Hellooo!!

You’ve survived a Monday and as a public service minded womble I like to help you. gnore those who say I may have accidentally broken their book-buying bans - omelettes and eggs come to mind! Here are some gems to be on the lookout for oe rthe next couple of weeks

Books that accidentally got purchased

Reaper of Souls - Out Now from Harper Voyager £7.99 Kindle £14.99 Hardback

I AM POWER.
I AM MY ANCESTORS.
I DO NOT WALK ALONE.

After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted – but it came at too steep a price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom plunged into chaos, and a love that can never be.
While Arrah returns to the tribal lands to search for survivors of the demons’ attack, her beloved Rudjek hunts down the remnants of the demon army – and uncovers a plot that would destroy what’s left of their world.
The Demon King wants Arrah, and if she and Rudjek can’t unravel his schemes, he will destroy everything, and everyone, standing in his way.

In this roaring sequel to KINGDOM OF SOULS, Rena Barron weaves a tale of mythology, love, whip-fast action and trademark twists that asks the question: can you ever leave your past, ancestors, behind?

Kingdom of Souls was a highlight of my reading year. Very much looking forward to seeing what happened next!

I Spit Myself Out by Tracy Fahey - Out Now from Sinister Horror Company - £11.99 paperback £1.99 kindle

Eighteen unsettling narratives map the female experience from puberty to menopause.

I Spit Myself Out is a collection of female-voiced stories exploring the terror that lurks beneath the surface of the skin. 

In this collection, an Anatomical Venus opens to display her organs, clients of a mysterious clinic disappear one by one, a police investigation reveals family secrets, revenge is inked in the skin, and bodies pulsate in the throes of illness, childbirth and religious ritual.

Disturbing and provoking in equal turns, I Spit Myself Out reinvents the body as a breeding ground of terrors that resurface inexorably in the present.

I heard a fascinating interview with the author at the weekend and very interested to see what this collection has to offer

Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslac Barsukov - out now from Vestige - £7.43 paperback £3.49 Kindle

THE QUEEN RUINED HIS LIFE. HE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO RECLAIM IT... OR SO HE THOUGHT.

Minister Shea Ashcroft refuses the queen's order to gas a crowd of protesters. After riots cripple the capital, he's banished to the border to oversee the construction of the biggest anti-airship tower in history. The use of otherworldly technology makes the tower volatile and dangerous; Shea has to fight the local hierarchy to ensure the construction succeeds—and to reclaim his own life.

He must survive an assassination attempt, find love, confront the place in his memory he'd rather erase, encounter an ancient legend, travel to the origin of a species—and through it all, stay true to his own principles.

Climbing back to the top is a slippery slope, and somewhere along the way, one is bound to fall.

I am very intrigued having been randomly booktempted on Twitter last night - sounded fun!

Dread Broken Witch - Out Now from Linda Press - £7.99 paperback £3.99 kindle

In the magical desert of an ancient, altered land called Zabardu, a nameless dread falls across the village, trapping a little girl. The villagers turn to their healer, Bambomiyi, the Broken Witch - a raucous transgender woman who lives in a strange wreck in the desert. She is a veteran of the endless war against invaders from the north, a battle which caused her to lose her powers. 

What skills she has left, however, are valuable enough for the villagers to tolerate her promiscuity and outrageous behaviour. It helps too that she is a distant descendent of the godlike Daxu, who vanished long ago, leaving her with the gifts of above-average strength and knowledge of the uncanny. 

And so the wheels of an epic journey are set in motion, as she vows to save the young child. 

I am really enjoying the Luna novella range so this should be read soon!

The Edge by James Smythe - out now from Harper Voyager £8.99 paperback £3.99 kindle

Sharp, gripping, and disturbing, THE EDGE is the third book in The Anomaly Quartet.

Years ago, a vast and mysterious object known as the Anomaly was discovered in deep space. All missions to explore and explain it failed.

Now, the Anomaly has almost reached Earth, threatening to swallow the planet whole. On an orbital research station, a team of scientists desperately search for a way to stop it or destroy it.

One of the crew, Ali, has lost faith in the mission. Following the death of a close friend, her only interest is returning to the ground – to her young son. But strange events, both inside the station and in the void beyond, force Ali to pursue a new mystery. And as the truth starts to make itself clear, as deadly secrets are uncovered, Ali is forced to ask if she can trust anybody: her crewmates, her friends … even herself.

A series I’ve wanted to try out for a while time to catch up!

The lets look at what comes out soon!!

Smoke Screen - out now from Orenda Books £8.99 paperback £3.99 Kindle

Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The annual firework celebration is rocked by an explosion, and the city is put on terrorist alert.

