As someone too fond of both alliteration and scouring publisher’s catalogs, Monday is the day I list some of the upcoming books I’m most looking forward to!

Here are a few I’ve been eyeing especially longingly this last little while.

Reverie by Ryan La Sala
Genres: Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer Protagonists
Published on: 7th January 2020
Goodreads

Inception meets The Magicians, except with better wigs and a maniacal drag queen sorceress attempting to unravel the reality of Connecticut (yes, the state) and replace it with something…well something better than Connecticut.
Ryan La Sala’s debut fantasy is an #OwnVoices story following Kane Montgomery, a gay teenager piecing his life back together after an attack robs him of his memories. As Kane searches for who he was, he uncovers a war for the creative rights to reality itself, each battle played out in an imagined world turned real: a reverie.
Reveries are worlds born from a person’s private fantasies, and once they manifest they can only be unraveled by bringing their conflicts to resolution. Reveries have rules and plots, magic and monsters, and one wrong step could twist the entire thing into a lethal, labyrinthine nightmare. Unraveling them is dangerous work, but it’s what Kane and The Others do.
Or did, until one of The Others purged Kane of his memories. But now Kane is back, and solving the mystery of his betrayal is the only way to unite his team and defeat reality’s latest threat: Poesy, a sorceress bent on harvesting the reveries for their pure, imaginative power.
But what use might a drag queen sorceress have with a menagerie of stolen reveries? And should Kane, a boy with no love for a team that betrayed him, fight to stop her, or defect to aid her?
Reverie is about the seduction of escaping inwards, about the worlds we hide within ourselves, and the danger of dreams that come true.

I have fibromyalgia, which is especially bad in my hands – which makes it impossible for me to hold physical books for any real length of time. So ebooks are my lifeline to the stories I need like air.

This is relevant because I’ve checked for an ebook pre-order link for Reverie every day for months now. Alas! It has yet to appear. But if you’re good with hardcovers, I strongly urge you to go order one for yourself. I mean, have you read that synopsis?! SIA NEEDS!

A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope Genres: Fantasy
Representation: PoC, Queer Protagonists
Goodreads

A collectively written multi-story narrative by bestselling and award-winning authors that chronicles the Black experience--past, present, and future--through science and magic!

In 2018, sixteen unique, distinctive voices on the cutting edge of young adult fiction embarked on a challenge: together, to depict the past, present, parallel, and future of the Black female and gender nonconforming (GNC) experience. Their goal was to weave worlds where Black women are centered, and the result is a stunning collaboration filled with stories of love and betrayal, folktales and magic, from retellings of legends to explorations of yet-to-be invented technologies. In fantasy and science fiction, these sixteen acclaimed authors introduce us to unforgettable characters like Solange, who sheds her skin nightly to transform into a ball of fire and fly above her Caribbean island, or Abigail Crow, a girl armed only with her smarts and her .38 who must defend her New Mexico homestead from marauders, or Mae Mitchell, a Brooklyn-born, space-bound alien interrogator. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn are on fire, and they shine brightly. You won't soon forget their stories.

Let’s be honest, there is not one of you who wouldn’t buy Phoenix just for that cover.

The fact that it’s literally #BlackGirlMagic, queer, and (from the sound of it) hopepunk is just the icing on the cake, really.

Ashlords by Scott Reintgen
Genres: Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Published on: 21st January 2020
Goodreads

Red Rising meets The Scorpio Races in this epic fantasy following three phoenix horse riders--skilled at alchemy--who must compete at The Races--the modern spectacle that has replaced warfare within their empire.
Every year since the Ashlords were gifted phoenix horses by their gods, they've raced them. First into battle, then on great hunts, and finally for the pure sport of seeing who rode the fastest. Centuries of blood and fire carved their competition into a more modern spectacle: The Races.
Over the course of a multi-day event, elite riders from clashing cultures vie to be crowned champion. But the modern version of the sport requires more than good riding. Competitors must be skilled at creating and controlling phoenix horses made of ash and alchemy, which are summoned back to life each sunrise with uniquely crafted powers to cover impossible distances and challenges before bursting into flames at sunset. But good alchemy only matters if a rider knows how to defend their phoenix horse at night. Murder is outlawed, but breaking bones and poisoning ashes? That's all legal and encouraged.
In this year's Races, eleven riders will compete, but three of them have more to lose than the rest--a champion's daughter, a scholarship entrant, and a revolutionary's son. Who will attain their own dream of glory? Or will they all flame out in defeat?

Phoenix horses. You had me at PHOENIX HORSES!

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore
Published on: 14th January 2020
Goodreads

Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.
With McLemore's signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.

I literally don’t even care, if it has Anna-Marie McLemore’s name on it, I’m buying it. Every one of her books has been better than the last, and I am very sure that Dark and Deepest Red won’t be the one to break that streak.

Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children, #5) by Seanan McGuire
Published on: 7th January 2020
Goodreads

The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire's award-winning, bestselling Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones
When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister—whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice—back to their home on the Moors.
But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.
Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.
Again.

I’ve been feeling a little lost lately, and what is the Wayward Children series about if not finding your true and perfect home? I admit I’m not overly interested in Jack and Jill’s story, or especially interested in meeting them again, but every book in this series has found a place in my heart, and I’m not giving up on them now.

What releases are you guys looking forward to?

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