IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR… WHERE I COME WITH MORE BOOKS FOR YOUR TBR
and help it conquer you š unapologetically so.
i have enough books on my tbr to last me several lifetimes but yet, i shall persist and add more. in my defence, there is a stunning lineup of april to june releases!!
from queer vampires to inheriting gigantic libraries* to trans anthologies and drag queens,** along with fake dating ft disaster gayasians, there are lovely books that i can’t wait to sink into!!
you can also catch part one here, featuring january to march!
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
ā¢2022 book releases (january-april)
ā¢2022 book releases (may – august)
ā¢2023 book releases (january-march)
*THIS. THIS IS THE TRUE BOOKWORM DREAM. IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO GIVE ME A MYSTERIOUS MANSION AND LIBRARY, PLEASE FEEL FREE š
**I’M SO HAPPY!! WE FINALLY HAVE A BOOK FEATURING DRAG!!
(ā”ļø) indicates a release i’m incredibly hyped for. this is more for my reference tbh…
Title: Silver in the Bone
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Release date: April 4th, 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy
āØ this hits all the boxes, with an arthurian retelling
Tamsin Lark didnāt ask to be a Hollower. As a mortal with no magical talent, she was never meant to break into ancient crypts, or compete with sorceresses and Cunningfolk for the treasures inside. But after her thieving foster father disappeared without so much as a goodbye, it was the only way to keep herselfāand her brother, Cabellāalive.
Ten years later, rumors are swirling that her guardian vanished with a powerful ring from Arthurian legend. A run-in with her rival Emrys ignites Tamsinās hope that the ring could free Cabell from a curse that threatens both of them. But they arenāt the only ones who covet the ring.
As word spreads, greedy Hollowers start circling, and many would kill to have it for themselves. While Emrys is the last person Tamsin would choose to partner with, she needs all the help she can get to edge out her competitors in the race for the ring. Together, they dive headfirst into a vipersā nest of dark magic, exposing a deadly secret with the power to awaken ghosts of the past and shatter her last hope of saving her brother. . . .
Title: Forget Me Not
Author: Alyson Derrick
Release date: April 4th, 2023
Genre: YA romantic-contemporary
āØnot really a fan of amnesiac books because it’s usually used as a plot device- but the reviews for this have me intrigued š
What would you do if you forgot the love of your life ever even existed?
Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a plan: to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love.
But then Stevie has a terrible fall. And when she comes to, she can remember nothing of the last two yearsānot California, not coming to terms with her sexuality, not even Nora. Suddenly, Stevie finds herself in a life she doesnāt quite understand, one where sheās estranged from her parents, drifting away from her friends, lying about the hours she works, dating a boy she canāt remember crushing on, and headed towards a future that isnāt at all what her fifteen-year-old self would have envisioned.
And Nora finds herselfā¦forgotten. Can the two beat the odds a second time and find their way back together when ātogetherā itself is just a lost memory?
ā”ļøTitle: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library
Author: Hester Fox
Release date: April 4th, 2023
Genre: Adult historical fantasy
āØwhen a book comes along with a pitch such as “young woman inherits mysterious library and a sprawling estate” you smash that tbr button because the blurb is basically your life dream š©
World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library and must untangle its powerful secrets…
With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which sheās descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.
The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own.
Rumors swirl in the village about the abbeyās previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the libraryās mysteries in order to reclaim her own storyābefore it vanishes forever.
Title: Some Desperate Glory
Author: Emily Tesh
Release date: April 11th, 2023
Genre: Adult science fiction
āØ“queer space opera”- say no more. also gays in space will forever be superior!!
All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity.
They are whatās left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanityās revenge into her own hands. Alongside her brotherās brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, she escapes from everything sheās ever known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.
A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you, “Some Desperate Glory” is award-winning author Emily Teshās highly anticipated debut novel.
