NetGalley, the light of my reading life and the bane of my reading existence. I was recently having a squizz through my NetGalley back list and to be honest it’s pretty depressing. Like many, I went hard early on, never expecting to be approved for anything and it got out of control. Then I went full ostrich, stuck my head in the sand and I’ve been ignoring a heap of them ever since.
If you think this is me finally ready to deal with my 2018 chaos, you would be wrong. I’ll reveal that shame in another post. (Maybe by then I’ll have made some headway through it.) This time I wanted to talk about the exciting reads I’ve got that are coming out in 2021.
Shadow In The Empire Of Light by Jane Routley
Synopsis – Shine’s life is usually dull: an orphan without magic in a family of powerful mages, she’s left to run the family estate with only an eccentric aunt and telepathic cat for company.
But when the family descend on the house for the annual Fertility Festival, Shine is plunged into intrigue; stolen letters, a fugitive spy and family drama mix with an unexpected murder, and Shine is forced to decide both her loyalties and future..
Release Date: 19th January 2021 – Goodreads – Amazon
The Bone Fire by Gyorgy Dragoman
Synopsis – Thirteen-year-old Emma grows up under an Eastern European dictatorship where oppression seems eternal. When her dissident parents die in a car accident, she’s taken to an orphanage, only to be adopted soon after by a grandmother she has never met.
While her homeland is shattered by a violent revolution, Emma—like a witch’s apprentice—comes to learn the ways of her new grandmother, who can tell fortunes from coffee dregs, cause and heal pain at will, and shares her home with the ghost of her husband. But this is not the main reason her grandmother is treated with suspicion and contempt by most people in town. They suspect her or her husband of having been involved in the disappearance of top secret government files.
As Emma learns her family history, she begins to see that, for her grandparents, the alternate reality shaped by magic was their only form of freedom. The Bone Fire is a political Gothic, carried along by the menace and promise of a fairy tale.
Release Date: 23rd February 2021 – Goodreads – Amazon
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders
Synopsis – A thrilling adventure set against an intergalactic war with international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders at the helm in her YA debut—think Star Wars meets Doctor Who, and buckle your seatbelts
Tina has always known her destiny is outside the norm—after all, she is the human clone of the most brilliant alien commander in all the galaxies (even if the rest of the world is still deciding whether aliens exist). But she is tired of waiting for her life to begin.
And then it does—and maybe Tina should have been more prepared. At least she has a crew around her that she can trust—and her best friend at her side. Now, they just have to save the world.
Release Date: 13th April 2021 – Goodreads
Sea of Kings by Melissa Hope
Synopsis – Thirteen-year-old Prince Noa has hated the ocean since the day it caused his mother’s death. But staying away from the sea isn’t easy on his tropical island home where he’s stuck trying to keep up with his dim-witted and overconfident younger brother Dagan–the brawn to Noa’s brains. When a vengeful pirate lays siege to their home, Noa and Dagan narrowly escape with their lives. Armed with a stolen ship, a haphazardly assembled crew, and a magical map that makes as much sense as slugs in a salt bath, the brothers set sail for the realm’s other kingdoms in search of help. But navigating the sea proves deadlier than Noa’s worst fears. To free his home, Noa must solve the map’s confusing charts and confront the legendary one-eyed pirate before an evil force spreads across the realm and destroys the very people Noa means to protect.
Release date: 27 April 2021 (I’m pretty sure the release has been pushed back due to Covid, although Amazon and Goodreads still say 2020) Goodreads – Amazon
Maxine's Obsessions 