Saturday Spotlight: Tortall: A Spy’s Guide by Tamora Pierce

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published October 31st 2017 by Random House Books for Young Readers

Today’s spotlight is on a book long in the making, but is not a novel.  This is a companion to the fantastic world created by Tamora Pierce, Tortall.  One of my favorite places, and my answer to the question, “What magical realm would you visit/live in?”  Many of my favorite, inspirational characters live within this universe, Daine, Alanna, Numair, and so many others.  I’m super stoked that Numair’s prequel series comes to us so soon!!  In just a few short months, so this book can trigger memories and refresh your sense of the world and what’s been happening.

Needless to say, I’m very excited to read this book and add it to my collection.  Maybe someone will get it from my wishlist for Christmas 🙂

Summary:

The secrets of Tortall are revealed. . . .

As Tortall’s spymaster, George Cooper has sensitive documents from all corners of the realm. When Alanna sends him a surprising letter, he cleans out his office and discovers letters from when King Jonathan and Queen Thayet first ascended the throne, notes on creating the Shadow Service of spies, threat-level profiles on favorite characters, Daine’s notes on immortals, as well as family papers, such as Aly’s first report as a young spy and Neal’s lessons with the Lioness. This rich guide also includes the first official timeline of Tortallan events from when it became a sovereign nation to the year Aly gives birth to triplets. Part history, part spy training manual, and entirely fascinating, this beautiful guide makes a perfect gift and is ideal for anyone who loves Alanna, King Jonathan, Queen Thayet, Kel, Neal, Aly, Thom, Daine, Numair, and the unforgettable world of Tortall!

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Saturday Spotlight: Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore by Paula Guran

Paperback, 384 pages

Published August 8th 2017 by Prime Books

OMG, there’s finally an anthology that focuses on how awesome libraries and librarians are in a fantastical way!  Can’t wait to read these and discover was new authors and revisit some favorites.

Have you read this one yet?  What did you think?  Do you know of any other anthologies that feature libraries, magic books, or librarians?

Summary:

Portals to all the knowledge in the world, libraries are also created universes of a multitude of imaginations. Librarians guide us to enlightenment as well as serving as the captains, mages, and gatekeepers who open the doors to delight, speculation, wonder, and terror. Both inspire writers of speculative fiction to pen wonderful tales woven around them.
This captivating compilation of science fiction and fantasy short fiction showcases stories of librarians-mysterious curators, heroic bibliognosts, arcane archivists, catalogers of very special collections-and libraries-repositories of arcane wisdom, storehouses of signals from other galaxies, bastions of culture, the last outposts of civilization in a post-apocalyptic world . . . grand adventures and small sagas of the magical places we call libraries and the wizards who staff them!

Saturday Spotlight: Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor

I’m so excited to read this series!  I don’t remember how I found out about it at first, but now I’m seeing it everywhere, and that makes me so happy!  Since I love learning about different cultures, I’m fascinated by the concept of African mythology and practices to be included.  It’s definitely different than the average fantasy being published, and I’m ready to have my mine blown by something new.  Akata Witch just came out in paperback earlier this week, and Akata Warrior published later this year!

Paperback, 349 pages

Publication: July 11th 2017 by Speak

Saturday Spotlight: Willow Born by Shanna Miles

Kindle Edition, 242 pages

Expected publication: June 1st 2017 by Rochelle and Reed Publishing, LLC

If you’re looking for diverse read in the fantasy genre, this promises to be quite the exciting release.  I just downloaded the book from NetGalley after seeing the beautiful cover and finding the author on Twitter.  The first couple of pages jump right into the story and sound so fascinating!  I can’t wait to read this one 🙂

Summary:

Years ago, witch hunters came to Carolina and devoured the Willows. Sixteen-year-old Collette, a powerful empath, was one of them. A part of a long line of witches that stretches back as far as the slave auctions of Charleston, she was especially gifted.

Decades later, a series of strange kidnappings prompts a member of her secret coven to make a plea for help and Collette is chosen to answer the call.  But things have changed. Angels have come out of the divine closet and everyone is on the lookout for the supernatural.

Snatched from the Void, she has to choose between a normal life and following the warrior path of the Willows, a coven she didn’t know she belonged to. Soon, problems pile sky-high as she struggles to keep the boy who could blow her cover at arm’s length and her sanity as family secrets come to light in the midst of a serial killer.

