Recent Additions to My Shelves

I recently shared my Christmas bookish haul, so I won’t be talking about those books again, but I have acquired a few things since then and I am excited to talk about them!

12 Challenge

I am slowly collecting the 12 books that were recommended to me for the 12 Challenge and used a gift card from Christmas to purchase these first four books!

Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can’t wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She’s desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends…who don’t understand Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan’s biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl.

Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. The two become friends and suddenly life on the island doesn’t seem so stifling anymore.

But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they’re each trying to hide will find its way to the surface…whether Morgan is ready or not.

The Girl From the Sea is a YA queer graphic novel set in Nova Scotia and I have already read and adored it! I got my booster on Friday and it knocked me out (I always react this way to vaccines!), so I did not have the energy to read anything too heavy and this graphic novel was perfect. Molly Knox Ostertag is both the author and the artist and this book was beautiful in every way. I actually teared up in the end! Thank you so much to Meshi for recommending this to me- I adored it and I am so happy that I have a copy for my shelves.

A curse plagues the realm of Azenor—during each new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians, who serve as territory wardens, stand between people and their worst dreams.

Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians challenge her, she is unwittingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she secretly gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets begin to rise. Clementine must unite with her rival to fight the realm’s curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn.

I had never heard of Dreams Lie Beneath before  Missy & Tay @frayedbooks recommended it to me for this challenge. I knew from the cover alone that it was a book I needed on my shelves! I have since seen some glowing reviews for it. Rebecca Ross has a new book, An Enchanted River, coming out in February that has also caught my attention, so I would love to get to Dreams Lie Beneath first! Also, I am always up for reading a book about magicians and curses, so I am ready.

A young woman in Belle Epoque France is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist.

In 1895, sixteen-year-old Juliet LaCompte has a passionate, doomed romance with the married Parisian painter Auguste Marchant. When her mother — a witch — botches a curse on Marchant, she unwittingly binds Juliet to the artist through time, damning her to re-live her affair and die tragically young lifetime after lifetime as the star-crossed lovers reincarnate through history.

Luke Varner, the worldly demon tasked with maintaining this badly crafted curse, has been helplessly in love with his charge, in all her reincarnations, since 19th century France. He’s in love with Nora, a silver screen starlet in 1930s Hollywood. He’s in love with Sandra, a struggling musician in 1970s Los Angeles. And he’s in love with Helen, a magazine exec in present-day DC who has the power to “suggest” others do her bidding.

In this life, Helen starts to recall the curse and her tragic previous lives. But this time, she might have the power to break the cycle…

 Lucy @bookwormblogger is so amazing for recommending A Witch in Time to me because she knows my love for a witchy book. I had seen this cover around and have always been curious about it, so I am thrilled to have an excuse to read it. I have it displayed on my TBR shelf and every time I look at it, it calls to me. I am hoping that I love A Witch in Time and will want to read Constance Sayer’s 2021 release, The Ladies of the Secret Circus.

Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word of the One True God through song. Cloistered with the other Vessels of her faith, she believes—as all Ovinists do—that a saint imprisoned Elath the Great Demon centuries ago, saving humanity from earthly temptation.

When Gelya stumbles into a deadly cover-up by the Ovinists’ military, she reluctantly teams up with Tavik, an enemy soldier, to survive. Tavik believes that Elath is actually a mother goddess who must be set free, but while he succeeds in opening Her prison, he inadvertently turns Gelya into Elath’s unwilling human vessel.

Now the church that raised Gelya considers her a threat. In a race against the clock, she and Tavik must find a way to exorcise Elath’s presence from her body. But will this release stop the countdown to the end of the world, or will it be the cause of the earth’s destruction? And as Tavik and Gelya grow closer, another question lingers between them: What will become of Gelya?

This is cheating a little bit because I preordered the paperback for Soulswift and it won’t be here until January 25th, but I am just so excited about it! This book is out of my comfort zone. but something about it makes me think I am going to absolutely love it! It also seems to be a standalone, which I always appreciate in my fantasy. Thank you to kat @lifeandotherdisasters for the recommendation!

