Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Ink and Sigil by Kevin Hearne & The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline


Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

This week's upcoming book spotlights are: 

Ink & Sigil (Ink & Sigil, #1)
Ink and Sigil by Kevin Hearne
Publication: August 25th, 2020
Del Rey Books
Hardcover. 336 pages.

"Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails – and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae. 

But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse. 

But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective – while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive."
This has so many different small components to it that I just don't know what to expect! I get some urban fantasy vibes which are hit and miss for me, but I don't actually know if that's what it is. What I do know is that the idea of magical ink, various magical creatures, the weird thing going on with his voice, and the idea of a magical underworld of Scotland all have me ready to check this one out!

and...
The Exiles
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Publication: August 25th, 2020
William Morrow
Hardcover. 348 pages.


"Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land. 

During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel -- a skilled midwife and herbalist – is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors. 

Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land."
I actually semi-recently received an ARC of this in the mail (which was such a delight since physical ARC mail has been rare lately!) and am so excited to dive into it (hopefully) soon! Historical Australia, its Aboriginal inhabitants, and its initial history are topics that I so rarely see as settings or premises for fiction and I am extremely excited about that.


What do you think about these upcoming releases? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

7 comments:

  1. The Exiles sounds so good, and this would be a nice change of pace for me. And yay for book mail!

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  2. Some great books this week. Hope you love them when you get your hands on them!

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  3. I love the cover for Ink & Sigil and it has Fae in it! I'm a sucker for those books. Enjoy them both 😊

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  4. The Australia setting of The Exiles is really appealing!

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  5. Both of these sound great, but that Australia setting in the Exiles is really calling to me. I hope you love both of these!

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