Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft & Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson

  

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:

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft
Publication: September 26th, 2023
Orbut
Paperback. 386 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.

But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake—going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven—the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.

Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for whatever springs from the alleys, graves, and shadows next."

I've just finished an ARC of this and it was such a great time. I love how Bancroft is able to develop the most intricate worlds with characters that are equally complex and full of so much personality. I can't wait for this to be released!

Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson
Publication: September 5th, 2023
Delacorte Press
Hardcover. 368 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Life has gone according to plan for Anna--she stays in the background, letting her sister, Emily, shine in the spotlight. But on Emily's wedding night, Anna learns that her sister is moving away, abandoning her--and all their shared dreams. Devastated, Anna leaves the reception in the middle of a raging storm, taking shelter in a hotel she's never seen before: the Houdini.

The Houdini is a hotel unlike any other, with sumptuous velvet couches, marble tiled floors, secret restaurants, winding passageways, and an undercurrent of magic in the air. And when Anna meets Max, who has lived his entire life inside its walls, she's captivated. For the first time in her life, Anna is center stage, in a place that anticipates her every desire, with a boy who only has eyes for her.

But there's a terrifying secret hidden in the Houdini. When the clock strikes midnight, Anna will be trapped there forever unless she can find a way to break free from its dreamlike magic. But will she be able to do it if it means leaving Max behind?"

This sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. I'm always a sucker for a magical hotel, and I think this has so much potential in the hands of Delilah Dawson!