Must-Have Monday #206

Posted 30th September 2024 by Sia in Must-Have Mondays / 0 Comments

Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.

TWENTY-THREE books this week!!!

No, you didn’t read that wrong – TWENTY-THREE! Which is a new record, previously held by #106 way back in 2022 – and THAT was only 17 books!

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

The Carnelian King and Other Stories by Arden Powell
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 30th September 2024
Goodreads

A collection of fifteen short fantasy stories introducing dazzling new worlds.

From a magical second-hand shop hidden between dimensions to rolling emerald hills dotted with ancient ruins, through carnivorous winter woods and across the war-torn steppes of a crumbling empire, this collection spans beloved fantasy genres from classic to cozy, action and adventure to sword and sorcery, and gothic horror to romance. Some of these many star-crossed worlds

A dashing knight nostalgic for the lost myth and glory of the Golden Age, and a reclusive sorcerer who is more than he seems.

Gentlemen dragons, sapphic dragons, dragons as small as hummingbirds and as vast as rivers.

The first installments in a new sword & sorcery series, featuring a mercenary knight who cannot be killed and a horde of witches, lich-kings, and curses.

Trading tales of survival in the god-wrecked scrublands of the old west.

An eldritch house hungering for fresh meat.

A disgraced prophet, his flirtatious rival, and a foal whose birth foretells great changes for their land.

Powell is known for writing very addictive queer historical-fantasies, and I think this is their first short story collection! They’ve had snippets and descriptions of the short stories in their newsletter, which cumulatively have me ITCHING to read this one!

Have You Eaten? by Sarah Gailey
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, Speculative Fiction
Representation: Queer, BIPOC, and QBIPOC MCs
Published on: 30th September 2024
Goodreads

The complete serialized novella from Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey, in which a fractured group of undesirables work together to nurture and nourish each other while navigating a dangerous world that would just as soon see them dead. Still—inch by inch, meal by meal—they build their own future. Have you eaten?

I have yet to meet a Gailey work I didn’t love, and I seriously doubt this will be the first! A post-apocalyptic (or maybe dystopian?) novella about ‘queer dirtbags on the run, searching for their missing best friend’, according to Gailey’s insta. ‘It’s the story of how they nurture and nourish each other with their limited emotional and material resources.’

Yep, pretty sure I’m going to love this one!

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Brown MCs, background queer, trans, sapphic characters
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

In this new standalone, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.

A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.
Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.

It’s Nghi Vo! NEED I SAY MORE?! No, of course not, because you are readers of great taste and thus know that Vo Is Best! Or, if you haven’t read any of her books yet… Now’s the perfect time to start! Who doesn’t wait to read about, as another reviewer put it, a demon playing Sims with a real city???

Model Home by Rivers Solomon
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Plus-sized/fat nonbinary Black MC, Black MCs
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Welcome to Rivers Solomon's dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel.

The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.

As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural?

Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.

It’s officially spooky season, and that means ALL THE HORROR RELEASES! First up on my tbr is a haunted house story tackling the racism of American suburbia. Solomon is, of course, an auto-buy author, and everything I’ve heard about Model House just has me more and more excited for it!

You can read an excerpt here!

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.

Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station.
Determined to find a way out again, he starts to explore the rooms and corridors ahead of him. But no matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedral-esque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight.

The more he explores his strange new prison, the more he becomes convinced that he hasn’t been trapped there accidentally, and amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realise that he almost certainly is not alone.

A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.

When I lived in London, I refused to use the subway there by myself, because I always ended up disoriented and lost – so subway horror? I do NOT need much convincing to buy into that concept! We’ll see if I can read this one without too many nightmares…

You can read an excerpt here!

The Last Gifts of the Universe: A Novel by Riley August
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary MC
PoV: 1st October 2024
Goodreads


A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.

When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left – and whatever came for the others will one day come for them.

Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals – anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.

Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.

Last Gifts of the Universe is a book that’s been out in the UK a while, and releases in the US this week! I believe it’s supposed to have the warm vibes of the Wayfarer series, which sounds wonderful!

