Good Evening,
It’s the start of another week. It’s Monday! What are you Reading is hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, this is a weekly event to share what we’ve read in the past week and what we hope to read, plus whatever else comes to mind.
I had a more disappointing reading week, I finished 3 books and I DNF’d 4 books. It happens, it looks like I need to either reevaluate my shelves or be more picky when I pick up books, or maybe a little of both.
Recent Books
Breath of Fire by Amanda Bouchet | (Kingmaker Chronicles #2) | Fantasy, Romance, Mythology | Add to Goodreads
AND SHE WILL BE THEIR QUEEN
Cat Fisa’s warlord captor-turned-lover may have crowned her with the symbols of the three realms, but war is far from over. She believes in what Griffin is trying to accomplish. She believes that peace will finally come when the realms are united. And she believes that with her by his side, Griffin has the strength to change the world.
But with her dangerous past resurfacing and the neighboring Magoi royals out for blood, Cat and Griffin must strike soon if they want to unify the land without full-scale war.
They’ll do anything to avoid innocent bloodshed, including crossing the treacherous Ice Plains or entering the deadly Agon Games to win access to the royal court…and the very family they plan to usurp. When their desperate battle for survival is over, Cat and Griffin will either be standing side-by-side in the heart of their future kingdom—or not at all.
Discover the white-hot fantasy willing to break all the rules.
The Apocryphal Cases of Sherlock Holmes by R. Wolfgang Schramm | Sherlockian, Mystery | Add to Goodreads
Follow along with Holmes and Watson as they attempt to find the Loch Ness monster, uncover the secrets of the Shroud of Turin, and find the explanation for the enormous explosion that occurred in the Tunguska region of Russia in 1908.
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson | Her Majesty’s Royal Coven #1 | Fantasy | Add to Goodreads
If you look hard enough at old photographs, we’re there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.
At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she’s a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.
Edinburgh Twilight by Carole Lawrence | Ian Hamilton Mysteries #1 | Mystery | Add to Goodreads
As a new century approaches, Edinburgh is a city divided. The wealthy residents of New Town live in comfort, while Old Town’s cobblestone streets are clotted with criminals, prostitution, and poverty.
Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is no stranger to Edinburgh’s darkest crimes. Scarred by the mysterious fire that killed his parents, he faces his toughest case yet when a young man is found strangled in Holyrood Park.
With little evidence aside from a strange playing card found on the body, Hamilton engages the help of his aunt, a gifted photographer, and George Pearson, a librarian with a shared interest in the criminal mind. But the body count is rising. As newspapers spin tales of the “Holyrood Strangler,” panic sets in across the city. And with each victim, the murderer is getting closer to Hamilton, the one man who dares to stop him.
Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina | Magnificent Devices #1 | Steampunk, Fantasy | Add to Goodreads
London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world. At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire’s talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices . . . When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .
Horimiya, Vol. 10 by Hero | Horimiya #10 | Manga, Romance, Slice of Life | Add to Goodreads
Hori and Miyamura decide to ring in the New Year at the local shrine…but with it also comes the beginning of their last term in high school. As the pair and their friends return to their everyday lives and the usual hijinks, both the special days and the humdrum ones prove irreplaceable. But these precious days can’t last forever…
A Study in Sirens by Suzannah Rowntree | Miss Sharp’s Monsters #1.5 | Steampunk, Fantasy | Add to Goodreads
Murder and monsters in Victorian London…
Miss Sharp is supposed be lying low after her run-in with the Whitechapel werewolf. But when a prematurely-aged corpse turns up tucked behind a statue in the Victoria Embankment Gardens, a baffled Inspector Short calls on Liz Sharp for help.
Liz realises the killer is a siren—one of the monsters that rules Europe. When a princess asks for help evading an arranged marriage, Liz scents her chance to bring the murderer to justice.
The plan is simple. Step one: convince Short it’s a good idea to use herself as the bait. Step two: lure the siren into her trap.
No problem. After all, there can’t be too many sirens loose in London…can there?
Currently Reading
The Virgin Who Ruined Lord Gray by Anna Bradley | The Swooning Virgins Society #1 | Historical Romance | Add to Goodreads
Behind the doors of the Clifford Charity School for Wayward Girls, there lies a secret society of brilliant, fearless women who are bringing justice to London’s most corrupt aristocrats, one nobleman at a time…
Other young ladies might occupy their spare time with drawing or needlework, but Sophia Monmouth spends hers scaling rooftops and shadowing suspicious characters. Her objective: to gain information that will free a friend wrongly accused of murder. She hasn’t bargained on being spotted and followed back to the Clifford School by a mysterious earl who holds almost as many secrets as she does.
Tristan Stratford, Lord Gray, earned the nickname the Ghost of Bow Street because no man has ever escaped him. Sophia—all soft curves beneath her disguise—is a unique challenge. Determined to learn the truth about the Clifford School, he joins Sophia in a scheme that leads from Newgate’s cells to the pinnacle of power. But when desire is at odds with justice, succumbing to temptation may lead them both into the heart of danger…
In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan | Glass Immortals #1 | Fantasy | Add to Goodreads
Demir Grappo is an outcast—he fled a life of wealth and power, abandoning his responsibilities as a general, a governor, and a son. Now he will live out his days as a grifter, rootless, and alone. But when his mother is brutally murdered, Demir must return from exile to claim his seat at the head of the family and uncover the truth that got her killed: the very power that keeps civilization turning, godglass, is running out.
Now, Demir must find allies, old friends and rivals alike, confront the powerful guild-families who are only interested in making the most of the scraps left at the table and uncover the invisible hand that threatens the Empire. A war is coming, a war unlike any other. And Demir and his ragtag group of outcasts are the only thing that stands in the way of the end of life as the world knows it.
A Tale of Magic… by Chris Colfer | A Tale of Magic #1 | Middle Grade, Fantasy | Add to Goodreads
When Brystal Evergreen stumbles across a secret section of the library, she discovers a book that introduces her to a world beyond her imagination and learns the impossible: She is a fairy capable of magic! But in the oppressive Southern Kingdom, women are forbidden from reading and magic is outlawed, so Brystal is swiftly convicted of her crimes and sent to the miserable Bootstrap Correctional Facility.
But with the help of the mysterious Madame Weatherberry, Brystal is whisked away and enrolled in an academy of magic! Adventure comes with a price, however, and when Madame Weatherberry is called away to attend to an important problem she doesn’t return.
Do Brystal and her classmates have what it takes to stop a sinister plot that risks the fate of the world, and magic, forever?
What are you hoping to get to read this week?
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