September 2018 Books I’m Looking Forward to

ucbrpic Hello friends! It’s that time of month again! Where I talk about the books that I’m interested in, which are being published next month! I’m actually really excited about this months’ post, because there is so much Fantasy! I guess Autumn is a super popular / great time to publish Fantasy books. Never fear though! There are a few YA Mystery books in here.

Let’s get onto the post, shall we? Here are the books that I’m looking forward to being published this September of 2018! There were actually quite a few books this month that caught my eye, which surprised me.

September 4th

The Leading Edge of Now by Marci Lyn Curtis | Young Adult, Contemporary

Just when Grace is beginning to get used to being an orphan, her estranged uncle suddenly comes forward to claim her. That might have been okay if he’d spoken to her even once since her father died. Or if moving in with Uncle Rusty didn’t mean returning to New Harbor.

Grace once spent the best summers of her life in New Harbor. Now the place just reminds her of all she’s lost: her best friend, her boyfriend and any memory of the night that changed her forever.

People say the truth will set you free, but Grace isn’t sure about that. Once she starts looking for it, the truth about that night is hard to find — and what happens when her healing hurts the people she cares about the most?

Marci Lyn Curtis, the critically acclaimed author of The One Thing, has crafted an honest and emotional story that will resonate with the wide range of readers impacted by sexual assault.

Sexual assault does not define this story, however, just as it does not define Grace. Wry humor and true love emerge as Grace, like many in the #MeToo era, seeks to find her truth, face her truth, and speak her truth.

I think that this book speaks for itself. However, I’m interested in this novel to see how the people that Grace cares about, end up reacting to how she learns to heal herself again.

Meet the Sky by McCall Hoyle | Young Adult, Contemporary

It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophie’s dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophie’s older sister, Meredith, barely able to walk at all.

With nothing but pain in her past, all Sophie wants is to plan for the future—keep the family business running, get accepted to veterinary school, and protect her mom and sister from another disaster. But when a hurricane forms off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and heads right toward their island, Sophie realizes nature is one thing she can’t control.

After she gets separated from her family during the evacuation, Sophie finds herself trapped on the island with the last person she’d have chosen—the reckless and wild Finn Sanders, who broke her heart freshman year. As they struggle to find safety, Sophie learns that Finn has suffered his own heartbreak; but instead of playing it safe, Finn’s become the kind of guy who goes surfing in the eye of the hurricane. He may be the perfect person to remind Sophie how to embrace life again, but only if their newfound friendship can survive the storm.

I really have no idea what to expect from this novel since there’s so much that could possibly happen. I have a lot of hope though that Sophie and Finn become something more than friends. I’m actually raising my expectations of Meet the Sky just by talking about it, so hopefully around the time that Meet the Sky comes out, my expectations will have lowered.

Keeper of the Bees by Meg Kassel | Young Adult, Fantasy

KEEPER OF THE BEES is a tale of two teens who are both beautiful and beastly, and whose pasts are entangled in surprising and heartbreaking ways.

Dresden is cursed. His chest houses a hive of bees that he can’t stop from stinging people with psychosis-inducing venom. His face is a shifting montage of all the people who have died because of those stings. And he has been this way for centuries—since he was eighteen and magic flowed through his homeland, corrupting its people.

He follows harbingers of death, so at least his curse only affects those about to die anyway. But when he arrives in a Midwest town marked for death, he encounters Essie, a seventeen-year-old girl who suffers from debilitating delusions and hallucinations. His bees want to sting her on sight. But Essie doesn’t see a monster when she looks at Dresden.

Essie is fascinated and delighted by his changing features. Risking his own life, he holds back his bees and spares her. What starts out as a simple act of mercy ends up unraveling Dresden’s solitary life and Essie’s tormented one. Their impossible romance might even be powerful enough to unravel a centuries-old curse.

OK. I love bees (even though they sometimes scare me). Aside from that though the synopsis genuinely catches my eye, and honestly? My interest is piqued. I want to know what happens between Dresden and Essie. I want to know whether or not Dresden’s century-old curse will be lifted, and if so, what happens to him?

Something else that caught my eye about Keeper of the Bees, is that it’s described as “Beauty and the Beast like you’ve never imagined!” Which is incredibly interesting to think about.

I also LOVE the fact that there are two other books in the Black Bird of the Gallows series, and each book can be read as a standalone!

Sadie by Courtney Summers | Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

A gripping novel about the depth of a sister’s love; poised to be the next book you won’t be able to stop talking about.

A missing girl on a journey of revenge and a Serial-like podcast following the clues she’s left behind.

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.

