This is a sequel to my anticipated 2026 speculative fiction book releases post from January. There are always books released later in the year that I don’t hear about until after I’ve put this annual list together, and this year there were enough of these books that I decided to do a Part 2 with some titles coming out later in 2026 that I’m interested in checking out.

This features 8 books coming out late this year, starting with a couple that just came out. They are ordered by scheduled publication date, and these are US release dates unless otherwise stated.

Cover images link to Bookshop. As a Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Cover of An Empire in the Clouds by Ai Jiang
An Empire in the Clouds by Ai Jiang
Release Date: September 8 (UK), September 15 (US/Canada)

This will be Ai Jiang’s first novel, although she has published shorter fiction including the Nebula and Bram Stoker Award–winning horror novella Linghun and the science fantasy novellas in the Natural Engines duology (starting with A Palace Near the Wind).

Like her duology concluded earlier this year, An Empire in the Clouds is science fantasy. I often find settings that blur the lines between fantasy and science fiction compelling, and I also love the sound of the drowning continent and Chinese-inspired world, as well as the drama of family turmoil, betrayal, and secrets.

 

Riveting and highly inventive Chinese-inspired science-fantasy of a royal family torn apart, painful betrayal and deadly secrets. Set on a drowning continent full of corruption and deception and strange technology this is a richly envisioned and powerful debut novel from the winner of the Bram Stoker® and Nebula Awards.

Long isolated from her family following her parents’ murder, Princess Xīlián of Piāo discovers the corrupt royal advisors are plotting to overthrow and kill her brother, the emperor. Desperately seeking help, she flees from the floating empire of lotuses to the drowning continent of Opera, a place of high tech and near environmental collapse where companies vie to sell a chance at immortality. There Xīlián tracks down her exiled brother Làng to assist in her efforts to disrupt the advisors’ plans and remove them from court.

Also residing on Opera is the outcast, No Face. Abandoned by the empire of Piāo, they plot to destroy those who tore their family apart. When Xīlián is caught and imprisoned and No Face discovers the shocking truth about their past, the two must work together to stop the advisors and unify their two lands or lose everyone they love to flood and revolution.


Cover of The Gates of Midnight by Helene Wecker
The Gates of Midnight (The Golem and the Jinni Trilogy #3) by Helene Wecker
Release Date: September 15

The Golem and the Jinni, the Nebula and World Fantasy Award–nominated first book in this trilogy, is just the sort of genre fusion I enjoy with its blend of historical fiction and fantasy. Beautifully written and immersive, it tells the story of a golem and jinni living in New York City around the year 1900 with a focus on immigrant life during that time, in addition to the mythological story of these two characters.

Of course I’m excited for the final book in the series since I also very much enjoyed the sequel, The Hidden Palace. (You can read more about the obstacles Helene Wecker faced when writing her second novel, as well as how the musical Into the Woods helped her consider the questions she wanted to explore and cement its final shape, in a guest post from Women in SF&F Month 2021.)

Helene Wecker will be doing some events for the publication of The Gates of Midnight.

 

The long-awaited final installment in the award-winning, bestselling Golem and the Jinni trilogy.

At the beginning of The Hidden Palace, the second book in Helene Wecker’s Golem and Jinni trilogy, Ahmad the jinni travels to Syria with the copper flask that holds the captured wizard Yehudah Schaalman. There in the desert he buries the flask for all time… or so he thinks.

In The Gates of Midnight, the riveting conclusion to the saga of the Golem and the Jinni, it’s 1930 and three decades have passed since Schaalman’s defeat. Chava the golem quietly tends to her house and garden in Brooklyn, hoping to create a refuge for other magical beings. Meanwhile, Ahmad has found employment as an architect in Chicago, helping to build its towering skyline above the prairie.

But all is not well in the desert. Schaalman has managed to trick an unsuspecting passerby into digging up the flask, and now it passes from hand to hand as the wizard possesses his victims — first a French soldier traveling to New York, then a small-time mobster — all in an effort to get to Chava, the only one who can release him from his prison.