ARCs

Overachiever Luz “Lulu” Zavala has straight As, perfect attendance, and a solid ten-year plan. First up: nail her interview for a dream internship at Stanford, the last stop on her school’s cross-country college road trip. The only flaw in her plan is Clara, her oldest sister, who went off to college and sparked a massive fight with their overprotective Peruvian mom, who is now convinced that out-of-state-college will destroy their family. If Lulu can’t fix whatever went wrong between them, the whole trip—and her future—will be a waste.

Middle sister Milagro wants nothing to do with college, or a nerdy class field trip. Then a spot opens up on the trip just as her own Spring Break plans (Operation: Lose Your Virginity) are thwarted, and she hops on the bus with her glittery lipsticks, more concerned about getting back at her ex than she is about schools or any family drama. But the trip opens her eyes about possibilities she’d never imagined for herself. Maybe she is more than the boy-crazy girl everyone seems to think she is.

On a journey from Baltimore all the way to San Francisco, Lulu and Milagro will become begrudging partners as they unpack weighty family expectations, uncover Clara’s secrets, and maybe even discover the true meaning of sisterhood.

HarperCollins Canada has an amazing influencer program where every season we are invited to a virtual event and are introduced to their YA novels coming out over the next few months. The last HCC Frenzy event was in December, and everyone who attended was sent in eARCs and at least one physical ARC. I was thrilled to find two ARCs on my doorstep last night, with one of the books being Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity. I had not heard about this book before the event, but it was definitely one of the books that caught my attention. I love that it focuses on these sisters who have a complicated relationship. I have read the first few pages and I am already enjoying the writing. Look out for Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity when it comes out on February 8th.

This is what they deserve. They wanted me to be a monster.
I will be the worst monster they ever created.

Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will—she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods.

Under the Lucis’ brutal rule, her identity means her death if her powers are discovered. But when she is forcibly conscripted into the Lucis army on her fifteenth birthday, Sloane sees a new opportunity: to overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training, and destroy them from within.

Sloane rises through the ranks and gains strength but, in doing so, risks something greater: losing herself entirely, and becoming the very monster that she ahbors.

Blood Scion was the other ARC that I received from HarperCollins Canada and, of all of the books discussed at the event, it was the one that intrigued me the most. Look at that tagline- “This is what they deserve. They wanted me to be a monster. I will be the worst monster they ever created.” Chills! It comes out March 8th, and I hope to read it and have a full review posted soon!

Meet Yinka: a thirty-something, Oxford-educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is “Yinka, where is your huzband?”

Yinka’s Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her work friends think she’s too traditional (she’s saving herself for marriage!), her girlfriends think she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life…well, that’s a whole other story. But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right.
Still, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find-A-Date for Rachel’s Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs to find is herself?

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? brilliantly subverts the traditional romantic comedy with an unconventional heroine who bravely asks the questions we all have about love. Wry, acerbic, moving, this is a love story that makes you smile but also makes you think–and explores what it means to find your way between two cultures, both of which are yours.

Doubleday Canada was kind enough to send me a copy of Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? This is Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s debut and it sounds like a fun read! I have seen some reviewers compare it to Bridget Jones, which is interesting, and something tells me it will be a perfect book to read around Valentine’s Day!

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36 thoughts on “Recent Additions to My Shelves

  1. A Witch in Time looks SO GOOD! I’d never heard of it before but shout out to Lucy for recommending it to you so that I can read it too haha

  2. I look forward to your review for Blood Scion, I’m so intrigued just from the blurb! It sounds a bit like The Rage of Dragons, actually, although that may end up being a totally incorrect comparison. I hope you enjoy your reading!

  3. Yay, I’m so happy you got a copy of Dreams Lie Beneath, I can’t wait for you to read it ^_^

    I read The Girl From the Sea last month and it was soooo adorable~

  4. A Witch in Time sounds so good. Adding to my TBR! I hope that you love all of these! I didn’t make it to 12. I think I was one or two books short but it’s so fun! I got a lot of variety.

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