Anticipated June 2021 Releases

Well, it might be completely crazy that it's already June, but the bright side is that that just means more new books are coming to make our lives better! I have been fortunate enough to have a few of these already, but I am so excited about all of the rest, though I have no idea when I'll get to them. I am probably most intrigued by The Ice Lion, Hollow, Star Eater, and Wendy, Darling. From the ones I've read, The Jasmine Throne has been a huge standout, and I know it's going to be a hit with a lot of people as well (my review for that will be up soon!). Anyway, enough chatter, let's look at (some of) June's upcoming releases!

Have you read any of these books yet? If so, what'd you think? And if not, which ones are you most excited for? Let me know if I've left out any releases you're looking forward to!

 

 

The Ice Lion by Kathleen O'Neal Gear || June 15th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Hollow by Brian Catling || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri || June 8th -- Amazon | Indiebound

Star Eater by Kerstin Hall || June 22nd -- Amazon | Indiebound

The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu || June 15th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Inside Man by K.J. Parker || June 15th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise || June 15th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides || June 15th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Questland by Carrie Vaughn || June 22nd -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien || June 15th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid || June 8th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Girl One by Sara Flannery Murphy || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews || June 8th -- Amazon | Indiebound

Bacchanal by Veronica Henry || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Girls at the Edge of the World by Laura Brooke Robson || June 8th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé || June 10th -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

House of Sticks by Ly Tran || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo || June 1st -- Amazon | Indiebound

 

What are your anticipated June releases?

Mini-Review: The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien

The World Gives Way Marissa Levien

Redhook
Publication: June 1st, 2018

Hardcover. 416 pages.

About The World Gives Way:

"In fifty years, Myrra will be free.

 

Until then, she's a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract—butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles.

 

But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated—and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles' orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world—and embrace what's left before it's too late.'"

I've opted to provide a mini-review for The World Gives Way because there's a lot I could say about this book that would end up being a spoiler, so I decided I'd rather keep it brief, but informative. The World Gives Way is a really interesting book for a number of reasons. It's sci-fi, but the real focus seems to be on the characters rather than the speculative fiction components. This almost reminds me of those books that you find in the literary/general fiction section that are still very speculative in nature, but for some reason they're not in the SFF section (though there are plenty of speculative elements present!).

What I liked: Myrra and Tobias are our two main protagonists, and since this is a very character-focused story I appreciated how much time we got to spend with them and get to know them. Myrra is a determined woman and I appreciated her continuous use of her wits to figure out what to do and how to handle various situations that popped up. Both her and Tobias start out not quite sure of themselves and their roles, and I liked how both of them learned to adapt to their surroundings and slowly grow their confidence with their actions--which became rather important as the story progressed. Their emotions and personalities were also vital in understanding how they reacted to various events in the novel, as well as in following their journey as some truly unexpected things comes to light. I also really appreciated the insight into the world itself and learning how this odd society functioned. It was exciting to discover how much this ship made the world seem like a real one, complete with different ecosystem-like areas (for instance, a desert, an underwater city, etc.) and a willful ignorance of the fact that everyone was actually on a ship that would be floating in the middle of space for over a century by the time it makes it to its target destination.

 
What I didn't like: I really wish we had been able to get a bit more about the world and how the ship worked. This book was so fascinating in that regard, but it felt like a bit of vignette of this life on a ship–which I guess it sort of was--rather than a deeper exploration of how society functioned. Although we got some mentions, it just left me wanting more, and in the end it left me feeling as though I enjoyed the story, but I didn't really know the story, almost more like a short story feeling rather than a novel-length story. The character focus was extremely important to the story, but I do wish there had maybe been more focus on other aspects to balance it out more. 

Overall, I've given The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien 3.75 stars! This was a really interesting concept that I'm glad I got to explore, and I will definitely be looking out for more from Marissa Levien in the future. 

 

 *I received a copy of The World Gives Way courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | IndieBound

Can't-Wait Wednesday: Inside Man by K.J. Parker & The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

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: 

Inside Man by K.J. Parker
Publication: June 15th, 2021

Tordotcom

Paperback. 128 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"K.J. Parker returns to the amoral world of Prosper’s Demon with a wry, sardonic novella that flips the eternal, rule-governed battle between men and demons on its head.  

An anonymous representative of the Devil, once a high-ranking Duke of Hell and now a committed underachiever, has spent the last forever of an eternity leading a perfectly tedious existence distracting monks from their liturgical devotions. It’s interminable, but he prefers it that way, now that he’s been officially designated by Downstairs as “fragile.” No, he won’t elaborate.  

All that changes when he finds himself ensnared, along with a sadistic exorcist, in a labyrinthine plot to subvert the very nature of Good and Evil. In such a circumstance, sympathy for the Devil is practically inevitable."

