New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 1st Quarter 2019

My usual disclaimer:

Let me state, this is really based on authors or series that I'm already reading since those are the things I follow.  I'm not paid to write this blog nor do I have any affiliations with any publishers so I don't receive free books or advance notice of things except what I glean off Facebook from people who do have those contacts or what I research on my own (which again, leads back to authors that I'm already reading).  Maybe someday I'll be one of those who has the contacts and gets ARCs but it's not today.

A lot of comics filled my reading time between all the kids' school reading and my book club reading but there were a couple of trips during this last quarter that allowed me to do some reading of the books that were just for me.  It was heavenly.  And for the first time in I don't know how long, my Read pile is now greater than my To Read pile.  Not sure how long that will last but since I made it past my birthday without that changing much, it might actually last out the year.

We kick off the year with the newest novel for the Wayward Children, In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire.  Lundy would rather follow rules and read than run around with the other children so when a doorway opens up into the Goblin Market she almost doesn't go through except she is still a child and curious.  What she finds is a place where fair value is strictly enforced by the Market itself and there is logic and rules to follow but so rarely do these things end well in the long run. I'm still a book behind, although with this series it's not sequential so it's unlikely the last one affects this one in anyway as this states that it's a prequel.  

Release date: January 8

The Winter of the Witch is the conclusion to the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden that starts with The Bear and the Nightingale. Vasya and Morozko must team up to try and save Russia, both the humans and the unseen ones, but the way is uncertain and the enemies are many. I only barely read the first book last month and haven't started the second yet but I was so enchanted with the first that I'm definitely going to finish this trilogy.

Release date: January 9

I keep trying to find time to get caught up with the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter and still haven't managed it.  I'm several books behind there and now there is the spinoff series which I haven't even got a chance to start yet but Circle of the Moon, book 4 in the spinoff, is coming out soon and I really want to get to know Nell better and see more of Rick. 

Release date: February 26

Ah, Mercy Thompson.  She opened her big mouth and, in Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs, people are taking her at her word that she and her husband's pack of werewolves will keep them safe even as they treat with the big and bad Grey Lords of the Fae.  She has given her word but can she keep it and what will it cost?  I seriously love this series and can't wait to see how our favorite coyote shifter gets out of this one.

Release date: March 5

Lastly, That Ain't Witchcraft by Seanan McGuire is the next chapter in the Incryptid series.  We are still following Annie as she is still away from her family although building a new support structure with some new friends but she has also made a pact with the Crossroads and they always get paid.

Release date: March 5

88:100 The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Vasya's mother knew that her daughter was destined to be something special and she told her husband so at the same time she told him that she was expecting again, making him promise to take good care of their daughter when that time come sensing that she would not be there to raise her.  She died shortly after Vasya was born.

Vasya was raised primarily by her nurse who had helped raise her mother.  Surrounded by a family who loved and understood her, filled with the tales of the house and nature spirits, Vasya was never a typical girl preferring to run in the woods to sewing quietly in the house and her father feels that she would do better with a motherly influence so goes to court to find a wife. What he does not expect is to be given the daughter of the Czar, an extremely pious girl who wanted nothing more than to become a nun so she could be in a place where she could no longer see the demons that seem to be everywhere.

Now Anna is here to help Vasya's father with the house so he can take care of his lands and people but she still sees the demons. Except where she sees demons, Vasya sees the house and nature spirits that have been protecting them forever from the Winter demons.  Now that Anna is there, along with the new Father, they are turning people from the old ways and their caring of the spirits and weakening the protections of the village with their insistence on worshiping only their one god.  Vasya is trying to keep the spirits strong but she is only one girl and the village is starting to turn against her as her stepmother and the Father are.

But winter spirits are hungry and the village is becoming a ripe target.

This book kept popping in suggestions for me all over the place and I though it looked interesting so I finally broke down and picked it for my book club to read when it was my turn.  I am so happy I did. I couldn't put it down. The characters were so engaging, the tale deftly woven.  It had all the hallmarks of beautifully crafted fairy tale and it never disappointed. I'm now desperately trying to find time to read the rest of the series.

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