Hello my wonderful readers, how are you? Well you might have been wondering… or you might not have been but I feel the need to kind of explain as I said a good month ago I was back to blogging and well I sort of vanished again. Before that I wanted to say hello and thank you to the 800+ followers that my blog has! Another milestones and I’m so pleased that it’s still being viewed and read in my absence. So THANK YOU!
Life Update
Life for me is just one thing, work and sleep these days, with a few trips out and photos for instagram. Going back to work in September, back at school was a lot harder than anyone ever probably anticipated, we are thinking about work and over thinking it with every precaution. Whilst this half term has been like that, there has been a lot of positives too. I love being a school librarian, and every day I was glad to be back and happy to get cracking. My role has doubled but I’m loving it, there’s been so many positives this last 7 weeks.
But there has been some sacrifices I guess, no reading for the last two months. I know I can hear you crying out as I have. I haven’t been able to pick one up out of being completely drained and lack of enthusiasm for it. And blogging even though I said I was back, well that went completely out of mind to be honest.
I love my blog and being part of the community, this is who I am and having a part of the internet to reel and be my bookish self. But I feel that I need to put less pressure on myself. Sometimes I will need to just not be here and focus on myself no matter how much I miss it.
Just always know I will return, like I am right now. The best thing is that I have a week off, woohoo! A well earned break and I intend to do the very things I’ve missed including lots of reading and blogging! Also starting to learn to drive too. All very exciting!
This Week I’m reading…
So it’s sort of a TBR by these are all very seasonal, autumnal types reads apart from Majesty which I want to break up the genres a bit. It’s been the one to read for ages. I can’t wait to sink into these books, I’m already loving WITCH which is a children’s historical novel that is really something very different. I’m part of a blog tour on Wednesday so I hope you will join me.
Witch by Finbar Hawkins Published by Zephyr on October 1, 2020
Genres: Historical, Fantasy & Magic
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Goodreads
Set in the 17th century, a breathtaking debut, and a potential prize-winner, about the power of women, witchcraft, fury, revenge and the ties that bind us.
After witnessing the brutal murder of her mother by witch-hunters, Evey vows to avenge her and track down the killers. Fury burns in her bright and strong. But she has promised her mother that she will keep Dill, her little sister, safe.
As the lust for blood and retribution rises to fever pitch, will Evey keep true to the bonds of sisterhood and to the magick that is her destiny?
Cover artwork by Edward Bettison
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow Published by Orbit on October 13, 2020
Genres: Fantasy
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Goodreads
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.
But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix Published by Gollancz on September 22, 2020
Genres: Fantasy
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Goodreads
In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn't get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.
Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.
Susan's search for her father begins with her mother's possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.
Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan's. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.
Majesty (American Royals, #2) by Katharine McGee Published by Penguin on September 3, 2020
Genres: Contemporary
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Goodreads
Beatrice Washington now rules America as its first ever queen, but her family are more concerned about rushing through her arranged marriage to a man she barely knows. No one can know that her heart really belongs to her bodyguard - but even their love is under threat.
Meanwhile, Princess Samantha is under more scrutiny than ever before - and she still longs to be with her sister's fiancee. But with no sign of Bea's wedding being called off, she's surprised to find someone else catching her eye.
Nina Gonzalez is also tangled up with someone she never expected to be. She and Ethan are both nursing broken hearts, and it's not long before they find themselves pulled irresistably together.
Luckily for Daphne Deighton, Prince Jeff's grief for his father makes him a prime target for her attentions. She's the closest she's been in years to getting what she wants . . . so why can't she let the idea of her and Ethan go?
As the royal wedding of the century creeps ever closer, will these four young women get what they want - or will their hearts be broken forever?
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher on October 6, 2020
Genres: Horror
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Goodreads
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel from the author of the “innovative, unexpected, and absolutely chilling” (Mira Grant, Nebula Award–winning author) The Twisted Ones.
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
With her distinctive “delightfully fresh and subversive” (SF Bluestocking) prose and the strange, sinister wonder found in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, The Hollow Places is another compelling and white-knuckled horror novel that you won’t be able to put down.
So I’m around yay! Are you off for half term? What are you planning to read this week? Let me know!
Take your time, Emma. Hope you enjoy your week off during half-term! You have a great TBR, I’m about to start The Once and Future Witches and I can’t wait!