In the end it all comes down to destiny, death  and the grey places between good and evil. But then again, when you’re Willow Born death can be just the beginning.

Spotlight Saturday: The Dastardly Miss Lizzie by Viola Carr

Paperback, 464 pages

Expected publication: April 18th 2017 by Harper Voyager

While I haven’t yet finished reading book one, I’m really excited that book 3 is coming out soon!!  The beginning of this series is just so intriguing, and I love how the author portrays the two distinct personalities.  Also, the covers are beautiful!

Summary:

Dr. Eliza Jekyll must turn to her dark side, Miss Lizzie Hyde, to stop a madman targeting London’s most important scientists and sorcerers terrorizing the city with dark magic in this third Electric Empire novel—a dazzlingly original steampunk fantasy set in the gritty world of alternate Victorian London, with echoes of H G. Wells classic, The Time Machine

Being two people in one body isn’t easy. Metropolitan Police crime scene physician Eliza Jekyll is trying to maintain a semblance of control, even as her rebellious second self, Lizzie, grows increasingly wild—threatening the respectable Eliza’s reputation and her marriage to Remy Lafayette, the Royal Society investigator and occasional lycanthrope. With England on the brink of war, Remy’s away in sorcery-riddled Paris on a secretive mission that grows ever more sinister. Has he been an enemy agent all along? Or is coping with Eliza’s secret divided self finally driving her mad?

Eliza needs her mind clear and sharp if she’s to catch an evil genius who is killing eminent scientists. The chase uncovers a murky world of forbidden books, secret laboratories, and a cabal of fanatical inventors whose work could change the world—or destroy it—and who may hold answers to Eliza’s past.

As sorcery-wielding terrorists attack London, Eliza discovers her own enemies are closing in, driving her to desperate measures—enlisting the aid of the wily, resourceful, mercurial Lizzie—to thwart the killer. But Lizzie’s got her own life now, and true to her nature, will resort to the devious and diabolical to keep it. Even if it means throwing Eliza to the wolves, and letting the world burn. . .

Saturday Spotlight: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Hardcover, 432 pages

Expected publication: April 4th 2017 by Ace

I’ve only had the opportunity to listen to Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Fools, which I found interesting and enjoyable but not quite compelling enough to binge the rest of the series.  So when I heard he had a new series coming out with a female protagonist, I decided to look into it.  Now I really want to read this book!  It sounds right up my alley and sounds similar to Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

Summary:

I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…

Spotlight Saturday: The Dragon’s Price by Bethany Wiggins

Hardcover, 304 pages

Expected publication: February 21st 2017 by Crown Books for Young Readers

I’ve been excited to read this title since I read it’s description several months ago.  One of my favorite books when I was younger was Dealing with Dragons, where a princess runs off and hangs out with a dragon, and this book sounds like it’s going to tackle some similar themes.  I can’t wait to read it 🙂

Summary:

Fans of Julie Kagawa’s Talon and Renee Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn will devour this action-packed fantasy adventure about a girl who chooses to surrender herself to a deadly dragon rather than marry an enemy prince.

When two warring kingdoms unified against a deadly menace laying waste to both their lands, they had to make a choice: vow to marry their heirs to one another, or forfeit their lives to the dragon.

Centuries later, everyone expects the sheltered princess Sorrowlynn to choose the barbarian prince over the fire-breathing beast—everyone, that is, except Sorrow, who is determined to control her own destiny or die trying.

As she is lowered into the dragon’s chamber, she assumes her life is over until Golmarr, the young prince she just spurned, follows her with the hopes of being her hero and slaying the dragon. But the dragon has a different plan. . . .

If the dragon wins, it will be freed from the spell that has bound it to the cave for centuries. If Sorrow or Golmarr vanquish the dragon, the victor will gain its treasure and escape the cave beneath the mountain. But what exactly is the dragon hiding?

There are no safe havens for Sorrow or Golmarr—not even with each other—and the stakes couldn’t be higher as they risk everything to protect their kingdom.

Saturday Spotlight: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

I want to share more books with all my readers, and I just can’t seem to get enough time to read and review all of them, so I’m going to try something different to spotlight titles that I’m excited to share.