Kavithri by Aman J. Bedi
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: South Asian-coded cast and setting
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

A vibrant, action-packed and empowering South Asian fantasy epic. An underdog story like no other - Kavithri will remind you of fantasy heroes like Arya Stark, Fang Runin or Gideon the Ninth.

Meet Kavithri. Outcast. Underdog. Survivor.

Kavi is a Taemu. Her people, once feared berserkers and the spearhead of a continent-spanning invasion, are the dregs of Raayan society. Their spirits crushed. Their swords broken. Their history erased.

But Kavi has a dream and a plan. She will do whatever it takes to earn a place at the secretive mage academy, face the Jinn within its walls, and gain the power to rise above her station and drag her people out of the darkness.

Except power and knowledge come at a cost, and the world no longer needs a Taemu who can fight. So they will break her. Beat her down to her knees. And make her bleed.
But if blood is what they want, Kavi will give them blood. She will give them violence. She will show them a berserker's fury.

And she will make them remember her name.

At last the US release! This was out in the UK a while ago – maybe the start of the year? – and this week it finally comes to the US! I don’t know if it’s outright grimdark, but it’s certainly grim, and plenty violent, so brace yourself if you plan to read it!

You can read an excerpt here!

He Who Bleeds by Dorian Valentine
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

London. 1874.

Religious devotion was a learned skill, and even the most pious of men have felt the tug of The Devil’s influence. Lord Aurélien Saint-Orlant found he was no exception, always toeing the line between being a true god-fearing man and a barbaric sinner who reveled in hedonism.

This monotonous life of his changes when his world crashes down around him and wolves in sheep's clothing are revealed, leading Aurélien to discover his true origins. As one of many devilspawns, he is locked in a contract with a greedy human who uses him to commit unorthodox killings among the upper echelon. When his contract is partially broken, Aurélien finds himself whole again, and his desire to create his macabre art only grows.

The spawn seeks retribution and craves the freedom to create his art in utter peace. With the help of his incubus lover, Lord Aurélien Saint-Orlant will paint the streets red with that human’s gore.

Devilspawns??? All right, I’m listening! I think this one will hinge on its execution, for me, but I’m hopeful!

Coal Gets In Your Veins by Cat Rector
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Sometimes the horrors live close to home.

In a small corner of Atlantic Canada, Laurel is doing her best to live a decent life in what's left of a former coal mining village. Deep down, she wants more, but it's hard to reach for anything with her husband's boot on her neck. Change is hard, but after two decades of surviving, she's running out of reasons to stay.

Just up the hill, right under Laurel’s nose, lives a vampire who is mourning the great loves of his life. Penny Harbour is the perfect little purgatory for Spencer. It’s remote, quiet, and everyone's blood tastes wrong. What better way to punish himself than with a town full of people he can’t eat? Change is hard, but after years of isolation, he’s almost ready to start living again.

But sometimes trauma stays in the blood. Sometimes it flows in the water and contaminates the earth. Passing from one heart to the next, slowly blackening everything it touches.

In Penny Harbour, pain refuses to let go.

This book is part of a queer paranormal horror series with romantic themes and handles heavy, complicated topics such as generational trauma, spousal abuse, grief, and cheating. A full list of trigger warnings can be found on Cat’s website.

‘Everyone’s blood tastes wrong’? I immediately need to know why! Is it just grief, or is there something VERY weird in the water of this town???

Pray For Him by Tyler Battaglia
Genres: Adult
Representation: MLM MC
Goodreads

A psychic priest is thrown headfirst into a battle of faith and love against the forces of Hell when his dearest friend becomes possessed.

Father Isaias Flores may not have much, but he has his faith—and his dear friend Hector to keep him anchored when he is mired in self-doubt. But when Hector’s daughter, Violet, comes to Isaias with concerns that her father is acting strangely, Isaias’s doubts only increase, now with no one to keep him steadfast. For Hector seems to be possessed by something darker than even the traumas of the past, and Violet has nowhere else to turn to save her only family.

This is a problem that may require divine intervention—the rites of exorcism.

Unsure of his place in the church, doubting his gifts from God, and struggling to make sense of his feelings for the man he had thought was only a friend, Isaias isn’t sure if he is strong enough to save anyone’s soul from damnation.

For what can one man do against the torments of Hell?

I’ve followed this author’s social media for a while, and I am VERY hopeful for this queer exorcism story!

Good Dogs by Brian Asman
Genres: Adult, Horror
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

The debut novel from viral horror sensation Brian Asman, Good Dogs is a heartfelt and harrowing story of survival, belonging, found family, and the lengths we’ll go to protect it.

No one ever said being a werewolf was easy. Take Delia, for instance. She’s spent much of her life fighting against her own nature, plagued by nightmares of childhood trauma, and trying to find her place in the world. Many werewolves are just like her: ostracized by their families, forced to live alone and in secret as they await those nights when the Change overtakes them.

Becoming the den mother to an odd bunch of lycanthropes in Southern California isn’t exactly the answer Delia was looking for. But under the strict rules of the house, they are able to manage the Change safely, and hunt without endangering their San Diego suburb. And they aren’t lone wolves anymore, they’re a pack—a family.

But when one member’s carelessness leads to the discovery of a severed leg in their backyard, Delia and the rest of her family are forced to confront the cold, hard fact they’ve known all along—they don’t belong here. Their only option is to cover up the kill and head into the wilderness, far from people. There, hopefully, they can live out their lives without posing a threat to anyone else.

At home, they might’ve been apex predators. But in the wilds around Talbot—a town abandoned for a century—Delia and her pack aren’t the only ones with a savage bite …

I do not know who Asman is, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Good Dogs since I first heard about it – maybe it’s the suggestion that werewolves are known about in this setting, or how being a werewolf sounds even more like a metaphor for queer found family than usual? With bonus severed limbs??? So looking forward to pouncing on this!

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
Genres: Adult, Horror
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.

Another one I’ve been fascinated with since I heard about it; something about the bog wife concept has really sunk its hooks into me!

You can read an excerpt here!

Transference (The Narrator Cycle, #1) by Ian Patterson
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Nicholas Fiveboroughs is a Sicko, someone that takes on others' illnesses. In a city where diseases can be transferred, the rich buy longer lives without pain, and the poor get a short life of constant sickness. Maybe it was fate, or maybe someone is looking out for him, but after Nicholas barely survives his latest affliction, he gets the chance to try and change things. To finally stop the whole disease transfer network.

Tensions escalate as Nicholas infiltrates a higher society he doesn’t understand, and starts to fall for the very person he needs to manipulate to be successful. And between run-ins with a talking animal and genetically modified humans, the world around him just keeps getting stranger. Can Nicholas tear down the disease transfer architecture? And can he do it without losing his own humanity along the way?

I only discovered Transference TODAY (talk about last-minute!) but I knew I had to include it. There’s something extra-awful about the idea of bearing someone else’s ILLNESS – especially if it can still hurt and kill you even if it didn’t originate with you, which it sounds like it very much can. Urgh. Would really like to see what Patterson does with this premise!

The Undead Complex (The Undetectables, #2) by Courtney Smyth
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC with fibromyalgia, brown sapphic MC, bisexual MC, major gay character
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

A witty, witchy fantasy murder mystery packed with ancient magic and fiendish puzzles. Mallory, Diana, Cornelia and Theodore are hired to solve a murder on a TV shoot by the victim herself. Perfect for fans of supernatural mysteries and cosy crime by authors such as Ben Aaronovitch, Josiah Bancroft and Tammie Painter.

Five months after the events of The Undetectables, business is booming – but finding cases that call for magical forensic investigators is not. So when Diana’s ex, Taylor, asks them to solve a murder – her own – Diana, Mallory and Cornelia can’t say no.

Called to investigate the set of Undead Complex, Diana re-enters the world of TV-show prop making – even in death, the show must go on. Even the appearance of a genuine-article Francine Leon dollhouse can't make up for the fact she's being pulled down a path of crime-solving she maybe doesn't want to walk forever.

Meanwhile, Theodore's coming apart at the seams – literally – in the aftermath of their last case, and Mallory is running out of ways to help him. Especially as he seems to be keeping secrets from her.

As the clues – and the bodies – keep piling up, each one making less and less sense, The Undetectables find themselves in a new race against the clock to find out what, exactly, the killer is up to – before they strike again...

I admit, I DNFed my arc of this one, despite loving the first book in the series, but I do want to try it again eventually, and I think other fans of the series might enjoy it!

Skysong by C.A. Wright
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

A beautiful, lyrical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Nightingale' about what some will do for power…and what others will do for love.

Oriane is the skylark, and the sun only rises if she wills it.

Every morning, she transforms from woman to bird, calling the dawn with her song.

Seclusion has kept her safe her whole life – but it has also left her lonely, and craving freedom. When Oriane finally succumbs to the lure of the wild unknown, she is discovered in the gardens of the royal palace, where she is taken in by the king and treated like a goddess – and a prisoner.

Embroiled in a battle of faith and politics, Oriane yearns to return to her safe, simple life. A growing danger surrounds the palace, and the skylark and her gift are at its centre. But within the whispers, Oriane learns something she never expected: she may not be as alone as she thought. There may be another like her.

The nightingale.

A reimagining of The Nightingale from Hans Christian Andersen??? That’s one I don’t think I’ve ever seen retold before!

You can read an excerpt here!

Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Moroccan-British MC
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

A kitchen witch with a penchant for baking and a (literally) cursed love life meets someone who's worth breaking a hex for in this sweet and spicy debut romance.

As a skilled kitchen witch, Dina Whitlock knows her way around a pastry recipe. In fact, she runs her very own London café serving magic-infused pastries for her loyal customers. But only a select few friends know about her magical abilities or the hex that has plagued her love life. It’s hard to fall in love when your partner is guaranteed to have a string of bad luck the second they start to have feelings for you.

Scott Mason is back from traveling the world and is excited to begin his new job as a curator at the British Museum. After leaving London to heal from a brutal breakup two years ago, Scott only now realizes how much he missed out on. Now that his best friend’s wedding is right around the corner, Scott is determined to be the most amazing best man ever, but he doesn’t expect to be bewitched by the maid of honor, who also happens to be the owner of his new favorite café and, more surprisingly, a witch?!

After a weekend in the countryside full of peculiar hedge mazes, palm readings by candlelight, and a midnight Halloween ritual, there’s no denying the chemistry between them. But there’s just one problem: The hex still holds, and Dina knows that Scott is in danger. In the past, she’s always cut her losses, but this time is different. Scott could be the one. Will Dina be able to undo the hex, before it’s too late?

I’ve been having more and more success with contemporary romance+fantasy stories, so now I’m actively looking for them, and this one sounds – pun totally intended – DELICIOUS!

The Merriest Misters by Timothy Janovsky
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Goodreads

The Santa Clause meets Husband Material in this delightful holiday novel!


Fixing Christmas? Easy. Fixing their marriage? Not so much.

Patrick Hargrave and Quinn Muller have been married for less than a year, but their passionate romance is cracking under the pressures of domestic life and a cumbersome mortgage. That's until Christmas Eve when Patrick wakes Quinn up 'I think I've killed a man.'

Quinn realizes the 'burglar' Patrick knocked out is none other than Mr. Claus himself. Instructed by a harried elf to don the red suit and take the reins of the reindeer-guided sleigh up on the roof, Quinn and Patrick work together to save Christmas.

But as the sun rises on Christmas morning, the sleigh brings them back to the North Pole instead of New Jersey, and they're in for a massive shock. The couple must assume the roles of Santa Claus and the first ever Merriest Mister or Christmas will be cancelled . . . permanently.