I had a pretty great time with K.J. Parker's Prosper's Demon and I was pretty excited to see that we'd have another novella set in the same general world. Can't wait for this one!

and...

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Publication: June 8th, 2021

Del Rey

Hardcover. 448 pages.

Pre-order: Amazon | IndieBound

From Goodreads:

"In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.  

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.  

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all."

This sounds like it's going to be a really beautiful and meaningful story, and I'm really looking forward to reading it!

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

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Quotes from Recent Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book blog meme now hosted by Jana over at The Artsy Reader Girl!

This week's topic is: Favorite Quotes from Recent Reads

 I couldn't quite think of a theme for this week to match quotes to, so instead I decided to look at the books I've read in the past month or so (excluding Sidewinders by Robert V.S. Redick, which I just finished this morning) and pick some favorite quotes from a random selection of books to share with you all. There is no real order or reason to these books, just some random books and great quotes. Let me know if any of these catch your eye!

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

“The rain forest was not a garden of easy abundance, but precisely the opposite. Its quiet, shaded halls of leafy opulence were not a sanctuary, but rather the greatest natural battlefield anywhere on the planet, hosting an unremitting and remorseless fight for survival that occupied every single one of its inhabitants, every minute of every day.”  

“Loneliness is not intolerable when enthusiasm for a quest fills the mind.” 

“Fawcett, quoting a companion, wrote that cannibalism “at least provides a reasonable motive for killing a man, which is more than you can say for civilized warfare.” 

“Many accidents happen to white people because they don't believe their dreams.” 

“Society, in other words, is a captive of geography.” 

"“Anthropologists,” Heckenberger said, “made the mistake of coming into the Amazon in the twentieth century and seeing only small tribes and saying, ‘Well, that’s all there is.’ The problem is that, by then, many Indian populations had already been wiped out by what was essentially a holocaust from European contact. That’s why the first Europeans in the Amazon described such massive settlements that, later, no one could ever find.”    

The Memory Police by Yoko Ozawa

“Men who start by burning books end by burning other men.” 

“In general,” he continued, “most things you worry about end up being no more than that—just worries.”  

“My memories don’t feel as though they’ve been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.” 

“...he has never read a single page of any of my books.Once, when I told him I'd love to know what he thinks of them, he demurred."I couldn't possibly say," he said. "If you read a novel to the end, then it's over. I would never want to do something as wasteful as that. I'd much rather keep it here with me, safe and sound, forever.” 

The Ones We're Mean to Find by Joan He

“Celia had loved the sea. Loved the whitecaps that foamed like milk, the waltz of sunlight atop the peaks. Kasey did not. The sea was a trillion strands of hair, infinitely tangled on the surface and infinitely dense beneath. It distorted time: Minutes passed like hours and hours passed like minutes out there. It distorted space, made the horizon seem within reach.And it was the perfect place for hiding secrets.”    

“Alone is an island. It’s an uncrossable sea, being too far from another soul, whereas lonely is being too close, in the same house yet separated by walls because we choose to be, and when I fall asleep, the pain of loneliness follows me as I dream of more walls.”  

 “None of us live without consequence. Our personal preferences are not truly personal. One person’s needs will deny another’s. Our privileges can harm ourselves and others.” 

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

“I do not sleep because I am not only afraid of the monsters at my door, but also of the monsters my own mind can conjure. The ones that live within.” 

“No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.” 

“We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.” 

“Reading,' Ead said lightly. 'A dangerous pastime.” 

The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

“Somebody once said that the library is actually the dominant life form on the planet. Humans simply exist as the reproductive means to achieve more libraries.” 

“It was one of those British phrases, along with ‘May I help you?’, that can be either exceedingly polite or hugely aggressive.” 

“Humans have a very clear idea about how to behave, and on many occasions actually do. But it’s sometimes disheartening that correct action is drowned out by endless chitter-chatter, designed not to find a way forward but to justify petty jealousies and illogically held prejudices. If you’re going to talk, try to make it relevant, useful and progressive rather than simply distracting and time-wasting nonsense, intended only to justify the untenable and postpone the real dialogue that needs to happen.” 

“Shame is the gateway emotion to increased self-criticism, which leads to realisation, an apology, outrage and eventually meaningful action. We're not holding our breaths that any appreciable members can be arsed to make the journey along that difficult chain of emotional honesty – many good people get past realisation, only to then get horribly stuck at apology – but we live in hope."

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai 

“Human lives were short and fragile. Time and illnesses consumed us, like flames burning away these pieces of wood. But it didn’t matter how long or short we lived. It mattered more how much light we were able to shed on those we loved and how many people we touched with our compassion.” 

“If our stories survive, we will not die, even when our bodies are no longer here on this Earth.” 

