Must-Have Monday #119

Posted 9th January 2023 by Sia in Must-Have Mondays / 0 Comments

SIX new books this week!

(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)

Lost in the Moment and Found (Wayward Children, #8) by Seanan McGuire
Genres: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Published on: 10th January 2023
Goodreads

A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in this standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire, Lost in the Moment and Found.
Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go.
If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….

Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.

And stepping through those doors exacts a price.

Lost in the Moment and Found tells us that childhood and innocence, once lost, can never be found.

NEW WAYWARD CHILDREN NEW WAYWARD CHILDREN NEW WAYWARD CHILDREN!!! As far as I’m concerned, the new year doesn’t start until the annual Wayward Children installment is in my hands, and I’m especially excited for Lost In The Moment and Found – I love the sound of the shop where all the lost things end up, and I’m fascinated by the idea that the MC here gets to travel through multiple Doors, which none of the others in the series have been able to do!

Although, yet again, I want to remind people that McGuire has warned us this one will be pretty dark, and we should pay attention to the content warnings at the start of the book!

The Daughters of Izdihar (The Alamaxa Duology #1) by Hadeer Elsbai
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Egyptian-coded setting+cast, sapphic MC
Published on: 10th January 2023
Goodreads

From debut author Hadeer Elsbai comes the first book in an incredibly powerful new duology, set wholly in a new world, but inspired by modern Egyptian history, about two young women—Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat used to getting what she wants and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker used to having nothing—who find they have far more in common, particularly in their struggle for the rights of women and their ability to fight for it with forbidden elemental magic.

As a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she’s limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go—crushed under her father’s gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into a wealthy merchant family. Her new spouse, Nico, is indifferent and distant and in love with another woman, a bookseller named Giorgina.

Giorgina has her own secret, however: she is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. She has no money and no prospects. Her only solace comes from her activities with the Daughters of Izdihar, a radical women’s rights group at the forefront of a movement with a simple goal: to attain recognition for women to have a say in their own lives. They live very different lives and come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think. The cause—and Nico—brings them into each other’s orbit, drawn in by the group’s enigmatic leader, Malak Mamdouh, and the urge to do what is right.

But their problems may seem small in the broader context of their world, as tensions are rising with a neighboring nation that desires an end to weaving and weavers. As Nehal and Giorgina fight for their rights, the threat of war looms in the background, and the two women find themselves struggling to earn—and keep—a lasting freedom.

I ended up DNFing my ARC of this, but it was a writing style issue, and we know by now that I’m incredibly picky about prose styles, yes? So if this sounds like your kind of thing, I still encourage you to give it a go!

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries: Book One of the Emily Wilde Series by Heather Fawcett
Genres: Fantasy
Representation: Minor F/F
Published on: 10th January 2023
Goodreads


A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.

I expected to enjoy this; I didn’t expect to love it, but I did! I’m a big fan of characters with no social skills (I absolutely read Emily as autistic, for the record) and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the worldbuilding – and how deftly Fawcett got that worldbuilding across without drowning us in it. Strongly recommended!

My review!

City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer
Genres: Fantasy, Horror
Representation: Queer and PoC characters
Published on: 10th January 2023
Goodreads

Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare.

Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified—terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps and the only other home Ness has known, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear.

Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that is only monstrous in appearance but is otherwise able to live a semi-normal existence, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the citizens of Newham, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a seedy organization that may or may not be a cult.

But being a member of the Friends of the Restful Soul has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what’s supposed to be a simple job for the organization—only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, Ness and the only other survivor—a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her—must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack.

Schaeffer wrote the incredible (and incredibly original) Market of Monsters trilogy, so I was definitely keeping an eye out for what she decided to write next. City of Nightmares has gotten mixed reviews from my usual sources, but more positive than not, so I’ll still be giving this a try!

Unraveller by Frances Hardinge
Genres: Fantasy
Published on: 10th January 2023
Goodreads

Kellen and Nettle live in a world where anyone can create a life-destroying curse, but only one person has the power to unravel them. But not everyone is happy he can do so and, suddenly, he’s in a race to save both himself and all those who have been touched by magic…

A spell-binding new tale from the master of speculative fiction.

This was released in the UK already last year, but this week it makes it to the US! As it should, because Frances Hardinge is an author you NEVER want to miss!

Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F, nonbinary rep
Published on: 12th January 2023
Goodreads

Some of what they say about witches is true.

She dug her mother's grave in the poison garden so it would stay hidden...

Lux has lost everything when Else finds her, alone in the woods. Her family, her lover, her home - all burned. The world is suspicious of women like her, neither maiden nor mother. But Lux is cunning; she knows how to exploit people's expectations, how to blend into the background. And she knows a lot about poisons.

Else has not found Lux by accident. She needs her help to seek revenge against the man who wronged her, and together they pursue him north. But on their hunt they will uncover dark secrets that entangle them with dangerous adversaries.From the snowy winter woods to the bright midnight sun; from the horrors of plague to the relief of healing; from lost and powerless to finding your path, Now She is Witch questions the oppositions that shadow our lives. In rich and immersive prose Kirsty Logan conjures a world of violence and beauty in which women grasp at power through witchcraft and poisons, through sexuality and childbearing, through performance and pretence, and most of all through throwing other women to the wolves. This is a witch story unlike any other.

Now She Is Witch was only vaguely on my radar until I spotted this article where Logan talks about her book. Suffice to say that yes, I am now much more interested and absolutely need to read this!

(Also, kudos to the cover artist/designer, because that cover is beautiful. I love all the details tucked away in it!)

Will you be reading any of these? Let me know!

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