My August TBR

Since I’m not flying through my stacks of books so quickly any more, I thought it might be a good idea to get a little more targeted in my reading, so I’m actually setting myself a TBR for August! I picked five review copies I want to get to soon, and then did the tried-and-tested method of asking Twitter to pick the rest… So let’s see what there is!

First up, my picks for review copies – all of these were sent to me free of charge so that I could review them!

Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley is out from Rebellion Publishing in ebook on the 6th August, though paperback publication has been moved to January 2021. Magical families and their infighting is a favourite fantasy trope of mine, and if you add a telepathic cat to anything it’s sure to be a hit with me! This fantasy mystery promises to be fun and sexy, and just look at that cover!

All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace is out from Titan Books tomorrow, 4th August! I’m so excited for this seafaring YA fantasy. I hear the words ‘mysterious pirate’, ‘vengeful mermaids’, and ‘destructive new magic’, and I’m in for sure – I’m hoping this is going to be fairly dark and full of adventure. The UK cover is absolutely amazing, too!

The Story of Silence by Alex Myers is out already from HarperVoyager, and I’m really looking forward to it. It’s an adaptation of an Old French romance from the 13th century, which I read a long time ago in translation, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it’s been reworked to suit a novel and bring the exploration of gender to the fore – I’ve had a peek and the language is lovely, so I have high hopes!

Rocket Boy by Katie Jennings and Joe Lillington is out on the 6th August from Nosy Crow, and is a new addition to their Colour Fiction series. I previously reviewed The Blue Beyond and loved its clever bridging of the gap between picture books and early chapter books, so I leapt at the chance to review Rocket Boy, which is about a boy and his cat on a cardboard rocket ship adventure!

 

Finally for review copies, Jenni Fletcher was kind enough to send me a Kindle copy of her latest Mills and Boon romance, Redeeming Her Viking Warrior, which is out in ebook on the 20th August and paperback on the 25th. It’s my first foray into Viking romance, but I love Jenni’s emotionally smart characters, so I’m excited to dive in!

I asked Twitter to pick five numbers from my TBR for me, and though I could have ended up with a deeply random selection, they came out surprisingly cohesive! So I suppose I’m on a historical-ish fantasy romance kick this month…

#7 is The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Hunter, which as you can tell from the low number, has been on my shelf for absolutely ages. This is a fantasy take on 19th century Oxford, and the first book in a trilogy, so I hope I enjoy it as books two and three are also waiting for me – I started it yesterday and so far, so good!

#14 is Girls of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust, which again, has been on my TBR for quite some time. I picked it up at the height of my fairy tale retelling phase, and then when I got a bit retelling-ed out, I just never got around to it. But with Girl, Serpent, Thorn newly released and tempting me, I think it’s time to try this author’s writing out.

#374 is The Sisters Mederos by Patrice Sarath, which I bought because of the blurb from Stephanie Burgis – her tastes usually overlap with mine pretty perfectly, so I’m hoping this will be great. It sounds like a fun, adventurous fantasy of manners with a great sisterly relationship!

#413 was The Unbound Queen by MJ Scott, but it’s the final part of a trilogy where I’ve only read the first book, and that was a while ago. So I decided to reread Book One, The Shattered Court, instead to refresh my memory before moving on with the series – I remember enjoying it a lot! It’s an alternate history court fantasy with a strong romance plot – it’ll be great to finish the series.

#121 is Daughter of Time by Sarah Woodbury, which I think I picked up a few years ago while looking for Outlander-alikes. It’s a time travel romance set in 13th century Wales – having read a few time-travel romances now I know that this is unlikely to be my kind of thing (nothing seems to come close to Outlander itself) but it will be good to get it off my list either way!

This seems like it’s going to be a good month! Hopefully by the end of August the TBR will be lighter by nine books (since one is a reread), and I’ll have some reviews up! Have you read any of these? Let me know what you thought!