I missed a week last week – life got in the way – but I only had a couple of things to show you, so I’m just going to roll them together into today’s post!
ARCs and Review Copies
Even and Odd by Sara Beth Durst
I enjoy Sarah Beth Durst’s writing in all age brackets, so I’m looking forward to this middle grade fantasy I picked up on NetGalley, which follows twin sisters on a magical quest. It promises wizards, unicorns, and a portal to another world, which is definitely a recipe for a book up my street!
The Way of the Argosi by Sebastien de Castell
This is the prequel to one of my favourite YA fantasy series (check out my Spellslinger review for more about that). We know Ferius Parfax as the card-fighting, gun-toting, hat-wearing mentor to Spellslinger‘s protagonist, but in this new book we get to glimpse her youth and her first steps onto the path of the Argosi. I’m so excited – this is a NetGalley eARC but I will eventually be buying the hardback!
I thought I was doing so well this week but then I put this post together and realised that I really wasn’t, haha! I write these posts on Friday mornings, even though they go up on Saturdays, and I had a totally unexpected huge delivery last Saturday morning that played havoc with my numbers (although I’m delighted to have had it)! Read on to see what’s been added to the TBR this week, from picture books to epic fantasy and more…
ARCs and review copies
I had the most amazing parcel from the fabulous Little Tiger Books this week, absolutely chock-full of lovely picture books and board books for me to review on Kitten Corner! Just take a look at all of these pretties!
Bear and Mouse: Birthday Party by Nicola Edwards and Maria Neradova
I Can Learn My First Shapes: Busy Day by Lauren Crisp and Thomas Elliott
Where’s My Dinosaur? by Kate McLelland
Little Hen Little Hen What Can You See? by Amelia Hepworth and Pintachan
These four board books all have different fun interactive elements, from flaps to sliders to feely bits to twirly bits – they’ll be great for little hands! Look out for reviews in an upcoming Kitten Corner post!
Another pretty hefty week – but I’m not feeling too bad about things as I did do an enormous unhaul and got rid of nearly 40 physical books from my shelves! I should probably cool it on NetGalley for a few weeks, though…
ARCs and review copies
The first three are all from NetGalley!
Jane Austen Investigates: The Abbey Mystery by Julia Golding
This new series, featuring a young Jane Austen investigating mysteries, looks like a lot of fun – and that’s a really cool cover.
The Magic Place by Chris Wormell
I’m always on the lookout for middle grade fantasy featuring cats, so this was an obvious one for me to request (the cat is named Gilbert!).
Oof, it’s been a big week for new books for me! I can’t believe how many have come in since last Saturday – someone at NetGalley had a funny five minutes this week and approved me for a whole bunch of requests that had been hanging around for ages, which has done a lot of the damage (everything without a physical copy here is from NetGalley!), but they’re all things I’m excited for – so let’s get to it!
ARCS and review copies
Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt
I’ve really enjoyed the graphic novels I’ve read from Oni Press before, and this one looked like it had really beautiful art, so I jumped in when I saw it on NetGalley without knowing too much else about it. This should be a fairly quick read for me, I hope.
The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Lu
I’ve never read Monstress, but I’ve always admired the art style, so I’m very intrigued by this collection of shorter dark fantasy fiction from Marjorie Lu. This was another cover-induced click – I mean, just look at it!
Nightingale by Deva Fagan
Middle grade fantasy is one of my favourite things, and when I saw the words “stealing a magical sword right out from under the nose of Prince Jasper” and “heist goes off the rails” I was sold!
I almost managed not to buy any books this week! That doesn’t mean I don’t have plenty of new ones to show you, though…
ARCs and review copies
Switch-A-Picture: Day and Night by Harriet Evans and Lirios Bou; I Can Learn: Dinosaurs by Lauren Crisp and Thomas Elliott; and Who Said Cheep? by Yi-Hsuan Wu
These three board books from Little Tiger all have different kinds of interactive flaps and sliders. These kinds of playful books are getting a lot of love at the moment in this house, so I’m hoping that these will also be a hit – so far Day and Night has been the favourite, with its sliding images! Dinosaurs is a bit advanced for my little one, with a lot of words on each page and quite delicate flaps, but is so lovely and I’m looking forward to sharing it with him once he’s a little older.
