Advanced Booktempting Marches Onward
Helloooo! Yes I did that pun and I am PROUD
As always I care about your ever decreasing bookspace and want you to have interesting books on them. So here are some books on my radar you too may want to know about
The Thousand Eyes by AK Larkwood - Out now via Pan Macmillan/Tor £18.99 hardback £9.99 Kindle eBook
Could you sacrifice your dreams to escape a nightmare?
Csorwe, Shuthmili and Tal survey abandoned Echentyr worlds to make a living. The empire’s ruins seem harmless but fascinating. Yet disaster strikes when they stumble upon ancient magic during a routine expedition. This revives a warrior who’d slept for an age, reigniting a conflict thousands of years old. And the soldier binds Csorwe to her cause.
Shuthmili is desperate to protect the woman she loves. However, as events escalate, she’s torn. Can she help Csorwe by clinging to her own humanity or by embracing her eldritch powers?
Tal heads home, but his peace is shattered when a magical catastrophe hits his city. The wizard Sethennai is missing and Tal can’t face seeking his former lover to ask for help. So, he flees – but there’s no escaping the future. For throughout the Echo Maze’s linked worlds, fragments of an undead goddess are waking. Soon all must choose a side.
The Thousand Names was one of the most inventive and truly epic fantasies I’ve had the pleasure of reading so I shall work hard to report back on this soon
The Killing Kind by Jane Casey - Out now via Harper Collins £12.99 hardback £2.99 Kindle eBook
He tells you you’re special…
As a barrister, Ingrid Lewis is used to dealing with tricky clients, but no one has ever come close to John Webster. After Ingrid defended Webster against a stalking charge, he then turned on her – following her, ruining her relationship, even destroying her home.
He tells you he wants to protect you…
Now, Ingrid believes she has finally escaped his clutches. But when one of her colleagues is run down on a busy London road, Ingrid is sure she was the intended victim. And then Webster shows up at her door…
But can you believe him?
Webster claims Ingrid is in danger – and that only he can protect her. Stalker or saviour? Murderer or protector? The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike again.
I shall be telling you more about this thriller on the blog tour 10/3!
The Outfit by David Tallerman via Solaris - 1/3 £8.99 paperback £2.99 Kindle eBook
In 1907, the revolutionary Joseph Djugashvili – who would later take the name Joseph Stalin – met with an old friend, a clerk at the Tiflis branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, for a glass of milk. Over talk of national pride, the spirit of the new century and Djugashvili’s poetry, they agreed the beginnings of a plan. With the aid of the Outfit, Djugashvili’s hardened crew of “expropriators,” they would pull off the biggest, bloodiest and most daring robbery in Georgia’s history, and ruthlessly change the direction of the Bolshevik revolution forever...
oh come on doesn’t that sound unusual? Tempting you could say?
Gallant by VE Schwab - out 8/3 via Titan £18.99 hardback £4.68 Kindle eBook
Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she's never met, her father's older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to remain, but must follow two rules: don't go out after dusk, and always stay on the right side of a wall that runs along the estate’s western edge. Beyond it is another realm, ancient and magical, which calls to Olivia through her blood…
Schwab is an author I always enjoy reading so very very much looking forward to And this sounds right up my street!
Reputation by Sarah Vaughan - out 3/3 via Simon & Schuster £14.99 hardback £6.99 Kindle eBook
Emma Webster is a respectable MP.
Emma Webster is a devoted mother.
Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist.
Emma Webster is a liar.
this thriller from the writer of Anatomy of a Scandal sounds rather fascinating and I will be telling you more on the blog tour 10/3
The Atlas Six by Olvie Blake - Out 3/3 via Pan Macmillan/Tor £16.99 hardback £4.99 Kindle eBook
Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction.
Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.
When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places.
Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind’s deepest secrets. Reina Mori is a naturalist who can perceive and understand the flow of life itself. And Callum Nova is an empath, who can manipulate the desires of others. Finally there’s Tristan Caine, whose powers mystify even himself.
Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society’s London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.
a LOT of buzz about this story which fans of dark academia may want to rush towards fast
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T L Huchu - out 3/3 via Pan Macmillan/Tor £16:99 hardback £8.99 Kindle eBook
Some secrets are meant to stay buried
When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She’s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies – but turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. And her with bills to pay and a pet fox to feed.
Then her friend Priya offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. The first patient was a teenage boy, Max Wu, and his healers are baffled. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns – and impress her mentor, Sir Callander.
Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland’s past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake and Ropa is running out of time.
I LOVED Library of the Dead and this next instalment of the Edinburgh Nights series of a magical post apocalyptic Edinburgh is something I am here for stat!
Lost World & Mythological Kingdoms edited by John Joseph Adams - out 8/3 via Grim Oak Press £22.15 hardback £7.18 Kindle eBook
From Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to Journey to the Center of the Earth, from the fabled island of Avalon to the lost oasis of Zerzura, from The Land That Time Forgot to the golden city of El Dorado, storytellers have long imagined what exists beyond the edges of the map.
The need to seek and discover the unknown is embedded in who we are, no matter the culture or era. To celebrate this sense of wonder, award-winning editor John Joseph Adams has gathered together some of the best SF&F writers working today, collecting adventure and mystery in this spectacular anthology. With original contributions from Kate Elliott, Tobias S. Buckell, Dexter Palmer, E. Lily Yu, Jonathan Maberry, and a dozen more, there are short stories sure to enthrall every reader.
Explore the rich tradition begun centuries ago with this all-new compilation full of imagination and delights. What lies beyond the edge of the unknown? Only you, brave reader, can find out.
dear reader how could I resists this one - answer I did not
Sundial by Catriona Ward - Out 10/3 via Viper Books £14.99 hardback £4.74 Kindle eBook
You can't escape the desert. You can't escape Sundial.
Rob fears for her daughters. For Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. For Annie, because of what Callie might do to her. Rob sees a darkness in Callie that reminds her of the family she left behind. She decides to take Callie back to Sundial, her childhood home deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.
Callie is afraid of her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely. To tell her secrets about her past that both disturb and excite her. And Callie is beginning to wonder if only one of them will leave Sundial alive...
Catriona Wars has been impressing me with their short fiction and the excellent The Last House on Needless Street- now this one I hears is also excellent I shall hopefully be tempting you on this soon!
If you think of anything to add use the comments!