With Christmas - and their marriage - on the line, Patrick and Quinn agree to stay together for one year. But can running a toy shop together save their relationship, or will Patrick and Quinn be stuffing coal in each other's stockings come next Christmas?

I read and adored The Nightmare Before Kissmass (review forthcoming) so yep, I’m totally on board for another queer Christmas romance-thing! Sounds like great fun.

Heir by Sabaa Tahir
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Representation: Brown cast
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Prepare for the action-packed, ruthless, and romantic new fantasy from the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award winning author Sabaa Tahir about love, legacy, and vengeance.

An orphan.
An outcast.
A prince.
And a killer who will bring an empire to its knees.

Growing up in the Kegari slums, AIZ has seen her share of suffering. An old tragedy fuels her need for vengeance, but it is love of her people that propels her. Until one hot-headed mistake lands her in an inescapable prison, where the embers of her wrath ignite.

Banished from her tribe for an unforgiveable crime, SIRSHA is a down-on-her-luck tracker who speaks to the earth, air, and water to trace her marks. Destitute, she agrees to hunt down a killer who has murdered children across the Empire. All she has to do is carry out the job and get paid. But then, she falls for a charismatic and inconvenient fugitive who keeps getting in her way.

QUIL is the crown prince of the Empire, nephew of a famed and venerated empress, but he’s loathe to pick up the mantle when his aunt steps down. As the son of the most hated emperor in the history of his people, he, better than anyone, understands that power corrupts. When a vicious new enemy threatens the survival of the Empire, Quil must ask himself if he can rise above his tragic lineage and be the heir his people need.

Beloved storyteller Sabaa Tahir masterfully interweaves the lives of three young people as they grapple with the burdens of power, the treachery of love and the devastating consequences of unchecked greed. Get ready for a dark and breathless journey that will captivate readers and that may cost these young people their lives―and their hearts. Literally.

Heir is set in the same world as, and 20 years after, Ember In the Ashes, with mild spoilers for the previous series if you haven’t read that yet. But by all accounts it works perfectly as a standalone, so even if you haven’t read Ember, you can dive right into this one!

You can read an excerpt here!

The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Genderqueer Jewish lesbian MC
Protagonist Age: 17
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Dybbuks.Illegal printing.A genderqueer lesbian with a knife.

Set against a backdrop of literary censorship and growing Jewish political consciousness, Sydney Taylor and Stonewall award-winning Sacha Lamb's sophomore novel is a soaring exploration of identity, survival, and ultimately, hope.

On the night before her wedding, 17-year-old Sorel leaps from a window and runs away from her life. To keep from being discovered, she takes on the male identity of Isser Jacobs — but it soon becomes clear that there is a real Isser Jacobs, and people want him dead. Her mistaken identity takes Sorel into the dark underworld of her small city in the Pale of Settlement, where smugglers, forgers, and wicked angels fight for control of the Jewish community. In order to make it out, Sorel must discover who Isser Jacobs really is — and who she wants to be.

Lamb’s debut, When the Angels Left the Old Country, utterly charmed me, and I’m expecting Forbidden Book to be just as much fun!

The Brightness Between Us (The Darkness Outside Us, #2) by Eliot Schrefer
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi, YA
Representation: M/M
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

In this sequel to The Darkness Outside Us, a Stonewall Honor Book, New York Times bestselling author Eliot Schrefer delivers another ambitious, genre-bending novel and epic love story that spans thousands of years and the far reaches of the galaxy.

Seventeen years have gone by since the Coordinated Endeavor crashed on a distant exoplanet. Ambrose Cusk and Kodiak Celius are now the devoted parents of two teenage children, Owl and Yarrow, in a hardscrabble frontier home. Though life on Minerva is full of danger, the family’s bond is enough to make it all worth it—until they learn that the biggest threat to their survival might come from within.

More than thirty thousand years in the past, Ambrose wakes on Earth to find that his mission to save his sister was a ruse. His mother betrayed him, and the truth of her plan—to send twenty clones of him to continue human civilization thousands of light-years away—sets Ambrose spiraling. When he discovers that another spacefarer is suffering his same fate, he will have to decide whether to risk crossing a world at war to reach him.