ā”ļøTitle: A Flame in the Night
Author: Morgan Dante
Release date: April 11th, 2023
Genre: Romantic adult fantasy
āØi am DESPERATE for this book. after reading silver under nightfall i have developed a love for poly vampires. also these snippets are ruining me.
The start of bloody decadence…
The definition of marriage: Two people and their silver-haired vampire.
In 1924, Paris is a bastion of sexual freedom, even for shell-shocked Leon Laflamme, the most dramatic blond this side of the Seine. After years of loneliness and secrecy, he’s married the clever and sumptuous burlesque dancer Claire.
However, Leon truly finds liberation when he meets the stoic, intriguing, and silver-haired Count Matthias, who offers true freedom in his dark gift: immortality.
Title: Pieces of Me
Author: Kate McLaughlin
Release date: April 18th, 2023
Genre: YA contemporary
āØfirst off, that cover is gorgeous! plus am always keen to read more books about MC’s with disabilities and/or mental illnesses.
When eighteen-year-old Dylan wakes up, sheās in an apartment she doesnāt recognize. The other people there seem to know her, but she doesn’t know them ā not even the pretty, chiseled boy who tells her his name is Connor. A voice inside her head keeps saying that everything is okay, but Dylan canāt help but freak out. Especially when she borrows Connorās phone to call home and realizes sheās been missing for three days.
Dylan has lost time before, but never like this. Soon after, Dylan is diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and must grapple not only with the many people currently crammed inside her head, but that a secret from her past so terrible sheās blocked it out has put them there. Her only distraction is a budding new relationship with Connor. But as she gets closer to finding out the truth, Dylan wonders: will it heal her or fracture her further?
ā”ļøTitle: A Hunger of Thorns
Author: Lili Wilkinson
Release date: April 18th, 2023
Genre: YA fantasy
āØi’m loving this dark forestry cover trend š and am so hyped for the modern fairytale vibes!
Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magicāand her best friend.
These days, magic is toothless, reduced to glamour patches and psychic energy drinks found in supermarkets and shopping malls. Odette has always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now sheās missing, and everyone says sheās dead. Everyone except Maude.
Storytelling has always been Maudeās gift, so she knows all about girls who get lost in the woods. Sheās sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forestāa place nobody else seems to remember is there. The danger is, no one knows what remains inside Sicklehurst, either. And every good story is sure to have a monster.
ā”ļøTitle: Becoming a Queen
Author: Dan Clay
Release date: April 25th, 2023
Genre: YA contemporary
āØi am so HERE for a book about drag queens (and siblings!!)
If only Mark Davis hadnāt put on a dress for the talent show. It was a jokeāother guys did it tooābut when his boyfriend saw Mark in that dress, everything changed.
And now, fresh on the heels of high school heartbreak, Mark has given up on love. Maybe some people are just too much for this worldātoo weird, too wild, too feminine, too everything.
Thankfully, his older brother Eric always knows what to say to keep Mark from spinning into self-loathing. “Be yourself! Your full sequin-y self.ā But Mark starts to notice signs that his perfect older brother has problems of his own.
When the source of Markās strength suddenly becomes the source of his greatest pain, the path back to happiness seems impossible. Searching for a way out, Mark slips into a dress to just, briefly, become someone else, live a different life. His escape, however, becomes an unexpected outlet for his paināa path to authentic connection, and a provocation to finally see other people as fully as he wants to be seen.
ā”ļøTitle: Ander and Sati Were Here
Author: Jonny Garza Villa
Release date: May 2nd, 2023
Genre: YA contemporary
āØthe queer yearning on the cover is doing Things to me š
Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.
The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander MartĆnez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family’s taquerĆa.
It’s the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it’s all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?
To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family “fires” them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago LĆ³pez Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Falling for each other becomes as natural as breathing. Through Santi’s eyes, Ander starts to understand who they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santi’s first steps toward making Santos Vista and the United States feel like home.
Until ICE agents come for Santi, and Ander realizes how fragile that sense of home is. How love can only hold on so long when the whole world is against them. And when, eventually, the world starts to win.
