick adventure story; look elsewhere, if that’s what you’re in the mood for right now. And I’ve spent a lot of time talking about slavery, but there’s a lot more to A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (readers as sensitive as I will be relieved to know that very little of the violence is what I’d consider graphic). It’s about politics and power, classism and ideals, equality and ethical questions with no easy answers. It’s about the evils we get so used to we don’t question them anymore; it’s about whether the ends justify the means, and whether justice should take a backseat to practicality. It’s about how often fighting the good fight is a long, slow, miserable process with many set-backs, and how long will you keep slogging away for the sake of what’s right?

This is the book, folx. You do not want to miss it.

I cannot wait for the sequel.

The post Rewrite the world with magic: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

Find Your Voice: A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
Representation: Black MCs, oppressed supernatural minorities
on 2nd June 2020
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Goodreads

Tavia is already at odds with the world, forced to keep her siren identity under wraps in a society that wants to keep her kind under lock and key. Never mind she's also stuck in Portland, Oregon, a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. At least she has her bestie Effie by her side as they tackle high school drama, family secrets, and unrequited crushes.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she's also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore—soon Portland won’t be either.

This was my read for the Justice square of the TarotBLM Reading Bingo!

I turned the final page of this book and was left with the feeling that I needed to reread it immediately. Because I think the reason this didn’t wow me might well have been that I just wasn’t in the right headspace for it.

I wanted to love it, and I didn’t, and I feel guilty for that in a way I usually don’t. Generally, if a book and I don’t mesh, I move on. That’s just how it works sometimes; no harm, no foul. But A Song Below Water feels like it should be so impressive and so powerful that my feelings of ‘meh’ feel like a personal failure.

I’m not sure why.

Tavia and Effie are best friends and sisters; though not related by blood, Effie has been living with Tavia’s family since her mom died. The two of them are very normal teenage girls; Tavia loves watching hair-styling videos and Effie lives for the yearly Renfaire, when she gets to LARP as a mermaid. They have crushes and favourite classes and family drama.

But Tavia is also a siren, and everyone around her plays a vital role in protecting her secret – because sirens are feared and hated for the power of their voices, and it would be a disaster for Tav to be outed. But when push comes to shove, she has to decide whether it’s better to stay hidden, and relatively safe – or use her voice to make a difference.

This is a book about being Black, ultimately. About what it’s like to be surrounded by white people who, at best, are well-intentioned idiots, and at worse are out to hurt you just because your skin is a different colour than theirs. I’m not sure I could point to any of the side-characters and call them real allies, not when they see protesting police brutality as a cross between a holiday and an extra-credit class assignment. There’s the ‘network’ within the Black community who work to hide and protect sirens, but their support seems pretty minimal to me, mostly acting as cover in choir so Tav has a chance to let her voice loose a little. Tav and Effie have each other’s backs to the very end, but other than that, they feel alone even among other Black girls, or their families, who are…not ideal when it comes to supporting them.

A Song Below Water is more-or-less a – not quite a coming-of-age story, but a coming-into-your-power story. Told in first-person, in chapters alternating between Tavia’s pov and Effie’s, it’s about both girls outgrowing the niches their guardians – and society – have pushed them into. It’s about, not out-growing your fears, but overcoming them, acting despite them. Facing off against a system that’s so much bigger than you are, and being scared, and doing it anyway. It’s about family secrets and hidden heritages and how to be normal when white is the supposed default.

And I guess I think this would have been a better book if it hadn’t tried to be a fantasy. Maybe I’m missing some metaphor or deeper meaning, but the fantastical elements felt mostly like window-dressing to me, decoration rather than something integral. Tavia’s fear of being discovered to be a siren is very real and powerful, and maybe Morrow thought it would be easier for not-Black readers to understand living with that fear – the fear of being outed as something supernatural – rather than living with the fear of being Black in a white-ruled society? The scene when Tavia is pulled over by police despite having done nothing wrong – she’s pulled over because she’s Black, because this is what the police do in our society, and that’s made clear, but the focus of the scene becomes her siren-ness instead.