“But by reading their books, I saw the other side of them - their humanity. Somehow I was sure that if people were willing to read each other, and see the light of other cultures, there would be no war on earth.” 

“But it didn’t matter how long or short we lived. It mattered more how much light we were able to shed on those we loved and how many people we touched with our compassion.” 

The Binding by Bridget Collins

“May your darkness be quiet and the light come sooner than you need,” 

“Which was worse? To feel nothing, or to grieve for something you no longer remembered? Surely when you forgot, you’d forget to be sad, or what was the point? And yet that numbness would take part of your self away, it would be like having pins-and-needles in your soul … I took a deep breath.” 

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

“Sometimes, dreams are not omens. They’re just your brain stitching things together.” 

“The only dependable way to survive today is to put your faith in the power of other people wanting to give you money. Online fundraising. Corporations that still pretend to care what consumers think. They want to be able to say, See, look how benevolent we are, think about this instead of how we’re polluting the ocean and not paying our workers enough.”

“People feel more loyalty to how they think things should be than to other people, including their family.”  

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

“A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.” '

“False hopes are more dangerous than fears.” 

“Let the unseen days be. Today is more than enough.”

Have you read any of these books? Do you have any great quotes to share? Let me know!

Review: For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

 

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
Orbit Books
Publication Date: June 1st, 2021
Paperback. 448 pages.

About For the Wolf:

"As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.

 

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.

 

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole."

For the Wolf is a beautifully written story centered around two sisters destined for two very different paths. This book didn't quite live up to what I expected, but it was still a great story with wonderful prose, a compelling storyline, and a strong emotional punch. Just a head's up that there are a few content warnings which the author has listed here.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the forest, which was easily a character in itself. Whitten did such a great job of instilling this forest with a strong atmospheric presence and making it a captivating component of the plot. The trees are rather aggressive at times, and the sense that they are very much alive and watching was always present, which really added to the entire setting and increased the stakes whenever one of the characters was venturing throughout the woods.

 

As much as I enjoyed Whitten's writing, the atmosphere, and the creepy forest, I didn't particularly care for any of the characters. I personally found Red to be slightly annoying, especially with her continual flouting of the rules put in place by the Wolf to keep both her and others safe. Characters like this are one of the reasons I tend to get annoyed with certain fantasy, especially YA, and I was a bit disappointed to see it here. I understand she was supposed to be stubborn and always trying to help, but it was a bit overdone for my personal taste. I also felt that although her relationship with her sister was sweet, there was something that didn't quite work for me. i think I mainly wish I had gotten to see more of her positive interactions with her sister, even if that had to be done via more flashbacks or memories. 

 

Then there's the Wolf, who I probably liked the most out of all the characters. However, I also felt like his personality and role were ones that I've read many times before. This isn't bad, and it wouldn't matter if I hadn't read so many other books, but since I have seen this type of character pop up before, it just felt a bit derivative.  (Also, just as a side note, when I first started this book I hadn't seen the synopsis that stated that "The Wolf is a man, not a monster," so I just have to say that once I again I feel like I got monster/animal-baited (looking at you, Uprooted), so do not be misguided and hope that there is an actual wolf in this book, as there is not. [This is not a critique, just a silly minor disappointment on my part.]) The supporting characters living at the mansion in the forest were good additions, but nothing about their personalities really stood out to me. I did, however, enjoy their specific roles and learning about their backstories and how they came to be a part of the woods, I felt this helped to add to the background of the world and how other people were affected by the forest and curse.

I really wanted to love this book more, but there was something that didn't quite connect for me with this book. The world-building was beautifully described, but at the same time it felt a bit lacking and everything almost felt as though it were happening in a bit of a bubble. Also, this is entirely personal, but the depression/anxiety rep didn't really resonate with my own experiences as much as I'd hoped, which is also probably why I might not have connected with this book as much as I'd thought I might. I absolutely still think it will connect more with others, though.

 

Overall, I've given For the Wolf 3.75 stars. This is a really solid fantasy with a beautiful writing and an exciting plot. It was the most original thing I've read, but I wouldn't let that stop you from picking it up if you find yourself interested in the synopsis. Creepy forests, unexplained magic, and more abound!

 

 *I received a copy of For the Wolf courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | IndieBound

The Friday Face-Off: Top Hat

    

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:
Top Hat

I wasn't sure at first what book I'd pick for this one until I remembered Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard, which has the perfect top hat front and center on the cover! There weren't that many editions available to share, but I really like the variety and how different all of the editions are. I decided to share a few of the sequel covers as well, just to add a bit to look at. 

2009 Doubleday | 2010 Headline 

2009 German | 2019 Russian

The sequels:

2010 | 2011 | 2014 | 2016

My choice(s):

I actually really like most of the editions of this one, but I remain partial to this original US edition, and I love how well this entire series looks together.

