Books Received, December 8, 2024 — January 3, 2025
4 Jan, 2025
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The Mother by B. L. Blanchard (May 2023)
In a present-day Britain where the British Empire never existed, wives and mothers strive for deliverance in a novel about oppression, autonomy, and family secrets by the author of The Peacekeeper.
What if Europe had never colonized the world? It is a world that never had overseas empires, the transatlantic slave trade, or the Protestant Reformation. There is, however, in an obscure island nation called England, a woman running for her life.
Marie, Duchess of Suffolk, has no choice. In this society, women are a reproductive commodity. Marriage is the only available occupation. And barren wives like Marie are expendable trade. After absconding with the family jewels, Marie fakes her own death and finds an underground network of women seeking sanctuary from similar abuse. When she reunites with her estranged sister, Emma, Marie reveals she has a greater mission: find their mother, long thought dead, and discover the truth behind her inexplicable disappearance.
Hunted and chased across borders by those she fled, Marie has stolen more than the family jewels. She is escaping with secrets. And all that matters now, no matter the risk, is stealing freedom.
Tideborn by Eliza Chan (May 2025)
A dragon queen, a vengeful sea witch, and a mythical titan converge on the underwater city of Tiankawi in the sequel to the international bestselling epic fantasy Fathomfolk.
A tsunami and a dragon’s wish have wrought changes upon the city of Tiankawi that have never been seen before. But shared experiences have not healed the rift between the city’s fathomfolk and human citizens, and scars from years of oppression still remain.
Mira, a half-siren and activist, fights politicians and her own people to rebuild her city, and to uncover a deadly conspiracy. And Nami, the dragon princess, undertakes a daring ocean voyage alongside friend and foe, in order to convince a mythical Titan not to destroy Tiankawi for its crimes…
Set My Heart on Fire by Izumi Suzuki (January 2025)
The first novel from Izumi Suzuki to be published in English: a candid, intimate exploration of passion, music and transgression
Hope I’m in for a good time, I thought. Even if it’s just for tonight.
Set in the underground bar and club scene of 1970s Tokyo, Set My Heart On Fire tells the story of Izumi in her turbulent twenties. Through a series of disarmingly frank vignettes, author Izumi Suzuki presents an unforgettable portrait of a young woman encountering missteps and miscommunication, good music and unreliable men, powerful drugs and disorientating meds. Izumi usually keeps her relationships short but complicated, until she meets Jun.
Set My Heart on Fire is a visceral novel about mistaken relationships and the convolutions of desire, about regret and acceptance. Pulsing through the narration is the protagonist’s love of music, a vital soundtrack spanning the Zombies, T. Rex and the Rolling Stones as well as underground…
Locus, January 2025 published by Locus Publications (January 2025)
Requiem by John Palisano (May 2025)
New gothic horror from Bram Stoker Award winning author, and recent past President of the Horror Writers Association, John Palisano.
Ava must fight an entity locked in on taking out the crew of the Eden, a moon-sized cemetery in space, as it brings back the souls of the dead buried aboard. One such soul is Ava’s lost love, Roland.
The spirits of the interred on the Eden haunt those aboard, including a visiting musician is tasked with writing a new song for the dead. Her Requiem calls a cosmic entity that illuminates their darkest fears and secrets. One by one, they’re driven mad. Ava fights her grief and must rise up before they’re lost and the entity reaches Earth.
This Too Shall Burn by Cat Rector (July 2023)
Arden has lived in the woods near the deeply religious town of Arrothburg all her life, practising magic and keeping balance with nature. She heals the sick, as her mother did before her. No matter how deeply the people of the village hate witches, they still arrive at Arden’s cabin in the dead of night, looking for help that their pastor, mayor, and doctor would never provide.
Verity is trapped in a life she doesn’t want. Her mother was burned as a witch six years ago, forcing Verity into the role of caretaker for her father and her younger siblings. The Good Book asks her to serve, and so she does. But it also asks her to endure the ungodly, debilitating agony of her monthly bleeding. No medicine, no comfort, no protests. If God is kind, why is she so cursed?
When a chance encounter between them leaves both their skin charred at a single touch, Arden and Verity are left with questions that may get them killed.
Does something wicked live inside Verity?
If Arden is the only true witch for miles, who is burning on the pyres?
Will they be next?
Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s by Adam Rowe (July 2023)
Worlds Beyond Time is the definitive visual history of the spaceships, alien landscapes, cryptozoology, and imagined industrial machinery of 1970s paperback sci-fi art and the artists who created these extraordinary images.
Enigma by Runyx (April 2025)
A twisted Hades and Persephone meets the enthralling suspense of The Secret History in a new scorchingly hot dark academia tale of unforgettable, legendary love from RuNyx, the New York Times bestselling author of Gothikana.
There are secrets she must uncover.
There are secrets he must keep.
Salem Salazar is a Mortimer University legacy and the black sheep of her scandal-ridden, wealthy family. Obsessed with death, she arrives at Mortimer on the hunt for answers about what happened to her perfect, missing older sister. There, she discovers that her sister is far from the only girl to have gone missing at Mortimer. Salem will do anything to discover what dark forces are killing Mortimer’s students… even if it means using herself as bait.
And Cazimir van der Waal has caught her scent. He has a dark past, a hidden agenda, and a ravenous appetite for a beautiful, golden-eyed girl who seems determined to risk her life. But he is far from the most dangerous thing at Mortimer.
In this magnificent, steamy dark academia romance filled with taut suspense, sparks will fly, rivals will become lovers, terrible truths will be revealed, and an epic love will change everything.