I’m keeping my expectations for Sadie to be extremely low, since people have loved Summers’ writing in the past. I’ve tried reading a few of Courtney Summers’ books before but never end up finishing them. Yet I can’t deny my interest in Sadie. Young Adult Mysteries are my jam, fam.

Seventh Born (The Witchling Academy, #1) by Monica Sanz | Young Adult, Fantasy

Abomination. Curse. Murderer. All names hurled at eighteen-year-old Seraphina Dovetail. As the seventh-born daughter to a witch, she’s the cause of her mother losing her powers and, in turn, her life.

Abandoned as a child, Sera dreams of becoming an inspector and finding her family. To do that, she must be referred into the Advanced Studies Program at the Aetherium’s Witchling Academy. Her birth order, quick temper, and tendency to set things on fire, however, have left her an outcast with failing marks…and just what Professor Nikolai Barrington is looking for.

The tall, brooding, yet exceedingly handsome young professor makes her a proposition: become his assistant and he’ll give her the referral she needs. Sera is quickly thrust into a world where witches are being kidnapped, bodies are raised from the dead, and someone is burning seventhborns alive. As Sera and Barrington grow ever closer, she’ll discover that some secrets are best left buried…and fire isn’t the only thing that makes a witch burn.

I don’t know about you, but ever since I watched a movie when I was a kid who was a seventh son of a seventh son, I’ve been low-key obsessed with the lore behind it–if there’s any. I don’t actually know since I’ve never researched any of it. ANYWHO! I’m unsurprisingly excited about Seventh Born.

I’m not excited about the whole attracted to your teacher bit, but I’m too intrigued to be turned away by that.

A Room Away From the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma | Young Adult, Magical Realism, Mystery

Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina’s cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother—a bond Bina thought was unbreakable.

Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina’s lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she’s come to Catherine House and what it will take for her to leave . . .

There are many things about the synopsis that intrigue me. The first, why Bina’s mother “ran away.” I personally think that Bina’s mother was murdered. Secondly, I wonder what all the lies were made up over the last 8 years of Bina’s life were… though none of them sound good. It’s obvious to me that there’s some abuse involved in this story. Thirdly, I wonder what makes Monet so dangerous. The fourth thing that intrigues me about A Room Away From the Wolves is what may happen to Bina once her memories and nightmares become tangled.

September 11th

I Do Not Trust You by Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz | Young Adult, Fantasy

With Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz’s signature plot twists, and uneasy, ever-changing alliances, I Do Not Trust You is a thrilling journey at every turn that asks—what would you do to save the ones you love?

Memphis “M” Engel is stubborn to a fault, graced with an almost absurd knowledge of long lost languages and cultures, and a heck of an opponent in a fight. In short: she’s awesome.

Ashwin “Ash” Sood is a little too posh for M’s tastes, a little too good looking, and has way too many secrets. He desperately wants the ancient map M inherited from her archeologist father, believing it will lead him to a relic with the power to destroy the world. M obviously can’t trust him.

Equally desperate to find the relic for reasons of her own, M forms an uneasy partnership with Ash. From the catacombs of Paris, to a sacred forest in Norway, to the ruins of a submerged temple in Egypt, together they crisscross the globe in their search. But through it all, M can never be sure: Is she traveling with a friend or enemy?

Ok so, the cover is so pretty and that’s what drew me to I Do Not Trust You. Looking On GoodReads I saw that I Do Not Trust You is a YA Fantasy, and that is another reason why I’m interested in this novel. I also know just by reading the synopsis, that this book will have some major adventures within the story!

The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse | Young Adult, Science Fiction

The only thing worse than being locked in is facing what you locked out.

Rett Ward knows how to hide. He’s had six years of practice at Walling Home, the state-run boarding school where he learned how to keep his head down to survive.

But when Rett wakes up locked in a small depot with no memory of how he got there, he can’t hide. Not from the stranger in the next room. Or from the fact that there’s someone else’s blood on his jumpsuit.

Worse, every time he tries to escape, he wakes up right back where he started. Same day, same stranger, same bloodstained jumpsuit.

As memories start to surface, Rett realizes that the logo on the walls is familiar, the stranger isn’t a stranger, and the blood on his jumpsuit belongs to someone—or something—banging on the door to get in.

The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse is a smart, claustrophobic, speculative thriller with an immersive psychological mystery.

The Echo Room is very intriguing to me, because i know that it’s a mystery. I also know that there’s an outsider (I mean, obviously. Come on, they’re trapped in a room) messing with their memories. Especially since the synopsis leads me to believe that everyday is the same day over and over again, and it will remain that way until they find a way out or go completely insane.