Meanwhile others are gravitating to New York as well: Ahmad, who has lost his job following the 1929 stock market crash; the mysterious Thomas Beshara, a riveter on the rising Empire State Building, who also has hidden ties to Chava and Ahmad; and Kreindel Altschul, who still grieves her own destroyed golem Yossele. Does the reluctant Kreindel hold the key to saving Chava from Schaalman’s revenge? Will Schaalman succeed in escaping the flask, binding Chava to his will, and re-enslaving Ahmad? Or can they find a way to finally defeat him and free themselves from his power? An earth-shaking finale to the brilliant trilogy.

The Golem and the Jinni trilogy includes:

  • The Golem and the Jinni
  • The Hidden Palace
  • The Gates of Midnight


Cover of A Scholar's Guide to Demonology and Other Dark Arts by Genevieve Cogman
A Scholar’s Guide to Demonology and Other Dark Arts (Grayne’s Academy Trilogy #1) by Genevieve Cogman
Release Date: October 8 (UK)

Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series is a lot of fun with its competent, adaptable protagonist who visits alternate worlds to procure/steal books for the Library, an organization existing outside of time and space. These are books I turn to when I want something not-too-dense and entertaining, and I enjoy the literary/genre references galore, the delightful narrative voice, and the way the main character takes even the most absurd situations in stride. (For more on the first book in the series, see my review of The Invisible Library.)

From its description, A Scholar’s Guide to Demonology and Other Dark Arts sounds like it may be stylistically comparable with a similar sense of humor. Unfortunately for those of us in the US, it seems to only have a UK release at the moment, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will end up here eventually, just like The Invisible Library did.

For those of you who are in the UK, Genevieve Cogman will be doing an event at the Waterstones in Leeds celebrating her newest book on October 15.

 

In the start of an original fantasy series, Genevieve Cogman, the author of the bestselling The Invisible Library, welcomes you to Graynes, a magical school for demon-summoning. This is St Trinian’s meets the legend of Faust.

Philomela once enjoyed the carefree life of a Cambridge Classics PhD – until her father’s gambling debts forced her to trade prestigious academia for a job on the windswept Yorkshire Moors.

Graynes, an isolated all-girls school, offers a quiet – if terribly damp – lifeline. As the new Latin mistress, Phil expects nothing more taxing than dreary weather and making dead languages interesting. Instead, she finds unsettlingly eccentric staff, frankly terrifying schoolgirl pranks . . . and a demonic summoning circle in the cellar.

For Graynes, it turns out, is no ordinary school. But the training ground for the Queen’s elite demonologists.

Guarding the realm from the forces of hell was certainly not on the job description. But as Phil is plunged into a world of dark arts, talking familiars (and many custard creams), she uncovers a sinister plot that threatens not just the school, but the fate of England itself . . .

Cover of An Auction of Souls by Amber Chen
An Auction of Souls (An Auction of Souls Duology #1) by Amber Chen
Release Date: October 20

Amber Chen’s latest young adult novel caught my eye with its striking cover art by Kuri Huang, designed by Lily K. Qian and Ellice M. Lee. It also piqued my curiosity because the spirits and journey involved made me think of two of my favorite somewhat recent young adult books, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh and A Thousand Steps Into Night by Traci Chee. (Coincidentally, these were both among my favorite 2022 book releases!)

 

A start to a new duology from Of Jade and Dragons author Amber Chen, perfect for fans of The Scorpion and the Night Blossom and A Forgery of Fate!

Meng Lingxi and her grandmother run a legendary auction house, Meng Wu—the House of Dreams. But when a mysterious traveler arrives bearing a fragment of a soul, all that Lingxi knows changes in an instant. Her grandmother mysteriously vanishes, and restless spirits descend upon Meng Wu.

Then two unlikely allies—Yan Jun and Yan Shan, guardians of hell itself—come to Lingxi’s aid, revealing a shocking secret about the only home she’s ever known: Meng Wu sits upon the gateway to hell, and her grandmother serves the god of the underworld himself.

Soon, Lingxi joins her two companions on a perilous journey to find her grandmother and unravel the mystery behind the dangerous fragment of soul. Along the way, the trio must outsmart humans, gods, and demons alike who try to stand in their way—before hell is let loose on earth.