ā”ļøTitle: The Sun and the Star
Author: Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
Release date: May 2nd, 2023
Genre: YA retelling
āØoh i have missed this duo!! so excited to revisit my literal CHILDHOOD
As the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo has been through so much, from the premature deaths of his mother and sister, to being outed against his will, to losing his friend Jason during the trials of Apollo. But there is a ray of sunshine in his lifeāliterally: his boyfriend, Will Solace, the son of Apollo.
Together the two demigods can overcome any obstacle or foe. At least, thatās been the case so far… Now Nico is being plagued by a voice calling out to him from Tartarus, the lowest part of the Underworld. He thinks he knows who it is: a reformed Titan named Bob whom Percy and Annabeth had to leave behind when they escaped Hadesās realm. Nicoās dreams and Rachel Dareās latest prophecy leave little doubt in Nicoās mind that Bob is in some kind of trouble.
Nico has to go on this quest, whether Mr. D and Chiron like it or not. And of course Will insists on coming with. But can a being made of light survive in the darkest part of the world? and what does the prophecy mean that Nico will have to āleave something of equal value behind?ā
Nico will have to face demons both internal and external as his relationship with Will is tested to the core in this standalone adventure featuring two of the most popular characters in the Percy Jackson saga.
Title: You Don’t Have a Shot
Author: Raquel Marie
Release date: May 9th, 2023
Genre: YA romantic contemporary
āØafter reading the author’s debut (ophelia after all) i will add anything by her to my tbr! also sapphic rivals to lovers with ace rep!!
Valentina āValeā Castillo-Greenās life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her fatherās intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything sheās been working toward seems to disappear.
Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemptionā¦only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be stiffer than expected, so unless they can get their rookie teamās act together, this second chanceāand any hope of playing college soccerāwill slip through Valeās fingers. When the growing pressure, friendship friction, and her overbearing father push Vale to turn to Leticia for help, what starts off as a shaky alliance of necessity begins to blossom into something more through a shared love of soccer. . . and maybe each other.
Sharp, romantic, and deeply emotional, You Donāt Have a Shot is a rivals-to-lovers romance about rediscovering your love of the game and yourself, from the author of Ophelia After All .
Title: Yellowface
Author: R. F. Kuang
Release date: May 16th, 2023
Genre: Adult literary fiction
āØhave heard promising things about kung, so am eager to read this!
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
ā”ļøTitle: Venom and Vow
Author: Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore
Release date: May 16th, 2023
Genre: YA fantasy
āØhave i read anything by anna-marie mclemore? no. will i continue to add all of their books to my tbr? yes. don’t question the logic š
Cade McKenna is a transgender prince whoās doubling for his brother.
Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana.
Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect.
Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.
Cade doesnāt know that Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia doesnāt know that every time she thinks sheās fighting Patrick, sheās fighting Cade. And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.
Cowritten by married writing team Anna-Marie and Elliott McLemore, this is a lush and powerful YA novel about owning your power and becoming who you really are – no matter the cost.
Title: Transmogrify!
Author: (anthology)
Release date: May 16th, 2023
Genre: YA fantasy
āØi’m so happy that we’re getting trans stories for trans readers, by trans authors š„¹
Perfect for fans of All Out and Cemetery Boys, this anthology claims a seat at the table of fantasy literature for trans and gender nonconforming stories.
Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, youāll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiencesābecause magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.
Title: Fake Dates and Mooncakes
Author: Sher Lee
Release date: May 16th, 2023
Genre: YA romance
āØgayasians + fake dating + food-love. what could possibly go wrong?!
Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefsāin memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his auntās struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.
Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylanās stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.
In Theoās glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theoās relatives reveal their true colorsābut with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan canāt risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.
Can Dylan save his familyās business and follow his heartāor will he fail to do both?
Title: Witch King
Author: Martha Wells
Release date: May 30th, 2023
Genre: Adult fantasy
āØhave been craving some adult fantasy lately, so this seems perfect! (isn’t this cover similar to “an enchantment of ravens”?)
