Start of the month means listing out my most anticipated releases! As always these books are in order of release date (UK).
Daughter of the Salt King by A.S Thorton (Salt Chasers #1)
Release Date: 02/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780744300499
Publisher: Camcat Books
Number of pages: 448
A girl of the desert and a jinni born long ago by the sea, both enslaved to the Salt King-but with this capricious magic, only one can be set free.
As a daughter of the Salt King, Emel ought to be among the most powerful women in the desert. Instead, she and her sisters have less freedom than even her father’s slaves … for the Salt King uses his own daughters to seduce visiting noblemen into becoming powerful allies by marriage.
Escape from her father’s court seems impossible, and Emel dreams of a life where she can choose her fate. When members of a secret rebellion attack, Emel stumbles upon an alluring escape route: her father’s best-kept secret-a wish-granting jinni, Saalim.
But in the land of the Salt King, wishes are never what they seem. Saalim’s magic is volatile. Emel could lose everything with a wish for her freedom as the rebellion intensifies around her. She soon finds herself playing a dangerous game that pits dreams against responsibility and love against the promise of freedom. As she finds herself drawn to the jinni for more than his magic, captivated by both him and the world he shows her outside her desert village, she has to decide if freedom is worth the loss of her family, her home and Saalim, the only man she’s ever loved.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hanna
Release Date: 02/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9781529054569
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Number of pages: 464
Perfect reading for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, Hannah’s beautifully wrought dustbowl drama traces the conflicts and challenges faced by a woman and her family journeying to California in search of a better life.
She will discover the best of herself in the worst of times . . .
Texas, 1934. Elsa Martinelli had finally found the life she’d yearned for. A family, a home and a livelihood on a farm on the Great Plains. But when drought threatens all she and her community hold dear, Elsa’s world is shattered to the winds.
Fearful of the future, when Elsa wakes to find her husband has fled, she is forced to make the most agonizing decision of her life. Fight for the land she loves or take her beloved children, Loreda and Ant, west to California in search of a better life. Will it be the land of milk and honey? Or will their experience challenge every ounce of strength they possess?
From the overriding love of a mother for her child, the value of female friendship and the ability to love again – against all odds, Elsa’s incredible journey is a story of survival, hope and what we do for the ones we love.
The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu (Edinburgh Nights #1)
Release Date: 04/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Mystery / Crime
ISBN: 9781529039450
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Number of pages: 336
Bookclub/Subscription: Goldsboro GSFF February Pick
Opening up a world of magic and adventure, The Library of the Deadby T. L. Huchu is the first book in the Edinburgh Nights series.
When ghosts talk, she will listen . . .
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and she now speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honour bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.
She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan . . .) as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets. And in the process, she discovers an occult library and some unexpected allies. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
Release Date: 04/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9780571368204
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Number of pages: 336
Lunchtime, a Saturday, 1944: the Woolworths on Bexford High Street in southeast London has a new delivery of aluminum saucepans. A crowd gathers to see the first new metal in ages – after all, everything’s been melted down for the war effort. An instant later, the crowd is gone; incinerated. In it were five little children. Atomised.
Who were they? What future did they lose? Running another reel, another version of time, Perpetual Light is the rest of the twentieth century as the five children’s destinies were extended. Their intimate everyday dramas, as sons and daughters, spouses, parents, grandparents; as the separated, the remarried, the bereaved. Through decades of social, sexual and technological transformation, as bus conductors and landlords, as swindlers and teachers, patients and inmates. Days of personal triumphs, disasters; of second chances and redemption, all amidst the bustling, humming multitudes of London.
Five lives and stories told in beams of light, not ends.
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
Release Date: 11/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy / Mythology
ISBN: 9780593099940
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
Number of pages: 368
When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.
Angrboda’s story begins where most witches’ tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.
Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.
With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she’s foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.
We Are the Fire by Sam Taylor
Release Date: 16/02/2021
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy / Romance
ISBN: 9781250241429
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
Number of pages: 416
As electrifying as it is heartbreaking, Sam Taylor’s explosive fantasy debut We Are the Fire is perfect for fans of An Ember in the Ashes and the legend of Spartacus.
In the cold, treacherous land of Vesimaa, children are stolen from their families by a cruel emperor, forced to undergo a horrific transformative procedure, and serve in the army as magical fire-wielding soldiers. Pran and Oksana―both taken from their homeland at a young age―only have each other to hold onto in this heartless place.
Pran dreams of one day rebelling against their oppressors and destroying the empire; Oksana only dreams of returning home and creating a peaceful life for them both.
When they discover the emperor has a new, more terrible mission than ever for their kind, Pran and Oksana vow to escape his tyranny once and for all. But their methods and ideals differ drastically, driving a wedge between them. Worse still, they both soon find that the only way to defeat the monsters that subjugated them may be to become monsters themselves.
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4)
Release Date: 16/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Fantasy / Romance
ISBN: 9781526634757
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Number of pages: 768
In this highly anticipated fourth book of the mesmerising A Court of Thorns and Roses saga, it is the turn of Feyre’s sister to step into the limelight: now that the war has finally ended, the world seems wide open for the valiant Nesta.
Nesta Archeron has always been prickly – proud, swift to anger and slow to forgive. And since the war – since being made High Fae against her will – she’s struggled to forget the horrors she endured and find a place for herself within the strange and deadly Night Court. The person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred, winged warrior who is there at Nesta’s every turn. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. And when they are forced to train in battle together, sparks become flame.
As the threat of war casts its shadow over them once again, Nesta and Cassian must fight monsters from within and without if they are to stand a chance of halting the enemies of their court. But the ultimate risk will be searching for acceptance – and healing – in each other’s arms.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #4)
Release Date: 18/02/2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781473647664
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Number of pages: 336
Exploring the tensions and heartbreak of three strangers thrown together at an intergalactic pit-stop, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a stunning conclusion to Becky Chamber’s highly acclaimed Wayfarers series.
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.
One of the many establishments present is the Five-Hop One-Stop, a place where long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and pick up fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her occasionally helpful child, who both work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.
When a freak technological failure halts traffic to and from Gora, three strangers are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, and with nothing to do but wait, the trio – an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes – are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they might be to each other.
A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth (A Dark and Hollow Star #1)
Release Date: 25/02/2021
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781529366211
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Number of pages: 512
Bookclub/Subscription: Illumicrate February Pick
The Cruel Prince meets City of Bones in this thrilling fantasy where four queer teens race to stop a serial killer before their crimes expose the hidden world of faeries to humans.
Choose your player.
The half-fae outcast, desperate for acceptance.
The tempestuous Fury, exiled and hellbent on revenge.
The dutiful prince, determined to earn his place.
The brooding guardian, burdened by a terrible secret.
Each holds a key to solving a series of ritualistic murders that threaten to expose faeries to the human world. But they cannot do it alone. To track down the killer, they will have to form a tenuous alliance, putting their differences – and conflicts – aside.
Failure risks the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. And time is running out.
As always there are some great books coming out this month with absolutely beautiful covers. I’m sure this comes as no surprise, but my most anticipated is A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas.
Hopefully I will get some time to read a few of these this month! What are your most anticipated reads for Feb? Let me know in the comments.
Lily x
readingbytorchlight.com 