I guess that’s it, really: Tavia’s fear of being outed, her wish to not be a siren at all – they feel like stand-ins for her Blackness. And the sad thing is that maybe there are readers who need that stand-in. But honestly, that kind of reader isn’t going to appreciate this book properly anyway. Because it’s a lot more about systemic racism than it is about sirens.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would; because the magical aspects felt underdeveloped, and A Song Below Water is much more of an issues book. It felt like a watered-down version of The Hate U Give, with glitter sprinkled on top in the form of sirens and sprites and gargoyles. Like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be – fantasy or contemporary, issues or adventure; and while there are a lot of books that manage to wed those things together into excellent stories, I don’t think this is one of them.

But this is one of those cases where I don’t feel confident that I’m right and the rest of the world is wrong. Maybe the twists felt predictable because I know a lot more mythology than the average reader, and was able to put the clues together. Maybe I wasn’t in the right headspace to properly appreciate it all. Maybe if I reread this in a few months, I’ll find out I love it as much as everyone else does.

But for now, I’ve got to count it as a disappointment.

The post Find Your Voice: A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.

#TarotBLMBingo – A Black Lives Matter Reading Challenge!

If you haven’t heard yet, the Tarot Sequence fandom (and anyone else who’d like to join in!) are taking part in a Black Lives Matter reading bingo! If you haven’t read the Tarot Sequence, no worries: all you need to know is that the bingo squares are inspired by tarot cards, and each square can only be filled by a book written by a Black author!

And also: prizes. You definitely need to know about the prizes. Click on the link above to read all about them!

The Bingo Square!

Honestly, I’m shocked by how difficult it was to put together this reading list. Kathy announced the bingo two weeks ago, and I’ve only just finished up this post. I mean, part of it was me making it harder on myself – I insisted on filling as many squares as I could with fantasy books, and I probably would have had an easier time if I’d been more willing to read contemporary fiction. But still. I’ve known for ages that the publishing industry is one that’s incredibly unwelcoming for authors of colour – but I knew it intellectually, you know? In my head. I don’t think it really hit home in my gut until I had to sit down and look for Black authors.

It’s not that there’s none. But damn. There’s not nearly enough. Especially in spec-fic.

But here’s my list, at last! Feel free to nab any of my suggestions to fill your own squares!

Fool: Middle-Grade







Dragons in a Bag (Dragons in a Bag #1) by Zetta Elliott
Goodreads

The dragon's out of the bag in this diverse, young urban fantasy from an award-winning author!

When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she's not his grandmother--but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they'll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: don't let them out of the bag, and don't feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever?

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

This looks super-cute, and also: dragons!

Martyr: a book about change, surrender or letting go







Starbook by Ben Okri
Goodreads

Starbook tells the tale of a prince and a maiden in a mythical land where a golden age is ending. Their fragile story considers the important questions we all face, exploring creativity, wisdom, suffering and transcendence in a time when imagination still ruled the world. A magnificent achievement and a modern-day parable, Starbook offers a vision of life far greater than ourselves.

This is actually a book I picked up when I was very young – before I was a teenager. I liked the title and the cover, but I never finished it – I wasn’t mature enough to understand it yet. But I’m really looking forward to giving it another go!

Magician: set in a secondary world







A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, #1) by Roseanne A. Brown
Goodreads

The first in an immersive fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction—from debut author Roseanne A. Brown. Perfect for fans of Tomi Adeyemi, Renée Ahdieh, and Sabaa Tahir.

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a heart-pounding course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

I’m actually reading this now, and let me tell you: it’s even better than the cover would lead you to expect!

Chariot: memoir







All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
Goodreads

Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy.

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.

This one’s described as a ‘memoir-manifesto’, so I’m extra excited to start reading it!

Justice: based on or inspired by real life injustice







A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
Goodreads

Tavia is already at odds with the world, forced to keep her siren identity under wraps in a society that wants to keep her kind under lock and key. Never mind she's also stuck in Portland, Oregon, a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. At least she has her bestie Effie by her side as they tackle high school drama, family secrets, and unrequited crushes.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she's also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore—soon Portland won’t be either.

