Can't-Wait Wednesday: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher & Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia

        

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.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Publication: August 6th, 2024
Tor Books
Hardcover. 336 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind."

I’ll read anything T. Kingfisher puts out! I really love the premise for this one and have no doubt that it’s in good hands.

Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia
Publication: August 6th, 2024
Tin House Books
Paperback. 256 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"Set against the stark background of the Southwestern desert, Lena Valencia’s Mystery Lights glows with the promise―and fear―of the world we know and the worlds we don’t, following women and girls as they navigate dangers both supernatural and existential.

An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following. A marriage between two ghost hunters is threatened when one of them loses her ability to see spirits. The lives of a famous painter in the twilight of her career and a teenage UFO enthusiast converge when a mysterious glowing orb appears in their small desert town. And a slasher-flick screenwriter looking for inspiration escapes a pack of wild dogs only to find herself locked in an SUV with a strange man beside her. Set primarily in deserts throughout the American Southwest, Lena Valencia’s Mystery Lights is a debut collection of stories about women and girls at the crossroads of mundane daily life and existential dread.

From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, Mystery Lights grapples with terrors both familiar and fantastic, introducing an electrifying new voice in contemporary fiction while bringing to light the many faces of the forces that haunt us."

This sounds like such an interesting horror collection and I am so excited to read it. I have an ARC that I’ve been holding onto, but I might just give in and read it soon!