Yet again, I’ve managed to get away with treating myself to more recent releases, there being so many good deals out at the moment that I haven’t been able to stop myself. Not that it’s a problem, more so that I’m running out of bookshelf space! Here’s what I need to make room for:
The Burning Kingdoms | Sally Green
Goodreads Rating: 4.08
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, LGBT, Fiction, Magic
Summary: In this conclusion to the epic Smoke Thieves trilogy, the world has erupted into all-out war. King Aloysius is mining powerful demon smoke and using it to fuel an unstoppable army of children. March, now banished for treason, has joined up with this boy army. Forbidden from ever seeing Edyon again, and overwhelmed by his own betrayal, March no longer cares if he lives or dies. Catherine–now queen of Pitoria–must find a way to defeat the boy army, while also grappling with her own troubles: her secret demon smoke addiction, and unresolved tension with her former lover, Ambrose. Catherine seeks military support from Calidor by reaching out to her illegitimate cousin Edyon, who has been proclaimed heir to the Calidorian throne. But Edyon has almost no power as he’s entangled in the unfamiliar machinations and manipulations of the royal court, finding that being the claimed son of a prince may be no easier than being a bastard.
With Catherine, his love, now married off and moving on, and his brother and sister tortured and executed before him, Ambrose doesn’t know what his role in this world is any more. He leads an expedition into the demon world, hoping to destroy the boy army’s stores of demon smoke. In this underground world, he runs into Tash, whom everyone had believed dead. She has survived in this new world using magical abilities that, prior to now, only demons had.
Aloysius will send his demon smoke-powered boy army to kill them all, if he can. But what nobody knows is that there is more to the smoke than meets the eye…
The Bridge | Bill Konigsberg
Goodreads Rating: 4.39
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Fiction, Health, Mental Health, Queer
Summary: Aaron and Tillie don’t know each other, but they are both struggling with life.
They arrive at a New York bridge at the same time, intending to jump. At that moment in time, there are four things that could happen: Aaron jumps and Tillie doesn’t. Tillie jumps and Aaron doesn’t. They both jump. Neither of them jumps. Or maybe all four things happen…
Life Of Riley: Beginner’s Luck | Simon James Green
Goodreads Rating: 4.55
Genre: Children’s, Middle Grade, LGBT, Contemporary
Summary: Riley is cursed. No, really! After a fairground incident – TOTALLY not his fault – bad luck follows Riley everywhere, causing disaster after disaster. It’s got so bad that no one wants to go near Riley, including his teachers! But when new student Brad Chicago shows up, Riley quickly realizes that Brad is the human equivalent of a good luck charm. Can Brad’s good luck cancel out Riley’s bad luck? Or is this yet another recipe for disaster?
Girls of Paper and Fire | Natasha Ngan
Goodreads Rating: 3.88
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBT, Romance, Fiction
Summary: Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most cruel.
But this year, there’s a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it’s Lei they’re after–the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king’s consort. But Lei isn’t content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable–she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
The Inheritance Games | Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Goodreads Rating: 4.21
Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Fiction, Romance
Summary: She came from nothing.
Avery has a plan: keep her head down, work hard for a better future.
Then an eccentric billionaire dies, leaving her almost his entire fortune. And no one, least of all Avery, knows why.
They had everything.
Now she must move into the mansion she’s inherited.
It’s filled with secrets and codes, and the old man’s surviving relatives –
a family hell-bent on discovering why Avery got ‘their’ money.
Now there’s only one rule: winner takes all.
Soon she is caught in a deadly game that everyone in this strange family is playing.
But just how far will they go to keep their fortune?
The Girl and the Goddess | Nikita Gill
Goodreads Rating: 4.55
Genre: Poetry, Fantasy, Mythology, Fiction, Adult
Summary: Let her be a little less human, a little more divine
Give her heart armor so it doesn’t break as easily as mine
Meet Paro. A girl with a strong will, a full heart, and much to learn. Born into a family reeling from the ruptures of Partition in India, we follow her as she crosses the precarious lines between childhood, teenage discovery, and realizing her adult self. In the process, Paro must confront fear, desire and the darkest parts of herself in the search for meaning and, ultimately, empowerment.
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