Although A Song Below Water has many sources of inspiration, one is definitely the Say Her Name…movement? Campaign? Demand? I don’t know what the right word is, but it’s important, and bringing sirens into that sounds incredible.

Hierophant: coming-of-age or YA contemporary







Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Goodreads

From Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.

When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle....

But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.

Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve.

This has been on my radar for a while, but I generally don’t have time for the rare contemporary books that catch my attention: there’s just so much fantasy to read! But so many people have said so many wonderful things about Felix, and this square is exactly the justification I needed to set aside the fantasy stories for just a minute!

Temperance: set during the 1920s or 1930s







The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
Goodreads

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

This was the hardest square to fill, I think, especially with my insistence on fantasy-or-bust. As far as I can tell this is the only Black-authored, English-language fantasy book about the 1920s! That’s…kind of appalling.

High Priestess: mystery







Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy, #1) by Tade Thompson
Goodreads

Tade Thompson's Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices.

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

It’s a murder mystery! That counts, right?

It had better, because if I have to read a real-world mystery without any fantastical elements at all, it won’t be pretty!

Tower: a building or structure on the cover







The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson
Goodreads

An acclaimed fantasy author navigates the world between myth and chaos in this compelling exploration of identity, told with a Caribbean lilt.

Sixteen-year-old Scotch struggles to fit in—at home she’s the perfect daughter, at school she’s provocatively sassy, and thanks to her mixed heritage, she doesn’t feel she belongs with the Caribbeans, whites, or blacks. And even more troubling, lately her skin is becoming covered in a sticky black substance that can’t be removed. While trying to cope with this creepiness, she goes out with her brother—and he disappears. A mysterious bubble of light just swallows him up, and Scotch has no idea how to find him. Soon, the Chaos that has claimed her brother affects the city at large, until it seems like everyone is turning into crazy creatures. Scotch needs to get to the bottom of this supernatural situation ASAP before the Chaos consumes everything she’s ever known—and she knows that the black shadowy entity that’s begun trailing her every move is probably not going to help.

A blend of fantasy and Caribbean folklore, at its heart this tale is about identity and self acceptance—because only by acknowledging her imperfections can Scotch hope to save her brother.

Look! This one has a whole BUNCH of structures on the cover – an entire city!

Emperor: father MC or father-child relationship







We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Goodreads

A bold, provocative debut for fans of Get Out and Paul Beatty's The Sellout , about a father who will do anything to protect his son--even if it means turning him white.

How far would you go to protect your child?

Our narrator faces an impossible decision. Like any father, he just wants the best for his son Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is growing larger by the day. In this near-future society plagued by resurgent racism, segregation, and expanding private prisons, our narrator knows Nigel might not survive. Having watched the world take away his own father, he is determined to stop history from repeating itself.

There is one potential solution: a new experimental medical procedure that promises to save lives by turning people white. But in order to afford Nigel's whiteness operation, our narrator must make partner as one of the few Black associates at his law firm, jumping through a series of increasingly surreal hoops--from diversity committees to plantation tours to equality activist groups--in an urgent quest to protect his son.

This electrifying, suspenseful novel is at once a razor-sharp satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. Writing in the tradition of Ralph Ellison and Franz Kafka, Maurice Carlos Ruffin fearlessly shines a light on the violence we inherit, and on the desperate things we do for the ones we love.

This sounds…weird as heck and very thought-provoking. Definitely not a premise I’d trust a white author with! We’ll see how it goes.

Moon: explores mental health







Work for It (Just for Him, #4) by Talia Hibbert
Goodreads

For men like us, trust doesn't come easy.

In this village, I’m an outcast: Griffin Everett, the scowling giant who prefers plants to people. Then I meet Keynes, a stranger from the city who’s everything I’m not: sharp-tongued, sophisticated, beautiful. Free. For a few precious moments in a dark alleyway, he’s also mine, hot and sweet under the stars… until he crushes me like dirt beneath his designer boot.