Cover of The Slantwise Histories by Alix E. Harrow
The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories by Alix E. Harrow
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: October 20

I adored Alix E. Harrow’s novels The Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Everlasting, particularly because of their beautiful writing and artistry, so I’m interested in checking out her upcoming short fiction collection. Given that I’ve heard that “The Six Deaths of the Saint” shares some similarities with The Everlasting, I’m especially curious about that one.

 

Dive into a dazzling collection of short fiction from Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting and Starling House.

These are stories about the past as it wasn’t quite, but might have been—or could still be.

These are stories about dreamers and liars and lovers and ghosts; people just like you.

These are stories about places the world has seen, and some that hide just beyond the periphery of possibility.

Most of all, these are stories for anyone who ever wanted more.

What’s a legend, except a history told slantwise?

The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories presents the best known short fiction of Alix. E. Harrow, including the Hugo-award winning “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” as well as five all-new stories. The collection also includes the author’s preferred text of previously published stories “The Long Way Up”, “Roadside Attraction”, “Mr. Death”, “The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly”, “The Sycamore and the Sybil”, “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, “The Whisper in the Weld”, “Dustbaby”, and Amazon Original short stories, “The Six Deaths of the Saint” and “The Knight and the Butcherbird”.

Cover of The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi
The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi
Release Date: October 27

A starred review of The Fist of Memory on Publishers Weekly calls it an “expertly executed epic,” saying “Talabi pours a heady cocktail of gripping action, fraught moral and philosophical dilemmas, mysticism, and hard science.”

I love epics and worlds that have elements of both the science fictional and the fantastical, but most of all, I love stories that explore moral and philosophical dilemmas so I’m excited about this one!

 

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

A hard science-fiction novel featuring an assassin-for-hire, a witchdoctor, and an astronomer, this fast-paced thriller is perfect for fans of Arrival

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil.

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as “Baba,” it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Cover of Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden
Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: November 10

Gracie Marsden’s debut novel is the only book on this list that I’ve already read, and it’s one of my two favorite 2026 releases. I really enjoyed how it intertwined two different timelines, the fairy-tale-like parts of the story with jing, and the mix of tragedy with a bit of sweetness to make it less bitter.

One aspect I loved about it is summed up in the starred review of Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice on Publishers Weekly: “Marsden luxuriates in moral grayness, refusing to let her heroine be simply good or simply ruined.”

 

A young woman makes a bargain with a shapeshifting demon who promises her power, if she will give up love—a painful price that sets her on a dark journey in this historical fantasy inspired by Taiwanese myth

Eleventh century Kangzhu. In a small village, far from the political conflicts of the royal dynasty, a too-young Yu’er is sold off to be married at the word of a jing, a shapeshifting-demon who prophesizes that her parents will thus gain wealth beyond their imagination. Her new husband Xiaozhu is, like her, barely more than a child himself—but he’s kind, and, over the years, Yu’er heals as they build a home together. They become allies, then friends, then lovers.

Until misfortune befalls them, once again at the hands of a demon. They’re left destitute and estranged. Reeling from loss, and determined to never leave her fate in another’s hands, Yu’er decides to strike her own bargain with a jing: she will have all the agency and riches she desires. She just has to leave Xiaozhu and their home together, forever—a price that will cost her more than she then understands.

Yu’er’s choice sets off a saga that will lead her to the heart of the royal court, and bring her more power than she ever dreamed of, but may kill her humanity along the way, in this sweeping tale of love, revenge, and redemption.

Cover of The Empire Burns at Dawn by Fatima Al-Shemary
The Empire Burns at Dawn (The Ages of Alifan Trilogy #1) by Fatima Al-Shemary
Release Date: December 1

This debut novel about sisters sounds rather intriguing, promising political schemes, romance, dark magic, and awakening gods!

 

The Arabian Nights meets romantasy in this debut about two sisters sent on separate missions to help their father seize power, but dark magic is brewing across the land, and they might be pawns in a much larger game…

The Adani sisters have never been free. Their father has been scheming for years to seize the corrupt Shah’s throne, and he’ll use his daughters to do it.