Police officer Alexander Blix and blogger Emma Ramm are on the scene, and when a severely injured survivor is pulled from the icy harbour, she is identified as the mother of two-year-old Patricia Smeplass, who was kidnapped on her way home from kindergarten ten years earlier … and never found.

Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the unsolved case, as public interest heightens, the terror threat is raised, and it becomes clear that Patricia’s disappearance is not all that it seems…

always ready for some new winter chillers!

Quiet In Her Bones by Nalini Singh - out 23/2 from Gollancz £14.99 paperback £7.99 paperback

My mother vanished ten years ago.
So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash.
Now, she's back.
Her bones clothed in scarlet silk.

When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of privilege and secrets that's housed the same influential families for decades.

The rich live here, along with those whose job it is to make their lives easier. And somebody knows what happened to Nina one rainy night ten years ago. Her son Aarav heard a chilling scream that night, and he's determined to uncover the ugly truth that lives beneath the moneyed elegance . . . but no one is ready for the murderous secrets about to crawl out of the dark.

Even the dead aren't allowed to break the rules in this cul-de-sac.

this sounded right up my dark alley!

Sword in the Street by C M Caplan - out 3/4 £3.65 Kindle

Hired blades bleed their foes in savage duels, settling everything from petty grievances to the corporate laws that keep their citizens in line. Embroiled in these cutthroat political games is John Chronicle, an impoverished swordsman with no better prospects, seeking the duel that will free him from the Dregs.

Meanwhile, John’s boyfriend Edwin, an autistic university student, befriends a fellow scholar who claims to study the arcane art of thaumaturgy. When she offers to teach Edwin this subtle magic, he hopes that he can use it to bolster John’s skill with a blade. But thaumaturgy is a dangerous magic, and the forces that drive it have other plans.

The couple soon find themselves entangled in the web of intrigue surrounding the swordsmen and their sponsors, and they’re forced to question how bloody they’re willing to get to escape poverty — and they don’t come away with the same answer.

this is coming off recommendations from people I trust!

Family Friend - out 4/3 from Vintage - £12.99 hardback £3.99 Kindle

Erin lives an idyllic life by the seaside with her baby boy and handsome Australian fiancée. She's upbeat and happy - a natural mum. At least that's what her thousands of followers on Instagram think.
In the real world, Erin is struggling with anxiety and finding it difficult to connect with her screaming son. So when a famous agent offers to make her the biggest instamum out there, she's over the moon. And when Amanda, a family friend who's visiting from Australia, says she'll move in and babysit to help make it happen, it seems like the stars have finally aligned for Erin's exciting new career.

But when a devastatingly revealing video is posted online by an anonymous troll, Erin's brought crashing back to earth. As everything she's worked for starts to slip away, Erin must find out how far she can trust those closest to her.

And another evil sounding tale to enjoy! that sounds great!

One day All of this Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky from Solaris - out 4/3 £22 hardback £7.49 kindle

Welcome to the end of time. It's a perfect day.

Nobody remembers how the Causality War started. Really, there's no-one to remember, and nothing for them to remember if there were; that's sort of the point. We were time warriors, and we broke time.

I was the one who ended it. Ended the fighting, tidied up the damage as much as I could.

Then I came here, to the end of it all, and gave myself a mission: to never let it happen again.

its Tchaikovsky all I need to know

A history of what happens next by Sylvain Neuval - out 4/3 from Michael Jospeh £14.99 hardback £9.99 Kindle eBook

Germany 1945

Mia is no ordinary nineteen year old. She only looks human and she's here on a mission: stop the Russians getting hold of Germany - and the world's - foremost rocket scientist.

Because there's an even darker conflict on Earth. A secret struggle that has engulfed and taken generations of Mia's people. But can the firing of rockets finally bring about its end?

Can Mia, as the last of her kind, bring the stars down to earth?

And if she succeeds, what will happen to us?

I don’t know anything about this one and after reading their Novella The Test I am intrigued

A Desolation Called Peace from Arkady Martine Out 4/3 from Tor £16.99 hardback £8.99 paperback

An alien terror could spell our end.

An alien threat lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is supposed to win a war against it.

In a desperate attempt to find a diplomatic solution, the fleet captain has sent for an envoy to contact the mysterious invaders. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass – both still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire – face an impossible task: they must attempt to negotiate with a hostile entity, without inadvertently triggering the destruction of themselves and the Empire.

Whether they succeed or fail could change the face of Teixcalaan forever.

The sequel to A Memory Called Empire do you even need to know more?

As always if you have something tempting to add please leave it in the comments!