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kaiās magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence? Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions. Heās not going to like the answers.
Title: The Dos and Donuts of Love
Author: Adiba Jaigirdar
Release date: June 6th, 2023
Genre:
āØhave started this one, and i ADORE the food love (and puns!) + these oblivious sapphics š
Welcome to the first ever Junior Irish Baking Show!ā
Shireen Malik is still reeling from the breakup with her ex-girlfriend, Chris, when she receives news that sheās been accepted as a contestant on a new televised baking competition show. This is Shireenās dream come true!
Because winning will not only mean prize money, but it will also bring some much-needed attention to You Drive Me Glazy, her parentsā beloved donut shop. Things get complicated, though, because Chris is also a contestant on the show. Then thereās the very outgoing Niamh, a fellow contestant who is becoming fast friends with Shireen. Things are heating up between them, and not just in the kitchen.
As the competition intensifies , Shireen will have to ignore all these factors and moreā including potential sabotageāif she wants a sweet victory!
Title: The Grimoire of Grave Fates
Author: (anthology)
Release date: June 6th, 2023
Genre: YA fantasy
āØi knew i had to read it when it was being compared to how to get away with murder. also the idea of multiple authors writing different perspectives has me excited!
Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been murdered, and now everyone at the Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a suspect.
A prestigious school for young magicians, the Galileo Academy has recently undergone a comprehensive overhaul, reinventing itself as a roaming academy in which students of all cultures and identities are celebrated. In this new Galileo, every pupil is welcomeābut there are some who aren’t so happy with the recent changes. That includes everyone’s least favorite professor, Septimius Dropwort, a stodgy old man known for his harsh rules and harsher punishments. But when the professor’s body is discovered on school grounds with a mysterious note clenched in his lifeless hand, the Academy’s students must solve the murder themselves, because everyone’s a suspect.
Told from more than a dozen alternating and diverse perspectives, The Grimoire of Grave Fates follows Galileo’s best and brightest young magicians as they race to discover the truth behind Dropwort’s mysterious death. Each one of them is confident that only they have the skills needed to unravel the web of secrets hidden within Galileo’s halls. But they’re about to discover that even for straight-A students, magic doesn’t always play by the rules. . . .
Title: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Author: Lisa See
Release date: June 6th, 2023
Genre: Adult historical fiction
āØthis sounds feminist and historical and excellent, would like to read immediately
According to Confucius, āan educated woman is a worthless woman,ā but Tan Yunxianāborn into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and lonelinessāis being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine,
the Four Examinationsālooking, listening, touching, and askingāsomething a man can never do with a female patient.
From a young age, Yunxian learns about womenās illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purposeādespite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with itāand they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each otherās joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wifeāembroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.
How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tanās Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.
Title: The Surviving Sky
Author: Kritika H. Rao
Release date: June 13th, 2023
Genre: Adult SFF
āØthis sounds delightfully complex; i’m both intrigued and daunted.
High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanityāplant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else.
If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change.
Their marriage is already thornyāthen Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya’s discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.
ā”ļøTitle: Maddalena and the Dark
Author: Julia Fine
Release date: June 13th, 2023
Genre: Gothic fantasy
āØgothic fantasy + a growing love for music + dark sapphic love + purple prose ~ julia fine is truly giving us everything!!
Venice, 1717. Fifteen-year-old Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. As a student at the Ospedale della PietĆ , she hopes to join the highest ranks of its illustrious girlsā orchestra and become a protĆ©gĆ© of the great Antonio Vivaldi. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena.
After a scandal threatens her noble familyās reputation, Maddalena is sent to the PietĆ to preserve her marriage prospects. When she meets Luisa, Maddalena feels the stirrings of a friendship unlike anything she has known. But Maddalena has a secret: she has hatched a dangerous plot to rescue her future her own way. When she invites Luisa into her plans, promising to make her dreams come true, Luisa doesnāt hesitate. But every wager has its price, and as the girls are drawn into the decadent world outside the PietĆ ās walls, they must decide what it is they truly wantāand what they will do to pay for it.
