Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch!
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer Chinese MC, M/M
Published on: 4th July 2024
Goodreads
The hilarious first novel in a cosy and inclusive historical romantasy series by the writer of Horrible Histories
The Year is 1599. Fang, a grumpy, heartbroken traveller from the Ming Empire, awakes from death to discover he's not quite human any more. Nor is he a zombie, vampire, werewolf or any of the other supernatural beings who roam the segregated cities of Upper London and its dragon-ruled underground counterpart, Deep London.
He stumbles upon Lazare de Quitte-Beuffe, a people-pleasing popinjay of an actor afflicted with the same mysterious curse, which means neither of them can die. Thrown together by immortality, the two strangers set out to reverse the spell, traversing the dangers of Deep London and encountering vampires, ghouls, ogres, poets, púca, magical talking swans and the zombie of Christopher Marlowe, all while trying to ignore the intense connection between then.
As they are drawn further into the shadowy world of Deep London, they unearth a dangerous plot which they appear to be right in the middle of. Needing to reverse the spell and get on with being dead, the worst they could do, right now, would be to fall in love...
Hi, I’m absolutely in love with this cover??? THIS COVER, MY GODS!!! The designer is Michelle Brackenborough, and I think we can all agree she did a PHENOMENAL job, yes???
For real, this is honestly my favourite cover in ages. I love how the black on pink engraving style makes it look so simple at first glance, but then you have a city nestled into an anatomical heart, with DRAGONS flying about and one perched on what I think is supposed to be the superior vena cava! And then over on what is possibly the pulmonary artery – our main characters! Probably!
Also the dagger/hairpin on the left? The swirly stuff that might be hair, or water, dissolving into droplets of what’s probably meant to be blood?
C’est magnifique!
(Crouch has said here is a THEME to the cover colours of this trilogy… And we might start working out what it is with book two. I am Intrigued!)
Cover aside, this sounds like great fun, and the excerpt over on SciFiNow bears that out. Adorable dragons! Trying-to-be-supportive vampires! Waking up after dying – with wings??? I need to know more about the wings, okay?
Definitely checking this out come July!
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