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.
It’s been quiet here since the end of April, but I’m working on getting back into the swing of things! On Tuesday, I will have an exclusive excerpt from Leanna Renee Hieber’s Perilous Prophecy to share with you. I’ve also begun working on a review of one of my most anticipated books of the year, Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Fate.
There have been far too many books purchased or received since the last one of these featured posts in March to highlight all of them here (especially since my birthday is in April, resulting in books as gifts and a trip to two bookstores) so I’m only covering the books I’m most excited about from the last month and a half today. The additional books list at the end is not complete and just contains the books I’m at least as interested in reading as the other books featured in this post (these additional books are all birthday gifts or purchases made with a birthday gift card). For the featured books, I tried to stick to books/series that I haven’t highlighted as recently or that were not included in my most anticipated books of the year list, which is why some of the books I’ve been most looking forward to are listed without covers and descriptions.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
This new edition of Patricia A. McKillip’s World Fantasy Award-winning novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld will be released September 19 (trade paperback, ebook). It contains an introduction by Gail Carriger and has a lovely new cover.
I have read this before (although I have not yet reviewed it!), and it is an excellent book. This and The Changeling Sea are tied for my favorite McKillip books I’ve read so far.
Young Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments.
But when a soldier bearing an infant arrives, Sybel discovers that the world of man and magic is full of both love and deceit―and the possibility of more power than she can possibly imagine.
The Dark Arts of Blood (Blood Wine Sequence #4) by Freda Warrington
Freda Warrington has written some excellent books, including Elfland and the first book in the Blood Wine Sequence, A Taste of Blood Wine. The latter is my favorite of her books I’ve read (my review), and though I haven’t yet read the second book in the series, I know I’m going to need to read them all and was thrilled to get this as a birthday gift!
The first three books in this series (A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet, and The Dark Blood of Poppies) were originally published in the 1990s and were re-released within the last four years. The Dark Arts of Blood was published for the first time in 2015.
In 1920s Switzerland, vampire lovers Charlotte and Karl are drawn into turmoil as Godric Reiniger, a local filmmaker and activist with sinister ambitions, begins his rise to power.
Meanwhile, fiery dancer Emil achieves his dream to partner the legendary ballerina and vampire Violette Lenoir – until his forbidden desire for her becomes an obsession. Rejected, spiralling towards madness, he seeks solace with a mysterious beauty, Fadiya. But she too is a vampire, with a hidden agenda.
When Karl and Charlotte undertake the perilous journey to rescue Emil, they unearth secrets that threaten the very existence of vampire-kind.
Redder Than Blood by Tanith Lee
This short story collection of fairy tale retellings was released in April (trade paperback, ebook). I love fairy tales and I want to read more by Tanith Lee so I’m quite curious about this one!
A vampiric Snow White whose pious stepmother is her only salvation….
A supernatural Cinderella who strikes at midnight, leaving behind a prince mad with desire….
A sleeping beauty never meant to be woken…
In her World Fantasy Award-nominated short story collection, Red as Blood, Tanith Lee deconstructed familiar fairy tales, recapturing their original darkness and horror in haunting new interpretations. Behind gilded words and poised princesses, she exposed a sinister world of violence, madness, and dangerous enchantments.
With Redder than Blood, Lee resumes the tradition of twisting tales. Among its nineteen tales, this volume explores unnerving variations of Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, Snow White, and other classics, including three never-before-published stories.
A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won multiple awards for her craft, including the British Fantasy Award, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror.
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Nimona was on my wish list because:
a) It’s supposed to be really good
b) Supervillainy!
c) Dragons!
I was quite happy to receive a copy for my birthday.
The graphic novel debut from rising star Noelle Stevenson, based on her beloved and critically acclaimed web comic, which Slate awarded its Cartoonist Studio Prize, calling it “a deadpan epic.”
Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from Noelle Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel is perfect for the legions of fans of the web comic and is sure to win Noelle many new ones.
Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren’t the heroes everyone thinks they are.
But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona’s powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.
The House of Binding Thorns (Dominion of the Fallen #2) by Aliette de Bodard
The second Dominion of the Fallen novel, following The House of Shattered Wings, was released in April (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).
I was on the fence about whether or not to read this after the first book (my review of The House of Shattered Wings), but I heard it had more Asmodeus so I decided to go ahead… and so far, I’m really glad I did since I’m enjoying it much more than the first. (Also, it has more dragons!) Since I started in April, I didn’t have much time to read and had to set it aside for the Patreon book, but I’m planning to go back to it after finishing this month’s Patreon book.
The multi-award-winning author of The House of Shattered Wings continues her Dominion of the Fallen saga as Paris endures the aftermath of a devastating arcane war….
As the city rebuilds from the onslaught of sorcery that nearly destroyed it, the great Houses of Paris, ruled by Fallen angels, still contest one another for control over the capital.
House Silverspires was once the most powerful, but just as it sought to rise again, an ancient evil brought it low. Phillippe, an immortal who escaped the carnage, has a singular goal—to resurrect someone he lost. But the cost of such magic might be more than he can bear.
In House Hawthorn, Madeleine the alchemist has had her addiction to angel essence savagely broken. Struggling to live on, she is forced on a perilous diplomatic mission to the underwater dragon kingdom—and finds herself in the midst of intrigues that have already caused one previous emissary to mysteriously disappear….
As the Houses seek a peace more devastating than war, those caught between new fears and old hatreds must find strength—or fall prey to a magic that seeks to bind all to its will.
Borderline (The Arcadia Project #1) by Mishell Baker
Borderline is one of this year’s Nebula nominees and I’ve been hearing it’s excellent, so I couldn’t resist getting it when I came across a copy in the bookstore!
The second book in the series, Phantom Pains, was released in March.
A cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder gets recruited to join a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland in this Nebula Award–nominated and Tiptree Award Honor Book that’s the first novel in a new urban fantasy series from debut author Mishell Baker.
A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.
For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.
No pressure.
The White Road of the Moon by Rachel Neumeier
The White Road of the Moon was released in March (hardcover, ebook). This has an intriguing first line:
There were more than twenty-four hundred people in the town of Tikiy-by-the-Water, but only one of them was alive.
I loved Rachel Neumeier’s House of Shadows and really enjoyed Black Dog so I’ve been trying to read all her books.
Leigh Bardugo meets The Sixth Sense in this story of one girl’s perilous journey to restore a lost order.
Imagine you live with your aunt, who hates you so much she’s going to sell you into a dreadful apprenticeship. Imagine you run away before that can happen. Imagine that you can see ghosts—and talk with the dead. People like you are feared, even shunned.
Now imagine . . . the first people you encounter after your escape are a mysterious stranger and a ghost boy, who seem to need you desperately—though you don’t understand who they are or exactly what they want you to do. So you set off on a treacherous journey, with only a ghost dog for company. And you find that what lies before you is a task so monumental that it could change the world.
The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2) by Marie Lu
The Young Elites (my review) made me curious about the rest of this series so I purchased this when I came across it in the bookstore (along with Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer—apparently, I was the second person to buy that same exact combination of books from that bookstore that day).
This trilogy ended with The Midnight Star, which was released last year.
Bestselling author and New York Times proclaimed “hit factory” Marie Lu delivers another heart-pounding adventure in this exhilarating sequel to The Young Elites.
Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.
Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.
But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?
Additional Book Highlights:
