Books I’m Dying to Get My Hands On: June-December
As Wyrd and Wonder wraps up for the year, instead of feeling sad about it, I’d rather look forward. There are so many amazing books coming out in the next six months! My tbr is unending, but all of these are books that will be jumping to the top once I get them in my hands!
(I decided not to include books whose covers haven’t been revealed yet, despite the fact that a few of them are ones I’m especially looking forward to. It just makes the lists prettier when you’ve got covers to feature.)
Representation: Queer MCs
Genres: Fantasy
The Wicked Deep meets A Curse So Dark and Lonely in this gripping, dark fairy-tale fantasy about two girls who must choose between saving themselves, each other, or their sinking island city.
Every year on St. Walpurga's Eve, Caldella's Witch Queen lures a boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking.
Lina Kirk is convinced her brother is going to be taken this year. To save him, she enlists the help of Thomas Lin, the boy she secretly loves, and the only person to ever escape from the palace. But they draw the queen's attention, and Thomas is chosen as the sacrifice.
Queen Eva watched her sister die to save the boy she loved. Now as queen, she won't make the same mistake. She's willing to sacrifice anyone if it means saving herself and her city.
When Lina offers herself to the queen in exchange for Thomas's freedom, the two girls await the full moon together. But Lina is not at all what Eva expected, and the queen is nothing like Lina envisioned. 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.
I am so so SO excited for this one!!! I’ve been anticipating Dark Tide since before it had a title, and I was heartbroken when the release date was pushed back (for understandable Corona-related reasons). But the ebook edition is still coming out this Tuesday, which works for me since I can only read ebooks. (I have fibromyalgia, and can’t hold onto or bear up the weight of paper books anymore). I just can’t believe the wait is almost over!
Representation: Characters of Colour, Bi MC, enby love interest
The final volume in K. A. Doore's critically-acclaimed assassin fantasy series
Seven years have passed since the Siege — a time when the hungry dead had risen — but the memories still haunt Illi Basbowen. Though she was trained to be an elite assassin, now the Basbowen clan act as Ghadid's militia force protecting the resurrected city against a growing tide of monstrous guul that travel across the dunes.
Illi's worst fears are confirmed when General Barca arrives, bearing news that her fledgling nation, Harthage, also faces this mounting danger. In her search for the source of the guul, the general exposes a catastophic secret hidden on the outskirts of Ghadid.
To protect her city and the realm, Illi must travel to Harthage and confront her inner demons in order to defeat a greater one — but how much can she sacrifice to protect everything she knows from devastation?
I’ve loved this trilogy since book one, and I’m sad it’s nearly over – but I’m so excited to read the finale! Doore has consistently written amazing queer characters, having intricate adventures in a unique (and really cool!) setting, so I know this is going to be brilliant!
Representation: Queer MCs
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Sawkill Girls meets Beautiful Creatures in this lush and eerie debut, where the boundary between reality and nightmares is as thin as the veil between the living and the dead.
If I could have a fiddle made of Daddy’s bones, I’d play it. I’d learn all the secrets he kept.
Shady Grove inherited her father’s ability to call ghosts from the grave with his fiddle, but she also knows the fiddle’s tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness.
But when her brother is accused of murder, she can’t let the dead keep their secrets.
In order to clear his name, she’s going to have to make those ghosts sing.
Family secrets, a gorgeously resonant LGBTQ love triangle, and just the right amount of creepiness make this young adult debut a haunting and hopeful story about facing everything that haunts us in the dark.
Ghost Wood Song was only on my to-read-maybe list until I learned it featured a bisexual love triangle. That’s not something I’ve seen before (I think it’s a bit more common these days in Contemporary YA, but not so much in Fantasy – at least not the fantasy books I’ve been reading), and it made me curious. Then I saw it compared to Sawkill Girls, which is only one of my favourite books of all time! Now I’m really eager to see what it does with the deal-at-the-crossroads myth and the queer rep.
Representation: F/F, Characters of Colour
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.
I love, love, love the Salvagers trilogy, with its totally unique blend of science fiction and magic, and I’ve been dying to find out how the adventure ends for ages. The Worst of All Possible Worlds kept getting pushed back, but fingers crossed we’ll be getting it this July!
Representation: Oppressed peoples, Bi love interest
Genres: Fantasy
Kings become outcasts and lovers become foes in the thrilling sequel to Margaret Owen's The Merciful Crow.
As the new chieftain of the Crows, Fie knows better than to expect a royal to keep his word. Still she’s hopeful that Prince Jasimir will fulfill his oath to protect her fellow Crows. But then black smoke fills the sky, signaling the death of King Surimir and the beginning of Queen Rhusana's merciless bid for the throne.
With the witch queen using the deadly plague to unite the nation of Sabor against Crows—and add numbers to her monstrous army—Fie and her band are forced to go into hiding, leaving the country to be ravaged by the plague. However, they’re all running out of time before the Crows starve in exile and Sabor is lost forever.
A desperate Fie calls on old allies to help take Rhusana down from within her own walls. But inside the royal palace, the only difference between a conqueror and a thief is an army. To survive, Fie must unravel not only Rhusana’s plot, but ancient secrets of the Crows—secrets that could save her people, or set the world ablaze.
I still haven’t been able to write a worthy review for the first book of this duet, The Merciless Crow – so you can imagine how excited I am for the sequel!
Representation: Latino MC
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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.
The only way you can be not excited for Lobizona is if you haven’t heard of it yet. Immigration, Latin American mythology, werewolves and brujas? Sign me the hell up!
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Representation: Characters of Colour
Genres: Fantasy
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.
I was in love with the sound of this story even before they revealed that jaw-dropping cover…but let’s be real, the cover helps! I love all things astral and I can’t wait to see star magic mixed up with Hindu mythology.
Representation: Characters of Colour, Major Asexual Character, minor gay and lesbian characters
Genres: Fantasy
The epic debut YA fantasy from an incredible new talent—perfect for fans of Tomi Adeyemi and Sabaa Tahir
Nothing is more important than loyalty.
But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?
Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? With extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the ones we love.
I’m cheating, because I’ve read this one already, but like I said, I can’t wait for its release so that I can talk about it with more people! And this is another book with a stunning cover – I would love to have a print of it on my wall, and once you’ve read the book, there’s so many details in that cover that are related to the story. But if you want to know what they are…well, you’ll have to read it for yourself 
