This stack is EXACTLY what happens when the pickings get slim over at Edelweiss and NetGalley. The few books I pick up from them on a week like this look so LONELY in the stack that I start combing through friends’ recommendations and get more books.

With ‘falling back’ to go back to Standard Time this week, I’ll get an hour more to read tonight. C’est la reading vie!

For Review:
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
The Last Note of Warning (Nightingale Mysteries #3) by Katharine Schellman

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
A Coup of Tea (Tea Princess Chronicles #1) by Casey Blair
Deep Roots (Siobhan O’Brien #2) by Sung J. Woo
Mirabile by Janet Kagan
Royal Tea Service (Tea Princess Chronicles #3) by Casey Blair
Skin Deep (Siobhan O’Brien #1) by Sung J. Woo
Tea Set and Match (Tea Princess Chronicles #2) by Casey Blair

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You can tell that winter is coming on by the size – or the lack thereof – of this stack. Not much is published in November, December and even January, so not much shows up on NetGalley and Edelweiss in the months preceding. Except for Spring! books, which have already begun. I always think I’m going to catch up a bit in November and December, at least as far as making a bit of a reduction in the size of the virtually towering TBR pile – but it never happens. So many books, so little time!

For Review:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko by Derek Tyler Attico
Relics of Ruin (Books of the Usurper #2) by Erin M. Evans
Remedial Magic (Course in Magic #1) by Melissa Marr
Rogue Sequence by Zac Topping
What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher

Borrowed from the Library:
Making it So by Patrick Stewart

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There’s a book in this stack that I’ve been waiting for, it feels like, forever. That’s Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. I got back into Valdemar with the publication of the first book in the Founding of Valdemar series, Beyond, and I’ve been itching to learn how things got to be the way they are in Arrows of the Queen ever since. This particular book was announced earlier this year and I’ve been pretty much begging for an eARC ever since. It’s finally arrived so reading this looks to be my holiday present to myself. Possibly literally as the book will be published at the end of December.

There’s one book here that, while I didn’t pick it for the title, the title certainly put it over the top. That would be The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. I adored the author’s A Master of Djinn, and his entire Dead Djinn Universe so I’ve been eagerly anticipating whatever he wrote next. This is next, so I’d be reading it anyway, but with that title I absolutely can’t resist, especially as it seems clear from the blurbs that no cats died in the making of these assassins. People, however, are not nearly so sacrosanct.

Last but not least, two books in series that I always eagerly anticipate, The Brides of High Hill, the next book in Nghi Vo’s awesome Singing Hills Cycle, and Lost Birds, the new book in Anne Hillerman’s (continuation, extension, OMG thanks for letting us continue following these characters) Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito series.

For Review:
Black Shield Maiden by Willow Smith and Jess Hendel
The Brides of High Hill (Singing Hills Cycle #5) by Nghi Vo
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark
Locked in Pursuit (Electra McDonnell #4) by Ashley Weaver
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Lost Birds (Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito #27) by Anne Hillerman
A Power Unbound (Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske (audio)
The Silverblood Promise (Last Legacy #1) by James Logan
Valdemar (Founding of Valdemar #3) by Mercedes Lackey

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It’s beginning to look a lot like the stacks are getting smaller as the holiday season comes upon us. That may seem like a bit of a non-sequitur but it really isn’t. There just isn’t a lot published in November and December because of the holidays, so most of the books in this stack that are forthcoming aren’t coming until next year. Although I picked up the two Shady Hollow books specifically because they ARE holiday books.

Then there’s the book in this stack that I’ve been looking forward to for MONTHS. Of course I’m talking about The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King. I got hooked on the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series way back when the first book in the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, came out. I remember thinking at the time that it was really good if you could just manage to swallow the almost unbelievable premise. Which I did and it was and absolutely still is and the hook clearly is just not letting go.

For Review:
The Holy Terrors by Simon R. Green
Keep (Fury Brothers #2) by Anna Hackett
Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie
The Lantern’s Dance (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes #18) by Laurie R. King
The Mars House by Natasha Pulley
Space Holes: First Transmission (Space Holes #1) by B.R. Louis
These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein
Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
Evergreen Chase (Shady Hollow #3.5) by Juneau Black
Phantom Pond (Shady Hollow #4.5) by Juneau Black

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This week’s stack is short but very, very sweetly anticipated. Court of Wanderers and The Twilight Queen are both second books in series that I hoped really hard would be series but couldn’t be certain until just this week when these two books popped up on NetGalley and Edelweiss.

And then there’s What Cannot Be Said, the 19th book in my much-loved Sebastian St. Cyr series. I’m so happy to have this one, and so tempted to just READ IT NOW, but then I’ll have an even longer wait for book 20. I’m on the horns of a very sharp dilemma over this one.

And last but not least, today is the last day of Banned Books Week. A host of organizations that support writers and artists, including the Writers Guild Initiative, PEN America and Unite Against Book Bans, have banded together to make today 2023 Banned Books Week Day of Action to bring attention to the urgent crisis around book banning in the United States. The American Library Association has declared today to be Let Freedom Read Day. My own small action to support both of those efforts is my purchase of the audiobook of the much praised but frequently banned The 1619 Project, so that I can listen to it in time to review it as part of 2024’s Banned Books Week.

For Review:
Court of Wanderers (Silver Under Nightfall #2) by Rin Chupeco
A Duke’s Lesson in Charm (Gentlemen Authors #3) by Sophie Barnes
Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis
The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan
The Twilight Queen (King’s Fool #2) by Jeri Westerson
What Cannot Be Said (Sebastian St. Cyr #19) by C.S. Harris

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones (audio)
Pets in Space 8 edited by Carol Van Natta

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