I love browsing for books, especially those due to be released soon, it’s so exciting!
2019 was full of the great, the funny, the unique and of course the bad. Books every year seem to get better and this year was no different. It’s exciting to wonder what the new year will bring and how many more books will become firm favourites.
Here are the 6 books I’m most looking forward to.
Expected publication date – 19th May 2020
‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games.’
I love the Hunger Games series, and when Suzanne Collins announced she was releasing another book set in the same universe I couldn’t contain my excitement. I love that it’s set before the events of the first book. I’m so excited to read about new characters, and see if any original characters will make an appearance that im prepared to look past the snake on the front cover lol!.
Expected publication date – 3rd March 2020
‘Welcome to Edwardian London, a time of electric lights and long shadows, the celebration of artistic beauty and the wild pursuit of pleasure, with demons waiting in the dark. For years there has been peace in the Shadowhunter world. James and Lucie Herondale, children of the famous Will and Tessa, have grown up in an idyll with their loving friends and family, listening to stories of good defeating evil and love conquering all. But everything changes when the Blackthorn and Carstairs families come to London…and so does a remorseless and inescapable plague.
James Herondale longs for a great love, and thinks he has found it in the beautiful, mysterious Grace Blackthorn. Cordelia Carstairs is desperate to become a hero, save her family from ruin, and keep her secret love for James hidden. When disaster strikes the Shadowhunters, James, Cordelia and their friends are plunged into a wild adventure which will reveal dark and incredible powers, and the true cruel price of being a hero…and falling in love.’
I know some people are fed up with the amount of Shadowhunter books there are, however, I am so down for it. I’m excited it’s set in Edwardian times and we get to see more of the past Herondale’s. Cassandra Clare has created this beautiful and infinite universe I just can’t get enough of.
Expected publication date – 2nd June 2020
‘In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes.
As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next.
The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost
The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told
The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide
Where Dreams Descend is the startling and romantic first book in Janella Angeles’ debut Kingdom of Cards fantasy duology where magic is both celebrated and feared, and no heart is left unscathed.’
This book gives me Caraval vibes and I’m in love with that series. This book seems similar, whilst also having it’s own original aspects. I love anything to do with magic and circuses so I’m excited for this book to release.
Expected publication date – 30th April 2020.
‘Georgia feels loveless – in the romantic sense, anyway. She’s eighteen, never been in a relationship, or even had a crush on a single person in her whole life. She thinks she’s an anomaly, people call her weird, and she feels a little broken. But she still adores romance – weddings, fan fiction, and happily ever afters. She knows she’ll find her person one day … right?
After a disastrous summer, Georgia is now at university, hundreds of miles from home. She is more determined than ever to find love – and her annoying roommate, Rooney, is a bit of a love expert, so perhaps she can help.
But maybe Georgia just doesn’t feel that way about guys. Or girls. Or anyone at all. Maybe that’s okay. Maybe she can find happiness without falling in love. And maybe Rooney is a little more loveless than she first appears.
LOVELESS is a journey of identity, self-acceptance, and finding out how many different types of love there really are. And that no one is really loveless after all.’
I’m not a huge contempary fan, however, Alice Oseman is one of my favourite authors. I read her previous book Radio Silence as an ARC a few years ago and I fell in love. Her writing and character development are breathtaking and it made me fall in love with her books. She is now an auto buy author for me.
Expected publication date – 27th August 2020.
‘Six teens must band together to survive after a shooting breaks out.
When a deadly shooting breaks out in a Portland shopping mall, a diverse group of teens ends up trapped behind a store’s security shutter. To her own surprise, seventeen-year-old Miranda finds the others looking to her as their leader. But she’s hiding a big secret—and she’s not the only one. The group has only three choices—run, hide, or fight back. The wrong decision will have fatal consequences.’
Whilst researching for my latest work in progress, I found my love for YA thrillers. With all the recent shootings in the last few years I think this book is relevant, I just hope the author has done it justice.
Expected publication date – 3rd March 2020.
‘Seventeen-year-old Dayna Walsh is struggling to cope with her somatic OCD; the aftermath of being outed as bisexual in her conservative Irish town; and the return of her long-absent mother, who barely seems like a parent. But all that really matters to her is ascending and finally, finally becoming a full witch-plans that are complicated when another coven, rumored to have a sordid history with black magic, arrives in town with premonitions of death. Dayna immediately finds herself at odds with the bewitchingly frustrating Meiner King, the granddaughter of their coven leader.
And then a witch turns up murdered at a local sacred site, along with the blood symbol of the Butcher of Manchester-an infamous serial killer whose trail has long gone cold. The killer’s motives are enmeshed in a complex web of witches and gods, and Dayna and Meiner soon find themselves at the center of it all. If they don’t stop the Butcher, one of them will be next.
With razor-sharp prose and achingly real characters, E. Latimer crafts a sweeping, mesmerizing story of dark magic and brutal mythology set against a backdrop of contemporary Ireland that’s impossible to put down.’
Any book featuring witchcraft and I’m almost guaranteed to pick it up. I love that this book has been advertised as blended with celtic mythology. One thing I’ve wanted to see more in the Fantasy genre is representation of mental illness. I find it’s never a thing in the genre so I’m excited to see how that’ll be potrayed in this book.
What books are you excited for in 2020?
Flaca: an honest account of a Latina with an eating disorder
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