Books I’m Super Excited For in 2018 Part Two: April- June

Hey everyone,

So today I’m continuing with my summary of all the awesome books I’m looking forward to squealing about this year. Since it is such a huge list, I’ve decided to post it up in three month blocks to make it easier to digest/so my fingers don’t fall off from typing it all up at once. If you’re curious I’ve already done a list of the ones being released between Jan and March, which you can check out here.

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April:

 The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth.

Released: April 10th

I know, I know, the first book, Carve the Mark had some serious and problematic issues [if you want the full story you can read about it here] but I’m still curious to see how this duology wraps up. I didn’t fall in love with the first book, but I still think Roth is a good writer, and the world she created was full of possibility, so I’d like to see how this one turns out. For brevity, I’ll leave you with the synopsis of this book, courtesy of Waterstones online: The lives of Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth are ruled by their fates, spoken by the oracles at their births. The fates, once determined, are inescapable. Akos is in love with Cyra, in spite of his fate: he will die in service to Cyra’s family. And when Cyra’s father, Lazmet Noavek – a soulless tyrant, thought to be dead – reclaims the Shotet throne, Akos believes his end is closer than ever.As Lazmet ignites a barbaric war, Cyra and Akos are desperate to stop him at any cost. For Cyra, that could mean taking the life of the man who may – or may not – be her father. For Akos, it could mean giving his own. In a stunning twist, the two will discover how fate defines their lives in ways most unexpected.

Waterstones are doing signed copies of this book. You can preorder it here

 Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Released: April 24th

From Goodreads: Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago. Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family. She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.

 

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May:

 Beyond a Darkened Shore by Jessica Leake.

Released: May 17th

I’ve heard some really awesome things about this book, and I’m looking forward to getting the chance to read it. It’s a fantasy set in a Celtic-style world, with a kick-ass female protagonist. Her name is Ciara, Princess of Mide, and she’s able to keep her people safe because she can control her enemies’ minds and actions. But then she starts having visions, warning her of an even darker threat coming, and although her clansmen dismiss them as nonsense, Ciara fears for the country she’s sworn to protect. It’s not a huge amount to go on, but people seem very curious about it, and it sounds like it will be a tense and wonderful read, so I’m determined to snag a copy when it comes out.

 War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

Released: May 15th

From Waterstones: Victory comes at a price.

Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal’s betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart-and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her-Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all… starting with the crown on Maven’s head. But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal’s powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolish everything – and everyone – in his path. War is coming, and all Mare has fought for hangs in the balance. Will victory be enough to topple the Silver kingdoms? Or will the little lightning girl be forever silenced?

In the epic conclusion to Victoria Aveyard’s stunning series, Mare must embrace her fate and summon all her power… For all will be tested, but not all will survive.

P.S. Waterstones are doing signed copies of this book. You can preorder yours here

 A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas

Released: May 1st

Would it even be a list of exciting upcoming releases without a mention of A Court of Frost and Starlight? It’s set to be the biggest YA release of the year, and many subscription boxes have already announced [and sold out] special boxes set around the series. It follows on from the last book, A Court of Wings and Ruin and sticks with the same characters we know and love, and apparently will be bridging the original series with upcoming books in the same universe [my money is on a series focused on the mortal queens]. Months after the battle, Feyre, Rhys and their companions are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it a hard-earned reprieve.

Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated – scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.

 The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

Released: May 22nd

As soon as I realized this was the latest release from the author of Queens of Geek, I added it to my wishlist. I loved Queens of Geek with a passion, it was just so sweet and fluffy and so nice to read, so I’m looking forward to seeing where Wilde goes next.

This is the Goodreads synopsis: A teen rockstar has to navigate family, love, coming out, and life in the spotlight after being labeled the latest celebrity trainwreck in Jen Wilde’s quirky and utterly relatable novel. 

As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck. Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.

Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own? 

 Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Released: May 29th

Caraval was one of my instant-buy novels last year, so I was very pleased when I discovered the follow-up would be released in May. It’s likely going to explore some of the mystery surrounding the character Legend, the man who created the Caraval carnival. What could be more exciting?

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name. The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more – and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets… including her sister’s. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about – maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.

You can pre-order a signed copy of the novel from Waterstones here

 Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Released: May 5th

Oh my God. That’s how I felt when I finished an ARC of this book at the end of March. It’s a perfect book for fans of Sarah J Maas and V.E. Schwab, and follows two distinct narratives, told in third person from the POV of a nobleman’s daughter names Rielle, who is hiding her ability to control every type of magic, and from bounty-hunter Eliana’s perspective, a thousand years later. You can read my spoiler-free review of the book here, in which I awarded the book a full ten out of ten stars, and here’s a synopsis from Goodreads: When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world–and of each other. 

 The Outsider by Stephen King

Released: May 22nd

Will Stephen King, ever stop publishing books? He’s been churning them out at an alarming rate recently. The undisputed King of Horror is back this month with a brilliant new tale to unsettle his readers and make them sleep with the light on.