The Lantern’s Ember by Colleen Houck | Young Adult, Fantasy

A bold and ghostly stand-alone from New York Times bestselling author Colleen Houck, with all the moodiness of Sleepy Hollow and all the romance her fans love.

Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern–one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal–or not-so-mortal–soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare.

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire–and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.

Colleen Houck, the New York Times bestselling author of the Tigers Curse series and Reawakened series, breathes new life into classic folklore in this wild, twisting adventure propelled by the spirit of Halloween.

I am seriously looking forward to The Lantern’s Ember. Not only because it’s a stand alone novel, but because The Lantern’s Ember seems like it’s infused with tons of fantasy elements. Also, the cover is ridiculously pretty. I can’t stop looking at it.

September 18th

What the Woods Keep by Katya De Becerra | Young Adult, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy

What the Woods Keep is the stunning debut of Katya de Becerra, who combines mystery, science fiction, and dark fantasy in a twisty story that will keep you mesmerized right up to the final page.

On her eighteenth birthday, Hayden inherits her childhood home—on the condition that she uncover its dark secrets.

Hayden tried to put the past behind her, and it worked. She’s getting ready for college, living in a Brooklyn apartment, and hanging out with her best friend and roommate Del. But now it’s all catching up with her: her mother’s mysterious disappearance a decade before, her father’s outlandish theories about a lost supernatural race, and Hayden’s own dark dreams of strange symbols and rituals in the Colorado woods where she grew up.

As soon as Hayden arrives at her hometown, her friend Del in tow, it begins: Neighbors whisper secrets about Hayden’s mother; the boy next door is now all grown-up in a very distracting way; and Hayden feels the trees calling to her. And among them, deep in the woods, Hayden will discover something incredible—something that threatens reality itself.

What drew me to What the Woods Keep was honestly the first little blurb about the book in the synopsis. I’m always down to read a book that is a YA Mystery, but I’m also really excited to try reading What the Woods Keep because there are 3 genres in this book that I truly enjoy reading: YA, Mystery, and Fantasy. I’m not sure what the Science Fiction portions of the book will entail but that won’t deter me! Hopefully.

Magic Harvest (Fairy Trafficking, #1) by Mary Karlik | Young Adult, Fantasy

Young fae girls are disappearing.

Layla has never belonged to the fairy realm – at least, half of her hasn’t. She’s never known anyone with human blood, not even her father. When she was three, the dragon Fauth attacked the fairy festival, murdering her fae mum & stepfather. Frankly, some fairies think she should’ve been eaten too.

As she grew, despite being called names like “fuman” for being a half-blood, she’s discovered that being half-human isn’t terrible. She may lack magic, but she is immune to iron sickness, and she can wield a sword with elven skill.

Magic in the human world is disastrous.

Sixteen years later, when Layla’s half-sister is kidnapped and taken through a portal to the forbidden human realm, Layla rushes to the rescue. She’s older and stronger, and she’s not about to let her last living family member be taken from her without a fight.

Only someone who belongs to both worlds can find the truth.

The portal spits her out in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but neither her sister or the kidnapper are anywhere to be found. Stuck in a world she only knows from school books, Layla forges unlikely alliances to find her sister. As she becomes tangled in the dark world of fairy trafficking, magic harvesting, and murder, Layla will have to find the strength within if she is to survive and save her sister.

Having just recently found Magic Harvest, I’m fairly intrigued by not only the synopsis but the cover for this book as well. Maybe is the fact that the cover depicts a girl who has lived in a bubble all her life, which completely contradicts what the synopsis says: Layla will be leaving the fae lands to save her younger sister. It doesn’t matter if I’m right or wrong about my predictions. I can already tell that Magic Harvest will be one interesting novel!

Twice Dead (The Necromancer’s Song, #1) by Caitlin Seal | Young Adult, Fantasy

In this imaginative debut perfect for fans of character-driven fantasies like Graceling and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, seventeen-year-old Naya Garth becomes one of the undead and an unlikely spy for her country.

Naya, the daughter of a sea merchant captain, nervously undertakes her first solo trading mission in the necromancer-friendly country bordering her homeland of Talmir. Unfortunately, she never even makes it to the meeting. She’s struck down in the streets of Ceramor. Murdered.

But death is not the end for Naya. She awakens to realize she’s become an abomination–a wraith, a ghostly creature bound by runes to the bones of her former corpse. She’s been resurrected in order to become a spy for her country. Reluctantly, she assumes the face and persona of a servant girl named Blue.

She never intended to become embroiled in political plots, kidnapping, and murder. Or to fall in love with the young man and former necromancer she is destined to betray.