Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful December so far. It's been alarmingly warm with little snow here, so I'm hoping we get some storms and colder weather before Christmas.
I know the last couple months have been a little slow release-wise, but I'm happy to announce that things are picking back up in January! I have eight new releases I wanted to share with you today. Let's dive in:
1. Wild and Distant Seas - Tara Karr Roberts (Jan. 2)
Synopsis: A gorgeous debut, laced through with magic, following four generations of women as they seek to chart their own futures. Evangeline Hussey’s husband is dead―lost at sea―and she has only managed to hold on to his Nantucket inn by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those around her. One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael, and her careful illusion begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a life from the pieces that remain.
Her choices ripple through generations, across continents, and into the depths of the sea, in a narrative that follows Evangeline and her descendants from mid-nineteenth century Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Florence, and Idaho. Moving, beautifully written, and elegantly conceived, Wild and Distant Seas takes Moby-Dick as its starting point, but Tara Karr Roberts brings four remarkable women to life in a spellbinding epic all her own.
Why I'm Excited: I have really been enjoying inter-generational sagas lately and this sounds very appealing to me. I haven't read Moby Dick, but I love that as a starting point for a novel that also incorporates magical realism. It's really just checking all my boxes right now.
2. Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White - Amélie Wen Zhao (Jan. 2)
Synopsis: Years ago, the Elantian colonizers invaded Lan's homeland and killed her mother in their search to uncover the Last Kingdom's greatest the location of its legendary four Demon Gods. Lan's mother devoted her life to destroying the Demon Gods, and Lan is determined to finish her mission. Yet, there are others searching for the gods, too.
Zen knew his soul was forfeit the moment he made a deal with the Demon God known as the Black Tortoise, but he's willing to lose himself if it means saving the Kingdom--and the girl--he loves. But to crush the colonizers who have invaded his land he needs more power than even a single Demon God can provide. He needs an army. And he knows exactly where he can find it--in the undead army his great grandfather lead decades ago.
The Elantians may have stolen their throne, but the battle for the Last Kingdom has only begun.
Why I'm Excited: I read the first book in this series last January and I enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to continuing this series this month! I'm probably going to need to revisit the first book in depth; I don't know how much I really want to reread the whole thing but...I might have to.
3. Mislaid in Parts Half-Known - Seanan McGuire (Jan. 9)
Synopsis: Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. When her fellow students realize that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, she's forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise.
Along the way, temptations are dangled, decisions are reinforced, and a departure to a world populated by dinosaurs brings untold dangers and one or two other surprises!
Why I'm Excited: I don't read a lot of series these days, so it's kind of wild that I have two new releases that are the next book in a series that I'm looking forward to this month! This series by Seanan McGuire is fun and the installments are short and unique. Looking forward to snagging this from the library on audio when it comes out!
4. The Tusks of Extinction - Ray Nayler (Jan. 16)
Synopsis: Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.
The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.
Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?
And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?
Why I'm Excited: I'm lucky enough to have received an e-ARC of this book, so by the end of the month I will have already read it! Check back in towards the end of December for my wrap-up reviews.
5. The Silence in Her Eyes - Armando Lucas Correa (Jan. 16)
Synopsis: Leah has been living with akinetopsia, or motion blindness, since she was a child. For the last twenty years, she hasn’t been able to see movement. As she walks around her upper Manhattan neighborhood with her white stick tapping in front, most people assume she’s blind. But the truth is Leah sees a good deal, and with her acute senses of smell and hearing, very little escapes her notice.
She has a quiet, orderly life, with little human contact beyond her longtime housekeeper, her doctor, and her elderly neighbor. That all changes when Alice moves into the apartment next door and Leah can immediately smell the anxiety wafting off her. Worse, Leah can’t help but hear Alice and a late-night visitor engage in a violent fight. Worried, she befriends her neighbor and discovers that Alice is in the middle of a messy divorce from an abusive husband.
Then one night, Leah wakes up to someone in her apartment. She blacks out and in the morning is left wondering if she dreamt the episode. And yet the scent of the intruder follows her everywhere. And when she hears Alice through the wall pleading for her help, Leah makes a decision that will test her courage, her strength, and ultimately her sanity.
Why I'm Excited: I'm lucky enough to have received an e-ARC of this book, so by the end of the month I will have already read it! Check back in towards the end of December for my wrap-up reviews.
6. Womb City - Tlotlo Tsamaase (Jan. 23)
Synopsis: Nelah seems to have it all: wealth, fame, a husband, and a child on the way. But in a body her husband controls via microchip and the tailspin of a loveless marriage, her hopes and dreams come to a devastating halt. A drug-fueled night of celebration ends in a hit-and-run. To dodge a sentencing in a society that favors men, Nelah and her side-piece, Janith Koshal, finish the victim off and bury the body.
But the secret claws its way into Nelah's life from the grave. As her victim's vengeful ghost begins exacting a bloody revenge on everyone Nelah holds dear, she?ll have to unravel her society's terrible secrets to stop those in power, and become a monster unlike any other to quench the ghost's violent thirst.
Why I'm Excited: This book sounds like such a fascinating dystopian that is also being marketed as a horror. The setting of a futuristic Botswana is new and intriguing to me, and all-in-all this seems like a unique premise (and a killer cover) that I'm very interesting in reading.
7. Exordia - Seth Dickinson (Jan. 23)
Synopsis: “Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. it’s very unlikely that you’ll die right now. It wouldn’t be narratively complete.”
Anna Sinjari―refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker―has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. While humanity reels from disaster, she must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world.
Why I'm Excited: So this book's synopsis is a little on the vague side, but it's pulling me in nonetheless. The positive reviews are very promising ("reading Exordia felt like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle while being chased by wolves"), so yeah, I'm gonna pick this one up.
8. The City of Stardust - Georgia Summers (Jan. 30)
Synopsis: For centuries, the Everlys have seen their best and brightest disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.
Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break the curse first. Her hunt leads her into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge.
And into the path of Penelope's quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet to whom she finds herself undeniably drawn. With her time running out, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.
Why I'm Excited: I'm lucky enough to have received an e-ARC of this book, but I probably won't get to it until early January. Check back at the end of next month for my review!
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I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your winter and enjoy the holidays however you celebrate! Thank you for joining me on this journey this year and I am so excited for all the fun new things coming to Prose and Paperbacks in 2024.
Let me know if there are any books you're looking forward to in the comments!