An eleven-year-old boy is found in a town park, hideously assaulted and murdered. The fingerprints (and later DNA) are unmistakably those of the town’s most popular baseball coach, Terry Maitland, a man of impeccable reputation, with a wife and two daughters. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland coached, orders an immediate and public arrest. Maitland is taken to jail, his claim to innocence scorned. Maitland has a foolproof alibi, with footage to prove that he was in another city when the crime was committed. But that doesn’t save him either.

King constructs a propulsive plot, and a race against time to uncover the identity of a terrifying and diabolical killer who has left victims—and “perpetrators”—across the country, and who is on his way to his next horrific act.

King’s psychological suspense is at its most riveting in this extraordinarily dramatic and eerie story. He is devastatingly vivid on the experience of being falsely blamed—the effect on the accused, the spouse, the children; the suspicion of friends, even the most loyal; the impossibility of ever being innocent again (if you are lucky enough to live). He is also masterful at showing us that supernatural monsters are startlingly like human beings who do monstrous things.

 Ship It by Britta Lundin

Released: May 1st

Claire is a sixteen-year-old fangirl obsessed with the show Demon Heart. Forest is an actor on Demon Heart who dreams of bigger roles. When the two meet at a local Comic-Con panel, it’s a dream come true for Claire. Until the Q&A, that is, when Forest laughs off Claire’s assertion that his character is gay. Claire is devastated. After all, every last word of her super-popular fanfic revolves around the romance between Forest’s character and his male frenemy. She can’t believe her hero turned out to be a closed-minded jerk. Forest is mostly confused that anyone would think his character is gay. Because he’s not. Definitely not.

Unfortunately for Demon Heart, when the video of the disastrous Q&A goes viral, the producers have a PR nightmare on their hands. In order to help bolster their image within the LGBTQ+ community-as well as with their fans-they hire Claire to join the cast for the rest of their publicity tour. What ensues is a series of colourful Comic-Con clashes between the fans and the show that lead Forest to question his assumptions about sexuality and help Claire come out of her shell. But how far will Claire go to make her ship canon? To what lengths will Forest go to stop her and protect his career? And will Claire ever get the guts to make a move on Tess, the very cute, extremely cool fanartist she keeps running into?

 Onyx and Ivory by Mindee Arnett

Released: May 15th [date may differ for UK release]

They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king years ago. Now Kate lives as an outcast, clinging to the fringes of society as a member of the Relay, the imperial courier service. Only those most skilled in riding and bow hunting ride for the Relay; and only the fastest survive, for when dark falls, the nightdrakes—deadly flightless dragons—come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. But it’s this magic that she needs to keep hidden, as being a wilder is forbidden, punishable by death or exile. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by nightdrakes in broad daylight—the only survivor her childhood friend, her first love, the boy she swore to forget, the boy who broke her heart.

The high king’s second son, Corwin Tormane, never asked to lead. Even as he waits for the uror—the once-in-a-generation ritual to decide which of the king’s children will succeed him—he knows it’s always been his brother who will assume the throne. And that’s fine by him. He’d rather spend his days away from the palace, away from the sight of his father, broken with sickness from the attempt on his life. But the peacekeeping tour Corwin is on has given him too much time to reflect upon the night he saved his father’s life—the night he condemned the would-be killer to death and lost the girl he loved. Which is why he takes it on himself to investigate rumors of unrest in one of the remote city-states, only for his caravan to be attacked—and for him to be saved by Kate.

With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin have to put the past behind them. The threat of drakes who attack in the daylight is only the beginning of a darker menace stirring in the kingdom—one whose origins have dire implications for Kate’s father’s attack upon the king and will thrust them into the middle of a brewing civil war in the kingdom of Rime.

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June:

 A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

Released: June 12th

Beyond the Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger. 

The Blood Shrike, Helene Aquilla, is assailed on all sides. Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable, while the Commandant capitalizes on his madness to bolster her own power. As Helene searches for a way to hold back the approaching darkness, her sister’s life and the lives of all those in the Empire hang in the balance.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But while hunting for a way to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would aid her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she’d have to fight. 

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that will stop at nothing to ensure Elias’s devotion—even at the cost of his humanity.

 Smoke in the Sun by Renee Ahdieh

Released: June 5th

The highly anticipated sequel to Flame in the Mist–an addictive, sumptuous finale that will leave readers breathless from the bestselling author of The Wrath and the Dawn 

After Okami is captured in the Jukai forest, Mariko has no choice–to rescue him, she must return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor’s ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. 

With the wedding plans already underway, Mariko pretends to be consumed with her upcoming nuptials, all the while using her royal standing to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court. But each secret she unfurls gives way to the next, ensnaring Mariko and Okami in a political scheme that threatens their honor, their love and the very safety of the empire.

 

 

 

Theatrical by Maggie Harcourt COVER TBR

Released: June 28th

I was so excited to hear that Maggie was releasing a new book. I fell in love with her contemporary romance Unconventional, set at a series of comic-con conventions. In her upcoming release Theatrical, 17-year-old Hope Parker has always dreamed about a career in the theatre – not on the stage, but behind it as part of the crew. So when the opportunity to be part of the stage management team on a production at her local theatre comes up, she jumps at it.

But confronted with a badly-behaved Hollywood star as their lead, a director who can’t get along with anyone, fans camped out at the stage door and an usher she can’t get out of her head, it looks like this time the real drama will be happening backstage.