The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week – old or new, bought or received for review consideration (usually unsolicited). 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.
Last week brought a couple of books that sound quite interesting, but first, here are a couple of things that will be happening this week:
- A review of Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews
- A giveaway of a book by two of my favorite authors that I’m quite excited about
On to the new books!
Without Light or Guide (Los Nefilim #2) by T. Frohock
Without Light or Guide, the second Los Nefilim novella, will be released on November 3 (ebook). Both this and the first book in the series, In Midnight’s Silence, are only $0.99 on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!
The first chapter from each book can be read online:
I thought T. Frohock’s debut novel Miserere was fantastic and unique so I am excited that she has a new series!
The fate of mankind has nothing to do with mankind…
Always holding themselves aloft from the affairs of mortals, Los Nefilim have thrived for eons. But with the Spanish Civil War looming, their fragile independence is shaken by the machinations of angels and daimons…and a half-breed caught in-between.
For although Diago Alvarez has pledged his loyalty to Los Nefilim, there are many who don’t trust his daimonic blood. And with the re-emergence of his father—a Nefil who sold his soul to a daimon—the fear is Diago will soon follow the same path.
Yet even as Diago tries to prove his allegiance, events conspire that only fuel the other Nefilim’s suspicions—including the fact that every mortal Diago has known in Barcelona is being brutally murdered.
The second novella in T. Frohock’s Los Nefilim series, Without Light or Guide continues Diago’s journey through a world he was born into, yet doesn’t quite understand.
The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace #1) by Erin Bow
The Scorpion Rules was released last month (hardcover, ebook, audiobook). The first chapter can be read online.
I’ve not read any of Erin Bow’s other books, but I’ve heard good things about both Plain Kate and Sorrow’s Knot.
A world battered by climate shift and war turns to an ancient method of keeping peace: the exchange of hostages. The Children of Peace – sons and daughters of kings and presidents and generals – are raised together in small, isolated schools called Preceptures. There, they learn history and political theory, and are taught to gracefully accept what may well be their fate: to die if their countries declare war.
Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan-Polar Confederation, is the pride of the North American Precepture. Learned and disciplined, Greta is proud of her role in keeping the global peace, even though, with her country controlling two-thirds of the world’s most war-worthy resource — water — she has little chance of reaching adulthood alive.
Enter Elián Palnik, the Precepture’s newest hostage and biggest problem. Greta’s world begins to tilt the moment she sees Elián dragged into the school in chains. The Precepture’s insidious surveillance, its small punishments and rewards, can make no dent in Elián, who is not interested in dignity and tradition, and doesn’t even accept the right of the UN to keep hostages.
What will happen to Elián and Greta as their two nations inch closer to war?