Dunya has carved her path as a warrior. On her father’s orders, she travels to a distant desert kingdom to secure an alliance. When she learns she was sent not as a diplomat but as a bride for the formidable Bezouin King, she refuses to submit to the arrangement, even if it means she might never return home. The strangely gentle ruler offers her a place in his court, but their friendship quickly turns into an intense connection that Dunya isn’t prepared for.

Shayda is sent straight into the viper’s pit. Married off to the ailing Shah himself, her mission is to uncover the court’s secrets and then get rid of him. But as her father and his supporters conspire against the Shah, a violent uprising looms, and Shayda must find a way to ensure her own survival. In secret, she seeks the help of the Daggers—a rebel group at war with the ruling class—and their ruthless leader. Danger lurks around every corner, but Shayda is willing to risk everything for a chance at freedom.

As Dunya and Shayda battle their enemies, their circumstances, and their own hearts, they discover a resurgence of dark magic spreading throughout the land. A pantheon of ancient gods awakens once again, and the sisters must stop them, or see their worlds plunged into darkness.

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Two books I want to read arrived last week, but I’m only covering the first of those today because I already included the other in a post I have in progress. Hopefully that will be going up soon!

Cover of Habila by Wayétu Moore

Habila by Wayétu Moore

Wayétu Moore’s second novel will be published on January 12, 2027 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

I was especially intrigued by Habila after reading about the type of character Wayétu Moore said she wanted to write in the cover reveal in People:

“For my sophomore novel, I asked myself: What happens when a heroine does not want to be good? What wars would she wage, and against whom, when she taps into the wholeness of her being?”

Its description also mentioned other elements that sounded interesting to me, such as its inspiration from the legend of Mami Wata, its inclusion of power that comes with a cost, and its exploration of themes related to womanhood and identity.

 

From the acclaimed author of She Would Be King, a dazzling and daring work of magical realism that weaves through the lives of a Liberian immigrant family and the water goddess who haunts them

In this ambitious new novel, the bestselling and prize-winning writer Wayétu Moore delivers us into the lives of a young girl, Melanctha, and her family amid the loss of their patriarch, Tokpa. They relocate from Liberia to the backwater town of Hunt, Texas, a land that proves hostile to them—until one day, a school bully pushes Melanctha into a lake, and she finds that she can breathe underwater. Melanctha discovers that her newfound ability comes from Habila, a gorgeous, beguiling half woman, half sea deity who bestows on her a gift: a comb that, if touched, can lure people into the water and make them disappear for good.

But Melanctha’s power has not come without a price. Habila has languished alone for millennia, blaming men for her loneliness. She harbors a hatred so potent that she has committed her existence to ridding the world of them. As Melanctha’s ties to Habila deepen, a family mystery unravels, and Melanctha learns that the siren may have secrets, too.

Inspired by the African legend of Mami Wata, Habila is a kaleidoscopic tale tracing a family and a woman through the years as they navigate supernatural forces and long-buried truths. In lush, lyrical prose, Moore crafts an elegant story that probes the corners of womanhood and motherhood, immigrant identity, and the legacies wrought by men who take but never give back.

If you missed the third of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can watch the video on Youtube here. While last year’s program focused on both fantasy and science fiction books, I’m primarily focusing on fantasy book recommendations this year. (But if you’re looking for more science fiction books this year, Elizabeth Bear has you covered!)

2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recs with Kristen of Fantasy Cafe Graphic

This time, I highlighted the following books (links go to reviews):

  • The Poet Empress by Shen Tao, a standalone novel with poetry magic that involves a poem that can kill (and my favorite 2026 book release!)
  • Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell, a fairy-tale-like story about the relationship between a sentient being made of flowers and her creator, told through both perspectives, that explores autonomy and consent
  • The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip, a beautifully written story about a mage pulled into human affairs after a life of isolation with magical beasts for company (and one of my favorite books of all time!)
  • The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin, a novel set in a city-state where peace and order are maintained through dream magic
  • The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, the first book in an eight-book series about a competent heroine who procures/steals books from various alternate worlds for an organization that exists outside of time and space known as the Library
  • The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, a blend of historical fiction and folklore set in fourteenth century Russia with a heroine who can see spirits

(The first two books are 2026 releases that I have not yet reviewed. I planned to write about them after I had more time after this April’s Women in SF&F Month event and then life things kind of happened.)