 The 2010 Headline edition and the 2019 Russian ones are close second for cool ones, though! 

What cover(s) do you like the most!?

 

Review: The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky
The Overlook Press
Publication Date: June 1st, 2021
Hardcover. 320 pages.

About The Portrait of a Mirror:

"A stunning reinvention of the myth of Narcissus as a modern novel of manners, about two young, well-heeled couples whose parallel lives intertwine over the course of a summer, by a sharp new voice in fiction.

 

Wes and Diana are the kind of privileged, well-educated, self-involved New Yorkers you may not want to like but can't help wanting to like you. With his boyish good looks, blue-blood pedigree, and the recent tidy valuation of his tech startup, Wes would have made any woman weak in the knees—any woman, that is, except perhaps his wife. Brilliant to the point of cunning, Diana possesses her own arsenal of charms, handily deployed against Wes in their constant wars of will and rhetorical sparring.

 

Vivien and Dale live in Philadelphia, but with ties to the same prep schools and management consulting firms as Wes and Diana, they’re of the same ilk. With a wedding date on the horizon and carefully curated life of coupledom, Vivien and Dale make a picture-perfect pair on Instagram. But when Vivien becomes a visiting curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art just as Diana is starting a new consulting project in Philadelphia, the two couples’ lives cross and tangle. It’s the summer of 2015 and they’re all enraptured by one another and too engulfed in desire to know what they want—despite knowing just how to act."

The Portrait of a Mirror is an incredibly clever and amusing story of the elite classes. The story follows Wes and Diana from New York and Dale and Vivian from Philadelphia. The two couples lead separate lives that slowly begin to intertwine in this story as Wes and Vivian meet at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Dale and Diana begin working on a consulting project together in Philadelphia. 

The writing style of The Portrait of a Mirror does not make for easy reading and is often as pretentious as the characters themselves, but it's a self-aware pretentiousness that was done in order to exacerbate and reflect elite society and is perfectly executed. It's clear that Joukovsky knows how to not only write well, but how to write with a specific theme and message in mind that she is able to convey through her tone and style. This book is described as a "reinvention of the myth of Narcissus" centered on people who are in love with themselves, and that is entirely accurate and reflected perfectly with the overly description writing that is clearly in love with itself as well, a la Narcissus. 

This isn't a story with a lot of plot or where a lot of things happen; rather, it's a character study of our four narcissistic characters and a biting observation of the society and culture they inhabit. I think the depictions of the characters and the excessive prose are meant to elicit a certain sense of annoyance by the readers at the pomposity and arrogance of the characters, but it's also supposed to act as a humorous nod towards something that we are supposed to understand and find amusing (I'll elaborate a bit on this statement in the next paragraph, don't worry). Vivien is a curator, which likely draws upon Joukovsky's own time working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I appreciated the ways in which Joukovsky incorporated her speeches and discussions on some of the art pieces in the book, as I found those moments some of the most interesting. Diana, a consultant, was a particularly entertaining character to follow as well, as I found her intelligence and method of handling business, as well as her sharp and engaging dialogue, most interesting to follow. Outside of these points, I didn't really find too much about the characters to find myself interested in or invested in enough to care much about their lives.

Although I am aware of what this book was trying to do and I know that the writing was done as a reflection of society, I struggled with this book at times. The writing was almost too overdone and overwritten to be enjoyable at times, and I felt that even though I could chuckle and shake my head at the witty, timely humor, it just wasn't written for me. This is a book for the elites to read about themselves and laugh along with a "yep, that's how it is" sort of thought. I still enjoyed this book, but it wasn't something that I felt resonated with me in the same way that it might with people who are more familiar with that lifestyle and the general society and group of people that it represents. This isn't really a major critique of the book because it's not a bad thing, it just prevented me from enjoying quite as much. And plenty of people will probably disagree with me and say they had plenty of fun satirizing and mkocking the elite society from a distance–which was definitely enjoyable–but I just don't think that it hit in quite the same manner. 

Overall, I've given The Portrait of a Mirror three stars. This was an entertaining story that was intereting to follow along with and to see what Joukovsky did with her writing, but it wasn't necessarily a story that I feel the need to re-read or experience again. It's one of those where I liked it, but I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it. I appreciate it for what it was, and I enjoyed much of Joukovsky's commentary, but that's sort of where my major enjoyment ends. I have zero doubts that this book will be a big hit in the publishing world–and deservedly so–and with people who appreciate some great writing and social commentary, so if any of that sounds like your thing, then I'd recommend you pick this one up.

 

 *I received a copy of The Portrait of a Mirror courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

 

Buy the book: Amazon | IndieBound