I’ve decided that, at least for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be participating in WWW Wednesdays, which is a meme hosted over at Taking On a World of Words. To take part, you just answer the three questions below, and link back to TOaWoW!
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Secondary World Fantasy
Representation: F/F or wlw, queernorm world
Goodreads
In this charming debut fantasy perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Girls of Paper and Fire, a witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.
Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. But after committing the worst magical sin, she’s exiled by the ruling Coven and cursed with the inability to love. The only way she can get those feelings back—even for just a little while—is to steal love from others.
Wren is a source—a rare kind of person who is made of magic, despite being unable to use it herself. Sources are required to train with the Coven as soon as they discover their abilities, but Wren—the only caretaker to her ailing father—has spent her life hiding her secret.
When a magical plague ravages the queendom, Wren’s father falls victim. To save him, Wren proposes a bargain: if Tamsin will help her catch the dark witch responsible for creating the plague, then Wren will give Tamsin her love for her father.
Of course, love bargains are a tricky thing, and these two have a long, perilous journey ahead of them—that is, if they don't kill each other first..
This is every bit as beautiful as all the early reviews said it would be! I’m head-over-heels in love with this book and I’m only two chapters in!
WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
Genres: Secondary World Fantasy
Representation: Secondary bisexual character
Goodreads
Cate Glass's A Summoning of Demons marks the thrilling conclusion for the Chimera team, a ragtag crew who use their forbidden magic for the good of the kingdom.
Catagna has been shaken to its core.
The philosophists insist that a disastrous earthquake has been caused by an ancient monster imprisoned below the earth, who can only be freed with magic. In every street and market, the people of Catagna are railing against magic-users with a greater ferocity than ever before, and magic hunters are everywhere.
Meanwhile, Romy has been dreaming.
Every night, her dreams are increasingly vivid and disturbing. Every day, she struggles to understand the purpose of the Chimera's most recent assignment from the Shadow Lord.
As Romy and the others attempt to carry out their mission, they find themselves plunged into a mystery of corruption and murder, myth and magic, and a terrifying truth: the philosophists may have been right all along.
I was so, so disappointed with this one – especially since I loved the first two books so much! But so much was squished into one book, it all felt cramped and rushed, with some pretty big things left unresolved or unexplained, and other things resolved too easily. Also, I despise it when storytellers just introduce huge big things in the last book instead of building up to it throughout a series. We got one or two clues in the first two books, but nothing that that added up to [HUGE SPOILER]. So I am not happy. Seriously unimpressed, in fact.
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?
Genres: Historical Fantasy
Representation: Ethnically Jewish MC, Arabic MC
Goodreads
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic, created to be the wife of a man who dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899.
Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free.
Ahmad and Chava become unlikely friends and soul mates with a mystical connection. Marvelous and compulsively readable, Helene Wecker's debut novel The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.
We’re getting the sequel to this in a few months, so I think it’s time for a reread! I utterly adored it the first time around, and I’m looking forward to revisiting it.
Here endeth the weekly check-in! What have you been reading?
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