These book recommendation events are quarterly half-hour long discussions taking place on Zoom on the third Thursday of the month, and the next book chat will be from 6:30 to 7:00 ET on November 19. You can register for the next virtual book recommendations event here.

All event videos can be found here.

This is just a heads up that I’ll be doing another virtual book recommendations event with the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts this Thursday evening. While last year’s recommendation events included both fantasy and science fiction books, I’m focusing on fantasy this year and author Elizabeth Bear is covering science fiction. (The chat she did last week left me very intrigued by Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler!)

I’ll be sharing these fantasy book recommendations on Zoom from 6:30 to 7:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, August 20, and if you want to join us live next week, you can register here.

These book recommendation events are quarterly on the third Thursday of the month, and the next one after this will be in November.

2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recs with Kristen of Fantasy Cafe Graphic

If you want to see it but can’t make it, I will be posting the video later. You can keep up with each video at this link, and the previous recommendations event videos can be seen at the following links:

Deathbringer
by Sonia Tagliareni
432pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 4/10
LibraryThing Rating: 3.8/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.67/5
 

Book Description:

For fans of Naomi Novik and Kerri Maniscalco, “a slow-burn dark academia filled with delicious yearning, dripping with atmosphere, and a compelling mystery” (Ellis Hunter, author of Blood Bound) about a death mage who hates her magic and a poison mage who hates her that are forced to work together to stop a killer before one of them is next.

Everything about Sylas Archyr feels like a sin.

Born with the ability to speak with the dead, Viola’s magic killed her sister, Olivia, and if she doesn’t learn why, it will kill her too. Her only hope lies within the perilous walls of Gorhail Institute of Magic, where Olivia spent her final days.

There, Viola clashes with Sylas, a poison mage whose magic stems from three magical snakes. Immortal, tormented, and reckless, Sylas is tethered to a life he never asked for and haunted by guilt for his father’s death. His hatred for death mages runs deep, and he’s determined to keep Viola at a distance. But when an attack forces him to heal her, their fates become intertwined by a magical bond that threatens to upend his loyalties—and his common sense.

As more students start turning up dead, Viola and Sylas are drawn into an uneasy alliance that pulls them deeper into Gorhail’s treacherous passageways, where secrets fester beneath the stone and the dead do not rest. And as enemy lines begin to blur and their undeniable attraction grows, Viola and Sylas uncover a chilling conspiracy: someone is hunting mages for their magical relics, and if they can’t uncover the killer in time, Viola will be next.

There haven’t been many fantasy romance books that have managed to catch my eye this year, but Sonia Tagliareni’s debut novel, Deathbringer, did since its description mentioned several elements that intrigued me: dark academia, death magic, poison magic involving snakes, and enemies who discover they might not actually hate each other after all once they’re forced to work together. Furthermore, the author cited Viola as a softer heroine, which is the same type of character as some of those who have stuck with me the most (such as Phèdre from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy books, Mehr from Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, and Amani from Somaiya Daud’s Mirage).

Unfortunately, I didn’t think Deathbringer was a good book, but at the same time, it was entertaining enough that I actually finished it, which is more than I can say for a lot of books. It worked in the sense that I needed to read something that moved fairly quickly without being overly complex at the time due to illness, and there were promising aspects, like the murder mystery that involved digging into the story of the previous generation and the academy’s past. (It’s possible that would have made a more engaging novel.)  I also liked that the House of Poison used magical snakes for both killing and healing, but that had more to do with snakes being neat and underutilized in fantasy than this system’s implementation. In general, I thought some of the ideas that went into Deathbringer had potential but ended up feeling like everything about it could have been executed so much better, especially the worldbuilding and character development.

This is one of those fantasy books that has a lot of different types of magic and explanations about how they work and differ, and it never really gelled for me. Maybe this is in part because I read it when I wasn’t feeling well, but the specifics felt like they were there because they sounded neat or served the plot rather than because they fit (like magical snake venom conveniently functioning as birth control for some reason).

