claudia gray

BOOKENDS: What I Read in August 2024

- Meg

August was an okay reading month! Looking back on what I read, I definitely kept to some authors I know and some rereads, but sometimes that’s what you need! I have never finished the full Old Man’s War saga, so I wanted to reread the first book as a refresher before I continue with the rest. I’m terrible at finishing series. Hester Fox is a favorite gothic fiction writer of mine, and while The Last Heir to Blackwood Library wasn’t my favorite, it definitely had spooky Downton Abbey vibes. Midnight Pearls was a reread and a revisit of a teenage favorite, and I thought it held up well enough! Wildlife, The Tiger Came to the Mountains, and Awakening Anne were all ebook reads (and shorter reads) that I enjoyed. I’ve been reading a lot of those shorter novella series Kindle Unlimited has, especially when I feel like I’m in a reading slump. Awakening Anne felt like a gaslamp fantasy, but I felt kind of lost in the middle of it. I really liked The Murder of Mr. Wickham, and I thought Gray captured the essence of regency fiction. I’m looking forward to the next in the series! My biggest disappointment was The Paragon Hotel, because I have enjoyed Faye’s writing in the past but this fell very flat and weird for me.

WHAT I READ

💖 purchased/owned | 🌠 library/borrowed | 🔮 review copy | 💞 reread | 👻 dnf

💖 The Last Heir to Blackwood Library, by Hester Fox
💖💞 Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
💖💞 Midnight Pearls, by Debbie Viguié
🌠 Wildlife, by Jeff VanderMeer
🌠 The Tiger Came to the Mountains, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
💖 Awakening Anne, by Kalynn Applewhite
💖 The Murder of Mr. Wickham, by Claudia Gray
💖 The Paragon Hotel, by Lyndsay Faye

Waiting on Wednesday :: SF/F Edition

- Meg

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that highlights upcoming releases that we’re impatiently waiting for! This week, I’m going to focus on a few upcoming YA/MG science fiction and fantasy reads coming out this fall that I can’t wait to read!

Claudia Gray’s Leia, Princess of Alderaan is super high on my list for this fall’s reads because Star Wars and Princess Leia. It was just recently announced and there isn’t much out there regarding a synopsis, but I am loving this cover and I’m hoping it’s about Leia’s life on Alderaan before she’s on the Death Star at the beginning of A New Hope.

Libba Bray’s The Diviners series is one of my favorite YA series of all time. It’s a dense, well-built series that’s worth the effort to get involved in it, and the audio books are spectacular. I’ve been waiting for Before the Devil Breaks You for what seems like ages, and I’m so excited that we’ve got a title and a cover for a fall release. It combines all of my favorite things: the 1920s, supernatural horror, a slow slow slow burn romance, and, in this third one, ghosts.

Last year I read everything Leigh Bardugo wrote (except for the ebook only short stories which I’m sure I’ll get to this year), and this year she’s got two coming out that I’m super excited to read. I don’t know much about Wonder Woman, but I’m excited to read her WW novel. AND. The Language of Thorns is a collection of fairy tales from the Grisha universe!!

What are you looking forward to?