When the prettiest man I’ve ever hated shows up at my job the next day, I’m not sure if I want to strangle him or drag him into bed. Actually—I think I want both. But Keynes isn’t here for the likes of me: he makes that painfully clear. With everyone else at work, he’s all gorgeous, glittering charm—but when I get too close, he turns vicious.

And yet, I can’t stay away. Because there’s something about this ice king that sets me on fire, a secret vulnerability that makes my chest ache. I’ll do whatever it takes to sneak past his walls and see the real man again.

The last thing I expect is for that man to ruin me.

Work for It is 80,000 words of hot, angst-filled, M/M romance featuring a cynical city boy, a gruff, soft-hearted farmer, and a guaranteed happy-ever-after. No cheating, no cliff-hangers, just love. (Eventually.)

Yep, back to contemporary. The sacrifices requested of us! /sarcasm> I’m mostly worried about the first-person, since I don’t generally get on with books written that way, but we’ll see? I’ve heard good things!

Sun: optimistic; hopepunk book







A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope by Patrice Caldwell, Elizabeth Acevedo, Amerie, Dhonielle Clayton, Jalissa Corrie, Somaiya Daud, Charlotte Davis, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Justina Ireland, Danny Lore, L.L. McKinney, Danielle Paige, Rebecca Roanhorse, Karen Strong, Ashley Woodfolk, Ibi Zoboi
Goodreads

Sixteen tales by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.

Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.

Authors include Elizabeth Acevedo, Amerie, Dhonielle Clayton, Jalissa Corrie, Somaiya Daud, Charlotte Davis, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Justina Ireland, Danny Lore, L.L. McKinney, Danielle Paige, Rebecca Roanhorse, Karen Strong, Ashley Woodfolk, and Ibi Zoboi.

This has been waiting on my Kindle since March, and I’m glad to have this reading challenge to make me finally pick it up. I genuinely can’t wait to read it and can’t believe it’s taken me so long!

Free







The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull
Goodreads

THE LESSON explores the nature of belief, the impact of colonialism, and asks how far are we willing to go for progress? Breaking ground as one of the first science fiction novels set in the Virgin Islands, THE LESSON is not only a thought-provoking literary work, delving deeply into allegorical themes of colonialism, but also vividly draws the community of Charlotte Amalie, wherefrom the author hails.

An alien ship rests over Water Island. For five years the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands have lived with the Ynaa, a race of super-advanced aliens on a research mission they will not fully disclose. They are benevolent in many ways but meet any act of aggression with disproportional wrath. This has led to a strained relationship between the Ynaa and the local Virgin Islanders and a peace that cannot last. A year after the death of a young boy at the hands of an Ynaa, three families find themselves at the center of the inevitable conflict, witness and victim to events that will touch everyone and teach a terrible lesson.

This is another I’ve had this on my tbr for quite a while, and this book bingo is an excellent excuse to bump it up to the top! It doesn’t quite fit any of the other prompts, I don’t think, but that’s what free squares are for, right?

(Right? I think? I don’t know how real bingo works!)

Misfit: feat found family







War Girls (War Girls, #1) by Tochi Onyebuchi
Goodreads

The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky.

In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life.

Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together.

And they're willing to fight an entire war to get there.

I started reading this last year, but did that thing I do sometimes where I just keep starting new books instead of finishing old ones, and it got lost in the chaos. What I read was amazing, though, and I’m looking forward to diving back in!

Lovers: feat strong friendships or romance







A Princess in Theory (Reluctant Royals, #1) by Alyssa Cole
Goodreads

From acclaimed author Alyssa Cole comes the tale of a city Cinderella and her Prince Charming in disguise . . .

Between grad school and multiple jobs, Naledi Smith doesn’t have time for fairy tales…or patience for the constant e-mails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince. Sure. Right. Delete! As a former foster kid, she’s learned that the only things she can depend on are herself and the scientific method, and a silly e-mail won’t convince her otherwise.

Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne of Thesolo, shouldering the hopes of his parents and his people. At the top of their list? His marriage. Ever dutiful, he tracks down his missing betrothed. When Naledi mistakes the prince for a pauper, Thabiso can’t resist the chance to experience life—and love—without the burden of his crown.

The chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, and flirty friendship quickly evolves into passionate nights. But when the truth is revealed, can a princess in theory become a princess ever after?

Selected as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2018!

Listen, I don’t even care that it’s contemporary; the whole twist on the ‘foreign prince spam email’ thing delights me. This sounds super sweet and funny, and everything a good romance should be!

Strength: action-adventure







Given by Nandi Taylor
Goodreads

As a princess of the Yirba, Yenni is all-but-engaged to the prince of a neighboring tribe. She knows it's her duty to ensure peace for her people, but as her father's stubborn illness steadily worsens, she sets out on a sacred journey to the empire of Cresh, determined to find a way to save him at any cost, even though failure could mean the wrath of her gods and ruin for her people. One further complication? On the day she arrives at the Prevan Academy for Battle and Magical Arts, she meets an arrogant dragon-shifter named Weysh who claims she's his "Given", or destined mate. Muscular, beautiful (and completely infuriating), he's exactly the kind of distraction Yenni can't afford while her father's life hangs in the balance.

But while Yenni would like nothing more than to toss Weysh the man into the nearest river, Weysh the dragon quickly becomes a much-needed friend in the confusing northern empire. Yet when her affection for the dragon starts to transfer to the man, Yenni must decide what is more important: her duty to her tribe, or the call of her own heart.

I’m not…100%…sure if this fits the square. It was pitched to me as ‘magic school gets called on its racism, plus dragons’, but the blurb makes it sound more of a romance??? Well, I guess I’ll find out!

Hermit: biography







Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry
Goodreads

A revealing portrait of one of the most gifted and charismatic, yet least understood, Black artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Lorraine Hansberry, who died at thirty-four, was by all accounts a force of nature. Although best-known for her work A Raisin in the Sun, her short life was full of extraordinary experiences and achievements, and she had an unflinching commitment to social justice, which brought her under FBI surveillance when she was barely in her twenties. While her close friends and contemporaries, like James Baldwin and Nina Simone, have been rightly celebrated, her story has been diminished and relegated to one work—until now. In 2018, Hansberry will get the recognition she deserves with the PBS American Masters documentary "Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart" and Imani Perry's multi-dimensional, illuminating biography, Looking for Lorraine.

After the success of A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry used her prominence in myriad ways: challenging President Kennedy and his brother to take bolder stances on Civil Rights, supporting African anti-colonial leaders, and confronting the romantic racism of the Beat poets and Village hipsters. Though she married a man, she identified as lesbian and, risking censure and the prospect of being outed, joined one of the nation's first lesbian organizations. Hansberry associated with many activists, writers, and musicians, including Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, among others. Looking for Lorraine is a powerful insight into Hansberry's extraordinary life—a life that was tragically cut far too short.

For the record, it is maddening how booksellers use the words ‘biography’, ‘autobiography’, and ‘memoirs’ interchangeably, when they all mean different things! (Although after I asked Kathy, who put the bingo square together, I can confirm that all three are eligible for this prompt.)

I knew I wanted to read about a queer Black woman if at all possible, and Lorraine Hansberry sounds like she was an incredible person. I very much want to know her story; hence this pick.

Wheel of Fortune: theme of ‘actions have consequences’







Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Goodreads

Rooted in foundational loss and the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is both a global dystopian narrative an intimate family story with quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world. When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in America, Ella—through visits both mundane and supernatural—tries to show him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down.

In a perfect world, all Black girls would be given superpowers to make the police and everyone else pay for their actions.

(No: in a perfect world, they wouldn’t need superpowers. But you know what I mean.)

Death: books published in the second half of 2020







The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson
Goodreads

A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS! SO EXCITED! It’s out today and I am dying to start it!

Judgement: book with an overused trope







My Soul to Keep (African Immortals, #1) by Tananarive Due
Goodreads

When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever. Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force reminiscent of early Anne Rice will win Due a new legion of fans.

I have been assured that My Soul to Keep does not contain vampires, but I think the immortal lover thing is enough of a trope to make it count, even without any blood-drinking.