Separated by time and space, a young family and two strangers learn that their lives are intimately intertwined. They race to uncover the unexpected connections that might save them all . . . and perhaps humanity as well.

I haven’t read the first book in this series, which is why I VERY CAREFULLY avoided reading the synopsis of this one! I do want to read both, and now that the sequel has reminded me the series exist…!

The Wild Huntress by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Dive into a lush, standalone fantasy, set in the same world as The Drowned Woods and The Bone Houses, about a deadly competition—perfect for fans of Holly Black and Erin A. Craig.

Every five years, two kingdoms take part in a Wild Hunt. Joining is a bloody risk and even the most qualified hunters can suffer the deadliest fates. Still, hundreds gamble their lives to participate—all vying for the Hunt’s life-changing prize: a magical wish granted by the Otherking.

BRANWEN possesses a gift no other human has: the ability to see and slay monsters. She’s desperate to cure her mother’s sickness, and the Wild Hunt is her only option.
GWYDION is the least impressive of his magically-talented family, but with his ability to control plants and his sleight of hand, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his cruel older brother from becoming a tyrant.

PRYDERI is prince-born and monster-raised. Deep down, the royal crown doesn’t interest him—all he wants is to know is where he belongs.

If they band together against the monstrous creatures within the woods, they have a chance to win. But, then again, nothing is guaranteed when all is fair in love and the Hunt.

Lloyd-Jones wrote the first fantasy where I saw chronic pain rep, and her prose is so smooth! Plus, I think this is supposed to be drawing from Welsh mythology, maybe? Which is right up my alley!

The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

The heroic tale of a tiny dragon with a heart of gold and a taste for treats! A scrumptious picture book for fans of funny fairytales and fantastic beasts.

Ember has always been different from the other dragons. His fearsome roar sounds more like a polite sneeze, and when he breathes fire, the villagers just pat his head and say awwww.

Ember fears he’ll never collect a respectable hoard of gold until a chance encounter with a baker causes his fortunes to turn (and his stomach to grumble). As the little dragon soon discovers, the gold you make is way better than the gold you steal—and gold that is shared? That’s best of all.

Magic shimmers on every page of Devin Elle Kurtz's feel-good picture book that celebrates baked goods, dragons, and generosity in equal measure. Filled with adorable illustrations, this is a perfect read aloud for bedtime or brunchtime!

This might be the first time I’ve ever featured a picture book in one of these posts, but how could I not?! Kurtz’ little dragon went viral when she first posted it, and I was one of the MANY people who was absolutely obsessed – and unspeakably delighted when Kurtz announced the little guy would get his own book! I’ve been following this from the beginning, is what I’m saying, and I am INVESTED!

(Also this is not Kurtz’ only dragon, her fantasy art is amazing, you should definitely check it out!)

Queer Mythology: Epic Legends from Around the World by Guido A. Sanchez, James Fenner
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads

Spanning the globe and thousands of years, Queer Mythology highlights the legends and tales of LGBTQIA+ gods, heroes, spirits and more.

Myths and legends tell our stories. They connect us and show us not only who we are, but also reflect the people during the time the stories were first told. And LGBTQIA+ people have been a part of every community since the dawn of storytelling. From Tu’er Shen, the Chinese rabbit god who protected those yearning to come out in an unaccepting world, to Ghede Nibo, the Haitian spirit who performed drag in the realm of the dead, the twenty myths told in this collection capture one irrefutable fact—even as labels, language, and definitions have changed, LGBTQIA+ people have always existed.

Some of these myths are not widely known. Others are myths that you may think you know, but over time their inherent queerness has been erased. Queer Mythology offers fresh retellings, paired with beautiful illustrations, to give new life and celebrate the inspirational and resilient LGBTQIA+ community in some of humanity’s earliest tales.

Listen, the art is gorgeous and I will never NOT be delighted for books about queer mythology; I can’t wait to get this one on my bookshelf!

Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!

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