In particular, I found the setting puzzling. Each chapter is preceded by a date with most of the story occurring from late November to early December 1939, which makes it feel like it’s supposed to be historical fantasy set in an alternate version of our world. Yet there is nothing that indicates this is not set in a semi-modern secondary world other than the fact that it uses a familiar calendar. Perhaps that’s just because the first book in this trilogy is somewhat limited in scope given that it’s almost completely set in the academy with just a bit of the beginning showing Viola’s hometown, but it seemed odd to me that such a basic aspect of the world was left murky. It ended up seeming like these dates were used just to show that not much time passes throughout this story’s events without putting thought into why they were being used and precisely what this meant in context of this world.

The characters also seemed to serve the plot rather than behaving like believable people. There were times they reached the right, not-so-obvious conclusion extraordinarily quickly during the course of their investigations, but then they took a long time to figure out something incredibly obvious that was waiting for a Big Reveal closer to the end. Though this was my biggest problem with the characterization, the romance also felt more like an author coaxing two people together than one that was given room to breathe and unfold naturally.

The story is narrated from the first-person present tense perspective of both main characters, Viola (who hates her death magic) and Sylas (who also hates her death magic). Their dynamic had potential for a compelling romance arc with Sylas coming to admire Viola’s heart and resolve despite his prejudice against death mages like the one who killed his mother, but it seemed too one-sided since Viola mainly seemed pushed toward Sylas because he was there, he was hot, and she didn’t really have anyone else. While there are certainly times he’s there for her, the way he vacillated between appreciating her and being unsure whether he could trust her or forgive her for something she didn’t even do came across as indecisive rather than making for an interesting situation where he was in conflict with himself—and he certainly did not seem like an equal match for Viola, who deserved better than that. Their romance is not at all a slow burn since they reach the point where they are so in love they’re ready to do anything for each other in the course of something like two to three weeks, so even aside from that, it was far too rushed for my taste.

In some ways, I feel like I should be rating Deathbringer lower than I am since I ended up feeling like it was a bit of a mess that didn’t live up to its potential once I finished it, but I also think it deserves some credit for keeping me interested enough to actually read the entire book. Although it didn’t make me want to continue the series, I leave books unfinished far more than I used to so I appreciate that the idea of magical snakes and curiosity about the past behind the murders kept me reading (even if I was disappointed in the lack of dark academic aspects and depth in the end).

My Rating: 4/10

Where I got my reading copy: ARC from the publisher.

Read or Listen to a Sample from Deathbringer

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

It’s been quiet around here due to some things going on, but a book that sounds rather intriguing arrived in the mail last week!

Cover of Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden

Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden

This adult fantasy debut novel will be released on November 10 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

The Penguin Random House website has an excerpt from Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice.

I love the sound of this: Taiwanese myth–inspired historical fantasy that follows a darker/morally gray character pursuing power. It would have been on my anticipated 2026 speculative fiction book releases list if I’d known about it at the time!

 

“Scintillates with power, sacrifice, and sisterhood.” —Shen Tao, nationally bestselling author of The Poet Empress

A young woman makes a bargain with a shapeshifting demon who promises her power, if she will give up love—a painful price that sets her on a dark journey in this historical fantasy inspired by Taiwanese myth

Eleventh century Kangzhu. In a small village, far from the political conflicts of the royal dynasty, a too-young Yu’er is sold off to be married at the word of a jing, a shapeshifting-demon who prophesizes that her parents will thus gain wealth beyond their imagination. Her new husband Xiaozhu is, like her, barely more than a child himself—but he’s kind, and, over the years, Yu’er heals as they build a home together. They become allies, then friends, then lovers.

Until misfortune befalls them, once again at the hands of a demon. They’re left destitute and estranged. Reeling from loss, and determined to never leave her fate in another’s hands, Yu’er decides to strike her own bargain with a jing: she will have all the agency and riches she desires. She just has to leave Xiaozhu and their home together, forever—a price that will cost her more than she then understands.

Yu’er’s choice sets off a saga that will lead her to the heart of the royal court, and bring her more power than she ever dreamed of, but may kill her humanity along the way, in this sweeping tale of love, revenge, and redemption.