Advanced Booktempting Returns!

Hellooo!

Slowly getting back to normal service for the rest of the year. A perfect time to talk about more books. In Advanced Booktemptings I mention books that have caught my eye just out or coming recently. Think this week it will be in two parts - its busy out there!

Wayward by Hannah Mathewson – Titan - £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook

Welcome to the Witherward, and to a London that is not quite like our own…

Six opposing factions run the city, each with their own particular powers, peace is held only by fragile accords, and the magic-wielding sorcerers have problems in their own faction that threaten to tear them apart.

As granddaughter of the High Sorcerer, Cassia Sims should be a powerful magician, but she’s never been able to make her magic work properly, and is therefore denied entry to The Society of Young Gifted Sorcerers. Desperate to prove herself, she’s drawn into a plot by her brother, Ollivan, to make himself head of the society, and on the way she finds a trap he set for his enemies: a cursed doll that absorbs any magic that is thrown at it. The doll escapes, rampaging through the streets of London, and Cassia must learn to work with her magic and her brother to prevent the destruction of the city

I m enjoyed the first part of this series Wayward once it got through the set-up and I’m quite interested what a different story set in the same world can offer. The idea of a different magical ran London was facinating

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arif - HarperVoyager - £16.99 hardback £5.59 Kindle eBook

The Empire rules by blood

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.

Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.

Clear is the blood of the servants, of the crushed, of the invisible.

The Aktibar – a set of trials held every ten years to find the next Ember rulers of the Empire – is about to begin.

All can join but not just anyone can win; it requires great skill and ingenuity to become the future wardens of Strength, Knowledge, Truth and Duty.

Sylah was destined to win the trials and be crowned Warden of Strength. Stolen by blue-blooded rebels she was raised with a Duster’s heart; forged as a weapon to bring down from within the red-blooded Embers’ regime of cruelty. But when her adopted family were brutally murdered those dreams of a better future turned to dust.

However, the flame of hope may yet be rekindled because Sylah wasn’t made to sparkle, she was born to burn.

And it’s up to her whether she rules the empire or destroys it.

I hear nothing but good things for this book and an interview with the author last week at Waterstones made me even more keen to read this!

The Seed of Cain by Agnes Gomillion - Titan £8.99 paperback £6.64 Kindle eBook

General Arika Cobane, beloved leader of the worker rebellion, makes a bold—but illegal—move to ensure the people’s freedom. When her scheme fails and her co-conspirator hangs for treason, Arika—overworked and overwrought—blacks out.

When she awakens, everything has changed. She’s been stripped of her rank and power and the new leader of the Kongo, Kira Swan, is a charismatic traitor bent on consigning the Kongo under the guise of peace.

Desperate, Arika reunites with Hosea Kahn and seeks treatment for her blackouts at the Compound, deep in the deadly Obi Forest. Arika is determined to regain her influence, stop Kira Swan, and continue leading the Kongo to freedom, but time is running out and she’s still unwell. Control is slipping from her fingers. When a new source of strength presents itself, an ancient authority reserved for the One destined to save the Kongo, Arika gives up everything, including Hosea Khan, to grasp the power, but—all alone, and sick and tired—can she muster the will to hold it?

I really liked the first in this series and am intrigued by how this has a different focus from the first

The Path of Thorns by A G Slatter - Titan £8.99 paperback £6.64 Kindle eBook

Asher Todd comes to live with the mysterious Morwood family as a governess to their children. Asher knows little about being a governess but she is skilled in botany and herbcraft, and perhaps more than that. And she has secrets of her own, dark and terrible – and Morwood is a house that eats secrets. With a monstrous revenge in mind, Asher plans to make it choke. However, she becomes fond of her charges, of the people of the Tarn, and she begins to wonder if she will be able to execute her plan – and who will suffer most if she does. But as the ghosts of her past become harder to control, Asher realises she has no choice.

Slatter is one of favourite authors and this being described as Jane Eyre meets Frankenstein makes me even more intrigued

The Swordman’s Descent by G M White - £12.99 paperback £2.99 Kindle eBook

Lost in a foreign city. Assassins around every corner. No allies in sight.

Survival is key, when enemies are all around.

Belasko, the Royal Champion, war hero, legendary swordsman, has distanced himself from the trappings of court life and toils at his academy. Searching for his successor.

When a general Belasko defeated long ago stages a coup to place himself upon the Baskan throne, Queen Lilliana’s desire to negotiate a permanent peace takes them into a vipers nest of intrigue, suspicion, and betrayal.

When blades are drawn, and all seems lost, can Belasko save the lives of those he loves the most?

White has been one of the most interesting self published authors I have read and very intrigued what larger tale will do.

The Last Storm – Out Now – Titan £8.99 paperback £6.64 Kindle eBook

 With global warming out of control, large swathes of North America have been struck by famine and drought and are now known as the Desert. A young woman sets out across this dry, hostile landscape, gradually building an arcane apparatus she believes will bring rain to the parched earth.

Jesse lives alone, far from civilization. Once, he too made rain, but he stopped when his abilities caused fatalities, bringing down not just rain but scorpions, strange snakes, and spiders. When his daughter Ash inherited this tainted gift, Jesse did his best to stop her. His attempt went tragically wrong, and he believes himself responsible for her death.

But now his estranged wife Karina brings news that Ash is still alive. And she’s rainmaking again. Terrified of what she might bring down upon the desperate communities of the Desert, they set out to find her. But Jesse and Karina are not the only ones looking for Ash. As the storms she conjures become more violent and deadly, some follow her seeking hope. And one is hungry for revenge.

Yesterday’s interview with Tim via Gingernuts of Horror definitely makes me keen to read this exciting SF thriller

The Pallbearers’ Club by Paul Tremblay - Titan - £8.99 £6.64

What if the coolest girl you’ve ever met decided to be your friend?

Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a 17-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers’ Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses.

Okay, that part was a little weird.

So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things—terrifying things—that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right?

Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers’ Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she’s making cuts.

Tremblay is one of the best current set of horror authors and I’ve been looking forward to this for ages!