A Little Bit Worried by Ciara Gavin and Tim Warnes; I’m Sorry by Barry Timms and Sean Julian; and Along Came A Fox by Georgiana Deutsch and Cally Johnson-Isaacs
Little Tiger also sent me these three gorgeous picture books to review, and they make a surprisingly co-ordinated set with their night settings and orange forest animals! It’s always nice to find stories that tackle the topics of emotions, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the first two handle anxiety and apologies.
Dragon Tamer by Ophelia Silk
I really enjoyed DN Bryn’s Our Bloody Pearl, which was a wonderfully cute story that made my top books of 2020 list – my review of that is here! So when they offered me a chance to review their newest work (as part of writing team Ophelia Silk), I couldn’t resist – this fantasy romance looks like it’s going to be just as much fun. I love the description ‘idiot of idiots’ for the heroine in the blurb!
Journey Beyond the Burrow by Rina Heisel
I grew up on the Redwall books and I’m still a sucker for a mouse on an adventure, so I couldn’t resist requesting this on NetGalley – it looks so lovely! This should be a nice read to have on hand for when I need a bit of a palate cleanser between adult fantasies.
Purchased by me
A Sea of Pearls and Leaves
I was doing so well with not buying any books this week! But then I saw this gorgeous cover pop up in my BookBub recommendations, and when I clicked on it, the blurb sold me – a bi princess with a sorceress girlfriend and seven princely suitors competing for her hand! Plus, it has fantastic reviews, so it sort of accidentally fell onto my Kindle.
Have you read any of these? Or are you tempted by any of them? I’d love to know your thoughts!
(running 2021 total: 36 books in, 23 read. TBR at 517)
Saturdays are coming around fast! I have a few new books to show you this week, so let’s get into it!
ARCs and review copies
How to be Brave by Daisy May Johnson
I’m about halfway through this NetGalley read at the moment and it’s weird, but fun. I requested it because the author is a big fan of classic girls’ school stories (one of my favourite genres) and this is about a girls’ boarding school, but it’s not exactly what I was expecting. I like it though!
The Stolen Kingdom by Jillian Boehme
This was a NetGalley book that I don’t even remember requesting – it must have sat for a long time before being approved! It looks like a fun YA fantasy romance with court intrigue, so definitely my kind of thing.
It’s time for my second weekly haul already, and I’ve been fairly restrained this week! Just (ha!) seven books for your perusal today…
ARCs and Review Copies
All books in this category were provided free of charge by authors or publishers.
Relics, Wrecks and Ruins edited by Aiki Flinthart
I saw a tweet asking for reviews of this SFF anthology, put together as a last hurrah by editor Aiki Flinthart, and I couldn’t resist that line up of amazing authors. I’m looking forward to dipping into this one story at a time.
I’ve been thinking about how better to keep a track of books coming in as well as books I’m reading, and since I often have more than 50 in a month, an end-of-month haul is going to be way too much effort for everyone involved! So I thought I might try a weekly haul instead and see how that goes – I’ll list things as they arrive, rather than as I buy them, which is how I log them on my TBR. Let me know what you think!
ARCs and review copies
All books in this category were provided free of charge by authors or publishers.
The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles
I adore KJ Charles’s smart, dark, and queer historical romance, and I’m excited for this standalone! She says it’s fairly fluffy for her, which is exactly what I’m in the mood for, so I think I’ll get to this soon.
The Duke’s Runaway Bride by Jenni Fletcher
You know by now I’ll read anything Jenni writes, and I can’t wait to dip into book three of her Regency Belles of Bath series – books one and two were in my top reads of 2020!
A Cat, A Book, and A Cup of Tea 