Devil: a book you’ve been putting off/hesitant about reading







The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden
Goodreads

In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry which has found a welcome home there. Yes--the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present challenges:

A new hallucinogenic drug sweeping the country . . .

An emerging AI uprising . . .

And an ancient demigoddess hellbent on regaining her former status by preying on the blood and sweat (but mostly blood) of every human she encounters.

It's up to a young Zulu girl powerful enough to destroy her entire township, a queer teen plagued with the ability to control minds, a pop diva with serious daddy issues, and a politician with even more serious mommy issues to band together to ensure there's a future left to worry about.

I did try to read this when it first came out, but I bounced off it. However, I adored Drayden’s book Escaping Exodus – it went on my best of the decade list – so I’m willing to give it another try.

Empress: mother MC or mother-child relationship







Kingdom of Souls (Kingdom of Souls, #1) by Rena Barron
Goodreads

Magic has a price—if you’re willing to pay.

Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval.

There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit.

She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him.

This is yet another book I started reading, but which got lost in the chaos of my reading sprees, so I already know the complicated relationship between the main character and her mother is pretty central to this book. I’m really glad to have an excuse to pick this up again, because I was really enjoying it before it got lost!

Star: set in outer space







Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
Goodreads

When an Earth-like planet is discovered, a team of six teens, along with three veteran astronauts, embark on a twenty-year trip to set up a planet for human colonization—but find that space is more deadly than they ever could have imagined.

Have you ever hoped you could leave everything behind?

Have you ever dreamt of a better world?

Can a dream sustain a lifetime?

A century ago, an astronomer discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star. She predicted that one day humans would travel there to build a utopia. Today, ten astronauts are leaving everything behind to find it. Four are veterans of the twentieth century’s space-race.

And six are teenagers who’ve trained for this mission most of their lives.

It will take the team twenty-three years to reach Terra-Two. Twenty-three years locked in close quarters. Twenty-three years with no one to rely on but each other. Twenty-three years with no rescue possible, should something go wrong.

And something always goes wrong.

The film Gravity (2018) had me literally sobbing with fear in the theatre, and my best friend had to look after me for hours afterward. I don’t like space. At-fucking-all. Not the idea of being out in it, at least. So I’m praying Do You Dream of Terra-Two? does not become a nightmare for me.

New Atlantis: urban fantasy







A Blade So Black (Nightmare-Verse, #1) by L.L. McKinney
Goodreads

The first time the Nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Yet even warriors have a curfew.

Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and a slipping GPA. Keeping the Nightmares at bay is turning into a full-time job. But when Alice's handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she’s ever gone before. And she'll need to use everything she's learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head . . . literally.

I’ve heard so many amazing things about this trilogy; it’s past time I sat down and read it for myself!

World: set in a country that’s not your own







The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Goodreads

One man’s thrilling journey through an enchanted world to find his wife, who has disappeared after seemingly committing an unforgiveable act of violence, from the award-winning author of the The Devil in Silver and Big Machine.

Apollo Kagwa has had strange dreams that have haunted him since childhood. An antiquarian book dealer with a business called Improbabilia, he is just beginning to settle into his new life as a committed and involved father, unlike his own father who abandoned him, when his wife Emma begins acting strange. Disconnected and uninterested in their new baby boy, Emma at first seems to be exhibiting all the signs of post-partum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go far beyond that. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act—beyond any parent’s comprehension—and vanishes, seemingly into thin air.

Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts. Apollo then begins a journey that takes him to a forgotten island in the East River of New York City, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest in Queens where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever. This dizzying tale is ultimately a story about family and the unfathomable secrets of the people we love.

This prompt was probably the easiest, since I live in Finland, and no one but Fins set their books here. (I’m exaggerating. But not by much.) Which means I get to read this story about changelings even though it’s set in the US instead of somewhere exotic. Score!

So, that’s my list! How about you – are you up to the challenge? Remember, there’s prizes!

The post #TarotBLMBingo – A Black Lives Matter Reading Challenge! appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.