Lush and heady, swirling with music and magic, Maddalena and the Dark is a Venetian fairytale about the friendship between two girls and the boundless desire that will set them free, if it doesnāt consume them first.
Title: Something Close to Magic
Author: Emma Mills
Release date: June 13th, 2023
Genre: YA fantasy
āØthis seems like a lovely light fantasy with found family and food-love. and am super keen to get to emma mills’ books!
A bakerās apprentice reluctantly embarks on an adventure full of magic, new friendships, and a prince in distress in this deliciously romantic young adult fantasy thatās perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Gail Carson Levine.
Itās not all sugar and spice at Basilās Bakery, where seventeen-year-old Aurelie is an overworked, underappreciated apprentice. Still, the job offers stability, which no-nonsense Aurelie values highly, so she keeps her head down and doesnāt dare to dream bigāuntil a stranger walks in and hands her a set of Seeking stones. In a country where Seeking was old-fashioned even before magic went out of style, itās a rare skill, but Aurelie has it.
The stranger, who turns out to be a remarkably bothersome bounty hunter named Iliana, asks for Aurelieās help rescuing someone from the dangerous Underwoodāwhich sounds suspiciously like an adventure. When the someone turns out to be Prince Hapless, the charming-but-aptly-named prince, Aurelieās careful life is upended. Suddenly, she finds herself on a quest filled with magic portals, a troll older than many trees (and a few rocks), and dangerous palace intrigue.
Even more dangerous are the feelings sheās starting to have for Hapless. The more time Aurelie spends with him, the less she can stand the thought of going back to her solitary but dependable life at the bakery. Must she choose between losing her apprenticeshipāor her heart?
ā”ļøTitle: The First Bright Thing
Author: J. R. Dawson
Release date: June 13th, 2023
Genre: Adult historical fantasy
āØit’s sapphic. it’s historical. it has found family. and it’s set in a circus. say no more.
Ringmaster ā Rin, to those who know her best ā can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.
With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe ā the Circus of the Fantasticals ā travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top. )
But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she canāt fully escape.
It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.
Title: Where Echoes Die
Author: Courtney Gould
Release date: June 20th, 2023
Genre: YA horror
āØsounds very complex, lesbian and “small town horror”. am in. also cannot deny, that cover is Something.
Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She finds herself unable to stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, clamoring for a time when things were normal. So when a mysterious letter in her motherās handwriting arrives in the mail with the words Come and find me, pointing to a town called Backravel, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers.
But when Beck and her sister Riley arrive in Backravel, Arizona itās clear that thereās something off about the town. There are no cars, no cemeteries, no churches. The town is a mix of dilapidated military structures and new, shiny buildings, all overseen by the townās gleaming treatment center high on a plateau. No one seems to remember when they got there, and the only people who seem to know more than theyāre letting on is the townās enigmatic leader and his daughter, Avery.
As the sisters search for answers about their mother, Beck and Avery become more drawn together, and their unexpected connection brings up emotions Beck has buried since her motherās death. Beck is desperate to hold onto the way things used to be, and when she starts losing herself in Backravel and its connection to her mother, will there be a way for Beck to pull herself out?
aaaand, that’s a wrap! this is by no means a comprehensive list, just a couple of books i’m excited for ā¤ (would sell my soul for arcs of some of these š)
WHICH OF THESE BOOKS ARE YOU HYPED FOR? DO WE SHARE ANY IN COMMON?
if you are awaiting any other releases, do let me know!! i never turn down the chance to overload my tbr š
i’m so hyped for these but i just kNOW the moment they will release, my interest will dwindle š such is the life of a bookworm.
thanks for reading!
Goodreads | My blog | Storygraph | Pinterest | Instagram
-ash
Ink Words and Ash 
One thought on “2023 book releases (part two) || too many books, too little time!”