Did January fly by for anyone else? I feel like I blinked and the first month was gone. But along the way I did manage to find some new authors to read and joined another book club! (I know like I need anymore reason to buy books.) So what books did I actually read in January? Let's take a look!
Synopsis
She thought she was insane . . . until her visions came true. Can a damaged teen save the city from a soul-devouring monster?
Alamogordo, 1989. Hanako knows her life's different than the average teenager: her father's in jail, her part-time job is working tech support for the mafia, and she lives in a city covered by unexplainable darkness six hours a day. But when a deadly new drug floods the streets of Alamogordo, things start to get really weird.
With her classmates dying and slipping into comas, Hanako is haunted by disturbing visions that forecast the upcoming victims. Hunting for answers, she comes face to face with a supernatural world she never knew existed and discovers the drug is just a small part of a far more sinister plan. Aided by a teenage movie star, a rookie police detective, and a shape-changing cat, can Hanako master her new abilities in time to save the city?
Set in an alternate Earth history, The Silent Dark is a thrilling urban fantasy. If you like strong heroines, vivid world-building, and unbreakable friendships, then you'll love this fast-paced adventure.
Synopsis
Enter the Dreaming again as the blockbuster audio adaptation of “the greatest epic in the history of comic books” continues in The Sandman: Act II. James McAvoy returns to voice Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, in this sequel to the #1 New York Timesaudio best-seller. Journey into a world of myths, imagination, and terror based on the best-selling DC comic books and graphic novels written by Neil Gaiman (returning as the Narrator), and lose yourself in another groundbreaking, immersive drama adapted and directed by the award-winning audio master Dirk Maggs.
In the absolutely packed Act II, the dark fantasy resumes and the Sandman expands into the French Revolution, Ancient Rome, 19th-Century San Francisco, 8th-century Baghdad, and beyond. New and familiar characters abound, voiced by a bright mix of performers, including Kat Dennings, Regé-Jean Page, Emma Corrin, Michael Sheen, Kristen Schaal, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Wright, and so many more, including fan-favorite narrators Simon Vance and Ray Porter.
Just close your eyes and listen again as the greatest epic continues.
Synopsis
You know your life is complicated when you miss your days as a poison taster...
With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be united with the family she'd been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But although she has gained her freedom, she once again finds herself alone - separated from her lover Valek and suspected as a spy for her reluctance to conform to Sitian ways.
Despite the turmoil, she's eager to start her magic training - especially as she's been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes embroiled in a plot to reclaim Ixia's throne for a lost prince - and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians.
If that wasn't bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with her new enemies.
Synopsis
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
Synopsis
My wish as champion is for you to descend the tower and be my wife. Climbing a deadly tower, Oscar seeks the power of its master, the Witch of the Azure Moon. He hopes her incredible magic can break a curse that will kill any woman he takes for a wife. When the prince sees how beautiful Tinasha is, though, he has a better idea-since she's surely strong enough to survive his curse, she should just marry him instead! Tinasha isn't keen on the idea, but agrees to live with Oscar in the royal castle for a year while researching the spell placed on the prince. The witch's pretty face hides several lifetimes of dark secrets, however-secrets that begin resurfacing...
So I don't generally review Light Novels. They are my little cheat I do once a month, but I'll give a snippet of a review for the wrap ups this year.
This one had some downfalls as far as pushing the limits of acceptable behavior. The Prince is adamant he's going to marry the witch Tinasha, but she wants no part in it and he pushes boundaries quite often. The battles were written well and I enjoyed the world building, but the Prince's behavior was a no go for me.
Synopsis
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
It was supposed to be Loki the trickster god’s happily ever after with Sigyn. They had gone full Midgardian, settling down in California, with Loki doing what he does best—mischief.
When Sigyn collapses, Loki senses a grave darkness growing within her, and he knows only one god who may be able to stop Surtr before this sinister force possesses her completely.
Once again he finds himself forced to ask Odin for his help...which always carries with it some kind of price. However, Odin is the least of Loki’s problems, especially when buried secrets start surfacing because of brothers, both dead and alive. Blackmail is a nasty business.
Loki worries that his happily ever after with Sigyn could have an unhappy end.
Lies are unraveling, the truth is spinning, and consequences are flying faster than Loki can run and he may lose Sigyn forever—either to the darkness, or to his own lies.
Synopsis
'You cannot fix this world alone, selkie.'
'I know. But, when we die, all that is left are shadows of our lives preserved in the memories of those who remain. I plan on leaving an exceptionally long shadow, filled with ripples of moonlight for those I helped, and darker than the worst of nightmares for those who wronged us.'
How far would you go to save your skin?
I'm a selkie, trapped above the waves until I can recover my skin. Humans used to call us seal-wives many years ago - before they broke the planet. I thought that less humans, after the warming, would mean less danger. My kind believed our world was finally recovering.
We were wrong.
Up here, the magic is fading and Old Ones like me are being traded as trophies for rich and powerful humans to display in collections.
Without the Old Ones, the magic fades, without magic, the planet dies.
Humankind has gone too far and someone has to put a stop to it, I just wasn't expecting it to be me.
As the selkie begins her hunt, far to the south on his enormous pleasure ship, Barge, Lord Sal hunts for missing Old Ones with a grand plan to leave his own mark on the world. Icidro and Prince Ulises are searching for them too, and this is a world where money talks louder than morals.